“Uh oh,” I muttered, squinting at the filet medallion sizzling on my stove. Was that char or a burn?

“Uh oh?” asked Annie, looking up from where she was editing our JinJin video on her phone.

“Hah. You asked for well-done right?”

“Not unless I was ordering for my granddad.”

“Oh good. Where’s he at? Because I have a hockey puck ready for him.”

Annie giggled. I couldn’t resist turning my head a bit to watch what that did to her breasts. She’d thrown on a t-shirt and panties after our post-workout shower. We’d been, and still were, too tired to do much more than play around, but the way she was dressed had me tempted to try anyway.

“Akron, Ohio. Think we could mail it to him?”

I moved the burnt medallion onto my plate, placing it atop a bed of Mediterranean salad. I’d made the salad before I was working with my 3 dice penalty from the Exhaustion status effect, so at least the meal wouldn’t be a total tragedy.

“Just to be clear,” I said, “I’ll be the first to admit I’m no chef. But I am significantly less shit at this when I’m not so tired.”

Annie let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. “Oh thank God, being good at cooking would have sent you soaring out of my league. I was starting to feel self-conscious.”

“You? Self-conscious!?” I looked at her like she was crazy, openly eyeing her hard nipples poking through her navy blue Nittany Lions shirt. “You look in a mirror lately?”

“Have you?” She raised an eye-brow. “Pre-internet, they’d have built statues of you. I mean, James, you’d make Cleopatra feel self-conscious.”

“Cleopatra wasn’t my beloved senior student. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Annie hid her blush by looking down at her phone.

“Am I going to get hotter too? Been meaning to ask.”

“Probably,” I answered. “We should try to find a body thermometer, would be interesting to see what you’re at now.”

“No, silly, I meant am I going to get better looking? You were always a handsome guy, but now you’re like a painting come to life or something. It’s hard not to ogle, honestly.”

Ah, so the changes were dramatic enough to be noticeable now. It made sense, I was alarmingly good looking now, an oddity, enough to put people on edge. I was uncomfortably striking. Maybe I’d lean into the himbo thing as a way to make others more comfortable around me.

“Ogle away, my dear! I didn’t get into movies to avoid being stared at.”

“Mm, you say that, but you’d be surprised. It’s one thing to get attention when you’re trying to, and another entirely when all you’re trying to do is get through your day. I loved cheerleading for a crowded stadium – a hundred thousand people screaming at once was practically addicting – but I used to dread buying groceries in State College. You,” she pointed for emphasis, “are officially hot enough that you’re going to be dealing with hot girl problems now. Though…maybe without the catty fake friends and interpersonal drama.”

I glanced at Annie. I was lucky that she too had undergone similar changes to me, her hair was glossier than it was earlier this morning, pores were smaller, eyes brighter, etc. She would have believed my explanation regardless, being a total novice to the Martial World, but this way I could neatly wrap up the effects of our improvised Qi ritual on her body into my own dramatic growth.

It was going to be a lot harder selling this to my mother.

I shrugged. “It is what it is. I’m going through a metamorphosis right now, related to the Qi growth I assume.” That wasn’t even a lie; both were a result of the system. “Until I start seeing some outright downsides, I’m just along for the ride. It’ll slow down eventually. I’m sure you’ve noticed a few changes of your own.”

“Understatement of the year. I’m sure you’ve noticed a few of my changes too,” she added, wagging her eyebrows at me.

I finished plating our dinners; steak with salad and green beans for the main dish, with chopped up kiwi fruit and the leftover pomegranate seeds from the salad on the side for dessert. The filet medallions were bartered for training from Papes next door, and the pomegranate had been on sale, but if I kept eating like this I’d definitely be living outside my means.

Budgets – ugh, what a pain. In the other world, as Alan, I had finally established a level of financial security that let me feel like a functioning adult as I’d entered my thirties. Now I was back to mentally cataloguing the sales anytime I passed by a deli or grocer. I needed to figure out my money situation; the way I figured, I just had to make it to the North-East Qualifiers. I was sure I could place top four in the regional tournament with the way I’d been improving, if not win outright.

