Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Level Up

Jay and Dys sat side by side on the dais inside D’s temple, between them was a clay jar half filled with water that they shared between them. They had no lunch, having eaten the last of the food that morning, but at least they had water. The noxious stench of dead demons had been mitigated by dumping the purple remains in a pile on the road out front of the temple. If bone thieves could smell, it would no doubt attract them to the location, which was something Jadis welcomed. The actual bones left behind by her victims she left in one corner of the church. She planned on moving them to the cellar where she had dumped the other bones before the end of the day.

Also on the dais was the holy book of D worship Jadis had found on her first, less successful, trip to the temple. The pages were still completely undamaged despite the book being tossed on the ground. She still couldn’t read any of the words, but the pictures were interesting to look at.

Setting the curious tome aside, Jadis stopped distracting herself and focused on her level ups. She had, as expected, one free attribute point to spend where she wanted, as well as two empty skill slots to fill. Jadis couldn’t help the eager grin that crossed both her faces at the prospect of what new skills she might have available to her. Upon pulling open the selection menu, she had to admit the list had certainly expanded a bit.

The number of skills had gone up by four entries. Skipping the ones she already knew, Jadis checked the new skills, starting with Minor damage Reflection. Jay read the menu out loud, just for the sake of talking since there was no real need.

“That’s a cool spell,” Jay commented after reading the description. “I wonder how the damage is reflected? Like, would a cut magically appear on our attacker’s arm if they sliced one of ours?”

Dys shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe. It might cause direct damage to the health pool, though. It’d be kinda funny to take a hit and yell back, ‘stop hitting yourself’ when they act all confused about why they’re hurting, heh.”

“Yeah, but bone thieves don’t react in a satisfying way…” Jay trailed off, crossing her arms and tilting her head in thought. “Plus, if it is a one-to-one reflection on where the damage is done, it won’t be much help against bone thieves. I mean, not the same way it’d be helpful against an enemy with an actual human number of limbs.”

“Let’s see what the other skills do before we pass on it. I can see a lot of use coming from the skill in the future.”

Moving to the next skill, Dys read its description.

“Oh fuck yeah,” Dys said as she finished reading the skill out loud. “That is a no brainer, we are taking that skill.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Jay echoed the sentiment. “It doesn’t say how much the damage is increased, but with how we attack in unison all the time anyway there’s no reason not to take this skill. Only…”

“Yeah,” Dys said, “Yeah, I know. We’re really empowering ourselves on the physical melee side of things right now, but we’re neglecting the magic side. We haven’t taken a single spell so far, and this skill won’t apply to any spell we might want to take in the future. No synergy with spell damage at all.”

“I mean, looking at our attributes, it’s just confusing. All our stats there are super low—”

“Shit, our arcane and divine attributes are zeros,” Dys chimed in.

“Yeah, but our eldritch, whatever that is, is our highest stat! It’s double what our strength is and we don’t even know what it does.” Jay finished with an exasperated sigh, tossing her arms up in the air with frustration.

“If we saw something that looked like it’d actually make use of the stat, I’d say we take it. But so far, the non-spell options are just taking better advantage of our stats.” Dys shook her head, running a hand through her white hair. “Look, let’s not worry about it right now. We’re doing great with melee. I like melee!”

“Me too,” Jay agreed. “Let’s just finish reading the skills. Maybe one of them will use eldritch and we just complained for no reason like a couple of assholes.”

Dys and Jay shared a short laugh before Jay continued onto the next skill.

“Well that’s useless,” Dys said, immediately dismissing the spell skill as an option. “Even if we had a mirror, which we don’t, the cost is ten times what we have in our magic pool.”

“True,” Jay nodded her head, “But it doesn't specify we have to use a mirror. Just a reflective surface. I bet one of the glass shards from these broken temple windows would work.”

“Still don’t have the magic for it. Still doesn’t have anything to do with our eldritch stat.”

“Fine, yes, shut up,” Jay pushed Dys’ shoulder. “It’d just be pretty damn useful to be able to leave little pieces of glass in spots and use them to check if there are bone demons hanging around. It’d be like having our own security cameras.”

Dys didn’t argue the point. Instead, she read the final skill, growing quieter with each word uttered.

“Huh.”

Jadis wasn’t sure what to make of the Refracted Mind skill. It seemed like a kind of upgrade to her Mirrored Body skill, except from a more mind-centric standpoint. Moving two bodies at the same time did take some concentration, but honestly, she’d found it to feel fairly natural, her additional limbs obviously extra, but still hers and entirely responsive. Did she really need a skill to do something that she already felt comfortable doing?

“Does not create separate consciousnesses,” Jay repeated, raising an eyebrow at Dys, who mirrored the expression. “That would be weird, wouldn’t it?”

“Weirder than a girl talking to herself all day? I mean, in between the times she’s giving herself oral?”

