NOVEL NEXT 71. Feelings and Skill Upgrades
Bonny held onto Eloisss and rubbed her back as the lamia cried on her shoulder. Eloisss’ coils slowly worked their way around, binding them tight together.
This was the third confession of love. It wasn’t prompted by an intimate moment, but by a look, that Bonny gave to someone else.
When the tears slowed, Bonny asked, “Eloisss, are you upset because of Brooke or Tammy?”
“I … I don’t know.”
“Do I need to give you more attention? Are you feeling left out?”
“I don’t know.”
Bonny thought back to the last time she had sex with Eloisss. They hadn’t actually done the deed in the tower, so it had been three days ago, before they entered the city. Bonny had asked for Freja to join and had made it more about Freja than Eloisss. Still, Eloisss enjoyed dominance and inflicting pain, so Bonny had thought it was satisfying. Could she have been wrong?
“Eloisss, are you jealous of Freja?”
“No … Maybe.” Eloisss’ coils tightened and she started sobbing again. “Sshe’ss a better protector and sshe knows more and can train you better. You gave her the ssame blesssing.”
“So, it’s not about the sex we had the other night, but you’re worried about me replacing you?”
Eloisss tightened again, painfully. The constriction made breathing difficult.
“El … loosen … please.” Bonny tapped a hand on Eloisss’ back and the coils relaxed slightly. Bonny took a deep breath. “Thank you.”
“SSorry. I didn’t mean …”
“It’s fine.” Bonny wiggled her hands up, free of the loops, and pulled Eloisss’ head off her shoulder, so they could look each other in the eyes, then pulled her back in for a long, deep kiss.
When they pulled apart, breathless, Bonny took a moment, then continued, “Freja isn’t going to replace you. I need you. Even if Freja becomes my shield, I’ll still need you to be my weapon. There’s a war coming and I’ll need all of you to help defeat Matt. Okay?”
Eloisss nodded.
“I won’t have sex with Brooke, if that bothers you. Okay?”
“It iss fine, Bonny. I’m not jealouss of ssex. I like … watching. Watching you.”
“What bothers you about Tammy?”
Eloisss’ breath hitched. “You … you gave her a nickname.”
Bonny frowned. “Because her name is compli … Would you like a nickname?”
Eloisss nodded.
“How about Elle? Or Ellie?”
Eloisss thought for a moment. “Lamia ussually have a prominent ssibilant in their name.”
“Loissss? Essss?”
Eloisss laughed. “Don’t emphassize it sso much, you sshould work on your pronounsciation. You can descide which you prefer, with or without ssibilantss.”
“Then I’ll try a few and ssssee which workssss better. Okay?” Bonny smiled and leaned forward to rub their noses together. “Can we go back in and finish healing Brooke now?”
“Yess. Thank you, Love.” Eloisss blushed as she agreed.
They reentered to find Tamanna and Freja talking beside the bed. Kanae was curled up, apparently just as asleep as Brooke.
“Sorry for the delay. I think we’re all good now.”
Freja and Tamanna stared at the two of them. Bonny looked back and realized that the lamia still had tears and snot on her face. A glance to the side, showed that her shirt was stained as well. Bonny activated her purification aura as she unbuttoned the costume shirt and handed it to Eloisss. “Use this to wipe your face. You may want to rinse it in the water.”
While Eloisss did that, Bonny approached the bed and cast the series of spells on Brooke without issues. Once the web of corruption was cleansed, she healed the physical damage. She rechecked Brooke with different triage spells and affinities to find that the dark core remained, untouched.
“Kanae, can you wake her up now?”
The fox yipped and the mermaid opened her eyes a moment later.
Brooke stretched and sat up, feeling her stomach and sliding a hand down to her vulva, which was somewhat hidden by scales. She pushed in, putting pressure on the scales around the slit and working her way back up to the scale line. “There’s no pain. No itching.”
Bonny smiled. “Good. There is a complication, so you’re not out of the w, uh, seaweed, yet. Please avoid sex, at least penetrative sex, for a day or two. I’ll come back to check on you again tomorrow. Until then, get some sleep and drink plenty of water. You should be fine to keep painting, if you want.”
“Thank you, Bonny.” The mermaid smiled and her whole face lit up as her musical voice teased at Bonny’s ears.
“You’re welcome.” Bonny turned to find Eloisss watching with a wooden facial expression. “Ellie, I’m tired. Can you carry me back upstairs to see Kama?”
Eloisss slithered forward and scooped Bonny up into a princess carry. She stared at the others, triumphantly, as Bonny laid a head on her shoulder and wrapped an arm around her neck, then turned and carried the bunny out of the room.
