Congratulations!

Your Core has successfully condensed.

You are now of the Third Layer.

New Stat Points available.

New Skill Point available.

That was nice to see, I’ll admit. The life-blood of a gamer is in the level up, after all. It is the true joy we all aspire to. Of course, I had actually assumed that it would appear as soon as I woke up, but maybe Bline had noticed that I was a little busy at the time. Of course, that implied that she was actually paying attention to what I was up to. And really, I did not know whether to be flattered or terrified by the thought. Then again, there was that side theory I had going about having a personal Faen assigned to me. That seemed way more likely.

Although, if that were the case, I would feel kind of sorry for them. Imagine having to follow me around all the time. I mean… sure, there were episodes of crazy battles and Dungeon crawling and the like, but there was also a lot of just walking in silence. Sleeping. Going to the bathroom. Ugh… I could not even imagine the tedium. And I was living it. Maybe it would be better if they had like a couple of dozen or so people to look after? I shook my head at myself. I might as well debate how many angels could dance on the head of a pin.

After waving away that little pop-up — and my private spiral into imagination land, a huge list of skill-up notifications followed. I remembered that once-upon-a-time, I had received those notices as soon as they happened, but lately they had been rather lackadaisical in their delivery. Actually, I was having a some difficulty recalling when the last time was that I had actually gotten one. Mentally, I gave a slight shrug. It was not all that important in the long run. As long as I got them eventually, right? Besides, I could not actually do anything about it, so why worry?

Giving the list a quick skim, I picked out a few welcome notices. For one, my Battle Acumen had surged all the way up to ten, somehow. I had to guess that actually being in a large-scale battle would do that. For that matter, Spear Use had ticked up a few times, and I had even gotten the new skill, Shield Use, though it was sitting at a measly two. I had also gotten one named Dodge: Projectile which was, as of yet, unleveled. The only thing was, I could not actually remember a time when I had dodged anything. Had I gotten it from getting hit on the head with a rock? If so, I had an inkling that I was being made fun of. Making a face, I scrolled on.

There were a lot of other things. Let’s see… Walking, Running, Balance… there was a point of Animal Handling from somewhere. I blanched. Must have been from when Menda let me drive one of the wagons. I laughed to myself nervously. Continuing on, all of my spells had gotten at least a point or two. Even my long neglected passive had ticked up. Yep. No reason for that to have happened. Ha ha! Crazy…

Finally coming to the Language section, I saw that Laoi’na had scaled up a whole fifteen points! That would explain my sudden ability to speak in complete sentences. Or… it would if people suddenly started speaking properly overnight. I mean… I had been practicing almost constantly ever since I had gained the skill. I was fully immersed into a culture that spoke that language, so it made sense that I would get better at it. But why all at once?

Thinking about it, all of those crazy rules that I had been fumbling with were now just sort of… there. I did not have to think about what word to put where depending on what context. I just did it. It sounded wrong otherwise. Was it because my Core condensed? Or was it because I had gotten my skill up notice? This did not make any sense, at all!

Baffled, but determined to find some sort of explanation, I turned around to ask Jax about it, as he had pretty recently gone through something similar with English, but he had wandered off to look over the graveyard. Fortunately, Sherr Hess was still here.

“Yeah, some skills are funny like that,” she explained after I finished voicing my confusion. She was currently a bit distracted, surveying the field for any holes in the scarecrow-powered laser defense system that had popped up this morning. I did not think she was going to have much luck from the safety of the fence, but it was a start. “You’ll notice big shifts in ability at certain thresholds. I’m guessing you just leveled into low competent?” At my blank look, she elaborated, “Forty something?”

Well, that was spot on. “Forty even, actually.” I looked away for a second to think, “So… what? Every ten levels, I should notice a difference?”

She nodded, “You got it. So I figure mostly you’re in the single digits, right? Anything break into the teens today?”

Wow… that was observant. Or just an experienced guess. “Yeah, Battle Acumen,” I said, a little proud of myself.

