Downsized Hero 2 Ch 9

"I've added your current status and available attribute points and skills to the spreadsheet." I slid the laptop over to my left on the coffee table for Cate to use. "It's not overly sophisticated, but then the Communion hasn't been that complicated." I paused. "Just hard to understand sometimes."

We were both sitting on the sofa in the front room, devouring large, foldable slices from the island's only New Amsterdam-style pizzeria. Cate had taken her shower first and had already eaten three slices, based on the number of uneaten crusts on her plate. Some things never change, I smiled, and reached over to grab one while Cate examined the rows of data on the screen. She was dressed in a simple gray t-shirt of mine and her pink panties. The shirt was too large for her slender form, and the neck fell dangerously low off one shoulder. I thought it was a good look.

Zoya had pushed me into the shower second, saying she wanted to relax without worrying about taking up the remaining hot water. I think she knew I had to help Cate level up, so she was ordering us to make it happen faster. I'd taken the opportunity to review the notifications I'd received while I washed up:

| Companion Disposition Up!

| You have now unlocked Companion Intimacy

|

| Intimacy level: 1

|

| New Quest.

| Seraph of the Goddess.

| Accept? Y/N

Given the timing of this and the Paladin of the Goddess quest I'd received when Zoya's Intimacy was unlocked, I guessed it was related to their growth somehow. Maybe an evolved class or subclass? There wasn't any more information, but there also wasn't a downside to giving them more options. I accepted the quest and made note in the spreadsheet for both women.

"Okay. I want to take this one choice at a time, since you said some things come up later depending on what you choose." Cate had her work face on, her attention already focused on the screen and the rows of data.

"Ready for my cue, Director." I gave her a wink, and I saw a small blush on her cheeks, but she didn't look up. I settled beside her, wearing black boxer briefs and a black t-shirt with a stylized white mecha head on the front.

Taiga flicked an ear as she sat gingerly on the arm of the couch, her tail wrapped closely around her body with the tip curled up like a candy cane. She had her eyes closed, her ears flicking at the slightest movement by my friend. My girlfriend, I corrected myself. One of my girlfriends. It was still hard to fathom.

"What'd I miss?" Zoya came in patting down her hair with a borrowed towel. She was completely nude.

"Aren't you cold?" I gawked.

"What? Oh, geez ..." Cate looked up then immediately averted her eyes.

"With your fiery gaze to keep me warm?" Zoya ignored Cate's reaction, and winked at me. "Hardly."

"Hard is right." Cate was staring sidelong at Zoya's chest, one hand up and doing absolutely nothing to obscure her view. The nude woman's stiff brown nipples stood out proudly, and Zoya arched her back further into Cate's attention. "Damn, girl you could poke an eye out if you're not careful." She looked at me. "Where did you find this perky peacock, Arty?"

"Showed up on my doorstep, actually." I grinned.

Zoya, obviously pleased, did a little pirouette and then pranced toward the bedroom.

"When you come back," I called after, "I'd love to put you on the problem of getting a prototype ready for Anya to see tomorrow night."

"Sure thing," Zoya's head popped out from the doorframe. Then she called out to the room's other occupant. "Get ready, Draco, I'm going to need your help. I want to go through the various parts you were made of and see if we can find a suitable replacement in stock for in-store pickup tomorrow."

**Very well. I will make inquiries with the spirits inhabiting this form for an inventory or perhaps a manifest.**

Draco was currently sitting along the back of the sofa behind us peering down at my tablet. A compilation video of the Han-Pop group BTN's dance practices was playing. Was that from Iter's video history? But I was also reminded of something I wanted to ask the dragon.

"Draco, I hope it's not rude, but can I ask your gender?" I didn't want to refer to the dragon as 'it' anymore in my head.

**Ah, this is a language limitation, is it? My species takes on different gender roles over the course of our lives, depending on our reproductive cycle and need. So our language has no such gendered terms, choosing to make it clear only when relevant. If it helps, while this construct itself is genderless, my true form was in a feminine cycle at the time having laid my most recent clutch of offspring.**

"Did we take you from your family?" I was suddenly alarmed.

**Goodness, no. I had finished sealing them away at the heart of a volcano. They should safely incubate for the next century or so.**

Ah. I relaxed. I could feel Draco's amusement at my expense. Her ocular lenses cycled like laughter.