The Qualifiers weren’t the massive draw that the Black Harbor Martial Arts Tournament was. Casual viewers didn’t really tune into the Qualifiers in the same way, and among regional tournaments, it lacked the flair and production value of others. The real prize was the invitation to the big tournament, but they still had a decent pot for the top four. And if I could pull out a win, I’d make a clean $500,000, a life changing amount of money for me and hopefully enough to fund my training and adventures for a while. On top of that, just fighting in the Black Harbor Tournament would probably net me another hundred grand, which was the usual prize for last place. They hadn’t announced the total cash pot for this year yet, but last year the returning champ, Alice ‘Anaconda’ Alencar, had walked away with over eight million.

“I can’t tell if I’m too tired or too embarrassed to edit this right now,” said Annie, frowning at her phone.

She slid the device away as I brought our dinner over. I didn’t have a dining table or stools, normally just eating on my couch, so we were relegated to eating while standing at my kitchen counter.

“Embarrassed? I thought we did a good job for our first time.”

She shook her head. “We did. But it’s…” she trailed off, trying to put words to her feelings. “I watched this before our shower, and it looked to me like we’d done an incredible job, but watching the footage back now, it’s like I can suddenly tell it was my first time. And it’s painfully obvious that I didn’t actually know what I was doing.”

I nodded knowingly. I had used Annie’s Experience from today to buy her Martial Arts skill from 1 to 4 while I’d been making the steaks. There had been flashier options, but I wanted her to have a firm grounding in the basics of combat to build on. I wasn’t surprised to hear that she’d noticed. Annie had gone from an athlete to a Martial Artist in an instant. She’d likely been barraged by epiphanies while watching herself.

“That’s good. It means you were learning.”

“Learning a lot. People aren’t going to believe me when I tell them how effective your training is. How can I even put it in words?”

“When we make our next form video, you can refer them to the difference between the two. But if you really want to show off, just spar them.” I held up a fist. “Some things can only be communicated through the fighting. I’m sure they’ll notice at your Taekwondo class.”

She looked surprised. “You think I should keep going?”

“If you’ve got the time then I don’t see why not. You’re probably paid up for the month, right? Plus, your Taekwondo gym can provide something that I can’t right now – a community of fellow martial artists. Anyone who tells you the Martial Path should be walked alone is probably an unlikeable asshole. Fighting for people you care about is the easiest way to overcome a lack of willpower when training, and your survival instincts in a real life-or-death battle.”

Annie just smiled serenely and stared at me, fork paused mid-air.

“What? Too cheesy?” I asked.

“No! Nothing like that,” she said quickly. “That was wholesome and sweet. You’re just…” Annie trailed off, taking a big bite of her meal.

“I’m totally going to keep going to Taekwondo,” she said at last. “To brag about my new master if nothing else. Wait, you don’t think they’ll be awkward about that, do you?”

“Awkward about you learning a nonsensical stuntman style of fighting from some random guy in his backyard in Harbor Hill? Yeah, I think people might be biting back a comment or two.”

She slapped my arm and laughed. “Oh come on, I learned more from you in a day than I have in years.”

“I unlocked your unrealized potential, is all. The groundwork was all there already. It’s not like I could even push most people like I pushed you today. A not insignificant number of them would literally die.”

“Maybe,” she conceded. “As long as I don’t get you embroiled in another dojo battle.”

I winced. “Definitely good on those for a minute. But it’ll be fine. This isn’t 19th Century China, people move all the time for work and for school. It’s probably rarer in America for someone to only ever train at one gym or under one master than it is to not. My sister is ride-or-die Li-family Eagle Style, and even she has to train under someone else while at college. And Crystal literally walked out of a date because he wouldn’t agree that her future children would be taking the Li name.”

“Wow, that’s hardcore.”

“That’s insane. Who brings up kids on a first date?”

“At least it’s a good reason to break up,” she grumbled.

