133: Vile

Eris collapsed into the sofa, slumping down in a tired heap and fully stretching out to take up all three seats. She went face-down, bringing her head to rest on a soft, cushiony surface.

“Uhh, I was sitting here?”

“I know,” Eris responded, nuzzling her cheek into the smooth thighs she was using as a pillow. Hima paused a moment longer, but gently lowered the hands she lifted out of the way until they rested on Eris’s head.

“Do you want head scratches?”

Eris gave a nod into Hima’s thighs, prompting the Weaver to start gently dragging her fingers through Eris’s hair. From the other couch, Addison spoke up.

“Don’t mind her, it’s been a long day.”

“Wasn’t she jerking off for half of it?” Rocky asked with a raised eyebrow. “Speaking of which, where are the walking sex toys?”

Eris mumbled her muffled reply through Hima’s thighs.

“Helping the Syndicate with tests for the night, because I told them to. And animating them wasn’t even fun, because Dzhemehal was lecturing through it, the entire time.”

“Not to mention all the discussions this morning about her new Vile skill,” Tatum said matter-of-factly while reclining in one of the loveseats. She, along with most of the girls present, was wearing simple sleepwear. The only ones excluded were Charlotte, who was still in her casual armour since she was still on the job, and Ophelia who was wearing one of the fluffy bathrobes while dragging a brush through damp, recently-showered hair.

“I mean, you have to use it, right? That effect is crazy.” Rocky frowned. Eris mimicked that expression, not that anyone could see since her face was buried in soft thighs.

“Yeah- I do. It’s too valuable not to. But the requirement…”

The room fell quiet for a moment. Even Rocky’s attempt at an uplifting chuckle sounded forced.

“Okay, so someone has to become super horny all the time, but any kind of physical intimacy from anyone but you is revolting and pain-inducing. Honestly, that’s not all that bad! Pop it on a couple of us and you’ve got your ultra-boosting harem ready to go. Since we’re always gonna be in proximity, it won’t even be that bad if one of us needs to get some snookie for a few minutes.”

Rachel walked her fingers along the edge of a small fruit basket sitting on the coffee table between all of them. “Except for the fact that presumably, it lasts forever. What about after the war? What if we win this thing, and save the world? You’d still have to be bound at the hip to Eris because you’d probably go crazy the moment she isn’t around. Your entire life, dedicated to her.”

Hima’s noise of disapproval vibrated in Eris’s ears, though her fingers kept tracing little circles on the redhead’s scalp. 

“You wouldn’t even be able to fall in love with anyone else. I mean, you could, and you could get married, but both of you would always have to accept that the relationship would never be physical in any capacity. You couldn’t be intimate with each other, and you’d only ever be able to satisfy that craving with someone else.”

“Alright, then what about Jaxie and Alex?” Rocky offered. Tatum shook her head.

“They’re a throuple, and using it on either of them means that Jaxie and Alex can’t be intimate with each other. It would turn from a triangle into Eris having two wives that can’t even hold hands without vomiting.”

Of course, Eris’s mind flashed back a little over a month ago. The night before her Gifting, and Eris’s response to Jaxie saying she loved her was to throw up all over the bed. Not a pleasant memory.

A second later, the other part of Tatum’s statement clicked into place. Two wives.

In other words, marrying both Jaxie and Alex.

Eris felt her face heating up with the idea of dresses and flowers and vows split between the three of them, making her extra thankful for the fact that her face was hidden by pajama shorts with patterned apples. It didn’t stop her from fidgeting. Nobody noticed, though, because of something else.

“I’ll do it.”

“What?”

Even Eris had to peek over and look at Bailey, who was seated cross-legged on the floor. She was back in her baby-blue crop-top with way too much cleavage and short-shorts that were more akin to underwear than anything else. However, eyes were downturned past her glasses and trained on the floor like she was counting the strands in the carpet. Bailey sighed.

“The best person to use it on is someone that doesn’t have any romantic attachments to anyone else, doesn’t plan on having any romantic attachments, is already comfortable with being intimate with Eris, and is likely to be staying around for the long-term. I’m all of the above and then some.”

“But what about-”

“-Being the bicycle of Marrix?” Bailey glanced up at Grace, who she cut off. “Yeah, it’s gonna suck in that regard. Sex is fun, and I like it. I like making other people feel good. I like making sure that everyone has a good time and can take a load off however they damned well please. Sure, I won’t be able to do that for anyone else anymore, but I’m already kind of claimed by Eris anyway. Outside of specific examples, pretty much the only person I’ve fucked in the last month is her, anyway.”

