Chapter 42: Chapter 39: Grinding

"I order you to... speak out loud what really went through your head when you read the description of that class, and you were thinking about those thick, wriggling roots."

"I thought that if I caught a muncher and put... gah!" I bit down on my tongue mid-sentence, just about managing not to finish it.

Mind magic resistance advanced to level 15

"Aww, you're too good at this already. I wanted to embarrass you. Oh, I know. One-word answers; they wouldn't give you time to fight back. I order you to answer yes or no; do you want to go another round with queeny?"

"Yes." Dammit!

"Wow, you really are a..."

"Don't even say it!" I yelled, interrupting my evil zombie twin. And here I was thinking that letting her use a slave collar on me would be a safe and effective way of maxing out my mind magic resistance before picking my second class. Did she really have my personality? How did everyone back on Earth not flee from me on sight? Or had this all happened since I got here?

"I order you to answer yes or no; do you miss home?"

"Yes." Wait, what? Where did that one come from? Oh, right, she can never return to Earth, no matter what happens here... She gave me a sad little smile, before the corners of her mouth curled up further into an evil grin. Uh oh... I slammed my mouth shut, desperate to stop myself from answering her next question.

"I order you to answer yes or no; are you enjoying this interrogation?"

"Yes," I answered from between my clenched teeth. Dammit again! I just couldn't stop myself quickly enough to avoid an answer from slipping out.

Mind magic resistance advanced to level 16

"Yup, you're definitely one of those. I've heard gamification can make people act in ways they normally wouldn't, but seeing what's become of you just because you got a status screen and some upwards ticking skill counters is kinda disturbing. Fun, yes, but still disturbing. I order you to strip."

My armour vanished into my item box before I'd even mentally processed her order and what it was I needed to stop myself from doing, leaving me naked on the shrine floor. I glared and quickly redressed myself.

"Looking good," said my tormentor, giving me a thumbs up.

"I think we need to switch roles," I muttered.

"But I don't have skills to increase. Sorry, but this is all for your own good. What level now?"

"Sixteen."

"Still four more to go then... What else to make you do? Oh, I know, of all the fox-kin you've met so far, which one did you most want to pet?"

That one was easier to keep my mouth shut for, because I didn't actually know her name. I'd just spotted her behind the arch-priestess, looking incredibly cute and fluffy, with a tail so bushy that I could almost have hidden in it. Had I not been preoccupied at the time, I definitely would have struggled to resist the urge.

"No answer? Guess you didn't manage to get her name after leaving me behind then. Pity."

...Of course, it didn't help that my zombie twin already knew the answers, and hence which questions to ask. I squirmed in embarrassment, waiting for the next order to come.

"Want to train disease resistance too?"

I tried to keep my mouth shut, but needn't have bothered. It hadn't been an order. "Yes? But how?" I hazarded, expecting the worst.

"Like this," answered my zombie twin, positioning herself right in front of me. "Kiss me," she ordered.

I struggled my hardest, honestly, but didn't quite manage to avoid contact. My disease nullification immediately alerted me to the massive amount of blight tearing into my face, and I reeled backwards, coughing, trying not to breathe in any of the infection. Fortunately, the shrine purged it from the air; my skill-boosted immune system was already struggling just against the amount that had already attacked me.

Disease nullification advanced to level 24

"You just wanted to kiss me," I muttered. "That's practically masturbation!"

"But you enjoyed it, didn't you?" she whispered in my ear, this time ordering me to answer.

Mind magic resistance advanced to level 17

"...No," I successfully lied.

My zombie twin burst out laughing. "Not bad, but you're going to need better control over your voice than that to fool me," she managed, once the laughter had died down. "Don't forget, I know all about that little collection of books you keep under your bed."

Argg... This new version of me was evil!

She could do with a better name than 'zombie twin', but appraisal clearly called her Katie, and I wasn't so callous as to tell her she needed to abandon that name just because she wasn't the real one. It wasn't as if there was any confusion while it was just the two of us. Oh, I know! She's a duplicate, and her name is Katie, so dupliKatie!

"Hmm... Speaking of things in your mouth, did you ever regret not letting Si'janrii..."

That wiped the grin at my bad pun off my face in an instant. "No," I snapped, not even letting her finish. This game was consensual. That was not. There was a big difference. "And you damn well know it."

"Of course, but I have to vary the questions. They can't all be things you don't want to answer truthfully. Hmm... What to ask next?"

And so continued the next couple of hours, with my newfound evil twin trying to wring as much embarrassment from me as possible. Still, it was fun having someone I could be open with for once, even if that someone was myself. Heck, it was nice to have someone to talk to at all for the first time in weeks who wasn't either insane or trying to kill me.

Okay, so maybe she was a little insane, but no more than I was. It was a shame she hadn't split from me on the first day, before I'd got my body and mind quite so badly messed up. Or perhaps not; I doubted the me from back then would survive a sudden transition to undead zombie with her mind intact.

By the time I'd got to level twenty, I could reliably ignore orders. I still couldn't lie convincingly, but I could keep my mouth shut at least. That would be good enough. It was a shame I didn't get an evolution for it, but it would do for now, and hopefully stop me getting completely mind-raped in the future.

Disease nullification gained another level, but levelling that was something I didn't want to rush, at least not using the undead blight. One evil twin was enough, and I didn't want to risk accidentally making more.

With that brief bout of levelling completed, it was time to move onto training combat skills, but first I had something else I wanted to check; if my increase to level six had any effect. Status!

