Chapter 124: The Start of an Info Avalanche
In the end, Jadis decided on choosing Ritual Time Reduction as her secondary class’s level seventeen skill. It seemed like the safer bet when thinking about long-term usefulness. Jadis loved her long sessions of extended kinky sex she got to do with her rituals, but two hours was a long time to try and pull off her Lascivious Empowerment ritual with four partners. Plus, who knew how long future rituals might require? Jadis could only imagine the chafing that might arise from a sex ritual that demanded four hours to complete, or even more.
With her immediate decision made, Jadis and the other girls went about cleaning up before getting dressed. There was a stream running through a section of the larger cavern their small chamber was attached to and they were able to wash up in it without interruption or issue from the local wildlife. Eir did end up sleeping for another hour or two, by Jadis’ estimation, but eventually the well-fucked priestess came to and also washed up at the water source.
To Jadis’ surprise, Eir evinced little in the way of embarrassment considering her behavior during the ritual. Whether that was because she was still just riding on cloud nine or because she genuinely didn’t see anything to be ashamed of with how she had acted in front of witnesses, she wasn’t sure. Either way, Eir spent as much time as possible glued to the side of one or another of Jadis’ bodies, staring up at her with a dreamy expression on her face.
Once everyone was bathed and back in the chamber, Aila shored up their defenses by casting several dozen of her spike trap spells to block off the tunnel to their hiding spot. She had cast a few before, but not many since she had remained low on magic power since their last fight and had wanted to save as much as possible for emergencies. With her reserves replenished from their lewd activities, the small chamber entrance tunnel had been turned into a death trap for anything that might try to crawl through uninvited.
With the group all awake and dressed to their level of comfort, which meant shirtless for Kerr but underclothes or more for the rest of them, they broke out their supply of trail rations and shared them amongst each other. In the process of pulling out rations from her pack, Aila ended up pulling the metal box containing Jadis’ pet, which did cause a bit of a stir among the rest.
“Why are you carrying around a svo-lach demon spawn in your backpack?” Kerr demanded, her lip curled in disgust as she tapped one of the glass sides of the container with the demon inside.
“I’ve been meaning to experiment with it,” Jay explained, picking up the box to make eye contact with the cyclopean neon-blue orb within. “Mostly trying to figure out just how intelligent demons are. Haven’t had much chance though, with everything that’s happened lately.”
Eir frowned at the wriggling mass of dark tentacles. “I’m sure you know just how dangerous it is to carry around a live demon like that. But still,” she advised while leaning against Dys’ side, “I would recommend killing it before it causes any trouble. If it grows into a species that can cast some form of magic, it could be a real threat.”
“Any idea when it’ll stop being a hatchling and start being an, I don’t know, adult demon?” Jay asked as she put the cube down at her side. “It hatched at least a week ago and it hasn’t really done anything.”
No one seemed to have an answer as Jadis’ question was met with general silence and helpless shrugs.
“It might already be an adult,” Aila posited, head slightly tilted as she considered the contained hatchling. “It came from a bone thief matriarch, correct? It might be a bone thief now and it just hasn’t had the opportunity to try and make a bone shell for itself since it’s been with us this whole time.”
“Definitely worth testing when we get a chance,” Syd nodded. “But that’s not a focus right now,” she dismissed the demon topic with a wave of her hand.
“Yes, for right now,” Dys continued the thought, “I wanted to go over our classes and skills. We probably should have discussed this sort of thing before diving straight into all the—”
“Amazing and mind-blowing fucking,” Kerr interjected with a fang-exposing grin.
“Yeah, that,” Jay easily agreed. “But we were all a little worked up, so whatever. Now that we aren’t all half-crazy with horniness,” Jay continued as Syd put a hand over Kerr’s mouth before she could interrupt again, making the therion huff at being blocked. “I would like to talk about what we’re all really capable of so we can better plan our escape from these damned tunnels. Even if we don’t run into any more demons, which I doubt will be the case, those cave spiders are a real threat, plus whatever else might be down here. Also, if one of you ended up putting your point boost into an attribute that maybe doesn’t suit our immediate needs, we can redo the ritual if we need to.”
“A—again? Thea said with a slight hesitation, her cheeks blushing rosy in dim light of the cave moss.
“If needed,” Jay repeated. “Also, even if we don’t need to redo Lewd Lover’s Bond with anyone, there is the second ritual, Lascivious Empowerment, that we should also perform while we’re here in a secure, easy to defend location. I’ll go over the details in a sec, but it would give me and by extension all of you another big boost in power to our attributes.”
“Since I’m the one asking,” Dys said, picking up where her other self left off, “I’m willing to go first and explain all my skills from both my classes to all of you. Is everyone else okay with sharing their information with the group?”
While there was some slight hesitation, everyone nodded and voiced their agreement.
“I just let everyone watch me get my brains fucked out a couple of hours ago,” Kerr pointed out. “And I got to watch their brains get fucked out of their skulls too. Seems silly to tip-toe around class info now.”
