Chapter 524: Chapter 521: Bedroom Blitz

Agdistis

After a significant rewrite. I spliced two chapters together into one massive chapter.

Never again...

“This feels so odd…”

Sorcha’s tone was a mix of wonder and worry as she watched the glowing limb that was slowly solidifying into existence on the end of her cut leg. Just as Jay had predicted, the limb regeneration spell Eir was using on the goblin was far from grotesque. In fact, the effect was beautiful, in a strange way. A little odd, but beautiful.

As soon as Eir held her hands over Sorcha and began channeling the spell into her, a translucent outline of the witch’s missing leg had appeared. At first, it was barely visible, little more than a phantom that had no more substance to it than a vague memory. However, as the seconds passed, the phantasmal limb grew increasingly visibly defined. Not just visible, though. The edges of Sorcha’s leg sparked and sparkled, like a miniature light show made in colors of gold, silver, and green. The effect was almost mesmerizing, and Jadis found she had a hard time looking away, as did many of the others.

Despite the distraction that the regeneration served as, there were two in the group who remained mostly focused on a different task.

Bridget and Aila had moved to sit side by side, their heads close together as they whispered quietly between themselves so as to not disrupt Eir’s concentration. The magister had her journal between them and was writing down fast notes while Bridget did most of the talking, with the orc occasionally pointing at the page to make a correction. Jadis kept an eye on the two, more than capable of splitting her attention thanks to her multiple bodies and refracted mind, so she managed to catch a lot of what they were saying. She chose not to interrupt since the decision on how she wanted to review her levels was ultimately up to Bridget, though she had her own thoughts she wanted to bring up once Sorcha’s healing was complete and attention had moved on to the warrior and her new levels.

“Does it… Hurt…?”

Sorcha glanced up at Alex, her eyes wide.

“No, not really. It’s kind of like… that feeling when your leg goes numb because you’ve been sitting on it for too long. Not quite pins and needles, but that feeling right before that, you know?”

“I do not…” Alex replied, genuine confusion in her voice. “Pins… And needles…?”

“I guess that might not be something Demon biology does,” Jay murmured as she watched Sorcha’s steadily solidifying new leg. “Huh. I wonder if that’s because of how your nerves work… Or is it an Alex specific thing? Your natural regeneration is so high, your body might not even let your limbs go numb from something as pedestrian as inactivity. Might need to do some tests for that.”

“Weird,” Kerr murmured, having taken up a position adjacent to the elf and goblin so she could view the regeneration up close. “If Alex can’t go numb, that means she can’t give herself a fake fondle, huh…”

“Do I even want to know what in the blessed Father’s name you are referring to?” Severina gave Kerr an offended look.

“Probably not,” Kerr grinned without looking at the other woman. “I’ll show you later though, for fun. Oh! Look! It must be almost done!”

The archer’s exclamation was accompanied by an increase in the surging sparks of light that ran up and down Sorcha’s new leg. For a few seconds, the effect was nearly blinding as the magic reached a crescendo. Then, soundlessly, the lights vanished and all that was left behind was a completely solid, perfectly formed leg.

Slowly, Eir’s hands lowered to her sides as she stared at the shiny green limb. Her dark purple eyes didn’t blink as she spoke, almost as though she was afraid that if she looked away, her work would disappear.

“How do you feel, Sorcha?”

The goblin witch was as still as stone, not even breathing as she, too, stared at her new leg. She made no attempt to respond, her big eyes just as unblinking as Eir’s were. After nearly a minute of silence, Eir lifted her gaze and called out to the smaller woman again.

“Sorcha?”

Letting out a slight exhale of held breath, Sorcha shifted. With deliberate slowness and great concentration, she caused the big toe on her regenerated foot to wiggle. Once.

“Oh… Oh my gods, it worked,” Sorcha gasped. Her gasp soon turned into a laugh as she wiggled more of her toes. “I can feel that! I—I’m doing that! It worked!”

“Praise Lyssandria,” Eir beamed as she clasped her hands together in front of her chest. A moment later, she lunged forward and wrapped the goblin up in a powerful hug. “I’m so happy for you!”

Sorcha’s response was muffled by Eir’s chest as she leaned into the embrace. As Jay shifted forward so she could put her hand on her goblin lover’s back, she could feel the mix of happiness and relief exuding from the tiny woman. Her laughter was occasionally wracked by a sob as she cried tears of joy into her healer’s arms. With a look at Alex, the Demon smoothly moved out of the way so that Jay could pull both Eir and Sorcha into her lap, wrapping them both up in her strong arms.

“Take as much time as you need,” Jay whispered.

It wasn’t until maybe fifteen minutes later that Sorcha had recovered enough that she pulled out of Eir and Jay’s embrace and began walking around the room to test out her new limb. There were still a few tears in the corners of her eyes, but they were happy tears, and no one embarrassed her by calling further attention to them.

“Looking good!” Kerr clapped as the goblin did a few hops and kicks. “Just like the original!”

“Better than the original,” Sorcha laughed somewhat breathlessly as she did a little twirl. “I used to have a mole right here, above my ankle. And a scar on the back of my heel. They’re both gone! And it’s not just cosmetic, either. My leg feels… I don’t know, bloody good! Light and strong, like it’s in perfect condition! Better than new!”

