“Banished!” Sam yelled across the plains in frustration after reading the notification.
Your party has banished Daemon Succubus, Cypress Delamentia [Level 123]. She will be unable to return to this plane for 1000 cycles. Bonus experience earned for defeating an enemy 80 levels or more above your own.
Cypress Delamentia has sworn a blood oath to slay Samantha Alecto Moura [S.A.M.].
The enemy was automatically looted.
Loot Received:
138 Platinum; 2350-Gold; 6270-Silver; 32356-Copper; Succubus Heart; Onyx Horn x 2; Succubus Pheromone Extract; Succubus Tail; Potion of Desire x 5.
Your title, A Grade Above, has been upgraded to Grade Breaker. You have defeated two foes a grade above your own. An extremely rare feat indeed. Your title, A Grade Above, has been replaced with the title Grade Breaker for this achievement. Plus, 25% to all base stats. Your presence will intimidate any hostile being or creature 100 or fewer levels above your own. Friendly beings or creatures 100 or less levels above your own will treat you with the respect you have earned. Additional positive effects have a high chance of occurring when fighting enemies 80 levels or greater above your own. Other evolution options will be available upon your first evolution.
Sam was impressed with the new title but still pissed she hadn’t killed the damn succubus or Cypress Dela-fuck-stick as she would now be referring to her. “And she swore a blood oath that was apparently recognized by the System! I didn’t even know that was possible!”
After a few deep breaths, Sam calmed down enough to think clearly, "Maybe I can buy immunity from her blood oath or something because, damn, that bitch was loaded!" She read through the list of items again and couldn’t help but wonder what the pheromones and desire potions did, “Hmm, I might have to check those out with some consenting adults,” she thought, with visions of being the main attraction at an all you can eat Sam buffet.
Those thoughts put Sam in a happier state of mind. So, sitting up awkwardly because of Lupie, who still refused to let go of her, she shifted the Bloodmorph into her lap. Giving Lupie a little squeeze, she said, "You need to assign any of your free points if you get them and check your notifications, baby girl."
“Can I do it here? Like we are now?” Lupie asked. Her voice muffled from where her face was buried against Sam’s neck as she held onto her like a drowning person to a life ring.
“Of course, you can,” Sam assured her before checking her level notifications, thankful she had learned how to stop the annoying chime that came with each one.
Race Human/Voidling Hybrid has leveled to Level 42, with 7 free stat points received.
Class Arcane Pathfinder has leveled to Level 44, with 10 free stat points received.
Race Human/Voidling Hybrid has leveled to Level 43, with 7 free stat points received.
Class Arcane Pathfinder has leveled to Level 45, with 10 free stat points received.
Race Human/Voidling Hybrid has leveled to Level 44, with 7 free stat points received.
Class Arcane Pathfinder has leveled to Level 46, with 10 free stat points received.
Sam skipped to the end of the list. They were still all naked and exposed where they were, and she wanted to get her points assigned quickly. She knew the fight could have been heard for kilometers, so the quicker they were on their way, the better.
Race Human/Voidling Hybrid has leveled to Level 51, with 7 free stat points received.
Class Arcane Pathfinder has leveled to Level 53, with 10 free stat points received.
"One hundred and seventy free points," Sam thought and excitedly started assigning them. This time, though, she put fifty-seven points into agility. The daemon woman had been so fast Sam couldn't even see her move, and it was only by luck she had managed to get her barriers up in time. Sam knew they only survived because the woman had been playing with them. Had Cypress wanted to kill them outright, there was no doubt in Sam's mind that they would all be dead. So, along that line of reasoning, she bolstered her agility, which served the dual purpose of increasing her speed and perception.
Sam distributed all her other points as usual, focusing on magic and keeping up with her strength and vitality. Choosing 'Yes' when prompted, Sam shuddered in ecstasy as the System strengthened her, then tried her best to shake off the orgasmic waves, which were a little awkward since she was still in her birthday suit holding a nude monster girl in her lap.
