Note to readers; I am imperfect and mortal. Sometimes I miss things. But I don't intend anyone any harm. Stories are meant to be enjoyed, and not meant to be a war zone. If something needs fixing bad enough, like a potential shit fight level message me and we can work it out on other chapters from here on out.

Thanks.

 

 

Chapter 142

 

 

I had both soul crystals deactivated when I enter the dream state. Then I summed them; Asakura and Fox together.

...

“There’s another issue to talk about,” I said.

“Yeah?” Asakura and Fox both said at once after we’d been making love in the dream state.

“So …we haven’t checked the monster cores recently for any of us. I need us to make sure if there’s anything we can get or do with that now,” I said.

“Monster cores?” Asakura is a bit confused.

So we had to explain them. We hadn’t really had a good explanation of them before with Asakura since this was previously a Fox and Sunghee deal. After awhile Asakura gets it.

We pull up the blue screens for each of us with Fox’s help.

Come to think of it, it’s been forever since we looked at these. That’s not that big a deal though because it takes a long time to save them up.

Fox has 1105 monster cores.

Asakura has 1702.

But what surprised me more is I have access to a new menu that Fox is helping me see that wasn’t there before. I think this is part of the core dreamweaver skill, but I’m not sure since that skill is so mysterious.

Using it I can see…

Rina has 502…which make sense. She’s not been much of a combat person and usually not at the front lines.

Ayumi…a big fat zero. But it’s funny that she’s showing up in my harem group though sort of, but not in a complete way. She seems to be listed not as a person but as equipment? I guess that’s part of the fact that I unlocked her awhile ago.

Sunghee has a whopping 1305.

Then I have my own monster cores which are at 2207.

That makes sense because I’m going back and forth between the dream state and reality but the others are in either or but not both.

“Wow, you have quite a few!” Fox exclaimed.

“But why do I have so many. That’s what I don’t get. I shouldn’t have an endless supply and I certainly haven’t killed 2,207 goblins!” I exclaimed.

“Oh! It’s because you were also going after powerful monsters,” Fox said quickly while pacing.

“Are you sure?” Asakura said.

“Did we face some powerful stuff recently?” I asked her.

“Well there was that…oh, no that’s not it. Maybe it was…oh I remember!” Asakura’s mind is moving. She’s also pacing.

“It has to be facing down all the goblin shamans,” Asakura said.

“Really? You fought goblin shamans and lived?” Fox isn’t happy but is also wide eyed at the same time.

“But aren’t goblins kind of shabby? Why would it give you a lot for those?” Asakura noted.

“Well if they are shamans then they have mana cores. Shamans are dangerous in any race. Remember that I told you people who can use magic often can get hunted to be processed for raw materials? This is what I meant. The shamans would be worth a lot of monster cores just on their own. Especially since they are monsters that also have pretty solid mana cores,” Fox explained.

“That’s good I guess,” I noted.

“But didn’t Svinn kill some of those shamans instead of us?” Asakura asked me.

“I think so. Why is it we got credit for that?” I asked.

Fox shrugged, “probably because of the heal and shielding you did on him and those dwarves, it must have been counting you as like surrogate team and maybe you got a splash effect from their cores being absorbed. It would have counted you as contributing even though you weren’t doing the killing blows because your skills were necessary for the others to live.”

“So looks like heal and shielding buffer types get free points? Woohoo!” Asakura confirmed.

Even though she said that, I’m still painfully aware I need more offense skills.

“Well if it gave you partial credit from everything you did on buffing dwarves in that big shaman battle that would do it. But it also means the shamans may have marked you. So you need to get as strong as you can fast,” Fox said.

“What? They may have marked us maybe?” Asakura exclaimed.

“They have reconnaissance troops just like the dwarves. They study who the players are on both sides and who is key to each side. You have to anticipate that you will be identified and targeted. That’s why we did the whole giving you a stealth spell which you have been using to mask your normal spells,” Fox said.