“Wow,” Kerr exclaimed as she watched the witch balance on one leg. “You make it sound too good to pass up. Maybe I need to lose a limb too, since an Eir grown one works so well.”

The look the red-skinned elf gave Kerr caused the archer to throw her hands up in immediate surrender.

“Just a joke! I like all my arms and legs exactly where they are.”

“As you should,” Eir said primly before reclaiming her seat in Syd’s lap.

With that, everyone began to settle down again, though it took Sorcha another minute of flexing her toes before she finally took a seat. When she did, Sabina scooted up next to her, holding the living tree branch that had been shaped into the form of a goblin’s leg in her hands.

“Do you mind if I hold onto this?” the inventor asked as she waggled the false limb in front of Sorcha. “I want to see if there’s anything I can learn from it from an enchanting perspective so I can make my own prosthetic limb ideas work better, since the one I made for Severina had a lot of help from High Priest Doru. I mean, a lot of those runes were his runes, not mine, I just copied them, but maybe I’ll come up with something better if I study this tree limb. Oh! It’s a pun! Ha!”

“Uh… yeah, go for it,” Sorcha nodded along to Sabina’s excited rambling. “All yours.”

There were times when Sabina’s exuberance was impossible to divert and the woman simply had to release all of the ideas built up inside of her. However, much to Jadis’ surprise, once Sorcha had given her permission, the smith simply grinned and settled back in her seat, clutching the prosthetic leg to her side. Glancing up at Jay, she motioned expansively before speaking.

“This really has been a great day, hasn’t it? Now it’s Bridget’s turn! I’m excited to see what she got!”

“Ah,” the orc startled at the sound of her name, looking up from the journal held in Aila’s hands. “Yeah, I’m ready. Nothing to get too excited over, we should be able to get through this quick.”

Dys let out a frustrated breath before leaning over and flicking the warrior on the side of her head. The act drew a look of ire from Bridget, but Dys simply shot a stern look back.

“I know what you’re doing.”

“What?” Bridget asked defensively.

“You’re trying to make it seem like your skills and levels aren’t as important as the others. Stop it.”

“No, I’m not,” Bridget protested, though her tone wasn’t particularly convincing. “I’m just saying I don’t have anything super exciting to report. I mean, I didn’t unlock a tertiary class, and I don’t have a bonded class either, so I don’t have anything crazy going on. Definitely nothing like a spell that can replace body parts. I’m just being realistic about what I have.”

“You’re being self-deprecating,” Dys spoke in tones that would brook no argument. “This isn’t a contest, and we aren’t doing this to put on a show. We’re making sure that everyone feels like they’ve made the best choice possible so we can help and support each other. Please stop trying to sell yourself short.”

“I’m not doing that,” Bridget mumbled, not quite able to meet Dys’ eyes. “I’m just… being realistic, like I said.”

“Aila?” Jay addressed the redhead while Dys stayed focused on Bridget. “What’s your take on her skills?”

“Some are the progression passives one would expect based on previous choices she’s made,” Aila answered with her usual blunt honesty. “However, some are really quite powerful, interesting, and unique. This Flame Aegis is of particular interest.”

As Jay turned from the magister and gave Bridget a look, Dys prodded the orc directly.

“See? If Aila thinks what you have is good, then you know it’s something to be proud of.”

“I’m not not proud of what I’ve accomplished,” Bridget furrowed her brow. “Just, don’t get me all built up like this, alright?”

“Alright,” Dys settled back slightly. “But you need to know—”

“I know,” Bridget looked up at her and smiled, genuine warmth in her expression. “I know.”

After a few seconds of silence between them, Bridget blinked and cleared her throat while quickly leveraging herself to her feet.

“Anyway, the whole reason I was trying to push on was because of time, and here I am arguing with you about shite that doesn’t matter! C’mon, let’s just go over my stuff real quick-like and we can move on.”

“There’s no rush,” Eir said reassuringly. “We can take as much time as is needed to discuss your options and what’s best for you.”

“Yeah, I know you say that, but look.”

As she spoke, Bridget stalked over to the far wall where the windows were and roughly shoved aside one of the blackout curtains. With the thick material out of the way, Jadis could see that the sky beyond was orange with the fading light of a setting sun.

“I know it’s only been a few hours, but it feels like we’ve been doing this for weeks,” Bridget exclaimed as she let the curtain fall back into place. “It’s literally almost night! If we keep going at the pace we’ve been, we won’t have any time to do, you know, anything tonight, even with Jadis’ new weird sleep aid thing.”

“That is… actually a good point,” Syd said as she stared at the sliver of sky she could still see through the curtain Bridget had messed with. “I mean, even practically speaking, if we don’t do some fucking soon, we’ll have to do full rituals rather than just recharges.”

“Could you have possibly worded that more crudely?” Severina asked.

“If I tried,” Syd shrugged with a lopsided grin on her face. “Let’s see…”

“Not an invitation!”

“And not the point,” Bridget said as she sat back down on her cushion. “Aila and I have my skills lined up. I really don’t think it’s worth too much discussion, because the choices look obvious to me. I’ll go over them, and I think you’ll agree. Alright?”

Jay grinned wryly, then nodded.

“Go for it.”

