"You did what?!" Ara shouted, her face transf from curiosity to e to cold fury as Elnor expined what had happehe previous night. Before Elnor could respond, before anyone knew what was happening, Ara had leapt across the room and punched her directly in her right breast.

  Elnor bent double, cried out in pain and cursed as she clutched at her chest. "Really?" She wheezed out after a sed. "You had to hit me i?"

  Ara huffed, looking as if she'd like to hit Elnain. "You're lucky it was your tit and not signifitly lower."

  Shiloh stepped forward. "There's no need for that." He said, as sternly as he could while fag down the gl futanari who could snap him like a twig. "I fave her as soon as it happened." Ara shook her head and strode to the far side of the room, presumably to keep herself from pung Elnain.

  "Actually, we do have to do this." Twil responded as she stepped forward. "Tell him, Elnor."

  Shiloh looked at Elnor, who grimaced and nodded. "It's the deal."

  "What deal?" Shiloh asked, fbbergasted.

  "If one of us loses trol and does anything like that, the others each take a free shot to remihat we are not animals, that we're more than our instincts." Twil expined. She stepped forward and drew her fist back. Elnor flinched, but made no effort to block or evade the ining blow.

  Twil let her arm fly... directly into Shiloh's face. Seeing what was happening, he had jumped iween them. He had not, of course, ted on the fact that each of the women in that room were signifitly strohan him, could take hits much more easily than he could, or how badly it would hurt to intercept one of their strikes.

  Twil's fist ected with his nose a it sideways. He felt a d yelled in pain as she broke his nose. Blood spurted out and covered the front of his cloak and his hands as he clutched at his face. The room was pletely silent except for his pained groans. Elnor was frozen in shock at his sudden act of chivalry, Twil was horrified at the damage she'd doo him, and Ara was s through her iory.

  She withdrew a small red vial before stepping up to Shiloh and it to him. "Drink this."

  Shiloh took the vial from her and dow. He tasted his own blood mixed with the awful taste of cherry-fvored medie as the potion ran down his throat. Immediately, he felt the pain vanish as his nose snapped bato pce. There was no more blood ing out, but he still had to wash up in their sink before he was someresentable again.

  "I am so sorry." Twil whispered when he rejoihem. She looked far more shaken than he felt, and he could see tears f in the ers of her eyes. "Why did you do that?"

  "Because you're not animals." He spat with unwanted venom. Twil, Ara and Elnor all recoiled as if he had struck them. He went on in a geone. "You are more than your instincts. I may be o this world, but where I e from, we don't attack each other to teach a lesson. I fave Elnor, and I don't need you to beat her up for a drunken mistake that she already hates herself for!"

  Twil looked ashamed at this, but Ara stood defiant. Elnor wouldn't meet anyone's eyes. "You're right, you are o this world. Here, we keep our promises. We don't allow our friends to give in to their urges. That was what we swore to each other when we formed this little party."

  Shiloh stared at Ara ily before he slowly and softly responded. "There are better ways, Ara. I don't want to see any of you hurt, and I hope you all feel the same about me." The three of them all nodded vigorously. Elnor finally looked up from the ground and Shiloh saw the same self-loathing from earlier that m. Inspiration struck him, and he went on eagerly. "I want you all to make a promise to me. From now on, we will solve these issues with love and respeot violehere's too much of a risk of us being hurt already for us to be hurting each other."

  The three of them all looked at each other for a long moment. Shiloh was struck with the impression, not for the first time, that they were trying to unicate telepathically. Finally, Twil looked over at him. "I am agreeable to this new pact."

  Elnave Ara another look, apparently unwilling to sed the motion as the "guilty party" in the room. Ara gred back at her until Shiloh was certain that she would demand more retribution first. Then, Ara's gaze softened and her shoulders lost their rigidity.

  "Alright, I'm on board too."

  Elnor nodded her agreement, but Shiloh raised an eyebrow at her until she vocalized her agreement. "I promise."