Bailey offered a small smile in Eris’s direction.

“I don’t mind it- really, I don’t. If anything, sex with you is only gonna get more and more fantastic compared to anyone else, because gods know you’re gonna get a lot more crazy rituals and new items and all that. I am SO down for that. Even if I could, I probably wouldn’t want to go back to normal stuff with other people when you’re always there and ready.”

Then, the blonde shrugged to send her poofy hair bouncing.

“Plus, when looking at the benefit I’d be giving to you, it seems like less and less of a bad option. Permanently boosting Benediction, which would then multiply whatever skill you chose to buff it with? Powerful stuff.”

Eris winced. The only bad part of Bailey’s idea was the fact that it was completely logical despite how horrible the requirement was. 

She supposed that was what made Vile Skills so dangerous, then.

“Please, no…” Eris mumbled into Hima’s thighs. “Don’t make me do that to you…”

“Yeah, don’t go jumping ahead into something like that,” Rachel frowned. “If you can’t have sex with other people, then that means we can’t have sex with you.”

“And we wouldn’t be able to do this!” Ophelia smiled from behind Bailey and wrapped her arms around in a backwards hug while planting little kisses on the blonde’s neck. Bailey laughed, patting Ophelia’s arms.

“Okay, okay, we’ll keep thinking about it.” After a moment, however, Bailey’s smile fell.  “Though, it sucks to think about someone else’s life getting ruined because of it. The Syndicate’s gonna find some volunteer, but then they’ll have to be the one to deal with it instead. I don’t want someone else to have to take the fall for me…”

“Come on! Can you quit it with your slutty saviour complex for a while and try being a little selfish?” Rocky smirked.

“I’m sorry!” Bailey frowned. “It’s just hard to think about, okay? If you can help someone but you choose not to, that’s just as bad as causing the problem in the first place, right?”

“That’s not really how that works,” Grace frowned, wringing her hands together. “Besides, we aren’t even the ones that would be making the decisions of if the skill is going to be used. That’s for the higher-ups and Eris. We’re just here to teach her and give her our own skills.”

“Speaking of which, who’s up for tonight?” Rachel raised an eyebrow, pointing towards Grace and Addison. “Cuz’ last night it was you two, so who’s sleeping with her tonight?”

Hima spoke quietly, not letting her fingers leave Eris’s hair where they were gently tying tiny braids even in the shorter length that had grown out a bit in the month since Eris’s gifting.

“Me and Ophelia.”

“Ophelia and I,” Grace corrected. Hima offered a small smile with a soft voice.

“We have the next skills the Syndicate wants Eris to copy. Tomorrow night it’s gonna be Rocky with her new level five skill, along with Bailey to see if anything happens.”

“Why are you talking so quietly?” Bailey asked. Hima’s response was a smile, gently dragging her fingers through the red fluff.

“Because she’s already asleep.”

The rest of the room seemed to become aware of the napping Artificer softly snoring on Hima’s thighs. Carmine Charlotte took a step closer, though her own voice became quieter.

“I guess that means it’s bedtime.”

Eris gave a little groan as she was gently lifted into the Knight’s arms, but didn’t wake. At least, not enough to be any kind of cognizant when Carmine looked at the Culinarian and the Weaver. “Come on, let’s get you three tucked in.”

Variah Konderlacht rubbed the bridge of her nose, staring over the multiple sheets of paper in front of her illuminated under a runic lamp on her desk. It was a lot to take in. Status sheets were normally easy to write out. Write the core stats, write the skills, done. With Kadell, whose list of stats and skills was changing daily, even multiple times a day, it was beyond complicated. There was an entire stack of papers just off to the side listing out all the numbers and enchantments and bonuses from just Malleable Arcana, which needed to be updated any time Eris spent a single point of Magic Power to increase one of her hundreds of effects.

Even disregarding that entire aspect, the foundations were complicated enough. Not only did each skill have its own level, there needed to be notes beside each of them as to how much they would cost to level up, what the increase in level was assumed to provide, and even the scaling of the skill when boosted by Benediction since there had been a few opportunities to move the skill around before settling it back on Wonders in the meantime. 

Glancing down the list, it was getting long.