With Aila’s help, Bridget immediately began listing out her status sheet details so that everyone knew what her attribute values were to start with.

With that out of the way, she launched directly into the options given to her, with a focus on the selections she felt were best. In a way, she was right, at least when it came to her primary class; the choices Bridget had been given for Lantern Light Landsknecht weren’t crazy or amazingly powerful. However, they were far from weak, either. Half of her ten available options were attribute-boosting passives, so for Bridget it came down to a choice between a stat increase or a skill of some kind. The active and passive skills won out for the most part over the attribute boosters. However, when it came to the warrior’s last choice, some debate had to occur.

“That Combo skill is great,” Jay said after Bridget finished reading out the skill’s description. “That will make you and Thea even more powerful on the battlefield. It’s just a shame it specifies lantern attacks, otherwise I’d be tempted to replicate it for myself.”

“I know,” Bridget concurred. “It’s great that it’ll help protect Thea, though. I saw that and knew I had to take it, no hesitation.”

“Th—thank you,” the shy woman in question smiled warmly at Bridget. “You shouldn’t take it just, ah, for me, though.”

“I’m not,” Bridget smiled back. “It helps me, too. I’m just happy it helps you at the same time.”

“So, the fifth selection…” Jay drawled as she leaned forward.

“Right,” the orc slapped her knees. “Now, like I said, it was between the Strength attribute increase or one that splits between Agility and Fortitude, so I was thinking that I should—”

“Forget those,” Dys interrupted Bridget. “You should take the Knight’s Daring Charge.”

The dark-haired warrior frowned as she met Dys’ earnest gaze. Shaking her head, she argued her disagreement.

“I need more attribute boosts. There’s a reason I’m being given so many of those as an option. Just look at the difference between you and me. My stats are miles lower.”

“I am not a good point of comparison,” Dys countered easily. “With all the crazy shit I have going on, I don’t think anyone but someone like the Hero can be fairly matched against my stats. You’re also only a couple of levels away from unlocking your tertiary class. I don’t have a shred of doubt that you’re going to get something amazing. You’ve seen what Thea and Alex have been getting with their bonded classes in terms of stats, yeah? Don’t waste a valuable skill slot on a ten-point increase when you’ll probably be getting way, way bigger boosts from your third class in just two levels.”

When Dys finished speaking, Bridget turned to look at Aila, who shrugged with a small smile on her lips.

“I told you.”

“Okay,” Bridget said after a long sigh. “When you’re right, you’re right. I’ll switch up to the charge.”

“Good,” Jay grinned. “You’ll love it. I’ve made so much good use out of that skill myself. I’m glad you got the option, too. I guess Landsknecht counts the same as a Knight class, at least in some respects.”

The skill was an exact copy of the charge skill that Jadis already possessed and had been putting to good use ever since her arrival in Far Felsen. While it wouldn’t be as powerful in Bridget’s hands as hers, since Bridget’s Agility was nowhere near as high, it was still a great speed boost that would help the warrior get into battle faster when needed.

“It’s probably for the best,” Bridget commented as she stared off into the middle distance, clearly looking at the invisible menu’s only she could see. “It pairs well with an active skill from my secondary class I want to take. I was thinking stats were more important right now, but that speed boost will help me pull the attack off.”

“Sounds exciting,” Jay said. “Looking forward to hearing what your new powers can do.”

There were more options to review for Bridget’s secondary class, Ardent Light of the Reborn, since it had gained more levels. Six slots to be filled and twelve choices to potentially fill them. Fewer of the available options were attribute boosts, only three in fact, yet the selections felt even more obvious than with Bridget’s primary class. Stamina boosters and spells to light up an area were alright, but nothing the warrior or their team as a whole were in need of. Bridget’s first favored selection, however, was a passive that Jadis sincerely appreciated on two completely different levels.

“Now that’s what I’ve been looking for,” Kerr grinned as she slid down next to Bridget and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Some nice, casual lewdness to start the day. Any skill that gives you an excuse to get naked is a winner in my book.”

“Glad you approve…”

“It’s an extra forty points in your Endurance stat, basically for free,” Jay agreed with Kerr. “And looking at it another way, it’s a built-in reason for you to lie around doing nothing at least once every three days to make sure you recharge the effect.”

“That is a way better point,” Bridget grinned widely. “I like this skill.”

“I bet you do,” Kerr purred. “Now, when you’re lying out in the morning sun, unclothed so that your glorious, sexy, oh-so-curvy body is completely exposed to the world, I want you to remember this: basking means you can’t do anything too active. Fucking doesn’t have to be vigorous.”

As Kerr spoke directly into Bridget’s ear, the orc’s green cheeks flushed to an increasingly darker shade.

“Just a thought for later.”

“Ahem,” Aila cleared her throat. “Bridget still has some more skills to discuss, Kerr, and we don’t need your distractions taking up any more time.”

“Of course!” Kerr replied happily. “The sooner we get done with our levels, the sooner we start fucking like rabbits in spring. Please, continue.”

It took Bridget a few moments to recover from whatever thoughts had wormed their way into her head thanks to Kerr’s teasing words. Once she had a second to calm down, she launched into the next few skills she had lined up. One was an attribute boost that was too good for her to pass up, since it was the highest straight increase she had seen from either of her classes thus far. The other two were more interesting and thus made for obvious choices.