I grinned. “I hear a story there. Need to vent?”

“Believe me, I’ve done plenty of venting. It’s just, so, STUPID!” Annie looked chagrinned by the outburst. “Sorry.”

“But you definitely don’t need to vent, right?”

She rolled her eyes, but was smiling as she did. “It’s whatever.”

“Go on, spill the tea. I love gossip that doesn’t involve me.”

“You aren’t going to be weird about me talking about my Ex?”

“Of course not.” I paused. “Should I be? He’s not a martial artist, is he?” I groaned. “God, don’t tell me I’m going to have to battle a series of insane Ex-boyfriends.”

“No! And he isn’t going to show up looking for a fight if that’s what you’re asking.”

I shrugged. “Then why would I care?”

“I—" Annie opened and closed her mouth. “I don’t know. I guess I’m just realizing that I’ve never been with a guy who’s actually as confident as he first comes across. You really aren’t going to get jealous?”

“One,” I said, “jealousy is ugly. Two, if I can’t win the battle for a girl’s heart then I didn’t deserve to have her. And three, not to be an asshole or anything, but come on,” I put a hand on my chest, “look at me. I’m ridiculously attractive.”

“True.” She raked her eyes down me. I was wearing the same combo of t-shirt and underwear as Annie, though with boxers instead of panties. “We should have my roommate take some professional thirst traps of you for your socials. She’s a photographer, and she’d probably do it for free if you agreed to model for her portfolio.”

“I’m down to do her a solid. But like I’ve said, I have too much on my plate to care about growing my social media presence.”

She shook her head and patted my shoulder patronizingly. “God, you are such a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately for you, it’s basically a requirement to make it in the film industry. But don’t worry, I’ll make it painless for you.” Annie picked up her phone and shot off a few texts.

“Actually,” she said, “before we move on. Pass me your phone.” I did so, unlocking it for her. She held it up for a picture. “Pull your shirt up past the scars that guy gave you.”

I followed her directions. “Can you even see them? They’ve gotten pretty thin.” The scars from Kuze’s vicious attack had faded considerably from when they’d first healed, still visible in the right lighting, but significantly reduced. That was a shame, they’d looked cooler before.

Annie tapped away on the screen before holding it up to me for approval. It was a draft for a post, a picture of me inspecting the scars with a caption that read, ‘All healed up!’. “What do you think? A lot of the comments under the fight were people asking if you were alright, so it should do pretty well.”

“Sure,” I shrugged, “looks fine.”

“Great,” she said, posting the image and handing my phone back. “Anyway,” she said, returning to her dinner, “I won’t make it a whole story, because I really am over it. Mostly.” Annie stabbed her fork through a piece of steak with particular gusto. “To start, I’ve only had two real boyfriends, so there will be no series of Exes. You’re actually the only guy I’ve had casual sex with.”

I grinned smugly. “Pshh, nothing casual about what we did. That was a pro-level dicking, amirite?” I put my hand up for a high five.

Annie laughed and returned the high five. “Oh my god. You are such a guy. Anyway¸ as I was saying, I’ve only had two boyfriends. My first was in high school. We dated for three years and we broke up because he got caught sucking his best friend’s dick at a prom afterparty. Which was, let me tell you, not great for a girl’s self-esteem.”

“Oof, brutal. Someone else caught him?”

“And then drunkenly proceeded to tell me loud enough that everyone heard. Which led to a public argument, that led to his best friend yelling that he’d fucked him first, better, and, wait for it, on my birthday.”

“Jesus.”

“It was the most humiliating moment of my life.” She sighed and inspected the ceiling pattern for a moment.

“Cut to college,” Annie continued. “I wasn’t in the best headspace for dating, naturally. All I wanted was a decent man who was genuinely interested in me. Damon was the first guy to shoot his shot. He was nice enough, and was a linebacker on the football team, so our crazy college athlete schedules lined up pretty well. We also had enough in common that we could have a conversation; the sports, obviously, but we were also both from small towns and his family reminded me of mine.”

