<~> Chapter 284I stood next to Torien and Morrigan as the first light broke over the trees surrounding Traehall. It had been a long night, and the horde of demons fighting us like a tide had finally eased up. The twins looked tired but accomplished. It had been rough for all of us, but there were significant gains in personal strength after the number of demonic monsters we fought through the night.

  I flicked through the additional notifications that piled up.

  [Your party has coordinated to defeat a horde of mixed demons][Your level has increased from level 53 to level 54][You have unlocked the skill Marksmanship Lv. 1][Novice Soldier css unlocked][Novice Crossbowman css unlocked][Marksmanship has increased from level 1 to level 4][Pack Tactics has increased from level 1 to level 2][Luck Magic has increased from level 13 to level 14]

  "I hit level fifty," Morrigan said happily.

  "You've just about caught up with me. I just leveled to fifty-four," I replied.

  "You two..." Torien shook her head and sighed. "I'm tired but not sleepy. Even after staying up all night."

  Morrigan snickered. "She is horny though."

  Torien looked back at us with a blush. "I can't help it. It's a succubus thing."

  Morrigan ughed. "I'm sure we'll get used to it."

  "It's the worst right at the beginning before you increase the level of sexual appetite," I told them.

  "Wouldn't that mean I would have to sleep with other people? I'm not sure I want to do that," Morrigan replied.

  I scratched the base of my horn. "It's not strictly required, but it'll make things easier on you. I can go a few days without any sex, but you might need it every day until you increase it."

  Torien yawned. "It sounds like [Sexual Appetite] is meant to make us more promiscuous... or at least it seems that way. How else are we supposed to interpret a skill that reduces its downsides the more unique people you sleep with? ...Not that there's a shortage of succubi to sleep with right now."

  "Did you spend any time with any of the girls at the brothel?" I asked.

  "No..." Morrigan said. "I thought about it when I saw the description of that skill, but I wasn't ready for it yet. So just you and Bel so far."

  "I didn't either. I was still getting used to other things..." Torien said with a blush.

  Morrigan shaded her eyes from the sun with one of her hands and looked around. "I don't see any more demons. How long will we have to wait before Raksha'va is awake again?"

  "Another bell, I think. She needs as much sleep as we can spare her right now, but we need to get organized so that we can look for that dungeon today," I replied.

  "Are we going to spend any time resting ourselves?" Torien asked.

  I shrugged. "You said so yourself. You're tired but not sleepy. We're probably burning a lot of mana going without rest though. We'll need to recharge at some point before we go looking for that dungeon."

  Torien flushed. "It's odd to think that having sex repces sleeping for us now."

  "Eating too," Morrigan added.

  "It's convenient that we can repce breakfast and a night's sleep for a quickie, but it's not always the most convenient. We're going to have to convince Raksha'va and others down the line to let us spend some alone time with each other in lieu of sleep. It can be harder to deal with in some ways for people that don't know about us."

  I leaned forward and looked at the base of the outside walls. A little less than a fourth of the demons that we killed left corpses. Considering the number of demons we had fought throughout the night though, that was a massive number of demons that had been summoned to siege Traehall.

  "Why Traehall?" I asked.

  "What?" Torien stepped next to me and peeked over the wall.

  "Why are they summoning demons here? Why is Traehall important enough to siege it like this?" I asked.

  "It could be connected to the increased demon activity in the area," Morrigan suggested.

  Torien sat down behind the wall. "Do you think there's something in the city that the cultists need? Or is it just a matter of them wanting a base near the dungeon they found?"

  I turned around and looked at the ruined Sver's Guild building. This section of the wall happened to have a clear view of it. Sibyl said it had burned to the ground, and that was mostly true, but there was still a skeleton of stone walls there under the colpsed rubble.

  "Do you think the Sver's guild has something to do with it? The cult of Amphores has been targeting svery all over the country and inciting riots and panic, but this is the first time they've done an all-out siege, as far as we know. Something about Traehall is important to them."

  Torien shrugged. "Are you sure it's not just because Traehall is remote enough and close enough to their source of strength that they could get away with it? We've interfered with their pns in the capital enough that maybe they're getting desperate."

  "Maybe," I said, faltering.

  "I don't know..." Morrigan said while looking at the burned husk of the building. "We killed the demon they set loose in the capital, and we helped clear out the castle in Goldenhearth, but have we actually done anything to impede them? Even had we not interfered in the capital, the soldiers would have eventually killed the demon. All we probably did was reduce the casualties. I think they got away with whatever they were trying to do in the capital. We never found out their pn."

  The thought was sobering. We've been chasing the cult's tail, but we really haven't done anything to stop them.

