The Sixth School.

Chapter Thirteen: Feat of Lust…

‘Well, now that you are not distracted by questions, or meeting your mother,’ Olivia’s voice sounded in Greg’s head. ‘Perhaps you should check out your missions tab,’ the familiar recommended.

A brow arched on Greg’s face when he heard this. Rather than ask questions, however, Greg chose to comply and open the system and move to the missions tab. Greg’s eyes went wide when he found new missions listed. Greg was certain that he hadn’t heard the usual ‘DING' that indicated that new missions were available. And yet, here they were. But even more shocking to him than the fact that he hadn’t gotten any notifications, was who the missions were targeted at. His mother!

Part of Greg was surprised by this new development. A larger part, however, wasn’t. After going through the Twisted and Rogue missions tab, it had already become abundantly clear to Greg that this system was amoral, if not completely immoral when it came to the subject of sex. There were no lines that it wasn’t willing to cross. There was nothing too sacred that it wouldn’t assign missions concerning it. Greg was once again reminded that he needed to be careful about the system. Just because the system asks him to do something, doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to do it.

What really surprised Greg, however, was the fact that he wasn’t as objected to the new missions as he would have expected himself to be. In one sense, the target was this body’s mother and he did indeed feel a maternal connection to her. Despite the strange connection that he felt to her, however, in the back of his mind, Greg knew that the woman was actually a stranger to him. When he first saw her, Greg had been too preoccupied with the strange connection he felt to the woman to actually assess her. Now that he thought back on it, however, Greg couldn’t help but think that his mother was indeed alluring in her own way. She had that mature charm where, while still retaining the beauty of her youth, she now carried herself with much more grace and poise. Though he would never admit to it, there was also a taboo dimension to the allure that the woman held for him. After all, in a way, she was his mother.

Rather than explore that dicey subject further, Greg chose to ask about the thing he’d been wondering about. “Why didn’t I get any notification?” Greg asked.

“Because it’s unnecessary,” Olivia answered. “Or, at least, it will be once I explain to you how the new missions come about,” She added. “New missions are only obtained based on interaction with a given target,” Olivia explained. “Say you are walking along a street, and from the other end of the street, a beautiful lady is walking your way. If the two of you walk past each other without the slightest interaction, no new missions will be offered. On the other hand, say that she drops an item on the ground and you pick it up and hand it back to her. In that case, you’ll immediately receive new missions with that lady as the target,” She declared. “In short, so long as an interaction happens where you become aware of them and them you, then you’ll have new missions,” Olivia relayed. “It’s just that simple,” she added.

Greg turned over the explanation in his head and he couldn’t help but agree. It was indeed simple. A simple interaction, no matter how brief, was all that was needed to obtain new missions. “But what if I tried to interact with someone and they ignored me?” Greg asked.

“To ignore someone, you’d first have to be aware of them,” She replied. “No matter how indirect, it still meets the system’s definition of an interaction,” She explained. “On the other hand, if you tried to interact with someone and they aren’t aware of that attempt then it wouldn’t qualify as an interaction,” Olivia continued. “Say for example that you were in a crowd and you saw a lady that you were attracted to. If you tried to get her attention and she failed to notice because of the crowd, then it isn’t an interaction,” She clarified.

“But this isn’t what I wanted to draw your attention to,” Olivia went on when Greg had no more questions for her. “Check the completed missions tab,” She instructed. Even without seeing her face, Greg could almost see the sly smile on her face just by the tone of her voice.

Greg was confused seeing as he hadn’t done anything with the healer this morning. It took him a second to remember that he didn’t visit the ‘COMPLETED MISSIONS’ tab last night after getting the handjob from the healer. At the time, he’d been distracted by the new features he’d unlocked from the system. Still, Greg couldn’t help but wonder why Olivia would draw his attention to this. After a week of completing missions, the novelty of visiting this tab had faded. Besides, no matter how long he waited before going to the tab, he would never lose any of the points he’d already earned. They would just stay there waiting for when he would come around to clear the backlog. As such, even if he’d missed it once, it wasn’t that major an oversight. But then again, his familiar seemed to know everything about the system, as such, he wasn’t about to ignore her instructions.