“So like scouts huh?” I said aloud.

“So can you give Shun more spells?” Asakura smiled slightly.

Fox cringed, “when I give you my spell book page like I did with the stealth cast spell, which means I can’t ever use it again till I acquire it again. It takes special circumstances and materials to do that.”

Ah crap. That was a one time only deal huh? I was starting realize the sacrifice she’d made. Though I didn’t consciously talk or obsess over it much I pretty much used the stealth spell to mask most of my spells all the time.

“You’re so wonderful Fox,” I said. I couldn’t help it and gave her an emotional hug before she could get away.

She of course broke it off. “Thanks,” she blushed. Even though she broke it off she enjoyed it.

“So we need to figure out what we can do with all of this. I’d like your help with it,” I said to both of them.

“Got it. So if the figures we’ve read off are correct, what are the total number cores to work with?” Fox is looking at Asakura, who she knows is a smart math person.

“6,821,” Asakura confirmed.

“I can hardly believe there’s that many,” I said.

“It is a lot, but not impossible. It’s been a long time since we went over this,” Fox reiterated again.

“OK, let’s do it,” Asakura is trying to get her game on.

“First, you should know that when you use monster cores, these are the principal elements that make up the possibilities of evolving,” Fox said.

“Oh that’s nice,” Asakura said.

“So it’s all about getting bigger stronger, and faster?” I asked.

“Well it takes a LOT to even make any progress. That’s why it’s so hard a road and takes so long. You may need like thousands upon thousands of cores to get to some far off point of evolution,” Fox added.

“So?” Asakura is hoping she’ll explain better.

“For most people it just doesn’t happen. But for you with a large harem of hot girls addicted to you, then it could happen since they can’t help themselves. But the far majority of adventuring teams where there isn’t marriage involved don’t share cores. And if someone were to suggest it to them they’d think it was like blasphemy or a scam,” Fox said.

Fox didn’t realize she’d revealed subtlety that she’s already falling into my hands.

“I hate when you put it like that. This is about love, real love,” Asakura explained. She looks kind of mad at Fox. I don’t like it put that way either. She didn’t deny it though.

“Well on top of normal skills you can upgrade core attributes like wisdom, vitality, strength, intelligence, agility/dexterity, and other things. But here’s another example of why it’s a long road. If someone were to be working up just those attributes they could endless work up those core attributes I just mentioned but they would maybe get a 1% stat gain or every 500 cores. At least that’s according to the church officials,” Fox frowned.

“Is that figure reliable?” I asked.

She nodded. “Apparently everyone seems to think so. And the blue screens do state 1% gain in stats, but just non-Gods and non-demi-Gods can’t see people stats.”

“Ugh. That’s a long road,” Asakura said.

“So that’s why religion gets involved if its only something divine beings can work with huh,” I said.

“Which is why early in the game you go after things that help you survive like skills spells or spell like abilities, and because you are a very versatile spell caster you have a lot of options that others don’t,” Fox pointed at me with a smirk.

“So to help Ayumi what are the options?” I asked.

“Let me look,” Fox is struggling about as she’s reading my blue screen.

A few minutes later she grits her teeth. “If you pour all of your monster cores into Ayumi, she will still be sick and afflicted with a status ailment of some kind. So by doing so you might end up just wasting the cores.”

“If that’s the case let’s save them for something that will have more lasting effect and that can help overcome that sickness or whatever that is afflicting her adapting to this world,” Asakura suggested.

“Damn,” I said.

“Is it something you recognize? Do we know what Ayumi will be turned into yet?” Asakura asked.

We discussed it and still we have no idea how Ayumi will be affected by going into this world. Before we were told that it was a status ailment, of some kind of thing poisoning and spreading through the body. But it sounds more complicated than that. So it’s making me nervous while we’re debating Ayumi’s fate.

