“Faster, Harder!”
Constitution save : Partial Success!
+1 XP gained.
I gave it my all and thrust one last time forward with all my might.
A groan appeared. I must have hit a weak spot, finally. I’ve not managed to hit any this entire time we had been going at it. I panted with effort, feeling sweat beads on my forehead as I desperately pushed forward. I felt resistance push me back and my legs could not support me any longer and I slumped down.
I had been overwhelmed by two relentless, starving beasts. How did they still have so much energy left? We had been going at it for hours. I was drained to the last drop.
Someone rolled me over and I felt two thighs straddle my hips. Shortly after, a stream of rich, succulent drops pelted my lips and I greedily sucked up every last one of them.
A fingernail tapped my forehead, “Aaand you're dead. But well done on that last hit, I’m seeing some real progress!.”
I felt the pressure lift off my hips and a strong hand grabbed mine to drag me back onto my feet.
“Did we really need the blind fold?” I asked.
“We need to test your mighty sword skills in the dark, you never know when it could be useful,” Lin purred behind me.
I turned and reached for Lin, but came up short. I heard the sound of something moving behind me and my arms were pinned behind me leaving me open.
“Ha, ha…girls, we don’t have to do this. Teaming up on me is a bit mean,” I said nervously.
I heard someone crack their knuckles and I gulped. I felt someone punch me in the chest with the force of a sledgehammer, knocking the wind out of me. My toughness talent was working overtime and I was left with my ribs intact, but sides bruised.
“T-this isn’t what I expected when you two said you wanted to have a good time,” I coughed.
The blind fold was removed and Yara stood in front of me in her gym wear. Lin let go and I was left heaving with my hands on my knees. The sand below us in the sparring ring still had chunks of rock in it and my many broken practice swords.
“Merp!” Carter said, holding up another wooden sword.
“No, I think he's had enough,” Lin said, stopping the minion. She shook her locks and wiped the sweat off her brow. “I’m certainly done.”
“Did your constitution, perception or melee go up?” Yara asked. “Or did you get a talent about blind fighting to pop up?”
I checked my notifications and found nothing of interest. “Nothing. I think you two are pulling a fast one on me so you can take turns punching me.”
“Who, us?” Lin asked, sounding shocked. “Never.”
I shuffled to the broken bench and took a seat, looking over the training room. The place was still a mess and full of debris. It had been one of the dungeon rooms that suffered the worst during the siege. I saw someone had taken a lot of time replacing some of the work out stations and had put all the broken shards of tiles in a corner.
“Bent Plate has done pretty well, when I was last down here this place was a ruin,” Lin said.
“He’s efficient and knows that physical health is a priority,” Yara said, poking me in the head. “You should follow his example.”
“I’ve been doing push ups and stuff in the morning and before bed,” I said, swatting away her hand. I earned myself a smack in the back of the head for that. “Ow.”
Lin walked up to the wall and held out a clay cup. The new faucet filled up her cup with fresh cold water and she drank deeply. Yara and I joined her a moment later and we stood in a loose circle taking turns to drink.
“Can I put my armour back on?” I asked.
“Feeling nervous?” Yara grinned, baring her fangs.
“We wouldn’t hurt you. That is unless we wanted to,” Lin said, showing off her fangs too.
I held a hand onto my abused side and felt how wet my shirt was with sweat. I definitely needed a bath. I downed another cup of water and looked at the two powerful warriors flanking me on either side feeling overwhelmed. I saw they were in a similar state. While they had the advantage on me it seemed I had paid them back a few good licks. Small welts covered their arms from where I managed to hit them despite being blindfolded and outnumbered. It was rather shocking that in such a short time I had managed to grasp the understanding of martial combat here. But that brought up painful memories, so I decided to change the subject.
“Is Rolada going to be okay?” I asked Lin.
“Yeah, it's just a beast-kin thing, don’t worry about it,” Lin said, shrugging it off.
“What’s a beast-kin thing?” I asked.
Yara shrugged at me and shook her head, seeming just as confused as I was. She looked to Lin expecting an answer. It took Lin a moment to realize we were waiting and she smacked herself on the forehead.
“I keep forgetting Josh is from another world,” Lin said.
“A place called dirt,” Yara scoffed. “Imagine.”
