by E. M. Hardy
Intelligence
13
Cunning
11
Spirit
0*
Willpower
4*
Affinity (Demonic)
16
*Penalized by Broken status effect
Fledgling Incubus Skills
Phase
Active Skill—turns you immaterial for 3 seconds, allowing you to walk through solid matter for the duration (50 life points or 50 mana points)
Shapeshift
Active Skill—transform between human and incubus forms (100 life points)
Dream Cage
Active Skill—allows you to inflict sleep paralysis in sleeping victims. Lasts between 1 to 60 minutes depending on your target’s Willpower and Perception (50 life points or 50 mana points, requires Incubus Form)
Enthrall
Passive Skill—disables higher cognitive functions of victims and makes them more receptive to your commands. Permanent, but victims can resist if their Willpower surpasses your own Willpower (500 life points, requires Incubus Form)
Hunt
Active Skill—outlines humanoid auras within a 100-foot radius for 30 seconds. Also allows you to identify high-value victims that grant 200% bonus Life Points when drained via Ravage. (50 life points or 50 mana points, requires Incubus Form)
*Warning! Ravage no longer detected in skill list; related bonuses will not apply.
Drain Life
Active Skill—directly absorb 10 life points per second from a target. Also lowers target’s vitality by 0.1% every second (requires Incubus Form)
Indulge
Passive Skill—drain 10% of a target’s current Life Points when your partner orgasms during coitus. You gain double the drained amount in Life Points. (requires Incubus Form)
“Huh… that’s new,” Glenn mused as he focused on the updated skill, going over the information provided in the tooltip.
Ynnistoria: if you had used Ravage on Kristina, activated it during your intercourse last night, you would have gained around 1,500 life points in total. Due to the changes made by your… no, due to Ravage morphing into Indulge, you only gained less than half that value.
Glenn shook his head as he dismissed the menu. “I prefer this new version, to be honest. I would much rather avoid killing or even harming others if possible. I also like the idea of giving Kristina as great a time as I can. Ravage, if I remember correctly, just relied on me getting off. Indulge doesn’t work that way; the more I bring her to orgasm, the more life points I get in return. It’s the least I can do for… you know, basically begging her for a lay.
“And if you want to view this change from a rational perspective, I would much rather avoid leaving dead bodies around. That’s not exactly a great thing to have hanging around my conscience, even if you disregard the practical issues like the police.”
His mysterious digital assistant hesitated for a few more moments before replying.
Ynnistoria: If you say so, Glenn. But please do realize that leaving witnesses alive is just as risky if not riskier for your wellbeing.
“So… indulge drains 10% of Kristina’s life points when I make her cum, and I receive double those points,” Glenn powered on, ignoring the very sensible comment that Ynnistoria shot back at him. “I basically gained around 700-ish life points last night… wait, how’d I get that many points?”
Ynnistoria: You brought Kristina to orgasm a total of 18 times last night—3 from foreplay, 15 from coitus.
Glenn froze still, holding on tight to the scrap of cloth in his hand. “Woah. That’s… is that even possible? Shouldn’t she be sore as hell after the first couple of times?”
Ynnistoria: This is due to your metamorphosed skill, Glenn. Instead of quickly draining your victim once, you are forced to continue pleasuring her for hours on end. Worse still, each subsequent orgasm returns fewer and fewer Life Points. This is due to Indulge draining your victim’s current Life Points, not her total Life Point pool.
Ynnistoria: It is an extremely inefficient procedure, Glenn, and you need to repeat the procedure in the next 728 minutes—a little over 12 hours.
“Oh. That’s… troublesome.”
Ynnistoria: It is troublesome indeed, Glenn. You will begin to feel Infernal Hunger once you reach a quarter of your life points—550 life points—while Infernal Ravening will trigger at the ten percent mark, or 220 points.
Glenn groaned, palming his face in frustration. “That ravening thing is not something I want to repeat… ever again. Seriously.”
Ynnistoria: Please do your best to avoid reaching that point, Glenn. Might I suggest using Hunt to find your next quarry? You no longer possess Ravage, but perhaps your benefac… I mean, perhaps Hunt might metamorphose into a new skill that synergizes with Indulge.
“That’s… not a bad idea, really.”
Glenn finished fixing up what he could in Kristina’s room, piling up the shredded clothes and stacking them on a chair beside a garbage receptacle. He craned his neck, wondering what he should do next for the woman kind enough to give him a second lease on life.
And that’s when he realized something very important about transforming into an incubus: his clothes didn’t survive the encounter.
***
Glenn greeted a very groggy, very confused Kristina with a smile.
“Whuh you still doin’ here?”
“Cooking breakfast,” he replied nonchalantly, putting down a plate of scrambled eggs and toasted bread along with a glass of orange juice and a jar of jam to match. “Apologies in advance for rummaging through your kitchen. I tried picking out the less expensive-looking stuff for breakfast.”
Kristina just stared stupidly at Glenn, eyes wide with surprise as the last bits of sleep drained out of her system.
“Is that shirt mine? And those jeans… those are mine!”
