Summoned by Monster Girls

Once the girls finished dealing with my clothing purchases, we took the time to just have some fun. Walking in town, eating from the food stalls in the market, and just enjoying the day.

Shayla tried to beg off as soon as we were done with my clothes, but Kassandra, being her pushy self, refused to let the much larger woman escape just yet. Instead, she insisted that Shayla join us for food at the very least.

Rieka helped her friend by drawing Shayla into a discussion about what art pieces she was working on currently, which drew the quiet woman further out of her shell and distracted her while Kassandra got us moving.

The entire time, Shayla stayed close to me, usually on my right side. Rieka walked on her right, while Kassandra led us to the food stalls.

Out of habit from spending time around Rieka, I had offered Shayla my arm, which she took shyly while we walked the streets.

For all her size, the winged woman did not have an assertive personality. I had a feeling that she would be the kind of person to detour onto different streets to avoid crowds entirely. But with Rieka and me bracketing her, and Kassandra often doing her impression of a tiny icebreaker ship for the crowd, she relaxed a fair bit.

When it came to food, it turned out that Shayla’s people preferred fruit over anything else. So Kassandra guided us to another of her little stalls that she knew of who sold fruit that was diced and grilled, before being returned to the halved rind as a disposable bowl.

The sweet-smelling fruit looked somewhat like a halved pineapple in shape, but the flesh of the fruit was an electric green. While grilling, the vendor had tossed it with some coarse salt, and the addition actually increased the sweetness of the fruit. The mixture tasted somewhat like a cross between mango and pineapple, and all four of us fell on it with gusto.

While we ate, I caught Shayla watching me out of the corner of her eye. She was subtle about it with her gazes and the lack of pupils in her dark eyes made it hard to tell where she was looking.

However, her antennae gave her away.

The fuzzy appendages would shift slightly in the direction she was looking, and that cue was easy to pick up. Her studying looks didn’t bother me, so I didn’t call her on it.

I’m sure she’s probably still nervous about being around a human. Or at the very least, curious. I know the girls were, and still are, I thought, remembering all the information we’d gathered in the ruins over the last week.

After we finished the food, we made a stop at the fountain to wash sticky hands.

While she washed her hands, Kassandra made a point of extracting a promise to meet with Shayla to help her study during the next week. The shy moth woman readily agreed, a gentle smile lighting up her features when Rieka said she’d tag along as well to get caught up on a report she had to write for one of her classes.

When we bid Shayla goodbye, the girls immediately fell to a whispered conversation with each other before shooting me bright grins.

“Proud of you, Liam!” Kassandra chirped, slithering around to cuddle up against my left side. Rieka stepped up to my right to stand on tiptoes and pressed a chaste kiss to my cheek.

“Agreed. You did a great job putting Shayla at ease. Kass and I will talk to her about possibly forging a bond with you in the next few days. We will get in touch with you once we know more,” Rieka said as she rocked back onto her heels, one hand coming to rest on my right forearm.

“Project Expand the Team is a go!” Kassandra cheered, bouncing in place cutely before tugging on my hand. “Shayla’s family may not be nobility or excessively wealthy, but she’s not poor either. Her art is growing in popularity as well, and I’m sure that with a third person to work with, you will get summoned more often, earn more, and get stronger! Plus, if we keep you here often enough, you wouldn’t need to worry about your living situation back home.”

“I don’t know if that’s going to work the way you think it will, Kass. But I appreciate the thought,” I murmured to her.

Shifting, I brought Rieka’s hand on my arm up so I could press a kiss to her knuckles, getting a blush from my platinum-blonde princess. I then turned and squatted down so I was on Kassandra’s level. She didn’t hesitate, throwing her arms around my neck and yanking me into an enthusiastic kiss right there on the side of the street.

“Kass! Stop making a scene.” Rieka protested, her voice a bit high as she swatted at my back for some reason, rather than Kassandra.

After a minute, Kassandra released me from the kiss and shot a grin over my shoulder at Rieka.

“I’m just warming him up for you, Rieka. It’s only noon, and, while you have dibs on him for tonight, that doesn’t mean I can’t… encourage our Liam to perform his best.” The wiggling of her slim eyebrows made sure there was no doubt in the innuendo Kassandra was liberally applying.

I felt a chill run down my spine at the implication that Kassandra was going to wind me up for the rest of the afternoon now.

I expected my sweet, shy, and loving Rieka to come to my rescue. To protest the lewd implications or insist that Kassandra be nice. But when the silence dragged on, I twisted my head to look over my shoulder at her.

My princess was biting her lip hard, eyes wide and a blush gracing her cheeks, but her tail was whipping up a storm behind her.

