Chapter 42

"Now, Let's talk."

A chill ran down my spine as I looked at the old man sitting across from me. The God of Death? He said I wasn't dead but that barely reassured me in this situation.

I hesitated. "What do we need to talk about?"

"Relax a little, if I were just going to kill or curse you this conversation wouldn't be worth my time. I wanted to ask you about the body you found. The one you left outside the crypt you woke in."

"Body? The guy who summoned me? I don't know anything about him."

The man nodded. "Yes, but I was curious about what you did before you left. You placed coins on his face, why?"

"Uh... Well, I didn't have the ability to give him a proper burial and, well, from where I come from there's a story about giving the dead fare to pay Charon the ferryman to cross the rivers styx- er, the river of the dead in the afterlife. It was once a custom to place coins over their eyes..."

"So, this was a ritual for the dead, something akin to a burial ritual of sorts?"

"Yeah... I'm not really sure what lead me to do that in the moment but it felt right..."

For the first time the old man smiled a weary smile. "I suppose you can call me Charon then, it's been a long time since I've had a name and I've taken a liking to this one."

I probably shouldn't tell him that Charon isn't precisely an analogue to the god of the dead. If he's taken a liking to it, it's probably best to just leave it that way.

The old man stood up and walked over to the void and opened a book that hadn't been there a moment before. "The lady of nature and decay owes me a soul then, any soul given a death ritual falls squarely in my domain. I had hoped to clarify this sooner but you missed my original message, you hadn't figured out the system yet and thought it merely a headache." He looked up from his book and smiled his weary smile at that. "The only reason I'm able to talk to you now is that you're close enough to death for the moment." He scraped a long line through a page on his tome and the book was gone again.

"Lilith, I grant you the blessing of change. I doubt this means anything to you right now but in time you will see that this will open up avenues you wouldn't have had otherwise." Suddenly my right arm lit up in purple light. I looked over to see an intricate crest altering the color of the fur on my inner forearm to a shiny white, just below the crease of my elbow.

"I can't give you the blessing of death, you mortals can't tell the difference from a mark of death and at this point it would just cause you havoc. Going forward you will continue to have my blessing as long as you teach all of your succubi children this ritual of death. Remember to speak the name Charon while doing this ritual, I do not require nor wish for any other forms of worship. Last thing I want is a whole species disturbing my sleep over stupid shit." I paid rapt attention to every word he said as he returned to his chair.

"One last thing before you leave this place. Do not fear your past. It is not for me to tell you the answers you seek but I know the knowledge of it will not bring you grief or suffering. Go forward without hesitation and bring about the change I have blessed you with."

I wasn't able to reply before I was suddenly awoken back to consciousness. All four of the girls were around me when the ceiling came back into view.

"Lilith." I woke up with my head laying in Bella's lap, she was smiling down at me while running her fingers through my fur. I felt sore but otherwise didn't feel any pain. Not even from the leg that had been skewered earlier.

Morrigan rested her hand on my shoulder. "You weren't waking up even after Bella healed you. We were all a little worried."

Bella stared at my face, her eyes looked watery as if she was on the verge of crying but she held a reassuring smile. "It's okay, I knew you wouldn't leave me yet. I knew you would be alright."

I sat up and kissed Bella on the forehead. "Thank you for healing me Bella." I turned and looked at Mimi, she was back in her humanoid form and sat next to us all looking somewhat puzzled. "Thank you for saving my life Mimi. You stopped the Vampire Queen right before she was about to kill me."

A smile grew on her face before she leaned in and hugged me. "You're welcome Lilith! I thought you might be mad at me for stealing your prey..."

I laughed. "Of course not, we're a team, my prey is all of our prey." I looked over at Torien. "Is everyone else okay? No other injuries?"

She smiled with a snarky grin, "Of course not, you're the only one here that would get lost in her own thoughts in the middle of a fight."

Ouch, she really got me there. It's a little frightening how perceptive she could be.

I sighed. "I let myself get distracted in the middle of a fight. This isn't a game, I need to treat things more seriously. I'm sorry."

Morrigan laughed, "Now now, don't get all serious on us now party leader. I like your laid back attitude, just try not to get us all killed."

She said it as a joke but I winced a bit inside.

"...Lilith, what's this?" Bella asked holding my arm away from my body, revealing the mark Charon had given me."

I hesitated but decided there wasn't really much reason to hide it. "While I was unconscious I was visited by the god of death and change."

Morrigan and Torien both sharply inhaled but Bella just tilted her head. Bella let go and backed up as Torien took over inspecting the place on my fur that had turned a bright shade of white. She traced through the crest but sat back in relief. "It's not a mark of death." Morrigan looked equally relieved and let out a breath.

