Dungeons and Dalliances Ch. 100-109

[Empower] - ACTIVE. PROGRESSION 2. Amplify the potency of any ACTIVE or AURA skill by {2.0x}. Expend Carnal Energy equal to mana cost.

[Advance] - ACTIVE. PROGRESSION 1. MAXED. Expend Carnal Energy to progress skills.

[Illusion] - ACTIVE. PROGRESSION 2. Conjure a {moderately} powerful audiovisual mirage to distract or confuse an opponent.

[Heavy Weaponry] - PASSIVE. PROGRESSION 2. Class-bearer is granted a {8-inch} weapon to satisfy and harvest Carnal Energy from chosen targets.

[Juggernaut] - PASSIVE. PROGRESSION 1. Class-bearer receives {1.3x} bonus to furor, applied after all other bonuses.

[Hunker Down] - ACTIVE. PROGRESSION 1. MAXED. Class-bearer becomes invulnerable to most physical attacks for 1.5 seconds, but also unable to move. Can be interrupted.

[Bigger Is Better] - PASSIVE. PROGRESSION 1. Oversized weapons receive {minor} bonuses to offensive power and are {slightly} easier to maneuver.

[Stylish] - PASSIVE. PROGRESSION 1. Party members receive a {minor} stat bonus to their primary stat appropriate to how much their gear arouses the class-bearer. Class-bearer receives a {minor} stat bonus to their primary stat appropriate how much their gear arouses their teammates.

***

"Where to even start?" Natalie muttered.

4.02 - New Skills

Natalie chose to talk about the normal abilities first. She'd work into the headache-inducing one afterward. And she supposed [Stylish] wasn't even the strangest of her kit—that would go to [Carnal Harvest], the lewd skill that was a foundation to her class.

But still. [Stylish] dragged her teammates directly into the fray. The skill encouraged all five of them to ... what? Dress provocatively? To the extent their outfits aroused each other? Now that would create a reputation at Tenet.

"I shouldn't be complaining," Natalie sighed. "I got a pretty good haul. Four more skills."

"Four?" Jordan asked. "Nice. Only got three."

Two or three skills for the early levels was the standard. Higher levels started providing fewer, but the one or two you did receive would be much stronger.

"Three of them make me a better fighter," Natalie said. "There's two passives, actually, clearly encouraging me to take up a new weapon path."

"Oh?"

"I think you can guess what it is," Natalie said dryly. "The dungeon was hinting at it yesterday."

Jordan's brow furrowed before she connected the dots. "The hammer?"

"[Bigger Is Better]," Natalie said. "That's the skill name. It makes handling oversized weapons easier, and gives them an attack bonus."

Jordan immediately started laughing, and though Natalie's lips twitched, she mostly leveled a sour look at her friend. She was glad, in a way, they had their level ups to distract her, because the way her heart skipped about four or five beats watching Jordan laugh was something Natalie simply didn't have the energy or mental space to deal with. That wall had been thoroughly torn down, but Natalie had other stuff she had to focus on. Or maybe that was an excuse. Actually, it definitely was an excuse.

"The exact wording is minor bonus to offensive power, slightly easier to maneuver. It's upgradeable too. I could make it stronger."

"Right," Jordan said. "Almost forgot about that. Well, yeah, then, you don't have a choice. You'd be insane not to go with a large weapon. What else?"

"This one's more generalist, but it clearly helps offset the problem further," Natalie said. "[Juggernaut]. Passive one-point-three bonus to furor, applied after all other bonuses."

"Applied after?" Jordan asked. "Damn. That's strong."

Natalie nodded. The thirty percent boost alone was a great skill—if perhaps not the strongest—but the fact it applied afterward meant it was, even at the first progression, potent. Because any furor bonuses from any skill, buff, or item would likewise be amplified by thirty percent. That meant both Liz's strength boost and Natalie's armor would also be amplified. If the skill had affected only her base stats, then it would have been much weaker.

"And it grows," Jordan said. "From one point three to what? Even if it's small jumps each progression, you're going to be a monster."