That eloquently put sentiment seemed to say it all for the group and, without further ado, Jadis began. She started by reading out her basic status sheet, followed by various class skills and spells, going into detail for each one.
Jadis Ahlstrom
Race: Nephilim
Primary Class: Mirror Knight (23)
Secondary Class: Perverted Ritualist of D (17)
Tertiary Class: None
Combined Level Rating: 40
Health: 700/830
Magic: 310/310
Attributes
Strength: 90
Dexterity: 28
Agility: 91
Vitality: 53
Fortitude: 38
Endurance: 40
Arcane: 0
Divine: 0
Eldritch: 91
Focus: 1
Resilience: 15
Will: 5
Skills
Primary:
Mirrored Body
Knight’s Rest
Minor Strength Improvement II
Mirrored Strikes
Refracted Mind
Knight’s Tenacity
Focus:25
Resilience: 5
Will: 10
Skills
Primary:
Smooth Ride
Minor Arcane Improvement V
Sharp Perception
Carter’s Endurance
Cold Comfort
Nimble Laborer
Secondary:
Arcanist’s Spike Trap Modification
Nephilim Wellspring
Arcanist’s Reservoir
Tertiary:
None
Spells
Primary:
None
Secondary:
Arcanist’s Force Bolt
Arcanist’s Force Shield
Tertiary:
None
Jadis had never heard Aila go into full detail on the skills she’d received from her Cart Driver class. She had, of course, given her an overview and told her in short terms what each one did, but hearing the actual skill descriptions was new to her. Seeing the details on what was considered a basic non-combat class was interesting and made Jadis wonder just how much regular people doing regular jobs around Oros were aided by skills that came from their classes. She could imagine having such bonuses, as mundane as they seemed to Aila and the others, would be extremely well received back on Earth.
Smooth Ride
Passive Skill. Your ability to smoothly drive a cart, wagon, or similar land vehicle is improved by increased perception of minor obstacles that get in the way, allowing you to avoid them more easily. Hand movements when attempting to direct beasts of burden with reins are also enhanced so that your intentions are better conveyed to the animals pulling your vehicle.
Minor Arcane Improvement V
Passive Skill. Increases Arcane by 15 points.
Sharp Perception
Passive Skill. Increases your chances of spotting inconspicuous movement and hearing dampened threats. Creatures with stealth skills are more easily detected.
Carter’s Endurance
Passive Skill. Increases the Endurance attribute by 5 points.
Cold Comfort
Passive Skill. Increases your resistance to cold and freezing temperatures.
Nimble Laborer
Passive Skill. Increases the Dexterity and Agility attributes by 5 points.
Aila’s Arcanist skills and spells were all familiar to Jadis, except for her newest spell that she’d apparently chosen while they were resting back at their first alcove.
Arcanist’s Force Shield
Active Spell. Create a 3-foot diameter shield that resists both physical and magical attacks. Shield appears at any unobstructed point within 5 feet of you. Any attacks or spells you cast through the shield will be nullified and break the shield. Base Cost – 30 magic. Base Duration – 10 seconds.
During her reading of her secondary class’s skills, Aila was forced to ignore the wicked and knowing grins Kerr sent her way when Nephilim Wellspring was detailed. Fortunately, Aila was good at putting on a professional face and ignoring the leering taunts the therion kept up, trying to goad a reaction out of her.
“So far, it’s been a powerful class, considering I only have ten levels in it,” Aila concluded as she summarized her skill set. “I’m better with prepared positions thanks to Spike Trap, but I can still do well in more frenetic, spontaneous engagements.”
“Sounds like you’re having a lot of fun with it,” Kerr said around a toothy smile. “Especially that Wellspring skill... Wait! Is that why you have a second canteen? An enchanted canteen? It is, isn’t it! You’re carrying around big stuff’s cum to drink on the go, aren’t you!”
“Please stop teasing Blue so much,” Jay admonished Kerr, putting an arm around Aila’s shoulder to draw her girlfriend in close to her side. Her ears were tomato-red and she looked like she was putting in a lot of effort to restrain herself. “She’s doing the best she can with the class she was given and she really doesn’t need you giving her shit about it.”
“I’m just playing,” Kerr said dismissively. “I didn’t actually find any stick up Blue’s butt when I was licking her clean earlier, so I assume she can handle a little friendly banter.”
“Don’t call me that,” Aila immediately said, her face completely placid but her tone deadly serious. “Only Jadis can call me that.”
“Sorry,” Kerr apologized with her hands raised, and to Jadis’ relief, the woman actually looked genuinely contrite. “No, really. If that’s something special just for you two, that’s fine. I can get that. My mistake.”
“Thank you,” Aila acknowledged Kerr’s apology and some of the tension between them seemed to fade.
There was a moment of awkward silence among the women, but only a short beat.
“Well,” Kerr shrugged. “Now that I’ve shoved my foot up my nose, and somehow pulled it out, I guess I’ll go next. Who wants to hear about my no-where-near-as-amazing classes?”