When Aki heard how popular his daughter was, jealousy hit him hard. So he spent the afternoon and night snuggling with her after she came back. He tried calling home through a magical item he'd enchanted after she went to sleep, but it turned out to not be the best of times, so instead he just conected to a servant and left a message after calming them down.
"Why do you have that look? You have it when you start getting yourself down, so spill it." Mari poked her husband as they stood a bit far from the bedroom, because yes, the inn was so highclass that every rentable space had two bedrooms at the very least, plus a living room and bath.
"Well, i just tried calling and saw Sera and Xera together." He shrugged. "But it really hits home when i think i couldn't actually get either pregnant even though the both of them really want to have the experience. I know they love Clair, but even as a man i know that you don't simply develop that kind of child-parent relation so easily. I'm clearly an exception with the way my love works and how quickly i get attached, i know that, but the thought of having a blood related child is just..." He shivered, his wife putting a hand on his shoulder.
He'd shared his fear through a magic connection once. Once. Luckily she'd already not thought of having children ever, because she was definetly traumatized. She'd tried to explain it to the other two with words, but it just made her sound normal afraid, not completly out of her mind and paralized in disbelief afraid like she really was.
She'd even gained a skill for it for fuck's sake.
"They'd never put it against you though. Besides, maybe one day we will have orc babies." She shrugged, not really able to share that part of his pain.
"The thought does actually hurt that bit of pride as a male i have you know?" He poked her side and snorted. "Though if I'am still... We are still... Us? I should really look up a dictionary for these kinds of things. As long as they are there, they will also end being my children as well." He tried, quite confused on how to phrase it, but ultimately making Mari laugh a bit and kiss his cheek before she dragged him to sleep.
*****
At the same time, not too far away.
"He passes, with flying colors. He could probably take any one of us individually too. He said he'd try a new idea on the boss monster and just said 'Happy drunk ogre cuts' (Shiawasena yoi tte onigiri doesn't actually translate to that) or something before sending hundreds of blade tipe attacks all over the giant bug and eventually cutting it in half." Said the fox kin towards an elf covered in paperwork that looked to be in his thrities.
"Understood, i will begin to write the formularies to allow for his A-rank boon." Expressionlessly said the man behind the desk, not even turning to face the beauty in front of him
The next day.
"STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM!"
This very sentence was repeated at least fifty to a hundred times over minor and great gang's territories while a stress inducing background music played as a tall adventurer captured hundreds of bandits, tossing them all on jail and seizing their booty for himself.
This all hapened exactly because one of the less famous perks the adventurer's guild can offer is exactly 'law enforcer', which allows for the A-rank adventurer to lawfully do exactly what the name suggests as long as they don't go overboard. Since literraly everyone he bought over had comited a few major crimes or tens of minor ones, there was no one that could actually say a word about his actions.
How did they know? Do you actually think a paladin of the god of justice doesn't gain a 'detect alignment' tipe of spell? Well, the guards also didn't complain when he sent all criminal slaves to the church after buying them, though they were definetly surprised he could lay down almost a thousand slave contracts in one day by himself since it the spell itself was reconized as specially hard to cast even if the mana cost wasn't exactly something to write home about.
Little did they know that 'Justisars' gain a bonus that helps them in any action they deem as helping the law of setlements and 'exemplars' gain bonusses to anything that makes other people follow the law, both of which Aki rapidly leveled thanks to his various bonuses, the amount of criminals he arrested, the fact that plenty were either powerful or influential, and the fact he left them with no choice but redemption through blood and sweat, death not ever being an option to them.
The fact that he'd taken the chance while he was in a A-rank dungeon to level one last apprentice job and maxed out the 'legendary apprentice' job, which gave XP bonuses to everything, the more jobs related the better the bonus, was of course, part of the reason he was leveling so quick even though he'd just reached another XP spon, wall. Said job also made all apprentice jobs give him 50% more stats, meaning he had the equivalent of 300% from all of those.
By the time he went to pick up Clair, he'd already maxed out the two jobs and unlocked some more, which really left him on the fence as to what to pick now. Thanks to his super and legendary apprentice jobs, he could unlock more advanced jobs without much bothering with the normal job route, so 'bailarine' and 'dancing warrior' were already there for him to choose.
