A bright glow enveloped Dan and the slime girl both, and then it receded, seemingly without really changing anything...

  "Well, that was nice. All pretty and glowy." Dan's smile never faltered, as he released the handshake and glanced around at the others in the group. At this point he was so far beyond overstimulated that he didn't really know how to react to new information like this... He was trending closer and closer to collapsing, and his only immediate goal was information gathering, so he wanted to achieve the latter before the former.

  The slime girl bowed again, "{This one thanks you for your patronage, honored mage, and begs that you assign her a task.}" She stared at him, pleading.

  I understood her this time... is that what the glow was for? Patronage? Probably fine. Dan had neither the energy, nor the presence of mind to shrug, so he offered the slime girl one of his larger leaf hats. "I'd imagine evaporation is something of a problem for you, so you can use this for shade, if you'd like... Um... As for a task, if you wanted to gather some bits of firewood before it gets dark, I'm sure we'd all greatly appreciate it?"

  The slime girl's whole body seemed to brighten and as she nodded a bit too vigorously, like an excited child, she wobbled and jiggled. The little jingley coin things on her outfit were shaped from her own flesh-substance, and so made no sound. She accepted the hat with a face of reverence, and donned it carefully... Then she turned abruptly and skipped happily away into the trees at a speed no one could have expected, kicking up sand as she went.

  The lull of quiet that her glowing and subsequent exit caused drew itself out awkwardly. It grated at Dan's already tenuous sanity, so he decided to bull through it. "Anyone else want a hat? Sun is hot. Skin is delicate."

  Nobody responded. The horned princess huffed at him and turned away. The tall one bit her lip, the pink haired one turned back to the elf, and the elf continued to cry, but less energetically. The pervert in the lab coat was still asleep under his shirt.

  This was suboptimal, to say the least. I'll enjoy it while I can. Dan's mind still spun with the deluge of new information he'd been exposed to today, but as his pain-fueled adrenaline waned, it spun more like a carousel than his usual jet engine. He was starting to feel punch-drunk. Loopy, even.

  He hobbled closer to the fire pit, and deposited the fruits from his inventory, leaving them for anyone to take.

  Dan then moved over to his bag, and pulled it into his inventory. The resulting rush of information washed through his mind without finding any purchase, and he swayed on his feet... er, foot. His busted leg he held bent, and- Dan looked away from the mangled limb, and fought off the wave of nausea he received for even considering the thing. Normally elbow crutches were used in pairs, but Dan supposed he wasn't lucky enough for that either.

  The tall one made a noise like she was seeing something cute, and Dan followed her gaze to see Emmi's little fairy avatar moving the pile of hats he'd made, closer to the pile of fruit. Cool. Anyway...

  "If anyone wanted to explore, the beach is probably safer than the jungle." Dan once again, spoke generally. He'd introduced himself at least twice now, and no one had reciprocated... But then again, even the scary silver princess hadn't made any actively hostile moves towards him, and his gut told him he couldn't afford to show weakness by asking for social reassurance. "Catching something to eat like a fish or small waterbird would also be appreciated."

  "Mm, yea. I guess dat makes sense." The pink haired girl answered him, with an accent somewhere between Boston and bugs bunny, and just... swaggered away. She had her arms crossed behind her head, seeming to be completely at ease with their whole situation...

  The tall one sashayed closer to him, and asked, "Is there a~nything we should be looking for along the be~ach?"

  She was batting her eyelashes and trying to be helpful. Dan normally would've interpreted that as flirting, and attempted to answer in kind... but at that moment, he had neither the capacity nor the wherewithal, and frankly, he was just glad that people were talking again; communication being the cornerstone of civilization that it so obviously was... "Um... Probably just any, uh.. landmarks or structures? No need to map the continent inna day, but if we had an idea of where we are in relation to... aaaanything else? Just probably turn back before noon, to be extra sure you're not still out after dark..."