Oh, no… I thought as my eyes locked with Rieka’s ice-blue ones and the blush darkened on her cheeks. I swore I could see her nipples harden through the material of her top. I’m toast…

<><><>

The girls made good on their threat. We spent the next four hours wandering through town and they would take it in turns to tease me in various ways.

Kassandra would sneak a caress in when no one was looking, bend over to ensure I got a view down her shirt, and twice while we were out of sight of others, she’d flipped her skirt at me to show off her precious place.

Rieka was just as bad as Kassandra, though not as bold. She would back into me, bend over in front of me, and if the opportunity presented itself, press her breasts into me from all angles. I learned very quickly that I wasn’t seeing things earlier. Her nipples dug hard points into me every time she pressed her breasts into my back or hugged my arm to her chest.

Given that the teasing was harmless to everything besides my libido, I did my best to put up with it and resist the urge to just drag one of them into an out of the way spot for some relief.

I did fight back against Rieka, at least. A caress of Rieka’s backside or tail, a kiss to her ear, or an innuendo whispered while she was facing away. They all worked to stoke her arousal even higher and occasionally distracted her from tormenting me.

I didn’t dare fire back at Kassandra, though.

The last thing I needed was my mischievous Nugget getting aroused enough to lose her inhibitions. I think she knew my hesitations, and capitalized on them to walk the line of what was appropriate.

When we finally headed back to Juneau from Kintos, it took four times as long as our trip that morning. The girls kept dragging me off the road for a quick make-out session in the nearby trees.

While Rieka kissed me and ran her hands over my chest, Kassandra would rub me through my pants, but neither took it far enough to actually get me off.

By the time we got back to the campus and up to their rooms, I was just about limping from blue-balls and Rieka was very aware that she was going to have to work quickly to ward her room for silence when we got up there. I had no intention of giving her very long after what she and Kassandra had put me through.

“Have fun you two! And if you wear her out, Liam? Just give me a call and I’ll be happy to take over,” Kassandra teased quietly as she peeled off to head to her room.

I grimaced and rolled my eyes at Kassandra, but she just made a shushing motion with one hand while her eyes danced wickedly. We had to be quiet and do our best to be appropriate, as there were other students in the common space on the first floor of the dorm.

Rieka growled after her friend before towing me towards her room, her tail waving furiously and the scent of her arousal hanging thick in the air. Her natural scent of ozone and herbal soap covered most of it, but I could detect the faint hint of feminine musk in the air as I followed in her wake.

Opening her door, Rieka dodged to one side as I followed her in and slammed it behind her.

A flick of her wrist brought up her spell rod, and Rieka was already casting as I threw my clothes off. She finished the silencing spell on the walls as I finished stripping, and barely got the contraceptive charm on herself before I had her pressed to the door.

“Do you care about these clothes?” I growled as I planted sucking kisses on my princess’s neck. Rieka moaned a denial, her spell rod clattering to the ground as I hiked her up, her legs going around my waist. “Good, you are going to pay for winding me up earlier.”

“I’m looking forward to it, my Liam,” Rieka panted, her eyes wide with desire as claws sprouted from my fingertips to shred her clothes. Leaving her beautiful body bare to my ravenous attention.

<><><>

Returning home the next day was hard. The idea of having to go back to my normal, boring life sucked after the whirlwind of adventure and affection that I’d enjoyed with my girls over the previous week. But I knew that I needed to get a start on a few of my ideas.

While I’d been laying there with Rieka the night before, resting between bouts of lovemaking, we’d talked over a few suggestions she had for ways I could employ my powers in more subtle fashion to earn a living.

Rieka had hit on the idea of using earth magic spells to shape the landscape like I had during the camping trip, and how I might use that as a craft.

I’d also had the idea of using my stone-shaping ability to clean or mend cracked foundations or streets. I just needed to do the research to see what establishing a business doing that would require for either idea.

The other reason I needed to head home was that I realized my girls were just too distracting for me. I happily spent every moment I could with them, either just cuddling, talking, or just being near them. It was the thought that, in the last two days since I’d brought the girls home, I hadn’t even looked at my abilities or considered how I would spend the windfall of points I’d earned during this mission that triggered it.

So, after spending the morning nursing Rieka’s poor hips back into a functional state to support her walking, I parted ways with my girls.

Rieka and Kassandra bid me farewell with several long kisses and sent me home a few hours early so I could get a start on my search for work, and so they could actually focus on catching up on what classes they had missed.

The sensation of racing through time and space, like I sat strapped into a roller-coaster traveling through a wormhole, was familiar and actually reassuring now. I didn’t try to focus on the images and colors racing past me, just allowing them to wash over me and flow away.

