Patch Notes:
-I fucked up Aika's stats and wasn't giving her the proper stat growth for being a Bishop reincarnated Devil. Her CON is now a little higher, and her INT and WIS are significantly higher now.
-Heart Crystal drop rates have been modified to hopefully make them less common. He was getting too many before.
-Changed the wording on the [Mentor] skill to make it clear that Axton can only teach party members up to five skills, even if one is maxed out, he cannot teach them more unless one is removed.
We split up, spreading out along the mountainside, each person finding a spot to train by themselves or in pairs. I give each of them instructions on what to focus on. While they do, I carve out a chunk of time for each of them, helping guide them one on one. And I start with the King, Rias.
"Explain your magic to me," I tell her. We're standing in a clearing, no one else in sight, and in front of us is a large wall of rock.
"I wield the Power of Destruction," she says. "It's the Bael family magic, though it's been passed on to me through my mother, who married into the Gremory family. It's the most potent and destructive offensive magic that a Devil can use."
"Alright," I reply. "Show me then."
She nods and faces the cliffside. Magic power gathers around her and she thrusts her hands forward, unleashing a torrent of red and black crackling energy that crashes into the wall. She only holds it for a second and by the time the stream stops, the wall has been dug into by about a foot in a large roughly circular patch.
I check her MP. That took just under a fifth of it. For an attack of that strength, that's really not very good.
"As I thought," I say out loud with a sigh. "Tell me, how much control do you have over the shape of it?"
"Theoretically, I have total control over it," she answers. "And in reality, I have a fair bit. Why?"
"Because this," I say, waving a hand at the rock wall. "This is wasteful. Unless you're fighting an enemy this big, most of your energy is doing nothing except making it harder to dodge. Which isn't the worst thing, there's an advantage to spending energy to make sure the attack hits. But there are better ways to go about it.
"For example. If you wanted to hit that big of an area to make sure they can't dodge, instead of hitting every single square inch, launching an array of softball-sized attacks spread out with a bit less than a foot between each of them should get you the same coverage and still hit the enemy while using less than half of the energy. It'll hit them less, but if the power is potent enough, that won't matter. A hole through their chest, arm, and leg will slow them enough for you to land a more definitive hit. Not every hit needs to be a kill shot.
"But against Riser-," she starts, but I cut her off.
"This isn't just anti-Riser training," I say. "We'll have a special strategy in mind for him. I have a few ideas, and none of them rely on the Power of Destruction. We'll discuss them during the strategy talks after dinner." She frowns, but nods. "Now, if you're going to specialize in the Power of Destruction for your offensive magic, here's what I think you should do."
"When it comes to your spells and making sure they hit, there are several basic parameters to focus on. Projectile size, projectile speed, projectile control, coverage, potency, and cost. How big are your projectiles, how fast do they go, what degree of control you have over them after you've cast the spell, how large of an area does it cover, how powerful is each projectile, and how much energy did it cost you.
"So keeping those in mind, and keeping in mind that there's no single attack that is perfect for every situation, we're going to have you focus on five different attacks, and then learning when to use each one. To make them easier to understand, I'll use guns as a metaphor for them. Rifle, Gatling, Scattershot, Missile, and Beam. For now, those will be the main attacks you use.
"Rifle is used for probing shots, when an enemy is weak enough that you only need a single attack to finish them off, or when you're trying to conserve your energy. You'll condense the Power of Destruction into a single attack and fire it at an enemy. For this attack, you'll want to focus on projectile speed, potency, and cost. This one will actually be one of your more flexible attacks, as you can scale the potency up and down. You should also keep the projectile as small and condensed as possible."
"Like this?" she asks. She raises a hand, pointer finger extended at the wall, and a softball-sized orb of Destruction appears. She fires it off, and it streaks to the rock wall and tears a good chunk out of it.
"Precisely," I confirm. "Experiment with different sizes and strengths, but I mostly want you to focus on making it travel as fast as possible."
She mulls over that, nodding slowly. "Okay. What about the others?"
"The others build off of that one," I say. "For today, just focus on your Destruction Rifle."
I feel a small spike of happiness come from her at the name and she smiles a little. That's right, she's a big anime fan, isn't she? 'Destruction Rifle' certainly verges on being an anime-like attack name. I'll have to look up anime on my phone later, see what series exist here and which don't. I've seen advertisements for and productions of a few familiar ones while out shopping, but I don't want to bring up any that just don't exist. But talking anime with Rias could score me easy Affection points.
She gets started blasting the wall with single shots of varying strength, and I give her tips and guide her to doing better. Hopefully, by the end of the training, Rias will be a master with her power.
After spending time helping Rias, I look around for Akeno. I find her in a small area near a pond, shooting flying targets above the water with different kinds of elemental spells.
"What are those targets?" I ask her, making sure to make noise as I approach so I don't surprise her.
"They're standard training equipment for Devils," she says. "Rias brought a number of them with us. I gave a few to Aika as well."
"Thank you," I say. "I'm guessing Rias doesn't use them because the Power of Destruction is a bit hard on them?"
"They can take a few hits of it, but not many," Akeno replies as she blasts one of them with a bolt of lightning. "They stand up much better to most other kinds of magic though." She turns to me, hands on her hips as she looks at me with a teasing smile. "So what does the great teacher Axton have to teach me?"
"Not much actually," I admit with a shrug. "You're already skilled at your magic and I don't know enough about that kind of elemental magic to give any pointers. So instead, we'll just spar." With those words, I pull out the Game Board I got from the gacha earlier. It's not much to look at. It's a small box, roughly the size of a shoebox, but more square, made out of wood and carved. On top of it are five clear gems laid out in a circle.
When I was preparing breakfast earlier, I put the Game Board outside and had it copy the area into one of its slots. One of the gems turned from clear to a swirling mix of green and grey.
"What's that?" Akeno asks.
"Devils create arenas for their rating games based on real locations, right?"
"Sort of," she answers. "There's one arena that is used for official Rating Games that can be modeled after a real-world location, or like anything they want. There are smaller, temporary versions, but they're tricky to make though, and cost a lot of energy."
"Well this can do exactly that for free," I say, and I push the grey and green button. We teleport, moving from near the pond to seemingly back at the resort. But the atmosphere is off. There's less wind, and things are much quieter.
"You should really give a girl more warning before you teleport her," she chides me before looking around. "Though this is indeed pretty similar in feeling to the Rating Game arena.
"Since your magic is plenty good already, what we need to focus on is combat experience," I say. "As Rias's Queen, you'll face a lot of powerful opponents, so the more experience you have, the better. And in here, we can go all out, without worrying about others or making a mess."
"So you've taken me to a place where it's just the two of us so we can get wild and make a mess?" she asks with a teasing grin. "Oh Axton, you're so bold~"
"I aim to please," I reply with a wink, but, reluctantly, I stop the flirting there. Instead, I activate [Void Drain], coating my hands in inky Void. "Your goal is to not let me touch you. I won't be attacking you back, except to try to touch you."
She raises an eyebrow, still teasing. "Cocky, aren't you? And trying to feel me up. I thought better of you Axton."
"Well, we'll see how you feel about me at the end of it," I say with a smirk. I take a step sideways and disappear, using [Void Travel] to reappear silently behind her, and my hands grab her waist, slowly draining her stamina. "Be careful though," I say into her ear. "My touch will make you weak in the knees."
"You-!" she says in shock, twisting out of my grasp. Her wings appear and she immediately takes to the sky.
"Good response!" I praise. She sends a small fireball at me, but it's slow and weak and I easily block it with my hand, absorbing nearly all of the magic and fire. "But you're going to need more than that!"
She responds with a firestorm and I laugh and dash away, my natural DEX being enough to outrun her attacks. With that, the fight is on.
"Tell me about your Sacred Gear," I ask Kiba. After my spar with Akeno, we exited the arena and I had her go do some light sparring with Rias, with both focusing on low strength attacks and trying to dodge the other's attacks. Then I went to find Kiba, who I found a slight distance away swinging a heavy-looking sword around.
"Sword Birth allows me to create any demonic sword I can imagine," he says.
"And how good is your imagination?" I ask him.
He looks surprised at the question. "Pardon?"
"Show me all the swords you've made before," I tell him. He still looks confused, but he does so.
One by one, different kinds of swords thudded into the soft ground, point first. But as it reaches a dozen, no more come, and I sigh. Four training swords made of wood, the heavy stone sword he was using before for strength training, four steel swords, and three magic swords.
"This is it?" I ask him.
For the first time since I've met him, he looks annoyed. "This is all I need," he replies.
"It's really not," I deny. I look at the steel swords. A katana, a longsword, a greatsword, and a more fantasy looking great sword that looks far heavier. Comparatively, the more magical swords stick out. Two of them were just hilts with magical effects in place of the blade, and the other was a fanciful saber made of red and orange materials.
"First off, I see that you're willing to go the jack of all trades route and not just focus on one type of blade to get better at," I point out.
"Of course," he says. "Every type of sword has its place where it shines, and with Sword Birth, limiting myself to just one type would be foolish. And there's no way I could settle on just one type."
"So why aren't there more swords in front of me?" I ask. "Because what I see in front of me does not cover all of your bases."
He frowns. "Do they not?"
"They do not," I answer. "First, don't bother with the heavy swords. You're a Knight, focus on speed unless you really need to reach. If you need reach, stick with something like a nodachi. You don't need a sword with a lot of weight behind it, focus on making it as sharp as you can instead. Thankfully, this still leaves plenty of different kinds of swords for you to work with. Sabers, short swords, rapiers, longswords, katanas, and swords like that. Always remember where each one shines and pick the best one. Use your phone to look up different kinds of swords used by different places around the world and why they used them. Greece, China, Japan, Europe, and Africa all are good places to start."
"You know a lot about swords," Kiba comments.
"I just think they're neat," I say. "So I've done my research. Something you should have done already. But it's never too late. Most of the time you probably will be using the same few types of swords as you'll mostly be fighting humanoid opponents. But sometimes you'll need to counter someone else's weapon type, and you never know what kind of sword will come in use then."
"I see your point," he admits.
"Second thing," I say before he gets wrapped up in his thoughts. "Those three are obviously magical, what do they do?"
"Flame Delete absorbs fire and neutralizes it," he says, indicating one of the bladeless hilts with ice forming on it. "While Fire Sword is made of fire and attacks with heat. Then Repression Calm absorbs wind."
"Let me guess," I say. "You already had the Fire Sword, and when you learned about the troubles Rias was having with Riser, you made the other two to counter the two types of magic his family is known for."
"Exactly," he says with a proud smile.
"So why did you stop there?" I ask, knocking the smile off of his face. "Why didn't you then make a sword made of air? Or water? Or one that absorbs water? One to counter and to use every single element you could think of?"
He blinks. "I- I didn't think of it," he says with a slight stammer.
"I can tell," I say. "Tell me Kiba, what goal are you chasing? What is it you study the sword for?"
His mood instantly sours, and his hands ball into fists.
"I have something I must do," he says. "I have to avenge my friends."
"I see," I say, making sure to make my own tone sympathetic. "I won't pry on what happened to them, but if that's the case, it's even more important that I ask you this." He looks up, anger still in his eyes, but it's not directed at me. "How?"
The anger is quickly replaced with confusion. "I don't understand what you mean?"
"If you seek vengeance, then what's your plan to get there?" I ask him, my voice serious and devoid of emotion. "Why haven't you done it already? What are your plans for overcoming the obstacles between you and your vengeance?"
"I just need to get stronger," he says, unsure.
"And what's your plan for how you're going to achieve that?" I ask.
"I…" he trails off. "I don't really have one. Fulfilling contracts as a Devil makes me stronger, as does my training."
