This Ascent to Divinity is Lewder than Expected (A Futa LitRPG)

1.14 Loot II

Swimming down through the lake of slime was uncomfortable, but all things considered, not especially difficult. Exhausted as Zoey was from her thorough 'fight' with Mel, her arms and legs ached as she struggled her way through the surprisingly loose liquid—not nearly as clinging as it appeared. She even sank with ease, not floating, and spurred on by her long strokes, quickly descended.

She reached the bottom and hit air—then tumbled eight feet and toppled, landing on her back in a pile of spongy green gelatin. She sank in and bounced a few feet from the impact, arms cartwheeling, then bounced again, before she managed to steady.

"Are you intending to make a fool of yourself, or is it coming naturally?"

Rosalie, ever the dexterous acrobat, must have landed gracefully, giving her a perfect view of Zoey's flailing.

"Let's say intended," Zoey said. "That makes me look better, right?"

Rosalie rolled her eyes, then advanced toward one of the two things of import in the slimy green cavern: three chests, two with bands of emerald wrapped around their center, and one with a band of sapphire. Zoey blinked in surprise. All three chests were of higher rarity than the one they'd previously raided, and by how Rosalie had described things, the blue-band—sapphire, representing 'superior'—was the second best quality a person could find, and was supposed to be exceedingly rare.

"Wow," Zoey said. "That's a nice haul, huh?"

"Depends," Rosalie said. "But not as good as it seems, I suspect. I have my suspicions what's in the sapphire chest." Without ceremony—these things didn't have quite the novelty for Rosalie as they did as for Zoey, and so she had no reason to take her time—Rosalie flung open the centermost chest.

She pulled out a seven-foot gleaming spear.

"Mmm," Rosalie said. "Good. My inventory." She reached in, and the next item out was a pair of metal boots. Rosalie nodded along in satisfaction as she continued to empty the chest.

So that one didn't count as 'real' loot, then. The superior-rated chest was a fluke, simply Rosalie's inventory handed back to her. Zoey looked at the two green-banded chests. "Still, two rares is pretty good, right?"

"For the nightmare of this shard? Hardly." Then, reluctantly, "But objectively, yes, for how it was relatively small, as far as shards go. Assuming we don't get exceedingly unlucky with the yield. Always a possibility."

Zoey didn't think the shard had been that bad. She'd had some, uh, good times. Funny enough, the few parts Zoey hadn't especially liked—the monsters and patches of brutal fighting—were probably the parts Rosalie considered tolerable.

The next item Rosalie pulled from the inventory-chest broke Zoey's heart.

"Thank the gods," Rosalie said as she slipped on her undergarments. "I half expected these not to be in there."

"If only they hadn't," Zoey sighed. Her days of ogling Rosalie's naked body were over. Was there any greater tragedy?

Rosalie shot an annoyed squint at Zoey's dramatics. "Some of us don't like parading about with our privates on display." She tossed Zoey a towel, one of the many items Rosalie continued to pull out and deposit into that private pocket-space between worlds. "Clean yourself up."

Zoey did so, using the fabric to wipe the copious amounts of green slime from her body, and the other mixture of less-appropriate liquids spread across her lower half.

She supposed getting dressed was necessary. They couldn't continue their nudism in civilization, obviously. Zoey was a bit surprised at how accustomed she had become to the feeling of being naked around Rosalie. Even at the start, she'd been less bashful about it than she'd have thought. Their first meeting—the tight coffin—had been quite the icebreaker.