Ash ended up leveling up in his classes not once, but twice. The xp gains out of Aria’s little quest and bringing Evie to Close Friends status were enough to push him to Journeyman 4 in both classes, then Journeyman 5. Meaning he’d just gotten 4 attribute levels and 6 skill levels to spend. That was on top of the 70,000 he’d just received from Ashley, Aria, and then the unending sex he’d had with Evie, the twins, and Zirennia. Staring at the number, he saw that he now had 84,000 to spend, and that caused him to scratch his head for a moment.

He’d nearly forgotten about the 14,000 from his performance piece with Rachel.

Added to that, he had 2 rare rewards, and a whopping 13 total uncommon reward cards.

Life was indeed good.

With one butt pressed against his crotch, one leg draped over his thigh, and one arm clutching his waist, he set out to get his rewards in order. While he stared at the UI in the gloom and got his thoughts in order, he felt the steady, even heat of breath between his shoulder blades. And a breast in his hand.

Yes, life was good.

The first thing he did was throw all of his free skill levels into Diamonds. This put him at Master level 6. None of his skills would affect the Random Encounter chance, and wouldn’t put Rachel’s life at risk if he was traveling by himself. Leveling to Journeyman 5 did, as did leveling up his attributes, but he counted it the cost of becoming stronger. If he threw all his xp into skills, and he had a ton of xp, he could handle whatever came their way.

With this in mind, and with plenty of xp to spare right now, he went with his lowest skills first. Clubs and Swords both needed 3 levels to reach the end of Journeyman, so 30,000 xp went there first. Arcana, Coins and Spades each needed 2 levels to cap out at Journeyman, so another 30,000 xp went there.

“Yikes,” he breathed. That was already most of his xp.

With the remaining 24,000, he noted that a single Master level in Diamonds now cost 25,000, so he couldn’t even buy a single level. It would take 10,000 to get him from Expert 10 to Master 1 in Hearts. That was sobering. He threw the last points into Wands, taking it from Journeyman 7 to Expert 1 for 5,000, then Expert 2 for 10,000.

And that was that. Quick and in a hurry.

He had a look over his character sheet before he moved on, and was more more or less pleased with what he saw.

Ash Phoenix

Half-orc Half-drow, male,

Sorcerer Journeyman level 5

Bard Journeyman level 5

Good: 26/50

Reputation: 2

Boons:

Limited Wish (Sorcerer)

Limited Wish (Achievement: All skills Amateur or greater)

Attributes:

Attuned- (Journeyman level 6)

Charming- (Expert level 6)

Clever- (Journeyman level 6)

Fierce- (Journeyman level 5)

Lucky- (Expert level 7)

Quick- (Journeyman level 5)

Sly- (Journeyman level 5)

Tough- (Expert level 6)

Skills:

Arcana (Journeyman level 7)

Coins (Journeyman level 7)

Cups (Expert level 10)

Staves (Expert level 9)

Swords (Journeyman level 7)

Wands (Expert level 2)

Diamonds (Master level 6)

Spades (Journeyman level 7)

Hearts (Expert level 10)

Clubs (Journeyman level 7)

Free Attribute levels: 4

 

Almost immediately on the heels of this glimpse at his progress, he received another notification.

 

Congratulations! The UI exclaimed. You now have a skill that has reached Master level. Although you have been called Master by some of your harem members, this is the first time you can claim to be a true Master. On second look, it appears you are a Master of… being lucky? Although this UI is disinclined to grant you the boon, you have technically earned it. You have unlocked a special achievement. Distant horizons are indeed within reach. 

 

Special Achievement: Master With A Capital M

You’ve triumphed when others have faltered and failed. In addition, you’re one of the first 25 in this new world to have obtained this achievement. You will be granted a boon of your choice.

*Unlocks a unique PC race. You may select this unique race immediately.

*gain 30,000 coins, and three random gems of Superior rarity or better

*gain 2 random double rare ability cards for each of your classes

*the ability to perform Class Reset at will, once per day. You may retrieve your action deck cards from your deck all at once during that time, and reinsert them.

 

He went through all the options twice, and leaned towards his initial instinct of having the ability to pull his cards out every day, fiddle with his deck, and… that sounded dirty. He chuckled.

The unique PC race sounded very interesting. It would undoubtedly be a powerful thing. However, he’d be the only one. It probably wouldn’t matter, since the world was chock full of different races and species, but he didn’t like the idea of being singled out as the alien.

