I pulled away, panting as exhaustion took over me. My 'Stamina' skill was a decently high level, but my recent behavior has pushed it to the limit, causing the rebound that was now beginning to affect me. I staggered to the bed where Mimi was laying, leaving Kayla shuddering on the ground, and collapsed next to Mimi, gasping for air. I looked over to find her staring right back at me, her eyes filled with pleasure and exhaustion, just like mine.
"I never knew… *pant*... that you liked this sort of thing, Mimi." I was honestly still shocked at her behavior. It was flabbergasting, Mimi who was always timid towards others and bashful near me, would only change when I teased her, in which she would relax a bit. But she would never have done something like this, at least, that's what I thought.
"To be honest…" She began to reply, looking towards the ceiling. "I didn't realize either. I only found out that I liked it when you admitted everything to me. I… think that's why I was able to accept you fucking other girls so easily." Her cheeks flushed in genuine embarrassment for a bit as she paused. "But that doesn't mean that I like the fact you are doing other girls. I only like this sort of thing, where we use someone else as a proxy. But I already said I'm willing to put up with it for your sake."
She turned onto her side, facing me completely, before reaching out and wrapping her arms around me, snuggling up close to me. It was slightly uncomfortable, as there were bodily fluids all over the bed and each other, but I didn't mind. I tried using my skill to erase them, but it only works on my fluids, so it simply left everything that wasn't mind, which was a lot.
I shrugged, wrapping my own arms around her, and closed my eyes, keeping her close even as I drifted into sleep.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**Perspective Change - Cameron**
Ever since coming to this world, things haven't been going my way. Back on earth, I was a well respected and feared delinquent, one that no one dared to talk back too at school. I could beat up anyone I pleased, and those that were stronger than me I could group up on and take down easily. I had no worries about grades as I was the only son who would inherit my parents business and house when they retire.
And best of all, I was the closest to the Delinquent Queen, Alex. Yet when I had finally worked up the courage and was in the middle of confessing to her, that strange light overtook us and we ended up here, in this shitty excuse of a world. To be honest, I was excited about this world, Urabatos they call it, when we first arrived. That first magic spell that bastard James casted is still stuck in my mind. The wonder and excitement, the disbelief and fear, all of it stays with me.
So I figured that this wouldn't be bad for us at all. Alex had even come with me, so I would be able to stay with her. I figured that even in this world, I would be strong, just like back on Earth.
I was wrong.
The first time I felt it was when I fought with Oephilia all those months ago. I was so confident, so ready to impress Alex, but I ended up on my ass in an instant, not even able to fight back. The fight itself wasn't all that painful, I knew it was because she had held back in order to not harm me, but the pain I felt was the biggest pain I had ever felt in my life. It was an injury to my pride, one that only got bigger as I continued to spend time here.
It started with Oephilia, then it changed to Alex. She was always someone we protected back on Earth. Someone who didn't fight, and sat back as we did the dirty work. But here, she was stronger than me. The first time I saw her cast magic, I was entranced. Yet at the same time I was terrified. Terrified that she would no longer need me, that she would throw me away.
Fortunately, that didn't happen. In fact, I had actually worked up the courage to confess again, and she had said yes. She was shyer than I had expected, she didn't even want to kiss, but I found it cute. Even when she said she wouldn't kiss me until I was a higher level than her, I didn't despair. After all, I could work myself to the bone for her alone.
And I wanted to be stronger than her anyway, so I had begun in earnest. Grinding levels one after another, slowly but surely catching up to her. But then my third setback occurred.
It was a woman, someone I had accidentally run into on campus. Because of my recent leveling, I was cocky, and I took the same attitude I would have back on Earth. I got in her face and yelled, demanding an apology. I expected her to cower, or shrink back, instead she simply stared into my eyes, her fiery red eyes unfazed as I was mere inches from her.
Then she scoffed, and left without even speaking a word to me. I didn't follow her, no I *couldn't* follow her. Her gaze that all but said she could squash me like an ant and her dismissing huff both stopped me in my tracks.
So I did what I usually did, I took my anger out on someone who couldn't resist. A weakling who for some reason couldn't level up, Caesar. I remembered him back on Earth, he was a popular kid, someone who was laid back and fun to hang around with. I remember thinking that if I weren't a delinquent, I would be good friends with him. But now, he was nothing more than a waste of space, someone who existed purely for me to torment.
