Six months later
Tonight’s choice of venue was somewhat different than Katrina’s usual fare. Instead of a dingy, run-down dive bar somewhere far off in the suburbs, she’d picked something a little nicer, close to the Guild Hall. Chicago still hadn’t been fully cleared of monsters, which meant Katrina didn’t feel safe enough to try getting back to her apartment. She’d heard most of the monsters were stuck on the ground, but she didn’t want to risk it.
She’d been couch-hopping for months, sometimes with temporary friends, sometimes in shelters, but mostly in the homes of her victims. As much as she hated to think about it, the chaos of the Change made it incredibly easy to travel around and not get caught.
One thing she couldn’t hunt for, sadly, was friendship. She was terribly lonely, and often spent her nights following news from the monster fighting community that had appeared practically overnight. In other cities, they called themselves Delvers, so Chicago followed suit, but technically no one had yet been inside the Chicago Dungeon. The various Guilds were doing their best to build a united front and take back the city street by street. They were gaining impressive ground, and many of them thought they might have the city under control by the end of the year.
Even though Katrina had never been much of a gamer, she was fascinated by everything the System had introduced into the world. She loved learning about all the different Classes, their abilities, and seeing the unique ways Races could affect combat effectiveness. For this reason, she had started semi-frequently visiting establishments near the main Guild Hall.
As the city was still a battleground, the Guilds had taken over a large mall in the northwest suburbs. Different guilds set up in different wings, and all the varied shop fronts made ideal spaces for everything that went into running a Guild. Enchanters had a space to practice, Alchemists had a place to set up their equipment, and the mall was even big enough for most of the larger Races to comfortably move around inside. Katrina didn’t want to risk going inside, but it was nice to see the fringe elements of the community in the surrounding businesses.
It was a cozy establishment, almost reminiscent of a fantasy tavern, but far cleaner. It was well lit, smoke-free, and served a wide variety of drinks. Katrina had chosen a small booth in the back corner, away from the rowdier customers, and was happily nursing a flask that she’d filled during her last feeding.
She let herself get lost in the various conversations happening around her. Some were talking about their last trip into the city, a few were talking about their new Level Ups, and almost everyone had something to say about their Ten. A person’s Ten, Katrina had learned early on, referred to the ten different attributes that made up a person’s Status. The hardest part for Katrina was trying to remember the order of the different stats; was the seventh stat Charisma or Luck? She was in the middle of trying to memorize that particular facet when someone walked onto the stage next to her.
Well, calling it a stage would be generous. It seemed to be a pallet that someone had tried to pretty up, but it got the job done. In the few times Katrina had visited this place, she hadn’t seen anyone use it, so this was an exciting new development. The person now setting up was a young human woman; she had a short, blonde pixie cut, and wore a blue, flannel button-down shirt. Her face had delicate, striking features, with piercing blue eyes and a small collection of freckles on her cheeks.
Katrina had gotten so lost in the good looks of this girl that she’d failed to notice the guitar in her hands. After pulling a chair onto the pallet, she took a few minutes to tune her instrument, and then started playing.
It was a light melody, playful and whimsical, but it held a tinge of sadness to it. Her fingers expertly danced across the strings, and after a short introduction, she began to sing. Katrina had already been impressed by the guitar playing, but this woman’s voice was otherworldly. She had incredibly range, and it seemed like she had the lung capacity of an Olympic swimmer. As her words washed over Katrina, an unusual sensation accompanied it. Her hair seemed bouncier than usual, and took on a supernatural sheen that wasn’t normally present. She had a sudden urge to sit up straighter, and she swore her shirt had started shrinking.
On closer inspection, her first assumption had been wrong; her shirt hadn’t shrunk, her breasts had grown. Her cleavage was even more prominent than usual, and when Katrina finally looked around the bar, she saw that everyone had suddenly grown just a little more attractive.
This woman was a Bard, no question about it, and her singing was giving everyone a boost to their Charisma. For the first time in nine months, Katrina almost forgot her problems, forgot everything she’d done to survive. She was so enraptured by this woman’s song that she simply stared for the entirety of her performance. When the music finally stopped, and Katrina shook her head to regain her senses, she realized nearly an hour had passed. She almost felt guilty, staring at this singer for so long, and she tried to hide her embarrassment by burying her face in her phone.
“Now, what did I do to catch the attention of the most beautiful girl in the building?”
Katrina swallowed nervously, looking up from her phone to see the singer had walked over to her table. After a moment of awkward stammering, in which Katrina realized that, yes, the singer was talking about her, she spoke up. “I, uh… well, I’m a Bard too, and your performance was just really good!”
