Chapter Five: Stable soul…
After a week of being bedridden with nothing to look forward to other than the healer's visits, Greg had developed an almost Pavlovian reaction to the sound of the door to his room opening. No matter how deeply he was sleeping a moment before, hearing the door open would wake him right up. There were no clocks or timekeeping devices in the room. As such, out of habit, Greg immediately glanced toward the window on the far side of the room. It was usually left open during the daytime. His brows furrowed in confusion when he noted that it was late afternoon. The healer had never come around at this time. Furthermore, the healer always opened the door in one clean motion. She never opened it as slowly as the one behind the door seemed to be doing. It was almost as if the one behind the door was afraid of being discovered. When the door was fully open Greg immediately recognized the one behind the door.
The confusion had been evident on Greg's face. What was Shalia doing here? Part of the reason Greg could easily recognize her was because, unlike the healer, this girl had made a strong impression on the previous owner of this body. Being one of the most beautiful girls his age, it was only natural that the previous owner of his body had developed a crush on the girl. Given that Shalia was the Town head's daughter, however, the previous owner of his body had never worked up the nerve to approach her or even thought there was a chance for something to be there between them. Given how clearly he could remember the girl, Greg already knew that she was the healer's apprentice. Greg's confusion stemmed from the fact that she hadn't visited him before. Why now? And why did it seem like she was sneaking in? What was she up to?
DING.
A tone sounded in Greg's head and without even having to look, he knew that new missions were available, this time, however, they were probably targeted toward this girl, Shalia. Greg, however, didn't open the missions to see them. The former him couldn't see it as the crush he had on Shalia made him see the girl through rose-colored glasses. Looking back through his memories of the girl, however, to Greg she just came off as a snobbish, spoiled brat. If Greg tried to accomplish the system's missions with her, she'd at best ignore him and at worst, she could land him in trouble with the town head. Greg was still new to this world, he didn't need that kind of trouble right now, so he didn't even plan to try. Perhaps later when he had a more stable grasp of this world and how to navigate it, he might try. At the moment, however, caution was his mantra.
Had Shalia first looked inside the room when the door swung open, then she would have met gazes with Greg. She, however, had been looking to her left, down the corridor, almost like she was afraid of someone appearing from that direction. In a split-second decision, Greg closed his eyes. To avoid having to deal with her, he'd just pretend to be sleeping…
***
When Shalia had confirmed that there was no one else close by, she turned and walked into the room where the boy was convalescing. Shalia had never wanted to be the healer's apprentice. Part of it was because she had very little interest in the field. Another part that she would never openly admit to, was because she was jealous of the healer's looks. Unwilling as she was, even Shalia had to admit that the healer had her beat in the looks department. For a young lady who'd always been the center of attention because of her looks, it didn't feel nice to have to cede the title of most pretty to someone else.
And as if being forced to work for the woman wasn't bad enough, for the last nine months that she'd been working for Alena, the woman hadn't allowed her to see even one patient. According to the woman, until she was proficient in preparing medicine, then she had no business in seeing any patients. Shalia, however, suspected that the healer's prohibition had nothing to do with her ability to prepare medicine. She was convinced that the woman was only interested in having her do all the menial tasks for her. What was even worse was the fact that the kind of work the healer forced her to do could easily be done using her magic! Even if she'd never really had any interest in becoming a healer, Shalia wouldn't allow herself to be used by the healer. And so, out of a rebellious fire that had been slowly smoldering within her for the past few months, she had chosen to see a patient while Alena was out.
As is often the case with rebellious teens, however, Shalia quickly realized that she hadn't really thought this through. Firstly, she had winced when she noted the deep scars running all across the face of the boy on the bed. He might have gotten to keep his life, his looks, however, would be a whole different matter. Part of Shalia wanted to retreat after seeing his face. She, however, stomped out the urge as she realized that she would be proving the healer right, that she wasn't ready to see any patients. Careful not to wake the boy, Shalia quietly moved to his bedside. The second thing that made Shalia realize that she hadn't really thought this through was that, now that she was here, she didn't know what to do. I mean, had she come all this way just to look at the boy's face? She could have easily done that the day he checked out! No! To prove that Alena wasn't right about her and that she was ready to see patients, she'd have to do more! Shalia decided. She couldn't just look at his face and then run away like a scared little girl.