Cate waved to catch my attention, and pointed at something on the screen. "Seraph?"

"I'll tell you after. It doesn't affect anything right now." I waved my hand from side to side.

She gave me a look, then let it go. "Okay, I'm ready." Cate pronounced. "Anything I should take into account before I start?"

"Prerequisites. Last time I rushed and put everything in the body attribute for Zoya's level up, but you might want to wait. You could find skill options that would lead you to focus on different attributes."

"Or, attributes could be prerequisites for what skills appear." Zoya chimed in, striding into the room wearing another of my shirts, a light blue v-neck. It was long enough that it just barely covered her hips and the tops of her thighs, but the material strained under her curves. When she flopped down on the couch, the material slid up and I could see her bare mound beneath. She caught where my eye was drawn and waggled her eyebrows before crossing her legs and leaning against me.

"Hmm, you make a good point, but I agree with Arty here," Cate either didn't see or ignored our interaction. "Skills first is the better approach. If I don't like the options that appear I could see if attributes change anything. Doing it the other way around doesn't line up with how new skills appeared after others in the skill tree were selected. But, first things first." She slumped back in the sofa cushions with a flump, and looked plaintively at me.

"Why the heck is Alchemist my class?"

"What's wrong with an alchemist as a class?" Zoya scrunched down her eyebrows.

"Alchemist is an NPC class, or post-combat support at best. I'm a frickin' fantasy pharmacist?" Cate's tone rose in indignation.

"Well, I'm hoping the need for combat in modern day San Seraphiel is low." I remarked. But in the back of my mind I saw the glowing red eyes emerge from the smoke pouring out of Bruce's throat, and I shivered.

"I mean, what's a Templar, anyway?" Zoya reached over to grab a slice of the margherita pizza from the open box on the coffee table and shrugged her shoulders in an attempt at solidarity with Cate.

"You got Templar?!" Cate turned and stared in affronted shock at Zoya, then swiveled to shoot an accusing glare in my direction. "She's a Templar?"

"What?" Zoya mumbled through her mouthful, a confused and worried frown on her features.

"Yeah, Zoya's class is Templar," I replied as I snagged the last slice of the margherita pizza. "Seems like your straightforward divine guardian type of build." I offered her in mixed apology and humor at my friend's obvious envy.

"Do you study martial arts? Have a background in law enforcement or religious studies or something?" Her eyes probed Zoya as she leaned across me on the couch and interrogated Zoya rapid-fire.

"Uh, I practice Muay. Used to compete when I was younger. Not so much since college. But I'm not religious or anything." Zoya's eyes were widening at an unexpectedly aggressive Cate. Her eyes darted around as if looking for escape.

"Oh heck, Zoya, I'm sorry," Cate recoiled, "It's not your fault, I'm just jealous. I mean, Templars are usually powerful builds with awesome abilities. But an Alchemist ..." She turned to look down at the spreadsheet glowing softly from the laptop screen. "Is this because I make my own skin cleansers at home?" Cate muttered to herself, but loud enough for us to hear in the quiet of the room.

"What, you make soaps?" Zoya asked.

"Well, not soaps much anymore. I mostly make herbal masks and serums," Cate seemed a little embarrassed by the admission, but her voice strengthened as she warmed to the topic. "I make most of the skincare products I use now." She leaned over the side of the couch and pulled up her bag, giving me a pleasant view of her back and pert little bottom as her shirt rode up. She pulled out a few small, unlabeled plastic lotion cases and bottles and began lining them up in a row on the coffee table. "I even tried making some toners and mists recently, too," She held out a particular bottle with a clear looking liquid inside and a spray nozzle on top. "The farmers market at the Ferry Landing has a lot of varied, fresh ingredients from local farms, even in winter. The things I make are cheaper than what you'd get at a store, and also feel a lot cleaner and healthier to use."

She paused, looking down at the row of bottles before her as I goggled in surprise at yet another facet of Cate's life I knew next to nothing about. I remembered she was into some homeopathic stuff, but I didn't know she actually made them herself. I took one of the proffered containers and opened it to smell the contents. It was a thick, buttery cream that had a faint scent of lavender.