Staunching Sear didn’t offer healing, but it was an emergency health aid that Bridget could use on herself in situations where Eir wasn’t nearby. The initial blow wasn’t always what killed a person in battle; more often it was the subsequent blood loss. Having a way to stymie that loss all on her own was something Bridget couldn’t rightly pass up as an experienced warrior.

Light the Way was just a plain good utility spell, no argument. Eir, Kerr, and Sorcha had no trouble with night vision; however, everyone else was blind without a source of light. Well, not Alex, Jadis supposed, but Alex relied more on other senses than she did her sight. In any case, having a spell that could give those who needed it the ability to see in the dark for twelve hours was a huge boon. The only potential negative that came with the effect was the fact that it would make the target’s eyes glow. Jadis wasn’t sure how much of a glow it would be, but if the description called it out specifically, she was sure it wouldn’t be minor. That meant Light the Way would likely interfere with Sorcha’s obfuscation spell. Unfortunate, but depending on the circumstances, worth it.

The last two skills Bridget had to discuss were the ones Aila had described as the most interesting, at least to her, and were directly linked to one another.

“Interesting that the second one is a skill while the first is a spell,” Jay mused once the initial commentary among the group concerning the two options had died down. “I wonder why that distinction is there.”

“Probably because it can be used without the Flame Aegis,” Bridget replied. When Jay gave her a curious look, she continued. “Well, I mean, it says I need to be ‘wreathed in flame’ not that I have to have Flame Aegis active. I guess I could douse myself in oil and light a spark. Same effect.”

“That is a terrible idea,” Sorcha deadpanned. “Please don’t do that or Eir is going to cry.”

“I’m not saying I would,” Bridget said quickly, her eyes darting to the worried look on the priestess’ face. “Just that I could! I mean—ah, bloody abyss, not like that. What I’m saying is, if we come across another means, a safe means, of me being on fire, I could use this skill. That’s all.”

While Eir continued to stare at Bridget with obvious worry, Jadis decided to toss the poor woman a bone and change the subject.

“Well, I think those two abilities make for a great combo. Especially since Flame Aegis offers you a whole lot of extra protection. Point two of your Arcane Attribute isn’t a small boost anymore.”

“You’ll definitely be a lot tougher to hurt on the battlefield,” Sorcha agreed, having caught on to what Jadis was doing. “That’s a, uh, what, sixty-point increase in both Fortitude and Resilience?”

“Sixty-six,” Aila added helpfully. “An excellent temporary increase.”

“Just make sure you don’t use that Fulmination skill when you’re next to any of us. I don’t want to be blown up.”

As all three of Jadis, Aila, and Sorcha slowly turned to look at Kerr, who was idly picking at her teeth with a claw, the unconcerned therion continued her thought.

“I guess you could explode when it’s just Thea next to you, though. She can handle the blast. And Eir can regrow her hair afterwards.”

There was a brief scuffle and a minor commotion before all was settled again. With Kerr once more tied up and gagged by Alex, and Eir suitably assured and consoled, the group at large was free to finish up with Bridget’s free attribute points.

With nineteen points to assign, the warrior ordinarily would have split them between her Strength, Agility, and Arcane stats. However, with Jadis’ new ritual to consider, Bridget’s point placement had to be rethought. Dexterity was her lowest non-zero attribute, which was a functionally useless stat for her since she didn’t use ranged attacks. Nor would it become more useful with time since she was trying to get ranged spells in the future, not learn how to chuck spears or toss knives. That meant she had to put free points into the unhelpful attribute just to make sure a more useful stat received the big boost Jadis’ ritual offered.

“Putting nine points into Dexterity feels wrong,” Bridget shook her head. “But I guess it doesn’t really hurt anything. If I ever do need to throw an axe or something, at least I’ll be a little more accurate.”

“True,” Aila agreed as she scribbled in her notebook. “Now, do you want Fortitude or Resilience to receive accession?  If you put one point in either, you’ll guarantee placement, and then you can assign the remaining nine points to one of your core stats.”

Bridget looked thoughtful for a long moment, her eyes on the ground as her mind worked at the question Aila posed. When she lifted her gaze, her expression had turned resolute.

“I want to work towards Agility being my lowest attribute so it can benefit from the ritual. That would be best for me in the long run. I’ll put three more points into Dexterity, then three each in Fortitude and Resilience. It doesn’t matter which of those two gets the benefit for now.”

“What about the last point?” Aila asked, making no objection to Bridget’s plan.

“Strength,” Bridget shrugged. “I won’t ever catch up to Jadis on that front, but I still want to beat out that slut over there eventually.”

The orc’s words were accompanied by pointing a finger at Kerr, who Alex had put into a particularly interesting position that required more flexibility than Jadis thought the woman had. Of course, Alex’s Strength wasn’t anywhere near high enough that she could force the therion to take a pose that she didn’t want to, but Jadis figured the Demon’s tentacles were probably guiding Kerr’s body into shapes that she wouldn’t have been able to find on her own.

“Good luck with that,” Kerr said after spitting a tentacle out of her mouth. “I could fold you like paper.”

“Says the woman who looks like a rope knot after a bad storm.”

