46 - POV: Worker Ant IV

Perplexed. That was the best word to use for Silvana's mental state, right now. Why had Ari asked to speak to her alone?

Silvana trailed out from the colony entrance, following behind the red-haired girl that was her owner, wondering what had prompted this.

"You look worried," Ari said, shooting a grin over her shoulder. "I promise, nothing bad. Just wanted to talk, that's it."

Which alleviated her concerns. Silvana hadn't been especially stressed, but out-of-nowhere events like this did get her brain turning. "About?"

They continued to walk. Ari was clearly considering how best to put it. They were headed toward the lake—the 'Lake of the Golden Forest' which this entire zone was apparently named after. While some information had deposited itself into Silvana's brain, geography, and common locations, certainly hadn't; she'd learned the terminology from Ari.

"A new skill," Ari decided on.

Which was a deliberately vague description that had Silvana's thoughts churning. Considering Ari's class, a new skill for her meant … well, something not particularly chaste. And this was her fifth level. Every fifth level came with a 'defining skill'—something powerful. A cornerstone, a pivot, of a person's class.

"Leveled up?" Silvana asked. "Productive day all around, sounds like."

"Yeah," Ari said with a wry grin. "It was definitely that."

Silvana tried not to let her thoughts stray on what a 'productive day' for Ari entailed. Silvana had, after all, experienced it first-hand. Ari and her team had made eager use of Silvana's body during their 'dungeon expedition'—a previous 'productive day'.

They reached the shore of the lake, the treeline opening up. It hadn't taken long; Ari had seemed to want to set up near the lake itself, but such close proximity to a body of water wouldn't have made a good underground burrowing location, so they'd set up just slightly into the forest.

Ari turned. She smiled at Silvana, which was devastatingly effective at making a returning one appear on Silvana's lips.

She's really so pretty.

"So," Ari said. "Might as well explain." She cleared her throat, seemingly embarrassed. However enthusiastic this red-head might be during intimate activities, she was amusingly quick to blush. "My fifth-level skill is, uh."

Silvana waited.

" … [Monster Milk]," Ari finally said. "And, if it's okay with you, I wanted to test it out?"

'Monster Milk'?

Silvana had been expecting something lewd, but even so, her heart rate picked up.

"As in?"

Ari cleared her throat. Her cheeks continued to color. "It's named funny, like a lot of my skills. But, uh. Yeah. What you think. Only works on …" She waved at Silvana's crotch, which was a funny way to say, 'girls with cocks'.

'Monster Milk'. Not, apparently, the normal sort of milk, but the white substance Silvana's lower half could provide.

She'd been trying to keep control of her reactions, because, as mentioned, raising mast randomly was an embarrassing thing to do. But she couldn't help herself. Her cock engorged with blood at the implied activities: that Ari would be extracting her 'monster milk'—which, uh, was a weird, comical way to phrase things, but Silvana wasn't complaining, if it meant …

If it meant the obvious. Ari's 'taking care' of Silvana.

"But what's it do?" Silvana asked. She understood without explicit explaining that Ari's newest, class-defining skill functioned through the extraction of monster-girl semen, but she hadn't told Silvana how, exactly.

"Well," Ari said, clearing her throat. "The description is 'monster-girl seed extracted from Menagerie provides a variety of magical effects'."

Right.

"And," Ari continued, "I thought about asking Renna, since, y'know, it was us two out all day, but I leveled up right at the end. I just … felt more comfortable asking you?"

Silvana stared at Ari, still catching up on the bizarre explanation.

Ari misinterpreted what the lack of reply meant. Her embarrassed, but amused, smile morphed to something more hesitant. "Only if you're okay with it, of course?"

Silvana shook her head clear. "That's—uh, yeah? Fine? But why me?"

Specifically her, Silvana meant. Why not Claire? She was the Menagerie member who had longer tenure. She'd have thought Ari would've sought her out, not Silvana.

Lori, of course, not being a viable choice, lacking the proper equipment.

"I mean … it sounds like there's different effects for each of you, so I will. But, I don't know?" Ari shrugged, smiling at Silvana. "You're newer, I guess, and I haven't gotten to know you super well?" She hesitated, then said, as if admitting something, "I thought if I asked Claire, it'd show favoritism? I'm probably over-thinking this. I really appreciate each of you being on the squad. Again, we're all equals."

That … made sense, she guessed. Or, not to Silvana's perception of how this dynamic should work, but rather, it made sense for what she knew of Ari.

"So if it's fine … ?" Ari prompted, the silence lingering too long.

"Of course it's fine." The words slipped a little too easily from Silvana's mouth; she blushed. Then, seeing how it'd already been said, Silvana finished the thought: "Hardly something I'd complain about." She masked her growing blush behind wryness. Her blood thrummed with the idea that shortly—not long at all—Ari would be 'making use' of her newest skill.

The hesitance faded from Ari's face, a grin replacing it. "Okay. Great. Just wanted to make sure." With permission granted, Ari advanced on Silvana. Silvana spared a brief moment to wonder how she could seem so excited—predatory, even—about this opportunity, even when she'd been out all day, participating in activities equally as … exciting.

Silvana, however, hadn't. She quailed under Ari's smirk, and the implication behind her excited gaze as she closed the gap.

Ari ran a hand through Silvana's hair, and her nose wrinkled the smallest amount. "Though, I think we should wash you off, first. Not that I don't appreciate all your hard work, but you're … a bit coated."

Silvana blinked up at Ari, disoriented, the words barely registering. Ari had a good six, eight inches on Silvana. Ari's bright green eyes absorbed her.

"Silvy?" she teased.

Silvana shook her head. "Uh. Yeah. Wash off. Sure"

"And then after," Ari murmured, her face only a few inches from Silvana's, "there's another skill I want to show you, first. If that's fine?"