Freelance Saga: Learning Curves (6 page)

Scott slid his hands up to massage her tits
again, and continued to rock his hips in a smooth circle while
pumping gently into her aching pussy. His balls occasionally teased
her asshole as he managed to shove deeper into her queenly vagina
at varying intervals.

It was not long before she erupted in a
geyser of orgasmic bliss. Her love fluids gushed out, flooding her
master’s pelvic region even as her body arched upward. She screamed
long and hard at the top of her lungs.

Scott thought for sure that her turtle
minions would take offense to the things he was doing to their
queen, since they had all gathered round and come closer. He saw,
however, that they were all grinning like perverts. “You like what
you see?”

The turtles nodded happily and he grinned at
them. The perverted little assholes had loved seeing their queen
get pounded. Briefly, he wondered if dragon-turtles masturbated or
had wet dreams. His questioning thought was answered when he
noticed a few of them rubbing against the ground.

That was not exactly a turn-on but, whatever.
He had a duty to fulfill.

He looked down at the panting queen and saw
that she was looking away with a far-off gaze evident in her
expression. After a full minute she slowly turned her head to look
up at him. “More.”

Scott laughed softly then squeezed her tits.
Scarlet was a pretty cool chick.

Chapter 3:
Winning

The hustle and bustle of daily life in a city
was disturbing for Scott. He had grown up in a rural area and loved
the quiet and the freedom to pee outside anywhere he liked. Now,
however, his quiet little country trailer was like a silent
tomb.

Scott sighed loudly then looked at the clock
on the wall. He had been back in this world for nineteen hours now.
He had tried to sleep a short while ago, but he could not. The
reality of his situation was too much to ignore.

As was his custom, Scott began to talk to
himself. “It was all real. Either I am in a coma right now, or it
was all real.”

He ran his hand down his chest then gripped
the waist-band of his stretch pants. A quick peek at the goods
stashed behind the thin fabric was all the proof that he
needed.

When Scott had returned to this world he
quickly discovered that his body stayed the same basic shape that
it had been after the tutorial. No amount of virtual reality would
allow him to lose thirty pounds or gain several inches of dick.

Of course, that led to a lot of awkward
questions after his return. People he had seen briefly in recent
days had noticed when he returned home. More than one no doubt
believed that he’d had some sort of fat reduction surgery.

“I can’t summon monsters or use learned
powers here, but I can still access my message screens and the
auction.” He was not certain about the monsters and powers, but the
people at Alterra had told him that he was not strong enough to do
so. None of the testers had managed it yet, either.

He called up the auction screen and decided
to look through it. He had no money to buy and no items worth
selling. Still, it made sense that things for sale on the site were
so expensive. This was no game. It was a truly living world. How
such a thing was possible, he could not say. The fact still
remained that everything he experienced had been real.

Scott had a little over three thousand
dollars remaining. He’d paid off his bills for the month and sent
money to his mother to help her out a little. She struggled a bit
since his father had died.

“Maybe, I could buy something? I should save
this money, but if there is anything available that can help me
out, it might be worth it.”

The auction house was sparsely populated with
items worth mentioning. There was a lot of junk, or rather what
appeared to be junk. Alterra had only hired a few thousand
beta-testers, and all of them were recently allowed into the
game.

The most expensive item was a sword. “Iron
blade of the Cat?” He looked at the statistical information
provided and nodded. It added ten points to agility, did minor
electrical damage, and granted far-sight, a skill that allowed the
user to remotely view distant locations or people.

He stared at the sword’s image for a moment
then his eyes widened in recognition. “It looks like a poor man’s
Sword of Omens!”

Yes, it was not an exact replica of the famed
sword from the Thundercats series, but it certainly could be seen
as a reasonable knock-off production. He quickly searched through
other expensive items and saw that many of them had visual
aesthetics that were reminiscent of popular items from videogames
and other entertainment.

“This is either bullshit or the coolest thing
ever.”

It wasn’t until he reached the monster
section of the auction that he shuddered openly. There were girls
for sale! Scott immediately felt a knot rise up from his stomach to
sit in the back of his throat. He thought that he might vomit, but
the feeling slowly subsided.

“What the hell! You can’t just buy and sell
people!”

He looked closely at the auction ads, fuming
the whole time, but his anger began to fade. Most of the ads
mentioned the need to find the girl a better situation due to
incompatible natures.

“Incompatible natures?” He thought about that
for a moment. Monsters needed intimacy with their masters to grow
stronger. Fighting and gaining levels would help, but their true
powers only emerged after developing a strong bond. If you are not
compatible with your monster then it will be hard to be intimate
with them. Though, Scott suspected that many of these girls were
probably just captured to be sold and the intimacy issue was just
an excuse.

His knowledge of pet and monster care told
him that these girls would remain in stasis, trapped within the
sphere of light that they are bound too during the contract. They
could be trapped in there forever if they are not bonded to someone
else.

He refreshed the site and noticed that
several girls, and surprisingly a few monster guys, had been added
to the list. However, many others had been removed, a sold tag
placed over their information screen.

Scott struggled with his inner American. He
did not like the idea of buying and selling people, but these
monsters deserved to find good masters or to be set free. As much
as the basic idea disturbed him, he had to admit that it was
simpler to sell them off than it was to try and build a
relationship with someone incompatible.

“I really need a strong team if I plan to
hunt monsters. I can’t just have a picnic every time I meet a
monster king or queen. They’ll annihilate me.”

Despite his misgivings he searched the
monster auction section thoroughly. The prices were far too high,
however. Even a level one mouse was over two thousand dollars. She
was cute, but he could probably catch one himself if he just went
into a cave or something.

