You have bought [Draconic Claws Lv. 4] [Sundering Enhancement Lv. 4] [Enhanced Strength Enforcement Lv. 4] Your current SP is 7600

[“Please hold still, Hestia. I have not done this is in a very long time, so you are not helping me by constantly fidgeting.”]

“Argh, Saori you’re being too rough on me. This is my first time, so a bit of patience would be appreciated.”

[“I still cannot believe that you have never tried it before, especially in a city like New York, where, I bet, there were enough opportunities available. Surely, coming from your background, your mother must have insisted for experience’s sake.”]

“Nah, not really. My mom…hup!”

[“Your clothes will fall off, if you turn around, Hestia. …Alright, please continue.”]

“…Sigh, can you please tell me why we’re doing this?” I said with indignation.

[“Should it not be obvious? I need to see if the clothes I made for you is both aesthetically pleasing and comfortable.”]

Sigh, this is my life now.

After having killed those wyverns and suffering a long-winded lecture from Saori about having the courtesy to warn your party members, whenever you intend to use an ear-exploding attack, we continued our operation “Make Saori an Assassin” for another week.

As our progress with the plan remained steady, Saori's level and skills have increased at an alarming rate, to the point that she's now able to overpower me in my [Humanize Lv. 6] form if she empowers herself with [Mana Control].

Strength-wise, ok. Don’t even think that my Intelligence or Mana will be beaten anytime soon! He, ha ha!

[“At any rate, I believe I now know how to tailor a dress that can accommodate both your wings and tail. Do you have a preferred design for it?”] Saori asked after loosening her grip on me.

“A design?” I thought for a moment. “Nope, I’ll leave that to your discretion.”

[“Hmm, that is too vague to start with.”] Saori placed a finger on her chin, looking troubled. [“Could you tell me the appearance of your clothes or which fashion brands they belonged to?”]

“Uhh, I don’t know. If I had them with me, I would show you them, but I have no idea. I usually just wear whatever clothes my mom thinks would suit me.” I said honestly.

[“Wait, wait, wait, what?!”] Saori eyes widened, bursting out in surprise. [“You never chose your own clothes?!”]

Why is she so shocked about this? Why are her hands shivering?! Is winter coming? Hmm, now that I think about it, some leaves are falling down.

“U-Uh huh, whatever my mom thought would look good, and whatever I thought was comfortable to move in.”

[“U-Unbelievable…”] She held her head with both hands and shook it in exasperation.

Huh?

[“Spoiled to that point… Do not worry, Hestia. In your mother’s stead, I shall make sure to educate your firmly about the importance of fashion!”]

“Huh? You don’t have to do that. I know good-looking clothes are important but is it that important?”

Comfortable clothes that you can move in was the most important part for me. All that glimmer and gaudy fashion brands that costed way too much money were just not interesting for me. It just looked terrible.

I also thought worrying about it would take too much time that I should instead invest in Idol training and well, uh, homework. Not that I actually did most of them, though…

[“How can an Idol not know what to wear. Unacceptable!”] Saori’s frown wouldn’t disappear as she continued speaking.

“I would just have someone choose an outfit for me, or I would ask somebody. I’m not trying to become a fashion designer here.”

Everybody has their strengths. Mine isn’t matching clothes together, though.

[“Urgh, that is true. Regardless, I shall have you help me with the design of your dress at the very least.”] She stopped massaging her temple and sigh in resignation.

“Hm? Why must it be a dress? Wouldn’t a shirt and jeans be enough?” I said while still wearing the mana dress Saori made for me.

[“Well, you made a dress out of fire, so I thought you liked wearing dresses.”]

“I do like dresses, but the reason for this flame dress is that it is easy to maintain with [Pyrokinesis]. A simple one-piece dress is less mana and concentration intensive than two separate pieces of clothing.”

My mana recovers fast enough but I gotta take care not to use too many resources for some clothing. It’s still a necessary sacrifice to my fighting power for the sake of my dignity.

[“Oh. Well, back to your question. Due to your wings and tail, tailoring a dress would seem to be the ideal decision, otherwise, it might impair their movements.”]

Oh, right, I have those reptilian body parts to consider. I forgot that it might be a bit uncomfortable to have my tail tucked inside a pair of pants. Good thinking, Saori!

