Chapter 31: My Future Job prospects have increased.[Release Version] (Patreon)

<You have bought [Draconic Claws Lv. 4] [Sundering Enhancement Lv. 4] [Enhanced Strength Enforcement Lv. 4] Your current SP is 7600>

[“Please hold still, Hestia. I have not done this is in a very long time, so you are not helping me by constantly fidgeting.”]

“Argh, Saori you’re being too rough on me. This is my first time, so being gentler would be appreciated.”

[“I still cannot believe that you have never tried it before, especially in a city like New York, where, I bet, there were enough opportunities available. Surely, coming from your background, your mother must have insisted for experience’s sake.”]

“Nah, not really. My mom… hup!”

[“Your clothes will fall off if you turn around. …Alright, please continue.”]

“… Haaaa, can you please tell me why we’re doing this?” I said with indignation.

[“Should it not be obvious? I need to see if the clothes I made for you is both aesthetically pleasing and comfortable.”]

Haaaa, this is my life now.

After having killed those wyverns and suffering a long-winded lecture from Saori about having the courtesy to warn your party members, whenever you intend to use an ear-exploding attack, we continued our operation “Make Saori an Assassin” for another week.

As our progress with the plan remained steady, Saori's level and skills have increased at an alarming rate, to the point she now was able to overpower me in my [Humanize Lv. 6] form if she empowered herself with [Mana Control]. Strength-wise, okay. However, it wasn’t as if she could ever catch up to my Intelligence or Mana.

He, haha!

[“At any rate, I think I know now how to tailor a dress to accommodate both your wings and tail. Do you have a preferred design for it?”] Saori asked after loosening her grip on me.

“A design?” I thought for a moment. “Nope, I’ll leave that to your discretion.”

[“Hmm, that is too vague to start with.”] Saori placed a finger on her chin, looking troubled. [“Could you tell me the appearance of your clothes or which fashion brands they belonged to you wore on Earth? I need a base to work with.”]

“Uhh, Iiiii… I don’t know. If I had them with me, I would show you them, but I just can’t remember. I usually just wear whatever clothes my mom thinks would suit me,” I admittedly honestly, not feeling like there was a fog in my memory. I just wasn’t interested in memorizing the brands.

[“Wait…? Wait, wait, what?!”] Saori eyes widened, bursting out in surprise. [“You never chose your own clothes?!”]

Why was she so shocked about this? Why were her hands shivering?! Was winter coming? Hmm, now that I thought about it, some leaves were falling down so maybe it was autumn?

“U-Uh, huh?” But Saori didn’t change her expression, causing me to smile wryly. “Whatever my mom thought would look good, really! And, whatever I thought was comfortable to move in. I mean, it doesn’t sound that bad, right?”

[“U-Unbelievable…”] She held her head with her wolf-like hands, shaking it in exasperation.

Huh?

[“Spoiled to that point… Do not worry, Hestia. In your mother’s stead, I shall make sure to educate your firmly about the importance of fashion!”]

“Huh? You don’t have to do that. I know good-looking clothes are important but is it that important?”

When it came to clothes, I preferred stuff where I could feel good while wearing them. Admittedly, all my Mama bought me were branded clothes or lesser known labels, but they weren’t the glimmering and gaudy ones some more narcissistic girls like to show off with.

We had the money, but Mama hated them, so I probably inherited that fact. To us, they looked terrible, but since I never bought my own clothes I probably didn’t know much about fashion in general. However, if I had the time to worry about this, I had the time to continue my idol practice or, you know, do my homework so my parents wouldn’t scold me.

[“How can an Idol not know what to wear. Unacceptable!”] Saori’s frown wouldn’t disappear as she continued speaking. She really was a fashion nut.

“Just hire somebody to do it for you. That’s what fashion designers or the backstage team is there for. You need a team to make a show.”

Everybody had their strengths. Mine wasn’t matching clothes together, though.

[“I mean, sure, that is true. No, wait, regardless, I am not your mother, Hestia. I will not babysit you on this, alright?”] Saori put her foot down while massaging her temples. [“Just think of it as widening your horizon. ‘Ignorance: the root and stem of all evil,’ as Plato once said. A bit dramatic, yes, but you need to communicate with me what you want to wear, so I can make it. How do you want the design of your dress?”]

I sighed in resignation and looked down at the mana-thread, one-piece dress Saori made for me. She made it using her [Mana Weave] skill by turning her mana into threads to sew. It was extremely basic in design, with nothing really outstanding on it.  At least, I wasn’t naked.

“Does it have to be a dress? Wouldn’t a shirt and jeans be enough?”

[“Well, you made a dress out of fire, so I thought you liked wearing them.”]

“Don’t misunderstand, I do. The reason for my flame dress was that it was easy to maintain with [Pyrokinesis]. A simple one-piece dress is less mana and concentration intensive than two separate pieces of clothing.”

