Echoes Of The Seven

Since the five combatants agreed to meet at Eris’s shop before going to the Obelisk, it meant that there wasn’t a whole lot of time for Eris, Jaxie, Alex and Bailey to clean up and head off to the CDF. The older blonde did depart from them with a smile so she could go to her own shop, leaving the three girls to approach Eris’s closed shop with three other figures standing outside. Eris blinked a few times at the sight. She’d only seen the three in casual clothing. Now, they were geared up for war.

All three were wearing the free, nonmagical armour available in Marrix’s armouries. Eris could recognize the design- particularly because of the Marrix crest emblazoned in various places; a sunrise peeking through a tree with no leaves. Of course, they were wearing variations of armour. Claire and Meghan both looked quite uncomfortable in their chainmail, whereas Nima looked perfectly at ease in simple half-plate. While they may have taken the free armour provided by Marrix, the same couldn’t have been said for their weapons. That much was to be expected- Eris already knew that most new combatant students opted to spend their first funds on a weapon.

Claire was leaning idly on her staff, which was decidedly unimpressive. Obviously crafted by some first-level Woodcarver, it honestly looked more like the haft of a polearm. Even so, Eris doubted she would be capable of anything more; most first-level crafters were pretty much limited entirely to whatever they found in the Dump. They had to make do with what was available.

For her part, Meghan was rolling a sphere of glass the size of her fist in her hands, tossing it back and forth as if she were bored. In fact, the only one of the three who wasn’t fidgeting with something and seemed content with the waiting was Nima. Multicoloured hair was pulled back into a bun so tight it hurt Eris just to look at, and the caramel-skinned Spellblade grabbed an extremely simple spear leaning on the wall beside her when her eyes scanned over the trio approaching the shop.

“Wow, you three came early.” Eris said. “Sorry for the wait.”

“No apologies necessary.” Nima drilled her eyes into Eris’s. “I’m going to assume that Jasmine and Alexandra’s equipment is inside?”

“Yeah, I finished the last of it yesterday. I’ve also got some oatmeal ready, I just need to warm it up.” Eris unlocked the door and stepped inside, turning on the runic lights. As expected, Jaxie stepped over to the workbench covered over by a large sheet. Eris simply rolled her eyes.

“Fine, you can look. None of it’s anything special, but it’s the best I can do right now.”

All four of the other girls also stepped up to look at the assortment as Jaxie pulled the sheet away. Meanwhile, Eris stepped to the other side of the workshop towards the small kitchen and pulled some bags out of the icebox.

“Two bearded axes for Jaxie and an arming sword for Alex, both giving a Minor bonus to Physical Power. There’s also a heater shield for Alex, giving a bonus to Physical Defence, an iron amulet and ring for both of you that gives a bonus to Vitality, and two full sets of iron plate that gives a bonus to Physical Defence. Like I said- really basic stuff, but I don’t have the skills to change around bonuses or the materials to do anything more.”

Meghan whistled. “Still, that’s a big boost compared to the free equipment. I’m fuckin’ jealous.”

Eris smiled and moved a pot of milk onto the stove. “I also spent pretty much all the money I had on durma leaves and lavender petals so I could make some durma salves. They aren’t as fast or easy to use as actual healing potions, but they’re cheap and good for patching yourselves up between fights. I had enough to make six salves.”

“First-level combatants are able to enter the Obelisk with nothing but the basic Marrix equipment and still do reasonably well, especially in an optimized party.” Nima traced her finger over one of the breastplates. “You are drastically overpreparing and overequipping Jasmine and Alexandra for the challenges we are expected to face. You could have spent half this focus and attention on commission work for others and made some extra money while still leaving both of them sufficiently equipped for the task at hand.”

Eris shrugged and turned her gaze to her shoes. “I know but… I’m still worried. I can’t help it.”

“Aww…” Eris looked up to see both Jaxie and Alex walking over. Jaxie was smiling wide. “You’re worried about us? That’s so sweet.”