  The elf responded to his rambling by sniffling loudly, and shouting something in what he assumed was elvish. The tall one chuckled and said, "Of co~urse you can, Stella~!" She pumped her arm in the air a few times, rather energetically. Totally at odds with the weird slow anime-gyaru way she spoke.

  The Elf, Stella, took off back the way Dan had come from, and so the tall woman started to sashay down the beach in the other direction.

  Dan called after them, “Remember, before noon, or else you won’t be back in time.”

  She waved over her shoulder. “Aye, captain!”

  Dan was kind of depressed by how easy that was. He looked around and saw the pervert in the lab coat was sitting up, drooling over the tall woman as she walked away.

  He hobbled over to the pervert, hoping against hope that she was some kind of medical professional... Then he waited for her to notice he was there... And kept waiting?

  He put one of the leaf hats he had kept on the doctor lady's head, while taking his shirt back... Had he been shirtless this whole time? He supposed the excruciating pain had distracted him... and it wasn't like he could put it on now or anything, with his arm still fubar... Into the inventory it went.

  “Doctor medicine?” Dan asked, after almost an entire minute of waiting. The woman started, and whipped around to look at him.

  She had sunken, almond eyes, with more bags than a supermarket. Her short bob of hair was wildly disheveled, and she had a scar on her lip that he hadn't noticed earlier, under her flat, squat little nose... She looked like a Korean idol after a homeless, drunken bar fight... But the way she was staring at him, along with the way her eye sometimes twitched, made him think she was on some harder kind of drugs... “Could I ask you to help me? Uh, see to my bones? If they set wrong and I’m, uh... permanently crippled, that would- I- I would find that supremely inconvenient.”

  She took a deep breath, sighed disappointedly, and then grimaced at his injuries. “Sure. Let me go get some supplies.” Her accent was weird, but while Dan was thinking that, the doctor lady snatched his utility knife from where he'd clipped it to the elastic of his pj pants, and marched off into the forest.

  That was easy. Dan looked around, and suddenly felt very naked. He was alone on the beach with the silver princess. He glanced at her, and then around the... well it wasn't really a "camp site", but it was close, and it would be even better once the other girls were back... What do I do now?

  ["Well, you stepped on a sea urchin at some point, so probably try pulling out the needles in your feet."]

  Emmi's disembodied message voice sounded closer than usual, and Dan whipped around to see her fairy floating right by him. He didn't have the energy to be too surprised, and mumbled, "D'you do something different with your voice?"

  ["Dan, focus. They might be poisonous, so sit down and start putting them in your inventory."]

  "Oooooh! That's- That's pra... That's... That's prob'ly a good idea." Dan hobbled a bit further from the "camp" in case he bled a lot, and carefully lowered himself down to be sitting in the sand.

  His injured leg was not in a position to move, nor was his foot at an angle he could see, but his good leg was fine to be pulled into his lap, and sure enough, there were three full spines, and seven more pieces sticking into parts of his foot. Luckily, only one had been on the bottom of his foot, thereby being walked on this entire time, and though it had snapped, its main portion was still attached enough to finagle it out of the wound.

  It was gross, messy, painful work, and Dan had nowhere near the remaining fine-motor-dexterity required for it in his addled state, so he was focused enough on the attempt that he didn't notice when the silver princess walked up to him, nor did he hear what she asked at first. Well, he heard something, and when he turned he saw her standing menacingly over him.

  "What'd you say?" He let his voice crack as he said it to really try to sell how pathetic he felt.

  His question clearly irritated her, but she seemed more petulant than actually angry, as she asked, "What spell did you cast on them, Mage? Why did they listen to you so readily?"

  Dan's head rocked back, and he looked askance at the noblewoman in the silver ballgown. He tried to stymie the hope welling in his chest... He didn't even know what it was he was hoping for. He wasn't some masochist or martyr complex who wants to be hated...

  Her question, on the other hand, was ridiculous. Too many assumptions, too little context. Dan was certain that even if he didn't feel like a wrung-out washcloth, he would not be able to answer itto her satisfaction. As things stood? He pretended to think, and took deep, slow breaths to try to calm his nausea.

