Tess flopped onto her bed after she finished unpacking, letting out a sigh of contentment. “The hoverer and the hotels were nice and all, but it really just feels good to be back home.” She noted idly, looking over at Ellie. “Thanks for helping me unpack, I appreciate it.”
“Of course.” Ellie replied. She opened her mouth to continue, then started. “Wait right there, I’ll be back in a second.” She said, dashing out of the room. A couple of minutes later she returned, hands held suspiciously behind her back. “So, um, today’s been kind of nuts, and I don’t know if you remembered or not, but…it’s your birthday.”
Tess blinked. She had forgotten, at least partially. There had been just too much going on to really sit down and process it, but she was 18 now, and that was a bit of a strange feeling for her. It was like a milestone in her life had passed and she had just sort of…missed it, at least partially.
While she was thinking about that, Ellie continued what she was saying. “I…um, I got you a present.” She said shyly, bringing out a small, wrapped box from behind her. She handed it to Tess, blushing.
Tess tore off the wrapping paper, opening the box to find…a core. A decently big one, too.
“It’s from a monster called the Blightbringer.” Ellie continued, growing ever redder. “I did some searching and found a core I thought would suit what you had going for you given what you told me about what Skills you got. It’s a boss of a decently high level dungeon and I think it’ll help you out.”
“I…don’t even know what to say.” Tess replied, “That’s…really thoughtful of you.” She grabbed the core in a fist, absorbing it.
You have absorbed a Blightbringer Core!
Slots filled: 9/25
You have gained 1,380 EXP in Monster Breeder!
Monster Breeder has leveled up!
New core absorbed! Scanning for abilities…
New Skill detected!
Attempting to degrade and obtain Blighted Air…
Congratulations, you have successfully obtained Miasma!
Attempting to degrade and obtain Blightbringer…
Congratulations, you have successfully obtained Blight’s Harbinger!
Attempting to degrade and obtain Contamination Factory…
Congratulations, you have successfully obtained Mass-Produced Contamination!
Miasma:
Rarity: Epic
Type: Passive
Description:
You emit a foul air in an area 25 meters in radius centered on you. Every second, all other breathing creatures within this area have a 5% chance to be inflicted with Poison, dealing 5% of the user’s max HP as damage every thirty seconds for five minutes. This poison’s expiration timer does not start until after the target leaves the miasma.
Herbs in a mask won’t help.
Blight’s Harbinger:
Rarity: Legendary
Type: Passive
Description:
Any Poison effects you inflict have a 50% chance to become Blight instead. Blight effects deal double the damage of the original Poison effect and deal the damage twice as often, but last half as long. Blight is treated as Poison with two exceptions: a target may have both Poison and Blight at the same time, and when Blight is cured by any means except the expiration of the effect, it is instead downgraded to Poison.
A taste of the suffering to come.
Mass-Produced Contamination:
Rarity: Epic
Type: Passive
Description:
Any Poison effects you inflict have a 25% chance to recur after expiring. This recurrent Poison lasts for half the length of the original and deals half the damage. A Poison inflicted by this recurrence may recur again, cutting length and damage in half again. Further recursion is possible and has no effect on the damage or duration of the Poison.
If you act now, we’ll make this Poison an inflict-one-get-one-free deal!
Displaying core information:
Blightbringer Core:
Level 62
Estimated Power: 773
Estimated Maximum Power if Enhanced: 1,500
Current Skills:
Blighted Air
Blightbringer
Contamination Factory
Current Attributes:
Blighted Body
Firmly Rooted
Living Structure
Immobile
Metal Shell
Structural (Fundamental)
New Attributes Discovered!
Blighted Body:
The creature’s body becomes a host for Blight, granting immunity to all Poison effects and causing any who attack it from within 2 meters to have a 10% chance to receive a Blight, dealing 25% of the damage inflicted by the original wound every two and a half seconds for two and a half minutes.
Firmly Rooted:
The creature becomes firmly rooted when placed on ground, causing it to be unable to move from that spot without spending 25 Stamina, but granting immunity to any effects that cause knockback and significantly increasing the strength needed to pick up and move the creature.
Living Structure:
If the creature is a structure, it does not receive any immunities to conditions normally granted by being a structure. Outwardly the structure’s makeup appears unchanged, but damage will reveal layers of flesh, blood, and bone beneath the exterior. This Attribute does nothing to creatures that are not structures. If placed on a creature that is a structure, this Attribute removes power instead of adding it for the purpose of power limitations on a core.
Immobile:
The creature becomes unable to move under its own power. This Attribute removes power instead of adding it for the purpose of power limitations on a core.