“He wasn’t an ass, even if he did annoy me in a lot of little ways, so there wasn’t any reason to break up with him. He was also totally supportive about my dream to become the next May Wong. We even talked about the details for what we’d do if he got drafted to a place without a decent film industry. Damon would do a year or two there, and then try to get traded to a coastal team. They film commercials pretty much everywhere, so I could use those to get my name out there and we’d figure it out from there. It wouldn’t have been ideal, but by then I loved him and was happy to try.”

“So imagine how thrilled I was when he got drafted to the Divers! Perfect, right?”

I did a double take. I only followed football enough that I could keep up with the small talk, but even I recognized the name of our second pick at the draft. “Hang on. Your ex-boyfriend is the first string rookie linebacker, Damon Jennings? Sheesh, no wonder you thought I’d be jealous.”

“Trust me, James, you have nothing to be jealous of. But yeah, I dated Damon Jennings for four years. Want to guess why we broke up? I promise, it’s dumber than you’d think.”

I stroked my chin. “Hmm…I don’t know. Ominous tarot card reading?”

She barked a laugh. “Okay, maybe not as dumb as that. But it is more annoying. Although,” she quirked her head as if recalling something she’d forgotten, “he was weirdly superstitious out of nowhere…” She shook her head. “Basically, it all came down to the fact that Damon did not want me to live in the city. Well, he tried to make it about me, but he was obviously afraid of living here himself.”

“What do you mean? Where’s his ass living? The Divers train near North Shore. I know he can afford rent with his contract.”

“Princeton.”

I almost choked on my food. “What. Why? That’s like an hour with traffic. And there’s nothing out there. Place is a glorified golf club. At least live in the Greenbelt.” The Greenbelt was the term for the suburban neighborhoods that ringed the city. It was where old money lived, but Damon Jennings had a 1.8 million dollar a season contract, and it wasn’t that expensive.

“Black Harbor is too dangerous for a pretty woman, according to Damon. He said the whole area gave him bad vibes. We tried to go to an open house for a starter home in the Greenbelt but he wouldn’t even go inside.”

I scoffed. “Oh my god, what a fucking loser. It’s not the Gobi Desert, there’s five million people living here.” I stopped myself before I got heated. I was a fairly laidback guy, but I could get defensive about Black Harbor. Half the bad press the city got was from assholes who lived in the suburbs and only ever visited for the odd musical a few times a year. “Sorry, that was mean.”

“That’s alright,” she said with a laugh. “You don’t have to apologize for being a massive townie.”

“And I never will!” I said, pounding my fist. “But I don’t want to rag on him too much, the city is more dangerous than the suburbs. And there’s not much for an outdoorsman here either. Bad vibes though, that’s an interesting way to put it.”

“Yeah, but…”

“He should have respected your decision?”

“Exactly! If I want to risk my life chasing a dream, then I damn well will! And frankly, having grown up in the countryside, I love the city. For one, they don’t consider vegetarian ethnic food here.”

I patted her on the back. “Spoken like a true student of Black City Style.”

“Thanks.” Annie started to say something but thought better of it.

“If it makes you feel better, my Ex left me so she could become a cop.”

“Why?”

“Her family’s in the force, and the pensions are pretty good. If you aren’t a total dipshit with money you can retire in your forties.”

“No, I mean why did she have to break up with you?”

I tsked. “She realized I wasn’t joking about doing the Youxia thing. Technically, I guess, if you really, really want to be a stickler about it, calling yourself a ‘Wandering Vigilante’ is the same as describing yourself as a criminal.”

Maria had also told me that I was ‘stuck in the past, ignorant about the present, and careless of the future’. I told her to consider becoming a writer instead of a cop, which hadn’t gone over very well.

“Oh.” She pursed her lips. “I don’t want to rub salt in the wound, but that kind of sounds like a good reason to break up.”

“To join the notoriously corrupt Black Harbor Police Department?! Who cares?! Half those guys are mobbed up anyway!”

