Chapter 39 – The Conversation Continues
After a few seconds of silence, Vel had properly processed everything her father had just told us and asked. "If the amulet is what is truly important, why not just go bury it somewhere and forget about it, or drop it into the ocean? Why keep me here in seclusion with it? Why give it to me at all for that matter?"
"If it was so easy to hide the amulet from the world, then trust me, I would have much rather done that." Damien began to explain as patiently and understanding as ever. "However, the ancient elves who crafted them didn’t want them to be hidden away or lost to time. As such, they have a powerful enchantment woven into the very core of their magic that makes them seek out those with elven blood."
"Although anyone can technically use the amulets in the Crossroad as they were intended to be used, if they go without being touched by someone who isn’t at least a quarter elven for more than a couple of days, they send out a sort of psychic message, trying to lure elves to them."
"So, by letting me keep it in my possession, you have been stopping it from sending out that message and making others aware of them?" Vel asked, summarising the meaning behind what she was just told.
"That’s right." Her father nodded.
"Wait, what about the other six amulets, or keys, or whatever you want to call them?" I interjected so that I could ask something that occurred to me as strange. "Doesn’t the fact that keys send out psychic messages if elves aren’t in possession of them mean that the other six keys are out there somewhere being a potential danger? Couldn’t one of them easily fall into the wrong hands and spark the war you are so fearful of?
"You are correct, Evelyn. However, there is little that I can do to protect any of the other keys since I don’t know where they are and have no way of finding them. All I, no we, can do is protect this one and pray that the others are just in the possession of elves that don’t know what it is that they have."
"Speaking of protecting this key," Damien segued away from this explanation of the keys and the Crossroad, which was coming to a close, toward the second point he wanted to talk about. "In my desire to keep you safe, Velyna, I have been lax in your training and let you develop at your own rate. But if you are to be able to protect yourself and the key, which I have regrettably burdened you with, then this is something I will need to rectify. That is if you are willing."
"I am!" Vel enthusiastically proclaimed.
"Good." Damien nodded as the slight hints of a smile stretched across his face. "You can have the rest of the day to properly process everything I told you and recover from today’s harrowing incident. Training proper will start tomorrow morning, as soon as you wake up. I assume you still want to pursue a druidic class, as your mother did early in her life? I can’t help you as much as I could if you were taking a more combat-focused path, but from what I learned from your mother, I can still help you greatly."
"I do, but um… what about all the chores? I’m already doing a lot around the house. Will I have time to train and do the chores?"
Damien awkwardly shifted in his seat, like a child who knew he was about to get into trouble, as this topic was brought up. "Ah… That… You don’t need to worry about the chores so much anymore. I can help out more and I may have been making you do more than was strictly necessary anyway."
"What! Why?"
"I thought at the time that keeping you occupied with tasks and chores was the best way to keep you close to me and safe. I now realise that my thinking was wrong and I am sorry." Damien bowed his head, sincerely remorseful for his misguided actions.
"I… I… I…" Vel stammered and sputtered as she looked around at the kitchen, the sparkling clean kitchen that was pretty much always in pristine condition any time I saw it, much like the rest of the cabin was.
Every second that passed, Vel’s astonishment got bigger and bigger as she realised just how much housework she had done over the years that wasn’t really necessary. In hindsight, she probably should have realised it sooner as their cabin was pretty small and only had six rooms. The number of chores and work she did around the house, given its size, was actually quite astonishing.
"I can’t believe you did that…" Vel muttered as she glared at her father.
"I’m sorry, honey." Damien apologised once more.
"You mentioned training Eve and Saph earlier, right? I guess I’ll forgive you if you do your best to train them as well." Vel said as she eyed her father sternly, but even then it didn’t really seem like she was all that offended, just playing around.
"Of course, Honey." Damien smiled as a wave of relief rolled across his face. Apparently, he wasn’t actually all that skilled at getting a read on his daughter when she was playing around with him.
"I’ll fetch your slime friend in the morning and have them join you in your training. Eve, however, is going to be a bit trickier…" Damien trailed off as he turned and looked at me.
"How so?" Vel asked as I just gave her father a flirty smile since I already had a feeling as to why my training would be trickier for him.
"Um… well…" Damien blushed as he considered how to phrase his response. "Although I have some knowledge and experience to help train you and your slime friend, I’ve never trained someone with Evelyn’s type of class before. Apart from… doing the obvious, I’m not actually sure what kind of training would help Evelyn the most. Ah but, that’s only if you want to continue on your current path and not try and deviate to a martial or hybrid class."
