11. Assault
［Achievement］Virgin Hunter (2/10)
Reward: It becomes easier to seduce partners with no experience.
［Achievement］Sower (2/10)
Reward: The partner's pleasure increases during ejaculation inside the vagina.
What's the 2/10 on the achievements?
『They are chain achievements. When you fill the full count, there is an additional bonus.』
Fill it with ten people? When am I ever going to fill that? That's not the important thing. It's my status window.
Seo Do-hyeon
［Name］ː Seo Do-hyeon
［Race］ː Human
［Level］ː 2 (750 EXP)
［Class］ː Sorcerer
□STR : 9
□DEX : 16
■CON : 18
□INT : 11
□WIS : 15
■CHA : 20
［Feat］Sharpshooter
【Perks】
［Authority］Incubus Lord
......
▶Incubus Bond
......
Thanks to having sex with Eira, I was able to activate Incubus Bond. Once I activated it, I could see Eira's status as if I were looking through Incubus Gaze.
［Name］ː Eira
［Race］ː Elf
［Level］ː 6 (14,000 EXP)
［Class］ː Wizard
□STR : 8
□DEX : 14
□CON : 14
■INT : 20
■WIS : 12
□CHA : 12
［Feat］War Caster
［Feat］Mana Control
［Feat］Perfect Memory
【Perks】
［Blessing］Wisdom of Spells
Prerequisite: Arcane spellcasting ability
▶Cheonju
You can cast a number of unprepared spells equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
The spells must be on your class's spell list and must be spells you can cast.
Casting these spells consumes spell uses as normal.
After a long rest, you recover all uses of this ability.
▶Wise Mage
You always have advantage on Intelligence ability checks.
Over ten thousand experience points. Level 6. The claim that she was the best mage on the upper floors was no lie.
I examined the Perks and Feats carefully and decided what to take. War Caster and Wisdom of Spells.
Could Wisdom of Spells be related to Wisdom of the Night, since the names are similar?
『Denied. Wisdom of the Night is part of an Authority. The difference is vast.』
What a vast difference. I could feel Mary's pride. I should apologize for that.
『Accepted. It was an understandable mistake given the similar names.』
The stats to raise were my Intelligence and Eira's Charisma. Once I decided that and activated Incubus Bond, I felt a faint connection between Eira and me.
What's this? I didn't feel it with Tia.
『It is a phenomenon that appeared because the proficiency of Incubus Bond increased.』
When I looked carefully after hearing that, I also felt a faint connection coming from the direction of the library. That was probably Tia's.
Before I could even say I was finished, Eira's eyes sparkled, as if she had noticed the change too. The first thing Eira did after that was cast a spell.
"Darkness."
Darkness bloomed beyond the window. The darkness, 9 meters in diameter, reached the window and completely sealed the gaps where light came in. Though I could still see fine.
"What the hell, you can see through magical darkness too?!"
▶Incubus Gaze
You possess sight that can see clearly in dim light and darkness out to 54m. This special darkvision can see through magical darkness as well.
You can also glimpse information about other entities.
That was certainly true. I'd never encountered magical darkness before, so I hadn't been able to experience that for myself.
"This is amazing. What level are you?"
"I'm level 2."
"Good. Then when you reach level 3, learn this spell no matter what."
A spell that dyes a 9-meter diameter in darkness. And judging from Eira's reaction, ordinary darkvision apparently couldn't see through this darkness.
In other words, this spell could create an environment like a cave at will. No, that wasn't right. In a cave, if an enemy got close, they could see me, but in the darkness of Darkness, even that was impossible.
"Thank you for the advice."
"Huh? What advice?"
Eira asked nonchalantly.
"Telling me to learn the Darkness spell, wasn't that advice?"
"That's something you could figure out with common sense. That can't count as advice."
That wasn't exactly wrong, but how high was Eira's bar for advice?
"Advice is something like this. Say you lay down this spell. Then where does your party fight?"
"Inside the darkness, right? Then they can't see us."
"Wrong. Half credit."