There were a few more back-and-forth exchanges between the two, but after a couple of minutes the banter died down. With all of Bridget’s skill slots filled and her free attribute selections finalized, Aila confirmed the changes to her status sheet.

“I really am close to my tertiary class,” Bridget said with a hint of repressed excitement in her voice. “I thought it would take me years to get there. Maybe decades. Now I’m only weeks away. Maybe days.”

“Shooting for days,” Jay assured her. “There’s a lot of cleanup to do around Glanum now that we’re in the area. We’ll get you those levels.”

“Damn right,” the warrior grinned. Then, her expression shifted to a more composed look as she glanced around the room. “Enough about me. Who’s next? Sabina or Sorcha?”

“Sorcha,” Sabina helpfully supplied with a bright smile. “She got fifteen levels! I only got thirteen, which is a weird thing to say because thirteen levels in a day is a crazy big number, but somehow it’s still the smallest number out of our group, which I don’t mind at all because I didn’t do much fighting last night so I’m just glad I got as many levels as I did.”

“So… me then,” Sorcha stated after taking a second to process Sabina’s quickly spoken words. “Unless you want to just go for it? I don’t really mind.”

“No, you go!” Sabina waved her friend’s offer away. “I want to hear about your new options! And maybe we can review your wands, too? You should have a lot more room to make more wands now with all the attribute growth Jadis just gave you, so we need to come up with some new effects!”

“Right, we can do that,” Sorcha nodded, but then reconsidered as she glanced towards the curtained windows. “Well, maybe tomorrow. There’s no rush on the wands. Anyway, I haven’t done the math yet, but I should have…”

“Thirty-three wand slots,” Aila quickly supplied. “Unless your current Eldritch attribute is different from what my math says it should be.”

“No, I think you’re right,” the witch agreed after a second. “Here’s my current status sheet.”

“Right behind me,” Bridget murmured as Sorcha finished speaking. “I keep forgetting you have a higher level than me. Or, did have a higher level.”

“You can make way more wands than you currently have,” Jay said as she mentally reviewed what she knew Sorcha had holstered in her coat. “You really do need to make some more wands.”

“Sorcha will have some great options now!” Sabina exclaimed as she hugged the smaller woman. “Just think about all the potential rare resources we’ll be getting tomorrow!”

“I guess we’ll see,” Sorcha mumbled, her look distant as she thought about the possibilities. “I wonder what that karkinos shell can do…”

Before they got too engrossed in the discussion of potential wands Sorcha might be able to make given new materials, Aila prompted the goblin to review the skill options made available to her. Fortunately, Sorcha hadn’t been idle either and she had a good understanding of all the different choices she had available to her.

When it came to her primary class, Sorcha was in a similar position to Aila. Garden Herbalist was hardly combat oriented and none of the skills except for those that provided attribute increases were going to help with her power on the battlefield. At least, not directly. The one advantage Sorcha had over Aila and her Cart Driver class was that Garden Herbalist was finding some use in the green house Jadis had set up at the Fortune’s Favored compound. Despite having two Dryads in the company, it was Sorcha who was doing the most to care for the many plants and herbs being grown since they were focusing on advanced farming techniques like hydroponics rather than just straight magic enhancement. All that was to say, Sorcha’s herbalist options weren’t mere throwaways.

The two skills Sorcha picked out for her twenty-fifth and twenty-seventh skill slots were simple upgrades to passives she already possessed. Despite the strangeness of the wording, they were improvements, and they would find use in Sorcha’s day-to-day life outside of the battlefield.

A third improvement to a passive she already had was also made available to her, but since soil preparation wasn’t as important to her now that she was focusing on hydroponics, Sorcha didn’t take the skill. Instead, for her twenty-nineth and final unfilled Herbalist skill slot, Sorcha chose a new skill that looked like it would provide far more value.

“Now I just need some magic plants,” Sorcha chuckled to herself. “I mean, real magic plants, not just the healing types we have.”

“I’m not sure what qualifies, but I bet Tegwyn and Meli will have some ideas about where you can get plants like that,” Jay suggested.

“A Dryad would have to know about the good stuff,” Bridget laughed.

“And with the airship, we can reach locations where rare growths can be found with great speed,” Aila commented absently. “We won’t even need to worry about transportation…”

“Then those are my choices,” Sorcha confirmed. “I won’t bother with the attribute passives, not the ones I’ve been offered, anyway.”

“No more skill slots?” Dys asked, just to make sure.

“I went from twenty-four to thirty in my primary,” Sorcha answered with a half-shrug. “That’s three slots.”

Kerr made a mumbled innuendo, but since she was partly gagged by Alex, Sorcha ignored the comment and moved on.

“I had a lot more growth in my witch class. Five available slots, and I’m positive I know what skill I want first.”

“Damn,” Aila cursed. “That’s a shame it specifies wand spells. Otherwise, I would have loved to have a passive like that for myself.”

“Like I said,” Sorcha said with a sly smile, “this was a skill I had to take.”

“Doesn’t your staff give you the same effect?” Sabina asked, her head tilting to one side as she addressed Aila.

“It does,” Aila confirmed after a moment of thought. “Still, I’m sure they would stack. And even if they didn’t, it’s a passive, so I wouldn’t need my staff to receive the benefit. Sorcha is very lucky to get a skill like that.”