“I’ve become a professional monster tamer and
trainer. Yet, I barely know what I’m doing.” Scarlet was strong,
but he knew that there would be a problem working with her for a
while. She was actually too strong.

While it did not cost any mana to keep her
manifested most of the time, the moment they entered into a combat
situation he had to expend mana equal to her level just to keep her
manifested. She was level twenty-two. At her level that meant
twenty-two mana per second had to be spent. He could keep her
manifested in battle for a grand total of four seconds. She was
powerful, but it was useless at the moment. He needed to train his
mana!

Scott thought about his monster for a moment
then changed the auction site page to one that showcased skill
books. Maybe there was a skill for sale that would allow him to
train mana more effectively? The torchlight spell was good to train
at night or in the dark, but it could not be rapidly used. He could
call it and it lasted several minutes, then he could call it again.
What he needed was a spell or skill that could be spammed.

As with most of the auction, the skills were
primarily junk or things that he already could do. Magic based
skills seemed to be in short supply. Either this meant that a lot
of people were mages, or most were not. He could not be sure. Skill
books might also be rare for certain types of skills.

“I’m a monster trainer. That means that even
though it is important for me to become as strong as possible, my
real skill lies in keeping my pets fully ready to fight.” Scott
mused on this for a moment then delved into the spell book
section.

“Junk, junk, junk. There are so many
torchlight spells up here!” He did eventually discover a few spells
that might be good to work with, but their price tag for buying
without bidding was prohibitive. He did not want to bid at the
moment. He absolutely needed to buy something. In the future,
bidding would be better than outright purchasing most of the time,
he was sure.

“Eighteen hundred dollars for a simple
defensive aura spell? Two thousand for a first circle healing
prayer spell?” He shuddered at the costs. He could buy only one,
but he needed at least one of them.

He looked at the information screen carefully
and made his choice. The defensive aura was like torchlight. It
could be used once, and then lasted for a short time. You could not
stack the spell and could only cast it again once it wore off. The
healing spell only worked to heal an incredibly small amount of hit
points, but working with it would raise intelligence, charisma, and
faith over time.

“If it only heals a small amount, then I can
probably train my unarmed combat skills till my knuckles are bloody
and raw. Use the healing spell to heal, then train some more.”
Scott told the empty air his plans then chose to purchase the
spell.

Once he clicked the buy button, he entered
his information, and the request for payment appeared. He was not
certain how to pay for his item, since he had the money primarily
in cash. Strangely, however, there was an option for cash
purchase.

A message screen popped up, followed by a
circular plate that floated in mid-air. “Please present the
money.”

Scott looked at the message for a moment then
retrieved his wallet. He placed the money onto the plate and the
sale registered as complete. The plate, and his money, disappeared
immediately. In its place a new plate appeared. Atop it sat a skill
book entitled, “Divine guidance in trying times. Volume I”

He took the book and the plate disappeared.
“So, this is a skill book?”

He opened the book and nearly dropped it in
surprise. He had seen the effect of opening skill books before in
the game, but he had not expected that the same thing would happen
on Earth!

The light of knowledge streamed into him and
after the mental dust cleared he was able to completely understand
the basics of divine healing and restoration. He had gained the
ability to lay hands on the injured and provide them solace through
divine grace.

Of course, the power was restricted on Earth.
He was not strong enough to use his abilities here and might never
be.

Scott quickly checked his spell list and
grinned. The information for healing prayer was listed. “I can heal
three hit points per use at this level of skill. That’s absurdly
low, but kind of perfect for training purposes.”

Each use would cost him ten mana, however.
Over time it would become more powerful, but right now he could use
it ten times or so without running out of mana.

The grin that crossed his face was both feral
and delightful. He was excited and really could not help himself.
He planned to stay in the other world for at least three days next
time. There was no time limit. He would be able to stay there for
as long as he wanted, but once there he had to remain for
twenty-four hours, and the same was true for when he came back
here.

He still had a life here, as limited as it
was. He had family even if he did not have any real friends that he
would miss enough to never return to the other world. Plus, he
could only access the auction site here. That could prove useful in
the future.

Scott looked at the auction site and then
checked his clock once more. The waiting was terrible, but the time
would come soon. He already knew that he had passed the tutorial
with flying colors. Alterra was happy with his actions.

“So, a whole new world to explore, a world
filled with monsters, danger, and hot girls that are into hardcore
sex in public. Sounds like my kind of place.” Scott shut down the
auction site, leaned back, and smiled. In a few hours he would be
able to go on the adventure of a life-time. Sure, he was low-level,
and might not be able to gain strength quickly due to the fact that
he would no longer be in training mode. That did not matter.

He was a monster trainer, now. In one
beautiful day he had gained a kickass new job and acquired a hot
love slave. He needed to get a few more monsters on his team soon.
That meant that he needed to acquire more absurdly hot girls to
kick ass on his behalf. He didn’t even know how to express his
perverted joy at such a turn of events.

It was then that a word burst forth from his
lips. He raised his hands and shouted, “Winning!” before collapsing
back onto the couch. He laughed loudly at his own silliness then
looked at the clock. Only a few more hours, yes only a few more
hours.

###

Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed it,
won’t you please take a moment to leave me a review at your
favorite retailer?

I enjoy writing stories that merge modern pop-culture
with erotica. I plan to turn this into an ongoing short story and
novella series. If people like the concept well enough, there may
even be a web-comic created eventually. If you like the story, tell
your friends! It’s the best way to make things happen.