"Those are passive, routine things," I say. "There's your problem right there though. You focus too much on the goal, the final objective. But you need to pay attention to the path to get to that goal as well. Don't just think 'I have to win this battle'. Think 'How am I going to win this battle?' and make it a reality. Don't envision just the goal, but every step of the path to that goal. Or else you'll end up mindlessly charging through obstacles as you beeline for the goal when you could just step around them. You need to think more about the present, and how to get to the future you want."
Kiba is quiet and contemplative. "I see," he says after a while. "You are right. I either get caught up in what I'm doing right now or I tunnel vision on a goal and act reflexively." He looks up at me. "Thank you, Axton. I needed to hear that."
+7 Affection with Yuuto Kiba
"That's what I'm here for," I say. I grab the steel longsword and buff it with [Void Edge]. "Now, the two of us are going to spar, and I want you to only use elemental magic swords. Every now and then, I'll destroy your sword, and at that time I want you to quickly make a new sword using either a different element or using an element you've already used differently. And I don't want to see any repeats."
"Yes, Axton!" He says enthusiastically as all of the swords but the Fire Sword and the one I hold disappear. He rushes at with the Fire Sword raised and our sparring session begins.
Almost an hour and over two dozen broken swords later, I leave Kiba to experiment with different applications of different elements and move on to the next person, Koneko. She's easy to find, I just have to head towards the sound of crashing rocks
I find her away from the trees juggling boulders larger than herself. As I approach her, I see her throw one in the air just in time to catch another one before it hit the ground, grunting with the weight of it. But she doesn't waste any time and throws that one in the air as well before dashing to catch a third.
This actually isn't my training method. I simply told her to do something to train her endurance, strength, and skill. Honestly, I wasn't sure what kind of training she could do by herself with the equipment we have, but it seems like she managed to get creative.
I watch her for a few minutes, not wanting to interrupt, and during one of her dashes I notice her finally see me. The next rock she catches she then drops onto the ground, and then does the same for the other two, before turning to me.
"Strength, control, stamina, and coordination," I comment. "You did a good job coming up with something. How's it going?"
She smiles just a little at my praise. "Good. I don't drop them as much anymore. Figured out the right height to throw them."
"I'm glad it's working then," I say. "Take a break from that for now. You and I are going to spar instead. Hand to hand. As a Rook, you don't need to fancy training or tricks. You just need to be sturdy and reliable."
She nods, taking a stance, but I hold up a hand. "I have a magic item that will put us into a copy of this place, that way we can fight without worry about making a mess. If that's fine with you?"
She pauses but then nods. I pull out the Game Board and pull us both into the same copy of this place I pulled Akeno into. All the traces of my fight with Akeno have disappeared
I turn to Koneko. "Now come on, hit me with everything you've got."
She looks unsure, but she lunges at me, swinging. It's slow, too slow. I calmly sidestep her attack, grab her by the arm, and swing her 360 degrees before launching her straight into a tree. The tree cracks when she hits it but doesn't fall and a small noise of pain escapes her lips as she falls to the ground.
I wince slightly. "I don't want to hurt you Koneko," I say. "But you're tough, I know you can take it, and you'll be hurt a lot worse in the future, in real fights." I check her HP with [Observe]. Good, not very much was actually missing, and already it was starting to heal thanks to Overflowing Health. "Better you get used to it now. But I need you to come at me with everything you have. I'm stronger than you think I am, as that throw should have demonstrated."
She nods and stands back up with a determined look on her face. Good.
"Tell you what," I say. "How about a little bit of encouragement?" She perks up a little, interested. "If you impress me, I'll make you something special for dessert tonight."
I can practically see the flames that light up her eyes and she launches herself at me, over twice as fast as last time. I laugh out loud at her sudden enthusiasm and brace myself to receive her.
"Did I do good enough for dessert?" Koneko asks as we exit the Game Board.
"Yep," I confirm with a pat on her head. "You did great. Especially at the end. Though if you want my super mega amazing dessert, you'll have to beat me first,"
Her eyes widen at the mention of an even higher form of dessert, and she brings her hands up in a determined fashion. "I'll do it," she promises.
I chuckle. "Good. But for now, go spar with Kiba. Focus on using that skill I taught you. And tell him to use non-magic swords but to try as many different ones as he can." She nods and dashes off into the forest, heading for where Kiba is.
Partway through our sparring, she noticed I was doing something weird. That something weird was me taking the chance to level up [Iron Body] some. I ended up teaching it to her as well since it's a useful skill for a Rook.
Next, I track down Atsuko. Which takes a little more effort because her goal has been to just do laps to try to train her stamina as much as possible. I find her a sweaty mess, pushing herself to climb the steep paths of the mountain.
"Why don't you take a break?" I tell her as a teleport next to her.
She leaps away at my sudden appearance before realizing who I am. "Ugh. Axtoooooon," she complains. "Don't scare me like that. My heart's already beating fast enough."
I laugh. "Sorry about that," I apologize. I take a bottle of water out of my inventory, still cold, and throw it to her. "Here, cool off a bit."
"Thanks, Axton," she says as she opens it before guzzling the water. She drinks about two-thirds of it before dumping the rest of it over her head. Unfortunately for me, she's wearing dark water-resistant exercise gear, so no transparent wet clothes cliche for me. Oh well.
Out of curiosity, I use [Observe] on Atsuko to see if her training has paid off at all. And to my surprise, it has. I almost miss it, because her stats don't show it, but her max SP has gone up just a little bit. Interesting. I guess stuff like that can be trained. That makes sense. Asia's MP is a lot higher than a normal person despite being a mundane human. It can't be based purely on racial modifiers.
"After you've rested up a bit, we're gonna spend some time practicing with your Sacred Gear and sparring," I tell her.
"I can finally use it?" she asks tiredly. "This running would be so much easier if you let me activate it."
"That would defeat the purpose," I say. "You can't get better if you don't work hard for it. That's why I said to take off the ring too, that'd help too much. Trust me, it's already paying off. It's small, but you've already improved."
She frowns. "Really? I don't feel very different."
I shrug. "Okay, so it's a very small improvement. Less than one percent. But for only a few hours of running that's pretty good."
She slumps. "Ugh, I think you mean four hours of hell," she complains.
"Well you're a Devil now, you should feel comfortable in hell," I joke. Her only response is to throw the now empty water bottle at my face. I let it bounce off, catching it and stashing it in my inventory. "Sorry, that's just how it is. For your sins of becoming a Devil, you must face eternal pun-ishment."
"Axtoooooooon," she groans, causing me to laugh.
"Alright alright, I'll lay off for now," I say. I pull the Game Board out of my inventory. "I'm gonna use this item to bring us to a place where we can train, okay?" She looks confused, but she nods. I push the button to bring us into the Game Board.
She looks around. "We're back at the cabin?" she says, confused.
"It's a mirror world," I say. "A copy of the resort and the area around it, but we can go wild and not worry about stuff getting broken."
"Oh okay," she says, accepting the explanation. I was counting on that. I assume she watches enough anime to be vaguely familiar with the concept. "So you're gonna let me use as many boosts as I can?"
"I might stop you if it looks like you're going to use more than is safe, but yeah, that's the idea," I answer. "Go ahead and put the Cloranthy ring back on and call it out."
"Okay!" she says, previous fatigue gone. She quickly slips the ring, which was stored in her pocket, back on and then raises her hand in the air.
"BOOST!"
I keep an eye on her stats with [Observe] as she activates her power. Even with just one boost, she's become the strongest Devil in Rias's peerage, though some of them have a stat or two that they specialize in that are higher than hers. That's mostly because of me. Leveling up in my party seems to give more stat points per level than leveling up outside of it. Atsuko has gained 46 levels while in my party, compared to the much smaller eleven levels Rias has gained. And doubling Atsuko's level puts her at a higher level than Kiba and Koneko, so it makes sense that her double stats would be higher as well.
"BOOST!"
Exactly ten seconds later and her stats increase again. Her base stats are all at roughly 100 so each boost is pushing her up 100 points. Now she's definitely far stronger than anyone else in her Peerage. I nod at her to keep going, and she does. Though in this case, that just means she does nothing and stands there for eight more seconds. We found that she can stop it at whatever point she wants, but by default, it will keep going.
"BOOST!"
Three boosts and still no noticeable drain on her SP. That means the passive cost is low enough for her to bear it easily enough. If she starts exerting herself, those costs might add up, as it seems it multiplies the SP costs of her actions as well. Still, we'll see what her passive limit is before we figure out what's practical.
"BOOST!"
Four boosts and her stats are starting to approach mine. Her CHA and LUK are already above mine even, but that's what I'd expect from a protagonist to be honest, especially in a harem anime.
"BOOST!"
Five boosts and now her CON is higher than mine, and her STR is getting close. Surprisingly, her SP isn't going down either. That's amazing. Even without true exponential growth, just a bit of training and a magic item has made her several times stronger than Riser. And no temporary Balance Breaker needed here. I wonder how much further she can go.
But as fifteen seconds pass, I realize the answer is that she can't go any further. Not now at least. A hard cap on the number of times she can boost then? Is that based on one of her stats maybe? It'd have to be CON or STR, right?
Well, either way, I can work with this. This is perfect actually because she's still a little weaker than me, so we can train more effectively.
"Looks like that's it," I say. "How do you feel?"
"Hmm," she muses while she hops from one foot to another and shakes her arms. "Maybe a little lighter?"
Atsuko Hyoudou
Level: 54[39%]
Race: Reincarnated Devil
HP: 3,090 (1,860 per minute)
MP: 2,880 (86 per minute)
SP: 3,141 (1,955 per minute)
CON: 618
STR: 624
DEX: 612
INT: 576
WIS: 582
CHA: 882
LUK: 732
"Is that so," I respond. "You feel up to a bit of a spar?"
She frowns. "Like, fighting? Against you?"
"We'll just use our bare hands," I say. "You may not feel it, but you're a lot stronger right now. I'm not sure your ax could keep up with your strength. But you're still not as strong as me, so it'll be fine."
"If you say so," she says, a little unsure, but she looks ready to go.
"I do," I reply. "Now, use your Iron Body technique I showed you whenever I'm about to hit you, okay? The more you practice that while getting hit, the more it'll improve."
"Got it," she says with a nod as she takes a fighting stance. It's a little sloppy, but she probably copied it from some anime or something.
I take a casual pose, my arms spread. "Well, come on then," I egg her on. "It's your move."
She narrows her eyes and lunges at me. She's fast, as fast as Freed was when wielding Excalibur Rapidly. But I've improved since fighting Freed, and I dodge out of her way easily. She growls as she whips past me, going far beyond where she was aiming at and having to scramble to turn around.
The first few minutes are spent like that. I focus on dodging as I watch her slowly improve her control over her new level of strength while keeping an eye on her SP. It dips down below max often, but never for long. It seems her regen with the Cloranthy ring is more than enough to keep her topped up even at five boosts.
Eventually, though, I attack back, making sure to clearly telegraph my attack. I see her eyes widen and just in time she manages to tense up before I blast her backward with my attack. I watch her HP and confirm it doesn't go down, meaning [Iron Body] activated before I hit her. Even with her low level in the skill, with this many boosts, the skill is really powerful, huh?
After that, the fight gets a lot more hectic. I start letting her land a few hits just so I can train [Iron Body] some, and I make sure to get plenty of my own in. I telegraph my attacks less and less until she finally can react almost instantly to my attacks.
Trees are felled and the cabin is torn to shreds in our battle. But even as things heat up, I can see equal parts joy and frustration in her eyes as we fight. The joy has been pretty consistent since a few minutes into the fight, and I take it to mean she's having fun. The frustration has been building up slowly though, and it spikes up whenever I block a hit from her with [Iron Body] or just dodge.
Her frustration continues to build up until another callout rings through the air.
"EXPLOSION!"
Wait, that's not- I dodge frantically to the side as Atsuko suddenly speeds up. Eyes wide, I use [Observe] on her.
