I figured out afterwards, as we soaked in the hot bath, that I hadn’t learned the name of the Dragina. I also hadn’t bothered to learn whether she had her own husband or mate. I grinned, thinking about how terrible this could get if I wasn’t careful. She soon told me she was as yet unwed, her name was Opal, and that she had come here after being cast out of her tribe for daring to speak with a Dracobro of another scale color.

This world wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows… on the other hand, she had just gained Healer’s Resistance from me by way of bumping uglies. She was fascinated with my ability to transform into a Dracobro any time she licked any part of my body, and just as fascinated with my transformation back into human. For whatever reason, my scales ended up that same powder blue each time.

Entwined Ecstasy: You have entwined with Opal Manaflame. Your relationship status is acquaintances. Although you have just met, you have already shared something deep.

Pleasure from intimate acts between acquaintances is boosted minimally.

The next UI message popping into my face was about the ability I might just have accessed.

Entwined Ecstasy: You have brought Opal Manaflame into the fold. She has gained the ability Healer’s Resistance. You have gained the ability Draconic Spirit from entwining with Opal Manaflame. Entwine more deeply with Opal Manaflame to unlock further abilities.

You have reached your maximum capacity for abilities gained through Entwined Ecstasy. You may choose to strengthen the associated ability (Venom Shot) or gain Draconic Spirit.

With my Mana Affinity and Ingenuity, the UI gave me an overview of what Draconic Spirit would do: allow me to transform into a dragon. Sort of. The early levels gave me ghostly scales, claws, and teeth of a dragon, the second level would give me a breath weapon and weak little wings fit for gliding but not flying. Again, they’d be spiritual projections around me rather than really physical transformation. The third level would increase the size of the spiritual dragon armor greatly, along with the size of the wings, so I could achieve flight. For how long I couldn’t say.

This seemed amazing. I could fracking fly, since Venom Shot was already level 3. I would keep at least level 3, and possibly get level 4.

I had to do it. Venom Shot was great as a tool and an ace up my sleeve, but nobody would ever turn down the ability to surround oneself with draconic spiritual power.

Draconic Spirit IV

(Special Ability, Ridonkulous, Active)

I- Spend a Token. Your body is wreathed in spiritual draconic power, giving you increased Durability and Muscularity, along with damaging claws and teeth. These last 1 minute.

II- You may manifest fledgling wings and draconic breath while the spirit is active. Your spirit’s breath is tied closely to your soul and class(es). Wings allow for a controlled, gliding fall, rather than true flight. The duration of the Draconic Spirit increases to 5 minutes.

III- Your draconic spirit reaches the full size of a draconic adult. Wings now allow for ungainly but actual flight. Your draconic spirit can safely transport up to 300 pounds beyond your body weight. The duration of the ability increases to 10 minutes.

IV- You may spend 2 Muscularity Tokens to increase the duration to 1 hour.

I read this, and then read it again. Not because anything was confusing, but just because it seemed so fracking cool. And also…

“What the heck is Ridonkulous?” I breathed.

So it went Common, Uncommon, Rare, and then Ridonkulous? This must have been the moment Claudius took a break creating the system and allowed Jocinda to have a crack at it. I shook my head, grinning. Leave it to that woman to undermine the stuffy Claudius at every turn.

From what I could gather, the system wasn’t something you could easily alter once it was set.

I shook my head again. That left the question of Agility and Muscularity splitting off from Physicality, the appearance of fighting aspects, and the whole cloth creation of my unique class. I wondered what could’ve caused Claudius to go along with names like Saxwhacket or Slinktrickle, and the names of the moons… Shagnasty and Snuffletrouser von Zipyankee. Did she just go on a naming spree whenever his back was turned?

Without an answer to these questions, I had to focus on the awesome power I’d just been given.

I’d leveled again.

Level 30: +Ability Upgrade: Man Enough, +3 skill points

The ability upgrade didn’t make sense. Shouldn’t my abilities go in order? I didn’t question it further, because there were no refunds or take backs. I quickly spent my skill points to boost Pheromones, Adaptability, and Refractory Period. If the storm coming was going to happen the way I figured, I needed additional preparations.

Man Enough III

(Special Ability, Rare, Active)

I- While having intimate relations with a partner, make a Durability + Man Enough check with difficulty equal to your partner’s Durability. Highest Durability is used with multiple partners. If you succeed, your attributes are boosted to at least equal to your partner’s.

II- While having intimate relations with a partner, you may spend 4 Affinity Tokens to clone yourself. The clone has all your attributes but reduced by 2. A maximum of two clones is possible.

III- Any time you are asked to make a Durability check during intimate relations, one of your Qualities is boosted by 1, beginning at the lowest ranked.

I could not be more thrilled with this. Both existing abilities had gotten a boost, in the form of a skill for the Durability check on the level 1. It was taking into account the idea I would be with multiple partners at once. The second ability now had a reduced cost (awesome) and an additional clone.

I had never wanted another one of me so much in my life.

“Three clones,” I breathed to myself. “For when spit roasting your partner isn’t enough, and you need to prove your complete domination all at once.”

