◈ Chapter 90:
Layers of lathered soap rolled across the top of Rain's black fur, white on black, until it was wiped away with a splash of water. Clean, so satisfyingly clean.
He sighed blissfully as the last of the dirt left him. The warm hot spring was wonderful, and made all the better by Opal sitting in his lap vaguely washing at his thighs with her hands, although admittedly seeming far more interested in grinding her rear up against him. He lazed back against the pool edge basking in the summer sun that warmed the tranquil glade.
"D-do you want some h-help?"
He turned his head to find Lyra standing by the pool. She was naked, completely stark naked... for public bathing reasons obviously. Rain eyed the sheep girl's entirely exposed body, moving from her bare muff topped by a square of fluff on her mons which moved side to side due to her nervously shifting hips, then up to her heavy breasts that rose up and down as she breathed deeply, near hyperventilating, then finally to her blushing face.
She held out a bottle in two shaky hands and Rain tilted his head questioningly.
"I-It's shampoo! F-for fur! Like last time, I thought I c-could help maybe, that is if you want m-me...to."
"...Sure. But I want to ask you some things about leveling, and about levelers."
Lyra blinked. "Uhm, okay?"
After a moment with no reply she stepped forward, slipping down into the hot spring beside him with a splash. She fiddled with the cap on the bottle, having trouble opening it as the cap was now slick with water.
"...Are there leveling addicts where you come from?" began Rain, lazing a paw over Opal's thigh and eyeing the sheep girl out of the corner of his eye.
She paused. "Leveling addicts? As in they can't stop leveling? I mean, isn't that everyone? Nobody willingly wants to stop leveling, if you have the means you go find monsters and you uh-" her eyes drifted to Opal but the Goblin seemed far more interested in furiously wiggling her hips against Rain and wasn't paying attention.
"I suppose that's true, but did anyone you know ever go further, seem willing to do things that others would never? Like an opium addict might go to extremes to pay for their addiction?"
Lyra's hand came to a slow stop on the unopened cap. She looked up at Rain. "Yes, my father, he... he cared more about leveling than anything," her voice dropped, "He cared more about leveling than he cared about me."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Do you think it was all his fault?"
Lyra narrowed her eyes at him.
"That came across in the wrong way. I mean do you think he was fully in control of himself? An opium addict is a kind of victim of what opium does to them, they struggle to break free of its grasp, they've lost some amount of control. Could leveling do something similar?"
"I've lived as a leveler for my whole life and I have never ever felt that way, there are urges but it's not- it's not like that."
"But there are urges?"
"Yes! Why wouldn't there be? You must know what it's like, surrounded by it, that anxiety to keep up, to keep up and keep leveling or get crushed by your peers. I didn't go into a dungeon when I was barely more than a child for nothing, I was terrified of being left behind, that everyone would overtake me, that I would get stepped on."
Rain shook his head, "Not like that, that's fear, I understand that. I mean an addiction to how it feels to gain levels... to see your numbers change. Do you feel anything like that when you level up?"
Lyra's eyes drifted back to Opal, thinking, after a moment she spoke softly. "Yes, it does feel good, it's satisfying to see your numbers go up, to feel more powerful, more free to do as you wish. I've even fantasized about it, dreamed of becoming a high leveler." She looked down and fiddled with the shampoo cap. "I've even bought books."