“Well it’s a goblin poison of some kind but poisons exist of many types and forms. Some poisons you can have a hard time fixing if you don’t have the right things,” Fox said.

“Hmm you are really wise,” Asakura said.

“Thanks,” Fox noted.

“But we need to find a back door to help her get unlocked,” I said.

“So what if you upgraded the heal? Will that work?” Asakura said looking at Fox.

Fox does a few more numbers in trying to figure it out. Her answer came out with a, “Nope. It will help some but you need some other things too.”

But is she right or wrong? Even Fox doesn’t know everything. But I have to trust her.

“Crap,” I said.

“Heal upgrade isn’t workable at this time. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s just that it’s already up to par since you use it all the time?” Fox guessed.

“Weird,” Asakura muttered.

“OK, what about other options?” I asked.

While asking I’m going over it in my mind. But it’s really hard also to do this because I’m not able to see it in a language I can understand.

“Try upgrading the alter biological structure / implant biology ability?” Asakura suggested.

“That looks like an option. Cost is 1,000 monster cores,” Fox said.

We do it.

Now I have 5,821 cores left.

“Weird. It didn’t turn into like a cleanse skill or anything but instead became like a body sculpting skill but it has special circumstances involved,” Fox said while reading the window.

“Eh?! Really? Asakura and I both exclaimed.

“That won’t take care of the poison though,” Asakura said in follow up.

“So will it let us alter or upgrade the regenerate spell?” I asked.

“You have a regenerate spell?!” Fox exclaimed.

“I haven’t had it very long,” I said sheepishly.

“Ah so that’s why I didn’t realize it. We should probably talk more. Help me stay on updates in the future please,” she bowed slightly.

“It’s kind of annoying that we don’t see actual numbers of values, but just percentages sometimes,” I said.

“But that’s how you know it’s real. You can’t like go to a real life meeting and see people you just saw and instantly tell who can be the toughest. There wouldn’t be any challenge that way,” Asakura said.

Fox reads again. “Well if you are right on this…hmm it does let you upgrade the regenerate spell. Is that what you want to do?”

I thought about it. I’m having a hard time knowing if I should pick that over something else more offensive.

“Let’s give it a shot,” I finally gave in after flinching and thinking a bit.

Regenerate now became regeneration (upgraded). 4,821 cores are left.

“You have a cure disease/poison ability. Together with this it should be enough,” Asakura noted.

“Yeah, I think that’s good. You may be able to start working things out soon. Maybe even tonight to start this with Ayumi,” Fox said.

“So let’s work this out. What do you think I should get next?” I asked.

“I say pick a few strengths and stick with them. Trying to go after tons of stuff will still cripple you,” Fox said.

The regeneration (upgraded), the heal, and your runic shielding will work with each other well. So you haven’t lost any ground. No matter what else happens if you have those two up to snuff all the time you should be able to fight off enemies,” Asakura argued back.

“Good. I hope so,” I said.

“You still have to get offensive stuff at some point but I doubt a protection specialization will have a lot you can use,” Fox countered.

But then she suddenly stopped while clicking on stuff in the blue screen. “Um…this wasn’t here before. There’s a new option and…wow this is an amazing boost,” she said.

“Like?”

“Shared mana pool regeneration upgrade. Boosts mana regeneration by 10% for all linked mana pool bonuses in conjunction with summoner’s creature pool,” she said.

“So now we’re creatures? That’s so wrong on so many levels!” Asakura protested. Somehow her protesting with no shirt on doesn’t work.

“Sorry lover, you aren’t a creature to me,” I said putting my arm around Asakura’s back for comfort. The last thing she wants to hear is that she’s a creature…

“Oh that’s sweet,” she said, giving me a kiss.

“It didn’t say summoner specifically before too. Does that mean we’ve come across a new threshold of some kind?” I asked Fox.

“Oh that does sound interesting huh?” Asakura admitted.