"Oh, I definitely want to stay in the kind of class I already have. I’m having quite a bit of fun being a pervert, and I can’t wait to see how much more fun my class evolutions bring." I responded, staring deep into his eyes the whole time I talked.
"Yeah… So, I’ll need to give your case a think over and ask you some… stuff." Damien awkwardly shifted in his seat as he turned to his daughter. "Would you mind giving us a few minutes of privacy, honey? It’s not that I want to keep secret what I’m going to talk with Evelyn about, but I’d just be more comfortable talking about this kind of stuff if it was just the two of us."
"I see how it is." Vel playfully teased her father as she stood up and walked out of the kitchen. "But I guess I can do this one favour for you."
"No, Honey. It’s really not like that." Damien tried to reassure her, not realising his daughter was messing with him. However, Vel didn’t say anything in response as she shut the door to the kitchen, giving her father and me our privacy.
The big burly man let out a sigh and shook his head as soon as his daughter was gone. Trying my best to reassure him and maybe do something else, I quickly found my way over to the seat beside him, where I put a hand on his leg and said. "Don’t worry so much. Vel was just playing with you. She understood why you would want privacy for this kind of conversation."
As the last word escaped my lips, my hand was slowly inching over his lap, drawing closer and closer to the growing bulge in his pants. And what a bulge it was. Sadly, though, the moment I managed to get a feel of it, Damien pulled my hand away.
"Ah, there will be time enough for such things later, but I really do need to talk to you about some things first. Are you really set on following this path, continuing to evolve into more sexual lifestyle classes?"
"I wasn’t lying, I really am. In fact, I don’t think I have ever been happier in my entire life than these past few days I spent with you and your daughter. Something which has been greatly assisted by my class and all the things it has helped me experience." I answered as honestly and sincere as I could while still continuing to stare into his eyes and be as seductive as possible.
"You should know that the path isn’t an easy one. Having that kind of specialised skill set will rule out a lot of job opportunities." Damien responds, not quite trying to talk me away from my decision, but more so just warning me of what it could mean for my future.
"If you're trying to warn me that with a class like a pervert, most people will just think I’m a prostitute or a whore who sells themselves for money, I don’t mind what others think about me. In fact, I’ve even thought of entering that line of work recently. It would certainly be a good way of getting skill ranks and levels. Not to mention that the idea of having that much sex intrigues me. If it’s not actually to my liking though, I can always find a different line of work, but I would still want to follow the path this class has led me down."
"Most in that line of work prefer to be called something like sex workers or escorts. The term prostitute is okayish in some places, but few would take kindly to the term whore. It’s rather… outdated." Damien kindly corrected me, which I actually found a little amusing. Who would have thought that this kind of world, with swords, magic and skills being commonplace, would have the same kind of sensibilities as modern Earth? At least in this regard that is.
"In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with that line of work either. Some might have a problem with it, but many, me included, don’t." Damien continued. "In fact, Velyna’s mother was actually a sex worker later in life. Kehlana even evolved her class away from the more druidic-focused classes to a class called nature’s companion during her 3rd class evolution."
Oh, wow. She must have been at quite a high level to reach that point. Given that the 1st class evolution happens at level 10 and the 2nd at level 30, if that trend continues, it means that Vel’s mother must have been at least level 60 when she died.
"That said, I knew little of that part of Kehlana's class, especially compared to the druidic part. So, if I’m to have a better understanding of how to help and train you, I’m going to need to know some more information. Do you mind if I take another look at your status screen?" Damien asked, as was the polite thing to do, even though he could have just used his identify skill on me and there would have been nothing I could have done to stop him.
"Go right ahead," I answered, as I pulled up my status screen at the same time so that I could see what he was seeing.
Name: Evelyn Hart
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Class: Pervert
Level: 9
Might: 10
Agility: 10
Vitality: 25
Intellect: 10
Willpower: 10
Charm: 40
Class Skills:
Freshen Up, Rank 4
Fascinate, Rank 4
Sense Gaze, Rank 4
Stimulate, Rank 4
Tight Fit, Rank 3
General Skills:
Cunnilingus, Rank 5
Kissing, Rank 7
Sensual Massage, Rank 14
Sex Toys, Rank 7
Vaginal Intercourse, Rank 5
Traits:
Blessed By An Angel
Monster Lover
"What in the hell, Evelyn!" Damien exclaimed, reminding me that I had completely forgotten about how his daughter reacted when she found out just how quickly I was growing. "How have you grown so much since the last time I identified you? You’re level 9 already, and your skill ranks… You even earned another trait!"
