Chapter 12 – Magical Surprises

When Adam, Chloe and me got back to the church rectory, the stew was ready to be served, and keeping warm by the fire. It was getting a little late now. Lysander and Emi had already finished eating and were hanging out in the drawing room. Adam grabbed a bowl of stew and scurried away upstairs, saying goodnight. He’d likely had enough of hanging out with weird, sexually aggressive pervert-girls for today.

I zipped off to the kitchen to get some food for myself. Chloe’s slave gruel from that morning gave her the nutrients and energy for the day. Apparently, she wasn’t even hungry. Once again, I was tempted to join her on her slave gruel diet, it sounded convenient. Maybe tomorrow. I grabbed a bowl of tasty stew for myself, then went to the drawing room to join my friends.

“Hello Tyler,” Lysander waved. “How was your day.”

I told Lysander and Emi about my day. I talked about healing like a madwoman, raising my Holy magic, meditation, and mana manipulation skills. I also told them about healing girls at the brothel and getting a fifty silver pay bonus from the madam.

“That’ll help us considerably,” Lysander said.

“Does that mean I can get some clothes that are less terrible?” Emi asked. Her current dress was… a little juvenile, to say the least. It made her look like a ten year old.

“Yeah, I’ll be buying some new clothes for me and Chloe soon, we can find something for you too,” I said.

“I’m content with my robe, though a spare would be helpful. Perhaps some underwear? This robe chafes my nipples.”

My own nipples were fine in my dress, I glanced over at Chloe with her rough sackcloth shift. She hadn’t breathed a word of complain. But yeah, that would probably feel like a cheese grater on her sensitive places. But Chloe was a good girl, and I doubted she’d complain about it to me unless I specifically asked her about it. The Madam was right, I’d have to get her some better clothes soon.

“Yeah, we’ll have to take a shopping trip soon. Madam Orchid suggested a place.” I said. “Wait, Lysander, does this world even have bras? Did they have those back in medieval times?”

“The modern bra was introduced in the late nineteenth century. Before that, corsets were common in high society going back to the sixteenth century. Dresses designed to cup and support were probably commonplace before that, though archeological evidence of such is scarce, textiles tend to deteriorate. In any case, it matters little. Endowed as I am, I don’t need anything complicated. All I want is a tight undershirt with soft fabric that won’t rub. Only Chloe and Maddie are big enough to need to worry about proper bras.”

“Hey…” I grumbled, massaging my modest chest. Lysander was probably right. I was pretty small compared to the Chloe-Maddie boobie squad… But it was still annoying of her to point it out so bluntly.

“We also might want to look into renting a room at a boarding house,” Lysander suggested. “I’d rather not rely on Father Jordan’s charity for too long.”

“I’m not proud of being a mooch, but shouldn’t we accept the help we’re being given, and use this money to buy some necessities?” I asked.

“Seconded,” Emi added. “If we’re going to keep leveling, we need to head out into the forest again. I’d rather have some hiking gear, survival supplies, and proper shoes before then.”

Lysander shook her head, “If we overstay our welcome, Father Jordan might start to ask favors from us, or start dictating how we should behave. If we’re relying on him for survival, we wouldn’t be in a position to refuse. He might ask us to work regular safe jobs as villagers, keeping us at a low level while increasing Ash’s level. I don’t intend on remaining helpless. I plan on reaching level thirty as quickly as possible and gaining the [Archmage] class. It has access to some very potent sounding magic schools.”

“Yeah, I guess you have a point.” I sighed. “Still, we should at least stay here until Ash returns. Maybe we can earn some more coin in the next few days.”

Lysander nodded, “Yes, agreed.”

“Oh! I got a new spell,” I said, cheerfully changing the subject.

I conjured an icosahedron, a ball shape made out of twenty triangular sides, like a d20 dice. I made it soft and squishy. I tossed it to Lysander, and she caught it, inspecting it.

“[Hardlight Construct],” she said appreciatively. “I was going to suggest that one for your next natural magic unlock.”

“You know it?” I asked.

“The church library has a book describing all known Tier 1 and 2 Holy spells. This one stood out to me as being particularly potent. You can adjust the material’s properties, can you not?”

“Well, I can adjust hardness and elasticity at least.” I said.

“Can you add inertia?” Lysander asked, with a wicked grin.