Name: Eris Limeen Kadell

Age: 18

Class: Artificer of Lust

Level: 10

Vitality: C (11) (1 + 2 Ring uses)

Physical Defence: C (11) (1 + 2 Ring uses)

Magical Defence: C (11) (1 + 2 Ring uses)

Tenacity: F- (1)

Strength: F- (1)

Dexterity: F- (1)

Mind: 19 (Up 2 stages per level)

Control: 21 (Up 2 stages per level)

Craftsmanship: 40  (Up 4 stages per level)

Just the first part alone needed multiple notes and tweaks, because of Kadell’s stats. With six volunteers having been impregnated in that... session two days ago, that meant thirty extra ranks of stats given to the Artificer, which had been unanimously decided by multiple officials would be best suited to go into her stats of Vitality, Physical Defence and Magical Defence. Mind for more Mana, Control for more crafting efficiency or Craftsmanship for better items were all good choices, but considering the power of the items Kadell could already make, it was decided that they could take things a teeny bit slower and focus on making sure one little accident didn’t kill their only hope.

Although most of Kadell’s stats were still in the letter categorization, it was decided that it would ultimately be easier for the record if all of Kadell’s letters were turned into the number equivalent, causing the markings of eleven beside each of her defensive stats, and the ones beside her Tenacity, Strength, and Dexterity. Thankfully, the established pattern of two stages in Mind and Control each level and four in Craftsmanship didn’t seem to have any sign of changing, which made things easier to keep track of. The skills were a different story. 

Gods, even the way they were organized in the list was strange. With everyone else, including Variah herself, every skill was listed top to bottom in the order that they were given on level ups. All of her first and second-level skills were up at the top of her list, with her level nineteen and twenty skills down at the bottom. It made it easy to track the progression. With Kadell, it seemed as though all the skills were sorted in some other fashion, therefore requiring a tiny notation right before each skill to keep track of what level rewarded it.

Then, of course, there was the additional notes of (B:N) or (B:Y) to notate if the skill was selectable by Benediction or not, and what the values would be if it could. Only some of those values were certain based on which skills they were able to test with, but they provided enough information about how Benediction seemed to function that reasonable guesses could be made for all of the others.

Skills: 31

1: Artificer’s Cunning   {Passive} {Maxed} (B:N)

You are the foremost expert when it comes to items. You may Inspect unknown materials and items. When Inspecting a crafted object, you receive additional information about it. Information includes:

• Material construction
• Current durability
• The crafter’s name
• Active magical effects

1: Adept Artificer   {Passive} {Evolution 1} {Level 4}  (100k) (B:Y)

You have a natural talent for crafting. Any product you craft gains a {375%} bonus to its Quality, applied after all other bonuses. This bonus is doubled when crafting items using only equipment made by you. (+75% / level) (B: 1,875%)

4: Retroduction   {Passive} {Maxed} (B:N)

You have an intuitive knowledge of how best to utilize any crafting material you handle.

8: Tolerance   {Passive} {Maxed} (B:N)

You cannot become injured or maimed through standard crafting actions.

2: Mana   {Passive} {Maxed} (B:N)

You gain a reservoir of Mana, which you may spend on certain abilities.

2: Artificer’s Grace   {Active} {Maxed} (B:N)

While in the process of crafting, you may expend Mana in place of Crafting Points to use certain abilities.

4: Sanctum   {Active} {Level 3} (25,000) (B:Y)

Engage in an arcane ritual and designate a location no greater than {3,000} square feet. While in your Sanctum, you recover expended Mana {300%} faster. (+1k, +100% / level) (B: 15,000 / 1,500%)

4: Benefic   {Active} {Level 3} (25,000) (B:Y)

You may spend Mana and touch a magical item. For 8 hours, the item gains a {30%} bonus to its Quality, applied after all other bonuses.  (+10% / level) (B: 40 hours / 150%)

5: Restoration   {Active} {Maxed} (B:N)

You may spend Mana while touching a magical item. The item regains missing Durability based on the amount of Mana spent.

6: Location   {Active} {Maxed} (B:N)

You may spend Mana while designating a specific material. You immediately know the direction and distance to the nearest material of that kind that isn’t possessed by you.

