“Tabitha! Why are you sneaking up on me like that?!” Alicia yelled, huffing as she crawled to her feet.

  The Foxgirl was ughing hysterically and had to wipe away a tear before she finally responded. “Oh wow, that riceless. You should have seen the look on your face! It’s nothing personal, Alicia, I promise. I wao test how aware you are of your surroundings. You failed, by the way, but I think falling into a mysterious pit is punishment enough. What is this thing, anyways? You girls setting up some mud wrestling? Heck, if you are, I set up a camera for my fans?”

  Tabitha held out a paw, which Alicia grabbed before hopping out of the pit. “We’re doing no such thing! For your information, Kat and I are taking things slow. This is something I’m w on for Elias.”

  “Who’s that? Friend of yours?”

  Alicia paused for a moment, running over everything that had happe night. “Shoot, that’s right, we old you. Elias is a registered delver, one of the ones we tacted, but he ’t help us delve because he’s a Mermaid. However, we’ve been talking, and I mentiohat I’ve got a river nearby, so he suggested setting up a small pond so he e help us out. He’s a Geomancer, so he’s got some healing abilities he use to help us recover iween delves.”

  “Hey, that’s a good idea! The more the merrier I always say. Grahat normally has a different text in my line of work.” There was a brief pause, during which Alicia couldn’t stop herself from picturing what Tabitha might have meant. It must have been obvious, as she caught Tabitha smirking at her moments ter. “Is it cool that I talk about work? I know I be a bit prickly at times, but I’m n to make things too awkward for you.”

  “No, it’s okay! I’ve just beey sheltered sihe ge. Before Katrina ran into me, I hadn’t seen another person in years. I work for ORC, though, so I’m caught up on all the new ws and everything.”

  Tabitha tapped a her for a moment, lost in thought, before speaking up again. “I guess that makes sense. I’ve never worked with ORC, personally. I was a camgirl even before the ge, and my Race is pretty normal, all things sidered. I didn’t o ge anything about my life, other than iing in some hardcore robot vacuums. Biggest difficulty for me was the huge influx in new cam workers after sex work was legalized.”

  “Is camming all that different from before the ge? It’s still just, like, pying with yourself on camera, right?” Alicia asked. She’d watched her fair share of cam shows before the ge, but she didn’t know much about the industry.

  “It’s harder to find a selling point. Before, so long as you were either hot or had a distinctive look, you’d find people that wao watch you. Now? There are tons of Races literally desigo be as sexy as possible, so petition is really stiff. I almost quit a few times because, like, how am I supposed to pete with Succubi that have to stantly host ies just to survive?”

  “What did you do about it?”

  “Well, this had been true since long before the ge, but often sex work is only about sex like, half the time. The rest of the time people just want pany, they want intimacy they’re not getting elsewhere. I’ve known escorts that get paid top dolr not to sleep with people, but just hold them and py with their hair. I try to lean into what makes me different; I don’t have incredibly high Charisma, and it won’t increase by leveling up. However, I’ve got crazy muscle definition from my high Agility, and that’s why I get a lot of people askio do parkour streams. Other than that, it’s mostly about eg with your audience, giving them someohey goof off with regurly.”

  “Tabitha, that’s so beautiful! I had no idea cam work could be so toug!”

  The Fhed to herself. “I mean, there is also a lot of toug. I did get crazy lucky in one aspect; I was camming when the ge hit.”

  “Wait, like, you caught it on camera?”

  “Oh yeah. Full HD, hour long show. I start as a Human, just doing my thing, and halfway through I turn into this. I was already turned on from all the masturbating, but my entire body ging like that? I came so hard, and now it’s easily my best-selling video. I’ll give you a dist if you want to see it sometime, you know.”

  This time, Alicia was pletely aware of how heavily she was blushing. “I-I’ll think about it!”

  With o, hearty ugh, Tabitha spped Alicia on the back before jumping i. “You’ve got to make yourself less fun to tease, Cherry Blossom. I’ve got half a mind to ask if you toly, but I have a feeling you haven’t had that versatio. Why don’t you join me in the ring and we’ll review everything we went over yesterday.”

  Aliodded, eager to ge the versation, and joiabitha in their impromptu fighting ring. She greair of staves again, throwing oo the Mage Knight, and they started practig.

  Although still sore, Alicia could feel her muscle memory kig in. Several small movements that had giverouble yesterday now felt easier, and she was more fidently able to keep up with Tabitha’s attacks. She did her best to block with her staff when possible, but she had also gotteer at managing her barriers. Wheabitha outmaneuvered or overpowered her, she was able to grow tiny barriers from her body to absorb the strike.

  As Tabitha had expined yesterday, the barriers worked best as a sed line of defense, or as a way to protect distant teammates. However, while Alicia still lost HP when her barriers were hit, they had several rge advantages over blog the attack with her actual body.

  Most importantly, her barriers had no critical oints. A barrier that shatters from a blunt strike, while still costing HP, has no other dowhat same attack, however, might easily break a bone and cripple Alicia for weeks. Simirly, bded ons might be able to inflict poison or slice open vital arteries, and the barriers could prevent that as well. They were the perfect tools to absorb any number of potential injuries.

