Two months later
I put the pedal to the grinder and crafted stuff until I earned enough Exp to rank up. I kept my Proficiencies capped, burning the Fast-growth points as soon as I earned them. No new Abilities, though. But I had a full enchanted set for the girls, jewelry, armor, and staves to focus their magic.
You reached Imperial Lancer (1st rank) level 20. You ranked up. All unallocated Exp was divided by 1,000,000.
You ranked up into an Imperial Lancer (Human, ultra-rare, 2nd rank). Your upgraded Progression is,
1 Attribute point at every level.
1 Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, and Mind at every level.
1 Willpower, Charisma, every odd level.
1 Soul, Luck, Dexterity every even level.
1 Magic and Ego every fourth level.
25 base HP every level.
10 base Energy every level.
1 Perk every even level, plus a bonus perk at levels 10 and 20.
Your current Class Attribute bonuses are: 40 Strength, 50 Dexterity, 40 Endurance, 20 Mind, 20 Willpower, 20 Charisma, 10 Luck, and 20 Soul.
I didn’t have enough Exp left to level not even once. Crafting didn’t give much Exp, no matter what multipliers you piled up. I put the thirty-five free Points in Magic.
Level 40
Strength*: 49 105 (154) / 112 - Dexterity*: 37 148 (185) / 112 - Endurance*: 47 125 (172) / 112
Mind*: 41 101 (142) / 112 - Willpower*: 48 96 (144) / 112 - Charisma*: 38 110 (148) / 112
Magic*: 83 61 (144) / 112 - Faith: 37 12 (49) / 112
Ego*: 55 60 (115) / 112 - Luck*: 43 92 (135) / 112 - Soul*: 43 92 (135) / 112
HP 63.556.113 (290.090 HP/s)
Energy 67.154.214 (102.867 E/min)
On a rather ordinary day, Mona ca to find in the library. She had her customary smug grin, but today the girl was even 'grinnier'.
> Level 0 Human female [Holy Thaumaturge].
“He, he. Guess what?” She chuckled by herself.
“I have no idea,” I lied. “What’s up? Did you change your hairstyle?”
She pouted. It was so easy to rile her up that I wanted to chuckle. “Gah!” She interjected, “boys are so clueless!”
And now I felt bad for deceiving her.
“I got my Class!” She shouted. Two maids who were busy cleaning the library and stealing glances at perked up.
“And what Class did you get?” I asked her to see if she would stick to our plan.
“[Mage]! Crazy, eh?”
The maids got to live another day. I wouldn’t kill them, probably, but put them under a heavy geas.
“Why would the System make you a [Mage] of all people? It’s insane.”
She poked her tongue out, “Turns out I have great elental affinity! And the Magic Attribute unlocked!”
The [Maids] started to gossip. It was ti for us to leave and let the rumors spread.
“Well, let’s go sowhere else, I want to see your elental magic.”
One of the maids snickered. Tomorrow, she’ll get the pink slip. I won’t say she’ll be fired because that’s a double entendre in the Empire. Triple entendre, probably. Sotis they were just sacked, sotis they were fired upon, sotis they were set on fire.
I had to put my plan of controlling the palace staff in motion. I’d sat idle for too long. But today was a day to celebrate. We went to see Marion and Madge as the airhead secret princess had co to first. I had no idea if I should be flattered or angry at her but either would be useless. Mona acted on her whims and the world followed. Just like a [Princess] should.
But she only acted on her whims because we, I an, I enabled her. She knew “her place” as the milkmaid’s daughter and behaved accordingly when interacting with external agents. Only around , she felt free to be herself.
We had the cooks bake us cakes and bread, served with gravy, smoked ham, and a roasted large flightless bird called Peapura.
The next day, at the Underground Workshop
“I need to increase my hormone intake,” I told Nenandil. “I can’t delay it any further. I’ll need to have the System and display so Status if I want to take the girls to the Labyrinth.”
“You’ll need to tell them the truth about yourself,” Nenandil said. “It’s unfair to tease their hearts and never fulfill their expectations.”
“Yes. In the Labyrinth, once they level up a bit, I’ll tell them.”
I prepared a syringe with testosterone and injected it into myself. I had little idea of how much was too much, but my Perks would shield from testosterone toxicity. I would also not have any acne, as it was considered a skin condition and I was immune to those too.
The effects kicked in a few minutes later. My heart raced, I felt dizzy and as if my arms were on fire and I needed to punch sothing. I think I’d overdosed myself. I felt a sharp spike of anxiety that was quickly subsud by my high Attributes. I needed to discharge so energy, so I trained in so martial arts. I felt a desire to punch Wyxnos’ face. The hormone made my body feel flushed as if my blood pressure had risen. That may explain the headache. It also caused a painful case of priapism.
I drank so water and laid on one of the benches to rest and let my tabolism break down the excess of hormones. About a quarter of an hour later, the extre symptoms faded and I felt great. The priapism, however, had to be treated manually.
I felt no ill effects from the OD for the rest of the day. Instead of going up and down with the dose until I found the perfect amount, I just reduced the amount each day until I no longer had any side effects.
