“So how’d you deal with ghosts without the church?” Utarou asked May and Barney seriously.
Vicar John had just left the small town of Dryholm, seemingly none the wiser about the population of Nihola having moved in, and Utarou wanted to learn how to excuse himself from the church.
Their stifling of Legacy Skill Evolution was entirely counter to his goals afterall, but it was clear they served a practical function in this world.
Barney shrugged in response.
“We didn’t, we’d just throw the dead as far away as possible.” Barney shrugged.
“What?! W-what about their families? Sentimentality?!” Henrek gasped.
“Was either that or let em take May away.” Barney explained seriously.
“What?”
“This was 30 years ago, May wasn’t the first one what had this skill, was her Dad.” Barney explained as May bit her lip.
“He’s gunna come back. With men too.” May said, her usual gusto replaced with pure terror.
“How’d you get rid of them last time?” Utarou asked.
“Lemme guess, you added a few more ghosts to your unmarked graves?” Henrek scoffed.
“Hey we lost some good fellas too! If they’d just left us alone we wouldn’t be worryin’ about all this nonsense!” May shouted.
“Rest assured, I’m preparing a diplomatic solution.” Utarou declared as he leaned back in his chair.
“Great…” Henrek sighed.
“Woah woah settle down Rhiney!” Hope shouted as she was dragged by the rapidly growing baby dragon, it’d already managed to become the size of a large farm dog, with twice the strength.
“May you manage to level up yet?” Utarou asked.
“No? How do ya think leveling up works?” May asked, baffled.
“I dunno, Hope seemed to just get like 3 skills as soon as we found her.” Utarou shrugged.
“That’s because she was malnourished, she had the XP but couldn’t spend any until her body was rested. How did you not find this in your research?” Henrek inquired indignantly.
“I don’t see how experience points relate to my goal of Skill Evolution.” Utarou retorted, defensively. The truth was he just hadn’t thought about it.
“Urgh, lemme explain somethin to ya kid.” Barney exclaimed, sitting on the table and looking back at Utarou like he was his dad.
“Ya get XP whenever ya do something new, or achieve somethin’ impressive. The harder somethin is, the more XP.” Barney explained, Utarou nodding as he took detailed mental notes.
“When ya body is busy healin’, starvin’ or of course workin’ on makin’ a beautiful baby boy like my wife, that XP ain’t gonna be able to take so to speak.”
“So what, you don’t earn XP while you’re pregnant?”
“Not quite, you just can’t level up, it’s all sorta stored until you can recover.”
“Hmm, say May, how many levels do you think you’ll gain after giving birth?” Utarou asked, causing everyone to gasp.
“You can’t just ask that! It’s rude!” Henrek shouted, smacking Utarou on the back of the head.
“It’s an important question! May open up your menu. I want to show them something.” Utarou said.
“F-fine.” May scoffed, putting her hand out and opening up her skill tree.
“Look here, tier 1 skill Calm Monsters, and there’s a locked tier 2 and 3 skill that leads off of it.” Utarou said, pointing to the blanked out branch of the skill tree.
“What about it? Why’d I want to…” May asked before Rhiney burst in from behind the tent, chomping Utarou’s shoulder as he dragged the limp Hope in.
“I believe you’ll be able to unlock a skill that lets you decide what skills this thing gets, like how Joelson could with horses.” Utarou explained as Hope and Henrek pulled Rhiney off of Utarou’s shoulder.
“Horses don’t have skills…” Henrek grunted as he pulled with all of his might to get Rhiney off of Utarou.
“Aha! They have legacy skills! And whoever opens the menu is the only one who can control it, right?”
“M-maybe? I don’t think I’ve… ever heard of someone… opening a monster skill tree…” Henrek grunted as he finally pulled the creature off, a chunk of Utarou’s flesh coming with it.
“I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry!” Hope apologised rapidly as the creature swallowed more of Utarou’s meat, it was what was letting him grow so fast and he’d clearly taken a liking to it.
Which was good, considering Utarou was immortal and everyone else in Dryholm was still very very mortal.
“Hmm, alrighty. I like the way you think!” May said giving a thumbs up to the idea.
“Perfect! Now, if you could all settle down, I have a 74 page plan I’d like to share with you all-” Utarou began before hearing something dripping on the floor.
…
Utarou, despite having been devoured several times, had his limbs ripped off, and receiving all sorts of incredible physical damage, was a complete wuss when it came to the magic of childbirth.
Despite the less than perfect amenities, the villagers of Nihola and Dryholm all came together to assist May through the process.
Hope and Henrek had tasked themselves with keeping Rhiney in check, which mostly meant making sure he only nibbled on little bits of Utarou at a time.
“WAHHHH UWAHHHH!” Was the siren that alerted Utarou into wakefulness, with his forearm being chomped off by Rhiney’s surprise.
Henrek and Hope let out a sigh of relief as they heard the cheers of the village, the sign a healthy and beautiful baby boy had just been born.
“Quick, I need to make sure she selects the right skills.” Utarou said, his arm regenerating as he stood up. Henrek stopped him with his sword.
“Relax, she’s still got a week before any of that XP will come in. Don’t bother them right now please.” Henrek groaned.
“Hmpth, I didn’t even get to start my 74 page plan before she started… Belrgh…” Utarou shuddered, remembering how horrific the site was.
“For someone who’s entire plan involves a lot of babies being born, you sure can’t handle it in the slightest.” Henrek smirked.
“H-Hey! I come from a more civilized time, one with a safe and sterile environment for child birth to occur in! O-One without the man having to be involved and… clearing blood…” Utarou gagged.
“Do you think he’s a virgin still?” Hope whispered.
“I’m pretty sure he’s saving himself for a cat girl.” Henrek joked, before realizing what that meant as he looked at the woman he was grooming to have the right skills to produce a cat girl child.
“You’re sick.” Henrek sneered.
“What?! I haven't done anything yet!” Utarou retorted defensively as Henrek and Hope left him alone with Rhiney, who had finished Utarou’s arm and was looking to snack on some fingers.