“You there?” Chris asked, snapping Jane from his reverie. He must have drifted off again.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he nodded. Part of Jane’s duties had him performing maintenance on the various drones that operated in the facility. Or, rather, he was listed as performing maintenance to fulfil the work hour quota so that the megacorp he worked for could apply for certain government grants as reward for providing a human job. In practice, it was mostly him staring at a screen as automated debugging, updating, and antivirus programs ran in sequence. Dreary work that lent itself to daydreaming…and dozing off.

“Sorry. What was the question?”

He snorted as way of response, settling down backwards in the office chair next to Jane, resting his hands and chin on the backrest. Bald, heavily bearded, and with a superb physique, one might have mistaken him for a dwarf from Planet of Perils. He was the hardware half of their maintenance team, and despite having nothing in common, they got on well enough.

“Doesn’t matter. Did you get any sleep on the weekend?”

The answer, that he’d spent it playing a video game, wasn’t a good one. So he lied. “Not much. Just couldn’t get to sleep. Insomnia or something.”

Chris smirked. “Oh yeah? Weird name. What is she, Greek?”

Jane rolled his eyes, but gave a weak smile to show he appreciated the banter. “I wish. Just eager to get this shift over with.”

“You and me both, brother,” Chris said before scooching the chair forward and giving the maintenance room a quick, conspiratorial visual glance. “Word is The Boss is coming down from head office sometime this week on one of those fucking surprise inspections. I’m spending half my time checking the doors for her to slip in like some kinda administrative ninja.”

‘The Boss’ in this case was Regional Manager Penelope Alfredo, the stuffiest thirtysomething Jane had ever met. She had a very literal interpretation of company policy that she adhered to, leading often to her bossing around whatever low-level employee drew her ire. If she was descending from her mountain to inspect their warehouse, it was bound to be bad news.

“Thanks for the head’s up,” Jane mumbled, but meant it all the same. It sucked to hear, but there’d be no point in killing the messenger on this one. The last thing his bank account needed would be for a surprise inspection to be a genuine surprise. They cut corners out of necessity to reach their asinine quotas. Placed in between having to tell the boss her demands were unreasonable and getting caught doing something that he wasn’t supposed to, he couldn’t tell which option sucked the least.

All this talk of mundane realities made him long to be back in the game again. Back in Planet of Perils where, at the very least, he didn’t have to worry about being told what to do.

***

“You gotta get some workers!” Honeydew said, her arms folded firmly as she watched Skari appear from thin air. The NPCs never seemed to mind that the players appeared and disappeared, sometimes without explanation. The server clock kept ticking, however, so Honeydew had been waiting for his entire shift, plus some time in bed, to get back to work.

“Watch your tone,” Skari chided, “But…you’re right. Where the hell can I get workers in this begotten place?”

She walked out of the ruin’s confines and stepped into the great wide open nothingness beyond. Her new headquarters resided in a vast, empty wasteland. The white/gray soil underneath her wasn’t quite sand, as she had previously assumed, nor was it soil. The closest thing Skari could equate it to was lunar regolith: lifeless rocks ground down over millions of years into heterogeneous material ranging from pebbles all the way down to powder.

“This land...has it always been like this?” Skari asked.

Honeydew shook her head, wildl locks waving from the motion. “Nope! The Woewaste was a direct result of your...erm...an inadvertent symptom, I should say, of your previous ascent to power. The records say you used the land’s energy to supplement your already terrible, glorious strength. Drained of that vitality, it is not useful for much anymore, I’m afraid to say.”

The sorceress knelt down, scooping up a handful of unsorted rocky material. Unfortunate. Perhaps she’d made a mistake in making this her base of operations. She’d done it in haste, after all.

“What was here before I arrived?” she asked. At her goblin servant’s confusion, she added: “The long sleep, it continues to addle my memories. Pay indulge me, Honeydew.”

She nodded. “Of course! Well, this land was much like the northern jungles from what we can determine from the evidence and from written accounts. Vast tracts of dense, almost impassable foliage, filled with beasts of all size and description. It was the perfect place for your fortress, my Queen, as the forces of...stricter perspectives on morality had a difficult time making their way to you.”

Skari stood, letting the regolith slip from her fingers. “Indeed? I suppose that I should consider the security situation as well as the worker shortage. I wonder if I have some means of defending myself…”

For the first time as Skari, she checked her inventory menu. The woman who was, who still is, Jane the human had almost forgotten that she could do that. With a mental click on the upper reaches of her vision, a series of boxy menus dominated her view. The largest was a paper doll version of her body, arms and legs splayed like the Vitruvian man. In annotated slots around her simplified form, her equipped gear’s properties were listed.

Head: None

Body: Ruined Raiments of the Relegated Regent

Neck: None

Hands: None

Waist: None

Feet: Heels of the Heirarch

“Next thing I do,” she muttered to herself, “Is finding some armour with less alliteration.”

Weapons: None

She had no enchanted jewellery, no potent magical arms. Whatever else the former Skari had stashed here, tomb robbers had destroyed or carried it off in the years since she’d been interred. Or at least, the things on the surface had.

“How deep did your team dig?” she asked the former halfling. “Could there be more stuff to find down there?”

