Chapter 89: Chapter 89 – Amy: Cost vs. benefit

I was really glad that the back room didn’t have a mirror. I knew how this outfit looked, like a LARP costume that someone had modified for some kind of kinky sex play. I was absolutely positive that, if I could actually see my reflection, though, I’d find out how much worse it was than I was even thinking.

Letting Hugh and Natalie see me wearing it was unthinkable, but that was just what I was about to do.

Yuck.

I put my hand on the doorknob, but I couldn’t make my myself twist it. I took a deep breath. Then another. Then another.

I admonished myself that I was being silly. I’d heard Hugh say that he liked my body, and there was definitely a part of me that wanted to do this just because I wanted that appreciation. And the gains would be worth it. Just by subjecting myself to a little bit of embarrassment – okay, more like a lot of embarrassment, especially considering my bare ass – I’d get another attribute point and another skill point. I could up agility or strength or endurance or even constitution. I could make myself better at archery or faster at shooting arrows or increase the effectiveness to cost ratio of Powershot.

Any of those increases might end up saving my life. If I was in a doctor’s office, I would probably even have to show much more of myself in order to make sure there was nothing wrong with me. This was much more likely to prolong my life than that hypothetical physical exam.

I was being an idiot for hesitating.

That didn’t stop how I felt, though.

This was just like taking really foul tasting medicine. Unpleasant for an instant, but something that was necessary. Chug it and move on.

I opened the door and stepped out into the open store. They were still way up by the counter, so they couldn’t see me yet, and that made things worse. It would have been nice if the psychological barrier of opening that door had been the actual barrier to them seeing me. Instead, I still had to make myself walk toward them, another difficult task.

One foot in front of the other was my mantra. One step. Then the next. Then the next. Until I reached the end of a counter with the soda machine that hid me from their view. Another few feet and I’d be exposed.

I felt like I was practically naked. My thighs were completely bare from the midpoint up. My butt cheeks were totally out in the open. My belly button and rounded stomach were exposed to view. Way more of my gigantic breast flesh that I was comfortable with was hanging out there.

Was I really about to let Hugh and his girlfriend see me like this?

Yeah. Yeah, I was.

Yuck.

I stepped forward.

Despite what I’d heard them say, I expected them to have disgust in their eyes. Hugh looked at me with what I could only think of as lust. Natalie looked proud of me.

That gave me more confidence to walk toward them, which I did in total silence. I guessed that they didn’t want to spook me.

I reached them and just stood there with them looking at me. The quiet, honestly, started to get oppressive.

“Where’s … uh, Julia?” I asked, more to just fill the space than out of a true desire to know.

“In the bathroom,” Natalie said. “She thought that you’d feel more comfortable if she stayed there.”

Well, the blonde was right about that, at least. I gave Natalie a look that asked why she hadn’t done the same.

“I hope you don’t mind me staying,” she said. “I really wanted to support you. I know this is difficult and that you don’t know me at all but I’m hoping we can become friends.”

She sounded so earnest that I couldn’t help loosening up some.

“Whatever,” I said, hoping she’d take it the right way. “So I’m supposed to model this for pictures?”

I couldn’t believe I’d just brought that up.

“Absolutely.” Hugh said. “Sorry, I was so stunned by how awesome you look that I totally forgot about that part.”

Incredibly, the compliment came across as completely sincere. I felt my face flush, not from embarrassment but from the weird feeling of having something that I so despised about myself be praised.

He pulled out his phone and snapped a shot. “Can you maybe bend toward me a little bit.”

Without really thinking about it, I did.

“Perfect.”

Click.

“A bit more,” he said.

I leaned forward even more.

Click.

“And just a little more.”

Again, I did. This time, though, I noticed what my bending over was revealing. A glance down showed a lot of my breasts on display. A lot. My nipples weren’t quite making an appearance, but it was a near thing.

Click.

When he’d taken pictures of me before in my underwear, I’d just thought he was doing that to increase the number of experience points that the quest was worth. Now that I knew that he admired my body, I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d actually look at these pictures at some point. Was it possible that he’d … touch himself looking at these pictures? Looking at me?

I started to get really tingly down there.

“That’s amazing,” he said. “You’re a great model. You can stand up now.”

Still lost in the sensations rushing through me, I did.

“Can you turn your back toward me?” he asked.

I was too caught up in my own little world to consider the view I’d be presenting, so I just did it.

Click.

“Great,” he said. “Keep standing in that position but twist your torso so I can get your face and a profile of that extraordinary breast in the shot.”

The explicitness of his remark brought me out of my reverie. As I complied with what he’d told me to do, I realized that he was now taking a picture of my naked butt. My naked butt was now the star of a digital image.

I would have never thought that such a thing would happen to me. Who would want to see that in the first place, much less take a picture of it?

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But he did want to see it, so much so that he wanted the memory stored digitally for all time.

I didn’t know how to feel about that. It was something I’d need to process. The main impact at the moment, though, was to make me more aroused.

