Tess flopped onto her bed after she finished unpacking, letting out a sigh of contentment. “The hoverer and the hotels were nice and all, but it really just feels good to be back home.” She noted idly, looking over at Ellie. “Thanks for helping me unpack, I appreciate it.”
“Of course.” Ellie replied. She opened her mouth to continue, then started. “Wait right there, I’ll be back in a second.” She said, dashing out of the room. A couple of minutes later she returned, hands held suspiciously behind her back. “So, um, today’s been kind of nuts, and I don’t know if you remembered or not, but…it’s your birthday.”
Tess blinked. She had forgotten, at least partially. There had been just too much going on to really sit down and process it, but she was 18 now, and that was a bit of a strange feeling for her. It was like a milestone in her life had passed and she had just sort of…missed it, at least partially.
While she was thinking about that, Ellie continued what she was saying. “I…um, I got you a present.” She said shyly, bringing out a small, wrapped box from behind her. She handed it to Tess, blushing.
Tess tore off the wrapping paper, opening the box to find…a core. A decently big one, too.
“It’s from a monster called the Blightbringer.” Ellie continued, growing ever redder. “I did some searching and found a core I thought would suit what you had going for you given what you told me about what Skills you got. It’s a boss of a decently high level dungeon and I think it’ll help you out.”
“I…don’t even know what to say.” Tess replied, “That’s…really thoughtful of you.” She grabbed the core in a fist, absorbing it.
|
You have absorbed a Blightbringer Core! New core absorbed! Scanning for abilities… New Skill detected! Miasma: Blight’s Harbinger: Mass-Produced Contamination: Displaying core information: Blightbringer Core: New Attributes Discovered! Blighted Body: Firmly Rooted: Living Structure: Immobile: Metal Shell: Structural: New Skills discovered! Blightbringer: Contamination Factory: |
Tess quickly got to work rearranging her Attributes. Blightbringer wasn’t important when Blight’s Harbinger was just as good for her purposes, so she made a mental note to put it on Silky whenever she next upgraded her. The other Skills were excellent, and none of the Attributes but Blighted Body interested her in the slightest, she just had to make room for three more in her slots.
She had an unused one from leveling up, so that just left two. She wasn’t using Facultative Biped, and Haunt wasn’t really important when Isabella also had it and was generally inside of Tess at any given time, so that wasn’t really a priority. Actually, while she was thinking about things she had gotten from ghosts, she had Greater Levitation in a User Fundamental slot, and she didn’t really need the extra benefits that gave, so Blighted Body would probably be a better pick.
So, she started the process of moving those around and began to speak with Ellie while she waited. “They’re perfect” Tess said, “Really, thanks a bunch!”
Ellie smiled. “You’re welcome! Um…do you smell something?”
“No, what are…oh, that’s probably me. One of my new Skills makes me give off this miasma stuff. Let me turn it off…” She did so, and Ellie breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thanks. It honestly wasn’t that bad, but over time I think it would have gotten on my nerves, you know?”
Tess nodded. “Yeah, I know what you mean. We’ll have to ask Gramps if there’s some sort of smell filter device we can get for the people around me for while we’re in dungeons, since I think this will be super helpful in dungeons and stuff.”
“So…what exactly does it do? And what else did you get?”
Tess explained, pausing only briefly to move the Attributes and Skills into place once she had put the old ones away.
| Blighted Body (User Fundamental): The creature’s body becomes a host for Blight, granting immunity to all Poison effects and causing any who attack it from within 4 meters to have a 20% chance to receive a Blight, dealing 50% of the damage inflicted by the original wound every two and a half seconds for two and a half minutes. |
“Well, I’m relieved.” Ellie said after Tess had finished, “I wasn’t sure if the Skills that the info listed for this thing would be the same as what you got, but it looks like they were.”
Tess blushed. “Again, thanks. I really wasn’t expecting something like this, it must have been expensive.”
Ellie threw an arm around Tess. “It’s not a big deal. I got it at a discount from the guild, Grandpa says our party will more than make up for that money with just a small amount of work once we’re higher level. Said he plans to give us discounts whenever we want to buy cores, so long as we don’t buy too much.”
“I don’t think we’ll need to if it’s something we’re able to fight.” Tess said, laying her head on Ellie’s shoulder. “I’ve already got way more cores than I could possibly use.”
Ellie stiffened, causing Tess to remove her head. “Was that too soon?” Tess asked. “Sorry.”
“No!” Ellie said hurriedly. “No. I just wasn’t expecting it, I was happy, really.”
“Oh.” Tess replied, once again resting her head on Ellie’s shoulder. “Well, um…just let me know if you get uncomfortable, okay?”
“Yeah.” Ellie said, pulling Tess in closer, “Will do.”
“So, you wanted to talk to me?” Gramps asked, giving Ellie and Tess a look.
Ellie took a deep breath, then paused, apparently having seconds thoughts. Tess gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, and she seemed to take heart in that, continuing on.
“Um, Grandpa, I…I’m a lesbian.”
Gramps smiled. “I’m very proud of you for coming out.” He said, glancing at Ellie and Tess’s connected hands, “Anything else?”