“We managed to excavate the first layer of material from the ruin, which is where we found you, oh Queen! There may very well be more levels underneath, but without workers to help, it might take a while to find out.”

The sorceress sighed. It seemed like everything was coming back to the stark reality that, at the moment, her imperium had a population of one. Two if she counted herself, but it wasn’t like she was planning on doing any of the grunt work herself. If she was going to get anything done other than pacing and flicking through her stat pages, it would need to be with some manual labourers.

Among the notebooks and parchments they were able to find in the tents of the archaeologists’ expedition was a local map. Unrolling it out on one of the field tables, Skari felt the information slide into her interface to be called up later. Nevertheless, her eyes roamed the original copy, finger drifting over landmarks as she clucked her tongue in absent thought.

North and East of them was more Woewaste. The cartographer had taken the time to include a little cartoon ram skull to imply how verdant and fruitful any exploration in that direction would be. West reached into a mountain range, which would at least be a change of biome, if not an easy terrain to traverse. South held real promise. And, naturally, real dangers.

“What is this place here?” she asked, tapping the land labelled ‘ELDERBREKT’.

“Elderbrekt is the one of the seven halfling cantons, and the most recent to be established! It’s not terribly exciting, I have to admit. It’s based around that volcano there, the Mouth of Terror? Turns out, the soil is incredibly fertile! Lovely hard working people there. The only problem is, well, this.” Honeydew traced a path up from the canton to the charicaturized fortress that stood in between their current position and this source of labour.

“I’m guessing that’s not just a tourist trap?”

“Unfortunately not. That is the home of the Sentinels of the Pitiless Gaze; an order devoted specifically to watching for your return.”

She looked down at herself, currently returned. “I’m guessing they aren’t very good at their job.”

Honeydew shrugged. “It’s been decades. All the people who fought you in life have long since passed on. Their kinfolk manage the defences now, but the truly ambitious or noteworthy are all off applying their skills elsewhere. They are still dangerous, as any militant order of fanatics is. But perhaps they’ve been resting on their fancy name for too long.”

“Indeed,” Skari agreed, “The last thing I want to do is alert my presumptive jailors. I suppose our road takes us to the mountains after all.”

They had plenty of supplies; the fleeing halflings had seen to that. Distantly, Skari knew that she wasn’t in danger of starving or dehydrating within the game, but there were rudimentary fatigue mechanics that would drain her of stamina. The last thing she wanted would be to encounter a party of nosy adventurers and get obliterated because she forgot to top up her food metre. So she packed enough dense chunks of a sourdough like brèad, dried meats and berries, and several waterskins for a journey of at least three days. All went into a haversack that was likely too big for a halfling, but fit perfectly on her own back.

She thought about bringing Honeydew, but decided against it at the last minute. The stout halfing turned busty goblin would make for a poor pack mule, and her expertise would be better served back at base. Skari instead marshalled her best Almighty God-Queen voice for her instructions.

“Your first official mission as my architect is to draw up plans for my tower’s reconstruction. I care not for its original design, change it as you see fit. So long as it has a throne room to appropriately fit my grandeur, I will be content. Leave plenty of room for expansion, however. I have grand plans for this place.”

Honeydew stood stock still with mouth agape. “You mean...I can design whatever I want?”

Skari made a face, dropping back to her regular tone and timbre. “Well, I’ll get final say. I’m the megalomaniacal tyrant here. But yeah, go nuts.”

With that, she headed off into the West. Toward danger…and her future.

***

Travel could take several forms in Planet of Perils. The fastest, and one available to every player character regardless of circumstance, was the Recall. Setting your resting location to a particular area gave one the ability to (after a brief casting time) teleport back to it. It was great for snapping back to a quest giver or returning to town after a dungeon to log off. Or extract you from a potentially precarious situation that you’d rather not experience. Before she left, Skari had made sure her Recall location was set. Turns out, her sarcophagus counted as a rest stop!

Then there were the more esoteric forms, open to magic users and those with the pockets to hire them. Quick travel portals cost reagents, and could only send you to places where you’d already been. Then there was the most expensive option: wormholes. These could send you anywhere, including places you’d never been, but required both the cost of the spell and a trained mage to open and hold the portal open for you.

Last but not least were the more mundane forms of travel. By foot, by mount, or by conveyance. These were the slowest, but often the most economical. Since Skari had no money, no locations explored on her map, and no mount, it was travelling by foot. And so, the Evil Overlord, the soon-to-be ruler of the land marched, heels clicking with every step.

The path was easy at least. The landscape may have been dreary and desolate, but its lifeless state spared the ancient road from destruction by fresh growth or the elements. A long, sunbaked brick path led into the west with only occasional detours, slicing through clusters of ruined structures that jutted out of the ground like off-kilter gravestones. Occasionally, Skari found signs that she wasn’t the only one to be travelling this way. A broken wagon wheel, an abandoned campsite, even some smashed glass from a bottle or jar hinted at travel on this ancient road. It might have been unlikely, but it was possible that she might encounter someone during her travel, and she decided to be ready for them sooner rather than later.