The redhead was able to do little more than let out a noise of discontent as she was pulled into a tight hug between the Knight and the Berserker. Still, she felt her cheeks burning when both of them pulled away just enough for Jaxie to crane her neck down and give Eris a soft, sweet kiss. Turning to Alex, Eris could see the blonde blushing before she too, leaned in and kissed the Artificer. She heard Meghan quietly clear her throat.

“So, uhh… if we make out with you, do we get free equipment too- ow!”

The short redhead winced and Eris could see that Claire had roughly stomped on Meghan’s foot. Eris rolled her eyes, but Nima softly cut in- still looking at the assortment on the table.

“Is this some kind of crest?”

Eris raised an eyebrow and broke the hug so she could walk over, then nodded as it all came together. “Oh, yeah. It doesn’t do anything, I just like to put it on all my stuff. Like a signature.”

“Antlers?” Nima gently lifted one of the axes, looking intently at the thin engraving of branching bone stretching up the spine of the metal. Eris shrugged.

“My initials are ELK, Elks have antlers, it just kinda became a thing.”

“It also looks cool. I mean, look at this…” Jaxie grinned and reached into her pocket. Eris was confused for a moment, until she saw the glimmer of silver. Immediately, her face heated up as Jaxie began unabashedly showing off her pocketwatch to the three other girls. “She puts antlers on everything and it always looks good.”

Claire nodded with raised eyebrows. “Wow. That’s gorgeous.”

Eris turned around- partly to pull the milk off the stove and pour it into the bowls of oatmeal, but mostly to hide her reddening cheeks. Her voice was tight and quick as she squeaked.

“Breakfast!”

At that moment, there was a knock on the door. Eris immediately set the pot down and bolted to answer- anything to potentially hide her from the praise. When she opened, her eyes widened.

“Bailey?”

Eris saw the way that Bailey’s eyes immediately flicked over and noted the presence of Nima, Claire, and Meghan. Baby blues turned back to Eris.

“Hi. I was wondering if we could talk in my shop for a bit? You know, give you those alchemical lessons you were asking about?”

Eris furrowed her brow. She never asked for alchemical lesso- oh. She gulped, but twisted her face back to the party who were all looking over before turning to face Bailey once more.

“Uh, sure? Like… right now?”

“Ideally,” Bailey shrugged.

“I was kind of hoping to walk with them to the Obelisk and see them off…” Eris mumbled. She heard a chair scooch and turned to see Jaxie standing with a smile.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to do that. Go do your lesson. We’ll aim to exit sometime around four, so you can wait for us at the Obelisk then and we can tell you all about it.”

Eris hesitated, then nodded. “Okay, okay.” She stepped forward and pulled Jaxie into a hug. “Please, be safe.”

Jaxie patted Eris’s back with a chuckle. “Darling, we’ll be fine. Go.”

It was a bit painful to close the door and leave the party behind, but the twinkling in Bailey’s eyes was extremely difficult to ignore. Eris followed the blonde all the way up to Bailey’s shop, which was still closed. The second the door was closed behind them, Eris turned to Bailey. “What’s this abou-”

“Okay, I was thinking about the dildo…” Bailey began, cutting off Eris as she walked over to a table and sat down while motioning for Eris to do the same. “You made an object related to your sin of Lust, and it became superpowered with special enchantments.”

“...Yeah?” Eris questioned. Bailey grinned.

“So what if you try making non-sexual objects sexual?”

“Uh, what?”

Bailey rolled her eyes. “What exactly happened when you made the dildo? Did anything feel different? Did you get an additional skill you were able to use or something?”

Eris blinked. “Err… no. I mean, no extra skill. It just… when I was making it, I felt like there was a connection or something. I don’t know how to describe it. Like… strings? All over my hands and wrapping over the dildo when I was finishing it up.”

Bailey stayed quiet for a moment before she spoke. “Do you think that if you tried, you could do something like that on an item that wasn’t sexual at all?”

Eris furrowed her brow. “I don’t know. Why?”