My mana recovered fast enough, but I found it annoying to spend so much effort on something to protect my dignity. Considering the place we were in, overusing my Mana and potentially getting [Arcane Fever] before a fight would be disastrous. I only assumed my dragonewt form when I knew it was safe.

[“Ahh, alright. Well, to answer your question, a dress fits better with your wings and tail.”]

Oh right, I had those reptilian body parts to consider.

Saori mentioned how she thought pants and shorts would be cumbersome for me, since it meant I had to slip my super long tail through a hole every time. The underwear she was planning on making for me would have a similar problem, so skirts or dresses would be the best for me.

For my wings, she only needed to make a hole in the back, so whether it was a dress or top was irrelevant. However, as she was asking for my opinion, she was also waiting for these feedbacks to progress. In other words, she was sorta probing me.

Cunning!

Saori soon finished taking my measurements and I was free to move. The experimental dress she made for me wasn’t perfect, but it beats having to waste mana on making my own clothes.

[“Hestia, if I may ask you a question.”] She looked at my horns before asking her question. [“I have been curious for quite a while now, but how is it to have two horns on top of your head?”]

“My horns? Well, … they're heavy.”

What did she expect? If you thought of it, they were just two, heavy hair adornments that kept messing with my balance. They might look cool, but I had no words for how inconvenient they were.

“I tried sleeping on my back once but with my wings and tail, it makes sleeping painful. Sleeping on my side or stomach are my only choices.” I slowly massaged my wings, remembering how numb they were this morning. Turning my body around while I slept was annoying.

[“Oh, that’s why your mood was so ill this morning. Come, let my massage your tail.”] She pushed my body onto the ground and then took my large, scaly tail into her hands, slowly rubbing and massaging it.

When I was first reborn, it felt weird when I touched my tail and wings. The sensation was completely foreign and it was a bit freaky at first. I eventually got used to it, though, fully recognizing them as an extension of my body. Having my tail massaged felt a bit like having your legs massaged.

Mhmm. That feels so good.

Saori reached level 18 yesterday and decided to spend most of her SP on skill upgrades, which included investing some points to bring her [Humanize Lv. 2] to [Humanize Lv. 5], only stopping due to probably the same reason I couldn’t do it when I was a D rank.

It was, objectively speaking, a rather bad idea and I was against it, but to Saori, who needed to cook and sew a lot, she found the purchase worthwhile. With proper thumbs and a more accessible body type, she could cook up a storm and was able to start making clothes for us. Fun fact, her humanized race was called [Wolfkin], which meant there were wolf-like beast people in this world.

“Yeah, that’s the spot. Haaaa, so what other skills did you spend your SP on?” Wanting to begin a conversation, I asked her about her findings while fully enjoying this relaxing moment.

[“Those would be [Chant Revocation Lv. 9], [Physical Super-Resistance Lv. 1] and [Paralyze Resistance Lv.10], not including the skills that were high enough for the breakpoint requirement skip.”] She said without stopping her hands. Just like me, she had trouble speaking in her [Humanize Lv. 5] form, so she had to use [Telepathy].

“Ahh, I thought you would also go for [Arcane Corruption Resistance] but I guess those skills will help quite a bit.”

[“Well, I thought these would help me the most, while also accounting for the difficulty of acquisition, although, admittedly, I also wanted the corruption resistance. Oh, we should comb your hair before going to bed.”] Hearing that, I took out a wooden comb that I made from my storage and gave it to Saori, who stopped massaging my tail.

Compared to my other creations, it had a much more refined and smoother aesthetic. I put in a lot of effort to make this at a much higher quality than the utensils and dishware, as our hair absolutely required good maintenance.

Saori’s humanized form looked quite like a werewolf and her fur had the tendency of being entangled. We had to do it daily, otherwise, it would cause knots like with a long-haired dog.

“I’ll do yours when you’re done. Did you also notice the pattern among these upgrades?”

[“Deal, and yes, it was pretty obvious. While the SP cost for obtaining skills in the skill shop was completely arbitrarily, although I presume our natural affinity towards a skill does affect them, the SP costs for upgrading skills have been very consistent.”]

There was something I noticed every time I upgraded skills, and that was the cost of each upgrade. I never paid that much attention ‘cause it wasn’t that interesting, but my curiosity was piqued after doing that gigantic, mega skill upgrade session just before my evolution.

Since Saori was also planning to do the same thing, I asked her to check all the skills on her list to confirm it. What we learned was that while the skills in the skill list were priced according to our affinity for them, the skill upgrade costs were consistent between us.

A good example of the first point would be [Humanization]. Mine cost 1000 SP, while hers was only 700 SP, but do keep in mind this was with my [Bearer of Kargryxmor’s Blood]’s SP discount effect.

