Soren didn't sleep.
They had managed to sneak back in without any hiccups and the storm of events was enough to get Nessa asleep almost instantly.
<<Grand Lottery System // Lust Covenant System>>
<<STATUS: Merged. Unprecedented. Unsupported.>>
<<HOST: Soren VANCE>>
<<VESSEL: Soren. 21. Unranked.>>
<<Brief orientation follows. It will be brief.>>
"Great, love that."
<<We are agents of chaos. we find fates and we break them. this is the entire job.>>
<<You fell through a capillary carrying both of us and somehow survived, Lucky you.>>
"Who made you?"
<<No.>>
"Who's the enemy?"
<<No.>>
"What happens if I say no to something?"
A pause, and then both halves came in on the same line, which Soren would later learn meant they were being completely honest.
<<Nothing.>>
<<We do not compel. we have no forced quests. we issue no penalties. We will never put a knife to your throat and call it a tutorial.>>
<<We will, however, make you offers. they will be very good offers. You will take most of them and it will be entirely your own fault.>>
"That's worse."
<<Yes.>>
Soren put his forearm over his eyes and grinned.
Okay. He could work with worse.
<<Currencies. There are three. Pay attention, we will not do this again.>>
<<Fate Tickets. Drawn from the lottery system. These come often enough. Kills, first time significant actions, narrow escapes, humiliating your betters, breaking a taboo, doing something the odds said you would not.>>
<<There are Seven rarities: common, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary, mythic, godly.>>
<<Five of one rarity fuse into one of the next. Five percent of the time you get two. We also offer overcharge: Burn ten, roll once, fifteen percent chance of a ticket two rarities above, eighty five percent chance of nothing at all.>>
<<We recommend overcharge.>>
"You would."
<<Fate Points. Shop currency, lottery side also. These come rarely and in small amount.>>
<<Lust Points. Shop currency, covenant side. Earned through intimacy. Scaled by your partner's cultivation stage, by novelty, by the gap in station between you, and by willingness.>>
<<Willingness is not a multiplier. Without it the yield is zero. This is hard coded and we are very pleased with ourselves about it.>>
"Huh," Soren said.
<<You sound...surprised>>
"Pleasantly...think I've had enough of forced intimacy for a few lifetimes"
<<Mmm>>
<<Payout Pending. Qualifying events this session:>>
<<Died in one world...died in another and came back from the dead. First Time for Both. Award: 2 Epic Ticket, 1 Rare Ticket.>>
<<Survived an Unprecedented System Merge. Award: 1 Legendary Ticket, 400 FP.>>
<<Negotiated with two systems and won. Tsk why does this count as humiliating your betters. Award: 3 Rare Tickets.>>
<<First Contact: Nessa Ryn, Unranked, Willing, Novel, Station Equal. Award: 22 LP, 1 Uncommon Ticket.>>
<<TOTAL: 1 Legendary, 2 Epic, 4 Rare, 1 Uncommon. 400 FP. 22 LP.>>
"Twenty-two," Soren said. "That's the number? For all that?"
Although he expected he wouldn't get a lot since all they had done was kiss and grope, he still had machinations of those novels where the hosts got hundreds of points for even touching a woman.
<<She is unranked and you are unranked and nothing happened that would impress anyone.>>
"Rude."
<<Accurate. Lust points scale with power. A Grandmaster is worth several thousand times a kitchen girl.>>
"Noted...Pull them."
<<All ?>>
"All."
Right now he needed as many advantages as he could get, no point in trying to 'stockpile', you can only use a stock pile if you're alive.
The Uncommon went first.
A dull steel wheel with an old dusted look spun in his vision, making his lips twitch.
<<Mortal Grade: Coarse Salt, Preserved, Two Pounds.>>
"...Salt."
<<Two Pounds.>>
Thankfully he had an inventory attached, guess it was a given with the lottery system.
He looked at the bag of salt sitting there comfortably waiting and grimaced before continuing the pulls.
The 4 Rares went next.
He got a Refined-grade needle that never dulled, a Refined-grade defensive talisman that could block at most one hit from any below 6th stage Adept.