Ellie blinked. “Is…that it?” She asked, clearly taken aback.
Gramps scratched his neck, embarrassed. “I might have already known. Or, at the least very strongly suspected. I had an inkling of it before Tess transformed, but after that I was almost completely assured. Don’t worry, I don’t think any less of you for it or anything. It’s a natural thing you don’t have any choice over and I don’t see a reason why it should affect what I think of you at all.”
“O-oh.” Ellie said, “I feel a little silly now. Um…Tess and I are going out, now, so that was the other thing we were going to talk about.”
Tess nodded in agreement, carefully observing Gramps’s reaction. He had been teasing them about this for a while now, so she was curious to see how he would respond.
Gramps just gave a simple nod in response. “I see. Well, I wish you two the best of luck, then. I think you two go great together, and you’re both adults so I’m not going to set any curfews or rules or anything, just try not to get wild somewhere I can hear, alright?” He said, smirking.
“Grandpa!” Ellie replied, blushing furiously. Tess could feel her cheeks warming too, but Gramps just laughed.
“I’m just messing with you two. Now, what say you we go have some dinner? I think it’s time we properly celebrated Tess’s birthday, don’t you?”
“Is it alright if we go out somewhere?” Tess asked. “I…I think I’m ready to go back to school, so maybe eating out a restaurant would be okay?”
Gramps smiled. “Of course. If that’s what you want, I can have you back in by the start of next week, does that sound good?”
Tess nodded. “Yeah, that works.”
“Good. We shouldn’t have an issue going out in that case, where’d you like to go?”
Tess thought about that for a second. “How about a diner?” She said, “It’s been a while since I’ve been to one.”
“Sure thing!” Gramps replied jovially. “Go change out of your armor, we’ll head out as soon as everyone’s ready.”
Tess looked down, realizing that she was still wearing her gi. “Oh, right. Forgot.”
She left, heading back to her room to change into some other clothes. After that she went back downstairs, and they all loaded up into the car, where they began the ten or so minute drive into town.
“So,” Gramps asked, “What made you decide to go back to school so soon? I was ready to wait another month or so before starting to ask you about it.”
Tess shrugged. “I just sorta realized while I was out that there wasn’t a point delaying it any further. I’m fine talking to people I don’t know, so talking to people I do shouldn’t be a big issue.”
Gramps nodded. “Well, I think you’re going to do just fine.” He said, “No one should really see anything odd about you, so there shouldn’t be any issues whatsoever.”
“Yeah.” Tess said, and the conversation shifted away from the subject. Gramps asked about what the trip was like, and Tess told them some stories to pass the time.
“So, how was…you know, your period?” Ellie asked, “You didn’t mention it at all, but I figured you just didn’t want to talk about it. Was it as bad as you were worrying it would be?”
Tess frowned. “It never came, actually. Perhaps I’m not once a month like most girls?”
“If you didn’t have one when you were out, it’s more likely you don’t have one at all.” Gramps said. “There are a couple of humanoid races that don’t menstruate, and most that aren’t humanoid don’t either, so it would be a bit of an odd thing to make the Class do. You’ll have to ask Fortune about it when she finishes what she’s doing with Amy, she apparently designed the physical changes so she would know.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that.” Tess agreed. “It’ll be nice to be a little surer about it, at least.”
“I kind of want to grill her myself.” Ellie said, “I have a few questions on why some things are the way they are, and we didn’t really have time to talk earlier.”
“Alright, you can be there too.” Tess said. “I’ll let you know when she becomes available.”
They conversed for a little while longer before pulling up into the restaurant. It was a Wednesday night, so it wasn’t all too crowded, and they were seated pretty quickly. They weren’t allowed to talk about things having to do with the Outlands while they were out like this, so the conversation ended up being pretty mundane.
After they ate, they drove back to the house, and Gramps came out with cake and presents. The presents were much of the same stuff Tess used to get – books, games, that sort of thing. Cake was, thankfully, free of relighting candles this year, and before Tess even knew it it was time for bed.
Tomorrow she would go and learn more about her duties as an Appointed, but today…today she was content to just go to sleep relaxed, happy to once again be at home.
Patreon
Didn't Tess mention to the demon princess that the menu didn't work on Mael?
You are correct, and the standard menus don't. Those actually come from the bands that Tess and most people we've seen are "wearing" (read: basically merged with the body. Also, poorer freelancers don't have as nice stuff, but we've mostly dealt with the wealthy so far so it hasn't come up). This is a bit of a technicality and hardly ever shows up or even matters, but there's this tiiiny sentence at the end of Core Surgery that reads "Additionally, provides an interface for all applicable Monster Breeder Skills". Were this some normal Skill that was picked up, that wouldn't mean anything, but this is a Phantasmal Skill, which is powered by Worship, not by ambient Mana like the bands (If there is a non-Monster Breeder window somewhere, though, that's a plot hole and I'll patch it up if you point it out lol)
It's the same reason she can use Attributes and the like on Mael; anything having to do with Worship is completely unaffected by the low ambient Mana. This means things like all of Monster Breeder's stuff (Attributes are one level abstracted but they're close enough to a "direct source"), Blessings from the gods, Phantasmal Skills, that sort of thing. Think of it as...uh, this is a really bad analogy, but if Mana is honey, then Worship is the bees. Except the bees are also consumable themselves and, well, I haven't really gotten into the nitty gritty of Worship here, but the important bit (And I guess this is technically spoilers but...eh, it's not really important to the plot so whatever) is that it's the fundamental building block of the world. Mana is, at the end of the day, created by Worship, no matter how indirect that line of creation is.
