Blip!
[Assimilation complete! Dispensing rewards…]
Malcolm watched the screen flash numbly, not saying a word.
[Rewards generated!
Reward 1: Yang Affinity!
Reward 2: Strong Bonds (Spark Grade Yang Technique)
Your realm has changed! Calculating…
Please see Status for your new realm.]
'A…ssimilation?' he thought dumbly.
[Assimilation:
When you reach 100% Affection with a woman, they are Assimilated. Her Greatness Mersenia absorbs the woman into Her, embodying her aspects and gaining her personality.
If you wish to see these women again, fret not! Each one will be waiting for you when you satisfy the Husband System, housed within the perfect vessel of Mersenia Herself!]
'So Leila's… dead?'
No answer.
Malcolm closed his eyes, a tear falling and splattering against the bed sheets.
Inhaling a shuddering breath, he wiped his eyes and got out of bed, wandering aimlessly through the hall of his empty house until he stood in front of the bathroom mirror.
A handsome, yet tired face stared back at him, with eyes that were just as hollow as he felt inside.
Tomorrow would have been their anniversary. They had wed seven years ago, though he had started courting her two years before that. He was twenty-five years old now, and the baby fat that clung to his face back then was nowhere to be found.
His father and Allen, Leila's father, had died years ago, leaving them to inherit the houses and the farms. The city had confiscated Leila's farm since the two couldn't farm it and his at the same time to an adequate degree, so they had been living in his house ever since.
Now he was alone.
He breathed in deeply, then released the breath slowly. His brown eyes hardened as he felt a fiery resolve spring to life within him, and he brought up his status.
[Malcolm
Condition: Healthy
Realm: Spark
Affinities: Yang
Techniques: (Strong Bonds)
Spells: None
Charisma: 8
Strength: 8
Perception: 5
CF: 1]
[Strong Bonds
Spark Grade Yang Technique
Every percentage of Affection you earn increases your physical strength by 1% (max 100%). If you do not increase a woman's Affection after one week, this benefit will be reset. This benefit can be maintained by having at least one woman above 80% Affection under your relationship tab.]
It wasn't even close to worth the sacrifice of Leila. The thought of losing her for such a garbage 'reward' made him sick, and he couldn't help but think that this was all some sick joke.
'Realms,' he commanded the system.
[Realms
Realms are the measurement of the strength of your Crimson Fire. The ranks are as follows:
Mortal
Flicker: Spark, Candle, Torch, Bonfire, Blaze, Wildfire
(Locked)
(Locked)]
"So in exchange for her life, you gave me the second-worst strength someone can have?!" he screamed at the screen.
If he wasn't certain before, he was definitely sure now.
He'd play along with this shitty system for now. He'd use it to reach the top of whatever these realms were, and then…
He'd meet Mersenia.
He hadn't thought this through.
That was all he could think of the next day.
What could he do?
If he attempted to flee the city, he'd be killed in moments. At the same time, there weren't any marriageable women outside the city walls that weren't already married.
Something told him they wouldn't be good targets for the Husband System.
He could only morosely return to his duties when the sun rose in the sky, plowing the fields for tomorrow's planting.
Now that Leila was gone, he'd be cutting the tithe close. It wouldn't adjust until the next tithing season two days from now, so he'd have to work with the speed of two people to make up for it.
But now, not even the previously calming experience of working the land could take his mind off his worries.
Malcolm stood at attention next to his silo, a small, circular metal structure that was deceptively large on the inside. It extended downwards for over a kilometer, and was capable of housing over two tithes' worth of wheat.
He had barely managed to fulfill his quota without Leila, but the absence of her strong back nearby only served to sour his mood every minute of the day, and today was no exception.
However, he hid his inner turmoil behind an attentive frown. The collectors changed every three tithes, and this round of collectors had a particular woman within that reacted harshly to any negative emotion farmers showed.
To her, serving the Ascended was a privilege, not a burden or a responsibility. Easy for her to say, considering she never touched a trowel in her life.
Malcolm was unsurprised to find that this was the woman that led the procession of collectors, strutting about proudly with a clipboard tucked under her arm.
Behind her were two men waving banners bearing the city's crest, a chicken resting atop a sleeping dragon's head. Behind them was a wagon and a carriage, the first as large as three of Malcolm's houses and the other smaller and opulent.
The first one was bigger on the inside through some kind of magic Malcolm didn't understand, and was capable of holding his tithe and who-know-how-much else. The second was the Ascended sent to use the device.
He knew some farmers that would kill a man just to see one of the exalted beings around which their entire lives revolved, but sadly for those people, the Ascended would likely not even leave their carriage. Everything they needed to do was doable within.
The snooty woman at the head of the procession stopped in front of him with an exaggerated motion, as if she was a soldier that had just paused mid-march.
"Farmer," she said derisively.
"Antigone," he said with a respectful nod, pointing at his silo with a thumb. "It's all in there. After you're done, I need to talk to you about adjusting my-."
"Out of the way," she said, shoving him aside and eyeing the silo suspiciously. "Open it," she told the banner-bearers.
The men nodded, planting the wooden pole of their banners in the soft dirt and jogging over. With a twist that would have taken Malcolm a second but took the both of them five, they threw open the hatch and peered inside at the markings on the side.
"It's all here, Miss Antigone," one of the men said. "With a little extra."
"Strange," Antigone frowned, glancing at Malcolm after she looked inside herself. "You farmers never give extra. What's your game?"