Greed God chapter 21

January 7th 2016 Lord Mansion 6:00 AM EDT

Getting  home took me a little while, but I was jittering like a meth addict.  This was...awesome. Eris and Psych was my very first F grade item, and  it was fucking worth that title. The Blood of Apophis had been high G  ranked, and that was already pretty damn busted, but this thing was  amazing. I wasn't sure why it was so impressive honestly. Maybe those  pills were all peak J grade or something. Whatever the case was it was  amazing. I grinned at empty air after I got home, addressing Crassus.  "Yo Marcus, you see this thing? Why is it so badass?"

[Honestly  I'm impressed. You got insanely lucky, the mental and sexual protection  synergized well enough to make it technically a single focus artifact.  Artifacts that only do one thing are usually way more powerful. Since  that creates a defense that technically just spreads to others you can  consider a pure defensive item. It's basically at the edge of E rank for  it's specific purpose.]

I  almost fucking giggled. "Hell yes it is. Not only is it one hundred  percent defense against STD's, unwanted pregnancy, and mental intrusion,  it GIVES those to my sexual partners. I have sexual transmitted mind  control immunity. Plus I'm basically a sex god as soon as I take it.  It's insane! Plus the immunity is aimed at people who aren't me, so it  won't even interfere with the Brand!" I wanted to dance a jig or some  shit. "One thing though, is this going to hurt as bad as the blood did?  Because that sucked."

[I  have literally no idea. High ranking stuff can have unintended  consequences later that even appraise can't pin down. Like the Blood, it  could still do something to you. You'll have to take it to find out.  I'd imagine physically it won't do too much though, at least on the  outside. It seems pretty mental focused.]

I  nodded, letting out a long breath. "Ok. Well, here goes then." I  stripped off all my clothes and got in the shower this time just in  case, the last thing I needed was to ruin my suit or floors with another  bodily muck explosion. Once I was in, I stared at the blood red orb for  a bit, then leaned my head back and tossed it down. It rolled down my  throat easily, seeming to start dissolving as soon as it hit my tongue,  and by the time it hit my stomach I felt a slight shift in my gut. I  braced for the worst.

I didn't  brace hard enough. I was getting ready for physical pain, but it never  came. What hit me was, as Crassus guessed, all mental. Anguish. Hate.  Greed. Sorrow. Loss. Depression. All the negative emotions I'd ever  felt, hitting me at the same time as I relived every fucking detail of  them. Each negative feeling fed into the others creating a sort of  exponential feedback loop of total fucking shit. I'd probably have gone  insane from that if the positive emotions hadn't started doing the same  thing at the same time, clashing against the misery.

Rather  than cancel each other out, the two riots of feeling seemed to merge,  clashing a bit before finally being subsumed by each other into a  gestalt of emotional noise so intense it literally blanked out my brain.  It kept rising and rising getting louder and louder until. Silence. I  blinked. I was alone. I was calm, happy even. I say up with a groan,  looking around to find myself lying on the floor of the shower. I'd  apparently been crying and thrown up at least once, but I hadn't voided  my bowels this time so hey, win right? I groaned.

That  had been...exhausting. Painful and tiring in a huge way. Still, I  dragged myself to my feet, limping over to the bathroom mirror even as  my body started to repair itself. I was pretty sure I'd torn some  muscles and maybe cracked a few bones seizing on the floor. I washed my  face off, looking at myself in the mirror. There was no difference, I  looked the same as ever. "Hey Crassus you still around?" If I'd  accidentally fucked up my system with this little trick I was pretty  screwed. Luckily, his wry voice answered me.

[Can't  exactly take a vacation. Not that I would, you're pretty entertaining  to watch. You always manage to surprise me. I think it worked though, I  can still communicate through the system but I don't feel your emotions  bleeding out like I used to.]

I  grumbled because the asshole never mentioned that before, but still, it  was nice to know. I took a quick shower then retreated to my room to  flop down on my bed. "Ok. Thats the first question down. With mental  defense that I can count on and give to Barbie, I should be perfectly  safe to interact with the League if they come looking. Last thing I need  to do is make that G rank mind defense serum for Mal. Speaking of, how  do I give him the Brand? Because I'm not doing it the same way I gave it  to Barbie."

Crassus  chuckled in my head. His voice had been pretty atonal when I first got  the system, but as we went on it became more and more lively and  masculine. He was starting to sound more human, though I wasn't sure if  that was bad or good.

[You  don't need to have sex with him. If you get him to swear fealty and  really mean it that's enough. Most of the time I'd say it wouldn't be  feasible, but given the importance he places on your augmentations.  Combined with your little addiction trick you should be able to make  something stick.]