Atsuko Hyoudou
Level: 54[39%]
Race: Reincarnated Devil
HP: 3,090 (1,860 per minute)
MP: 2,880 (86 per minute)
SP: 3,141 (1,955 per minute)
CON: 1,133
STR: 1,144
DEX: 1,122
INT: 1,056
WIS: 1,067
CHA: 1,617
LUK: 1,342
What the fuck? Her stats suddenly doubled. But her SP is dropping at an insane pace.
But there's no more time to think as she's on me again. I activate [Void Blood] and [Iron Body] and tank all of her hits, waiting for her to exhaust herself.
Thankfully, it doesn't take long. Less than ten seconds later her SP hits roughly five percent and another callout rings through the air.
"RESET"
She slumps like a puppet whose strings had been cut and collapses to the ground, breathing hard. I deactivate my skills and rush over to her.
"Atsuko!" I call out as I pick her up to hold her, "Are you okay?" [Observe] says she is, but it was scary seeing her collapse like that. And her SP is coming back slowly, slower than it should be.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she says, out of breath. "Just...tired. I don't know what just happened but it wore me out. I feel worse than I did after that one time I ran so hard I puked."
I breathe a sigh of relief. She sounds like she's doing okay. "I think you unlocked another aspect of your Sacred Gear," I tell her, remembering something about an 'Explosion' ability from the anime. "Sacred Gears at least partially respond to the desires of their users, and can evolve differently for each of them."
"I really wanted to beat you," she mumbles tiredly. "Didn't you say you were some kind of mage thief? It's not fair that you're stronger than me after I boost so many times."
I smile. "Only a little stronger than you, and that's because I'm such a high 'level' compared to you. By the time we're done training, you'll be stronger than me when you're using your Boosted Gear for sure." I pause. "Well, when I'm not using my secret technique that is."
She groans. "Of course you have some sort of secret technique. You're like some cliche shounen protagonist."
I chuckle at the irony of her saying that, but I don't comment. Instead, I just pick her up and bring both of us out of the Game Board. She startles a little when I do so, but she doesn't protest.
I [Void Travel] the both of us back to in front of the cabin and set her down on one of the tables out front. "You rest here for a little while, okay? That Explosion ability of yours made you a lot stronger, stronger than me even, but it looks like it takes a pretty heavy toll on your body. So I want you to rest here for at least an hour, okay?" Her SP will probably refill in less than ten minutes, but I want to be sure. I place a couple water bottles on the table next to her as well.
"Okay Axton," she answers, still a little out of breath.
I pause and then lean down and kiss her deeply on the lips. No tongue, but I hold the kiss, enjoying the feeling of her soft and warm lips on my own. She's a little surprised at first but quickly leans into it.
A few moments later, I pull back, and she's definitely breathing hard again. "You did a good job today," I tell her. "I'm proud of you."
She blushes at the sudden praise, and before she can respond I give her a wink and then [Void Travel] away to go find Aika.
I can't help but appreciate my Game Board and how useful it is as I enter it with Aika. It's an easy, free, secure, and convenient training ground.
As we appear in front of the mirror cabin, I turn to Aika. "The rules for this are simple," I say. "I'm going to try to approach you and touch you, and you have to prevent me from doing so. If you hit me with your Dark Missile spell, I'll back off for ten seconds per missile you've hit me with."
She frowns. "Are you sure it's safe? I don't want to hurt you."
I laugh, causing her to frown harder. "It's a little too early for you to be worried about that," I tell her. "We'll start by seeing if you can even hit me." Before she can react, I quickly dash behind her and reach up her shirt so I can place my hands on her bare skin, activating [Touch of Pleasure] at full power as I do so.
She yelps in surprise but it quickly turns into a moan. "Axton- what?" she asks, pushing down her pleasure.
"This is how it's going to go," I tell her. "Every time I touch you it'll make you more aroused. If you manage to hit me even once, I'll give you some 'relief' later. But if you don't hit me with one of your spells within an hour, you'll have to try again tomorrow. To make it fairer, I won't use any of my spells or skills."
I see her staff shift slightly as she tightens her grip on it and I back off as a bolt of darkness rushes past the spot I just was. Aika turns to me, a smile on her face but determination in her eyes. "I didn't know you were into denial play Axton," she teases even as she sends another dart of shadow at me.
"Oh you know, I just thought it'd be fun to try out," I answer casually as I sidestep the projectile. "Variety is the spice of life and all that." As she sends another missile at me, this one curving slightly in the air, I rush her, ducking under it and reaching her. She scrambles backward, but once again my hands find her thighs and caress them, driving up her arousal. "Besides, I figured this method would properly motivate you," I tease.
She dashes back and sends two missiles at me this time. "I'll show you proper motivation all right," she calls out, but I just grin. That's the first time I've seen her cast two missiles at the same time. They're smaller than her normal ones, but less than two minutes in and she's already doing new things. Proper motivation indeed.
"Go ahead and rest up for a bit," I tell Aika and I give her a kiss. "Read your grimoire, and practice that invisibility spell I taught you. Find something that'll help you out tomorrow." Unfortunately for her, she failed to hit me even once, despite how quickly she was spamming tiny darts of dark shadow at me.
"You were serious about that, huh?" Aika asks, pouting.
"We've got six more days of training," I tell her as I pat her on the head. "It wouldn't do for me to go back on what I said already. Not when it worked out so well today."
She sighs. "I guess," she admits. She looks up at me. "Can I give you a blowjob at least? I'm so horny I need something."
"As tempting as the offer is, I need to go help out Asia with her training," I say.
"How are things going with her anyway?" Aika asks. "You've been taking things really slow with her."
"I've been laying the groundwork," I answer. "She's a pretty innocent girl, but she's absolutely smitten with me. I've been trying to get her to realize that physical intimacy is okay and good and just a way to express love."
"You really do love all of us, huh?" Aika says in a soft voice.
"Of course," I assert. "I won't say I love every girl I've slept with, but those of you I call my girlfriends are more than just ways to satisfy my lust. Sure, I definitely do that too. But I care for each of you, and I'd do anything for you guys."
She smiles, and it's probably the purest smile I've seen from her. "I knew that I think. But it's nice to hear."
I smile back and kiss her on the forehead. "Then I'm glad I said it," I tell her. "But for now, study and train. There are trials ahead of us, and I want you to be ready to kick their asses."
She smiles. "Got it, boss," she replies. "And don't worry about Asia. I'll figure out something to help speed things along."
"I look forward to it," I tell her. I [Void Travel] away, leaving Aika to it as I go to where Asia is training. She's in a clearing not too far away from the cabin, and around her are glowing barriers of light.
"So they don't have to be attached to a person then?" I ask her, and she jumps in surprise. I note that the barriers stay in place though.
"Axton!" she yelps. "Sorry, you surprised me."
"My bad," I say. "You figured out some new tricks?"
She nods. "It's easier to attach them to a person, but I can do it like this too. But once I make them, I can't change them at all. Only remove them." She waves her hand and one of the barriers disappears.
"This could be pretty helpful in the dungeons," I say. "Controlling where enemies can and can't go is important, you just have to be careful about placing them too close to allies."
"I guess," she says without any enthusiasm before shaking her head and then facing me with a determined look. "No, I've decided. I want to learn how to fight."
"Are you sure?" I ask her. "You don't have to. Being purely a healer is more than enough."
"I want to," she insists. "I'm tired of always being so passive. I always just let things happen to me and bear with them. I want to be the one to decide my fate though."
I pull her into a hug. "Alright then. I'll start training you to fight better then." I let her go and step back. "Wasn't there an offensive miracle in that book I gave you?"
"Yeah but...it's hard," she says. "I've been trying it, but I can't quite figure it out. That's why I switched to doing the barriers."
"Well, keep working away at it in your free time," I encourage her. "But for now, choose. Sword or gun?" I pull out a Light Gun and a Light Sword.
She looks at them, thinking. "Can I try out both?" she asks, tentatively.
"Both is an excellent idea," I say, and I hand them both to her. She takes the Light Sword in her right hand and the Light Gun in her left. "The sword is more energy-efficient but more difficult to use and it has a much shorter range. The gun takes a lot of energy and some amount of skill, but it's strong at long ranges. You can figure out which you would prefer, or if you'd rather pick both and cover all of your options."
She nods and activates the sword. A blade of light appears, almost like a lightsaber. I step back from her and pull out a rapier from my inventory. She looks nervous.
"Are we going to fight?" she asks, unsure.
"Spar," I correct her. "And no. Not yet. I'm afraid I'm not a very good sword teacher. I know a lot about swords, but not much about using them. So for now, I want you to try to hit me with the light sword."
"But what if I hurt you?" she says.
"That's what using a weapon means Asia, an intention to hurt the other person," I reply a little harshly. "It's necessary at times to protect the ones you care about or prevent something worse from happening."
"But I don't want to hurt you," she protests.
"It's fine," I reassure her. "You know how tough I am, I can take some scratches. And you can always heal me up right afterward." I hold my sword up. "Besides, that's assuming you can hit me. And I'm not gonna make it easy on you."
That last point seems to reassure her the most and she nods. She takes a deep breath and gets into a stance. Like Atsuko, it's sloppy, but I don't really know how to correct her. I'll have to look into finding a sword trainer or something.
With a final reassuring nod from me, she timidly approaches me, swinging her light sword at me. No, not at me. Directly at my blade. So I don't move, and the light sword bounces off of my iron rapier. It seems that despite its looks, it's a physical blade, and certainly not one with the cutting power of a lightsaber.
She looks surprised when I don't move but I still block her swing before her expression shifts to sheepish when she realizes what she did. She swings again, and this one actually has a chance of hitting my arm...maybe. I take a small step back, moving out of its way.
We continue like this for a while, with her making sloppy swings at me and me blocking and dodging them. Eventually, she does seem to start putting her heart into it, and she actually tries to hit me. Her attacks would be more than just scratches if they hit me, though she doesn't go for anything lethal.
So I decide to take a risk. I don't dodge far enough for one of her swings, and let her blade cut into my forearm. It hurts, but it barely registers. [Void Blood] hurt far more to train, and no other kind of pain I felt really compared to the feeling of that skill backfiring.
Asia instantly freaks out. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry here let me get that hold still oh no I'm sorry I'm so sorry-"
"Calm down Asia," I cut her off, holding a hand up. "It's fine. This is part of training, and it barely hurts. See, it's already healing up." Sure enough, as I held out the wound for her to see and it's rapidly closing as my absurd HP regen heals me.
She hesitates. "You're not mad that I hurt you?"
"If anything, I'm glad," I tell her. "It means you're taking this seriously. As shitty and cruel as it sounds, if you want to fight, you'll have to get used to hurting others. To protect the people you love, it's worth it."
"O-okay," she says, obviously nervous. "I think I'm done with the sword for today though."
"That's fine," I say, not willing to push her right now. "You made some great improvements. Why don't we work on the gun now then? I'll go grab some targets and we can work on your aim a little."
After grabbing a few of the targets that Akeno left behind when she started her spar with Rias, Asia and I spend some time shooting those. Asia's aim isn't terrible, and it helps that the Light Gun doesn't have any kickback, but by the end of our one on one time it still isn't good enough for her to use it in the dungeons.
When her MP starts getting low, I decide to call it there. The sun is starting to set now, and it won't be long until night fell. "Why don't you take a break, study your grimoire a bit? I have one last thing to do and then I'm gonna start making dinner."
"Umm, actually Axton, can I ask you something?" she says, and I can feel the nervousness coming off of her with [Empathy].
"Sure, what's up?" I ask her, trying to be as casual as possible while wondering what would have her so nervous.
She fidgets, but I feel a mess of fear and disappointment come from her as she sighs. "Nevermind," she says. "It's nothing."
Was that almost a confession? That's adorable, I love her. Too bad she chickened out, but this is still great progress. Still, for her sake, I feign ignorance. "You sure?" I ask, and she nods. "Well, if you change your mind, I'll be in the cabin preparing dinner, okay?" She nods again, and I leave her.
