Chapter 12 #2
“If you don't mind spending the levels…” Invia trailed off.
“I'm a few short of a thousand,” I replied. “You can help me collect those. Shouldn't take long.”
Invia shifted in her seat. Thinking about spilling blood turned her on. Interesting, she hadn't mentioned the Bonus Pledge requirement. Did that mean she was especially excited or afraid about how that would feel?
+1 Loyalty Pledge.
+1 Unallocated stat point.
I was about to ask Invia if she wanted to test the new Bonus Pledge when a naked Podni hopped into my lap.
Truthfully, the more abyssal traits my women acquired, the more beautiful I found them.
Podni’s black scales beneath her breasts and the way glowing black seemed to flare within her when she was aroused–like now, as soon as she rubbed her bare ass on my lap–set my heart racing.
Queen Ashley followed, wearing a long but open silk robe. She didn’t fight Podni for my attention but still paused to kiss my cheek.
When she did, she whispered, “Good morning, my King.”
Ashley ran a hand along the back of Invia’s shoulders as she borrowed my templar’s cup of tea.
She leaned against the railing, looking toward the horizon as the wind gently blew her robe back, giving me a view of her long, lithe body.
When the wind stopped, the fabric fell back in place like a curtain drawing closed.
“Tell me about your unlocks,” I said to Podni.
“Remember how Solara got offered Virgin Harvester?” Podni asked.
I nodded.
“Listen to what I was offered.”
She read from her system menu:
Cloak of Disinterest
Active Ability
Duration: One Minute Per Character Level
Cooldown: One Minute Per Character Level
When you will it, anyone looking at you will feel the compulsion to look somewhere else instead. Effectiveness of the Cloak of Disinterest is based on your intelligence stat versus the viewer's. Ability’s effectiveness is influenced by the environment.
(Optional Upgrade with Loyalty: Incorporate your dexterity stat into the check of whether or not Cloak of Disinterest fools a viewer.)
(Bonus Pledge: Extend your Cloak of Disinterest to another person within 5 feet of you.
If they are ever more than 5 feet away, Cloak of Disinterest automatically disables.
When in the presence of the sovereign outside of combat, your sensitivity to any touch from a person is increased by an additional 25%.)
Virgin Enhancement
Active Ability
Sacrifice a virgin woman to add a 10% bonus to the damage delivered by a bomb. Sacrifice does not need to be willing, but ability holder must deliver the killing blow as part of the bomb’s crafting process. Virgin must be at least 18 to trigger this ability.
Sugar Daddy Bonus improved the bonus from 5%.
Prerequisites: Sovereign’s Corpse Builder, Sovereign’s Blood Harvest
(Optional Upgrade with Loyalty: Increase bonus by an additional 5%.)
(Bonus Pledge: Increase bonus by an additional 5%. When in the presence of the sovereign outside of combat, your sensitivity to any touch from a person is increased by an additional 25%.)
Greater Silk Step
Passive Ability
Add an additional 120 feet to your maximum Silk Step distance.
Sugar Daddy Bonus increased bonus from 90 feet.
Prerequisite: Silk Step
(Optional Upgrade with Loyalty: Add an additional 15 feet to your maximum Silk Step distance.)
(Bonus Pledge: Add an additional 15 feet to your maximum Silk Step distance. When in the presence of the sovereign outside of combat, your sensitivity to any touch from a person is increased by an additional 25%.)
Another ability that used the sacrifice of virgins for enhancing power.
Interesting. Given that Solara’s was permanent, Podni’s seemed less desirable.
We could make Podni’s bonuses permanent with some clever uses of her Self-Construct ability, golems that Drae built, and the dungeon core’s ability to permanently add a mob to the spawn menu.
That was quite the long way around, though.
“Sacrificing virgins seems like such a waste,” Podni observed.
Invia shook her head. “They’re awful in bed. Not a waste at all.”
“But they’re blank slates. You can train them to do exactly what you like.”
Invia nodded to acknowledge the point, seeming to agree with Podni on that.
For our purposes, we did not have a steady supply of virgins to sacrifice for bomb-making. If we had any supply at all, my first thought would be to buff Solara with them, not build bombs.
“Greater Silk Step has to be the pick, right?” Podni asked.
“I think so.”
+1 Loyalty Pledge.
+1 Unallocated stat point.
Abyssal sovereign class has advanced to Tier 15.
Character level has advanced to 31.
New abilities and status points to allocate.
That was a nice surprise. The Will points flowing in that morning and my treasures leveling moved me to my next level.
“We’re getting interest in silk soldiers and the opening of Sanctuary South,” Ashley reported. “The other kingdoms seem nervous about our sudden jump in influence.”
I really wanted to focus on my system menus, but this topic was important. “That sounds promising.”
“It is. We’ve had other developments as well.” Ashley turned to Invia, as if inviting her to speak.
“What?” Invia asked.
“You have to tell him.”
Invia sighed. “My parents want you, me, Autumn, and Penny to come to dinner. The rest of Penny’s family is invited too.”
“Penny’s siblings only, or her mom and dad as well?”
“All of them,” Invia answered.
I groaned.
Invia pointed at me and said to Ashley, “I told you he’d feel the same way I did.”
Having dinner with the parents and siblings of women in my harem would be awkward, and it got more awkward when you considered that the only reason Ashley’s mother and father weren’t invited was because I killed them.
In fairness to Invia's and Purity’s families, I could understand why parents weren’t fond of me bedding their daughters.
I was a deplorable degenerate, and I turned their sweet innocent little girls into cum-hungry degenerates as well.
If I wanted, I could command any of them to drop to their knees and deepthroat me right there in the middle of dinner.
My women were well-trained and wouldn’t hesitate to do what I asked.
Parents didn’t need to see that happen to sense that it was possible.
“Their support isn’t essential,” Ashley added, “but having both Invia and Purity’s family continue to pledge fealty to the crown would be easier than them turning on us.”
“We can do it after our next tower climb,” I said. “We can all survive one dinner.”
While the girls talked about how weird the gathering would be, I turned my focus back to my system. I had abyssal sovereign unlocks to select.
These were my three newest options:
Abyssal Seed
Passive Ability
Prerequisites: Intoxicate, 150+ Followers