“Did I keep you waiting?”
Severina’s voice was somewhat breathless as she walked into the bedroom, though she was attempting to maintain a look of composure. Jadis guessed she had probably powerwalked as quickly as she could through Aelius’ home while maintaining an air of dignity for anyone who might spot her hurried flight. No doubt she had rushed her meeting with General Voss as well, since she really hadn’t taken too long to get back from her errand. Still, Jadis was glad she had hustled, because the situation in the bedroom had reached dangerous levels of Kerr chaos.
“Damnit,” the therion muttered as she pulled Thea’s pants back up around her waist. “I was just getting to the good part.”
Thea, who was staring wide eyed at Kerr, took a moment to mouth a silent word of thanks to the Seraphim. When she tried to sit up from where the archer had pushed her down, Kerr sat down next to the shy woman and wrapped an arm around her shoulders so she could unabashedly cup her breast with her left hand. It was about as much restraint as Jadis could hope for, considering Kerr’s stated goal of CLR sixty celebration sex.
“Ahem,” Aila cleared her throat, only a hint of a blush coloring her cheeks. “No, you’re just in time. We’ve compiled a list of how many levels each of us gained in our classes. If you would like, we can go over how many you gained last night so we can compare.”
“I see…” Severina responded slowly, scowling lightly at Kerr’s antics. She shook the distraction off, though, and made her way to an open spot in the circle the group had formed on the floor and sat down on a pillow between Alex and Bridget. “Well, I have already counted out all of my level notifications. My gains were… considerable. More than I would have expected, even taking the death of the Demon Prince into account.”
“Oh! That reminds me!” Sabina cut in, her voice brimming with excitement. “Aelius told me that we have claim to a portion of the Demon Prince’s body and I want to get down there as soon as I can to help the workers who are cutting the corpse up! I can probably make sure we get good components if I’m directly involved in the effort rather than letting other people do all the work, even though it’d probably be easier to just let others handle everything, since Vinea’s remains have got to stink with how much hotter the weather in Glanum is compared to the south. That won’t be fun. But I still want to help!”
Jadis wrinkled her noses at the thought of the Demon Prince’s massive carcass baking in the sun for a whole day. Demons generally didn’t smell great to begin with, a byproduct of their bodies releasing pheromones that indicated their extreme anger and hatred towards mortals. A calm and unemotional Demon generally didn’t smell like anything at all. But since all the Demons that were slain in battle were boiling over with spiteful rage, they produced an unpleasant funk that was hard to ignore. Add in a day or two of decomposition, and Jadis was shocked the whole city wasn’t choking on the stench of death. Even without Vinea’s corpse in play, there had been literally tens of thousands of other Demons who were felled in the battle. The results were a literal biohazard.
This wasn’t the first demonic invasion the empire had dealt with, Jadis reminded herself. She’d seen the efficiency with which the army handled the mass of corpses after the battle of Far Felsen firsthand, and that had been in a backwater colony with limited resources. She was certain that the local military had protocols and plans to handle the influx of hazardous remains. Even if the Demon Prince’s corpse was probably stretching their capabilities to their limit.
“Tomorrow,” Jay said in answer to Sabina’s request. “We’ll find the time then, I’m sure. We’ve got a lot on our plates right now, but we’ll sort it all out.”
“Yes, we do,” Aila agreed. “I’ve been making lists, and our attentions are going to be spread thin for the next few days. Plus, more concerns could crop up as we proceed. That said, let’s focus on what’s important right now. Severina? How many new levels did you gain?”
Jadis noted a small amount of tension show in the Seraphim’s shoulders at the direct question. However, when Severina’s eyes glanced around the room and saw nothing but open and welcoming faces, she immediately relaxed. They were all in this together. She had nothing more to hide from the group, any more than they did from her.
“I gained seven levels in my primary, eight levels in my secondary, and twelve levels in my tertiary class. A total increase of twenty-seven levels.”