The only actual problem he foresaw was the completely unknown nature of what the unique PC race would be. He couldn’t count on it to be specifically tailored to his two classes, and to gel with his idea of what he wanted to be. If it wasn’t something he wanted, and he stayed a half-drow half-orc, he would basically be wasting this boon.

Next.

Thirty thousand coins would’ve been nice once upon a time and still could be. It wasn’t anything to look down on. He still didn’t know what gems were useful for aside from the possibility of more cash, though he had a suspicion. Again, a suspicion wasn’t the same as hard evidence, and he had high level cards to trade or sell.

Last, he wasn’t sure how much money he owed Ray Eastman. He wanted to pay down the whole debt at once, and this might be a boon wasted if all the money was just sucked out of his pocket by Ray at once.

Owing Ray Eastman some insane amount of money for a ship that originally cost five thousand coin was equal parts hilarious and infuriating.

He skipped this one for now too.

Originally when he’d gotten the Jack of all Trades boon for having all his skills at Amateur or Journeyman (he couldn’t remember which) he was pretty sure he had been promised two double rare cards. He wasn’t sure whether they were class-specific double rares or not, but he thought not. To have them specifically for his class was a pretty nice reward. Some of these might just meld together with his existing rare or double rares, to create an ultra rare. His Harem Laird was ultra rare, as was Not a Fighter, and these were the backbone of his success.

On the other hand, there was no guarantee he would be able to slot these double rares. Without a Class Reset or the ability to dip into his action deck, it would only continue to bloat out with cards he didn’t need when combat time came.

As for the final one…

He’d be able to tailor his action deck to specific situations if need be, and eliminate cards that he’d never used or weren’t very useful in his experience. The War Drums card would be the first to go.

The real question was where a Class Reset would come from and how often he would be able to deal with it. He was going to get a Class Reset in three Journeyman levels anyway, when he reached Expert. He wasn’t really going to see that much sexy action after he left his harem behind and went after his parents, on this quest for Lucy and Jez, but he could funnel xp into his classes anyway. He did get a limited amount of xp just for doing battle and taking difficult actions. However, it would be another ten levels of Expert in one of his classes after that before he got another one. By that same logic, he would be stuck with an ever-expanding action deck for ten whole levels, unless he bought one.

So far the price he’d seen in the shops was twenty-five thousand coins, so that meant it was worth having every day.

It made sense to have this last one, since there were ways to deal with the other three. First, he had a path toward getting money and gems were presently worthless. Second, the likelihood of getting a class that would suit a Sorcerer Bard was maybe one in three, possible fifty-fifty. He hadn’t had any race problems so far. And third, he had good cards, able to handle an entire repossession team of like-leveled opponents. He felt good about his action deck, so long as he could get the spells and abilities he wanted in hand.

With that in mind, he chose the fourth ability.

 

Congratulations! You’ve chosen to become a Versatile Hero. This boon has been added to your character sheet.

 

The first thing he did was grab his action deck out of his hand and fan out the cards. He’d received a number of rewards for the sex as well. His two ultra rare cards he set aside to keep. His trio of the Blood set stayed in, along with his extra copy of Boiling Blood. Following this, his mainstay Sorcerer attack and defense spells were added. Then, last, there had been plenty of use for throwing around objects and people, so he kept Improved Telekinesis in there too.

The two radiant damage spells he’d gotten when in combat against He Who Slumbers had been useful then, but they might not be useful going forward. They would stay in his inventory, in case he ended up facing down another succubus or demon or something. Solar Shot and Celestial Burst he laid aside in the interests of keeping the deck tight.

He’d gotten another Rejuvenating Aura as a reward card from his sexathon, so that he melded to create the rare version, Replenishing Aura. He’d also gotten another Dispel, so he combined those to craft Delayed Dispel.  One look at this one and he immediately added it to his deck.

 

Delayed Dispel

Rare, Spell (Abjuration)

Casting this spell causes the sigil of a ward of protection to hover beneath one target’s feet. The next time a spell is aimed at that target, the caster immediately loses extremely high mana. They must pass a Wands (Tough) check or have the current spell fail to cast. Upon passing, the spell’s effect is reduced by half against the warded target. When the sigil is triggered, the spell’s effect ends.

Duration: 1 hour. Cost: High Mana. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

 

On top of those, he also ended up with another Elemental Barrier. Without it, he was at twelve Sorcerer cards. With it, he would be at thirteen. Presently, he needed to have eight to make him a multiclass Bard, but adding the second Elemental Barrier would mean he’d need nine. So he could have a deck of twenty cards, or twenty-two.