And sure enough, there was something different on the ‘COMPLETED MISSIONS’ tab. Right at the top of the list, written in bold were the words;

FEAT OF LUST ACCOMPLISHED!

RANDOM DRAW AVAILABLE!

PICK?

YES/NO!

Greg couldn’t help but feel a rush of excitement as he read the words. He didn’t even know what it was all about, but from what he was reading, it wasn’t a bad thing. “What is a feat of lust? “Greg asked unable to hide the anticipation in his voice.

“To accomplish a feat of lust, you’d have to do something that has never been done before. That, or do something that would require one to either be crazy or have balls big enough to sit on, to do,” She relayed. “Most importantly, that deed has to be done in the pursuit of or in the process of obtaining sexual pleasure for it to be considered a feat of lust,” She stated.

Greg couldn’t help but furrow his brows as he went over the previous night trying to remember when he’d done something like that. Looking at the announcement more closely, Greg saw that the feat of lust was that he’d cum on the healer’s face. “A facial?” Greg couldn’t help but speak the word out loud. “That’s the feat of lust?” he asked, his confusion evident.

‘I don’t think you understand what you did,” Olivia replied, sounding amused at his confusion. “You are a mundane human without the slightest bit of magic,” She said. “Your healer is a seventh-tier mage!” she went on. “Most mundane humans wouldn’t dare to breathe loudly in the presence of a third-tier mage! A fifth-tier mage might as well be a deity in the eyes of most mundane humans. To stand before a seventh-tier mage who isn’t restraining their aura is lethal for mundane humans,” The familiar explained. “I believe, I can honestly say that in the history of this world, you are the first mundane human to cum on the face of a tier seven mage and live to tell tale of it,” She explained.

Greg’s brows rose as he understood the significance of what he’d done. “Wait,” Greg spoke up his brow once again knitting in confusion. “But by that logic, wouldn’t that make everything I’ve so far done with the healer a feat of lust?” He asked.

“They would be… if they weren’t already missions” Olivia answered. “The system already expects you to try and accomplish the missions it gives you. You won’t get any extra rewards other than what the system has already promised by doing them,” She stated. “If you look through your mission lists, however, you won’t find one that requires you to cum on the healer’s face,” She reminded him. “You did that all on your own and it was a crazy enough deed that the system took notice,” She pointed out.

With his confusion cleared, Greg couldn’t help but smile as he clicked on ‘YES’.

Immediately a new screen popped up and a deck of cards showed. Out of the deck, four cards appeared, each with a different label on it. The first card was simple and straightforward. It read: TEN MILLION LUST POINTS. Greg didn’t need to do a lot of thinking to figure out what reward he’d obtain from this card.

His eyes moved to the next card, on it were the words: TITLE; AROUSING. Under the words was the explanation; women who spend a long time around you will be more easily aroused by you.

‘What’s a title?’ Greg mentally asked Olivia. Although he had some notion of what it could be, he saw no need to guess at it when he could get a clear answer.

“A title anchors a certain aspect of you in reality,” Olivia answered, causing Greg to show a look of confusion. He understood the words separately, but put together, Greg couldn’t understand what she meant by them. “Think of it this way, when you come across a surface with no bumps, cracks, or roughness of any kind to it, you call it a smooth surface, do you not?” She posed. Greg didn’t reply, knowing that it was a rhetorical question. And sure enough, Olivia continued. “But is the surface smooth because you called it smooth? Or is the smoothness of the surface a part of reality, regardless of whether you call it smooth or not?” She stated.

‘The latter,’ Greg mentally replied.

