Firm: Opal’s Story

-POV Cindy-

As we fly closer to Barrier, I can see fighting on one of it’s sides. Those must be the giant spiders that still haven’t made it to Ruby’s Rest. Citrine gave us a good description, but seeing them in person is still a bit different. I hear a ding and check my screen.

I of course select yes. That probably means we’ll all get a similar quest in Ruby’s Rest once they’ve gotten close enough. The spider’s corpses will be interesting specimens. How does an arachnid get so big without any obvious increase in oxygen levels? It’s probably magic again of course, but I remember seeing a book about spiders in the ones found. So maybe I’ll have direct reference pictures to prove it would be impossible otherwise. The boss spider itself is already impossible just due to the square cubed law, but I wouldn’t mind getting a look at it’s corpse as well.

I give myself a good slap on the cheek. I have to remember that pleasure comes after business, and I’m going to have to help kill these things so we aren’t overrun. Citrine lands us on a raised portion of the wall, and I spot Jessica yelling out orders. My angelic ride announces “Cindy and I have finally arrived. Do you need me to carry someone to Ruby, or would it be better to stay for communication?” Jessica greets us tersely before answering “Have one of your bodies stay with Mom, Sapphire and Amber. Keep us updated on their situation. Cindy here can keep us in contact with Ruby.”

Citrine and I both nod. I figured I could be useful for that. Having two bodies really is handy sometimes. Citrine then flies off, and I tell Jessica “They still haven’t gotten to Ruby’s Rest, but the wall idea worked and almost all of the spiders were diverted. Some climbed over the wall and are headed towards Central, but it’s a small enough number to not be an issue.” She nods and says “Stay up here with me, but if you have summons, send them outside the walls.” I can see the fighting going on at the base of the wall, so I start using my summoning skills. If I had a Lich here, I could probably take over some of the spider corpses too. It’s unfortunate I don’t just have one on hand here though.

My Liches are all back with my body at Ruby’s Rest, and without them I’ll have to make zombie spiders the hard way.

At Ruby’s Rest

I tell Ruby “I’ve made it to Barrier and will be acting as the go between for information from now on. Jessica sent Citrine’s other body to keep an eye on Opal and your sisters fighting outside.” Ruby sent Citrine’s other body to pick up Penny from Ruby’s Rod. All the running around she’s having to do doesn’t make me envious. I still want to see if I can fly somehow using magic. It can make giant spiders and angels without hollow bones, so why not flight without wings altogether? Perhaps I’ll need a related class of some sort, but I haven’t found anyone with the skill without the accompanying wings.

Should I make a trip to Opal’s Wyverkin son to have a bigger pool of information? Citrine was telling me about her brother and how him and his family are related to Wyverns like Pearl. Opal really can seem to make babies with anything. I’ll have to see how he got around the explosive birth part, but that was probably a skill as well.

My straying thoughts are interrupted when a golden-haired elf in black clothing appears in front of Ruby. “Spotted 10 minutes out.” The elf says before vanishing again. Oh that’s really cool. Ruby starts organizing everyone on the walls and I wonder what classes the obvious ninja has. It makes me a bit nostalgic for old tv shows when I was a kid.

From the orders, everyone up on the walls should be 6^th or 7^th tier. There a lot more than I was expecting after seeing the lack in Woodville. It’s definitely from the boosts Opal gives us for owning the land. I believe she said it was based on her fertility, and since everyone else here is related to her it’s easy to tell just how high that must be. We shouldn’t have any problems taking out those three slaver cities. Of course I can’t be positive, I was never really interested in military stuff. I recognize some of the people here from different orgies I went to in Opal’s Home, and there seem to be a surprising lack of red heads…

Oh right, Ruby isn’t married to Opal anymore, so they must not be getting that experience boost. The 7^th tiers must almost exclusively be coming from Opal’s Home then. I know Barrier has her bonus too, since she’s married to Jessica, but I wasn’t there when they started organizing. So I can’t tell how many 7^th tiers are fighting there. If this were a cartoon I’d have some way of telling, but I’m not a genius at fighting either.

I remember when this all started, the levels beside something’s name could tell me how strong it was. Its usefulness for that waned quickly though, since as soon as people started raising their tiers and getting more classes, it became unimportant. Well maybe someone could glean important information from it, but that someone isn’t me. I kind of just ignore levels now, and I think others do as well. I did wonder starting out, just how high level you could go, but it’s a waste of possible stats to keep leveling a tier 1 class. You don’t even get more skills after level 25.

Testing things out is great, but I’m not going to put myself in danger or waste time just for it. If I was willing to do that, I’d probably be swapping my classes more often. I have been curious if there are new base classes I’ve unlocked… Nope, I’ll wait until I can unlock my 4^th class for that. Opal tells me it will be pretty expensive for free points though. If only I could get that skill of theirs I could do it faster, but I prefer the extra body. Switching the skill she gives us just for me would be inefficient.

I take my spot next to Ruby. Not for my combat potential of course, but for relaying back and forth from Barrier. I’m basically a kid in the middle of an argument between her friends. “Tell my sister that we’ll have contact in 5 minutes.” Ruby says, and I nod, relaying the message to Jessica. I’m probably not going to do much fighting, but I’ll still get experience from my zombies. My Liches are behind Ruby’s Rest with my forces. They should be able to take care of the spiders that go around the walls instead of engaging.

The Pack isn’t going to be participating, instead they’re scattered around our Lands and will howl if they spot spiders. That way we can keep better track of their movements and won’t be surprised if groups break off. That part of the plan was actually Snag’s. Our little goblin friend is smarter than I gave him credit for, but I hadn’t really paid attention to him much. A lot of strange things happen around my friend Opal, and I might have grown a bit numb to it. I wonder how I can understand his speech, but not the goblins in the dungeon?