A few murmurs of appreciation rose up from the gathering, though the loudest reaction came from Kerr.
“Damnit again! You tied with me and Aila for second place. I was betting we’d gotten more levels than you.”
“That is… I gained twenty-seven levels in a single night,” Severina said flatly. “That is the highest number of levels I have ever gained from a single battle by leagues. I can think of only a handful of individuals who gained so many levels in so short a timeframe offhand, and they are all Heroes or Hero companions. Both of you also gained twenty-seven levels?”
“Yup,” Kerr answered flippantly.
“I probably would have gained more,” Aila grumbled with her brows furrowed. “I gained my tertiary class during the fight. If I had started the battle with it unlocked, I would likely have even more levels.”
Jay smirked and pulled her redheaded lover in close before planting a kiss on the top of her head.
“Cheer up, Blue. You got your tertiary class and then some! That’s fucking awesome!”
“Yes, it is,” Aila’s expression brightened instantly at the thought, to the point where the normally serious-faced woman looked as giddy as kid in a candy shop. She quickly smoothed out her smile to look less goofy, however, and turned her attention on Severina. “Kerr is correct. You are tied for second place with that many levels.”
Severina stared at the arcanist blankly for a long pause before seeming to stir herself with a ruffle of white feathers.
“Then, who gained the most?”
“Like you need to ask,” Bridget elbowed the Seraphim in the side. “Our giant always goes big.”
“Thirty levels,” Jay clarified when Sev turned to look at her. “Including the four I took in the middle of the battle.”
“I feel as though I should be outraged,” Severina mused, though her expression was far from upset. “That is an insane increase. Congratulations.”
“Thank you, thank you,” Syd said as she made a performative bow towards the group, causing a few laughs and claps from her amused audience. “I quite literally could not have done it without you all.”
“I wonder if others have gained so many levels,” Severina asked once the group had settled down. “There were many brave warriors on the battlefield last night.”
“Probably some,” Aila answered. “Certainly any who were directly involved in the fight against Vinea would be my guess. Those who contributed less to the Demon Prince’s death likely gained fewer levels, plus not nearly as many soldiers would have taken out the sheer number of enemy forces that we did.”
“Yeah, I’m honestly surprised I got so many levels,” Sorcha chimed in. “And I’m on the low end of our group. Aila, Kerr, and Jadis were slaying hundreds of Demons just on their own power. Not as shocking to hear them breaking records.”
“Imagine how many levels we would have got if we weren’t sharing the bonus experience with all those soldiers,” Bridget said wistfully. “Not that I’m complaining. I’m almost at my tertiary class, all thanks to that one battle!”
“We were truly blessed to come through the night with such great success,” Eir smiled, though her expression was a little dimmed. “There were many who were not so lucky.”
“I’d say we earned every level,” Jay put her other arm around her kindhearted priestess. “With our sweat and blood, we paid for each point of experience. I wish more people had made it through the night, but I respect the sacrifice of those who didn’t.”
Her companions murmured their agreement to Jadis’ words. It was true that they were celebrating, but the same couldn’t be said for everyone that day. Jadis didn’t know how many casualties the army had taken in the battle, but she doubted they were light.
Before melancholy could set into the group, Syd leaned forward and tapped the open floor between her and Aila, getting her attention.
“So! Prayers for the honorable dead later. We’re here for a different reason. Give us a breakdown. What are the totals for everyone and their class levels?”
Aila nodded once, then took up her journal and began reading out the numbers.
By compiling and going over the various levels everyone in the group had gained, a clear pattern emerged. Those who had participated the most in the battle, via killing Demons and fighting Vinea, had gained the most levels. Those who had taken a more passive role had not earned nearly as much, though no one had come away with less than a double digit increase overall. The ones who had gained the most were those who had a tertiary class, since those tertiary classes had all been low level at the start of the fight and thus had the most to gain from the ambient bonus experience points being awarded. The only outlier to the trend was Alex, who had gained the third most levels despite not having a third class yet. That was explained, however, by her Follower of Jadis passive skill, which increased the amount of experience points she gained by nearly a third, so long as she was near Jadis. Considering she had spent the latter half of the battle glued to Jay’s side, the pregnant Demon had received a large increase in her experience gain.