“Oof…” she made a face, “Okay, so that puts you at high novice now. For that skill… mmm… mostly that just means you’re going to be overconfident for a while. To put it into words… You’ve seen a few fights, and you think you know what you’re doing. But you don’t. False security. You get me?”

I gave a hesitant nod.

She chuckled, and pushing herself away from the fence, she walked over to me, “Okay, how about this? I’m going to give you the only piece of advice I can for the time being. Stay out of my way,” she poked me firmly in the shoulder as she said it. “And I’m not trying to be cruel or some kind of ass pit, here. I mean it. You aren’t tough enough to survive some of what I can dish out, and accidents happen. Especially to cocksure little Monos. You understand that?”

I frowned. Partially, because she had a really weird way of swearing, but also because I was feeling insulted. After all, I knew perfectly well what my role was. Or was I just thinking like the ‘overconfident’ little newbie that Hess had just described? “Uh… while we’re on the topic of roles,” I said, deciding to set aside my… perhaps unwarranted confidence, “most of my skills are designed to help out my allies in some way. Actually, I haven’t been able to find any that even can hurt an enemy. Or well… I can make you better at hurting them. Is there anything you would want from me that would help you? Somehow?”

She shook her head, slowly, “Not unless you can find some way to help fill up my reservoirs. I’ve been nibbling on my last bucket of oats this whole time. Anything else you could do wouldn’t help me much. Not at novice skill levels, anyway.”

“Okay…” I said thoughtfully. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to check. Incidentally, what sorts of things do you have? Uh… reservoirs, I mean. Just so I know what to look for.” I fidgeted a little with my hands before continuing, “If you don’t mind saying.”

“Yeah, okay, little man,” she chuckled as she mussed my hair. “There are actually several, but I’ve only invested into three types. Honestly, I’m probably a little over generalized, but… Well, lets just say that you shouldn’t pick your skills when you’re too deep into your cups.” She looked down and smilingly shook her head at some private joke.

I quickly ran a hand through my hair self-consciously to even it back out while her gaze was elsewhere. Her advice had been, I thought, self-evident but one that I was not at all surprised to be getting from her. Deciding to be diplomatic, I just smiled.

“Right. Anyway, there’s booze,” she started, listing them on her fingers. “Actually, the resource is called ‘Indulgence’, but getting drunk is the only thing that I’ve found that fills it. Like I said before, most of my skills go off of that one, but unless you can figure out a way to conjure some beer out of thin air, I think we’re out of luck there.”

Hmm… ‘Indulgence’ brought to mind thoughts of cupcakes and cream-filled donuts and all sorts of other crazy sweets — things that were fun in the moment but might make you hate yourself later. Maybe other types of indulgences were just way less accessible here. It was a thought. As to summoning up some alcohol… it might be possible. “I can check? But go on,” I prompted.

“Okay. There’s also sex stuff… or ‘Arousal’, technically. That one’s fun,” she winked at me, but continued on before I could figure out how to react, “And then there’s ‘Mirth’, which is just… I will put as laughter and just having a good time in general.”

I looked at her curiously, “Is that why you made us sing to you yesterday?”

She smiled, “You got it! I have a few spells in the trough now, thanks to that.”

I smiled with her for a moment and looked away. Really, that was all I needed to know. Still, there was one thing that was bothering me and had been for a while now. The only thing was that I really had no idea how to phrase the question, other than to just say it straight out. Coughing into my fist, I cleared my throat a few times to work up my courage, “Uh… Hess?”

She cocked an eyebrow, and folding her arms, she lazily leaned against the fence, “Yes, Donum?” She waited. From her expression, I had a feeling she knew where I was going. But she was absolutely going to make me say it. In fact, it looked like she was struggling not to grin.

