Natalie hadn’t allocated any of her earned al energy in some time, and with sistent sessions with Jordan, and slightly less sistent ones with Sammy, she’d earned a sizable amount. One-off enters like with Liz, and even her lewd adventures with the vines, had provided bonus harvests, too.
***
al Energy: 442
***
“I’m at four forty two,” Natalie said. “I have to imagihat’s enough to take [al Harvest] up aier, though I’m not sure how much’ll be left over. I could also go all in on an immediate power spike, though.” That had been why Natalie had saved the points in the first pce, instead of immediately allog them to [al Harvest], which would boost her rate of gain. Taking each of her level two skills up to sed progression would be an enormous boost in her immediate strength. She’d probably go from a ‘det but nothing truly amazing’ student to somewhere much closer to the top.
“Mm,” Jordan said. “Tough choice. Long term choice is obvious.”
“Keep upgrading Harvest.” Natalie chewed her lip. “Saved the points in case something truly insane came along with level two, but it didn’t.” Not that she was pining; she very much appreciated her new abilities. But nothing demanded immediate upgrades.
Natalie hesitated over the choice for a few moments, but relutly decided to do what was smartest for her long term career. “Probably best to get harvest up to three,” she sighed. “Though it would have been o go all in, right now.”
Jordan patted Natalie on the shoulder in sympathy. But she clearly agreed. “Let’s see how much you have left over.”
Closing her eyes, Natalie funneled points into [al Harvest] using [Empower].
***
[al Harvest]: Progression advanced from 2 to 3.
***
***
[al Harvest] - PASSIVE. PROGRESSION 3. Extract al energy through {perf or receiving oral on} an aroused target. Harvested energy be expehrough [Empower] and [Advance].
***
Natalie snorted.
“What’d it upgrade to?” Jordan asked.
“Oral. Giving or receiving.”
“It’s funny that’s how it rates them. Kissing, fondling, oral. What’s after that? Peion? Does it differentiate between each hole, you think?”
Natalie paused, then coughed. “I guess we’ll find out.”
“How much do you have left?”
She checked. “Two forty two. Sression three took two hu.”
“Wonder if we t on that for the others.”
“There’s variance,” Natalie said. “Already found that out from the progression two upgrades. But only a little bit. They seem to stay in the same general range.”
“Might ge with level two skills. Maybe those are more expensive.”
Natalie had sidered that, but for obvious reasons, hoped not. If they were as cheap to upgrade as her level ohen she could take all of her new skills up a notch. If not, then she’d have to pid choose.
“What’s the most important?” Natalie asked. In the case they were more expensive, she would focus on the one most crucial to upgrade.
“That’s really up to you,” Jordan said. “You’ve got lots of choices, now. [Juggernaut] is great—a ft boost to furor. If you want to immediately pivot te ons, [Bigger Is Better] is smart. Could also go with a tier three upgrade to [Illusion]. But I think the clear winner is [Stylish], assumi the whole team on board.”
A team-wide stat buff was hard to beat, so, yeah, that made sense. Natalie hesitated, though.
“But you want a personal boost,” Jordan said, smiling. “That’s fioo. I say go for it. You don’t have to be strictly selfless. Besides, it really depends on how the skills upgrade. Maybe [Stylish] only gives a tiny boost, and [Juggernaut] a big one. I say go for whatever you want.”
“Yeah,” Natalie said. “I guess. I’m not sure.” She wrinkled her nose. “It’s a hard choice.”
“Better to be flooded with good options than bad ones. Don’t think you go t, here, no matter what you choose.”
“What would you do?”
“I’d go with [Heavy onry],” Jordan said, “so I could plow my best friend with a ten inch costead of a ine.” Jordan ughed at Natalie’s wide-eyed expression. “I’m afraid you have a bit of a size queen on your hands, now. Look what you’ve doo me.”
“Jordan. Be serious.” Natalie fought against the stiffening inside her skirt. The teasing was seriously unfair out in public.