I'll have to tell Aika about this soon, so she can factor it into whatever plans she comes up with.
I send a Doppelganger to go start dinner, but I have one quick stop to make first. My [Mentor] skill is almost maxed out, and while going over skills I could teach to people, I realized an important thing.
My Void related skills are off the table for just about everyone, but there is someone who I should be able to teach them to. Yua. As my familiar, she has a connection to my soul, and some of the Void carries over. I know this because her mana can't be sensed by others either. And now that [Mentor] is at a higher level, I can teach her more skills, and there are two that are perfect for her.
I find her lounging inside the cabin, absorbing the heat from a sunbeam coming from the setting sun. I smile as I watch her snooze. She's definitely gotten bigger since I got her, and she's honestly adorable. I don't have much time until my Doppelganger expires though, so I gently interrupt her sleep by poking her.
"Hmm?" she says sleepily as she gets up. "Oh, hi Papa!"
"Hey Yua," I greet her with a head scratch. "So you know how Papa can teach you different kinds of skills?"
"Yua can hang upside down from the ceiling!" She exclaims.
I smile. "Yep, just like that. Well, I've got two special skills I'm going to teach you now." Using [Mentor], I give her both [Void Sight] and [Void Travel].
"The first one lets you see anywhere you've seen before, and anywhere near there," I tell her. "Try looking back home from here."
She sits up straight and there's a pause as she activates the skill. "Ooh!" she suddenly yells. "Yua can do it! Yua sees home!"
"Good job," I praise her. "And the other one lets you teleport like I can. Try taking a step and going home now."
She immediately jumps to her feet and takes a step, vanishing without a trace or a ripple, like she just stepped behind a curtain that isn't there. Huh, so that's what it looks like when I teleport. Neat. My own use of [Void Sight] confirms she made it to my apartment and is currently running around there a bit. After a moment, she teleports back to in front of me.
"Yua did it!" she exclaims. "Yua appeared back home!"
"I saw," I tell her. "Now, do you want to know why I taught you these skills?"
She cocks her head. "So Yua can help more when hunting?"
I shake my head. "Nope. Well. Yes, they'll be helpful then too. But there's something more important. Remember what you said you wanted to do?"
She pauses and thinks for a moment. "Save kittens that are alone like Yua was?"
I nod. "Yep. Now you can look for them without having to actually travel around, and when you find them, you can teleport straight to them and then teleport them to somewhere safe."
She goes still. "Really?" she asks. "Yua can do all that?"
"Whenever you want," I tell her. "I can't take care of all the kittens you find, but I'll show you some places you can bring them where other people will help find them homes, and if you find someone who wants a kitten you can just bring them to that person as well."
+8 Affection with Yua
Evolution Stone added to the inventory for reaching 100 Affection with Yua
Familiar Stone added to the inventory for reaching 100 Affection with a Familiar
Familiars can now be granted access to your Inventory
Another Familiar Stone is appreciated, I was wondering how I was going to get another one, but what's an evolution stone? I pull it out of my inventory as Yua jumps around in joy and excitement.
Evolution Stone
Use on a Familiar that has reached their level cap to upgrade their race
Interesting. I was going to use a Race Change Potion on her once I had experimented with it a little, but perhaps taking this route would be better. At the very least, I can still use the potion on her in the future, but who knows if the reverse is true. It's better to see where this goes.
"One more thing Yua," I call out to her. "Do you want to get stronger? Right now, since you're a kitten, I can't make you any stronger. But if you use this item Papa has, you'll be able to, but you won't be a kitten anymore."
"That's okay!" she says. "Yua just wants to save other kittens. If Yua has to become not a kitten then that is okay with Yua!"
I smile at her and pet her behind her ears. "Okay then, hold still," I tell her, and I use the item on her.
A bright white light emits from her, obscuring her form. I can make out that her silhouette is shifting, but it's only growing slightly bigger. After just a few moments, the light dies down, and I take a look at the new Yua.
She honestly doesn't look very different. She looks like a normal cat still, just slightly bigger than she was before. That is until she stands up on two legs, and I realize what she's become.
Yua
Level: 100[0%]
Race: Palico
HP: 3,030 (61 per second)
MP: 3,030 (61 per second)
SP: 2,020 (40 per second)
CON: 101
STR: 101
DEX: 201
INT: 101
WIS: 101
CHA: 203
LUK: 109
If memory serves me right, Palico's are the cat-like creatures from Monster Hunter that aided the player. With Yua's focus on magic items and her backline support and utility focus, it's honestly the perfect race for her. Especially as she should have thumbs now.
I'm a little sad she didn't get the XP that she missed out on while training, but oh well. There will be plenty of XP for her from here on out.
"How do you feel?"
"Hmm," she says, looking down at her paws, which have definitely become more hand-like. "I can stand up like Papa now! And I can grab things, like everyone else!"
I blink. Her speech pattern has changed, she calls herself 'I' now instead of referring to herself in the third person. Well, I guess it's just a sign that she's maturing? Though it's impossible to guess her actual physical age at this point.
"That will be very helpful tomorrow when we go back to the dungeon," I tell her. "Now you can use wands in your hands. And guess what, now you don't have to get them from me anymore, you can pull them from the same place I put them in."
"Really?" she asks. Her brows furrow slightly, and I notice that despite how cat-like she still is, she's a lot more expressive now. She reaches forward and one of the wands I have stored in my inventory appears in her hands. A quick look through my inventory confirms he took one out by herself. "That's awesome!" she exclaims.
"Why don't you go explore some with your new abilities?" I encourage her. "Maybe go visit Momo? You're free to go wherever you want now. I'll tell you if I need you and you can teleport right back to my side."
"Okay!" she agrees. "I'm gonna go see Mama then! I'll see you later Papa!" She gets back down on all fours and runs off, disappearing mid-stride as she teleports away.
I feel my Doppelganger wink out of existence in the distance. Just in time, it seems. I [Void Travel] to the kitchen and take over the preparations it was in the middle of. It's been a hell of a day with a lot of things happening, and it's not over yet.
I reached two milestones for skills while making dinner. First, [Mentor] maxed out finally, opening up even more options for me, allowing me to teach party members five skills and not reducing their XP gain for those skills at all.
Second, [Cooking] passed level 50, and while the skill description didn't change, the next time I was scrolling through my inventory, I noticed that I knew how to use some of the magical plants and animal parts I normally use for [Alchemy] as [Cooking] ingredients.
Dinner is pretty much done though, so I go outside and start putting plates out onto the tables. Atsuko isn't there, presumably having gone back to running after resting. No matter.
[Sound Domain] at its current level only has a range of 55 meters. Which isn't big enough to contact everyone from where I am. But the sound I create within that range isn't limited to that range.
Amping up the volume, I use [Sound Domain] to shout an announcement that dinner is ready. Everyone arrives pretty quickly. Rias, Akeno, Koneko, and Kiba fly in, something that Atsuko and Aika will need lessons on soon. Aika and Asia arrive soon after since their practice areas aren't very far away. Atsuko is the last to arrive, running and sweaty.
Since we're out training and out in the mountains, there's really only one thing I could have made for dinner, and that's curry. I dole out a plate of it to everyone, including myself, and all of us dig. Everyone is sweaty and tired and hungry, so there's not much conversation. Just the rapid consumption of multiple plates of food. Even Asia has two plates, while Koneko asks for seven plates, and would have asked for more I'm sure if I hadn't run out. Once again, her stomach defies physics and prevents the existence of leftovers. Oh well. For dessert I pass out brownies, making sure to give Koneko two to reward her for her training session earlier.
After dinner, we transition straight into a strategy meeting. Rias has a folder with reports on all of the members of Riser's Peerage including their strengths, their fighting styles, and any known weaknesses. That last section is usually pretty blank. Unlike games, most normal enemies don't just have convenient weaknesses to exploit. Except for Holy damage, I guess, since they're Devils.
I only half pay attention to the strategy meeting. Rias has it covered and none of the information she's detailing is new to me. Instead, I'm going over my skill list. I have a lot of level 1 skills that either need to be combined with something else or trained.
First, I finally combine the skill I got last night with the obvious choice.
Skills [Green Thumb] and [Control Plants] successfully combined!
New Skill added
[Dryad's Aura] - Level 12(90%)
Control plants within a 12-meter radius around you. Feed them MP to make them grow. MP cost varies.
[Green Thumb] taught to Asia Argento has been changed to [Dryad's Aura]
Just the two skills in one, with no loss in power, perfect. And Asia's already been upgraded to the new skill as well. I'll tell her about it tomorrow in the dungeon. It could prove very helpful in the plant-filled Forest dungeon.
Unfortunately, no other skill combinations really jump out at me. I could combine [Hemomancy] and [Bone Manipulation] for some sort of flesh crafting skill or something, or maybe throw in [Speak with the Dead] and wind up with a Necromancy skill maybe, but none of those are appealing. [Hemomancy] I have vague plans for and I'm not really interested in raising the dead.
And my other level 1 skills don't really mix well with anything at all. So instead, I switch to cutting my palm with my knife under the table. I retrieved my Poisoned Sheath this morning, now primed with Ultimate Poison, and I use it to reapply poison to my knife so I can keep poisoning myself. I make sure to use [Sound Domain] to mute the actions though, so those with more sensitive hearing don't pick up what I'm doing. Koneko still looks at me funny though. There's nothing I can do about the scent I guess, even if I barely bleed at all before the cut heals up.
Using Ultimate Poison is actually a bit risky because sixty seconds of it is enough to kill me. But drinking a minor HP potion at around 50% health lets me ride it out without issue. And it levels the skill up fast, much faster than the safe methods I was using before.
Though only for the first one. After that, the skill levels up enough that the Ultimate Poison only deals half my maximum health in sixty seconds. At first, I'm confused about how a ten percent difference in the damage reduction done by [Poison Resistance] results in such a large change, but then I realize that the reduction happens before my natural HP regen reduces the damage done per second even more.
Four more applications gets [Poison Resistance] to level 80, which is where it slows down even harder. The poison is now barely doing any damage at all, and the skill is barely gaining any experience. But I have nothing better to do, and it's still gaining experience, so I keep at it.
Five more applications brings the skill to level 81, and after that, things come to a halt as the poison can no longer beat my natural healing rate. For a moment, I think that this is the end, but then I realize there's a way around this.
Still working under the table, if only so I don't distract the others, I whip up a Major Decay Poison which reduces my HP regen by 75% for nearly twenty minutes. I drink it and then stab myself with the poisoned knife again. This time the poison reduces my health far more, and [Poison Resistance] increases to 85 in one go.
I get the skill to level 95 before the poison starts only doing one damage a second, and in the nine minutes left on my Major Decay Poison effect, I barely level the skill at all, so I leave it there. My only options now are to find a stronger poison, somehow, or use an Ultimate Decay Poison to reduce my healing to zero. But I'll need more healing potions for that, so I'll figure it out later.
When the strategy meeting is done for the day, we move on to a couple hours of general training. Normally this would focus on training their stamina and magical reserves, and Koneko, Kiba, and Asia all do this, but I ask Akeno and Rias to teach Atsuko and Aika to use their Devil magic and how to fly with their new wings.
Rather than join them in their strength training, I retreat inside to grind more of my crafting skills. Partway through making more cloaks, I get a surprise notification from the Game.
+10 Affection with Serafall Leviathan
Where did that come from? Before I can figure that out, my phone rings, and sure enough, it's Serafall herself calling me.
"Hello, this is Axton's Potion Emporium, purveyor of potions and alchemical goods," I answer. "This is Axton speaking. How can I help?"
"They work!" comes an excited voice from the earpiece. "We just ran the tests and confirmed it, at least half the girls are pregnant. The other ones we'll keep checking, but with more than half of the girls already returning positives I'm sure we'll get positive results soon. And even if we don't, just this number of pregnancies is astounding!"
