Broken Soul Part 5 (Patreon)

"You're trying to get stabbed, aren't you?" Ron asked as he stared at the collection of women's underwear spread out on one of Selena's chairs.

"It's not my fault that some of the goblin warlocks drop suspiciously designed gear," Myst argued, not looking up from the alchemy book he was reading.

Peter shook his head. "I can't see any of the girls wearing them."

"Neat!" Selena exclaimed when she used her magnifying glass to check the next set of naughty panties in the collection and realized they'd solve Taylor's ki issues with a bit of work.

"What did you find?" Myst asked as he glanced at the crimson silk panties the teen was waving around like she'd just won the lotto.

"Crimson panties of the Death God," Selena replied cheerfully.

"Death God?" Taylor asked, wondering if they were powerful enough to make up for the fact that they were practically transparent.

Selena tossed the panties to Taylor. "They basically drain the remaining life energy from anything you kill and use it to increase your ki at the risk of damaging your spirit roots."

Ron winced at the idea of trading his potential growth for a short term boost. "Which makes them worthless for the rest of us."

"They're also only usable by females which makes them worthless to Myst," Selena said as she went back to checking the clothes.

Myst sighed. "I always hated that quality in games, especially when it's a hair clip or something simple like a ribbon and the bonus is fantastic. It's like, yes, I'd totally wear a pink or red ribbon that protects me from every status effect in the world, no, I don't care that it's girly or whatever their excuse is."

"Final fantasy?" Akari asked as she walked out of the guest room in a sheer blue silk robe that clung to her curves.

"Yeah…" Myst trailed off as he glanced up from his book and saw Akari, suddenly glad that they didn't have the ability to transmogrify clothes or move enchantments because she looked fantastic.

"I wish I had my camera," Selena admitted with a pout.

"Yep," Ron agreed, not seeing a reason to lie since Akari obviously enjoyed the attention.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Akari replied with a grin as she walked over to check on the rest of the underwear with Selena, which just 'happened' to give Taylor and the rest of the group a nice view of her butt as she leaned over the chair. "Is there a limit on how much ki Taylor can get with the panties?" she asked, having heard the previous conversation through the partially open door while she'd been changing.

Selena pulled her attention away from the dark haired young woman and went back to checking the loot. "It depends on her reserves and her victims' reserves. The more ki her victims have, the more she'll receive but the larger her reserves, the more effort it takes to expand them."

Peter pulled his attention away from Akari and focused on Selena. "Is there anything the rest of us can use?"

"Sure," Selena replied as she tossed a pair of black underwear at Peter. "They're not as nice as Akari's robes or Taylor's panties of doom but every bit helps."

"Thanks," Peter replied, relieved that the underwear actually looked like bike shorts rather than panties. "What are they enchanted with?"

"They boost your stamina regeneration and have an always clean enchantment on them which should help with sweating," Selena replied as she checked a silk halter top. "Oh, nice, armor."

"How much?" Taylor asked, glad that no one from school would ever see her in the questionable underwear.

"Almost as much as Akari's robe, it doesn't have the training boost the robe has but it's decently solid armor, especially since you should be able to wear it with the stockings," Selena said cheerfully.

"You're having way too much fun," Taylor complained as Amy walked into the room from the main area.

"I'm aware," Selena replied with amusement as she handed Taylor the halter top and a pair of red silk stockings that provided a decent amount of armor to your legs. "I'm just trying to make the best out of a bad situation. It's like Mom says, 'sometimes you have to turn the demons into lemonade.'"

"That sounds nasty," Ron pointed out.

Selena stuck her tongue out at Ron. "It's a figure of speech. We probably have less than a week before some idiot decides to toss their weight around and someone ends up getting hurt. I trust my father to keep an eye on me but he's not god, which means there are limits. The stronger we get, the better off we'll be."

"What's the plan?" Amy asked as she walked over and sat down on the couch.

Selena turned to look at the healer. "You need to get stronger, which means sparing, Taylor needs to kill things and Myst could use the practice to dust the rust off his skills. I asked around when I was in the martial arts class. There's a training area that almost no one uses because it's uncovered, rundown and out of the way."