  Morrigan's ears flicked and she continued. "Maybe this is our first actual chance to do something to thwart their pns. Raksha'va and the remaining adventurers here were at the edge of colpse, and we came just in time with enough supplies to let them hold out a little longer. I don't like the Tamin priests, but when they hear about a city being sacked by demons, I can't imagine they would turn a blind eye. It's only a matter of time now before reinforcements come."

  "Assuming the rider we sent to Norta makes it there," Torien added.

  Morrigan sighed. "True. There's a possibility that they never make it, but I think their odds are better since they never had to deal with the forest Raksha'va sent her previous riders through. Regardless, if we find the dungeon that they're maniputing and summoning from, we could completely destroy their pns this time."

  I scratched the base of my horn. "I'm suspicious of the Sver's guild building. I think that something could be in there. If they were pnning on sieging the city anyway, what was so important in there that they needed to destroy it early? They didn't even do anything about the sves that were in there. Any of the sves that didn't die in the fire were released into town and would be just as likely to die in the siege as anyone else."

  "Could it just be to stress out the guards and the adventurer's guild to make them more vulnerable? That's what you said Sibyl told you, right?" Torien asked.

  I sighed. "It did have that effect, but I still can't help but think there's more to it... I think we should check the pce out."

  Torien frowned. "I don't disagree that it's suspicious, but we already have a lot ahead of us finding the dungeon and the cultists. We might already be walking into something we can barely handle. I don't think it's a good idea to get our priorities mixed up. The burned-out building will still be there when we get back. Let's just ask Raksha'va to keep it off-limits for us until we return."

  "There's also Eira's team," Morrigan suggested. "They're not strong enough that I want to take them with us, but exploring that building and securing any clues might be a good enough thing to leave to them. It might be a good opportunity to trust them with something they can handle. I already feel uneasy about bringing Raya and Nelly with us, but at least they have Sibyl and Kal'daeryn to lean on."

  I frowned. Part of me would be curious about the building the entire time, but Morrigan's suggestion did make sense. Torien was right too. We had enough to worry about right now. "Alright. We'll leave that to Eira's team while we're looking for the dungeon. Maybe they can find something for us... Assuming we can get Raksha'va to agree to it."

  "I think Raksha'va will cooperate with us if we tell them about the Cult of Amphores we've been dealing with," Torien said.

  "I hope so... Give me some time. I'm going to go through my notifications," I told them.

  "Sure, I'll call out if I see anything else that needs your attention over the wall," Morrigan said while looking back at the field of demon corpses.

  I gained two levels over the st two days, which meant that I had twenty stat points to allocate. I'll do it after I look over the other stuff first. I also got three levels in [Novice Magic Swordsman]. Two more levels, and I should advance to the next tier if the pattern holds true. Enhancement magic went up to thirteen, and I got a new spell, [Frost Imbue].

  [Frost Imbue - Enchantment Magic Spell]Imbue a weapon or object with ice magic making it apply ice damage when it hits enemies. The strength of the enchantment is increased by Magic Force, and the duration of the enchantment is increased by Magic Control. Larger weapons and objects take a proportionally rger amount of magic to enchant. Frost Imbue can be applied to others' weapons, but the wielder of the weapon determines who is considered an enemy for the purposes of this spell. The effects of objects imbued with frost vary.

  Identical to [Fme Imbue] except for the type. Normally, this wouldn't be the best addition, but it would allow me to isote the Ice component of the spell and increase our variety of wild magic. It was a decent upgrade, and having the option of frost magic would have been helpful when fighting that desiccated fme treiseki demon, or fire goril demon as I had called it... It only vaguely resembled a goril, so maybe 'treiseki' should be something I remember.

  Ritual magic went up to twenty! This time the milestone meant something, and I unlocked a new ability. [Synergistic Connection], apparently.

  [Synergistic Connection - Very Rare Ritual Magic Ability]The holder of this skill ability has begun to learn the true intricacies of ritual spell creation. When studying ritual circles, this ability gives additional insight into how ritual circles are connected to each other, how they can be improved, and how to combine effects in efficient ways based on the ability holder's Magic Control.

  I was thrilled to have a new skill like this, but it would be hard to tell how useful and effective it will be before using it. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to dive into a study session, but it was interesting to see an ability that scaled with my stat points. I hadn't gotten many of my skills to high enough levels to unlock many skill abilities other than [Sightspeak]. But that may have been more influenced by what I was doing rather than the actual level I achieved.

  I also got a new skill ability from [Swordsmanship] hitting 40, but this one struck me as something I should have gotten a long time ago if I hadn't stolen most of the skill's levels from someone else.

  [Bde Maintenance - Common Swordsmanship Ability]Your training with bdes has taught you how necessary taking care of your bde can be! The holder of this ability will now have an innate sense of how durable a weapon is, how much it needs maintenance, and how to use basic maintenance tools to maintain your own weapons.

