Reborn as the First Boss, Chapter 59

Chapter 59 – Realization

“Mistress, are you all right?”

Linette’s voice finally broke through the haze of my transformation. I looked up at the maid standing next to me, and nodded slowly, as I noted the cool blue tone of the soul hiding in her flesh. There was even a pale strand of light connecting her to me, the mark of the [Slave Collar], I assumed. I took a breath, and slid the angel’s softening length out of me as I rose to my feet. “Yes, yes, I’m good. It was just a lot to take in all at once. The Voice of the World gave me several notifications, as well.”

Looking around, I saw the same soul-glow from my other pets. Astruth had a reddish haze to his blue, probably a mark of his demonic heritage. That’s what I had to assume, since my own soul looked to be a mix of red and silver in equal measures. Jewell’s soul was the same blue as Linette’s, but the connection between her and me was twice the size. Perhaps because of the vow she’d made, and I’d accepted?

The real surprise was Angelina. Red spread through her soul, and if the connection between myself and Astruth were a country road, and the one connecting me to Jewell were a main thoroughfare, then Angelina had a highway connecting her to me. The slave bond and the oath bond were there, like her sister’s, but there was a trail of crimson, as well, connecting the two of us, as well as the life beginning to take shape inside her. All proof of the rituals I’d performed, but only visible to those who could see souls.

I took another breath as I began pulling my clothes back on. “The ritual was a success. I’ve become a Greater Angelic Succubus, with many of the traits of both a Greater Angel and a Greater Succubus, it seems. And I haven’t checked, yet, but I’m willing to bet that I’ll have access to the racial skills of the Greater Angel, as well.”

“Why do you say that, Mistress?” Jewell asked.

“Because I already had nine skill points saved from the levels we gained as we fought, but the change brought me more skill points. The Voice of the World does nothing without reason, or so it is said. I have forty skill points to spend, without having gained any more levels, so it stands to reason I have more skills to spend them on.”

Astruth cleared his throat. “Mistress, I know we’ve had a hard series of running fights, including the boss of the treasure room on this floor, but it is barely afternoon. Should we push on, or stop to rest? And, if we push on, do we go the ‘normal’ way, and hopefully get the levels we’d need to take on a level 38 lich, or go through the door that has opened for us, and take our chances?” As he asked that question, he pointed to the far end of the room, where a section of the stone wall had swung back on invisible hinges, revealing a set of stairs beyond.

I took a moment to consider that. Something was nagging at me, like I’d overlooked something, and then it hit me. My race change gave me a sudden jump in Wisdom, which helped, amongst other things, with ‘common sense’ solutions. I realized that I had been looking at the [Annihilation] spell wrong. I had been looking at the spell from a perspective of how much damage I could do, and over what kind of area, if I put all my mana into it. But the spell was not so inflexible as that!

Yes, I could put tens of thousands of MP into the spell, and essentially destroy any village or town I came across, to say nothing of the dungeon I was in, splitting a truly obscene amount of damage between everyone and everything in that area. But, looking at my current stats, I could spend 20 MP, creating a blast with a 2-meter radius, that did almost 437 MILLION damage, to be split amongst everything in that radius! Combined with my ‘The Impossible’ title, I could probably take down even high Tier 2 creatures in a single shot. Maybe even higher.

Of course, that WIS boost gave me some warnings, as well. Like the fact that using a spell like [Annihilation] too often or too openly would definitely draw all the wrong kind of attention, from people who would make sure to come at me in situations where I couldn’t use something so broken, like having stealthy assassins come at me, or putting down fields to suppress magic and spells. Or, worse, they could have some spell or defense that allowed them to bounce spells back at the caster! That would be… not good.

So, I couldn’t use the spell all the time, or even most of the time. Only in special scenarios, and preferably where no one but my pets might be watching. It was a massive “fuck you and everyone around you” trump card, but if I played that Ace in the hole too soon, or too often, someone would turn it against me. But as an “oh shit” button, I was more than happy to have it.

That gave me a bit of clarity, and the path became clear. “Take ten, and look through your skills, everyone. We went up a few levels thanks to all the wraiths, so spend your points. We’ll then head down the stairs, and confront the Lich, using some of the gifts I’ve gained.” That said, I turned my attention to the list of available skills I had. It had grown, thanks to my new race, but not as much as I would have thought. Perhaps some of the racial skills copied those I already had?

Available Skills:

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

Racial Skills (Greater Angelic Succubus):

Aerial Defender – Gain 10% to Defense while in flight.

Sensual Violation – Add victim’s HP and MP regeneration to the bonus regeneration from Sensual Recharge when violating an unwilling sentient creature. (Costs 2 Skill Points)

Unholy Violation – When violating an unwilling sentient creature, (Your Level – Victim’s Level) percent chance to permanently drain stat points from the victim and add them to your own. Percent chance is doubled for creatures of the Celestial type. (Costs 2 Skill Points)

Shapeshifter’s Weapons – Through [Shapeshifting], create natural weapons based on creatures you have fought before. These weapons count as magical.

