Chapter 82: Chapter 81: Rewards
Klaire howled once more when the air grew still, not violently, but rather in the language of the banshees. "Return to me, leave no soul behind."
"Your pronunciation is still appalling."
Klaire huffed and reopened the portal.
"Yet somehow you master the harder skill effortlessly." Faylorna groaned, sensing Klaire was simply choosing to remain stunted in some childish rebellion.
"Let’s get back, Levi, can you tell Majesty to reimplement Carl’s orders on the second floor please." Levi did as requested and then the three of them left, arriving in the quarantine bay where they went through sterilisation.
Lydia gave them the all clear, then she went to visit Alysse.
Alysse was analysing her "failure", spewing a never-ending stream of self-deprecating slurs.
Klaire tried to reassure her, but it was wasted effort, in the end the only thing she managed to do to help at all was send a copy of the video.
"So, it was some kind of charged plasma? Maybe it overloaded the nanites on impact, not destroying them, but making them self-destruct... So, I need to work on individual nanite capacity for it to be effective against high energy attacks... Wait, maybe it was actually a matter of substance and the conversion rate was simply much higher..."
It soon became clear that she wasn’t engaging with Klaire, so she decided to leave her to her work. "Alysse, before I go, can that weapon of yours become a firearm?"
"Yeah, I modelled it after your old nanite armour, it can become anything he wants it to be."
"Good, I think he favours a spear because that’s what he has experience with, but he’s letting that become a limitation. I’m going to teach him how to use a gun, hopefully he’ll get some skills." Klaire left after that and returned home.
When she got back, Carl was sleeping restlessly.
After changing into her nightwear, she laid down beside him and pulled him close, kissing the part of his shoulder that would be a gorey mess without Kyubi’s help and resting a hand on his thigh that was also a melted mess.
She rested her head against his back, suddenly filled with new desire she didn’t even want at that moment. As she took in his scent, she breathed deeply, her newly specialised senses making it possible for her to smell his soul.
’So pure and kind, I wish it didn’t make me feel this way every time, I didn’t have a choice but to ask for Faylorna’s help.’ Even as she thought it she struggled to keep the desire in check, she didn’t find it bad to feel this way about her husband, but she didn’t want him thinking it was his aura affecting her.
The next morning as she woke up, the desire hadn’t faltered and she turned to look at him. His face was glazed as he studied something she couldn’t see and thanks to the way her brain was working, it seemed like a good idea to show him how vulnerable he was.
She moved a hand towards him, breathing with melodramatic tension...
"Morning Klaire, you aren’t going to believe this..."
She slowly clenched her hand, her target barely out of reach of her fingers, then she huffed and sat up. "Believe what? Is there a good reason to be distracted from your wife?" She half-joked as the neglected desire made it difficult to care.
"I, uh, think so yeah. I just got my rewards..."
Klaire’s interest was piqued, she had received her own rewards almost immediately for punishing the two men Venusiah brought her.
"Okay, fine you have three chances to stop me in my tracks."
"For starters, I have fifteen rewards waiting, but I think it will be best if you pass me the projection headset so you can see for yourself because I don’t even know if these are real."
Klaire chuckled, then begrudgingly got up and grabbed the headset, wondering if there was something she could do to grab his attention without seeming weird or desperate. ’Maybe I should ask Lydia for advice, that definitely isn’t all succubus pheromones...’
When Carl turned the visual display on and wore the headset however, she realised why he was so fixated.
[ SYSTEM NOTICE: REWARDS HAVE BEEN CALCULATED. ]
[ SYSTEM NOTICE: REWARDS RECEIVED = 15 ]
[ ADVOCATE OF FREE WILL: THIS WILL ALLOW YOU TO LIBERATE YOUR CREATIONS AS INDIVIDUALS FROM THEIR BOND TO YOU. ]
[ SYSTEM WARNING: HOW THEY FEEL ABOUT YOU WILL GREATLY IMPACT HOW THEY ACT TOWARDS YOU AFTER LIBERATION. ]
[ ACTIVE SKILL RECEIVED NEO PRIMORDIA CHIMERISM: THIS WILL ALLOW YOU TO PERMANENTLY MERGE WITH A NUMBER OF YOUR PETS EXCLUDING CHIMERAS, EQUAL TO ONE FIFTH OF YOUR PET SLOTS, YOU WILL GAIN UPTO 10% OF THEIR STATS AND ONE COMPATIBLE SKILL. ]
[ SYSTEM WARNING: MERGING WITH PETS YOU DON’T HAVE A CLOSE BOND WITH CAN CAUSE DE-HARMONISATION AND FORCE SEPARATION, WHICH WILL SEE YOUR STATS PERMANENTLY REDUCED BY UP TO 10% ]
[ SKILL UPGRADED FROM NEO GOVERNOR TO NEO MONARCH: A MONARCH LEADS BUT IS NOT ALONE, HIS QUEEN AND MINISTERS MAY ACT ON HIS BEHALF, HE DELEGATES TO THOSE HE TRUSTS AND OVERRULES WHEN NECESSARY. ]