  Once he was able, he waved her closer, and indicated his magical ring with his thumb. "I don't know any spells. Yesterday, I thought magic was a kind of trick used to fool gullible children." Luckily it was on his good hand, and when she took it from him, he didn't resist. He watched as she inspected it. The emotions her face went through. The subtle ways her posture shifted.

  When she looked back at him with uestion in her eyes, Dan answered before she could ask: "I don't think there's any... simple answer that you'd... that'd just make all the sense..." Her face conveyed further curiosity, so he tried to continue. "In the first place, people tend to cooperate... moreso in unfamiliar situations. They also feel the same urge to do something that you probably do. That's why you're here talking instead of, like, having a nap, or freaking out, or... Uh..."

  He stopped to consider further and scratched his head... Gross. His hair was matted and full of sand, it must look awful... He wiped the sand on his pants. The woman leaning over him was scary, despite her stature. She seemed to be examining him closely, so he tried again, to continue. "The appearance of confidence is important, I think? It also didn't hurt things that I was able to get right back up, and get to work after my, ah... second time in the water." The noblewoman snorted disdainfully, and Dan pointed at her, "You can laugh, but it helped. It did. It showed, like, having a plan and working towards it... I think?"

  "Is that the secret to leadership then? Speak first and loudest? The big man in court, pushing people around? I wo-"

  Dan made a sideways chopping motion with his good hand to cut her off before he answered. "It's not like I could force anyone to do anything even if I was whole and hale, and if they asked why, I've got legitimate reasons for everything..." Then, on impulse, he added quietly, "It's just always been that way for me: People listen."

  As her face turned sour, she narrowed her alien eyes at him, and blinked a nictitating membrane that was separate from her normal eyelids. She didn't seem like she would ask, but he continued anyway. "The jungle here is probably teeming with unknown dangers. That kind of plane usually has a cache of various emergency supplies. Useful for everyone here..." Her frown became more pronounced, but she made no moves, so Dan raised his arms in surrender and decided to push his luck a bit more. "If it stays on the water, the tides could change anytime, and we'd never see it again. Please do something with it, okay? Even if only just to take things for yourself-"

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  She snarled, and her horns burst into flames. Her eyes turned from cold grey, to a shimmering, luminescent silver, and she glared at him... After seeing the display of her fire and eyes, a thought suddenly occurred to poor Dan: Oh, cool, is she some kind of dragon? Then, because he was who he was, she's even prettier like this. Life isn't fair. I wonder how she looks smiling?

  The woman turned abruptly toward the ocean, and raised a hand to produce an unassuming ball of fire. Dan wasn't yet familiar with even the basics of magic, but he could feel the increasing waves of heat rolling off of the little thing, and was immediately worried that the woman was going to blow up the plane just to spite him.

  "W-wait!" He tried to stand, forgetting in his haste that he was both very injured and sitting awkwardly. "C'mon, really?" He barely made it to a crouching position as the woman threw her fire spell-thingy.

  She harrumphed at him, and started walking toward the shore. Her spell flew slower than he'd expected, and he quickly saw that its trajectory would take it well behind the bobbing aircraft. What? Wait, is she...?

  The explosive impact on the strange, glitchy water caused a strange, glitchy wave to form, nearly taller than the plane itself. It moved faster than should have been reasonable for water, and swiftly pushed the plane shoreward, into the waiting arms of the silvery, potentially draconic noblewoman.

  A plane that size should've weighed half a ton at very least, but the short woman just dragged it up onto the beach with one hand. She didn't take it past the wrack line, but Dan didn't want to nitpick when she was being so amenable. He moved from how he had been trying to stand, positioning himself into a full kowtow. "I offer my full and sincere thanks for your assistance in this matter. I-"

  "SHUDDUP!- Ahem. Cease your groveling, worm." The Dragon princess looked like she'd eaten a lemon. "I fulfilled my duty to the other women here as their better."

