Aki was rather surprised about how, despite his best efforts and recent decision, he could barely do anything with the beauty essence mana he summoned up from himself.

He'd never thought himself pretty, handsome or sexy, especially now that he had gray and splotchy skin that was just as badly treated as his original one, but it was surprising that it was to this point.

Magic was, after all, something based on will. Using something foreign to do something you did not want to see come true was… not impossible, but forcing the issue was not only an uphill battle, but also a conversation with yourself.

Your subconscious self would still fight you even if it became subject to the conscious mind however, so the effort wasn't worth much in normal circumstances either.

Meaning he was so ugly he somehow managed to cockblock himself even in a fantasy world where he could manipulate the basic forces of reality. Which was another blow to his own self esteem and likely to worsen his body image, something that would feed the original problem and make it harder still to use the essence mana he was having problems with.

Of course, the solution to this problem was also simple.

His jaunt with Vil and Sin mana were going well, which was rather telling of his character and beliefs, and he had found himself to have a rather obvious affinity towards Pride essence. All he'd need to do was to hold onto and use said mana till he felt more confident of himself and had the distortion of his bodily image turn flipside, allowing him to use beauty mana like his theoretical knowledge suggested.

On another note, his predisposition for fear mana was actually even higher, and he didn't need to conjure any of said mana to be averse to just straight out giving in to his pride like that, so he unfortunately didn't intend to follow through with the idea.

It was less like trusting Drunk you to make good choices and more like trusting Night you not to take over your body and make a series of bad decision before offing himself because life sucks after the consequences of your actions catch up to you.

… Which meant he had a few weeks to improve his body image in a more natural way.

Truth be told his best guesses on how to do it could be summed up with just increasing his stats and life level before leaving the issue to the system, but there was another way.

That night, as they made camp, Aki started formulating a new spell repertoire, encompassing not only elemental and para-elemental, but also essence mana as he steadily increased his flexibility and pure stopping power in this field he'd previously thought to be so far away.

……………..

Explaining that he was going to explore the town they were currently at to his employer was rather complicated due to the suspicion she presented him with when he announced he’d be back later in the night or maybe even the next day. Finding his target was as simple as inquiring about it at the adventurers guild, though he got a knowing smile that was rather infuriating as the older man manning the counter looked down on him as an innocent youth. Which for once wasn’t wrong.

Soon enough he was going to the richer part of town again, this time to a place rather far from the hotel he’d been at.

Thankfully he had plenty of money from his quests and the fact that he had been coasting on his boss to pay off their hotels. Which had absolutely galling price tags, even a C-rank adventurer would have trouble paying for as long as they did even if they had been doing every quest they could reasonably find on the way.

There he was though, the alluring alraune. The front bouncer asked him something in a threatening tone, but he just looked at the red skinned fiend blooded with disinterest and decided that it was best to deal with this as a proper protagonist.

*Thud*

A moment later the man buckled under his own weight, going to his knees and trying, and failing, to raise his head above his shoulders again.

“Buy yourself some new pants friend, yours seems to have gotten a bit dirty.” He said while dropping a gold coin to the floor and releasing gravity mana onto his surroundings for a moment, which scarred the other guard.

He did, of course, stop after passing through the doors of the establishment. Just his little display had been enough to alert pretty much everyone around the entrance, but the way he acted and the amount of mana that he’d released for intimidation’s sake was enough to make the men and women approaching his position rather unwilling to start the fight themselves. So he just approached the receptionist, who was doing a rather good job at retaining her professional smile despite her perceivable nervousness.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Hello, good evening. I’m rather new to town, but was recommended this place and really need to unwind. Looking for a girl to accompany me for the night, someone experienced, ok with magic in the bedroom, preferably speaking fataram.” Wasn’t what he’d actually said aloud, but anyone that spoke fataram would understand it just fine thanks to his mind magic spells.

Now if only he could make one of these that didn’t need him to be practically fluent in the language he wanted to use…

“Ah, fataram is no good, please wait.” Replied a flustered receptionist. For once, it wasn’t him speaking in broken sentences and bad syntax, but still it was irritating even if he actually did expect and understand the problem. He was about to nod and shrug, though he still couldn’t hold a frown from appearing in his expression, but then someone else appeared in the room.

