Chapter 64

 

 

Night of Day 12 since entering the gnome’s warren;

The Demon Realm

I was about to move forward.

I’d come within a few steps of Fox Girl who was sleeping innocently. Sunghee was next to me. She waved me forward like she was saying take advantage of this opportunity. Her eyes look strangely dark and hardened.

Weird girl…

“Come on, just do it. It’ll be cool!” Sunghee says. She is sitting on a big rock watching me decide what to do. Her eyes don’t look right. Rather than the familiar almost puppy like look she was giving me earlier now she’s giving me something like almost adversarial kind of staring.

Huh? What a weirdo.

Since when am I someone that gives into peer pressure?

“Just make sure you let me watch, okay?” she said stiffly.

Somehow I don’t feel good about it. But I’m amazed that I picked it up; since it’s not logic, but more like emotional logic of this not feeling good. Sunghee is looking at me too expectantly; she has the same look on her face as the Fox Girl with closed eyes. Why would they both have the same emotions on their face?

It’s very puzzling.

I’m about to go forward and suddenly I stop.

Stop, I keep thinking.

This isn’t me. I’m not the kind of person that does things like this. Plus she’s not aware. I feel really icky inside. But there’s something else wrong with this picture too…it doesn’t feel right not just morally but something is off.

I also realize my curiosity was pulling me forward even though my mind was staying stop. Did other people get into trouble that way too?

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Huh? What do you mean?” she asked.

“I mean. Why are you encouraging me to push down Fox so much?” I asked with my arms crossed.

“I just think you deserve her. You’ve worked hard. So you should do it. You’ve earned the right to take her virginity haven’t you? Go on and pop her cherry while she’s down for the count,” she waves me forward with her hands. “You’ll regret it later if you don’t take her virginity and someone else does instead.”

“Are you mad at her? What is it? Did you guys have a fight or something when I wasn’t looking?” I still couldn’t explain this weird behavior.

“It’s nothing,” she said. “Just go take her now.”

“She’s asleep and unaware too,” I said.

She seemed like she was going to yell at me. “This is your only chance. She will be more guarded after this. Think about it. If you don’t now, you never will.”

That’s partly true…wait, what am I thinking that for.

“What do you mean, that it’s nothing?” I probed. So there probably was something. How else was this strange behavior manifesting. I just didn’t know about it. It wasn’t normal for another girl to want me to add another in the mix right?

Or did she want revenge from what happened with being imprisoned and misplaced in on someone else? I asked her about it again.

“Nothing happened,” she said defensively.

Ah, so there was something. But what was it?

“Ah, I get it. So you two? Maybe something happened between you? Are you sure? Because you wanting me to take her when I could take you doesn’t make any sense…so I want you to tell me in plain terms what really happened. You seemed to want the love and attention for yourself earlier,” I said.

Her piercing gaze reveals herself to not be herself. She’s trying to mask it and doesn’t realize she’s showing herself to be ‘off’ even more now.

She tries to blow it off but I sat there, waiting expectantly for an answer. I decided not to talk until she would. I sat down in the middle of the meadow. It feels good to have a good rest.

I felt deep inside I was close to hitting something here. As I go to lean back on my arms one of them slips and I nearly fall. I’m puzzled by this but somehow grab at the grass to my right to stop myself from falling. It’s weird like I’m about to fall with my left leg below the knee and my left arm hanging there but my back and spine are on some kind of edge.

But I’m in a meadow right? Why am I feeling like I’m hanging off something.

This doesn’t fit. Are my senses deceiving me? Why do I feel like I’m almost ready to be pulled off something?

Something doesn’t feel right. So I blink a few times. Sunghee is just staring at me with no expression on her face.

Then I feel around with my left hand.

There’s nothing there! There’s a pit of some kind that’s not visible!

What the hell?

My arm and hand look like they are pushing down deep into the grass of the meadow but I feel like I’m touching earth or plants, but it’s more like I’m feeling open air. I can’t feel any grass at all, even though the grass looks like it’s over two feet long. I continue to feel around until I find an edge where I am sitting. The edge continues from below my feet way past my head. Even weirder, it isn’t like a jagged edge of a cliff or hill, but feels like the straight line of a roof or a measured cut.

Am I on a cliff?

As I feel around, I confirm it! That’s what it feels like. The edge even feels like there’s like solid rock at the edge. In fact some of it feels like it’s biting into my back muscles. I’m lucky the cliff isn’t more sloped than it is actually.

Careful to not fall I slowly pull myself away from it while both Sunghee and Fox Girl have their arms folded. But Fox is awake now and looking at me with the very same body posture and arm positions as Sunghee has.

“It’s too bad you didn’t fall,” they both talk like they are one person. It’s very strange how perfectly in sync they are. That’s it! It isn’t possible to actually be in sync that much with someone, unless this is some kind of orchestrated trap.

I stare at Sunghee. Then I look back at the edge and suddenly I’m overlooking a ruined cliff over a hellish landscape of a desert. The edge of the cliff drops for another hundred feet over some sharp volcanic rock. It would definitely have killed me if I’d walked off the edge.

It was a pretty clever trap. She had to not just use her magic to make it, but also manipulate why I was there, and what I was moving towards with a higher level of intelligence.

“I was really surprised that you didn’t fall. You were so close to the edge. Maybe if I would have shown more skin or made my boobs bigger you would have definitely walked right off without even knowing it,” Fox Girl says with a sort of frazzled defeated look. She’s watching me with her feet hanging off a ledge that she’s sitting on. She’s like about ten feet above us and at a higher edge of an area that you shouldn’t be able to get to…unless you had magic like she does.

