5/17 Kriss's mind, one hour ago.
Kriss examined the necklace once more; it was a thing of true beauty and power. Able to strengthen the mind and body, safeguard against mana withdrawal, teleport the user, and more. It was a truly amazing bit of artifice, and she was proud to have had the opportunity to examine it.
(Amazing quality, dazzling, wonderful. I can't wait to put it on.)
"So it's mine?" She asked Erich as he pulled his pants back on. He had come to her first when he'd arrived in Quel'Lithien, though they'd kept it quiet. She'd ridden him with great enthusiasm, despite her mana hunger, and he'd given her a few mana potions to take the edge off.
(I'm no slut. Why can't I remember how we met? Or anything about our relationship? Oh. Now I remember. When I went to Stormwind, we met. We became friends and lovers. A strong bond that couldn't be severed by time. I don't know how I forgot.)
"Absolutely all yours, if you promise to give it a glowing review and clean bill of health when I bring it to the Ranger General. I just wanted to be sure that you had seen it beforehand so there would be no surprises." Kriss agreed immediately and enthusiastically.
(That seems suspicious. But I obviously trust him. He's my friend. I love him. He wouldn't do anything untoward. I'm certain of it. I wouldn't be so familiar with someone unworthy of trust.)
They had spoken of his plan to get the refugees to safety, and she'd agreed to conceal the small quantity of troll voodoo magic that had been used in its construction.
(Some elves would be so over dramatic if they had heard about that. How silly.)
She'd sulked when he had taken it away from her while he went to speak to the ranger general.
(I wanted it back so much. So so much.)
When they'd gotten to the side room, after she'd pretended she didn't know him in front of the general, she'd quietly asked for the necklace back. It had only been there for a short time, but her neck had felt cold and empty without it.
(Didn't I only put it on for the first time today? No. I think I must have put it on frequently for quite some time to be so used to it.)
"You can have it, but only if you promise to tell me you love me, three times before and three times after." Erich had a playful smile on his face, and Kriss couldn't help but join in.
(I wouldn't say that lightly, even as a joke. I'm a very serious woman. Do I love him? I mean. I must like him to be so friendly with him. Maybe I do love him.)
"Alright. I love you, I love you, I love you." The world seemed to shift subtly as he handed her her necklace, summoned somehow from nothing. It felt wonderful settling around her neck, but not quite how she remembered. A deal is a deal though. She turned to Erich, who was fiddling with his own amulet.
"I love you." He really was a great man, for a human. A good occasional lover.
"I love you." Honestly he was wonderful by any standards. She hadn't met many elven men who could compete with Erich.
"I love you." He was her everything. She would fight, kill, and lie for this man.
https://imgur.com/a/QJBJyzP
••••••••••
Holy shit that worked. Pretty well by the looks of it; she had bulked up a bit as body tune up undid most of the physical drawbacks of mana addiction. She was still thin, but I could use positive connotation words like "slender" instead of "skeletal" without being overly generous. A shame I needed to reset her appearance before we headed back out. The changes were positive, but the ranger general couldn't know how things had really gone. It was only a cosmetic shift back, of course. She was healed, at least for now, but if I wanted these elves to stay in good shape I'd need to give them access to a lot of mana potions. That, or pick up addiction defense and get Talaada to start recruiting them. Probably by openly marketing a cure for mana addiction.
I enjoyed Kriss for a bit before disguising her, pulling her into my lap to make out while she should have been studying the amulet. After enough time had passed, around an hour, we returned to Hawkspear and she insisted that they were real wonders, but they were safe to use. Best in the hands of a mage however; Caledra's should be transferred to the other spellcaster, Aurora Skycaller, who turned out to actually be a priestess rather than a mage.
We brought in the skeletal blonde, to whom I offered the charge on my arcane orb as a distraction while the necklace was put around her neck. I quickly forbid her from doing anything to make her fellows suspicious of me, and all of a sudden I had everyone likely to realize what my amulets were doing locked down. I turned to Hawkspear with a smile.
"So. Do you have civilians or important items? I'd prefer to get them out early. I worry that if it's your warriors that start leaving first, the Scourge may notice and start an assault."
"Yes; we have some valuable documents and around half of the people here are just conscientious objectors to mana tapping. In a sane world, they would be helping to rebuild Silvermoon."
"Good. I have a colleague in Stormwind ready to receive them. I'll also open a portal to my own space, which you can use as a fallback position. If the scourge does attack, I want as many of you to get out as I can arrange. Once your people are safe, we can hammer out the rest. Agreed?"
"Yes, agreed." Hawkspear extended a hand, and I shook it firmly.
"I'm afraid I need to return to other duties. I shall create the portal to my home whenever you call for it, and I taught Kriss how to use the amulet, and can send more people to assist if you request them. I wish you luck."
"I thank you, sir Bismark."
I smiled and summoned a portal to my apartment, closing the door behind me.