“Well, a title functions in much the same way. It anchors the aspect of you that it deals with in reality. Take this title for example. As you currently are, whether a woman finds you arousing or not, is purely a matter of their preferences and opinions. If you were to gain this title, however, that would no longer be the case. The title would make it a fact of life that the longer the amount of time a woman spends around you, the more easily they’ll be turned on by you,” The familiar informed him.

Greg couldn’t help but swallow hard with desire. The title was almost like a cheat code. All he’d have to do was to find a way to hang around any woman that he was attracted to and with time they’d eventually fall victim to his charms. Greg almost ignored the two other cards and selected the title. Reason, however, prevailed and Greg forced himself to move to the next card.

The third card read; STALWART BLESSING. The description read: This blessing negates half of all physical damage received!

Greg sucked in a cold breath, unable to believe what he’d just read. This was nothing short of a life-saving card. Greg had picked up on the fact that the blessing would only protect him against physical damage. Still, it didn’t make the card any less desirable. Greg didn’t for a second doubt that there were individuals out there that were much more physically gifted than he was. If he was ever to fight one of those individuals and they didn’t employ magic against him, it would be like Greg had armor on that defended him from half the damage they could have inflicted upon him. And if he happened to have armor on at the time, then the damage would be even more reduced! Greg once again found himself very tempted to ignore the other options and go for the one before him. 

Gritting his teeth, however, Greg forced himself to look at the last card. There were only two words on this last card. ‘SOUL BOW’. However, unlike the other cards which only had text, this one had the image of a finely carved longbow. But while the longbow appeared to be finely carved, Greg couldn’t pick up on anything else that was special about it. It just seemed like a normal longbow. Greg couldn’t help but feel like this was somewhat anticlimactic. The rewards seemed to have been growing in value, from ten million lust points to a very tempting title, to an almost unbelievable blessing. To end with just a bow felt like a bit of a letdown. Still, he decided to inquire from Olivia just in case he was missing something.

“What’s a soul bow?” Greg asked.

“A soul bow is one example of a class of magical items known as soul gear,” Olivia answered. “Soul gears are items that are attached to one’s soul, meaning that they can be summoned and dismissed at any time at the user’s whim. Soul gears can come in many forms, including weapons like swords, daggers, staffs, maces, and so on. They can also come in the form of armor, enchanted robes, a personal item like a pendant, a ring, a hairpin, and so on,” Olivia laid out. “Soul gears are among the rarest and most sought-after magical items out there,” She stated. “Chances are, if you miss out on this one, you might never come across another one again in your life,” She added.

Greg was stunned by the familiar’s words, not having expected this mundane-looking item to be as precious as she seemed to be making it out to be. No matter how he looked at the bow, Greg couldn’t see what was amazing about it. “What makes it so valuable? “ Greg decided to ask directly.

“As I said, the item is attached to your soul, which means two things. The first is that whatever school of magic you fall into and whatever magic you practice, you’re soul gear will be attuned to, and even amplify it. For example, if you were a fire mage, and you had a dagger as your soul gear, that dagger would be attuned to the element of fire and be able to cause fire damage on top of just physical damage. If you were a necromancer, that dagger would have the capacity to cause injuries that almost immediately necrotize, and so on. And that’s even before you pour your mana into the weapon. If the fire mage were to pour their mana into the weapon, it’d probably be able to cut through armor like it was nothing. If a necromancer were to pour their mana into the dagger, they’d probably be able to attack your soul directly,” Olivia explained. “Unlike weapons that were forged for someone else, soul weapons are perfectly adapted to the particular individual to whom they are attached. Not only do they synergize well with them, but they also reinforce and amplify their wielder’s power. And this isn’t even the best part,” The familiar continued. “What makes soul gears really valuable is the fact that the stronger your soul grows, the stronger it becomes,” She answered. “And do you remember the easiest way to gain a stronger soul?” Olivia asked.

By now, all the disappointment Greg had felt with the last item had faded. His excitement at the last item shot several notches higher even as the answer to Olivia’s question came to him. Greg’s eyes went wide with the implications even as he answered. “To grow stronger as a mage!” He said.