How did she suddenly move up there? She wasn’t there a minute ago. I have to admit she’s really good. She makes it almost look surreal, like she’s on another plane of existence than we are.

“Why did you do that?” I asked. I resisted the chance to be mad. Instead I kind of pitied her. She was surrounded by creatures she felt were dangerous. I guess it’s natural she might try to push against the edges of the demon box’s influence.

She shrugs, “Why not? I needed to know if you were going to push me down and have your way with me. So I tested you. I wanted to know if I could be safe with you.” She is regarding me coolly.

I’m not sure if I should be mad, or disappointed. I don’t feel ashamed though because even though I was tempted I didn’t follow that temptation. I’d chosen to respect Fox Girl after all. I feel like my anxiety is disappearing. I was tempted but didn’t follow it so I don’t have to feel guilty. She looks sad and pitiful now. I should be mad at her but instead I just feel pity.

“I guess you were just trying to protect yourself right?” I said.

She nods slowly after acknowledging my response involuntarily, “you seem to be taking this well.” She’s puzzled why I’m not mad and ready to beat her it seems.

“Well, I’m alive. But I’m hoping you might give this a chance. We need each other. What do you think will happen if I die? Even if you somehow survive in this pocket dimension, someone else will just pick it up where I left off. And I’m really trying to be good to you,” I reminded her.

“Yeah, but maybe it’s better for me to die to than be tormented forever,” Fox Girl suddenly stated her inner fear.

“Ah, so you are afraid I was going to like push you down forever?” I asked.

She looks down the cliff edge. “I’m tired of fighting this box. Maybe it’s my time to go too. I don’t want to be a sex slave.”

“So don’t. Sunghee likes me. I haven’t pushed her down yet. And if I it will be because she wants it too,” I counter.

“OK. I’m sorry I tried to kill you,” she said. She looked sincere. She kept saying sorry over and over for a long time. She also had her hands in like a bowed praying position while on her knees.

“Just don’t do it again, please.”

Suddenly the real Sunghee pushes herself up off the grassy meadow floor and in a different location than where the other ‘fake’ Sunghee was. Of course she’s basically dressed the same, same hair and same person but just in a different spot. The other Sunghee suddenly fades into fog and is gone. She spits out a golden yellow dandelion “phew. Those taste bad. How’d I fall asleep?” She looks confused too.

Ah, I can see she wasn’t in on it; that makes things easier to bear.

“I guess you were tired,” Fox Girl shrugs innocently. Then she adds, “right Shun?” she gives me an evil eye.

I’m not sure I should go along with it. I’m not here to protect her lies and deceit.

Sunghee continues to wonder how we got here. She’s trying to piece it together but doesn’t have all the pieces I have yet.

“So I’m confused. At what point did your illusion start? How much of what I saw before was real?” I asked. It was so perfectly done that I couldn’t even tell nor did I have a clue where to start. I’m filled with anxiety now because … I wasn’t even sure how things were now.

“Well…basically everything about your talk about the different jobs was actually my influence,” she said.

“Eh? EH?!! What?!”

What a huge let down. Dammit! All those skills were faked then?! I was resisting the temptation to want to strangle her. So that meant I had to re-figure it out all over from scratch at square one. My hands are trembling.

I don’t know if she tricked me on any of the details before!

“So there’s no such thing as a Slave Summoner or a Demon Summoner, whatever you call it? That was me trying to figure out if you’d follow the temptations of the box. None of that was real. I invented all of it using delusions you were wanting to have,” Fox has a small smirk on her face.

“Hmm, I’m pretty sure you wanting bigger boobs wasn’t entirely just me though,” I joked.

She coughed and avoided that comment, “whatever. You can think what you want.” Her face was flushed with embarrassment and she avoided the answer to that comment. Is it just me though, or did she poke out her chest a little bit, even though she was being smug?

I seriously want to slap her. It’s not like I was totally going for a harem job, but I wanted my life to count for something. Now seeing it was just a pipe dream was like seriously crushing my hope for a future. When you wake up from a dream like that, of course you would want to sleep forever…

“I’m sorry, really for messing with you,” Fox said, bowing deeply.

“But if I would have died, wouldn’t the box have eaten you too?” I asked suddenly.

“I think it would have. I was just tired of fighting and wanted to end it all. I didn’t think I’d really escape,” Fox says.

“I’m sorry,” she says again. She really does feel bad. I don’t want to make her agonize over it any more than she already is.

“But all that, really was an illusion?” I seemed to almost plead it, hoping it wasn’t true.

She again says sorry, and my hopes are dashed.

“Well that means we need to go over it for real then,” I sighed.

She snaps her fingers and suddenly she’s standing next to me. “Here, I’ll go over the job thing with you again. The systems and stuff really work like Sunghee was explaining in the illusion. Just the jobs and skills you signed up for with her aren’t real. So we have to do it over again.”

“Eh? No way!” I felt like tearing my hair out.

“My illusion was pretty damn good huh? Admit it, you guys are impressed right?” Fox chuckles.

“I supposed it was pretty good. I should have caught the mistakes though. So stupid,” I muttered shaking my head.

“Eh? There weren’t any mistakes in my illusions,” Fox gets defensive suddenly. Her eyes narrowed at me. She’s wondering if I’m being truthful it seems.