Jadis had to agree, especially since the skill’s naming convention indicated that it was the lowest version of the ability. In all likelihood, Sorcha would be getting access to better versions in the future. Jadis doubted the skills could make casting free, but her suspicion was that the Lesser version would be a point two discount, followed by a point three discount, and then so on.

That skill option had come from Sorcha’s level nineteen options, which were always good in Jadis’ experience. Even better choices were right around the corner, though, as level twenty-one often gave a big improvement to the staple ability of the individual’s class, or a fundamental shift that could broaden or narrow the functions that class was capable of. Jadis’ expectations were proven correct once Sorcha read out the first option made available to her for level twenty-one.

“Hold on, you can’t make attack spells?” Jay asked with surprise. “Like, at all? But you can paralyze me!”

“Yeah, I can, but that’s not damaging you. Your health isn’t being hurt, not directly.”

“Okay, that’s technically true. But still, you have, what, fourteen wands? None of them do damage?”

“None,” Sorcha shook her head. “And I have fifteen wands. They all do support magic. Hindrances to enemies, or stuff I use for gardening. Nothing that does direct damage. I’ve actually tried to make those sorts of wands many times. Just, whenever I do, they fall apart. I thought I was doing something wrong…”

“Apparently not,” Aila frowned as she studied the details of the passive skill she had written down. “Some skills, or even classes, have limitations that aren’t outright stated in the descriptions. I suppose this is one of them. At least you are being offered a skill that gets around that restraint.”

“Should definitely take that,” Bridget chimed in. “You need a way to directly defend yourself. Paralyzing and slowing enemies won’t always cut it.”

“Unless the other option is better?” Eir suggested. “While I agree that direct damage spells can be quite valuable, sometimes a class that focuses on pure support can be more powerful as a specialist.”

Jadis understood Eir’s argument; after all, the elf was living proof that her belief was true. The elven priestess was a massively powerful healer with no ability to cause harm to others. Sorcha was in a similar boat, though it looked like the system was giving her a way to expand if she wanted to. Jadis wasn’t sure that expansion was the wrong choice since she felt too much specialization could lead a person to dead ends, but there was nothing wrong with being completely dedicated to support spells either.

“Well, the second option I was given at that level is a lot different,” Sorcha explained.

“The cost being the breaking of a wand is kind of rough, but I suppose I could just use a cheap wand like the one I use for herb preservation. Those are easy to replace. Otherwise, it’s not a bad—”

“Do not take that spell!”

Sorcha flinched as she closed her mouth, shocked by being cut off so strongly. Jadis was surprised, too, especially since the one who had spoken out was Severina. The Seraphim had been quiet for a while, almost fading into the background, but her command was spoken with such conviction that it made everyone around her jump.

“Is something wrong?” Dys asked, addressing Sev directly while Sorcha took a second to recover.

Looking somewhat abashed to have caused such a rude disruption, Severina took a breath and started over in a calmer tone.

“Please, for your own sake, I highly recommend that you do not take that circle spell. I apologize for speaking out of turn; however, I cannot stress my concern more strongly. Do not take that spell.”

“Ah, sure,” Sorcha stared at the winged woman. “Is there, uh, a reason you’re so worried about me taking this Empowerment Circle thing?”

“Yes,” Severina spoke, her voice having returned to its usual cadence. “I did not mean to cause such a stir. However, I am very familiar with that class option. I have seen versions of it in my own family, as well as among others in my paladin order and the temples. The description is deeply misleading, to the point that my cousin, who has a version of this spell, considers it to be a trick played on him by Destarious.”

“That’s pretty extreme,” Dys frowned. “What’s so bad about it?”

“The issues are two-fold. The first is that the circle disappears once you leave it. Not a problem for a ranged mage occupying a defended position, but a serious liability otherwise. That issue is obvious, as it is outlined in the description. The second problem, which is not adequately explained, is that the level of empowerment is dependent on the value of the item sacrificed. Your idea to break a low value wand would work. However, the circle’s power would barely increase the effectiveness of your spells. To receive a true empowerment that makes the spell worthwhile, you would need to sacrifice one of your more rare and expensive wands.”

“That… actually sounds awful,” Sorcha winced at the idea. “Your cousin has to do that?”

“No. He is not a Villatic Wand Witch. Caius is a Spell Sword. He took a version of that spell that would empower his sword spells while within a circle. His circle is much larger than the one your spell describes, but the cost is far worse. He has to sacrifice a sword to power the spell. And since the empowerment is based on the value of the sword sacrificed, any time he uses the spell it costs him hundreds of coins. Since the price is so great, he almost never uses the spell at all.”

While Sorcha looked unhappy at the picture Severina painted with her story, the look on Sabina’s face was of pure, unadulterated horror. Turning to face her shorter friend, Sabina gave her a pleading look.

“Please, please don’t take that spell.”

“Not a chance,” the goblin agreed without a second of hesitation.

With her decision to take the attack spell modification skill to augment her wand construction, Sorcha had made the hardest choice she had to make when it came to her secondary class. The rest of her options were more straight forward and easy to parse. After brief discussion, the final three selections she made were outlined for the group.