“Exactly!” Olivia concurred. “As you are right now, the soul bow will be no different from a mundane bow. When you become a first-tier mage, it’ll also become a bow suited to handle the power of a first-tier mage. The same with the second tier, the third, and so on. While you were on the low end of the magical hierarchy, you might not see the value of a soul weapon. However, as you grow in power, you will find that there are fewer and fewer weapons that can handle the amount of power you can put out,” She explained. “From tier six going forward, you’ll have to get your weapons custom-made for you, otherwise, most simply wouldn’t be able to last long in your service. Having a bow that can not only bring out but enhance the power of a sixth-tier mage or higher, isn’t anything to scoff at,” Olivia explained.

Greg found himself showing an agonized expression as he looked at the four cards before him. Had any single one of these cards been offered to him as a reward for the feat of lust, he would have been more than satisfied. To have all four of them before him and only be able to choose one, however, was just pure torture. The first card offering ten million lust points was the easiest one for him to give up. Perhaps Greg had been spoiled by the rare chance of earning lust points from a seventh-tier mage. He just didn’t find this first offer as tempting as the others. The second card was just too tempting as far as Greg was concerned. If any reward had perfect synergy with the system itself, then this was it. To be able to passively seduce women just by being around them was nothing short of a game-breaking cheat! The third and fourth cards were all about looking ahead. To either have a powerful defense or a strong offense through a weapon that could grow in power with him.

“How long would I have to be around someone before the title takes effect?” Greg asked. If he was going to pick one out of the three cards, then just looking at the pros of each card wouldn’t be enough to allow him to decide. He needed to figure out the limitations of each before choosing.

“The title will work in much the same way as the rewards of the milestone missions work,” Olivia answered, causing a look of confusion to cross Greg’s features. “Allow me to explain, “ The familiar continued when she noted Greg’s confusion. “You see, your understanding of the milestone mission rewards is flawed,” she declared. “Take the groping milestone for example. The reward you got for hitting the first milestone of one was ‘A slight increase of women’s desire to grope you’ ” she quoted. “Now, in your guess, you estimated that perhaps the word ‘slight' amounts to roughly a ten percent increase. Meaning that out of a hundred, you’d attract ten more women to grope you than would have otherwise done so naturally. That, however, isn’t how it works,” She informed him.

“Every living being on the planet has what you’d call willpower,” Olivia continued. “Think of it like a measure of how stubborn that particular being is before they give in on any given subject. Press them past this limit, and you can get them to give in and do whatever you wish to have them do. Naturally, different individuals have different strengths of will. Some people are easily swayed from one opinion to the next. Others, however, can stand firm as a mountain in whatever position they presently hold. This is a function of how strong their willpower is. There is a lot more that you’ll eventually have to learn on the subject of willpower. What I’ve thus far told you is a gross oversimplification of the subject of willpower and barely even scratches the profundity of it. It, however, should suffice to help you understand how both the title and the milestone missions work.

“Think of the willpower of the different women you might want to seduce as a hurdle that you need to jump over,” The familiar continued to explain. “How high that hurdle is, varies from one woman to the next based on their willpower. What the milestone missions rewards do, however, is elevate the ground on which you are standing. Every time you hit a milestone, you permanently increase the elevation of the ground on which you stand. In so doing, you make it much easier and more probable for that event to happen more times in future,” She explained.  “The title, on the other hand, works from the opposite direction. Instead of raising the ground on which you stand, It slowly, over time lowers the hurdle over which you have to jump,” She explained. “However, unlike the milestone mission rewards which offer permanent changes, the title’s effects only work so long as you are around someone for a long period of time, meaning that long periods of separation will probably reset the effects of the title,” She continued. “All this is to say that there isn’t any straightforward answer to your question of how long the title will take before it affects someone. All that can be said is, it depends on how strong their willpower is to begin with. If they are strong-willed, then the hurdle will be set very high and it may take you weeks to months to pull it down to a point where you can jump over it. If, however, they are weak-willed, then anywhere from a few hours to a few days will be enough to have them tangled in your web,” She stated.