  Dan carefully adjusted himself back into a sitting position before answering. The sudden burst of adrenaline already gone, leaving him feeling even worse than before. "Noblesse oblige or speciesism? Wait, does however we're understanding each other even translate French if I don't speak French? Honhonhon, ouioui, baguette. Omelette du fromage. Did you get anything from-?"

  "ENOUGH!" She shouted, and began stomping away, which was actually quite the feat on the sandy beach. She grumbled as she went, but Dan could still hear her. "A madman. Trying to drag me down do his level and beat me with experience."

  Dan waved as she left, but he completely missed the fact that her horns had not extinguished, and so completely misread her mood. He called out, "Don't forget to be back by sunset!"

  Dan probably didn't have to throw himself to the side to dodge the fireball she sent his way, but he did, and the sudden movement jostling his injuries saw him passing out from the pain.

  Anni tried to relax.

  She took deep breaths, and scanned the room again... the walls of the underwater cave were still nearly covered by the various seashells, bits of dead coral, and bones. This time, she tried to identify the bones, and barely any seemed like they might be human.

  The table in front of her was the only furnishing, made of the same stuff, and the teacup her host had offered her was some kind of bone china. The cup was filled with a neon pink aphrodisiac that glowed magically... Anni tried to tell herself that this was all a good thing.

  She wanted so badly to hope. She wanted to believe the story this beautiful creature was trying to tell her...

  She looked back up at 'Ikky, daughter of Charybdis'. The creature was over three meters tall, with the upper body of a supernaturally beautiful woman, and the lower of a mass of glistening pink tentacles. All the light and therefore shadows in the cave, came from bioluminescent streaks that flowed along Ikky's tentacles, and up to accentuate her curves. This was a dream come true, wasn't it? Hadn't she loved enough hentai to want this?

  "It would just be one?"

  Ikky nodded and smiled. Her hair flowed and floated around her as if they were still underwater. Anni took another deep breath and shivered as she let it out. "Can you show me again?"

  The matronly mollusk reached out one of her tentacles, and took Anni's hand. A patient stream of familiar images was pushed into the forefront of her mind. Images of happy, warm, joyful things. Of flowers blooming, and the miracles of life, and a full-body hug, and the cutest little baby squid-lings.

  There was no romance in it, just reproductive and maternal instincts. Ikky had been upfront about everything. It was an ultimatum made without malice...

  Anni pulled up her stat sheet to stare at the 'level -7' by her name. This had better work, she thought, as she downed all of the aphrodisiac in one swig.

  ...

  Around fourteen hours later, Anni relaxed. She awoke, still in ensconced Ikky's warm embrace, sticky all over. The tentacle sex was a bit of a letdown, if Anni were honest with herself. The Aphrodisiac had helped, but it was just too much happening, all at once. An overwhelming amount of sensation, with no emotional attachment. No meaning to it... Anni thought that she was glad she had tried it out, at least? But retrying this route would be tedious and uncomfortable.

  She looked down at her lightly distended abdomen, where one of Ikky's spawn was quickly germinating. Surely this would be inconvenient, but it was leagues better than being maimed and drugged... right? According to Ikky, the purely magical nature of her potions meant they had little to no side effects. The aphrodisiac and the three other potions she'd been fed should be wholly beneficial, but as far as Anni was concerned, that remained to be seen before it was believed. She didn't feel too much different from normal, but then again, she didn't exactly have a very stable baseline...

  When Ikky awoke, she lavished Anni with praise and encouragement through the mental transmission that seemed to be her only way to communicate. They briefly discussed Anni's health, and suitability as a surrogate. Ikky worried that Anni was too weak to survive to term, and decided to give her a little magic item as an extra reward.

  Once the strange leather cuff was fastened around her wrist, Ikky sent her images of leaving the cave, and as soon as Anni nodded in agreement, she felt a sharp pinch in her neck. Two heartbeats later she was completely paralyzed, and a third saw her heart stop completely... But before she even had time to feel confused or betrayed, Ikky sent her an image of her current state as a shimmering metal statue, followed by the idea of not needing to breathe, nor fear any damage.

