PHYSICAL STATS
Strength [C] ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ (1/10)
Endurance [D] ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ (10/10) READY TO RANK UP
Agility [D] ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ (1/10)
Perception [D] ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱ (9/10)
Magic [D] ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱ (7/10)
Endurance ready to rank up. That was good. Once I pushed it over into C-rank, Wave Motion would hit even harder and I could sustain combat longer. But looking at the rest of my stats, I couldn’t help feeling like a character who’d dumped all his points into one build path and was now realizing the boss fight required sothing completely different.
C-rank Strength was respectable. D-rank everything else was not going to cut it against a Diamond-tier investigation.
SOCIAL STATS
Charisma [C] ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ (1/10)
Technique [B] ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ (10/10) READY TO RANK UP
Technique maxed and ready to advance. My mouth quirked into a smirk despite the dire circumstances. At least I was getting really good at one thing.
ACTIVE ABILITIES
├─ Wave Motion [Bronze]
├─ Treasure Sense [Bronze]
└─ Sensory Hijack [Silver]
Three slots filled. Three abilities that had kept alive this long. But here was the problem I kept running into: none of them hit hard enough for real threats.
Wave Motion was great for mobility and decent burst damage, but it ran on stamina instead of mana, which ant extended fights left gasping. Treasure Sense was utility gold for gate clearing but useless in combat. Sensory Hijack was my secret weapon for seduction and psychological warfare, but making soone taste strawberries wasn’t going to save when Cassandra decided to test my combat capabilities directly.
I needed sothing with actual stopping power. An ability that could make higher-ranked hunters hesitate before treating like a bug to squash.
The problem was acquisition.
Stealing abilities required three orgasms in a single session. That ant extended intimate contact with soone who had what I needed. And the people with genuinely powerful abilities weren’t exactly lining up to sleep with the lottery kid who’d been fat and useless three weeks ago.
I scrolled through my ntal roster of potential targets.
Belle had Treasure Sense, which I’d already stolen. Naomi’s energy projection was tempting, but she was Silver-tier at best, and I wasn’t about to drain my girlfriend just for a marginal upgrade. Aurora’s Sensory Hijack was already mine.
That left the people I hadn’t extracted from yet.
My mind drifted to two faces in particular.
Addison Baxter. House Obsidian’s resident goth psycho with the scythe manifestation ability. A-rank Reaper’s Edge that let her summon dual weapons, mark enemies with wounds that wouldn’t heal properly, and teleport short distances. Plus that Soul Harvest chanic that restored her mana from kills, making her stronger the longer fights went on.
That was a combat ability. Real stopping power. The kind of thing that would make dangerous instead of just annoying.
The other option made my pulse do sothing complicated.
Misato Aya. My squad captain who’d just cried in my arms and trusted with the secret that her entire family’s livelihood depended on the Davenports’ goodwill. She had so kind of clone ability, which I’d seen in action during the swamp gate. Multiple copies of herself fighting in perfect coordination. Tactical versatility that could turn any one-on-one into an overwhelming numbers advantage.
Both of them represented significant upgrades to my arsenal. Both of them were attractive enough to make the acquisition process enjoyable rather than obligatory. And both of them ca with complications that could blow up in my face spectacularly.
Addison was Aurora’s best friend. The violent, foul-mouthed goth with a lollipop addiction and no filter between brain and mouth. She’d threatened to use soone’s spine as a back-scratcher yesterday. Making a move on her ant navigating Aurora’s approval, Addison’s genuinely intimidating personality, and the very real possibility that she’d try to bisect with a scythe if I said sothing wrong.
On the plus side, Aurora had basically been wingmanning for weeks. The group chat ssages, the casual ntions that Addison thought I was interesting, the way Aurora kept steering conversations toward her best friend’s romantic preferences. Aurora wanted this to happen. She was practically building a runway and setting up landing lights.
Misato was different. She’d just had a breakdown in my apartnt. She’d trusted with her vulnerability. Making a move now felt like taking advantage of soone in a fragile state, which wasn’t exactly the ethical high ground I pretended to occupy.
But Misato was also the one standing between and Blair’s retaliation. She’d already sacrificed her relationship with the Davenports to protect the squad. If I could give her sothing in return... sothing that made her stronger and more capable of weathering whatever storms were coming then maybe that balanced the scales.
Also, she’d felt incredible when she was pressed against earlier. All that lean muscle and unexpected softness underneath the combat-hardened exterior. The way she fit perfectly under my chin like gravity had been planning this mont for years.
I groaned and scrubbed both hands over my face, trying to physically push the thoughts out of my skull.
This was exactly the kind of decision that got protagonists in trouble. Choose the strategically optimal path and risk your humanity, or choose the emotionally appropriate path and risk your survival.
The System didn’t care about ethics. It cared about points and abilities and keeping alive long enough to acquire more of both. From a purely mathematical perspective, Addison’s ability was probably more useful in direct combat. Reaper’s Edge would give actual killing power instead of just utility and psychological tricks.
But mathematics didn’t account for Misato’s tears soaking through my shirt. Or the way she’d lted into like I was the first person to hold her in years.
My phone buzzed with a new ssage.
Aurora: How’s our favorite milk vampire doing? Addison wants to know if you survived your captain’s wrath.
I stared at the ssage for a long mont. Aurora’s timing was either coincidental or she had so kind of sixth sense for when I was thinking about her best friend.
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