Clap.
「What are you-!?」
Athea's eyes go wide. Straf's arm closes on her as if it were a flytrap. She immediately grabs onto Straf's wrist with both of her hands. His hand grabs onto one of her breasts with a clothy slap, and starts squeezing and fondling through her dress.
「You disgusting- You pervert! I knew it! I knew you'd do something like this! You- Ah!」
「Huuuuh? I know that you know. You agreed to this, remember? Remember? Hey, remember?」
She lets out an involuntary whimper as Straf keeps prodding her for an answer with more squeezing and rubbing. Athea tries to pull his arm away, but it seems absolutely unmovable.
「Remember?」
「Ah- Yes! I remember, you unbelievable disgusting degenerate pervert- Ah! How dare you!?」
「What do you mean how dare I? You agreed to you getting off with no punishment for killing me, and in return I get to use you as a squeaky stress ball to deal with the stress of being dead. Did you really think I wouldn't be feeling a little vengeful? Don't worry, I remember my promise too.」
Straf grins smugly ear to ear, as Athea yelps and tries to suppress her indecent moans.
「How is this-!? Ah! How is this keeping your promise!?」
「Well, about that… As I said, I won't do anything more than play with your obscene milk bags a little, but…」
Straf stops moving his hand for a moment. Athea pants heavily with relief, her porcelain cheeks flushed red. He leans in towards her face, causing her to recoil.
「Wh- What are you!?」
Athea stutters as his face closes in, suddenly it swerves off to the side a little, and he whispers into her ear.
「…It might be your last chance to be the first one to get explicit with me. Lia- Cycelia said I can rely on her for everything, after all.」
「What? You already managed to get her wrapped around your finger so quick? How? Ah!」
She yelps again as Straf resumes his vengeful groping. He shrugs with his other free arm and grins.
「I'm just saying! It's a limited time offer, supplies last until… I suppose later tonight? It's okay if you're desperate, I understand. No need to hold back.」
「She must have meant emotionally! Your perverted mind is reading into things! Nnnh…」
「I doubt it. Unless she has no grasp of personal space. Doesn't matter either way. Not going to force either of you to do anything, anyhow. I'm not some sort of desperate virgin, after all.」
「As if! Have you not had enough yet!?」
Athea asks with a raised voice as she desperately tries to pull his hand away without success.
「Nope. But, I'm going to cut you a deal. You help me spend my points I got from leveling today in the best way possible to make me even more OP, and while we're at it I stop my 『Hand of Revenge』, how about that?」
「Ah… Fine! Fine! Just get your filthy paw away from me!」
Straf opens his hand and lets go. Athea swallows and pants, blushing heavily. His fingers wiggle menacingly as his hand hovers just above her.
「Stats…」
Straf utters. A partially transparent rectangle full of text and numbers appears and floats in front of him as they lay in the bed. Athea looks at it in utter disbelief.
「What… What did you do? Why are all your attributes so low- No… Rather, why are all your attributes so low, except luck and charisma relative to the others? What did you do with all your points!?」
「Hmmmm? Well, I invested them into the skills. I can't help it. I'm a slow growth guy at heart, so I held off with giving myself hundreds and hundreds of points in stats, and went with skills that sounded useful instead.」
「...What? What skills- Oh no.」
She reads through Straf's possessed skills slowly with a tight-lipped grimace, her blue eyes wide open as she waves her hand and scrolls through the list in horror.
「…You were supposed to take one skill from each category, maybe two at most. And then you were supposed to increase your attributes. Why didn't you do that!?」
She almost screams the question at Straf, who is puzzled at her inexplicable anger.
「Huh? And why the shit would I do that? Is there some sort of rule saying I can't do that? Didn't stop me from doing it, so it's legal. You should have told me, or left a disclaimer- Oh, wait. I wouldn't have listened anyway! Hahahahah!」
Athea hides her face in her hands as she breathes deeply, and sighs.
「You are seriously going to destroy this world at this rate… Why did I agree to this…」
「Huh? Well, maybe because owning up to your fuck ups is not your strong point. Are you going to help me become even more broken, or are you just being coy about the foreplay?」
She glances at the hand and recoils, clenching her teeth.
「Fine, fine. Then how about this…」
She places her finger on one of the bracketed pluses on Straf's stat screen, and holds it. The number rapidly inflates as she keeps it there.
「Wait. What the fuck!? You can do that!?」
「Wha- Do what?」
「You mean I don't have to keep hitting the button!?」
…
《Ahh… What if he thinks I'm being clingy? After all, he rescued me just today… We spent the whole day together… Even if he genuinely just meant talking, won't he feel like-》
A muffled woman's moan interrupts Cycelia's thoughts as she lays on her bed, hugging her pillow. She shoots up to her knees, eyebrows raised, as she looks around the room.
「Huh? Was that- Ah, this is an inn after all… But that sounded a little bit like it came from Straf's room- No, it couldn't have…」
She breathes in and sighs, then plops back down on her pillow with her chest.
