Divinity Rescue Corps

113- Avoiding Choices and Their Consequences (edited)

113- Avoiding Choices and Their Consequences

The sun rose and fell. Sometimes the smells of frying eggs or bacon woke me. Sometimes the smells of a savory stew. Sometimes the cool, misty mornings had my eyes opening early. Those days mostly went the same: on work days, I delegated with morning briefings, hoped for another sighting of a godly artifact from Drat, and had them disperse. I spoke with Cinzy and Wayne about how the refugees were doing and what Jacoby’s team was up to, and if they needed anything from us.

I found it slightly annoying how Wayne or Jacoby’s people were completely unable to help us in our main task, but Tara was often conscripted into

After the failure with Alan, Trent was reluctant to give it a shot. He routed a lot of power through his bonded Nakamamon, Garnet. The orange-red crystal pulsed with light while we talked, and Trent frowned.

“I’m sorry, Fletcher,” he said.

Garnet wasn’t willing to take the chance of getting the same divinity poisoning while working the stone beneath the divine artifacts. He still had a lot of work to do to ensure the relocation camp for the Nakamamon drawn here was enough. It needed irrigation ditches dug, it needed drainage and sewage that were separate from the irrigation. No, he was needed and that need was important. No way he was going to end up on a sick bed like Alan, unable to cast spells, and no way was he risking his bond mate.

I couldn’t fault him for that, frustrating as it might be.

Each day I returned to the camp and reunited with Vellenia.

Regina’s remark stuck with me. I hadn’t once considered actually breaking the bond, and I had no idea how to do so anyway. Thinking about it got me down, from the guilt of both event thinking about it in the first place, and the guilt of being forced to leave Shakindria to the town sometime in the future.

Vellenia caught wind of my despondent mood and grew concerned. She would massage my shoulders, offer to rub my feet, offer to go find Regina or Tara or Ivy and Isabelle, or Cinzy. She would strip off my clothes and try to get me in the mood.

For the first time, I was having trouble. Now, it wasn’t sexually. Vellenia could still get me hard, could still satisfy herself several times over, and then satisfy me. But when she cuddled me I felt the pressure I put on myself.

Vellenia was a delight. She admired what I was doing, and was actively helping. She knew of underwater plants and herbs that were used in making remedies, and we’d been planting and tending them together as part of Verdant Rejuvenation. Some of these plants were used in remedies in Alan’s collection of books, while others weren’t. I was interested in getting to know these plants better in order to see how they could be used in healing.

If there was one positive aspect to the week spent with Shakindria and Vellenia, and randomly entertaining Regina, Ivy, Tara, and once with an exhausted and distracted Cinzy, it was my level increasing in Pleasure Seeker.

By the end of the work week, I’d gained three levels, bringing me to level 24.

Level 22: +3 skill points

Level 23: +1 Likability, +1 free attribute point

Level 24: Gained Ability: Raw Connection

“Ugh,” I told myself, then stared around and tried to get an idea of what was wrong with me.

It had rained but it was a light, warm rain. The sun was now shining and throwing rainbows up practically everywhere you looked. Nakamamon had come out to drink and bathe in the precipitation, showing me strange bugs and fairies made of air or glittering points of light. Drat had found two more pieces of divinity, bringing the total to four (plus the one I’d made), and was off searching for yet another one.

Yet I was not pleased with myself.

It wasn’t like I was upset at the way I was progressing, but I still felt like I was doing it the wrong way. Like I was doing something bad every time I went into town to be with Shakindria.

I spent the 3 skill points, one on Divine Resistance, one on Adaptability, and one on Pheromones. I’d still had one from the Achievement, and put it aside for Healer skills. I felt like I would need it; we were at another level with this town situation, and I’d need to be a higher level to match.

The additional free attribute point was another bright star in my fraught mental state, and I finally put this one into Physicality. I’d basically cleared up my leg and spine problem, and was building towards an actual physique I could be proud of. I needed it the least for my classes, but everyone needed a healthy body. I felt that one more point would give me body builder muscles, or at least rock climber or runner muscles, the lean build you associate with healthy people. The knowledge came by instinct, based on the way I felt; right now I could carry weights I’d never been able to, and only after doing that was I feeling any soreness in my hips, thighs or back. I was pain free almost every day.

As for the newest ability…

Raw Connection

(Special Ability, Rare, Active aura)

Activate by spending a Likability Token. Auras affect all targets within range. Effective range is a radius your class level in feet, presently 24 feet. This effect lasts for 10 minutes, plus 10 minutes per relationship level of the highest level member within range.

Relationship points gained through social interactions are doubled.

Relationship points gained through sexual activity or Social checks are boosted by 50%.

Note: this includes both positive and negative Relationship gains.

This… was good. Like really good. The bonus from getting to Devotee with Regina promised to be great; she loved her ability to gain lots of Nakamamon buddies. She’d already befriended the Slumbershrooms and one Shrubbit that I knew of. She disappeared most mornings to go be among the creatures and attract them, then play with them, which was her right… though the DRC did need her for team-related duties occasionally.

She had gotten an amazing deal from her Meld Ability, while I… continued to balk. I still hadn’t taken the leap and gone with the Meld Ability from Regina telling me she loved me, but abilities like that weren’t going to be garbage. This ability would send my relationships with Tara, Ivy, Isabelle, and Cinzy shooting up quickly, I hoped. And that would mean boosted power levels, and reaching Devotee level faster.

And possibly what lay beyond with Regina also.

“You need to just get it over with,” Regina told me that night. She was snuggled up on one side of me, with Vellenia’s spot being on the other side. She was out playing with Regina’s new gaggle of creatures, but would be in for snuggling and maybe more soon.

“Get your ability,” Regina went on. “Go on, get it.”

“But Beast Talker is so good,” I complained. It was helping me resist the problem with Shakindria. Though if we were being perfectly honest, the problem with Shakindria had become just a tad more problematic.

“Do it,” Tara insisted, like she always did. “When my family knows there’s some kind of problem and you’re dallying, they sit down and find out why you’re stuck, then everybody goes ‘do it!’ Always helps me and my folks.”

This is Christopher not doing it. Not right now at least.