Without weapons, she’d be forced to rely on her magical abilities. As a Corruption specialized Evil Overlord, her powers apparently relied on her Lust metre, not a pool of Mana like other spellcasters. Determined to test how this might work, she mentally clicked on the Grimoire button in her HUD. A book flashed into existence before her, detailing a number of Zeroeth Level Spells, or Tricks. Many of these were shared between the different magical classes, giving them some base level utility even before their specialisations were taken into account. These included, but were not limited to:

Trick: Elemental Spray

Trick: Identify

Trick: Magic Mouth

Trick: Minor Telekinesis

Trick: Wisp Light

God only knew why Magic Mouth was always included. Some decent options otherwise, but not a lot of punch. She’d need more if she was going to stand up to any larger threats in a fight.

The moment she tried to page over to the First Level Spells, however, a tooltip appeared.

*Tutorial: Overlord Magic*

As an Evil Overlord, you have access to a wide variety of magical spells. Unlike base player classes, however, you do not passively gain powers and slots as you level. Instead, aside from an array of Tricks and the Class Discipline spells which you receive, you must take any additional magic you may want or need from another source. You can choose to Learn It, which takes longer but leaves the source intact, or you can Drain It, which empties the source of its magic but is much quicker.

After dispatching the information, she saw that indeed her only spells were Corrupting Essence, Corrupting Aura, and Corrupted Libido.

“Well, shit,” she said to no one in particular. Even as a healer class she had more firepower than that! Well, fine. If she was going to defend herself in a pinch, it’d be down to her Tricks. Specifically, Elemental Spray.

Elemental Spray

Level 0 Spell (Trick)

The caster projects a cone of elemental damage, causing basic damage plus an additional effect according to the element chosen. Burning damage for fire, slowdown for ice, etc.

That had some potential! It was a catchall basic attack for spellcasters, allowing them to do the damage of a common-level crossbow while inflicting various elemental effects, depending on the option chosen by the user. She defaulted to a poisoning effect, which provided damage over time. With her unencumbered state, she should have decent mobility. Enough to ping enemies at range and keep her distance while they melted into gooey bits.

As the first of the hills approached, the road raised to meet it, going from a gentle grade to a switchback path that looked like a falling hazard just waiting to happen. She continued up, conscious of her fatigue bar dropping with every step of inclined progress. Skari wouldn’t feel tired in the physical sense, but her progress would slow as that bar filled.

She broke out the water and food half way up the journey, resting to fill her status back to normal. It gave her a chance to gaze out at the land she’d just travelled through. Rolling dunes, blasted ruins, and craters that looked like a great hand had come down and gouged the earth. Not a pleasant country to live in, perhaps, but beautiful in a way. ‘Magnificent desolation’, she thought the quote was. Those words fit these Woewastes to a tee. And running through it was the singular thread of road on which she’d travelled. Perhaps that could be the start of something…a great reclamation of these lands into something more. Far from being forlorn and abandoned for all time, these wastes could be but a blank canvas for some great work to come. Her work.

Reaching the crest of the hill, she found further evidence of travellers, and much more immediate proof at that. Three wagons lay smashed, either on their sides or cleaved apart into half a dozen loose pieces. Baggage, chests, and crates all lay in scattered heaps, their contents tossed through and emptied, leaving only that which did not concern the assailants. No bodies, but evidence of a fight beyond the state of the carriages. Slash marks where swords dug into wood, arrows jutting from crates, and discarded weapons testified to the fact that whoever ran this caravan hadn’t given up its treasures without a fight.

“Whatever ruffians caused this,” she mused, “Might be formidable allies. Or dangerous foes.” She wondered for the first time if she was prepared for this kind of thing. After all, Elemental Spray wasn’t exactly top of the line kit. Even lower level player characters had questing gear to give them an edge on their foes. She was beyond that, leaving her with little more than her simple raiments to keep her safe. Virtue wouldn’t have put her in a situation she was totally helpless in, of course. Would she?

Beyond the lip of the hill, the land had recovered a bit. Its stark inhospitality tempered by small growths of scrub brush, of little sickly cacti pushing up from the soil. In a few decades, perhaps a century, green life would return to this area. In the meantime, however, it only served as a potent example as to the blunt stubbornness of nature in this world, and any other. Perhaps she could take some lesson from that, she pondered.

While examining another copse of plantlife, this time a long reed-like growth that resembled bamboo, she noticed something. Glittering at the very edges of her perception was a sense that there was something strange about this particular growth. She looked through the reedy plants, one by one, looking for the source. Finding nothing, she instead pawed through the soil. Buried at the dead centre of this growth, she found her answer. It was a rounded pod, similar to a seed but the size of a baseball. Something about it told her it was magic. She cast her Identify spell on it, and watched as a puff of sparkles turned into an information sheet.

Item: Seed of Renewal

Level 4 Nature Magic Conjuration

Description: An object infused with a potent amount of regrowth magic such that it can bring life to even the harshest soils. Lasts for 3 + the caster’s level months, but the effects can be permanent if supported by non-magical growth techniques.