They laughed together and butted shoulders trying to push each other off balance. Lin of course paled in comparison in strength and was knocked onto her ass. I held out a hand and helped her back up, dusting off the cat girl.
Lin wrinkled up her nose and stepped back from me. “Yeah we need to bathe you, we can talk in the bath.”
Yara choked on her water and coughed harshly. “Well you two-”
“You're coming with us,” Lin said, not taking no for an answer.
We made our way to the bathing room, finding the place back to pristine condition. The damage from the siege had allowed the minions to revamp the entire place and now it was bigger and better than ever. We had public baths for men and women, my private suite and a few more small private ones for people wanting to soak alone.
“The murals are looking great,” I said, when we passed Mason.
Mason had Dan and Mike with him and they were building more tiles and using some of Burn’s paint to colour them. They were assembling coloured chips of tile to assemble mosaics to show off. I had to admit they were quite pretty, scenes of the river and valley, prancing stag hares and even a walled settlement at the back overlooking the bountiful land.
“Is that…me?” Lin asked, pointing to a huge oak tree with a tiny white haired cat girl lazing in it. “They certainly got my style down.”
“Yosh,” Mason said, nodding quickly. His tail wagged wildly behind him and he showed us the pile of chips they had. “G-good?”
We crouched down to see they were assembling the chips onto a plaster sheet to then put up on the wall. It showed a banquet hall with representations of us all sharing a meal. I smiled and ruffled the fur on Mason’s head.
“Looks amazing, I’m pretty surprised how great you guys are at this now. Upgrading the crystal was a good idea, I got no art skill to speak of,” I laughed.
“I don't think my hips or tits are that big,” Yara said, looking at her block of tiles.
Dan shuffled away while putting down a few red tiles. He whistled and looked at the nearby wall that had a still pond with the stars above it.
“Artistic representation,” Lin said, winking.
We let the minions keep working and headed to my private bathing suite. It was even more built up now with mosaics inside, a metal bar to assist someone going into the water so they didn’t slip and water jets. All it took was a flick of a switch and the water bubbled in from the bottom part of the bath and it felt amazing.
I heard the muffled sounds of conversation as the door closed behind us and I looked to Lin. She pointed at the wall and mouthed the word foxes. I nodded my head and turned on the water jets, making noise to drown out their conversation so we didn’t overhear.
Lin and I stripped down, tossing our stuff beside the wash bin and rinsed off under the shower. Once we got the worst of the grime off us we hopped into the bath, sending water everywhere. I let Lin pick out the scent and she chose a nice sweet scented soap that would bubble up. Yara stood inside the shower space clutching the curtain, hesitantly looking at us in the water.
“Come on, the water's fine,” Lin said, leaning against the edge of the bath. “Or are you scared to get wet around me?”
“You dare call me a coward?” Yara shot back. She seemed to have some internal struggle before walking out of the shower dripping wet and covering herself with her arms. Her tail coiled around her hips and the heart tip covered her sex from view. She lowered herself down and kept her arms over her chest while glaring at Lin as if to challenge her back.
Yara then tried to make herself small, keeping her body below the lip of the water as much as she could to hide herself. When I looked her way she dipped even further down until she could only breathe through her nose.
“Aw, she’s shy,” Lin teased.
I felt Yara’s tail move under my legs and slap Lin. The cat girl let out a howl and shot up out of the water in a panic. She looked around herself and I couldn’t help but snicker as I saw the bubbles had clung to her body making her look like a bubbly white berry with cat ears and a tail.
“Now how about filling us in. I hate to admit it, but I’m not exactly in the know either,” Yara said.
“Oh right. Well, beast-kin culture is a bit different than human culture and beast-kin tend to fall into two tribes. Everything revolves around the matriarch of the home or clan, they get to make all the calls and if they are above you, then you have to do what they say. Or beast-kin form a loose group where no one is above anyone, everyone just loves who they want and everyone helps each other,” Lin said, settling back down and wiping the bubbles off her bosom to reveal her perky breasts.
“What about what we have going on?” I asked.
“I’m a bit more of the free kind myself. I see us as a group of friends who…like each other very much,” Lin said with a purr. “Rolada I can tell is a bit more prim and proper, so I think her family is the other way. Basically if Sliva wanted to take you for herself Rolada can’t say a thing.”
