A Sinner’s Chance

I leisurely made my way to the Adventurer's Guild and waited in a line of Adventurers until the clerk I'd chosen was ready for me. The clerk was an older man but his line had been the shortest, he was rough looking and looked me up and down as if he was appraising me. "What can I do for you ma'am?" While his tone was rough, he was rather polite, though it felt strange to be called ma'am.

"I have an appointment with Elistravariumanel Perkelimasgudziu." I said as I handed him my Status Plate. It was Ellie's full name and I couldn't count the amount of times I'd had to repeat it on my way here to make sure I could say it smoothly.

Apparently all Elves had stupidly long names, but it was typically only used when speaking Elvish. When I'd asked Arya about it she said it was true and that her name was something along the lines of Aryasaulesdukra, it was a pain to deal with in common so almost every Elf adopted a shortened name taken from their given first name.

The clerk took a few moments to look through some papers before handing back my Status Plate. "You're all set, missy. I thought you were far older given that you were looking for Ellie and you got them pointed ears, one of her friends from a few decades ago or some such." The clerk's tone had switched from extremely polite to casual the moment he found out my age, but I didn't pay it any mind as he made sure I knew where the Skill room was before taking on the next Adventurer in the line.

I could barely contain my excitement as I opened the door into the Skill and saw Ellie sitting on the table polishing what looked like a large sewing needle. She smiled as she noticed me come in and gingerly placed everything to the side. We briefly talked about our weeks, though it was mostly just me talking about the two Dreamscape battles I'd done. She probably thought I was exaggerating, but who wouldn't when you told them you single handedly took down two-hundred enemies?

As I talked about where I felt my Skills were deficient Ellie smiled widely as she presented four vials of the black ink like liquid that were Skills. "I think I chose perfectly then, and I think you'll be happy with the choices."

The first vial she presented was labeled Rokasut's Witchcraft, and unlike the other Skills I'd seen here, this one had golden sheen making it appear like an extremely dark golden ink. "I remember you said you were having trouble with casting and using the elemental magic. Now I'm no expert, but I could at least feel that your mana pool is exceptionally large, even bigger than any of the highest ranked I've worked with. While this Skill won't make up for your lack of affinity with an element, it makes it much easier to cast magic of all kinds, essentially only useful for those with many affinities, or someone like you with enough mana to safely ignore the cost."

The second vial was Sekhmet's Wrath and just like Rokasut's Witchcraft it had the same golden sheen. "It's in my contract that I'm not allowed to pry, but your Plate, a term used by Skill Transferrers to determine Skill compatibility among other things, is extremely biased towards Yin energy, something I assume you knew?"

I nodded as I knew that I was definitely more aligned with Yin type Skills, I mean, one of my Gifts was Phoenix of Yin and three of my Skills had it in their names.

"Most people's Plates have little to no bias, which means that they don't really have any specialties nor detriments. Your Plate is amazingly resilient, but it's still amazing it has yet to break. A Plate needs balance, too much of a good thing can be poison after all. Now Sekhmet's Wrath is an extremely Yang based Skill, but-" She paused as she showed me the third vial, Bastet's Allure. "If you pair it with a sister Skill that is minor Yin it won't cause any problems."

She placed Bastet's Allure down before continuing. "Sekhmet's Wrath is a physical enhancing combat-oriented Skill but it is hard on both one's body and Plate, but with your resilience it shouldn't pose a problem."

She then placed it down and once again picked up Bastet's Allure. "Again, not prying, but your Plate is specialized for hedonistic Skills, nothing wrong with that of course. I'm not one hundred percent sure the exact effects of the Skill, but it feels at least partially hedonistic, though mostly I'm just throwing it in to help with Sekhmet's Wrath."

I was somewhat worried about her vague explanation of the Skill, but while I wouldn't say I trusted her exactly, she knew far more about Skills than I did. The worst part was that Vision of Seshat didn't display any information for the Skills, rather just told me that the vials were made of a special crystal meant to store Skill fragments, something I had already guessed.

As she showed me the fourth and final vial, Nuhrot's Loom, she said. "This Skill is a gift from me, though to be honest, I'm mostly just wanting to test it on you. I have no idea what it does, but it came from an Arachne priestess that had been abducting people nearby, and as far as I can tell, you're the only person who has come into the shop in my entire time here that is compatible with it."

I was troubled at her gift, or rather her Skill selection. The first two were perfect for me, one to help with all magic and the other a powerful physical Skill that needed resilience? Both of those were things that complimented my current Skill wonderfully, the other two however, I wasn't sure about. I debated it a while before deciding to take them all, Bastet's Allure was important to balance Sekhmet's Wrath and Nuhrot's Loom had come from an Arachne, and would probably boost my weaving since that what looms were used for.

With my decision made I was once again laying naked on the table while Ellie hovered over me with a needle. However, this time it was the large sewing needle, and while I couldn't see what she was doing I could feel the needle piercing into me as if she was stitching me up. Unlike when she had pulled Pain Nullification out, it wasn't in intense bursts, rather a slow and steady buildup.

Besides my flesh I felt as if the needle was piercing something else as well, which was what was painful. It didn't stop Masochism from doing its job as she slowly and steadily went in and out of my body with her needle. The bittersweet mixture of pain and pleasure was like the most gentle caress of a lover, as they teased you before getting into it. However I was only being teased and I had no idea how long it would be going for.