TTT Vol. 2 pt. 4

Mirna helped me up onto the front desk so that Dobrin could more easily reach me. She couldn’t help but to poke my newest tentacle afterward. “You really can grow new tentacles that easily, huh?” she asked.

SEEMS LIKE IT.

“Ah… that would be so handy if I could do it.”

“Huh? What would you even grow?” Dobrin asked.

“More hands! Well, and arms to go with them. I could stir more brews at once! Or garden even faster!”

“Wouldn’t that defeat the point? I thought you liked taking your time gardening?”

“Well, I do, but there are some days where I want to get it over with as quickly as possible so that I can pamper you some more instead.”

Dobrin ignored her explanation as she stared at him with a smug smile. “Let’s get this over with,” he told me and then placed a couple of his fingers against the top of my body.

Our souls became connected once more. Though, after feeling it once, there was nothing special about it.

Supposedly, from what I could remember, every reader had a different way of connecting to one’s soul. Being read felt different depending on who was doing the reading, but it always felt the exact same with the same person.

I wondered how differently it might feel if somebody other than Dobrin read me, but it wasn’t like readers were anywhere near common enough to waste time experimenting with that. If anything, it was a miracle that the island had a reader at all given just how small its population was. There were easily less than four hundred people living on the island. Getting one reader out of ten thousand people was considered lucky.

And Dobrin was a new soul at that. I wondered if he knew just how impressive he was.

“What?” Dobrin asked as he read me.

Mirna leaned closer to us. “What is it?”

“He shouldn’t be growing this fast. Even if he has gotten into a few fights, it doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well, we already know he’s special.”

“I’m not sure if this can happen from just being special.”

“Then he’s really special!”

Dobrin sighed and got on with the reading. “Level fourteen. You’ve gained eleven levels since last time. Even if you trained and fought beasts every day since we last talked… you shouldn’t be that high.”

That… that is a pretty huge growth for how short of a time it’s been. I know that it’s possible to grow that much if your life is in constant danger and you’re constantly fighting, but I’m not. Not to mention that I should be losing levels as quickly as I’m gaining them if I’m not always fighting to keep the growth up.

“Mirna, let me read you for a moment.”

“Oh, sure!” Mirna hopped next to me and spread her bangs to reveal her forehead to him. She looked really cute with her hair like that, and Dobrin must have agreed since he blushed and almost hesitated to touch her. But he did, taking his fingers off of me to do so.

Mirna looked straight up at him with a smile as he read her, causing him to blush and struggle to look at her.

It was creepy of me, I knew that, but I felt like I could watch them being cute together all day. Seeing them gave me energy.

“Alright,” Dobrin said, “it’s like I thought. I can feel your level passively draining since you’re not doing anything right now to maintain it.” He took his fingers away from her forehead, causing her to pout a little, to put them back against the top of my body. “But I don’t feel any drain in you.”

That’s… that’s something alright.

MY LEVEL ISN’T GOING DOWN AT ALL?

“Not even a little. So, you have no level cap and your level isn’t naturally going down.”

“That’s… not good,” Mirna said.

“I know it’s unique, but is it a problem?”

“Has anybody ever told you stories about astral beasts?”

“Don’t think so.”

“Ah. Well, the old man told me some stories before he passed. He told me that astral beasts are beasts who have acquired so many souls in their lifetime, and I mean thousands and thousands of souls, that they become so powerful that they basically start draining the souls from others just by being near them. It’s like they become so dense with souls that they attract others to them through gravity. These are the biggest, most powerful beasts to exist, and having so many souls puts them on par with gods. It even gets to the point where they draw energy from the world’s soul. Eventually, they require so many fresh soul to sustain themselves that they can’t survive and… well, explode. All three astral beasts that have ever lived have permanently changed the world. They release so much energy and so many souls when they die that they can make miracles happen—they change the laws of the world itself.”

“I think I remember being told something like that as a kid. What’s it got to do with this?”

“Well… I was thinking. He doesn’t lose levels just like how a soul beast doesn’t. But unlike a soul beast, he has no level cap and is capable of gaining levels. The higher one’s level, the stronger their soul needs to be. Chosen deal with that by strengthening our souls over multiple lifetimes, gradually growing stronger each time until we eventually fail to grow stronger or reach our ultimate potential and restart from the beginning in the next life. Soul beasts deal with it by killing other beings with souls and taking those souls into their own bodies. So… what’s going to happen to somebody who can, potentially, infinitely grow in power without lifetimes worth off time to strengthen the soul, or without a constant surplus of souls to absorb? If he can even absorb souls. Just like how astral beasts grow to the point where they constantly need more to sustain themselves… I’m afraid that might happen to Tenta. His true soul won’t be able to keep up with the growth and, even if he can absorb souls from others… the kind of beings who reach a point where they must constantly absorb new souls for survival are the kind who are mass murderers because nothing else will provide them with enough souls.”

“I see the problem.”

Mirna nodded, holding onto Dobrin’s shirt as she looked down at me with eyes full of concern.