Bonny held on tight and checked her status while being carried up. Surely all the healing had done something. “Status!”
Alerts (9):
You have accepted the Demon Lust's power and have gained the subspecies Succubus. You have gained the Racial Skills: Draining Aura and Draining Kiss.
Physical Power has improved via Draining Aura. You must overcome a challenge to advance your physical stats further. Plus 1 skill for Physical related classes.
Your mana reserves have advanced to Journeyman, via Draining Aura.
You have copied General Skill: Flexibility, via Draining Kiss.
Mending has been mastered and is available for advancement.
Pain Management has been mastered and is available for advancement.
Panacea has been mastered and is available for advancement.
Triage has been mastered and is available for advancement.
Triage and Spirit Triage may be merged.
Status:
Name: Bonny
Race/Species: Outworlder / Rabbit-kin / Succubus
Age: 22
Health: Healthy
Soul: Healthy
Titles: Journeyman Sage, Demonic Champion, Divine System Engineer
Achievements: Proficiency with all Magic Affinities, Attention of the Gods, System Update
Affinities: Arcane Beginner 80%, Demonic Master 54% (Lust), Divine Journeyman 15% (Courage, Healing, Justice), Elemental Novice 84% (Air, Water)
Auras: Divine Courage (allies), Divine Cleansing (area), Divine Healing (area), Divine Retribution (area), Demonic Desire (area), Demonic Drain (affected)
Class: Expert Medic/Demonic (alternatives available)
Skills: (no skills available, 2 skills may be improved)
Create Water (all)
Mending (all) - Heal, Rehabilitate, or Restore
Pain Management (all) - Analgesia, Anesthesia, or Sedation
Panacea (all) - Catholicon, Remedy, or Theriac
Sacrifice (demonic)
Spirit Triage (divine) - Analysis, Diagnosis, or Inspect
Triage (all) - Analysis, Diagnosis, or Inspect
Ward (all)
Wound Transfer (demonic)
Non-Class Skills:
Invigorate (arcane, divine)
Racial Skills: Draining Aura, Draining Kiss
General Skills: Agility, Dancing, First Aid, Flexibility, Running, Shield Use, Sword Use, Walking, Outworlder Knowledge
Equipment:
Big Red - Bonded, Growth (Unique, multiple parts/Demonic)
Sword of Justice - Bonded (Legendary/Divine)
Phys Pow: High
Phys Con: High
Stamina: High
Mag Pow: Novice 90%
Mag Con: Novice 80%
Mana: Journeyman 0%
Aura Pow: Journeyman 35%
Aura Con: Journeyman 23%
Will: Journeyman 68%
Quests:
Courage: Arouse Courage through fear.
Justice: Slay Matt (Mandatory).
Bonny looked over her status. Two skills could be advanced and she had four available if she merged the two [Triage] skills. She mentally scanned through them, finding that each had three options that roughly corresponded with her three magic stats.
[Mending] was a basic healing spell that worked through rapidly increasing natural healing. It upgraded to [Heal], [Rehabilitate], or [Restore].
[Heal] was a direct upgrade to her healing capability, mostly through mana efficiency, but also gave some improved control of the affected area. [Rehabilitate] allowed much finer control of area and degree of healing. [Restore] was an odd power upgrade. It restored a person or specific area of their body to a previous state, including missing limbs that couldn’t be healed naturally. Bonny wasn’t sure if she could restore a recently deceased person to life or not, but didn’t want to try it. It wouldn’t work on her, for obvious reasons. It was also limited by time and couldn’t heal old injuries or chronic conditions.
[Pain Management] was a general sensitivity skill that upgraded to [Analgesia], [Anesthesia], or [Sedation].
[Analgesia] was a control upgrade, allowing better pain management and finer control, both of area and degree. [Sedation] was a power upgrade, extending the range into unconsciousness, allowing her to put someone to sleep without Kanae’s help. [Anesthesia] was an efficiency upgrade that also incorporated aspects of the other two, allowing her to target specific areas and put someone to sleep, but it sacrificed power and control of exact pain levels and time.
[Panacea] was a general cure all that upgraded to [Catholicon], [Remedy], or [Theriac].
[Catholicon] was the power upgrade, giving a more powerful, universal cure. [Remedy] was the control upgrade, allowing targeted cures, including specifically targeting viral or bacterial infections. [Theriac] was the efficiency upgrade, reducing mana consumption, and had an extra odd effect of improving the patient’s feelings, both in general and about the healer and treatment.
[Triage] and [Spirit Triage] were both a general assessment of condition that upgraded to [Analysis], [Diagnosis], or [Inspect].