“But I should have realized Sunghee can’t read the Egyptian that fast,” I said.

“Oh she can really read Egyptian characters, but just not as fast as me,” Fox says sincerely with big eyes. “I’m actually amazed she’s self taught too.”

“Really? She’s self taught? That’s even more amazing actually. But she can’t read that fast,” I restated.

“You have to be really disciplined to pull off an advanced high difficulty skill like that and turn it good enough to be useful,” she said.

I nod.

“Oh yeah, but you were right about the reading speed huh? I’ll get it better next time don’t worry, fufu,” she smiles evil like at me.

“That’s OK, don’t try too hard. Don’t do anything unnecessary either,” I countered.

“But I should try harder. I need to perfect things,” she said.

“But I don’t like deception and illusion…or dying,” I protested. Lies hurt people after all.

“What are you guys talking about? Man I didn’t realize how tired I was,” Sunghee says, still sleepy. She ambles over to us like she’s ready to collapse into sleep any second. She looks a bit cranky now, because we woke her up.

“Did you give her your fatigue too?” I pointed the question at Fox, who retorts a little bit too innocently. It isn’t like Sunghee to be cranky but then again, I actually haven’t had a chance to be with her often.

“No way! Would I do a thing like that?”

“Probably,” grumbles Sunghee.

“So let’s go over it again, what’s my real job?” I asked.

“Huh, you guys are talking about jobs?” Sunghee asks. “I want in on this. It sounds interesting.” She’s scratching the underside of her boobs in front of us and then suddenly leans against me with them.

Oh wow, this is going to be distracting…what is it about her and clothes? Or lack thereof?

“Hey cut that out. We’re trying to do something here. We won’t get anywhere with your nipples fondling my man,” Fox says.

“What I’m not doing anything?!” Sunghee says innocently. Somehow she’s pushing her boobs against me even more. It’s heavenly.

“I don’t want you seducing him in front of me!” Fox exclaims.

“I wouldn’t do anything like that. You believe me don’t you Shun?” she gives me puppy dog eyes. I try not to stare. Jeez. Her body is just like in the illusion. Everything about her form is identical from what she’d done in the illusion. Her nipples really are giant sized. She playfully flicks them against my bare arm.

“Uh, let’s go over the job stuff,” I suggest, trying to stay sane.

“Yeah, you want to help us? I think Shun wants a second opinion besides mine now. Please stay focused,” Fox still has her impish smirk.

“Sure, it sounds like fun! I’ll be happy to help Shun! I’m your number one girl!” Sunghee chirps. She jumps up, making them shake significantly and comes close putting her arm around me and pushing her boobs into my back and shoulder again. It takes getting used to the idea that a naked girl is totally fallen for me and that she’s like super hot. I like the feeling of touching another person though.

Fox Girl looks jealous at her, while Sunghee seems to be emphasizing her boobs touching me. Why can’t all girls be like Sunghee…she’s wonderful.

Wait, if this isn’t an illusion…isn’t she more playful now than she was during the illusion? Suddenly I feel really happy.

“What are you smiling about?” Fox is giving me the evil eye.

“N-nothing,” I stuttered back.

“I bet I know what he’s smiling about,” Sunghee sees while she keeps using her thick nubs to flick at any exposed skin she can.

“Stop it, now!” Fox yells with clenched teeth.

“Party pooper,” Sunghee frowned but stopped. She does stretch out though, trying to make her upper chest bigger.

I clear my throat, trying to not look to happy, so Fox won’t take it out on me.

To my surprise the code words to check status and open the job skill that I’d been taught from the illusion worked when I tried them.

The two girls are leaning in close as we study the magic display window.

“What the fuck?” Fox Girl is astonished when she points at my job status on the blue screen. She’s pointing at it like she’s seen a ghost. Her finger is shaking.

“That’s impossible!” she says suddenly.

“I’ve never seen a job like that either,” Sunghee is puzzled. She looks at it closely.

“But that wasn’t real! It was an illusion! It can’t exist?! I faked that!” Fox stamps her foot.

I stare at the job icons. Just like in the illusion I see the three job icons from before in my status. I have the Slave Summoner or Demon Summoner job icon, which shouldn’t even be real, the healer job, and Grimoire Magic User job are all up. Of course even after discussing it both of them aren’t so skilled in Egyptian to decipher if the altered hieroglyphics are meaning Slave Summoner or Demon Summoner still.

“But I made that up! It didn’t even come from your mind!” Fox says. “I was appealing to your ego to trick you! How could they really be there?!”

“Really? Why would you do that?” Sunghee asks.

It will take too long to explain it. It’s exhausting to think about.

“I don’t get it either,” I said simply. I also don’t want Sunghee to think badly about the now repentant Fox.

Sunghee just watches. She knows somehow she was left out. I put my other arm around her waist. She leans against me. Oh this is nice. “Don’t worry, just stay close to me. It’ll be fine,” she said.

“OK,” I said. She smiles at me broadly. She gives me a wet peck on the cheek.

Sunghee really is wonderful.

“Uh, can you two stop like being plastered to each other so we can move on?” Fox is clearly annoyed.

“Uh sure,” I said. We separated then as I pushed Sunghee to a safe distance. But as soon as Fox wasn’t looking she’d gone right back to before, plastered against me. I was trying to not let Fox see I was getting excited downstairs too, at the same time. Strangely it felt very comforting.

“Wait what skills does he have?” Sunghee asks curiously.

