ALL NOVEL Chapter 86: Soothing
I feel someone boop my nose as I wake up from my slumber.
“Hey there kitten.” I was Sam, she’s already dressed in her trainer jacket. I look over to the right where Max had been sleeping and she also had already gotten out of bed. “Do you want to get ready as well?”
“H-how late is it?” I rub my eyes and sit upright in bed.
“We still have some time but if you want to have some breakfast first you should not sleep much longer.” Sam gives me a kiss.
“Mhmm.” I nod, still a bit dazed.
Sam helps me get dressed, with her help I end up in a summer dress. She carries my heels with her to the living room where my sister, Nikki and Max are getting ready for breakfast.
“Damn, my sis sure as heck rocks fluttery dresses like that.”
“She sure does.” Max agrees as she puts plates on the table.
“Weather report said it was going to be pretty hot today, maybe I should wear something lighter too.” Élise rubs her chin.
“Oh? My partner in a dress? How long has that been? A year? Maybe two?”
“Are you jealous of Amicia, Élise?” Sam puts down my heels near the front door.
“Maybe a little.” She sticks out her tongue.
Nikki puts the breakfast on the table as well and sits down on one of the chairs, it’s a couple of eggs, bread and your other general breakfast stuff. I elect to go for an egg and a sandwich with strawberry jam. “Are you two feeling ready for the game?”
“More than ready!” Max also takes an egg and some bread. “I feel like I got loads of energy.”
“Me too.” My girlfriend replies, taking her seat on my left, and grabbing some pieces of toast.
“Perhaps it’s because of my sister's healing influence.” My sis pets me on the head and sits down on the other side of me.
“I wonder if that would qualify as cheating.” Max wonders after taking a big bite out of her bread.
“She just heals us. It’s not like she gives us performance enhancing buffs. Just makes our bodies be in the best shape they could naturally be in.”
“As long as she doesn’t add any stat buffs to that healing.”
“But I’ve not been healing anyone though…”
“Huh. Maybe it was because you were purring. You know those articles saying cat purrs have healing effects?”
“Maybe…” I chomp on my own jam sandwich.
“Or…” My sister takes a bite from her egg and then continues. “Ami has developed some new skills without her even knowing about it, we did level quite a bit during last session. So maybe she has an aura heal or something like that.”
“But I didn’t hear Hailey and Carol comment about anything like that.”
“But they didn’t sleep practically next to you for 8 hours sweatie.”
“Oooh. I’ll check my status when I’m back in the game then.”
“Wouldn’t it be useful if you could check those in this word too?” My sister takes yet another bite from her egg.
“Like in those litrpg light novels?”
“Yes! Exactly!”
“Maybe I could ask Gamma about that.”
“Ask me about what?” Gamma appeared out of nowhere and sat down next to us, putting one of our eggs on a plate which phased in out of thin air.
“Gamma!?” I call out to her, surprised by her sudden appearance. In the meantime I can see Max staring at her with open eyes too.
“Uhu?” She takes a bit from her egg. “This is pretty tasty!”
“Thanks…” My sis stares at her blankly as well.
“I heard my name in the aether so I decided to come and pay a visit.”
“I see…”
“So, what did you need me for?”
“Well…”
“We were wondering if Ami could look at her skills etc. outside of Turn of Destiny.” Sam helps me get my point across.
“Ah! That’s not too hard.” Gamma opens a portal and grabs a table out of it with her free hand. She hands it over to me. “This should do perfectly fine. Do note you can not edit any of this from this world though. You can only inspect. Did something go awry?”
“No, it’s just that Sam and Max noticed they were feeling really well even though I haven’t healed them…”
Gamma nods and takes the tablet back from me. Quickly tapping on it and reading what appears on the screen. “It appears you have gotten some kind of healing aura around you now, says here you only developed it recently.” She hands the tablet back yet again. “Anyhow, thanks for the egg, it was very tasty. See ya.” And just like that, Gamma disappears again.
“What. The. Fuck.” Max stares at the empty space where Gamma was just seated.
“Welcome to Ami’s Goddess friend circle.” Sam laughs.
“Wow.”