“I mean… well…” I paused. My face was heating up with every breath. Hess cracked a bit. “Well… since you get… uh…” I started gesticulating with my hands, “or n-need… that is… arousal. W-why, uh…” Noticing that my hands were starting to shake, I nervously pulled them behind me to try and hide their trembling. On her end, Hess was no longer even trying to hide her amusement. “Well… you’ve got t-two guys here. Uh… that is… m-men. You know?” I trailed off and looked down. Internally, I was about ready to start flagellating myself. That was probably the worst way to proposition a woman that I could possibly imagine. And I was not even really trying to proposition her! Not truly. Tangentially, maybe.

Figuring that I should try to assess the damage, I glanced up at her fearfully. Hess had her head tilted back and cocked to the side, studying me. Finally, pulling away from the fence, she slowly started to saunter toward me, “Yes…” Leaning forward so that we were face to face, and incidentally giving me a clear view down into her cleavage, she breathed, “And what should I do with two… men?” At the word, her hand reached down and ever so gently cupped my balls.

Struggling to swallow, I tried to answer her, but I could not speak. It was as if my entire ribcage had just jumped up into my throat. The second she had touched me there, my member had come alive with all the heat and explosiveness of the rising of the phoenix. In fact, the longer she held me, the more certain I was that my metaphorical ‘mythic bird’ was about to self-immolate. Languidly feeling along my length, her fingers trailed up to my tip ever so slowly and gave it the lightest of flicks. I twitched.

“My word,” she whispered into my ear, “you can’t even answer me, can you? Not while I’m doing this…” Softly, she continued to run her nails over my member from where it strained against my breeches. Light little circles, up and down. My breath started coming in halting gasps. If this kept on, I felt like I would lose my mind.

I tried to say something. Anything. Something clever. Something suave. But all I could manage was an animalistic groan.

Taking that as all the assent she needed, a low growl sounded in her throat, and with hooded eyes, her lips approached my own. My whole body began to tremble with the anticipation, my whole world focused on those lips. Those plush, dark gray lips. But then, just before she joined hers to mine, she cracked into a playful smile, and lightly clapping me on the cheek, she stepped back. “You see? Like that. What I just did to you? That is what I need.”

“Uh… uhm…” I quavered out, totally discombobulated by the sudden shift.

“Yes, I know, little thing. No need to say anything,” she smiled at my discomfit. Flouncing back against the fence, she explained, “What I am trying to tell you is that what I need is Arousal. If I could just hop on and enjoy the ride, that would be wonderful, but it doesn’t work that way. I mean, of course… of course sex is a part of it, but it’s the ending! Not the beginning. It’s all about the slow, delicious build before you inevitably explode in pleasure!” Her arms crossed in front of her, crushing her breasts together beneath her vest, as she reveled in her own explanation. Coming back to herself, she went on, “That’s a thing that uh…” she waved vaguely in my direction, “men seem to have trouble understanding. At first, anyway. And that’s why I haven’t… oh… jumped onto your bones, I guess you would say.”

I stared at her for a long few breaths at that. My emotions were all jumbled together. I felt betrayed and used and… and incredibly aroused and… I did not know what all. “W-well…” I stammered defensively.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. I will teach you, you see?” she said before I could continue. Had that been what I was going to say? I did not even know anymore. Then with a huge grin, she went on, “Might even be fun!” Her eyes flicked down to my bulge after a moment and as her smile faded, her gaze slowly went distant. Contemplatively, she bit at her lower lip, “Hmm… alright. Lesson number one. Flirt with me.”

There was a moment of silence before my brain copped to the fact that I was supposed to say something. It was like I was bungee jumping from the bottom up. “I… What?”

“Come on! Flirt with me!” she said again. “I need you to arouse me. You need to know how. So, I’m teaching you. Let me know that you think I’m attractive. That you’re interested.”

Disbelievingly, I just pointed at my erection, still very much straining for attention from her earlier ministrations.

She tsked. “Come on, little man. I know your sex better than that. You would react that way from almost anyone coming on to you like I just did.” She looked down at it again with a slight predatory grin, “That being said… it’s nice to know that I have your…” she took a breath as if to taste the air, “attention.” Her gaze flicked up to me again, waiting.