I say the right words to pull the skill status window up and Sunghee reads it back to me. But unlike the dream version she has to read it really slow like an elementary school kid. Egyptian must be a really hard language because I know Sunghee isn’t a dummy. She reads the following skill first;

“Altered Advanced type DNA pheromone option; On top of prior upgrades, Slave Summoner pheromones may now capture attract and become addictive to non-slave targets. Slaves will be friendly almost instantly to Summoner, but may become suicidal upon release from service; slaves easily ensnared and addicted by nearly any contact with Demon Summoner DNA. Consistent daily use causes significant lactation and breast growth in target. Alters body chemistry to become servile to slave summoner without having to coerce or request slaves to do so including altering mental acceptance. Inhibitions significantly lowered. Increase in sexual fluid production and virility in Slave Summoner. Slave Summoners bodily fluids act as natural form of birth control and aphrodisiac.”

We all three stare in shock.

“What?! That can’t be?!” Fox stares in shock.

“It’s not that bad,” Sunghee says in my defense.

“Speak for yourself! Of course it’s bad! It’s bad for our chastity!” Fox protested.

“How? He’s our hero! And shouldn’t we be grateful to him? So what? It doesn’t count against our purity you know, if the hero becoming our hubby is also pure. Don’t you get it?” Sunghee looks at her innocently.

I give Sunghee a high five for defending me. She’s smiling really big now.

Fox gave up trying to convince Sunghee seeing it was useless. She keeps shaking her head.

Did that also have to do with being able to calm down Fox Girl from her near killing us all earlier? It made me wonder, since she calmed down so easily and like a little kid being asked by their parent to behave.

Without realizing it somehow I’m also holding Fox’s hand suddenly. But it’s like she hasn’t noticed that she was the one that initiated it.

I couldn’t help but notice that Sunghee’s arm has somehow gotten in my shirt and is giving me a good back rub and a small bit of back scratching. Ah, it feels wonderful. She doesn’t realize that she doesn’t seem to be able to pull away from touching me.

Maybe this world wasn’t so bad after all? If every day with Sunghee was going to be like this then…

“But that wasn’t real!” Fox kicks a rock so hard she hurts her foot. “So cheaty!”

“So if it wasn’t real, do I have the other skills too? And what happened to all the points and stuff…those monster cores or whatever? Or was that idea fake too,” I asked.

“Oh no, monster cores are real,” Fox says seriously.

“I agree, monster cores are good stuff, you can get strong with them,” Sunghee adds.

“So where were we again?” I asked.

“I’m getting to that part,” Sunghee reads really slowly again…

“It does look like you have like, at least three of those pheromone skills upgraded. You also unlocked another slave slot, looks like …the name says Ayuna something. I’m not good at reading names in Egyptian.”

“It’s pronounced Ayumi, you read it wrong,” Fox says dourly like she’d just lost all her money to gambling.

“Hmm,” I said. “But in the illusion she was infected right? Is that still the case or was that illusion too?”

It takes them a minute to check but then both the girls frown as they confirm it. “Yeah, she’s infected with something. For now like before you should wait before opening up her stasis,” Fox admits.

“But how will we know when to go take care of that?” I asked.

“Probably have to wait till you get your heal skills down pat, and something that can take care of diseases or poisons,” Sunghee suggests.

“But you should develop such ability once you get it, don’t just rush it. Remember magic has degrees of power and different strength too. You don’t want to blow it,” Fox corrects.

“OK, moving on. The next skill and its description say, runic mana shield barrier spell that absorbs damage for protection; cast can be done on any target of the Grimoire caster’s party. I guess it goes without saying that this one is the grimoire skill. That part was real too,” Sunghee is shocked.

“But I hadn’t really unlocked that did I? Did that really happen or was it triggered by Fox’s hope for her own future within the dream?” I asked.

“I-I don’t know. Even I’m confused. Normally my illusions do what I want but somehow this isn’t entirely the case,” Fox says. “But I really should still hate you right now. I’m so jealous it’s like I want to bite my tongue off, but it seems tied in somehow to your rapid magic growth.” She’s throwing a mini tantrum. At first we’re worried but she doesn’t try to hurt us, though a lot of plants and flowers around us in the meadow have suddenly had their lives terminated by her scythe.

Was that also part of the pheromones? Maybe bending her attention away from self harm or harming other things besides me? I’d have to study its effects. It was still clear that Fox seemed to be the exception to the rule in many ways. She may have some kind of innate resistance too at times when she’s got her willpower and emotions high. I didn’t want to test the limits of that.

“That runic shield thing looks like a high rank skill if you work it up. I think I’ve seen people use a version of that before, but not quite the same, and maybe the other version I saw was a bit dumbed down. If you get stronger with magic and also practice with it, it could soak up a lot of damage,” Sunghee explains.

“And you’re sure I can cast it on others?” I asked.

Fox also confirms it. “Yep. I can read that part too. It’s real,” she said.

“And being able to put it on any party member is good too,” I admit.

“Most mage shields are self only. It isn’t that they can’t try to learn how to put it on others, but usually early on in the game when first learning stuff, there isn’t enough trust to try to learn skills that work on companion party members. There’s also pressure to be the best and perform more than the other party people with offense skills that they don’t have. They also get pressured for strong element attack stuff instead. So there isn’t a lot of data to compare with. But it could be interesting since your abilities let you stack stuff on others. Well what else did your cheaty exploiting give you for free without having to work for it?” Fox finally asks while gasping from all her burning up her energy on plant violence.