  Not very impressive, but still fairly useful to me. I hadn't considered any of the skill abilities Mark had when I used the old version of [Karmic Retribution]. Taking the skill was useful enough even without the additional skill abilities, but it's nice to see I'm not totally locked out of them. It would have been nice to receive one before level forty though.

  I unlocked ice magic earlier and learned the spell [Ice Shard] from that.

  [Ice Shard - Ice Magic Spell]Create a shard of ice from the air or a surrounding water source that can be targeted at an enemy to do physical and ice damage or held ready for ter. Ice damage inflicted on the target and the speed and force of the projectile are affected by Magic Force. Ice Shards held ready reserves a portion of your mana and drains your mana as upkeep to maintain their form. Associated costs are affected by Magic Force.

  As I expected, this seems to be the spell that Morrigan often uses when there are sources of ice mana in the area. This has always seemed like a versatile spell since it does a combination of both ice damage and the physical damage of the actual projectile. Funnily enough, this was my first traditional offensive spell. My various light magic only affects shadow enemies, and my luck magic is considered far from traditional.

  My time shooting the crossbow from the wall has given me the [Marksmanship] skill, and fighting while using the bond after training with Eira's team has given me the [Pack Tactics] skill. [Pack Tactics] seems like a funny skill to receive since it kind of implies that Succubi are pack fighters. Though, come to think of it, the [Familial Bond] aspect of [Succubus Constitution] as well as [Succubus Bond] both kind of bolster Succubi that are fighting near each other, so that might not be that far from the truth, really.

  [Marksmanship - Common Skill]The Marksmanship skill governs the ability to accurately hit targets with ranged weapons of all kinds. Higher ranks improve hand-eye coordination and physical proprioception. It also improves instincts when trying to hit moving targets and targets at distant ranges more effectively. This skill is independent of weapon-specific skills such as Archery.

  [Pack Tactics - Rare Skill]The Pack Tactics skill governs the ability to fight in a group in a coordinated way. Higher ranks improve the ability to fight with rger groups, avoid hitting friendly targets at close ranges, communicate effectively in combat, and have an intuitive sense of the flow of battle among multiple friendly combatants.

  Both seem like pretty good skills, even if [Marksmanship] might not be that useful to me. I didn't often use ranged weapons, but I suppose it would help if I ever needed to again, like tonight. [Pack Tactics] was certain to come up again though, and I would be surprised if it didn't start to grow a lot now that we are intentionally fighting this way. It made me wonder how far Eira's skill had grown since she had helped develop this fighting style with the other succubi.

  Luck magic had grown from level eleven to level fourteen since we left Norta, which is great growth, but I didn't receive any new skills or spells from it these st few levels. Maybe thirteen is an unlucky number after all.

  The only other things to look at are the four new csses I received. [Novice Ice Mage], [Expert Swordsman], [Novice Soldier], and [Novice Crossbowman]. None of which really spoke to me. Soldier looked like a decent css that was predominantly useful when fighting in rge groups, such as that time we cleared out Goldenhearth castle. Crossbowman was self-expnatory, a css that helps you gain skills reted to marksmanship using a crossbow. [Novice Ice Mage] was the beginner ice mage css, but it didn't feel worth my time compared to the benefits I was getting from [Novice Magic Swordsman]. [Expert Swordsman] was a css that I gained from getting swordsmanship up to level forty. It might be worth swapping around my csses to get additional skills and stats, but it's felt more effective to focus on one css ever since I got [Novice Magic Swordsman]. I was eager to reach level twenty and hopefully unlock the next tier of the css. At the very least, I should equip [Priest of Knowledge and Innovation] to unlock the Will stat, but I hadn't thought of it in the window that it would have been safe to mess with my csses. I'll make a point to do it the next chance I get, but it will have to wait. I looked over the description of [Novice Soldier] again, the only one that I thought had any merit to it.

  [Novice Soldier]Unlock Condition: Have the Strength Stat at above 50 and fight with a group of three or more in melee range that you have trained together with. While this css is equipped, gain 1 Strength, 1 Finesse, and 1 Endurance per css level and 5 strength per friendly combatant fighting the same enemy. Gain skills reted to melee combat easier.

  This css was a bit interesting, actually. I could see how higher-tiered versions of this css might actually be worth it, but I think I personally have better options. It made me wonder how strong some of the guards I fought with in Goldenhearth had been while this css was in effect for those who had it. I think the main reason I hadn't qualified for this css back then was because I mainly used ranged attacks in the castle. The only other reason I could think of was the training requirement. Sibyl, Silva, and I trained in fighting with the bond together on the trip, and this was the first time we fought together like this. I wonder if the two of them unlocked this css as well or if they already had it. I suppose it doesn't matter. I still gain more benefits from my current css.