Saori soon finished taking my measurements and I was free to move, again. The experimental dress she made for me wasn’t perfect, but it beats having to waste mana on making my own clothes.

[“Hestia, if I may ask you a question.”] She looked at my horns before asking her question. [“I have been curious for quite a while now, but how is it to have two horns on top of your head?”]

“My horns? Well, …they're heavy.”

What did you expect? If you think of it, they’re just two, heavy hair adornments that keep messing with my balance. It might look cool, but I have no words for how inconvenient they are.

“I tried sleeping on my back once but with my wings and tail, it makes sleeping painful. Sleeping on my side or stomach are my only choices.” I slowly massaged my wings, remembering how numb they were this morning. Turning my body around while I sleep is annoying.

[“Oh, that’s why your mood was so ill this morning. Come, let my massage your tail.”] She pushed my body onto the ground and then took my large, scaly tail into her hands, slowly rubbing and massaging it.

When I was first reborn, it felt weird when I touched my tail and wings. The sensation was completely foreign, and it was a bit freaky at first. I eventually got used to it though, fully recognizing them as an extension of my body.

Having my tail massaged feels a bit like having your legs massaged.

Mhmm. That feels so good.

Saori reached level 18 yesterday and decided to spend most of her SP on skill upgrades, which included investing some points to bring her [Humanize Lv. 2] to [Humanize Lv. 5], only stopping due to probably the same reason I couldn’t do it when I was a D rank.

It was, objectively speaking, a rather bad idea but once she reached level five of [Humanize], her race changed to a [Wolfkin]. I was against it in the beginning, but I have come to appreciate it and I bet Saori, who is totally into sewing and cooking, found this purchase worthwhile.

“Yeah, that’s the spot. Haaaa, so what other skills did you spend your SP on?” Wanting to begin a conversation, I asked her about her findings while fully enjoying this relaxing moment.

[“Those would be [Chant Revocation Lv. 9], [Physical Super-Resistance Lv. 1] and [Paralyze Resistance Lv.10], not including the skills that were high enough for the breakpoint requirement skip.”] She said without stopping her hands.

“Ahh, I thought you would also go for [Arcane Corruption Resistance] but I guess those skills will help quite a bit.”

[“Well, I thought these would help me the most, while also accounting for the difficulty of acquisition, although, admittedly, I also wanted the corruption resistance. Oh, we should comb your hair before going to bed.”] Hearing that I took out a wooden comb that I made form my storage, and then gave it to Saori, who stopped massaging my tail.

Compared to my other creations, it has a much more refined and smoother aesthetic. I put in a lot of effort to make this at a much higher quality than the utensils and dishware, as our hair absolutely required good maintenance.

Saori’s humanized form looked quite like a werewolf and her hair has the tendency of being entangled. We have to do it daily, otherwise, it will cause knots like with a long-haired dog.

“I’ll do yours when you’re done. Did you also notice the pattern among these upgrades?”

[“Deal, and yes, it was pretty obvious. While the SP cost for obtaining skills in the skill shop, was completely arbitrarily, although I presume our natural affinity towards a skill does affect it, the SP costs for upgrading skills have been very consistent.”]

There was something I noticed every time I upgraded skills, and that was the cost of each upgrade. I never paid it that much mind because it wasn’t that interesting, but my interest was piqued, after doing that gigantic, mega skill upgrade session.

Since Saori was also planning to do the same thing, I asked her to check all the skills on her list to confirm it.

What we learned was that, while the skills in the skill list are priced according to our affinity for them, the skill upgrade costs are consistent between us.

A good example of the first point would be [Humanization]. Mine cost 1000 SP, while hers was only 700 SP, but do keep in mind this is with my [Bearer of Kargryxmor’s Blood]’s SP discount effect.

Without that title, it would be, 2000 SP for me and 1400 SP for her.

It does seem a bit too unfair, right? Why does she have to pay so much less than me?

Now, back to the point with the upgrade costs. We noticed a trend among the cost and deduced that there are three tiers of skills.

T1, include skills like the basic elemental magic and resistance skills.

T2, include skills like stat growth, enforcement, and capacity skills.

T3, are rare and hard to get skills, which includes the advance and hybrid forms of magic. [Humanization], [Space-Time Magic] and [Chant Revocation] also fall in this category.