Without that title, it would be 2000 SP for me and 1400 SP for her. Doesn’t it seem a bit unfair for me? Why did she have to pay so much less than me?

Now, back to the point with the upgrade costs. We noticed a trend among the cost and deduced that there were three tiers of skills.

T1, included skills like the basic elemental magic and resistance skills.

T2, included skills like stat growth, enforcement, and capacity skills.

T3, were rare and hard to get skills, which included the advance and hybrid forms of magic. [Humanization], [Space-Time Magic] and [Chant Revocation] also fell into this category.

It seemed like the breakpoint requirements were affected by the tiers too.

T1 skills only had a breakpoint at Lv.4.

T2 skills had breakpoints at lv.4 and lv.8.

T3 skills had breakpoints at lv.4, lv.8, and lv.10.

Examples for this would be the skills [Evasion] and [Acrobatic]. I had to pay for the upgrade when they reached lv.7.

[“Your SP discount is undeniably an invaluable blessing. Without it, the amount of SP I would have had to pay would be ridiculous.”]

I nodded in agreement. “My title is a lifesaver but I’m a bit jealous that I can’t share your [Belzac’s Successor]’s skill proficiency gain effect. Mine are both too restricted.”

[“I agree, but imagine having access to the SP shop without your title’s effect. Such a wonderfully convenient title effect deserves my highest appreciation. Thank you, Hestia, for helping me cheat, hahaha!”]

While I appreciated the praise, she just glossed over my problem. The problem here was that Saori’s [Belzac’s Successor] increased the proficiency gain of all her skills, while mine only came into effect when I fought! Who was cheating here, huh? Not me, I say!

“Haaaa, in a way, whoever designed this system is a big weirdo. Oh, time to switch, Saori.” Noticing that my hair was feeling freer, I decided that it was time to do Saori’s

[“Alright, thank you in advance. What exactly do you think is weird about it?”] She handed me the comb and turned her back to me.

“Besides my healing spells and [Sanctuary], there isn’t a way for me to support others with [Holy Protection] or [Holy Strength]. These parameter boosting spells exist but isn't there an option to use these spells on others? I mean, wouldn’t you expect a buffer or debuffer ability in a system like this?”

[“I did not understand anything you said in the end, but I think I understood the gist of it,”] Saori said with a frown, reminding me how she had no experience with playing games. [“There are a surprisingly limited amount of skills and spells that directly supports your ally.”]

“Compared to offensive and defensive ones, yes.” I nodded.

[“I have a question though.”] Saori lifted one finger into the air before continuing. [“Are you sure there isn't a skill dedicated to that function?"]

“Of course, I made… uhhh.” Cold sweat flowed down my spine.

[“…”]

“… I’ll have my parallel minds check it.”

<Would you like to buy [Synergist’s Oath] for 300 SP? Your current SP is 7600>

<Synergist’s Oath: Allows the transfer of all current active parameter boosting spells on the owner towards a target. All spell effects will be removed from the owner and will be transferred with a mana blast towards a designated target. Effectiveness of buff applied to others = [Synergist’s Oath] Level / 10. Aiming required>

…

“[Synergist’s Oath] …” I mumbled.

[“Pardon?”] She twisted her body, turning her ears to me.

“I said the skill is called [Synergist’s Oath]! OMG, I’m an idiot.” I stopped combing through Saori’s hair and gave myself a facepalm.

Saori gave a short chuckle as I was rolling on the ground in embarrassment. [“Please, be sure of your answer next time. Hmm, [Synergist’s Oath] costs 1000 SP for me. Quite steep.”]

“Huh? That much?! That’s a 700 SP difference.” The skill affinity differences between us wouldn’t stop.

[“Well, considering your situation with that white mage thing you like to say, isn’t it perfect? It fits this Goddess of Light quite well when her [Holy Magic] is mostly supportive spells. Hehe, it would be an honor to be blessed by you, priestess!”] Saori said with a teasing smile as she bowed her head in fake reverence.

However, I couldn’t deny her claim. [Holy Magic] and [Sacred Magic] with a focus on supportive spells, [The Light]’s visible and hidden intention to boost and promote a supportive fighting style, and now [Synergist’s Oath] perfect synergy with all three of them. The Goddess of Light had 100% something to do with my natural affinity.

I mean, I had the option to evolve into a [Young Light Dragon] and what did its description say? It’s supposed to be a dragon focused on supporting its allies. And who was this dragon’s creator? Aurena, the Goddess of Light. Coincidence? Hell no.

Maybe the reason for why my mana was so high was also her doing?!

… Or maybe I was overthinking that part. I should probably stop, considering I already made a fool of myself. I guess I should go to sleep soon.

And so, we continued talking about various other subjects, until we were ready for bed.

<You have bought [Synergist’s Oath Lv. 1]. Your current SP is 7300>