  "Thank you." Shiloh responded early. "In turn, I promise that I will do everything in my capacity to keep you all from being overwhelmed by yes." This promise earned him a blush from Elnor, a raised eyebrow from Twil, and a lecherous leer from Ara.

  "Everything in your capacity?" Ara repeated, her tongue dashing out to moisten her full lips.

  Shiloh gulped. "Y-yes. I like you all a lot, and... um... I've really ehe... activities I've gotten up to with each of you." He didn't know why he was like this. He was obviously a huge slut for their cocks. None of them judged him for it; in fact, they all seemed to enjoy how much of a slut he was.

  Still, he felt an enormous weight of embarrassmele over him whenever he tried to talk about being with them. Like he was less of a man for enjoying being a receptacle for thick, hot girlcock. He didn't feel like less of a man the rest of the time, however. He erhaps, more effemihanks to the ges Aphrodite had wrought in his body, but he still felt the supreme desire to be a protector and a provider. It was ironic, therefore, that the women he wao provide for and protect were each better than him at both of those things.

  "Well, I know that I have certainly ehe activities." Ara respoheir argument and her anger fotten in her growing arousal.

  "Put it ba your pants." Elnor said, still not quite meeting Ara's eyes. "We o get him properly equipped before anything, and that's going to take most of the day."

  "And most of our funds." Twil ented idly.

  At this, Shiloh immediately began protesting. He didn't want them spending all of their money on him. He'd be able to make do with just a few essentials. He didn't need -tailored clothing. His pints fell on deaf ears, however, as the girls dragged him around town to outfit him with everything that he needed.

  The first pce they took him was a tailor. The building had no windows on the front, but the inside was warmly lit with several oil mps lining the walls. The back of the shop was cluttered with shelves holding bolts of cloth and bins full of thread, as well as many different wooden statues wearing various colles of clothing. The front of the shop had a small ptform, just rge enough for one person to stand on, and a ter separated the two halves. The only other person in the shop was another woman, who was busily fitting a skirt around one of the wooden statues.

  When she heard them ehe woman gnced up at them before tinuing to fasten the skirt to the statue. "Just a moment!" She called out around a mouthful of pins. Once she had finished, she straightened up and walked to the ter, which she leaned against before being them over. Elnor approached the ter and the woman asked, "Now, what I do for you dies this time?"

  "Actually, our friend here needs some clothing, Heather. A full wardrobe, actually. Three sets of casual wear, three sets of caster robes, and something for more formal events. He's also going to wo pairs of boots. Hopefully in a color that pliments each of the outfits." Elnor rattled off, pg a rge number of silver s on the tertop. As she spoke, Heather eyed Shiloh critically. Her gaze caught on the blood stains down the front of his cloak, then flicked between Elnor, Ara and Twil.

  "Well, that big of an order is going to take some time to put together. I'm afraid I'll need you to stay here for a while, to make sure everything fits as I'm making it." She replied, pointing at Shiloh. "The rest of you need not wait, if you have other things to attend to."

  "That would be great, actually!" Elnor said with a smile. "We o pick up a bunch of other supplies, and he keeps whining about how much it all costs."

  "I'm not whining!" Shiloh insisted, earning a snort of ughter from Ara.

  "Just hang out here for a bit, Shy." Ara said. "We'll be back with the rest of your stuff soon, aher here is wonderful pany."

  The seamstress smiled and nodded, and Shiloh finally gave up the fight. "Just please don't spend every you have." He begged one more time as they filed out of the shop. Ara ughed, and Elnor just waved as the door cttered shut behind them.

  "Are you in trouble?" Heather asked as soon as the door was closed.

  "What?" Shiloh replied, fused.

  "Are they hurting you? Do you need help getting away from them?" The slight pani her void in her eyes told Shiloh that she was genuinely ed for his safety.

  "No!" He responded emphatically. "They're not hurtihey're my friends."

  She gave his bloodstained cloak another obvious look before raising an eyebrow.