What this really means is that Tess is actually one of the most dangerous people on Mael when it comes to a straight fight. I mean, if she's on Mael a gun would still kill her...well, she has the Attribute from the Emperor Lion, she could probably take one bullet, but all she actually has to do is be within 50 meters (through non-airtight seals) of someone and they're as good as dead. And her claws still work great, even if they don't apply a slew of statuses. A regular ol' slice is good enough to kill most humans dead.
@Fighterman481 thanks for clarifying!
Isn’t that new fundamental attribute kind of useless on Tess? At least in dungeon dives she ignores most aggro and even the few things that will attack her should be taken care of by the parties tank. It’s probably decently good in “pvp” situations, but that’s about it (unless I’m missing something). I think that even though Tess is getting the optimal skills from War and Heroes, she is not really optimizing her attributes from monsters. Especially the fundamental slot, she should be experimenting with every skill and attribute in that slot to see what she gets since they get a massive boat for being fundamental.
Other than that this is still a great story. Keep up the good work.
Ah, a good question. You are correct, so far she doesn't draw much aggro, and she won't draw much aggro in the future, at least from monsters (though she will, inevitably, draw some as they get smarter). The problem is that aggro reduction only applies to things actively attacking her. She still takes damage from AoE abilities, passive effects such as reflection, and the like. With this, she at least has a decent automatic retaliation.
…That being said, it's still not a good choice, and, unfortunately, I don't really have the means to edit it and correct it for this chapter, since I only keep a copy of her abilities as of the most recent chapter and I've got too much on my plate to dedicate time to going back, figuring out what exactly she had, and alter it. Still, we'll see it change once she gets some new cores, which...will honestly be a hot minute since combat and dungeon-diving is taking a backseat for a bit. But it'll be changed before it becomes relevant lol.
@Fighterman481 Thanks for the reply. Just an FYI you actually have her full status in this chapter. Hero and War have been to a good job at getting Tess strong. Her skills lead to a believable build that works together and isn’t just some random assortment of OP abilities. But there is a difference between doing things on paper and actually testing the theory work. Tess, if she wants to get as strong as possible, should start working on testing variations of her attribute list that she can equip. Looking to see just how much damage she can squeeze out of her skills. Also testing variations on enemies that are resistance to bleed, poison, or any other of her status affects, because she can effectively increase the potency of certain skills that she makes into attributes , she can make “custom skill” sets against different types of enemies. Basically since she is so under stated she has to try and squeeze every last drop out of her skills, and the only way to see that optimization is to extensively test her skills.
Sorry for the kind of long tangent, but I enjoy trying to “min max” LITRPG characters. so I was trying to “min max” Tess. Tess and the others don’t seem to realize the implications of her selectively boosting 25 skills (at this level) and massively boosting an additional two skills (at this level). I think this I because most inhabitants of the Outlands just get skills and do the minimum testing to see how they perform and interact with their other skills. They essentially have to make do with the skills they get since there is no choosing between skills. They optimize the usage of the skills not the skills themselves. Tess with her 25 attributes and 2 fundamentals are where her power is going to come from, while making her incredibly versatile because of she can make “skill sets”.
Overall thanks for the story this is the second time I’ve goon through this and it’s still just as great.
@Theredscare77 Ah, was the full status dump I made this chapter? That makes things simpler, but I still have a million things to do and can't afford to make time to tweak earlier chapters right now.
To be honest, most of the lack of optimization comes from the fact that I haven't put too much effort into optimizing Traits at the moment, mainly because most of this is pretty temporary. She's not going to really settle into a proper Trait setup until she's higher in level by a fair bit (~50ish), at which point I'll start really getting into that sort of stuff.
Either way, I definitely appreciate when people help point out things like this, and I'm glad you're enjoying the story, thanks a bunch!
just love gramps very nonplussed reaction
another week? huh but grampus was originally for the return , guess a week of dating could be nice .
epiku
too bad Miasma doesn't have an off switch and effects everyone including allies. Now everyone has to worry about her poisoning them.
Ellie smiled. "You're welcome! Um…do you smell something?"
"No, what are…oh, that's probably me. One of my new Skills makes me give off this miasma stuff. Let me turn it off…" She did so, and Ellie breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thanks. It honestly wasn't that bad, but over time I think it would have gotten on my nerves, you know?"
Shouldn't Tess smell always pleasant because of her Monster breeder class?
Correct, but that is just if you are close enough to smell her "natural" odor. The smell from Miasma/Blighted Air permeates the whole, much larger area.
Not that it replaces her natural odor or anything, they're both there. Miasma's smell is just more noticeable from further away.
Poisony poison.