[ UNWILLING KING: YOUR REFUSAL TO EXERT YOUR INFLUENCE HAS DRAWN PEOPLE AS EASILY AS YOUR AURA. YOUR AURA WILL BE TRANSMUTED INTO AN EXTENSION OF YOUR WILL. ]
[ SECOND CHANCE: YOU MAY ALTER ALL CREATED SPECIES ONE TIME AFTER FINALISATION, ALL LIVING MEMBERS OF THAT SPECIES WILL UNDERGO METAMORPHOSIS, INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE MUTATED OR EVOLVED SINCE CREATION WILL BE EFFECTED FAR MORE GREATLY. ]
[ SYSTEM NOTICE: CHANGE WILL NOT EFFECT THEIR PERSONALITIES OR MEMORIES DIRECTLY. ]
[ CREATOR’S GIFT: YOU MAY BESTOW A BLESSING OF EITHER MINOR, MODERATE OR GREATER, ON ANY OF YOUR CREATIONS TO ELEVATE THEM AMONGST THEIR SPECIES, THIS WILL BE RECOGNISED BY OTHERS OF THE SAME SPECIES. ]
[ INVERSION ANCHOR: KLAIRE WILL BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND YOU DURING BOUTS OF INVERSION. ]
[ LAW-ABIDING: THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED YOUR POTENTIAL, YOU MAY INFUSE A SINGLE LAW INTO A CREATURE A SINGLE TIME PER LAW UNDERSTOOD. ]
[ SYSTEM NOTICE: THE LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING YOU HAVE AT THE TIME OF CREATION WILL GREATLY EFFECT THE OUTCOME, FOR MAXIMUM EFFECT YOU SHOULD MASTER A LAW BEFORE GRANTING IT TO A CREATURE ]
[ SYSTEM NOTICE: THE CREATURES WILL LIKELY BE SINGULAR AND IMPOSSIBLE TO REPLICATE ]
[ SINGLE-USE SKILL: CELLULAR CYCLE, FIRST PASSAGE IN THE LAW OF LIFE. ]
[SINGLE-USE SKILL: SLEEP, FIRST PASSAGE IN THE LAW OF DEATH. ]
[ SINGLE-USE SKILL: PERSPECTIVE. FIRST PASSAGE IN THE LAW OF MIND. ]
[ SINGLE-USE SKILL: NANOSECONDS, FIRST PASSAGE IN THE LAW OF INFINITY. ]
[ SINGLE-USE SKILL: VOID, FIRST PASSAGE IN THE LAW OF NOTHINGNESS. ]
[ SINGLE-USE SKILL: THE ONE, FIRST PASSAGE IN THE LAW OF ORDER. ]
[ SINGLE-USE SKILL: SELF-SERVING, FIRST PASSAGE IN THE LAW OF CHAOS. ]
Klaire hit the capture button as soon as she was able to, knowing that if they failed to mention anything the immortals in their ranks would do far more than sulk about it.
"Didn’t Lillim say at one star you only get rudimentary knowledge of two laws? I think I’m getting the first bits of soul, I was going to brag to you..." Klaire was clearly feeling a bit inadequate and even Carl wasn’t oblivious enough to miss it.
"Klaire, don’t even start..." His words made her jaw drop with shock and a pain shoot through her. "...You’re all putting me to shame in every possible way, I have so many abilities I don’t even use, I’m an absolute failure and yesterday proved it."
"Carl, seriously what is going on with you? You were always stopping me from charging ahead when we done contests at SATS."
"I just realised that regardless of how people keep telling me I have more potential than any other human, all I do is waste it. The variants destroyed every trace of The Carrion, so thoroughly we didn’t even know they existed and yet I nearly got killed on the second floor of one hive."
"Carl, do you want to know what I think?" Klaire suddenly realised the answer to the question that she had been quietly plagued by since they met Margo and she was so eager to share, she barely waited for him to confirm. "Your trying to make up for relying on everyone when you had no power of your own."
"What? No, I don’t think I even could make up for all that..."
"That’s the problem right there, you pulled more than your weight the entire eight years. Not by being all powerful, but studying and practicing and planning ahead. Since that first level-up, I haven’t seen you sit down and plan something that way even once."
"I don’t have time though. I have to act and make decisions on the spot or people will be sat idle. How can people trust me to lead if I can’t even assign one of the ten thousand things that need to be done?"
"Carl, I love you..." Klaire trailed off, leaving Carl, unsure if she was going to say something else.
"I love you too Klaire..." Carl said nervously as the silence became deafening and awkward.
"I’ll pretend you didn’t hesitate that badly this time, but if you take that long again, I’ll shoot you. Anyway, you’re an idiot. What do you think people would prefer; a leader who makes quick decisions that lead to victory, or one that makes fast decisions and mixed results that usually involve a whole lot of luck?"
"Klaire, can you just shoot me anyway? I think I need it."
"No, I won’t judge your masochism, but I’m not satisfying it. Carl, you are the leader this faction needs and I truly believe that in time you will be the best leader that humans could ask for...
Unfortunately the leader you’ve been lately isn’t the leader you are. You make mistakes, insist on being on the front twenty-four seven and treat stating the obvious like delegation."
"Okay, I get it, anything else while you’re on a roll."
"Yes. If you don’t stop ignoring the girl sleeping next to you she’s going to develop a complex." She crawled towards him after that, the desire she had been restraining coming to the surface.