“I see…” I said.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The water rippled beside me as Yara sat up with her arms still covering her chest. “Don’t beast-kin tribes have something to do with your gods?”
Knowledge Religion : Failure!
Lin blew on the bubbles and scooped them up to form a bubble heart. “Heinekia is called the grand matriarch sometimes, being the first mother of all beast-kin. Her younger brother Kallio is the lord of the hunt, his big thing is all beast-kin should be able to fend for themselves and only hunt in a pack if everyone is equally as strong. There are exceptions, like if you are mentoring a young pack member.”
The last bit was aimed at me and I smiled back at her. Lin stuck out her tongue and I flicked the soapy water at her making her shiver as soap touched her tongue. The water jets churned the water and I put my back to one feeling it massage my shoulders.
“Who’s washing the clothes?” Yara asked.
“That would be Josh’s job,” Lin said, pushing me with her foot.
“Just a moment,” I said, holding up a hand, trying to buy more soaking time. “I think it’s time I levelled up, so far I think I do my best thinking in the bath.”
Current experience : 3050/1565
Would you like to level up?
I tapped on the yes key and felt a headache resurge. I closed my eyes and leaned against the edge of the bath, while wondering what to do. I really wanted to extend my magic, going up to the higher tier was assured, but I wasn’t certain on what else to do at the moment. Ideally I could follow Sten’s advice, grab that upgrade, then sit on my points until a situation arose.
There were a few new talents to look at, and a few that looked honestly useless for me, things like reducing needed sleep time by a half hour, or being able to drink muddy water and decreasing the chance of getting ill slightly. I brushed those aside, collapsing them into a tab I was able to label. I put a ‘no helpful’ line over it and moved on. There was a small line of talents that pertained to certain skills I already had.
Enhanced Stealth
Requires 1 skill point
Gives 5% chance to turn a failure into a success, gives 1% chance of critical success.
Enhanced Persuasion
Requires 1 skill point
Gives 5%...
I brushed it off. It seemed everything except my fighting skills had it as an option. They condensed into a drop down tab called ‘basic skill enhancements’ with quite a few entries into it. If I ever had a need to really bear down on one particular skill set I might find use for them, but for now I looked at the more impactful options. I tweaked around the settings, and narrowed it down to what I was curious about at the moment.
Current Skill Points : 6
Spell Casting Rank II
Requires 3 skill points
Further improvement of spell casting potency, and the ability to cast tier II spells. Choosing this talent grants the knowledge of two tier 2 spells from your benefactor.
Requires level 4 of a spell casting class.
Efficient Casting Rank 1
Requires 1 skill point (Cost reduction based on tier 0 spell usage)
Tier 0 spells no longer require 1 mana point to cast, instead costing a small amount of stamina. Mana blight can still affect the user after excessive magic use.
Requires spell casting rank II.
New physical and magical talents available!
* 4 new talents.
I kept it to what I already knew. More spells, and I could deal with the rest later. Getting free uses of the level 0 spells would be really good, since my pool of mana was still kind of low. I showed them to the girls who were busy relaxing or looking at their own sheets.
“What do you think? Should I barrel down into lots of magic?” I asked. I stuck out my hand and turned it around. “I’m fond of using a sword too.”
“Four huh?” Yara said, sitting up straighter. “It would leave you with some wiggle room, but four skill points for a major upgrade like this would be worth it.”
Lin hummed in agreement. “I’m with the demon lady on this one. You're getting quite handy with a sword, but ideally you blast the baddies for us first. A group of thugs get a little leery of rushing when they know a wizard is sitting behind his friends ready to blast them with a lightning bolt.”
I cracked my knuckles and tapped on the two talents. I felt the remaining few errant lines inside me get straightened out as a great surge of power shook me down to my core. The tip of my nose felt fuzzy, like when I slept on my arm, and that feeling went down my spine to my toes, giving me a weightless feeling in the bath. Lin’s and Yara’s words fell on my ears, feeling muted as ahead of me two sheets of paper appeared, made of ethereal lights.
Ishaka’s Magic Armaments
Tier 2 spell - costs 3 mana points
Summon pure magical essence from Ishaka’s armoury and bestow it onto a piece of equipment within reach. It will get one of the following benefits for a one hour duration. You may dismiss this bonus at will.