"Vel had a similar reaction when she found out my level, but she didn’t know how fast people usually level up, only her own experience, which was about a year and a half to get to where I have gotten to if I remember correctly. So, how fast am I actually levelling compared to normal people?"
"Mind-boggling fast!" Damien stared at me with his jaw dropped as he said this. "It takes the average person about six months to reach their 1st class evolution. However, not everyone levels at the same pace. It’s not an officially recognised thing by the system, but scholars and philosophers believe that each individual person has their own growth potential that rises and falls as they level."
"I personally was considered a once-in-a-lifetime talent because I managed to reach my 1st class evolution after just two weeks, but this is even more insane. Not to mention that some of your general skills are actually quite high. Rank 15, which sensual massage is one rank away from, is actually what is recommended to have general skills at for the 2nd class evolution, which usually takes four or five years to get to."
"From what I have gathered, my general skills, which I have previous experience with from my life on Earth, initially level up a little bit faster." I casually explained to him. "Oh, and the pervert class comes with a 100% bonus to the growth of sexual skills and a 50% malice to the growth of combat skills, which is helping in this regard."
"Oh, Gods above. You never cease to amaze me, Evelyn." Damien shook his head, unable to truly comprehend how someone could get as lucky as me. "Those kinds of bonuses aren’t the kind that a tier 0 class should have. The only time classes normally start to have skill growth bonuses is at tier 3, which is when classes normally become more personalised, not that your class is even beholden to that."
"I don’t understand. What do you mean by that?"
"From what I can tell, pervert is already a personalised class. The name is really what gives it away. Most tier 0 classes don’t have that kind of name. Instead, they are things like, commoner, noble, merchant, fighter, or in cases similar to yours, prostitute. Having a class called pervert at your tier would be like someone having a class called idiot, or muscular."
"The name of a class usually describes what you do, not what you personally are. But that can change at higher tiers, as class becomes more personalised. Take Kehlana’s tier 3 class, for example. At that point in her life, being nature’s companion wasn’t just something she did, but who she was at a fundamental level. Despite being only tier 0, somehow the same is true for you."
"Are personalised classes stronger than non-personalised ones, though?"
"They are not necessarily stronger, but they are the best kind of class for each individual person to take as the skills and bonuses they offer are tailored to you. Where more generic classes, like fighters, have fixed skills they offer, that always do the same thing no matter who takes them, any two people who take a similarly worded personalised class will never receive the same class skills."
"Cool," I nodded along, after properly taking in what I was being told. "So, I should definitely take a personalised class if it’s offered to me during my next class evolution."
"For the most part, yes," Damien answered as he continued to stare at my status screen in disbelief. Occasionally, he would even shake his head and let out a slight sigh. "Of course, there are some expectations as you should never take a class if you don’t like the sound of it, even if it is personalised or a high rarity. Speaking of which, with such high skill ranks and stat scores, you are more than ready to take your class evolution when you receive the prompt once you reach the end of level 10. However, considering your bonuses to skill growth, it might be worth it to spend a little more time at level 10 and not just immediately evolve your class."
"Right, Vel, mention that you had her stay at level 10 to get her skill ranks up before evolving her class. What rank would you recommend I get my skills to if I wanted to get a rare tier 1 class?"
Damien paused and rubbed his chin after hearing my question, taking a few long moments to consider the possibilities. "You should aim for class skills at rank 5 and general skills at rank 10. Of course, there’s no given rank for this kind of thing as it’s nearly unheard of to get a rare tier 1 class, but as high as possible would be your best bet. Still, though, you don’t want to spend too long a time at level 10, as all the experience you earn while postponing your class evolution is wasted. However, a little delay before evolving your class wouldn’t be too bad for you as your fast levelling pace would more than make up for the delay."
"Oh, and how would you suggest I level my skills…" I trailed off suggestively as I slowly moved my hand back down to his leg.
Damien, as absorbed in my status screen as he was, didn’t at all react to my forward suggestion. Instead, he took my question at face value. "I wouldn’t normally recommend telling someone you don’t trust this for the same reason I told you not to share your class' rarity, but if you want my help to think up the best ways to train your skills, it would probably be best if you told me what each of your class skills and traits did. Oh, and what does the description of your general skills say?"
As I pulled up the necessary system screen to read from so that I could tell Damien the information he requested, I let out a disappointed sigh over the fact that the man was too focused on the task at hand to even think about fucking me.