  Anni was somewhat relieved, and tried to send back the idea of talking about things before doing them.

  The reply came as the ideas of the pleasantness of Anni's body, a rapidly approaching deadline, and well wishes for both of their futures.

  Anni felt nothing, but her perspective shifted as she was picked up and moved toward the underground river they had entered this place through.

  Ikky waved as she dropped Anni in, and then there was only the darkness of the water. Anny felt no sensations, and could see nothing so deep underground... It was all she could do to keep hope, as she drifted in and out of sleep, losing all track of time.

  At some point after sunset, Dan awoke to the sensation of something slimy, coarse, and heavy being rubbed on his chest, pushing him down into something much rougher and harder than sand... hadn't he fractured a few ribs? This should be hurting significantly more than it was... He opened his bleary eyes, and found a world gone mad.

  The weight on his chest turned out to be the elf girl, divested of her previous foliage, and seemingly grinding herself into him. Someone pulled down his pants, but seeing past the wanton waif was difficult, especially with the thick fog hanging around the campsite, so . Dan could smell fish, guava, and eucalyptus heavy in the air, with hints of alcohol and smoke as well. A soft, tinkling music mingled with the crash of waves, and nearby voices. Clearly this was a party.

  ["Hey boss. Are you good for a wall of exposition, or do you need another minute to wake up?"]

  If talk is cheap, then it's not a problem to repeat yourself, right? Tell me as much as you can. Dan felt Emmi's little pixie avatar land on his aching head.

  ["The bard is trying a healing tune, but magic here works kinda different to where she's from, so it probably won't get you back into full fighting shape. This fog all around is a hella potent aphrodisiac, so there's an orgy going on. This'll happen sometimes at night.]

  Not exactly a wall, but ok, Dan thought back, as someone cordially invited him to join in the festivities... with their tongue. He still couldn't move, and his initial surprise at the situation had resolved into the dejected resignation with which he usually faced the random meaningless sex that seemed to be a constant in his life.

  ["I'm pacing things! Remember how I said this island was a death game?"]

  Multiple, right? This mist doesn't seem deadly on its own... Dan tried to ignore the sex and focus on the more important matter of survival.

  ["Well at some point, a succubus convinced the demon king of torture and agony, that killing everyone all the time was a waste, so most of the systems that once only incentivized death have been... adjusted to include... this kind of thing. Nowadays, someone would have to get inordinately unlucky to die to most any of the islad's natural traps."]

  Are you trying to say that I'll level up from this? I can't see what's- Dan's train of thought was obliterated by the sensation of whatever had just enveloped his member. He tried to struggle, but he felt so weak. Blood rushed away from his head, making thinking straight become mush harder. He tried to focus on Emmi's words between his attempts, but he remained trapped and helpless.

  ["The one with the pink hair is called Barbra. She can-------------------eems to have found an entire pallet of alcohol, and caught some fish, somehow. She's currently bouncing on--------------nd- oh, and now she's kissing Stela, which is the elf trying to drown you in her muff. Stella's actu--------------------e found something scary and came back early. The dragon lady als--------------------arrying the bard. No idea what either of---------------------e had a lot to drink, so she's actilng totally different to the stuck up way she was earl----------------at's not a big deal. The scary doctor is over there, getting tail-fucked and eating out the bard. Now, the bard is a tall dri----------ow she's playing while distracted like that."]

  Dan tried to distract himself from the creeping panic his helplessness engendered. She hasn't mentioned the slime, where's she?

  ["I think she went to get more firewood?"]

  Oh, right! Dan pulled the large branch out of his inventory, into a space near his ear. He had angled it upward and outward, so it would fall noisily, but not land on anyone. The result was that it scared the girls enough for him to move away.

  The hard un-sand-like ground he had felt was turned out to be a large circle of brown-ish tan-ish stone, like the surrounding sand, but darker. Perhaps burnt? It provided excellent traction as he crawled away... He noticed for the first time that his shattered arm and leg were pretty heavily splinted, which was why he could move like this with little enough pain to avoid fainting again.

