Part of Jadis’ leveling was already done, since she had taken four levels in Mirror Knight during the Glanum city battle. That still left another twenty-six levels to go through, which was a dizzying thought. Jadis had never had so many levels to sort through before in her life. The prospect of discussing each and every one of her level options sounded like it could take literal hours, and that was just for her classes. If they didn’t want to be reviewing skills, stats, and new classes for the next week, they needed to find some way to streamline the process. When Jadis brought her concern up, her redheaded lover was quick to offer a solution.

Aila being Aila, she had already come up with a methodology for everyone in the room to go by so the leveling process didn’t take forever. Outlining existing classes and previously selected skills, as well as the role in the group each individual typically filled, she passed around sheets of paper torn from her journal that everyone could use as guides. When Jadis saw the guide her intelligent lover handed to her, she couldn’t help but grin. The rules laid out for her leveling were simple and concise, and pretty much what she expected.

All free attribute points were to be immediately assigned to her Eldritch stat. There was no reason to put any points anywhere else considering how her skills worked, so that part of the leveling process could be glossed over. Glancing over at the pages that others sitting around her had gotten, she saw similar instructions, though they generally got a priority ranking for free attributes rather than a singular option.

Going by the same train of logic, Aila’s instructions told Jadis to exclude any and all skills that solely gave increases to her attributes, except for Eldritch. There was no need for her to take those sorts of skills, not when she passively gained so much from putting points into her Eldritch stat. Speaking of, skills that increased her Eldritch attribute were worth consideration, but not as a high priority unless the increase was significant. As nice as increasing her main stat was, and thus boosting all of her other physical stats as well as the primary stats of her lovers, that didn’t mean she should overlook skills that offered useful active and passive effects just for the sake of raw stat power.

An additional caveat to the rule of attribute boosting skill exclusions was any skill that boosted Jadis’ Resilience. While she had drastically improved that particular stat compared to months previous, it was still the weakest point in her defenses. Any skill that had the power to help cover that vulnerability was also worth considering.

There were guidelines about potential active and passive skills as well. Any skills that would involve random chance were to be excluded as unreliable, which was a tenet Jadis had been operating under since she’d first been offered a skill that involved random chance. The likelihood that a bad roll of the die would fuck her over at a critical moment was just too high. That said, skills or spells that could be used to increase either her defenses or her damage output were a high priority, while skills that could empower her companions were also important to look at. Aila had taken the time to list out quite a lot of possible skill types, just based on what they already knew about Jadis’ three classes and the options she had been given in the past, and the guide definitely helped Jadis feel less overwhelmed by the coming deluge of information she had to wade through.

Reading the last bit of advice her redheaded lover had put on the page made Jadis let out a snort of laughter.

“No sex skills? Really?” Jay asked as she waved the paper at the arcanist. “What if it’s a really good one, though?”

 “No sex skills,” Aila reiterated. Then, after a second, she amended her statement. “Not unless it would help you complete the rituals you perform with us. But even then, that is not a priority.”

“Way to suck the fun out of having a sex ritual class,” Syd said indignantly. “Just for that, I hope I’m offered an amazing sex spell, and after everyone agrees I should take it, I’m not going to use it on you.”

Syd punctuated her teasing words by sticking her tongue out at Aila, who simply rolled her eyes in response.

“Oh, however shall I survive without a perverted sex spell being cast on me…”

“You’ll be fine,” Kerr said distractedly as she read the page Alex was holding up in front of her face for her. “I still need to lick you silly for your tertiary class celebration later, anyway.”

While Aila cleared her throat and made some mumbling noises about that not being necessary, Jadis focused her attention back onto her pending levels.

The first thing she did was officially accept all the even-numbered levels so she could mentally pile up all of her free attribute points. Once she had done so, Jadis squinted in confusion as the math didn’t quite add up. Instead of the twenty-six points she had expected to have, she had a total of thirty-two. Carefully rereading her notifications, Jadis figured out where the extra six points had come from.

From past experience, Jadis knew that reaching level twenty in a class netted her five points as an apparent sort of milestone bonus. Apparently, level forty was considered another milestone achievement and had garnered her an even bigger reward. Furthermore, the free points awarded per even number level had gone up as well. Levels one to twenty had awarded her a single point, while levels twenty-one to forty had given her two points at even levels. Now that Jadis had reached past level forty, it seemed she would be getting three points per even level.