Now that was a devious idea: Conjure a bullet already in motion. I couldn’t make mechanical parts, or… maybe I could with separate spell castings for each movable member in an object, but I couldn’t make any sort of motor to drive it… But could I create something that was already in motion? I tried. I let my existing construct vanish, and created a new one. This time, I conjured a soft ball. I tried to imagine it as already moving, as I created it.

The ball appeared in midair, and fell to the ground. No momentum. But was that true? The planet was rotating, so if it truly had no momentum, it would fly away in whatever direction was opposite the planet’s rotation. This was a relative momentum. Relative to what?

This time I tried creating the ball, but defined its starting position with respect to my hand. Then, I swung my arm forwards and cast the spell. The ball poofed into existence, midair in front of me, and since my hand was moving, the ball flew too. It bounced off the wall, as if I’d thrown it, but I hadn’t needed to touch it.

I explained to Lysander how it worked.

“Can you define your starting point relative to something else? Or does it have to be your body?”

I tried it out, conjuring a magical ball on the coffee table. I tried to define it specifically, as relative to the coffee table, but it didn’t work. I could tell that the ball’s momentum was still connected to me. It seemed to default to my centre of mass, somewhere around my navel, if I didn’t specify another valid point on my body as the origin.

Maybe it was only able to affect living targets? I created a magical top hat, using Chloe’s head as the origin point. It didn’t work. The hat was conjured relative to me, Chloe moved a tiny bit while the magic progressed, and that made the hat intersect her head. That apparently caused the spell to fail.

So, no magically making handcuffs or blindfolds appear on somebody at a distance, or summoning a chunk of hardlight inside their heart or throat to kill them instantly. Boo!

I tried again, this time touching Chloe. It worked. I could make the hat appear on her head perfectly, even if she was moving as I cast my spell. Useful! I found that the whole, intersection issue wasn’t unique to people either. If I created something that intersected something else, the spell failed. I supposed it used air as the ingredient, turning air to hardlight, and hardlight back to air. Creating and dispelling things didn’t cause pressure waves or vacuums, after all.

I told Lysander my findings. “That’s still incredibly versatile,” she commented.

“So what about you? How did your research go?” I asked.

“The church’s collection of books was not extensive… most of what they wrote was on the subject of theology and morality, topics that I consider to be low priority for the moment. There were a few books on System lore, as it’s called. Those were informative.”

“Oh? Find out anything interesting?”

“The spell lists were most informative,” Lysander said. “It was a description of common spells, including recommendations. First and second tier magic has been well mapped, though for third tier and up, less is known.”

“That sounds helpful. How many spells do we get anyway?” I asked.

“You could learn as many spells as you want, once your relevant magic Skill reaches max level.” Lysander explained. “Spellbooks are rare and expensive, but if you had access to enough of them, you could eventually learn every known spell.”

“But I also learn a spell at level one, four, and… seven, I guess?”

“One, four, seven, and ten are the skill levels for which a mage will learn a natural spell,” Lysander finished. “The level one spell is always the same for everybody. For the other three, the mage can consciously influence what spell they get. The level ten one is special, there are certain powerful spells that can only be naturally gained at that level, as a sort of capstone ability. It’s good to chose a powerful spell for your level ten, since natural spells are generally quicker to cast than those a mage might learn later.”

“Okay, so what’s a good Holy capstone spell then?” I asked.

“It depends on the mage. The text recommends that prospective priests and support casters should go for Bless. It buffs a single stat of the caster’s choice by twenty-five percent, and lasts hours. For you, however, you might consider the Lesser Angelic Aspect spell.”

“Oh? What does that do?”

“It requires fifteen minutes to cast, not something you do in combat, and it gives you angelic traits. Upon casting, it lasts for twenty-four hours, making it a good long-term buff to cast at the beginning of the day. The effects of the transformation include minor resistance to acid, poison, and extreme temperatures, the ability to see in the dark, and slow passive damage regeneration. It’ll also make your eyes glow blue. The book warns heavily against taking it, as your apparent angelic purity will be like delicious catnip to the ravenous monsters out there eager to defile you. They would target you to the exclusion of all others in the party even other females. For anyone lacking our greater blessings, that would be near suicidal.”

“So it makes me a little tougher but paints a big ‘rape me’ target on my back? And you, my trusted friend who allegedly cares for my wellbeing, are recommending that one for me?” I asked incredulously.

