Cursed Heroine

Chapter 53: More art

We’re now a little over two weeks from the end of the academic quarter. At the beginning of each week, we receive a report from the auction house. It includes sales statistics as well as a list of items uncommon grade or above items that had been bought the previous week. Auction items are always taken from the items brought in the previous week which gives us a chance to have Mary bid on items for us. This also makes the customer more likely to outright sell an item at a lower price, rather than wait for it to be auctioned the following week. From the weekly lists, Sofy and I have managed to reserve some items for ourselves that we’ll just pick up on our next visit:

[Woundless Tasseled Flog]
Effect: damage negation

[Circlet of Dark Sight]
Effect: [Dark Sight 3]

[Adventurer’s Cape]
Effect: temperature control

[Dexterous Gloves]
Effect: increased dexterity

[Quiet Boots of Waltzing]
Effect: silenced, comfortable

That first item is a training type item like the edgeless blades that also drop. However, this one is going into my ‘toybox’. The rest are for Sofy to use. With Sofy now able to have dark sight, we won’t need to use light crystals anymore to see in the dungeon. Temperature control will keep her body comfortable regardless of the environment. Her archery will benefit from the increase to dexterity.

The boots apparently have a female design and it was a group of male adventurers that had looted them, but they needed quick money. Otherwise, with those effects, they would definitely not directly sell them. Those boots are the only item bought by the auction house so far with two effects. Other items were always put up to be auctioned by their owners.

Kat also added a very convenient resizing crystal that is a fairly common consumable loot. It’s a pretty smart alternative to adding a resizing effect to all the loot items and it apparently works for normal clothing as well. Mary had already reserved a few dozen of them for us. She also managed to obtain an inventory skill crystal from last month’s monthly auction. Now Sofy will have the skill as well. Though, it did cost me most of my profits so far for her to get it.

Currently, Sofy and I are deciding on what sort of tattoo I will be giving her while getting ready for bed. I plan to convince the other girls to get one as well if it’s successful in functioning as a magical tattoo.

“Mistress, why are you so reluctant to try the tattoo?”~me

“Won’t it hurt to get a tattoo?! Sure, yours just appears, but don't you need to use a needle to repetitively insert the ink normally?”~Sofy

“Nope. I used what I know about alchemy to make a magic ink that is nontoxic and then I took what I’ve learned about apothecary to make the ink into a sort of stain that is easily absorbed deep into the skin. And before you say some nonsense about what would happen if I mess up, I’ve already prepared a solvent that removes the ink just in case.”~me

“Fine, but no instant pattern. I don’t have self-cleaning clothes like you after all.”~Sofy

“Just because I won’t make a mess, does NOT make it okay to do that during classes!”~me

“But it’s been so boring lately. Not having you embarrass yourself everyday anymore has left a void in my daily routine.”~Sofy

“Just get used to it! Geeze, and Kat thinks that I’m the naughty one?”~me

“Ah, speaking of Kat, did she explain to you why the other categories aren’t currently available and why you couldn’t use what you learn from manipulating the tattoo in enchanting with magic runes?”~Sofy

“Yea, she said that we’d have to earn the others as rewards from her or by discovering them ourselves. As for why the tattoo technique doesn’t work for enchanting, that’s because they’re fundamentally different. The tattoo is a symbol for the lust concept, whereas runes represent the principles of laws. You can expand or narrow the concept that a symbol is for, but a principle is fixed.”~me

“That’s too bad. You were so excited when you first thought that you had found a way to create better enchantments. Do you think Kat didn’t tell you this first on purpose? To tease you?”~Sofy

“Ah! That’s possible, no it’s probable in Kat’s case. No wonder she was laughing so much! Enough procrastinating, let’s get back to designing your tat.”~me

Sofy eventually agreed on a tattoo design that increased her sensitivities by four, increased pleasure intensity by three, tripled build-up requirement, doubled lubricant, minimized spray, and halved her arousal baseline. The baseline being lowered was her compensation to me for absolutely refusing to have the instant climax feature.

Tonight’s lovemaking was epic. The tattoo worked! Because of her new tattoo, I could once again somewhat dominate the sheets. Though, she could annoyingly immediately regain the lead by pushing that darn ‘button’!

The next day was already Fireday, so during lunch we invited the girls over for the weekend to get their own tattoos done. They were a little peeved that we kept such a good thing from them for so long, but decided to forgive us when we told them that we only managed to confirm last night that it doesn’t only work for me.

“So this is why I’ve heard rumors in school that a certain couple have been naughty lately. Sofy has been playing around again, huh?”~Tiff

“So perceptive! She got you there. One point for Tiff, zero for...ahhHH!!!”~me

“Seems that Lily said something sarcastic.”~Tiff

“She’s got your number as well.”~Sofy

“Mm, two poin-”~me

“Hmm, what was that?”~Sofy

"N-nothing!"~me

“Heh. Based on Sofy’s raised eyebrow and lack of movement from Lily, it would seem that a second punishment was just narrowly avoided.”~Brit

“What do you mean second? This is like her nth time being punished. It’s only a matter of time before that number is plus one more”~Amy

“Sofy, you said something earlier about personalizing the tattoo to have specific effects?”~Jill

“Ah, yes. Here are the details that Lily wrote down for you. When you come over tonight, you can let her know what you want and she’ll draw out the matching tattoo for you.”~Sofy

“I’ll just leave it up to Lily. At this point, she practically knows my body just as well as I do and she has more experience with the tattoo effects. Pick something good for me, okay Lily? I trust your judgement.”~Tiff

Oh, I will! It’s so tempting to just sock-it to her, but she played the trust card! I can see you smirking! She’s so manipulative and...EVIL!

I’ve no choice but to nod in agreement and smile bitterly in defeat. Jill was the second to decide. She decided to go with five-fold skin sensitivity, four-fold build-up, triple pleasure and half the arousal baseline with the ‘on switch’ included. From a girl who likes to get tied or wrapped up, the large increase to her skin sensitivity was expected. The other two hadn’t decided before we left for the afternoon lessons.

I spent a good portion of my free time until bedtime figuring out what I wanted to give Tiff. My final revision was to give her five-fold intensity, four-fold sensitivity, triple build-up, double lube and half arousal baseline with an ‘on switch’ of course.

That night, I drew Jill’s first. She and Sofy went off to play immediately after. Amy and Brit were next. They had decided on a five-fold increase to their normally sensitive areas, four-fold pleasure, triple arousal baseline, and half build-up with an ‘on switch’ included. They both got the same and ran off to play as soon as I finished. And I mean play. Little brats made a game out of causing each other excitement, taking turns at blocking or reaching for the other’s ‘score zones’. So childish!

Now for Tiff. She got a five-fold pleasure increase, four-fold arousal baseline, triple sensitivity, double build-up and an ‘on switch’. The best part of the instant climax option is that it doesn’t work with your own mana. That would be bad after all since your mana is ever-present in the body, even where the tattoo is located. With the four-fold arousal baseline, she’ll have a difficult time of achieving ‘self-service’ in the future. A little punishment from me. If she wants to have fun from now on, she’ll either need extra effort or a partner for a boost to ‘switch’ her on.

Considering how many times I’ve walked in on Camille’s ‘morning exercises’ during my blunderfest, I might just give her a similar setup while she’s sleeping one night. I don’t mean to be mean, but to push her into finding someone to be with her. It’s kind of sad to see her trying so hard on her own.