  He directed his movement away from the fire, thinking to hide out the night, away from any issues of questionable consent. As he did, the eucalyptus smell grew stronger and his pain faded away... along with his misgivings. Dan stood up on both legs, and dusted some of the sand off of himself. Luckily he was already naked, so he marched right back over to the glow of the fire... or, he tried to?

  Dan breathed deeply, letting whatever this fog was, fill him with strength, clarity, and purpose. He immediately regretted how his actions might have hurt the feelings of his new friends. Maybe he even damaged the cohesiveness of the group? That would be tragic! He followed the glow back through the trees... Trees? But he had never lost sight of the fire at camp, so it'd be impossible that he was lost.

  His heart beat strong and proud to keep him erect, as he pushed his way through the underbrush. Its pounding in his ears drowned out Emmi's verbal attempts to lead him away from the obvious will-o'-wisp he was following... She was still, however, able to push him. Two near-misses with dangerously amorous wildlife later, they managed to run into a certain slime girl, carrying twice Dan's weight in lumber.

  "Sweetheart, would you happen to be able to take me back to camp? I seem to have gotten turned around somewhere..." He felt that his mind had no fog at all, but he was brimming with energy... it made focusing on the task at hand nearly impossible. He trailed off speaking as his entire head followed the bob and sway of the slime girl's approaching chest.

  "{Honored mage, your other wnad there seems to be ready for hugs. Shall we have hugs while I carry you?}"

  Her words tried to find purchase on his mind, so he looked up at her face, to try to understand them. Then back down, then back up. He ended up studying her eyes with the same lustful fervor he had aimed at the rest of her. He took another deep breath, trying to calm himself and think clearly... and he knew no more.

  ...

  Dan awoke the next morning with a hangover pounding in his head, a deep itching in his injured bones, and a small, overly warm body pinning him down. He looked around to see he had slept in the beached plane, on a weird blue gel mat of some kind.

  "{Are you awakened, master?}" The mat asked him, with a familiar warblulated voice, and a translucent face full of worship.

  The remembered events of the previous night's... team building exercises, hit him like a jumpscare, and his flinch of surprise woke the sleeping dragoness that had been drooling on his bandaged chest.

  As she sat up and moved herself into a straddling position, Dan realized that he was still inside her. She slowly spread her lips, shifting her face in a smile so predatory, Dan shuddered a bit.

  "Don't get shy on me now, lover-boy." Her previous stuffy detachment was nowhere to be found. Her imperious, posh accent was barely there. Her hand walked its way up his chest, claws counting ribs, and she caressed his face.

  She was beautiful... She had always been beautiful, but now light from the rising sun peeked in through the windows of the plane, and played across an expression of genuine endearment on her face, and she was truly transcendent. Her makeup had come off, her hairdo was unrecognizable, her dress was somewhere in his inventory, there was something he couldn't identify caught in her teeth, and none of it mattered in the slightest.

  He watched as she picked the fish scale out of her teeth, and he realized that she was so pretty that his headache was gone. There was an attentiveness to the way she moved... He had been desired by women before, but in ways that had always made him feel like a prime cut of meat, and led to other complications. Was this was different? Dan looked at her and saw... pride? She looked like the cat who caught the canary. He couldn't imagine why she'd feel that way, but it was nice to feel valued.

  He was grappling a visceral instinct to hold her close to his chest, and whisper sweet nothings, when a ping from Emmi broke through his doe-eyed trance.

  ["Can you inventory pull, I've got some fruit here to-"]

  Dan and the draconic damsel both flinched at roughly the same time.

  ["Oh... Wait, you're still not done? Pull anyway, food is important."]

  He pulled, and felt the fruit appearing in his inventory, but the companionable silence between himself and the dragoness had become slightly awkward, so she rolled herself off of him, and shooed him out with a sleepy smile.

  Dan gathered what clothes he still had, and crept carefully over and past the other women sleeping in the plane.