The Tower of Passion

Fiona was a bit sheepish as they returned to Qae and Liddy. Jota Nel had returned with her so she could say goodbye to the whole party. She was worried what Liddy would think, if she would be upset.
She needn't have worried.
"Did you have fun?" The gnome asked with a massive smile on her face. Fiona nodded, shyly. Of course her friend wasn't upset - they were just friends.
"She did a... She had a... There's..." She didn't know how to phrase it. "There's a thing she did that I think you might be able to do. If you want to try. Maybe. You don't have to." She looked awkwardly at Jota Nel, who coughed slightly and looked away.
How could she go from so confident, fucking a queen's face to so shy around her friend?  It was clearly exclusively because she'd never have to see Jota Nel again. Which made her  a bit upset, but it was okay.
"Tell me about it later - Did you get an ability."

Fiona stopped. What an ability - it seemed the system was looking out for her and liddy. But what would liddy think?

"Yeah uh... [Enlarge/Reduce]". Liddy's eyes went wide.
"You mean we... You can.. Ever- I mean." She caught herself for a moment. "That will be really useful!"

Qae was looking at the two of them with a face Fiona had no chance of deciphering. She thought it was judging, or thinking they were idiots - but that clearly made no sense. Before she could say anything, the system interrupted her.

"Did you both level up?" Qae asked after a moment - clearly having read her own message. "Upgrades or new abilities?" She asked.
"Upgrades" Fiona said. "Ehm... Do you have any other passions than maths Qae?" She wasn't worried about Liddy - the last one had been a massage, she was uncertain what she could do with Qae.
"What - what is your upgrade?"

Fiona shared her upgrades with the party, and both their eye's went wide. 
"ANOTHER stat upgrade?" Liddy said. "AND we get physical damage if we find you hot? Well we're gonna punch real hard." Which would have made Fiona feel awkward, but Qae just silently nodding agreement made her want to throw up. Why did her hot friends find her hot?

"I will consider what we can do... We should have some time, at least until we choose to enter the next dungeon." She held her chin in her hands, intelligent eyes betraying deep thought.
"I received one new ability - I will share it.

"It should be useful - pain is a great way to keep enemies focused on me." 
Fiona looked at the text, kept reading it, and kept quiet. She had enough toys at home that... well, she kept quiet.
"How about you Liddy?" Fiona asked to distract herself from potential thoughts she did not want to impose on her friends less they think her a complete pervert - not just a partial one.
"One upgrade, one new ability!" She beamed, before snapping her fingers, Timmy appearing. "Well - I got one, Timmy got an upgrade - have a looked"

"I call him Chompy!" The gnome snapped her finger again, and a two-foot shark spirit was floating around her head, chasing Timmy. 
"That seems great - shame I use a hammer, but that buff should help you and Qae!" She definitely wasn't having thoughts about Timmy. About manifested flexible tentacles. No. Absolutely not. A lot could be done in thirty sec - no. No Fiona. Bad.

"These are excellent upgrades to our capabilities - never mind the additional ability you provided Fiona with, Queen Jota Nel" Qae bowed again to the queen, which Fiona found extremely strange. Her friend thanking her other maybe friend for sleeping with her was ridiculous. 
"Not... Not an issue." At least the witch queen found it just as awkward, and luckily the system interrupted them again.

The same woosh sound as before, and the treasure chests spawned next to the still flaming brazier. The girls headed over and kicked the chests open immediately, the floating loot bubbles popping up and bobbing above their previous containers.

Liddy looked at the first item, and immediately seemed upset. Fiona inspected it.

"Is that what you-" Liddy gave her a stare to be quiet, grabbed the stone and smashed it into the ground, breaking it completely. 
Qae and Fiona just looked at each other, stunned.
"I'm... I am sorry." Liddy said after a moment. "I could probably have handled that better but... Those are evil items. We shouldn't have one." She'd decided that was the final word on that, and she moved on to the next items.

The rest of the loot were a few healing potions, an underwater breathing potion, which Liddy decided to use to do some ribbing of the others about silly creatures not even able to breathe underwater. If only she knew what Fiona had in store.

The three notable items was a necklace, a towel and a pair of bottoms. Kind of.
The [Reef Pearl Necklace of Endurance] with an increase to stamina went straight to Qae.
The... towel, which definitely confused Fiona, but that was absolutely what the large piece of cloth was, Fiona kept in her inventory, but they agreed to share it between them after any particularly exhausting activity.

And the [Loincloth of the Sea] went to Fiona. Because of course, it did. A seaweed loincloth - her own did nothing, an F-grade item with no stats. This was E grade, covered less - more of her ass, and thong visible which Liddy immediately pointed out.
It gave her a minor increase in dexterity and improved her swim speed. Which if she wasn't already wearing a loincloth, she would not have equipped it. But she was, so she did.

Loot over, city saved they said their goodbyes to Jota Nel - with an open invite to return, which Fiona was happy to find out was possible later on, they entered the shimmering portal that had appeared.

Qae agreeing to join the party, Fiona remained the leader. They saw no reason to spend time in the ghostly, grey mist - Qae informed Fiona that this would be the last time they were in this mist, which she was not unhappy about. Once your party was full you always moved straight on. Fiona didn't ask what happened if someone passed - it wasn't an option.

"Ok, so next party member" Fiona said. They'd not made a decision yet, waiting to see what the tower offered.
"Our options are Magical Ranged Damage, Physical Ranged Damage or Healer. What do we think ladies?"