Chapter 10 – Slave Abuse and Other Morning Rituals

I woke up nice and refreshed, with a sunbeam on my face. It was early morning, perhaps an hour after dawn. It seemed Father Jordan and his acolyte minions generously let us all sleep in a bit. I’d rolled away from my bitch pile at some point in the night. Chloe and Lysander were embracing in their sleep, with Chloe on her back, and Lysander using her as a pillow.

They were snuggling adorably. It almost made me forget that Lysander had spent hours last night tormenting Chloe with repeated edging and denied orgasms.

Across from me, on the other bed, the cute little spooning setup from last night had degenerated into a loose pile. Maddie was snuggling up next to Ash’s crotch, wrapping her arms around his hairy thigh like a teddy bear. Emi, meanwhile had burrowed her face into Ash’s armpit for some reason, with her legs wrapped around Ash’s arm, using him as body pillow, and more or less grinding herself against his wrist.

I supposed Chloe heard me stir. She was still pinned beneath a sleeping Lysander. She looked at me with desperate pleading eyes, and mouthed out the words, “Please, can I cum?”

Aww, poor girl. I supposed the night-long arbitrary orgasm ban was technically over now.

I carefully shifted and snuck over to her. I whispered in her ear, “Yes, but don’t wake Lysander or you’ll be punished,”

She nodded, and I slowly moved down her body, gently kissing her tummy. She stifled a moan, desperate to keep quiet for me. I moved her leg, and settled myself between her thighs. I gently licked her pussy. I felt her whole body twitch, as Chloe desperately suppressed another moan.

I began to lick her in earnest. Not too hard, but not just teasing her either, just… normal. Her pussy was… strangely delicious. Like… it still tasted like pussy, but it was better pussy. There was something… strangely magical about it, a certain spark or vitality that reminded me of Chloe’s emerald green eyes and the strange elvish lightness she had. It was wonderfully exotic, probably an elf thing rather than a her thing, specifically. With how pent up she was, she was insanely sensitive. She took her free arm, the one that wasn’t pinned beneath Lysander, and used it to cover her mouth and stifle her noises.

She didn’t last long at all.

Only a minute after I started, maybe less, she let out a quiet little squeak, muffled by her hand, and trembled and shivered in an intense orgasm. A little squirt of girl juice pushed out between her lips as her hole clenched and pulsed. I licked it all clean.

I gave her a sadistic smile, and continued licking her. Her post-orgasm clit was incredibly sensitive, I closed my lips around it and sucked it like a little cock, cruelly overstimulating her quivering pussy before her orgasm had even finished. She squeaked again, but couldn’t buck me off her without moving Lysander. I heard Chloe whimper quietly, and felt a hand on my head, gently pushing me away. I ignored it and continued licking her. The orgasmic trembling didn’t stop.

I wasn’t sure if I was giving her multiple orgasms or if I was just torturing her with overstimulation. All I knew was she quietly whimpered and shivered beneath me in overstimulated orgasm hell for another minute or two.

“What are you doing to our dear slave?” Lysander asked, perfectly awake.

Chloe whimpered. I stopped licking for a moment, using my finger to massage her sensitive clit instead.

“I told her she could cum, but only if she didn’t wake you,” I explained.

“Well she definitely woke me,” Lysander replied. “I doubt anyone could sleep through someone having a quaking orgasm like that right next to them.”

“I-I’m s-sorry Mistress Lysander,” Chloe panted.

I stopped rubbing Chloe’s clit, and moved back up next to her and Lysander’s faces. “She obviously needs to be punished for that,” I said.

“Oh, yes, of course.” Lysander agreed with a nod and a sinister smile.

“No… please… I tried my best…” Chloe whimpered.

“How are you with pain Chloe?” I asked.

Chloe closed her eyes, and shook her head pitifully. “A-As your slave, I’m yours to hurt… M-Miss Tyler, there are no limits to how cruel you can be to me, other than what mercy you chose to give me.”

“Well that’s true, I suppose, but it doesn’t really answer my question,” I mumbled.

“I don’t think she’s as much of a pain slut as you are Tyler,” Lysander said.

“Um… I don’t enjoy physical pain, Miss Tyler, but if I can please you with my suffering, then its… easier for me to endure.”

