Chapter 21 – System Intracies Over Dinner

The dinner that Vel prepared for us tasted just as delicious as it smelled. I couldn’t get enough of it, but I had to make sure not to overindulge myself since I didn’t want to ruin my new, incredibly sexy figure. In hindsight, though, eating as much as I wanted to was probably something I should have also put on my reincarnation forms along with the other boons I had gotten from my blessed by an angel trait. I really hadn’t been as thorough as I probably should have been, but there was little I could do about it at this point. At least I had thought of the most important, sexual things that I really wanted to end up with.

The food wasn’t the only thing that was enjoyable about this meal either, as, unlike lunch, which was really kind of awkward, Damien was a lot more relaxed and talkative around me. As intense and out of nowhere as that encounter I just had with him was, it did a lot to ease his suspicions of me. Furthermore, I now actually stood a chance of seducing and fucking him.

It was thanks to this new warm and welcoming atmosphere from him that I finally got around to asking a question that had been on my mind for quite a while now. Of course, that said I didn’t just barge my way into the conversation going on, but waited for an opportunity to ask about stats. "So, I’ve been wondering, what exactly do stats actually do? I’ve allocated several points to charm already and it's over twice the value that it started out as, but I don’t feel any different."

"That’s because increasing stats doesn’t really have an active, observable effect on your body at a low level; they’re more of a modifier of what you can already do than an increase of your base abilities. A modifier that gets more and more impactful the higher it is." Damien answered in between bites of his dinner.

“For example, Take me and my might score. Might is my highest stat, but my muscles don’t come from the fact that I have a high might score. I work hard to train my body and keep it strong at a base level so that my high might score will boost that strength to an even higher level than someone who might have the same might score as me but a more slender, weaker body."

"Furthermore, charm is one of the more… subtle stats. Apart from empowering charm-based skills, a higher charm score makes you appear more charming and persuasive to other people, but it takes a significant investment for that effect to really reach a hugely beneficial level. But even if you had an incredibly high charm score, you still wouldn’t be able to notice its effects personally as it only affects other people, not yourself."

"Okay, I think I get it, but what do the other stats do?" I asked. Even though each of the stats was worded specifically enough to give me a general idea of what they did, it was better to get an answer for sure instead of just guessing.

"Apart from might and charm, there is, Agility, which makes you more nimble and agile. Vitality, which makes you more physically resistant and healthy. Intellect, which increases the speed at which you think and process information. And Willpower, which makes you more mentally resistant."

That’s about what I figured was the case.

After a few moments of nodding and another couple of mouthfuls of food, I had something else I wanted to ask him about this topic while I had the opportunity to. "Is there any specific way I should be allocating my stats if I want to try for higher rarity classes at my 1st class evolution?"

Although I was occupying all of the conversations with her father, I didn’t feel too bad for Vel as she seemed happy enough just to sit and watch us as she ate her dinner. Or at least the happy little smile on her face seemed to suggest that.

However, instead of immediately answering my latest question, Damien asked his own for the sake of politeness. "Do you mind if I identify you and check your status screen? It’s normally considered rude to look without asking first among friends and family."

"Oh, so does that mean we're friends now?" I gave the man a teasing smile, causing his daughter to giggle, amused by how friendly the two of us were now. "But, yes, that's fine, as long as you tell me how you do it. Is it a skill specific to your class or just something everyone can do at a certain level?"

Apart from a slight, momentary smirk over my friend's comment, Damien moved on without addressing it. Instead, he just opted to answer my question. "It’s a class skill. Most people, but not everyone, usually get the option to learn a version of the identify skill as their 10th class skill, around level 15. That said, the different versions of the skill that different classes tend to focus on different kinds of information according to what the class is all about, but since mine is one of the more basic ones and is maxed out at rank 10, I can pretty much see everything that is written on someone’s status screen, nothing extra. However, although I can see your traits, skills and your skills’ ranks, I can’t actually get any of the details of what they actually do."