I caught sight of a high mountain scarred from the impact of something large, another vast city of soaring towers, and then a rippling ocean where something large swam beneath the surface. All before whatever force it was the System used to guide my transfer gently deposited me on the stained carpet of my apartment.

Taking in a deep breath, I couldn’t help the disappointed sigh.

Even inside, I could smell the faint stink of exhaust and weed smoke from my neighbors despite not leaving windows open.

Faintly, I could hear Alex Trebek’s voice through the walls, letting me know that Mrs. Kowalski was up across the hall and watching her show like always. I could hear my neighbors on the right arguing through the wall again, but it was just a quiet rumble of conversation punctuated by the occasional yell. Again, business as usual.

“Home sweet home,” I grunted before walking over to pick up my phone.

I had a handful of messages from different people, but the majority of them were from Jameson, just checking on me and seeing how things were going.

I fired off a general response to him, to let him know that I was back from camping and hanging around the house so we could catch up.

Checking my voice mails, I found three waiting for me, two of them from Jameson complaining about me being able to go camping for a week while he was stuck at work. Apparently, he’d called when I hadn’t responded to the texts and gotten my message about being out of town.

The last message was from Geoff, a co-worker at my, now former, job.

I listened to the message three times, my smile getting wider and wider as I listened to it repeat.

Hey Liam, wanted to drop you a line and wish you well on searching for a new gig. If you need a recommendation, I got a brother who works as a general handyman, if you have any skills like that. Most importantly, though, I thought you should know that Karma decided to give Dutcher a kick in the balls. After you left, Dutcher tried to shift the shit onto the other loaders and they told him to sit and spin. I guess you standing up to the fat idiot reminded everyone that we don’t have to put up with him. HR just ‘happened’ to hear about the entire event and what caused it, and that got bucked up the chain. Word is that he’s getting busted down to a desk at the very least, if not getting the boot for violating HR policies about leave. Anyway, let me know if you want me to put you in connection with my brother. Have a good one!

“Couldn’t have happened to a better asshole,” I mumbled, crossing the room to settle onto my battered couch with a sigh. “Wonder about that suggestion, though. If Geoff’s brother has something I could do on contract…”

I toyed with the idea for a bit. With the ability to mold earth and stone like clay, doing things like mending a driveway, fixing a cracked foundation, or patching a leaky pool would be relatively easy. The issue would be doing it without being seen.

While I thought, I fell back into the idle habit I’d built up in the days before my camping trip. Shape-Shifting stretched my limbs out, and I began rearranging things on the shelves, dusting, and making sure everything was where I’d wanted it without leaving the couch.

It was while I was watching some of the disturbed dust motes float through a beam of early afternoon sunlight that I had an idea.

Retracting my shifted arms and returning them to normal, I focused intently on the dust motes floating through the air.

I knew from high-school science that dust wasn’t just made up of dirt, but also things like dead skin cells and hair. But that wasn’t what mattered at the moment.

Focusing intently on the drifting motes of dust, I reached into my chest and tapped into the mana and the very basic Manipulate Element power I had that focused on earth.

Spreading the power out, I did exactly what I would do when shaping the ground under a campsite. But, rather than flatten it, I tugged at the earth like I was going to form it into an attack.

A cloud of gray and brown dust erupted from the carpet and furniture all around me like it was metal filings and someone had just powered on a massive electromagnet.

Half a second later, a sphere the size of a golf-ball made of compacted earth landed in my palm and I studied it. The smooth ball of dirt held together without a problem, my power having compacted it to a near rock-like density.

Glancing around, I studied the room. The majority of the dust was gone, and my carpet was several shades lighter now too, looking like I had recently shampooed it even.

“There’s an idea,” I mumbled, tossing the sphere of compacted dust from hand to hand while leaning back onto the couch. “Multidimensional Janitor wouldn’t be a poor job, right?”

Suppressing a snigger, I closed my eyes to look over my interface to see what that had cost me in terms of mana.

The pool of ten mana that I had was only down by a single point, sitting at nine out of ten currently.

Efficient, I thought idly. I filed the idea away for further study when the large number in my ‘available SP’ slot drew my attention once more.

“Better get those done now, since it’s what I told the girls I was doing,” I mumbled and looked over the sheet that detailed my stats.