“Hmm…” I tried to think of a proper ‘punishment’ for failing in my totally unfair rigged game. I caught Lysander’s eye, “Ideas?”

“I sit on her face, she puts her tongue in my ass, I hold her legs while you deliver ten hard pussy spanks.” Lysander suggested immediately.

Chloe whimpered.

“Wow, that’s… oddly specific.” I said.

“Well, I wanted to get her to eat my ass anyway,” Lysander admitted.

“Fair enough, sounds like a plan.”

Without further fanfare, Lysander pulled away the blankets, and sat on Chloe’s face. She leaned forward, and grabbed Chloe’s ankles, pulling them back and holding her open. Chloe’s red, sensitive, post-orgasm pussy was fully exposed and ready for punishment. I crawled between her spread legs, and gently stroked her. Chloe whined pathetically, anticipating the pain.

I moved my hand back, and slapped down hard on her pussy. Chloe screamed. I grinned cruelly.

“That’s one,” I said.

“No,” Lysander interjected, with a cruel smile. “Doesn’t count, her tongue wasn’t in my ass.”

Chloe moaned in despair. Lysander shifted her weight back a bit more. I saw a sudden transformation from her usual blank expression. Lysander opened her mouth with a surprised ‘Oh’ and blushed a deep scarlet.

“O-okay… t-there it is,” she stammered.

“Lysander the butt slut,” I teased.

“S-Shut up,” she gasped.

Lysander closed her eyes, and rolled her hips slightly, savoring the feel of Chloe’s tongue on her bizarrely sensitive asshole.

I slapped down on Chloe’s pussy hard. Chloe let out a muffled scream.

“That’s one… right?”

“Indeed. Her screams tickle…” Lysander commented.

I slapped Chloe’s pussy again. Chloe only moaned pitifully this time.

“Two,” I said.

“Poor Chloe,” Maddie said from the other side of the room, watching the show, “Having to sleep between two sadists all night, and now this…”

“Yeah, I almost feel sorry for her,” Emi added.

“Almost?” Maddie asked.

“Well it’s pretty fun to watch…” Emi replied.

I slapped her Chloe’s pussy again. Chloe screamed into Lysander’s ass.

“Three,” I counted.

“Don’t break her,” Emi scolded.

“Rest assured, s-she can endure this easily,” Lysander gasped, still enjoying the rimjob.

I slapped her again. Chloe groaned. Without warning, I slapped her again. Chloe squeaked in surprise.

“Four, and Five.” I said.

Chloe moaned and whimpered, at the edge of sobbing. I bent down and kissed her abused pussy gently. Chloe flinched, but I continued to lick her. Eventually she calmed down, and started to feel good again.

“Karma’s going to bite you in the ass, Tyler,” Emi scolded.

“I doubt Tyler would mind that much,” Maddie said. “She’d probably get off on being bitten in the ass.”

Chloe was almost reaching the point of orgasm again, so I stopped and moved away. “The rock mimic ooze hurt way more than some pussy slaps, if anything I’ve still got a healthy balance of pain karma left over.”

“I think I got you beat with the whole… thorn pregnancy thing.” Emi added.

I gently patted Chloe’s pussy, a few gentle taps to warn her. Chloe whined. Then I moved my hand back and slapped down hard. Chloe let out a muffled scream again.

“Six,” I said. “And yeah, I don’t envy your experience with the plant, those spine balls don’t look fun. The rock mimic’s pain was like… intense but over quickly. Being gradually stuffed full of ouch is like a slower pain that just builds and builds. I’m not sure what would be harder to take, honestly.”

I heard a faint gasp, looked up and caught Lysander’s eye. She was quietly shuddering on Chloe’s face, with what looked like a very intense orgasm she was trying to hide.

“Was that an anal-only orgasm? She didn’t touch your pussy at all, did she?” I asked.

“N-no comment,” Lysander stammered.

I slapped Chloe’s pussy again. She groaned in misery. “Seven.”

I slapped her twice more. Chloe whined. “Eight, Nine…”

I lowered my face down to her tortured cunt, and started licking her again. “Only one more, Chloe…” I said gently. “You’re being a very good girl, suffering for us so nicely.”

Chloe cooed in pleasure, loving the praise despite the pain between her legs.