Shalia took a deep breath and slowly let it out before reaching down for the coverings. As a healer, she should at the very least be bold enough to assess the patient's injuries. And if the patient woke up, she would just play it off as a routine check. This was Shalia's thought process as she pulled the coverings off the boy. Owing to her nervousness, Shalia had closed her eyes. It was only when the covers were completely off that she opened them. Taking a step back, the covers that she'd been holding fell to the floor as a chill crawled down her spine. After a week of healing, most of the wounds on the boy's body were closed. Still, while they were closed, they weren't as yet healed. The boy's body was crisscrossed with both healing wounds and scars left behind by the few wounds that had managed to heal.
It took every bit of Shalia's will to keep herself from turning and running out of the room. She couldn't help but thank her lucky stars that the boy didn't seem to register the disturbance and continued to sleep soundly. How someone could survive these injuries, Shalia didn't even want to know. Taking another deep breath, Shalia forced herself to calm down and look the boy over. If she was going to be a healer, she would probably come across the same in the future, if not worse. Shalia had intended to calmly assess the patient's wounds and try to see what she would do if she was his healer. That plan, however, flew out the window when her gaze dropped below the boy's waist.
Despite no one being present to see her, Shalia couldn't help the blush that spread across her face as she looked at the boy's penis. Despite being the most attractive girl among her peers, Shalia was also the town head's daughter. Given how powerful her father was, none of the boys her age would dare have any ideas about her. As such, Shalia was still very innocent when it came to the subject of sex. This boy's penis was the first one that she'd ever seen in her life. Her mother had, of course, spoken to her about what happened between men and women when she came of age. There was, however, a whole chasm between being told about something and actually seeing it for oneself.
'Is it supposed to be this big?' Shalia couldn't help but think to herself as she looked at it. Despite being flaccid, the thing was close to six inches long and really thick. Due to her inexperience, Shalia didn't have other cocks in her memories to compare the boy's to. Were they all this big? She couldn't help but wonder with a bit of trepidation. Without noticing, Shalia had stepped closer to the boy and was now leaning down to get a better view of this new discovery. Shalia had once tried to slip a few fingers into her vagina. By the second finger, her walls were squeezing her fingers rather snuggly. She hadn't tried to go beyond that as she couldn't imagine why she'd need to put anything bigger than that in there. As she looked at the boy's tool, however, she couldn't help but wonder if she had been wrong at the time.
With a glance at the boy's face just to be sure that he was still sleeping, Shalia reached forward. At first, the girl just poked it with her finger before immediately withdrawing her hand as if she'd just poked a venomous snake. When she saw no reaction, either from the boy or his penis, Shalia got a little bolder. Holding the head between her thumb and index finger, she lifted the boy's dick to an upright position, turning it this way and that way to get a better picture of it. Before she knew it, Shalia had gotten bold enough to fully grab the thing in her hand just to get a feel of how big it actually was. All the contact, however, eventually began to have effects.
This time, despite being startled, Shalia didn't jump back in fright when she felt the change. Instead, she watched with fascination as the dick in her hands began to grow and stiffen. Her mother had already explained this part to her, so she was curious to see it in real life. Shalia's curiosity, however, slowly morphed into consternation before turning into full-fledged fright. The boy's thing had already been decent enough when it was soft in her hands. Now that it had hardened, she couldn't help but think of her own pussy and wonder how something like this could ever fit in there. This thought was followed by a brightening of her cheeks in another blush as she realized what it was she was thinking about!
Shalia found herself touching the head of the boy's dick more as she remembered her mother telling her that this was the most sensitive part. Shalia couldn't help but look at the boy's face to see if there was any reaction there. There was a slight frown on the boy's brow. On the whole, however, he still seemed to be sleeping. Shalia wasn't sure why, but a part of her was annoyed by this. Almost as if, in some way, the boy had slighted her by not noticing what she was doing. Shalia, however, quickly shook herself free from the stupid thought as it occurred to her just how awkward the situation would be if the boy woke up to find her playing with his dick. Immediately letting it go, Shalia forced herself to stay calm and not run out of the room. There'd be no point in her sneaking around if she left the scene in a manner that gave away the fact that she'd been there. Picking up the covers, she carefully covered the boy up again before quickly making her way out of the room…
***
Greg opened one eye in the direction of the door when he heard it shut. Once he was certain that the girl was gone, the side of his lips couldn't help but tilt upward in a smirk. The town head's daughter, playing with my junk! Greg couldn't help but think with a chuckle. Turning his gaze edge of his vision, Greg quickly activated the system. This time only three missions associated with Shalia had been completed. However, given the fact that his initial plan was to pretend to sleep and not interact with her, Greg wasn't disappointed in the least. The three completed missions were nothing short of a boon fallen from the sky.
