Chapter 93

Frowning, Sol studied the strange container. Waist high and four feet wide, the wooden chest radiated more essence than nearly anything she’d encountered thus far. She had suspicions what the box was. Though she’d been released late by Mother to explore this realm, this wasn’t the first shard Sol had ventured into. The third, to be specific.

A loot chest. That was what the locals called them. The terminology took a few moments to place, since sorting through alien lexicons and memories was no easy task, but the word did, eventually, come.

But the energy was so much stronger than it should be. And ... of a different flavor. Sol had learned quickly that this shard was aberrant in some way, though she couldn’t place how, yet, or why. To be fair, she’d been here a total of twenty minutes, if that. She was a studious worker, but even she couldn’t crack the mystery that fast.

Pursing her lips—why did these alien reactions come so naturally?—she reached down and unclasped the two securing switches, then flipped them open. The chest cracked, and she tugged the container open.

A black portal greeted her. The expected sight. But again ... so much more potent of an energy radiated from it than the other shards she’d ventured. And that smell. Husky. Intense. Almost ... carnal, in a way? It made her head spin just taking it in. And she hadn’t even tasted it yet.

Yes, something odd was going on with this shard.

Sol paused, looking up and to the left, idly, as she strained her senses. The simulacrum—that slime girl—wasn’t nearby. She was safe to continue. She just had to make sure she didn’t become too distracted. Though sneaking up on her should be next to impossible, and Sol could simply rejoin the Passage, even if caught, Mother’s directive was to be subtle.

Satisfied she had a moment to herself, she bent over and reached in. It took a few moments of grasping around in the cold liminal space before her fingers wrapped around an object. Soft. Flexible. Fabric?

She pulled the item out.

Immediately, she was hit by the smell. Not the human kind—a different type of perception her appropriated mind’s vocabulary couldn’t fully explain. It reeked of that same energy the chest had, but condensed. That same intense, heady smell. Magic of a kind unlike the other shards she’d explored. Almost as if ... influenced by another Prime? Most of this world smelled and tasted of—at a guess—some sort of god of order. Maybe. It was hard to tell. This, though. An equally potent power pervaded it, but definitely not of order. Or a mix of two?

Was it proof? That multiple gods watched over this realm?

Well, no. Beyond the realm’s clear abandonment, just because it smelled different didn’t mean it originated from a separate god. Still. It was perplexing. Unlike the previous shards, and, she suspected, unlike most shards.

She inspected it in a more mundane manner. It was, indeed, fabric. Clothing of some kind. She narrowed her eyes, stretching the flimsy, lacy piece of clothing.

Panties?

The word finally came.

Er. An undergarment? Really? Sol paused as she rifled through her memories, but only became more confused. How odd. Why was this being produced by the shard? She’d thought these brutal labyrinths focused on combat-related items.

As with most of the items given through a loot chest, it was imbued with powerful workings. Some sort of magical effect, though Sol couldn’t begin to decipher it. Or them. Maybe there were a few.

Keep them to study, or a quick snack?

She briefly tried to convince herself to keep them around, but failed. As an item separate from the rest of the shard, the panties were a source of food that wouldn’t accelerate the pocket dimension’s decay, as with Sol’s snacking on more direct mechanisms.

Plus, she was curious what the carnal energy tasted like.

Eating the physical object itself wasn’t necessary, but she did so anyways. The real energy came from the magic she broke down, then digested. But simpler to consume it in its entirety.

And...

Oh. Oh, wow.

What was that feeling? She blinked as the energy coursed through her, but so unlike anything else she’d feasted on. Or, at least, more intense—she’d felt hints, earlier, of this sensation. And so satiating. So much more filling than anything else she’d eaten.

She rubbed her knees together, a heat growing between her legs that thrilled in satisfaction. Her thoughts grew cloudy, head starting to spin. Her face burned.

What was happening?

What was that energy that she’d eaten, so comparatively sparse in the rest of the shard?

Moreover, what were these sensations?

... lust?

A hand quested out, sneaking down her clothing, burying into her panties. She found wetness, there, and the pressure of her fingers rubbing against lower lips thrilled through her, making her heart slam in her chest.

Lust. She knew what lust was, of course, being a primitive emotion found in nearly all higher-order creatures, but in her? Her people in general? The forms they took influenced them, but only to a minor extent. Most emotions were muted things. Hunger, the only that truly stood out.

But this. This was so intense. Bad intense? Good intense?

She plunged two fingers into herself, hand operating of its own accord—guided by a pulsing hot need somewhere below her stomach. She cried out, the sensation of being filled, even by two slim fingers, making her thoughts go white.