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 lazily 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.

“It-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 of no reply from Rain 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 wasn’t paying attention, instead furiously wiggling her hips against Rain.

“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.”

“Books on how to level faster?”

“N-not quite, books about people leveling and becoming strong...”

“To learn from?”

She bit her lip. “No, more like, erm, to live vicariously through. Most of them aren’t real stories, but reading about a leveler’s numbers growing, it ... feels good, to see, uh, read of them growing, it’s hard to explain ... I like that the numbers grow larger, and m-more powerful.”

“I didn’t know that was a- wait, Is this just a you thing?”

“No! It’s not just a me thing at all! In Florens they are really popular- Everyone- Hey it’s not my fault you don’t know about it out here in the backward ass sticks!”

“Alright I believe you. But do you think that’s the same thing as seeing your numbers go up?”

Lyra hesitated. “ ... Not exactly, the giddy rush from seeing your own numbers go up is different, it’s euphoric ... addictive in a way I suppose, yes.”

“So your father might not have been entirely to blame for how he acted?”

A flash of real anger crossed Lyra’s face, the first time Rain had seen such an expression on her.

“Don’t say that. Even if it were true it’s not like everyone else doesn’t deal with the same thing, it’s a universal feeling, everyone has it, if someone can’t stop themselves from becoming obsessed with it then that is their own fault.”

“I ... I don’t know if it is universal ... I’ve known opium addicts in the low leveler slums before. A man I knew of was strong willed, a will like iron, never backed down from anything and was always upbeat. The other low levelers thought he was going to escape, level up enough to get out and that he would one day be one of those looking down on us. But then he fell in with a gang, and then, later, he found opium. He became a husk of a person in less than a year, a beggar on the street. I knew to always keep away from the stuff after seeing that, but then, then I found out one of the women who worked at the building I lived behind did opium, many times, then just ... stopped, because she felt like it, she was so- I wouldn’t have predicted that happening.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Rain sighed and ran his claws through Opal’s already clean hair.

“I don’t know. I think some people are more susceptible to addiction than others.”

Lyra made an unhappy scowl and tugged the cap off the shampoo then shook the gooey blue contents over her hands. She buried her hands in Rain’s fur, barely hesitating to touch him she was so distracted by his words.