The third one was perhaps the most wild, and that was including the ability to fracking clone myself. This essentially said the longer I kept having sex, the better I would get. Of course, Durability checks got more difficult as time went on, but if I could keep making them, I could perform even more effectively in bed.

Dragon spirit thing? Win. Increased Qualities? Win. Upgraded special ability? Huge win.

“Win win win,” I said.

Sadly, Opal Manaflame wasn’t too pleased with the ability she’d been given, and I couldn’t blame her. She gave me a dubious look when she’d felt out her ability. Healer’s Resistance, at level 1, wasn’t amazing. It was very useful though. I consoled her that I’d used the level 3 ability with Healer’s Resistance to give everyone divine resistance for hours, which allowed us to treat literally thousands of comatose people.

“I don’t have access to level 3,” she complained.

“About that,” I said, and tried to explain with all the tact I could muster how we could go about getting to level 3.

***

Needless to say, the reception was mixed. Opal felt, and not wrongly, that she’d been lured in with the promise of power, and now I was trying to hook her for my own pleasure to get even more power out of the deal. I did convince her that we could increase our Relationship level through simply getting to know one another, but she was still skeptical.

On the other hand, I had just rocked her draconic world. It took her another several hours of recovery, with her waving off an offer of Mending Aura, before she could get up and moving again, to head back to her home. I used that time to freshen up, tend to my garden, make a few of my regular potions and salves, and begin to portion out the base of the egg treatment.

“What heightsss will I reach, then?” Opal asked. When I explained that I could become completely impervious to a damage source for a time, she seemed much more interested in knowing about her new ability. Like I had explained to the elders, the abilities they could gain were randomized, but if they got the whole set, they’d be able to do what I did: magically grow a variety of medicinal plants with Verdant Rejuvenation, resist the illnesses they came across with Healer’s Resistance, perform first aid with Mending Aura, and—this was the odd one—they’d be able to brew up cures of their own with one called Potioncraft. Mana Affinity and UI searching had explained all this.

The council elders requested an audience immediately to get a deeper understanding of what had happened, so after parting ways with Opal, I gave them an amusing blow by blow accounting of what it meant to have sex with a dragon, followed by a manifestation of the dragon power.

It was impressive, and no joke. The same color surrounded me as the Token burned away, transforming into a powder blue spiritual dragon shape some thirty feet long from nose to tail, with a wingspan wider than that.

I then bathed the whole area in my ‘breath weapon’ and the UI informed me it was both an anesthetic and a healing agent.

Well. I bellowed triumphantly, only to realize the sound was coming out of me, who was still on the floor, and not the spirit dragon, which remained strangely and annoyingly quiet. It didn’t even make a bellowing motion, the turd.

Instead I engaged the wings and asked it with a mental command to fly me around the neighborhood. The first sensation of being weightless and carried by this spectral creature was quite similar to Shakindria’s telekinesis ability. I nearly got sucked into a different gravity situation when I flew high enough, but my Affinity warned me that it wasn’t a great idea to be right side up one minute and upside down the next. I probably would’ve been fine, but one does not mess with gravity.

The entirety of the town came out and stared at me in wonder. Creatures who looked like sheep, creatures who looked like pigs and birds and bipedal beings of all shapes and colors.

Immediately following, the elders demanded Opal join them for a demonstration of her own power. Both of us met in the estate of another of the three elders, in a hall easily big enough to host a party of a hundred people. The three stood on a raised dais at the end of the room, with the two of us a few feet away.

“You will now show us what you have gained through your… activities,” Khan said, not comfortable looking at me. Shale was the only one who could make eye contact.

I attempted to explain, but all three held up hands to forestall me. Opal complained that she’d gotten Healer’s Resistance, and it would only work if she were subject to damage of some kind. They furrowed their brows at this news, and debated. They weren’t used to hurting one another. It wasn’t how they did things here.

After calling out to Azalea with Psyspeech to come for a demonstration, the poison aspect shot several dozen poison spines into the Dragina. These mostly bounced off Opal’s impressive purple scales, but a few lodged their way between, or penetrated the softer belly and neck scales. One got into her eye, and caused her to flinch back. She fell heavily to the floor, arching her back in a spasm of pain.

Now it was my turn to hold up a forestalling hand. “She’ll be able to handle 90% of the damage, lengthen the onset of any poisons by a great deal, and lose much less health per day.”

My Affinity had shown me the barest hint of the Token appear, then burst into mana around the tuple-scaled Dragina. She immediately stopped shuddering and got to her feet, clawed hand to her head and glaring at Azalea.

I turned to Azalea, mentally congratulating her on doing a perfect job. “My—friend—Azalea here, is an Injecticle. She has the power to kill with just a few poisoned spines. As you can see, Opal here is not dead, but slightly inconvenienced. Should a more dangerous plague hit your fair town, Opal is one of the ones who will be best able to continue working on a cure after others are bedridden.”

They exchanged another few of those glances that carried tons of rapport-filled meaning I couldn’t understand fully. However, they seemed impressed.

“At higher levels, Opal should gain the ability to form permanent resistance against damage of different types, and then pass this sort of resistance on to others.” I waved my hand at Opal, who now stood under her own power and kept darting menacing glances back at the much smaller Azalea.