Physiological side effects, because after three weeks, the hormone therapy started to make conscientious of the girl’s figures. I’d lost the ability to brush off their advances and the teasing when we flirted. I wanted to make Madge mine, and I had to discipline myself around Mona. I needed to take them to the Labyrinth and tell them the truth.
But overall I could tell my mindset was changing. No longer I took in stride the many tis Sir Godfrey knocked to the ground. It made mad and a few tis I almost blew my cover. The rest of the ti, I felt good with myself. It was like a bit of my old New Yorker self had resurfaced.
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Half a year later, in the sumr.
Our eleventh birthday was just two months away.
After fine-tuning my hormone replacent therapy, my adam's apple was showing and a healthy stubble appeared around my chin, mouth and cheeks. Having to shave was sothing that could stay in the past. I gained a lot of lean weight and people noticed my increased protein intake. I also had a growth spurt and was now considerably taller than the girls.
My voice started breaking, which amused the girls to no small amount. I could feel my bones growing bigger, and my feet and hands had a rather comical growth spurt. The fat in my thighs disappeared and my shoulders broadened.
But now that I was in the second rank, I had to fuse my Classes. What should I mix [Imperial Lancer] with? It should be sothing with Magic. Browsing the magical Classes for my second Path, the highest rarity had [Blood Mage], a [ultra-rare] Class. I would even gain {Blood Magic Affintity}, so why not? I needed three more. I checked the list again, and found [Mindbender], the specialty Class of that mage cabal north of Pekothas. It also granted its own Affinity Perk. While I hated the abuse of ntal magic, I thought it could be useful to treat ntal illness, like the lancholic depression Rhiannon suffered from.
Finally, I decided to take [Fleshcrafter]. I needed to fix the haphazard job that mage left behind as the quality and freshness of the male genitals he implanted was poor, to say the least. I would probably have to swap the grafted organs or maybe even remove my female genitals for good.
To complete five, I picked [Soul Spear], an agile Class of the [Skirmisher] family that fought ghosts. I added this just for the spiritual Attributes and the rarity. This ti, I would fuse five [ultra-rare] Classes.
> Imperial Lancer Blood Mage Mindbender Fleshcrafter Soul Spear = Anima Lancer (5-fused, ultra-rare )
Your Class changed to Anima Lancer (Human, 5-fused, ultra-rare , 2nd rank). Your upgraded Progression is,
1 Attribute point at every level.
1 Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Mind, Willpower, Magic, and Ego at every level.
1 Willpower and Charisma every odd level.
1 Soul and Luck every even level.
25 base HP every level.
18 base Energy every level.
1 Perk every even level, plus a bonus perk at levels 10 and 20.
You gained 1 mystical Proficiency pick.
You gained the Perks, Blood Magic Affinity (very rare), ntal Magic Affinity (very rare), Flesh Magic Affinity (ultra-rare).
Nine points in Magic spilled over into Faith. But ranking up before fusing Classes was the way to go. I would no longer lose all the base Class Attributes to {Surpasser}. I wonder why I hadn’t thought of that before. In the long run, it made little difference as the points would end up in that bloated Perk but now that I had a “title match” with the dragon-whore, every point counted. The new Proficiency, which was probably intended for [Spellcaster] went into [ntal Mastery], increasing its current score to [ 682 / 722 ]. It also gave a few more Attribute Points.
Level 40
Strength*: 89 65 (154) / 112 - Dexterity*: 87 108 (195) / 112 - Endurance*: 87 85 (172) / 112
Mind*: 61 82 (143) / 112 - Willpower*: 78 77 (155) / 112 - Charisma*: 58 91 (149) / 112
Magic*: 114 61 (175) - Faith: 46 2 (48) / 112
Ego*: 60 61 (121) / 112 - Luck*: 58 83 (141) / 112 - Soul*: 63 83 (146) / 112
HP 70.984.890 (317.855 HP/s)
Energy 78.851.187 (129.803 E/min)
With three new affinities, ca three new kitsune tails, raising the total to twenty-six. The blood magic tail was a vibrant red, and the fur seed to flow like a fluid. ntal magic was represented by a light gray tail with wavy patterns and swirls. Flesh magic gave a tail that was pastel pink marbled with yellow hues. This last tail looked fine as an abstract pattern until you thought about what it represented. Eew. Let’s keep it hidden more than all the others. I would need to expose it to gain the boost to fleshcrafting magic but I could keep it out of sight.
I had twenty-four Perks to spend. Now that the Classes were fused, I had no reason to postpone buying them and end up dying with them unallocated. While this ti I got lucky to snatch so exclusive Perks from the Empire, I still missed out on so cool things from my previous life’s Classes.
The base Class Perks didn’t have anything interesting for . Minor bonuses, stuff that wouldn’t compound with what I already had. Browsing the list, I finally found sothing I could use.
Biological Manipulation Resistance V (very rare): You resist 75% of harmful Biological Manipulation effects. Temporary effects end 25% earlier.Wind Magic Resistance V (rare): You resist 97% of harmful Wind effects.
