Ch 2.96: ? Winnings
<i><span style="font-weight:400">[Armory Subsystem Activated]</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Users ina Weaver, Carline Forsythe, Tira Strask are eligible for either weapon upgrade or armor bequeathment.</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">User Florence Stouth is eligible for either armor upgrade or weapon bequeathment.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">The crystal dust was hanging around ina, suspended in the air. Even though the System notification was for everyone though, there wasn’t anything on the other girls.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Temmie, what’s going on?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Now that you are back on school grounds, the mission to retrieve the third subcore is considered sessful. Since you regained ess to the Armory subsystem with the previously retrieved subcore, you may now guide the gear enhancement of the party.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What’s she talking about?” Tira asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“ss gear, change into it,” ina said, waving her hand through the dust. It scattered at her touch, though she didn’t feal it at all, and the scattered portions reformed as quickly as they had dispersed.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Flora said, doing a spin and singing her song. As she transformed, the crystal powder surrounding her didn’tpletely disappear like usual, instead hanging like a cloud like ina’s. “Hey, get this off me!” she said, trying to wave through it. “It’s covering me up!”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Maybe that’s the point,” Tira said, crossing her arms and changing herself. Carly was doing so as well next to her. The clouds hung over them as well. “You’ll finally have something you can actually use in a fight with the general public.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I did finest night.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Give me a sec,” ina said, focusing on the System message. The options given to her made it seem that Flora would get a weapon like the other four of them if ina chose that option for her. And they would receive… something like Flora’s headband? <i><span style="font-weight:400">That could be bad. Or good…</i> <span style="font-weight:400">Best to banish thoughts like that from her mind though, she decided. Tira was right about how inconvenient Flora’s “outfit” was.
<span style="font-weight:400">That wasn’t the only thing bothering her though. “Temmie, what about Prisma? She’s not on the list.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Prisma Fireguard is currently considered an inactive System User.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What, why? Change her to active! She can still help out if there’s another attack on the school, <i><span style="font-weight:400">would </i><span style="font-weight:400">still help!”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Negative. Her own actions have resulted in her current status. It is not a conscious choice made by me to ssify her as such, just a fact that she is not an active member of your party, and as such cannot be considered an active User.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Wait,” Tira said, “so does she not have her skills and everything?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“As of right now, Miss Fireguard still possess her skills even as an inactive member, unless ina chooses to revoke her ss entirely. She simply cannot gain levels or System gear in her current status.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Tira looked deep in thought as they were told that, but ina wasn’t interested in discussing the matter further. “Whatever. We’re all getting new ss gear, apparently. Weapon upgrades or new armor for us three, armor upgrade or a new weapon for Flora.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I like my armor though,” Flora said, hands raising up to clutch her headband. Gods, with her like that, barely covered by a transparent plume of crystal, it was somehow <i><span style="font-weight:400">worse </i><span style="font-weight:400">than if she waspletely naked. Something about how she was almost hidden, but not quite…
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Focus. </i><span style="font-weight:400">“Fine, Temmie, give her the weapon.”
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Armory choice for Flora Stouth epted. Equipment dispersal pending uponpletion of </i><span style="font-weight:400">3<i><span style="font-weight:400"> other choices.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">“Still just this stupid dust,” Flora said, waving her hand through it again, scattering as much as she could.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I need to make the other three choices too, apparently,” ina said, grabbing at her dress. It wasn’t the most modest thing, but the thought of it turning into something like <i><span style="font-weight:400">Flora’s… </i><span style="font-weight:400">That was a new level of distracting.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Uhm, I don’t— don’t want armor like Flora’s,” Carly said, clutching her staff like she was hiding behind it.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, me either…” Tira added with an almost whisper, a light blush showing through her dark skin.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Temmie, is the armor… Is that going to make us naked?” ina asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I do not know. Subsystems are handled automatically with the guidance of the Administrator. It is simr to how your circtory system is handled by your brain, but not something you are consciously aware of.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Right,” ina said, doing her best to pretend she knew what that meant. “Well… can you guess?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It would surprise me if all of your outfits were as revealing and Flora’s. That is not typical, and hers fits her ss.”