  Alicia’s mind was rag as they tinued sparring. She had to mind her own footwork, stay banced, hold her staff correctly, but also watch Tabitha’s movements and look for patterns. Whenever she fell behind, and Tabitha slipped past her defenses, she had to summon a barrier to absorb a strike ohigh or waist.

  They were in the middle of a particurly lengthy exge of blocks and parries when something unusual happened; Alicia heard a voi her head that, oddly enough, sounded like Katrina.

  “Hey Alicia, could you e home? I’d like to test something.”

  In her fusion, Alicia lost focus on her fight with Tabitha. Before she could snap back to her sehe Foxgirl had spun behind her and struck at her feet, knog her to the ground. She tried to gasp in pain, but nding ft on her back had khe wind out of her.

  “Gotcha!” Tabitha cheered. “You were doing pretty good until the end there, what happened?”

  “O, that really hurt!” Alicia groaned. “And I’m not pletely sure, but I think Katrina just like, sent me a psychic message? She wants me to e home.”

  The Foxgirl reached down, a hand to help Alicia up. “Alright, well I won’t t that against you. Ordinarily I’d say you should be ready for anything, but we’re still this and, if anything, it’s her fault for testing new spells without warning us. , let’s go see what Fangs is up to!”

  Alicia jumped back to her feet, then decided to tinue usiaff as a walking stick as they returned home. She was growing strangely fond of having a staff, both as a on and feneral use, and hoped she would remember t oh the ime she traveled away from her Heart Tree. Once she made it home, she opehe front door and called out for Katrina.

  “Kat, you up? I got your message!” she said.

  “Oh! That’s amazing!” As Kat responded, Alicia realized the Vampire was still upstairs. After a moment, she appeared at the top of the stairs and started walking down. “What did it sound like?”

  “Um, like a voi my head? I don’t know if there’s another way to describe it.” The girls kissed quickly before Alicia tinued. “Of course, it distracted me aabitha throw me to the ground, so I didn’t get a lot of time to exami.”

  “Alicia, I’m so sorry! I didn’t know you two were practig!” Katrina leaned in, hugging Alicia tight before cheg for injuries. “You’re not hurt too bad, are you? Did you get lots of time in the sun today?”

  “I’m fine, Kat, really. I had plenty of time earlier to let my Regeion do its thing.”

  “Man, you’re lucky,” Tabitha said, “I’d kill for seion. Plus, normally that Feature requires a bunch of food to power itself, but all you o do is sunbathe? Talk about winning the ge lottery.”

  “I mean, all Races have their downsides; I’ll never be able to travel, for ohing,” Alicia said.

  “I’m pretty sure Vampires get some kind of tent Regeion type thing since we’re undead, but I won’t bore you with the details of how much I hate my Race.” Katrina squeezed Alicia’s hand as they talked, and thankfully Tabitha didn’t ask for any eboration.

  “Yeah yeah, I know. Everyos something different. I really shouldn’t pin, two of my Ten are iwenties, and with a few Spells, I make it four,” Tabitha said.

  “I’m sorry, back up. You get FOUR of your Ten above twenty?!” Katrina said, clearly shocked.

  “I mean, yeah. Beastkin always get crazy Attribute levels, I thought you of all people would have known that.”

  “Okay, but that many Attributes above twenty is insane! I think I uand why your fans pay you to tackle parkour courses, I’ll bet that’s incredibly impressive.”

  Tabitha smirked, then winked quickly at Katrina. “Oh, is someoerested in watg my shows? Maybe I’ll let you y outfit ime; my most popur ones are a blue bikini with way too many straps, and a gold bikini I wore for my colb with TheSexiestSyer.”

  Katrina’s eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped as Tabitha fialking. “Hold up, you did a show with TheSexiestSyer? Seriously?!“

  Alicia, feeling a little out of her element, pulled Katrina closer and asked, “Should I know who that is?”

  “She’s probably one of the most famous streamers in the world! She’s a Greater Succubus with some obsely high Charisma score, it’s like forty-something, but she’s also an incredibly skilled gamer and cospy creator. Personally, I think she’s one of the reasons that camming became as only accepted as it is today, once sex work became legal, obviously.”

  “So, she’s like… super pretty?” Alicia asked, a little nervous.

  Thankfully, Katrina found the subtext in the question. “Well, yeah, but that’s not really the point. Sure, the System gave her a ridiculous Charisma score, but holy, I never really watched her shows for that. She’s worked with delvers in the past, and it’s pretty signifit that she became as well-known as she did. It was the first time a sex wot, like, super famous.”

  “If she’s ever in town again, I’ll see if I set up a meet and greet. If you’re ied, that is,” Tabitha teased.

  “How about we cross that bridge whe to it,” Katrina said. “Besides, it might never happen, and we’ve got a Duo tackle. You two o get back to your sparring, and I’ve got more spells I o create.”

  “Right, your spells!” Alicia said excitedly. “What was the one you used on me?”

  “I haven’t yet, but if it’s w as intended, it just lets me send a short message to whoever I want. It’s not the most on spell, but I’ve seen enough people get simir magic to uand how it works. The closer someone is, the less mana is required. On the flip side, with enough mana, I could theoretically reayone, anywhere in the world.”

  Katrina jumped back up the stairs, quickly grabbed her guitar, and rejoihe group as they prepared to return to their training.