“The passive regeneration in particular could save your life.” Lysander replied. “So long as you don’t die outright, it will constantly restore your body, like a very slow healing spell.”

“Oh, wolverine healing factor? That’s pretty badass I guess,” I said.

“Nowhere near that powerful. It would happen over hours instead of seconds.”

“So I’d still need to use my healing spell for big stuff, makes sense.” I said.

“The main advantage is that you don’t need to be focused or conscious for it to work, and it doesn’t require any mana to maintain. So, if something like the rock mimic happened again…”

“Ah, yes. Doom curse it, endure its affections until I pass out inside it, and wake up fully healed and higher level? Yeah, I can see that kind of build working…” I said.

“Indeed.” Lysander nodded. “I’d also recommend boosting your Unholy magic. There is a spell called Energy Drain that allows you to slowly drain mana and stamina from a target you’re touching. It could be useful if you start running low on resources while an enemy is… using you.”

“Is that a capstone spell too?” I asked.

“No, you can get it at rank four or seven.”

“What’s a good capstone for Unholy?”

“For you? Probably Vile Curse… It modifies the next curse spell you cast, doubling its duration and allowing you to inflict the curse without showing any signs of having used magic. It’s perfect for dooming an intelligent or powerful enemy without their immediate knowledge.”

“I guess that’s okay…” I said a bit skeptically.

“Ah, it seems you’re not realizing the true utility of it,” Lysander pointed out. “Doubling the duration. The Doom curse exponentially ramps up in power over an hour, yes? Let’s say the initial damage per second is 0.1, and the final is 100. What happens if you continue that spell for another identical growth period?”

“Oh shit…” I gasped. “Growth by a factor of a thousand… The Doom curse would reach a hundred thousand DPS by the end of the second hour?”

“Indeed.” Lysander confirmed. “A tier 1 spell capable of killing tier 5 monsters in a single cast.”

“The power of exponential growth…” I said appreciatively. “You going for that one at level ten Emi?”

“Nah,” Emi replied. “I want to focus on more direct damage. Being raped for two hours every time I encounter an enemy isn’t for me, thanks.”

“We’ve decided on something else for Emi’s capstone: Summon Shadow Familiar. It’s another spell the books do not recommend as it requires performing a dangerous ritual to initially contract the familiar. But once the contract is formed, the familiar can hide in your shadow. You can summon and dismiss it at will. It’s incredibly powerful, and its strength even scales with your level.”

“Magical girls need adorable sidekicks,” Emi said cheerfully.

“Adorable sidekick? What kind of pet is it? And how we supposed to do this dangerous ritual?”

“No idea what it is, but it’ll be an interdimensional eldritch monstrosity conjured with blackest of magic sooo… It’s probably super cute, right?” Emi said. “As for the ritual? It’s easy. I go to a certain place at the right time, hold the ingredient in my hand, and channel the spell for an hour.”

“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked.

Lysander explained, “It has to be at night, during a full moon. And we cannot be inside the protective bubble of the anti-Taint artifact. It would require being out in the corrupted woods, at night, during a full moon when monsters are more aggressive than usual.”

That sounded pretty ominous already, “And this mysterious ingredient?” I asked.

“Blood of a pure maiden,” Lysander said with a shrug. “Easily acquired.”

Emi held up a small glass vial filled with red liquid. “Got it already. Ethan found me an old potion bottle enchanted to preserve its contents.”

“Where did you get virgin’s blood?” I gasped.

Lysander gave me a blank stare, and pointed at herself.

“No way. You are not pure,” I grumbled. “Didn’t you cum last night from getting a tongue up your-”

“For the purposes of this spell,” Lysander interrupted me, “I’m considered pure. I’m human, corruption free, have never had a man or beast enter my vagina with their penis. Those are the only criteria that matter.”

“Oh, so this is just about your ‘technical virginity.’ The whole… ‘I’m still a good pure girl if I take it up the butt,’ argument?”

“I haven’t had a man or beast in there either, you know. Just a tongue and my own finger.” Lysander replied.

“Your own finger? When did that happen?” I asked with a sly smirk.

“Earlier today, I masturbated myself while Emi was preoccupied with her training, outside Dooming individual blades of grass to raise her skill rank.”

“What?” Emi gasped. “You pervert!”

“I fear Tyler is correct,” Lysander sighed with resignation. “This body is freakishly responsive to anal stimulation. My anal sphincter is almost as sensitive as my clitoris. I could only imagine how intense actual penetration with a generously sized phallus would be.”