Ultimately he chose not to keep it in. He usually relied on casting the more powerful Dragon’s Blood and then later added Dragonscale once he began taking hits, and Fireball when things got hairier. Although Elemental Barrier was a nice card, it wasn’t nice enough to have in there twice.

 

Harem Laird

Fireball

Tsunami

Sorcerer’s Blood 

Dragon’s Blood

Boiling blood x2

Replenishing Aura

Improved Telekinesis

Arcane Lance

Elemental Barrier

Delayed Dispel

Total: 12 cards

 

He had a lot going on now with his Bard choices. Lucky for him, Harem Laird kept the hits coming, supplying him with decent, good, and very good class-related cards once it had become a hyper rare.

Also the sex. Having sex constantly had helped out a lot. The thought made him grin.

He’d gotten another radiant damage card, Radiant Song, which he likewise put aside. The other new one, Shared Purpose, didn’t seem like it would be too useful with only he and Rachel. It was an aura, but he reasoned he had the ability to add cards into his deck at any time. A nice, slimmed down action deck would give him the most potent abilities in faster rotation, come combat. Share Purpose joined the other radiant damage cards in his inventory.

So, for Bard, he definitely wanted to keep the mainstay of his deck, Not a Fighter. After that, he added Echoing Encore. This was his new rare that would replicate a spent spell or ability. After this, Heavy Metal stayed in. He’d used it, and it was a nice way to surprise enemies by turning his lute into a serious offensive melee weapon. 

He was on the fence about the rest. Jack Be Quick wasn’t amazing, but it gave him a couple of nice passive abilities he liked: a passive dodge and a passive increase to his initiative. Its activated ability was pure garbage… or had been until he elevated his Diamonds skill to Expert level 6. Now he could boost another skill to match Diamonds.

Okay, it went back in. That meant he was halfway to keeping his status as Bard. He’d kept out Inspiring Song, which required him to be singing in combat, Rhythm of the War Drums, which required several uninterrupted rounds of drumming, and Little Ditty. Again requiring him to sing or rhyme in the middle of combat to activate. Since he hadn’t used these others to any great effect, he went sifting through the new rewards from his full day of pleasing the ladies.

Among the 13 uncommon rewards, he’d ended up with a handful of Sorcerer spells and eight Bard abilities.

The first of his older rewards that he went with was called Alluring Apparition. It was consumable, but used Hearts and Charming at Grandmaster level to create an incredibly effective distraction, so long as he didn’t take direct action against his enemies. It was a Hail Mary for a seriously terrible situation, reminding him again of something the blue mage had done at the very beginning, in taking out seven of the eight red mages. A consumable card, if he recalled correctly.

He needed to remember that the instant he used Alluring Apparition he’d be under the 40% limit on Bard abilities, and wouldn’t be classed as a Bard. He’d lose his boon of limiting the Random Encounter chance, and that could really mess him up in the wrong situation. So as soon as he used it, he’d have to slot in a substitute.

He combined two copies of a Bard ability—Razzle—and got himself a rare, Razzle Dazzle. This one created a dizzying array of lights and sounds, and was classed as a spell rather than a special ability. It used mana, which was unusual for a Bard card.

He also had an old reward, Deafen, which he combined with another to create Shatter Glass. Instead of a song or rhyme, this one just required him to scream out as loud as possible, which he could do more easily in combat. This one ran on stamina and was classed as a special ability.

Another copy of Rhythm of the War Drums changed the card into Drums of Doom. This one required him to beat out percussion for at least two strikes, bam bam! It provided the same buff/debuff combo to morale and attack he liked about the original, and as an extra added bonus, it was now an aura. Nice. It went in.

This, at last, gave him eight Bard abilities, though he was still looking forward to finding better.

 

BARD

Not a Fighter (UR)

Heavy Metal (u)

Jack Be Quick (r)

Echoing Encore (r)

Alluring Apparition (r)

Razzle Dazzle (r)

Shatter Glass (r)

Drums of Doom (r)

 

Bard, without Sorcerer, seemed so limited and useless. He was probably using it the wrong way, trying to tank and deal out tons of damage and also activate support auras. He was trying to do it all, which he knew was the sure path to getting himself killed and doing none of it.

Satisfied he was ready to take on these two quests basically by his lonesome, he gave in and fell asleep.