<span style="font-weight:400">ina looked over to Tira and Carly, shrugging. “I think getting armor at all is better than upgrading what we do have, right?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Uhm, if you say so…” Carly said. Tira just bowed her head.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Armor for the rest of it,” ina said, wincing, bracing herself for what mighte next.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Armory choices for ina Weaver, Carline Forsythe, Tira Strask epted. Equipment dispersalmencing.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">The swirls of crystal sped up, faster than ever. ina’s dress began to change, glowing like it does when she first equips it, but only in small ces, the hem, the frilly,ce sleeves, morphing into a new shape as the light from the changes filled the entire cave with dim blue light.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">[Armory Subsystem Deactivated]</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">[Returning to normal progression]</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">[Tira Strask has reached Level 3]</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Skill Gained: [Sub-Training] - Rank 1 - Active - User may expend mana to coerce someone who has been the target of [Domineering Presence] to obey hermands. The level of effect is determined by how much the target has been affected by [Domineering Presence] as well as the targets will power and the perceived reasonableness of themand.</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Skill Enhanced: [Pain Management] - Rank 3 - Active - User may expend mana to increase or decrease pain caused by wounds inflicted by objects affected by User’s {Environmental Targeting} aspects a {great} amount.</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">[Florence Stouth has reached Level 3]</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Skill Gained: [Extroverted Personality] - Rank 1 - Passive - User’s Active skills are more mana efficient the more people there are currently perceiving her.</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Skill Enhanced: [All Natural] - Rank 3 - Passive - User receives a power bonus of {x2.5} to all aspects when not covered by any armor or clothing.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">By the time that information had finished processing in her head, their outfits were changed, all except Flora anyway. And then the information kepting
<i><span style="font-weight:400">[ina Weaver has been granted a new armor piece]</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">[Revealing Dress]: A slutty blue dress that takes damage for the User. User still experiences pain rted to any damage absorbed.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">“A what?” ina said out loud, looking down at herself. It was a lot more simr to her old dress than she thought it would be, the sleeves gone, now with two ribbonsing up from the “cups” of the dress, if you could call them that. They were mostly just triangles, providing practically no support, the ribbonsing up and tying around her neck. Like before, she could tell there was no underwear, but the hem seemed frilled now, just ornamentation, ornamentation that happened to shorten it, by the looks of things. <i><span style="font-weight:400">And it… takes damage for me?</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">[Carline Forsythe has been granted a new armor piece]</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">[Healer’s Gown]: A white gown befitting a noble healer. When the cloth from this gown is draped over a wound, all User’s aspects receive a {x2} power bonus to affect the wound.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">Again, not terrible different from herst piece of ss gear, thought this one certainly had some changes. Carly had a v-shaped neckline now, no moreplete modesty on her chest, though it wasn’t nearly as revealing as ina’s own dress. ina was also pretty sure the slits that were already revealing on the old version were higher as well, wider too. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Gods, why does she feel the need to hide herself, </i><span style="font-weight:400">ina thought as she saw Carly closing her arms over her chest.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">[Tira Strask has been granted a new armor piece]</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">[Boss’s Bodysuit]: A leather striped-bodysuit with an imposing look. Grants User the ability to sense how close enemies are to physical and mental breakpoints inbat.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">It was maybe the outfit with the smallest changes on a physical level, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything new to look at. It was still the same high-waisted, leather-striped one piece, the leather alternating with bits of sheer fabric, but the stripe’s had changed just slightly. Before, they were about even, maybe the leather being slightlyrger, but now it was reversed, the sheer panels taking up more of the space on the garment. In the fading light of dissipating crystal, ina could just barely make out Tira’s are peaking out from behind the leather. Tira had that wonderfully cute blush again as she looked down, but she didn’t make any attempt to cover herself. “This… isn’t too different, I guess.”
<i><span style="font-weight:400">[Flora Stouth has been granted a new weapon]</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">[Snake Vines]: Thorned vines that are considered part of the User for the purposes of aspect targeting.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">Even though it was ssified as a weapon, it was as much an outfit change as the rest of them had had, and the name was an apt descriptor. It was a series of coiling vines running up and down Flora’s entire body, vines that conspicuously avoided providing any cover on Flora’s chest, instead framing her modest breasts like a frame, and while they snaked down her hips and around her thighs, her crotch was uncovered as well. “You know, I think I’m technically more covered, but I actually don’t mind it,” Flora said with a giddy smile as she twirled around, punching and kicking the air with her new, spiky fists and feet. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Ass still isn’t covered either,</i><span style="font-weight:400"> ina noted.
<span style="font-weight:400">It was all way, way too much. Not the System information, not the levels or the details of the ss gear, but here ina was, standing in front of three of the most beautiful girls she’d ever seen, all dressed in quite frankly the most ludicrous, ridiculous, iprehensibly hot outfits she’d ever seen any of them in.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hey, uhm, do we want to go back to Tira’s room and hang out a bit?” she asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">Tira winced, the first response, biting her lip. “I have watch duty. Like, <i><span style="font-weight:400">now</i><span style="font-weight:400">. I already had to call in a couple favors to getst night covered, and I need to make sure thing’s didn’t go to shit while I was gone.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I have a shift in the infirmary,” Carly said, head downcast. “Sorry.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oh,” ina said, turning to Flora. “Then—”
<span style="font-weight:400">Flora’s face was the most guilty looking of them all, no doubt feeling the pressure from the two that already had declined. “I’m barely awake right now after staying up all night. I kinda pulled an all nighter the night before cause I had homework to do as well, so I’m not gonna be much fun to hang out with right now.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Right, of course,” ina said. “Maybeter?” <i><span style="font-weight:400">It won’t be the same though.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’m free at dinner,” Tira said.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Me too!” Carly added, maybe a bit overenthusiastically.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, I should be good after a nap!” Flora said.
<span style="font-weight:400">ina gave as much of a smile as she could muster, but she knew what she was hoping for wasn’t going to happenter. They’d probably eat together, have a nice time, but there was something they were missing out on if they didn’t act right now, a chance she wasn’t sure she was going to get again anytime soon. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Someday, hopefully.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">“All right, at dinner then.”
<span style="font-weight:400">The four of them hurriedly put on the spare uniforms they’d stored in the cave before heading back. They didn’t talk much, all seemed to be about as out of it as Flora was. It had been a long night, and they all had woken up at sunrise after all. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Maybe a nap sounds good for me too,</i><span style="font-weight:400"> ina though.
<span style="font-weight:400">But there were thoughts, images of three other girls, and maybe a fourth if she squinted, that wouldn’t get out of her head. <i><span style="font-weight:400">I’ll have to take care of that first, </i><span style="font-weight:400">she added, feeling the muscles in between her legs clench.
<span style="font-weight:400">By the time she got to the room she was almost delirious. Tired, horny, it didn’t matter. She needed to fix both of those problems, and there was a certain order they needed to be done in. She had barely opened the door before plunging the new subcore in her underwear drawer with the old one and closing it shut, kicking her shoes off, ripping her uniform off as quickly as she’d thrown it on in the cave, heading over to her bed, and—
<span style="font-weight:400">Looking at the note that was lying on her sheets.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">“To, ina Weaver</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">From, Alonse Stormshine”</i>
<b>Book 2: End</b>