"Also got a defensive skill, [Hunker Down]. Seems pretty interesting. Something that can be used cleverly."

"Hunker down," Jordan repeated. "Huge defense bonus for a brief moment?"

The skill's name did give it away. "Invulnerable, actually."

Jordan whistled.

"But I can't move," Natalie said. Then, a second later, she added, "And it actually says invulnerable to most physical attacks. I'm guessing truly insane stuff would break through it. And it's only one and a half seconds."

Jordan considered this. "It'll save your ass in a trap, most likely," she said. "And being able to hunker down and literally catch a boss attack is phenomenal. You really did come out with a good haul."

"Makes up for my starting skills," Natalie muttered. "Don't get me wrong, they're insane for the long term, but having so much related to ... all that, meant I didn't have skills that are actually functional."

Jordan nodded. "What's the last one?"

"Don't sound so excited. It's awful."

"Awful?"

"Amazing," Natalie begrudgingly admitted. "Just, ugh."

"Spill it."

"[Stylish]. Any of my teammates get stat bonuses if ..." It took some effort to barrel forward, even if it was Jordan that she was explaining this to. "If I'm aroused by their outfit."

Jordan blinked.

"And it works for me, too," Natalie sighed. "If you all like my outfit, then I get stronger."

"No way," Jordan said.

"You are not allowed to laugh," Natalie said.

Jordan started laughing, and Natalie glared at her. She crossed her arms.

Unfortunately, Jordan just laughed harder, then stepped up to Natalie and buried her forehead into her chest, hands slipping onto Natalie's waist. Natalie melted basically immediately. She didn't stand a chance.

"It's awful," Natalie insisted. "Stop laughing." She tried to ignore how quickly Jordan could turn her stomach into a warm pile of goo. Oh, gods. She had it bad.

"Okay, okay," Jordan said, finally pulling herself together. Sparkling eyes looked up at her, only withdrawing a few inches back. Her hands stayed on Natalie's waist. Natalie realized her own had gone to Jordan's. "Serious talk, then. Let's see."

Jordan finally stepped back, and she chewed her lip.

"We should tell the team," she said after only a second of consideration. "I think we're past the point of keeping secrets when it comes to your class. At least when it affects them—or could affect them."

"Yeah," Natalie said. "That's probably the right thing to do." At least it wouldn't be as awkward as that first talk. They were more than familiar with Natalie's class, so it wouldn't be outright mortifying. "But, what? We're going to use it?"

"A team wide stat boost?" Jordan asked. "We'd be crazy not to. What's the full wording?"

Natalie repeated the skill's description.

"Yeah," Jordan said. "It sounds like it might scale based on how much it arouses you. So we'll really need to put together some naughty outfits."

"Jordan, please."

"We'll probably settle with mildly scandalizing, then," Jordan amended. "The issue's going to be finding armor that's both good and turns you on." She paused. "Like Ana's robes," she added dryly. "Still think that wasn't your class?"

"Some dungeon loot is just lewd," Natalie said. "It wasn't necessarily me." Revealing armor and clothing was, while not the standard, certainly not a first.

"Regardless," Jordan said, making it clear what she thought of the coincidence. "It's pretty obvious we should make use of it. But we'll talk with the team." She wrinkled her nose. "Might be an issue with Liz because of her family's reputation. Maybe we'll only put it on at the dungeon itself. Or something."

"I can't believe this is our life, now."

Jordan rolled her eyes. "Oh, woe is you. You received an insanely powerful class, but it's a little weird."

"A little weird?"

"A lot weird," Jordan conceded. "But also a lot strong. You can upgrade it. That means you'll be giving out team-wide moderate primary stat boosts. And higher, once you start progressing each of these skills. Your class is good even before upgrades. You're going to be a legitimate powerhouse as time passes." She poked Natalie's shoulder. "I just hope you don't end up leaving us behind."

Natalie frowned.

"That's a joke," Jordan said.

Natalie believed her, but she thought she'd also caught a hint of something else. Had she imagined it? That it was a real worry, if a subdued one? Jordan must be losing her mind if she thought Natalie would ever leave her behind, regardless of if her class snowballed into something incredible.