Ø BASIC: Interact with Shalia for five minutes.
Lust points: 3.
Danger Grade: None (X1 multiplier).
Total lust points: 3.
Ø ADVANCED: Have an intimate part of your body groped by Shalia.
Lust points: 240.
Danger Grade: Average (X5 Multiplier).
Total lust points: 1200.
Ø ADVANCED: Get a handjob from Shalia.
Lust points: 500.
Danger Grade: Average (X5 multiplier).
Total lust points: 2,500.
TOTAL LUST POINTS OBTAINED: 2703.
By this point, Greg had already lost the excitement of earning both magic and lust points. It was now seven days after the first time he'd earned these points. By now he had both in the millions. On average, the healer would give him between seventy-five and seventy-seven magical points every healing session. Given that they'd been happening three times a day for the past seven days, the total had come to settle at one point six three million magic points.
With lust points, the calculations weren't as straightforward. For one thing, In the morning and at midday, the healer would only cast her healing spell. It's only in the evening that she'd take the time to wipe him down. So in the morning, and midday, other than the basic interaction missions, only the flashing mission would get done as Greg had always made sure to be the one to pull off the blankets. Also, as it turns out daredevil missions are only a one-time thing. So other than the first time he did it, Greg didn't get anything for wordlessly flashing the healer. Other than basic and intermediate, all other missions associated with the healer had a danger grade of suicidal, with gives them a multiplier of a hundred. This means that every morning and midday, Greg would earn forty-seven thousand lust points from just the flashing and a little more points from the basic interaction missions.
Despite his latent fear of the healer and the danger she posed, Greg always found himself getting a boner in the evening. Luckily for him, other than the first day, the healer had never so much as even cast an extra glance at his dick. But while she didn't pay any attention to his physiological reaction, the healer remained meticulous in her work as always. As such, Greg would always get the, 'have an intimate part groped', and 'get a handjob' mission done on top of the flashing mission. These three missions together would give two hundred and one thousand three hundred lust points. After seven days of this routine, Greg had earned a little over two million lust points. Plus the close to six hundred thousand lust points he'd earned that first evening, Greg now had a total of two point five nine million lust points.
The reason Greg was no longer as excited by the numbers as he was at the beginning was because the system interface hadn't changed in the least. Despite racking up points in the millions, nothing new had popped up in the system. The same dull five lines were still there.
WELCOME TO THE SIXTH SCHOOL!
NAME: Roka.
RANK: Virgin.
MAGIC POINTS: 1.63M.
LUST POINTS: 2.59M.
Still, seeing as he had nothing else better to do, Greg studied the new missions he'd just completed. From the three missions Shalia had practically gifted him, he drew a number of conclusions. The first was that he'd been right to always try and take off his covers by himself whenever the healer came around. Even though Shalia had uncovered and seen him completely naked, no flashing mission was listed among the completed missions. Clearly, it mattered to the system who did the actual uncovering. Being stripped by someone else didn't count as flashing them.
The other thing of note that Greg noted was how much less rewarding 'safer' missions were. Being groped by the healer once would earn Greg sixty-seven thousand three hundred lust points. He'd just been groped by the town head's daughter and all he'd gotten for his trouble was a measly one thousand, two hundred points. And that was only because the system assigned the mission an Average danger grading. If the danger had been low or even none, then he wouldn't have even broken past a thousand. This came as a wake-up call to Greg. The numbers he'd been getting from the healer for the past week were an anomaly. Greg didn't know what background the healer had, or how powerful she actually was. He, however, doubted that there were many people who could compare to her. The same missions from most other individuals would only get him a small fraction of what that same mission would have earned him were the healer involved.
The last thing of note was the fact that some of the milestone missions had ticked up to two. It may have seemed like a small insignificant detail, but in this small detail was a crucial bit of information about the system. In the past week, Greg had completed missions associated with the healer several times. The milestone counter for such missions, however, had remained fixed at one. In other words, it didn't matter how many times he completed a mission with the same woman. Even if the task has a suicidal danger grading, it would only count as one person as far as the milestone missions were concerned. This only further reinforced Greg's initial conclusion that the system seemed designed to have its user pursue as many women as possible. As far as the milestone missions were concerned, having sex with the same woman ten times is inferior to having sex with ten different women just once.
