6.04 – Skill Discussions

6.04 – Skill Discussions

"Since you need more Carnal Energy, Natalie," Ana said, "both for upgrading skills and empowering them, does that mean we should be attending to you more frequently?"

The interjection came out of nowhere. Prior to cutting in, Natalie and the team had simply been discussing which of her abilities should receive the next boost in progression. The obvious candidates were [Carnal Harvest] and [Empower], since it seemed Natalie would be making greater use of the latter, and the former went without saying. But in typical Ana fashion, the stone-faced girl had dropped in that question—which was loaded with all kinds of lewd implications—without an ounce of hesitation.

To Ana's side, Liz stared at her with widening green eyes. "Attend to her?" she asked, as if the meaning wasn't clear.

To be fair to her, however suddenly the question had been thrown in, Ana did have a good reason to ask. But Natalie already had strong opinions on the topic. It was something she'd discussed with Jordan.

"It's fine," Natalie said. "That's not necessary. There's some kind of soft cap, anyway, which I'm reaching most days."

"There's diminishing returns, you mean?" Ana asked.

"Basically." Natalie frowned, hesitating for a second before deciding that she wanted to elaborate. "Even if it didn't work like that, though," she said, "I don't want to treat sex as ... I don't know. A grind. Something we're trying to 'maximize'. It's weird to me."

"Does kill the mood, a bit," Jordan snorted. "Making sex a chore." She tilted her head. "And the mood literally matters, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. I get more points when, um, you know," Natalie said.

"When she's turned on," Jordan finished for her. "The more excited she is, the better the yield. So that's a double-no on the whole 'grinding points' thing."

"Besides," Sofia said. "Surely there's a limit to how much sex one woman can have in any given day. Even for Natalie."

Natalie turned an amused look her way. She made a point of raking her eyes up and down Sofia's body. "If there is, I haven't reached it. I just meant for 'efficiency' purposes, I don't wanna treat it like a game." She grinned at Sofia. "I've got plenty of space in my schedule, though. Don't worry about that."

Sofia flushed. "Pervert," she muttered.

"I see," Ana said. "Another question, then. Two, actually."

"Okay?" Natalie said warily, bracing herself. Because Ana's questions rarely were of the 'how is your day going?' sort.

"Did you work something out with Malice?"

"Oh. Right." That was more normal than she'd been expecting. Natalie realized she hadn't caught her team up on the whole Malice situation. "Apparently, she doesn't care about being released. In fact, she said she'd rather not, unless something interesting is going on."Geett the latest novels on no/v/elbin(.)c/om

"Interesting?"

"Combat," Natalie said. "Or, you know," she coughed, "whatever."

For the first time ever, the stoic mage hesitated.

"I have another question," she said. "But perhaps it's best saved for a private discussion."

The four girls gaped at her.

"What?" Ana asked.

"What's so lewd that even you won't ask it in front of us?" Liz said.

Natalie was likewise intimidated.

Ana paused. "It's not that bad," she said. "Just perhaps sensitive."

"Sensitive?"

Her brown eyes locked on Natalie, tilting her head in silent questioning.

"I think we'll all die of curiosity, now," Natalie said. "So go ahead. What is it?"

"Hm," Ana said. "I'm just wondering about other applications of [Illusion]. Specifically lower-powered ones, that hopefully wouldn't take [Empower]. Since I know it's a valuable resource."

"Okay?"

Again, Ana hesitated. "I haven't been able to get a certain experience out of my mind," she continued nonchalantly. "Our encounter together. With the body swap."

Natalie's brain briefly short-circuited, like it always did remembering that whole mess. She was suddenly much more wary. But what could [Illusion] have to do with it?

"Okay...?" Natalie continued prodding.

Ana's eyes flicked between the rest of the girls in the train car, before she shrugged. "I enjoyed using your cock," Ana said bluntly. "I was wondering, since your illusions are flexible when it comes to lewder applications—perhaps you could give us one. Magically."

Natalie stared at her.

"What?"

"If you put an illusion between our legs," Ana said. "Could we feel through it, do you think?"