Name - Liam Cosgrave

Strength - 30

Agility - 22

Fortitude - 32

Willpower - 30

Mental Acuity - 28

Wisdom - 27

Powers Acquired -

Shape-Shifting (Minor) [Mastery 1000/1000]

Shape-Shifting (Lesser) [Mastery 1000/1000]

Shape-Shifting (Moderate) [Mastery 740/1000]

Shape-Shifting (Mass Control)

Enhance Self (Minor) [Mastered]

Enhance Self (Lesser) [+10 Willpower, Mental Acuity, Wisdom, Strength, Fortitude, +5 Agility]

Manipulate Element (Minor) - (Earth) [Mastery 1000/1000]

Mana Reservoir (Minor) [Mastery 1000/1000]

Contact Contracted Companion [Mastery 15/1000]

“Not bad,” I muttered, studying the list again. Shape-Shifting (Moderate) was climbing slowly but steadily towards mastery.

After my spending spree before with the personal quests and the award for completing the long mission, I had three-thousand, one-hundred and twenty SP to spend now.

I eyeballed the new powers that had come up again. Mana Reservoir (Lesser), Drain Reservoir, and Empower Reservoir all had a lot of potential, but even one would take most of my reserve of points.

“The idea of being able to just… pump mana into the girls’ spent coins to regenerate them is very tempting. But without expanding the reservoir it’s not a lot of effect I can make. And it all depends on how long it takes since Empower Reservoir states the mana will regenerate slower…”

The ten mana that I had wasn’t enough to do much, but depending on how fast it regenerated, I could at least help defray my summoning costs while I was over there. Especially since the Manipulate Element thing was just a supplement for me.

Amusing how it’s likely that the supplemental power is the one that is likely to be the most useful for me to earn money with right now. I could use the Shape-Shifting to do a lot of stuff, like be a bail-bondsman or something if I needed to hunt folks down. It’s not like I can just produce resources…

The thought petered out after a moment as I considered it. There were a number of different animals that produced items of value. A thought made the hair on the back of my arm ripple and turn white before growing wooly.

“All natural, ethically sourced human-llama wool,” I muttered with a smirk before reverting the change. “Naw, that wouldn’t work. I still have to have something to shift, and I doubt wool would be valuable enough to solve the problem.” Sighing, I leaned back on the couch and idly flicked through my options again.

I knew I could likely get some money using the earth magic to clean, and I had options for general labor that would work. My mind kept coming back to finding some way to use Shape-Shifting to acquire a resource of some kind.

Flipping through the abilities again, my eyes landed on the Enhance Self (Moderate) ability that had popped up quite a while ago. I hadn’t really looked at it since then, so I read over it once more.

Enhance Self (Moderate) - Cost: 250 SP - Increase personal stats by 20 points, can be spread out. Up to a maximum of Fifty points per stat beyond (Lesser) effects.

May be selected multiple times. If the previous tier was not fully exploited, that opportunity is not lost. Previous tier will become unavailable once max points are allotted from it.

My mind flitted back to my initial issues with getting creative regarding Shape-Shifting. The first thing I’d enhanced was my mental stats, and they’d helped me come up with creative ways to use the powers.

Flipping back to the other abilities, I made a mental note to save some of the points for testing other ideas before selecting Enhance Self (Moderate) six times.

With the one-hundred and twenty points now available to spend buffing my stats, I considered my sheet.

Before, the most I’d been able to add to a single stat was ten points. I was about to massively boost some of my stats. My already higher than normal mental acuity was telling me that it would be better to spread the points around than dump them into one stat. I vaguely remembered Cariad warning me not to boost stats too quickly either, but I shrugged it off for now.

With a sigh, I flipped back to the powers and spent the last fifty SP to finish out Enhance Self (Lesser) and slotted that five points into my agility.

There, I finished that power off. Now I can focus on the others. I thought with a sigh, holding off on hitting the ‘apply’ that would actually put the change into effect just yet. I debated again for a long moment, considering if this was a good idea.

Realizing I was stalling, I just gritted my teeth and dumped forty points into each of my mental stats. This doubled to tripled their scores in the course of a second and I hammered the ‘accept changes’ option.

My vision flickered and the block of stats updated.

Name - Liam Cosgrave

Strength - 30

Agility - 27

Fortitude - 32

Willpower - 70

Mental Acuity - 68

Wisdom - 67

“Probably going to regret this…” I mumbled as I felt a pressure beginning to build in my skull.

As if it had been waiting for me to say something, the edges of my vision flashed red and a message blazed into view.

Processing changes… … …

Maximum effect of Enhance Self (Lesser) has been applied.

This ability is now considered mastered. If the Traveler wishes to further enhance themselves, refer to the next rank in skill.

Changes applied to Traveler’s body. New neural pathways are being forged.

It is recommended that the Traveler rests to allow System time to make changes.

WARNING

Traveler has drastically enhanced several of their base stats at once, System adjusting to compensate.

Compensating…

Traveler will be placed into unconsciousness to prevent injury while System handles major adjustments.

Standby, Traveler.

“Shit, knew it,” was all I managed to get out before my vision went black.