“Because you made an item that was, and I quote ‘Imbued with the essence of Lust’. That then made the item more powerful and unique than any equivalent made by someone nine times your level.”

Eris’s eyes started to widen. Meanwhile, Bailey continued. “If you can somehow take that energy and put it into actual combat equipment, like armour or weapons, then you might be able to make items far beyond your normal level of power. I mean, you put the perfect enchantment on an item for your girlfriend by accident. Imagine what kind of stuff you could make if you were actually trying.”

The redhead paused. “Okay then. What do you suggest?”

“We test it, obviously.” Bailey held her arms out to either side and swivelled as if to motion to the entire workshop. “You brew a few potions and see if you can’t do some of that Artificer mumbo-jumbo of yours. See what happens.”

“Like… here? Don’t you need to run your shop?”

Bailey raised an amused eyebrow. “Oh, dear me. I’ll lose a single day of profit while I work with my roommate to try and unlock the secrets of her world-changing power.”

“Okay, okay.” Eris flinched. “What potion should I start with? The only thing I’ve ever imbued Lust into was a dildo, so there’s no telling if it would even work for anything else, much less a consumable item.”

“Already thought about it,” Bailey grinned and slid over to one of her workbenches where an assortment of items were laid out. There was a small cauldron, a vial of yellow-brown liquid, another vial filled with thick red, another filled with an opaque white that looked oddly familiar, a clump of earthy roots…

Wait…

“Are these… the ingredients for a dick-growing potion?”

The poofy blonde stepped over and grabbed the pair of green-lensed goggles off a nearby hook, then held them out for Eris. “Yep. If your stuff works easiest for sexual objects, then we’d be best off starting with an extremely sexual potion to get a better idea of how it works. We see what happens with this, and then we move onto something a little more standard and see if we can’t transfer some of that Lust-iness.”

Eris glanced down at the goggles as they were placed in her hands, instinctively casting a quick Inspect.

Opthalmic Quadfocals

Durability: 98%

A pristine pair of four-lensed goggles designed for crafting. Imbued with the essence of an all-seeing monster. Rewarded from a slain Beholder. Made from beholder leather, brass, and crystallized beholder retinas.

Provides a Major boost to Crafting Speed.

Provides a Major boost to the Durability and Duration of crafts.

Provides a Moderate boost to the Potency of crafts.

Additional effect: Analyst

Can determine the exact weight and volume of a material by sight alone.

Additional effect: Sharpened Sights

Can magnify vision for extremely detailed viewing of anything within three feet.

Eris’s eyes widened while Bailey turned around and started doing some more preparations of the workbench. “Oh my… these are incredible.”

Bailey turned around with a confused eyebrow, then seemed to register the fact she just handed a first-level crafter a very high level item.

“Ah, yeah. Found those at an auction in Sector Tul two months ago. A bunch of tenth-levels pulled that from the Obelisk.”

“How much did these cost?”

Bailey thought for a moment. “Five thousand moons and a potion that gave a permanent bonus to Dexterity. That’s actually part of the reason why I don’t have the ingredients to make a permanent potion for Jaxie right now. I used up my only stock.”

Eris’s mouth went dry. Bailey just laughed. “Ah, don’t worry about it. Once you start getting to like… fifth level and up, money kinda becomes a little pointless. It’s more efficient to trade items and favours because otherwise things would be obscenely expensive. Anyway, whip those puppies on and let’s get to work. I’ll walk you through the process.”

It was strange.

The crafting trance was one thing, but now Eris felt like a machine of efficiency. Her hands were moving so quickly she couldn’t even see them half the time, yet she poured out perfect measurements according to Bailey’s instructions. In fact, the blonde was almost rapping the recipe in order to keep up with the pace that Eris was flying over the worktable. Furthermore, the green lenses of the goggles did nothing to restrict her vision. It actually seemed to do the opposite- like Eris was able to make out perfect details even in the farthest edges of her peripherals.

