Chapter 127: Cleric Stats and Next Steps

“You’re, what, level fifteen now, right?” Dys asked the elf glued to her left side. “You were level fourteen on our first trip out together, but you must have gained at least one level from everything that happened in Alawar.”

“I’m level sixteen now, actually,” Eir corrected. She sat up a little straighter, taking on a more proper, ladylike posture as everyone focused on her. “With all the healing I did, I’m not surprised I gained so much so quickly. I estimate I may actually be quite close to reaching level seventeen, though that is just a guess.”

Eir’s level was definitely a weak spot in the group. She had without doubt the lowest level, not having unlocked her secondary class yet. Only a few days ago, Jadis wouldn’t have cared overly much. At that point, she saw her mercenary group as restricted to just herself and Aila, a “duo” that could handle everything on their own. Now, however, Jadis looked at Eir as a valuable member of the team, someone she wanted to be strong and thrive. She was also someone she cared about on a far more personal level. Jadis wanted the adorable elf to be around for a long, long time. And not just because she was extremely willing to please in bed.

“I will say that I was fortunately blessed in both my starting attributes and in the class I was gifted by Lyssandria,” Eir continued. “At least for the purposes of being a healer. I’m afraid I am not capable of much else, as I have devoted my whole being to the role of healing others.”

Eir’s admission was said with a sweet sort of confidence, the elf clearly seeing no shame in the idea that she had no skills for fighting. She simply made it clear what she was and wasn’t capable of. As she began reading out her status sheet and her skills, Jadis saw exactly what the cleric meant. She was designed for healing. Nothing else.

Kerr whistled low, her left brow raised high in appreciation. “A ‘Beloved Cleric’ of a goddess, huh? The scarlet slut here is way out of our league. That has to rate a tier five, easy.”

“The military doesn’t rate pure healers the same way as combatants,” Thea shook her head. “But yes, Eir’s class would be rated highly.”

“A point two ratio on the Divine attribute for healing is double what most healers get for their primary healing spell,” Aila added her own appraising thoughts. “And with Jadis’ boost applied to that stat, it looks like with full magic power you could heal…” Aila paused a moment to do quick math in her head. “You could heal four-thousand points if you did nothing but heal.”

Eir smiled with graceful humility as the others talked about her class and skills, though she did give Kerr a scolding look for her vulgar language. Her expression quickly switched to gazing lovingly at Jadis, though.

“Thanks to Jadis, I can heal so many more people now before needing rest. I only wish I had had her boost before we travelled to Alawar,” Eir said, her expression turning melancholy as she talked about their ill-fated fight in the abandoned village. “I might have been able keep more of our people alive.”

“Hindsight is always—well, it’s always more accurate than foresight,” Dys said, quickly revising an Earthly saying that probably wouldn’t translate. “Maybe I should have suggested the ritual to you earlier. But it’s too late to go back now, so we should focus on what we’re going to do going forward.”

“Well, what I’m going to do is ask for a free cosmetic heal,” Kerr spoke up, moving to sit next to Eir. She held up her left leg before the cleric’s face, pointing to an old, rough-looking scar that ran down the length of her calf muscle. “Think you can get rid of this old mark for me with that sweet spell of yours? Pretty please?”

“I don’t think spending one hundred magic points for your vanity is the best use of Eir’s resources considering our circumstances,” Aila admonished, shaking her head.

“We’re full health, she’s got full magic, it’s a waste if she isn’t actively recovering magic points. C’mon you gorgeous little yshtaka, do me a favor, would you? I’ve been putting off getting this scar removed for a year now.”

While Kerr cajoled Eir into removing her scar, Jadis considered the difference between Eir and the only other true mage in their group, Aila. Overall, their attribute spreads were mostly the same. Both had eighty-three points in their respective primary casting stats and twenty-five points in the focus attribute. The fact that they were so similar seemed an odd coincidence to Jadis, but what was more interesting was the fact that they were so similar despite the difference in their levels.

Aila was almost double Eir’s CLR, yet Eir already had the same amount of raw magic power as the Arcanist. Then again, that was mostly due to Aila’s primary class being a non-casting, non-combat labor class. Comparing the two classes definitely helped highlight just how much of a difference having a good class versus a poor class made.

Jadis was glad she’d been able to help Aila in achieving her goal of earning a mage class, even if it was a touch different from what Aila had originally expected.

Eir eventually succumbed to Kerr’s unabashed pleading and healed her old scar. The therion’s delighted thanks quickly devolved into inappropriate offers of recompense using her body which made the red elf grow just a bit redder, so Jadis broke the two up and put their group discussion back on track. They still needed to work on planning their next steps so they could escape the cavern system.

“So, I don’t think we need to redo anyone’s Lewd Lover’s Bond ritual,” Syd said as she effortlessly held a squirming Kerr tightly in her arms. “Except for maybe the fuzz butt here. Might want to switch it over to— Hey! Watch the horns.”

“My ass isn’t fuzzy,” Kerr growled, utterly unable to break free from Syd’s strong arms but still able to poke back with her sweeping horns. “Also, as much fun as redoing that ritual would be, Dexterity is where I’m keeping the boost. It’s my best stat.”