"Charon said it was a blessing of change. He said that he could have given me a blessing of death as well but um, 'mortals' couldn't tell the difference between a mark of death and a blessing of death."

Morrigan flicked one of her cat ears, cute. "Charon? Eh, unimportant, anyway, the god of death marks people from time to time. In a way it doesn't matter which you get, one means you're going to die soon, the other makes you better at killing... Most of the people who have the blessing of death are assassins and are ruthlessly hunted down by the different Churches and the adventurer's guild. There's essentially an open bounty on them that almost everyone will cash in on. Even this one, while it doesn't have the same connotations, might not be looked at too fondly by some of the churches."

"I guess I can understand the blessing of death part but why would they care so much about other blessings?"

Morrigan and Torien looked at each other for a moment before Morrigan continued. "Most people who receive a blessing of the gods do it through a ritual conducted by one of the Churches and are generally ordained as Heroes... Anyone found with a blessing from outside one of the churches is looked at with skepticism at best, it happens from time to time when a god recognizes a great deed but a lot of the time it's a con artist trying to get the benefits of being a hero. I... trust you Lilith, especially since you don't even seem to know what we're talking about, but killing a dungeon boss shouldn't be enough to get blessed by a god..."

I looked at my arm and traced my finger along the crest. "He said that I created a death ritual when I found a body maybe... five days ago? There's a story where I come from about placing coins onto the eyes of the deceased to pay Charon to ferry you across the river of the dead. He took that name and told me that I would have this blessing as long as I taught others to follow this ritual too. At the time that this happened I wasn't... in a position to access the system so I missed his message. He waited till today because I came close enough to death for us to talk..."

There was silence for a moment while everyone processed my words. Mimi was staring intently at me for some reason and Bella was leaning against me.

Torien finally broke the silence. "You're a strange one Lilith. I hope whoever ends up becoming our master doesn't have any issues with you, because if anyone else heard any of this story people would become very interested in you overnight."

I nodded. "So what do you think? Should I try to find a way to hide this crest?" As if in response to my words I received a system message.

[Blessing of Change] alters [Minor Physical Shapeshifting (Succubus)] into [Succubus Shifting]*[Origin of Succubi] has upgraded [Succubi Shifting] into a core [Succubus] Racial trait. All [Succubi] will now have automatic access to this trait.

[Succubus Shifting - Racial Trait (Succubus) - Hidden]The god of Change has upgraded your ability to alter your form. You are now able to alter any part of your appearance, features, or proportions as long as you can afford the strain on your mana. Alterations that deviate too far from your true form will be harder to control and maintain. You are able to shapeshift your tongue's thickness and length and control it like a prehensile organ as well as shapeshift your genitalia. Shapeshifted genitalia are not virile or fertile unless naturally so in your true form. This skill and its effects are undetectable to system identification. Mana is reserved to maintain this ability’s effects as long as it’s kept active.

I looked over at Bella and noticed she had gotten that far away look people get when they're looking at something in their system. From the message I got, it was a safe bet that she just got access to the [Succubus Shifting] trait as well. I looked down at my arm and willed the new trait to make the crest blend into the rest of my fur. Once it was indistinguishable I looked back up to Torien who just looked at me with a flat look on her face. "I'm not going to ask," she said in a deadpan voice.

"Well, at least it shouldn't cause any problems this way."

I had no way of directly measuring my mana pool but the alteration to my fur didn't seem to have a noticeable effect on it. Bigger changes were probably more noticeable but it really wasn't the right time to test it out right now. Man, I keep getting weird sex upgrades faster than I'm able to use them. I haven't even gotten a chance to properly use my pseudo-penis on Bella and now we can both transform.

I stood up and looked at the throne at the end of the hall where the Vampire Queen had originally been sitting. I looked down at myself for a moment, my clothes were covered in dried blood and the pant leg where I had been pierced by the blood spear was torn to shreds. I ripped off the torn remains of the pant leg so I wouldn't trip over it, unfortunately it left my leg feeling a bit drafty.

"All that should be left is the treasure and the dungeon core right?" I asked Torien.

"Yep, then we can finally get out of this dreary place."

I looked around and saw that everyone seemed ready to go. Mimi stepped over to me and laid her hand on my sword sheath. She began to shift, her body looked like it turned into liquid metal as she reformed into the sword on my belt.

I gently squeezed Mimi's hilt. "Comfy?"

"Mhmm!" I smiled, the mimic's cheerful attitude was infectious and touched me a little bit. I probably would have died had I not convinced her to become a succubus earlier today and she seemed happy just to be coming along.

"Alright, lets go check out that treasure then!"