Oh right, that was still in question. That explains the Affection gain. "Glad to hear you're satisfied with my product," I say with a smile.
"'Satisfied' he says," she says with a sigh. "That's an understatement if I've ever heard one. Though I have to say, you've put me in a tricky position."
"If it's about how the Devil population is going to increase enough that it might threaten to spark a war between the three factions again, I'm definitely willing and looking into selling the potions to them as well to help balance things out," I tell her.
"Okay, good," she says, sounding slightly relieved. I wish [Empathy] worked through the phone. "How soon? Because until those deals are made, I can't do anything with these potions."
"Well, I'm a little busy right now, and for the next week, so I haven't been able to start making headway into things yet, so it's hard to say," I answer.
"Busy?" she asks, confused. "Oh, the thing with the Phenex brat. You're training Rias, right? Sirzechs can't step in too much for fear of accusations of favoritism which would cause a big annoying mess with certain factions, but I can step in and put a stop to that whole thing as a favor to you, and the worst that'll happen is that it'll get you a lot of attention and make it public why I'd owe you a favor."
"Nah, it's better for Rias to handle this on her own, even if I have to help her out a little bit," I say. "Besides, I don't really need much sleep. If you can organize a meeting between around midnight and 6am my time, I can be there no problem. And I have my own method of teleportation now, so it can be wherever. So long as it's on Earth at least, I haven't tried getting to the Underworld."
"Perfect, I should be able to arrange something soon," she replies. "Azazel and Michael are sure to be very interested and I'm sure I can get them to clear their schedule a bit. We can figure out prices later. Speaking of, I'm happy to say that construction on your new house has started already and it should be done in a couple days."
"For a long-lived species, you sure do work fast," I tell her.
"For what you're giving us, I could get it done by tomorrow morning," she says. "But since you're busy anyway, I won't rush it too much. I'll let you know when it's done and I'll give you a tour."
"Sounds like a plan," I reply.
"So this training thing you're doing for Rias," Serafall starts, changing the subject. "You'll be doing it for Sona, right?"
Her tone was mostly casual, but there was a hint of steel to her words. "Already planned on it," I reply, and it's the truth. "It probably would have happened soon if Riser hadn't pushed up the timetable for Rias."
"Good!" she says, voice back to cheery. "In that case, I'll let you get back to it. Don't have too much fun~" Before I can reply, she hangs up. Dammit, I wanted to ask her how she was liking the tablet. Oh well.
I go back to making more cloaks, and I'm able to make 200 of them by the time everyone finishes their training, getting my [Tailoring] level to 42. With how little each cloak gets me, I'm going to have to switch to something more complicated soon if I want to level at an efficient rate. Maybe once I get the skill past level 50 I'll get a better option.
Going back outside, I call out to everyone again and gather them all together. Everyone is sweaty and tired, and Atsuko and Aika are dirty from where they fell when trying to learn how to fly. I watched them with [Void Sight] while making the cloaks, and they struggled at first, but they can at least sort of fly by themselves now. Not very well, but they'll have time to practice more.
"And that concludes the first day of my training camp!" I tell them. "Congratulations to all of you. I know it's been tiring, but already you guys have made some pretty big steps forward. And this is just the start, we have six more days of this. But for tonight, you're done. Rias tells me that the bath is ready to go, and I'll be in a room nearby offering massages to anyone who's interested. Just a little something to help relax your muscles and get the most out of your training. Come one at a time either before, during, or after your bath, and I'll give you just the thing you need to be able to get a good rest tonight."
Most of them perk up at the mention of a bath and the massages. Aika and Akeno actually share the same look, a knowing grin with a bit of hunger in their eyes. Atsuko I can tell is distracted by the realization that she gets to bathe with everyone. Rias has an expression of curiosity on her face. Koneko looks a little suspicious, but from the way she's stretching, I can tell she's sore as well. Kiba just looks grateful, and Asia looks nervous.
"Should we come naked?" Akeno asks in a teasing voice.
"If you'd like," I reply easily. "The fewer clothes in the way, the better the massage I can give you. But come in as much or as little clothing as you're comfortable with."
"I'll take you up on that," she replies with a wink. Then they all head as a group to the baths, though Kiba goes into a small bath by himself, not going to the larger one where all the girls are headed. Ah, poor Kiba. Not that he seems to care.
I [Void Travel] into the room nearby where I already set up a massage table and all of the things I need, and I spend my time spying on the girls in the bath with [Void Sight] while waiting for the first person to come by.
Work done for the day, Serafall Leviathan teleported home to relax some. As a Satan, she didn't get much time to rest and relax, but recently she'd been making sure to carve out a bit more time for herself, and there was one magician she could thank for that. Axton.
She locked her bedroom door, something that wasn't necessary considering she was alone in her home and how many privacy and security wards she had up. She contemplated her new ally while she punched in the long security code to open the safe hidden behind the fake safe hidden behind a painting in her bedroom.
As soon as the incident with the rogue Fallen Angels had reached her ears, she had started researching him. A mysterious human that had magic that couldn't be sensed and casually took down four low level Fallen, but hadn't made a peep before then? That was suspicious, and someone suspicious near So-tan was no good.
But no matter how much she looked into him, nothing weird came up. Oh sure, his parents suddenly moving back to America and leaving him behind was suspiciously convenient, but she actually tracked them down and both were normal humans and showed no signs of mental manipulation. When asked why they were okay leaving their child behind in another country, with just a little bit of mind magic to make them answer truthfully, they cited that Axton was a mature and independent kid already, and that they were confident he'd be okay on his own. They were sad that he hadn't called them, but they figured it was just him enjoying his taste of freedom, and he'd call once he got used to things.
When she started pressing them about their knowledge of the supernatural, she was surprised to find that nothing came up. Nothing at all. They weren't magicians and had no clue about any aspect of the supernatural world. But Axton seemed comfortable in the supernatural and with his abilities, though he claimed to have no knowledge of Heaven, the Fallen, or Devils. Which wasn't impossible, but it was unlikely for someone of his skill level.
Watching him directly was much more helpful, though the most suspicious thing he did was sleep around a lot, including with girls that were members of her sister's Peerage. They seemed willing and even happy, and a lust driven teenage boy was pretty normal all things considered. Though she was never able to spy on him at home.
That was the other strange aspect of Axton. His apparent lack of magic extended to more than just not being able to sense his magic. He couldn't be sensed at all. Magic, life force, soul searching; none of those methods picked him up. It made it difficult, if not impossible, to target him with long-ranged divination magic.
It took her a long while, too long really, to make the connection to where she'd seen something similar before. At first, she refused to believe it, as the idea itself was ridiculous. But she did some digging into old records to confirm it, and the possibility was hard to ignore. Axton's abnormalities weren't unique and had been noted in one other person before. Or rather, one other being. Ophis, the Infinite Dragon God.
For sure, Ophis wasn't hidden as Axton was. It was true that it was impossible to sense her magical or physical strength, but she had a presence that accompanied her that made her hard to miss or mistake for someone else. And she had the same exact immunity to long-range targeting with divination spells, not that more than a handful of people had been foolish enough to try to spy on the Ouroboros Dragon.
There was another obvious similarity between the two as well, that was their Dimensional abilities. Ophis's ties to the Dimensional Gap, the space outside of reality, was well known, as was her desire to kick Great Red out of it. Though more details than that were difficult to track down and unreliable at best. But she was comfortable in that non-space that made up the Dimensional Gap and made it her home.
And while not exactly the same, Axton's pocket space and his newly revealed miniature training dimensions weren't totally different either. There was magic that could create pocket spaces of course, but what Axton did was different. It wasn't magic, and it felt otherworldly. It reminded her more of Ophis than the spells she was familiar with. If she didn't know better and didn't know that Ophis was alive and at her full power, Serafall would have guessed that Axton possessed a Sacred Gear containing the power of the Infinite Dragon, just like the Boosted Gear contained the power of Ddraig. But there was no way that could be the case.
She never did manage to figure how Axton and his abilities related to Ophis and the Dimensional Gap, if they did at all. Whatever the origin of his powers, she eventually had to admit that he wasn't a threat to her So-tan, and in fact, seemed to be a boon and a potential member of her peerage. It was as she was trying to come up with ways to help sneakily convince him to join her sister's peerage when she received a call from Sona, saying Axton could make fertility potions.
She hadn't even known he made potions of any kind, but apparently, he made lots of different kinds, though not in a huge number. And he had gone out of his way to make something to help solve an issue that he had been told the Devils faced.
The meeting that had followed was a whirlwind. Seeing the way Sona interacted with him, comfortable around him despite his mysterious nature, elevated him in her eyes, and that was when she decided to trust him. For now. Only for it to be followed by how effective the potions were and how generous he was with them, completely blowing her away.
She could instantly tell Axton hadn't really realized how valuable the potions were to the Devils. She didn't judge him too harshly for it though. He had just been introduced to her world, and it was obvious he didn't have any experience trading valuable items like that before. Axton acted confident and casual, but she'd been at enough negotiation tables to recognize a rookie.
Still, she didn't take advantage of it. How could she? A solution to her race's issue even more effective than the Evil Pieces, and obtained so cheaply? She felt nothing but gratitude to Axton. So when all he asked for was a house, she decided to discard that notion. A house? No, Axton was going to receive the best damn mansion she could make in a week, and whatever other things she could give him. Already she had started making arrangements for other rewards and forms of payment. She refused to let his generosity go unrewarded.
Though the most interesting part of the night had been after that. When Sona had actually flirted with Axton. Not that anyone else would have called that interaction flirting, but for her precious So-tan, it was quite the daring show. That once again caused Serafall to reevaluate Axton.
Serafall had never bothered to hide her affections for her sister, not really. She downplayed it sometimes or made it look more joking than what it actually was, but her un-sisterly feelings of desire for Sona had never been a secret. But it was one she never acted on beyond teasing, for one simple reason. It would make Sona sad.
Sona was a good girl, and she had very strong beliefs about responsibility and the proper way of doing things. So getting involved in a relationship with her sister, who was also one of the leaders of Hell, was something she wouldn't allow. In her eyes, it was improper, and the fuss it would raise about favoritism and inappropriate actions was something Sona wouldn't allow to come to happen. Serafall would have gladly put up with it, but she wouldn't put Sona through that.
It wasn't that Sona didn't like her at all. So-tan was affectionate with Serafall in her own way when it was just the two of them. Sona was just shy. It also wasn't an issue with her being a girl, or even with her being her sister. Serafall had spied on Sona's internet history enough to know that Sona liked boys and girls equally, and there had even been that one time she had looked up lesbian incest porn.
That has been a good day for Serafall, though her enthusiasm ruined it because she was too affectionate with Sona the next day, and Sona was smart enough to figure out that Serafall was spying on her. That day Sona increased the security on her phone and computer. That didn't stop Serafall, but after that Sona never so much as touched incest porn.
But Serafall was happy with just that much. The chance was there, So-tan didn't hate her, she was just too proper for her own good, though Serafall loved that part of her too. She had fantasized about different ways she could convince Sona anyways. Everything from secret trysts to changing Devil society as a whole.
But the way Sona flirted with Axton opened up a new possibility.
Convincing Sona to marry someone that she also married was a very old plan of hers, one of the first she came up with. Both of them being married to the same person opened the door to perfectly acceptable fun times between the two of them. But it had problems that were difficult for her to overcome. Or rather, one large problem. The person they'd marry.
It felt impossible for her to find a candidate that would work. Before Sona was born, Serafall was never very interested in romance. She'd had a few flings here and there, but that was mostly to satisfy her sexual urges. And then when Sona came around...well who could compared to the perfect person that was her sister?
That being said, she was willing to settle a bit for So-tan. But that didn't help much either. The type of person that they could both marry without kicking up a fuss, something Serafall wanted to avoid for Sona's sake, existed only in a pretty specific political level, and Sona wasn't interested in any of them. Or so Serafall thought.
