Book 3: Chapter 43: Patch 8.0: The Temple in the Forest

“W-woah-nya, nya two… I thought I had perverted fantasies-nya,” Nyaiko says, looking at Nell and Serra with wide eyes. While Nyaiko and Serra have known each other for some time in real life, she never learned about just how far Serra’s perversion goes.

Now she knows.

Then there’s Nell who manages to surpass Serra by far.

“Nell Nell’s got me beat,” Serra says.

“That may be true, Serra, but you are admittedly much more bold than I am! I wish I could muster up the courage that you do,” Nell says.

“Imagine if nya could combine your fantasies,” Nyaiko says, looking at Nell, “with your boldness-nya,” she says, looking at Serra.

“We’d be unstoppable,” Serra says with a confident, smug smile and crossed arms over her chest.

“As awe-inspiring as that sounds, I fear that nobody would be able to keep up with us if that were the case,” Nell says.

“Oh, there was something I wanted to say.”

“Yes, Serra?”

“We need to go on our own date sometime.”

“A-ah, is that so?”

“A girls only date. Cass Cass can come, too.”

“That does sound like it could be enjoyable. We could go out clothes shopping together, eat yummy sweets, share milkshakes, and – umm… I – I do not know what else there would be to do. I only know what I have seen in movies and have read.”

“Nya could have nyaughty fun!” Nyaiko proposes. “Nyand I wanna come!”

“Pussies are always invited to a girls-only date,” Serra says.

Nell’s eyes widen a bit before covering her mouth with one hand to laugh at Serra’s crude humor.

“Nya? I don’t – oohhh, because I’m a cat-nya!” Nyaiko says, holding a fist to the palm of her other hand as an imaginary lightbulb pops up over her head.

“We can also do lots of lewd things to Nell since she won’t be able to stop us in real life,” Serra adds on.

Nell’s eyes widen again, but this time a blush accompanies her surprised expression. “I – I would not object to such a thing, but to hear it put that way! At – at least keep it a secret from me so that it is more of a surprise!” she says.

“Got it. We’ll do surprise lewd things to Nell Nell,” Serra tells Nyaiko.

“Nyahaha, I’ll practice my rope-tying,” Nyaiko replies.

“And I’ll ask one of my dads about some good stores to buy toys from.”

Nell’s face is steadily growing brighter and hotter as the two discuss such plans right in front of her.

Back on the beach, Oleander has used one of his spells to summon vines to wrap around the strange man’s ankles, binding him to the ground while Cassiel runs after them.

“H-hey! Come on! You’re a guy! Bros before hoes!” the man shouts at Oleander only to get a tongue stuck out at him in response.

“Who do you think you’re calling a ho, asshole?” Cassiel asks, standing directly behind the stranger with her sword drawn and pointed at him.

“I – I uhh, I was calling… err… her a ho!” he explains, pointing at Rock.

Rock isn’t close enough to hear the insult, but she sneezes nonetheless which causes Shogun to lick the side of her face.

They go back to playing.

“Seriously, asshole? You’re calling an innocent dog a ho because you’re too cowardly to tell the truth? Do you want to be the most unlikeable, pathetic asshole in history?” Cassiel asks.

“I – uhh…”

“Don’t worry. I’ll heal you no matter how many times I stab you so that you don’t die. I wouldn’t want Rock’s new friend to be upset.”

“Mer-mercy?”

“No.”

“Bro?” the man asks, turning around to look for Oleander.

Oleander is gone.

“Any-anybody?” he asks, looking around, but there is no help.

“I hope your pain setting isn’t too high. Actually, I hope it is,” Cassiel says.

Looking the man over, Cassiel notices that he doesn’t seem to have a single piece of armor or weaponry on him.

How does a guy like this, who apparently owns an exotic mount, not have any armor or weapons on him? Unless…

She tries to angle herself so that she can see under his jacket. It’s too heavy and close to him for her to be able to spot anything hidden.

“What’s up with you? Where’s your stuff?” Cassiel asks him.

“It’s uhh, back at my base?” he answers.