"The answer is, it depends on the distance to the enemy."
As she said that, Eira grabbed a piece of paper that had fallen on the floor, flipped it over, and drew a picture.
Two people on the left, a black sphere in the middle, and a group of monsters on the right. The black sphere blocked the monsters' vision, but our vision reached the monsters.
"The enemy can't see you through the darkness anyway, right? So use the darkness as cover."
"As cover?"
"If darkness is blocking them, they still can't see you on the other side, right? But this way, you can spread out even if an area attack comes flying."
Eira added that this much was enough to count as advice.
What should I say? I thought she was a bit of an airhead, but she's more helpful than I expected. This elf...?
***
The rest of the advice took place outside. The absurd reason was that she didn't want her lab getting dirty.
"If that's not dirtying it, then what is?"
"It's optimization for my living space."
Anyway, since Eira was the one teaching, I quietly came out to the empty lot.
As soon as we came out, she said,
"Do you know about HP?"
"HP?"
After Wisdom of the Night was strengthened, the values I could glimpse with Incubus Gaze increased. Among those values, there was definitely something called HP. In fiction, it was definitely,
"Is it the value where you die when it reaches 0?"
"Similar, but wrong."
Then what is it? At that question, Mary and Eira answered at the same time.
"『It is a value representing how much of the enemy's attacks you can endure while continuing to fight.』"
While I was feeling unsettled by that strange synchronicity, Eira launched into her lecture.
"A common mistake labyrinth beginners make is trying to block every attack no matter what."
Eira tapped my chest with her staff as she spoke.
"HP is just one resource among others. As long as your HP doesn't reach 0, save your spells."
"But it hurts when you get hit."
"Do you want to get hurt and survive the fight? Or hurt less and lose the battle and die?"
Though the latter will end up hurting more anyway, she added.
"So spells are like a mage's lifeline?"
Come to think of it, Tia had also worried because she mistakenly thought I'd used up all my spells.
"Then how do you tell which attacks are okay to take?"
"HP can't be measured, but it can be felt."
"When more than half your HP is spent, your body sends a warning."
"Judging by the look of you, that's never happened to you, has it?" Eira said.
"How much firepower the enemy has, how much of your own HP remains. You calculate that thoroughly while conserving resources. That's how you survive longer in the labyrinth."
So, if more than half my HP remains, I should save my spells.
"But since HP is an invisible value, in the end you have no choice but to fight by feel."
I can see it, though. Specifically, my HP was 18 and Eira's HP was 38. If I said that, too many secrets would be exposed. I had no choice but to play along.
"So I'll help you until you get the feel for it."
As she said that, Eira seemed to smile slightly. Did she hold a grudge about what happened earlier?
***
"Are you a genius?"
"Thank you for the compliment."
Feeling pain from wounds all over my body, I collapsed. I was tougher against pain than I thought. Even though it hurt, I endured it well.
"I can guess your HP from experience, but you measure your remaining HP like a damn ghost?"
My remaining HP was 3. If I took another attack, I'd go down just like that.
"At this rate, there's one less thing for me to teach."
Isn't it better for this kind of teaching to end quickly? While I was thinking that, Eira fell into thought, then asked me,
"Your ability, it's not just giving, is it? You can take things too."
At those words, I snapped to attention. How did she figure that out?
"Setting aside your innate sense for HP, your movements were War Caster's. Sensitive to pain, but without overreacting."
So she noticed with her eye for detail. But the only thing she could notice from that would be the War Caster Feat.
"But how did you acquire it? Through your Perk? No, that's not it. If I assume you acquired it elsewhere, then it doesn't make sense that you didn't know how to learn Feats."
Eira slowly walked over and crouched beside me where I'd collapsed. Hey, I can see everything since you're not wearing underwear.
"You also described your ability as sharing. Before you 'shared' with me, you were staring hard at something."
But without caring about my gaze, she continued her deduction.
"In other words, you go through some kind of process before choosing the ability to share. The fact that you took War Caster during that process means that must be the process by which abilities are shared."