To distract herself from her wayward thoughts, Sam checked her status.
Samantha Alecto Moura [S.A.M.]
Race: Human/Voidling Hybrid; Mortal [Level 51]
Class: Arcane Pathfinder [Level 53]
Title(s): Grade Breaker
Health: 4655
Stamina: 4146
Mana: 12740
Attributes:
STR – 125 [163]
VIT – 143 [200]
END – 111 [155]
AGL – 169 [220]
INT – 170 [221]
WIS – 207 [476]
Free Attribute Points 0.
Abilities:
Spatial Inventory
Loot
Linguistics
Cartography
Mana Manipulation
Void Manipulation
Mana Sight [Level 49]
Class Skills:
Mana Repair [Level 34]
Mana Caster [Level 33]
Racial/General Skills:
Identify [Level 31]
Rebuild [Level 11]
Meditation [Level 32]
Void Infusion [Level 9]
Class Spells:
Arcane Bolt [Level 29]
Kinetic Dampener [Level 21]
Racial/General Spells:
Void Bolt [Level 8]
Hybrid Skills:
Magismith [Level 7]
Hybrid Spells:
None
Resistance(s):
Pain [Level 53]
Heat [Level 20]
Poison [Level 49]
Cold [Level 25]
Mental [Level 7]
Void [Level 14]
Sam's first thought when she saw how much more powerful ten levels in her race and class had made her was, “Parish is going to faint if she ever sees my stats!” That set off a round of uncontrolled giggles as she imagined that exact scenario.
Sam's mirth caused Lupie to pull back to look at her with a smile, saying, "We are much stronger now…all of us."
Her statement made Sam check her party menu to see how many levels Lupie and Nul had received and, “Holy shit! That’s a lot of vital energy!” She exclaimed when she read the Bloodmorph’s status.
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The Defeated [Summon of S.A.M.]
Race: Lupine Bloodmorph; Elite; Unique [Level 48]
Class: Bloodmorph [Level 47]
Blessing(s): Void Touched [Epic]
Title(s): Grade Breaker; Death Runner
Health: 12310
Stamina: 8132
Mana: 4955
Attributes:
STR – 178
VIT – 459
END – 235
AGL – 294
INT – 154
WIS – 196
Abilities: 2/10
Blood Manipulation
Void Compatibility
Class Skills: 2/7
Blood Recovery [Level 24]
Void Coating [Level 11]
Racial/General Skills: 3/7
Final Push [Level 19]
Identify [Level 6]
Stealth [Level 16]
Class Spells: 3/5
Blood Harvest [Level 11]
Blood Spike [Level 9]
Void Spike [Level 10]
Racial/General Spells:
Howl [Level 5]
Resistance(s):
Void Magic [Level 30]
Blood Magic [Level 77]
“Damn girl, I bet you could outrun a Lambo now with final push active,” Sam said after seeing her friends nearly three hundred points in her agility attribute.
“I do not know what a Lambo is, but I will race one if we encounter it,” Lupie said seriously, getting a chuckle from Sam.
"Maybe someday," Sam told her. She noticed Lupie also received the upgraded title, which meant she would hopefully get a special option when she evolved.
Sam then checked Nul's stats next, she figured the slime would have benefited the most from the battle since it had been the lowest level. She was right.
Nul
Race: Void Slime; Collective [Level 28]
Class: Void Mage [Level 26]
Title(s): A Grade Above
Health: 1477
Stamina: 800
Mana: 2836
Attributes:
STR – 43
VIT – 83
END – 44
AGL – 50
INT – 121
WIS – 123
Free Attribute Points 0.