After explaining that, the big burly man’s eyes flashed with a bright light as he took a look over my status screen, evaluating my distribution of stat points. "From the looks of things, you’ve already been allocating your stat points in a manner suited for someone in tier 0…”

“Ah, tiers are a term that comes from the fact monsters don’t actually have levels. Although, technically the system never uses the term tiers in relation to people, a lot of warriors and combatants use it synonymously for the class evolution milestones since the power level of monster tiers pretty much lines up with class evolutions."

"Someone who has just passed their 1st class evolution, like Velyna, would be considered to be tier 1 and would be able to take on monsters of the same tier with a fair chance of success. After the 2nd class evolution, they would be considered tier 2, and so on and so on. However, the combat rating part of the tier really doesn’t really apply to lifestyle classes, just hybrid and martial classes since lifestyle classes aren't usually equipped for fighting. Well, not unless they have a bunch of high-rank combat-focused general skills that can bridge the gap, but most people who are that determined to hone their fighting skills usually just take a martial class anyway."

"Dad, you're getting a bit sidetracked there." Vel chimed in at this point with a little bit of a grin on her face, clearly enjoying this despite not really partaking in the conversation.

"Ah, sorry." Damien gave a slightly awkward smile in my direction as he apologised. Truthfully, the apology wasn’t really needed since I would have just asked about the tiers if he didn’t explain them, but seeing him needlessly and overly apologetic like that made me realise where the young elven woman originally got that habit from.

Who knew the big burly man wasn’t always as tough and sure of himself as he appeared?

"Where were we? Oh, yes." He continued on with the original explanation, from which got a bit distracted earlier. "By the looks of things, you have been allocating your stat points as best as you can for your current tier. Although there are no specific requirements, stat or otherwise, given during the class evolution process, most teachers and trainers recommend focusing on only two stats during tier 0. By the time you reach level 10, it’s recommended to have a score of 30 in your main stat and 20 in a secondary stat. Something you're well on your way to…"

Damien trailed off as his eyes stared off into the distance. From the way he was looking in that direction earlier, I assumed he hadn’t yet dismissed my status screen from his vision and that was what he was staring at as he said. "Huh, that is weird. Your stats don’t match your level."

As soon as he said that, I immediately understood why he was so confused. However, since his daughter already knew the reason for this and didn’t react poorly to it, I decided to just tell him why my stats were bigger than they should have been. After all, what was the worst that sharing this information could have done?

"Oh, yeah, that. Vel explained class rarities to me earlier, so I can actually explain that. My pervert class is uncommon, so it gives me a total of 5 stats per level instead of the 3 a common class would get."

"You have an uncommon tier 0 class. How did you get it? Oh right from your-" Damien cut himself off mid-sentence, as his eyes briefly darted over to his daughter. However, when he soon continued speaking again, he surprised me by continuing my lie. "Right, you can’t remember anything. You wouldn’t know why you have this class or how you got it."

Although it was clear that the man was extremely surprised by me having an uncommon starting, or tier 0 class as he called it, I was more surprised that he wanted to continue lying to his daughter about where I came from. Before that moment I was sure that I was going to have to explain the absurd-sounding truth to Vel eventually, but from the looks of things, he wanted me to keep up the ruse.

I’ll definitely have to ask about this later when it's just the two of us.

"Vel mentioned that she didn’t know anything about being able to get an uncommon starting class, but since the majority of her knowledge on such matters comes from you, I was wondering if you knew more."

"There have been rumours of people unlocking higher rarity tier 0 classes, sometimes even as high as the rare rarity, but I’ve never ever heard of any substantiated case," Damien explained, so absorbed in the conversation that the scraps of his dinner left on his plate weren’t even being touched at this point. "Practically all the common tier 0 classes a person could get when they awaken to the system are already known and well documented. Many organisations and places of learning even have a general overview of what is required to unlock said classes, even though the system doesn’t list the specific requirements needed for them. But no higher rarity tier 0 classes have ever been recorded. Before seeing the evidence for myself that you definitely have one, I just thought it was impossible and the rumours were just idle gossip without any backing in reality.”

"I’m sure having such a powerful class at such an early level will be a great boon for you, but I should warn you not to tell anyone you don’t explicitly trust about the rarity of your class. There are many people out there in the world who would not hesitate to stamp out anyone they thought was a threat to them, or even just someone who had the slightest possibility of becoming a threat thanks to a high rarity class. Even a class that doesn’t seem as threatening as pervert."

