Chương 165: Chapter 170: Skill issue

I felt her stir as we flew over the plains, the landscape was dotted with an uncountable number of ponds and small lakes, all frolicking with giant mosquitoes. I have to admit it though, I much preferred these mosquitoes than the ones back on earth, at least these I could easily kill, actually if they were little but bringing magical venom or diseases it would be so much worse.

Alya relaxed again in my arms, I was shielding us with my aura, so that the wind didn't slam into us, for a moment I thought she fell back asleep, but then I noticed that her breathing was quicker, and less deep. I could tell her that I knew she was awake, but after what she went through maybe a moment of respite to clear her thoughts, or damn, even to just process all that happened would be nice.

So I stayed silent, flying towards the safe zone, the setting sun on our right, it would have been an incredible scene if I wasn't feeling like my very own life was getting sapped from me, damnable curse. Was this how my enemies were feeling as I took their life-force? Well, my skills were acting in a very much more physical manner, but still. It was not only awful, but debilitating, and it was gradually becoming unbearable.

How was it that despite all the stats, traits and achievements that boosted my resistance to curses I was getting destroyed by not helping three idiots? I was feeling my heartbeat accelerate, a shot of anger mixed with adrenaline banished my encroaching depression for a moment before I calmed down again.

No use to lose reason, I needed to keep my wits about me, the truth was that it was my fault, all the power I acquired and the resistance I felt toward the curse made me sloppy, this should have been the exact situation that I should have avoided, that I ususally avoided before the tutorial… I became overconfident. And now I was on a timer. I sighed, then looked down at Alya.

"How do you feel?" I asked her. She slowly opened her eyes, two sky blue orbs looking straight into mine. I managed to push my aura down, under my arms, so to not touch her directly with it.

"Honestly? I don't know… I don't feel any pain if that's what you're asking, but," She took a deep breath and looked away from me.

"I feel a bit lost."

"Why?" Didn't she managed to accomplish what she wanted? Maybe even more.

"I… I suppose that you can't understand, I had a troubled past, with my family, my father especially. You remind me of him in a way, but only the good part, for the rest… let's just say that he's the cause of my anger issues. Or maybe I was the cause of my issue all along…" She chuckled at that, then shifted position slightly in my arm, to be more comfortable. I raised an eyebrow at that, she wasn't even trying to suggest to let her down.

"Now though, I think I'm ready to move on. I got the achievement by the way, Defiance of Tiers, like you said, extra stats plus class and trait token. And a couple more…" This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"I'm glad, now you can use the trait token to fix your problem, I'm sure you did enough for the System to recognize the direction you want to go to. And if you need to talk, you know you can talk to me."

"I know… thank you Eli… I wouldn't have managed without you."

"Don't mention it, by the way… I had to use a gargantuan amount of life-force to heal you, soo… you look a tad youger than before now." I said to her to lighten the mood a little. She widened her eyes in panic frantically starting to touch herself here and there, then finished with grabbing her face, then her boobs.

"No… it can't be…" I nearly dropped her by mistake during her outburst, what the hell was wrong with her?

"How… how old do I look like now?"

"Probably two or three years younger I would say."

"Fuck!"

"What?"

"I lost a size!" I looked at her in a deadpan. That was her problem?

"You'll grow older again."

"In three years! What if I would need more healing before that time and I would become even younger?? What if I returned a teenager?!" Well, she could pass for a teenager actually, but I wasn't going to tell her this.

"I'm sure it's going to be fine, ususally you'd have a healer healing you, not me, these should be side effect you appreciate, all women want to look youger no?" She grimaced at that, I knew that in her case, a girl of twenty-one, she didn't need to go back in age, but it won't be a problem in some years, actually she would come to me to ask about it.

That would be a great way of making money, Elias Rejuvenating Agency, sounded good to me, I would just have to kill millions of monsters and harvest their life-force to make a profit.

"Put me down, I feel like I need to walk a bit." I lowered us to a somewhat dry patch of grass in between two big ponds, she tested her footing as I let her down, taking small jumps in place. I knew the effect of raising your stats was exhilarating at the beginning, even now actually, I still felt so much power in me I could burst with it, actually… was it a good thing? I would have to get informed about it.

"So? How is it?"

"I feel strong, and light. I feel like I can go toe to toe with that scorpion and tore it apart with my bare hands now, but I know it's just a feeling, it was really strong, if it wasn't for that first strike, I wouldn't had any chance." It was true, and I wasn't about to sugarcoat it.

"Ah, by the way, I retrieved the corpse of the scorpion and I found a kind of red honey, I have reason to believe that it's our prize, it made a crystal like formation that I took and we should give it a go, probably it permanently increases a stat or something, like the plums we got in the gorg cave."

"Ah well, good to know, but where is it? In your pouch?" She looked at me skeptically.

"Nah, I have another thing for storing them, I'll show you later maybe, now there is no place to open the door around." There wasn't, in the plains I didn'y have any surface to draw the door with the stylo, so I'd give her her due later.

"Ok, so what are we waiting for? Let's rejoin the others." She was about to start running in the same direction I was flying but I stopped her.

"Wait, don't you want to evolve your trait now?"

"No, I want a safe place for using the tokens, tonight maybe, and if you don't mind, I'd like to be alone when I do it." It was actually understandable, so I nodded.

"Well, in that case, let's go." I raised myself a feet off the groung and started floating forward.

"Hey! That's not fair! Why should you keep your boots dry while I wade through the muck?"

"As Quinn use to say… it's a skill issue." I said with a laugh, accelerating.

"Come back here you!" Her voice was lost in the buzzing of mosquitoes flying toward us.

"Pick me up again! Hey! Can you hear me!" I wanted to tease her a little more, then I would lend a hand, but while this moment was passing my mind was returning to the meeting at hand, in a few hours if everything went right, I'd see the autoproclaimed Hero of Humanity. I needed to be ready.