The thwang sound of a bowstring being released causes me to focus. I watch as spiders start appearing from the forest in front of us, and inevitably start getting peppered with arrows. The skills start flying next, usually some sort of fire or lightning. They seem to have the most range at least. I notice one of my own Bunny sons lob black goo onto a group of spiders, only for it to be set alight by someone else’ fire skill. Is it an oil skill then? I’ll have to ask him about it next time I have the chance. He did invite Sapphire and me to an orgy, but I had been putting it off for obvious reasons. I guess I can just sleep with other men if we go, and ask him about the oil there. Depending on what it’s made of, it might have huge benefits for everyone.

Of course, watching my own son fuck my best friend is out of the question, so I might also have to ask for some sort of visual dividers. Ah, I got distracted again. Well it’s not like I’m doing any fighting myself yet, and skills can be useful in surprising ways. Maybe I should do some sort of skill census. A voluntary one where names aren’t listed of course. Even with Opal’s family and their strange togetherness, most only share their skill information with their closest friends or lovers. I’m fortunate to be considered a close friend by Opal and Sapphire.

I’d like to grow closer to some of my own children, I just haven’t had a strong connection with any of them yet. It seems normal for the other races, but I still have doubts about being a bad mother because of it. Logically, with so many children it would be impossible to stay close with them all. Even Opal and her 10 bodies couldn’t manage it. I know I’ll be close with my one human son, but he’s still too young to even talk. He’ll be more dependent on me, so if I couldn’t properly teach and show him affection, I’d actually be a bad mother.

Luckily there are other human children that Opal gave birth too, and he has plenty of playmates. She doesn’t take care of them as often as I do my own child… maybe I could convince her to spend more time with them. It’s not really her fault. I sigh, remembering the strangeness that is my friend. How could she be so obviously not human, but not have the strong genetic memories of other races. The feelings she told me about might be something related, but at her own admission, they aren’t exactly clear. A distressing number of them having to do with how to best smash things, but it’s kind of charming to hear her talk about it.

I suck the life out of a dying spider and feed it into one of the defenders who was bit near me. They didn’t look injured, but I might as well. There’s no reason to waste regeneration by keeping my mana at full. I don’t have Opal’s special class bonus for separate mana pools, but if I use enough maybe that will change and I’ll get a similar skill. I’ve been tempted to reroll my own Special class for a better one, but the free points are too much to just waste on a chance. Finding a way other than normal leveling to get free points is looking more and more important. Just how many have Opal and the others made?

I remember Sapphire talking to me about it. She was torn, feeling a bit jealous of her sisters for having it, but also bad for feeling that way. The things they went through to get it were not fun, and if a normal human went through it they’d probably need a lot of therapy. Opal and her kids are amazing like that I suppose. My best friend struggles sometimes not having been through it with them. She feels guilty as the eldest sister. I’ve spent a lot of time helping her get over it, but she’s worth it. She’s my blue haired bestie for life.

I lost track of time again, but the spiders seem endless. I can still see them approaching from far off where the trees aren’t as dense. I’ve gained a couple levels, so my zombies must have taken out quiet a bit already. My summons over at Barrier being used more as meat shields and fodder. I wonder how many spiders the liches have managed to turn. I wish I could tell them to keep them safe over the normal zombies, but there will be plenty of spider corpses to turn after this is all over.

It feels like the spiders are never ending, but since they aren’t advancing as quickly as they would have been without Sapphire and the others slowing them down, we’re still fine. People are swapping out for healing and mana recovery. Apparently Ruby created a stockpile of mana potions that everyone going into her dungeons contributed to. The 7^th tiers are given priority for those, but the 6^th tiers don’t seem to mind. There are more Players of their tier to swap out for slower mana recovery. A loss of any 7^th tier up front would make everyone else’ job harder.

I think Ruby’s wife Penny is at the rear of the fort near my zombies with the 5^th and lower tiers taking care of the ones that split off. I didn’t understand all the jargon Ruby was saying, but I think that was mentioned.

Hours later

It should be getting darker soon. The spiders assaulting Ruby’s Rest haven’t let up at all, still coming at a pretty consistent speed. Luckily, the fighting at Barrier seems to be wrapping up, with only a few spiders coming out of the woods now. Citrine and the other angels she found for help did have to carry mages with water related classes to put out fire that was spreading towards us. After that they moved to a few other places. An old campus was one of them. Hearing about it made me want to go see what books might have been left behind. I think they were a big reason why Jessica bothered to order it protected from the fires at all. There’s no way I would have studied there after highschool, so I didn’t even think about it until now.

Canton University was known more as a party school, and I wanted to go places in life. Well, the System happened so I guess I can’t be picky about the universities I plunder for books. Suddenly this spider threat seems really boring. I don’t think I’ve seen a single defender die yet. Another gold star for Opal and her family’s Firm skill I suppose. Maybe if we had less 7^th tiers, or the reported boss hadn’t changed course. If Woodville and the slaver cities near it had been hit, even by the smaller group that hit Barrier, they might have been wiped out or scattered.

That didn’t happen though, and Opal’s children can take hits. I don’t think it’s coincidence that my own 6^th tier child doesn’t get swapped to the front. Well, he’s also a mage, but I know Ruby is smart enough to take the skill into account. I just don’t know how she can tell who has it and who doesn’t. Well, the fight in Ruby’s Rest continues, and the cleanup at Barrier will start soon. I rub my hands together, excited for my share of the spider corpses.

-POV End-