Axton turned to be the missing piece she never knew existed. She had only looked within Devil society for a suitable candidate, she hadn't expected to find one outside of it. But Axton was perfect. Most importantly, Sona liked him, and the way in which he was introduced to the Devils and how he spent his days made the idea of Sona and Axton becoming an item not only acceptable, but perfectly natural. And the potions he could make and the importance he would play not only in Devil society, but the society of all of the factions put him at a high enough level of importance that Serafall falling for him was also totally acceptable. Surprising to all that knew her maybe, and her true intentions would be obvious to some, but there wouldn't be any fuss about it.
Not to mention that saying she was settling for Axton would be a bit of an exaggeration. His black hair, his sharp eyes, his intelligence, and level-headedness...well, if he put on some glasses he would almost be a male version of So-tan. Though Sona was way cuter. But still. He was cute, and she wouldn't mind sharing a bed with him, especially if Sona was there too.
Speaking of. She discarded those thoughts and finally opened the safe. Inside were three items. A picture of Sona having a wardrobe malfunction when she was picking out a swimsuit last summer, a dildo that Serafall had bought for Sona that Sona had only used once before throwing it away that Serafall had intercepted it before it could touch the trash, and the amazing and beautiful tablet that Axton had let her borrow.
Taking the tablet and dildo out, she closed the safe again and made her way to her bed, stripping completely out of her clothes, discarding them onto the ground. Already her slit was slick with arousal just from the anticipation she had. She laid down on the bed, head propped up on a stack of pillows, legs spread, and the tablet held with one hand while her other gently teased herself with the dildo.
She flicked the power button for the tablet and looked in awe at the thousands of videos, pictures, sound files, and even text files she had already saved, all of them focusing on Sona. Every roleplay situation she could think of, she found. Every night since she had gotten this tablet she had masturbated to the porn it made until she fell asleep, usually immediately post-orgasm, the dildo still inside of her. It was even better than spying on Sona in the shower and seeing her masturbate, something that rarely occurred.
She pushed the dildo into herself as her breath grew heavy. Just scrolling through the thumbnails of the stuff she had saved was enough to almost bring her to her first orgasm. She slowly pushed it further in as she scrolled through, taking in the sight of a naked Sona doing so many lewd things.
By the time she reached the bottom, she had cum once already just from that. But she knew from previous nights that once wasn't nearly enough. But something caught her eye.
All the way at bottom of the favorites were three images that didn't include Sona at all, but instead were just Serafall in skimpy versions of her magical girl outfit and covered in cum.
She grinned as she realized that they must have been something Axton saved. So he gets a magic porn tablet and the first thing he looks up and saves is pictures of her? She's flattered. Ah, but she took that away from him, didn't she? Well, maybe she'd send him some replacements later. She had a few outfits sent to her by fans that she hadn't ever worn but looked a lot like the ones in the picture.
Later though, she was busy right now. She had to decide what kind of Sona porn to look up tonight. Preferably something she hadn't looked up yet.
She paused. Well, it wasn't going to be just her and Sona, was it? Axton would be there too sometimes, and the idea of that wasn't bad. Maybe she should look up some porn of that?
Using the search function she quickly finds some videos of the three of them together. At first, she wasn't into it and watching Axton's penis go into Sona stoked feelings of jealousy in her. Right up until the Axton in the video pulled out of Sona and rammed his cock into Serafall's, the one in the video, throat.
The real Serafall instantly came, inner walls clamping tight around the dildo inside of her as her back arched. She understood now, the connection of sleeping with the same man. The thought of Axton's Sona-juice-covered dick ramming into her excited her like never before.
She frantically looked up more videos of the three of them together. Videos of just Sona and videos of just Sona and Serafall were good, but including Axton was also pretty appealing in its own right.
Finding a video where Sona and Serafall embraced each other and kissed while Axton switched between their holes, Serafall spent the next several hours fantasizing and bringing herself to orgasm after orgasm with the dildo that Sona once used.
Ahh, she can't wait for this to become a reality.
"Ahh, thanks for that Axton!" Kiba says as he gets up from the massage table clad in only his underwear.
+7 Affection with Yuuto Kiba
A lewd skill gem has been rewarded for Yuuto Kiba reaching exactly 69 Affection
My eye twitches as I try to keep my expression normal. I don't know how, but Kyu arranged this on purpose, I'm sure of it. "Sure thing Kiba," I say, voice only slightly strained. "This sort of thing is important to your training as well, any little bit that helps."
"You're absolutely right," Kiba agrees with a nod before his expression becomes more serious. "Thanks for helping us out Axton, it means a lot to Rias, and we all appreciate it."
I relax. It's hard to get annoyed when he's such a genuinely nice dude. "I'm happy to help," I say. Then I make shoo-ing motions with my hand. "Now get dressed and get outta here, the next person is on their way."
"Got it," he agrees easily, quickly getting dressed. A few seconds later he's gone, and I sigh. I knew when I offered massages that Kiba would be included in that, and it's not like I was grossed out by just touching a dude. But all I could think of is how much I'd rather be massaging any of the girls. Kiba, alone in the smaller bathroom, finished his own bath pretty quickly and got here first though.
Oh well. Now that he's out of the way, it's nothing but girls from here on out. Before the next person gets here, I quickly use the lewd skill gem I got.
Lewd Skill Gem Used!
Pick a Lewd Skill!
[Refraction Reduction]
[Alter Size]
[Imbue Tightness]
[Summon Appendages]
[X-Ray Vision]
[Lubricate]
[Clean Body]
[Seal Orgasm]
[Link Sensations]
[Phantom Hands]
[Bind]
Are there more skills on this list than before? Kyu must have added some. Looking over the list, I decide on [Clean Body]. Certainly not the most exciting skill, but in this training camp where everyone is getting sweaty and dirty, it's probably one of the most useful to me right now.
[Clean Body] - Level 1(0%)
Clean a person or being that you're touching. Costs 20MP.
That's pretty vague. Clean them of what? As a test, I use it on myself. I can tell there's a slight change. I guess I feel cleaner? Not that I felt particularly dirty before. And using it on myself again doesn't seem to change anything. Does leveling the skill even change anything? It's not like the cost can go down much more, and if there's a difference in how much it cleans, I can't tell. Though maybe I'd see the difference if I tried it on someone who was actually dirty.
I shrug. Since repeat uses of it seem to be effective in leveling it up, I just keep spamming it on myself. Might as well power level the skill.
It's then that the next person arrives for their massage, and of course, it's Aika. She's still wet from the bath and has nothing but a towel around her to protect her modesty, but as soon as the door closes behind her the towel drops to the floor.
I let my eyes roam over her body, knowing she's showing off on purpose. "You always manage to know exactly what makes me happy," I say. I indicate the table. "Go ahead and lay down though, and we'll get started."
She blinks in surprise. "Wait, you're actually doing the massages?"
I tilt my head at her. "Yes?" I answer, unsure.
"I thought it was just an excuse to get each of us alone so you could have your way with us," she admits as she lays face down on the table.
"Well. I might indulge a little," I admit as I run a finger from her thigh and up the curves of her ass. A small shiver ripples through her at my touch. "But no, for the most part, I'll be doing actual massages. It actually is helpful for you and it'll help prevent a lot of soreness tomorrow. The fact that it lets me put my hands all over beautiful girls is a plus, for certain."
"Uh-huh," she says, not at all convinced. "And you're not going to do anything lewd?"
"Not tonight," I clarify as I pour massage oil onto her back. "You can't rush these sorts of things. First, I'll just give everyone a really nice massage, get them comfortable with it. Then things will get a little lewder from there, depending on the girl."
"I knew it," she says. "It's a good plan though, I fully approve."
I laugh as I start rubbing the oil into her skin and activate [Massage]. "I'm glad. Speaking of plans, did you come up with anything for Asia?"
Aika moans a little as [Massage] gets to work on her sore muscles. "Hmm, maybe. How'd your one on one time go with her?"
"I think she almost confessed," I admit. "She chickened out though, and I didn't push."
"So she's already there huh?" Aika contemplates. "I might not need to do much then. Okay. Atsuko and I were going to drag you back to the bath after you finished the massages anyways. It's a nice bath and we wanted to relax there with you. I'll drag Asia along as well. Hopefully, we'll be able to show her what 'love' is like and encourage her to try it for herself."
"That does sound nice," I say. "And like a good plan. When I'm done I'll head straight to the bath then. You guys can meet me there." I move my way down from her back and start working on her legs.
She moans again. I'm not even using [Touch of Pleasure], but she's really feeling it. "Are you sure I can't convince you to ravish me right here and now on this table?" she asks hopefully.
"What are you talking about Aika?" I ask her innocently. "You didn't hit me in our little spar today, so no reward. You'll have to work a little harder for that."
She groans. "I was hoping you forgot," she admits, and I laugh.
"Just come up with a plan to hit me once, doesn't even need to be a good hit, and tomorrow night I'll fill you up with my cum right here on this table," I whisper in her ear.
"You're such a tease," she grumbles, but I sense a powerful sense of motivation from her.
I grin. "I believe in you Aika, you can do it."
I finish the massage quickly and finish it off by casting [Clean Body] on her, and then I cast [Erotic Dreams] on here since she's here. "There you go, you're good to go."
She gets up with a noise of contentment. "I might be really horny now, but that sure did hit the spot." She gives me a hug and a kiss, still naked, which I return. "Thanks, Axton."
"Sure thing, Aika," I say. "Akeno's outside the door waiting for her turn though, so go ahead and get going so I can get to her. I have a lot of girls to give a massage to, so I can't dally too much."
"Yeah yeah," she says as she picks up her towel and wraps it around herself. "Have fun~" she says with a wink before she opens the door and strolls out.
Akeno steps in, also wrapped in just a towel, with an eyebrow raised. "Oh? Is that what this is about?" she asks teasingly. "Are you just here to have fun?"
"I'm here for a lot of reasons," I reply easily. "Having fun is usually on there somewhere. But no, that was just Aika teasing. I'm mainly here to help you guys relax after training and have you guys fresh and ready for tomorrow."
"Mainly?" she asks, and as she does so she casually unwraps her towel, exposing herself in front of me.
My eyes take in the sight of her glistening pale skin, still wet from her bath. Her crotch is smooth, clean-shaven, and her tits are topped by erect nipples. [Lewd Scouter] says that she's at moderate arousal already. "There's a bit of selfishness in my motivation as well I suppose," I say distractedly, which causes her smile to widen.
Before things go too far though, I turn around and grab some massage oil. "Go ahead and lay down and we can get started," I say.
"You know," she says as I hear her lay down on the table. "Atsuko and Aika could not stop talking about your massages."
I turn around, massage oil in hand, and I cast [Clean] on her quickly before I pour some of it onto her back. "Didn't I tell you the other day?" I ask, referring to the day at the pool. "You wouldn't believe what I can do with my fingers." With that, I activate [Massage] and [Touch of Pleasure] and start kneading her sore muscles.
She lets out a soft noise of satisfaction and pleasure. "Mmm," she moans. "You're right, I wouldn't have believed it would feel this good."
"If there's one thing I take pride in, it's my ability to make others feel good," I reply as I work on her upper back.
"That must be why you're so popular," she comments in a relaxed tone. I move down to her lower back. "A girl could get used to massages like this every day."
"There's a reason I learned how to do this," I claim. "And it's not because I'm interested in a career in physical therapy."
She laughs. "So forward and frank," she says. "Not that I dislike that sort of thing."
I grin and move my hands down to cup the supple meat of her ass cheeks. "Me? Forward?" I say as I blatantly grope her ass, slightly turning up [Touch of Pleasure]. "You must be getting me mixed up with someone else."
"You-" she starts, but it turns into a moan as I squeeze. Her legs shift slightly, most likely unconsciously, and I realize that I have a pretty clear view of her pussy, glistening with arousal.