Annie put her hands up. “Woah, hey, didn’t mean to hit a nerve. I wouldn’t have broken up with you for the record. I also wouldn’t join the police force, but you know what I mean.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I waved it off with a smile. “It’s all good. Everything worked out in the end. I don’t have the time for dating anyway. Or the emotional availability if I’m being honest. Besides, I’m simultaneously too strong and too weak to walk away from this life. The only reason my mom can get away with her staunch neutrality is because she’s a badass, and even that wouldn’t count for much if she had ambitions outside of running her little school.”

Annie frowned but didn’t respond, opting to return to her meal.

We ate in comfortable silence as I let her collect her thoughts. I had a suspicion of what was going through her head. Annie was clearly a one-man, lock it down, kind of a gal. She wanted more from our relationship than casual sex and a master-student bond, but my Social feats and her own promises earlier were stopping her from pushing for more. I was hoping that between the regular orgasms and the intimacy of our deepening friendship, she would find contentment with the current status quo.

“Hey, James?” she asked, pushing the few remaining leaves of lettuce around on her plate.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve said it a bunch, but I just want to say it again, thank you. I’ve had supportive people in my life before, but you and Kas are the first people to treat me like I’m the person that I want to be.” She looked up at me. “The day I met you was the first day since the breakup that I didn’t have any lingering regrets, or consider getting a real job, even a little bit. And today…” She shook her head. “I won’t forget today for the rest of my life. I’ve never felt prouder of myself than I did training with you, and I know that without you, it wouldn’t have been possible. You make me feel like, like I’m…important. I’ll always be grateful for that, so, thanks.”

Annie bit her lower lip and leaned in a bit. Even the sterile basement lighting couldn’t diminish her perfect skin or the crisp blue of her eyes. Her hair, still slightly damp, stuck to her forehead in a way deeply reminiscent of our sweaty first time on the mudroom floor. My heart thudded in my chest and every masculine urge in my body screamed out to grab ahold of her and kiss her, to answer her emotional plea in kind. Was this what it felt like to be on the receiving end of a Seduction roll?

Sorry, Annie, your shifu has commitment issues.

I placed a hand on each of her shoulders. “I’ve never felt as certain in the future of Black City Kung Fu as I have today. I want to build a legacy with you, Annie Shine. I want the world to remember our names. I want today to go down in history as the birth of a new martial tradition. Are you with me?”

Pride swelled upon her face, watering her eyes and widening her smile. She nodded emphatically. “Yes, Shifu!”

[Hidden Quest Complete]

Resist a Seduction attempt.

Reward: 5 EXP, +1 Willpower

Bonus, Turned it down with grace: Gain a Social Feat from your Archetype selected by the Producers (Charmingly Thick)

[Minor Feat (Harem Protagonist)]

Charmingly Thick – Your thick-headed obliviousness towards romance, whether real or believably faked, is seen as charming rather than frustrating. People who flirt with you will never be so dismayed by a failure in this manner that they won’t try again later.

I chose to take the feat as a sign from above to lean into himbo mode. Although, this did mean that if I wanted to shut someone down, I would have to clearly spell it out.

“Good. But first,” I placed my plate onto hers. “I cooked so, you’re cleaning.”

She pouted good-naturedly. “Yes, Shifu.”

Kas ate yet another beer bottle to the face, his third in this scene alone and eighth of the film. As many times as I’d watched this, I still couldn’t tell if the director was doing a bit or if production just had a bunch of sugar glass bottles lying around. Even Kas couldn’t tell me, describing many elements of the filming as “fever-dream-esque”. Karate Konfrontation: Berliner Drogenkrieg was a good twenty percent just him being battered by increasingly bizarre means, and one of the strangest movies I’d seen. It was a travesty in basically every way, with the twin exceptions being that no one had died on set, and the stunts had been good enough to get noticed by Hollywood.

Annie yelled at the screen, “Stop throwing the bottles, man! They obviously aren’t working!”