“Yeah, I owe you another round of apologies for raiding your closet. Seems my clothes don’t conveniently shift to accommodate my incubus frame.”
“That’s a first for me, waking up with the guy wearing my clothes.” Glenn shrugged as he set the eggs and toast down on a nearby table.
“Huh. That’s another thing that surprises me. Most guys just skip out first thing in the morning. Some just up and run, others try to at least make some small talk before letting themselves out. And I thought you didn’t know how to cook?”
Glenn tapped his head in response. “Digital assistant. She helped me learn all I needed to know, guided me through the process. I think I did a good enough job that you won’t die from eating this stuff. At least, that’s what my assistant told me.”
Kristina eyed Glenn warily before turning her head sideways. “I don’t know how to say this politely, so I’ll just go ahead and say it out loud: I’m not looking for a relationship. The sex was great and all, but I’m not in the market for a boyfriend right now. Nothing personal, yeah?”
Glenn just stared back, his neck craned. He remained silent for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. “Fair enough. Still, I’d feel bad if I just fled after basically using you last night. Least I could do is cook up some grub to make your morning a little better.”
Kristina sighed in relief before shooting back a naughty grin. “Well… to be honest, when I said the sex was great and all, I meant ‘holy shit that was mind-bogglingly, toe-curlingly insane.’ Waking up to the smell of sizzling eggs and hot toast makes it even better. I’m definitely going for more of that… hell, we can go right now if you’re up for it.”
Glenn smiled and shook his head. “Your life points are a bit low at the moment. It’s best if you rest up and recover before we try anything like that again.”
Kristina stared blankly at him for just a second before realizing what he meant. “O
ooohhh yeah. The incubus thing. Shit, that thing with the wiggly tail and squishy horse-dong was real, wasn’t it?”
Glenn chortled in reply, not quite able to suppress his snort of laughter. “Pretty real, yes, and you just gave me an extra seven hundred minutes of life.”
“Uhm. What? Seven hundred minutes of life?”
“Yup,” Glenn drawled as he gestured for Kristina to sit down for breakfast. “The more frequently I bring you to orgasm, the more points I get in exchange.” He chortled at that thought, intentionally failing to mention how Ravage originally worked.
“After what you did to me last night, I thought for sure I set you up for at least a month or so.” Kristina grinned mischievously as she broke the yolk of her egg and dipped a piece of toast in it. “But seven hundred minutes… that’s less than twelve hours left.”
Glenn nodded in affirmation. “Sadly, that’s true.” He was just about to say something else when he clammed up, visibly stiffening up after a few moments.
Kristina picked up on the sudden spike in tension. “You need to bang some more, don’t you?”
Glenn startled at her response, then hesitated for a moment before acquiescing. “Yes, but your life points are just too low right now. Even if we got at it for a couple dozen rounds, I would only gain a handful of points while weakening you to the verge of death.”
Kristina frowned. She sipped at her glass of juice, taking the time to mull over his words before setting her glass down and leaning in closer. “Am I going to see news reports of women around Nu Angeles getting drugged and raped by a mysterious blue monster with a wiggling dick?”
Glenn recoiled at her blunt accusation, wincing at the sharpness of her tone. “That… is something I want to avoid. Last night happened because I let my life points go down too low, reached the point where my incubus instincts took control. I’m hoping to find some way to avoid letting the hunger get that bad.”
“And how, exactly, will you convince some poor sap out there to spread her legs out for you?”
Glenn hesitated for a moment, before slumping in defeat. “I honestly don’t know. I… guess I can try winging it? Maybe my assistant, Ynnistoria, can help me better understand how to get laid without getting all rapey and stuff.”
Kristina narrowed her eyes at him, the frown still on her face. “Right. Well… I have a few friends who might be able to help you out in that department. ‘Might’ is the keyword here—no guarantees.”
Glenn responded with raised eyebrows, obviously surprised by her proposition. “Uh… thanks. That’ll be greatly appreciated.”
Her frown deepened, brows creasing and lips curling in disgust… before it all fell apart as she snorted out a laugh. “Says the incubus who basically fucked my brains out. I’ve had my fair share of orgasms, mister, but never a dozen at a time and never ones that don’t let me cool down. Hell, I was riding so high last night that I thought I would freakin’ cum to death.”
She smiled a naughty smile then, holding up a bit of toast and pointing it toward him. “And besides… I think Haze and Sam will want a piece of you.”
“Haze and… Sam?”
“My BFFs Hazel and Samantha. We share a special, how shall I say it, interest in the occult.” She pointed a thumb back toward her room. “I wasn’t kidding when I said you were my biggest fantasy come to life. Always thought demons were just an aesthetic extension of the goth lifestyle, mere symbolism and morality plays. Imagine my surprise when an honest-to-god incubus wakes me up in the middle of the night wanting to fuck me good.
“So yeah, Haze and Sam will definitely want to check you out—especially after I reveal all the sordid details.”
“Um. Right…”
Glenn shifted uncomfortably in his seat, not wanting to be reminded of how he assaulted her in her sleep.
