Greed God chapter 149

March 23rd 2016 Gemworld 12:00 PM EDT

I  had spent a while trolling around for the perfect item to use for  Cherry's upgrade. Luckily, she was only F ranked, which meant I only  needed a G ranked item to upgrade her. Buying it actually resulted in me  gaining a thousand points to offset some of the upgrade cost too, so  that was nice.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Skeleton  Key- G rank. A skeletal key made to open almost any lock. Certain  magical protections can render this effect null, but for the most part  any normal door can be opened.]

This was the  perfect item to use on Cherry for a simple reason. The hand of glory was  specifically designed to open magical locks. It could pop doors with  some effort sure, but that detracted from the magic it had to open  wards. The skeleton key also had a partial effect on wards and mystical  protections, just a less obvious one, so it worked nearly the inverse.  Combining them should balance Cherry out and make her a much more  effective thief. Since I had so many Branded minions, my best bet was to  start specializing them a bit more. Cherry's role was already decided,  so I just needed to improve it a bit.

I held up the  skeleton key to my currently gray phantom lady and triggered the merge  without bothering to build up to it. Unlike the chemical treatment I'd  first used, actual merges didn't hurt so she didn't have to choke down  screams or anything. There was a bit of a lightshow, but I didn't need  to worry about that too much with the Ignorance Draught in overdrive  from downing the whole bottle. I even briefly wondered if it might get  mixed into the merge, but I could feel the gray feeling stick to the  energy without joining in.

It took about a minute for it  to finish, and the deduction of ten thousand points left me shy of two  million by a small chunk now, but I wasn't worried enough to bother with  that. I'd be making a windfall once we got inside, and I'd make it back  times a thousand, literally, so I could just focus on the task at hand  for now. Once the light faded, I looked over my blonde psychopath as she  became visible to the naked eye again.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Wraithborne Brigand- F rank. A  ghostly phantasm given human form, Charise dedicates her new abilities  to her 'daddy' Nicholas Lord. Enthralled by his sexual prowess and  dominating hand she is devoted to his every whim, the only caveat being  her requirement that he find her ex to prove himself. Impossibly skilled  at infiltration and theft, Charise excels in all forms of illicit  acquisition, being uniquely suited to enter all but the most  impenetrable of vaults.]

Her skin had taken on a  slight bluish tinge, not enough to be noticed at a casual glance, but  enough to hint at spectral origins. Her already beautiful features had  become more refined and aristocratic, her face touched with an  otherworldly beauty. Her body was corded with lean muscle like a jungle  cat, toned but wiry, with slim, sculpted curves. Her tits were slightly  bigger, not a patch on Zee's, but solid C cups with a gravity defying  float to them that would be impossible for a pair that was beholden to  the laws of physics.

Shaking off the distraction, I gave  my psycho a smirk. "As amazing as you probably feel right now, we're in a  bit of a time crunch." I pulled out the portable window and passed it  to her, then held out my hand, green lightning rolling over me in the  same way it had before I used that tree growth trick back during my  fight. "I'll give you as much as you need. Can you use the window as a  focus for your powers so we can get in quick?" I was pretty sure she  could, and even if she couldn't we could brute force it, but this would  save us time.

She pressed it to the blank stone wall, but  didn't open it, holding out her hand. I took it with mine, and I fed in  as much supercharging life energy as I could as she placed her hand flat  on the window. The view on the other side was still rock, though it was  sticking. Without any warning, her fingers all caught fire, the same  way as before, but instead of just the flames of the hand of glory her  flash around them grew darker, allowing the bone beneath it to shine  through like I was looking at an x-ray.

As the flames  flared up, the stone behind the window began to shift and warp, pulling  and twisting like grey taffy. As it twisted it began to pale, clearing  until I could see through into the tower inside. Cherry jerked her hand  away, placing the other next on one side of the window, moving the one  touching it to the opposite edge of the frame. Her voice came out  strained and harsh as she bit out. "I can hold this for about ten  minutes. Move fast. It shouldn't set off any alarms or anything, but if  you don't get back in time we're going to be fucked. They'll realize  we're here and come for us hard."

I leaned down to peck  her on the cheek. "Fantastic job. I'll make sure to give you a fun  reward later. Just sit tight while I rob these bastards blind." She  chuckled tensely and I pushed the window open. I gestured for Zee to sit  tight, knowing her magic would be able to help out if Cherry ran into  problem, and slipped past my platinum blonde nutcase into the tower  where all of Dark Opals treasures were kept. Or at least all the ones he  trusted other people to have access to. No way a paranoid lunatic like  that didn't have a private treasury, but since he'd had the rock for  years it should be here.

I just had  to look around at all the impressive shit around here. I decided to tour  the place first, and get an idea of what I was stealing before I  actually started grabbing things up. There might be internal security of  some kind even my girls had missed, and if so I had to get the rock  first, and then make sure to grab the most valuable shit possible after  that on the way out. I walked around for a while, past literal piles of  precious gems of various types, the occasional mountain of gold coins,  racks of weapons, and several pedestals with interesting magical items  on them, before finding the rock.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Manaborne Amethyst- C rank. A  powerful collection of magical energy born from the depths of a mystical  amethyst vein, ideally suited for use in a great working of the  Amethyst bloodline. Several enchantments have been laid on the stone to  prepare it be used as a material in a set of mystical armor, though  nothing has ever come from the preparations. Mystical protections  prevent anyone from laying their hands on the stone.]