With a massive effort, I tore my eyes away from her and just tried to breathe. My other brain was taking up way too much head space right now. I could barely speak, much less say something with anything approaching wit.

She sighed, “Alright, alright. Let me help you.” Looking away for a moment to gather her thoughts, she began, “Now normally, you would want to be indirect when you start out. Not with me, of course. I’m not that kind of girl. I don’t have that kind of patience, and we’re way past that part, anyway.”

“Indirect?” I asked, mostly in an effort to get onto a mental track where I could at least try to think.

“Sure, usually,” she waved her hand to the side, “Okay, since you want to start there… Let’s say you’d never met me, and you had no idea that I was a Tramp. Your goal is to tell me that I’m attractive and that you want to bed me. But you can’t say that, obviously.”

“Obviously,” I nodded, just going with it.

“Really? Why is it obvious?” she grinned.

“U-uh, oh… uh…” Great. Traps. At the very least, it was helping to jump-start my brain again. “Because it’s… low class?” I guessed.

“Nobles…” she rolled her eyes. Scoffing, she said, “Please… Plenty of low class dick bundles get laid every day. Where do you think low class babies come from?”

That was a good point… Or it would be if I had meant it that way. Still, there was some truth to what she had said. Trying a different track, I said, “Uh… because you want to know that I’m… not interested… or no… uh… or just… well, interested in you more than just physically?” I almost sighed in relief as that sentence finally came together.

She had been fiddling with a nail as she waited for me to spit it out, but then she paused, “Oh? What do you mean? Why would I want anything more than that?”

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Now, I was totally derailed. Again. Was that not right? Or no… she was still testing me. “Well… so that you know that I won’t just leave? After the fact.”

She looked up, “What? You’re saying you’d want to do it twice?” Her eyebrows lifted a bit, “Not a bad tactic.”

“Well…” I stopped. Wait, what? Where was she going with this? “Maybe not… in a row. But… you know. Again. Yes. I think?”

She cocked her head, staring at me. “That might be the most curious way of picking up a woman I’ve ever heard. It’s almost like you’re trying to attract me as a mate.” Suddenly, she snapped her fingers as if she had just solved a mystery, “Of course! You must have been brought up that way. Everything is about producing heirs with your lot, right? Mixed kind stuff wouldn’t even be in the scrying pool for you, would it?” She brought a hand up to her cheek in pity, “Oh, you poor man.”

I closed my eyes. Again… What? Blinking a few times to try to come somewhere even close to the vicinity of her train of thought, I said, “O-okay… let’s back up. You want me to explain why it’s bad to just be upfront about things, right?”

“Right,” she agreed. But then her eyes flicked to the side, tracking something. “Hmm… let’s see if your lilim knows, then. Shall we?”

Turning, I saw Jax approaching from the other side of the yard. He must have made a circuit around the whole thing. “Mate!” he called. “I think I found summat. Carved in yon tree, over there,” he pointed to a dead and spindly looking specimen that was leaning over the fence on the far side. “Some kind o’ writin’.”

“What’s it say?” Hess called back.

“An’ how would I know?” he spread his arms wide. “Can’t read, can I?”

She turned to me, “You never taught him to read?”

I made a face. These shifts in the conversation were really throwing me. But at least here, I was on firm ground. “I just learned to speak the language. How would I have taught him to read it? I can’t even read Laoi’na!”

Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment, “Really? But it usually comes together with the spoken language.”

Did it? “Well, I guess not when your teacher can’t read either.”

She glanced back at Jax, “Oh, I see. That explains it.” Heaving a sigh, she started walking in the direction of the tree. “Well… I guess that’s another thing I’m going to have to teach you.” Just as she passed Jax by, she gave him a friendly swat on the behind.

He jumped in surprise. Grinning fiercely, he said, “Don’t think ye can get on me good side just by flirtin’ wit me, ye manx!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it, Jax,” she cackled. Then turning and walking backward a few paces, she called, “By the way, it’s because it’s boring, you silly little thing!”