A single pinch into the mortar and pestle retrieved exactly one-point-six grams of pulverized durma root. Freehand pouring still dolled out precisely seventeen and a half drops of troll urine. In fact, she could see the exact volume of silver gas being boiled up through the water. Micrograms of invisible material fading away as the magic was primed for transmutation. Three-point-two liters of water serving as the base immediately turned a milky, creamy white with a thick and slimy texture in the small cauldron when a single drop of semen was dropped inside. The next step followed. Then the next. Then the one after. Then another.

All the while, Eris felt her fingers getting tangled in strings. Still, she never got stuck- even if a net was draped over her hands and the product she was making, her movements weren’t restricted in the slightest. Light was pouring from her chest in soft, pink strands that draped over the workbench. It was bright- so much so that Eris had to squint in order to see properly.

“What is that?” Bailey asked from behind Eris.

“You can see the strings?” Eris raised an eyebrow and looked over her shoulder. Bailey was leaning forward and narrowing her eyes.

“Strings? I don’t see any strings, but if I squint real hard I can kinda see a… glow? It’s pink. Is that the energy?”

“Yeah. Also, it’s like a net for me and it’s bright.” Eris glanced around the room. “Like, ‘the entire room is pink now’ kinda bright.”

Bailey cast a look around. “Well, I’ll have to take your word for it. All I see are your fingertips glowing a bit.”

“Well, let’s finish this thing up. Next step?”

It wasn’t much longer before Eris tentatively looked over a wooden rack holding a dozen small vials each filled with an inky blue liquid. From an outside perspective, it looked exactly like what Jaxie had drunk earlier. Of course, there was a very easy way to confirm if she was successful. Eris gently lifted the goggles from her face, handed them back to Bailey, and narrowed her eyes onto one of the vials.

Phallus Philter

Portions: 1

A vial filled with a well-crafted potion that temporarily changes a vagina into a penis. Imbued with the essence of Lust. This potion has no effect on individuals without a vagina. Created by Eris Kadell. Made from ejaculatory fluid from Kaley Veshai and Bailey Geriege, blood from Bailey Geriege, evaporated silver, troll urine, durma roots and water.

Provides a Minor boost to Pleasure.

Additional effect: Continuation

Each time orgasm is achieved by the consumer while the effect is active, extend the duration of the Phallus Philter by eight hours. Total duration cannot exceed one-hundred-fourty-four hours.

“Well, it definitely works.” Eris said, slack-jawed. She shifted out of the way in an invitation for Bailey to lean in and Inspect. Barely a moment passed before the relative silence of the workshop was suddenly broken.

“HOLY FUCKING SHIT!” Bailey’s eyes went as wide as saucers. “A hundred and fourty-four…” she seemed to do some quick math on her fingers. “You can make a dick potion that lasts for six days?”

“Up to six days,” Eris corrected. “It doesn’t say the starting duration, only the maximum.”

Bailey blinked. “That’s still absurd. Like, I get that my own skills sacrifice Duration for Potency in my crafts, but making something that lasts over six times longer than someone nine times your level is absolutely insane.”

“To be fair, my only CP spender doubles the Durability of whatever I use it on…”

“Didn’t you say it was only level one?”

“Yeah.”

Bailey rubbed the bridge of her nose, then sat down on a stool. “Okay, let me try to remember. Out of your seven skills, four can be levelled up. Your gathering one is level three, your passive Potency bonus is level two, and both CP and your Durability thing are level one?”

“Correct.”

“I mean, I get that Durability isn’t all that important, but you should probably still at least level those skills up. If you wait to only level up your gathering skill with how expensive you said it was, you’re gonna be waiting for weeks. Your other skills should still be cheap since they’re being levelled up for the first time, right? How much Desire do you have?”

Eris looked inwards. She levelled up Desire’s Reap yesterday, but between the gathering session before going back to the room, then some ‘lessons’ with Bailey, then the whole situation with Yenni and Amber, and then the foursome this morning…

“Enough to get both to second level with enough left over for a decent head start on my next upgrade.”

