Rex managed to go back to his room and sleep for quite a bit after having a good session with Marcelina, and then he got up before either of them when he heard birds chirping outside the window.
He doesnât need 6-8 hours to sleep as long as his needs are fulfilled, and yesterday, of course, he went totally overboard by fucking three different women on the same day. And Rex still felt disappointed that he didnât get more energy.
That wasnât anything new. He almost always did, because when there were pieces moving on the board, his brain wouldnât stay offline for more than a few hours.
The room was still dark, like it was an hour before dawn when the city outside was quiet enough that you could hear the wind against the shutters.
Lily was on his left, curled up against his side with her face pressed into the curve of his shoulder. She was breathing deeply and slowly.
At some point during the night, Lilith had curled up at the foot of the bed. Her succubus form was bleeding through in the way it always did when she stopped actively hiding it.
One of his ankles was loosely wrapped around her tail.
âI swear to the goddess of lust if this goddess keeps coming just to get fucked... I fucked her up real good until she canât walk for weeks!â
Rex looked up at the ceiling and let the system do its quiet morning work.
[MORNING REVIEW â OVERNIGHT ACTIVITY LOG]
[MARCELINE BANCEY: DESIRE LEVEL UPDATED]
[PREVIOUS: 0/100 â CURRENT: 75/100]
[SIGNIFICANT ADVANCEMENT DETECTED â ACCELERATED BY LINGERING LUSTFUL VILLAIN AURA RESONANCE]
[STATUS: HIGH PRIORITY TARGET â MAXIMUM THRESHOLD WITHIN REACH]
Rex read the message twice, not because he didnât get it the first time, but because he didnât expect a jump of seventy-five from just one visit to a bathhouse.
âWhat the fuck...?! Seventy-five...!? Ainât that a lot just for one night?!â
âWell... I did fuck her up good until she was craving for more, but damn, it was the Lustful Villainâs aura undoing...â
He thought about the night before with the same care that he gave to anything that gave him useful information.
He had gone into the Silver Restâs bathhouse expecting to be alone, but he found Marceline Bancey sitting in the thermal pool with the look of someone who had been doing this for a long time and found it easier than sleeping.
She owned the inn. She was in her late thirties, had short brown hair, and had the kind of calm demeanor that comes from years of running a business and a personal life that wasnât going as well as it should have.
At first, they talked in that awkward way that two people do when they find themselves in an unexpectedly close situation and donât want to be the first to admit it, but Marceline wasnât the kind of person who stayed stiff for very long.
Before he got there, something inside her had already loosened up. Within twenty minutes, she had told him, in a voice that was perfectly calm and not at all self-pitying, that her husband had been seeing another woman for most of a year.
Three months ago, she found out. She hadnât done anything about it because she and her partner owned the inn together, and it would have been hard to figure out how to separate their lives.
She also hadnât made up her mind about what to do yet. She told Rex all of this like people do when they talk to strangers in the dark: without the show that comes with talking to people you know.
Rex had paid attention. He was a great listener, as he usually is. And when she was done, he said something true: People in her situation were usually waiting not for the logistics to get easier, but for themselves to want something badly enough to do something about it.
When that wanting came, it was usually clear.
After that, she stared at him for a long time. Then she said in a low voice that she thought he was right.
He spent another hour in the bathhouse. The talk had turned to other things, lighter things, the kind of talk that happens between two people who have already gotten the serious stuff out of the way and are now just happy that the other person is there.
And then ended up where Marceline couldnât hold back herself and asked Rex for something relaxing that ended up turning into a good affair sex between them.
After that, Marceline felt more alive, and she had said goodnight in a way that made him think she was asking a question she hadnât asked yet when he finally left.
Seventy-five out of a hundred, with the Lustful Villainâs passive resonance doing half the work for him and also the encounter. He could appreciate how well it worked.
