The Protagonist System

101 Give And Take

The bath ended up taking an hour after Chris finally calmed down. Her eyes occasionally darted to my normal lips the whole time, as if she was waiting for me to start talking gibberish. I knew I could set her off again by just inflating my lips and not even say anything, so I didn't, mostly because she never gave me enough time between glances to do it without her seeing it.

We climbed out and dried off as she kept her back to me. I was tempted to just walk around her to let her see me, only I was sure she would take offence that I was pushing too much. The bath had been as far as she was going to go this soon and I was okay with that.

I quickly dressed in a normal suit and summoned her clothing. I saw the state they were in, so I fixed them up for her, making them like new, and I thought about adding a few discreet pieces of metal and enchanting them. Her back was still turned, so I didn't have to hide that I was doing it. I nodded to myself.

I cleaned and freshened her panties first and added a constant temperature charm before I handed them to her. Chris gasped when she slipped them on and whirled around to stare at me. I had known she was going to do that and had already turned away to not stare at her jiggling bare breasts. She let out an odd sound and then turned back around.

I fixed her skin-tight bicycle shorts next and passed them to her. She made another little noise after she pulled them up. I fixed and slightly altered each under-piece and then passed them to her to let her get dressed. She let out little sounds as she put each thing on, her stockings, her leather boots, her above-the-elbow thin cloth gloves, and her leather gloves.

When I reached her bra, I saw that it was stiff and didn't move at all, even though it had a shoulder strap to hold it in place. That wasn't good for her continued health if it didn't move with her, so I changed it.

Instead of the stiff cloth, I transfigured it into an actual bra that would size to fit her snugly and not tightly. I then added thick padding over it, then attached movable metal plates on the straps and between her breasts that worked like an accordion. She could cross her arms now and it wouldn't dig into the flesh of her sides or her breasts. She would actually be protected and not vulnerable.

Once I added the metal breastplate and changed all of it to the same dull grey of the original, I handed it to her. She went completely silent and didn't say anything or moved. I didn't dare turn to look at her, though. Whatever she was doing was not for me to see, especially if she still had her back to me.

After a few minutes of nothing, the sound of the new metal clasp closing sounded behind me. I picked up her denim shorts and frowned at them. They were both worn and looked new, which was weird, so I repaired them and added metal strips along the inside of where the belt would go. After enchanting them with a few safety features and spell deflection, I handed them to her.

Chris let out something like a sigh and I heard the rustle of denim as she put them on. I had the belt done with a shield enchantment on the belt buckle and strength runes on the inside of the thick leather. She put it on without a sound and held her hand out.

I didn't bother adding anything to the scarf and she made a disappointed sound. “It's awkward and unwieldy. I have no clue why you wear it, since it serves no purpose, practical or otherwise.”

“I like it.” Chris said in her defense.

“I like drinking tea and you don't see me draping a long knitted series of tea bags from my neck that can easily choke me, do you?” I asked without turning around.

A long drawn out sigh came from behind me. “Just give me my cape.”

“It's not very practical as it is.” I said and enchanted it to expand when needed and gave it several protection spells, then added in a transfigured magic crystal to the clasp, that was now a portkey, and handed it to her.

Chris gasped when she grabbed it and I could almost feel her staring a hole through the back of my head and silently asking me what I did to it.

“When you say the phrase, 'Tower home', you and anything you're touching or carrying will be brought from wherever you are to here in the Tower's lobby, including people.” I said and turned to look at her, now that she was dressed. “It would normally only work once; but, the crystal has enough inherent magic to be used about 10 times before I need to recharge it.”

Chris stared at me like I was crazy.

I took out a piece of stone and did some fake wand waving over it, fully exaggerating what I had to do to make the thing, and tapped it as I silently cast the Portus spell. “There you go. One free ride to the alley beside Adventurer's Guild.”

Chris didn't say anything or tried to take it.

I sighed and stepped close and put the stone in her hand. “You're lucky I need to go there to check if anyone showed up to show me some skills.”

That got a reaction and Chris gasped. “I haven't showed you anything!”

I smiled at her and put my hand on the stone. “It's all right. I figured you wanted to wait until I gave the Temple of Eris my donation before you would accept any money for showing off your skills.”

Chris looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded.

“We can stop off at the town center as well. I need to pick up the permit fee I paid that the Lord of Axel cancelled.” I said and tapped the stone with my wand.

