Ch 24 Sakyubasu ni Tensei Shita no de Miruku o Shiborimasu (Because I Reincarnated as a Succubus, I’ll Squeeze Out Milk)

Ch 24 -- The Truth About Levelling Up

~ What has gone before ~

· My second day of life in a different world began.
· My curfew is at 17:00.

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"This is the second day of your reincarnation, Richy-chan. Do you feel any different, is your health the same?" Sumirena-san asked as she poured more alcohol for Minoko.

"Well,  let me see..." I had been a man, now I was a woman. I had been reincarnated as a demonic creature, a Succubus and I was no longer human. So, different, yes definitely. I'd had a night's sleep and woken up and it wasn't a dream or a nightmare, it was real so I had to accept it. Rather than fretting over it and stressing myself out about my new body I had given up worrying about it.

Even though I said that I had given up, it was still a problem. I've seen my new form naked. The weights on my chest were distracting and frustrating. Going to the toilet in the forest near the little hut had made the changes to my body's plumbing down there very clear to me and thinking about THAT brought my attention to the fact I needed to go and urinate again sometime soon. I wasn't sick though, in fact I felt better than usual. Sumirena-san was still looking at me, expecting an answer so I said "No problems."

"I'm glad. Myself I often have a bad time on the second day so it's a relief to know you're not experiencing it the same as I do." she answered.

What is it about the second day? Her comment confused me, what was she talking about? I almost asked her outright and then decided I probably didn't want to know the answer.

"Oh, one thing did happen." I suddenly remembered.

"What is it?" she said, looking at my crotch again for some reason.

"Last night, some time after the bath I checked my Status and my level had gone up to 2 but I don't know what caused it to go up."

"Oh, your level. It increased? My goodness, well well..." Sumirena-san's reaction suggested to me she knew something about it.

"Possibly you know something about how Succubi level up?" I asked.

"Well, I suppose, yes I do know a little about it." Sumirena-san put down the bowl Minoko had been drinking out of and settled back down on her stool. "I think I mentioned yesterday that I knew someone else besides Richy-chan who is a Succubus and she told me once about what levelling up entailed for her."

"So can you tell me what it was!?" I was excited to find out, to understand how and why I had levelled up myself last night.

"I don't mind informing you but from what I know of you, Richy-chan, it's definitely going to come as a shock when you hear what I have to say. Is that OK for you? After all levelling up for a Succubus is kind of a special process."

I thought about what Sumirena-san had said for a few moments. It sounded worrisome, but- "Still, it's about who I am now I'm a Succubus. I want to know." I took a deep breath. "I have to know." I tried to look brave as Sumirena-san studied my face keenly, then she nodded.

"Very well then." she turned to the bar counter and gestured to her younger brother. "Erim, you come here. This concerns you too." Erim had told me he was studying the ecology of demons and it seemed Sumirena-san was taking this opportunity to pass on some of what she had learned to further his education. Erim and myself lined up before Sumirena-san as she sat on her stool.

"This information, it's not just about Richy-chan." She sighed. "It will be very painful for Erim too."

"For me too?" Erim inquired.

"Yes, it depends on the feelings you have for each other. In the worst case you'll reject each other and it may be impossible for you to return to being friends like you have been. Are you still ready to hear the truth? "

Is learning this information really that serious? Knowing how I level up as a Succubus balanced against being  friends with Erim, well if I had to choose, then... I didn't realise how hard I had been clasping my hands in worry until Erim reached over and gently patted them.

"Rest assured." he said, smiling. "No matter what truth my older sister reveals to you, to us my feelings for Richy-san will not change." He patted my hands once again. "Please trust me."

"Erim ......" I couldn't say anything more.

"Well said." Sumirena-san went on. "Believe in your younger brother, Richy-chan."

Believe in Erim? I had believed in him, I trusted him, could I trust him further? Yes, I decided.

"...I believe in him. Please continue." I said firmly, unclasping my hands.

Sumirena-san and Erim both said "Thank you." but it was I who was truly thankful to them.

Sumirena-san began to reveal her knowledge of Succubi to us. "First, the level of a Succubus represents magical power. It increases with each level up."

"Magical power? Isn't that the same as Elves?" Erim inquired.

Sumirena-san shook her head. "In the case of Elves, the strength of their magical power has a quality and purity of its own, different to that of Succubi." She smiled at Erim. "It's a bit like the taste of the excellent food you cook, it's not the quantity of food you serve to our customers that brings them back to this tavern time after time."

"No, what is more clearly different from Elves," Sumirena-san continued, "is how the experience points needed for a level up are achieved. Elves accumulate experience points ​​through training and study and learning but a Succubus gains experience points in a totally different manner."

"If Succubi are like the stories I've heard I've got a bad feeling about this..." I muttered, dreading the worst. Succubus and experience, well what sort of "experience" counts towards levelling up for a Succubus like me?

"Well, your guess is almost correct but it's more complicated than that." Sumirena-san said, her face stern. "Anyone can see their own level as a number and see when it increases. It's very clear and easy to understand. Can you take a look now at your own Status, Richy-chan? "

"Oh, yes." I concentrated and my Status started to appear, floating before my eyes. My job title was as usual [unemployed] and the other items hadn't changed either.

"Look at the level item, did you say it was something like (0/2) or (1/2)?"