So, keeping the fact that Jadis’ tertiary class had reached level twenty thanks to the massive boost to her levels, and had thus rewarded her with five free points rather than just the usual one or two, the total number of thirty-two free attribute points made sense.

Pausing briefly, Jadis took a look at her status sheet. Her levels were applied, though no stat changes had been made since the previous night’s mid-combat boost. What she saw were the familiar big set of numbers that made her a powerhouse on the battlefield.

Without further delay, Jadis mentally pushed all her free points into her Eldritch attribute. Her unmodified total, the one that existed before any skills touched it, was one hundred and twenty-four points. Adding all of the free points she had just gained boosted that number up to one hundred and fifty-six. Once the magic of her various stat-boosting skills were applied, Jadis marveled in awe at her newly improved status sheet. The difference was… significant.

“Bloody balls!”

Jadis was almost immediately startled out of her examination of her new stats by Sorcha’s shocked exclamation. The goblin woman was wide-eyed, even more so than normal. Looking around, she saw similar looks of surprise and consternation on the faces of her lovers, with the only exceptions being Severina, who just looked confused, and Alex, who was as deadpan as usual.

“Give us some warning if you’re going to boost stats like that, yeah?” Sorcha laughed as she brushed off Jadis’ look of concern. “I was looking over my status sheet and all of a sudden, you know… bam! That was a big jump.”

“Was that just from your free attribute points?” Eir asked, her tone both curious and amazed.

“Yeah, it was,” Jay confirmed. “Haven’t taken any skills yet. Just free stats.”

“How much was the increase?” Severina asked. She was out of the loop since she didn’t have Lewd Lover’s Bond applied to her, but she knew what the ritual did. “I’m assuming it was a considerable amount.”

“More than fifty points compared to what it was yesterday,” Bridget mumbled distractedly, her focus clearly on her own status sheet and notifications.

“A fifty-four-point increase over what we had before we arrived in Glanum,” Aila specified while hurriedly scribbling in her journal.

Suddenly, Severina’s eyes were looking as wide as Sorcha’s did.

“Do you want the breakdown or…?” Jay started but was waved off by Aila.

“No, I can work backwards on the math,” the arcanist said without looking up from her writing. “I have your old stats recorded as well. Keeping going. Chances are good that won’t be the last attribute boost we’ll be seeing today.”

Jadis couldn’t help but agree. She might have already used up all of her free attribute points, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to get a skill or two that boosted her Eldritch stat in some way. Still, there was no knowing for sure what options had been given to her without taking a look. Maybe she wouldn’t get any attribute related skills at all.

That notion was immediately disproven as she reviewed the four Mirror Knight skills made available for her to choose from. She’d already taken two skills from the four levels she had accepted during the battle, so there were two slots left with four new skills to pick from. Since those skills were from her forty-first and forty-third levels, she expected them to be a step above what she had been offered in the past, and for the most part, Jadis wasn’t disappointed.

There was still the one attribute-boosting passive skill offered to her, though, which Jadis promptly ignored. It was called Mirror Knight’s Dedication and it would give her a fifteen point boost to both her Endurance and her Focus. She’d stretched her stamina and her magic reserves to their limits during the fight, so she wasn’t surprised to see she’d been offered a skill to help increase those pools. Still, it was a basic attribute increase, and it had nothing to do with Eldritch, so the skill was a toss away. There were older skills that Jadis had skipped on previous levels that she would happily take before a basic point boost like that one, even if it offered thirty total points.

The remaining three skills were all strong contenders, though, and Jadis knew she was about to have a hard time choosing between them. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. There was one among the three that she absolutely had to take, no question. Clearing her throat to get everyone’s attention, she read the description out loud so that her companions could offer their input. She doubted they would disagree with her assessment, though. She was taking this skill.

“You need that skill,” Aila said immediately.

“Thought you’d agree,” Jay grinned at her.

“Why that skill?” Severina asked.

Since she had never participated in one of their group leveling discussions before, the Seraphim didn’t have the full breadth of knowledge that everyone else did. Before Jay could respond, Bridget chimed in with a quick answer.

“If Jadis’ bodies get too far apart, they go bloody mad for a while, then she goes to sleep for weeks. Anything that helps stop that from happening is worth it.”

“Ah, yes,” Sev nodded with understanding. “The Runar incident.”