Nature magic? That must mean another spellcaster is responsible for these plants! Maybe even another player. Still, this served as a chance to test out her Overlord class’ ability to “take” magic from other sources. Her initial idea was to just drain it. It was just a seed, after all. But then she thought of that big glowing Level 4, and second guessed herself. Whoever had cast that spell was much more advanced than she was. It would be a bad idea to make too many enemies this close to starting out. Instead, she chose the more laborious option and cast Learn on the seed.

Nothing happened.

‘Maybe it was context sensitive,’ she thought. Sliding down to her knees, she focused on the seed and tried again. A twinge, like pulling at a loose thread. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on that impression. The thread of magic slid from the seed, jerkily at first, then smooth as she got used to the process. It took a while, but eventually she received the prompt.

Congratulations!

You’ve Learned the Level 1 Nature Spell: Nature’s Bounty

Increase the size and affect the shape of nearby flora. The severity can be increased by the expense of mana, but overgrowth can leave the target sickly or unhealthy if it does not have the support structures and nutrients necessary to sustain its increased size on its own.

Well that was cool! Not, perhaps, the ability to summon tree monsters like she’d hoped, but it was a start. She gave it a try, but found it required a whole new mindset. Instead of channelling her own energy, she was reaching out for that which already existed. Slender filaments of energy that lived in the shoots of bamboo-ish plantlife in front of her. She focused on one, plucking it and lifted it up. The shoot raised in tandem, raising up unnaturally fast until it creaked and groaned in resistance. She cut off her cast, leaving the shoot to wiggle from the abrupt end of influence.

While she played with the plantlife, she heard a distant groaning noise. At first, she thought it was the wind. But a second, longer noise dissuaded that assumption. She left the plantlife to its normally scheduled photosynthesis and drifted toward the source of the noise.

Stepping around a slightly larger thicket, she found a candidate. A cave. Scattered wooden trellises and tracks hinted that this was not a natural formation. Indeed, the shattered remains of a minecart near the mouth stood as silent testament to the fact. But more recent detritus, including some empty boxes that looked like they could have come from the caravan, informed Skari that this was not an abandoned mine shaft at all. It was dark, however. Abyssally so. Another loud, almost mournful moan, confirmed her hunch. She had found the culprit…and perhaps the end to her quest.

Muscle memory, or the digital equivalent, brought the spell Wisp Light to her fingers as she stepped into the dark. A pair of blue/white orbs danced around her hand, giving her enough ambient light to see at least as far as a good oil lantern would allow. Magic Trick costs in Mana, or Lust in this case, were usually low. She could have kept the light going indefinitely, given the normal rise of her libido-sourced energy over time. That would be something she’d have to keep track of in a combat situation. Should she run out of juice (metaphorically) she could be in for a sticky situation (literally). With careful, quiet steps, she padded into the cave, hoping she’d have what it would take to confront what lay ahead.

Even more evidence that the cave was unnatural presented itself as she strode further in. Her fingers trailed along the edge of the cave wall, sliding in and out of the divots and grooves carved by the tools of the workers who had excavated the rough rock. The sheer detail in the game was tremendous, she remarked offhand, then noted that these brief mental steps back from the verisimilitude of the simulation were becoming less frequent. Some moments she really WAS Skari, the Evil Overlord! She shook off her idle thoughts. It was a game, after all. Why not lose yourself in it?

Another sound. She killed the wisp light, flattening herself against the wall. It was an echo of a wail, and god only knew how many times it had bounced off the curved surfaces on its way out the cave. Could it have been the death rattle of a torture victim? A last plea for mercy?! She couldn’t tell, but for some reason she doubted those explanations. She continued deeper into the cave, light dimmed to the absolute minimum.

The wailing continued, providing an auditory path for Skari to follow. It lead into a wide grotto, natural in origin but artificial in scale. Pools of crystal clear water reflected the light of clusters of glowing purple mushrooms, which sprouted in the moisture laden corners in patches where rock had become easily pliable from erosion. The other end of the cave had been carved to look like a gaping skeletal maw with stalagmites for teeth. It was from there that the moaning noises were coming, making it seem like the skull itself was crying out. Not a pleasant image to conjure, especially as Skari continued her descent into the cave’s claustrophobic confines.

Only another minute into the tight bends of the new cave system when she found the source of the strange sounds.

Suspended in the air was an elf woman, naked save for a thin coating of gossamer webbing that coated her body in irregular patches. Her legs and arms were pulled behind her, and Skari soon realised she wasn’t floating in the air at all. Black, furry limbs, four of them at least, held the elf in such a compromising position. Their intent was made clear when they pulled her backward, causing her eyes to roll back and her throat to let loose a pathetic cry. Briefly visible in the dim phosphorescent light of the cavern was the glistening shape of a pink, bulbous penis of impossible girth. It slid in and out of the woman as easily as an appendage of normal size, briefly astounding Skari. The owner of that monstrous organ briefly came into sight: a head floating eight feet or more off the ground, holding a pair of glowing golden eyes.

“Who dares interrupt our victory celebration?” a husky female voice asked.