Jadis’ primary class, Mirror Knight, had started at level thirty-five and had gone up by a total of eight levels, equaling a final number of forty-three. Her secondary class, Perverted Ritualist of D, had also gained eight levels, pushing it up to thirty-six. The biggest increase for her was in her tertiary class, Progenitor of the Succubi, likely due to it only being level six at the start of combat. By the end, she had gained fourteen levels for her third class, a truly astounding number. When all the numbers were added up, her new CLR was ninety-nine, a single level shy of what was needed to be considered a true elite of the empire.
Jadis silently considered it a priority to get that final level as soon as possible, just so she could return to the capital and rub the silver badge of honor in Runar’s face.
Aila had gained six levels in her primary, twelve levels in her secondary, and nine levels in her tertiary, counting the initial level one that came from unlocking the third class. Her new grand total made her CLR eighty-one, which was still a ways off from one hundred, but not all that far, either. The imbalance between how much experience her first and second classes had gained likely came from the fact that she had been using her arcanist spells constantly, while Cart Driver hadn’t seen much use. That was actually a potential problem in Aila’s development, since going into battle was only netting Cart Driver experience if Aila received bonus points from slaying Demons. They were going to have to find more ways for her to gain levels in the menial class, just to make sure she didn’t start falling behind.
Still, Aila had unlocked her tertiary class, and chosen it during the battle, which was cause for celebration. Apparently, the choice hadn’t been hard at all for what had been made available to her, though she was keeping quiet about the details. Going by the sparkle in her eyes, Jadis was certain Aila had gotten her wish and received a bonded class. The full power of her selection, however, remained to be seen.
Kerr had gained eight levels in Nox Archer, seven levels in Far Wilds Traveler, and a whopping twelve levels in Bonded Slut Sniper. The therion’s secondary class wasn’t a true combat class, so Jadis presumed that was why she had gotten a little less experience points for it from the battle. Plus, Kerr had started out two levels higher than Jadis in her tertiary class, so that probably impacted her overall gain.
Kerr’s new CLR was ninety-eight, a detail that she immediately began to complain about. The fact that Jadis had exceeded her in level was simply not acceptable to the archer’s competitive streak, and she swore up and down that before they left Glanum, she would have a higher CLR once more.
Severina, the third to gain twenty-seven total levels, had gained seven in her primary, eight in her secondary, and twelve in her tertiary, which had brought her new CLR to an even one hundred. Aside from the fact that her total numbers indicated she had been level seventy-three before last night, only two levels higher than Kerr, her increases were nearly identical to the therion as well. Jadis guessed the similarities between them stemmed from the fact that they were so close in level, and had both been so strongly involved in the battle, both before and after slaying the Demon Prince.
While Sev quickly went over her increases in broad strokes, the exact details of her three classes were not discussed. Not because she was hiding them, but more to just keep the discussion from getting bogged down in her details. Everyone else knew everyone’s classes; it was only the angelic paladin whose particulars were unknown to the group at large. Severina was content to wait until they were going over her skill choices before divulging her details. There was one aspect of her status that had to be pointed out, though.
The new total of Severina’s classes meant that she was CLR one hundred, the first of their group to pass that vaunted goal. Of course, once that fact had been revealed, Kerr had started up with a whole new series of complaints which had only stopped when Syd had picked the green-eyed archer up and handed her to Alex, who immediately wrapped her up in her tentacles. Definitely a distracting sight, but a lot less distracting than Kerr’s whining.
