Six months ter

  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 tetting back to her apartment. She’d heard most of the monsters were stu the ground, but she didn’t want to risk it.

  She’d been couch-hopping for months, sometimes with temporary friends, sometimes iers, but mostly in the homes of her victims. As much as she hated to think about it, the chaos of the ge made it incredibly easy to travel around and not get caught.

  Ohing she couldn’t hunt for, sadly, was friendship. She was terribly lonely, and ofte her nights following news from the monster fighting unity that had appeared practically ht. In other cities, they called themselves Delvers, so Chicago followed suit, but teically no one had yet been ihe 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 trol by the end of the year.

  Even though Katrina had never been much of a gamer, she was fasated by everything the System had introduced into the world. She loved learning about all the different Csses, their abilities, and seeing the unique ways Races could affebat effectiveness. For this reason, she had started semi-frequently visitiablishments he main Guild Hall.

  As the city was still a battleground, the Guilds had taken over a rge 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. Enters had a space to practice, Alchemists had a pce to set up their equipment, and the mall was even big enough for most of the rger Races to fortably move around inside. Katrina didn’t want to risk going inside, but it was o see the fringe elements of the unity in the surrounding businesses.

  It was a cozy establishment, almost remi of a fantasy tavern, but far er. It was well lit, smoke-free, and served a wide variety of drinks. Katrina had chosen a small booth in the back er, away from the rowdier ers, and was happily nursing a fsk that she’d filled duri feeding.

  She let herself get lost in the various versations happening around her. Some were talking about their st 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 to memorize that particur facet when someone walked onto the stage o 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 pce, she hadn’t seen anyone use it, so this was aing new development. The person now setting up was a young human woman; she had a short, blonde pixie cut, and wore a blue, fnnel button-down shirt. Her face had delicate, strikiures, with pierg blue eyes and a small colle 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 mio tune her instrument, and then started pying.

  It was a light melody, pyful and whimsical, but it held a tinge of sado it. Her fingers expertly danced across the strings, and after a short introdu, she began to sing. Katrina had already been impressed by the guitar pying, 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 apa. Her hair seemed bouhan 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 iion, her first assumption had been wrong; her shirt hadn’t shrunk, her breasts had grown. Her cleavage was even more promihan 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 fot her problems, fot everything she’d doo survive. She was so enraptured by this woman’s song that she simply stared for the ey of her performance. When the musially stopped, and Katrina shook her head tain 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 fa 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 phoo 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 o stare at the person singing just to enjoy the music. I’ve pyed for enough crowds that I 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 siarted ughing. “You haven’t been able to socialize much sihe ge, have you hun?”

  Katrina shook her head. “Not really, no.”

  The singer held out her hand. “Name's Sera. How about you?”

  Aense 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 uhered at the moment. Doing a lot of drifting, and it’s o be where the people are.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it. The owner of this pce pays me to perform, and it helps lift everyone’s spirits, which I always enjoy. Plus, he gets the be of having a Bar where the music literally makes you more attractive.”

  Against all odds, Katrina found herself smiling. “Between your musid the alcohol, it’s a surprise this pce isn’t a brothel by now!” Both girls ughed at this, and the versation 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 fusion. “About you being the most beautiful girl in this pce.”

  “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 ing on a bit strong. You said you’re a Bard? What kind?”

  With a sigh of relief, Katrina happily weled the ge in versation. “Path of Magic, Guitar.”

  “Get out of town! Really? Heck, let me grab my guitar and you teach me a thing or two!” Sera had leaned closer now, her i in Katrina more than apparent.

  “I’ve never actually pyed. Haven’t had the ce sihe ge hit, and all my time has bee surviving. Doubt I could pull together the money even I wao.”

  “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 ce to finally try out her Css sounded pretty fun.

  The blonde quickly pulled her guitar up into the booth, then ope up. She moved o Katrina, stealing a chair from ay 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 lettiouch linger lohan she o. “Like this?”

  “Exactly! Now, it’s o 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 few hours, Sera began teag Katrina Guitar 101. It was a slow start, initially, as Katrina had udied music before. However, after the first fifteen minutes or so, she found that all the pieces started clig 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 ience.

