Chapter 23

After our little early morning fun it was time to get ready for the day. While pulling on my set of sturdy adventuring clothes I thought about the system. I should probably get in the habit of checking my status regularly. Since it’s the start of a new day I guess it’s a good opportunity to look over them now.

First things first I want to put on a different class to hopefully unlock some new magic related stats so I have more choices when allocating the bank of stat points I’m sitting on. The question is Illusion mage or Light mage? Neither seem particularly offensive so it’s a toss up but after my experimentation with Light magic last night I’m feeling a little interested in it. I’ll change my class to Novice Light Mage for today and see what it gives me.

[Novice Light Mage] level 1Unlock condition: Have Light Magic at level 1 or higher. Increases the strength and intensity of Light Magic Skills while equipped. While this class is equipped gain 5 magic control plus 1 per level. Gain skills related to basic magic use easier.

[Changed Class to Novice Light Mage][Unlocked Statistic - Magic Control]

Magic Control - StatisticMagic Control influences the ability to manipulate, form, and shape magic. As Magic Control increases, your ability to finely tune magical effects increases. Additionally, your control of the magic in the area surrounding yourself becomes easier. Higher Magic Control lets you make more accurate adjustments to a magical effect on the fly and force a greater amount of the magic in your surroundings to follow your will.

This isn’t exactly what I was hoping to unlock but at the same time I can see the value in it. If magic force is strength then magic control is finesse. A bigger fireball isn’t always as useful as a targeted one so even if I decide to focus on magic force later, magic control will still be plenty useful. Alright, talked myself into it, I’m going to put some points into magic control for now. I’ll also put some in finesse for my swordplay while I’m at it.

[Status]Name: Lilith [Surname Undefined]Race: Succubus (Demon) [Race hidden - Displayed as Beastkin (Sheep)]Gender: FemaleClass: Novice Light Mage Lv. 1Level: 23

Stat Spread:Strength: 50Vitality: 100Charisma: 10Luck: 20 (191)[New] Finesse: 40[New] Magic Control: 30 (36)

Unallocated Statpoints: 30

Karmic Energy: 1717

Skills:Haggling Lv. 1[New] Swordsmanship Lv. 33[New] Illusion Magic Lv. 3[New] Light Magic Lv. 2[New] Light Manipulation Lv. 1[New] Uuna Riding Lv. 13[New] Linguistics Lv. 10[New] Ritual Magic Lv. 1

*Special Passives[New] Sightspeak

Innate AbilitiesKarmic BalanceKarma AwarenessKarmic Resonance[New] Karmic Retribution[New] Dominating Authority[New] Karmic Hypnotism [New] Soultouched Connection Lv. 1

Racial Traits:Infernal Heat ResistanceInfernal Cold ResistanceDarksightSexual Appetite Lv. 3Soultouch[New] Minor Physical Shapeshifting (Succubus)

Titles:[World Traveler - Hidden Title][Origin of Succubi - Hidden Title]

I should really check my status more often, a lot of this "new" stuff has been around for a while now. I decided to save 30 skill points so that if I unlock magic force soon I’ll be able to match my magic control stat. I have a feeling light magic and probably illusion magic would both benefit more from greater control than better power anyway. Unless we’re talking lasers I’m not really sure what more power would do to light magic. Though perhaps there is a more direct way to use light offensively though spells and I just don’t know it yet. I assume power just makes illusions harder to break or see through? Not sure, I need to read up more on magic. The ritual book is written more as a practical guide rather than one on magic theory so I might need to look for more books down the road if I want to get better at magic.

Anyway, it’s time to get going. First things first we need to go pick up Bella’s new dress. I’m pretty excited to see how she looks in it.

“You ready to go Bella?”

“Mhmm!”

It was a short walk back to the tailor’s shop. Just like last time the elf girl was snoozing at her desk when we walked it. We’re kind of in a hurry so we don’t really have the time to poke around until she wakes herself up. I gently grab her shoulder preparing to shake her gently awake when she starts to freaks out.

“Ahhhh! Get off of me! What’s going on?! Who are you!?” I jumped back like four feet, totally not expecting her to react like this.

“Wait wait! It’s just me! Lilith!”

A little explanation later and we pick up the rest of our clothes, Bella goes to the back to change while I wait in the front. A few minutes later she pokes her head around the corner. “Promise not to laugh!”

“What? Why would I laugh?”

“Just promise!”

“Fine fine, I promise not to laugh.”

Bella ducks back around the corner and there’s a bit of a pause before she finally shuffles out from the back. Bella looks amazing, she’s wearing a durable looking dark pink dress that goes down to her mid thigh. The cute dress is a little poofed out from the white petticoat under her skirt and her little brown tail poofs out of the back above where the dress begins to flare. She’s wearing white fingerless gloves that go up to above her elbow and matching stockings that clearly connect to a garterbelt under her clothes.