“Next one’s gonna be hard,” I warned.

I wound back. Using as much of my admittedly-pitiful strength as I could, I slapped down one last time, as hard as I could. Chloe howled. I looked and saw her chest heaving in heavy sobs. Oops, maybe I pushed a little too hard.

“I’ll kiss it better,” I said.

I resumed licking her pussy again. Despite her pain, she was already close to the edge thanks to my teasing from before. The crying soon stopped. After another half-minute of gentle cunnilingus, Chloe was shivering with another orgasm, all pain forgotten.

Lysander was shivering too, having her second anal orgasm thanks to Chloe’s tongue. This one was slightly less intense, it seemed, or at least Lysander managed to keep her composure better. She climbed off Chloe’s face and lay down next to her to bask in the afterglow. I joined her on Chloe’s other side, and snuggled against my pitiful abused slave girl.

“That was fun,” I said.

“Indeed,” Lysander gasped.

Chloe’s face was a mess of tears, and her chin and neck were slick with Lysander’s pussy juice. She closed her eyes, and gladly accepted the snuggles.

“Oh great, what am I supposed to do with this boner now,” Ash grumbled.

There was a knock on the door.

“Just a minute,” I called out.

We all scrambled to quickly put yesterday’s modesty blankets over our bits. Chloe excluded. She just sniffed a few times, and tried to wipe away some of the evidence of our little play session.

“Okay,” I said, once we were all decent…

Well no, we were pretty much the least decent people ever, but we were covered at least… That was as decent as we could be right now.

Adam entered the room, carrying an armful of folded clothes. Ethan followed behind, carrying a basket full of shoes. Ethan was innocent and oblivious, and Adam was tasteful enough not to acknowledge the pushed-together beds, or the red faced, sexually abused slave girl lying in a puddle of her own tears and girl-cum.

“These are all old clothes, donated to help those in need by the townsfolk,” Adam explained. “We think these ones should fit you and your ladies, but they’re obviously nothing fancy.”

“Thank you, we appreciate whatever you can offer us,” Ash replied.

“Can we pick something for our slave too?” I asked.

“Yes, there should be something appropriate in there,” Adam replied. “When you’re all dressed, please come down to the drawing room from yesterday. Father Jordan wants to get your slave collared, and help Ash get started as an adventurer.”

“Sure.”

We put the clothing pile on Ash’s bed, and descended on it like a pack of slutty vultures. There was only one set of obviously-masculine clothes, sized for a mountain man. Ash claimed a set of rough textured undershorts, brown linen trousers, and a baggy white shirt. There were also some knitted woolen socks, and big boots.

The remaining clothes were all dresses, much to my chagrin. There were no bras or panties either, not even socks. Maddie seemed the most enthusiastic of us, digging out a frilly white dress, with a low cut bust that supported and showed off her wonderous cleavage.

Lysander quickly found and snatched away a set of thick woolen figure-concealing robes, pale blue in colour. It made her look like a proper mage and left her gender a little bit ambiguous. She could easily pass as a girly boy at first glance.

I was left with a grey dress. It had a skinnier fit than Maddie’s dress, but still fell loosely off my slender figure. It wasn’t flattering, but I didn’t care, I had nobody to impress. It felt weird to have a skirt, like… I was dressed, but I was only a quick skirt flip away from nudity again. The openness between my legs made me feel a bit naked. It wasn’t like the reassuring sense of protection I felt from a good pair of thick jeans.

Emi found the only piece of clothing sized to fit her. A frilly dress in pink and white that made her look even younger, like a little girl.

Finally, Chloe was left with what looked like a potato sack. It was brown and square, with coarse scratchy threads. It wasn’t fitted to her figure or anything like that. It was also short, the lower hem only reaching her upper thigh, like a miniskirt. It only barely covered her round little bum.

As for shoes, Maddie and Emi each claimed some girly flats, Lysander and I found some bulkier travelling boots. We were short a pair, not enough for Chloe. Evidently, they meant for us to leave the slave barefoot.

Now fully dressed, we left the room. Father Jordan and his two acolytes were waiting downstairs at a table, in a sort of half-kitchen dining area. There was a plain, unadorned, collar of dull steel on the table, with a single ring riveted to the side, likely somewhere to attach a leash.