Bailey shrugged. “Honestly, I’d do it. If for nothing else, increasing the effective Durability is going to make all of your food bonuses and non-instantaneous potions last longer. That’s never a bad thing.”

Eris nodded, then gathered her thoughts before focusing on Enhance. Once again, the cups of her skills were presented along with the pool of her currently stored Desire. Considering how obscenely expensive the next upgrade of Desire’s Reap had appeared to be, it was almost disorienting to see how quickly both Crafting Points and Resilience filled to the brim before the energy spilled back over and goosebumps rose.

When Eris was finished shuddering, she let the information in her mind settle to see the changes.

Crafting Points {Passive} {Level 2}

You have {20} Crafting Points, which you may spend on certain abilities while in the process of crafting. When beginning a new craft, current number of Crafting Points resets to {20}.

Resilience {Active} {Level 2}

For each Crafting Point spent on Resilience, the Durability of the craft is increased by {20%}. Consumable crafts, such as potions or food, have their Duration increased instead.

Eris couldn’t help but let her eyes widen. She cleared her throat.

“Uh, okay then. My CP went from ten to twenty.”

Bailey blinked. “Twenty CP… Bitch, I have five points.”

Eris averted her gaze. “And, umm… Resilience went from a ten percent bonus per point to twenty percent.”

“Let me get this straight…” Bailey leaned forward, rubbing her temples. “You went from doubling the Durability of an item to quadrupling it?”

“...Looks like it?”

Bailey looked up with wide eyes. Her aghast expression slowly turned into an astonished smile. “That is fucking awesome. I kind of want to have you make another batch of those potions just to see how long they’ll last now.”

Bailey glanced between the rack of Lust-imbued dick potions, then Eris, then a clock on the wall. “Eh, we’ll have time later. I think we need to see if you can do some of that funky Lust magic on stuff that isn’t immediately sexual.”

Eris blushed. “Any ideas on what to try?”

“Hmm…” Bailey thought for a moment. “Yeah, I’ve got an idea.”

Trying to replicate the effect when it wasn’t happening automatically was a unique experience. Although, to be completely honest, Eris thought it would have been impossible. Imbuing Lust energy into something not inherently lustful? At the very least, she thought it would have been hard to do.

She couldn’t have been more wrong.

All Eris had to do was breathe out and imagine that pink net draping over her hands and the craft as she emptied out the pestle into the pot. When the light instantly poured out of her chest and all over the workbench like an open faucet, it nearly made the girl stumble in shock. She saw Bailey grin in her peripherals.

“I see glowy fingertips. It’s working?”

“Y-yeah. A lot easier than I thought it would be.”

“Welp, let’s finish this up and see what we’ve got.”

Ten minutes later, both girls were looking with wide eyes at a fist-sized, round-bottomed bottle filled with a thin red liquid that seemed to glimmer in the light. Eris swallowed anxiously. Bailey gave a curious nod.

“I was expecting it to get stronger, but I wasn’t expecting… that.”

“Okay then,” Eris mumbled. “Note to self; imbuing something non-sexual with Lust makes it sexual.”

Meanwhile, she stared at the words hovering in her mind.

Healing Potion

Portions: 1

A bottle filled with a well-crafted potion that mends injury. Imbued with the essence of Lust. Created by Eris Kadell. Made from wheat grain, lavender petals, butterfly antennae, ginko leaves, durma stem and water.

Restores a Minor amount of missing Vitality.

Additional effect: Mending Afterglow

Causes the consumer to achieve orgasm upon consumption. The consumer regains a Minor amount of missing Vitality over a lasting period. Amount of Vitality restored increases with each orgasm the consumer achieved in the last twenty-four hours.

Both girls stayed quiet for a second. When Bailey spoke again, her voice was soft but curious. “What if you do it with a weapon?”

“Bailey!”

“What? Fair question.”

Eris buried her reddening face in her hands. “Fine. Let’s go to my shop.”