“That won’t be necessary, Trisha dear.” The full, matronly voice came from a woman of great beauty, with grace in her steps and a killing dress that, while not to his personal tastes due to the too big shoulder implements on the left side, hugged the woman’s body like a golden toga to a goddess and showed tasteful amounts of skin. “Welcome to my humble establishment fair sir, may i know your name?” She continued, again in fataram.

“Good evening madam. I am Aki, just Aki, servant of the Degorbon and C-rank adventurer.” He offered with a faked smile and a small formal bow towards the out of place woman.

She was, after all, the only one around without horns or other demonic traits. His teeth could very well serve as a good red herring, so much that nobody that paid attention would really question whether he was a demon-kin or not, but he neither felt nor saw anything upon the chocolate skinned woman with flowing orange straight hair to indicate she was not a human.

Not that he was fooled by said impressions, but still, most everyone would find it rather strange.

“Welcome then, brave sir. If you would honor me with your company so we may better fulfill your desires.” Said the suddenly much more bubbly woman with a smile as she practically shoved her enormous breasts onto his arm, her breathing on his neck as their height matched rather well.

“It would be my pleasure.” He replied with a grin just as suggestive as they started walking and talking.

The place was, rather than what he’d envisioned a brothel would look like, much more of a rich people’s club, with art decorating several socializing spaces filled with both men and women of wealth being served by professionals with tasteful, if inviting, outfits. The stairs to which he and the gorgeous monster woman were heading seemed to work much like a divide however, as you could see basically nothing up there from the lower floor, a couple of rich folk even taking an attendant with them upstairs as he watched.

“If it pleases the brave sir, then I would be more than happy to be your partner for the night.” Eventually mentioned the owner as they went upstairs, their conversation having turned back to his visit.

“I am sure the madam has many more interesting people to talk to on this lovely night.” He gave her a meaningful look, which alongside his words would hopefully indicate his plotted story. “Besides, I would rather not waste the time of a woman I feel I cannot satisfy. If said change in responsibilities ends with a better telling of my prowess in the end, then all the better.” He snickered, hinting at his intention again.

For whatever reason though, that seemed to make the matron freeze for a moment.

“You certainly jest brave sir, I would be more than happy to show you wrong.” She declared with a more serious air again. Did she think what he said was an insult of some sort? Well, he most certainly didn’t feel comfortable with her kind and would happily see them dead for good, but she had shown him nothing but the bearings of a person, and he would not break civility before that.

“I wish dear madam, but unfortunately my vitality manipulation is nowhere near that of what any knight capable of calling themselves my more physical counterpart, and what I have is simply not enough to satisfy my own pride, so I would rather not cause any bother to either of us with it. I am sure that there should be no problems with finding someone more aligned with my own capabilities and interests in such a fine establishment however.” Wait, could that last part be taken as sarcasm? It was so hard to tell at times.

Fortunately, it seemed the madam took what he said at face value, or ignored the perceived sarcasm, as they resumed talking away as they walked further and higher into the establishment, this time about women, something that the plant woman seemed just as opined about as himself.

Then he was left alone inside of a big, comfortable room with low light and what he imagined were privacy wards of some sort. There he was to wait for his chosen escort and first partner. Something that pretty much sent him into a panic attack the more he thought about it, but he had much more emotion and logic to fight the reaction away than he did before coming to this realm, and he was physically able to remain composed as he fought to not descend into some spiraling mess.

Instead, even by the time that the sweet cocktails he’d ordered were served to the room, he was pretty much frozen in his best polite appearance, overthinking everything as he stood at the balcony with his formal shirt half open, jacket on the chair, forced small smile on his face.

Then she came around. It was time. He was embarrassed, confused and uncertain, the whole mess almost making him run away in fear despite how in control he was.

After she accepted his enchanted gift however, he followed a script. Things went well and he even enjoyed it over all of his anxiety and fears showing their heads to interrupt his horniness. Overall, however, he had fun, gaining more courage and things flowed naturally, screams filling the room and encouraging his confidence like words and philosophical realizations could not.