âAnyway... forget about the quick recap of yesterday. I think itâs time for me to change my plan about my skills.â
âI really donât need Adaptation and Immortality for now, just because I can totally protect myself with the telekinesis, foresight, and infinite regeneration.â
âSystem... I had one magic in mind when I watch a movie when I was a kid... itâs something related to reviving someone to become your servant, but with some kind of dark power.â
âNecromancer was it...?â
[YES. NECROMANCER MAGIC, AVAILABLE]
[DO YOU WANT A FULL BRIEFING?][
"Yeah," he thought. "Spill it to me."
[NECROMANCER MAGIC: OVERVIEW]
[CATEGORY: DARK MAGIC, FORBIDDEN TIER IN MOST SURFACE KINGDOMS]
[FUNCTION: RAISES AND COMMANDS UNDEAD CONSTRUCTS FROM DECEASED BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL]
[VARIANTS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE:]
[BASIC REANIMATION: 500 POINTS â RAISES SIMPLE CORPSES AS MINDLESS DRONES, LIMITED COMMAND RANGE, DEGRADES QUICKLY]
[ADVANCED NECROMANCY: 1500 POINTS â RAISES COMBAT-CAPABLE UNDEAD, RETAINS PARTIAL MUSCLE MEMORY OF THE ORIGINAL HOST, RANGE EXTENDED TO 500 METERS]
[SOVEREIGN NECROMANCY: 3000 POINTS â RAISES FULLY FUNCTIONAL UNDEAD SOLDIERS WITH RETAINED SKILL SETS, UNLIMITED COMMAND AT WILL, CONSTRUCTS DO NOT DEGRADE, CAN BE GIVEN STANDING ORDERS AND OPERATE INDEPENDENTLY]
[ADDITIONAL NOTE: SOVEREIGN NECROMANCY ALLOWS FOR SOUL ANCHORING â TARGETâS CONSCIOUSNESS CAN BE PARTIALLY PRESERVED WITHIN THE CONSTRUCT, CREATING A SEMI-SENTIENT UNDEAD THAT RETAINS PERSONALITY AND DECISION-MAKING ABILITY]
[ADDITIONAL NOTE: FORBIDDEN ON THE SURFACE â DETECTION BY APOSTLES OF LIFE IS HIGHLY PROBABLE IF USED OPENLY]
Rex read through the whole thing very carefully, paying special attention to anything that would change the way he could fight.
âShit... itâs tempting and also perfect to execute my plan perfectly so that I donât need to do the dirty work.â
âI can just scapegoat someone with it...â
What he wanted was Sovereign Necromancy. The basic tier was useless, and at best, it was a tactical problem.
The advanced tier had promise, but its limitations made it only useful in certain situations. Sovereign was the one who turned dead bodies into useful things: soldiers who kept their combat skills and could work without constant supervision and who didnât get worse in storage.
The part about how the soul anchors worked was the one he paid the most attention to. A semi-sentient undead construct that kept the originalâs personality and ability to make decisions was not a weapon.
It was a secret agent; more like it was an undercover agent. He could put it somewhere and let it do its job without having to pay attention to it.
âDamn right... itâs a valuable skill to possess if I want to move more freely while playing as the Lustful Villain.â
âBut the fucking cost of this skill is three thousand points, which is almost the same as the cost for Infinite Regeneration...â
He had one thousand two hundred right now, so he needed one thousand two hundred more. With Marceline at seventy-five and Diana still working on it, the amount he was getting from bondings was not too far off.
âI can abuse Lilith just because sheâs a succubus, but fuck! Iâm starting to get bored fucking the same women.â
And then he thought about "Marceline and Diana," which confirmed the order of their tasks.
âOh yeah, thereâs Marceline... she could be first, since sheâs already close to maximum desire. And then Diana after.â
âIf things go the way I want them to, I can get three thousand points by the end of the week.â
He made the plan, put it away, and stared at the ceiling as the city outside began to wake up.
âYeah... thatâs probably the best way to get it.â
âBut... Diana, I donât know if I can reach the maximum desire for her today.â