Jay scoffed. “Everybody talks to themselves. Besides, I’ve now firmly decided. We’re still just one person so it’s masturbation. We’re just better at it than everyone else.”

“…Right.” Dys finally drawled, giving her double a long, hard look.

“Anyway! Is Refracted Mind worth it? We’ve got a handle on what we’re doing here,” Jay refocused the debate. She held up her hands and posed her fingers in unique patterns.

Dys did the same, only shifting her fingers to take different positions.

Jadis found that she could make the gestures fairly easily, independently moving her fingers on her four hands without too much concentration needed. Testing her limits, she tried moving her hands and fingers into new positions at the same time, making different symbols.

Moving both sets of hands independently was still doable, but she found herself getting a bit confused and moving the wrong fingers on the wrong hands at first. She recovered quickly enough, but the fine control needed to hold her fingers in odd and unfamiliar configurations did take a lot of focus, doubly so with two extra hands.

“Okay, maybe if we’re going to take up sign language, it might be useful.” Dys said, some doubt coloring her voice. “Or any job that requires fine motor control. But we’re mostly just swinging clubs. I doubt we’d get much out of this.”

“True…” Jay said, drawing the word out. “Let’s try something a little different though.”

Getting to her feet, Jay took her club and moved to the open floor of the temple. Pretending she was attacking an enemy, she started swinging her club at the empty air, alternating between horizontal and vertical strikes at random.

Dys, instead of swinging her club, stayed on the stone platform and picked up the leatherbound book. She started turning the pages, carefully flipping through.

Jadis found that, with effort, she could do both tasks at the same time, but it was hard. She knew some people had trouble patting their head while rubbing their belly, which she’d never struggled with, but she imagined this was what it was like for them. She also found she couldn’t read the words on the pages while still concentrating on the club attacks. Not that she could read the unknown alphabet anyway, but even focusing on trying to read had her stumbling mid-swing. The difference in tasks was too big.

She stopped her test after a few more tries, returning Jay to her seat next to Dys.

“So, it could possibly make multitasking easier. We’re good at it already. Do we need to be better?”

“Possibly?” Dys answered Jay’s question with a shrug. “I don’t think it’d be a waste. Is there any skill we’d rather take?”

“Minor Attribute Improvement. I’m positive more strength will do us good. Hitting harder is never a bad thing.”

“Fuck, choices like this are difficult,” Dys cursed, running a pale hand through her white hair.

After long moments of consideration, Jadis decided to wait on taking the Refracted Mind skill. It seemed useful, but not of imminent need. The previous skill options appeared to stick around as she leveled up, so saving it for later seemed a reasonable choice. She could always select the odd mental skill at level eleven, if there were no better options. For now, she’d go with the Minor Attribute Improvement.

The only decision Jadis had left after skill selections was what to do with her extra attribute point. She’d been consistently putting all previous points into her vitality. More health was a good thing. She was itching to see what putting points into other attributes would do for her, though. Maybe it was time she experimented a little?

Hmm. No. Not yet. She’d keep putting the free points into vitality, at least until she got her vitality score up to twenty-five. That was a nice, even number, representing an amount of health Jadis felt comfortable would be able to withstand a few bad attacks from demons without dropping her to death’s door. She’d have the last free point she needed at level ten anyway, and she was almost there. She’d experiment with another attribute once she hit her health goal.

Choices made, Jadis brought up her status and skill menus, cementing her decisions with a bit of mental focus. She reviewed her menu with some satisfaction.

Jadis was eager to try her newest combat boost on a bone thief. She wasn’t sure if it was just in her head, but she felt stronger. With her improved strength and the Mirrored Strikes skill enhancing the damage of her attacks, she was certain the results of her next fight would be even more marked.

Jadis walked her two selves over to the entrance of the temple. There was still plenty of good light left in the afternoon and she was going to take advantage by looting the western half of the village. On a whim, Dys walked over to where she had stacked the wooden pews and picked one up. She’d been able to pick them up before, but doing so now she felt a definite change. The weight of the heavy wood was much easier to handle.

Dys tossed the piece of furniture at Jay, who caught it easily. For a few moments, the two tossed the pew back and forth, marveling at the fact that they could toss something around that had to weigh a hundred pounds at least. Maybe more? She couldn’t tell for sure, lacking context. She’d never tried to pick up a pew before.

“Never been a tall, athletic, beautiful, sexy woman with a dick before, either,” Dys laughed, putting the pew down.

“I don’t think the last three parts have much to do with the whole judging weight thing,” Jay said dryly.

“Nope. Just enjoying saying it.”

Playful banter done for the time being, Jay and Dys shouldered their clubs and stepped out of the temple, turning to investigate the closest building on their right. As much fun as she was having fighting and leveling, she was going to be having a lot less fun if she didn’t find some food soon.

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