Father Jordan saw us coming, and stood from the table, holding the collar up for us.

“Ah good, let’s just put this on your slave, shall we?” he said.

“What does it do?” I asked suspiciously.

“This one has only the minimum required enchantments,” the priest explained. “Tracking, resizing, and tamper resistance. I’m afraid you’ll have to spend your own gold to buy something better.”

No mind control then? Good.

“No, this is perfect, thank you.” I said. I noted there was no hinge on the collar, I wasn’t sure how I could get it around Chloe’s neck. “How does it work?” I asked.

“Ah yes, I’ve already attuned it to your magical signatures. Just hold it, and will it to open, then slip it around your elf’s head, and let go. It should close to the right size on its own,” the priest explained.

“Right.”

I did as he said, holding the collar and willing it to open. The ring expanded into a large hoop, easily wide enough to slip around even the biggest of heads. I walked over the Chloe, and placed it over her head and let it dangle around her neck. Then I let go. Over the next few seconds, the collar shrunk back down to something close to its original size. It stopped when there was only about a centimeter of clearance between Chloe’s throat and the collar.

Chloe reached for the metal loop and felt it gingerly with her fingers. I saw a glimmer of concentration on her face, and then she relaxed again, giving me a lewd masochistic smile. “I can’t open it,” she said.

“Indeed not,” the priest explained. “Only your five Masters, or a registered member of the Church of the Untainted like myself, have the ability to remove the collar from you.”

Chloe nodded, “I’ve been claimed…” she mumbled, strangely happy.

“Now that that’s taken care of, let’s have breakfast, and we can discuss your plans for the future,” the priest offered.

Breakfast turned out to be some sort of porridge-thing. It seemed deceptively close to the slave gruel that Chloe was served, only lighter in colour and sweetened with honey. I tried a spoonful of slave gruel, just for comparison.

“Bleh,” I commented.

Compared to my actual porridge, the slave gruel was horribly bland, with a bit of a funky, bitter aftertaste. Still, with a little bit of added honey it might have been somewhat palatable.

“Untainted humans actually sometimes take slave gruel as travel rations when they’re in the deep wilds, it keeps forever and can be efficiently stored as a powder,” Father Jordan commented. “There’s a company in the capital that produces it in big batches. It’s actually quite healthy, and even fortified with holy magic to nourish your body. A slave or human only needs to eat one meal a day to get their nutrition.”

“Really? Then why do you guys still eat normal food?” Maddie asked.

“Well the taste is a factor,” the priest laughed. “Humans are also naturally meant to eat throughout the day, it’s hard to adjust to the feeling of an empty stomach, even if you’re not actually starving.”

Good to know. I found it interesting that there was a holy spell to fortify food. I wondered if there was one to replace food altogether. I asked the priest but he didn’t know of any Holy spell that could do that, at least, not in the first or second tiers.

Oh yeah, that was a thing too, spell tiers. Apparently, a Tier 1 class, like [Mage], could only cast Tier 1 magic. Level ten was when we’d unlock a class evolution to get a Tier 2 class.

Tier 2 classes required twenty levels to evolve to a Tier 3 class. Tier 3 classes required thirty levels, and so on. So, the start of Tier 2 was level ten, the start of Tier 3 was level thirty, the start of Tier 4 was sixty, and so on. I forgot the name of that pattern, but there was a mathy name for it. A something-series? Whatever.

Most professional adventurers reached somewhere in the third tier before retiring, level 30-60. Tier 4 individuals were incredibly rare, usually adventurers of great renown, or loyal bodyguards to kings and influential nobles. Even fewer were able to reach Tier 5 at level one-hundred, anyone who reached that level would be considered a true legend.

The reason why people couldn’t just keep levelling forever was Power Greed. The more one killed monsters and absorbed Taint, the higher the risk there was of accidentally absorbing too much. Gaining power while avoiding corruption required slow and steady progression, a constant low level of Taint absorption, sustained for decades or even centuries.

How could a human live for centuries? By levelling up, of course. There wasn’t much of an effect until reaching Tier four. Once a person’s natural HP regeneration got past a certain threshold, the aging process slowed down dramatically. That was tied to the Endurance stat, apparently. It seemed I might have to invest some points in that stat in the future if I wanted to stay nice and youthful.