The Runar Incident. Jadis had to wonder how many rumors about that particular fight were floating around Weigrun and elsewhere. She doubted they painted her in a good light, which wasn’t that big of a concern to her. What did kind of bother her was the possibility that Runar came across as a dutiful, law-abiding servant of the empire rather than the asshole who unjustly attacked her.

Jadis shrugged those unpleasant thoughts off. She had better things to focus on than Runar.

“Okay, taking that skill. That’s a deal, signed and sealed. Now, which of these other two options should I pick?”

“Now, I’m leaning towards Mirror Finish,” Dys mumbled as she put her elbow on her knee and leaned her chin on the heel of her hand. “But I can see a lot of uses for the Image Echo, too. What do you all think?”

“Damn,” Bridget frowned as she drummed the side of her thigh with her fingers. “Those are good. Repeat the second one?”

After Dys did so, Kerr made a clicking noise with her tongue against her teeth.

“Well, shit. That doesn’t do me any good, does it? I’d fucking love to have some of that Mirrored Strikes shit on my arrows.”

“True,” Jay mused as she leaned back onto her arms. “But I wouldn’t give up on the idea. If I take this spell now, future levels could lead to a version that works on ammunition.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Kerr agreed. “Alex, please scratch my back, would you? On the right—yeah, right there, thank you sweet bean. Anyway, you should take that one. Even if I can’t use it, Thea and Bridget could put that shit to good use, and so could Sev. It’d make for a huge boost in damage output.”

“I am tempted to agree,” Aila murmured as she stared at the journal page in front of her with a distant look. “However, Mirror Knight’s Image Echo has substantial uses both on and off the battlefield.”

“It would make for an excellent distraction tactic during combat,” Severina commented with careful consideration. “I have seen swordsmen with illusion magic who were inferior to their opponents in terms of weapon skills win thanks to well-used illusions. Even if it can do no direct damage, a phantasmal copy of you would sow great chaos in a fight, to your favor.”

“Hardly anyone would be able to see through it, too,” Sorcha pointed out as she fiddled with one of her wands. “With how high your Eldritch attribute is these days, they’d have to be an elite or have a specialized class.”

“Imagine taking a swing at a Jadis and going right though,” Bridget laughed. “That’d fuck anyone up and leave them wide open for counterattack.”

“It has more uses than fighting,” Eir gently interjected her own opinion. “You could use the image to scout and explore dangerous situations while keeping your true self safe. The spell could even be used to negotiate with a hostile entity from a safe distance.”

“Definitely has some utility,” Jay nodded along to all the points being made. “The only thing about it that puts me off is the duration. Fifteen minutes. That’s okay for a quick fight but doesn’t do as much good for scouting or negotiating dangerous situations.”

“Yes, that’s true,” Aila bit her lip as she considered the two spells. “Mirror Finish costs twice as much magic to cast, but it lasts for twelve hours. That is a far more efficient use of resources, though it doesn’t have as much potential utility.”

“Yeah, but think about the feather butt with Mirrored Strikes!” Kerr called out. Alex had taken to lifting the therion and slowly rotating her in a circle, which the bound woman did not seem to mind. Her shout came as she was upside-down and her hair got in her open mouth, so she had to sputter to blow it out. “I saw how hard she hit the Demon Prince. She’d be a menace with Mirrored Strikes added on. So would the voyeur and candlestick! They pair up well on the battlefield. If they hit things with Mirrored Strikes, they’d blow through enemies almost as well as Jadis.”

“Candlestick?”

“I do not have feathers on my butt.”

Thea opened her mouth, blushed slightly, then silently shrugged.

“Utility is nice,” Kerr continued, unapologetic for her teasing. “But getting more Mirrored Strikes just sounds too fucking good to pass up.”

“While I am loath to admit it,” Aila sighed. “Kerr makes a good point. I agree that Mirror Finish is the best skill to take right now. However, I am adding Image Echo to the short list of skills you should take if a future odd level does not present better options.”

All three of Jadis smiled and nodded in unison before speaking.

“Alright then. Glad we’re in agreement. Unless anyone has any further comments or an objection to make, I’m officially picking Improved Refracted Mind and Mirror Finish.”

When no one spoke up, Jadis mentally confirmed her choices and sighed with relief. Getting through the options her primary class had given her hadn’t taken too long. However, it had the least number of skills to consider. She still had eight more skills to look at for her secondary class, and fourteen to review for her tertiary. Even if she could summarily exclude a few attribute-based ones to shorten the list, there was a lot to discuss.

“Okay. Moving onto Perverted Ritualist of D…”

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