“Wow… how did that happen? Weren’t your saying how our bodies were created by our subconscious desires?” I asked.

“Well I did enjoy anal and prostate stimulation before my gender swap transformation. You may recall I was bisexual before my transformation? Well I believe that, were I to have engaged in homosexual sex, I would have been what those in the scene refer to as a Power Bottom. Dominant, yet acting as the receptive partner during anal intercourse. Perhaps some of those proclivities leaked over into the design of my new body.”

“Yeah, pure maiden my ass…” I teased.

I asked about Emi and Lysanders progress with their skills. Emi had apparently reached rank 6 with Unholy magic, gaining a spell called Lesser Curse: Fleshmelting. The curse lasted only a single minute, and required a lot more mana than Doom, but it caused steady damage over time right from the start, no need to wait for the curse to slowly ramp up exponentially.

Lysander had finished off the [Arcane Magic I] Skill, bringing it to rank ten. In addition to Arcane Bolt that she started with, she learned a shield spell that I remembered seeing her use a few times during yesterday’s nature walk. The level seven spell she chose was Counterspell, which allowed her to interrupt and unweave another caster’s spell as they cast it. It was a difficult technique to master, requiring her to analyze the opponent’s spell, find a weakness, and poke at it with her mana in just the right way. Lysander was a terrifying mad genius, though, so she had the ridiculous brainpower to execute it reliably. The final spell was called Arcane Lance, which according to Lysander was the single most powerful Tier 1 spell known to any school in terms of raw single target damage. It was the big brother to Arcane Bolt, basically a big purple spear of energy that shattered armour and reduced the victim to a pulpy mush.

Our discussion continued into the late evening. Maddie wasn’t here, still working at the tavern that hired her. The girls and I decided to go to bed without her.

Like last night, Chloe was pinned between the two sadists. Emi didn’t want to be on her own though, so we let her join our side’s bitch pile. We put her between me and Chloe. Emi immediately started molesting Chloe’s breasts, like the tiny ball of repressed sexual deviance she was. I came to Chloe’s rescue, by grabbing Emi’s firm little butt and slipping a finger into her tiny, impossibly-tight pussy from behind. I was starting to get over the whole loli thing. I’d mentally re-categorized her as a super-duper petite girl my own age, rather than a kid and that seemed to do the trick to ward off the squickiness.

We’d all had a lot of sex yesterday, so we actually just decided to sleep after a little bit of light molestation. Well okay… I might have fingerfucked Emi a little… and made out with her a bit. It turned out she was a better kisser when she wasn’t trying to be the boss.

Lysander complained she had to pee but was too lazy to get up. I decided to be a nice guy and Purified her and everyone else in the room.

[Holy Magic I] Skill has reached rank 10 (MAX)

Woo! That finally did the trick. I got a sense that I should pick another spell, so I decided on that angel-transformation-thingy that Lysander was talking about earlier.

New Holy Spell learned: [Invoke Angelic Transfiguration]

Lysander said it took fifteen minutes to cast, and I was tired, so I decided to play with it in the morning, and just go to bed for now.

I was fast asleep when Maddie finally got back and came into our bedroom. Her breath smelled of booze, and she wobbled a little bit. She stripped off her clothes, and shook my foot to wake me.

“Purify please,” she said.

“Huh? Why?” I asked.

“Got laid with this sexy adventurer dude,” she said, with a grin. “Came inside me. Don’t want the preggers.”

“Gotcha.”

I wove my Purify, and used a bit of [Advanced Mana Manipulation] to exempt the alcohol in her blood from cleaning. Technically it was a poison, so the spell would normally target it. It worked. I cleaned up her creampie without ruining her buzz, and settled back down to sleep.

Maddie, not wanting to be the odd one out, snuggled into the bitch pile behind me. I felt her soft warm body press up against my back, felt her nipples tickle my skin. I might have gotten a little bit wet from that. Okay, more than a little bit. I was downright horny. Playing with Emi before this hadn’t exactly helped me settle down either.

I debated fooling around with the others a bit, but Maddie was tired and content, and everyone else was fast asleep. I decided to think of baseball or whatever to cool off my lust, and do the same as them. Soon enough I’d joined everyone else in their slumber.

