The Path of Ascension 2: A LitRPG Adventure

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Camilla was a simple woman. Her Tier 1 Talent even gave her special options that she found fitting for her line of work.

Tier 1 Talent: Any Pain is converted to pleasure.

It was a detrimental Talent, but with her new AI, Camilla didn’t mind it. She just needed to be careful that she didn’t let wounds linger.

She was able to accommodate a whole new branch of clients. Clients that paid much better than average. The Talent came with some problems, and odd sensations but nothing she couldn’t deal with.

Pain had flavors, and so did her new pleasure sense. It took time to adjust to, but soon she was proficient enough to differentiate between pain pleasure and normal pleasure.

Her next year was entirely spent working. She even entertained a Tier 4 who was willing to protect her while delving and give her all of the essence in a Tier 2 rift. Camilla was able to advance quite a bit in those few months of delving a Tier above her own.

She was happy then and learned a lot about herself and her own preferences. One was her very strong preference for female clients over male ones. Soft over hard.

Everything came to a head when Duke Cumulus found her.

She was invited back to the duke’s manor by a retainer, and after spending an evening with him, she had caught the duke’s eye.

Camilla wasn’t even aware of what happened until she returned home for the evening. When she arrived, she had barely had time to freshen up before the madam called her down.

She had a VIP waiting for her. She was shocked. VIPs were all Tier 15s or higher. Camilla had never entertained anyone higher than a Tier 4. She was young and weak. The madam kept their partners within a Tier or two to prevent any harm to the workers under her care.

But VIPs got more leeway.

When she arrived, she found the man waiting for her, and she instantly recognized him. This was his capital world for the duchy, after all. This was also one of only four cities with teleport pads. The city was prosperous enough for the man to visit with his flying island once a year or so.

He was polite, at least when she first met him. He didn’t even invite her to a room, but simply talked to her. The duke exuded charm. His golden blond hair and emerald, green eyes seemed like they were trying to draw her into their depths.

Camilla wasn’t naïve enough to believe anything good would come of it, but when he left without incident, she put it to the back of her mind.

The next few days, she was tense, but nothing out of the ordinary happened. Within a week, she went back to her normal life. After three weeks, since the duke had been gone for a while, she forgot about the entire incident.

Camilla was walking through a lower Tier, open-air market, when her body suddenly locked up, and her limbs started moving independently. It was like hands were controlling her as if she was a puppet. She panicked for a while, but when she couldn’t call out, and she started walking to a more secluded corner, she tried to use her AI to call for help.

To her horror, she found it unable to reach out. Something blocked her connection.

That’s when her panic escalated. She was trapped in her own body, and nothing she did had any reaction.

Camilla watched as she nodded, and even waved to her usual chatting partners. They seemed unable to notice anything off about her, even though Camilla was screaming internally that she needed their help.

She passed behind and in between an awning and a leaning temporary seller’s stall. With mounting dread, she found her vision going dark while a rough cloth was shoved over her head.

Her ears stung as the opening of the sack had to stretch around her hair. The opening of the bag snapped snug around her throat, and Camilla found she had control over her body again. She tried to take a deep breath to scream and flail, but the bag cinched tight, and choked her until she saw dots in the dark bag.

Whatever had controlled her body had dissipated, but her muscles slackened and became unresponsive to anything but the slowest movements.

Camilla forced herself to remain calm and tried to listen to her surroundings. But all she could hear was her own breaths swirling around the bag, and her heartbeat thumping heavy pumps of blood.

She was only able to count the passage of time with her mostly useless AI. She was forced into a smaller container, where she couldn’t stretch out at all, and was forced into half-crouch. Even then, she was unable to properly control her body, and was slumped into an uncomfortable position.

The minutes ticked by, and Camilla watched as seven hours passed. They were the longest hours of her life. She was unable to hear but could feel sounds and vibrations on her skin.

It was her only solace and company while she watched each second tick by. Tears and snot had long since dried on Camilla’s face, and the pleasure of her legs cramping was adding more stress to her situation.

Camilla wanted to scream, but the mask forced her voice down.

When the bag was ripped off, the first thing she saw was a flash of a bright light and shining green eyes.

Duke Cumulus.

“What…”

She was cut off with a backhand that shattered her jaw. It sent a wave of pleasure like she had never experienced before. The duke’s hand glowed, and the relief joined the diminishing pleasure from her jaw as she spat out blood.

“Ahh, my newest little whore.” The duke’s cultured voice cut through her pleasure fogged mind.

This time, he gently caressed her face with the same hand that had broken it and healed her.

Camilla tried to back away from the box she was in to keep her from retreating.

She didn’t speak. She wasn’t stupid and wasn’t going to give him the excuse of her speaking out of line.

Her AI may have been out of commission, but that didn’t mean her brain was.

The duke stood up and tipped her out of the box with a foot. The relief of her legs finally being able to stretch was an added pleasure to her other converted aches and pains.

She found herself in a stone room that appeared to be what she could only describe as a torture room. It was almost familiar to her. They had a similar setup in the house. They had AI control so no one could get stuck, but she doubted that these would have such a feature.

The Tier 35 gave her time to survey her surroundings.

There was a translucent wall that let her see into a second room, separated by what she could only guess was a runic barrier.

“Do you like your new home?”

Camilla did not respond and was kicked into the heavy wooden table. Her hip was shattered, and she couldn’t feel her left leg.

With her broken body bent over the table, she saw a girl with golden hair look at her from the neighboring cell. Her eyes were so dull, that if the girl wasn’t rocking back and forth with her arms wrapped around her chest, Camilla would have thought she was dead.