Abilities:
Slime [Level 7]
Void Manipulation
Void Sight [Level 9]
Class Skills:
Void Infusion [Level 1]
Void Step [Level 12]
Racial/General Skills:
Identify [Level 9]
Class Spells:
Void Bolt [Level 10]
Void Tunnel [Level 10]
Racial/General Spells:
Summon Lesser Beast [Level 1]
Fae Portal [Level 2]
Resistance(s):
Cold [Max]
Pain [Max]
Poison [Max]
Mental [Level 3]
Spirit [Level 32]
Void [Max]
Sam noticed the new spell ‘Fae Portal’ and said, "Nul, we need to talk after we set up camp tonight.” She needed to discuss the day’s events.
“Okay,” was all the little slime said.
"Also, how about we avoid picking any more death flowers until we are a lot stronger," Sam added, then asked, "Speaking of death flowers, where did you get this one?" She pulled the Carmine Death Blossom from her inventory and held it up to Nul.
A portal opened, and Sam saw a crater on the other side where Cypress had forced her way out of the ground. Taking that as a cue, Lupie hopped off Sam's lap and helped her up. They all stepped through the portal.
Looking into the crater, Sam could see dozens of broken runes scattered about what looked like an enormous black sarcophagus with its lid blown off. The man still inside the giant onyx box caught her attention. He was obviously a beast man with bovine features, with cow horns sprouting from the sides of his head. He looked no older than twenty, with light brown hair covering his exposed skin. He wore green robes and had a brown staff lying beside him. Sam would have thought he was only sleeping, except she had already touched him with a mana thread, and a loot notification confirmed he was dead.
Hopping down into the crater to lean over the side of the sarcophagus, Sam asked the man, "What happened here? Did you sacrifice yourself to seal that daemon away centuries ago, only to have a curious Nul undo everything instantly?" After a brief mental struggle about raiding a tomb and desecrating the dead, Sam decided to loot the body. Death blossoms took centuries to bloom, so she figured if anyone was looking for him, they would have already found his body. Plus, looting didn't destroy the body, so she planned to store it in the event she found his family at some point, although she thought that was a long shot.
Bovalin; Rune Carver [Calric] Level 117 Items:
298 Platinum; 3763-Gold; 2890-Silver; 15-Copper; Bovalin Heart; Ivory Horn x 2; Staff of Binding [Epic] charges 1/3; Robes of Greater Rune Carving [Epic]; Ring of Mana Regeneration; Stud of Greater Storage; Potion of Desire x 2; Full Health Potion x 1; Full Mana Potion x 2; Scroll x 7.
"Damn, those two were loaded!" Sam said, reading the loot items and snatching the storage item from the air. “So, you are a Bovalin then,” she said to the body, “for what it’s worth, I hope you can rest easy knowing Cypress was banished for a thousand cycles.” Sam had no idea why she was talking to the dead Bovalin. It seemed like the right thing to do.
Sam stored the body and checked the bottom of the black sarcophagus for additional items. Finding none, she turned to climb out of the crater when, on a whim, she tried storing the sarcophagus itself. To her surprise, it disappeared into her inventory just like everything else, revealing another body hidden beneath it.
"Now this is getting interesting," Sam said, staring at the female Bovalin buried beneath the male. She looked young, the same as the man, but instead of robes, she was outfitted in steel plate, and instead of a staff, she had a massive battle axe across her chest. Sam had a lot of questions already, and this development added even more. “Why did the male have two Potions of Desire on him? Did he trap the succubus in the casket with him during a battle? Now that I have found a third person, was it a lover’s quarrel gone wrong? Also, where did he have the Stud of Greater Storage?” Examining the sizeable silver stud in her hand, Sam nearly dropped it when she realized what it was. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me! The dude had a dick piercing as his storage item!?” She laughed, thinking, “I guess that’s one way to deter thieves!”
“So, what about you? Do you have a piercing, too?" Sam asked the female Bovalin as she touched her with a mana thread to loot her.
The Bovalin woman sucked in a deep breath and bellowed out a pained cry sounding very much like a cow from Earth.