I liked that he liked me, which, okay, I kind of understood. Did I also, maybe, just a little bit, somehow, like showing myself to him?

He had told me that my class would make showing off exciting, but my body’s physical response was a different thing than me actually liking that I was exposed. It was the weirdest thing. I so didn’t want anyone looking at my body and I was completely mortified that these two people were. On the other hand, it was like some part of me disagreed. Some part of me wanted to be appreciated.

Click.

“Perfect,” he said. “I think that should do it for the quest.”

Sure enough, a notification appeared in front of me.

Followed by, once I’d dismissed that one, another.

“I guess I can get dressed again, now?” I asked.

Wait. Why was that a question? That should have been a statement.

“You can,” he said. “But I’d prefer you didn’t. I like seeing you like this.”

My face heated so much. I had to look away from him.

The tingling only increased.

My store uniform was slotted in my Inventory for Quick Access, but I hadn’t done the same thing for my archer gear. If I tried that now, it would presumably leave me naked for an instant before I could then equip my uniform.

I couldn’t get naked in front of them, even if it was for literally a second.

That was the excuse I told myself for remaining there dressed in this skimpy outfit, never mind that I could have just retreated to the back room for a moment.

He grinned, knowing that some part of me was enjoying this. That only embarrassed me more, and, somehow, made me more tingly.

“What do you want to do with your new points?” he asked.

I ignored all the strange feelings coursing through me and that fact that I was just standing there in my place of employment in front of two people I barely knew almost naked. Instead, I started thinking about making real life changes to a real life status sheet that would impact my real life attributes and abilities. Surreal didn’t begin to describe my situation at the moment.

“Agility and Quick Draw,” I said.

He frowned.

“What?” I asked.

“I get that you want to be the best archer possible. I respect that desire. I’m really worried about your constitution, though. If we are losing a battle and have to retreat, that’s a suboptimal but acceptable outcome. Any one of us dying is not okay.”

“I think I’ll be less likely to die if I’m the best archer that I can be. Besides, agility should help me dodge hits.”

“Think of it this way, then,” he said. “When you get hit – and that’s when, not if, because it’s inconceivable that all of us won’t get injured at some point – what happens when Nat has to devote a Heal to you that should be directed at Julia? How much will your reduced constitution and lack of Lesser Regeneration impact the entire party?”

Was he right? Was I being selfish? The gamer in me said no.

“I have so few points,” I said. “I need to make every one of them count.”

“You could … earn more points?”

Yuck. More quests. More embarrassment. More arousal?

“Fine,” I said. “You’re right.”

A quest appeared.

“Hugh! No! I can’t do that. I can’t let Larry see me like this. And we’re going to do a group practice. That means he’ll be inviting other people from the LARPing club. I just can’t.”

“Amy, listen to me. I know that you don’t think that your body looks good, but I completely disagree. You are pretty and sexy and any guy would be lucky to see you. Period. I bet Larry’s eyes will bulge right out of his head. He’ll have to excuse himself to the bathroom when he gets a look at you.”

I couldn’t imagine that, but, then again, I kind of could. And, in my aroused state, the thought only made me more turned on.

“At least consider it, okay?” Hugh asked.

“I’ll … think about it.”

Even that concession was difficult for me.

“Okay, back to distributing the points,” he said. “I’m sorry for pressuring you. It’s your build, your call. I shouldn’t have been so adamant. Agility and Quick Draw are perfectly acceptable choices.”

“No. You’re right. Spending one level up to enhance my survivability seems reasonable. This isn’t a game. My life really will be on the line, a fact that I don’t think has truly registered to me yet.”

And that was true. I’d been really focused on how cool having a system was, not on having to kill things or be killed myself. I’d need to really think about those things.

I devoted the points to constitution as he’d suggested, and, when my skill options gave me the opportunity to take Lesser Regeneration, I did.

I pulled up my new status.

Not bad. Much better than before. But if I was going to get even better before my first combat, that meant exposing even more of me to Hugh or exposing this much of me to others or, yuck, exposing even more of me to others.

The thoughts of what I might have to do to gain more levels, the thought of parading around in front of Larry and other friends dressed like this, sent my arousal through the roof. I couldn’t take it anymore. I retreated to the back room and slotted my archer outfit for quick access, leaving me naked. Then I did something that I never would have thought I would do in a million years while at work.

I placed one foot up on a table, spread my legs, and reached down to touch myself. In my mind, Hugh and Larry were watching me, seeing my naked body, watching my fingers thrust in and out of myself. I moaned as my fingers massaged my wet clit and pussy.

It didn’t take long, much quicker than I was usually accustomed to, before I came. Hard. The experience was much, much more intense than any time I’d done that in the past.

I shuddered as I tried to regain control of my breathing. The cost demanded to increase my primary class was high indeed, but, if this was to be part of the benefit package, maybe it wasn’t as bad as I had thought.

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