  "That was an act." Shiloh said, realizing that he was sounding like every member of an abusive retionship that made excuses for their partner's behavior. "Look, they saved me from the dungeon. I was all alone in there with absolutely nothing ohis cloak isn't even mi's Elnor's. They've been nothing but good to me."

  His ear defense of them seemed to lesseher's suspis, but she still questioned him further. "What were you doing in the dungeon, by yourself, without even a tuni your back?"

  Shiloh froze. How was he supposed to expin the circumstances of his rebirth to this woman? Her eyes narrowed when he didn't answer immediately, and he spoke without thinking. "My party abandoned me. They took everything I had a me for dead."

  A look of dawning prehensioled over Heather's face. "Ah. Tricked by a group of Haufners? Well, that certainly expins a lot. I never imagihose three would be... well, you know. Sometimes they just 't trol themselves, they?"

  Shiloh's blood ran cold with fury. He only bit back a nasty retort by reminding himself that Heather was making sure he was okay, and that this was h. The casual sexism against futanaris here was based on the abominable behavior of the worst of their kind, but it still infuriated him that anyone would cast such aspersions against his friends. Then he remembered what had happened only st night, and he realized that it wasn't such a ludicrous accusation. They really couldn't trol themselves sometimes.

  Shiloh pushed the thought from his mind. "Those three are really good people. They saved my life."

  Heather smiled warmly. "I'm gd to hear it. They are good ers, but they've never brought a panion in, and the blood... well, I guess it doesn't really matter. If you could please stand over here."

  Heather got him onto the ptform and took several measurements of his height, arms, shoulders and neck with a length of knotted rope. She recorded the figures on a piece of part ying on the ter before saying, "I'll need you to take the cloak off, darling. I o measure the rest of you and I 't do it with that in the way."

  "Umm..." Shiloh said nervously. "This is quite literally the only thing I have to wear."

  Heather looked at him bnkly for a moment before uanding bloomed across her face. She flushed scarlet and hurried into the back. Wheurned, she was carrying a pair of men's undershorts that looked remarkably like boxers. She turned her back while he pulled them on, then he shrugged the cloak off and allowed her to get the rest of his measurements.

  When she was done, she motioo one of the chairs and took her part with her into the back, where she became a whirling dervish of fabric, scissors, thread and needles. She would occasionally e back to the front and have him stand oform to measure a piece of fabric against him before returning to her work.

  It took several hours, during which Shiloh became increasingly bored until he decided to py around with the system, just for something to do. He ope up and scrolled through his status sheet. His eyes widened until they were the size of dies when he saw it.

  Shiloh SuttonCss: Cleric of AphroditeHP: 50/50Level: 5MP: 100/100Lust:390 Strength: 8Ara: 0Finesse: 10Divine: 25Fortitude: 5Resistance: 5Endurance: 7Focus: 10 He had pletely fotten that he'd leveled up twice st night. Elnor's distress had drivehought pletely out of his mind. More than that, he seemed to have gained a whopping 350 points of Lust from her rather eager use of his hole. Shiloh was so fbbergasted by the boost in Lust, it took him several mio realize he had more skill to choose from. He opehe notification tab and accepted the first level up.

  Cleric's Receptivity

  Makes taking rge objects in any hole easier.

  Cleric's Resolve

  Gain +3 Endurand +3 Fortitude.

  Shiloh blushed furiously when he read the first skill offered, but found it to be unnecessary. He'd had no issues so far with any of their equipment, and he certainly ehe strain of taking them. Cleric's Resolve also seemed unnecessary, sihe girls had told him his physical stats would be pretty much useless.

  He opened up the previous skills he'd been offered instead. He still didn't want Cleric's Might, and he wasn't getting a spell that used mana this go-round, so Fuel for the Fire was still pretty useless. His introdu to the stigma Elnor, Ara and Twil faced in town, however, made his st option seem very attractive, so he took it.

  Aphrodite's Advocate

  So long as you are the one speakiiations with your party aremore likely to end in your favor.

  After he had selected his Level 4 skill, Shiloh went back to his notifications and accepted the level up.

  You have reached Level 5!