Sam nearly had a heart attack when the woman moved. Leaping out of the crater, she formed barriers between the group and the Bovalin. Mentally screaming at herself, "You just couldn't let well enough alone, could you?!? That's right, Sam, wake up the other evolved being in the scary crater of death! What's the worst that could happen? Shit, I'm stupid! What the fuck was I thinking!"
Nul opened a portal to their left, and Sam wasted no time pushing Lupie through as she followed right behind. Just before the portal whooshed closed, the woman in the crater called out, "Help, please."
Sam was left staring where the portal had just closed trying to convince herself the woman had not just called out for help. She looked at Lupie and asked, "Did you hear her say something?" The monster girl nodded slowly. "Should we help her?" Sam asked. She was conflicted; on the one hand, the woman was likely just as powerful as the succubus and could probably wipe the floor with them if she wanted. On the other hand, they had just leveled up a good bit, and helping the Bovalin might provide them with a powerful ally.
“We are more powerful now…” Lupie shrugged noncommittally.
"We are…" Sam said, slowly trailing off as she thought. "Let's see, she didn't immediately attack us, which is good. Could she have, though? My skill said she was in full health, so why should she need our help? She's obviously a warrior, so maybe some type of magic keeps her pinned where she is? What to do, what to do."
Sam already knew she would help the woman and was just delaying the inevitable. She was so curious about what happened between the three that it was almost a tangible ache in her gut. “I guess we all know what curiosity does, but dammit, I have to know what happened!"
"Nul, please open a portal back to the woman," Sam finally said, stepping through when the slime complied.
The Bovalin hadn’t moved, lending credence to Sam's assumption that she was trapped magically. A closer inspection with mana sight proved she was correct. Hundreds of small floating runes cocooned the woman's body. The runes looked like bands of glowing text as they slowly circled around the woman in every direction.
“Please help me…” The Bovalin woman pleaded. It seemed that she could only move her large brown eyes and lips.
Sam jumped back into the hole in the ground and crept close to the woman, careful not to touch any of the runes. She asked, "How do I dismiss the spell holding you? And do you swear not to harm my companions or me if I do?"
"Upon the ancestors, I swear that you and yours will see no harm by my hand," the woman said, sounding weaker with each word.
Banta Carlis has sworn an ancestral oath to not harm you or your companions for three days.
“Didn’t Nara say there weren’t binding oaths with this System? Maybe she was just misinformed,” Sam thought after reading the message.
Sam figured three days would be enough to get to the Naga's tribe and hopefully safety should the Bovalin decide to be hostile after she found out Sam had essentially desecrated Calric's corpse. So, she asked, “What do you need me to do?”
“You must hit the runic bindings with a powerful spell to disrupt the pattern. That will give me an opening to free myself,” The Bovalin Banta said, then quickly added, "I would advise you not to be near me when you do this."
"Okay then," Sam said and leaped out of the crater. She told her companions the plan, and Lupie morphed into her wolf form when Sam suggested they may need to flee quickly. Nul bounced onto Sam's head, and she mounted Lupie. Sam briefly considered putting on any clothing that wasn't ruined but dismissed the idea figuring if her plan went to shit, her clothing would likely be destroyed in the process.
With a mana thread aimed over the crater's edge, Sam sent the most powerful void bolt she thought prudent, blasting toward the trapped Bovalin. The instant Sam released the void bolt, Lupie activated Final Push, and they raced off at an impossible speed.
Sam couldn’t help but feel a rush of adrenalin as the force of Lupie’s acceleration pushed her back into the blood saddle. “Screw the Lambo! She needs to race a freaking fighter jet!” Sam thought as the ground became a blur, and her vision tunneled from the insane acceleration and speed of the Bloodmorph.
A muffled wump sounded behind them, and after a few more seconds, Lupie slowed to a stop. Looking back, Sam saw a small cloud of dust floating off from where the crater was in the distance.