“Oh, I’m pletely serious. But fine, if you care more about being practical than stuffing me silly—let me think.” Jordan sidered the question. “[Juggernaut]. The ft strength boost will help with a rger on by default, so it serves as [Bigger Is Better] in a way, but also helps in all other aspects of bat too. That it multiplies with other bonuses is just crazy. Let’s see how much it costs.”
That had been what Natalie had wao go for first, too. [Stylish] robably the better team upgrade, but she wao get personally stroo stand out more at Te. She hadn’t made an embarrassment of herself, far from it, but she hadn’t astounded anyoher.
She wondered whether Jordan knew what she was thinking, and had suggested the skill choid purposefully not pushed for [Stylish]. That would be a very Jordan thing to do. Jordan was always looking out for her. Her heart squeezed, and she chased away her newfound feelings. Those were really going to be a problem in the following days.
“Alright. Let’s see,” Natalie said.
Closing her eyes, she started funneling points into [Juggernaut]. Slowly, as to test how much the enigmatic ‘orb’ filled up with pink liquid. Her skills only gave a vague measure of how much she rogressing them, rather than a crete amount required. It made all of this guesswork, unfortunately.
She grimaced.
“Yeah, it’s more expensive,” Natalie said. “I’m pretty sure it starts out as effectively a tier higher. So from oo two, costs the same as two to three for my level one skills.”
“Kinda expected something like that,” Jordan said. “But still. You upgrade [Juggernaut]. It’ll be around two hundred?”
“It’ll ost of what I have, probably.”
“That’s fine, I’d say. It’s a good choice. Then [Stylish] , after we talk to the team about it.” Jordan paused. “And … what are your thoughts on talking to them about helping, too?’
“Helping?”
“You know. With …” Jordan waved her hand up and down at Natalie, a vague gesture that took Natalie a sed to uand.
“You ’t be serious.”
“Sounds like Liz might be ied,” Jordan said with a shrug. “Ana is a wildcard, but I don’t think she’d be mad if we just asked. Besides, it’s giving or receiving. I don’t think there’d be too many girls who would turn down daily oral from you.” Jordan’s lips quirked. “Or even giving. You’ve got something special down there, you know. It really is addig.”
“Jordan.”
“Just a thought,” Jordan said. “I’m not telling you to do anything. But maximizing your harvest skill really should take priority.”
“I know. I know.” Natalie struggled for how to put it. “I just don’t like the idea of it.”
“You don’t like the idea of being serviced by a legion of girls every day?” Jordan asked.
“Not … so impersonally? I don’t know. I don’t have anything against something casual, obviously, but it should still …”
“Happen naturally.” Jordan nodded. “No, I get it. Pursuiionships just for the energy would be weird. I was just cheg in. Besides, I bet there’s some limitations to harvest we haven’t fou. I don’t think if you somehow had twenty partners a day, you’d really get twenty times the energy. I bet there’s a cap per day, or maybe each successive partner gets less energy. Something of that sorts. Then again, maybe not. But the most important thing is to do what you’re fortable with. Doesn’t matter timizes your css.”
Natalie both agreed and disagreed with the se. A part of her wao rush as much al energy as possible. A part of her despised that kind view on sex aionships, even purposefully casual. It was something she’d fretted over since she’d received her css, and hadn’t made too much headway on.
What she was really hoping for was to build up retionships naturally, and for having to pursue some sort of ‘optimization’ to bee unnecessary through anic success.
“Anyway,” Jordan said. “Go ahead and finish advang [Juggernaut]? Tell me what you get.”
***
[Juggernaut]: Progression advanced from 1 to 2.
***
***
[Juggernaut] - PASSIVE. PROGRESSION 2. Css-bearer receives {1.6x} bonus to furor, applied after all other bonuses.
***
Natalie eyes widened. “Damn,” she said. “Went to one point six. That’s insane.”
“A passive sixty pert boost? That stacks with buffs and items?” Jordan asked. “Yeah. No joke.” She shook her head. “Even with just that, today’s spars won’t know what hit them. Yonna be a nightmare. Wanna give it a test run?”