[Analysis] was the control upgrade, giving finer detail on the exact problem, as well as extended information like pathogens present, blood type, or missing dietary needs. [Diagnosis] was the efficiency upgrade, reducing mana costs and giving a quick overall assessment. [Inspect] was the power option, giving information about unknown body parts, as well as the person's titles and class.
Bonny thought the options over and decided that she could rule out the [Panacea] upgrade. The basic spell did a great job already and she didn’t really care if the problem was bacterial or viral as long as it was cured. Mana wasn’t usually a problem either, since she had Kanae and even the crown if she really needed additional mana.
[Mending] was similar. While [Restore] was interesting, the limitations made her reject it. [Heal] and [Rehabilitate] would help in different ways as well, but she hadn’t had any issues with healing so far, especially with the different affinities and demonic specific options she had available.
[Pain Management] could use an upgrade. While reducing or eliminating pain was great, it would be nice to limit it to a specific area. [Anesthesia] was out because of the drawbacks. It worked by injecting mana to the area, without a continuous draw on the caster, but also meant it was difficult to fine tune. [Sedation] wasn’t really needed as long as she had Kanae nearby and it didn’t do what she really wanted anyway, so [Analgesia] was the obvious choice.
[Triage] was important. It was one of her most used skills and extending it to get more information appealed to her. She wondered briefly if she could choose different upgrades for the two versions, but then decided that wouldn’t give her what she wanted.
She quickly ruled out [Diagnosis], since, again, mana wasn’t the issue and more information was better than a quick overall result.
The other two made her think. As she understood things, [Analysis] probably worked like lab work or scans back on Earth. She would choose what to examine and get a detailed result back, of bone fragments, blood work, dna samples, maybe. She remembered that system classes were based on culture and wondered if skills worked the same way. It seemed likely, so if she thought it would work like that, it would probably be close.
The last option, [Inspect] seemed a little underwhelming, except for the ability to check a person's identity. It seemed to give her a partial ability to see other people’s statuses. When she thought about it, it only made sense that there was a way to read them. Identifying specific dangerous classes would be important, since no one wanted a spy walking into a city. On the other hand, spies probably had the ability to mask their class or status.
She was curious about other people’s classes and statistics, but finally decided to go with [Analysis]. She needed information to heal accurately and that would give the best. She just hoped it was faster than lab work back home. She mentally agreed to combine the two [Triage] skills as well and was happy to feel a mental option to switch between the two. With the extra skill slot, she may be able to select a different skill for identification anyway.
“Status Class and Skills.” She checked the list again, after changes.
Alert:
You have access to material and spirit analysis. You have access to system information. Analysis has been upgraded to show system information.
Class: Expert Medic/Demonic (alternatives available)
Skills: (1 skill available, no skills may be improved)
Analgesia (all)
Analysis (all, spirit, system)
Create Water (all)
Mending (all)(Advancement available - Heal, Rehabilitate, or Restore)
Panacea (all)(Advancement available - Catholicon, Remedy, or Theriac)
Sacrifice (demonic)
Ward (all)
Wound Transfer (demonic)
Non-Class Skills:
Invigorate (arcane, divine)
Bonny decided to worry about the system message later and opened her eyes to find that she was still being held by Eloisss, who was talking quietly with Freja and Kanae. Either her decisions had taken longer than expected, or she had fallen asleep at some point in the process.
Bonny stretched and looked around the room. Kama was present as well and working on paperwork. Tamanna was gone.
“Thank you, Ellie.” Bonny interrupted the conversation to give Eloisss a kiss.
“Good morning, Love.” Eloisss responded, after the kiss. “We exsplained the ssituation with Brooke, and Kama hired ssome people to find everyone that had vissited. Most are local. Kama wantss to talk to you, sso we waited.”
Bonny smiled at her friends. “You could have woken me. I didn’t mean to fall asleep. How long has it been?”
“A half hour, or so. We didn’t mind waiting.” Freja added.
“Thank you.” Bonny hopped down and over to see Kama.
Kama misunderstood who Bonny was thanking. “No. Thank you, Bonny. I’m sure you’ve averted a much larger problem. One that no one expected or was equipped to deal with. I have some pay and a job offer, if you’re interested.”
“I don’t need pay. I’m just happy to help.”
Kama held out a string of coins, tied into a loop. It was mostly copper triangles, both small and large, but there were several small silver squares and a few large ones as well “I insist. This is based on the show cover fee and tips. I’ve taken a small percentage for the house fee and have given some to Hananoka and Tamanna. This is what we've agreed to give you and Kanae. You should know that it was our largest show ever, with close to fifty people in attendance. If you’re willing, I would like you to do another one. Perhaps tomorrow night or the day after?”
“Oh. I could do that. Can my friends join?” Bonny turned and flashed her three companions a bright grin.