After saying that much, Eira spoke with a triumphant expression.
"How's that? Correct?"
What astonishing reasoning ability. And in that moment, I realized.
▶Wise Mage
You always have advantage on Intelligence ability checks.
That this was the power of the Perk she possessed.
She'd already figured everything out and was just confirming. Lying would be pointless. If I said she was wrong, I was afraid she'd dig in further.
"Yes. You're correct."
"Then I don't need to give you a reward for casting darkvision on you."
"You were going to give me a reward?"
"Yeah. About 200 gold coins? That's about the price of casting a darkvision spell."
Just how rich was this person?
"Can't I receive that?"
"No."
I couldn't give up 200 gold coins here. Anyway, she'd probably notice soon, so I might as well say it now.
"The darkvision spell, it has a duration, right?"
"Yeah. 8 hours."
"Mine has no duration."
"Huh?"
At those words, Eira's eyes darted around.
"Instead, it can be dismissed at any time."
"Is that a threat right now?"
"It's a statement of fact."
"I have darkvision too, you know?"
"About a third of the range, probably? And you can't see through magical darkness."
Roll, roll.
Eira's eyes darted this way and that.
"You don't need it? This? Then shall I dismiss it?"
"Wait, you said your ability is sharing. Then wouldn't you lose War Caster too?"
"You said you'd teach me in the first place. In exchange for revealing my Perk, right?"
Roll, roll.
"Fine. I'll give you the gift."
"Really?"
"Instead, this is in place of teaching you the War Caster Feat. Since I can't teach something you've already learned."
Nice. 200 gold coins was enough money to stay at an inn for 200 days. I wouldn't have to worry about money for a while.
"And one more condition."
"Yes?"
"You can give more than just darkvision, right?"
So from now on, every time you come, switch it to a different ability, she said. She wanted to experience various abilities, apparently.
"Um, I think we'd need to have sex again to switch it."
"Yeah. I figured as much."
So she proposed it knowing that. Now that I looked, the tips of Eira's ears seemed slightly red.
That was how I gained both a teacher and a sex partner in one person.
『Correction. What that woman teaches is too limited for her to be called a teacher.』
Jealous, Mary? Fine. I'll amend that to "magic teacher."
Eira went back into her lab as if she'd said all she had to say, then handed me a strange liquid.
"Drink."
"What is it?"
"Something good."
It probably wasn't a lie. It might taste awful, though. Bracing myself, I downed the liquid, and it was more drinkable than I expected. Beyond that, as soon as I drank it, energy returned to my body.
"What is this?"
"A potion."
I'd looked into the price of potions before. I remembered them being incredibly expensive.
"The material cost is only 25 gold coins. Drink, drink."
Eira held out another cup like that. That money could keep me at an inn for nearly a month. But I couldn't spit out liquid that was already being poured into my mouth, so I gulped it down.
When I checked my status window, my HP was already full.
Potions were nice.
But wait, this wasn't the gift she mentioned earlier, was it?
Maybe she sensed that question in my gaze as I looked at the empty cup that had held the potion.
"Don't worry, I'll give you the gift once you reach level 3."
If that was the case, there was nothing to hesitate about.
"Thank you."
"Good enough."
After saying that much, Eira spoke to me carefully.
"You're living with other outsiders, right?"
"Yes. Why?"
She seemed to mean the teacher and students.
"You'd be better off leaving. Groups like that always break apart once everyone reaches level 3."
After saying that, Eira stroked my head and disappeared.
***
I should think about Eira's last piece of advice a bit more. If the group was going to break apart anyway, getting out early wasn't a bad idea, but would it really turn out that way?
After organizing my thoughts, I followed the faint connection toward the library. As expected, Tia was waiting there.
"Ah, Do-hyeon. You're here."
"Did you finish the research?"
"The librarians here were kind, so I finished quickly."
"Then, shall we go?"
Today's destination was the second floor of the cave. Today's goal was reaching level 3.
Level 3, the standard of a true adventurer. Let's experience just how big the difference is.