“I still think you could probably just make a wand that does that decoy effect,” Syd not-quite complained about Sorcha’s choice. “Feels unnecessary.”

“I’m not a fighter,” the witch shot Syd a look. “Escape plans are important for someone who can literally be stepped on during a big battle. And I don’t want a passive boost to my Will, since that’s the one attribute I want your pervy ritual to increase. That crosses out the other options.”

“Alright, fair enough,” Syd sighed. “It’s not a bad spell, I guess. I just hope you don’t have to use it.”

“Me too.”

After her skill slots were filled, all that was left for the witch to do was assign her free attribute points. The calculations weren’t hard. One point each went into Strength, Dexterity, Fortitude, and Resilience, just to make sure her Will attribute was the lowest on the list. After that, Sorcha put ten points into her Focus, so she had more room to cast without relying on Health Oblation, and then the remaining three points went to her Vitality to help in the situations where she needed to use Oblation.

Sorcha’s final status sheet looked a fair bit different from how it had started, though not to an extreme degree.

“I guess that means—”

Sorcha’s words were cut off again as the half-elf sitting next to her excitedly tossed her arms into the air.

“My turn! Ah!”

In the process of expressing her excitement, Sabina apparently forgot that she still had Sorcha’s prosthetic leg in her left hand. The smith’s enthusiastic motion caused the hunk of wood to go flying through the air above everyone’s heads. Of course, with how fast Jadis’ reaction times were, her Jay self reached out and caught the prosthetic with ease before it could cause any harm. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop Sabina from lunging forward to try and catch the flying leg, and in the process, knock over her glass of tea along with a nearby pitcher.

“Sorry!” Sabina chirped as she started to use a blanket to clean up the mess. “Sorry!”

Before she could get far, Alex had released Kerr from her grasp and started wiping everything up with her tentacles. The efficiency with how quickly she cleared the spill from the floor was impressive, even for someone with superhuman speed.

“I will never get over how… domestic you can be sometimes,” Kerr commented as she eased back into her previous seat.

“Cleanliness… Is good…”

“You are such a mom, and you haven’t even given birth yet.”

“Not like my mom,” Sorcha mused as she watched the cleanup. “She couldn’t clean a plate. Bloody horrible housekeeper. Good thing my dad knows how to keep order in a home otherwise I’d have grown up living in a sty.”

Once the cleanup was done and everyone was settled again, Sabina took another shot at taking the lead.

“I’ve got eight free attribute points to assign, three slots to fill in my primary class, and one slot to fill in my secondary class! I actually already picked out everything I think would be best for me because a lot of it is natural progression but there was one skill in my secondary class that I wasn’t so certain about and I wanted to go over it with everyone before I made a decision so we can start there if you like, or if you want, we can go from the beginning. I’m not picky or impatient or antsy or anything so whatever works best for everyone else!”

“Shouldn’t you have four skill slots in your enchanter class?” Bridget asked in confusion.

“Ah, no, I already assigned some of the skills I wanted because I knew they were what I wanted, and it was easy to pick and also there was one I knew would be helpful right away. See? It’s been very helpful!”

Holding up the paper she had been drawing on all afternoon, Sabina showed off a highly detailed sketch of an enchantment rune. Jadis was used to a high level of detail and precision from the inventor, but she had never seen her draw anything so complicated as this plan was.

“That detail comes from a skill?” Jay asked.

“Yup! My new Enchantment Drafting Skill! It helps me sketch!”

Before Sabina could get rolling again, Jay held up a hand to stop her. Looking over at Aila, she motioned for the redhead to sit next to the smith.

“How about we get your skills written down, all the ones you’re definitely taking, and then we can discuss the one you’re not as certain about.”

“Of course!”

After a few short minutes of rapid talking and even more rapid scribbling, Sabina had laid out her entire selection of new skills. While Jadis wanted to make sure everyone got an equal amount of attention to discuss their new skill options, she couldn’t deny that Sabina was right. The choices were obvious. In fact, all three of the slots she was filling for her Passionate Smith class were the “lesser” versions of “minor” passive skills she already had.

The other options Sabina had been given were offshoots into different kinds of smithing and craftsmanship; useful, but not necessary. Far better for her to concentrate on improving the passives she already had rather than spreading herself too thin.

Sabina’s secondary class, Enchanter Smith of the Reborn, had far more interesting options, yet they were just as straightforward. Exactly as the excitable smith had promised, her selections were reasonable and Jadis could see no reason to criticize her choices. Especially since three out of four of the alternatives were attribute boosting skills that were decent, but not extreme.

Enchantment Drafting had no obvious potential for progression, but it was a simple and useful skill that would aid Sabina in her day-to-day work. The same could be said for both Flight Enchantments I and Repeat Enchantment Production I. Not only were they the kind of skill that could get stronger with higher levels, but they would also be a big help in the budding Ahlstrom Aviation business that Sabina was metaphorically carrying on her shoulders.

Once her already selected skills had been explained in detail, Sabina moved onto the one she had her doubts about. As she read the description out loud, Jadis found herself confused. Not because she didn’t understand the nature of the new skill, but because she couldn’t figure out what doubts Sabina held about the potential tool she could add to her arsenal of skills.

“I don’t get it,” Syd asked Sabina directly, since there was no point in being coy. “What don’t you like about that skill? Wouldn’t it be pretty useful to you?”

