Chapter 55 Books and Skills
“What are these?” Leaf looked at the books after we finished Tems’ date day. “We found a hidden room in the dungeon. These books were inside. She picked them up as she read the titles. “Basics of alchemy… How to grow beginner herbs… Poisons 101… Intermediate herbs and where to find them… Intermediate alchemy… Making a stronger poison… Master alchemy volume one through three… The applications of dragon's blood for alchemy… Myths, hidden information, and herb lore… Legendary monster ingredients and their uses in alchemy… The only duplicate book we have is the basics of alchemy… And you’re just going to donate these books to the library?”
Before I could respond, Millicent kicked the door open. “I heard there are new alchemy books! Let me see them!” “Please, no shouting in the library.” Millicent saw the pile on the table and moved over before grabbing one reverently. She read the titles, and she became more and more shocked as she saw the rarer and more expensive alchemy books. Her hand paused on the legendary monster ingredients book before she couldn’t hold back her squeal when she saw the dragon’s blood one.
“Please contain your noises… This is a library.” She rapidly nodded as she stared at the books like a person deciding which meal to eat before finally noticing me. “Oh… So you’re the one who found the books then, I’m sure you won't mind if I… Look through them, do you?” I thought about it. “I was planning to sell the books if they were really valuable, but you can read them until Leaf figures out the price for them.”
“You’re going to sell them!? You can’t do that. What if I need to come back to the book to reference something I read?” “Please stop shouting, this is a library.” Millicent looked scared before she got an evil glint in her eye. “What about a trade. I know you have certain… Proclivities toward the opposite sex. How about we take this behind those book shelves right there and I’ll suck your dick, if you don’t sell those books you got.”
“I mean… You should talk to my wives first, I don’t want to get in trouble having casual sex.” Leaf cut me off. “Please don’t have sex in the library.” She scoffed. “Like you’re one to talk, Leafy, the whole town here’s you howling like a cat in heat when you drag him in here.” I kept going with my train of thought. “The books themselves might be valuable, but can’t you just record everything down if you need to reference it later?” Her eyes lit up at my suggestion as she spoke.
“That would work! I’m borrowing this book… And this one.” She took the two books before running out. “No running in the library.” Leaf said with an exasperated tone. A few beats passed before what I just did sank in, and I couldn’t help but ask. “Did I just talk myself out of getting a blowjob?”
Now that it was only Leaf and me, she went back to her snarky attitude. “Well, since it’s just the two of us now, you might still be able to get one if you play your cards right.”
…
It had been a few weeks since Tems and I had our date night, and things got back to normal. The Peppers were now crossbred, but it would still be a few weeks before we saw if it took hold, and even longer to see if we got viable seeds from it. I had also cleared level fifty again, and it was time to choose another skill.
New Skill!
Accumulated research- Gain a 5% boost to quantity and quality of herbs for every different type of herb you’ve grown.
Jack of Jack of Jacks- Increases bonus by another 10%.
Don’t think about it- The lower a person’s intellect the higher your charm up to a 100% bonus.
Inheritance- Your children are more likely to inherit a bonus skill or proficiency from you.
Monocrop- Increases the rarity of a single crop by 100% while decreasing rarity by 25% for everything else.
Polycrop- Increases the benefits of planting multiple crops on a single field, 10% per symbiotic crop.
Magical field- Increases the odds of developing a magified crop. Pouring your mana into the field to increase the chances even further.
Magical specialization- Choose a specialization. Offense, Defense, Healing, Support.
Specialized Jack- Pick a tool, skill, and job to double the proficiency bonus the jack skills provide.
Parental bond- Once your children reach adulthood, they gain 5% of your and the mother’s stats.
Elite golem- Gain knowledge on how to create an elite golem. This golem has 500% of the stats of a normal golem. (Can only create a single elite golem).
Bodyguards- Declare a golem as you or any of your family's bodyguards. That golem will get a 100% boost to stats while protecting that person.
Mini planter golems- Gain knowledge on how to create mini planter golems. Passive golems that will allow you to more easily transport plants.
Baby boom- You and your wife gain a .1 bonus to all stats for every child you have.
Eat the vial- You can condense potions down into a solid glass-like container, which will double the effects if the same potion is stored and consumed.
Placebo- Drinking any liquid out of a potion vial has a small chance to provide a small boost to health, stamina, and mana.
Herbdar- Gain an innate feeling when near a wild herb, can somewhat tell which direction it is in.
Jack of jack of jacks and don’t think about it were level twenty-five skills, so those weren’t worth buying right now. Eventually, I’d get them all, but it was about choosing the skills that were most valuable to me right now.
The new skill seemed good at first, and thankfully, it wasn’t another set of choice skills, but there were maybe fifteen herbs I could grow, with each becoming more expensive. It would only provide me a fifteen percent boost currently, so looking for different herbs might make more sense before I pick it up.
Inheritance could wait until my first children were about to become adults, because that’s when it would give them the bonus skill. That also went with parental bond. Specialized jack would be better once I picked up the other jack skill first. Looking at my options, baby boom stood out as the biggest improvement at the moment. I could wait to get the rest, but with three children right now, I’d get a .3 boost to all my stats.
While the magical field and the golem skills were good, I think the only choice right now is baby boom. The skill itself seemed incredibly broken, ten kids and I’d have the equivalent of an entire rarity of stats higher than where I should be. There wasn’t a limit either. I had never thought about establishing a faction, but that skill alone might make it possible.
The only drawback I saw to the skill was that it was too powerful. It was like my symbiotic enduring bond skill; it was best kept a secret with only the people I trusted being in the know. The stacking synergy with the skills was another reason I picked it.
It was only .3 for me, but it was also .2 for Tems and .1 for Silk, all of which would feed back into the symbiotic enduring bond skill. I would get 30% of their stats while they were getting 45% of the baby boom stats I received. I would get .36 and they would get .29 and .145 respectively, and that wasn’t including the fact that it determined my stats first before boosting theirs. I selected the skill, and before I could see the changes to my stats… I passed out.