Skari stepped forward, getting a better view of the question’s source. Her lower body was that of a black arachnid the rough size of a quarter horse, but where the head would have been on the creature, a humanoid torso sprouted upward forming a seamless connection between the two halves. A toned, pale blue stomach led up to a bra made of thick, opaque webbing. She had the elf gripped like a living sex toy, suspended helplessly and impaled by the cock that pulsed and throbbed from beneath where it emerged from a slit-like protrusion where a vagina would have been had she been fully bipedal. A truly strange, depraved beast. Skari’s mind conjured the word ‘drider’, though she didn’t know exactly where she’d gotten it from. It looked like the AI had gotten creative as of late.

“I am Skari, Overlord of the Sanctum of Defilement. I have come seeking labourers.” She kept her voice level, though she couldn’t help but notice that the Lust metre in the bottom of her HUD was steadily rising. That had to be broken though. There was no way she could be getting excited at this depraved display…right?

“Indeed? Well, you’ve come to the wrong place if you want dim, diminutive workers.” Her accent and verbiage were surprisingly erudite for someone who looked like a walking nightmare, Skari noted. Perhaps they hadn’t always been lurking cave creatures?

From the shadows, more shapes came. Identical in form though most were in size, they flanked the speaking spiderwoman on either side, even crawling up on the walls to hang there, ready to pounce. There had to be at least eight in sight, maybe more hiding behind the first line. True numbers were difficult to come by, as the illumination was scarce and there were just so many legs.

So. Many. Legs.

“We are the Brides of the Spider God,” the lead creature declared, “And we bow to no one but Him. This one and her fellows are OURS to use as we see fit.” She finished pistoning into the elf, finishing herself off with a half dozen deep, passionate thrusts. Her partner squealed, and Skari watched with confused arousal as the belly of the elf bloated out until she appeared nine months pregnant. Thick gouts of seed that had nowhere to go cascaded down her thighs and gathered on the cave floor. As the spider woman’s orgasm ended, she dropped the elf down into the lurid pool. She didn’t seem to mind, even as the last dregs of orgasm drizzled from the deflating cock onto her heavily mussed hair.

Consciously removing her attention from the growing pool of thick, creamy cum, she addressed the lead Spider Bride. “Tell me about yourselves, then. Who are you? And who is this Spider God?”

The arachnid woman snorted. “And why should I? Why should I not treat you like this one: a passive receptacle.”

Skari cast the lighting Trick onto her hand again. The orbiting ball of light returned to its full brightness, hopefully serving as a bluff to imply a much greater danger of magical power than she actually fielded.

“I am no fool,” she said. “I have not come unarmed. It would be much less awkward, and perhaps less painful for both of us, if you were to treat me as an equal.”

“Is that so?” the spider woman asked. The smile that followed revealed a pair of menacing pointed fangs behind her upper lip. “Well then. My name is Rakna. The item beneath me answers to ‘Hole’, though I believe her name is actually Chloe.”

“It’s Carri!” the cum-filled woman said, holding up a finger.

Rakna placed a solemn hand to her breast. “My apologies. At any rate, we are few and our appetites are plentiful. We capture those who stray into our hills and use them as we see fit. These lands used to be home to a great magical power: the Suneater. We served her eagerly, for she was the avatar of Him In Flesh. But she was defeated, by treachery no doubt, and so we were cast out. In her absence, we’ve claimed these caves and their environs and regularly harvest them, grabbing prey and dragging them off for impregnation, casual insemination, or use as incubators.”

Skari’s eyebrows raised. “The Suneater? Why, that’s me! You don’t recognise your former ruler?”

The spider creature made a staccato hissing noise; perhaps its equivalent of a laugh. “You are not the Suneater. You are barely tall enough to lavish praise on my genitals, let alone give orders.”

Skari’s heart fell. This would be more difficult than she thought. At her current level of power, these beasts might be too tough to subordinate. But she couldn’t just run…

“I…I have a proposition, then,” she began, voice finding its courage along the way. “I challenge your strongest warrior to single combat!”

The whole group of spider people laughed in their sinister hissing way, the cavern suddenly sounding like a nest of vipers. Skari swallowed. This was not going how she had envisioned it.

“You? A single human woman? How droll, how rich! Well then, “Suneater”, I propose you face the most fearsome of our number: BRIGGA!”

The spider creatures parted. Some shrinking to the sides, others climbing the wall itself with impossible grace. In their wake, a colossus emerged. If the others were the size of horses, this was the size of a moose. Her upper body sported a muscular chest and arms. Her breasts were equally impressive, held in place by an elaborate webbing top that left her toned stomach exposed. Her white hair went down to her earlobes and hung wild and unkempt, with a frankly impressive set of eyebrows. The most impressive aspect of her anatomy was her cock, which stood over a foot long and thicker than Skari’s fist. She cracked her knuckles.

“Happy to fight this little thing,” Brigga said, sporting a fanged grin.

“The terms are this: if you beat our champion, we will at least hear out your proposal-”

Skari shook her head. “No, this is all or nothing. If I win, you join my faction for…six months,” she said, ballparking a number off the top of her head, “If you feel unsatisfied, that your needs are not met, then you can go your own way back to these dank caves, harassing travellers.”