Metal Shell:
The creature becomes coated in a thick layer of metal, cutting its Agility in half but increasing its Defense and Magic Defense by 50%.
Structural:
The creature becomes a structure, decreasing its Agility by 90%, removing all biological needs, and granting immunity to conditions such as Heavy Bleeding or Poisoned that only affect living targets.
New Skills discovered!
Blighted Air:
Rarity: Legendary
Type: Passive
Description:
You emit a foul air in an area 50 meters in radius centered on you. Every second, all other breathing creatures within this area have a 10% chance to be inflicted with Poison, dealing 10% of the user’s max HP as damage every thirty seconds for five minutes. This poison’s expiration timer does not start until after the target leaves the miasma.
You’re a walking plague.
Blightbringer:
Rarity: Mythical
Type: Passive
Description:
Any Poison effects you inflict have a 100% chance to become Blight instead. Blight effects deal double the damage of the original Poison effect and deal the damage twice as often, but last half as long. Blight is treated as Poison with two exceptions: a target may have both Poison and Blight at the same time, and when Blight is cured by any means except the expiration of the effect, it is instead downgraded to Poison.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
The first seal has been broken, and Pestilence unleashed.
Contamination Factory:
Rarity: Legendary
Type: Passive
Description:
Any Poison effects you inflict have a 50% chance to recur after expiring. This recurrent Poison lasts for three-quarters the length of the original and deals three-quarters the damage. A Poison inflicted by this recurrence may recur again, cutting length and damage by three-quarters again. Further recursion is possible and has no effect on the damage or duration of the Poison.
It’s never truly over.
Tess quickly got to work rearranging her Attributes. Blightbringer wasn’t important when Blight’s Harbinger was just as good for her purposes, so she made a mental note to put it on Silky whenever she next upgraded her. The other Skills were excellent, and none of the Attributes but Blighted Body interested her in the slightest, she just had to make room for three more in her slots.
She had an unused one from leveling up, so that just left two. She wasn’t using Facultative Biped, and Haunt wasn’t really important when Isabella also had it and was generally inside of Tess at any given time, so that wasn’t really a priority. Actually, while she was thinking about things she had gotten from ghosts, she had Greater Levitation in a User Fundamental slot, and she didn’t really need the extra benefits that gave, so Blighted Body would probably be a better pick.
So, she started the process of moving those around and began to speak with Ellie while she waited. “They’re perfect” Tess said, “Really, thanks a bunch!”
Ellie smiled. “You’re welcome! Um…do you smell something?”
“No, what are…oh, that’s probably me. One of my new Skills makes me give off this miasma stuff. Let me turn it off…” She did so, and Ellie breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thanks. It honestly wasn’t that bad, but over time I think it would have gotten on my nerves, you know?”
Tess nodded. “Yeah, I know what you mean. We’ll have to ask Gramps if there’s some sort of smell filter device we can get for the people around me for while we’re in dungeons, since I think this will be super helpful in dungeons and stuff.”
“So…what exactly does it do? And what else did you get?”
Tess explained, pausing only briefly to move the Attributes and Skills into place once she had put the old ones away.
Blighted Body (User Fundamental):
The creature’s body becomes a host for Blight, granting immunity to all Poison effects and causing any who attack it from within 4 meters to have a 20% chance to receive a Blight, dealing 50% of the damage inflicted by the original wound every two and a half seconds for two and a half minutes.
“Well, I’m relieved.” Ellie said after Tess had finished, “I wasn’t sure if the Skills that the info listed for this thing would be the same as what you got, but it looks like they were.”
Tess blushed. “Again, thanks. I really wasn’t expecting something like this, it must have been expensive.”
Ellie threw an arm around Tess. “It’s not a big deal. I got it at a discount from the guild, Grandpa says our party will more than make up for that money with just a small amount of work once we’re higher level. Said he plans to give us discounts whenever we want to buy cores, so long as we don’t buy too much.”
“I don’t think we’ll need to if it’s something we’re able to fight.” Tess said, laying her head on Ellie’s shoulder. “I’ve already got way more cores than I could possibly use.”
Ellie stiffened, causing Tess to remove her head. “Was that too soon?” Tess asked. “Sorry.”
“No!” Ellie said hurriedly. “No. I just wasn’t expecting it, I was happy, really.”
“Oh.” Tess replied, once again resting her head on Ellie’s shoulder. “Well, um…just let me know if you get uncomfortable, okay?”
“Yeah.” Ellie said, pulling Tess in closer, “Will do.”