Greg was quiet for a while as he processed his familiar’s words. It had strayed a bit from their current topic, but still, she had given Greg a lot of valuable information. It also gave him a more realistic assessment of just how useful the title would be. The stalwart blessing and the soul bow were much more straightforward to understand, which meant that their shortcomings were also plain to see. Greg was planning to become a mage, meaning that most of the opponents he’d come across on his journey to the top would be other mages. The blessing would half all the physical damage that he received. It, however, would be completely useless against magic. This meant that while this blessing would be useful while he was still a mundane human, it would increasingly become useless to him the more he advanced in magic.

With the soul bow, the problem was the opposite. From Olivia’s explanation, the bow would increasingly become more powerful the more Greg grew as a mage. However, until Greg amassed a significant amount of power, the bow wouldn’t have that much of an advantage over other kinds of weapons. Worse still, just getting to tier four could take Greg almost two decades if he turned out to be just average in magic! Olivia hadn’t spoken on it, he, however, suspected that the time it took to climb from one tier to the next only increased the higher the tier one climbed to. Outside of some unfathomable miracle, it would be at the very least three decades before Greg got to tier six, probably more. Thinking of this, Greg couldn’t help but hesitate to pick the soul bow, especially when he remembered that he could probably buy more powerful weapons from the magic shop, at least in the short term.

A frustrated sigh left Greg as he regarded the screen before him. Looking at the three options, the best option seemed to be the title offered by the second card. Not only did it synergize well with the system, but unlike the soul bow, it offered immediate utility and unlike the stalwart blessing, it wouldn’t lose value with time. It wasn’t as game-breaking as he’d initially thought it to be, but in the end, it offered the best utility. Despite knowing this, however, Greg couldn’t help the slight ache he felt at giving up the other items. In the end, he firmed up his resolve and was about to select the second card.

Olivia’s voice, however, cut in at this moment and with the tone of a sly merchant, made an offer. “Part of the perks of having a familiar,” She spoke up. “Is that I can sometimes slightly influence the kinds of rewards that you receive,” She stated. “However, whenever I try to influence what reward you receive, the system will always add a catch,” She continued to explain. “Take the options you have before you for example,” She stated. “I can make it so that you can pick two out of the four cards,” Olivia informed him. Despite having been told that there would be a catch, Greg couldn’t help the excitement that welled up in him at the idea of getting two of the four cards. “If I did that, however, the system will hide what each card gives before shuffling them,” Olivia explained. Greg's smile quickly straightened as the implications of the familiar’s words hit him. “In short, you can either choose one card with definite knowledge of what you are picking and what you are giving up. Or, you can decide to randomly pick two out of the four cards,” the familiar voiced exactly what he’d been thinking. “So, what will it be?” She asked.

Greg was silent for a long while, torn between the two options. He really wanted the card offering the title. Picking it directly would be the safest option. With the chance that Olivia was giving, however, there was still some chance that he’d pick it plus another reward. At the same time, however, there was a very real chance of missing the title card. “I’ll take the gamble,” Greg finally forced himself to say through gritted teeth. It was a hard decision to make. In the end, however, Greg figured that it was worth the gamble. If he could obtain the title and something else on top, it would be the best. Even if he failed to obtain the title, however, two of the other three items wouldn’t be a loss anyway.

Greg could almost feel the smile that spread across Olivia’s lips as all markings on the four cards faded until they were all blank. “Okay, now pick,” she instructed.

Greg arched an eyebrow as he looked at the four cards. He had expected the cards to be shifted around at least before he was given the chance to pick. All that had happened, however, was that the markings on the cards had faded but the cards remained in place. Was this also Olivia’s doing? Greg couldn’t help but wonder. Without wasting time, Greg immediately selected the second card, the one that was supposed to have the title.