The woman slid into the booth across from Katrina. “Y’know, most people don’t need to stare at the person singing just to enjoy the music. I’ve played for enough crowds that I can tell when they’re using the music as an excuse to look at something else.”
“I… well…” Katrina had no idea what to say, she’d never been caught ogling someone like this before.
After a horrible few moments of tension, the singer started laughing. “You haven’t been able to socialize much since the Change, have you hun?”
Katrina shook her head. “Not really, no.”
The singer held out her hand. “Name''s Sera. How about you?”
Another tense moment passed, and Katrina reached out to shake Sera’s hand. “I’m Katrina. It’s… good to meet you, Sera.”
“What brings you to these parts? You don’t seem the delving type.” Sera asked.
“I’m just… a little untethered at the moment. Doing a lot of drifting, and it’s nice to be where the people are.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. The owner of this place pays me to perform, and it helps lift everyone’s spirits, which I always enjoy. Plus, he gets the benefit of having a Bar where the music literally makes you more attractive.”The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Against all odds, Katrina found herself smiling. “Between your music and the alcohol, it’s a surprise this place isn’t a brothel by now!” Both girls laughed at this, and the conversation paused for a moment afterwards.
“You know, I meant what I said earlier, by the way,” Sera said. Katrina had no idea what she was referring to, and tilted her head in confusion. “About you being the most beautiful girl in this place.”
“Well, that’s just… I had your Charisma buff on me.”
“It’s not on you now, hun, and I still think that. But, I have a feeling I’m coming on a bit strong. You said you’re a Bard? What kind?”
With a sigh of relief, Katrina happily welcomed the change in conversation. “Path of Magic, Guitar.”
“Get out of town! Really? Heck, let me grab my guitar and you can teach me a thing or two!” Sera had leaned closer now, her interest in Katrina more than apparent.
“I’ve never actually played. Haven’t had the chance since the Change hit, and all my time has been spent surviving. Doubt I could pull together the money even I wanted to.”
“Well, I have a guitar. I could… show you the ropes, if you wanted.” Sera’s hand moved closer, and now rested on top of Katrina’s. The girls looked into each other’s eyes, and Katrina could feel herself giving in to this beautiful girl’s suggestions.
“…You know what? I’d like that.” Katrina couldn’t deny that a chance to finally try out her Class sounded pretty fun.
The blonde quickly pulled her guitar up into the booth, then opened it up. She moved next to Katrina, stealing a chair from an empty table nearby and inviting Katrina to sit in it. “Alright, sit here, and I’ll show you how to hold it.”
Sera moved Katrina’s hands, and the Vampire couldn’t help but notice that she was letting her touch linger longer than she needed to. “Like this?”
“Exactly! Now, it’s nice to have something to prop your foot on, so here, use my case. Now, it’s still tuned from my performance earlier, so let’s work on some basics!”
Over the next few hours, Sera began teaching Katrina Guitar 101. It was a slow start, initially, as Katrina had never studied music before. However, after the first fifteen minutes or so, she found that all the pieces started clicking together faster than she had expected. Without any knowledge of music theory, she seemed to have a keen ear for intonation. She began to hear melodies before they appeared, and was able to will them into existence.
Eventually, once the basics felt familiar to her, she decided to try improvising a simple tune. The music made sense, it was already there, she was just finding a way to channel it. As soon as the melody started, and she felt truly connected with it, a bright blue pop-up appeared, eclipsing her vision.
—
Inspiring Performance activated!
Choose one: HP/MP/SP
—
The sudden appearance of her Status made her jump, and she lost the song she’d just started. “Whoa!”
“What happened? You almost had it!” Sera said, leaning forward in excitement.
“My Status appeared, said I’d activated a Class Feature. Does that always happen?” Katrina asked.
“Oh absolutely. For Bards, it’s usually Inspiring Performance. It’ll also give you the chance to pick what Attribute you want to boost for your Inspiration.”
Katrina tilted her head in confusion. “But, I didn’t see any Attributes. It asked me to pick between HP, MP, or SP. What does that mean?”
Sera’s eyes went wide with excitement. “Katrina! That means you got assigned Regen buffs! Instead of a temporary boost to Stats, your Inspiration gives enhanced Regeneration to whatever you pick. It’s a fantastic ability that makes longer delves way more viable. Well, or trips into the city, since we’re still not delving yet.”
The other Bard’s excitement was infectious and Katrina couldn’t help but smile. “Wow, I’d never heard of that before.”