“It doesn’t look silly on me does it? I don’t know if I can wear this in public, it feels like I’m just playing pretend or something. I’ve never worn anything like this, are you sure it’ll be okay? Maybe I should go back and change into something else…”

I grab her by the shoulder and pull her back before she’s able to make it back around the corner. “Hey now, you look great Bella! You’re a girl, you’re not playing dress up or playing pretend. You’re just wearing tailored clothes and they make you look very pretty. I know you aren’t completely comfortable in it yet but just bear with it for today. If you don’t want to wear it tomorrow you don’t have to okay?”

“O-okay. Are you sure they-”

“I’m sure. Now lets go to the adventurer’s guild, we have an appointment to keep.”

“Wait I-” And I pulled her through the front door and back onto the street before she could actually resist. I know this is a little mean but sometimes exposure therapy is the best cure. If there were any chance that people would point and laugh I may have hesitated but she looked so good there was absolutely zero chance. Once through the door she immediately clung to my arm and looked around in a slight panic.

Sure, some of the people stared at her as they passed but it was clear to me that it was because she looked good, not because anyone thought she was a boy in a dress. With how feminine she looked now I would find it strange if anyone thought she was a boy at this point. I just stood there in the road with her clutching my arm for a little while as I waited for her to adjust. When it became clear that no one was going to suddenly start making fun of her she reluctantly pulled away, no longer clinging to me so tightly. She still held my hand but she wasn’t hiding behind me anymore.

“See? No problem. You look great. Are you ready to go to the next stop?”

“Sure and… thank you,” she told the ground.

“No problem. Now lets get going. With all of the excitement yesterday I completely forgot to check out an armor store for myself.”

I didn’t take too long to find a shop that didn’t discriminate against beastfolk. I looked around for a while, unsure of what to get at first. I didn’t want to be overly weighed down but I wanted a bit of protection so I settled on a sturdy steel breastplate that seemed like a good middle ground. It gave a little bit of protection for my vitals without restricting my movement at all. We hung out for maybe half an hour while the armorsmith adjusted the breastplate to fit me properly. It squished and completely hid my breasts but it’s a little hard to complain about chest protection covering my chest for obvious reasons. There wasn’t any magic bikini armor for better or worse. I paid the armorsmith 4 gold for the breastplate and adjustments. It was one of the more expensive things I’ve bought the last few days but it wasn’t something I was going to cheap out on entirely. It was expensive but I still have more than 14 gold left.

It was still morning when we got to the adventurer's guild but not as early as I would liked when we finally arrived. Hopefully our potential party members weren’t waiting for us too long. When we entered Mirianna waved us over, looks like we avoided the morning rush if nothing else. I looked around but didn’t really see anyone who looked like they were waiting for us as we walked up to Mirianna’s counter.

“Morning Mirianna, I hope we’re not too late to meet the party you were talking about.”

“Not at all, it’s probably for the best that we are taking care of this a little later so I can introduce the four of you properly.” She lead us away from the counter and up the stairs to a private meeting room.

She gently knocked twice before opening the door and letting us in. “Good morning girls, these are the two I was telling you about.” Behind the meeting table are two twin catgirls. They had human features with cute black cat ears sticking out of their hair. They were clearly twins and looked identical except for their eye color. One had black hair and blue eyes and the other had black hair and bright, perhaps even glowing, red eyes. One was dressed in cheap looking leather armor, the other in something similar to the durable clothes I got from the tailor.

Mirianna turns to us. “This is Lilith the swordswoman and Belladonna the nature healer.” She then gestures towards the blue eye’d twin. “This is Torien the scout,” then gestures to the red eye’d twin, “and Morrigan the wild mage.”

The two panther girls bowed and spoke in unison. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.” It was honestly a little unnerving to hear them in sync, as if they had been practicing speaking at the same time. It wasn’t until they were straitening up again that I noticed the two of them were both wearing slave collars. Unlike the one I had seen on Bella originally, these ones were made of a dark metal with thin blue lines that traveled in various paths through otherwise invisible seams in the metal. These collars were obviously an upgrade on what Mark had been using but I’m not sure what the difference is.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” I respond in kind. I hesitate for a moment before deciding to ask, “So may I ask about the slave collars?”

Mirianna jumps in, “They’re owned by the slavers guild and on loan to us to pay for a debt. There’s no need to worry about a master breathing down your neck but because of that these two haven’t found any…” She paused while looking for the right word, finally deciding to finish with, “compatible party members. Though I think the two of you would likely be the right people to work with them without any… uh complicated factors coming into play.”

“Uh huh…” I turn back to the girls. “Well I don’t have any reason to hold being slaves against you and as long as you’re okay with the two of us. How badly are you two in debt?”

They turned to each other uncertainly before turning back to us, Torien the scout replied for them, “Don’t worry about it, far more than four beginner adventurers would be able to pay while pooling their money together…”

“Mmm, I’m sorry to hear that.” I can’t stick my neck out for everyone I meet but perhaps I could do something about their debt once I get paid from Bitch’s auction. Assuming this party works out of course.

“Well I’ll let you girls discuss tactics then,” Mirianna said as she left the room to us.