Chapter 113: A Gift From Sugar Mommy?!

“You know you could have phrased that differently Carmilla.” He said as he turned his head slowly toward her.

“Could I?” She asked laughing.

“You know exactly what you just said.”

“I merely wish to taste Sera’s cooking. Is that so much to ask of as your sugar mommy?”

He sighed, resigned, and let her open the connection, letting his sense of taste bleed through towards her.

Lucien took a bite of the boar meat and through the bond Carmilla also tasted the meat as her eyes went wide and bright.

“Oh.” She floated closer to the plate like gravity itself had reversed. “This is good meat.”

“I’m glad you like it Lady Carmilla. ” Seraphina said, pleased to hear that a literal Goddess liked her cooking.

“Little sister, you have excellent taste. In cooking, and in husbands too, how about letting your big sis and his sugar mommy get a taste?” She asked jokingly and winking at Seraphina as she burst out laughing.

“Can we get through one meal without the sugar mommy thing?” Lucien nearly choked on his tea.

“No.”

Aurelia laughed outright as Seraphina blushed down to her collar all the while Evelisse kept eating like none of this was remotely unusual, which, at this point, it wasn’t.

“You girl’s should focus on rebuilding your cultivation,” he said as they all ate.

“None of you can sit at F Rank for long with the amount of things that are happening to us, from the assassins and whatever other stuff they throw at us that we don’t know yet.”

“Agreed, but before that there’s something we need to sort out first.” Aurelia nodded, setting her fork down.

He looked at her wondering what she was talking about.

“Our cultivation techniques,” she said simply.

He paused hearing what she said, as it finally clicked.

“The Severance Scripture’s good for tearing a foundation down and rebuilding it, and it even let us turn some of our previous strength into our new base,”

Aurelia continued, “but what exactly are we cultivating with? We need techniques that actually fit our bloodlines, our talents, our fighting styles and are high ranking so our new foundations are better and stronger than before, not just a generic manual and some good luck.”

Lucien went very still.

‘Oh, oh damn.’

‘It seems that I may have spent to much time obsessing over bloodlines, traits, System rewards, and dismantling three foundations in one night that I completely failed to notice the obvious followup question, what exactly do they cultivate with afterward that is better?’ He thought as he made this oversight.

He had the Blood Sovereign Scripture but it was given to him or even made by Carmilla herself according to her blood essence and his own vampiric physiology, so technically perfect for him, maybe even perfect for Carmilla herself.

But at the same time it was catastrophically wrong for an Asura weapons master and warrior, a desire succubus alchemist, and a half fallen angel half human that had a certain snack addiction and a talent for judging others.

‘I could buy techniques through some shops or auctions, but anything Legendary rank or above costs a fortune and barely ever goes up for sale in the first place.’ He thought as the best he’d seen from his limited experience of shopping was below that.

He opened his mouth as he half turned toward the tiny floating Carmilla, ready to ask her outright if she had any solutions or ways for him to get techniques for the girl’s.

But she beat him to it, planting both hands on her hips with the confidence of someone who had clearly been waiting for this exact moment.

“Don’t worry, my dear little sisters,” she said grandly. “Your big sister’s already got it handled.”

“You have?” Lucien blinked surprised.

“Of course, did you honestly think I’d let my adorable little sisters start rebuilding their cultivation with whatever dusty manual they happened to find lying in a shop bin or whatever they had right now and remake the same foundation all over again?”

She gave him a look of profound and theatrical disappointment.

“Honestly disciple, sometimes I wonder how you even survived before I arrived.”

“Through hard work and good judgment.”

“Clearly defective judgment, since you somehow forgot cultivation techniques existed.”

Evelisse nearly choked as she popped a berry into her mouth, trying and failing to hide a laugh.

Lucien decided arguing further was a losing battle and let it go.

“But the first condition, before any of you get a technique, we need to know your affinities.” Carmilla said as she raised one of her tiny fingers.

“Why does that matter?” Lucien asked.

Carmilla settled onto the edge of the dining table like a lecturer who’d been dying for an excuse to lecture.

“A high ranking cultivation technique isn’t universally powerful, it’s powerful for the right person, but match a technique to the wrong affinity and you get slow absorption, wasted mana, an unstable foundation, and a cultivator who plateaus for no obvious reason.” She explained.

