I turn my face to the side and closed my eyes for a few seconds.
Once I opened them again, I took another look at what Katie has written.
Yep, what the heck is this?
"Katie, is this….really your Stats right now?"
"Y-yeah, that's right."
"And you haven't ever leveled up since yesterday?"
"I told you yesterday, didn't I? I was off from the club because of my ankle."
"...And, this 'Title' here…."
"Y-yeah…. I wanted to ask you about that…. I thought you miii~ght know something about it. Is that a no?"
"You damn right I don't know! Eh? My massages….what the heck are they doing!?"
I have never seen or heard of anything like this!
The Stats that Katie is showing right now is full of things either absolutely unheard of or absolutely insane.
First off, this 'Ero Masseuse's Prisoner'….I never heard anything about this!
Eh? You saying that if I were to massage a different person, they're going to get this Title shown in their Status Window as well!?
What the fuck is 'Prisoner'!? 'Prisoner'!? I don't any memory of ever trapping Katie in my life! When did become a fuckin' jailer!? The only other meaning would be rather than literally, it's figuratively.
I took a glance at Katie. Other than the excitement she has right now, there is no other difference in her attitude towards me since before. Hmm? Yep, I have no clue.
There is also the addition of a new parameter, 'State'.
This I heard of before. Apparently, certain Systems can induce a 'State' to either others or themselves which represents various effects. A famous example is the 'Berserk State'. By sacrificing their INT and part of their decision-making ability, great power is given to them temporarily.
And right now Katie is under the influence of a certain 'State'.
'Ero Boost'.
I don't what it is but it must be related to the other things I am seeing right now.
Besides Katie's normal 'Stats' such as STR or INT there is now an additional line reading '+#(Permanent)' along with it.
If I'm not mistaken, this is….
"It's amazing Daniel! My Stats are 'permanently' increased! 'Permanently'!!" Katie said, her excitement is increasing once again.
"….Nh? A-ah, yeah. It's amazing alright…" I gave a half-hearted reply.
"What's up with that reply!? Don't you get it!? 'Permanent' Daniel. My Stats were permanently increased!!"
"I-I got it. I got it. I heard you the first time. I was just thinking."
Despite having calmed down before, it seems this time it's impossible. I don't' think my [Healing Touch (H)] can do anything about this.
However, I'm not surprised. She totally in the right to be this excited from discovering this truth.
Permanent Stat increase through Skills. To my knowledge, such a thing has never happened ever since the System's first inception. Whether it was here on Earth or in the otherworld, Arrynna, a permanent Stat increase by another System's Skill is practically unheard of.
There have been several instances of temporary Stat boost using certain System's Skills that have happened over the years, but that will never hold a candle to permanent Stat increase.
A 'permanent Stat increase' isn't an entirely new concept by any means. In all, there are 3 key methods used by people to this day to permanently boost their Stats: leveling up normally, 'Stat Potions', or simple training.
First let's start with the most common and quickest method at the beginning stages, leveling up.
By Leveling up, people can gain a random amount of points of any of their 'Stats' like STR or VIT. Depending on certain actions that you do, certain 'Stats' gain a higher chance and higher priority in getting huge amounts of points when you level up. Say you were made to punch a tree 1000 times for your System. Once you begin to level up, your STR Stat will have higher priority and higher chance in gaining a higher Stat increase due to you punching that tree so many times.
The second method for a permanent boost in Stats is through ingesting Stat Potions. Toted as the 'greatest creation ever devised' by its original creator, The Divine Alchemist System User Xenos. Using secret recipes that are known by only a few people, the 'Stat Potion' is the only known item capable of increasing a person's Stats just by consuming them.
The last and final known method to gain a permanent boost is through nothing but pure physical training. Just as it sounds, if you trained your body for a certain amount of time and repetitions, your Stats could be permanently boosted by increments of 1 point each time.
With this many methods to permanently boost your Stats, why would a permanent Stat boost made by a Skill be any special? To figure that out, we would have to go back and look at the various demerits each method has to offer.
While leveling up is probably to most common and the fastest way to gain Stats out of all of the methods, it becomes more difficult the higher Level you are. You see, each time you gain a Level, your EXP threshold you need to level up also increases. This obviously means that the higher Level you are, the harder and longer it takes to level up. At higher Levels, Stat boosting would be few and far between.
To use a 'Stat Potion' to permanently increase your Stats would be an impossible task for those who are not rich. Due to the potions being made low in numbers, using many rare ingredients, along with can only be made by super-advanced high-Level Alchemist-related Systems, the cost to buy one of these is on the level of buying an entire uninhabited island and sometimes even more.