“I’ll get in touch with you in a few hours if they’ll take me up on my offer. If they’re game, then they can help solve your life point issue. If not… then I guess you do what you have to do to survive.
“Anyway,” Kristina said, dismissing his concerns with a wave of a hand. “I’ve got practice coming up in about an hour. Gotta get a hang on the new SoulBound meta. Shield classes got a huge buff in the most recent patch, and I have to learn how to get around their guards without getting smacked around by all the bashes they can slam in my face now.”
She sighed, her head clearly not focused on practice after the night she went through. “How about you, Glenn? What does an incubus do for his day job?”
“Customer service representative for Immentrop-Reubens Robotics,” he replied cleanly, professionally, as his training kicked in.
“Basically the human face for the AI that listens in and fixes the problems for you,” she countered quickly, brutally, and without a hint of remorse.
Glenn chuckled at that, then gamely inclined his head toward Kristina with his working smile. “Glenn Olson, at your service ma’am. How may I help you today?”
Kristina laughed at that gesture, a prelude to the two spending the next half-hour swapping tales about their jobs.
It was mostly Kristina complaining about spending every waking minute of her life practicing and practicing and practicing some more. That, and dealing with the stress of being one of the few female e-athletes with the grit and the reflexes to slug it out with her male counterparts. She both loved and hated it, although she did get a kick out of browsing the endless deluge of porn revolving around her Soulbound Online avatar.
Glenn just sat there, nodding and occasionally making a comment or two. The life of a customer support agent wasn’t as glamorous as that of an e-athlete, but Kristina found some strange amusement out of hearing him tell his stories.
He returned to his apartment after that short time, feeling a strange surge of warmth in his chest that he could not remember feeling for so very long.
Chapter 04
“Glenn! Finally! Are you alive back there, or should I call the morgue and have them pick up your cold, clammy corpse and toss it in the recyclers that make the nutri-shit you love gobbling down so much?”
“And a very good morning to you as well, Lee.”
His boss’ alt-world avatar laughed, a perfect replica of its chubby, affable, and somewhat clueless real-world equivalent. IR Robotics wanted its CS reps to be as genuine as possible when conversing with clients, which explained the company enforcing a ‘true-to-life’ policy when working with virtual avatars. Be who you are—that was the slogan of the customer support department.
Of course, that was a very carefully-tailored image maintained by the public relations department. A company that offered a wide range of robots, from bulky factory-line bots and self-propelled assistant bots to lifelike ‘companion’ droids and military-grade hunter-seekers, needed a human face to put its clients at ease.
“Yeah, I reviewed the medical certificate sent over by your cyber-doc. ‘Glitched-out software,’ eh? I never thought you’d try something as extreme as modding your implant while it is still attached to your brain!”
Glenn shrugged as his avatar walked through the virtual offices of IR Robotics. “I honestly have no idea what happened to my implant. It was working just fine two days ago, and then it just wonked out on its own.”
Lee frowned, studying Glenn’s avatar for any sign of deception. “Okay then. If you say so. You good to get back to work now? We’re a bit swamped, and we could definitely use an extra body in the mix.”
Glenn was just about to reply no, that he would like to use up the rest of his stockpiled sick leaves. He wanted to be ready for Kristina if she contacted him to deliver news about the friends she mentioned. He needed to top up his life points in the next couple of hours, and he needed to be prepared to head out just in case Kristina’s contacts failed to pull through.
Except that the tension in Lee’s voice betrayed the smooth, perfect appearance of his avatar. Glenn identified that slight tremble of desperation that Lee adopted
whenever upper-management was squeezing him for results.
Glenn sighed, then nodded. “I’m still not a hundred percent recovered from the reset done to my implant, but I think I can manage half a day.”
“Perfect!” Lee barked out with delight, sighing in relief. “Nina and Trevor will be logging in later in the afternoon, but we’re short on hands this morning. A lot of people have been dropping out, going absent without notice of leave, and HR is scrambling to pick up substitutes.”
Glenn stared at Lee for just a moment, blinking in incomprehension. “I know customer support isn’t a popular career choice, but is it really that hard to find people willing to fill in? Even just temps?”
“Temps,” Lee replied with lips curled up in disgust. “The AI will do a better job than temps in customer service rep slots. At least the bot-brains won’t do something stupid like backtalk at someone bitching about their buggy droids. It takes time and money to train dopes like us into decent CSRs that can handle shit thrown at us.”
Lee scratched his head in frustration, more to vent than to alleviate any real itch.
“The higher-ups are moaning about ‘lazy layabouts’ that stop showing up to work when the mood strikes them. What they’re really bitching about though is that they’re facing the prospect of having to increase wages just to maintain the ‘true-to-life’ bullshit policy that marketing is shoving up everyone’s asses. I bet that if operations and accounting had their way, they’d rub out that policy, take the tax credit hit, and just replace every one of us with AIs to handle customer support.”
“Well, there’s always universal basic income,” Glenn mused, going along with Lee’s train of thought. “The robots and AIs get enough done that nobody really needs to work if they don’t want to. But still, the pay should be good enough to at least attract a steady stream of interested applicants.”