That day, I beat him to the brink of death, not even stopping when he fell to the ground. I wasn't worried, since I knew James was around to heal him, so I let out all of my frustrations on him. It was refreshing, something that took my mind off her cold red eyes.
And yet even that wasn't meant to be. The next day, I heard rumors about him breaking through whatever was stopping him from leveling up. At first, I didn't care, because that meant that he was, at most, a level two. But something felt off when I next saw him.
His name, Caesar, was something that I had laughed at before. After all, he had taken the name of such a power figure, the ruler of the Roman Empire at its peak, and yet he couldn't get past level one. Yet at that time, when I locked eyes with him once more, I suddenly couldn't laugh. Someone who should be weak, someone who should cower before me, especially after I had just beat him nearly to death the day before, someone who I had thought, without a doubt, would always be beneath me.
Now he wasn't. His steady gaze showed his unflinching confidence, even in the face of his abuser. A confidence that I couldn't refute. Shortly after that, we fought, and I lost. Badly. I remember looking up at the sky once again, feeling the same exact feelings I had felt after losing to Oephilia.
Yet the worst part was yet to come. Because when I looked over to the sidelines, I saw the face of my beloved, Alex, as she stared at Caesar. I was expecting hate, or sorrow, or even fear. But none of those were present on her face.
There was simply unadulterated amazement. It was a blow even bigger than the one I had received to my pride all those months ago. She wasn't amazed at me anymore, not like she used to be on Earth whenever I would win a fight. She wasn't looking at me with that sparkle in her eyes, she was looking at *him*.
And I couldn't even blame her.
Things only got worse for me from there. I began to be ostracized from the others, slowly but surely. At first it was the people of this world, they slowly moved away from our group and began to move closer to Caesar. It hurt, but I was okay with it since they were not people of Earth, so they didn't matter as much to me.
But it didn't stop there. The first to leave our group was Jezabel, then immediately after was Hannah. Their betrayal created a rift in our group, which caused it to fall apart by the seams. Fairly quickly, it became just me and Alex.
I would have been okay if it was just left at that. After all, the one I cared about the most had always been her. But after that loss, our relationship was not the same. While I continued to work hard to surpass her in level, she had bestowed another sanction on me. The fact that we couldn't go any further than kissing until I surpassed Caesar.
My heart broke when she first said this, because I knew it was impossible. Caesar was no longer someone I could catch up with. It wasn't just some feeling I had either, I had asked James about the Level Cap that he had had, and learned about the exp interest he had gained. I knew how much he had hunted before, how much he had trained with Oephilia to raise his base stats. I knew everything, but it was something irrelevant until now.
And I also knew that she knew this. Alex knew that I wouldn't be able to surpass him. Part of me died that day, part of my soul that Alex had always had a hold on crumpled under the weight of her words. And yet I still didn't stop loving her. She still occupied my every thought, driving me to try, even if it might be in vain, to surpass him and finally make her mine.
And yet, it happened again. This time it wasn't anyone familiar, nor was it a fiery eyed student, this time it was something else entirely.
I had been hunting in the forest alone, as I usually did in order to grind levels, when I ran into something I had never seen before. A man, covered in black fur with a dark skin to match, with a tail that drifted around behind him and two furry ears that sprouted from the top of his head. His eyes, a deep yellow, were not normal eyes. Instead of circular irises, they were slits, almost as if it were a cat staring me down.
As I stared at him in confusion, I watched the edges of his mouth twist upwards in a sadistic smile. I raised my guard too late, unable to defend against his onslaught of attacks until I lied, bloody and broken, on the ground. I looked up at the sky for the third time, wondering if this is how he felt that night, while I awaited my death, but it never came.
Instead a voice rang out, like a soft purr. "I came to assess the new heroes, but if they are all like you then there is no need to worry. Thanks for the exp, kid." He vanished, as if he had never existed in the first place, while I continued to lay there in a pool of my own blood.
Luckily, a forest border guard found me, and I was brought back for treatment, but I knew, deep down inside, that I would never be the same as before.
**The Perspective will shift back to Caesar in the next chapter.**