“But you don’t have any arrows to make use of it,” Aila pointed out. Jadis wasn’t surprised that she had also spotted the issue. “If you can’t use your bow or any bow-related skills, you may as well switch to something else, like Strength or Vitality. That way you can be more effective in melee.”

“We could give you all of our knives,” Dys said, rocking her head back and forth in ambivalent uncertainty. “That way you’d have more to throw than just your axes. But I’m not sure how effective that would be against something like the giant cave spiders.”

“Probably not very effective,” Kerr sighed, slumping back into Syd’s embrace. “Shit. Fine, you convinced me. Go ahead and fuck me senseless again. I’ll put the points into Strength so I can actually break free of your stupid grasp.”

“It’s not like it’s permanent,” Syd rolled her eyes at Kerr’s antics. “We can redo it again later if you want. You shouldn’t get used to having the extra points anyway, it only lasts for three days without a recharge, so it’ll go away eventually.”

“Unless you want to join us on a more permanent basis,” Aila added.

Jadis’ eyes flew to Aila at her words, surprised that she had been the one to suggest it. Jadis had been thinking of offering Kerr a partnership deal so that they could team up for the future, but she hadn’t wanted to bring it up without discussing it with Aila first. Looking at Aila’s carefully controlled expression, Jadis caught the flicker of her eyes and quirk of her brow that spoke volumes. The redhead was on the same page as Jadis when it came to expanding their little group. They still needed to talk about it, but the idea had been planted.

“I’ll think about it,” Kerr said, giving Aila a narrow-eyed glance.

“Anyway,” Jay spoke up, “we still need to work out how exactly we’re getting out of this place. With all of us boosted in power, we should be able to handle the dangers down here a lot easier. But what’s the plan, exactly? Do we keep wandering around, hoping we stumble across an exit? Or do we backtrack and try to fight our way out?”

“Fight our way out?” Eir exclaimed, alarm evident on her face. “We can’t do that. Even with increased strength, I don’t believe so few of us can overcome the horde of demons that were back in Alawar. Not with the twisted wretch matriarch leading them.”

“But we don’t know that the ugly bitch would even still be there,” Jay countered. “Whether we could take her now or not might not even be a concern. It’s been days since we fled into these tunnels. She may not even be in Alawar anymore.”

“We don’t know how many demons we might encounter if we head back,” Aila mused. “We might encounter little resistance. Or we could run into a veritable army, like the horde we heard marching past our tunnel before. It’s hard to say.”

“There h—have to be other exits,” Thea quietly added her own opinion. “Even if the demons didn’t make them, there have to be other ways in and out. I’m sure the, um, giant cave spiders must be coming to surface sometimes.”

“Yeah, those camouflaged trap doors don’t seem like a demon invention, do they?” Jay nodded. “I think the cave spiders make those naturally. We might get lucky and find a tunnel out made by one of those fuckers. But I don’t know how long we can just wander, hoping to get lucky.”

“How many rations do we have left?” Dys asked.

After a few minutes searching through packs and adding everything up, the answer came out to be enough food for another three days. They’d have more, except Jadis’ three bodies needed a lot more food than the others to keep going, even when rationing.

“We can always eat cave crawlers,” Kerr pointed out. “And water isn’t an issue down here, at least not so far.”

“How would we cook them?” Eir asked, her tone dubious.

“We don’t,” Kerr answered immediately. “No wood, no fire. Not unless one of you happened to bring one of those fancy enchanted cookpots.”

“I suppose I can cure any diseases that may come from eating the raw meat,” Eir frowned unhappily. “So long as they aren’t too serious. But eating nothing but uncooked cave crawler meat won’t be good for us in the long term, I’m certain.”

“We could live off of it for months if we have to,” Kerr shrugged. “Won’t be fun, but it’s doable.”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” Jay grumbled dryly.

They took some more time to hammer out the details of their plan, mainly focusing on what they would do if and when they encountered hostile beasts or demons, but the group agreed that searching for an alternate exit was preferable to backtracking, at least for the time being. If they ended up spending days more wandering lost in the caves, they might revisit the idea of going back the way they came, but they’d search for a different way out for a while longer.

 Once they were all satisfied with their plans, Jadis brought up the last part of their preparation that still needed to be addressed.

“So, one more thing,” Jay said, drawing attention to herself. “If you all remember, there’s one more ritual that we can perform that’ll improve our odds of survival. How do you all feel about a round of Lascivious Empowerment before we hit the road?”

Jadis felt like her delivery had been a little lame as the others stared at her with varying degrees of amused and incredulous expressions.

“When you put it like that, it really does come across as some horrible attempt at getting us to have sex for no reason other than your lustful perversion,” Aila spoke, her face deadpan.

“While I will literally use any and every excuse to have more sex with you,” Jay said seriously while meeting Aila’s blue eyes, “I promise I’m thinking with my brain, not my cock, in this case.”

“Hey, more power for the low price of getting fucked raw? I’m not complaining,” Kerr piped up, wiggling her plump rear end into Syd’s lap. “How do we start with this weird ritual again?”

“Well…” Syd drawled, “this one is going to be something of a trick to get right…”

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