A sigh escaped Greg as he stopped focusing on the missions and allowed the system to shrink back to the edge of his vision. It had been a small unexpected encounter, but at the very least it had expanded his understanding of the system. The most important lesson being that he should value his time with the healer while he still had it. With other women, he'd really have to put in a lot of effort to get the same kind of returns he got from the healer. Despite this realization, however, the smirk remained on Greg's lips as he drifted off back to sleep…
***
With a wave of her hands, The milky-white fog that had emerged from the wall once again turned into fog and slowly seeped back into the wall. Alena wasn't sure what to make of what she had just seen. The fact that Shalia had disobeyed her instruction and gone ahead to visit a patient, didn't bother her all that much. The young girl was probably in her rebellious phase, so something like this was par for the course. She hadn't harmed the patient in any way, as such, Alena saw no reason to make a fuss about it.
If anything, Alena's regard for the girl had gone up a bit. Alena could remember the first time that she'd been exposed to a badly injured person, back when she was still new to the field of healing. It wasn't until her fifteenth encounter with someone injured that Alena didn't either freeze, pass out, puke, or do some combination of these reactions. The fact that Shalia could so quickly stabilize her state of mind despite the serious nature of the boy's injuries, was commendable as far as Alena was concerned. The healer had been thinking that perhaps she'd been looking down at the girl a bit too much. That thought, however, had been dispelled in the next moment as on the screen, Shalia became enamored by the boy's dick. She may have displayed a good disposition. In the end, however, she was still a young girl.
Alena didn't know what to make of the boy. His reaction to Shalia's entrance had been rather interesting. The healer couldn't help but wonder, had the boy pretended to sleep because he didn't want anything to do with the girl? Or had he done it simply because this would be the easiest way to put the girl at ease and allow her to 'explore' to her heart's content? The thing that was even odder, as far as Alena was concerned, was the boy's behavior after Shalia left the room. Once again, the boy's gaze had shifted to his extreme left before he seemingly started to read something in the air, judging by his eye movements. There was nothing before the boy, but from the concentration on his face, Alena could tell that he was seeing something the rest of them couldn't.
After a few moments of thinking, Alena muttered with a sigh. "Well, at least I now know why the girl made so many mistakes today." She then turned around and began carefully gathering the herbs into her pouch, careful not to have ingredients that shouldn't touch close to each other. Whatever mystery there was around this boy, she didn't as yet have enough information to crack it. As such, she'd just go on observing the boy for now…
***
Once again, Greg was on the bed naked and watching as the healer weaved a healing rune. A contented sigh left Greg as the magic began to pour through the rune and coat his whole body in that warm viscous sensation that always seemed to ease all his pain and injuries. Greg didn't even pay attention to the counter keeping track of how many magical points he'd earned. By now they were just numbers to him. In fact, he was thinking of once again modifying the distribution of healing to magical points. Seeing as he couldn't exactly make use of the magical points, he might as well focus more on getting better. Perhaps a seventy-thirty split would be more…
Greg's eyes went wide and his train of thought came to a screeching halt as the feeling suddenly hit him. If someone asked Greg to capture it in words, he'd say it's like he'd had ten layers of blankets stacked on top of him and all of a sudden they'd been taken away and he could breathe! It was like, there had been a weight pressing down on him that he had grown so used to that he didn't even notice. And all of a sudden, that weight had been taken away! It's like he'd been underwater for far too long and suddenly, he could come up for air!
Greg didn't have to wonder what was happening for long. This time, he didn't even have to activate the system. Whatever it was that had happened was important enough that the system deployed on its own. Before he'd even gotten used to the sensation, a virtual screen filled his vision telling him why he was feeling that way…
SOUL STABILIZATION IS COMPLETE.
You are no longer in danger of soul dissipation.
You are no longer in danger of soul fracture.
You are no longer in danger of soul fragmentation.
You are no longer in danger of soul corruption.
You are no longer in danger of soul separation.
PHYSICAL CONDITION NO LONGER CRITICAL
You are no longer in danger of imminent death from injuries.
NEW FEATURES CAN BE UNLOCKED…