"Wow, Lupie, you were moving fast!" Sam was impressed with how far they had traveled in just a few seconds. "Okay, I guess we should head back and see if this one tries to kill us," Sam instructed her steed. She reminded Nul, "Remember, no portals Nul. I don't think she could see you use the one earlier, and I don't want to give away all our tricks just yet."
Sam did her best to mentally and physically prepare for anything as Lupie trotted back. When they arrived, Banta stood a few meters from the crater with her back to them. She was staring into the sky, leaning against her axe handle, its broad head resting on the ground.
Banta didn’t turn or acknowledge them when they approached. So, Sam had Lupie stop within speaking distance from the woman. They all stood there for a few minutes, not talking. Sam was about to tell Nul to portal them out of there when Banta finally spoke without turning, “Who defeated the succubus?”
“We banished her,” Sam replied honestly.
That got the Bovalin woman’s attention. She turned to regard them with interest. "Humph, she must have been weakened from the centuries of captivity," Banta said, turning back to stare into the sky again.
It riled Sam a little when it was apparent to her the Bovalin woman had no intention of continuing to speak to them. She had saved the woman after all. A simple thank you would have been nice. So, against her better judgment, Sam said, "You're welcome, by the way."
Instead of saying thank you, Banta said, "I assume you have my brother's body stored somewhere. If so, then by all means, keep his clothes, coins, and equipment as recompense for your brave deeds. Why would I want to give him a proper burial by fire, as is our custom?"
Sam could feel the sarcasm dripping from the woman's voice, and it pissed her off even more. She knew Banta was probably trying to goad her into something, but she didn’t care. She snapped back at the annoying woman, “Look…Banta, I don't know your customs, in my customs, people typically say thank you when someone performs a helpful action when they weren’t required to. Also, I do have your brother's body. I was going to try to find his next of kin out of respect for his sacrifice! So, since you're here…"
Sam deposited the sarcophagus on the ground between them, followed by Calric's body. Stepping away, she told Nul to open a portal as far a distance as was safely manageable, and the three of them stepped through.
“Wait!” Banta called after them, having turned and seen what Sam had done.
But Sam was in no mood to deal with another e-grade at the moment, so she flipped the bird and said, "Fuck off," just as Nul closed the portal.
“Um…Mistress,” Lupie said timidly, “Do you think it was wise to anger that lady?”
"Oh, absolutely not," Sam responded, still a little pissed at the Bovalin's attitude after she released her from what was likely centuries of captivity. Then she sighed, suddenly tired, and said, "Flipping her off was pretty cathartic, though. I just hope she doesn't try to kill us." she grinned mischievously at Lupie, continuing her thought, "I really don't feel like killing another e-grade for a while."
“You are right,” Lupie nodded with surety, “We are much more powerful now. If she comes for us, we will eat her ass!”
“Kick,” Sam laughed, “We will kick her ass…why would we eat her ass?”
“Because we will kill her and eat her!” Nul said happily.
"Yes," Lupie agreed, "the rump is most tender too! I wonder what she tastes like…it makes me sad the daemon was banished, and we didn't get any meat from her."
“Oh, I’m sure that woman was toxic. But, since both of you were so awesome today, I think I will cook something extra nice for dinner tonight, so let's find a good camping spot.” Sam said to end the conversation. Checking her map, Sam couldn't believe it! "Nul! You portaled us nearly thirty kilometers! How can you even see that far?"
"Levels," Nul responded.
"Well, in that case," Sam said, looking around, "let's head for those small hills over there." She pointed to a grouping of grassy hills a few hour's walk from their position. Her map told her they had portaled parallel to the direction of the Naga's tribe, so they were now even farther away than before. She didn't care, though, and was happy they had survived.
Thankfully, there wasn't an angry e-grade barreling down on them. There was no doubt in Sam’s mind that if Banta wanted to, she could cover the thirty kilometers in minutes. So, Sam was mostly comfortable, thinking the woman didn't intend to harm them.
Lupie transitioned, and they assumed their usual positions, heading for the cluster of rolling hills in the distance at a casual pace.