A Sinner’s Chance

Ellie and I were laying extremely close to one another on the padded table that was just slightly too small to fit us both comfortably. A sheen of sweat covered our bodies as our heavy panting slowly calmed down. I wasn't sure what time it was or how long we had been at it as there were neither a clock nor windows in this room and the room was soundproof as no one wanted the pained screams of clients alarming the other Adventurers, so we were unable to hear if the city bell had tolled. 

After my breath had calmed I focused and brought up my Status, I wanted to confirm the removal of Pain Nullification and what change had taken place with Essence Drain.

Pain Nullification had indeed been removed and it seemed that Essence Drain had evolved into Essence Sharing, which I used Vision of Seshat on.

'Essence Sharing: A rare Skill developed by Succubi and other Lust demons. Allows the user to share mana and vitality with their partner to increase the length of sessions, usually to fully drain a victim. Retains ability to solely drain a victim. Combos with Seduction to share pleasure and arousal.'

It was about what I had expected though the tidbit about Succubi and Lust demons seemed unnecessary, but Vision of Seshat had been giving me more detailed, though often useless information as it leveled, so I wasn't really complaining as it did occasionally come in handy.

I did however wish I could complain to whoever decided when to award Titles, and named Classes. Over the course of one day, I'd suddenly added Bloody before my Title of Night Fairy, something I could only blame myself for as it was likely due to how I'd defeated Heinrich. As for Empress I couldn't imagine why it had shown up, since it wasn't like I ruled an empire, and as usual since it didn't actually come with benefits, Vision of Seshat told me nothing about where it had come from.

My Class was even worse, for a few years now I had the nice normal Class of Artificer, yet now it was Lust Mistress.

'Lust Mistress: A Class based around inflicting, receiving, and sharing pain, arousal, and pleasure. Increases effectiveness and growth speed of Masochism, Sadism, Essence Sharing, Seduction, and all Martial and Magical combat Skills. Increases growth correction of Strength, Charm and Vitality.'

While I was somewhat unenthused about the name, it's benefits were just nearly perfect for my current situation. I almost wished I had used the upgrade on my previous Class, as when I'd used it before it had only shown me a description and not exactly what it was enhancing. They did say hindsight was 20/20 but it wasn't like I could go back and change it now, I simply needed to make sure I took the time to use it on things I'd already used it one once it had increased.

As I let my Status fade away I felt Ellie stir next to me as she got up and stretched her body. "What a wonderful workout, though I think we need a bath." I concurred with her statement and was about to agree when she suddenly let out an exclamation. "Ah! I almost forgot, I need to exchange your Skill for payment." I had also stood up and was stretching as she stopped to look at me. "What do you want, other Skills, money, or merit?"

I was honestly interested in gaining some new Skills, but what I'd seen amongst the collection so far had really tickled my fancy, so I was leaning towards the money as even if I was the child of duke you never knew what life would bring and having extra cash could never hurt. That said, I wanted to clean up and maybe look at more Skills and ask for Ellie's opinion first. "Give me a moment and let me clean us up real quick before I decide."

She had a confused look on her face that seemed to want to ask what I meant, but it soon became obvious as I began to channel mana into Primordial Elemental Magic. A small ball of warm water appeared in my hands and slowly made its way around my body while swirling quickly, followed by warm air that dried me. While it wasn't as good as a real bath, it was good enough, the only problem with it was that I sucked at utilizing the elements due to my Affinities. While the mana drain wasn't that big of an issue since I had plenty to spare, it took all my focus to control even the most simple applications, so it wasn't like I could use it in combat or a stressful situation. In fact, I'd only learned it because it was useful for making enchanted items which didn't require much control over them as it did the accuracy of carving the circle.

Once I finished cleaning myself I worked on Ellie who was surprised at first when the sensation of isolated swirling water began to travel around her body. It took maybe five or so minutes for me to clean the both of us and not wanting to soil the floor I grabbed a large empty jar I carried in my bag, and dumped the water inside it, there was definitely no plan to make emergency energy drinks from it later.

Once the two of us had gotten dressed Ellie stared at me with great interest before shaking her head. "What a wasteful use of magic, I could practically feel the unused mana leaking out of you while you did that, but thanks anyways. You decide how you want your payment?"

I shook my head and shrugged. "You should have seen my Affinities for the four elements are Fs, it takes all my focus to control it so I couldn't really think while doing so. But I'm leaning towards Skills, though I've yet to see anything I like."

Ellie grinned widely at my response. "If you don't mind waiting a week and trusting me with the choice, I've got a perfect set of Skills in mind for you, what do ya say?"

I hesitated for a moment before agreeing. She knew far more about what Skills were available than I did and though she playfully insisted that the Skill names were a secret before ushering me away.