Asa lost track of how long they ran. They leaped over roots and bushes, hurrying away from the sounds of the Emerald Bear and the River Tiger. Her heart was pounding, her clothes were drenched in sweat, and bugs kept buzzing by her. She only saw a few other animals, but they bounded away as the two of them crashed through the forest.

When they couldn’t hear the ferocious roars anymore, they finally stopped. Maer leaned against a moss ridden tree. Asa sunk to her knees, her head against the dirt. She thought she’d throw up again. Her stamina bar hovered at the bottom for what felt like forever. She’d let it deplete several times as they ran, letting it flash red. She’d rest just long enough so she could keep running again. Maer seemed to have no problem at all, and she wondered if his leather equipment or some ability helped with that.

“We got away,” said Maer, his breathing steady now. He took another sip from a glass flask before handing it to her.

Stamina Elixir: Replenishes one’s stamina. Two servings per flask.

Inside it was a bright green liquid. She gulped it down quickly, her body still trembling. Her lungs felt like they’d burnt out. But as the flask disintegrated in her hand, Asa felt her heart steadying as her stamina bar fully replenished. She took a deep shuddering breath, eyes shut, and straightened her shoulders.

“That was a Stamina Elixir,” said Maer, wiping his brow with his forearm. He summoned his hat and placed it over his hair, then extended his hand. “I’m Maer by the way. I’m assuming you’re new to the game?”

Asa stood up and shook his hand, half wondering if he’d washed his hands after peeing on the Emerald Bear. “I’m Asa,” she said, touching her neck with her other hand. “Game?”

“Well, it’s another world. But it’s also a game. We don’t really know. You were in a hospital, right? Before this?” He took out a jar this time and sipped from it.

The Lapis Bear climbed onto her lap, and she stroked the little creature’s blue fur, remembering how tense it was in the tunnel when it sensed the tiger. Then she remembered having Maer’s face against her ass, and she felt heat rise to her cheeks. “Yeah,” she said, the vague memories of the hospital flickering in her mind. “How’d you know?”

“We all were,” he said.

Now that they were closer, Asa could see his armor more clearly. Leather and steel. They looked rather nice, and she wondered how long he’d been in this world. How many others there were. When she caught him staring at her breasts, she blushed and covered her chest. “What the hell are you looking at?”

His face turned red. “Sorry was looking at your name tag.”

“You mean this?” she asked, raising her head to show him her name. She kept her other arm over her breasts though. “How comes mine is around my neck while yours is around your arm?”

“Don’t know,” he said, rubbing his arm. “I woke up with it. People have it all over. One guy claims to have it on his... Uh, you know, thing.”

“How many others are there?” she asked, trying not to picture a black ring around a guy’s cock with a name inscribed. Did it change when he grew hard?

“Loads!” said Maer, kneeling to scratch the Lapis Bear’s head. “We all started on Beginner’s Isle, so I didn’t think I’d meet a new player here. Where did you wake up?”

“Uh,” she said, remembering the goddess statue. The sarcophagus, the slimes, the bones. “Inside a temple on the other side of this forest.”

“Temple?” he looked up, eyes wide. “That’s what I’m looking for! Didn’t think people would wake up in there. Maybe you have a special class or something?”

Asa bit her lip. There was so much more to this world than she’d thought. “Class? Like my role? No idea.”

The way Maer stared at her made her feel alien and strange. “What are you talking about? You didn’t get a quest and an assignment when you woke up? That tells you your class.”

“On my stats page?” Asa pulled it up.

Name Asa Health 3/3 Stamina 10 Damage 2 Armor 12

She stared at the blue screen. She tried scrolling up or down, left or right, but the screen only flickered in response to her fingertips. “There’s nothing more.”

Maer was staring at the space in front of his space, using his fingers on what she guessed was his own screen. “It says it right next to your name.”

“There’s nothing there for me.”

“That’s so weird,” he said, looking up at her. “Did you get a quest at least?”

She thought about running out of that temple. The slimes jiggling inside her. The goddess threatening to catch her. “Yeah. It was to get out alive.”

“That was it?” he crossed his arms.

“Then I met an old guy who gave me another quest.” She summoned that screen up. “The Earth’s Gift to the Sky.”

He repeated the name and started pacing. The Lapis Bear curled up around Asa’s feet.

Asa rubbed the black stone around her finger, wondering if she should mention that and how her head spun once she left the temple. But Maer was still a stranger, in a strange world. Better to keep some secrets.

After a while, he spoke again. “I’m not sure what you are. But I don’t think you’re an NPC since you have the name tag. But not having a class… you’re the first person I met like that.”

She didn’t know what to make of that, and a whirlwind of anxieties went through her thoughts. “So what class are you?”

“Explorer,” he said, puffing out his chest and smiling. “That’s all I wanted to do before I died. So getting to do this now… I think this world assigns your class and quests based on who you were before this world.”