"Have you thought what you want to upgrade first?" Jordan asked. "You've been saving up your points for exactly this moment, right? What do you think's best? And what's it all cost?"

4.03 - New Skills II

Natalie hadn't allocated any of her earned carnal energy in some time, and with consistent sessions with Jordan, and slightly less consistent ones with Sammy, she'd earned a sizable amount. One-off encounters like with Liz, and even her lewd adventures with the vines, had provided bonus harvests, too.

***

Carnal Energy: 442

***

"I'm at four forty two," Natalie said. "I have to imagine that's enough to take [Carnal Harvest] up another tier, though I'm not sure how much'll be left over. I could also go all in on an immediate power spike, though." That had been why Natalie had saved the points in the first place, instead of immediately allocating them to [Carnal Harvest], which would boost her rate of gain. Taking each of her level two skills up to second progression would be an enormous boost in her immediate strength. She'd probably go from a 'decent but nothing truly amazing' student to somewhere much closer to the top.

"Mm," Jordan said. "Tough choice. Long term choice is obvious."

"Keep upgrading Harvest." Natalie chewed her lip. "Saved the points in case something truly insane came along with level two, but it didn't." Not that she was complaining; she very much appreciated her new abilities. But nothing demanded immediate upgrades.

Natalie hesitated over the choice for a few moments, but reluctantly decided to do what was smartest for her long term career. "Probably best to get harvest up to three," she sighed. "Though it would have been nice to go all in, right now."

Jordan patted Natalie on the shoulder in sympathy. But she clearly agreed. "Let's see how much you have left over."

Closing her eyes, Natalie funneled points into [Carnal Harvest] using [Empower].

***

[Carnal Harvest]: Progression advanced from 2 to 3.

***

***

[Carnal Harvest] - PASSIVE. PROGRESSION 3. Extract carnal energy through {performing or receiving oral on} an aroused target. Harvested energy can be expended through [Empower] and [Advance].

***

Natalie snorted.

"What'd it upgrade to?" Jordan asked.

"Oral. Giving or receiving."

"It's funny that's how it rates them. Kissing, fondling, oral. What's after that? Penetration? Does it differentiate between each hole, you think?"

Natalie paused, then coughed. "I guess we'll find out."

"How much do you have left?"

She checked. "Two forty two. So progression three took two hundred flat."

"Wonder if we can count on that for the others."

"There's variance," Natalie said. "Already found that out from the progression two upgrades. But only a little bit. They seem to stay in the same general range."

"Might change with level two skills. Maybe those are more expensive."

Natalie had considered that, but for obvious reasons, hoped not. If they were as cheap to upgrade as her level ones, then she could take all of her new skills up a notch. If not, then she'd have to pick and choose.

"What's the most important?" Natalie asked. In the case they were more expensive, she would focus on the one most crucial to upgrade.

"That's really up to you," Jordan said. "You've got lots of choices, now. [Juggernaut] is great—a flat boost to furor. If you want to immediately pivot to large weapons, [Bigger Is Better] is smart. Could also go with a tier three upgrade to [Illusion]. But I think the clear winner is [Stylish], assuming we get the whole team on board."

A team-wide stat buff was hard to beat, so, yeah, that made sense. Natalie hesitated, though.

"But you want a personal boost," Jordan said, smiling. "That's fine too. I say go for it. You don't have to be strictly selfless. Besides, it really depends on how the skills upgrade. Maybe [Stylish] only gives a tiny boost, and [Juggernaut] a big one. I say go for whatever you want."

"Yeah," Natalie said. "I guess. I'm not sure." She wrinkled her nose. "It's a hard choice."

"Better to be flooded with good options than bad ones. Don't think you can go too wrong, here, no matter what you choose."

"What would you do?"

"I'd go with [Heavy Weaponry]," Jordan said, "so I could plow my best friend with a ten inch cock instead of an eight inch one." Jordan laughed at Natalie's wide-eyed expression. "I'm afraid you have a bit of a size queen on your hands, now. Look what you've done to me."

