Not that I’d made it a habit to look up girl’s skirts before I was in the game.
Nor had I any plans of making it a habit.
You get what I mean.
“Didn’t catch your name.” the brunette grunted as she finally managed to pull the blonde up.
“Dax,” I replied before starting my walk back to the shore, “that’s what my friends call me anyway.”
“Nice to meet you, Dax,” the brunette said as she started following after me along the jetty, “I’m Cassie, this is Fern.”
“Fern?” I asked with a little smile, “That’s an interesting name.”
“Parents were from some wood elf commune,” Fern clarified, “personally I don’t buy into a lot of that hippy stuff.”
“You’re a fruitarian!” Cassie laughed.
“Yes, but I don’t put it on everyone else.”
“Tell that to the person who was stuck on a boat with you for the past three days,” Cassie scoffed, “seriously, life or death situation and you won’t eat one fish.”
“Well, you wouldn’t cook it.”
“How was I supposed to cook it without setting the boat on fire, genius?”
“So,” I said as I waded through the last part of water in the hopes of killing their argument, “how’d you end up out there?”
“Shipwreck,” Cassie replied after reaching the end of the jetty with Fern, “there was a storm, ended up losing all hands.”
“Damn,” I murmured before looking over the two, “sorry that happened to you guys.”
Cassie was about 5’6, maybe a little taller, had choppily cut shoulder-length brown hair that had been slightly sun-bleached, and was wearing a tight brown tank top that was fairly worn and tattered along with a pair of denim short-shorts that were in a similar condition.
Fern, on the other hand, stood at barely 5’2, had her bleach blonde hair up in a ponytail, and was wearing a salmon short-sleeved button-up shirt that she’d clearly had better luck taking care of than her skirt that, as I mentioned before, had been ripped and torn in several places.
“Noticed we haven’t got shoes yet?” Cassie asked somewhat accusatorily, snapping me back to reality.
“Sorry, what?”
“You’ve been looking at Fern and me for a good couple of seconds now,” Cassie replied, “it’s a less than fun experience.”
“Sorry,” I repeated, making a note to dial back the amount of times I said it, “I’ve just… I haven’t seen a lot of people since I got here.”
“Fair enough,” Cassie said, her voice still having a slight trace of concern, “so, what do we do now? Are we just going to stand around on this beach all day?”
And that’s when remembered the game I was in.
“Well,” I replied, trying my very best to use an attractive voice, “I did just save you two, so it might be time for some kind of… repayment.”
Neither of the girls appeared to understand me at first, sharing a confused look between each other, but then, about a second or two later, Cassie made a face of realization.
“Oh,” she said with a sultry voice, a sly smile creeping across her lips as she crossed the distance between us as seductively as she could in the short space before reaching me and putting her hand on my chest, “well, I suppose you’re right. But you see, we’re very hungry, and we simply can’t… repay you to the best of our abilities until we’ve had something to eat.”
There was a part of me that wanted to run off into the jungle right that second, find some food, and bring it back, but then I made the decision to try my hand at a little bargaining.
“What if we do a little something now and then I go and get you lovely ladies something to eat?” I struggled not to stammer out while at the same time trying to keep my breathing nice and regular.
I wasn’t exactly used to making the rules in case you hadn’t noticed, in fact I usually had a really hard time with not just doing everything any given girl told me to, regardless of if sex was on the table or not.
“How about a counteroffer?” Cassie finally replied after thinking it over for a few seconds, maintaining her seductive tone and running her fingers ever so slowly down my body.
“And what would that be?” I practically choked out as she reached my slowly growing member and started gently stroking.
“Simple, you get us food,” she said, using her fingers and palm to massage the obvious bulge in my pants, “you get to have some fun.”
And then she stopped.
No warning, no slowing down, she simply took her hand away and walked backwards until she was back next to the incredibly amused Fern with her hand on her hip which she’d popped out slightly to exaggerate her ass.
“So, what are you waiting for?” Fern asked with a smile, “Go get me some fruit.”
“And me some fish,” Cassie added, still smiling, “I’ve grown a bit of a taste for it.”
I didn’t even give myself the chance to complain about having to do a fetch quest before bolting into the jungle in search of Jesse.
By the way, you should probably keep in mind that running through a tree-filled jungle with an erection is just tempting Murphy’s Law.
Why do I mention that? Well, it has nothing to do with the fact that I ran into a tree dick-first, because that didn’t happen ever, no matter what anyone else tells you.
CHAPTER 7
“Jesse?” I called out for the fifth time as I looked around my small house and the plot of land it resided on, “Come on, Jesse, where are you, man?”
“Here,” Jesse burped before coming through a large bush towards the back of my ‘property’, “what do you need?”
“Food.”
Understandably, Jesse was somewhat confused by that, “Um… You shouldn’t really be getting hungry… But if you’re chasing flavors or somethin’ I’m sure we can see what’s aro-”
“The girls,” I interjected, “they want food, and I don’t know how to get it.”
“Alright,” Jesse replied with a nod, “anything specific?”