  Eventually, ohe basics felt familiar to her, she decided to try improvising a simple tuhe music made se was already there, she was just finding a way to el it. As soon as the melody started, and she felt truly ected with it, a bright blue pop-up appeared, eclipsing her vision.

  —

  Inspiring Performaivated!

  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 iement.

  “My Status appeared, said I’d activated a Css Feature. Does that always happen?” Katrina asked.

  “Oh absolutely. For Bards, it’s usually Inspiring Performa’ll also give you the ce to pick what Attribute you want to boost for your Inspiration.”

  Katrina tilted her head in fusion. “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 Regeion 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 delvi.”

  The other Bard’s excitement was iious and Katrina couldn’t help but smile. “Wow, I’d never heard of that before.”

  “It’s nowhere near as on, so I’m not surprised.”

  Swallowing nervously, Katrina decided it was time to give her Inspiring Performanother shot. “Well, what meter of yours needs refilling?”

  “Mana, for sure. I just spent an hour perf, and buffing the entire bar takes a lot out of me.”

  With a resolute nod, Katrina tried to ect with the music again. She was ready for the pop-up this time, mentally selected MP as she started pying, then made sure to only direct the Inspiration to Sera. The two girls locked eyes, the musig around them, and Katrina swore Sera was moving closer with eaote pyed.

  “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 acked up in record time, and before Katrina had time to sed 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 few hours expl each other’s bodies, moaning and writhing in pleasure as they both lost t of their asms.

  When they finally fihey colpsed onto each other, panting with exertion. Sera’s hands traced circles around Katrina’s colrbones, and they began making small talk about nothing in particur. They talked about the ge, about the weird things they’d both seen and heard. Sera shared her hopes for her Css, what she wao do ohe city was recimed. Katrina shared that she wao go bae, to try and ect with old friends, but didn’t have many other pns.

  In the end, they both started talking about their own Css and Racial features. Sera was intensely curious what Features a Vampire might have, and Katrina was happy to have someohat seemed legitimately ied.

  “No way, you fly?!” Sera said, boung up and down on the bed. “You’ve got to take me sometime!”

  “I’ve ried carrying someone before, but sure, I give it a shot.” Katrina ughed, then tinued with her Racial Features list. “Then there’s Enting Gaze, which lets me induce minor hypnosis if I make eye tact with someone. Not sure if they figure it out eventually, though. I, uh… I don’t really use it.” Katri bad lying, but she wasn’t about to share all the terrible things she’d doh that particur css feature.

  Sera seemed excited heless. “ we try it? I bet we could have some kinky fun with it…” she said pyfully.

  Though it felt a little odd, Katrina was eager to have a ce to use the ability for something nonviolent, and smiled in agreement. After a moment of thought, in which Katrina tried to think of something stra not off-putting, she said “Put an ice cube in your mouth, bark like a dog, then e here and suy nipples.”

  As expected, Sera’s eyes gzed over and she nodded in agreement. She grabbed an ice cube from the gss o the bed, put it in her mouth, and did her best impression of aed dog. When finished, she moved to Katrina’s breasts, softly biting her nipples before sug them into her mouth. The cold from the ice cube felt nice, and Katrina moaned in appreciatioeased 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, pyfully hitting Katrina with a pillow. “That’s a weird ability. In the moment, it felt like my idea. Even now, I ’t really tell where my own thoughts ended and ygestion began. I think it’s only possible because I kly 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 pying with it. Since you asked, I figured I might as well show you. But, enough about me, what about you? A Css or Race features?”

  “ Katrina, I’m a Human. We all get something called Human Potential, which the i seems to think gives us better pigs of Css Features? But then I’ve got a Feature called Mutable, and I have no idea what that is. As far as I tell, it’s incredibly rare, and I’ve never found anything but specution 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 expins why I’m so tired. Well, among other things,” Sera said smirking.

  “I ’t leave in the sunlight, though. I hate to be a bother, but… I o crash here today. More than a couple seds 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 ge has cursed me this day…” Both girls looked at each other, starting to ugh as the room filled with the warm glow of daylight.