Chapter 13: Premature Ejaculation
Stefan’s POV
"Hmmm..."
I pushed in again but there was still no way.
Then I decided to go very slow. Moving in at a pace which was painfully slow for me and my need.
After what felt like forever, I finally sank fully inside her, both of us going still for a second once I did.
The feeling hit me like nothing I had experienced before - tight, almost punishingly so, gripping me in a way that scrambled every thought in my head down to static. I groaned, my hips stuttering forward on instinct, and that was as far as I got.
"What the fuck? Did I just-?" My eyes widened in horror. It was just unbelievable but the evidence was there.
I did. I came...
I let my cock sit inside her for a second afterward, stunned, my body still shaking slightly, genuinely unable to process what had just happened. Three days of denial, every fantasy I’d built up about finally getting inside someone again, and it had lasted maybe ten seconds total.
[PERFORMANCE NOTICE: Premature ejaculation detected.]
My system notification beeped.
"You have got to be kidding me." I dropped my head back, mortified, staring at the roof of the tent like it might offer some kind of explanation for what had just happened to my own body. "You’re actually going to log that? You absolute petty piece of code."
The System didn’t respond. It never did, except apparently when it wanted to humiliate me on the record for posterity.
I had never come that fast in my life. Not even back in my twenties, not even the first time I had sex, not with anyone.
I had never been with anyone that tight either, virgin or otherwise - every other woman I’d been with had given me a few seconds at least to find my rhythm. Jonquil hadn’t given me anything except an instant, overwhelming reminder of exactly how long it had been since I’d had this, and my body had apparently decided three days of buildup wasn’t something it could hold back any longer.
I’d planned on taking my time with her. Showing her exactly what I was capable of when I wasn’t rushed, when I wasn’t running on a countdown and pure desperation. Instead I’d folded like a rookie the second it actually mattered, and there was no smooth talking my way out of that one.
Jonquil turned her head, glancing back at me over her shoulder, completely unbothered. "Are we finished?"
"Fuck this!" I groaned inwardly. But Jonquil was still looking at me, waiting for a response.
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak, shame burning hot up the back of my neck.
She didn’t seem to understand why I had gone quiet. She studied my face for a moment, her head tilted slightly, then shrugged when I offered nothing else.
After muttering in the beast language I didn’t understand, Jonquil stood
and got dressed without another word. She pulled her wrap back into place, smoothed it down, and walked out of the tent like absolutely nothing unusual had happened at all.
I sat there alone in the dim light, the countdown still ticking quietly in the corner of my vision, and didn’t move for a long while.
"No, that didn’t just happen..."
I just stared at my own hands, replaying the last ten seconds over and over, like enough repetition might somehow change the outcome.
Exhaustion caught up with me fast after that. The encounter with the general earlier, the punishment tent, the rotting man, the chase to get back here, everything that had happened in one single, brutal day finally settled into my bones all at once.
My eyes grew heavy despite myself, the shame and adrenaline both draining out at the same time, leaving nothing behind except bone-deep tiredness.
And somewhere in the middle of trying to think through my next move, sleep just took me.
~~~~~~~~~
I woke up disoriented. The tent was dark except for thin moonlight bleeding through the flap.
Jonquil wasn’t inside. Outside, I could hear the dull clash of weapons, warriors sparring somewhere in the night, voices calling out drills in that growling language I still hadn’t learned a single word of.
I sat up slowly, rubbing at my eyes, trying to figure out how long I had actually been out.
Then I remembered.
"The mission... Shit!" My stomach dropped before I even managed to focus on the countdown properly.
[PRIMARY MISSION: FAILED.]
[TIME LIMIT EXPIRED.]
"No, no, no-" I scrambled upright too fast, my head spinning as I stared at the notification like staring hard enough might somehow rewrite it. "No, come on, that’s not - I was busy, I had a reason..."
The System offered nothing. No leniency, no acknowledgment of my excuse, nothing at all.
"Fuck you," I muttered at the empty tent, at the System, at whatever cruel architecture had built this entire contract from the ground up specifically to break me. "Fuck. You."
[PENALTY ACTIVATING.]
My vision blurred at the edges, color bleeding out of the world fast.
Then it went dark entirely.
~~~~~~~~~
I woke up groaning, every single bone in my body screaming in protest. Sunlight was cutting harsh and unforgiving through the tent flap.
The penalty was worse this time. Much worse. The van had hit me ten times instead of however many it had been the first round, each impact stacking directly on top of the last until I genuinely couldn’t tell anymore where one ended and the next began.
My ribs felt fused wrong. My skull throbbed with a pain that pulsed in time with my own heartbeat.
"You fucking bastard," I rasped out at the ceiling, voice cracked and raw, barely recognizable even to my own ears. "Brutal. You’re just brutal. You are enjoying making me miserable, don’t you?"
"Screw you, asshole!" I gritted out.
I was alone, same as before, left to ache through the aftermath in complete privacy, like even my suffering wasn’t worth an audience.
After a moment, the System chimed again, businesslike, completely indifferent to what it had just put me through.
[ANGUISH SHOP RESTOCKED.]
**ANGUISH SHOP**
- Numbing Salve - 15 AP
- Healing Oil - 60 AP
[CURRENT BALANCE: 35 AP]
I hissed through gritted teeth, dragging myself upright enough to actually check the numbers properly. Not nearly enough for the healing oil, not even close.
[INSUFFICIENT FUNDS. COMPLETE DAILY TASKS TO EARN ADDITIONAL AP.]
**DAILY TASKS**
- Help a warrior - +20 AP
- Complete 50 push-ups - +10 AP
- Do not climax for 24 hours - +50 AP
I stared at the last one for a long, silent moment, then gritted so hard that my jaw hurt.
"This fucking system!" I muttered, dropping my head back against the dirt.