“Unfortunately the power doesn’t grant full immunity at a low level. I’ll brew up a simple antitoxin to alleviate the symptoms and cure her. However, without the ability, she would have been a ghost aspect already.”

After some time, and the elders conferring some, the three pronounced, “Very well, your suggestion will be brought before more of the townsfolk.”

The Dragina gave me a flat look as I escorted her back to my estate for the second time that day. “I know, it probably seems like I keep surprising you.”

“What you gave me previously,” she said, a bit weakly. “I am glad to have had it. Mating with another of my kind was a dead dream in my heart, Healer. You have reignited the fire, and I thank you for it. If you should accidentally kill me with your poison girl or if your gift to me fails… at least I lived.”

I stopped. “I… you’re welcome.”

She received the cure that I cooked up, and watched as I gathered different ingredients brought by some of the townsfolk. It was odd to have gained so much influence over this town in such a short time. I immediately wondered where I could end up, with the power to order dozens out to gather herbs, flowers, and seeds for me, to order the women of this town to pleasure me for my own amusement or the promise of power.

“Don’t think about it,” I told myself.

Fairy Poppins showed up that night, as I was prepping the first of the cures for the eggs. She wanted to be ground into the bed and showered in orgasms, but it had been a long day. Instead I slept with Azalea, with Poppy sleeping on my chest, and April…

“Where’s April?” I asked.

“Mmm?” Azalea asked, snuggling up into my chest and wrapping tentacles around me.

“The adorable flower fox.”

“Dunno,” Azalea grumbled, and tightened the tentacle bear hug on me.

“I need her.” She needed me. We needed each other. Whatever.

Azalea made a protesting sound and draped one leg over mine.

“Azalea,” I said quietly.

“She’s probably out rummaging through people’s gardens and smelling flowers. Let me soak up all your warmth. Sleep now.”

I started moving, trying to sit up. To her credit, Azalea only tried to keep me in bed once, complaining and thrashing several tentacles around. Finally, lower lip jutting out, she huffed. “Fine, but I don’t have to help you look.” Instead she pulled the soft blanket up over herself and slammed herself down on my pillow. One yellow eye glared at me, both furious with me leaving and also softly inviting me back.

“Yeesh,” I muttered.

I had never wanted to switch back to my old special ability set more than right this moment. If I’d had Eagle Eyed, I could have found her without much trouble. Sure Myriad Mind had helped me get through the fighting aspect problem…

“Stay on task,” I told myself.

So I called out for her, and eventually got a few of the townsfolk to aid in my search. Rousing the people produced no April, though people said they’d seen her over that way.

‘Over that way’ turned out to be the infected neighborhood of the town. The empty part, except for some places where people were sneaking off to get busy under the influence of an actual god.

“That’s not good,” I said to no one. It wasn’t terrible though. April had already been in that section of town with me and hadn’t been subject to the overwhelming lustful divinity of The Lovers in the middle of their illness. Maybe…

The infected part of town had grown over another thirty feet, enough to creep over a narrow cobbled street, over the yard, and into the nearby houses.

I shook my head before heading in. Others were willing to head in too, but I waved them back. They would only start into the biggest and craziest orgy in existence.

“April?” I called.

Nothing.

I wasn’t afraid, but I did hesitate. The situation was odd, and I had a sudden impression that she was being held by one of the Agency people looking for me, to draw me out and away from Azalea.

Well, they were about to get a rude awakening if they were willing to take hostages. Not only were they going to end up furiously having sex with one another, but if they did have the resistance skill I had, there were other new tricks I had up my little sleevey sleeves.

Spending the Token gave me the dragon spirit for ten minutes. The shimmering energy surrounded my body, feeling incredible, complete with claws, teeth, tail and wings.

“Pff,” I told myself, and leapt into the air. With two powerful wing flaps, I was up and above the houses here, able to peer down into the streets. I sailed over the area that would’ve taken an hour or two to traverse, but in just seconds. Although the sensation of flight wasn’t nearly as smooth as Shakindria’s telekinesis, and I was bobbing up and down like a rowboat in a storm, I was forking flying.

“Forking flying, monkey flubbers,” I told myself.

A sound drew my attention, an inarticulate cry. I couldn’t be sure if it was a cry of pain, of alarm, or even pleasure. I dropped to the ground and with another powerful wing beat, slowed myself from taking any damage in the landing, and staggered a couple of steps, ruining the superhero crouch and making me feel distinctly uncool.

The cry came again, from close to where I’d found the first of The Lovers. I hoped some foolish Nakamamon hadn’t actually touched the god.

“I’m on my way!” I called, and hopped the fence in a fluid motion the earth version of Fletcher wouldn’t have been able to manage.

Beneath a tree, near the prone form of the first Lover, a nude figure lay with hands covering her head. Beside each forearm, a familiar set of fuzzy ears poked out of the reddish brown locks. Fuzzy ears surrounded by flowers.

I froze.

Tails too. She looked very human, but had several flower-laced tails protruding from just above her butt.

This is Christopher going, “April?” out of pure shock.