I’m thinking maybe making Fox this jealous when she’s already mad might not be cool to do…but Sunghee reads again anyway. “Also you have mana pool options for Demon Summoner; an additional +10% Shared Mana Pool with shared mana regeneration rate among all group members through interest capitalization, in addition to Demon or Slave Summoner individually. Oh it looks like you bought this twice. Wait…” she stops and reads it again.

“Hey wait a sec, Fox. This gives you a bigger mana pool too, not just him,” Sunghee says.

“That’s so cheaty, why does he get something cool like that?” Fox counters shaking her head.

“Uh no, it doesn’t mean only him but it works on all the Slave Summoner’s slaves,” Sunghee explains.

“See look for yourself.”

Fox leans in close, while Sunghee is still scratching my back. When Fox wasn’t looking she also pushes her bare boobs into my back under my shirt like a thief going for spare change. But she pulls back before Fox notices it; I’m surprised with my mouth hanging open. Feeling the warmth of a girl’s bare chest on my skin feels warm; heaven is real! She drags her nipples from side to side across my back again before hiding it from Fox again.

Wow…

Sunghee winks at me. Ah so she’s doing it to tease huh? She’s at least got enough common sense to not let Fox see it.

There’s no doubt about it. The pheromone part of the power is totally freaking real!

Uh oh…come to think of it. The skill is for pheromones but I didn’t see anything about preventing love rivalries or preventing triangle problems. Should I be worried about that?

After thinking about it some more, I become more worried.

But what will happen if I’m some place public like with the gnomes? I also notice Sunghee has lost the shirt entirely. She’s tied it around her waist like some girls do with a jacket hanging over their skirt.

Still too, even if Fox is resistant she is still ignoring the fact that Sunghee is totally topless. So she has been affected in some way already by the demon pheromone upgrade also! The look in Fox’s eyes is a lot more like she’s mellowed out; almost more like a submissive kid.

So pheromones make Fox submissive? I can’t be sure yet. It’s still too early, but it is a hypothesis.

“Eh? The fudge? That can’t be right,” Fox says. It’s the first time she hasn’t complained about anything. She’s looking at the blue screen now too.

“Well it says an additional 10% shared mana pool among all group members for each upgrade. The description states the 10% comes from the other members in the Slave Summoner’s team,” Sunghee says.

“Oh my gosh! Really?” Suddenly the two of them are jumping up and down squealing like they won the lottery. Big bouncing boobs both covered and uncovered are making me extremely horny right now.

Is that really such a big deal?

“But that’s only ten percent. That’s not that great,” I said.

“But together that’s 10% plus 10% of the next upgrade plus 10% of that 10% in interest. So its like 21% in reality of a bonus plus all the interest and stacking from each other. Maybe Fox can explain it better. But I’m not a math person. And you are getting it from more than one pet too!” Sunghee says.

“Yeah I think I see what you mean,” Fox is happy about this part. She starts to smile.

“In a world where magic dominates everything that is a big deal. You should totally get this skill whenever you can and unlock more slaves with the shared magic pool upgrade options. From now on I totally want you to go score and land lots of sex slaves, but only the ones that look good and have good mana pools. I have trouble with ugliness too, so don’t let anyone ugly in. According to this I’ve probably doubled my mana regeneration rate too. Not only the mana pool is higher but there is some kind of interest with our mana regeneration doing some kind of looping bonus through each other,” Fox Girl says.

Was the comment about ugliness influenced by the pheromones? I can’t ask them since it may affect my results on observing how it works, if they are aware of it too much too.

“…what…?” That didn’t sound right her describing it like that. It sounded out of character, and was so unexpected both Sunghee and I were looking at her strangely for quite awhile.

“What?!” Fox grumbled.

“Well what you said doesn’t make sense,” I said.

“It does if you remember I’ve been trying to become an archmage some time before I die. It’s an uphill road and I don’t want to fail. It’s really hard too. Getting upper level magic is pretty brutal to get for even a really good mage,” Fox said.

“Oh, I get it now. I had been thinking you’d gone lesbian on us,” Sunghee chirps.

Fox hits her for the lesbian comment, but after that they get excited.

The girls are so excited they don’t know how to even explain it. They kind of push each other out of the way and they are really acting like they’d gotten an overdose of happy pills. Yep, definitely pheromones are helping with that; they might have been a little happy about that but suddenly it’s exaggerated.

“OK, slow down,” I asked.

“OK, breathe let me explain it,” Sunghee says.

“OK, you know monsters sack towns right? The demons usually pick a good sized town every year to attack. We’ve tried to block it and it’s usually a universal event to try to stop it but we aren’t always successful,” Sunghee asks me.

“EH? They do? When were you going to tell me this?!” I asked.

“Sorry,” Sunghee says.

“The part you were told earlier about demons and the demon realm trying to take over this world was all true. What I said about dungeons and the demon world that wasn’t an illusion. But what you have to know is that 90% of those battles are determined by magic and mana pools of people. People with magic have a huge advantage over others in this world. Sometimes it’s just who doesn’t get exhausted first that determines who dies and who retreats,” Fox said taking over.

“I didn’t tell you this earlier, but my mana pool isn’t really great because I’m not a magic job. I’ve been trying to get it up and work it up slowly. But after the amount of time I’ve had in this world since coming here my total mana pool is still less than yours was before that upgrade,” Sunghee says to me.

“OK, so how much is yours?” I asked.