"I wouldn't mind testing my kung fu against some goblins," Ron said, knowing he'd taken out worse with his friends.

Peter shook his head. "I think I'll pass. I have a couple of potions that I need to check on in like ten minutes."

"We can wait," Myst offered. "It gives me a chance to finish the chapter and lets Selena finish checking the loot."

"That works," Peter admitted.

"Did you find any other training boosters?" Gwen asked Selena hopefully.

"Sort of," Selena replied as she picked up a gaudy looking tiara and tossed it to Myst. "The tiara gives a five percent bonus to training and has a two percent chance of causing enemies to drop questionable techniques when they die."

"Questionable techniques?" Ron asked,

"Not sure," Selena admitted. "My glass just listed the quality as questionable techniques, which probably means there's something wrong with them. It's also cursed so that you'll pick up the habit of shouting the names of your techniques and generally act like an idiot in an anime."

Ron shook his head, knowing his friends wouldn't let him live the habit down when he made it back. "I'd rather not have to shout the names of my techniques."

"Give me a second then check it." Myst used his purification technique on the tiara, half expecting it to break or get worse. "Anything?"

Selena checked the tiara and smiled when she realized that breaking the curse had improved the tiara. "The training boost is up to seven percent and you got rid of the annoying tendency to shout your techniques or act like an idiot. Just don't wear it in the shower, you'll start singing."

"I wasn't planning on it," Myst replied as he grabbed one of the cursed upgrade tiles and used it on the tiara, causing the tiara to change from a gaudy piece of shit to something that you might see in a movie or an art museum.

"Shouldn't the purification technique have gotten rid of that?" Ron asked.

"Apparently it's a feature, not a bug," Selena replied as she checked the tiara again.

"That bad?" Myst asked when Selena started snickering.

"No, just weird," Selena replied after she got her laughing under control. "You boosted the training booster to fourteen percent and the monsters have a ten percent chance to drop self destructive techniques when they die. Unfortunately, wearing it turns you into a weresheep."

"Are you serious?" Taylor asked as she pulled a spirit stone out of her pocket.

"Unfortunately," Selena replied, not seeing a point in turning into a mindless sheep a couple of times a month for the rest of her life so that she could get a minor training boost.

"Toss me the tiara," Taylor told Myst. "I want to create a weresheep before you break the curse."

Myst shook his head and tossed her the tiara. "Go for it."

"Thanks," Taylor replied as she used the spirit stone to create another spirit monkey. "Stay, don't move and follow Myst's orders."

Ron scowled at the monkey.

The gray spirit monkey glared at Ron then froze in place.

Taylor put the tiara on the monkey's head, unlocking a couple of abilities. She lifted the tiara off the monkey's head then tossed it to Myst. "Thanks, that unlocked some interesting abilities."

"Like what?" Myst asked as he worked on purifying the tiara.

"Regeneration, fluffy wool, the ability to turn into a sheep, a full moon trigger that works like a discount and a ninety percent reduction to damage from anything that isn't silver, fire or acid," Taylor replied excitedly, looking forward to having enough ki to use all the unlocked abilities.

"That's a lot better than I was expecting," Myst admitted.

"You should make some ninja sheep, no one would suspect them," Ron suggested.

"Makes sense," Taylor agreed, reasonably sure that no one would suspect ninja sheep outside of some disturbed people that suspected everything.

Akari turned to look at Taylor, reasonably sure she was just humoring him. "Since Peter needs like twenty minutes and you're going to grind your ki, can I talk you into playing with my breasts so I can share the points?"

"Do you think that's enough?" Taylor asked, trying not to blush and failing as she thought about running her hands over Akari. 'I'm just helping her out,' she lied. 'Don't overthink it.'

"It's a start," Akari replied with a shrug, fairly sure it would take a bit more than Taylor playing with her breasts to activate her talent but figuring it was a good way to ease Taylor into having sex with her.

"Let's try," Taylor said, hoping she wasn't making a mistake.

"Sweet! Can we borrow your guest room?" Akari asked Selena hopefully, trying to avoid having Taylor's first time be on a small uncomfortable bunk bed.