"I still owe you for that day at the pool, don't I?" I ask her. I let my hands trail down from her ass and down to her plump thighs, fingers tracing light paths as they went. My hands stop as they approach her inner thighs, and their position makes my intentions clear. "That offer is still on the table. And it looks like you could use it right about now."
She hesitates, and [Empathy] practically lets me feel the war of uncertainty and arousal going on inside of her head. I trace my fingers in small circles as I increase the power of [Touch of Pleasure] another small bit, and I feel as arousal wins out.
She spreads her legs further in clear invitation. "If you insist," she says, not letting a speck of her previous uncertainty show. "I'd like to see how much of you is all talk, or if you have the skills to back it up."
A challenge is it? Well, I'll have to pull out all of my tricks. [Erotic Pierrot] works on increasing her already pretty high arousal, [Increase Sensitivity] to make her even more sensitive, and [Touch of Pleasure] is increased to even higher levels. I don't go too hard on any of the skills. I keep it relatively low so it can just be explained by technique and the atmosphere alone. I don't want anyone below 100 Affection to know of my lewd skills.
As tempting as it is, I don't dive straight for the main attraction. I continue my earlier actions, and slowly trace a meandering path up her inner thighs with my fingertips. With all of my skills active it produces a powerful effect. Shivers run through her and I can hear a sultry moan escape her lips.
"So sensitive," I tease her. Before she has a chance to retort I run a finger along her wet slit, and whatever she was going to say turns into another keening moan. I grin. I enjoyed it when she was in charge and giving me a reach around, but turning the tables on her is pretty nice too.
I continue to run my finger up and down her entrance, pressing harder into her warm and soft flesh. I keep my pace slow though, taking my time. Unfortunately, it occurs to me that as much as I enjoy the slow teasing, we don't have that kind of time here.
So I spread her lower lips a little as I jump straight to inserting two fingers inside of her. I take it slow, gently spreading her as I feel her clamp around my fingers. Her moans increase in pitch as I push my fingers inside of her.
"There's a lot of pressure here," I comment as if I'm not two knuckles deep inside of her. "Don't you worry, I'll thoroughly massage it and clear that right up for you." Interestingly enough, [Massage] was still active and seemed to be working.
"Axton-" she starts, but she's interrupted by another moan as I start probing her insides. I explore her as much as I can, trying different angles, focusing on different spots, spreading my fingers as I slowly pump my fingers. It's not long before I find the spot that makes her continuous moaning sharply increase in pitch.
"There we go," I say gently. "There's the source of the pressure." I increase my tempo, focusing on that one spot. Akeno has given up on speaking, giving in to the pleasure as her moans and breathing fill the room. [Sound Domain] makes sure it doesn't go further than that though, which is a good thing because [Void Detect] picks up Rias approaching the room.
I amp up [Touch of Pleasure] and [Increase Sensitivity] even more as well as increase my speed, fingers pumping into her rapidly. A wet schlicking noise accompanies Akeno, and in what feels like no time at all I feel her clamping around my fingers as her back arches. I feel the spasms jolting through her as a scream of ecstasy escapes her lips, and I don't stop my fingering until her climax finishes.
+9 Affection with Akeno Himejima
After Akeno relaxes I slowly extract my fingers from her, causing her to shiver slightly. "I'd say that's enough to prove I'm not just all talk, no?"
"You certainly aren't lacking in talent," Akeno admits, already back to her composed self. She slowly pushes herself up, getting off of the table. I quickly cast [Clean] on both of us as I hand her the towel she was wearing when she came in. "The massage was very good too before you got distracted." She gives me a stern look. "I hope you don't plan on getting distracted with everyone else you'll be giving a massage to though."
I raise my hands in surrender. "Aside from Atsuko and Aika, you're the only one that seemed interested, which is the only reason I offered. I'm not the kind of guy to pressure the uninterested or unwilling."
"I suppose that's true," she admits, seemingly satisfied with that answer. Her expression turns teasing again. "Aika was in here before me, does that mean she received the same treatment?"
"She wishes," I say. "But no, she didn't manage to hit me during training today, and she doesn't get her reward until she manages to do so."
"Ooh, so cruel," Akeno comments, but her expression is one of enjoyment. "To think you would torture a poor girl like that."
I roll my eyes, but I'm grinning. "Oh yes, I'm the very picture of cruelty." There's a knock on the door. "And there's Rias, ready for her turn."
"I'll leave her in your hands then," Akeno says as she opens the door, towel not wrapped around her but instead held casually in her hand, leaving her naked for all to see. Rias, who is on the other side of the door, raises an eyebrow at Akeno's state of dress. The other girl ignores this and greets her casually as she walks past her, uncaring of her nudity.
"That girl," Rias says with a sigh, even as she steps into the room and drops her own towel, leaving her just as exposed.
"Go ahead and lay down on the table and I can get started on you," I say as I close the door behind her.
She does as I instruct, guiding her long red hair to hang to her side so it's not in the way. I wait for her to settle and get comfortable before applying massage oil to her back and rubbing it into her pale white skin. I have my skills turned off except for [Massage] and [Touch of Pleasure], the latter of which is activated at the lowest amount that I can, just enough to enhance the massage slightly.
Even so, Rias lets out a small noise of contentment as I start applying pressure to the tight spots in her back. "I had no idea you were a man of so many talents Axton," she compliments. "It seems like every day I learn something new about you that makes me want you in my peerage more and more."
I chuckle. "I pick up new skills pretty easily," I reply. "And I like to put enough time into practicing them to make them useful. Massaging is definitely one of those."
She hums in response but doesn't say anything, and the next couple of minutes go by in silence, the only sound being Rias's occasional sighs as I work my way down her back and to her legs. It's too early to start groping her ass, unfortunately. Which is a shame, because it's certainly very hard to ignore. Akeno's boobs might be bigger, but Rias's ass beats her out.
"You know, I'm really grateful that you're going through this much effort for me," Rias says. "In truth, relying on a Rating Game wasn't something I wanted to do. It's risky. But somehow I feel that your help is all I need to make it happen."
"It's not like I'm being entirely selfless," I point out. "Two of my lovers are part of your peerage. They'd get caught up in Riser's clutches as well if he got his hands on you. And that is something I can't allow to happen."
"But you let them join my peerage even knowing about Riser," Rias points out. "And you were looking for ways to help before even then."
Ah, right. I did say that, didn't I? Well, the better of Rias's opinion of me, the easier my life, so I'll just keep up the modest act. "Phrasing it like that makes it sound like I would have stopped them if I didn't want it to happen," I comment. "They may be my lovers, but I'd never control them like that." Not so heavy-handedly at least.
"But you don't deny that you were going to help me either way," she says with a smug giggle.
"I was exploring options, yes," I 'admit'. "Of course Riser ruined all that though. I understand the desire to pursue someone like you, but the way he's going about it is just gross."
"Someone like me, huh?" Rias says in an unexpectedly sad voice. What was wrong with what I said? Oh. That's right, she has that whole complex about people only caring about her being the Gremory heiress. I need to defuse this situation before she gets the wrong idea.
"I don't know if you realized Rias, but you are a very attractive young woman," I comment. I can't just praise her looks though, even if that's her strongest aspect. "You're also kind and caring, and you have a presence to you that makes people want to pay attention to you."
+10 Affection with Rias Gremory
She doesn't respond for a moment, but I see the tips of her ears turn red. [Void Sight] lets me get a good look at her face, where she's not bothering to hide her embarrassed expression. Laying it on thick was well worth it to see that look on her face.
"I appreciate the compliments," she somehow manages to say in a normal sounding voice, though I can feel the embarrassment coming off of her with [Empathy]. The conversation dies off again though, and I finish the massage without any more conversation.
As I finish up I cast [Clean Body] on her to get rid of any sweat or massage oil that might remain. "There you go, that should do it for you."
She gets up and stretches, giving me a very good look at her nude body from various angles. "Thanks a lot, Axton, I feel great!" she comments with a smile, just as uncaring of her nudity as Akeno was. But unlike Akeno, she wraps her towel around herself before leaving.
I have a few moments to myself, which I spend wiping down the massage table before Atsuko arrives.
"I kinda thought I would see you in here right after Aika," I comment as she comes in and shuts the door behind her.
"I got distracted in the bath," she admits as she strips. Unlike the others, she actually came here dressed. It seems that walking through the halls in just a towel is a little too advanced for her right now.
"Completely understandable," I say as I watch her finish getting undressed. She blushes a little at my gaze but makes no move to try to hide herself. "It must have been a feast for the eyes in there."
"Such a good variety too," she says as she lays down. I start pouring massage oil onto her back. "From Akeno's juicy watermelons to Koneko's cute little kiwis, and everything in between."
"Wish I could've been there to see it," I comment. I had seen it, [Void Sight] was a wonderful skill, but I'm not going to reveal that. Atsuko would probably just be jealous, but I'll keep it to myself for now.
"Well, you kinda will, won't you?" Atsuko asks. Her breath is getting kinda heavy. "You got to massage Akeno and Rias right?"
"True," I admit. "And those two certainly aren't shy about their bodies. They spent most of the time here face down though."
"Yeah but you get to put your hands all over them," Atsuko says wistfully.
"That was pretty nice," I say. "I don't think Asia or Koneko will come in here nude though."
"Hmm," Atsuko says. "No, probably not. I don't think Koneko is going to come at all. She already left the bath."
Damn. She's at 75 Affection too. "Well, no matter. This isn't just an excuse to be able to touch a bunch of pretty girls, I am actually doing this to help."
"You're so smart Axton," Atsuko comments almost sleepily as she relaxes under my fingers. "Coming up with a way to do both."
"It's all to gather the best harem," I say. "And just like these massages, my selfish desire also helps others. Like you, and your ability to also get a harem. Because I'm willing to share if it's with you."
"You're the best," she says with a smile.
Asia arrives and is waiting outside the door by the time I finish with Atsuko. Atsuko gets dressed and opens the door before suddenly spinning around. "Almost forgot!" she says before wrapping her arms around my neck and giving me a kiss. Surprised, but certainly pleased, I return the kiss. When she pulls back she winks at me and then turns back towards the door. "Sorry about that Asia," she says as she walks past. "He's all yours!"
Asia is blushing slightly as she enters the room and closes the door behind her. "Sorry about her," I say. "Atsuko's a great girl, but she's also a little scatterbrained at times. You ready for your massage?"
She nods. "Can- can I keep my underwear on?" she asks nervously.
"As I said before, you can keep as much on as you want," I tell her. "Whatever you're comfortable with, I can work with."
"But it's better if I'm wearing less?" she says, fingers nervously pulling at her clothes.
"The more skin I can massage directly, the better it feels, and the more easily I can relax your muscles, yes," I confirm.
She nods and slowly starts stripping out of her clothes. She came in dressed in her nightgown, so really it's just a matter of taking that off. I see her hesitate for a moment, but she shakes her head and then moves to lay down on the table. I guess that's as far as she's going tonight. No matter, I more or less expected this. I was hoping for maybe no bra, but oh well. I'll trust in Aika's plan tonight to help expedite things.
I make casual conversation with Asia while I massage her, asking her how she felt about how her training went and her opinions on all of the other people here. Safe topics to get her to relax as I worked on relaxing her muscles. Like it was with Rias, [Touch of Pleasure] is on at a very low level.
It seems to work. By the time her massage is finished, Asia is both emotionally and physically relaxed, and her mood seems much improved. I don't think she even cares anymore about being in her underwear and shows no signs of shyness as she gets up to get dressed again.
As she leaves, I start to pack things up, thinking I'm done for the day, but through [Void Detect] I feel Koneko head in my direction. Oh? Is she coming after all?
She enters the room a minute later, and I've made sure everything is clean by the time she does. "I wasn't sure if you were going to take me up on my offer," I say. "But I'm glad you did. Come in, come in."
"Kiba said to," she says. "He said it was important to training, and that you did a good job of it."