“Fruit,” I said with slightly more enthusiasm than I’d intended, “one of them wants fruit.”
“Well,” Jesse huffed amusedly, “I kind of wish you’d found me a few minutes ago.”
“And why’s that?”
“I found some fruit.” Jesse said.
“Awesome!” I exclaimed, “Take me to it.”
Jesse shook his head at that then gave me a strained smile, “Not possible.”
“Why not?” I asked concernedly.
“I ate it.”
I was utterly bewildered by what he’d just said, mostly because I knew a thing or two about Komodos, “Aren’t Komodos normally carnivorous?”
“Yes,” Jesse replied with a nod, “but most Komodos can’t talk.”
“Fair point,” I half-laughed, “I guess we’ll just have to find some that you haven’t eaten then.”
“Not possible,” Jesse said, continuing the stream of bad news, “don’t worry though, I dug a sort of trench and crapped in it. Heard that makes the bushes and that grow really well.”
“Yeah, if you’re an iguana, which you’re not.” I groaned, rubbing my brow and trying to get past the imagery of him having crapped somewhere near where I was standing.
“Eh, both lizards, same difference.” Jesse replied after trying to think of something slightly smarter to say.
“No, not ‘same difference’, not even close.” I snapped, the fact that he may have screwed my chances of getting laid pissing me off slightly more than slightly, “Okay, alright, the other one wanted fish. You can help me with that, right?”
“Nope,” Jesse said, shaking his head, “I don’t know how to get fish.”
“What do you mean you don’t know how? I saw you swimming like… what, twenty minutes ago?”
“Don’t know what to tell you, William, I don’t know how to get fish,” Jesse repeated before giving me a wink, “but I reckon if you and me went into the water I cou
ld figure it out.”
“So… what you’re telling me is that as soon as we get into the water with the fish you’ll know what to do?”
“I never said that,” Jesse said with another wink, “but I never didn’t say that either.”
“Alright, come on then, let’s go get some fish. And stop winking at me, it makes me… uneasy.”
Jesse was clearly slightly offended by that but was quick to let it roll off his back as we made our way back towards the beach.
“Where’s our food?” Cassie asked as Jesse and I went onto the jetty.
“On it,” I replied distractedly, “just wait there.”
I think one of the girls said something else, but I was too distracted by Jesse repeatedly looking over his shoulder at them.
“What?” I asked as we got to the end of the jetty.
“What ‘what’?” Jesse replied after I’d scanned and removed my satchel.
“You keep looking at them, why?”
“Nothing, it’s just…” Jesse trailed off as he struggled to put his thoughts in a nice way, “I guess I didn’t think you’d get so lucky with your first two.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, look at you,” Jesse replied, “you’ve got a bit of a gut on you, your clothes aren’t exactly brand new, and… well, you have a waft.”
“Go to Hell,” I chuckled, deciding that there was no reason to try to convince him I was worth sleeping with, “I’ve got plenty to offer.”
“Glad to see you’re admitting,” Jesse said with a smile, “c’mon, something tells me they aren’t going to wait forever.”
And with that my lizard friend slid off the jetty and dove into the water with me in close tow.
Within moments of hitting the water I regretted not taking my clothes off as they weighed me down and dragged with every soft wave that happened to go over me.
It wasn’t all that bad though, the sun made keeping track of the long shadow that was Jesse pretty easy and I could even kind of feel the dirt and sweat getting washed away, but after maybe thirty seconds I started to become aware of the fact that I was running out of air and, with it, my vision.
A mix of slightly burning salt water and the bubbles I was letting out from my mouth and nose quickly led to me not knowing where even I was, let alone Jesse.
Suddenly panic took over and I started looking for the surface, but it was no use, my fear-fueled mind had started playing tricks on me and I had no idea which way was up.
Then something grabbed my left wrist, something that I initially mistook for a shark’s mouth until it pushed my hand into my face, causing a light blue bubble to instantly inflate around my face, leaving my hair and ears to the water.
“Sorry,” Jesse said as I corrected myself, “probably should’ve suggested that before we got in the water.”
“You think?” I barked, some part of me still feeling like I was drowning, before accepting that he’d helped me, “Sorry, I just… I think I’m starting to get a bit of a thing with water.”
“What? Like Fern up there?”
“No, not quite that… Wait, how do you know about that? You weren’t even there.”
Jesse shrugged as best as he could underwater, “I guess it must be some kind of psychic connection-type thing, kind of like how you can hear everything I’m saying now. C’mon, let’s go deeper.”
I didn’t like how dismissive he was about the fact that we had some kind of connection, then I realized that it was probably for the best that we didn’t spend ten minutes dissecting the game’s functions and started following after him, which was way easier with the bubble.
“Don’t wander off,” Jesse said as the water started to get a little darker and colder, “I’m taking us to a reef and I’d like it if I didn’t have to come and find you before then.”
“Where am I going to go?” I asked with a scoff as I followed after the steadily cruising lizard, “I barely know where the shore is.”