《Good grief… Why are people so indecent here? Don't they know everyone can hear them-》
She blinks, then pulls her pillow up and buries her face in it.
《Ahhhh! And I'm indecent too! How can I judge other people when I'm having thoughts like these!?》
…
「There. How about this? I think with all those points available, and aside from your insanely idiotic decision to dump all of them into one skill each at a time, I think this makes you more well-rounded, and ready to take on anything.」
「Hmmmm…」
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Straf humms as he looks at the attribute increases that are not yet applied.
[Level 51]
[|===============]
413/85000 XP
[0 attribute points available] [5 skill points available]
Strength: [-] 75 ▲ Perception: 17 ▴
Agility: [-] 75 ▲ Endurance: [-] 100▲
Dexterity: [-] 75 ▲ Willpower: [-] 48
Luck: 139 Intelligence: [-] 50 ▴
Charisma: 165 ▴ Wisdom: [-] 50 ▴
「Seems like I get a skill point every 10 levels, then a whopping 50 every 50, plus one I'd get normally… But why so much endurance? What is it good for?」
「Are you seriously asking, you idiot? It's so you don't die! So much for your new life, if something rips you apart and eats you! You have no idea how dangerous this world is, if you stick your nose where it doesn't belong… And I just know you will.」
「Oh yeah, I will. How else am I going to run into the accidental hero saves the day tropes? Though, I'm going to take everything you added to willpower away, and spread it across the meathead combat stats.」
Straf says as he uses his newly learned trick and holds his finger on the [-] near willpower attribute. He then taps the [+] near strength, agility and dexterity.
Strength: [-] 88 ▲ Perception: 17 ▴
Agility: [-] 87 ▲ Endurance: [-] 100▲
Dexterity: [-] 88▲ Willpower: 10
Luck: 139 Intelligence: [-] 50 ▴
Charisma: 165 ▴ Wisdom: [-] 50 ▴
「There we go. My hand was getting tired the last time I got charisma and luck up.」
He says as he taps [Apply] in the corner with his finger. The screen disappears.
「Hmpf. Now your aptitude is less abysmal, but you need to remember that outside of your charisma and luck, natural growth aside, you started out as an average human. There are things far more powerful than a human in this world-」
Clap.
「Ah! What are you-!? You said you'll take your filthy hand off me you lying scumbag!」
Athea yelps as the 『Hand of Revenge』 returns with a vengeance, and she starts fruitlessly wrestling with Straf's arm again.
「Lying? I said I'll stop while we're at it. It's done and dealt with, isn't it?」
「You wretch! You shameful lecher! You degenerate filth! Why did I bother-! Ahhh…」
…
Cycelia lays in her bed face down, tightly hugging her pillow. She doesn't move, or even make a sound.
Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
《I reek of desperation. I'm better than this. I'm the rightful queen of this land. But…》
She gets up on her knees, then sits down on the side of her bed, still hugging into her pillow.
Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
《But he said he'll be awake… I want to find out for sure what he meant by that… I won't be able to fall asleep if I'm thinking of him the whole night…》
She throws her pillow aside onto the bed and looks down on the floorboards as she thinks.
《But what if he thinks of me as desperate? Just a sad desperate woman clinging onto a man she just found…》
She fingers her sapphire-set silver medallion hanging off her neck for comfort.
Ba-dump ba-dump ba-dump.
《…Isn't that what I am? Isn't it okay? He suddenly appeared when I was hopeless and on verge of giving up, tired of running… And he turned everything around like it wasn't the slightest problem.》
Ba-dump ba-dump ba-dump.
Straf's face and form from earlier in the day occupies and fills her mind completely. She breathes heavily, blushing, clutching onto her medallion. She stands up and grabs the handle of her room's door.
《Maybe I am just a desperate woman after all…》
Badumpbadumpbadumpbadumpbadump.
She smiles a little as she leaves her room. She walks over to Straf's door and reaches for the handle, but stops her shaky hand short, pulling it away in a loose fist. She breathes in, and exhales. Cycelia puts on a demure but alluring expression on her face, the absolute best she can manage, and pushes the door to Straf's room open, poking her head in a little.
「Straf… Eh?」
Her demure expression shatters instantly into wide-eyed shock, mouth agape. Straf is groping an unbelievably beautiful woman's breast through her flowing white dress, who looks absolutely mortified by the situation as she locks eyes with Cycelia. Cycelia blinks, unable to comprehend what is going on.
「Ah, Lia. Feel free to join me.」
Straf says as he pats the free side of the bed with his other hand.
「…Join you?」
She echoes Straf's invitation without realizing it, when it hits, her expression flashes into anger, and she slams the door shut with both of her hands, hard enough to shake the walls.
「…What bit her in the ass?」
Straf pauses the fondling as he asks with a raised eyebrow, still staring at the door.
「Are you an actual idiot!?」