36 Lying to Oneself about Personal Wealth

"Is it true that the the Demon Lord, Maou Maximus married the 23rd Queen of New Atlantis?"

"Well, mother..."

Without a disturbance in the water, a sword soundlessly appeared against his throat.

"No comment."

-the 300th Son of New Atlantis interrupted by the Left Hand of the King, 1826 FE

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Odd fired a bolt of yin lightning from his hand to the ground.

It barely left a mark. It was so weak, that when they tried it earlier, Cirrha only moaned for a moment instead of like she was dying like she usually does! His mother sent bolts from the sky that destroyed buildings in a single strike!

How is it possible that his bolt of magic was just a prickle? Sure, his affinity is almost 34 times lower than Melisandra's, but when he cloaks his hands, it still shreds his enemies with ease.

At least the bolt barely costed him mana. He was just going to have to practice charging it then. It would never stay in his hands for long when he formed a bolt. It was disappointing, but at least he still had his daggers.

He knew he should head over to Isonei soon, but he could wait another hour to properly say his farewells to his woman.

"You better call me whenever you can, Odd."

Call her? "How am I supposed to do that?"

Cirrha waved her hand and a thin, palm sized, black block was dropped into her hands from one of her roots. She held it up and looked at him expectantly.

"How--how could you possible afford that?"

"Sophia gave me a loan. With that, interest, and the cost of helping me make your daggers, we owe her quite a bit."

Odd gaped. He thought he was poor before, but debt?

"Oh," Cirrha hopped up and clapped her hands cutely. "I need some stones to charge my phone while you're gone. Aaaaand some more for miscellaneous charges. Thanks darling."

Odd continued to watch, his jaw nearly reaching the floor, as his tree grabbed his money sack and poured its contents out onto the ground. Then, as the living ghouls was still stunned, more roots popped up and pulled the pile of Power Stones into a miniature sinkhole.

It wasn't a lot of money, he had about 200 stones from the fight with the Gobem and what he stole from the poker game outside the stronghold. The damn hentai octopus took everything else of value at the place before him or his mother could collect what they were owed and Cripclaw had vanished with the rest.

The fact remained that Odd was still wearing rags and he planned to perform a ritual to change his pants into a wet suit material with the money he had, but couldn't find it within himself to fight Cirrha when she looked up at him, biting her bottom lip and fluttering her eyelashes.

Odd swore to himself that it was only this one time and he would never let it happen to him again. It was just a small amount.

And she needed the phone to entertain herself while she was stuck here.

It was only a small expense.

After this, he didn't have to pay a single stone for anything for his women.

He shook the thoughts from his mind, certain of his future spending habits, "Why would the mermaid loan you the money in the first place?"

"Funny story, really. She used to enjoy watching me eat people and after she got her rocks off watching us together, she would sometimes come to chat. Sophia loves to gossip and after she told me about all the people in the world and how I wanted to help you, we agreed that you would be able to pay for it and she gave it to me. She wanted to give us a favor because she figured you'll be a tier 4 in no time since all the big names started from nothing and had cool origin stories."

Odd tried to ignore how little control he seemed to have over his life, yet, at this point he couldn't help but wonder if he was in denial about it. Apparently its a favor to force him into debt, "She's coming with Isonei and the freed slaves?"

"Mhm," Cirrha answered. "I talked to her this morning about it. She lives her life on the rivers around here, escorting people. Since she was in the area and had a good reputation, they hired her for it."

The dryad handed her phone that had Sophia's profile open. It had lists of reviews and talked up her capabilities like a professional business.

The screen itself, if you could call it that was the oldest part though. It popped up like a hologram yet Odd felt that he could see the image inside his mind, just like when he accessed the Connection. There were no apps or icons, he just had to imagine what he was looking for and data would appear. Whether it was the profiles of other users or shared information and postings.

When he looked down Sophia's profile, he unconsciously flicked his finger to scroll through it, despite how unnescesary the action was. Everything about using the phone was just so innate that it felt like he was using another limb.

"Not everyone can earn a living by killing things and stealing their stuff Odd, this is how civilization works."

Odd nodded his head while he was rubbing his chin with the other hand, "I guess. I never thought of ways other than murder to make money, but it still doesn't sound like a satisfying career choice. Since when do you know all about this? You've lived here for your entire life."

Cirrha winked at him, "Its all on the internet, no excuse to be a dumb saaavage."

The living ghoul growled under his breath a little before Cirrha pinched his shoulder. She knew he hated being compared to other Gobs, but she was still a tease by nature and didn't mean anything by it.

Odd was flipping through her phone and remembered what he wanted to ask her the other day.

"There's no chance that you're pregnant, right Cirrha?"

"Oh?" she rubbed his cheek. "I didn't know you wanted little ones so soon?"

He left out a sigh in response, "No, I was just wondering because the last thing I want is a Proto-Gob to think of."

"Eh, I figured that. The way you're obsessed with your mother, I didn't think you wanted one on your mind yet. You would probably be obsessed with it too."

Odd huffed, "Not obsessed."

"I was more afraid that such a bad guy would molest his daughters."

Odd thought about a little girl calling him daddy and... The thought of anything else sent a shiver down his spine. That was too much even for him.

It was like an automatic response akin to when he thought of Gobs that swung for the other team.

Nuh uh. Not for him. He doesn't care how odd of a Gob that makes him.

He did notice, however, that Myyx was giggling off to the side.

Cirrha took a moment to poke her phone in Odd's hands and watched as his eyes went wide.

"I told you that you were obsessed with her! Myyx, he's even getting a hard on!"

Odd ignored the woman as he was too busy reading the most recent post from his mother.

DarkLadyLights: Only took one day for this bad bitch to reach T5, suck a dick Shanadike @Shanda_Awesome

"Cirrha's full of shit, touching me and blaming a picture..." Odd trailed off, ignored the giggling dryad, and quickly changing the subject. "What about you, Myyx? I don't exactly know how slime kids work..."

With a wide grin on her face, Myyx answered him, "Just slimes. They aren't half as smart as protos."

She lazily shrugged and continued, "Any affinity I absorb can split off me later. I may have shed some drops of nature, water, or yin lightning slimes last night. It's not like I control it. "

"Duh, it's one of the way Power Stones are made you know?" Cirrha said, demonstrating her Wikipedia knowledge from the last couple days.

"Probably all hers, the way she gushes like a whore," Odd deadpanned.

"Hey!" despite her chagrin, Cirrha continued touching him.

"You know you're the best kind."

"Hmmph!"

Odd checked his tree's phone one last time and shot a text to Sophia.

"I guess they can wait another hour or so."