----------------------------------------
“So, you wanted to talk to me?” Gramps asked, giving Ellie and Tess a look.
Ellie took a deep breath, then paused, apparently having seconds thoughts. Tess gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, and she seemed to take heart in that, continuing on.
“Um, Grandpa, I…I’m a lesbian.”
Gramps smiled. “I’m very proud of you for coming out.” He said, glancing at Ellie and Tess’s connected hands, “Anything else?”
Ellie blinked. “Is…that it?” She asked, clearly taken aback.
Gramps scratched his neck, embarrassed. “I might have already known. Or, at the least very strongly suspected. I had an inkling of it before Tess transformed, but after that I was almost completely assured. Don’t worry, I don’t think any less of you for it or anything. It’s a natural thing you don’t have any choice over and I don’t see a reason why it should affect what I think of you at all.”
“O-oh.” Ellie said, “I feel a little silly now. Um…Tess and I are going out, now, so that was the other thing we were going to talk about.”
Tess nodded in agreement, carefully observing Gramps’s reaction. He had been teasing them about this for a while now, so she was curious to see how he would respond.
Gramps just gave a simple nod in response. “I see. Well, I wish you two the best of luck, then. I think you two go great together, and you’re both adults so I’m not going to set any curfews or rules or anything, just try not to get wild somewhere I can hear, alright?” He said, smirking.
“Grandpa!” Ellie replied, blushing furiously. Tess could feel her cheeks warming too, but Gramps just laughed.
“I’m just messing with you two. Now, what say you we go have some dinner? I think it’s time we properly celebrated Tess’s birthday, don’t you?”
“Is it alright if we go out somewhere?” Tess asked. “I…I think I’m ready to go back to school, so maybe eating out a restaurant would be okay?”
Gramps smiled. “Of course. If that’s what you want, I can have you back in by the start of next week, does that sound good?”
Tess nodded. “Yeah, that works.”
“Good. We shouldn’t have an issue going out in that case, where’d you like to go?”
Tess thought about that for a second. “How about a diner?” She said, “It’s been a while since I’ve been to one.”
“Sure thing!” Gramps replied jovially. “Go change out of your armor, we’ll head out as soon as everyone’s ready.”
Tess looked down, realizing that she was still wearing her gi. “Oh, right. Forgot.”
She left, heading back to her room to change into some other clothes. After that she went back downstairs, and they all loaded up into the car, where they began the ten or so minute drive into town.
“So,” Gramps asked, “What made you decide to go back to school so soon? I was ready to wait another month or so before starting to ask you about it.”
Tess shrugged. “I just sorta realized while I was out that there wasn’t a point delaying it any further. I’m fine talking to people I don’t know, so talking to people I do shouldn’t be a big issue.”
Gramps nodded. “Well, I think you’re going to do just fine.” He said, “No one should really see anything odd about you, so there shouldn’t be any issues whatsoever.”
“Yeah.” Tess said, and the conversation shifted away from the subject. Gramps asked about what the trip was like, and Tess told them some stories to pass the time.
“So, how was…you know, your period?” Ellie asked, “You didn’t mention it at all, but I figured you just didn’t want to talk about it. Was it as bad as you were worrying it would be?”
Tess frowned. “It never came, actually. Perhaps I’m not once a month like most girls?”
“If you didn’t have one when you were out, it’s more likely you don’t have one at all.” Gramps said. “There are a couple of humanoid races that don’t menstruate, and most that aren’t humanoid don’t either, so it would be a bit of an odd thing to make the Class do. You’ll have to ask Fortune about it when she finishes what she’s doing with Amy, she apparently designed the physical changes so she would know.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that.” Tess agreed. “It’ll be nice to be a little surer about it, at least.”
“I kind of want to grill her myself.” Ellie said, “I have a few questions on why some things are the way they are, and we didn’t really have time to talk earlier.”
“Alright, you can be there too.” Tess said. “I’ll let you know when she becomes available.”
They conversed for a little while longer before pulling up into the restaurant. It was a Wednesday night, so it wasn’t all too crowded, and they were seated pretty quickly. They weren’t allowed to talk about things having to do with the Outlands while they were out like this, so the conversation ended up being pretty mundane.
After they ate, they drove back to the house, and Gramps came out with cake and presents. The presents were much of the same stuff Tess used to get – books, games, that sort of thing. Cake was, thankfully, free of relighting candles this year, and before Tess even knew it it was time for bed.
Tomorrow she would go and learn more about her duties as an Appointed, but today…today she was content to just go to sleep relaxed, happy to once again be at home.