"Have fun," Selena replied as she gestured toward the door to the guest room, glad that she had a cleaning spell to make cleaning up easier.

"That's the plan," Akari replied with amusement as she headed into the guest room with Taylor.

"I'm going to check on those potions," Peter said as he headed for the door to the guest lab, wanting something to concentrate on other than the girls having sex in the next room.

Gwen snickered then followed Peter, wanting to pick his brain about some of the potions.

Myst used another cursed tile on the tiara. "Can you check this?"

"Sure," Selena replied as she checked the tiara with her magnifying glass. "Huh, I'm not sure if this is useful or sort of terrifying, it basically turns your ability to feel pain off and gives you ki every time something hits you."

"Sounds good to me," Ron said.

Amy shook her head. "Except pain lets you know when you've got a problem."

"You can always take it off to check how much pain you're in," Ron pointed out, knowing there were times when ignoring the pain was the only way to get through a mission.

"That sounds like a good way to get screwed over by shock," Amy argued.

"It should be fine once we have the staff's regeneration boosted to a reasonable level," Myst argued.

"Assuming it's perfect regeneration and you don't get something stuck inside your body because your skin healed over it before your body could push it out," Amy said, thinking about some of the things she'd see at the hospital.

"How much did it boost the rest of the abilities?" Myst asked.

"It's up to a sixty percent increase in your training speed and a twenty percent chance to drop a rare self-destructive technique when you kill things. It also increases the value of the loot you get by five percent," Selena explained.

"I should probably quit while I'm ahead," Myst admitted as he handed the tiara to his avatar so he could check it and test it.

"Probably," Selena agreed as she went back to sorting through the loot.

"How horrible do you think the techniques are?" Amy asked.

"No clue but I have an empty room and a goblin spell," Myst replied as his avatar put the enchanted tiara on then opened the door to a twenty foot by twenty foot room with a couple of tables. 'That works.'

Myst's avatar cast his chicken of doom spell, conjuring an angry looking chicken in the room on one of the tables. He put his magic boosting wand between his knees so he wouldn't overpower his next spell and cast his goblin horde spell, dropping the half a dozen conjured goblins in the room with the explosive chicken. He quickly closed the door, grabbed his wand and took a step to the side in case the goblins or the chicken blew the door.

His lips twitched into a sadistic smile when the chicken exploded with a whoomp and several of the goblin warlocks screamed. He stepped forward and kicked open the door when it started opening and blasted the first goblin that he saw with his wand, killing the unfortunate goblin with a blast of frost. He hit the next goblin then dodged when a different goblin tossed a spell at him. He backed away from the door and conjured another chicken of doom.

"This would be a lot easier if I had a minimap or something," Myst grumbled as he waited for the chicken to explode.

"There are probably ways to sense monsters," Ron replied, thinking about some of the animes he'd watched over the years.

"Probably, you'd think the sect would have a basic fact check considering they regularly summon people," Myst complained as his avatar checked the room.

"That would take work and they'd have to consider us people," Amy pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm not particularly impressed, but I guess everyone starts looking expendable when you can just summon more people to toss at the demons," Myst replied as he glanced over the descriptions for the three scrolls he found. "I found three scrolls."

Amy covered her mouth with her arm as she yawned. "Anything good?"

"That depends, how do you feel about setting yourself on fire to improve your electricity resistance?" Myst asked, fairly sure it would take a bit of work to make the technique useful since just preventing the damage wouldn't increase your electricity resistance.

Ron stared at Myst for a couple of seconds to see if he was joking then shook his head. "That sounds like a remarkably stupid idea."

"I'm aware," Myst replied with a smile. "It goes nicely with the second technique which lets you fake being a sith lord."

"Let me guess, you can electrocute yourself if you're not careful?" Ron asked.

"Probably," Myst admitted with a shrug, "but you also take half the electrical damage you deal which makes it nearly useless unless you have electricity resistance or a death wish."

"That sucks," Ron complained.

"Unless we can pick up the ability to heal from electricity or immunity, then it becomes a fantastic technique," Myst argued.

"What does the third technique do?" Selena asked, figuring it was something equally as horrible.