Immediately, Greg felt a warmth spread across his whole body even as his skin began to emit a faint golden glow. His whole body felt like a baby wrapped in the warm embrace of their mother. It was a feeling far more comfortable than any words could fully capture. But while his body was feeling a profound level of comfort, Greg’s mind was plagued with nervousness even as he looked at the second card that he picked. On the card were the words, ‘STALWART BLESSING’. Greg swallowed hard even as he looked at the other three cards. It now occurred to him that it was dumb to think of these as physical cards. Just because they hadn’t moved, didn’t mean that it was still the same card. The system didn’t need to mimic shuffling for the card to be moved around. Which meant that behind one of the three cards, was the title card that he’d so desired. Taking a deep breath, Greg clicked on the fourth card. The cards had no markings that could help him tell one from the other, as such, Greg saw no reason to torture himself with indecision.

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE OBTAINED 10,000,000 LUST POINTS.

As soon as he tapped on the card, the message popped up before him. A weak smile crossed Greg’s face as he looked at the prompt. Much as he wanted to be happy and excited about earning ten million lust points just like that, he couldn’t help the bitter disappointment he felt in this moment. His desire had been to get something else on top of getting the title. And thinking that the odds were on his side, he had taken the gamble. Now that he had missed out on the title, Greg couldn’t help but second-guess himself and wonder if he should have just gone with the option that allowed him to directly select what he actually wanted.

ONE-TIME PURCHASES ARE AVAILABLE.

DO YOU WISH TO BUY THE TITLE: AROUSING?

COST: 5,000,000.

YES/NO.

DO YOU WISH TO BUY THE SOUL BOW?

COST: 5,000,000.

YES/NO.

Before Greg could lose himself in regret and self-pity, a new prompt appeared from the system. Greg’s eyes went wide as he read the prompt and he almost couldn’t believe his eyes. “Olivia, is this you?” Greg even forgot to communicate mentally as he asked the question out loud. He couldn’t help but notice just how conveniently priced the two items were and couldn’t help but suspect that this was his familiar trying to help him from behind the scenes.

Much to Greg’s surprise, however, Olivia answered in the negative. “I didn’t do anything,” She stated calmly. “The system was always going to give you the chance to redeem with your lust points the options you didn’t get to choose,” She informed him. “If anything, I harmed you,” She went on. “If I hadn’t interfered with the process, the price of the three remaining cards would have been a million lust points each,” She continued. “But now that I interfered with the process, the prices were jacked up to five times what they would have otherwise been,” She stated. “Just enough to take away one of the boons that you’ve received," She went on.

“Fate seems to have conspired to give you an extremely rare start with the system,” Olivia continued to speak. Greg could hear it in her voice that she was trying to impart a lesson to him and so he listened carefully. “You’ve been obtaining lust points in the hundreds of thousands every day, and so you have come to underappreciate just how useful they are and how hard it will be to earn them when the healer is no longer in the picture,” The familiar observed. “In fact, I suspect that the lust points card is the first one that you eliminated when deciding which of the four cards to pick, isn’t it?” She asked.

Though there was no accusation in the familiar's tone of voice, Greg couldn’t help but blush a bit with shame at being seen right through. Still, he silently nodded. “But… but how did you know that I would pick the card with ten million lust points?” Greg couldn’t help but ask.

“I didn’t,” Olivia answered straightforwardly. A chill went down Greg’s back as he imagined just how regretful he would have been if he’d failed to pick the ten million lust points and then found out afterward that the other cards could be bought. With a shrug, his familiar continued.  “If you hadn’t lucked out and picked the ten million lust points, it would have still taught the lesson that I hoped to convey. Just in a much less pleasant way,” She added. “Take this both as advice and as a warning master,” Olivia spoke in a serious tone of voice. “You can never have too many lust points…”