“Hard to say exactly, but probably about sixty to eighty percent of yours is before you got those shared mana pool skill upgrades? I can’t tell for sure without us going to a temple to find out,” she shrugs while looking at me.

“And what about Fox’s?” I asked.

“I’ve been pushing the limit and trying to grow my mana pool for years. But you just started out. I’ve got a lot more time invested into it than you guys do. Right now mine is about three times what yours is before the upgrades. But a few years ago I’d hit a wall and couldn’t get it up any higher. So this is a win for me,” Fox tries to not show how happy she is. “And having it up by ten percent every time you upgrade that skill is pretty awesome after the interest carry over from all the soul crystals.”

“Right now there is a fourth mana source from Ayumi according to the status screen,” Fox says looking at the screen. “But the illusion wasn’t wrong in that there is something wrong with her. In fact we might have missed it without that illusion going all buggy like it did and acting on its own. She has some kind of poison in her.”

“Shit. How do I fix that?” I asked, biting my fingernails. I feel worried as hell. I can’t let anything happen to them.

“How can the illusion pick that up without you telling it too?” Sunghee asks.

“Good question,” I respond.

“I-I don’t know. Normally I don’t try to get my illusions to mirror reality that much. They usually follow a certain program protocol matching my consciousness and following my desires and intentions. They aren’t supposed to act on their own either, nor should they have any type of separate consciousness,” Fox said.

“So all the skills bought in the illusion are really bought, and same with the jobs. There’s nothing new to this mystery,” I try to say, but Sunghee cuts me off.

“This is so freaking exciting!” she jumps up and down. Her boobs are shaking a lot and her stomach is totally flat with nice abs. “You see I wanted to do magic too and I never got it as a job. But being like your supporter is like the next best thing! Maybe I’ll eventually make it as some kind of mage apprentice! Oh wait, we need to check the points!”

Wow, if I spend too much time with Sunghee it’ll be like every day is spring break.

“Hmm, I suppose if you got enough mana pool we might actually be able to turn you into some kind of fighter that uses magic. But you’d still be fighting your mana pool every step of the way,” Fox admits.

“Eh? But we used them all didn’t we? The monster cores or whatever?” I said.

“Ah, in the illusion, I had you give Shun your monster cores. So if illusion Sunghee gave her monster cores to him, it shouldn’t be real, but let’s check that. It’s probably fine but we have to go over it with a fine toothed comb,” Fox said to Sunghee. Fox squeezes my hand for confidence.

“Yeah the cores…” Sunghee pulls up her screen next to mine, and then mine to check the monster core area of our status.

“So what’s it say?” I asked.

Sunghee’s finger roams over it. She has to go slow still… “Well just a sec…OK, this is the weird part.”

“Uh oh,” I said at almost the same time as Fox.

“Somehow you created a cheat by accident, partly because of the sentient demon box interfering,” Sunghee says.

“How? Oh rats this is frustrating!” Fox is griping again.

“Well it’s true that just like in the illusion I gave Shun all my monster cores,” Sunghee says. But then she switches over to my screen. “But look at that, it’s all wrong here in this box of the screen. The total is completely wrong.”

“What?” Both of us strain our necks to look closer. Without realizing it I’m accidentally touching Fox girl’s hands. She doesn’t seem to pull away. Then she grabs my hand again, but this time doesn’t let go.

“Well Shun, you should be empty of monster cores, but it still shows over 4,500 here,” she explains on my screen. She then looks at Sunghee’s screen. “But yours are all empty. So somehow the illusion took a reality effect which it’s not supposed to do.”

“Weird. How?” Sunghee is skeptical, but she checks it and sure enough there it is. But she’s not mad because of the pheromones. In fact she’s getting even friskier than before. She’s now sometimes rubbing her bare leg against my pant leg.

“Well I’m not sure I understand what happened?” Sunghee asks.

“Looks like the points went to Shun like the illusion was real, but somehow he still has points even though he’s purchased skills. I can read them; one of them was the restore /alter body structure ability, and there’s also a Dreamweaver skill listed. But its description is a bit vague,” Fox says.

“Dreamweaver?” I asked.

“Interact and alter dreams, dream magic, illusion magic, personal reality, and influence altered reality spells in caster’s favor,” Sunghee reads. “It looks like it’s somehow carried over from exposure to Fox’s reality altering magic,” she adds right after that.

“But it’s like I haven’t spent any additional points?” I asked.

“Yeah I still see more than 4,500 monster cores, but you should technically have nothing there,” Sunghee is puzzled.

“So where did the additional 4,500 monster cores come from?” I asked.

Suddenly Fox stiffens, “No…it couldn’t be…” she hurriedly opens her own status and looks at her screen. “Well I had a lot of stored monster cores before hoping to buy into grimoire magic if an opportunity presented itself. But I’m…almost empty now,” she says.

“Eh?!” we both cry out in surprise.

“So…how many did you have before?” I asked.

“6,373, but now I’ve only got…about 1800 and some change?!” she sighs heavily. “I guess this is what I get for trying to kill the owner of a demon box. I’ve learned my lesson.” She shakes her head. She should be like livid and mad enough to spit blood. Instead she leans against my arm. It’s like she’s wanting me to comfort her, but that doesn’t make sense since I’m the guilty party, even if it wasn’t on purpose.

Weird. Those pheromones are definitely working. She isn’t fully aware of it, which is why she’s probably not violent yet.

“So the box pulled over both the monster cores from both of us and gave them to you,” Sunghee said seriously.