We disappeared with a swirl and then reappeared in the alley as the swirl ended. I wasn't surprised that she didn't lose her balance and took the piece of stone back, crushed it, and tossed the dirt to the ground.

“Shall we?” I asked and motioned to the street.

Chris nodded and we left the alley and went into the guild hall. No one was there, probably because it was between mealtimes and everyone was out. Luna at the counter admitted that no one had come in to take me up on the offer. I ignored her sad look as I bid her a good day and left.

“Do I want to know why she looked at you like that?” Chris asked me.

“She thinks I'm an idiot for accepting the basic adventurer class when my initial stats were good enough for an advanced class.” I said and Chris gasped. “She's wrong, because I took the class specifically because I wanted the ability to learn any skill.”

Chris fell silent and I didn't say anything as I let her think it out. We went to the main town building where they did the administration duties for the town and the clerk there handed over the voucher for my payment. Sena must have impressed upon them the urgency of not pissing me off.

I normally would not have accepted an IOU like that, since I wasn't an idiot. This time, I let the clerk know that the money was going to the Temple of Eris and that I hoped the Lord of Axel was happy about handing all of that money over to a major religion. The clerk looked sick and Chris looked ecstatic. Only an idiot would piss off religious fanatics.

We left there and went right to the temple. Chris knew the way, of course. We entered and she showed me what to do to give the proper respect, then we met with the head priest. The man was absolutely delighted to receive 10,000 Eris in cash, 15,000 Eris worth of gold slivers, and a 75,000 Eris voucher from the Lord of Axel.

As we left the temple, Chris was almost floating as she skipped and hopped around happily. “I can't believe you actually did that!” She nearly shouted and laughed as she did a pirouette. “They can help so many people with access to that much money!”

I smiled warmly at her as she danced and showed off a lot of skill. I felt like she was giving me a lot more skills than what she intended, though. She suddenly stopped and gave me a pointed look, then she nodded and started showing me some of her Thief Class skills. Sneak, Stalk, Track, Stealth Climb, Lockpicking, and one of her special skills called Steal.

It was a luck based skill that could steal a random item from someone. The higher the skill and the Luck of the person, the more unique or singular the item it could steal. We entered an old alleyway to cross streets and she suddenly challenged me. She would use it on me to take something and I would use it back. Whatever we stole, we kept.

I wanted to say no, because I didn't want her to think that stealing from me was okay. She must have seen it on my face or felt my hesitation, because she blushed. She didn't back down or rescinded the challenge, though. I did not like that at all.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked her and she nodded. “All right. You go first.”

Chris looked excited as she held her hand out to me and whispered. There was a soft glow from her hand and she caught her breath. She turned her hand over and opened it to show off the expanded money pouch I had taken the 10,000 Eris from.

“All right, moneybags! It's your turn.” Chris said after looking inside the pouch and seeing piles of Eris. She put the money pouch on the ground by her feet, specifically so I couldn't steal it back. When she stood up, she had handfuls of rocks in her hands instead.

“That's cheating.” I said and she smiled. “You're going to claim there's no rules in this, aren't you?”

“Satou, there are no rules for anything around here.” Chris said and her smile changed to a grin.

I opened my mouth to refute that, then realized something. I could cheat, too. “Very well.” I said and held my hand out to her as I activated my Blessings for both Fortune and Forge and paid enough Karma points to make my success rate 100%. “STEAL!”

A bright glow appeared in my closed hand and I felt power thrumming from inside my fist. I turned my hand over and opened it... and there was a silver necklace with a red jewel that was supposed to be around her neck.

“NO!” Chris gasped and tore off her scarf, only to show a bare neck. She dropped to her knees with a shocked look on her face. “No.... no, it... how... there's no way...”

I walked over to her and let the necklace dangle from my fingers. “Finders Keepers, right?”

Chris trembled with a look of utter loss on her face. “Satou... please... please... give it back.”

I knelt on one knee and looked into her eyes. “What is it, Chris?”

Chris didn't answer me and only stared at the red jewel.

“Shall we go again?” I asked and stood. “Let me just grab an armful of rocks and you can try it.”

Chris looked devastated and shook her head. She knew she would never get it back that way.

“It's not very fun or entertaining when someone uses an underhanded trick against you, is it?” I asked and looked down at her.

Chris still didn't say anything and only had eyes for the stone.

“I can see it on your face.” I said and moved my hand to the side and her eyes and head followed it. “As soon as I let this go, I'm never going to see you again.”

