Chương 89: I Got a Date! I Got New Skills!

I Got New Skills!

POV: The Dark Lord, Milo Miles I'd just done one of the boldest things I'd ever done in my life, and it was hugging a girl. For maybe thirty seconds? I don't know. It felt a whole lot longer than that. Why did I do it? Well, I'd wanted to reassure Eve. I'd tried telling her my thoughts, which I still didn't think were half bad: if I really did have to die by the tree to keep Ladon from respawning, then that made it something only I could do. And if that was the case, I could turn it into a bargaining chip.

I was pretty sure the elves couldn't take me down, I am a Level 9999 Dark Lord, after all. Ywain could maybe manage it, but he shouldn't be blessed with cheat buffs like last time, and with my higher Terror Level now, I'd fare a lot better against him. Heck, if not for all those buffs before, I'd have won the moment Hell's Sword went through him.... Which reminded me, I really did need to check my new skills. After Eve had sorted herself out, at least.

Because despite everything I'd laid out for her, she'd still looked lost somewhere deep in her own head; brow faintly furrowed, eyes fixed on the grass, or her own feet. And I really, really didn't want her looking like that. So I just... hugged her. Figuring she probably wouldn't mind, since she'd done more or less the same to me earlier today during the Cerberus ride. We'd let go by now, and the awkward quiet had crept back in between us, but this silence felt different from the one before. Warmer, somehow.

Easier. I hoped Eve felt it too, that the hug had actually worked. I'd worried I was rushing things, doing it out of nowhere like that, but she'd pulled me closer, and whispered a thank you, so... it should have landed well?

"Um, right. So—sorry about that," I said. Which was a bizarre thing to apologize for, given she'd clearly not minded in the slightest. But what else was I supposed to say? I wish I could hug you longer? Yeah, no.

"N-no. I mean—it's fine." Eve's voice had gone soft.

"You made me feel better, so... thank... you." Her words shrank smaller and smaller toward the end, until they were barely there at all, and with her flushed face to match, she was… well, cute. Really cute. Man. If it weren't for everything crashing down on us right now, I'd have loved to just... explore this. Whatever this was. This newfound warmth, or tenderness, or—some something that had grown up between us. It was progress. A step in the right direction, I was sure of it.

But of course, now was absolutely not the time to be dwelling on any of it. The elves were in danger. We still had a mountain of things to untangle with them. And most of all, Nyx was still out there. Ywain fancied himself the chosen one, which meant he almost certainly carried that insufferable protagonist-of-the-universe swagger with him everywhere.

And even though I believed Nyx wouldn't be genuinely harmed, that she was too valuable a bargaining chip to damage, I couldn't shake the fear that he might do something nasty to her anyway. The thought of it set my blood boiling. And this time… this time, I found that I wouldn't mind killing him.

"Milo? You're making that face again." Oh, crap. We'd only just gotten past that, and here I was doing it all over again.

"Sorry. I was just... worried about—" I caught myself.

"... things." Eve stepped in closer and took my hand, laying her palm gently over the back of it.

"It'll be okay," she said, then a brief pause, like she was choosing her words.

"I know you're worried about Nyx, but we're all here. We'll help."

"Yeah. Thanks."

"And... um. Once she's back, and everything's settled..." Eve let go of my hand, slow, and started shifting her weight side to side, eyes fixed on her own feet.

"Can we... like. Go somewhere? Together?" Okay, that came out of nowhere. Though I could tell it had cost her a ton of courage to get it out, and even for someone with basically zero experience with girls, after watching Eve go all fidgety and crimson in front of me like this, even I could work out that go somewhere together meant a chance to take this something between us a step further. Which meant, yeah. This was a date request. It had to be. And what kind of idiot could possibly refuse that?

I could fire back a cool, effortless yes in a heartbeat.

"Y-you mean—like. Just... the two of us?" You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Eve gave a small twitch, her face going even redder, and then nodded twice, softly. Oh, man. It really was a date request.

"Y-yeah…I–I'd love to," I said; so much for cool and effortless.

"In fact—I'd actually been meaning to ask you something like that too. Once, uh. Once everything's, you know. Settled." It didn't come out remotely smooth. But, first time for everything, right? A smile tugged at Eve's mouth, the kind she was clearly trying to hold back and failing to.