Morning came, and we all went downstairs for breakfast. This time, I wanted the convenience of only eating one meal a day. I mixed up some slave gruel for Chloe and me. It turned out to be a simple process. Take one scoop of dry powdery stuff from the barrel, add one cup of water, mix. Easy peasy.

It was horrifically bland on its own, so I snuck a spoonful of honey into each of our gruel bowls. It helped the flavour immensely.

Father Jordan was there. He paid me for yesterday’s work, and then scolded me. Apparently, the church, and by extension myself as their hired helper, should provide free healing to all Untainted humans, but not to slaves. Slaves were personal property, and getting their injuries healed was the financial responsibility of their owner, not the church. If they didn’t want to pay, then they simply didn’t value their slave and that wasn’t our problem. He did say that we should still cleanse them of disease, so they don’t infect Untainted people, but that was it.

I pretended to agree. But seriously, fuck him! I’d heal who I wanted.

Adam was going out healing again, I decided to do a second full day of healer-helping for another seven and a half silver. I managed to coax him into taking me to Purify the girls at the Sword’s Sheathe today, saying Chloe and I could use the practice and I could probably fix up some innocent human girls who had old injuries. I neglected to mention I’d be fixing up all their slaves too.

Lysander was going shopping with Emi and Maddie today and they were taking my nice velvet coinpurse with them. Yesterday, Maddie made a single silver coin in salary, then another three silver in tips. She looked downright pissed when I told her I’d made almost sixty silver in a day. I debated whether I should recommend a career in whoring to her or not. I genuinely thought she’d be good at it, though actually telling her so would probably piss her off.

I gave the designated shoppers Chloe and my measurements, telling them to just buy something moderately decent, and not overly feminine for me. Lysander nodded, looking like she already knew what we would like.

Before we left, I decided to try out the Angelic Transfiguration spell so I could be extra sparkly for the day. I focused on the spell shape, the most complicated one I’d cast so far, and started to shape my mana.

I felt a surge of power.

Ninty percent of my mana pool emptied in an instant, forming into a different shape I couldn’t recognize. It was orders of magnitude more intricate and complicated than anything I’d ever cast before and my mana was doing it all on its own. Mana from another source joined mine, unfathomable amounts of power flowing into a complex hyperdimensional shape that kept growing and unfolding as the power continued to pour in.

The spell activated. The so-called fifteen minute casting time had been reduced to mere seconds.

I felt a pulse of holy light fill my body with warmth. It was like the feeling of stepping outside on a nice sunny day: Joy and peace in equal measure. My skin tingled. Eventually, the magical sense of warmth cooled, but a strange feeling of contentment remained behind.

Species Changed from [Human] to [Aasimar]

New Perk Gained: [Blessing of Trindon]

New Perk Gained: [Blood of Angels]

Holy Spell Forgotten: [Invoke Angelic Transfiguration]

New Holy Spell learned: [Lesser Angelic Aspect]

“Mistress is pretty,” Chloe commented.

Everyone else was staring at me wide eyed. Including Adam.

“Huh?” I asked, my voice sounding strangely resonant, “Something’s weird.”

I nervously took a look at my Status.

Name: Tyler Erikson

Age: 21, Sex: Female

Species: Aasimar

Class: Mage 8

HP: 110 / 110

STA: 90 /130

MP: 10 / 198

Str: 6

Dex: 11

End: 19

Per: 13

Int: 20

Will: 27

Mag: 20

Perks:

Greater Blessing of Vyreth

Blessing of Trindon

Blood of Angels

Skills:

Advanced Mana Manipulation 1

Fire Magic (I) 2

Air Magic (I) 1

Holy Magic (I) 10 (MAX)

Unholy Magic (I) 1

Meditation 6

Sense Mana 1

You have (1) Skill Points.

Spells:

Firebolt

Gust

Purify

Lesser Healing Hands

Hardlight Construct

Lesser Angelic Aspect

Lesser Curse: Doom

Well then. Where to begin?

I wasn’t a human anymore, I was an Aasimar. That was something I recognized from Dungeons and Dragons. In the tabletop game’s lore, Aasimar were humans with celestial blood, either thanks to a celestial ancestor somewhere in the family tree, or a blessing from a good-aligned deity. Given the fact that I had a new blessing added to my perks, I suspected it was the latter. Could I like… inspect this perk? I focused on it.

Perk: Blessing of Trindon

Permanent species change from [Human] to [Aasimar].