Jax finished the few paces back to me, still looking toward Hess. “What were that about?”

I just frowned, “Hmm… I guess that was kind of obvious, now that I think about it.”

“What was?” he looked perplexed.

“Never mind,” I said, starting to follow.

“Mate,” Jax skipped up to fall in beside me, “What by the Lady was you two on about? I feel all kind o’… What be that?”

“What’s what?” I asked, curiously.

He shook his head, “I dunno. I don’t think I ever got it off o’ ye before. It be buried now, but there must o’ been a lot of it a minute ago. It be drainin’ off, now.” He smiled a bit, “I like it, whatever it be.”

I glanced over at him. Jax, I decided, was just going to have to keep guessing on that one.

As we walked, I started going over what had just happened. Hess was screwing with me, that much was clear. On the other hand, it was also very clear that she wanted me to seduce her. But she was not going to let me just skip to the end. I had to do it correctly. Well… I could do that! At least… I thought I could. Usually, my main problem was not knowing whether or not I should even try. Fortunately, Hess had all but shaken me by the shoulders and screamed to ‘commence operations’.

In hindsight, she kind of had been doing that all along. But then, just because someone happens to have a class that derives power from being turned on… and said individual is an incorrigible flirt, that does not mean that you have permission to just dive in. Of course, I was terrible at reading signals, so… Thinking back, I paused. Ugh… I was the worst.

I shook my head. No point in thinking about it any more. One foot in front of the other.

“Now that we’s alone,” Jax interrupted my thoughts, “I been meanin’ to tell yer. Sommat be off.”

I looked over at him curiously. He was picking at his shirt collar again. “Oh? What’s off?”

He shook his head, “I dunno. Ever since I woke up, I been feelin’… wrong? Maybe.”

“Wrong?” I asked in concern. “Wrong how? Are you sick?”

“Nay… not like that. Maybe it be the wrong word…” he looked away, readjusting his shirt again. “Uncomfortable? I guess.”

“Uncomfortable?” I repeated. I looked him up and down. He was acting kind of fidgety, now that I was paying attention. “Is it something you’re getting off of one of us? An emotional thing?”

He quickly jerked his head, “Nay. I were feelin’ it well away from ye and yon boot just the same.” He shimmied his shoulders and sighed in frustration, “I be havin’ a hard time bringin’ up the words.”

I stopped, “Jax, what is going on with your shirt?”

“What?” he looked up, confused. “Oh, I do nay know. It ain’t fittin’ right today. Been rubbin’ at me wrong.”

“Really?” I cocked an eyebrow. “Maybe you have a rash. Here, lift it up. Let me check.”

With a shrug, he crossed his arms and pulled the shirt off. “This ain’t really what I were talkin’ about, Donum,” he said, his voice muffled temporarily by the cloth passing over.

Ignoring him for the moment, I looked him over closely. Starting from his back, I could see that his pale skin was overall pretty smooth, though there were some signs of a few faded scars and burns. No red marks or other blemishes, though. Circling around to his front, I found it much the same. Nothing to account for his discomfort… Although, there was one thing, “Hmm… your nipples are a little swollen.

“Be they?” Jax asked, a little surprised. He rubbed at them absently. “Yer right… they do be a bit sensitive.”

My mouth twisted in thought, “Your shirt must have been rubbing them wrong. Or… do you think you might have gotten into something to irritate them?”

“Hmm…” he looked up for a second, “Could o’ been them trees I were choppin’. Them uns had some sap to ‘em. But I notice you two ain’t havin’ no problems.”

“Might just be an allergy,” I said shrugging. “Different people react differently to things.”

He sighed. “Bollocks. That’s the last that I need. Well, I guess I’ll just go without the blighter fer now.” So saying, he tucked the garment into the back of his pants. Rolling his shoulders a few times, he smiled. “Aye, that do be a bit better.”

Companionably, I slapped him on the arm, “Glad I could help.” Continuing on a few steps, I started in on another topic, “While I’ve got you here, Jax, we need to talk about our next skill pick… Unless you’ve done it already?”