“That Dreamweaver skill thing must be some wickedly powerful skill,” Fox says. She’s looking at me like a kid to an adult and somewhat tame.

“Maybe it’s just being artificially propped up by your own element being a naturally compatible strength to it?” I suggested.

“If that’s true then…it could be acting like a catalyst or amplifier on reality altering and dream elements,” Sunghee reasoned.

“As expected of someone with chemistry background,” Fox says, referring to Sunghee.

“Eh? You have a chemistry background?” I asked.

“Yeah, of course,” Sunghee answers.

“That could be useful too,” Fox said, echoing my own thought.

“Still we have this mess of the monster cores to figure out,” I said.

They look at me funny.

“But didn’t we figure it out already?” Sunghee asked.

“It’s a good thing actually,” Fox chirps unexpectedly.

“Sorry?” I act innocent because I am. But why is she happy?

“Actually I’d worked so hard to get my mana pool this high it can’t hurt for you to use them,” Fox says.

“Huh? You aren’t mad?” I asked.

“Well I was using them to do grimoire stuff and get my mana pool up together. I already have a solid skill set. But I’ve pushed the limits for my kind so much that skills cost tons and tons of monster cores for me at this point. For me I could buy an additional ten percent mana pool but it would now cost me about twenty thousand monster cores since I’ve done it so much repeatedly in the past. So if you can get me that a whole bunch of times from a lower cost, at less than a tenth of that cost, and help both of us at the same time it’s better than I could have got on my own,” Fox shrugs.

“No way,” Sunghee is surprised. “Seriously, this is way cheaty.”

“Eh? You wanted more mana too?” I asked.

She nods. “It’s true what she said about more mana pool dominating things a lot. Humans train pretty hard and work hard but demons are just bigger, and stronger. Even in prime condition with no magic that means a lot of trouble and hard to do without magic. So having a big mana pool is also the base part of having more energy to practice skills and build skills from scratch too, in making up for human weaknesses, smaller bodies, and lower endurance. If you don’t have much mana even if you have a good idea you will have to spend way more time waiting to recharge to experiment with it. So without a skill like this I might end up going in circles for years.”

“Wow.”

“Yep, she’s right and spoken like a pro,” Fox agreed.

“But you are sure you aren’t mad?” I wondered to Fox.

“Hell no! I’ve been looking for a chance to build more mana regeneration and mana pool. This is the best thing that could have happened!”

Something told me partly the pheromones were at work still. Things were also going to well right now.

“So why did it give me more jobs and options than other people?” I ask.

“I’ve been thinking about that too. I think it’s because of the struggle against adversity,” Sunghee says. “We had a few late bloomers in Korea Town too and some of them seemed weak at first, but were just very persistent and strong willed people that kept banging their head against the wall until they got to where they wanted. In the end some of them had unusual jobs and skills. Of course they didn’t make it in the end. They were eaten by monsters…” she shrugged.

Fox is suddenly holding my left hand with both of hers. Apparently people in this world are crazy about magic. “Please if you can, get more of that Shared Mana Pool skill if any upgrades show up? Please please please please please!”

“Right,” I nodded. “But why are you not mad?”

“But you should get an offensive skill too,” Sunghee reminds me speaking up.

“Right. I was going to say that too,” Fox nods.

It’s weird how suddenly they are both on the same team though. I’m tempted to think it’s another trick of Fox’s, but she’s acting way too submissive at this point for that to be the case.

“Like we said, in this world it’s like people with magic are the millionaires and pro ball players of our world. It took awhile for me to get used to it too,” Sunghee says. “They end up with similar life styles as their counterparts in our world, with nice houses, money, women…you get it now?” she rubbed her leg against mine.

I blushed. But both of them aren’t looking at me negatively anymore. For Sunghee that hadn’t really occurred but I’m shocked with how Fox has suddenly had an ‘180’ degree spin.

We then make a study of my new options.

It turns out that the +10% Shared Mana Pool upgrade option skill pops up whenever I unlock another slave. Since I had two and had opened one more I’m able to buy it one more time. We decide this is the way to go and end up with 4 upgrades of Shared Mana Pool, and 2 other slave slots opened, one of which is being used by Ayumi. But the 2 other slave slots, or crystal slave slots I see now opened, aren’t counting the other two already in use by Sunghee and Fox Girl!

We are now hoping for a way of curing whatever she’s infected with. But there are a lot of problems still with addressing that.

“But you probably have a limit to how many slaves you can control and hold as a summoner. So you don’t want to waste them. I want to be an archmage some day so I expect you to only get bad ass slaves that will help me get my goal,” Fox reminds me with her arms crossed seriously. She looks annoyed again. She’s somehow very interested in it compared to before. It’s like a stern coach telling a player they are expected to get them a win at the next big game.

Sure enough I don’t see another slave slot opening up yet.

But does that mean I have to just get stronger? Or is that it for good? I probably won’t know for awhile still.

I still don’t know if it will automatically apply the new slot to Haruka or will it let me use it for hopefully Asakura? If I do use it for Asakura then also Sunghee and Fox Girl might not like it not going to non-mage. But I’d already been on the border of being involved with her and even had romantic dating opportunities. I have to worry too about Rina. I hadn’t intended to make her a … harem member but her health is so bad she might not survive being put in stasis at certain points. But I really am hoping to work things out for the others first.

Will there also be a way of interchanging who is in the soul crystal stasis points?

That means we’ll have to make some compromises and work out the decision.