“Your Asuran instincts and bloodline probably want something built around destructive force, physical refinement, weapons and the like, which Asuras are known for, though their can be and certainly are exceptions for every race.” She gestured at Aurelia.

“Yours should emphasize resonance, control, desire, etc as it suits a Succubus alchemist beautifully just like the Succubus herself.” She smiled at Seraphina who blushed a bit.

“Yours is a mystery box until we actually know what’s in there, so picking a technique for you right now would be guessing blind.” She said to Evelisse.

“Hey,” Evelisse said. “I’m not that much of a mystery.”

“You’re a bloodline-less half fallen angel-half human who awakened a Divine rank Talent out of nowhere and keeps saying she wants a cool dragon bloodline, so you are, in fact, exactly that much of a mystery, little Eve.” She joked as she floated towards and patted Evelisse’s head.

Evelisse opened her mouth to counter, reconsidered and then closed it again.

“A cultivation technique is like a road,” Carmilla went on.

“A good road can take you a long way but taking the wrong road would mean you’ve wasted years walking in a direction you never needed to go or a road that could have been better. “

“Though it’s not that important for the mortal realm, it’s better to build on them now as it would make your futures significantly less of a hassle to walk on”

“Then we check affinities first,” Seraphina said.

“Exactly.”

“And how do we check them?” Lucien asked as he had no way to do it.

Carmilla’s smile turned downright triumphant.

“With something I happen to have brought for you, my dear sugar disciple.” She smiled and snapped her tiny fingers.

As a skill book materialized in Lucien’s hands, catching him of guard, its cover was etched in blueish patterns that seemed to rearrange themselves the instant Lucien tried to focus on any single symbol.

“Woah, how’d you do that, husband?” Evelisse asked seeing g the book appear.

“I didn’t do anything.” Lucien shook his head looking towards Carmilla for an answer as to what happened.

“Nothing much disciple, through the contract I can send things straight to you that my main body acquires for you or the girl’s, though there are limitations, mostly applied by God’s, the world and the contract itself.” She told him.

“So what’s that big sis?” Evelisse asked her eyes drawn in by the evershifting symbols on the cover as she blanked out.

“Don’t stare to much little Eve, right now you’re weak and could get sucked into it.” Carmilla bonked her head lightly waking her up form her daze.

“So what exactly is that Carmilla, it looks like some kind of skill book, is it one?” Aurelia asked seeing the book.

“Ever astute, little Aura.” Carmilla nodded as she praised her cute little sister’s knowledge as she explained what the skill book was.

[Appraisal Skill (Mythical Rank)]

[An advanced appraisal skill capable of analyzing targets, objects, abilities, bloodlines, affinities, and properties beyond the reach of lower ranked appraisal skills. Depth of analysis is adjustable based on the user’s knowledge to what they want to see or know, with deeper scans consuming significantly more mana.]

Carmilla presented it with as much ceremony as a fairy sized goddess floating over a breakfast table could manage.

“It’s more than a full upgrade over your current Rare Rank Appraisal skill,” she said.

“Once you’ve learned it, you’ll see things far more clearly, though the deeper you dig, the hungrier it gets for mana so don’t try going to deep into things you don’t understand just yet, okay.”

“Since I haven’t dismantled my own foundation and cultivation just yet, my mana reserves are still the same as before,” Lucien said, following the logic.

“Exactly, and also fortunately, you don’t need a full read on the girl’s, just to check their affinities, so you can narrow the scan and the cost drops considerably for checking them.”

“This is exactly what we need. Thank you, Carmilla.” He said studying the Mythical skill book and already running through the possibilities it would open up.

“Of course, your sugar mommy always takes care of you.” She beamed, delighted with herself.

“I really wish you’d stop saying that.”

“And I really wish you’d never stop making it so fun to say.” She teased as Seraphina laughed softly behind her cup.

“Okay my dear husband, time to learn the skill, we’ve got affinities to check.” Evelisse said excited at what hers would be.

“Right, chop, chop hubby, don’t leave little Eve waiting.” Seraphina laughed softly seeing the excited Evelisse.

Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!