“I’m just sayin’ keep your eyes on me, alright? Can’t guarantee your safety otherwise.”
I won’t lie, that concerned me slightly, him talking about my safety, but at the same time I figured it was mostly just so I stayed engrossed with the game and didn’t think about leaving.
With that being said, I honestly have no idea why anyone would leave. It was awesome swimming around without having to worry about breathing, and even though there wasn’t a ton to see where I was, I couldn’t help but feel like adventure was just a short swim away from the island and below the sea.
“Well hello there…” I trailed off after I spotted and recognized something floating a bit further out in the ocean, “Find fish, fool around with a mermaid, find fish, fool aroun-”
That’s when I noticed that I’d lost sight of Jesse.
I didn’t panic though, I was actually kind of relieved. It was like the leash had been taken off and I was free to explore as I saw fit.
“Mermaid it is then.” I said with a smile before getting myself in a good position and swimming out towards the gorgeous creature, wondering if there was any way for me to build a pool at my harem as I did.
Yes, I can see the error of my ways now, but at that point I was still pretty naïve as to what to expect from the game, so I’m sure you can understand why I ended up following after the mermaid even when she started swimming further out.
She was waving me over and looked like she was playing flirty chasies, what was I supposed to do?
Anyway, the mermaid strung me along for a while, swimming one way, then another, then another until I had absolutely no idea where I was, and then I realized what was happening.
I don’t know what did it, whether it was simply the cold water forcing the blood away from my crotch and to my brain or if there was some kind of subtle warning system in the Toolbox, but out of nowhere I became aware of the fact that I was deliberately being thrown off course.
It didn’t matter though, I’d already swum right into the mermaid’s trap, as proven when I spun to escape and came face-to-face with a shark that would’ve been at least three times as long as me.
“Right…” I gulped as I faced off with the coldblooded predator’s teeth, “Now I’m in trouble…”
There was no point in trying to swim away, it would’ve caught me in an instant, and while it did briefly cross my mind to give my axe a whack, I decided it was for the best if I went ahead and just kept wetting myself.
Fear was coursing through my veins, the mermaid was nowhere to be seen, and I was God knows how far under the water.
Then the mighty fish opened its mouth wide enough to swallow me whole and, for whatever reason, instinct kicked in.
It was hard to move quickly in the water, but by some sheer miracle I was able to raise my hand and, with barely a thought, spawn a cube-shaped house somewhere inside the shark’s throat, the sudden appearance and expansion of an object causing the beast’s esophagus, muscles, and finally flesh to tear apart in a horribly gory fashion.
“H-holy crap…” I muttered after I was well and truly surrounded by a billowing cloud of blood and viscera, the wooden house having dragged most of what was left of the body to the bottom of the deep, dark water.
“What did I tell you about wandering off?” a familiar voice said from behind me, the source’s mouth clearly full.
“I-I-I…” I stammered out as I struggled to turn in the water to face Jesse, “T-there was a mermaid.”
Jesse gave me a concerned look, which was difficult given the still slightly struggling trout in his mouth, “That’s a shark. What’s left of one anyway.”
“I know, b-but before the shark, there was a-”
“You can tell me about it when we get back to shore,” Jesse interjected before gesturing his head to the left and beckoning for me to follow, “might be a cool story to tell the girls. ‘How Dax Killed A Shark With A House.’ That’s a movie I’d watch.”
And, with that, I was suddenly all bett
er, “You… you just called me ‘Dax’.”
“Well, that is your name, isn’t it?”
I regarded him confusedly for a few seconds then nodded, “Yeah, yeah, I just mean-”
“Don’t read too much into it,” Jesse said before digging his teeth a little deeper into the still alive fish, “can we get a move on? This thing really wants to get away.”
“Heh, yeah sure, right behind you.”
“And make sure it stays that way,” Jesse warned, “mermaid chaser.”
I went to respond to that, to say something about how it was his fault for not warning me or some other bullshit, but I didn’t. Instead I accepted that I screwed up and swam after him, picking pieces of shark gore off of me as I went.
It felt a bit weird, but it was like I was learning to be a better, more accountable person the longer I stayed in the game, and that made all the trouble feel a little more worth it.
Well, that and the fact that I was definitely about to get laid, but mostly it was about the whole progressing as a good human thing.
Promise.
CHAPTER 8
“What do you mean I have to cook it?” I asked, still picking shark teeth and flesh out of my hair, “You said you were just happy with fish.”
“Well, yeah,” Cassie replied, “but I figured that you’d take initiative and cook it. I’ve been eating raw fish for days.”
“Don’t need to remind anyone,” Fern added, pinching her nose, before turning to face me, “how’s my fruit coming? You find anything?”
I didn’t respond at first and instead looked at Jesse, who the girls had been weirdly fine with, but he just shrugged and gave me a somewhat mocking smile past the fish that was still in his mouth.
“It’s coming,” I finally said, deciding that telling Fern any more than that would lead to more complications than were needed, “back to cooking the fish though, I don’t get what you expect me to do.”
Build-A-Harem- The Island Collection Page 4