Depending on training to help boost your Stats permanently is probably your worst option. While not dependent on leveling up or cost any money, the amount of Stat boost you get is not really worth the effort. You could be just doing push-ups and only that for 6 months only to get a measly 3 point increase in STR whereas just by leveling once you can get 4 points. Yeah, not worth it.
This is where the mythical' permanent Stat increase by Skills shines while the other three methods don't.
As it is done by a Skill, it is not dependant on either leveling, money, or possibly time. If there are no restrictions on the number of times a permanent Stat increase happens, theoretically a person could be able to infinitely boost someone else forever.
Judging from Katie's 'Stat Sheet', the amount of increase she gets from me using my Skills is comparable to the points she get from leveling up. It was as if she got the benefits of leveling up without actually doing it.
With benefits like this, it already blows training right out of the water.
You would never have any fear of running out as it doesn't require items or money unlike 'Stat Potions'.
With my Skill, becoming the strongest person in the world wouldn't be a dream.
If the wrong people were to ever find out about my Skill, I cannot possibly imagine what they would do to me.
*Shudder*
I involuntarily shivered from imagining the possible horrors that could be done to me.
"Katie….I have a favor to ask you."
"Say no more, I won't say a word."
"Thank you….really."
I am really glad I have you as a friend.
"However, I now have a new problem I'm worried about."
"More than being caught and used as a lab rat?"
"If I were to ever have to massage another person using my Skills, they would instantly find out my 'special ability'."
"….I don't think you have to worry about that. I-its fine if you only do it to me. (I can't possibly let anyone else receive a massage from Daniel….)" With her face red like a tomato, Katie offered a surprising proposal. The rest of her words were too soft so I couldn't hear them.
"You're fine with me doing it again? You would be a life-saver. If it is with you, I don't have to worry about anything," While surprised, I answered Katie's offer with a smile, I was really glad that she felt this way and would do this much for me. Katie became even redder.
It was at that moment that suddenly a System Window popped in front of my face without any input.
"Woah!?"
"W-whats wrong!?"
"Nothing. It's just my System Window just popped up out of nowhere and----hmm?"
Just as I was about to reassure Katie that it was nothing to worry about, a few words written on the System Window caught my eye.
'About the Ero Boost.'
Curious, I began to seriously look at what the System Window was about.
_____________________________________________
About the Ero Boost
Due to detecting the activation of the 'Ero Boost' for the first time, additional information will now be given to the owner of the Ero Masseuse System.
· Through the use of Skills indicated by (H) in them, the owner of the Ero Masseuse System can help increase a woman's Stats through carefully massaging certain parts of their body related to the Stat. To find out which body part matches with which Stat. discover it yourself *wink*. This is known as the 'Ero Boost'.
· The owner of the Ero Masseuse System can voluntarily prevent a woman from receiving the benefits of the 'Ero Boost' by tapping the (H) icon next to the skill name. The icon will appear as a transparent grey if done so.
· The max number of points that can be given to a single 'Stat' in one massage session is 6 points (HP and MP has a max of 50 points).
· A woman will be only able to receive an 'Ero Boost' from one session every week. Unless 1 week has passed since the session with the 'Ero Boost', no matter how many times you massage them, they will not get any more benefits. Though nothing is stopping you from doing so. *wink-wink*
This ends the information sharing. Until next time. Have a wonderful 'Ero' life. :)
_____________________________________________
Having read the new information, I instantly told Katie what I had just read.
"It seems there is nothing to worry about after all," I said with a relieved look on my face.
"….Yeah, nothing to worry about."
"?"
For some reason, Katie is a bit upset. What's wrong?
It can't be that she is upset that my fear of spreading information about my 'Ero Boost' is now no more, right?
Or is it that she is upset because now I am not forced to only have to massage her.
….That would be nice if that's the case, but self-consciousness must have its limits.
She must be just upset that her heartfelt wish to help me is now a bit cheaper because of the message. Yeah, that's probably the bigger reason (Saying that this is the 'bigger' reason belies my desire that the thing I thought up before is true).
Just as I was about to reassure Katie that her feelings have of course made it through me, a rather unpleasant voice sounded out behind me.
"Katie!!"
"--!? Tony!"
Katie's body became stiff from shock and guilt from being found together with me due to this shouting voice.
I slowly turned around to take a look at the person who made that shout.
As expected, the moment I turned around I saw a familiar face running towards us.
It was Tony Carson. Katie's boyfriend.