“Just wait. They throw so many more goddamn bottles in this movie.”

“Hey! Spoilers!”

“I promise you, however many beer bottles you’re thinking, they throw more. It’s genuinely impressive.” Two hundred fifteen, for the record. That was more than a bottle every thirty seconds. I’d tried to make it into a drinking game, but I couldn’t figure out a way that didn’t guarantee alcohol poisoning.

Me and Annie were snuggled up on the couch, watching Kas’s breakout role from when he was still living primarily in Germany. There was plenty of room, but Annie had used the excuse of feeling cold to press up against me. Considering she was still in her panties I might have believed her if she hadn’t been radiating heat like a furnace.

“Wait. What is happening?”

“Yeah, the subtitles are reversed for this entire scene. They gave all of Hanz’s lines to Gertrude and all of Gertrude’s to Hanz.”

The movie was truly terrible, but in that way that made it impossible to look away; a 90 minute trainwreck. I must have watched Karate Konfrontation at least a dozen times. Showing it to someone new never got old, and one of my favorites memories was finally getting to watch it with Kas. It had been the only time I’d seen the man shrink in on himself.

Annie’s mouth dropped. “Is-is the dog talking?! Since when could the dog talk!?”

“Gertrude’s actress was bragging about how she’d trained her dog to move its mouth up and down on command. The director went crazy over this according to Kas, and demanded they write in a scene where the dog talked. They were supposed to show Hanz getting a concussion to justify it, but when they tried to shoot that, Hanz’s actor ended up genuinely concussed. For some reason they left the talking dog in the movie anyway.”

“Incredible.”

“I know, right? More people need to watch this! And yet Kas said he’d kill me if I posted it online.”

I yawned, not having felt this tired for a while. Beyond the physical Exhaustion, activating Annie’s Qi, unlocking my Qi Nature, and the Dual Cultivating I had worn out my Qi network and was starting to feel a soul-deep ache. Annie wasn’t fairing much better, I could feel as much through our skin to skin contact, but the movie was shockingly stupid enough to keep her awake and attentive.

“What the fuck? He died from that fall? We saw him get hit by a train earlier. That was like twenty-five feet!”

“That was a different character. The same actor plays three guys in the movie. I’d say that their supposed to be related, but one of them was a waiter and the other two were hitmen.”

“Ha! Hey, you never know, they could still be triplets. Maybe there’s an intense family drama happening in the background.”

“The waiter was in yellow face.”

“He was clearly adopted.”

“Yeah? Do you think his parents happened to find an Asian baby that looked like their existing kids and had to adopt him, or they went looking for one specifically?”

“The latter. It’s the weirder option and therefore the only one that can exist in this universe.”

We were coming up on the climactic ski-karate duel. Since they had been relatively underbudget towards the end of production, the director had scrapped the original planned fight in the villain’s underground base for an elaborate fight scene in the Bavarian Alps, essentially buying himself and the crew a week and a half vacation on an investor’s dime. Berlin was hours by flight from the Alps and it wasn’t explained how any of the characters got there, but that wasn’t important. Also unimportant: the explanation for what a ski-karate duel was, why it was happening, or how winning one would result in a victory for the renegade drug officer Hanz.

Finally, we hit the last line of the movie. Officer Hanz ripped off his ski mask to reveal a perfectly coifed head of hair, then scooped up a palmful of snow and buried his face into it.

“Cocaine!” He exclaimed in German. “He’s hiding his drugs in the snow machines!”

Then, a black screen.

Annie was leaning forward, both arms up in the air. “WHAT! Are you kidding me?! No! That’s how it ends!?”

“Yep. They radically underestimated how much it costs to send twenty people to the Alps for a week and a half. Couldn’t even afford the credits.”

She flopped back onto the couch and covered her face. “Oh my god, Kas built a career off of this. It explains so much about him.”

“Honestly, watching it again I kind of want to build an entire martial art off of it.”

“Ski-Karate?” she asked skeptically.