"It's a 'failed' flight technique that basically destroys your legs and permanently gives you the ability to fly twice as fast as you could run at the time you used the ritual," Myst explained, curious how the technique worked and if they could sidestep the problem with regeneration.

Ron glanced at Amy. "How long does it take to reconstruct a pair of legs?"

"No," Amy stated firmly. "I'm not reconstructing everyone's limbs, you'd need a decent amount of physical therapy and that would complicate things and might convince people that you're useless which might get us killed or tortured for secrets."

"The flight is a bloodline ability, you might be able to just copy it to everyone which means you'd only have to fix one person," Myst pointed out.

Amy sighed in frustration when she realized she was considering the best way to regenerate everyone's legs. "You're crazy, you know that right?"

"Sanity is overrated," Myst replied with amusement.

Selena pouted at Amy, doing her best puppy dog impression. "Are you saying you don't want flight?"

"I can't use my biokinesis on myself and my adaptation ability doesn't come with regeneration," Amy complained.

"That just means we need to find a ring of regeneration or a potion that can restore your legs," Ron suggested.

"We'd also need a way to share the technique," Amy argued.

Selena shrugged. "We can probably copy it down, that's how the cultivators learn everything."

"Fine," Amy muttered. "Let's assume for a second that I'm considering this little bit of insanity, I'm going to need a decent amount of organic material to replace the test subject's legs and we're going to need a decent potion of haste."

"I volunteer!" Ron said without hesitation.

"It needs to be someone that can take decent notes and can teach or record the technique and it can't be Myst or Selena, his talent would probably convert everything to mana and we'd get screwed and I'm not explaining to Selena's family that we let her use a dangerous technique that destroyed her legs without extensive testing and assurances that we can fix the damage."

"Yeah, I don't think they'd take that well," Selena admitted.

"Let's table this until we've had a chance to check into alternative methods of regeneration, we might be able to find a magical item that would just regenerate things and we could skip the annoying period of physical therapy. We also need to find a recipe for a haste potion," Myst pointed out.

"Seems reasonable," Selena agreed then went back to sorting through the loot.

"You should probably toss the spirit monkey into the treasure dimension," Ron suggested, wanting the creature to stop following him with his eyes.

"Sure," Myst replied as he reached out and shoved the spirit monkey into the treasure dimension. He put the ribbon he was using as a bookmark in his alchemy book, then set it on the table and stood up so he could stretch while his avatar finished looting.

"Speaking of treasure, what else did you find when you killed the goblins?" Selena asked.

"A couple of healing potions, three ever burning candles, an upgrade tile that works on minor talents, and a pair of gloves that let the wearer hit people from up to twenty feet away," Myst replied with a smile as he handed himself the bag of holding with the loot.

"Can I get the upgrade title? I'd love to upgrade my subtitles ability, it's annoying when I can't explain that I'm not actually ignoring people," Amy complained.

"Sure," Myst replied as he handed her the upgrade tile.

"You'd think they'd be familiar with the concept, we're not the first group or people to get summoned," Ron grumbled.

"I'm guessing they're just arrogant assholes but maybe they've gotten lucky with translation talents in the past," Myst offered, leaning more towards arrogance since they seemed particularly hostile about a lot of things.

"Neat!" Selena squealed when she found another pair of stockings that had a decent amount of armor and a decent training boost. "Do you want a set of stockings with a decent training boost and a minor force field?"

"What's the catch?" Amy asked as she examined the green stockings.

"You can't wear pants over them if you want the magic to work," Selena explained.

Amy rubbed her face in frustration then gestured for Selena to give her the stockings. "I'm not letting modesty or insecurity get me killed."

"Excellent," Selena replied as she tossed Amy a silk halter top and some panties that would help improve her armor rating. "That means you'll take the skirt the highest armor rating, right?"

Amy glanced at the short skirt that was practically see through. "Let me guess, it's the short one?"

"Nope, it's worse!" Selena snickered as she handed her the cheerleading skirt.

Amy shook her head then headed to the other guest room to get changed.

"Do you have anything I can wear?" Ron asked hopefully.

"There should be a couple of things," Selena assured him.