“Or is the alternative close enough in value that you can’t choose?” Aila added her own question on top of Syd’s.

“No, the other option I have is for improved enchantment tool mastery which is actually good but not super important for me to have. I mean, I could take it and I’d be happy with that but this skill would probably be better because I could use it to get some insights into the workings of some enchantments that are a lot more powerful than anything I’ve done so far.”

“Alright, then where is your hesitation coming from?” Jay echoed her other self’s question. “It sounds to me like you really like the idea of this skill.”

“Well, I do, but it’s also not super useful at the moment because we don’t have any rare enchantments for me to inspect right now anyway. Not without risking breaking them. Well, except for one, and that’s the malediction dagger we got back in Weigrun, and that’s a malediction and I’m not sure you want me to replicate an enchantment like that. Not that it wouldn’t be useful, but it does have some strong negative connotations tied to it and it’s kind of creepy and evil but it’s also the most powerful enchantment we have and maybe that means it would be worth it. I’m not sure. What do you think?”

While the answer was a mouthful, Jadis understood what Sabina was getting at. For one, the skill had no immediate use. For another, the only near-future potential it had involved the examination of an enchantment that, indeed, had many negative connotations. Not the least of which was the fact that the damned dagger had nearly killed Jadis. That was a huge reason why Jadis didn’t have a strong desire to use the weapon, even though she had it in her possession. The memory of that knife sliding though her was still a powerful one. There were times when she seriously considered destroying the malediction dagger, if for no other reason than personal catharsis.

Before anyone else could say anything, Jay leaned forward to answer Sabina’s plaintive question with an earnest expression on her face.

“You should take the skill.”

“Really?” Sabina asked, perking up.

“Absolutely. Immediate need isn’t the only consideration when it comes to selecting a skill. I know you know that, but I’m still saying it as a reminder to you. Anyway, you should take the skill so you can figure out how that malediction dagger works.”

“You want me to make more of those?” Sabina’s eyes were wide with surprise. “Or a big version, like an axe or a hammer, or maybe a—”

“Not really, no,” Jay interrupted her eager lover. “I want you to figure out how it works, so you can figure out how to counter it. If you made me and everyone else here some enchanted armor that a dagger like that one can’t get through, then not only would you be protecting us in the best way you can, I think that would also pretty much prove that you’re a master enchanter. Maybe even better than that Gold Hand guy who made all those weapons hundreds of years ago.”

As Jay spoke, Sabina’s eyes grew even wider as a hopeful vision of her future filled her mind. After a few seconds of silence, she leaned close enough to Jay that their noses were practically touching.

“You really think I’d be better than Sestolino the Gold Hand if I can make armor like that?”

“One hundred percent,” Jay nodded solemnly.

“I’m taking it!” Sabina let out a happy shout before kissing Jay soundly on the lips.

Pulling back, she began furiously sketching on the back side of the paper she had been working on, the outline of a new rune circle already forming.

“I’m going to need to see the dagger and work on it for a while and maybe disassemble it but I’ll try to avoid that if I can but also I’ve got this idea for a countermeasure already and also another idea for a way to look at it without breaking it and also—”

“Hold on!” Aila cried out as she desperately tried to snare the distracted enchanter’s attention. “What about your free attribute points?”

“Hm? Oh! Five in Resilience, two in Focus, and one point in Divine.”

“Divine? Why are you putting it there?” Aila questioned her, momentarily stymied by the fast-paced explanation. “That would make it your lowest non-zero stat, but you already have Jadis’ Lewd Lover’s Bond ritual to boost the magic attributes you need while crafting.”

“Yes, but now I can have two attributes that are high level at the same time! Well, Divine will only be forty-seven, but that’s still higher than nothing! I think it’ll help me with my enchantment crafting to have multiple high magic stats like that, though I’m not sure since a lot of high CLR enchanters are secretive about their techniques and stuff, but it makes sense to me and I want to try it since it’s free points anyway and I think it’ll work!”

Seeing that arguing with Sabina when she was in her inventor mode wasn’t going to get her anywhere, Aila just let out a sigh and jotted down the changes in her journal. Passing the leatherbound book around, they all got a quick look at the smith’s new status sheet that showed off the small changes that had been made. The only alterations to Sabina’s stats were the eight points she had hastily described to Aila, and the increase that came from Jadis’ lewd ritual.

“I guess that’s everything for now,” Aila said as the journal was passed back to her. “At least, until tomorrow, yes? You wanted to wait to review until then?”

Her question was directed at Severina, who nodded in confirmation.

“Yes, after we… perform the ritual.”

There was a second of silence as everyone in the room except for Sabina looked around at each other, a question in their eyes. It was Kerr who put voice to that question, in the most elegant way possible, of course.

“So. We fucking?”

“Yeah,” Jay grinned at her crude lover, though her next words contained a caveat. “Just as long as you can get this one here to put down her pen and join us.”

Hooking her thumb at the completely distracted half-elf, Jay’s words didn’t even cause Sabina to look up from her sketch as she continued to mumble under her breath.

A wicked, toothy grin spread across Kerr’s face. Moving to crawl forward on all fours, the stealthy therion stalked her oblivious prey.

“It would be my pleasure.”

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