CH687

“What the heck is weeping?” Ben muttered to himself in curiosity, with Abel holding out her hand.

“Food first, questions after.”

“Okay, okay, fine.”

A deal was a deal and the fact that she seemed willing to answer his questions made him a lot more motivated to get on with it so he materialized both a cup and a knife, dragging the latter across his palm to fill up the first while the girl beamed, downing it the second it was handed over and immediately looking like she wanted more.

<BLOOD REGENERATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<FLAVOUR ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

Okay, that wasn’t ideal.

“That’s even better than I thought it would be,” She sighed happily. “And why do you smell even tastier now?”

“Because reality hates me. Anyway, back on topic. What’s weeping?”

His immediate assumption was it was an attribute that normally wouldn’t exist in his current reality but did in her old one that she’d somehow managed to hang onto when passing over, but it seemed the answer was more complicated than just that.

Looking proud as she said it, Abel explained. “It’s something only the chosen get. My ancestor Sothoth saw my potential and gave me my fragment and all of its tears make me stronger! Normally he would have gotten it back after I died but it looks like it came with me when I was brought here. Another reason I’m the best of the summoned for sure!”

“…That wasn’t a great explanation.”

When Ben looked at her card, he’d seen that the race listed was Child of Sothoth and combined with the fact she’d just called them an ancestor he had to assume that either she was being literal and her people as a whole were named for their family line or else that it was her god given it sounded like they were still alive and that she’d by all accounts been given a blessing.

Perhaps even both. They were dealing with an entirely different universe and he didn’t know the rules it played on, what was he to say without getting more information first?

Given that they were going to spar soon he resolved to peek into her head when he got the chance since he’d probably be able to keep it from being obvious he was doing it for anything more than a combat advantage but for the time he focused back on what he was seeing.

“Okay, so it makes you stronger. How?”

“Hmm, give me another cup and I’ll show you.”

“Let me check if you’ve gotten any changes from the first one yet. How long does it normally take?”

“It should only be a few seconds for me to get whatever growth I will for it.”

“What? That shouldn’t be enough time for you to digest it, how… No, I can already tell I’m not getting an answer so just a second,” His eyes scanned over her attributes, seeing what changed and by how much. “Looks like a point to your mana, mana regen, vitality, vitality regen, and three to your intelligence. Is that good?”

“Really?” She ripped the card from him as he said it, scanning over it herself and looking bright with the outcome. “Worse than any of the other third tiers I’ve gotten a bite from but better than anyone else! The regen rates don’t usually grow so much! Give me the second cup!”

“Listen, you have to at least say please when you’re trying to eat someone.”

“Please!”

“Ben, I don’t think the focus should be on manners here,” Thera whispered to him. “You should not be this willing to let people eat you. Don’t spoil her just because she seems young.”

“It’s just the one more, promise. Besides, I really want to know what this attribute does. It’s not every day you see one that doesn’t exist in this universe.”

“Just don’t complain to me if she develops a taste and nobody’s around to protect you.”

Nah, it should be fine, right? I still don’t think she’s a bad kid, she…

His positive thoughts were betrayed by the sight of her wiping away drool while staring at him, holding out the cup and already eager to get more.

Okay, last one and then never again.

He cut his palm once more and filled it up, getting Thera to heal him and watching as Abel this time savoured what she’d been given, looking satisfied by the time she was done.

“Delicious, even better than the first one. I was right, you did get tastier. Does that mean each time you’re going to be better than the last?”

“No, a skill just happened to go up after the first one and it made the difference so no looking for more. Now, weeping, you were going to show me how it works already?”

“Fine, fine, since I got something good there’s no harm spending it now so keep those eyes on me and watch. The other two peekers can too if they want.”

Neither Yuzu nor Verbum took her up on that offer and since it sounded like one needed to be able to see souls to witness whatever was about to happen, Thera was out of luck, leaving Ben alone to watch what she was doing while she explained.

“Weeping is just the speed I gather tears at, with one forming about every other day at my current rate and as I save them up I can spend them like this.”

He watched as a segment of her soul moved when she said it, looking like it was squeezing a part of itself into another region while one internal section flowed, with a significant change coming with it. Her meat empowering which had been at the second level grew to its third.

“You have an attribute you can spend that directly levels your skills?”

He couldn’t hide the awe in his voice and she happily soaked it in.

“What can I tell you? This is why I’m clearly the best.”

“And how often can you do it then? It’s obviously not a level for every tear, right?”

“For that one, it was nearly a year of savings, consider yourself lucky you got to witness it in person, but if I wanted to focus on my tier-one skills I could raise any one in the span of a few weeks at most. It gets harder the higher the level though but the cost also reduces as I get closer to raising them naturally.”

She seemed smug and as far as Ben was concerned she had every right to be. That explained some of the levels he was already seeing in her soul. If he was in her position, he would have wanted to raise those ones too to see how they changed with each increase, with her meat strengthening being the most important on that front. If she got more levels to it then from what he understood, she’d be able to more quickly raise her weeping and gather tears more quickly, creating a small feedback loop to help her overall growth.

All of it made him want to disassemble her mind even more to see what other secrets it held and whatever look he was wearing was enough to make her back up.

“Hey, I appreciate that you’ve been such a willing meal but that doesn’t mean I’ll let you have a bite of me too!”

“Don’t want it, I’ve just got one last question if you don’t mind. Since you already know I can look at your soul and can look in your head, how exactly can you tell? It doesn’t look like you have any skills directly related to it, though I can’t exactly judge a couple of your awakened ones by their names alone.”

“Huh? How can I tell? I mean, you make it so obvious, I could feel you rooting around in there the second you did.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t tell me how. Is it one of your skills or not?”

“It’s not, it doesn’t need to be. There’s no subtlety to it, if you tried that back home you’d be ripped to shreds in a second.”

So the people of her homeworld can tell this sort of thing innately? Interesting.

He knew that certain things that could be considered a race’s innate or biological qualities weren’t always going to be reflected in the system, it wasn’t like he had a walking or breathing skill, but as far as innate abilities went, the ability to feel if someone was reading your mind or looking at your soul felt on the extreme end.

It only made him more and more interested in seeing the context her old world existed in and to get a little closer to a place he thought he might check he scarfed down the rest of his food while the others finished up as well.

“Alright, now that that’s done, let’s do this already.”

“Ben, I just want to point out that this is pointlessly stupid and dangerous,” Thera sighed as they arrived at the empty beach. “You can’t know if she’s actually going to avoid seriously hurting you.”

“But if anything goes wrong, my lovely girlfriend will help put me back together again, right?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Mmh, your lovely girlfriend would rather you not walk into positions where you could get hurt to begin with. I don’t even know where to begin with telling you off.”

“I’ll make you something sweet when we get home to make up for it. This is just a good opportunity is all, I get to see what one of the stronger third tiers is capable of and see how I compare.”

“So let’s get started already!” Abel yelled, dropping Verbum to the ground after she’d taken Ben’s role of forcefully dragging him along which had only provoked more fear in him than usual. Lying unconscious on the ground, Yuzu went to his side to make sure he was okay before dragging him away.

“Alright but again, this is just a spar, don’t murder me.”

“I’ll do my best!”

With those last words, she moved with the intention to start, not immediately attacking him but instead bringing her wrist to her teeth and biting down, letting blood splatter in the sand below.

What?

Instantly Ben was connecting to her, reading both her mind and memories for whatever information he could get while she just grinned before the dirt below her exploded with dozens of monsters pouring out.

“What the fuck?”