"I wonder if baking counts as well?" Cate mused, as I put some of the cream on my fingers and rubbed it on the back of my hand. It felt cool and refreshing, and blended into my skin evenly. The scent was present without being cloying, and it did feel like my skin was softer. I was impressed.

I had a thought. "Draco, do you have any info on the Alchemist class?"

**I met one once while traveling with the Hero's party, but he was a standoffish sort.** Draco swung her mechanical head in our direction. I jerked back to avoid a hit to my chin, but Draco had already stopped short. **I did not appreciate the strange odors coming off of him.**

"Great. Hope that's not an occupational hazard." Cate grumbled. She paused, and was about to add something more when Draco continued.

**What I know is that he was effective both before, during, and after battle. Though I am not clear on the mechanics of it. He was quite popular among the other party members for this reason, though his taciturn personality made that out to be an imposition rather than a boon.**

Cate had a thoughtful look now, something turning in her brain. She pursed her lips and looked at her list of skills. "Well, I'm not going to figure it out staring at this. Go ahead and select the class."

I did, and added the new skill information into her spreadsheet:

| Skills (5 skill points available)

| Savant:

| > Steady Hands

| Resonant Chain:

| > Esoteric Extraction

The following additional skills appeared for selection:

| Savant (available):

| > Catalyst's Crucible

| Resonant Chain (available):

| > Metamorphic Adaptation

"There's a smaller list of class-specific skills than I expected." I told her. Cate's mouth drew down as she picked up her glass of wine and took a sip. "But after you choose a skill, another, more advanced or related skill might appear."

"Choose 'Catalyst's Crucible,'" Cate directed. I did.

"Holy shit!" Cate yelled, her wine nearly sloshing out of her glass, startling the cat to her left. A glowing menu of light appeared in front of her, like my status window but smaller. Cate could obviously see it, too. This was the first time a person other than me could see one of the Communion menus. I set down my glass and leaned over to see the contents of the screen for myself.

"What is it, what's wrong?" Zoya asked, alarmed. Apparently she couldn't see the screen.

"It's a ... menu?" Cate was staring wide-eyed at the floating display in front of her. She looked slowly over at me, and I confirmed I could see it, too. "I can't believe it," she whispered.

"What?" I responded. "Still not convinced?"

"It's one thing to see things other people do," she began slowly, reaching out ineffectually to touch the screen, before withdrawing her hand. "It's another thing to actually experience it yourself." Cate closed her mouth and her gaze sharpened on the screen. The menu began to scroll down and different items were highlighted as she focused on them. "These are recipes," she muttered. "They have ingredients and amounts, with directions for how to prepare and combine them. There's an attribute prerequisite and focus cost to make it, then a focus or health cost to use it." I watched as she scanned through a few of them.

"Hey, if you're both going to keep staring at nothing, I'm going to finish the wine." Zoya interjected petulantly, grabbing the bottle and pouring herself another glass.

"Sorry, Zoya," I said, leaning back to give her a hug. "We didn't mean to exclude you. Cate's class apparently requires some direct interaction with the Communion to use her skills." I pursed my lips to smother my smile. "She can't simply beat the crap out of monsters with explosive light or summon mythical creatures into being with a thought."

Zoya tried to hide her smile as well, and failed. "Yeah, well. Sorry, Cate. I guess I was a little envious, too." She reached an arm out across me and squeezed Cate's knee.

Cate smiled back and shook her head, denying the need for apology. She took a short breath and closed the menu, then opened it again to be sure, and finally closed it once more before looking back at her laptop.

"Hmm," she pondered, "since different recipes use different attributes as prerequisites and use costs, maybe I should add a point to everything?" She wondered aloud.

"Maybe. Though if you give the completed recipe to someone else, they would take on the usage cost, not you."

Cate sat up, her thoughts flowing across her face too rapidly to track.

"What was the other skill? Metamorphic Adaptation?" She turned to me intently. "Select that."

I did, and we were both happy to learn it unlocked a range of new recipes to craft in her menu. She picked one and read it out loud for Zoya's benefit:

| Minor spirit enhancement elixir

| Prerequisite: Spirit 4

| Creation: Focus 10

| Consumption: Focus 5

| Stability: 24 hours

|

| Effects: Elixir can be ingested or applied topically. Upon application the Spirit attribute is increased by 1 point for 30 minutes. All derived attributes are also increased. Effects do not stack.

|

| Ingredients: water (standard quality or higher), alcohol (standard quality or higher), mint (standard quality or higher), citrus fruit (standard quality or higher)

|

| Instructions: ...