Lv. 2

Lv. 3

Lv. 4

Lv. 5

Lv. 6

Lv. 7

Lv. 8

Lv. 9

Lv. 10

T1

50

50

100

100

100

100

150

150

200

T2

100

100

150

150

150

150

200

200

350

T3

200

200

250

250

250

250

300

300

400

It seems like the breakpoint requirements are affected by the tiers too.

T1 skills only have a breakpoint at Lv.4.

T2 skills have breakpoints at lv.4 and lv.8.

T3 skills have breakpoints at lv.4, lv.8, and lv.10.

Examples for this would be the skills [Evasion] and [Acrobatic]. I had to pay for the upgrade when they reached lv.7.

[“Your SP discount is undeniably an invaluable blessing. Without it, the amount of SP I would have had to pay would be ridiculous.”]

I nodded my head in agreement. “My title is a lifesaver but I’m a bit jealous that I can’t share your [Belzac’s Successor]’s skill proficiency gain effect. Mine are both too restricted.”

[“I agree. I pity anybody who has to live with the skill shop and upgrade system without your title’s effect. Such a wonderfully convenient title effect deserves my highest gratitude, Hestia.”]

Well, I appreciate the praise, but I think you just glossed over my problem. The problem here is that Saori’s [Belzac’s Successor] increases the proficiency gain of all her skills, while mine only comes into effect when I fight.

“Sigh, in a way, whoever designed this system is a big weirdo. Oh, time to switch, Saori.” Noticing that my hair was feeling freer, I decided that it was time to do Saori’s

[“Alright, thank you in advance. What exactly do you think is weird about it?”] She handed me the comb and turned her back to me.

“Besides my healing spells and [Sanctuary], there isn’t a way for me to support others with [Holy Protection] or [Holy Strength]. These parameter boosting spells exist but aren't there an option to use these spells on others? I mean, wouldn’t you expect a buffer or debuffer ability in a system like this?”

[“I did not understand anything you said in the end, but I think I understood the gist of it.”] Saori said with a frown, reminding me that she had no experience with playing games. [“There are a surprisingly limited amount of skills and spells that directly supports each other.”]

“Compared to offensive and defensive ones, yes.” I nodded.

[“I have a question though.”] Saori lifted one finger into the air before continuing. [“Are you sure there isn't a skill dedicated to that function?"]

“Of course, I made…uhhh.”

[“…”]

“…I’ll have my parallel minds check it.”

Would you like to buy [Synergist’s Oath] for 300 SP? Your current SP is 7600 Synergist’s Oath Allows the transfer of all current active parameter boosting spells on the owner towards a target. All spell effects will be removed from the owner and will be transferred with a mana blast towards a designated target. Effectiveness of buff applied to others = [Synergist’s Oath] Level / 10. Aiming required

…

“[Synergist’s Oath] …” I mumbled.

[“Pardon?”] She twisted her body, turning her ears to me.

“I said the skill is called [Synergist’s Oath]! OMG, I’m an idiot.” I stopped combing through Saori’s hair and gave myself a facepalm.

Saori gave a short chuckle. [“Please, be sure of your answer next time. Hmm, [Synergist’s Oath] costs 1000 SP for me. Quite steep.”]

“Huh? That much?! That’s a 700 SP difference.” The skill affinity differences between us wouldn’t stop.

[“The skill sounds perfect for somebody that is supposed to be a princess. Hestia, it would honor me, if you will grace me further with your support.”] Saori said with a teasing smile as she bowed her head in fake reverence.

Honestly, I don’t think my [Princess] title is the cause here, but I think it’s Goddess Aurena’s fault.

[Holy Magic] and [Sacred Magic] with focus on supportive skills, [The Light]’s visible and hidden intention to boost and promote a supportive fighting style, and now [Synergist’s Oath] perfect synergy with all three of them.

I mean I had the option to evolve into a [Young Light Dragon] and what did its description say?

It’s supposed to be a dragon focused on supporting its allies. And who is this dragon’s creator? Aurena, the Goddess of Light. Coincidence? I think not.

Maybe the reason why my mana is so high is also her doing?!

…Or maybe I’m overthinking things, again. I should probably stop, considering I already made a fool of myself. I guess I should go to sleep soon.

And so, we continued talking about various other subjects, until we were ready for bed.

You have bought [Synergist’s Oath Lv. 1]. Your current SP is 7300