"I am seeing: level 2 (0/2). Yesterday it was level 1 (0/1)." I explained.

 Sumirena-san nodded. "As I thought. You see, Richy-chan, the first number is the experience points you currently have and the second number is the number you'll need to accumulate to level up again." Sumirena-san caught my puzzled expression and continued. "Yesterday you were at level 1 and the Status read (0/1). When you, ahem, earned an experience point the Status message would go up to (1/1), your level went up to 2 as you can see now and the message reset showing you the requirements for another level up, in this case to level 3. You need two more experience points to do that."

"So the next time when it reaches (2/2) my level will go up to 3 and my Status display will show (0/3)? " I asked.

"No," Sumirena-san said, "The Succubus I know told me that the amount of experience points necessary for a level up doubles on each step. The next display after you level up to 3 will be (0/4) and I expect the one after that will be (0/8)." So it was the same as a typical RPG, levelling up becomes harder and harder the higher you go, I mused.

"So, what does this figure actually show?" I asked. What did the experience points I needed for levelling up mean and why had I levelled up overnight?

"Let me check some things with you before I go into that, Richy-chan. How many men did you encounter yesterday?"

Ummm... "Should I include the Orc in those numbers?"

"Tell me regardless of their race please."

"Well," I went through yesterday's events in my memory, "there was a single Orc, four shitty Adventurers, oh and I encountered a guardsman at the town's gate, plus Erim of course, so that makes ummm a total of seven people. Men, that is."

"Considering the time when you levelled up, the Orc, the guard on duty isn't..." Sumirena-san mumbled to herself, concentrating deeply and ignoring us for the moment. "Some of the Adventurers, hmmm..." She started counting on her fingers.

Left to our own devices for the moment Erim I looked at each other. I tilted my head, puzzled while he smiled reassuringly.

"... Haa. So that's how it is." Sumirena-san finally said, raising her eyebrows. Her expression... I started wringing my hands again.

"So tell me, why did my level go up?" I couldn't bear the suspense as Sumirena-san sat silently for a moment.

"The experience points of a...Succubus," Sumirena-san explained, not meeting my eyes, "are acquired by exploiting fresh targets." What did she mean? "For experience points only one point can be obtained from any person. To go from level 1 to level 2 you needed an experience point from a single person and you got that last night."

"What do you mean by a 'fresh target'?" I didn't understand...

"Once you get a point from a target it means you can never get another point from that target ever again, even if you repeat the same things with them over and over." Sumirena-san said, further confusing me.

"I still don't understand what you're telling me. What is a 'target'?"

"I'm talking about men, well males." Sumirena-san said.

"Men? If I get a man to do something I get a point?" What did they have to do?

Sumirena-san sighed and then said out loud, "Ejaculate."

"Is that all... wait?" What? She couldn't have said...

"Ejaculate. You know, splush!" Sumirena-san repeated what she said with a sound effect, to make it clearer to the idiot she was explaining things to.

"Eh, w- wait... Please! I have not done anything perverted!" Erim shouted, declaring his innocence.

 "It's true!" I added vehemently. "Even when I was attacked by the Orc and the Adventurers Minoko intervened and saved us before anything happened to me."

"Calm down, calm down, you do not have to have done anything directly, Richy-chan." she glanced at her younger brother. "Whether directly or indirectly," Sumirena-san explained, "if you, ummm, are responsible for an ejaculation in a male, no matter where you are, that event is converted into an experience point for you, Richy-san."

"So you're saying I was a trigger for..." I stopped, unable to say it.

"Basically Richy-chan, you were someone's wet-dream material last night and..." Sumirena-san was going to continue her explanation but I threw up my hands.

"Stoooooop! I get it! You don't need to say any more! No more!" Because I'd been reincarnated as a Succubus I had been expecting (and dreading) Sumirena-san to tell me that "experience" for me meant having sex. As I calmed down a bit I understood that it actually did involve sex but not totally the way I had imagined it to be. But what about last night, when I had gained an experience point and levelled up? Wet dreams, uh, did someone do that kind of thing? Beating off, masturbating while thinking of me? I shuddered. That felt worse, somehow than the very unpleasant idea of me having sex with a man at all. So who could it have been? I counted on my fingers, much as Sumirena-san had done before.

The Orc? Nope, because Minoko ate him before he could rape me. The Adventurers, well two of the four were seriously injured and wouldn't be able to do such a thing in their condition. The remaining two, they were terrified by Minoko and certainly wouldn't be excited in that way by me. Guardsman-san, he said he was on a night shift so he'd be on duty until morning and so he couldn't have done it. Six out of the seven possibilities were eliminated, there was only one left. I looked at the finger still standing in my hand like a... then turned my head to look at Erim's face, the sweat running down his grey bloodless features like a waterfall.

* * * * *

Succubus 101: Maths
Question: Since the number of fresh 'targets' a Succubus requires doubles for each levelling up, derive a formula expressing the total number of 'targets' required to reach a given level.

Answer: level n = (2 to the power (n-1)) minus 1 'targets'.

For example, Richy-san requires three 'targets' in total to reach level 3, seven 'targets' to reach level 4, fifteen 'targets' to reach level 5 and so on.

Supplementary question for extra credit: How many 'targets' would Richy-san need to reach Level 100?

Answer:  Level 100 would require 63,382,530,011,411,470,074,835,602,687 'targets'...