••••••••••
I settled heavily into my chair and checked my necklace for updates; I'd been walking around way too much and my fortitude spell was wearing off. Lividia had completed her mission and was currently with… huh. Drusilla. Apparently she felt like farming soul shards after she finished killing murlocs. Vicious girl.
I looked at the options for upgrades and was blown away. They were all really goddamn good. I had to actively look for problems with them to narrow down the selection. Did I really want something as complicated as Best Girl, where Lividia will automatically copy other people's skills? Probably not, though if I'd been handed it in a vacuum I'd be thrilled. Did I really need yet another giant dragon? Yes obviously, but maybe not as much as the other options. Did I want to send Lividia of all people on deep infiltration missions, even with a powerful magical shroud that makes it hard for people to suspect her of wrongdoing? No. God no.
That left either a very powerful hybrid form for combat, which would turn her into an absolute tank while still being capable of functioning indoors, or a 1/day full heal/debuff cleanse/resurrection that also summoned her to my location instantly, which I could also use when not aware of my surroundings.
Did I want my waifu to become a powerhouse that would, with a bit of training, become extremely difficult to kill, or stay as a relatively small dragon but become literally impossible to eliminate for more than 24 hours?
Three things swung the pendulum towards Together Forever. First, I honestly just wanted to keep Lividia around me. She was fun. I liked her. Second, I remembered that time I'd nearly died in Mary's cabin. I'd been caught alone and off guard. Having Lividia always on call with a moment's thought was even better than having her always on call with a 10 second delay. Third, I couldn't replicate this. Not really. Warranty plan came close, and I was already working towards it, but it wasn't quite the same. Compared to just another flying brick, a truly immortal and ever present companion was kind of special.
The absolute clincher though? Geometric power progression. This would let me summon and full heal Lividia. Right now, Lividia was a mid-low level trash mob. I loved her, but it was true. She wouldn't always be that though. I could power her up.
If I picked up talent sharing of any kind, she could be trained. If I wanted, I could give her the globster and she'd have power armor anyway, at the cost of me not having a pokeball. I could give her template stacking, or drop some credits to power swap her with someone stronger than she is. I'm not sure how exactly it would manifest, but if I wanted Lividia to gain the power set of Destroyer D.Va, it would cost ten credits. Or I could give her the Archdruid template, assuming I managed to kill all four dragons. Whatever powers she gained, they'd always be at my fingertips. Hell, I could give her a copy of Vanessa's power set right now if I wanted; it would only cost 5 credits. Having worked myself up into a frenzy speculating, I selected Together Forever.
Also exciting was that Amelie had apparently completed her mission, which meant I had one more Tauren now than I did before. At least in theory. I'd need to get her a necklace or something; for the moment she was pretty much cut off from everything. But that also meant two more missions: one minor, and one regional. I'd forgotten to set a new location, so there was another mission in Feralas.
What you lookin at?
Capture Narr, Gordunni battle master, who lives in the ruins of Isillen.
Reward: the Gordunni Ogres will begin skirmishing with the forces of Taerar, Face-off
Face-off: instantly trade physical appearances (including other sensory information such as sound and smell, including clothing) with a single target at touch range. One time use. Lasts 24 hours.
Ok. Normally I'd just write off a mission that requires capture in this situation, especially if I'm fully intending to dismiss this mission tomorrow for the sake of farming regional missions. But Narr is an ogre. A one headed ogre. Some of the most capturable people I have encountered so far have been one headed ogres. The rewards aren't bad either. Getting some ogres to soften the green dragons up, and a very useful bit of swag. Plus, obviously, another ogre; probably a strong one unless the title Battle Master just has no meaning anymore.
Talaada or me plus Mary or Lillibeth could teleport in and grab him real quick, assuming Amelie can get in close to give us that chance. I sent her those marching orders, then set the next mission to drop in the vicinity of Tony so this wouldn't happen again. Unfortunately, I also got some at least mildly bad news.
Feralas: King Gordok, Ogre King
Instant capture of the ten highest ranking ogres in King Gordok's chain of command
I mean. That reward is absolutely great. Some of the strongest ogres in Azeroth live in Dire Maul, but getting to him and either killing or capturing him will be a huge side mission. That was what I had Amelie for, I supposed, and there was no rush, but it was very out of my way.
What really disappointed me was that I'd been expecting to get a mission to defeat Taerar; Gordok is a badass ogre but he isn't a giant dragon. My best guess is that the mission system is designed to avoid double dipping. If I do a mission at Blackrock Mountain, I will probably get a bounty for Nefarian, but not Ragnaros because I already have a mission that basically requires that I defeat Ragnaros.
It had been an obvious exploit I'd been aiming at, but this was a beta. I'd been hoping for an oversight. Eh. It was fine. I hadn't actually lost anything. I headed to my bed to take a nap and drink some more green sludge. Before I really settled in, I sent Tony a note that if he wanted to go into any of the undead towns he could turn into a Tauren now, or an orc in a few hours, and set an alarm for a bit before when Imriss was set to be captured.