Chris barely moved her eyes to my face before she put her gaze back onto the stone. “It's too valuable. I never thought anyone could ever take that from me, not in a million years.” She said, her voice soft. “I thought... even if I died... there's no way...” She stopped talking and looked at me. I need that back!”

“Vow to me.” I said and she caught her breath. “Make a solemn vow...”

“Never!” Chris said and the necklace thrummed with power as an immense pressure slammed down onto me and the surroundings, crushing several buildings in a circular area around her. She slowly stood to stare at me. “How dare you demand that a Goddess make a vow to you, a lowly mortal!”

The jewel on the necklace thrummed with power again and the crushed buildings were flattened completely.

I smiled at her, unaffected. “I suppose this is the conduit your powers flow through when in the mortal world.” I said and thought about what she said. “You were perfectly fine cuddling and kissing this mortal not long ago. What changed? This?” I asked and swayed it back and forth.

“You have stolen something that should never have been stolen from a divine being!” Chris shouted.

I flipped the jewel up and it landed in my palm. “You're not a divine being right now.”

Chris gasped and all that pressure disappeared. She started to hyperventilate and dropped to her knees again. It was a little sad how quickly her demeanour and attitude changed when she didn't have the upper hand, perceived or not.

“I'm sorry I had to point out the flaw in your logic.” I told her. “You thought the normal rules didn't apply to you. You thought, quite wrongly, that having a little fun at my expense was worth annoying me.”

Chris lifted her gaze to look at me.

“I really liked you and I really wanted to get to know you.” I said and looked at the jewel in my hand and then at her face. “How sorry are you that pretending to be a thief has shown you how big of a mistake it was to underestimate a lowly mortal?”

Chris looked very sorry indeed.

“I'm sorry, too.” I said and turned my hand over.

The jewel was barely away from my skin when Chris lunged for it and disappeared in a small flash of light. Not surprisingly, the money pouch was gone, too. I suspected it would get anonymously donated to the Temple of Eris, since she certainly didn't need the money.

I did another magic detection spell and no one was approaching, despite the damage and noise. With no witnesses around, I teleported back to my room in the top floor of the tower and laid down on my big bed. My suit wasn't dirty, despite kneeling in the dirt, and I took out my Adventurer Registration card.

On it were a bunch of new skills and abilities that our little duel had shown me, the last of which was Connected Realm Teleportation. I chuckled and acquired that and the Divine Skill, along with Pressure Wave, Intimidation, and Words of Power. That used up the last of my free skill points, so I would need to visit the guild again and get my card updated for the second time.

I wonder how much experience defeating a hidden goddess in a personal duel will get me? I asked myself and laughed. Despite how it started, it turned out that the money she stole was worth it.

*

Goddess Aqua sat on her little throne and relaxed. She hadn't met anyone else that took her up on her offer and she didn't really care. Despite her vehemence in her sales pitch, the situation had been going on for decades and she was sure it would go on for decades more. In any case, she leaned over the arm over her chair and kicked her legs up over the other arm and started to doze off.

Aqua felt a disturbance was going to happen in her area of the realm and sighed. As soon as she sat up to receive whomever died, there was a little flash above her nightstand and a nicely wrapped box dropped onto her endless book of skills and items.

Without even a first thought of cautiousness, let alone a second one, Aqua tore the wrapping off and opened the box. Inside were the most delicious smelling cookies she had ever smelled and she had two of them in her mouth before she saw the note.

Dear goddess Aqua,
I made these as a thank you for how you treated me when I was there. Enjoy them.
From: Urine Soaked Heart Attack Guy.
P.s. You're going to need what's under the cookies.

Aqua immediately knew who had sent the cookies and was happy that he didn't hold a grudge. She tossed the note aside and had a third cookie gone before she moved the rest of the cookies out of the way. She was confused by whatever it was and picked it up. The cloth unfolded to show her a pair of adult diapers.

“AHH! Get them away!” Aqua shouted and flung them out into the darkness... and then her stomach rumbled. “Uhhh, I don't feel so good.”

*PFFFRRTTT!*

Aqua's eyes bulged and she slapped a hand over her mouth and nose to stop the smell. It didn't work. A second later, she let another ripper go and it wasn't just air this time. She immediately hopped up, scared of getting her nice white chair dirty, and ran for the little goddess' room.

Half an our later, Aqua came back to her chair and sat with a relieved sigh. She smelled something delicious and looked at the nightstand beside her.

“Oh, look! Cookies!” Aqua said and started eating them.

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