"I officially welcome you to my little group!" And as he said this, Nox pulled out a sheet of paper.
This was another curse item of his creation. Nox had managed to decipher a very small part of Hephaestus' curse, this enabled him to make unbreakable curses that could not be cleansed through any means but with a massive disadvantage.
The target had to fully accept being cursed which made it very hard to use in combat since the target had to be fully aware of the curses implications before accepting it. However, it instead made a great tool for contracts, with Nox making several Geis Scrolls that enforced the terms of any contract written on it once it's accepted.
What he gave Haruhime and Aisha, were two contracts with the clauses he had mentioned to them, only in more detail but the goal of this contract was not only to restrict them in case they wanted to back out or betray Nox since Lili, who he was sure would never turn on him had one too.
No, these contracts had a great advantage and that was. It forces the user to keep to the terms no matter the circumstances. That meant no unintentional slips, no type of mind control and no being tricked by others into breaking it. Thus, it created an absolute protection for the group.
Nox created this item for two reasons. One was in case he needed to make an important agreement with an untrustworthy individual but the other and main reason was to prevent accidental breaks in agreement. Although he trusted Lili wholeheartedly, the information she carried was far too dangerous that it would result in heavy consequences, even for herself, if she slipped.
Whether it was Lili who took the contract before or the two girls taking it now, they both praised the item and willingly took the contract and with that done, Nox could finally show them the good stuff. His true gifts for them.
He started with Haruhime who was mightily embarrassed about showing her naked back to Nox but all too willing to do it before he even explained his purpose in wanting her to do so.
Needless to say, once Nox used the Status Pick to access her falna and them his Status Window magic to manipulate it, both girls were stupefied, Aisha even more so since her knowledge of the world was far greater than the sheltered and isolated Haruhime.
"Welcome Haruhime! You're now officially a part of my pseudo familia!" Nox announced.
"Wait, wait, wait! What in the HELL was that!?" Aisha asked.
Nox then proceeded to explain how he came up with his falna manipulation. How he took inspiration from the illegal Status Thief and so on and so forth.
After he gave a rough explanation of how he developed the ability to do it, Haruhime was very surprised and filled with admiration for Nox's many skills and hsi great mastery of them. Meanwhile, Aisha's thoughts were in a similar vein but less innocent.
'I definitely made the right choice and got myself a powerful, skillful, rich and dominating man to tame me!' She thought with barely contained thirst.
"For Aisha though, I have a slightly different proposal but this is one you're free to refuse in which case I'll do the exact same I did to Haruhime." Nox said.
"Hoh? Let's hear it then!" Aisha exclaimed.
"With the knowledge that I can allow someone to gain excelia very fast and quickly upgrade their status . . . Would you be willing to go back to Level 1?"
Nox asked dumbfounding Aisha who felt she was not keeping up. After recovering,she then fired a barrage of questions.
"How can increase someone's growth speed? How can you return me to Level 1? Why should I do something that makes me so much weaker?"
"Calm down, calm down! I can explain more okay?" Nox calmed Aisha a bit before continuing. As for Haruhime, she was completely lost but didn't want to ask anything and seem stupid.
'Hmm, I'll explain things slowly to her later.' Nox thought as he looked at the confused Haruhime.
"The answers to the first two questions are closely related . . ."
He started to explain to Aisha about his Excelia Drain that could level down its target, the Phryne she so hated being one of the victims of said curse and how he could use that drained excelia to create one of his specialties, the EX Pot.
"So let me get this straight . . . You'll level me down with that curse of yours . . ."
"Yes."
"You then use the excelia you've taken from me and others like that toad bitch to create something you call EX Pots . . ."
"Yes!"
"A potion type magic item that can not only temporarily provide a significant boost to all of the user's abilities but also greatly increase their excelia gain and thus allow for much faster growth and easier level ups . . ."
"YES!"
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?" Screamed Aisha before freezing in place.
'Hmm . . . It seem Aisha.exe has crashed due to overload . . ."
Thinking this, Nox turned to Haruhime and spoke.
"We'll let Aisha recover for a bit and in the meanwhile I'll explain things a little better to you okay?"
Haruhime blushed a bit at having her cluelessness found out by Nox but was also glad he was paying attention to her, leading her to feel a bit complicated.
And so, as Aisha progressed slowly towards the recovery of her mind, Nox slowly explained the conversation to Haruhime.
She still didn't quite grasp the gravity of the situation but she reached the conclusion that Nox was truly super amazing which left the boy feeling slightly exasperated but also that Haruhime was really too pure, cute, and beautiful for this world.
In the meantime, the recovered Aisha spoke to Nox once again.
"So . . . I guess that means that you want to use that method to maximize my stats before leveling up which would be a whole lot easier with your EX Pots right?"
'I guess I'm just supposed to ignore the breakdown . . . Okay then!'
"Yep, that's pretty much it!"
It was a tough decision for Aisha. She hadn't achieved the power she had today easily and it pained her to let it go even if it would end up making her stronger in the future, specially when she had to worry about possible pursuit from her former familia.
She looked at Nox once more and thought.
'I'll have to completely rely on him for a while which doesn't sit very well with me but . . . It'll be worth it. And since my husband wants to spoil me with such exclusive and powerful items, who am I to say no!'
In the end, she accepted the proposal. Nox reduced her status to the point right before her first level up but her development abilities remained with made Nox think.
'Can't I abuse this? Due to my polymath skill, it's useless to me but I can make them grind their development abilities by letting them level up to 2 and then bring them back down!'
Having figured out yet another way to exploit the system, Nox was indeed happy and though that this venture had yielded very good results indeed.
Aisha took the opportunity to jump at him in an intimate manner and whisper in his ear seductively.
"Now that I'm back to Level 1, you should take really good "care" of me~"
Since she had not given up teasing him, Nox decided to show her he would not react like your standard japanese protagonist like Bell in such situations once again.
He put an arm around her back and helder even closer, pressing her lithe but curvy body onto his and whispered i her ear in turn with a teasing tone.
"Oh I'll give you all the "care" you deserve all right~"
Giving the amazoness a thrilling sensation and making the nearby Haruhime nearly pass out from all the "heat" and jealousy.
Back to business, all that was left was to introduce the new members to Lili and watch her cutely burn in jealousy, hehehehe.
A while later, in Nox's safehouse on the 18th floor, He had just brought in the two girls. Lili was just staring agape, trembling in place as he introduced the two new additions to her.
"The sexy amazoness is Aisha whereas the innocent and cute renard is Haruhime!" Nox said in a bright tone, pleasing the two girls with his introduction and fanning the flames of jealousy in Lili just to see what her reaction would be.
Lili just kept silent making Haruhime worried that it was sign of non acceptance but ever the trouble maker, Aisha was looking on with interest at what the little pallum's reaction would turn out to be. Nox's personality was right up her alley indeed.
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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!
The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.
You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.
There's also my other novel Kage of Kages, do check it out!
I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.