“Well… that weren’t,” he sighed, “No. I ain’t yet. I thought to wait on ye case we was needin’ ter coordinate again.”

I smiled, “I appreciate that.” Taking a moment to assemble my thoughts, I launched into the central problem.

Jax listened to me intently as I outlined Hess’ power requirements and my idea to try and take a skill that could possibly fill at least one of them artificially with magic… somehow. “Seems a bit of a waste to me. What are ye goin’ to do when we get out o’ here? She may not stay with us, ye know.”

“I considered that. Unfortunately, that may not apply, because… well… we may not get out of here. Not unless I come up with something to feed into her resources. It’s a bit of a catch twenty-two,” I sighed.

“I ain’t sure ‘bout that last bit, but I think I take yer meanin’,” Jax scratched his cheek in thought. “So what are ye thinkin’?”

“Well…” I dipped my head, “here’s the thing… and I realize you may not like this.” I glanced at him, surreptitiously. He had a cautious look on his face, but he did not interrupt. “Well… the thing is, a lot of the things the two of us have going on seem to cause you… some discomfort.”

“Uh huh…” he said slowly.

“But only as a side effect. It isn’t doing anything for us… right?”

“Uh huh…” he said even slower.

“So, I thought… what if we could harness it somehow? Kind of like she is. Actually, use it to our benefit,” I finished.

He glared at me for a moment, “To our benefit, he says. Meanwhile, I’m the bloke gets his breeches stretched.”

I nodded in acknowledgment, “Yes, I realize that, and I’m sorry. But I just figured… well, since it’s happening anyway, wouldn’t you rather… Oh, I don’t know. Use it somehow? If you can? I mean… It can’t hurt to just look into it, right?”

He heaved a sigh, but he took a few moments to think it over before he discarded the idea out of hand. “Alright, so say I find some kind o’ skill that lets me fight better when… that happens. Where do ye come in?”

I grimaced, “Unfortunately, all I can do is to help the two of you fight better. So whatever it is I end up with, I’ll probably be the one… feeding into the power you pick.”

He grunted, “Aye, that be what I figured. Watcher’s Eye… may as well. I’ll let ye know what I can find.”

I nodded encouragingly. Truthfully, I had no idea if this would pan out. I mean, I was a buffer. At least, that was what I thought of myself as. Causing someone to get aroused would be more of a debuff, in my mind. Although, that begged the question as to why it was happening at all.

Well… first things first. “Lady Bline…”

All abilities you use that act on the person of your Lilim will cause some level of comfort, happiness, or pleasure depending on your skill or, if applicable, amplitude.

Effect may be modified with skill purchase.

All other entities affected by your skills will feel the same if they choose not to resist your influence.

I blinked a few times at the unexpected pop-up. She was being really Johnny-on-the-spot, today. And unusually forthcoming. I smiled as I read through it, relieved to finally be getting answers to at least some of my questions. Going from this, it was reading like my skills served as a way to subtly reward my lilim for doing their jobs, namely fighting for me. Of course, the effect was spoiled when you did not actually know that. It was weird and creepy to have that going on without knowing about it beforehand. I could only imagine what it was like for Jax.

Speaking of… Lightly rapping his arm with my knuckle, I got his attention. “Jax, get a load of this…”

“Is that what it be?” he said musingly.

“Yeah, wish I’d known that ahead of time. I could have warned you.”

He nodded, “Would o’ been nice, aye.”

“Hey, wait,” I said as a thought occurred to me, “What about Fortunate Shadows? You never mentioned that one affecting you.”

“Well, it don’t,” he said, but then he pursed his lips, “although… I can tell it when ye cast ‘er. I guess if I’d to put it to words… It makes me feel… safer? Maybe?”

“Comfortable?” I supplied.

“Aye, ye could say it,” he agreed. “But only a little.”

“Well, I’m not very skilled,” I chuckled.

“What’s that about ‘influence’, though?” he asked.

