Chapter 323: Meeting The Team
With our initial greetings out of the way, which saw both Soren and Lyra experience a lot of emotional changes in their psyche thanks to the mischievous actions of Vex, we headed for the biggest building in the small outpost.
It was built like a bunker, made of strong metal and probably strengthened by artifacts. I liked what I saw, and decided to also incorporate such heavily defensive buildings in my own stronghold plan.
After all, seeing what Selene, a talented fire specialist Wizard could do, I no longer felt safe. She was likely not even level 20 back when she cast that mini nuclear bomb, so what if a level 50 version of her decided to explode in my home?
This also made me question how big cities even managed to survive to this day. Even Selene herself could just waltz into the town square and destroy a large chunk of Breadon or Aldoria.
On another note, it seems that my Elemental Sovereign class isn't as OP as I initially thought. Well, it will certainly be very strong once I get to unlock the intermediate spells in its arsenal, to which I will have to reach level 25 of the class as well as 'master the basic spells'. The reason I'm saying that it's not too strong right now is that the water elemental Wizard had stronger water spells than me with his Kamehameha-style jet attack standing out in particular, and Selene seems to have more potent fire spells than I do too.
Despite them being around my level, this phenomenon occurred most likely due to their specializations into a single element- and probably a great deal of innate talent- they must've graduated from being simple Wizard-classed individuals who simply spent their free skill points on their preferred elemental spells to obtaining a specific class catered to them, which in turn opened the door for them to have access to these intermediate powered abilities.
Wizard was a holder-style class like the Warrior class, which meant that it was a generic one that the holder was supposed to upgrade, just like I did it with promoting to Stormblade from simple Warrior, so they must've had this door open to them once they embraced their element and mastered the basic spells available.
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I was closing in on the level 25 requirement for the Elemental Sovereign, but sadly the 'master the basic spells' part was very ambiguous. I've been using all my spells very religiously, so I believe that I'm on a good pace toward completing the second requirement too. However, there was an issue with one of the spells, [Burning Hands]. It was an ability that allowed me to burn what I touched. Due to my being a saber-wielding swordsman besides a Wizard, I saw no reason to engage in hand-to-hand combat, so that was the sole spell sorely underutilized up until now.
Anyhow, I glanced at Vex's swaying buttocks which were sadly heavily covered by her loose kendo-style robes, so I didn't see much in reality. She led us into the main bunker, where I soon found myself in something akin to a conference room.
<Blossom smells someone… She remembers her.> Blossom decreed as soon as we stepped inside.
<Who?>
<Blossom can't remember her name… Blossom almost killed her at the kingdom's outpost. She was dueling Ayame and Ayame got mad at both Blossom and Master for interrupting their duel.>
<Iris.>
<Iris.>
Ayame and I decreed at the same time together. The somewhat mentally insane woman who nearly cut my head off when we were invading the outpost while looking for the Geimroot to turn me into a Wizard.
Iris was the holder of the Child of Agony class, which alluded to her horrible childhood, which in turn made her into a bit of a loose mental case. She was also very hot though. However, my father always told me not to stick it in the crazies, so I will do my best to refrain from that.
Her being here wasn't a good sign for us at all, though. We were liabilities for her continued existence, and so was she for ours. Iris was a wanted woman after she bolted from her post, so us being aware of her location meant that we could lead to her arrest by the kingdom's guards, so she definitely wouldn't like being near us.
On the other hand, she is the only person who is not my ally and knows that it was us who invaded the outpost and stole the legendary artifact. That would also lead to us being responsible for the death of Geim, the rare creature who we found at the bottom of the cave guarded by the three-headed dog monster who we beat by having Blossom cum buckets at the expert movements of my fingers, and Ayame throwing the clothes that were soaked by my first mate's love juices at the canine.
The kingdom doesn't know that we got Geim's baby, but they would still blame us for the parent creature's death. Our future would instantly be over if Iris spoke, which was the same for her if we spoke.
Truly, what a conundrum.
I have three possible routes available to me.
1, Kill Iris. We are on this mission with a single examiner watching over multiple teams. There must be a chance to go ahead with the execution.
2, Enslave Iris. With the right clauses, she wouldn't be able to speak, and we would get a very strong soldier. However, do to that not only would I have to beat her, capture her, and retain her, but I would also need to find someone willing to cast slavery magic on her like I did for Blossom with the deranged slave merchant married couple.
I theoretically could unlock the Slave Contract spell in the future, but to do that I would need to spend 10 Free Skill Points, which was more than 3 levels worth of points. I also spent my stash on Stormblade and its five spells, so I couldn't unlock it right now.
3, Make a deal with Iris. We both have dirt that would ruin the other party, so we simply agree to remain silent. However, for this to work without slavery magic, we would have to trust the other party to actually stay silent, so I'm not sure about this one.
4, Make Iris fall in love with me.