Reborn as the First Boss, Chapter 87

Chapter 87 – ‘Milk’

Level 50, back when we’d gotten it, had only given me 5 new skills, instead of the normal 10. Two racials (demon-themed and angel-themed, like usual), and one for each of my classes and my profession. All five had cost 4 skill points, and they’d been badass enough to be worth it, like Mind Sorceress’s [Empty Mind], where I could drop MP equal to a target’s (INT+WIS+CHA)x100, and literally erase all their knowledge, memories, skills, and personality, leaving them completely blank. Or my Spellshooter’s [Healthblock Bullets] which caused damage from my magic bullets or spell shots to not heal naturally, and reduce magical healing by 50%!

Of course, I wasn’t expecting overpowered skills like that this time. I was at the bottom of the Tier, now, so the skills I was going to be offered would be foundational to my new classes and professions. The kinds of things I got early on in Tier 1 for those ones, but updated to my new choices.

4 Skill Points Remaining

4 Skill Points per level

Available Skills:

Note: Your available skills are based on your Race, Class, Profession, and activities.

Racial Skills (Greater Angelic Succubus):

Aura of Frenzy – Project an aura that causes any unallied creature of your tier or lower to attack all other unallied creatures within 30m of you, unless their WIS or CHA is greater than your CHA. Can be raised or lowered at will. (Costs 2 points to take.)

Aura of Lies – Project an aura that prevents anyone of your tier or lower from speaking truth within 30m of you, unless their WIS or CHA is greater than your CHA. Can be raised or lowered at will. (Costs 2 points to take.)

Chains of Light – Create chains of Radiance, preventing a creature from moving for 10 minutes, or until they break free. (Costs 2 points to take.)

Bless Crops – Bless a field, causing the crops and livestock to grow well and fruitfully. (Costs 2 points to take.)

Class Skills (True Enchantress):

Improved Enchantment Magic – One of the staples of the True Enchantress, Improved Enchantment magic allows them to better manipulate and control the minds (and sometimes bodies) of others.

Improved Illusion Magic – One of the staples of the True Enchantress, Improved Illusion magic allows them to better befuddle the senses, casting glamours, turning things invisible, or creating illusions of things that are not real.

Class Skills (Planar Huntress):

Improved Stealth – Able to dampen sound and move through shadows, passing unheard and unseen.

Improved Tracking – Gain the ability to track targets across difficult terrain.

Profession Skills (Blessed and Profane Courtesan):

Planar Carnal Arts – The Blessed and Profane Courtesan’s skills with sensual activities expand to include creatures from across the planes.

Improved Attraction – An individual’s sexuality, species preference, or aesthetic preference no longer counts against whether they are attracted to one with this skill.

General Skills:

Onslaught Shield – When a spell you cast would do more damage than the creature’s current HP, gain a temporary magic shield. This shield absorbs incoming damage. It disappears after 1 minute, or when it has absorbed a total amount of damage equal to the difference between the spell damage and the creature’s HP before the spell hit. (Costs 2 points to take)

OK, so they were a bit more basic than I was expecting. Still, looking at what I had available, and the four points open to me, the choices were pretty obvious. [Planar Carnal Arts] and [Improved Attraction] would prove their worth not just for my Lesser Dragonkin milking quest, but also for just dealing with angels and demons in the future, among other things. And the other two points went to [Improved Enchantment Magic] and [Improved Illusion Magic], obviously. Because if this was anything like my Tier 1 skills, they’d give me more spells, and better ones. And I was right.

Improved Enchantment Spells

Deep Slumber – Put target to sleep for (Level) hours, regardless of conditions. Target awakens instantly upon taking damage.

Mass Charm – Charm up to (CHA) Levels of creatures at once. Targets must be within 15 meters of each other.

Improved Illusion Spells

Mindmissiles – Create up to (True Enchantress Level)+1 psychic missiles, each dealing (CHA+WIS) psychic damage to living targets.

Phantom Voices – Create phantom voices capable of speaking complex messages.

Well, all of those spells were going to be useful, in a general sense, though actual application would be tricky at times. Especially the Enchantment ones. For instance, Deep Slumber would put someone out for 51 hours at my current level, even if a band was playing in the same room, but the moment they took a pinprick of damage, they’d be wide awake. Mass Charm would hit a group of people, but if one of my allies or I attacked one of them, the spell broke for all of them. What actually constituted an attack was something to test later.

Pushing on, into the Lesser Dragonkin floors, would have been a pain in the ass, if Frostmaw had kept to his ‘city bus’ size. Fortunately, the Lesser Dragon had a Racial skill called [Shrink] which allowed them to go from their full size to that of a housecat, or anything in between, though the spell did not entirely account for instincts. Frostmaw would have to learn how to best move with his smaller size and weight, but we had nine floors of Lesser Dragonkin to fight through, before we got to the Firelord on the twentieth floor.

“Trap,” whispered Jewell’s voice in the [Mindnet]. We hadn’t bothered with it for the Kobolds and Drakes, but the Lesser Dragonkin were both clever and strong, which meant we needed more coordination to do this safely. “Pressure plate, leads to an alarm and spike trap, and I hear six of the Lesser Dragonkin in the next room.”