After those three, Alex came in third place with twenty-six new levels. Eleven had been gained in Paladin of Jadis, while fifteen had been in Bonded Alex. The increase was staggering, boosting the Demon’s CLR from twenty-seven to fifty-three. In only seven levels, Alex would be unlocking her tertiary class. Considering Alex had literally been born less than a year ago, she figured that the meteoric rise had to be some kind of record. Then again, all Demons were born as adults and seemed to gain levels pretty darn fast. The drastic increase probably wasn’t as rare as she thought it was, when one took the Spawn of Samleos into account.
Plus, when Jadis took a second to consider her own situation, she herself had kind of been born less than a year ago, too, and her level was even higher than Alex’s. Maybe she was the true holder of the record for most levels gained in the shortest amount of time?
In any case, the position of fourth place was shared by two of their numbers. Both Eir and Bridget had gained twenty levels each. The only reason they hadn’t gained more was due to the fact that neither woman had a tertiary class unlocked, though both were extremely close to that goal now that the battle was over.
Eir had gained eleven levels in her primary class, likely due to all of the healing she had performed throughout the night. Beloved Cleric of Lyssandria wasn’t a combat class, so she didn’t gain anything from fighting directly, but Eir had performed her healing non-stop, bringing multiple people back from the brink of death, including Jadis and Kerr. That had to have had a huge influence on her experience gain.
Eir’s secondary class, Lustful Oracle of D, had gained nine levels, which was more than any of them had thought she would have received, since it was neither a combat class, nor was it a healing class. The only aspect of her Oracle abilities Eir had used during the battle had been her Oracle’s Emblem, which was more passive in nature than active. Still, Eir’s second class had started at level eleven, which meant it had benefitted greatly from all of the bonus experience, so the results weren’t too surprising.
Either way, everyone was excited for Eir, since her new CLR was fifty-nine. One level away from unlocking her tertiary class. No one could guess what the elf might get, but Jadis knew that it was going to be powerful.
Bridget’s new levels had, in a strange twist, come to her in an inverse of what Eir had gained. Lantern Light Landsknecht, her primary class, had gained nine levels, while Ardent Light of the Reborn had gained eleven levels. Aila speculated that the reason her secondary class had gained more levels wasn’t just because it was lower level to begin with, but because Bridget had landed multiple instances of Light the Target Up on Demon Prince Vinea. Casting that spell on something so much more powerful than herself had to count for something. Especially since the extra damage the spell had caused had been a critical factor in Vinea’s defeat.
Whatever the case was, the end result was that Bridget was at CLR fifty-eight, only one level behind Eir. Jadis had no doubt that the orc, too, would be unlocking her tertiary class during their time in Glanum. In fact, Jadis saw that as a greater priority than her own next level. Sure, she wanted to hit one hundred so she could be seen as a true elite, but getting tertiary classes unlocked for her lovers was far, far more important, both for practicality and from a morale standpoint.
The next highest levels gained turned out to be Thea. She had earned nine levels in both her primary and secondary classes, for a total of eighteen. Unlike Jadis and Aila, Thea had not thought to perform a mid-battle level up, so she had missed out on all the experience gain she would have otherwise received for her tertiary class. It was unfortunate, but no one could blame her. Thea had been on the front line almost the entire fight; pausing to look at her notifications just hadn’t been on her mind.
On the bright side, Thea told them that she had been offered four classes instead of the typical three, and that two of them were a real challenge to choose from. Apparently, they were both Bonded classes, which was the only reason why she hadn’t made a decision already. Jadis was looking forward to seeing the options her shy lover had been given, but Thea was again being cagey with her info. Just like with Aila and Severina, if she started talking about the details right away, they’d never get through the initial breakdown.
Sorcha had gained fewer total levels than Thea, which they all speculated had to be because her role in the battle had generally been far more passive than the others. She didn’t have a tertiary class, either, on top of the two she did have not being especially low level. Garden Herbalist had gained six levels, likely entirely from bonus experience, while Villatic Wand Witch had gained nine levels. With an overall increase of fifteen levels, Sorcha’s new CLR was fifty-seven.