I asked about known Tier 2 class evolutions at level ten. Emi’s gamer instincts proved correct, unlocking and training skills affected what options were available. [Priest], for example, required bringing [Holy Magic I] to its cap at rank ten. [High Priest], which was Father Jordan’s third tier class, required being a [Priest] and mastering either [Holy Support Magic II] or [Holy Combat Magic II] tier 2 Skills.

Most people took their time, and trained every new skill up to rank ten before going out into the field and leveling up again. It was quite rare to reach level 8 in a single day like me. For most, leveling that fast would guarantee a case of Power Greed, corrupting their body with Taint, causing mutations and mental degradation, potentially even turning them into a monster that needed to be put down.

Luckily, once I hit level ten, levelling stopped until I picked a new class, so if I hit level ten early and didn’t like my options, I had as much time as I needed to train my skills before picking a class upgrade and leveling again.

As for known [Mage] upgrade options… Each first tier magic skill had its own class upgrade associated with it. [Fire Magic I] resulted in the [Pyromancer] class, for instance. Water turned into [Hydromancer], Unholy turned into [Warlock], and so on. Unlocking all schools of elemental magic, mastering Arcane, and mastering [Advanced Mana Manipulation], resulted in an upgrade to [High Mage] which was a rare and prestigious class to have. Apparently, it offered more stat points per level than the other, easier to get, classes. [High Mage] also eventually led to the Tier 3 class [Archmage], and the Tier 4 class [Wizard], which were considered some of the most powerful magic wielding classes out there.

I asked about lightning, and the priest explained that lightning was divine fire from the sky, the wrath of the gods. Becoming a [Lightning Thaumaturge] required Fire and Holy at maximum rank, and Air magic unlocked. That didn’t seem scientifically accurate to me, but I politely decided not to say anything.

Lightning still seemed like a good option for me, I had two thirds of the required skills already unlocked. I was hesitant to share my other idea, a Succubus, or some sort of sex-based powerset with the priest. I didn’t want to lower his opinion of me any further than it already was.

“Right, so all that mage stuff is nifty,” Ash said, after I’d asked all my questions. “But we need to start killing monsters and making money. How do we do that?”

“How do you do that, you mean,” the priest corrected. “I won’t condone taking the girls with you to fight. They’d only get you and anyone else stupid enough to follow you raped, or worse.”

Ash gave the man a dirty glare, “Fine, how do I make money killing monsters.”

“The Royal Adventurer’s Guild posts bounties for most types of common monster,” the priest explained. “They also organize regular mass hunting parties for those of a lower level like you, you can earn levels safely, and get well paid for participation.”

“Can’t I just go out and kill stuff on my own?” Ash asked.

“You have no idea how dangerous the forest is, do you?” the priest replied.

“Well uuh… we kinda marched through the middle of it yesterday. We killed a lot of shit. It didn’t seem too hard.” Ash said.

“I killed most of them,” Lysander commented. “Without the aid of powerful, accurate, long range arcane spells, you would have likely become their prey at some point.”

“Don’t think yourself invincible, girl. Level seven isn’t very high and certain monsters are highly resistant to the kinetic damage of arcane spells,” the priest scolded. “You and your party must have only been on the outskirts of the forest. The further away from civilized lands you go, the higher the monster levels get.”

“Perhaps. The highest level we encountered was twenty-three, most were below ten,” Lysander said.

“You must have gotten lucky then,” the priest replied. “Beyond the border regions, monster levels tend to vary from level 10 to level 40. Further out? Specimens higher than level 100 have been spotted by explorers in the deepest reaches of the corrupted wilderness. Going into the woods alone with a first tier class is simply suicidal. Adventurer guidelines suggest that, for example, a level ten monster would require a party of five level tens, or ten level fives to beat without taking losses. Large groups are your only safe option until you reach a higher tier.”

“We defeated a level 23 rock mimic with an average level of three and a half at the time. If your implied exponential relationship between party level, party count, and monster level holds true, that would imply we are the equivalent of 32.86 individuals our own level.”

“What? How did you figure that out?” I asked.

“Math,” Lysander replied simply.