Asa scratched her chin. She thought about waking up in a sarcophagus, how horny she got when she left the temple. How the goddess wanted her. What did that mean for her? “I don’t even remember what I wanted before I woke up here. I don’t remember anything at all.” Except for a few fleeting memories, she almost said. The hospital, the doctors and nurses, the face of a woman who must be her mother, a man she knew she loved but couldn’t recall. She didn’t want to tell this stranger all that.

He doesn’t say anything anyway. She got the sense he was studying her harshly, like she was something to explore and write about. To be caught and dried and put on display, an anxiety inducing feeling of being watched, of being vulnerable, of being alone. Could he beat her in a fight? Was he stronger than her? How many hearts did he have? His wrist was covered in a leather cuff.

“Alright,” he said. “I’ll help you out.”

“Excuse me?” said Asa. What was he up to?

“With your quest. Since you’re a beginner and you’re already in this area. It’s full of scary things.”

“I don’t know how much you’d be able to help since you were running away from that bear too.” She couldn’t shake off that feeling of unease now that she’d told him so much. He seemed genuine, and he was the only other person she’d met so far besides the old man.

He made a face. “That bear was scary, okay? I have clothes and stuff if you want.”

She rubbed her arms, about to ask if he had something with sleeves. “What do you want in return?” Even without her memories, she knew what guys would want from a woman alone in the forest with no real means of protecting herself. And he kept staring at her chest. She could guess at the lewd thoughts he must be thinking, because she was thinking them as well.

“I want you to take me to the temple,” he said, holding out his hands. “But I’m betting you’ll get your class assignment at the end of this quest, so I’m really curious.” Blue light sparkled over his palms and clothing appeared.

Denim Shirt +20 Armor

She bit her lip, trying to study the expression on his face. He seemed earnest enough, and he seemed to genuinely want to be an explorer. The Lapis Bear didn’t seem to mind him either. The shirt offered a lot of protection and looked rather nice. “Alright,” she said, accepting the shirt. As she put it on, the t-shirt the old man had given her vanished, leaving her suddenly exposed.

She looked up to see a huge grin on Maer’s face, and she felt heat rise to her face as she turned away and buttoned it up furiously. “You dickhead, you did that on purpose.”

“I’m so sorry,” he said, laughing. “I couldn’t help it. Gets the new girls every time.”

Asa tried summoning a long bone to smack him with, but when it didn’t appear, she realized she had no more. Instead she cloned her teeth and turned. “Thank you for the shirt.”

“No problem,” he said, smiling.

She punched him as hard as she could, knocking him to the ground and making the Lapis Bear jump up to attention.

He stayed on his ass, rubbing his face. “Aww, you wore a ring. No fair.” But he didn’t look injured at all.

“So I was right, you do have some great armor on.” She rubbed the ring, studying his leather outfit. “Where can I get something like that?”

“I’ll tell you later,” he said, sitting up on his knees quickly and crawling to her. He grabbed her hand, studying the ring on her finger. “Why doesn’t this have a screen?”

His sudden attention made her flush again as she remembered his face against her ass, how he’d seen her breasts. Which only made her want to hit him again, but his question was the same one she’d had. “I don’t really know. The old guy who gave it to me said it was from the temple and that it-”

Before she could finish her sentence, he’d pulled it off her finger.

“Wait,” she said, the woozy feeling returning already. Her head spun. The Lapis Bear barked, and she collapsed forward, on top of Maer.

“Oh shit,” he said, collapsing beneath her. She was on top of him, pinning him, her breasts against his face, her knees dug into his sides as energy surged through her body.

Her breaths came hard and fast. Her senses went haywire again. She could see through the forest. She could see the Emerald Bear, could taste its anger and feel its raw strength. She saw its cubs curled up in the den and realized that big monster was a mother. She saw the River Tiger, bleeding, slipping into a stream and vanishing into a current. She too was sucked into the rapid moving water.

Her mind wasn’t attached to her body, but she could feel Maer struggling beneath her. Could feel the hardness of his body, could sense his desires, hard and firm as she squeezed him with all her might. She could feel all the dirty thoughts he’d had since they’d met, how much he wanted her - but there was restraint there that surprised her.

Her head was spinning, she wanted to throw up, but her mind was in the stream. She could see dark swirling things, like tentacles, reaching up to grasp her limbs. Before she knew it, she’d tumbled into the lake, floating in its murky waters with the sun above barely filtering through. Something bright shimmered at the bottom. That was her objective. But the lake was poisoned. Dark twisting tendrils of malice spun around the lake, and they led out to two sources, two throbbing cores of this darkness.

The voice was there. Asa. Asa. Asa. Asa.

Come to me!

As if recoiling from damage, her mind retreated from the lake. Asa was back in her body, pressing herself against Maer as he wrenched himself away from her hold.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, breathless, his face red. The Lapis Bear was barking mad now and looked ready to attack him.

Her hands slid down to her belly, her womb. She curled up in the dirt. She felt like the lake with all its darkness and pollution. Her insides were throbbing, and she could still sense all the lewd thoughts inside Maer’s head; she could feel her own lust boiling over.

“The ring,” she choked out. He knelt immediately and pressed the ring back onto her finger.