+10 Endurance, +10 Willpower

Compassion and Self-Sacrifice. Aid those who are suffering, bear pain in place of others, grow in power and clear this world of Taint for the good of all. So long as you continue to honor me in your actions, your blessing shall remain and your form shall reflect my glory.

Trindon, God of Mercy

And the second new perk,

Perk: Blood of Angels

Immunity to poison and disease. Immunity to offensive Holy magic. Moderate damage resistance to all sources of acid, fire and cold. Major vulnerability to offensive Unholy magic and curses. Darkvision. Lesser regeneration. Extreme vulnerability to Taint (Negated by Greater Blessing of Vyreth)

Okie dokie. Step one, don’t panic. I took a second to catch my breath, and glanced at the others. Everyone was staring at me.

“Something on my face?” I asked.

“Mistress is very pretty,” Chloe said, eyes wide like saucers, a lewd little smile on her face. She looked like she was about to start drooling. If she wasn’t sure about being into girls before, then there was no question about it now.

Lysander frowned, “Your eyes are glowing blue. Your skin seems a little bit… smother than before perhaps? I can’t actually notice much of a tangible difference. Yet, at the same time, you’re giving off a sort of… presence?”

“It’s sort of like the opposite of Chloe. While she gives of a feeling of lightness, you give off a heavier feel, like… a sort of gravity that draws the eye,” Emi noted.

“What happened?” Maddie asked.

I glanced at Adam, still staring at me with astonishment. Father Jordan wasn’t there thankfully. He’d left to do his morning business. I had to wonder… would I be enslaved as a demihuman because I turned into an Aasimar? That would be ironic, deemed a corrupted half-monster and arrested by a priest because a god he served chose to bless me. Demihumans being innately corrupted was the priest’s justification for slavery. It sounded like bullshit to me, to be honest. But if I wanted to use his logic against him… I was pretty sure being divinely blessed and turned into a partial angel and living paragon of purity was sort of the opposite of corrupted? Could I convince him of that? Not sure. The priest didn’t seem like the most flexible fellow. I’d have to think about what to say to him.

“I apparently gained the blessing of Trindon the Merciful. The effect is… similar to the spell Lysander and I were discussing before, but a little bit more permanent.”

I caught Lysander’s eye, and mouthed out the word ‘Aasimar.’

“Ah, I see,” Lysander said coolly. “I’ll explain later, Maddie.”

“Right…?” she didn’t look convinced.

“You received a blessing?” Adam gasped.

“Well yeah, but doesn’t everyone have a blessing too? This whole system thing?” I said.

“We all have the blessing of Vyreth, yes. The god of struggle wants us to resist the Taint, after all. But… to gain the blessing of another deity as well… That’s rare, to say the least.” Adam explained.

“I’d call myself a decent person, but I don’t think I’m like… super virtuous or anything… Maybe Trindon is just buffing me a bit more so I can level up and kill Tainted stuff easier? A sort of… investment in me, perhaps?”

“Are the… effects of this blessing similar to the ones I described?” Lysander asked.

“Yes, actually. Pretty much exactly that, though I don’t know if I have a more powerful version or not. I got a bit of a stat boost too, plus ten, to both endurance and willpower.” I said.

“I would advise caution… the more… blessed you are… the more unwanted attention you’ll likely get in the wilderness.” Lysander said.

Yep, I knew what Lysander was getting at. The blessings didn’t mention it but… If a temporary Angelic Aspect buff made me an extra-tasty target for rape monsters, what would being an actual, Angel-blooded Aasimar do? I suspected my very presence would draw horny monsters from miles around. Forget catnip, I’d be like… cocaine for rapist monsters.

“Yep, not much I can do about that, though,” I said.

I looked around, watching everyone stare at me. It was getting uncomfortable.

“Okay!” I said, clapping my hands and snapping everyone out of their trance. “You can all stare at me later. Don’t we have like… stuff to do today?”

“Still going to go heal the whores?” Maddie asked.

“Well, I think doing that in the first place is part of why I got this buff, so… Yeah? Wouldn’t want to be ungrateful, right?” I replied.

I snapped my fingers in front of Adam’s face, he blinked a couple times, shrugging off his stupor, “Okay Adam, let’s go!”

“R-right,” he mumbled, blushing at me.

Adam turned and walked out the door, Chloe and I followed him into town.