Weapon : The weapon becomes magical, and is granted a small +1 boost to damage, and a 5% boost to accuracy. In addition Ishaka’s divine magic makes the weapon deal additional damage to undead, scaling with the caster’s level.
Armour: A piece of armour hardens with golden light, reducing all incoming damage by 3. It becomes resistant to wear, and can nullify low level spells designed to destroy armour. In addition while this armour glows with Ishaka’s light the wearer gains a bonus to resist charms, scaling with half the caster’s level.
I was grateful that I already was gearing up with magical equipment, but for my friends that lacked it this spell could be impactful to them. I also wondered if I fell out of Ishaka’s good graces if that particular spell wouldn’t work.
Mark of Lesser Power
Tier 2 spell - costs 3 mana points + (X)
Summoning memories from the halls of legends you touch a creature and bestow upon it a magical mark. This mark gives the target an effect based on the type, lasting until the spell ends. The spell lasts for one hour, gaining an additional hour for each mana point. When the spell ends the mark is removed.
Mark of the Warrior : The target has +2 to Strength and doubles its carrying capacity.
Mark of the Lover : The target has +2 to Constitution and doubles its stamina.
Mark of the Dancer : The target has +2 to Dexterity and increases its movement speed.
Mark of the Scholar : The target has +2 to Intelligence and +2 to all knowledge checks.
Mark of the Traveler : The target has +2 to Willpower and +2 to perception checks.
Mark of the Speaker : The target has +2 to Charisma and +2 to all social skills.
I noticed the mark spells had asterisks hidden away. There was a short footnote that was hard to make out, but it listed that it wouldn’t break certain thresholds. A long formula appeared, but the gist of it was I couldn’t break a skill limit of 20 with the spell. No one was even close to it, but I did like the sound of the spell. Several times I had managed to figure out someone was just a little stronger, or a little faster, and with this I could close the gap.
Would you like to accept these spells and learn them immediately? If not they will be discarded.
I clicked yes, fearful if I hit no I wouldn’t get any new spells. I felt a jolt run up my arms and my head spun as the knowledge hit my mind. The ethereal pages whisked off to my bag, and I saw an inner glow come from it as the pages were added to my spellbook to look at later. I was able to get a pop up of them and sent them off to Lin and Yara.
“I love buff spells!” Lin said excitedly. “You can make Yara cleave through undead like paper, or make me so fast I can fly over roof tops! I wonder if I can be like those performers who twist themselves into tiny boxes with the extra dexterity?”
Yara tapped on her chin, looking to be running over in her head an idea. “Three doesn’t seem like much for the armour buff, but if you combine it with gear that already has a similar benefit, and a toughness talent you might be able to make someone immune to regular weapons for a while.”
“Except they're expensive for right now,” I said, rolling my shoulders. “I can use several binding spells, or that flame sword attack in place of one of these. But, if we have some down time I could see myself using the speaker buff on Rolada for some insane deals at the market.”
The more I thought about it the more I was torn. I was half hoping for something exciting, like a fireball, or a huge flashy defensive bonus. But this was hand chosen for me, or at least the talent upgrade said it was, and I could see these being useful in a lot of situations. Overall I was pretty happy with it, they were two flexible, and helpful spells that I got for free. Now I just needed to find more spells to add to my book to learn.
“Hey, since you can freely use your cleaning spell now, would you mind?” Lin asked, clasping her hands together before pointing at our clothes. “Magic cleaning gets the hard to reach spots better than I can by hand.”
I grunted and got out of the hot bath, my soak already too short. I washed off with the shower head and moved towards the wash bin. Yara and Lin were tallying up the points during the spar, counting who had hit me the most. Lin ended up winning by a slim margin, much to Yara’s displeasure.
I used Arcane Trick to clean off the last of the soap and to dry the clothes. I smiled ear to ear seeing my magic was back to normal thanks to Sliva, and now I could freely do this whenever. The drain to my energy was so minimal I barely even noticed. I folded up their outfits and put them on top of a cabinet and got dressed back up.