I  exhaled with relief. That was good. Branding Mal would be a huge bump  for me in terms of both power and operational security, effectively  tying up all loose ends. With the mental immunity from the serum and  Barbie handled, even if the League got onto me I would have effectively  silenced every possible leak that I wasn't just a poor unfortunate  experimental subject. Not that I was planning to let that happen, I was  going to do my best to avoid the League entirely, but dad always said  always have a backup plan.

Once I  felt all rested up and my body had healed I hopped up and made my way  over to grab the stable serum vial, than grabbed the mental defense  pill. It took a thousand points to merge the two H rank artifacts  together and given my surplus I barely even hesitated. The light as they  joined wasn't as bright at the F ranked item but it was still pretty to  look at, the combination effect seeming to have changed after the whole  tutorial end thing. When the artifacts finished combining I appraised  the result with a pleased smile.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Ouroboros  Body Serum- G rank. A powerful physical stimulant that grants an  unceasing power and endurance, both mental and physical. The mind and  body of the augmented become unflagging and immune to outside influence,  though not to damage. Does not counter the Brand of Greed.]

I  blinked. Holy shit. That was about as good as the Blood. A bit less so,  since it seemed to be mostly endurance focused and didn't look like it  upgraded the brain so much as just made both mind and body REALLY hard  to damage. Still the physical power was still there, and it would  absolutely be a step up from a normal person. Probably a bit stronger  than me physically, though without my busted bodily control. Still,  neverending stamina was nice. I noted that it was called a serum, not  something ominous like Blood of Apophis. I could only assume that was a  result of being almost F rank.

I  pulled out my phone and texted Mal, telling him Mammon wanted to run  check how his body was handling the augmentation cool down and if all  went well had a permanent dose for him if it was safe. He was ecstatic,  texting me back a thank you and swearing that he owed me one for life. I  checked if that would work for the Brand but apparently not so my only  real choice there was to wait and try to get him in person. After that I  decided to try texting Dinah. With my new tricks I was sure I could  fuck her if I could find a chance to get her alone.

I  shot her a quick text, very casual. "Hey there, good morning." I  realized that it was now the next day, so I figured I'd act like I'd  just woken up and really wanted to talk to her. Here was where we found  out if all the prep I did was working. She would be conflicted right  now, wanting to talk to me because of the endorphins but wanting to  avoid me because of the guilt. With what happened though she would feel  like she'd led me on, so that same guilt would push her to respond to me  if only so she didn't feel like a monster for crushing my feelings.

Sure  enough I got a response. "Hey. Not bad. Out for breakfast." I frowned.  Terse, but that was to be expected. She was trying to distance herself  from me. I considered responding but I decided to wait. I had a feeling  if the silence got too awkward she would send another text to move the  conversation along. Sure enough a minute later she sent a second  message. "So, how did you sleep?" I grinned. I'd been hoping she would  ask that. I hadn't obviously, but she didn't know it.

I  waited a minute or two. "Not so great. Was dreaming about...things." I  left this one ambiguous. I wanted to imply it had been her without  saying it. It would give the impression I wanted to talk about things  badly but didn't know how to bring it up because I didn't want to bother  her. I gave it another minute to simulate hesitation. "Hey. Listen, can  we talk? Face to face? I feel like we left things bad." This was a  risky move, she might shut down, but implying I shared her guilt would  make her more likely to view the conversation as commiserating instead  of something to be guilty about.

It  took five full minutes before she responded. "I don't know Nick, it  might not be a good idea." She sounded pensive. I waited. That wasn't a  final tone. That was the tone of someone who was arguing with  themselves. "Last night was a mistake." I waited some more. "I guess I  do owe you a conversation." I almost had it, I let her hook herself, she  was almost there. "I'll come over. Text me your address." I grinned and  did, sending her the directions for the garage entrance so she didn't  have to come up the front.

I  was fucking overjoyed. She was coming here. This was better than I'd  hoped. I figured we would meet in public or something since she wouldn't  trust herself. Being here was better. This was new territory for her.  Somewhere I had the home field advantage and she wouldn't associate with  her boyfriend. Somewhere private. Intimate. I considered sprucing the  place up but I decided it would give her the wrong impression. I wanted  this to feel like a friendly meeting until it didn't. Until she wanted  more.

Because  she would. I was done waiting. I'd put in my time, done my groundwork I  was going to fuck that milf. More than that, with my new skills in bed I  was going to fucking break her. I wanted those tits, needed that ass,  craved that pussy. Dinah was going to belong to me. Because Barb had  been spending time with her and several other superheroes, and I was  pretty sure with that extra info I knew who Dinah was. By the time I  finished with that sweet ass, Black Canary would only sing for me.