The goblin witch didn’t complain about her lesser gain. Fifteen levels was only half of what Jadis had earned, but it was still a massive boost for just a single night’s work. Plus, at CLR fifty-seven, she was only a stone throw away from unlocking her tertiary class as well. Including her, that meant five of their number had either unlocked or would soon be unlocking their third class. Depending on how things went, Alex could unlock her tertiary, too, which would mean six new classes all together.
The only person to gain less levels than Sorcha had been Sabina, which came as no surprise to anyone. The smith had barely participated in the fighting and didn’t have any combat classes to begin with. She hadn’t even been nearby when they had slain the Demon Prince, which meant she had missed out on that experience boost as well. Still, Sabina hadn’t come out of the night poorly. Her primary class had gained five levels, while her secondary class had gained eight, for a total of thirteen. The half-elf’s new CLR was forty-seven, which was more than respectable.
Still, Sabina was the only one of their group who wasn’t at least close to unlocking their tertiary class. Naturally, Jadis promised her favorite smith that she would be doing all she could to power level her in the coming weeks, just to make sure that Sabina wasn’t left behind. Sabina waved the concern off, explaining that she was the only one who was able to gain levels just by crafting in her workshop, though she appreciated the concern and would absolutely be taking Jadis up on the offer. Not even Sabina would turn down a chance at free levels so she could bury herself in her enchanting work.
Once everyone’s total level gains had been laid out and everyone understood where they were as a whole, the question became a simple one. Whose new stats and skills were they going to look at first?
“I think Jadis should go first,” Aila put forward as she tapped her pen against the journal she had in her lap. “It makes the most sense, logically.”
“What?” Syd frowned at the suggestion. “But I want to hear about your and Thea’s new classes! Ever since I found out about them, I’ve been dying to hear the details. Don’t make me wait even longer!”
“No, Aila is correct,” Eir sided with the arcanist. “The boosts we gain from Lewd Lover’s Bond make a difference in our potential skill and spell choices. Considering the levels you have gained, it would be best that we make our selections after you do.”
“Exactly,” Aila nodded her head firmly. “Our ritual boosts are still in effect until later tonight, so we should all wait until after Jadis makes her choices to help insure the best possible options. Except for you, Severina. Since you haven’t participated in the ritual yet, it wouldn’t make a difference.”
“I see,” Sev looked thoughtful, though her cheeks were turning a bit pink. “Maybe I should… wait to review my levels until after Jadis and I…?”
“Go for a quickie in the bathroom?” Kerr sniggered at the thought. “Don’t forget, even if Big Stuff uses her skill to shorten the ritual, it’ll still take half an hour. Are you really going to make us all sit here and listen to your screams and moans while you get your pussy filled with all of that—”
With a nod from Dys, Alex shoved a tentacle into Kerr’s mouth, silencing the menace once more. It was a temporary measure, since the irrepressible archer would turn the act into something even more sexual if Alex didn’t remove the tentacle after a few seconds, but it did the job.
In any case, Kerr’s suggestion clearly wasn’t what Severina had in mind, considering the increase in color that came over her pale cheeks. Fortunately for her, Aila came to her rescue.
“We could save your review for last, if you like. Maybe even do it tomorrow, in the morning, after we’ve all had our time with Jadis. We do need to refresh our bonds tonight, after all. You can perform the ritual with Jadis then.”
When the flushed Seraphim glanced over at Jay and saw the grin on her face, she quickly looked away.
“That sounds… acceptable.”
“We know who is going last, then,” Bridget commented while trying not to laugh at the bashful woman sitting next to her. “And I think we’re all agreed that Jadis goes first. Can we get to it, or is there anything else we need to discuss beforehand?”
When no one spoke up, Jadis nodded her three heads.
“Alright then. Where do I begin…”
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