“It’s not a firm rule,” the priest sighed. “But it’s the sort of advice that keeps reckless young parties alive. You’d do well to follow my advice here. I’ve seen more than my fair share of ambitious young folk vanish into the wilderness, never to return.”

“To be fair, I’m pretty sure most of us would be dead by now if we didn’t have a healer and weren’t all immune to Taint,” I said.

Lysander sighed. “Indeed, that is a factor,” she reluctantly admitted.

“Either way, I’m not sending you out to die,” the priest said firmly. “Ash, there is a hunting party for the guild leaving today. Twenty men, led by a tier 3, on a five-day journey. If you want to borrow the sword I found for you, then you’ll leave in the company of a proper hunting group and follow their lead. If you won’t listen, then you won’t get any further charity from me.”

The priest gave him a serious look, “Trust my words, young one. I’ve seen enough proud young men die. Get some proper experience, go up a tier or two, and then maybe you can lead your women through the wilderness and come back alive.”

Ash grumbled in annoyance, but didn’t argue. “Fine. What’s it pay?” he asked.

“One gold piece, I believe. At least it was last time I checked,” the priest said.

“That’s most of our Chloe registration debt guys,” Ash said.

“Is one gold a lot?” Maddie asked.

The priest stared blankly at Maddie for a few seconds, before realizing that we were from another world and that actually wasn’t a stupid question, “One gold is a hundred silver, one silver is a hundred copper. The poor can live off of ten or so copper a day for food, most spend closer to fifty copper. A night at the inn is one silver, good quality clothes are around five silver pieces per item, swords and quality adventurer equipment cost between one to five gold per item, depending on craftsmanship, uhm… does that give you an idea?”

“So if, let’s say, five copper pieces is equivalent to a dollar? Then a gold would be…” I did some quick mental math, “A two-thousand-dollar payday? Not bad for five days’ work.”

“Not bad, indeed,” Ash agreed.

“Go for it,” I sighed. “We’ll figure something else out for ourselves. If nothing else, it’ll be good experience for you, learning how normal monster hunters do their work.”

“Indeed,” Lysander agreed.

Emi reluctantly nodded as well. Chloe didn’t share an opinion.

“So what are we supposed to do in the mean time? Sit around looking pretty?” Maddie grumbled.

“Typically, women work inside the walls, watching children, performing labour, or Skilled work. If you’re interested in earning your keep, what you do would depend on what you’re proficient at. I know a few people who might be looking for some temporary extra help.”

“So while Ash is out there being a valiant hero, we’ll all be milking goats and sweeping floors?” Maddie grumbled.

“I’ve got some medical knowledge,” Emi pointed out. “Though I guess magical healing makes a lot of that redundant…”

“Oh, you want to complain about redundant skills?” Maddie snarked, “I’m a Computer Science major. I’m fluent in Java, C, C++, linux shell script and a half dozen other languages… Yet somehow, I don’t think those skills will be useful in a world without computers.”

“You might be able to implement some sort of conditional logic with enchanting,” Lysander suggested.

“Basic logic is one thing, but what about memory? Object oriented abstraction? Somehow, I don’t think I’ll be writing proper C++ code again in this lifetime,” Maddie grumbled.

“I’ve got a mage class, anything I can do with my magic? I wouldn’t mind raising my skills,” I asked.

“What magic do you have again?” the priest asked.

“Fire and Holy,” I replied. “Though I’m also planning on buying Air with my skill points, and perhaps a bit of…” I suddenly realized what I was saying halfway through my sentence, “Erm… maybe slightly less than holy magic…? For monsters, of course. It seems to be highly effective on tough enemies.”

The priest smirked, “Unholy magic isn’t a crime. It’s got a sinister reputation, seen with suspicion by some, but from a purely theological perspective, it’s no worse than any other school of magic. The System was given to us by the gods, Unholy magic is one of their gifts as well. We would not scorn those who use it against humanity’s enemies.”

“Err… right, that’s good,” I replied.

“As to tasks you could perform…” the priest continued, “With Holy magic you could aid Adam on his rounds through town, cleansing filth and disease, and perhaps healing the wounded if you’ve access to an appropriate spell. I’d pay you five silver for that.”

