Reborn as the First Boss, Chapter 68

Chapter 68 – Diplomatic Demoness

You have successfully completed the Ritual of the Beast. You gain the form: Hellhound

Form of the Hellhound

You are able to shift between your natural form and a Hellhound form at will.

Doing so reserves 20% of your SP. You gain temporary HP equal to the reserved SP. The transformation lasts for either 1 hour/level or until the temporary HP is lost.

You cannot use spells or abilities with vocal components, and your speech is limited to the sounds your new form can make.

Your attributes do not change.

Equipment and gear are subsumed and nonfunctional while you are transformed, and will reappear in their proper places when you return to your normal form.

You gain the ability to take Hellhound racial skills as General Skills.

While in Hellhound form, you gain the following abilities:

Hellfire Immunity – Immune to damage from Fire and Hellfire.

Natural Weapons – Gain two claw attacks (dealing STR damage) and a bite attack (STR*1.5 damage). A hellhound’s natural weapons deal additional Hellfire damage equal to their CHA.

Tough Hide – The Hellhound reduces all damage taken by their CON.

Hellfire Breath – The Hellhound can breathe a cone of hellfire up to 10 meters long and 10 meters wide, dealing Hellfire damage equal to their CHA*2 to all creatures and objects in the area. This breath has a cooldown of 60 seconds, and costs 1000 SP.

I smiled as I looked at the notifications from the Voice of the World. My new familiar was recovering, so I slid off his length, and got to my feet. I knew eagerly rewarding a magical wolf with my body wasn’t normal. The curse on the circlet I wore to help boost my INT and my MP was responsible, of course.

Looking at it rationally, the [Curse of the Monster Fucker] didn’t compel any actions. It wasn’t making me do this. Instead, it worked on my attraction and my inhibitions. In some ways, that was a lot easier to handle, and in others, it was far more difficult.

Starting with the attraction bit, normally, you would have to be fairly twisted to look at a wolf’s penis and seriously think about getting ‘knotted up’. That wasn’t something a normal person would think about, at all. However, under the curse, I just saw it the same as any other cock. A nice, hard cock that would do a good job of giving me pleasure.

So, species wasn’t an issue for me, any more. Same with gender. In my old life, I would have called myself straight, though I was willing to play around in a threesome or put on a show for some of the guys. But that was more about the reaction it got from the men than any real attraction on my part. Now, however? Well, I was quite happy and eager to enjoy both men and women.

And that’s where the inhibition part kicked in. There was a difference between having a fantasy and acting on it, after all. The curse removed most of the taboos a person might have regarding sex. Not all of them, of course. I could still say that children were firmly not on the menu, for instance, and it didn’t make me suddenly not care if a person smelled like a latrine. I wasn’t a complete hedonist, with no control.

At any rate, I still needed to conduct another ritual tonight, so I told Rastran to go guard Angelina, which would be his primary duty from now on. She needed to get used to his presence, and I needed my second familiar. Still, this one was likely to be far more troublesome. After all, I doubted an angel would be as accepting of a Greater Angelic Succubus as the hellhound was. From what reading I’d done, they tended to be uptight types.

Summon Angels

Do you wish to summon a specific angel by their true name?

Yes / No

Please choose Tier and Level of desired summon:

Tier 1, Level 40

Please choose angelic race (will include subraces, if any):

None

You have chosen not to specify a angelic race. Summoned angel will be of a random angelic race.

Confirm?

Yes / No

For an additional mana cost, you can filter results to better find your desired angel, adding classes, professions, or individual skills to the list. Class and Profession choices increase the MP cost of the summoning by 20% each per tier of the desired choice. Skill choices increase the MP cost of the summoning by 10% each per tier of the desired skill.

Do you wish to add any additional filters?

Yes / No

Note: Choosing a class below the demon’s current tier will include all angels with that class in their System logs, even if they have undergone a class change upon Tier up. Angels who have used class change items to move away from the desired class will not be included.

Do you have a class or classes you would like to filter possible summons by?

Yes / No

Note: Choosing a profession below the demon’s current tier will include all angels with that profession in their System logs, even if they have undergone a profession change upon Tier up. Angels who have used profession change items to move away from the desired profession will not be included.

Do you have a profession or professions you would like to filter possible summons by?

Yes / No

Note: Only skills that can be taken as General Skills can be selected for filtering.

Do you have a skill or skills you would like to filter possible summons by?

Yes / No

Please enter the skill or skills you would like to filter by. Note: adding multiple skills will include only angels with all skills in their System Logs.

Carnal Arts

Appraise

Choices noted. Summoning cost adjusted +20%.

Total adjustment: +20%

Normally, all summons are chosen from a list of angels who are registered as willing summons with the System. However, summoning costs can be reduced by expanding your choices to include unregistered angels without the [Block Summons] skill. Please note that unregistered angels may be unwilling to be summoned, and hostile to you. The System takes no responsibility for a summoning resulting in your serious injury or death.