He also got a Mortal-grade breathing method that improved stamina by an amount the system described as 'noticeable if you are paying attention', and a hat.
"A hat..."
<<A good hat.>>
"Is it Refined grade?"
<<It is a hat, Soren.>>
Then what was the point of a 'rare' then?!
<<Cough, we never said it was a guaranted rare at minimum...>>
Well...fuck...fair enough
The Epic came up purple and hung there.
<<Profound Grade Roll. Stand By...>>
<<Item: Kaethis, The Answering Edge>>
<<Grade: Heavenly>>
Soren sat up so fast he cracked his head on the bunk above.
"Heavenly? Off an Epic?"
<<The Odds...were beat...>>
<<Though you should probably look again...now this makes more sense>>
<<Curse Tag: Bound.>>
<<Property One: All damage inflicted by this blade manifests instead upon its wielder, in full, immediately, up to two ranks higher than host.>>
<<Property Two: The soul binding is permanent. the blade consumes the bound soul across approximately forty seconds.>>
<<Congratulations host, you have surprised us again>>
Soren stared at the panel for a long moment.
"So it's a sword that kills me."
<<It is a sword that kills whoever binds it>>
"Which would be me. Because I'd be the one holding it."
<<Only if you bind it>>
And Soren opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, and then closed it again, because a thought had arrived and it was a very good thought.
He turned it over twice.
"Can other people see that it's cursed?"
<<No...>>
"Can anyone see that tag?"
<<Nobody in Ariyas can see that tag. To every other person alive, a cursed artefact from us and a clean one are the same object until it is far too late.>>
Soren lay back down slowly.
"Okay," he said. "Keep it. Put it in the storage for now."
<<Done...you're not curious about the sword?>
"I'm extremely curious about it. I'm going to be curious about it for a really long time, and then one day I'm going to drop it on the floor in front of exactly the right person."
There was a pause.
<<...We like you.>>
<<We are uncomfortable about how much we like you.>>
"Yeah, get used to it. Last two."
The second Epic Ticket rolled it's purple wheel
<<PROFOUND GRADE ROLL...>>
<<ITEM: A JAR.>>
<<GRADE: MORTAL.>>
<<IT IS EMPTY.>>
"What...?"
<<The odds giveth.>>
"You said Profound!"
<<We said profound grade roll. the roll was profound grade. The result was a jar. This is how gambling works and you have known that since you were twelve!>>
Soren put both hands over his face and lay very still.
Somewhere down the row, somebody turned over in their sleep.
"Fine," he said, through his fingers. "Shop. Covenant side, anything I can get that won't give her a heart attack? What does twenty-two Lust Points buy."
<<Very little. Would you like the very little?>>
"Show me anything under twenty-two that solves any problem I currently have."
<<One result.>>
<<Marrowdeep Refinement (Lower). Mortal Grade. 20 LP:
Reinforces pelvis, hips, and lower body. structural density increase of approximately forty percent.>>
Soren took his hands off his face.
His mind went to the wooden thing padlocked to him that he had been trying not to think about for six straight hours and wondered how this fixed that.
"Buy it."
<<Purchased. 2 LP Remaining. Applying.>>
It started low in his back and spread out and down, warm at first and then hot, and Soren clamped his jaw shut and made himself breathe through his nose while something in his hips reorganised itself.
It took about ninety seconds.
Then it stopped, and he lay there, and it was very quiet.
"Now what," he whispered.
<<Now...just think about what you and Nessa we're up to>>
His mind drifted, after some confusion, into his memories, the look of Nessa's flushed face and her breasts staring back at him.
Crack!
There was a crack like a chair leg giving out.
Soren froze.
Nobody woke. The room breathed on.
Sore got up very carefully and removed his pants to look at the cage that had now splintered and practically broke at a point while a raging tent stood upright in full freedom.
Damn, did it break it?! Nice.
The brass padlock that remained on one side hanged obsoletely.
He held the pieces in the dark for a while.
Then his brain caught up.
<<Problem?>> the system said pleasantly.
"Yeah," Soren said.
Because Vesper Callowmere had the only key. And in seven weeks, before she sold him, she was probably going to check...