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Name: Katie
Primary class: Princess of undying laughter (level 6)
- Class skills -
Trigger respawn
Item box [Enhance]
Mapping [Enhance]
Appraisal [Enhance]
Resistance focus [Enhance]
Fast travel [Enhance]
Secondary class: None [+]
- Combat skills -
Unarmed dabbler: Level 5
Proficient dodger: Level 10
Spear proficiency: Level 16
Proficient blocker: Level 13
Dagger proficiency: Level 15
Sword proficiency: Level 10
- Resistance skills -
Friend of fear
Pain nullification: Level 30
Poison nullification: Level 30
Corrosion nullification: Level 25
Disease nullification: Level 25
Mind magic resistance: Level 20
Heat tolerance: Level 4
Light tolerance: Level 1
Cold resistance: Level 20
- Crafting skills -
Improvisational artisan: Level 12
Artistry: Level 4
- Scouting skills -
Novice stealth: Level 9
Sense presence: Level 8
Novice empath: Level 6
- Magic skills -
Sense mana: Level 6
Bend mana: Level 4

An enhance option? It looked like the level up did something after all. Did it perhaps have anything to do with the way skills gradually improved as I gained levels? Again, the lack of instructions was a problem. If I hit that button, would it enhance the skill immediately, or would it give me a description and confirmation dialogue first? Could I only pick one? Would it improve it all the way to the maximum, or only act as if I'd bought the skill one level later?

Not that any of those questions made much difference. I would read through all the descriptions if I could, but I was very likely to pick item box. It was far and away my most useful class skill, and if it was bigger, it would prevent future issues with losing my stuff to rampaging fox-kin. I hit the metaphorical button.

Skill enhanced: Item box
Grant access to a spatial pocket in which a large amount of equipment can be stored. Time does not pass for stored items.

No confirmation, but it got bigger, and gained a time stop function! I'd be willing to bet that was more than just the difference between picking the skill at level one and level two. I'd have to test just how big it was, but given that even the small version fitted my armour, weapons, shields, spares and a few miscellanea, this one must be far better. Plus, I could take food without it spoiling, or even cooling down if I ever managed to cook anything. The murder tree's poison, too. It was an amazing upgrade.

"Oh? What are you smiling about?" asked my zombie twin.

"Item box got a big upgrade," I answered on autopilot before even thinking about it. Stupid slave collar. "Looks like I still need to keep concentrating to avoid accidentally spilling things out..." I added, reclaiming the collar and stashing it back in my new, improved item box.

Bend mana advanced to level 5

Oh, bonus!

"Aww, spoilsport," complained my zombie twin.

"That's enough Katie abuse for one day, I think."

"Oh, cool, so I get to abuse you more tomorrow then?"

"That... wasn't quite what I meant."

"You didn't say no though."

I gave my zombie twin the best glare that I could manage before pulling my sword and shield out of my item box.

"You're still not saying no," she pointed out.

"Indeed not. Tell you what; beat me and I'll let you kiss me again. Once I've finished recovering from the last time."

The Katie shaped zombie gave me a very concerning grin before she blurred. I barely had enough time to raise my shield to block her sword slash, and utterly failed to defend against the kick that followed it, slamming back-first into the wall.

"Whu?" I asked, stumbling.

"I did say I was better with my sword than I had any right to be," she answered, smirking.

Great, another blight filled smooching session coming right up. When she said she was better, I assumed she meant compared to our original, unskilled self, not compared to me with my second tier skills!

A rather unfair beat-down followed, albeit one that netted me five levels of sword proficiency and proficient dodger, as well as four of proficient blocker. She was faster than me, stronger than me, and more skilled than me. When her species description said she'd been strengthened by the blight, it wasn't kidding around.

Being the first time I was having a real sword fight also finally got me novice parrier and took it straight to level ten.

New skill gained: Novice parrier
It is commonly said that a good offence is the best defence. Using a weapon to defend with isn't quite what the originator of this phrase had in mind, but it's close enough. This skill aids you in parrying blows with any weapon.

Of course, she did have the disadvantage that she wouldn't respawn, but all that meant was that I had to go easy on her to avoid any fatal accidents, whereas she had no such concerns. The only thing that worked in my favour was that whatever equivalent she had to my sword proficiency skill didn't seem to boost damage in the same way, and she couldn't penetrate my armour.

Of course, that just meant I ended up covered in bruises, quite possibly with some cracked bones, rather than leaking out blood all over the place. Actually, that raised an interesting question, given that she hadn't managed to cut me yet.

"Hey, hold up a minute," I shouted, causing my overly eager tormentor to slow down. "Does your sword still have a paralysis effect?"

"No idea. What does your appraisal skill say?"

"Nothing. It appraises as being a part of you, not as a separate item."

"One way to find out then."

"Indeed. I was wondering what sort of resistance skill would work against it if it did, since all the other sources of paralysis we came across were poisons."

"Well, armour off then. Let's give it a go."

My armour went back into the item box, and I was once again glad of my cold resistance, despite the increased warmth near the shrine. I held out a sacrificial arm to let my zombie twin make a small cut.

"You could have cut yourself with your own sword anytime you wanted, you know," she pointed out.

"Somehow I never thought about it until... Ouch!"

"You have maximum level pain nullification. Don't be such a baby."

I ignored her, instead paying attention to the numbness spreading through my arm. There was blight in there, but not an enormous amount. There was also something else. My arm's movements became sluggish and unwieldy.

New skill gained: Curse tolerance
Not all magical attacks aim to deliver raw damage. Inflicting sleep, weakness, or paralysis are common ways to debilitate an enemy to capture it alive or make it easier to kill. This skill will offer a small amount of aid in rejecting such negative effects.

A new skill! Awesome. And so a few minutes later I had gained a few more levels of it, for the price of ending up naked on the floor with all four limbs paralysed. And my evil zombie twin standing over me, smirking. I didn't fully think this one through, did I?

"I think it's time to claim that kiss you owe me," she said.

Disease nullification advanced to level 26

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