“No. Although, maybe. I meant the vibe. I want Black City Kung Fu to be as equally confusing and unpredictable as Karate Konfrontation, but I don’t know, it can be hard to reach for that level of weird when your life is on the line.”

“Huh. It’s a pretty high bar, for sure.”

Annie stretched like a cat, her shirt riding up to reveal a bit of her toned abdomen. “What other movies are you using for inspiration? Outside of the classics, that is?”

I checked the time. Annie was opening tomorrow, but it wasn’t too late currently. We could do another movie.

I gestured to the DVD rack. “Take your pick. They’re all gold. People are sleeping on Cuban action flicks though. I know they’re contraband to import and all but that’s no excuse with internet around.” I got up and spun the rack, finding one of my favorites. “This lady, Imelda Cancel, she’s nuts. She’s this Afro-Cubana who says she’s preserved her family’s style of proto-capoeira from pre-colonial Africa. I don’t know if it’s legit, but there’s definitely something there to be explored.”

I awoke to the generic DVD sleep screen, a little logo for the player bouncing off the edges of the television, and Annie curled up against my chest. We had fallen asleep on the couch. It was always quiet in my basement apartment, but the near total absence of sound meant that streets nearby were clear of cars driving. I didn’t need to check my phone to know that it was deep into the night.

I had been played, clearly. Annie had insisted on a third movie, likely knowing that this would be the result. She’d even brushed her teeth before we started it using the basic toiletry kit in her gym bag. That had been a red flag at the time, but I’d assumed that the system would keep me from falling asleep unplanned. I hadn’t even noticed an Endurance check, though I suppose I hadn’t been trying all that hard to stay up. Annie was a living space heater and by that point in the night, virtually every muscle hurt.

My body was still sore, indicating that I hadn’t slept enough for a Recovery Check. My Qi Network, though, had at least stopped feeling like an overstretched and inelastic rubber band. It was far from baseline, but where my muscles were yelling out for more rest, my Qi was politely asking.

I slid my arms around Annie and used my Three Python Force Technique to support the rest of her while I carried her to my bed. I kept her in more or less the same position the whole way using Telekinesis. She didn’t so much as shift restlessly in my grasp. It would be insane to kick her out at this time of night. A part of me had wanted to establish staying overnight as a boundary for our relationship, especially so early on, but it was what it was.

She was hot, unbelievably so. If I didn’t know what was going on I would have assumed she was feverish. I pulled the blanket over us as I climbed into bed with her, but it felt like a formality, almost unnoticeably compared to Annie’s warmth.

I cradled her in the little spoon position, drawing a faint, unconscious moan from the woman as I did. With my Qi having settled down a bit, I could feel more than her flesh. Annie’s dantian was like an inferno. I’d thought that it would calm down with time, that its increased activity was a cascading side-effect from the way that I’d awoken her Qi, but the opposite seemed to be occurring. Instead the food in her belly and however many hours of sleep she’d gotten had kicked it back on.

I extended my conscious perception into her Qi network. My male energy was a welcome guest and I received no resistance. On the contrary, her Yin energy immediately began to tug on my Qi, teasing and tickling it like it was trying to lure it onward.

My skills with Erotic Sorcery and Medicine were telling me that Annie’s Qi was continuing to change her body, but the effects were subtle, far beyond my ability to investigate without tools or preparation. All I could know for certain was that something was happening at a sub-cellular level, and it was happening to every cell in her body.

Why was Annie’s Qi so much more energetic than mine? We had the same Nature, and I had far more raw power than she did. And yet, I sincerely doubted I could mimic what was happening to her now intentionally. It was unlikely that it was natural talent, or else she’d have noticed her Qi on her own before she’d met me. Was I subconsciously stopping my Qi from acting on my body like that? No, I was sure I would have at least felt it try.