There was always that 'suicide bomber' job, which would be a real help in causing more destruction with his close combat explosion, but then again, Aki had never even picked up the 'Wizard' job. He didn't doubt that after maxing it out he'd unlock the 'arch-mage', 'elementalist' and 'Magi' jobs since his job bonuses could only go so far.
Were people to look at his job selection interface, they'd think that he was an absolute idiot. While he did have plenty of jobs that were great for ambushing and assasinating, his direct combat power was actually supposed to be shit since neither did he have the bonusses from the warrior jobs nor the magician jobs.
Granted, his skill list is on the weirder side, but no one would say that getting several several multipliers to his attacks and actions would directly make him much less powerful than going about it the roundabout way.
And they'd be right, even just picking the saint jobs would give him several skill level ups, bonuses and stats leaps, even making him reach the peak of A-rank.
A more normal A-rank would have carefully laid out and focused on one line that had perfect sinergy, augmenting their statuses and skills to perfectly suit exactly that which they wanted to do. The problem, yet again came back to XP accumulation though, the more multipliers one 'tree' has the harder it is to advance on it, nevermind that better jobs generally need more of it for several other reasons too.
Translating, Aki is still accumulating stats points so he can get multiplying jobs and let things go the best he can before really starting to grind the 'late game content'.
What? Just because there's a status window did you think that people would not pass some kind of soul change everytime they press a button? Too naive! Only a few even theorize what actually happens when you choose and level a job, why would it be my fault if no one got this right before and just went to worst way possible?
Uh? A way natives would know? Monsters, the answer is monsters. It's not society that gives monsters ranks you know? It's just that there wasn't enough researching for the information that jobs have their own tipe of ranking to become widespread, so no one can completly farm the whole tier, this isn't some kind of cultivation after all, no one thinks of going out of their way to look for the 'hidden meridians' or such.
Aki would be fucked and much weaker if not for all his soul related skills and the special apprentice jobs making things easier for his intentions.
As mister crazy repeated these things to himself to resist the temptation of just picking the stronger jobs, something happened not so far away.
"Go play with your other uncles little monkey, the big guy wants some hugs." Gently said the red haired teen with a small smile as his pony tail swayed as he slowly pushed the little girl to a place that did not have a blue skinned woman wearing a leotard, black skirt, boots and a choker.
"You seem to care for the pipsqueak quite a lot, it'd be a shame if...." The soft and seductive voice stopped as the man held her throath. They'd been far apart, but the sudden change didn't seem to fase the succubus even as she was made to kneel and bleed.
"It'd be a shame if a bug like you were my first demon soul. Your fragments would barely fill up two batteries after all. Does your master also have a fiend or maybe a cerberus? A filthy sow like you can just explode right now and actually do something by helping me, so be happy for your chance." Wrath said, not once taking his smile or dead eyes out of his face and the demon in his grasp squirmed, dreaded and melted as her blue face became some shades deeper as she gasped for breath that she didn't remenber needing. "I know your kind well enough to reconise your species withing your race from sight alone. Be a good bitch and tell me what i want to know. Maybe i will even cave in your skull while we play in the orgy room if i like what i hear." He wispered, throwing the dripping thing in the air and catching her tail as leverage instead. Her face and boobs gratting themselves against the floor as she moaned. "You will only make a sound if told to." And she stopped, already fixed on finding the fastest way to tell on her current master so she could work under this guy.
Meanwhile, Aki showed no outward reaction to the scene playing in his mindscape, though he took note to later be extra rough on his wife. He'd not expected the very first demon he'd met to be a breed he'd recognize so easily, nevermind one that was so true to her desires already.
This was clearly a sign, however. He must go back to his roots. Selecting 'battle mage' as his job, Aki decided he'd be renewing his vows, encase Mari in a ball of nothingness and fucking her silly till he found out the best way to modify himself for her. Then he'd go about figuring out what to focus his martial arts.
He'd been secretly practicing, but it was time to begin the real adaptability training. A new pair of arms could be useful for a lot of things, sure, but modifying existing body parts to such extent as the necessary for what he wanted would clearly get him to the next level and beyond.
And so Aki went onto finally unlocking massage related jobs. The only reason he'd not already was because there was a time requirement, and there wasn't much going around that.