Without anything better, I invested in Perception Perks. Those were always useful because when there’s sothing to be seen, you want to make sure you saw it. The entry-level sense Perks all gave a fixed bonus. While it was big early on, they didn’t scale and beca rather minor in the upper ranks.
Sense Poison (uncommon): Add 25 to all Mind tests to detect the presence of poison.Detect Poison (rare): On a successful Mind test, you can sense poison in a radius of 40 x Mind ters. Requires Sense Poison.
While I was immune to any and all poisons (and even ate the deadliest of them all as delicious sugary snacks), the girls weren’t. Too bad this detection, like most of them, was active.
I started seeing so utility with the first-tier Perks. Mostly for the esoteric spellcasting specialties, I mixed because the combat Perks were already explored in previous lives. I couldn’t help but see the parallel of the magical disciplines.
Detect Blood (rare): You can sense the presence of vital fluids of living corporeal creatures in a radius of 40 x Mind ters.Detect Thoughts (very rare): You can sense the presence of unshielded sentient creatures in a radius of 40 x Mind ters.
“Unshielded” in this case ant people with open thoughts, without any Perks or high Attribute values (as compared to the user) that protected them from ntal intrusion. I, for example, was shielded. Not only I had a Perk literally called {Mind Shield}, {Pinnacle of Willpower} and {Pinnacle of Ego} also counted as making their holders “shielded”.
Physiology Comprehension (very rare): You can analyze and comprehend the physiology of living corporeal creatures a hundred tis faster than normal.Psyche Comprehension (very rare): You can analyze and comprehend the ntal makeup of sentient creatures a hundred tis faster than normal.
These two were basic requirents for the complex manipulation spells. While one could acquire the knowledge of anatomy, ntal makeup, thought structure, biochemistry, and so on through their own independent research, out there you would face weird monsters like the Mantursine or the Kythaurpódi who defied comprehension. I figured out their weaknesses in combat but a lesser person would be dead many tis over before they could have the ti to think about that.
Blood Analysis (rare): You can sense the composition and elents of blood as well as recognize creatures by their vital fluids. Improves the efficiency of Traits relating to blood by 20%.Telepathy (rare): You can communicate with sentient creatures in your line of sight via telepathic ans at a range of 100 Magic ters.
> Telepathy. Gift of Tongues, Dolphin Language, and Silent Voice will combine. You gained the Perk,
Omni-communication (combined): You can establish telepathic two-way communication with creatures whose thought structure you comprehend at a range of 200 Magic ters. Physical barriers reduce this range, depending on the material. You can comprehend most creatures’ thoughts and speech, including written form.
Notice it didn’t ntion “sentient” or “living”, neither line of sight. If I focused, I could sense the bugs in my room going about their lives. I could also sense the Palace personnel. Communicating with the bugs yielded fuck all results. Their answers were alien and instinct-based, but the social insects like the ants actually offered useful information. If a poorly-swept corner of my room where breadcrumbs accumulated was considered useful information by anyone. Maybe I should use that to fire one maid or another without raising suspicion. They were doing a poor job of cleaning the [Prince]’s room, anyway.
{Blood Analysis} proved imdiately useful as I studied a drop of the blood samples from the girls and mine. It confird that Mona was my identical twin, the genetic material absolutely the sa. I could tell my blood from hers from the hormone concentrations and the presence of Truesilver in mine.
More Perks. Six to go.
Flesh Control (ultra-rare): Your spells can remotely manipulate flesh with 100% more efficiency and precision. Unwilling creatures can resist with (Endurance Willpower Ego) against your Magic score.
It was the first ti I rember seeing a Perk with a resistance test of three Attributes. My guess was that this wasn’t ant to allow the mage to usurp control of other creatures as it would be a surefire way to win fights by just making people punch themselves to death.
ntal Enhancent (very rare): You permanently lose 10 base Energy to enchant your own psyche. Gain 2 Mind, Willpower, and Soul.Flesh Enhancent (very rare): You permanently lose 10 base HP to enchant your own body. Gain 2 Strength, Endurance, and Charisma.
I usually stayed away from these trade-off Perks, sparing them not even a second glance. But now that I gained base Energy and HP from several sources, I could spare these points and overall I ended up with bigger resource pools. The Charisma bonus on {Flesh Enhancent} was due to minor beautification corrections, like improving one’s body symtry.
Preservation (very rare): Organic matter you manipulate or keep in your possession is kept fresh for (Magic/10) hours, then decays at a fifth of the normal speed.mory Clairvoyancy (very rare): Spells who sift through mories work twice as fast, yield twice as much information, and are 100% harder to resist.Soothe Minds (ultra-rare): You may soothe extre emotions felt by non-hostile creatures in your telepathic range, increasing their reaction one step in your favor.
I didn’t need to explain why I picked this last Perk. Rhiannon needed all the help she could get.
My new magic specialties gave weird senses. I could feel each drop of my blood running in my veins, I could hear my thoughts and feel my brain firing its synapses. I was keenly aware of life around , both their bodies, their autonomous processes, and the minds of those much weaker than .
I could see how a lesser person would get drunk in this kind of power and influence, and place themselves above their peers. It was tempting.
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