“As for using your combat magic? There isn’t really anything useful for you to do in town. Pest control perhaps? I’d heard of a nearby town that once had an issue with Tainted vermin. They would hide and multiply, contaminating the crops with Taint. The village used a woman as bait, to luring the creatures out of hiding, and then killed them when they showed themselves. I don’t know if we have any such creatures hiding in our fields, but I could ask around.”

“That could be my backup plan, I guess. I could stand to buff up my holy magic a bit more, maybe I’ll be a healer for the day. I could bring my healbitch along too, she doesn’t have a Purify spell, but she’s got a much better healing spell than me.”

“I’d give you another two silver and fifty copper, for your slave’s work,” the priest said, with a nod.

“Actually, you might be able to purify if you’ve got a skill point, can you take Holy magic, Chloe?” I asked.

My slave shook her head no, and Father Jordan explained. “Only humans are given the gift of Holy magic. Wood Elves like Chloe have their wild nature magic, other demihumans have different skills and abilities as well, even different class options sometimes.”

“I see.”

“So what do I do? Vermin hunting?” Emi grumbled.

“You could take a healing ability too, if you have a free skill point,” I suggested.

“No way! I’m going pure Warlock, all the way baby!” Emi replied.

“I believe I would be most useful applying my skill for research to the aid of my fellow transmigrators. I would like to browse a library if at all possible, to find some reference books on the precise mechanics of the System, stats, Skills, and class upgrades. Failing that, I intend to simply practice my magic to grow my skill levels and make myself as formidable an opponent as possible. You could join me in my research and practice, Emi.”

“Rothvale is too small for a public library, but our chapel does have some books of lore you could browse, assuming you know how to read, that is.”

“I can read in twelve different languages,” Lysander replied, her voice ice cold.

Yeah… I was pretty sure Lysander was going to murder this priest if he kept talking down to her like she was dumb. Maybe females weren’t all that educated in this world, but the priest should know we were an exception by now. The priest read the slave contract out loud to us last night, but it was written in plain English, just like normal writing on earth.

With that, we settled on our plans for the day.

Ash would go with Father Jordan, pick up his sword, and sign up for the hunting trip, returning five days from now richer in levels and gold. Chloe and I would go with Adam the pretty-boy acolyte to heal the sick and injured townspeople. Adam had high skill levels, but was only a level 1 [Mage], with the [Holy Magic I] skill. With his low level and average stats, he had an adorably small pool of mana. With our higher levels and better mana reserves, Chloe and I would be a pretty big help. If we finished healing all the townsfolk, we could even start fixing up livestock.

Emi and Lysander would visit the rectory’s private library, to gather information about our new world. Maddie was left as the odd one out. Father Jordan told her to come along and meet the owner of the local tavern. They’d probably love to hire such a pretty barmaid.

Before we left, I took a look at my unpicked skills and unassigned attribute points from yesterday. The attributes were easy, I dumped them all in Willpower. It would give me more mana, and help me resist having my spellcasting disrupted by pain or… other strong sensations.

Skills were more complicated. I immediately bought [Air Magic I], and [Unholy Magic I]. I tried, and couldn’t find the [Advanced Mana Manipulation] Skill Lysander told me about yesterday. I asked, and she explained that I also needed to have regular [Mana Manipulation] at level ten before I could unlock it. Wait, did that mean Lysander had already maxed that skill out? Damn, she was scary.

I could unlock more magic schools, but I decided to hold off up spending my last skill points. Maybe once I maxed out a few of my current skills, some new and better options would appear.

I took a final look at my Status.

Name: Tyler Erikson

Age: 21, Sex: Female

Species: Human

Class: Mage 8

HP: 70 / 70

STA: 90 /90

MP: 138 / 144

Str: 6

Dex: 11

End: 9

Per: 13

Int: 21

Will: 17

Mag: 20

Perks: Greater Blessing of Vyreth

Skills:

Mana Manipulation 5

Fire Magic (I) 2

Air Magic (I) 1

Holy Magic (I) 4

Unholy Magic (I) 1

Meditation 2

You have (3) Skill Points.

Spells:

Firebolt

Gust

Purify

Lesser Healing Hands

Lesser Curse: Doom

Soon, we were ready to go. Ethan led Lysander and Emi to the library, Maddie and Ash left with the priest, and Chloe and I went to follow Adam on his rounds.