Just as things calm down a little and I look down at my tablet, the doorbell rings.
“Ah, they are a bit early.” My sister quickly runs to the door and opens it, being very careful not to show me in the line of sight. Only thirty seconds later she closes the door again and puts a cardboard box on one of our cupboards.
“What’s that?” Nikki asks. “I didn’t know you ordered something.”
“It’s a secret.” Élise winks. “You might be able to see it later today.”
Sam starts giggling. “Okay, I think I know what’s in it.”
“Huh?” I look at my girlfriend. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Aren’t you going to share your suspicion?”
“Nope, it’ll be funnier if I don’t.”
“That’s meaaaaan!”
Sam smirks and nods towards the tablet. “So, what kind of new overpowered skills did you learn?”
“Maybe I don’t want to tell you now.” I pout.
“Guess I’ll need to bribe you with kisses.”
“Maybe.”
Sam starts giving me kisses on my cheek before finally planting one on my lips and giving me a big hug afterwards. “Bribe successful?”
“Mhmm.” I nod and rub my head against her cheek. “It’s sufficient for now.” and then open up the tablet to look at what exactly has changed about me.
“So, what’s the verdict?” My sister gets off her chair and peeks at the screen over my shoulder.
“I’m not sure.” I scroll through the multiple stat sheets. “I think all my stats did go up by quite a lot.”
“That’s a bit of an understatement, sis.” She starts controlling the tablet instead. “My stats aren’t nearly as high as this. Heck, the only stat I beat you in is strength and that’s because it’s my main one. It’s probably because of your skills that your stats are growing that fast.”
“What is this?” Sam reaches over from the other side and presses some flashing notification in the top right of the screen which opens a new window. It reads ‘Recently Obtained Skills’.
“Nice job, Sam.” My sis gives Sam a high five before she continues to read of the screen. “Let’s see. Upstart Deity, Refreshing Aura and Soothing Girlfriend….”
“What, really?” Sam stares at the screen. “Wow, it’s really there.”
“Does it give a description too?” My sister asks.
I tap the upstart deity skill and a dialogue window shows up next to it. I read it out loud. “Your followers may not yet be numerous but it is definitely a start. This skill gives you a stat and experience modifier depending on your followers…”
“Wow, does it say your current amount of followers too?”
“Maybe it’s this number.” Sam points to a number on the side of the screen that has been slowly ticking upwards every couple of seconds.
“53 209…”
“That’s a small city of followers. Good work.” Max smiles.
“How the heck did that theocracy take notice with only so little people…” Élise rubs her chin.
“She did gain those in a very short time. Maybe that’s why?” Nikki speculates.
“Hmm, maybe. They probably also have spies everywhere...”
“Hilda would probably start ranting about the entire intelligence network of the catholic church if she were here.”
“Haha, probably.” My sis laughs and then watches the tablet again. “What about the other skills?”
I press the next one, while still looking at the number tick up in the corner, it’s almost at 53 250 now… “Refreshing Aura, this skill gives you a passive regenerative aura in a radius of 6 meters around you. This passively heals minor injuries and rejuvenates friendly creatures around you over time. This effect increases with your stats and level.”
“Hmm, it sounds a lot like your own passive regeneration, doesn’t it? But a weaker version of it.”
“Oh yeah, it does, doesn’t it.” I quickly look through the other pages on the tablet and I find my self-regenerative skill, logically called ‘medium self-regeneration’ the description is incredibly similar apart from the ‘medium’ tag that it has.
“And last but not least?”
“Soothing girlfriend, the presence of your one true love works as a soothing presence on your body and soul, increasing your passive regeneration, skill effectiveness and stats. When your partner is threatened with harm, exponentially increases ‘Angel of Vengeance’ stats and skill set....”
“Awh, that’s pretty cute.” My sister awhs over my explanations.
“So, Amicia is a bit like an overprotective girlfriend?”
“I think you could say that.” Nikki giggles.
Sam says nothing and just gives me a hug and kisses instead. Aggressively soothing both my body and mind.
“Love you, Sam.” I whisper.
“Love you too, Ami.” She whispers back.