Rakna paused to converse with the other spider women. “Very well, agreed. But if Brigga wins, you will serve as our magical battery and seed bank for the foreseeable future. Your body corrupted and bloated out, mind locked in unending rapture. We may choose to let you go, but I doubt at that point you’ll ever want to leave.”

High stakes then. And she hadn’t even fought anyone with her new powers yet! This could be a dumb move that lost her this character for the foreseeable future…or maybe, just maybe, it was the right kind of self-delusional confidence.

“Deal!”

As soon as the word left Skari’s lips, Brigga stalked forward, her many legs clacking with little whip-crack sounds with every step.

“I’m gonna wear you on my dick like a decorative sock,” she said. And suddenly, this entire plan sounded a lot less appealing.

“I’m gonna warn you,” Skari said, stutter-stepping back from the leviathan in front of her, “I’m not going to hold back!”

Brigga snorted. “Funny. I was just about to say the same thing about you!” She swiped with her colossal forelimb, and Skari barely had enough time to duck. It was time to bolt!

She fled back the way she came, her movement surprisingly fleet given she was wearing heels. Instinct told her that she was dead meat in a confined space no matter what spells she had to throw. Her only hope was that grotto she’d passed earlier. On the move, she called up Elemental Spray spell in her hand. If she concentrated, she could open up the menu that specified which element to use as damage. Fire, poison, ice, all had their advantages. But something compelled her to wonder…could she use her Corruption power instead?

As soon as she had the thought, a new option appeared in the menu.

Corrupting Spray

Level 0 Spell (Trick)

The caster projects a cone of Corrupting damage, causing basic damage plus increasing the target’s arousal. Upon reaching 0 HP, instead of being injured, the character is rendered defeated, and is mechanically helpless before you.

Talk about emergent gameplay; that was exactly the kind of spell she needed! Pouring her lust into her fingers caused the spell’s colour to switch from a neutral white to a brilliant violet. Brigga was going to be in for a sur-

SMASH. A huge pillar-like leg smashed into the wall so close to her head that the breeze from the motion messed up her hair. Shot full of adrenaline, she put away the menus and gunned it, finding herself in the large cavern with the glowy mushrooms. Perfect. Wide open, enough room to move, with stalagmites to help keep her distance.

“Come back here, two-legs!” Brigga howled, taking another swipe with its colossal foreleg. Skari rolled out of the way, coming to rest on her knees. The spider found that amusing. “That’s a good place for you!”

The nascent overlord responded with a derisive laugh of her own. She held out her hand, forming it into the shape of a gun, and fired. The spell went off, sounding like a potato gun TWUMP. A cloud of purple/pink light fired out in the shape of a heart. It slammed into Brigga’s web-covered chest and…

…and…

It took off a smidge of health. A tiny, fragmentary slice off of a giant health bar.

“Oh fuck.”

“You got that right,” Brigga said, and resumed her pursuit.

Skari left a torrent of profanity behind as she ran for the far edge of the grotto, hopping over an underground stream and landing with all the grace of a collapsing shelf. Perhaps heels were not the best option after all. Recovering from the fall took crucial seconds, seconds that she didn’t have to spend.

As she leaned into her next step, a pair of iron limbs lifted her off the ground.

“Gotcha!” Brigga said with an air of triumph, keeping Skari’s arms pinned. The “Suneater” legs thrashed in the air uselessly, and a dreadful feeling of inevitability washed over her. Perhaps this encounter was not the best idea for her first battle. Maybe she should have grinded some skeletons or something. Maybe a dungeon filled with giant possums would have been more her speed. Maybe she wasn’t cut out to be an evil overlord…

Outrage exploded in her mind. No! That’s bullshit! She was an overlord goddamnit. She was Skari Suneater, bane of…whoever the fuck she wanted to be the bane of. And right now, it was this spider woman! The spell still crackled in her hand. It could cast corrupting power, which was her specialty. If only there was a way to amplify it. The game responded to her curiosity about using corruption magic before. Could it possibly…

She concentrated once more, focusing on the magic in her hand. She focused on the growing lust in her heart. Brigga was attractive, even with the spider bits. Especially with the spider bits if she was being honest. The strange body shape tickled dormant monsterfucker tendencies in her heart. She shut her eyes tight, feeling every inch of those powerful, muscular arms. The press of Brigga’s breasts against her back as the drider lifted her fully off the ground. A powerful, feminine creature in need of someone to show her just who the hell was in charge in this situation.

The energy in her hand glowed brighter. She could see the light through her shut eyelids. It pulsed with her heartbeat as more corrupting power flooded in. More depraved thoughts, about what she wanted to do to Brigga. Make her bow. Brighter. Make her beg. Brighter.

“What is…what is going on? Give up, you lost!” she screamed, shaking Skari like a ragdoll. But she kept her attention on her lust, the source of her power.

“Funny,” she said, placing her spell-charged hand onto the stomach of her assailant, “I was just about to say the same thing about you.”

She cast the spell, heralded with the crack of a cannon several times louder than her previous cast. Brigga staggered back, letting Skari go as her legs snapped out to catch her before she could collapse. Skari’s own stance was shaky. That burst had just about sapped her reserves, the Lust bar at the bottom of her HUD bumping up to empty. She’d need more, a lot more, to try that again. She’d need time to catch her breath.

