Loki was a rather special summon, she was a big lotus flower with many vines covered in spikes. Due to her recent skills, her vines had grown as strong as metal, so I am sure she could survive any trap that is not fire-based. She sneakily went downstairs and began to inspect everything in detail. I wished I had some sort of ability that could connect me with her vision, but that's some special ability that only those that pick the Tamer Class can get, so I am stuck just inspecting what she's doing with the map.
However, it seems she reached the bottom of the stairs and found a large area, a closed one. The map filled automatically, and showed blue spots… water? Oh, is there a spring down there?
Loki quickly ran upstairs after finding nothing weird, reporting that it was all safe down there! It seems that we were worrying for nothing.
"So its safe? And there's just water down there? I guess we can skip this." Said Rita.
"No!" I said.
"Eh?!"
"Who knows if this area will be closed forever after we finish the dungeon? there is nothing but water… but what's this water all about? I bet its something special! Maybe a spring with purified water? Let's go check it out then!"
"Okay, okay, I get it! You've become quite the collector."
"Hehe, call me a material collector then!"
We moved downstairs rapidly, and we suddenly noticed that the atmosphere slowly began to get warmer, as if there was a lot of steam everywhere… was this water hot or something?
"Huh, the water is very hot, look all the steam covering the entire cave…" Said Rita. "There are some glowing mushrooms everywhere, some big ones, I guess they even like this warm steam… Oh, there are crystals growing in the water… Could they be minable?"
"I bet they can! But I lack a pickaxe and the Mining Skill, without it, we cannot mine ores or crystals, sadly… The Farmer Class has no skills like those… for now." I said.
"Eeeh? What a pity…" Sighed Rita. "But isn't this water… kind of a hot spring?"
"R-Right…" I said, as I walked towards the water and touched it. The water was very warm, but not boiling hot to the point it burnt. In fact, it was juuuust right.
"Wow, this water is amazing…" I said.
"What is it?"
"It is right in the nice spot of warmth; I would love to take a bath here…"
"A bath inside a game, huh? Well, why not? Let's take a dip together!"
"W-What?!"
Rita suddenly began to undress in front of me, I couldn't help but grow a bit embarrassed, as I covered my face.
"What's wrong? Come on, you have seen me naked hundreds of times! After sport class in high school all the girls got nude and bathed together in the baths, so there's nothing to be shy about!" Said Rita while winking at me.
"Geez, Rita, dress yourself, we are not here to take a bath!" I cried.
Rita didn't listened to me, as she wrapped her arms around my body and took out my dress with a single swoop.
"Uwaah! S-Stop!"
"Come here!"
Rita grabbed me with her arms and carried me like a princess into the water.
"Y-You idiot, what are you doing?!"
"Let's take a dip, you said we had to enjoy it!"
"Sigh…"
SPLASH!
"Uuuaaagghhh…"
Rita just dumped me into the water and I ended falling to the bottom of the lake, I almost drowned! But I managed to swim to the surface and found her sitting leisurely over a rock while relaxing.
"Come here at my side!" She said.
"Y-You little…!" I roared, splashing Rita with water all over her face.
SPLASH!
"Uwah! O-Oi! Don't get so salty! I was playing around!" She cried, as she began to splash water in my face.
SPLASH!
"Take this! And this!"
Splash! Splash! SPLASH!
"Elayne, you're playing with fire here!"
Rita furiously began to splash more water around. Without realizing, the two of us ended playing around for a while, I never though I would relax this much in warm water inside a game, but the water was just godly…
"Phew… I-I think we should make a draw, okay?" Asked Rita.
"S-Sure…" I sighed.
We sat down next to each other, as Rita rested her head on my shoulder. Her legs wrapped around mine tightly as she smiled rather happily.
"The water is nice."
"Yeah… Though do you have to be so clingy?"
"You're so cute I can't let you go!"
"Sheesh…"
"I feel like my entire body is more revitalized now though… Don't you think the same?" Wondered Rita.
"Come to think of it… Yeah, it does feels nice." I said, as I looked into the water's information, and was a bit shocked by what I saw.
[Healing Spring Waters]
Special Hot Spring Waters that are warm and just nice for the body. They form a natural Hot Spring where people can relax and bathe on them to remove impurities. This magical water not only relaxes the body and fills somebody with stamina. It also increases HP and MP regeneration, while Satiation is decreased 50% more slowly, this buff lasts for 30 minutes. Additionally, it increases stats temporarily, and bathing in the waters will quickly cure any sort of negative status ailment or disease.
"I-Incredible, Rita, it says that this increases HP and MP regeneration, and Satiation is reduced half the speed! And to boot it can temporarily increase stats and heal negative status ailments… even diseases? Wow!" I said.
I felt genuinely surprised by this water. I decided to take some bottles that Acorn had sold to me for some gold coins and began to take away the water and saving it in bottles. The bottles quickly changed into a new item as well, named "Healing Spring Water Bottle" and it could be directly consumed for all the effects as well… insane!
"Wow, save as many bottles as you can! We could sell these and get some nice money out of it in the Market!" Said Rita, rubbing her hands greedily.
However, as I extracted water… something began to happen as the water started to tremble.
SPLASH!