It seems also that Fox Girl is totally cooperative now…under the condition that some of the slave slots go to mage girls and I help her grow into some archmage thing. I have no idea how that will work out but it sounds like a good deal if she’ll be a loyal ally. I don’t see much choice since she is somewhat resistant. I think she has the intelligence to push against that resistance if she really wants too.

I of course refuse to have a boy slave for any of the slots and told her so. She expected that. That would be worse than death.

I find out from both of them then, that mana and magic stats are determined by intelligence and wisdom but that only temples can give you a clear comparison on what the numbers actually are compared to the rest of the population.

I’m still trying to figure out how they would even be able to have a numerical figure anyway. It’s not like you can measure a person’s potential unless you have divine help right? Maybe that’s why temples are involved?

But that does mean that the +10% buff to all stats would bring up her mana pool and mine, and probably increase the mana regeneration rate a bit too. I talk about it with both of them and they agree that’s a good idea and should work for that too.

I’m surprised by how much there is to think about.

So it’s bought after a brief discussion. They are both excited too that I involved them in the decision making. It’s more fun now that both of them are contributing and in on this.

But I find out something else bad.

Fox tells me I need a good amount of both offensive and defensive shielding magic. Just offense stuff alone will get you killed really fast. She can teach me some but I shouldn’t wait because other magicians in this world prey off each other.

One of the Slave Summoner upgrades is for an offensive spell that throws around star missiles of some kind. It costs 500 monster cores and is considered a base solid offense. So I get it too. Fox Girl says I can work it up naturally and not just with monster core upgrades. She said most people do something like a magic missile to start with and that this is something different but fairly similar. She is curious if this version is much different than others.

The other two upgrades go to;

Energy resistance buff; (from Slave Summoner job); Grants 20% energy resistance to element energy types, such as fire, ice, lightning, earth, gravity, dark, light, etc. when cast. Can be casted on any target in Slave Summoner’s party; Lasts 1 hour for each buff; stacks with other defensive magic.

Speed buff; (Also from Slave Summoner Job); Grants 10% movement speed buff and 10% attack speed to target. Target can be any member in Slave Summoner’s party; Lasts 1 hour for each buff; stacks with other defensive magic.

All Purpose Core Stats buff; (also from Demon Summoner or Slave Summoner job); grants 10% to all core stats, such as Str, Dex, Agi, Int, Wis, and so on when cast on target.

But now I’m shocked. I’m officially a low rank mage now and not just a ‘wannabe’ according to Fox Girl. Though she suggests I pose as her apprentice, to avoid predators. She anticipates most low rank mages get attacked often and are often thought of as easy prey. Many don’t survive finishing their apprenticeships.

This is another reason she doesn’t like humans it seems. They cannibalize off each other often in this world. There exists the technology to steal people’s power it seems. She doesn’t want to talk about this part much. Without saying so, I can see in her eyes that she knows people that this has happened too.

So how much magic does she really have then? What other kinds of abilities within her alter reality can she do? There’s a lot I still don’t know about her. Altering reality also seems kind of vague too. That could encompass a whole range of possibilities.

I also realize I have about 500 monster cores left and some change. But I think I’ll wait before I use them.

My watch alarm goes off just now.

“What’s that for?” Sunghee asks.

“It means it’s time to wake up. The others will wonder where I’m at if we don’t somehow get back to wherever we were.”

“There is just one thing to go over,” Fox says. She bites her lip and looks at me funny. “You know that Dreamweaver skill was in there for quite awhile. Like almost two weeks. It’s not from recent activities.”

I think about it, in my head. “That would be about the time we beat the boss orc and this mess started,” I said.

And that’s the manipulating the dream reality skill, it seems.

She nods. “It’s likely it’s working as some kind of sleep buffer and is the link with your demon item box. I kept wondering why you would be able to do things in your sleep and still not be exhausted. Plus when our mana pools became linked I wasn’t as tired. I think the box was doing something similar to that before on a lower level. But at any given time a lot of the slaves resting in the crystals can’t seem to get enough sleep no matter what.”

“So are you saying it’s like letting me do stuff without sleeping?” I asked.

“No, you definitely need sleep. It’s just that the box is sleeping for you or linking your sleep with the prisoners in the crystals. So they are doing some kind of linked sleep substitution I think. You need to be careful how you use it because it does draw off the vitality of others,” Fox shrugs.

“Is that sleep thing from the Dreamweaver or just the box itself?” Sunghee suddenly asks.

“I…don’t know, it could be some of both even,” Fox admits.

“So we’ll have to figure out how that works,” I nod.

“Since the box spit you out this time, it may not work like it was doing normally,” Fox warned me. “You better take some naps and rest up today. We still don’t know exactly what that skill does. Until we do, it could be dangerous since it was sponsored by the demon box. The demon box is not looking out for you, but looking out for itself and you better remember that.”

“Got it.”

But…from before what was that alter biological structure skill for? It looked strange and didn’t have a good description, but came along with the cure disease as sort of a sub packet of some kind.

I still didn’t get either Fox or Sunghee out of the box yet, but I had at least gotten ideas from Fox how to stimulate mana flow to overcome manaburn in a healthy way; namely get mana regeneration up. Also top out mana as much as possible and avoid casting with low mana; emphasis on casting with high mana.

Of course I didn’t automatically know what my mana was. So I’d have to feel it out and learn to figure out where I was at. Because I’d grown and changed a lot in the last few weeks that also made it harder to get a feel.