Her eyes fell to the clumps of phosphorescent fungus around the grotto. Did mushrooms count as flora? Only one way to find out! She reached out with her newly learned nature magic. The nature magic threads were different, but still present. But she needed an alternative source of lust!

With a touch of reluctance, she reached under her clothes and started to fondle herself. Brigga was still dazed, but managed to recover just in time to see Skari stroking herself off.

“You dare mock me?!” she seethed.

“You’re the funny one,” Skari shot back, keeping her attention locked on Brigga’s busty frame. She really did look quite fetching in that web top. What she wouldn’t give to put her dick between those tits…

Steadily, her Lust level ticked upward. Brigga barrelled ahead, but found that her rearmost leg had been caught on something. She looked back to see one of the glowing cluster of shrooms had grown out and around, encircling it. The spider woman shook herself free, only for another cluster to capture a leg on the opposite side. Skari pushed her Lust into the spell, and the fungi gained a much more phallic shape than before.

“What is…what is this trickery?!” she said, sudden panic filling her voice. Skari noted that the more she struggled against the mushroom restraints, the lower her health got. They weren’t doing direct damage, of course, but they were charged with corruption magic…

“You have a bondage fetish, don’t you?”

“N-no! Don’t be silly!” Brigga said, her laugh sounding much more strained, “I’m half spider, how could I p-possibly be into getting restrained!” Her prick, previously hanging low, had puffed itself back up to full mast now.

“You do! You’re totally getting off on this!” Skari said, giggling to herself. She kept up the effort to contain Brigga, channelling her lewdness into more mushroom growth. They twisted, wrapped, and tangled as many of the spider woman’s limbs as they could grab. And any time she shook them loose, they would ensnare another limb. All the while her health dropped as the willingness to fight back dwindled. Feeling confident, Skari approached the squirming spider, staying safely away from those powerful forelimbs but getting into teasing range of Brigga’s enormous cock, now painfully erect. With a mischievious twirl of her finger, a long, spindly growth of shroom wrapped itself around the throbbing spidercock. With slow, careful movement of her hand, she was able to coax little bursts of growth into a primitive stroking motion.

“Nooooo!~” Brigga cried, and her tip dribbled onto the tainted mushrooms. That health bar crossed the half way point as her resistance crumbled. Her efforts to free herself flagged, and the fungal restraints worked their way up her legs to lock them into place.

“Aw, is the little spider getting off to being caught in a web? How pathetic.” Skari’s mocking laughter caused another spurt of pre from the peculiar flared cock head. Brigga’s arms flattened at her sides, fists clenched tight as she tried to retain control. It was touch and go for a minute, and the mighty spider warrior looked like she could keep hold of her dignity.

“Brigga?!” Rakna called out. Brigga’s head snapped around to see, to her horror, the other driders entering the grotto, gawking at her shameful predicament.

“No no no, don’t look at meee!” she cried, and it was over. Her health drained away to nothing, ending not in a powerful blast of potent seed, but pulse after pulse of thick, oozing fluid that slid down her shaft, puddling uselessly between her feet. Skari let the mushrooms return to their natural growth, and stood in triumph at the feet of the deflated drider. She pawed at it with pathetic, awkward strokes of her hand, the arachnid form not capable of self-stimulation in the same way a human body was.

“Poor little spider,” Skari taunted, half for the audience who continued to enter around the edge of the cavern, “I can help you with all that pent up need. But you’re going to have to do something for me.” She slid off her clothes, revealing her own cock. Smaller, perhaps, in sheer size. But it stood proud out from her body, while the spider’s wilted, dribbling useless fluids onto the floor like a broken tap.

Brigga looked up. “W-what do you want?”

Skari smiled. “This thing here,” she said, tracing her fingers up the shivering shaft of the spider’s cock, “I have little use for it. But this…” Her fingers slid up to the edge of the slit from which the organ emerged. “...intrigues me. What is it for?”

“It’s…mnf…it’s for dominant Brides. When it’s time to breed, we fight one another. Those who stand tall at the end become the seeders. Those who lose…umm…get their eggs fertilized. They become the breeders.”

“Like her?” Skari asked, pointing to the cum-covered elf in the back. With her other hand, she slid her index finger into the slit surrounding Brigga’s prick. The hole was sopping wet and warm, and upon sensing an intrusion it clenched around her digit. Familiar in feel if strange in shape and purpose.

‘Yessss.” The defeated spider shivered, and inches of her cock disappeared into her body. A physical reaction to submissive feelings? Definitely an interesting species, Skari thought.

“And you lost to me.”

“Uh huh.” More inches lost, disappearing in a flood of fluid that drenched down Skari’s hand. She was barely bigger than an average human now.

“So what does that make you?”

Brigga whimpered, knowing what the answer was but unable to say it. All the same, the last inches of her cock disappeared inside her slit, leaving her with nothing but a dripping, glistening hole where her legs should have met. Accepting her fate, she stopped pawing weakly at her nethers and, instead, lowered them to roughly waist height with Skari.