1: Enhanced Crafting Points   {Passive} {Evolution 1} {Level 4} (100k) (B:Y)

You have {125} Crafting Points, which you may spend on certain abilities while in the process of crafting. When beginning a new craft, current number of Crafting Points resets to {125}. For every 5 Crafting Points spent on a single ability during a craft, you gain {4} additional Crafting Points that can be spent on any other ability. (+25, +1 / level) (B: 625 total / 20 extra per 5)

2: Excellence   {Active} {Evolution 1} {Level 3} (100k) (B:Y)

For each Crafting Point spent on Excellence, the Potency of the craft is increased by {150%}. This bonus is increased by {300%} when 50% or less of your total Crafting Points are spent on this ability. (+50%, +100% / level) (B: 750% / 1,500%)

1: Unbroken   {Active} {Evolution 1} {Level 4} (100k) (B:Y)

For each Crafting Point spent on Unbroken, the Durability of the craft is increased by {200%}. Consumable crafts, such as potions or food, have their Duration increased instead. When used on crafted armour, Unbroken also increases the Potency of the craft by {100%} for each Crafting Point spent. (+50%, +25% / level) (B: 1,000% / 500%)

3: Empowered   {Active} {Level 3} (25k) (B:Y)

For every 10 Crafting Points spent on Empowered, the craft gains 1 additional stat modification. Each stat modification may only be applied {3 times} on a given craft. (+1 stack / level) (B: 5 mods, 15 stacks)

8: Amplification   {Active} {Level 3} (25k) (B:Y)

For every 10 Crafting Points spent on Amplification, {3} stat modifications on the craft are increased by 1 stage. (+1 mod / level) (B: 15 mods / 5 stages)

6: Augmentation   {Active} {Level 3} (25k) (B:Y)

For each Crafting Point spent on Augmentation, a creature using the crafted item gains a {15%} bonus to their highest stat. (+5% / level) (B: 75%)

2: Wonders of Artifice   {Active} {Evolution 1} {Level 3} {Benediction} (100k)

Designate up to 5 (25) willing people as your Allies. Until you designate different targets, the chosen Allies gain {1000%} (5000%) faster level progression, you receive the same amount of level progression they do, and you receive skill progression resources from their sinful acts. (+250% / level)

2: Obfuscation   {Active} {Maxed} (B:N)

When finishing a craft, you may change, hide, or add information to determine how the craft appears when Inspected by others. This does not affect the craft’s abilities in any way.

7: Compression   {Active} {Maxed} (B:Y)

When finishing a craft, you may choose any number of stat modifications or enchantments the item would have and remove them completely. The power of the removed effects is divided and added to all remaining effects on the item. (B: No values given, but stronger bonuses for removed effects?)

3: Consumption   {Active} {Maxed} (B:N)

While touching a magical item, you may absorb the magic and destroy the item. When Inspecting a magical item, you additionally learn the magical value.

3: Malleable Arcana   {Passive} {Maxed} (B:N)

You may permanently learn, alter, and empower different kinds of magic stats and enchantments you absorb.

3: Enchanter   {Active} {Maxed} (B:Y)

For every 10 Crafting Points spent on Enchanter, the craft gains 1 enchantment that you have learned. (B: 5)

1: Pacifist   {Passive} {Maxed} (B:N)

You cannot directly bring harm to any creature, monster, or person.

1: Desire’s Reap   {Passive} {Level 4 - Maxed} (B:N)

Engage in sexual acts with others to collect Desire. Additional Desire is collected based on the arousal of the active participant(s) and depravity of the acts performed. Current Desire: ???

9: Hygienic   {Passive} {Maxed} (B:?)

It is significantly harder for you to become dirty or unclean. Additionally, you cannot be affected by diseases, sexually transmitted or otherwise.

1: Enhance   {Active} {Maxed} (B:N)

Expend collected Desire to advance skill progression.

3: Benediction   {Active} {Level 4} (250k) (B:N)

Engage in a Lustful ritual to activate Benediction. Choose 1 of your applicable skills. That skill gains a {400%} bonus to its effects. The bonus lasts until Benediction is used again. (+100% / level)

9: Autoerotic Assistant   {Active} {Level 3} (25k) (B:?)

Engage in a Lustful ritual to activate Autoerotic Assistant. Upon completion, one inanimate object made by you gains limited sentience until it takes sufficient damage or you choose to end the effect. You may only have {3} Autoerotic Assistants at a time.  (+1 / level)

7: Minor Boon   {Active} {Level 3} (25k) (B:Y)

Engage in a Lustful ritual to activate Minor Boon. Upon completion, the recipient gains a {30%) bonus to one stat of their choice. The bonus lasts for four hours, or until Minor Boon is used on them again. (+10% / level) (B: 150% / 20 hours)

10: Master’s Pet   {Active} {Level 2} (2,500) (B:?)

Irreversibly curse a living, human ally to be your Pet, and designate one of your other skills that is not maximum level. As long as your Pet is alive and sexually fulfilled, the chosen skill’s effective level is increased by {2}. Cannot designate more than one Pet to a single skill. (+1 / level)

5: Fate’s Promise   {Destiny} (B:N)

Time is dwindling. The Hollow encroaches. Through a bridging of power and self-sacrifice, you may irreversibly uproot corruption and seal it within a sinful soul.