"Jordan. Be serious." Natalie fought against the stiffening inside her skirt. The teasing was seriously unfair out in public.

"Oh, I'm completely serious. But fine, if you care more about being practical than stuffing me silly—let me think." Jordan considered the question. "[Juggernaut]. The flat strength boost will help with a larger weapon by default, so it serves as [Bigger Is Better] in a way, but also helps in all other aspects of combat too. That it multiplies with other bonuses is just crazy. Let's see how much it costs."

That had been what Natalie had wanted to go for first, too. [Stylish] was probably the better team upgrade, but she wanted to get personally stronger—to stand out more at Tenet. She hadn't made an embarrassment of herself, far from it, but she hadn't astounded anyone, either.

She wondered whether Jordan knew what she was thinking, and had suggested the skill choice and purposefully not pushed for [Stylish]. That would be a very Jordan thing to do. Jordan was always looking out for her. Her heart squeezed, and she chased away her newfound feelings. Those were really going to be a problem in the following days.

"Alright. Let's see," Natalie said.

Closing her eyes, she started funneling points into [Juggernaut]. Slowly, as to test how much the enigmatic 'orb' filled up with pink liquid. Her skills only gave a vague measure of how much she was progressing them, rather than a concrete amount required. It made all of this guesswork, unfortunately.

She grimaced.

"Yeah, it's more expensive," Natalie said. "I'm pretty sure it starts out as effectively a tier higher. So from one to two, costs the same as two to three for my level one skills."

"Kinda expected something like that," Jordan said. "But still. You can upgrade [Juggernaut]. It'll be around two hundred?"

"It'll cost most of what I have, probably."

"That's fine, I'd say. It's a good choice. Then [Stylish] next, after we talk to the team about it." Jordan paused. "And ... what are your thoughts on talking to them about helping, too?'

"Helping?"

"You know. With ..." Jordan waved her hand up and down at Natalie, a vague gesture that took Natalie a second to understand.

"You can't be serious."

"Sounds like Liz might be interested," Jordan said with a shrug. "Ana is a wildcard, but I don't think she'd be mad if we just asked. Besides, it's giving or receiving. I don't think there'd be too many girls who would turn down daily oral from you." Jordan's lips quirked. "Or even giving. You've got something special down there, you know. It really is addicting."

"Jordan."

"Just a thought," Jordan said. "I'm not telling you to do anything. But maximizing your harvest skill really should take priority."

"I know. I know." Natalie struggled for how to put it. "I just don't like the idea of it."

"You don't like the idea of being serviced by a legion of girls every day?" Jordan asked.

"Not ... so impersonally? I don't know. I don't have anything against something casual, obviously, but it should still ..."

"Happen naturally." Jordan nodded. "No, I get it. Pursuing relationships just for the energy would be weird. I was just checking in. Besides, I bet there's some limitations to harvest we haven't found yet. I don't think if you somehow had twenty partners a day, you'd really get twenty times the energy. I bet there's a cap per day, or maybe each successive partner gets less energy. Something of that sorts. Then again, maybe not. But the most important thing is to do what you're comfortable with. Doesn't matter what optimizes your class."

Natalie both agreed and disagreed with the sentiment. A part of her wanted to rush as much carnal energy as possible. A part of her despised that kind view on sex and relationships, even purposefully casual. It was something she'd fretted over since she'd received her class, and hadn't made too much headway on.

What she was really hoping for was to build up relationships naturally, and for having to pursue some sort of 'optimization' to become unnecessary through organic success.

"Anyway," Jordan said. "Go ahead and finish advancing [Juggernaut]? Tell me what you get."

***

[Juggernaut]: Progression advanced from 1 to 2.

***

***

[Juggernaut] - PASSIVE. PROGRESSION 2. Class-bearer receives {1.6x} bonus to furor, applied after all other bonuses.

***

Natalie eyes widened. "Damn," she said. "Went to one point six. That's insane."

"A passive sixty percent boost? That stacks with buffs and items?" Jordan asked. "Yeah. No joke." She shook her head. "Even with just that, today's spars won't know what hit them. You're gonna be a nightmare. Wanna give it a test run?"