"Then... we'll arrange it. Soon. T-thank you." Which sounded a touch too formal for the occasion, but this was probably her first time doing this too, so. Besides, she looked pretty cute again doing that. Great, I sounded like an absolute creep now. The awkward quiet dropped between us again, though this one felt oddly, warmly pleasant. Right. Now what am I supposed to say?

"I—I think I'll go check on sis and Mel," Eve said.

"Oh—yeah. Yeah, sure. I'll head back in too. Start asking the elves some questions." And we walked back to the house together. It felt strange, somehow, but I didn't want the moment to end, either. So after a quick round of questioning assisted by a few more tickle threats, the elves agreed to take us to Silvanis alongside Faylen, which was crucial. Faylen alone could take us to Silvanis, but we'd need to figure out what to do with these elves too.

Lunessa, who was already awake, had suggested taking them with us since they could also be used as bargaining chips, which made perfect sense. Also, tickle torture aside, they didn't really have reasons to refuse. Eve had woken Mel not long after we'd gotten back to the house, and Mel had promptly slapped sealing spells on all three of the new elves, so they couldn't cloak themselves anymore. Besides, they needed me to seal Ladon away for good, which meant me showing up willingly saved them a mountain of effort.

The only real downside, from their side, was that we'd all be awake for the trip instead of tranquilized and hauled off like luggage. But since we'd made it clear there might be another way to read the prophecy, one we'd have to hash out with the Elder, there wasn't much they could do about that either. Once we got there, I figured we'd need Lunessa to handle the actual talking with the Elder. If I were to be left dealing with that alone, I'd almost certainly find a way to screw the whole thing up.

Plus, I have checked my latest Terror Level and skills. They're as follows. NAME Milo Miles CLASS Dark Lord LEVEL 9999 TERROR LEVEL 40 SKILLS PASSIVE Mental Link, Intimidating Aura [Level Up], Flight, Eye of Affirmation, Thousand Arms OFFENSIVE Sleep Gas, Telekinesis [Level Up], Sensory Distortion, Infernal Flame, Hell's Sword [New Skill Available!] DEFENSIVE Smokescreen, Purgatory Shield, [New Skill Available!] SUMMONS Skeleton, [New Summon Available!] There was quite a lot to unpack given the huge jump.

To be honest, I didn't expect a 10 level jump, but since it happened, I wouldn't complain. For the passive skills, both Intimidating Aura and Telekinesis got a decent power up. I should test them out during our way to Silvanis. Intimidating Aura [Lv. 3] Radiate an invisible aura that could intimidate other creatures. Telekinesis [Lv. 3] Move objects with your mind without needing to physically touch them.

For the offensive skill, apparently it can only be used when I have Hell's Sword equipped, and I have to say, it's pretty epic, just like what Nyx had told me before. Infernal Wolf Fires a fiery wolf that can chase the target; the wolf is made from Infernal Flame. Can be turned off at will. The defensive skill was a bit… questionable, however. Soul Link Binds to a target and all the damage received by the target will be transferred onto you. Cooldown: 30 minutes. That practically screamed death flag.

Like, it's the kind of skill you use to nobly throw yourself in front of someone at the dramatic climax. Still, the more I think about it, the more I realized it was actually kind of broken. I was Level 9999 and only holy attacks could damage me. So, if someone got caught by some unavoidable attack, and it wasn't of the holy element, I could just redirect the whole thing onto myself. They'd feel nothing, and I would also feel nothing. No one would suffer any damage....

Though, I would need to be careful and judge the attack. If either Nyx or Eve was about to get hit by a holy spell or some sort, using Soul Link would probably cause more harm than good. Well, best not to think too hard about that part right now. Surely, the death flag would not trigger, right? This wasn't some sad anime shit… right? As for the summon skill, that was the one I was most hyped about. So far I only had the one skeleton, which I'd mostly been using to fetch firewood.

A second summon, something more useful, sounded great. Sure, the skeleton had bailed me out of a couple of Ywain's attacks before, but still. A new summon! Who wouldn't be excited? I pulled up the summon window, and the newest addition was— Slime Summons a slime that obeys instructions. What the fuck?