"I can't sleep..." After that surprise meeting, Blake felt that he should take everyone's advice and get some rest, but all his attempts to fall asleep failed miserably. "I think after counting a hundred sheep and turning the pillow over and over again, I can say that nothing will work anymore, although both bars that the system shows are in the middle, I do not feel really tired."
Just when he didn't know what to do, he remembered the system notification and opened his inventory to see what has changed all this time...
{Name: Blake
Species: ???
Level: 4
HP: 31/61
RP: 34/80
Coins: 169G
ATK: 0
DEF: 0
M.ATK: 0
M.DEF: 0
STR: 15
VIT: 19
INT: 16}
{Short sword skill. Level 3
Water skill. Level 2
Earth Skill. Level 2
Life skill. Level 1
Farming skill. Level 4
Walking skill. Level: 5
Sleeping skill. Level 1
Defense skill. Level 1
Poison resist skill. Level 1
Paralyze resist skill. Level 1
Seal resist skill. Level 1
Death resist skill. Level 1.}
"It seems like my stats and level went up again, and so did most of my abilities... Isn't it strange that I'm accepting all this as normal?... I practically don't know what the system really is and if it's safe or not." Blake didn't want to think much about it, until that moment the system had done nothing but help him, although he still had his doubts, he kept them to himself and would pay attention to them once he got any clues.
After he looked at everything carefully, he noticed that he could basically understand what each skill was by the name they had, but there was one that caught his eye.
{Defense skill. Level 1.
Skill raised by taking damage. Raises HP a lot and VIT slightly.}
"What kind of masochistic ability is this?" After repeatedly looking at the description and thinking that he would never turn up this skill on his own, Blake felt boredom wash over him as he stared at the ceiling of the room, he couldn't take it anymore and left with a little fear of meeting a particular witch and began to scold him, but just when he opened the door, he was greeted by someone's scream.
"Colleeeeette! Come here! This is sooo good!" And that scream belonged to none other than Marian.
"No way! I won't touch any of your witch foods! You added sleeping powder to it last time!"
"To sleep? They were supposed to be for cough..." And the moment Blake wanted to escape so as not to get into whatever it was, they were talking about, he was totally discovered. "Oh, I see that my patient already It's perfectly fine, hehe, I knew that my medicine is the best in the world. And the grandma said that it would take a whole day to get up, ha!"
"I really think you shouldn't be on your feet yet, Blake... Hey... What's that wonderful smell?! Tell me what you're hiding!" Blake was about to reply that he was feeling a little better already, but just feeling how Collette had approached him in a hypnotic state and was beginning to smell him all over almost as if she were tasting a meal, made him feel very strange and uncomfortable.
"Huh? I don't smell anything... Aren't you sick, Collette?"
"No! I'm sure I can smell it, and... It smells delicious..." Blake started to freak out just as he saw Collette start to pull out some silverware from who knows where and she seemed to be watching him carefully, but once he quickly explained that the smell was for a colony, then the situation calmed down a bit, although Collette seemed not to want to leave him side.
"Anyway, you are at a good time, Blake. Can you convince Collette for me?"
"Convince her?"
"I already told you that I am not going to eat anything you give me!"
"Sigh... These patients are the most difficult. You have to, I even made it taste like strawberry this time, it will cure your disease in seconds."
"But I'm not even sick!" Understanding the situation, a little more, Blake thought that maybe he should try to do something.
"Marian... If Collette doesn't want to eat it, you shouldn't make her do it." Even though he was 100% sure that what he said wasn't going to do any good, Blake tried to persuade Marian as best he could, and to the surprise of both blondes, she gave up what was trying to do.
"Well, I know when to give up, if my patient does not agree to the treatment, I can do nothing." At that moment, hope had returned to Collette's face and Blake breathed a sigh of relief thinking that he had done his good deed of the day... But it was a sad illusion. "Ah, that's right! Look what I have here, Collette."
What Marian had pulled out from under her hat was a small bottle with a clear blue liquid inside it that it was impossible to tell what it was with the naked eye.
"Hmm..."
"It looks appetizing, doesn't it?" Thinking that after all the discussion and Collette's refusal, she would reject anything Marian offered her, Blake believed that she would not play along and that would end it... But he underestimated her appetite.
"Yes!" It was not the first time that Blake had seen Collette in that state, he had seen it just when he met her while she did not stop devouring all the food that was on the table at that moment. Her orange eyes had turned to hearts and he could swear that a little saliva dripped from the corners of her mouth as she slowly approached that bottle that was in Marian's hands.
Blake was so immersed in that scene that he did not realize the moment when Collette had already drunk all the strange blue liquid and could only see how Marian had a malicious smile like someone watching his worst enemy suffer making Blake want to do like he didn't see anything.