“It doesn’t say, but maybe a church or Lord of a city could tell you. Sages also could tell sometimes but if you go to church clergy that could have some negative effects to if they feel threatened from what you are or suspect too, “Fox said.

That’s news. I wish I’d known that earlier.

“There’s a job that’s called sage?” Asakura wondered, scratching her head.

“Yeah they help people with jobs and skills. They are a team job of some kind and can help people unlock bonuses too. But they aren’t really combat focused so not everyone is excited about becoming one,” Fox said.

“So is it a mage job or martial skills job? It sort of sounds mixed,” I asked curiously after Fox described it more.

“Neither really. It’s more just a technical mentor team bonus job. Think like a rogue is about skills with combat right? Well the Sage helps people unlock their potential in a similar way. So it’s not really classified as martial or magus, but sort of in between,” she said.

“Thank you Fox. You are wonderful,” I said.

“But a sage…to actually be able to find one is pretty hard. They used to be all over, but when a lot of the adventurers became lost in dungeon squabbles and started to lose it started to become hard to find them when people started worrying about survival more than arts,” she added.

“Well we should do the shared mana regeneration,” I said.

“Got it done. Good job cooperating with me on that. It was the best thing to do,” Fox said.

And just like that, now I’ve only got 3,821 monster cores left. But my mana suddenly felt very light and quickened just then. I felt it and Fox felt it too. I could feel my mana core pulsing wildly almost like a second heartbeat.

“Oh my gosh, did you just feel that just now?” Fox exclaimed.

“Yeah!” Asakura to my shock answered. She has her hand over her breast feeling her heartbeat. “This is…weird,” she said with wide eyes.

“so we have an immediate effect we can feel huh? That’s cool,” I said.

Fox and I glanced at each other.

“Wait, you felt that?” I’m confused because she isn’t a mage.

“Well if it works anything like the shared mana pool it would be stacking 10% of our mana regeneration rate with interest from each of us onto each other. So someone like Asakura who doesn’t really use mana per se would still feel something. She’s getting effects as if she’s a mage. Actually I wonder how that might affect her long term,” Fox explained.

“Will it be a bad effect?” I raised an eyebrow glancing at Asakura.

“No, it should be just fine. Probably something positive even,” Fox said.

“This is so weird. It’s like a second heartbeat,” Asakura again said. She keeps feeling around her chest, which is funny since she’s not got a shirt.

“Hey Shun, you feel too,” she said grabbing my hands and putting them on her chest over her heart.

“Um can you stop that? It’s so distracting,” Fox said.

“I’m worried about our lack of armor too. There’s no armor spells?” Asakura noted.

“Yeah but when armor costs that much what can you do? I could buy this whole town for the price of a really good armor. I don’t know if there are armor spells or not. I could use Fox and Sunghee’s help to determine that,” I said.

“Yeah that’s a big disadvantage,” she said with her nose scrunched up.

“I don’t think you had gotten a third shared mana pool previously because you hadn’t opened up Ayumi yet. So you can save a few cores for after she’s alive and kicking,” Asakura interjected.

“Hmm you could be right. It’s been awhile,” I said.

“But if I can’t get certain abilities here, I’d still be able to buy runes to make spells with or actual runes right?” I asked Fox.

She thought about it. “You’d have to be experimenting a lot to do that but it could work. But remember, in here with the monster cores you should get the things that make a difference that you can’t get anywhere else. You can always pick up weapons, but the special skills that matter you won’t get if you don’t seize the chance for.”

“Got it,” I said.

“Thanks Fox. You are such a good mentor for Shun. I feel like you are such a sister,” Asakura said.

Fox was livid when the shirtless Asakura reaches out to hug her. Asakura’s boobs hit her in the face and Fox pushed her back quickly. But then she accidentally ended up grabbing them and was apologizing for it.

“Um, I’m good thanks.”

“So now that we have stuff that we think we can use for Ayumi and Haruka then we should get all the other options up front and decide what to do,” Asakura said.