Blood Purity – Eliminate genetic defects or diseases from progeny, no risk of inbreeding. (Costs 2 skill points)

Purity's Blade - All weapon attacks deal extra (CHA) Radiant damage to Demons and corrupted creatures.

 Blessed Visage - Reduces hostility from good individuals.

Angel's Kiss - Grants immunity to fear effects for 24 hours. May lead to reckless behavior.

Radiant Magic - Can use Radiance to cast spells, and create other effects.

Strength of Faith - Temporarily increase a person's STR by their WIS

Steadfast Devotion - Temporarily increase a person's CON by their WIS

Purification Aura - Project an aura that purifies the area, preventing poisons, diseases, or corruption from taking hold. Does not affect afflictions already present in living beings.

Radiant Aura - Extend the benefits of [Radiant Armor] to (Level/5) allies.

Silverblood - Unarmed or natural weapon attacks count as Magic and Silver weapons.

Lay on Hands - Gain a healing pool, able to heal self or others with a touch. Can heal up to (CHAx10) points per day, split as she desires.

Purge Corruption - Purge the corruption in a creature's soul by force. (Costs 2 skill points)

Radiant Blades - Able to temporarily transform weapons into pure light. Costs 200 MP per second, doubled for each additional person, up to (Level/5) total people. While under the effect, the individuals' melee weapons ignore Defense and deal Radiant damage, but deal no damage to unliving targets, including undead and constructs. (Costs 2 skill points)

Holy Blades - Radiant Blades now deals damage normally to undead creatures. (Costs 2 skill points)

Breath of Life - Can breathe life back into a creature dead for no longer than 1 minute, reviving them. (Costs 2 skill points)

Wings of Light - Grant up to (Level/5) allies wings of light, allowing them to fly so long as they carry no more than a light load. (Costs 2 skill points)

Class Skills (Mind Sorceress):

Lesser Glamour – Can create an illusion to make yourself look like any creature of your general size and shape. Does not affect clothing or gear.

Forced Perspective – Force creatures to experience things from your point of view, or experience things from their point of view. (Costs 2 Skill Points)

Telepathy – Like Minor Telepathy, but also able to delve within a subject’s subconscious mind. (Costs 2 Skill points)

Class Skills (Spellshooter):

Rapid Fire – Able to shoot twice as fast as normal with your Spellshooter, for increased SP cost per shot.

Crippling Shot – While using your Spellshooter, you can target a creature’s limbs, temporarily debilitating them. Cannot be used with magic bullets.

Tracker Shot – While using your Spellshooter, you can choose to have the shot do no damage. Instead, it plants a magical marker on the target, lasting up to 24 hours. You always know the distance and direction to a marked target, so long as you are on the same plane. Can have up to (Level/10) marks at once.

Transfer Shot – While using your Spellshooter, you can choose to have the shot do no damage. Instead, you teleport to the point of impact. Costs 100 MP per meter teleported in this fashion. (Costs 2 Skill Points)

Bullet Time – Temporarily accelerate your shooting, moving at 10x normal speed. Costs 1000 SP per second, on top of normal shooting costs.

Echo Shot – Spend extra MP per magic bullet shot to conjure ‘echoes’ of the bullet, each dealing 50% normal damage. (Costs 2 Skill Points)

Profession Skills (Courtesan):

Magic Touch (Frenzy) – The Courtesan is able to imbue magic into her touch, spending MP to cause a creature to go into a frenzy, rampaging about. This is an Enchantment effect, and lasts for (Courtesan’s CHA - Target’s Level+WIS) minutes. Effects of Frenzy depend on target’s nature. (Costs 2 Skill Points)

Magic Touch (Healing Hand) – The Courtesan is able to imbue magic into her touch, spending MP to restore a creature’s HP. For every (CHA) MP spent, the target regains an equal amount of HP. Cannot be used on the same target more than 1/hour.

Magic Touch (Poison) – The Courtesan can use magic to produce any poison that she has been exposed to, and survived for their duration, without the poison being cleansed. She is immune to her own mystic poison, but not other poisons of the same type. (Costs 2 Skill Points)

General Skills:

Mounted Combat – Able to fight (including using spells) while mounted without penalty.

Fortifications – Able to design fortifications to withstand an enemy assault. Does not help with construction.

Lots of killer skills in that group, though some were ones I’d passed over many times before. However, with forty points to spend, I had enough that I could buy out the list. And, by the time I got to Level 35, when I’d have more skills open to me, I’d have twenty skill points to spend on them, since I was now getting 4 skill points per level.

I bought them all, obviously. There was literally no reason not to, at this point. Even if I didn’t end up using most of the skills, more tools in the toolkit were always better than less. Sure, you might not ever find yourself needing that weird size ratchet wrench, but nothing sucked more than finding out you were missing a tool that would make something easy, instead of needing to go out and buy a tool, or spend time jury-rigging things.

That done, I looked at the others, and grinned as I shifted back into my Alis form. No sense giving away secrets when I didn’t have to, after all. “All right. Let’s get going. This lich isn’t going to defeat himself, and I have a plan for taking on him, and the ‘dark power’ running through this dungeon our angel friend mentioned.”