It had to be an effect of how I’d activated her Qi, there was no other plausible explanation. Or at the very least, it was a confluence of that and the other factors. These weren’t lewd mutations though; my Erotic Sorcery could easily track those now that I was ‘inside’ her like this. I could perceive and intuit the changes that had occurred during our training session. Her nervous system had been re-wired to feel pleasure from basically every point on her body, in differing degrees depending on the location, her musculature had been improved to specifically be able to handle sex for longer, and there was a dozen or more smaller changes that all added up to a better experience for her and her partners.

Whatever was happening tonight seemed to be changing her at a core genetic level. I didn’t think it was a negative, her subconscious self was clearly guiding the changes, but it was something I’d have to keep an eye on. Unless things started getting really crazy, I was absolutely not asking my mother about it. I’d still be hearing about that improvised Qi ritual on her death bed.

With it resolved for now, I let myself relax, but I didn’t withdraw from her Qi network. This would have taken conscious effort to maintain before yesterday, but my Erotic Sorcery skill made a world of difference. Just like I didn’t need to concentrate to idly levitate a coin anymore with my 3 dice in Telekinesis, 5 dice in Erotic Sorcery meant I could casually read Annie’s Qi when touching her.

Sleep was bearing down on me, pushing my body deeper into my mattress, but I wanted to explore my Erotic Sorcery some more before I let it take me. Strangely, as I felt my mind approaching the dream state, I gained a similar awareness of Annie’s. It helped, probably, that her own dreams were so clearly of an erotic nature.

There was a pink cloud surrounding my student’s consciousness. I could have delved deeper, but I could sense that doing so would be an endeavor, with the potential for catastrophic failure. I wanted something simpler. Without entering her dreaming mind directly, I could still see flashes of silhouettes of what was going on. Which was me, primarily.

That’s right, I remembered, I had a Special Feat for this, Sexual Icon. It placed me as a frequent guest in people’s wet dreams. Well, if it was already happening regardless of what I did, consciously messing around with her sleeping mind didn’t seem so bad.

I thought about what could be fun or useful. The silhouettes were flashing by quickly, always myself and Annie, but in a variety of backgrounds and clothes. A single dream scenario would likely get washed away by the storm of images if I didn’t stick around to keep it playing, but maybe I could ‘seed’ her thoughts.

What did I want from Annie and our relationship? I hadn’t saved her from anything to trigger Hero’s Harem yet, which meant that she wasn’t inherently okay with sharing me. From what I’d picked up about her insecurities, I suspected Annie’s mind would reject any scenario where she was the ‘cuck-queen’. She might not even be okay with a threesome, or at least uncomfortable enough to put up some resistance.

What if she wasn’t sharing, but rather teasing?

With a goal in mind, I began crafting a little spinning ball of mental energy using Erotic Sorcery, my first roll with the skill. This was so low stakes that I doubted even a Whiff would result in any harm, but enough Successes could inspire something in my subject. Both my Lucky Penny and the Silver Dollar were sitting on my end table, so I didn’t want to try anything too risky.

I leaned my mouth over Annie’s ear and whispered, “Everyone knows guys like watching girls play around.”

Nine Successes and my marble of influence slid into her mind without an ounce of pushback. Annie let out a shuddering breath as silhouettes of other women began to flicker into her dreams, and the cloud of her consciousness began to throb, shifting to deeper shade of pink.

I ignored the Quest pop-ups, joining my student in sleep.

[Hidden Quest Complete!]

Shape someone’s dreams.

Reward: 10 EXP

Bonus, It was a wet dream: 20 EXP

[Hidden Quest Complete!]

Mentally influence someone mystically towards your own lascivious purposes without their knowing.

Reward: 50 EXP, +1 Occultism (Erotic Sorcery)

Bonus, Inspired a new fetish: 25, Gain Random Minor Occultism (Erotic Sorcery) feat that you meet the requirements for (Three Treasures Symphonious Soul)

[Minor Feat]

Three Treasures Symphonious Soul – Your ability to harvest and manipulate the energy gained through sex naturally improves your Dual Cultivation. You may add 2 Dice to the pool when determining the Experience gained through Dual Cultivation. If your partner has this same feat, then these effects stack.