“Its weird doing it as a group though,” I chuckled.

“Yeah but you can’t ignore the benefits of this. When we work together we solve the problems faster,” Asakura shrugged.

“But you’ll be stronger. You’ll still be you and we’ll only do what you want. But you’ll have Asakura’s genius brain helping you. Plus you’ll have my experiences of this world, and then Sunghee’s battle experience. It’s a good advantage with you calling the shots but just having lots of advice,” Fox said.

“Right.”

“So the list?” Asakura inquired to Fox.

Fox cleared her throat. “I guess the 821 cores you will easily top out to 1,000 on the next big battle or so. So you can save that for later.”

“You have an option to turn out something called a magic resistance shield, an energy transfer siphon, and a wait a sec…oh this is interesting… if you upgrade the dreamweaver skill it comes with willpower; prevents mind control against user, plus with that same upgrade comes ‘alter reality in dream state’ and +5% mana conservation and +5% mana pool. Improved growth of altering reality and domain expansion in dream pocket.”

“That’s a lot,” I said.

“Yeah it is,” Asakura said. Even she knew and she wasn’t totally aware. But she’d been picking up everything without forgetting details.

The last three items I got were in order;

Dreamweaver (upgraded); comes with Willpower (anti-charm, anti-mind control), and +5% mana conservation and +5 mana pool (caster only) and Alter Reality (dream state only);

But that got me thinking. Was that because of my being close to Fox on why that happened or occurred? Her ability was Alter Reality…mine was more limited but maybe I was mimicking things around me. If that was the case and if I got a few soul crystals with witches or mages inside them then I’d be totally set.

What I learned next also surprised me…there was another skill too juicy to pass up.

Circle of protection; Creates circle of domain around caster. Summoned demons, extra planar creatures, or evolved creatures not living in the current plane cannot enter the circle without permission from the caster when summoned through ritual summons by the caster, however circle of protection will only provide defense bonus against demons attacking that were summoned by enemy casters. However if the caster has moved or traveled to the plane of those beings then there is a chance for circle of protection to allow creatures trying to break into the circle to get in. Looks and appears like a gigantic pentagram inside a circle around the caster with the caster at its center with five foot radius. Also creates a defensive field protecting team of caster within circle of defense bonus.

This is an area effect defense buff! Very nice!

I wonder what will happen if I upgrade the circle of protection? I also should have had something like that before now. If I’m right this circle of protection would prevent Doppel-chan from attacking me or only give a defense bonus against her? Plus I’m guessing she may try to break out of the cage she’s in anyway.

But did I get this ability because I’d been thinking about wanting to know how Doppel-chan made those cages in the first place? That meant that maybe the other things had started that way too. I mean I had that thought about and wondered about each of those upgrades before they appeared as upgrade options.

That can’t be a coincidence! So if I thought and perceived more; then more potential would be unlocked by reasoning those creative urges into something tangible.

Energy Transfer Siphon which I acquired I found out could be used a few different ways too. Using a sort of sigil with drawing what looks like an infinity symbol when I use it can put myself and another person in each part of the loop and move energy of life or mana back and forth.

This thing is way overpowered…

And I have it all from being able to farm monster cores to and from the girls and concentrate all our power. But because of it I need to back myself up more. I need to create some kind of portable armor buff for the summoned ‘creatures’.

But another unexpected surprise came when I looked at my status and saw that the soul crystals now look different.

Why is that?

Is that because I upgraded the core skill Dreamweaver? I couldn’t tell anything different about them but lately I was more guarded about them and protective.

Since I have no one to consult on this it might take time to figure out. Perhaps it requires research skills? A lot of magic isn’t easy or making everything happen instantly. You have to piece by piece figure out what different things mean.

Even though I got these new skills I don’t know how to use some of them. It seems that they require special circumstances too, plus time to train them up. Great more trouble to figure out, I thought.