“You decided to go flying, get close to a fight, and walk up to a random group of players you don’t know without anything else on you? I don’t buy it.”

He pulls open his jacket. There’s nothing there.

“Are you an idiot and an asshole?” Cassiel asks.

“I do get called that pretty often, I won’t lie, but I’m not!” he tries defending himself, but Cassiel isn’t buying it.

“Hmph. You’re lucky I’m not actually some sadist,” Cassiel says and sheaths her sword. “Plus, even if I was, I’d feel pathetic hurting somebody as pitiful as you.”

“Can you help me get these things off of me then?” he asks, trying to pull his legs out from the vine trap.

“No.”

Over at the serpent, Fenrir is lying on his back next to her head.

“I know I’ve already thanked you a few times, but thanks again. You seriously deserve all the praise I could give you for putting yourself at risk for us,” Fenrir tells her.

She may not be able to use spoken words to respond to him, but he can sense gratitude from her. He just doesn’t know why she’s feeling so much gratitude when she’s the one who got so badly beaten up and is now injured.

“Also, you’ve gotten pretty big since we last saw each other. You’re like, what, three or four times the size now? I guess I can understand why people fear serpents and why some of them were upset that I let you go. But, you’re a friendly serpent, so there’s nothing for anybody to worry about.”

She connects to his mind once more to show him some more images of her memories.

One of the memories that she has decided to show him features her ambushing a rowboat with a couple of men on it whom just wanted to go and fish.

Both the rowboat and the players are consumed whole by the serpent.

“I… remember us sailing past those guys, and they even waved at us,” Fenrir says.

The serpent huffs which blows away some of the sand around her mouth.

“Well… you still saved us. I just hope that those guys were just players instead of NPCs. So, you’re still more good than bad.”

She shows him another one of her memories. This time, the memory in question features a couple of lovebirds passionately kissing on a rowboat during the night, and then they get swallowed whole by the serpent.

“You… really don’t like rowboats, do you?”

Nearly a dozen other memories are shared by her of rowboat after rowboat being consumed whole by her, all occupants of said rowboats included.

“Where are all these people even getting rowboats from?”

One final memory is shared with Fenrir, and this memory shows a small business on the coast that specializes in rowboats.

Then it shows her eating somebody trying to sell a rowboat while standing on a pier.

Then it shows her eating the person he was trying to sell a rowboat to.

Then she eats the rowboat that was on sale.

She resumes following The Shoebill after getting her fill of rowboats.

“We’ve… we’ve been leading you on a path of destruction against all rowboats and people associated with them,” Fenrir realizes, looking over at The Shoebill.

He’s been planning on getting a rowboat to hang off the side of the ship that they could use for getting to and from shores whenever The Shoebill doesn’t have anywhere to dock, but now that he’s seen all of these memories, he’s no longer considering that.

“Too bad you weren’t around for the Divine Brigade days. Everybody would’ve loved you. I mean, we still love you since you’re an awesome serpent, but we’re trying to not do the whole ‘kill people for no reason thing’ anymore,” Fenrir explains. “Though, if you were hungry, I guess I can’t really judge you for looking for some easy food.”

Another memory flashes into his mind, this one showing her eating a large dolphin-esque creature, and then eating one of the rowboats from before. Only, the memory extends longer this time to show her spitting out the people and the boat – or rather, what was left of the boat, afterward.

“So… you were just eating them for fun?” Fenrir asks.

She lifts her head up off of the sand and then lowers it back down.

“So, you’re either a sadist, into vore, or both.”

He doesn’t get a response from her.

“Just… don’t eat any of us, alright? Nell might be into that sort of thing, but none of those guys looked alive after you swallowed them, and I’d rather her not die.”

The serpent huffs again, blowing more sand away.

“You really like eating people. Why don’t you just go eat that giant gorilla thing out there? He’s already dead anyways.”

The serpent slowly slides her head from side to side.

“So, rather than eat something with a ton of meat on it that would probably fill you up for weeks, you’d rather just eat some random players and rowboats for fun?”

She nods her head.