Divinity Rescue Corps

63- The Hatchening

The sun got fully into its role as Tara and I relaxed in the bough of one of the boogie trees. I relished in the warmth of the sun on every bit of my exposed skin. The spongy green sphere that served as its leaves allowed us to lay there and cuddle, enjoy the puffy iridescent clouds, and discuss how things were going. Tara, for her part, kept rubbing her hand over her abdomen in a way that concerned me… a little. When I asked her if she was ready to be a mother one day, she just gave me a smile and told me not to worry about it.

I blinked at her, and tried to follow her advice.

Although I didn’t level up as a Pleasure Seeker, the UI made sure I knew my relationship status with Tara had fallen in the week she’d been gone. It was now back to confidants. My special ability from forking her multiple times, Eagle-Eyed, didn’t advance yet. It would take more romancing before that happened.

“Fletcher, you beast!” she said quietly.

“Hm?”

“Ivy and Isabelle are a couple, aren’t they?” she asked, then seemed confused to learn that Ivy, the more butch of the two, was more bisexual and needed to use me as a dildo sometimes. Isabelle, on the other hand, was far more of what you’d consider ‘girly’ than her girlfriend: long hair to Ivy’s close-cropped mohawk, cute clothes and mannerisms to Ivy’s general bullishness. She was also more reluctant to have a man inside her. “And you did them both… at the same time?”

I shrugged. I still wasn’t entirely clear on what they wanted from me, or if Ivy would just decide every once in a while that she needed a bit of dick to tide her over until she and Izzy could get back to the land of strap ons. I also thought Tara was probably trying to distract me away from the question of her eventually getting pregnant.

I mean, the first time with her had been under the influence of a god. The subsequent times… that was all her doing.

“What about Chrysta? Or Larelle?” Tara said, pulling us further away from my possible future baby.

I waved her away, until I remembered that Larelle was ready to disrobe and get in on the action when I’d been brewing up the cure for the God of Footfalls. Now that I had Adaptability, I thought maybe I could… no, she was still far larger and stronger than I was, and I had plenty of gorgeous female companions already. There was no need to add Larelle to the possible conflicts.

“Here’s the thing,” I told her, “Cinzy thinks I’ve only been having sex with Vellenia.”

“Who?”

“The native. My bond.”

“And you and Cinzy…”

“Last night.”

“You’re unbelievable,” she said. She wasn’t wrong. I couldn’t quite believe it myself.

“Anyway, I have to ease her into the idea that I also have human partners. So we’ll have to play it cool for some time. Ivy and Isabelle don’t care; they’re doing each other. Regina obviously doesn’t care. But I don’t know about Cinzy yet.”

“Wow,” she said. “Just wow. Wow wow wow. I can’t believe it, honestly. When I met you, I thought you were kind of puppy dog cute, and then the Lovers happened to us, and all that changed when I got to know you… carnally.”

“It was not planned, that’s for sure,” I said. “Speaking of which, how are you feeling about all this information?”

She thought this over with an adorable look on her face, peering up like she was examining her own brain.

“Look, I won’t lie that I’d like more of you. I like having you around. Like, I wouldn’t mind being a couple. Hugging against you and looping my arm around your elbow, but I know about your other class. You’re simply not as effective if you’re only plowing my field.”

I nearly winced at the mental image of sowing seeds in her field.

“I can take you out from time to time,” I told her. “I’m thrilled at the opportunity to make you feel as beautiful as you really are. I’d be a lucky man if I could take you out on a date and parade around with someone as good looking as you.”

“You’re going to have to keep flattering me like that, a lot,” she said, wide eyed and serious.

Tara agreed, calling me a sly dog. She wasn’t wrong. I just wish I was as sly as she gave me credit for. Finally, conversation concluded, we headed back to the village where I could do what needed doing.

One piece of good news was, upon heating up and then concocting the anti-magic pill mixture as it was laid out in the instruction manual tablets, was that I leveled up my Healer class.

One look at the level up bonuses and I was a hundred percent on board with it.

Level 13: +1 Ingenuity, +2 skill points

My Attributes were looking very respectable.

Attributes:

I sure was a long way from where I’d started, with all 1’s and 2’s.

The increase in Ingenuity, like all of the other attributes, didn’t feel any different. Physicality sure eventually caused me to look different, and increased my physical capabilities to levels they’d never been at before.

After having had the team capabilities talk, I now understood that the Guardians each had a Physicality or Durability that was above 8, and the other above 7. In contrast all their other Attributes were quite low. Cinzy had a Likability of fracking 12, and an Affinity of 5, but everything else was under 3. In the meantime Trent spiked in Affinity first and Likability next, while Alan had an even split between Affinity and Ingenuity. With our two casters, everything else was super low.

Only the Rangers and I had fairly even stat arrays. I’d be willing to bet that Drat specialized in Ingenuity and Physicality, though I couldn’t be sure. I couldn’t even be sure he was anywhere within a 5 mile radius right now, given his stealth.

All the girls were thrilled to take their doses of the magic restricting medicine, even though it was pretty gross tasting not in pill form. The only way I could do it was to spread it over some flat bread and let it dry in the sun, and have them eat it. The other option would’ve been to just have the gross herb mixture all alone, and it was bitter as hell. We all had a good laugh at the others, watching their faces scrunch up as they tried it.

Alan and Trent were more hesitant about taking it though. They felt a better connection to mana and their magic powers this past week. I let them know I wasn’t going to order them to take the medicine, but we didn’t know what would happen if they didn’t.

As for my own body, I had gotten very green hair, along with veins of green running throughout my body. They had been pulsing with glowing green. Thankfully, those retracted back toward my heart, and my regular brown roots showed soon after I ate the awful bread.

Well, medicine was only delicious on earth because we had hundreds of years of experience turning everything sweet. Honestly, I was glad not to live in a place where corn was somehow transformed into high fructose syrup. The food here alone was trimming fat off my body.

I had just settled down to begin the re

Right here and now, there were both, but there was also a lot more. Grief, sadness… I knew she missed me, so some of that was in there. Relief at finally knowing I wasn’t dead.

“I’m just glad you’re home,” she said, and hugged me for what was probably the twentieth time that day.

“Me too,” I told her. Had she guessed why I was here?

This is Christopher knowing he’s not a genius, after all.