  All that was left was my twenty unallocated stat points. Magic Force was already at one hundred, and my css was giving me an additional bonus of ninety, so I didn't feel like I needed more of that right now. Magic Control was also at one hundred, but I felt pretty comfortable with that stat at the moment. Last time, I put some into endurance, and that had helped, but I don't think I need much more than the twenty I had there yet. In the end, I decided to put ten points into Strength and ten points into Vitality to break past the round one hundred numbers and bolster some of my most critical stats. I think that if I neglected the two for much longer, I'll fall further behind more focused builds. Once I was finished with that, I opened my full status to take a look.

  [Status]Name: Lilith BaphometRace: Greater Succubus [Race Hidden - Dispyed as Beastkin (Sheep)]Gender: FemaleCss: [Novice Magic Swordsman] Lv. 18Level: 54

  Stat Spread:Strength: 110Vitality: 110Charisma: 10 (1010)Luck: 20 (1020)Finesse: 70Magic Control: 100Magic Force: 100 (190)Speed: 70 (90)Endurance: 20

  Karmic Energy: 10000

  Unallocated Stat points: 0

  Avaible Csses:Bck Cat Lv. 10Seductress Lv. 1Novice Prostitute Lv. 20Apprentice Prostitute Lv. 1Novice Merchant Lv. 7Novice Light Mage Lv. 5Novice Illusion Mage Lv. 1Novice Swordsman Lv. 1Apprentice Swordsman Lv. 1Intermediate Swordsman Lv. 1Expert Swordsman Lv. 1Novice Magic Swordsman Lv. 18Priest of Knowledge and Innovation Lv. 1Novice Ice Mage Lv. 1Novice Soldier Lv. 1Novice Crossbowman Lv. 1

  Skills:Haggling Lv. 15Swordsmanship Lv. 40Illusion Magic Lv. 6Light Magic Lv. 15Light Manipution Lv. 12Uuna Riding Lv. 13Linguistics Lv. 10Ritual Magic Lv. 20Drawing Lv. 19Mana Sense Lv. 9Luck Magic Lv. 14Enhancement Magic lv. 13Flying lv. 10Intimidation lv. 1Internal Mana Manipution lv. 5Cartography lv. 5Ice Magic Lv. 1Marksmanship Lv. 4Pack Tactics Lv. 2

  Css AbilitiesMerchant Skill - CalcutionsProstitute Passive - Resist DiseaseProstitute Passive - Magic FingersProstitute Skill - Ease PainProstitute Skill - Freshen UpProstitute Passive - Tight FitProstitute Passive - Group DynamicsProstitute Passive - Go UnnoticedProstitute Passive - Resist SleepProstitute Skill - Center of AttentionProstitute Skill - Nightcap

  Special Passives:Soulbound CompanionsSpecial drop rate upDouble Down

  Skill Abilities:SightspeakSynergistic ConnectionBde Maintenance

  Innate Abilities:Karmic RetributionBeing of Karma

  Racial Traits:Succubus ConstitutionSexual Appetite Lv. 50Succubus BondGreater Succubus Shifting

  Titles:[World Traveler - Hidden Title][Origin of Succubi - Hidden Title][Dungeon Destroyer][First Explorer][Early Intervention][Demon Hunter][Follower of Sorsette][Mother of the Succubi - Hidden Title]

  Spells:Light Magic:Light OrbFirefliesLight BeamLight SignalLight ScribingLight BurstLight WardLight Siphon

  Illusion Magic:Zone of SilenceEchoMirage

  Luck magic:Melee HexCoin FlipDie NudgeBckjackA Touch of Good LuckWagerCarousel

  Enhancement Magic:Fme ImbueBde WaltzFocused PerceptionLight ImbueLightfootArmor of LightHasted PerceptionAugment StrengthAugment SpeedFrost Imbue

  Ice magic:Ice Shard

  Arcane Magic:Arcane Variant Zone of Truth (Boon)

  I closed my status. There was still a bell before Raksha'va woke up, but soon, we would be moving on to the dungeon.

  Saine

  Hello! It's one of those crunchy status update chapters! When I was posting this I found two different spots where my formatting was messed up. I need to be extra careful when writing these kinds of chapters! Not much else to say about this one, thanks for reading!

  As a reminder, I'm going to only be posting on Mondays and Wednesdays each week from July 7th to July 30th and my normal schedule will resume on August 4th. That means for four weeks there will only be one chapter of each story being posted. As usual, Umbral Feast will be posted on Mondays and Lilith will be posted on Wednesdays. More info on why is posted in chapter 280's author note if you missed it.

  Check out my other story here: Umbral Feast

  Here's a link to the community Discord: https://discord.gg/XsNwYuZp6s

  If you would like to support my writing on Patreon, you can read up to 10 chapters ahead there!

  Please leave a favorite so I can get my story in front of more eyeballs! I would greatly appreciate it!