It was a good question. As I also would like some clarification, I asked the Lady to elaborate. Unfortunately, it seemed that she was done with me for now. With a slight frown, I mentally offered up some thanks, anyway. She had answered at least the one question, after all.

Heaving a sigh, I set to actually picking out a skill.

“Okay… Lady Bline. Let’s do this. I would like to spend my skill point. I need something that will induce pleasure for an ally.”

Active or Passive?

“Uh… Passive?” I said slowly. If I did not have to spend any sort of resource to keep this going, then that would be excellent.

Please indicate Primary Effect requirements.

Right. The pleasure component would be a side effect. I still needed to come up with something for the power to actually do. Well, let’s see… It’s passive, so it won’t be very strong. Maybe something that accumulates over time? As far as I could tell from previous inquiries, this could be almost anything. Although, if I got too ambitious, She would just tell me that it was too strong for my Core Layer or that I did not yet meet the requirements. So, it needed to be relatively low powered.

“How about like… an aura? Where the longer my ally stays within a certain distance of me, the more powerful the effect becomes?”

Please indicate desired Effect.

Okay, nice. I had not been shot down yet. That was good. But what to actually do with it? Uh… My mind skittered through all sorts of possibilities. Honestly, our main problem was just making sure that we had enough food and water at any given time. But given how the whole Life Energy thing had been working so far, I doubted I could just generate the stuff like a battery. Wouldn’t hurt to check, though.

You do not meet the requirements to generate Life Energy in this way.

Right. That’s what I thought. It was a silly idea, anyway. Although… ‘in this way’? What? But then I remembered. There was that Life Berry skill. I could sacrifice the excess to store for later. Honestly, it might not be a bad idea to grab that one, what with Jax stealing the stuff in combat now. Eventually.

Really, what was making me hesitate so much was the situational nature of a lot of skills. Like… sure, maybe I could enchant Jax’s axe so that it would be engulfed in flames, for instance. But then if we started fighting lava monsters, that would suddenly be useless! Games were always full of power trade-offs like that. Strong now, terrible later. I wanted something that I would be happy to have on hand all the time.

Hmm… What if I just went with something simple? Like… boosting stats? That would be a pretty good all-purpose thing to have.

Attribute scaling unavailable at your Stratum.

Rats. Yeah, that would be pretty strong. Absently, I poked at the word Stratum, hoping for some more details, but She declined to provided them. I would have to ask Hess about it later.

Gradually, my mind started circling back to Jax’s Life Energy stealing ability. I really did like that power. Most of the time. It kept me alive, and I could use the Energy it provided to heal with. The trouble with it was that it was so inconsistent. I wonder…

“How about an effect where…” I paused to collect my thoughts, “my aura would gradually improve…” oh, how to phrase this… “the… likelihood…? of my allies abilities being… successful?” I pulled a face and crossed my fingers as I awaited the response. It took a while. Just as I was about to see if She had even heard me, I got my response.

Windfall of the Thrall

Passive aura gradually improves ally’s luck/skill based effect chances over time. Long-term exposure can eventually increase chances to near certainty. Chance gains are reset after ally’s ability succeeds. Chance gains are individual to the ally. Skill level improves rate at which chance gains accumulate.

Accept?

Reading over the result, my first thought was that I was not a huge fan of the name, even if it did rhyme. Maybe stuff like this was why Jax was so reluctant to actually say what his skills were called. For that matter, Hess had never mentioned the names of any of her skills, either.

As for the skill itself, however… This thing was nuts! It was freaking proc-generator! And ‘near certainty’? Why was I allowed to have this and not just a simple stat buff? The only thing I could think of was that the buff accumulation must be really slow. Still, the chance for everyone’s skills going off at the start of a fight was extremely enticing. With the right build, combat would be over before it really even began.

I almost grabbed it immediately, but… But, I had an experienced Quester on hand. Nodding to myself, I resolved to ask her about it first. Then, as an afterthought, I figured Jax should have a say, as well.