Shit! Maybe I should have kept it to myself.

Even though the thought I just had was kept to myself, apparently what I was thinking was written all over my face as Damien was easily able to pick up on what I was thinking. "You don’t have to worry about me or Velyna. We won’t tell anyone else about this. Isn’t that right, honey?"

"Definitely! Your secret is safe with me, Eve!" Vel enthusiastically nodded her head.

"Thank you, both of you. Not just for this, but for giving me a place to stay and everything else." As I said this, I reached out and put a hand on each of their hands.

In the grand scheme of things, I had only really been in their care for a short while, not even a day yet, but could feel that I was already growing attached to them. Both Vel and her father were good, kind people. It was a shame I was going to leave them in a week's time. A part of me wanted to stay with them longer if I could, but even if Damien was going to have a change of heart and was okay with letting me stay for as long as I wanted, I didn’t want to stay here for the rest of my new life. I wanted to go out, see the world, and be fucked in every imaginable way.

After my little, soppy moment, dinner continued on for a few more minutes as everyone finished up what little food they had left. After dinner, I insisted on doing the cleaning up since it was a rather good way to get my latest class skill some experience. While I was doing that, Vel excitedly dragged her father off to show him her latest creations. Although he went along with her, Damien was less than thrilled about it because of the sexual nature of the items.

Since the door between the kitchen and the living room was open, unlike how it had been when Vel was cooking dinner, I could hear bits and pieces of what the two of them were saying. Their conversation mostly consisted of Vel explaining what each type of toy was called and explaining how it was used in graphic detail to her father.

Every now and then, I may or may not have taken a slight break from cleaning up so that I could take delight in watching the young elven woman make her father squirm and blush. To his credit, Damien was more than willing to indulge his daughter like this even though it made him extremely uncomfortable to hear her talk about those kinds of things. It showed what kind of man, and father he was. He would do anything for his daughter, no matter how uncomfortable it made him. The only thing that was important to him was that she was safe and happy.

Towards the end of their conversation, Damien complimented his daughter on her work and skill ranks, but made it clear that he wasn’t actually sure how much money he could get for such items. Apparently, he had never seen such items on sale before, and wasn’t all that familiar with them. Because of this, he wasn’t sure if any of the general stores in town would even want to buy items of this nature.

However, he had an inkling that a couple of the brothels in town might be interested in taking a couple of them off his hands, or even selling them to their female clientele if they proved effective. Again, he tried to make it clear to his overly excited daughter that this was just an inkling and he wasn’t actually sure if any of the brothels would buy these goods since he didn’t frequent those kinds of establishments.

This dampened Vel’s excitement slightly, but she was still very excited and overly merry, as was usual for her. That said, I may have just been listening in on them, but unlike the naive young woman, I had enough experience dealing with people at my old office to know that the way Damien’s voice faltered when he said that he didn't frequent brothels was most likely not true. I didn’t know for sure if he was lying, it could have just been my perverse hope that this was the case, but I had an inkling of my own that it was in fact the case.

Before that, a part of me was wondering if the reason he hadn’t taken me up on my offer to fuck was because of Vel’s mother, who was not around, for whatever reason. It wasn’t really my place to pry into why the mother wasn’t around, but the fact that Damien likely frequented brothels whenever he went into town suggested that he wasn’t faithful to the mother of his daughter, who was no longer in the picture.

This discovery renewed my desire and wish to fuck Damien, but the hopes for that endeavour were soon stamped out when the big burly man in question bid us goodnight by saying that he was going to do some reading in bed before going to sleep. This alone wouldn’t have been too bad since I could have just sneaked my way into his bedroom, completely naked, but his daughter pulled me away with her, towards her own bedroom soon after, insistent on spending the night with me. The prospect of having a whole bunch of sex with Vel tonight was certainly just as good, but I had really been craving some cock.

Don't worry, pussy. One of these days I'll get you the big, warm creampie that you’ve been wanting ever since we laid eyes on his big burly figure.