"That's practically a mojito." I heard Cate mutter to herself as she continued reading the recipe.

But I was more excited by the two new skills that had appeared in her status. I let Cate know and added them to her list:

| Savant (available):

| > Preserving Distillation

| Resonant Chain (available):

| > Empyrean Endurance

"Okay, now we're talking." Cate closed her menu and rubbed her hands together. "'Preservation' or 'Endurance', hunh? Maybe that's making the potion shelf-life last longer, or making the effects last longer?" She looked to me for input.

"Feel free to try it out. You could always use your last point to pick the other one if you don't get any other skill options." I spread my hands.

She didn't take long to decide. "Choose the preservation one. If what I'm thinking of is accurate, I'm going to want to build a stockpile."

We parsed through her crafting menu after her selection, and Preserving Distillation appeared to add a parenthetical note to each recipe representing a 3x increase in the stability of the potions that Cate created. For instance, if a potion typically had to be consumed in 24 hours, Preserving Distillation increased that to 72 hours. Even better, choosing that skill unlocked two more:

| Savant (available):

| > Aetherial Alleviation

| Resonant Chain (available):

| > Empyrean Endurance

| > Harmonic Resonance

After a moment she told me to pick Aetherial Alleviation for her. Then I saw her frown.

"I don't think it did anything," she grumbled, searching her menu. "I can't find any ... oh wait." Her face fell. "There's just a single new recipe." I saw her eyebrows lower as she read through the description. I leaned over to her again to see the text and read it out loud for Zoya's benefit.

From what I could tell, the result worked similarly to the Templar skill Righteous Resistance, in potion form. After using the prepared mixture, the affected person could simply choose one effect to remove at a cost of 5 focus. If you used it ahead of time, it lasted for an hour, during which you could choose not to be affected by a single status ailment of your choice, and then the effect ended.

"You mean we could use that to avoid being paralyzed by something like that ring again?" Zoya caught on to the implications. I was thinking of that, too. I recalled the sensation of my entire body locking up, hitting the sidewalk. The dread of seeing Zoya drop motionless to the ground. Someone gave that ring to Bruce and made the impossible possible in this world. I didn't realize I'd gone still until Zoya's warm hand found mine. I gripped it tightly.

Cate noticed and I saw her eyes tighten. "Okay, a case of those, then." A swift inhale and exhale. "Arty, before I pick the final skill, add two attribute points each to body and spirit. Stop and tell me if any skills update as you do."

"Yeah, okay." I made the changes one at a time.

| Core Attributes

| Body: 4

| Spirit: 8

| Mind: 8

| Luck: 4

|

| Derived Attributes

| Health: 40 [max 40]

| Magic: 0 [max 80]

| Focus: 80 [max 80]

| Charm: 6

| Intuition: 6

| Will: 8

When I added the last point to spirit, a new skill appeared.

| Savant (available):

| > Explosions!

"Uh. Hunh." I took a breath. "Okay." I typed the new skill in Cate's spreadsheet a little fretfully.

I saw her mouth twitch when she looked at the screen. Then she looked at me with a reckless gleam in her eye, daring me to deny her ever again. "Do it."

I selected the final skill, then turned the laptop to show a curious Zoya. She almost spit out her wine. I could see laughter in her eyes as she held her hand over her mouth to keep any of the liquid from spilling down her chest while she worked to hold it in.

"Wow, this is game changing." I leaned back into the sofa cushions, hand across my mouth in thought.

"Even better if you think that the cost to create an item in advance is renewable, and the cost to consume it is much smaller. It is an accumulable, distributable asset. With a sharp depreciation, mind you, but we can work with that." Cate was in full on accountant mode. I was relieved to see the light back in her eyes after she'd first learned about the class, but now I was a little afraid the pendulum was swinging too far in the other direction.

All in all, the class seemed to be light on skills. But the versatility of the recipes she could create, combined with the fact that she could distribute them to others ...

"I take it all back." A maniacal grin stretched across Cate's face. "This class could be broken."