Do you wish to expand the results in return for a 50% MP cost reduction in the summoning?

Yes / No

Connecting to System archives…

Connected.

Searching archives for possible matches…

431,920 possible matches found.

Eliminating matches within warded space…

Eliminating matches currently Summoned…

Eliminating matches under Familiar binding…

Eliminating matches with Slave title…

Eliminating matches with Thrall title…

Eliminating matches with Puppet title…

11,536 matches remaining.

Picking random match…

Summoning…

Once again, magic swirled about me as the Voice of the World set about finding an angel for me to try and bind. The process was slightly more expensive than summoning the hellhound, though I wasn’t exactly sure why. Maybe the hellhound was easier to summon because it was technically a beast, rather than something more humanoid? Either way, seven thousand MP was nothing to sneeze at. If I wasn’t insanely overpowered at this point, that would have made the summoning more dangerous. A normal person would be dangerously low on mana after that. If a summoned angel didn’t consent to binding after being summoned, well, that would be bad news for the impudent summoner.

Zazriel

Lesser Angel Female

Level 40 Spelldancer / Enchanter

Titles: Virgin’s Bane, Beautiful One, Masochist

Mana became light, became Radiance, until it eventually coalesced into a female form, light and lithe upon her feet, with a pair of white, feathered wings sprouting from her back. The closest to ‘armor’ that she could be said to be wearing was a pair of mithril bracers on her forearms, and a matching set of greaves protecting her shins. She wore a dress with a daringly low cut in the front, diving all the way to just under her navel, and only held in place with a pair of crossed silver chains, binding the dress closely over her breasts, and emphasizing them. The dress also had long slits up either leg, allowing her to move quite easily, no doubt. The most impressive thing about it, though, was that it kept changing color. Gradually, but it never stayed the same color for more than a few seconds.

The angel’s eyes turned to face me. She was dark-skinned, but had blue eyes and hair that was, quite literally, golden. It was a little strange, but I wasn’t put off by it. When she spoke, her voice was like a harp being strummed.

“What are you? I have never heard of a Greater Angelic Succubus. But I can see both angelic and demonic forces in your soul, and… both chaos orbs and heroic souls? Who are you? And for what reason have you summoned me?”

I chuckled at that. She was more confused than upset, probably due to the fact that she had, in fact, registered to be summoned, so that wasn’t entirely unexpected. “I am exactly what it sounds like. A Greater Angelic Succubus is the perfect fusion of angel and demon, created by ritual magic with both sides being willing participants. Though, I suppose if a similar ritual were done in reverse, the outcome would likely be a Greater Demonic Angel, but that’s besides the point.

“The Voice of the World gave me the title of the First Boss, destined to be the first trial of a newborn Hero. I decided I wasn’t going to play by those rules. Since then, I have slain two Heroes, and two Bosses, and grown stronger in the process. But I am not so foolish as to believe that I know all the answers, or have no weaknesses. Which is why I used the [Summon Angels] skill to bring you here, in hopes of completing the [Familiar Binding Ritual].”

Zazriel looked dumbfounded by my statement. “A Boss going against the will of the Voice? Something like that has not happened in ten thousand years! Not since the Souleater rejected the call, and set about creating order on the Shadowed Continent. How have you evaded the title’s compulsion to conquer those around you? And Bosses are supposed to be incapable of fighting each other! How did you manage to slay two of your kind?”

I knew from Mhyrsha’s memories that she probably meant Morthras the Souleater, the Demon Emperor of the Shadowed Continent, but if the guy was truly over ten thousand years old, that would explain quite a bit about his power. The bit about the Boss title having a compulsion linked to it did fill in a few gaps, though. I had wondered why Mhyrsha had gone through the trouble of infiltrating the human lands, getting herself made Baroness, and then risked it all with the reckless way she’d gathered the components for the ritual. It practically ensured that a young Hero would find her. If that was due, in part, to the Voice of the World pushing her in that direction, things made more sense.

Same with the Bosses being unable to kill Bosses thing. That might have been part of the reason why the Tier 2 demon boss guy was so talkative, rather than leaping to the attack. He thought that I couldn’t seriously kill him, because the Voice of the World wouldn’t normally allow it.

Looking Zazriel in the eye, I decided to use [Diplomacy] rather than force. A willing pawn would be better than a dominated but resentful one, after all. “Willingly become my familiar, and I will share with you the truth. But it is not something that should be said aloud, or shared widely.”

The angel considered my offer for a second, and said, “I’ll admit that the offer is enticing. Too enticing to turn my back on. You may end up becoming the next Demon Emperor, if history repeats itself, and, if I were in your circle, I would have a chance to temper your reign, somewhat. I accept.”