Then, of course, there were the bonus skills granted by that necklace’s replicating effect, but Variah ignored them for now. Her eyes were fixed on Master’s Pet. 

A powerful effect, which could not be overstated. Increasing the effective level of a skill without the need to spend the increasing amounts of Desire for it was very potent indeed. Conversations this morning assumed that it would likely work in a similar fashion to Pravala’s boost she could provide. If that was true, then it wouldn’t evolve skills, but it would still give a bonus that was hard to pass up. Possibly turning Benediction from a five-times bonus to a seven, eight, or even a nine-times bonus would be outstanding. If Benediction was then to be evolved into a better state, that would then have multiple extra levels, which could then provide a direct and powerful benefit to any skill of Kadell’s choice…

Variah rubbed her eyes before leaning back in her chair with a sigh.

If absolutely nothing else, it needed to be used twice. Once for Benediction and once for Wonders of Artifice. Glancing back up towards the top of the page, the most recent entry from earlier tonight stated that Kadell had stored up a little over six hundred and fifty thousand Desire. That was enough to level up both of the aforementioned skills, along with Master’s Pet a couple of times. If the math stayed the same, Eris could evolve Benediction and then get it to level three after the fact, do the same thing for Master’s Pet, and then get Wonders to level four. 

It would blow through every bit of her current resources, but it would evolve what were easily her two most influential skills to provide who-knows-what effects. If nothing else, evolving other skills had proven that the numerical levelling bonuses increased to provide new and substantial values. There was a very real chance that evolving Benediction turned the one-hundred percent bonus per level into five hundred percent per level. As for Master’s Pet, that was even scarier when working out the math behind it.

Given the worst-case-scenario that neither of the skills evolved and simply stayed at level five, the very minimum result of the combination would mean that Eris could make fifty-five people into Wonders, with each getting almost a hundred and forty times the level progression. If absolutely nothing else, it would bring her current personal level progression from about twelve hundred times faster to almost eight thousand times faster. 

There wasn’t a question in whether it should be done. Two uses of Master’s Pet were necessary, but that was the problem. Two people needed to become, for lack of a better term, sex slaves. Eris’s personal toys, completely subservient to her and unable to have any physical intimacy with anyone else for the rest of their lives. A curse that would weigh heavier and heavier on Eris the longer her ‘Pet’ remained under the effect.

Raneer didn’t need to be here. Variah could already hear what that therapist would be saying. If Eris had to rape someone, or commit pedophilia or necrophilia or any other act like that, it would be a blow to her morality but something that could be healed from over time. A curse like this, however, was the opposite. It was something with an effect that would only become worse as more time passed, because it was more opportunity that the ‘Pet’ didn’t have to keep a normal life.

Unfortunately, there was an easy solution to that problem. If they were eligible for Fate’s Promise and could subsequently be sacrificed to help destroy the Hollow, then they wouldn’t have to keep living with the curse after the war was won, and Eris wouldn’t have to keep holding that burden over her head.

Gods, could she really do that, though? Make that decision? Force someone to become Kadell’s sex slave and inevitable sacrifice? Not only marking them for death, but destroying any chance they had at a normal life or relationship leading up to that point?

…

Could Eris make that decision?

Variah’s fingers gripped onto a pencil tight enough that it snapped into multiple pieces to rain wood splinters and broken lead onto the desk. This wasn’t just a bad situation; it was a bad situation with only two possible options moving forward. Either Kadell could bite down on the knife and choose to make people her Pets for the progression bonuses, cursing and condemning them while dealing with the weight of what she’s done to gnaw at her from the inside.

Or, Variah could do it instead.

Variah had seen it before. It was a lot easier to do something bad when she was just following orders. She could pretend that she wasn’t the monster- just a soldier having to obey the commands of a monstrous commanding officer. As someone who had been both the soldier and that commanding officer, Variah knew every bit how it felt to hold those tragedies within her.

But it was still easier when someone else told her to do it.

Variah let out a long sigh as she wiped the top of the desk down to brush the broken pencil into a small garbage bin. If Kadell became what she feared the most, then that would break her and nobody would benefit. But, if someone else were to take that weight, then Kadell could rise up in spite of it to become more than she ever was previously- the only person who could save the world from the Hollow.

Variah supposed that going down in history as a heartless bitch was alright if it meant that there was a history to tell at all.