At just like that, any regrets I had over having to massage Kiba disappear. I'm sure that if he had Affection gain notifications, he would have gotten one just now. Massaging Kiba was a small price to pay if it means I get to massage Koneko as well.
"He's right about the training part, and I want to agree with the second part, but I'm biased," I joke. "Go ahead and strip down as much as you're comfortable and we'll get started." I turn around, giving her a degree of privacy to dress down. Or seemingly at least, [Void Sight] and [Void Detect] shows me everything.
Not that it's very exciting. She simply takes off her pajama shirt and shorts, leaving her in just a sports bra and a pair of plain panties. I don't think she needs the bra. It's probably there for the sake of her modesty. She climbs onto the table and lays face down. "Ready," she says.
I turn around with a friendly smile and wordlessly get to work. Koneko is shy, so I have to be on my best behavior, or else I'll scare her off. Thankfully, I'm well suited for subtlety. In addition to a slight [Touch of Pleasure], I also hit her with [Increase Sensitivity]. The goal is to make the massage feel as good as possible without making it 'ecchi', which might push her away.
It certainly seems to work, and after just a couple minutes of me taking it nice and slow, making sure to be thorough, she's utterly relaxed and making small noises of contentment. It's as I get to her lower back that I get a surprise.
With a noise that could almost be called a purr, two fluffy white ears appear on top of her head and a tail appears on her lower back. I pause, unsure how to handle this, but when Koneko doesn't seem to even notice, I shrug and continue the massage.
By the time I'm finishing up, [Empathy] reads heavy levels of contentment and happiness coming from her. Good, it seems like I did a good job giving her a good massage without pushing it into the lewd territory. What's most important right now is getting her comfortable with me. And her Nekoshou features appearing is a good sign for exactly that.
"You're all done," I tell her. She doesn't get up immediately, just relaxing for a moment later, but soon she gathers the willpower to start moving. Facing away from me, she gets off the table and starts getting dressed again. But as she puts on her shorts, they bump up against her tail, and she freezes.
She quickly whirls to face me, eyes wide, uncaring that she's still shirtless. I cock my head at her. "What's wrong?" I ask her, pretending cluelessness.
"You...aren't surprised?" she asks, unsure.
"By the ears and tail?" I ask, and she nods. "A little, but not really. Yua called you a 'kitten' the first day you met her and fed her. I thought she meant another cat had shared some food with her, but when I came to the club and you said it was you that had fed her, I realized that it probably meant you were the kitten in question. Which was a little strange, since Yua hadn't ever called anyone else a kitten before, but I figured something about you reminded her of a cat. So when those popped up in the middle of the massage, I was a little surprised, but it was more along the lines of 'Oh, I guess that's why'."
She pauses, processing my explanation. "That's it?" she asks.
"No," I say, and she tenses slightly as if bracing herself. "I also want to say that I think you look really cute with your ears and tail showing. You should show them off more often."
She blushes slightly and turns around without a word and walks out. "Koneko!" I call out to her, and she turns around. I point at the ground, where her shirt still is. "Your shirt." Her blush deepens as she walks back to it, picks it up, puts it on, and then stiffly walks away again.
I chuckle. Ahh, she's so cute. Too bad calling her cute didn't get me any Affection, but I suppose her Affection is a little too high for something like that to raise it. Oh well.
Massages done for the day, I clean everything up and head for the bath. I'm clean already, but a nice soak, while I wait to be joined by my girlfriends and my soon to be girlfriend, sounds pretty enticing.
The bath is technically an open-air bath, though half of it is still covered by a roof. The changing room is fully enclosed, and you exit it into a sort of patio area. There's a roof overhead and a floor underneath, and it's where all of the shower heads and mirrors are so you can wash yourself. But then you step out into the pool-sized steaming bath, and instead of a roof, it's just the open sky and some rather high walls. It's nice, and I spend my time relaxing and watching the stars.
I don't look back when I detect the three girls entering the bath to join me. Aika and Atsuko slip into the bath on my left and right respectively, just as naked as I am. I wrap my arms around their shoulders and hold them close to me, giving each of them a kiss.
Asia slips into the bath more timidly, a short distance away but still close by. She's not naked but instead is wrapped in a towel. Ah well.
"Hey girls," I greet all of them. "I didn't know you were coming too Asia, though I'm glad you did."
"I invited her," Aika says, playing along. "You said you wanted to relax, and she has a very soothing presence, so I figured her being here would help." Aika turns her attention directly to Asia. "Plus, you're cute, and I want to spend more time with you."
Atsuko and I nod in agreement, and Asia blushes deeper and lowers her eyes.
"This is nice," I comment, trying to draw the attention away from Asia just a little bit. Too much attention and she might flee. "I know you girls worked really hard today, so getting a chance to relax with you under the stars is nice." I move my arms down from their shoulders to their waists.
"You worked hard too," Atsuko says, moving to sit on one of my legs. "You focused on each and every one of us, helping us all. And none of this would have been possible without you."
"No, this is Rias's place, she would have trained you guys herself, and done a fine job of it too," I say.
"Not as good as you," Aika says, copying Atsuko by climbing onto my lap as well. Now both of them sat on my legs, their legs intertwining between my own, and their boobs level with my eyes. "But the point is, you worked hard too, and so you should relax too."
I make a small noise of agreement, but don't reply. Instead, I look over to Asia. It might be too much of a push, but I decide to risk it. "You want to come closer and join us in some skinship?" I ask her. "I'm sure I can fit you on my lap as well."
Unfortunately, I forgot to account for one thing. My own horniness. With both Aika and Atsuko on my lap already, combined with me just having done the massages where I fingered Akeno, I'm feeling pretty aroused myself. And it shows as I look at my lap and see my quickly hardening shaft.
Asia sees as well, and her light blush quickly turns a deep crimson. "I- umm- I- maybenexttime!" she stammers before quickly standing up and fleeing to the changing room.
I sigh. "Damn, pushed too hard."
"You might have had a chance there if it weren't for Axton junior making an appearance," Aika laughs.
"How could it not in this situation?" I ask them. "Especially after those massages."
"Feeling a little pent up?" Aika teases as she reaches down with a hand to lightly stroke my shaft. "Maybe we should take care of that?"
"Oh no you don't," I tell Aika, gently removing her hand from me. "I haven't forgotten that you haven't earned your reward yet."
Aika clicks her tongue in disappointment at being caught. I laugh, but my hand slips down to Atsuko's crotch. "You on the other hand," I say as I turn to her. "If you don't mind, I could use some relief, since it's just the three of us now.
Atsuko grins and answers by kissing me and straddling me properly. In a flash, she's lined herself up and lowered herself onto me, and we both groan into the other's mouth as I hilt myself in her.
Asia stood in the changing room, face burning. Getting into the bath with Axton had been hard, but she covered herself and all she had to do was not look too closely at Axton. That turned out to be a lot harder than she expected. It was like there was a magnet that pulled her gaze to his chest, and once there it was hard not to look further down.
She groaned as she held her face in her hand as she remembered seeing his...his thing. That was the first time she had seen one in real life. She'd seen it bulge in his underwear after they woke up, but she at least knew that much was normal for boys, she remembered one of the other girls at the church talking about it in hushed whispers to another one.
But seeing it out in the open was another thing entirely. She wasn't prepared for that. She was glad that it was Axton's she saw first, but she wasn't ready for the strange feeling it sent through her. So she got scared and she ran, but she regretted it now. She just wanted to spend some time with him, but she ruined it because of a perfectly natural biological phenomenon.
She sighed. It would be too embarrassing to go back in there though, so she decided to dry off and just go to bed. It had been a long day, and she wanted to put this whole thing behind her. But as she started to dry herself off, she paused, hearing something. It sounded like a girl, and it was coming from the bath?
She stood there, curiosity battling with her nervousness, but the sound of a girl crying out again gave curiosity the boost it needed to win out. She slowly approached the door to the bath, opened it up just a crack, and peeked through.
She had to slap a hand over her mouth to stifle the noise of surprise she made. Axton, Atsuko, and Aika were all out of the bath now, and she could see Axton…! She couldn't even put it into words. He was doing that to Atsuko, causing the girl to cry out in pleasure. Aika was behind Atsuko, supporting her and kissing the back of her neck.
A rush of heat washed over her as she watched. Atsuko continued to cry out as Axton kept moving. She could see flashes of his thingy before it disappeared from view in-inside of Atsuko.
Asia wanted to look away, but she found herself unable to. Heat continued to build up inside of her, pooling in her lower stomach, as she watched. Her breath grew ragged as the other girl cried out in pleasure. She knew what they were doing was wrong...or was it? They all looked so happy. Axton bent down to kiss Atsuko, and the look of joy on her face was one of the most beautiful things Asia had ever seen. Even Aika smiled at the two of them kissing.
Could something like that really be called a sin? Something that made people she cared about, good people that she loved, so happy? They weren't hurting anyone. She knew the church said it was wrong, but the Bible was so confusing sometimes. Maybe they misunderstood? There were a lot of men in the Bible with multiple wives, and more with a lot of children. So maybe this was okay?
Asia continued to watch the three of them pleasure each other, and her eyes widened as Axton sped up before Atsuko cried out and Axton stopped moving, pleasure written clearly on his face. It wasn't until he pulled back, and she saw his thingy on full display, that she realized that he had just….done that inside of her.
Did that mean they were trying to have kids? She knew doing that to have kids wasn't a sin, or else there wouldn't be people. But she also knew that it could be hard sometimes. And hadn't someone mentioned Devils having issues with that in particular? In that case, it would make sense to try as often as possible.
The heat inside of her was starting to get unbearable though, and she felt something running down her leg, so she tore her gaze away and silently shut the door. No, what they were doing might be okay, but spying on them was not. She was going to finish getting dressed and go to bed. Maybe reread some sections of her Bible. Surely the Church had misunderstood something, and she was going to try to figure out what.
I sit back on my knees, panting as I look at the cum filled Atsuko, but my attention is on our little voyeur. I had noticed her as soon as we started, and I repositioned us so Asia could get a good look at us through the door. Aika had seemed confused until I pointed at the door with my head right as it inched open slightly, and then she understood.
Luring Asia to the door was easy, requiring only [Sound Domain] and a [Void Sight] enabled [Erotic Pierrot] to raise her arousal at the right moments. And then, once she was watching us, I hit her hard with [Erotic Pierrot].
It had been a little difficult to split my attention between doing that and fully enjoying Atsuko, but it was so worth it. She was too far away for [Empathy] to work, but [Lewd Scouter] showed her arousal had increased to Moderately High, and more importantly, her Perversion is now just Moderate.
"She's gone," I tell Aika. "But she seemed to enjoy the show quite a bit."
"Well, it's not the progress I hoped to see, but maybe this is better," Aika says. She wraps her arms around Atsuko, one hand going down to her lower lips and spreading them, allowing a bit of my cum to dribble out. "Now, back to business. I know once isn't enough for you, and I want to at least watch as you fill Atsuko again."
I grin. "You don't have to tell me twice," I say. Atsuko's face lights up as I plunge into her once more, and she moans, uncaring of who might hear her. I kiss Aika as I thrust into Atsuko. I have a lot of grinding to do tonight, but that can wait a little longer. I just want to enjoy this for now before I get back to work.
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AN: And that's a wrap on the first day of Axton's Training Camp. Please view this as sort of the second half of the last chapter. And don't worry. The rest of the training stuff will be montaged, following the same schedule as the first day. I'll only show the bits where something interesting happens. I'm hoping to get the training stuff done in just a couple of chapters.
Also, RIP my dream of 'short' chapters under 15k words. I'm just not sure I have it in me. The Serafall PoV scene ended up like four times as long as I intended it to be, but I also wrote all of it in a very short time span, my fingers were zooming.
Find me on Discord, either directly(shifty-sword#6508) or on the Shiro Gaming Omniverse server(discord .gg/k3jTZB9), where I'm glad to answer questions or just talk about things.