Max awoke spooning with Sophie. Her back was pressed into his chest, and his erection was nestled between her legs. It felt very right, and he didn't really want to move, for fear that Sophie might stop touching him. His right arm joined hers in holding onto a third person. It was then that he remembered that Chaeryn had stayed with them over night. The small woman was clasped tightly to Sophie, her elvish face vanished in the Valkyrie's bosom. He kissed her shoulder and Sophie stirred. She pressed her butt backwards into him, an action that further engorged his morning wood. She also squeezed the elf in front of her, eliciting a groan from Chaeryn.
While there were certainly parts of him that wanted to spend all day mindlessly thrusting his boner between Sophie's legs, there was a thing he needed to know. He opened his status and was delighted to see that he had gone up in level. Since he hadn't literally cut down any of the monsters on his dungeon raid, that had been far from certain. There were no catch-up mechanisms, if he fell behind his lover, he would expect to fall farther and farther behind as future dungeon raids gave more level advancement to those who had already advanced in level. The system was not fair and did not pretend to be.
Having a beautiful woman in his arms was distracting enough that he took a while to really inspect all his stats and skills. He had to look very carefully, because as it gradually dawned on him: none of them had changed at all. That was, to Max's understanding, not how things worked. A hunter went up in level and their stats got bigger. This in turn allowed them to challenge stronger monsters in more dangerous dungeons that would provide more level advancement and more powerful dungeon equipment through chests. If Max's level went up and his stats didn't change, it meant that he'd be falling behind the other hunters even if he wasn't falling behind them in level advancement. He was just about to give in to despair so thoroughly as to have his penis go limp when he realized that something had indeed changed: he had a lot more Mastery to spend. Like, a
lot
more. He had been holding off in spending his mastery with the fear that doing so might physically alter his party members as it claimed that his Aesthetic Preference would become more powerful, but it seemed he had no choice.
That wasn't really accurate though. He had
many
available choices. It seemed that his class gave him nearly full control over where his stats and other class advancements went. There was a lot of green text, and he could sink his Mastery into improving many different things. Such customization was potentially very useful indeed. But of course, he didn't seem to get any do-overs and there was no guide for his class on the internet. If he heaped all his advancement benefits into physical strength and it
didn't
make him strong enough to act as a slayer, he'd have wasted his advancement with very little to show for it. He thought it was probably something that rewarded skillful planning, but he also didn't see how it was possible to acquire that skill. He needed to discuss it with his girlfriend. "Sophie?"
"Rmmhmm?" As she became more conscious, she started to notice her boyfriend's cock and began subtly squeezing it with her powerful thighs. If there had been any risk of his penis losing its hardness and mission statement, that danger had passed.
"What did you get for leveling up?" There was truly no doubt in his mind that Sophie had gone up in level. She'd taken on the hardest dungeon, and she'd racked up the most damage while doing it.
"Whuh? Oh." Taking in her surroundings, Sophie noticed that she had been using Chaeryn's small body as a body pillow. She didn't know what to think about that, and chose to concentrate on her own status. "Looks like big increases to physical strength, vigor, and agility, with smaller bonuses to mettle and tenacity, and I'm not sure if perception and magical strength got a little bigger or stayed the same. And it looks like I unlocked shield rush." One of the things that made B-tier classes so much better than those of the lower tiers was that they unlocked a new skill the first several times they leveled up. Shield rush was a mobility skill that E-tier Shieldbearers got; not individually impressive but great to have alongside all the other skills that Sophie already had.
Unsure of how to describe what his leveling had provided, Max decided to put a positive spin on it. "Looks like mine is fully customizable. Leveling up gives me Mastery that I can use to advance any of my stats or the green text in my skills." She disentangled herself from both Max and Chaeryn so that she could turn around and face Max. This process involved his penis being bent and waggled more than it was entirely comfortable with at the hardness she had inspired in it. Chaeryn rapidly achieved full wakefulness as she was extricated from Sophie's boobs. Max looked into Sophie's blue eyes, and then peaking up above her shoulder he saw Chaeryn's purple eyes looking down at him. "For me to get any advancement from leveling, I'll need to spend my Mastery. But that might change you, I don't really know."
"Do it!" Sophie didn't hesitate a moment before replying. Chaeryn wasn't vocal at all, but she nodded her head in what Max assumed was affirmation.
Max didn't think it was as easy as that. "It's not that simple. Even if we accept the risks of spending the Mastery in the first place, we still have to decide what to spend it on. We have to pick a
build
, but we don't know how much agility or physical strength I can actually buy. It might be that we can make me into a solid front liner, but it might just waste a bunch of Mastery."
Sophie propped herself on her elbow and looked at him quizzically. "Well, your first purchases are obvious." She said it like it actually
was
obvious. "Right now you can only have three slaves, and by the time the party is ready to raid a dungeon, you need
five
so that you can use your powers on the whole party." Eyebrows were arched. "Plus, you get Mastery from each slave progressing their seals, so upgrading your slave limit to five is an investment." He had to admit that she made an excellent point.
That decided, Sophie further dictated that she and Chaeryn should lie naked on the bed side by side so that when he spent the Mastery he could see if there were any changes. Considering the submissive urges that came with him spending Capitulation on improving his slaves, Max had no real idea what to expect. Both women lay out enticingly on the bed. He opened his status, and willed his slave limit to increase. The rune for three changed to a rune for four. It used a big chunk of his Mastery, but it was thankfully still green. Neither woman looked any different, and they seemed to be still waiting for something to happen. Max, however, felt very different. He was
horny
. "I think that spending Capitulation gives you a temporary submissive urge. And," it was hard to get words out with two beautiful pussies in front of him, "when I spend Mastery, it gives me a temporary
dominant
urge. I
hope