Chapter 1: Chapter One (1/4): Ari’s First Monster Laying Expedition

What was a girl supposed to bring to her first adventure?

Under normal circumstances, preparations would include armor, weapons, potions, class related accessories, and a variety of basic survival gear—a waterskin, rations, and a sleeping bag. But Ari wasn’t a normal adventurer … however much she would have preferred to be.

[Monster Layer]. Even two full days after her eighteenth birthday, and her bestowal, Ari’s head hurt whenever she thought about the strangeness of her class. Why her? Ari had never been a promiscuous girl, someone obsessed with sex. And while classes weren’t always divvied out based on how fitting they were to the individual, there was usually some kind of suitability between class and user. 

The gods must have a strange appraisal of her.

Her eighteenth birthday—her bestowal party—had been so mortifying. She hadn’t told anyone, of course, on discovering her class at midnight, but they knew something was up. Keeping one’s class secret wasn’t rare, but Ari’s shock had been revealing. Though, she doubted they’d ever guess correctly. Ari had heard of all kinds of strange classes, but never something like this.

She clung to the hope that ‘rare’ meant ‘good’. However unpalatable her class appeared, maybe it was strong.

Her skills did seem useful.

[Monster Laying System]: For both user and engaged targets, health is replaced with stimulation, and mana is replaced with pleasure. Stimulation indicates proximity to climax, and reaching climax decides victor. Higher pleasure at the end of an encounter results in greater experience and drop yield, or further detriments in the case of defeat.

Ari didn’t know what ‘detriments’ meant, but seeing how a ‘lost encounter’ for a person with a normal class could mean death, she got the feeling losing would be more forgiving than normal. Though, probably not something she wanted to aim for—at the very minimum, it meant she wouldn’t receive loot or experience. 

[Transform]: Convert target monster into a more pliable form, a humanoid monster-girl equivalent.

Back when Ari had first inspected her skills, her brain had nearly broken reading her ‘system description’ skill and not knowing [Transform] existed. Because some monsters—most—were rather horrifying. Ten-foot tall spider monsters, amalgamations of animated rock … she didn’t even want to imagine. This, at least, meant her class was still absurd, but somewhat reasonable.

‘Reasonable’. Ari’s standards had been set low, to be considering anything about her circumstances as reasonable.

And the last of her starter skills:

[Dexterous Fingers]: Activate to deal increased pleasure for a short duration.

Which Ari supposed was her first ‘combat skill’. The implications had her face searing. To think she’d have her fingers wiggling around inside a monster girl, bringing them to climax … was this seriously her life now?

She guessed it was. However astoundingly weird her class, Ari had always wanted to be an adventurer, and this hiccup in her plans wouldn’t stop her. She’d get over it. And sure, it posed all kinds of insane problems, like who the heck would want to party up with her, but she’d take it a step at a time. Adventurers pushed forward no matter the odds.

But back to the matter at hand. Ari’s first expedition.

She hadn’t prepared as thoroughly as she might have otherwise. Adventuring equipment, potions, and so on, were expensive, and Ari had the distinct feeling they wouldn’t be much use to her. She’d traipsed out into the Forest of the Golden Lake dressed for a hike: backpack, thick boots, water, and other mundane essentials. She’d brought along a weak health potion just in case—but that was where her preparations for a ‘real’ adventure ended. 

I wonder if a health potion helps with … stimulation. Ari’s nose wrinkled, both because she doubted it, and at the reminder of how her ‘HP’ had changed to ‘Stimulation’. And that wasn’t the end of the changes to her status.

===

Arianne Baxleson - Lv. 1

Human

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{ Stimulation: 0/15 }

{ Pleasure: 0/100 }

Constitution: E-

Skill: F

Charm: F-

===

Her stats had changed too, not just her HP and MP. Where a person would normally have stats of ‘defense’, ‘attack’, and ‘magic’, Ari had constitution, skill, and charm. She could see the logic behind the changes … constitution would be how resistant she was to pleasure, skill how efficient she could provide it to others, and charm, the more ephemeral stat, in the same way ‘magic’ was the outlier stat for a normal adventurer. Each was an analogue to its mundane equivalent.

It felt a bit insulting to see her ‘skill’ labeled as an ‘F’, if she were being honest … but she was a level one. Both in the literal sense, and in a more metaphorical way. Ari wasn’t the most experienced of girls.

She trekked forward, taking in the sights of the Forest of the Golden Lake. 

Verdant trees surrounded her on all sides, and a gentle breeze blew through their leaves, settling them fluttering. Birds chirped and insects buzzed. She glanced back at the trail behind her, and it was as empty as she expected it to be. The Forest was considered as 'newbie' of a green-zone as adventuring zones came. Trails certainly wouldn't be a guarantee in the more dangerous area, further on in her career.

The air was crisp and clean, filled with fresh scents of nature that made Ari feel as if she were in another world entirely. It was peaceful here, peaceful enough Ari wanted to stand still and bask in the warmth and serenity, which couldn't be more deceptive. While maybe not dangerous by the appraisal of high rank adventurers, to a normal person, the Forest of the Golden Lake was a deadly hunting grounds ... a place only a person with a combat class would venture out alone, looking to hone their skills and gain experience.

It’s gotta be any second now. 

Ari had gone pretty deep, by now; the trail was starting to thin out, vegetation overtaking the edges. If she wanted a quick encounter, she could swerve off and head into the forest proper, but she didn’t want to get lost, not for her first adventure. So the slower method of wandering along a well-trodden path was the more prudent decision.

A prickle on her neck alerted her to the inevitable encounter. She stiffened, then turned slowly, seeking whatever had set her nerves on edge. There, obscured in the vegetation, yellow feline eyes stared at her.

Ari shrugged off her backpack, then sent an [Inspect] the creature’s way.

[ Deft-foot Fire Leopard - Lv. 1 ]

The black-spotted, sand-colored big cat approached, muscles coiled and with a predator gaze fixated on Ari. It left singed paw-prints on the ground, and the creature’s fuzzy feet radiated flames that licked harmlessly at the surrounding plant-life. Ari stood frozen, enraptured by its stare, and the elegance—and fantasticalness—of the creature’s form. It took effort to shake off the fear, but she managed to. She’d known she wanted to be an adventurer for a long time now, so she had some training in controlling her reactions. Though the rest of that training, or at least most of it, went to waste, considering her class.

The monster crouched, as if about to pounce, and Ari finally spurred into action. Her hand shot up, and she activated [Transform].

An explosion of white smoke filled the air, briefly obscuring her target from view. She startled, not having expected the skill to come with so much visual side-effect. Supernaturally fast, the thick smoke disappeared, drifting away and revealing the result of the monster’s transformation.

What was left in the creature’s place was …

Well. What the skill suggested. A leopard-girl.

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