The two of them got out, dried off and did the same. I could see between them there was a spark of some kind, and I felt like this could be the calm before a storm. As we left the bathing room I heard Rolada giggle and Sliva laugh in the women's bath.
“See, they're fine. Now let’s head to the library, we got a date to plan,” Lin said.
“Allow me,” Yara said, opening the door and shoving her way through first. “I shall lead us there and show you what we have found.”
“Not if I beat you there!” Lin said, slipping past Yara like an oiled snake.
The two of them took long strides and tried to overtake the other, shouldering each other out of the way to get through the library door first. While Yara was far stronger and could push Lin back, Lin had the agility to glide around her and dip out of reach when the demoness tried to hip check her. When the study table in the library came into view with the map stretched out on it, they each sprinted to be the first one there.
I had to push myself to catch up, feeling sluggish. Sliva’s magic had worked out most of my worries and I felt almost back to full strength, but I still paled in comparison to the athletic prowess the two of them had. I was half tempted to try out my new spell, but thought better of it.
“Terrible map to be honest, doesn’t even have the small outposts you can get illegal goods at,” Lin said, crossing her arms.
“It’s what I had, sorry it's a decade out of date,” Yara growled.
“Ladies, let's be friends here,” I said, separating the two of them. It felt odd that I was being a mediator while both of them were taller than me, and stronger. It was like I was separating two lionesses about to fight.
The two of them eased up and we turned our attention to the map. It was fairly small and sparsely detailed. It was still a good indication of what we had around us. I had lucked into arriving on Ewyernar in a relatively peaceful valley out of the way of the plains, the big urban cities and trade routes.
The only things of note around us were small abandoned villages, Wyrmbreath and a few trade posts. Dastow, which was at the far end of the map, was connected to a larger empire, which meant way more headaches that way. The river we were on coasted down until it met up with a larger river coming off the mountains and there was a place of note. Ancient ruins with an observatory.
“What can you tell me about the observatory?” I asked.
“Not much,” Yara said. “Just that it belongs to a cult of star gazing mages that worshipped Icharn.”
“Fits a quest he would hand out to you. Should be pretty easy, a few traps by the door, we go in and look for the thing you need,” Lin said. “Yara found the stuff about the cult by looking in some of the books Rolada bought.”
“Are you certain it was supposed to be just you two?” Yara asked, biting into one of her white sticks.
I scratched my head remembering exactly what Icharn said. “He said we just needed to get him a book from a nearby ruin. He also said Lin would carry me through it, and that it would be a fun date night for us.”
Yara huffed and sat down, tapping her sharp nails onto the table. I could tell something was eating at her, and I wanted to alleviate that stress if I could. I just didn’t know how to get the tough warrior to open up.
“Yara, when I was in danger you knew right away, right?” I asked.
Yara waved her hand and the black ring made of smoke coiled around her finger and mine appeared as well. My ring tugged my hand towards Yara, pointing me in her direction.
“I knew you were in trouble, and the direction you were in,” Yara said. “Just like when you fell in the bathing room.”
I felt my face heat up as I remembered that morning. I had just tried to get into the bath while I was still stiff and fell onto the ground. Yara thinking there was some kind of last ditch attack on us brought nearly everyone in the dungeon down there to see me sprawled out completely naked. It wasn’t my finest moment.
I nodded and we dismissed the rings. I still needed to have a sit down with her to learn more about it, they could have even more powers to help us out during a fight. Yet that detail could be enough to calm her woes.
“We wouldn’t even be terribly far, and with Lin’s powers she can take on just about anything. It’s why I need one of you two to kick around the dungeon, you're our best warriors,” I said. I tapped the map where the dungeon was. “When we start getting those towers up and running then I think we can travel together a bit more freely. I want to see what else is in the abandoned towns.”
After hearing my little bit of praise I could see both of them perk up and regard the other more fondly. There was a hint of competition in their gazes, but a friendly one and one I could live with.
“I’ll bring this dumbass back to you in one piece, then you can take a turn sparring him all on your own,” Lin said, slapping me on the rump.
Yara kicked back, and blew out a cloud of bloody smoke into the air. It twisted and turned until it looked like two vague humanoid forms duelling. One was clearly a demon, the other a human, and the demon was throwing the human around like a rag doll.
“He won’t even last five minutes,” Yara said.