“Disable it if you can do it quietly. Otherwise, mark it so we can avoid the trap,” I sent back.

Frostmaw’s voice rumbled through the link. “Mistress, why don’t we just break through, and show the lesser creatures our might?”

“Part of it is because we need to catch the males alive, at least long enough that we can ‘milk’ them, for a quest. But the main part is that it is good practice, my pet. Trusting in your own strength is a good thing, but you should always act like someone on the other side may have a counter to it. Do not belittle your own strength, but mind your weaknesses and prepare for those who would strike at them.”

“But the monsters in this dungeon should not be wielding Dragonslaying weapons, even if they appear as part of the loot when one dies.”

“Indeed. However, it is good practice for the wider world. The skills we practice and hone here will be useful when we leave this place. Being prepared for trouble is the first step towards escaping the trap.”

“And speaking of traps, done!” Jewell’s mental voice chimed in, bringing the conversation to a halt. The pressure plate had been wedged into place with a small piece of metal that I recognized as fragments of broken armor from the kobolds earlier in the dungeon. Smart move by the rogue, to use supplies offered by the dungeon.

Silently, we moved forward, in what had become our standard formation. Jewell and Astruth in front, so that the rogue could check for traps, secret passages, and locked doors, while our strongest defender was ready in case of a surprise attack. I followed behind them, with Frostmaw perched on my shoulder like a parrot, if said parrot had four clawed legs instead of two, and icy blue scales instead of feathers. Angelina and Zazriel followed behind, with Syllia and Rastran after, and Linette at the rear, just in case anyone managed to sneak up behind us.

Jewell checked that the door was unlocked, and pushed it open, collapsing to one side of the hall as she did so, allowing Astruth to push forward into the room, shield at the ready. His [Taunt] went off perfectly, drawing the eyes of all six Lesser Dragonkin to him. Four warriors, a mage, and an archer, all level 1 in Tier 2. The last two were males, easily identifiable by the crest on their heads and their slighter builds. I hit the mage with a [Deep Slumber] as Frostmaw leaped from my shoulder to the nearest warrior, frosty fangs ripping into her throat. Jewell was past me already, sticking her blades through the weak points of another warrior’s leather armor.

I took another step into the room, and hit the archer with another [Deep Slumber], even as he fired his bow at me. The shot completely failed to penetrate my defenses, as I knew it would, without some skill or spell boosting it. A spike of ice caught another warrior in the throat, courtesy of Syllia. The fight went quickly after that, as one might expect with the two strikers down and three of the four defenders dealing with critical wounds. Soon, the only living Dragonkin were the males.

Adult kobolds were a humanoid mix of dog and lizard, less than a meter tall, and weighing about 18 kilograms. Lesser Dragonkin had more pronounced lizard features, moving towards the draconic, naturally, but were just over 1.5 meters tall, and 55 kilograms in weight, with the females tending to be a bit larger and more muscular than the males, while the males tended to be more dexterous and clever.

After stripping both males, it became obvious that the Lesser Dragonkin had more in common with lizards than humans. Their ‘equipment’ actually retracted inside their bodies, and only emerged for mating purposes. Fortunately, a quick slap to wake the mage followed by a healthy dose of [Charm] and the [Seduction] skill had the scaly creature eager and ready to go. [Improved Carnal Arts] served me well as I teased the lizard, edging him until he was good and properly ready to explode. When it happened, Jewell was ready with the enchanted vials, and managed to get three filled before the mage was spent. Another dose of [Deep Slumber] put him back out, and Syllia dispatched him with a [Frost Spike] through the eye, since she was not yet skilled enough with [Bloodbending] to stop his heart.

After that, I roused, aroused, and satisfied the archer, and my companions repeated their part of this play. Three more vials filled, giving us six so far, and we were only barely into the eleventh floor. If this progress kept up, we would easily be able to fill all twenty vials before we ran out of Lesser Dragonkin to milk. But then, a Mind Sorceress with the Courtesan profession and no silly hangups about sex was practically tailor-made for this kind of quest.

The XP from this group of six was fairly low, since we were hitting them with seven, plus two familiars, but we did get some nice equipment to sell back in town, as well as one hundred platinum coins. The Lesser Dragonkin’s weapons and armor were all minorly enchanted, a gift from the Voice of the World to allow them to be used by whoever picked them up. They weren’t anything special, but for a group looking to outfit a fresh Tier 2, or who needed spare or replacement gear, in case something happened to their main set? One could do far worse.

Of course, something like that wouldn’t work for Rastran or Frostmaw, but once we got back to town it wouldn’t be too hard to convince a crafter to trade a bunch of Lesser Dragonkin armor and weapons for armor for my two four-legged pets. Sure, Rastran’s fur and Frostmaw’s scales acted as armor, but more armor on top of it, enchanted with effects to protect them from some of their weaknesses? That would be even better.

The first step to avoiding defeat was to make sure your weaknesses were covered, after all. And I was not about to let my time in this new life be cut short so soon after my reincarnation. But that was something for future me to work out. Present me still had Lesser Dragonkin to milk, dungeon bosses to kill. Time to get on with it.