“Your breeder,” she said, half moaning, the sentence punctuated with a squirt of juice. Skari didn’t need to hear more. She got close and, after wrapping her arms around the creature’s hips, slid her rock hard cock inside. Brigga instantly squeezed down, but her cunt was meant for much larger insertions. It was helpless against Skari’s cock, the wet clenching cleft only serving to stimulate her partner.

“Good girl,” Skari breathed, rearranging herself to make thrusting easier. It was an awkward way to fuck, but certainly not unpleasant. The other spider women watched in some mix of outrage and awe as their champion was ‘tamed’ in front of them. “Why did you even have your cock out? You’re much better…ngh…as an obedient fuckhole for me.”

Corruptive energy flooded into her balls, the Lust metre draining with every thrust. The buildup took the form of corrupting cum as her abilities once again made her essense a transformation vector. She would unleash her whole reserve in one long burst, imparting her desired effect. Pounding the strange pussy, Skari tried to picture just what she wanted Brigga to be after this act. A living statement of her power, perhaps, plus a humbling display for the other driders.

“Ooh~ Oh God, mistress, you feel so good! I’ll never grow my cock out again, I promise!”

Skari laughed. “We’ll see. I might have some need for it. But for now, keep it nice and small when not actively being my sextoy, got it? And don’t hide it either. I want everyone to see…fuck…how pathetic you are now.”

That did it. It wouldn’t take long after that for her to let loose. Her stamina waned in the presence of such depravity. It was decadent, strange…but thrilling all the same. The thrill of control, of total domination!

“I can feel you struggle against your urges, but it’s okay!” Brigga said, breathless, “You can spurt right away! Fill me up, I want your seed!”

Unwilling to be coaxed by someone so submissive, but unable to hold herself back any longer, Skari took the path of least resistance. Speeding up, she finished herself off, using the spider woman like the cheapest of plastic fleshlights. In moments, unnatural amounts of cum burst into her interior, each drop seething with corruptive power.

The transformation’s effects were immediate. Brigga’s body blossomed, curves pushing out of her human half while causing her spider half to soften and lighten in colour. Her breasts grew in great spurts in time with the jets of seed surging inside her, popping loose the webbing of her bra and spilling out with lewd abandon. The corrupting power flowed freely from her energy stores, causing each jet of cum to result in another drastic change. Eyes changing from ruby red to neon magenta, her fangs shrinking down to little nibblers than objects of intimidation.

*Class Change*

Brigga has changed from Level 3 Drider Warrior to Level 1 Brider. She has unlocked the following traits.

*Brider Subservience*

The bimbofied sisters of the fearsome Drider, the Briders are permanently subservient to the wishes of their master. They cannot get hard save for a tiny, teasable nub, but they more than make up for it by a ten-fold increase in fertility!

*Brider Webbing*

Briders retain the ability to excrete webbing, but their's is a bright pink! In addition, any sentients caught in its grasp are steadily aroused until they can do nothing but beg to be fucked. Those with bondage fetishes are especially vulnerable.

Finally spent, Skari stumbled backward to get into view of her audience. The spider women fumed, but did not make a move to strike. They may not have been crushed, but they had been cowed.

“Your champion is defeated!” she declared, holding out her hand to indicate the babbling bimbo before her, “Will you honour your deal and declare fealty to me once more?”

Rakna looked to either side, catching the gaze of those closest to her. Some nodded, other scowled but said nothing. With no words exchanged, her focus returned to Skari.

“We would hear your terms.”

That was certainly better than she was expecting. Skari took a moment to compose herself and throw on her raiments before continuing in her Overlord voice. “I have need of workers. People who will help me rebuild my empire. Work with me, fight for me, and you will have as many captured cuties for your festivities as you want. Well, all except this one,” Skari said, pointing to Brigga. The Brider’s pussy was still gushing with transformative cum, which she was taking turns with her hands spooning the overflow into her plump lips in between ditzy giggles.

“Oh? What do you want with her?” Rakna asked.

“If I’m to be a true evil overlord,” Skari said with a mischievous grin, “I’ll need a most luxurious mount on which to ride.”

***

Skari logged out, ending up back in…Jane’s apartment. Right, he was Jane, the human…but something was amiss.

He looked down at his nethers, feeling around at a large damp spot. He’d…creamed himself? For the first time since he was a teenager, there was a sticky mess in his underwear. That wasn’t supposed to happen. The effects in the system weren’t supposed to bleed into reality. But here he was, with tangible proof to the contrary!

That said, he didn’t mind. In fact, the moment he took Brigga replayed over and over in his head. All that thick, creamy cum pouring out of her hole…He slid down his pants and underwear, gripping his seed-slickened shaft. He pumped himself, imagining he was Skari again. So strong. So powerful. So confident! Distantly, he wished he could be like her in real life too. The moment that thought crossed his mind, he exploded, cum splashing his shirt and soaking him again. In a lust-addled daze, he fingered the fluid on his chest, wondering what it might taste like.

‘Go ahead,’ a voice in his head said, ‘Try it out. Nobody’s watching.’

Without conscious thought, the fingertip found its way into his mouth. Not very tasty, it turned out. He still licked it clean, only later wondering just why he’d done that…and just what exactly was that voice that had told him to do it…