Ch 64. Consequences

"Do you still love him?" I asked. 

The truth apparent enough even without her answer. 

"Did you ask him to kill me? He tried you know." 

Marcella was too emotional to answer, but by now Jagen was demanding answers. I decided to lay everything bare, explaining what I knew before leaving the rest up to them to figure out. 

Getting up with a sneer on my face, signaling for Tammy and Belle to follow my lead. All of us leaving the table as one, leaving the family to sort things out. Consequences be damned. 

Jagen's booming voice audible from outside the hall. 

Retiring to our guest room as I felt the exhaustion sink in from the day's events. Making it over to a wall mirror. 

My relations with the Marcets might be up to fate, but my fate was in my own hands. Looking at my reflection in the mirror with a smirk.

I finally had my first tier three ability, but it was one that didn't particularly catch my attention. [Soft Steps] looked like some sort of stealth or mobility skill, not something that particularly fit in with my normal way of fighting, but given it was third tier it should be a passive skill if the System was right about the alternating pattern that skills followed. He was right so far, so there was no reason to doubt him. 

Meanwhile I had a second skill, [Quick Steps], which sounded like another mobility type ability, but this time it was an active skill.

I wasn't entirely disappointed, even if I was hoping for ones that were more suited for combat, mobility skills still allowed me more options than before.  

Moving onto the character window, with another level under my belt I was now sitting on twenty free points to spend on attributes. After tonight's harrowing experience, I really wanted to invest points into charisma and intelligence. Having tasted the fear that manipulation type abilities could impart, I needed some way to counteract their effects. Higher charisma would apparently give me more defense against soul type abilities, while intelligence would help against mental attacks. Of course I was still interested in wisdom, for the memory and enhancements to sensing and detection, something that would probably help against illusion type attacks.

I may have a good base for constitution, but today taught me that things were never that simple.

...

Putting away my mirror, I let out a sigh. I needed to raise those three as far as I could on my own before investing any points, anything less would be a waste of my potential. With my constitution I could be living for hundreds, if not thousands of years. I needed to have a mentality for growth that matched that outlook. 

Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to do as Jagen said, enjoy the slow life a little more. I could raise my power without jeopardizing my life, and if I slowed leveling I would have more time to prepare for facing against the Goddess' followers before they realized anything was wrong. Besides, I did have that new alchemist ability [Cultivation], and now that I had an explanation from the system I felt confident that even if I couldn't hunt, I'd still be able to gain a steady stream of experience. 

My tension too high until now to even notice that both Belle and Tammy were competing for my attention. Belle had stripped down to her lingerie, white laced bra and garter belt with transparent pink panties. Purring seductively on the bed. While Tammy was completely nude, finished stripping. Her small breasts visible in the wall mirror as she approached. Hugging me from behind. 

"Don't worry Keaton. We're still here for you."

Her words just reminded me more of what had happened. Did Marcella really hate me enough to have Gawn try to kill me? She did seem to act rather impulsively, even more than myself...

What Marcella did had upset me, but she'd always been so cold to me that it was hard for any attachment to take root. 

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. A few seconds passing before someone opened it on their own. Not waiting for our response.

In walked Cal, a surprisingly concerned look on his face. I expected him to be rather happy with all the trouble Marcella was getting into. 

"My bad. Am I interrupting anything?" He remarked, somewhat half-heartedly. Enjoying paying me back for the last time I barged in on his fun, but something clearly on his mind.

"Not really..." Materializing a sheet and passing it to Tammy behind me. Belle already having covered herself with blankets on the bed.

"So. What did you want? Passing some information from your dad?"

"I do have some news... but more than that I have something to ask of you." Cal sounded unusually earnest.