  Stat points to allocate: 5

  Shiloh accepted this notification as well, and was taken to his status sheet, where each of his stats had little arrows o them, indig his ability to ge them. He thought for a long time about it, and ended up putting all five points into Divinity. It was the stat p his skills, after all. He wasn't much good at fighting, so he o excel in the areas he was good in, which were his "spells".

  When he finished allog his points, he was given another sele of two skills.

  Intercessor

  Take 50% less damage when hit with an attack meant for an ally

  Feat of Persistence

  You have proven yourself capable of going the distance.You no longer incur exhaustion by missing sleep.Gain +5 Endurand +5 Focus.

  Intercessor was iing, but he felt that it was somewhat useless to him at the moment. He wasn't supposed to be taking any hits at all, as evidenced by the fragility his nose dispyed wheing Twil's fist. Twil, who was likely the least physically-oriented of his three party members. Even at 50% power, he felt that he was likely too weak to absorb any real hits for his friends.

  Feat of Persistence, oher hand, sounded like it could be pretty good, if he knew what exhaustion was. More Endurance certainly didn't seem like a bad thing. He went bad forth for a bit, and ultimately decided to wait and ask for advice whehers came back. He dismissed the choices as Heather produced her first pleted outfit.

  It was a robe of dark blues and purples with various glyphs woven in silver thread throughout, giving the appearance of a midnight sky. The robes hugged his upper body and arms like spandex, with short, sharp shoulder pads that cut an impressive figure, but flowed into a billowy material around his legs whided right at his ahey opened in the front, and had a series of knots and holes that Heather had to show him how to tie in order to hold them closed once he dohem.

  He thought the robes looked quite dashing when he examined himself in the mirror, aher agreed with a smile. She created two more sets of robes before showing him the first set of casual wear clothing. It was a simple, white cotton tunid a pair of brown pants remi of denim. She created two more sets of the pants, as well as two more tunics, one in a dark green and one in a burnt e.

  With those out of the way, she began to work ofit Elnor had requested for more formal occasions. This one was far more plex, as evidenced by the many, many pieces of fabric she measured against Shiloh as she worked. He saw bck, gold and red in the fabric she brought up, but was uo make out any more details than this. After what felt like an hour, she finally brought the finished produ, sweat beading on her forehead but a wide smile on her face.

  "I think you'll really like this one." She said sweetly, help him into it. "It's a fashion that was very popur when I was a young girl."

  When she slid the shirt over his head, it felt like silk and it reached all the way to his knees, with a wide partition on the front, starting at his waist. It was pletely bck except for the shoulders and hips. The shoulders were outlined in gold and bore identical gold and red crests of stylized bdes oher side of the head of a rose, while the hips were nearly solid gold, with the bck outline of vines ing around marble pilrs.

  The shirt had a stiffened colr which lit right in the middle of his neck, leading down into a deep "V" over his chest. Heather showed him a series of holes and knots like his robes, but these ones were hidden oied and they closed the "V" up so only the colr arted. The partition in the front allowed his legs to walk freely through the shirt, and gave him the appearance of a tailcoat. Heather produced a wide, oral red and bck belt, fastened with a rge, golden buckle bearing the design of a starburst. It fit perfectly around his waist and hid where the partition began, almost making the single shirt look like two pieces.

  The pants she handed him were incredibly simple pared to the hard work she'd put into the shirt. They were pletely bck, except for a ring of gold glyphs that started at his ankles and wound up his calves to stop at his khey also had a tie at the waist, which he fastened before Heather handed him a pair of bck boots with poiips. They looked like they belonged with his formal ensemble, but he could tell wheook them from her that they would hold up well to the wear and tear of travel as well. They were as masterfully crafted as the rest of what she'd given him.

  When Shiloh finished g up the boots, he found a long mirrainst one of the walls and examined himself in it. The formal wear was absolutely stunning, aher was beaming at her work when the door opened and Elnor, Ara, and Twil rejoihem. Ara wolf-whistled appreciatively, eyeing Shiloh like he was a select cut of prime steak.