I  grinned. There it was. Ten million points. The mystical protections  thing was annoying, but I could deal with it. I had other ways to  retrieve items. It made my plan to grab the rock first a bad one though.  If there were wards on that thing, and I bypassed them. People would  know. It would need to be my last get, not my first, at least now that I  knew my appraisal would identify warded objects. I did a quick second  tour of the room, appraising everything, grabbing piles of stones and  fold coins and stuffing them into my pouch.

Each  object wasn't worth much, they weren't highly magical or anything, but  there was a shit load of them, and my points skyrocketed from just shy  of two million, to three million plus. I would have gotten more, but I  was forcibly reminded that the maw of the hydra wasn't infinite, and  once I had filled up a few of the compartments I had to stop to make  sure I had room for the good stuff. My tour managed to identify a series  of items that weren't under any protections at all for one reason or  another, so I grabbed each of those.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Iron dragon cestus- E rank. A  pair of battle gauntlets made from the fangs of a powerful earth dragon.  Set into black star iron, these brutal striking weapons amplify  physical blows by three times, and boast an absurd penetrating power  against mystical wards and armors. Despite this, they are considered  poor weapons due to the abnormal weight, which makes them a bad fit for  most noble bloodlines.]

My  eyes lit up at that. First off fuck Dark Opal for keeping dragon parts  around, but I needed a weapon, and they would also provide a perfect  merge material for me to use to get to D rank myself. The earth dragon  thing even kind of went with my whole Vital Tempest vibe, so I wouldn't  be spreading myself too thin. Until then, I could just use them in  combat. I grabbed them greedily, and staggered a bit after I did. The  description hadn't been fucking kidding about the weight, even I was  having trouble lifting them. Something to worry about later. I moved  onto the next item I'd found.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Cosmos  Sapphire- G rank. An extremely rare stone possessing the power of the  stars. Prized for its beauty and use as a focus in cosmic magic, it was  given as a gift for Dark Opal's one hundredth birthday. Despite its  appearance, it is considered mostly useless given its low magic density  and incompatibility with any living bloodline.]

I  snatched it up without a seconds thought. I'd been mulling over how to  upgrade Barbie, and this was clearly an interesting and gorgeous item I  could use. With our discussion it was about time for me to actually  merge her, and I could use the chalice to get her to G rank first, just  to ensure her loyalty to me was as strong as possible. I was interested  to see what an item like this would make bloodline wise, because it  really was stunning. A deep blue stone with flickers of starlight  dancing inside the nearly midnight depths so fast you could easily miss  it.

I grabbed a few other G  ranked materials, I still had to upgrade Dinah, Sindara, and given  Barbie's regular abuse of the big breasted girls mouth, probably Hildie.  My redhead would be furious if I didn't let her bring her toy home, and  we'd just gotten to a good place. I also grabbed one more E ranked item  that wasn't protected. A small hand mirror I was informed by appraisal  had once belonged to a faerie queen and possessed some scrying  abilities. It would be useful for sure, but I also felt strangely drawn  to the thing, possibly because of all the creepy things that happened  around mirrors near me already. Maybe one designed to look for things  could help me figure that shit out.

Sadly,  that was the last of the undefended items, leaving me at five million  greed points exactly. It was a huge windfall, especially adding on the  stone itself, which I prepared to take. I knew it wouldn't be  approachable physically, so I stood to one side and channeled my magic  into the air. The Vital Tempest crackled on my skin, and I reached out  with my power, calling the green wind back to me after I let it out.

The  air looped around the back of the pedestal in a current, and I pushed  some more energy into it, focusing hard on the stone. The wind was a bit  magical, but then, given what was in this place, the air in here was  probably all magical, so it didn't seem to trigger anything. Slowly,  surely, the stone floated up off the pedestal, the shimmering purple gem  lifting from its setting and floating slowly over to me.

Nothing  seemed to happen, until the thing touched my hand and then the air  seemed to crackle with magic. A series of steel gates slammed down  around all the pedestals and the entrance itself, sealing me in the room  until the guards could be called. I just grinned and turned back to the  window still open in the wall, completely unobstructed by the lockdown  procedures. I winced as I saw the wall start to warp a bit inside the  frame and bolted for the exit at top speed, barely making it through.

Catching  Cherry as she collapsed from the drain, I slung her over my shoulder  and turned to Zee. "Alright, I got it. Lets go." We grabbed the window  and bolted back the way we came, fifteen million GP richer. Now we just  had to actually get away with it. Even as we ran, I could hear the sound  of metal boots crashing against stone floors. The guards were coming,  whichever ones were left. Luckily for us, they were heading for the  actual entrance. Hopefully that would buy us the time we needed to get  out of this city alive.