3.35 – Incredulous


    Outside, Jordan, Sofia, and Ana stood around awkwardly, twiddling their thumbs.


    “So,” Sofia suddenly said. “It’s still going on?”


    “Guess it is,” Jordan replied.


    “Been a while, don’t you think?”


    “They’re having fun with it, maybe,” Jordan said wryly.


    Sofia raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her, and Jordan snorted.


    “And what does everyone think of all this?” Sofia asked.


    “It’s her ss. Not like she can help it,” Jordan said.


    “I guess,” Sofia said dubiously. She looked at Ana, waiting for a response.


    The stony-faced girl met her gaze easily. “It’s a low-threat challenge that offers a custom reward our team needs. So, I suppose I consider this event fortuitous?”


    Sofia’s expression melted to exasperation. “Really. That’s all?”


    Ana tilted her head. A small frown tugged on her lips. “I would not have personally participated,” she said, “but that Elizabeth chose to doesn’t bother me. Does it you?”


    “No,” Sofia said. “It’s just—“ She struggled for a moment on how to put it. Jordan suspected the girl didn’t know herself. To be fair, it was quite the event.


    A look of understanding crossed Ana’s face. “You wish <em>you</em> could have taken the challenge.”


    “No!” the instant, horrified response came, and Jordan startedughing at how catastrophically Ana had misinterpreted things. “What are you even—“ Sofia stuttered. “That’s not what—“


    “Maybe it’ll let everyone get a go,” Jordan joked to her. “Who gets to watch? Me or Nat?”


    “You,” Sofia growled, “are supposed to be the reasonable one.” She poked a firm finger into Jordan’s chest, and Jordan only smirked down at the white-haired girl. “I am not <em>interested </em>in those challenges. I’m just surprised everyone’s taking it so in stride, is all.”


    Jordan shrugged. “They’re optional. Doesn’t really matter, if that’s the case.”


    “I <em>guess</em>,” Sofia repeated.


    Jordan knew what was really going on. The poor girl was just flustered from imagining what was happening inside that room. To be fair, Jordan was too—how couldn’t she be? But Sofia especially. Their team’s fighter was just talking to talk, the silence as they leaned against the dungeon wall and waited for the event to wrap up having left too much room for her thoughts to run wild. The blush on her cheeks would have given that away, even if her agitated movements hadn’t.


    Thankfully, the somewhat awkward waiting-around ended: advancing footsteps from down the long underground tunnel heralded their teammates’ return.


    Liz shuffled behind Natalie sheepishly, obviously embarrassed to acknowledge what had happened. Jordan fought away the smile tugging at her lips, seeing the timid disy. She didn’t know what had gone on between her and Natalie, but Jordan suspected that at a minimum, it wouldn’t be <em>too </em>long before Natalie had another lust-gathering partner.


    Maybe, even, she and Liz could team up on Natalie? That would be an event and a half. She wondered whether it would give Natalie more energy than two separate encounters. That was probably hoping for too much. Well, even if not, it’d be time-efficient.


    Jordan would need a way to sneak the topic in. Though, obviously, she was assuming a lot, and still had to see whether Liz herself would be interested.


    “Well?” Sofia asked. “How’d it go?”


    “Good,” Natalie said. “Worked like it said it would.” She coughed. She was obviously the one morefortable in handling exnations, seeing how Liz was red-faced and peeking out from behind Natalie, but it was still an awkward event.


    Amusedly, Jordan wondered how long the timid behaviors wouldst in their group. How frequent, and intense, would the dungeon’s interventions be? This blushing stage of theirs might notst long, depending on how enthusiastically the dungeon threw challenges at them.


    “And your reward?”


    Liz presented the item, holding it out in front of her. It was a thin metal white wand with a gold cap—it looked high quality. Intrigued, Jordan didn’t waste a moment to [Inspect] it. Sofia and Ana didn’t either.


    “A <em>rare</em>?” Sofia blurted out. “What!”


    “A form shift?” Jordan asked, finding that the more intriguing part. Considering the methods Natalie and Liz had used to earn the item, she suspected something might be up.


    And she was right. Exnations took ce, and Jordan only barely stifled herughter as she discovered the wand’s nature. Sofia seemed to be struggling to ept this new reality of theirs, and Ana, as always, seemed only intrigued.


    “Maybe such a trial <em>would </em>be worth the effort,” Ana mused. “An evolvable rare weapon. How will we be splitting future events?”


    “So there’s a line for them, now?” Natalie asked.


    “With rewards like that?” Ana asked. She seemed genuinely confused as she looked at Jordan and Sofia. “Surely anyone would be willing to suffer through some … awkwardness.”


    Sofia seemed like she would protest that, but then nced at Liz’s wand and seemed to turn vaguely nauseous. The white-haired girl clearly agreed, though the idea of partaking in the dungeon’s so-called tribtions still offended her sensibilities.


    Jordan was pleased to find Ana didn’t seem to have any majorpunctions, now that the challenges had proved valuable. This delving party of theirs really might warm up to the idea faster than she’d expected.


    She wondered what that would be like. She was only interested in Natalie from a romantic perspective, but getting to team up on her with Sofia, Liz, or even Ana sounded appealing. She tried not to let those thoughts run too wild—and was admittedly somewhat surprised at how eager she was for it. She’d never considered herself a lustful woman, but recent events and her involvement with Natalie and her ss had changed that—or woken something up in her.


    “Well, whatever,” Sofia said loudly. “We’ll figure that outter. Can we please move on? There’s still boss rooms to find, and we’re not remotely re-stocked on gear.”


    Jordan considered pushing the point—how the challenges would be handled and distributed <em>was </em>relevant and worth talking about—but clearly Sofia needed a moment to think the subject over. A shared look with Natalie confirmed that.


    “We’ll handle it when we get to it,” Natalie agreed.


    Still halfway hiding behind Natalie, Liz nodded rapidly, her short hair bouncing.


    “And your ss better not have turned the bosses perverted too,” Sofia said, with something approaching a growl. “I swear, gives good rewards or not, we <em>do </em>still needbat practice.”


    Jordan didn’t think they were that lucky. The dungeon had far from morphedpletely into a pervertedndscape. They were in for plenty of regr challenges.


    Just lots of bonus ones, too.