“It’s nowhere near as common, so I’m not surprised.”
Swallowing nervously, Katrina decided it was time to give her Inspiring Performance another shot. “Well, what meter of yours needs refilling?”
“Mana, for sure. I just spent an hour performing, and buffing the entire bar takes a lot out of me.”
With a resolute nod, Katrina tried to connect with the music again. She was ready for the pop-up this time, mentally selected MP as she started playing, then made sure to only direct the Inspiration to Sera. The two girls locked eyes, the music dancing around them, and Katrina swore Sera was moving closer with each note played.
“You know… that’s not the only thing I’m looking to fill tonight,” the blonde girl said.
“I hope you mean your bed,” Katrina whispered back.
“Well… among other things.”
Sera’s guitar was packed up in record time, and before Katrina had time to second guess herself, she was falling backwards into Sera’s bed. The girls were making out, tearing each other’s clothes off as quickly as possible. They spent the next few hours exploring each other’s bodies, moaning and writhing in pleasure as they both lost count of their orgasms.
When they finally finished, they collapsed onto each other, panting with exertion. Sera’s hands traced circles around Katrina’s collarbones, and they began making small talk about nothing in particular. They talked about the Change, about the weird things they’d both seen and heard. Sera shared her hopes for her Class, what she wanted to do once the city was reclaimed. Katrina shared that she wanted to go back home, to try and connect with old friends, but didn’t have many other plans.
In the end, they both started talking about their own Class and Racial features. Sera was intensely curious what Features a Vampire might have, and Katrina was happy to have someone that seemed legitimately interested.
“No way, you can fly?!” Sera said, bouncing up and down on the bed. “You’ve got to take me sometime!”
“I’ve never tried carrying someone before, but sure, I can give it a shot.” Katrina laughed, then continued with her Racial Features list. “Then there’s Enchanting Gaze, which lets me induce minor hypnosis if I make eye contact with someone. Not sure if they figure it out eventually, though. I, uh… I don’t really use it.” Katrina felt bad lying, but she wasn’t about to share all the terrible things she’d done with that particular class feature.
Sera seemed excited nonetheless. “Can we try it? I bet we could have some kinky fun with it…” she said playfully.
Though it felt a little odd, Katrina was eager to have a chance to use the ability for something nonviolent, and smiled in agreement. After a moment of thought, in which Katrina tried to think of something strange but not off-putting, she said “Put an ice cube in your mouth, bark like a dog, then come here and suck on my nipples.”
As expected, Sera’s eyes glazed over and she nodded in agreement. She grabbed an ice cube from the glass next to the bed, put it in her mouth, and did her best impression of an excited dog. When finished, she moved to Katrina’s breasts, softly biting her nipples before sucking them into her mouth. The cold from the ice cube felt nice, and Katrina moaned in appreciation. Sera teased her for a few moments, then switched to her other nipple, both girls enjoying the attention. When the ice cube finally melted, Sera sat up and paused for a moment.
“Wait, hold on. Did I just bark?”
Katrina nodded, giggling softly to herself. “You were such a good girl!”
“Oh shut up!” Sera said, playfully hitting Katrina with a pillow. “That’s a weird ability. In the moment, it felt like my idea. Even now, I can’t really tell where my own thoughts ended and your suggestion began. I think it’s only possible because I know exactly when it started, and what you told me to do. If I didn’t know you had that ability though… oof, that’s a scary thought. Now I get why people hate Mesmers.”
“It’s okay, we don’t have to keep playing with it. Since you asked, I figured I might as well show you. But, enough about me, what about you? Any neat Class or Race features?”
“C’mon Katrina, I’m a Human. We all get something called Human Potential, which the internet seems to think gives us better pickings of Class Features? But then I’ve got a Feature called Mutable, and I have no idea what that is. As far as I can tell, it’s incredibly rare, and I’ve never found anything but speculation about what it’s for.”
“First I’ve heard of it, that’s for sure,” Katrina said. She looked over to the window, and her eyes went wide as she realized the sun was dawning. “Oh, shoot! It’s dawn already?”
“That certainly explains why I’m so tired. Well, among other things,” Sera said smirking.
“I can’t leave in the sunlight, though. I hate to be a bother, but… I need to crash here today. More than a couple seconds in the sun will zap my HP straight to zero.”
“Oh no! I have to spend all day with a beautiful woman in my bed? Ugh, truly the Change has cursed me this day…” Both girls looked at each other, starting to laugh as the room filled with the warm glow of daylight.