Yeah… that’s a problem, alright. All of her concerns make perfect sense. Even if my soul isn’t completely that of a Chosen’s right now, being able to gain levels without a cap, and without ever losing those levels, isn’t a good thing. My soul won’t be able to keep up. And if I’m also growing faster than I should be able to… when all I’ve done is get in a few fights and train whenever I can… then I’m in trouble. I know I used to be a Chosen, but I have no idea what my cap used to be. What if my cap was only twenty? I’m already getting close to passing that up. If it was forty or sixty, that buys me more time, and I might be able to live a lifetime without going over those as long as I take things easy… but that’s wishful thinking. I have no way of confirming what my cap used to be.

“I got it!” Mirna announced.

“What?” Dobrin asked.

“People gain levels from fighting, mainly. Yes?”

“It’s the most effective way, but you could still hit cap if all you do is farm your entire life… assuming you’re farming as hard as you possibly can every single day.”

“Then the solution is simple.” Mirna crossed her arms over her chest and nodded, clearly proud of whatever she thought up.

I was pretty sure that both me and Dobrin were thinking the same thing about how cute she looked.

“All you have to do is live a simple life taking things as easy as you can!”

Silence followed her theory as Dobrin and I both thought it over.

A simple life where I take things as easy as possible… that… in theory, would work. I’m still going to gain levels over time since I can’t lose levels, so that will be impossible to avoid, but I could limit how many levels I gain. The only problem then is that I still need to get stronger if I want to make sure to protect everybody against that soul beast on the loose. But… I’m already stronger than I was when I fought her, and she doesn’t have a source of souls to get even stronger off of. Not to mention that I’ve already fought her once, so now I can strategize and come up with plans for defeating her the next time. Then again, the same could be said of her. But the point is that I only need to get strong enough to defeat her. After that, I can take things easy for the rest of my life… assuming that no other similar situations pop up. I’m going to have to get lucky and hope that life lets me keep things simple. Speaking of simple… a simple, boring life out here with Lada and Korova sounds nice. I wouldn’t even think of saying no to that.

“That could work,” Dobrin agreed after a few more seconds. “And it’s the only solution I can think of. Well… we don’t know what he is, so maybe his soul works differently. But going off what we do know, that’s the only clear solution.”

Mirna nodded again before reaching up to poke Dobrin’s cheek. “See? What did I tell you? All you have to do is look cute and I’ll do all the thinking for both of us.”

Dobrin’s cheeks turned red as he shouted out, “Stop—stop bringing things like that up in front of others! And I’m not cute, damn it!”

“Hehehe, ‘I’m not cute’ says the cutest man in the world.”

“Mirna!”

“Fiiiiiinnneee. I’ll be nice, Mr. Cutie.”

Dobrin grumbled under his breath as he looked away from both of his, red from his cheeks to his ears.

He might not be as cute as Lada… but I will admit that he’s cute. His personality, anyways.

“Let’s hurry up and get this over with,” he said, sounding pissed off at me now. “You’ve got… a few new skills.”

Why does he sound bothered by that?

“Cooking and Cleaning, both at level zero. And… one more new skill at level zero.”

“What is it?” Mirna asked. She must have been curious about it from the way he was talking, too.

Dobrin let out a long sigh before finally saying what it was. “Sexual Expertise.”

Mirna immediately started giggling. “Oh my.”

O-oh. That… alright. I think I can understand getting that.

“Tiny bastard,” Dobrin grumbled. “I’ve been trying to… damn it. A few of your skills have gained a level since you’re over level ten now. Acrobatics, Corruption, and Throwing. That’s it. You already know everything else.” He took his fingers off of me to sever our connection for the day. “You can leave now.”

“Wait!” Mirna shouted. “Think about it,” she told Dobrin. “Since Tenta has that skill, maybe… if the two of you practice together… while I get to watch… then you might gain the skill, too?”

“Absolutely not! There’s no way I’m doing it with anybody but you! Especially not with something that isn’t even a Chosen!”

“Aww… but he’s so cute! And I’m sure those tentacles will make you feel good.”

“No!”

Mirna pouted and sighed. “Sorry, Tenta. I tried.”

I’M PERFECTLY OKAY WITH BEING REJECTED.

If anything, I would have been worried if he didn’t reject that insane idea.

“Seriously, woman,” Dobrin said. “I need to teach you some manners.”

“Oh?” Mirna chuckled and poked his side. “You’re going to teach me? Are we finally swapping roles?”

Rather than glare at the woman teasing him, Dobrin glared at me. That told me everything that I needed to know.

He was ordering me to get out of their place now.

THANKS FOR THE READING.

AND… GOOD LUCK.

“Come back soon, Tenta!” Mirna said and waved as I left.

“Feel free not to,” Dobrin added on.

“Be nice. You have limited customers on this island which means you can’t afford to get on their bad sides.”

“It’s not like they’re paying me anyways!”

“Hmm… you have a point.”

I took a quick look behind me once I reached the front door and saw Dobrin pulling Mirna into the back so that the “teaching” could commence. So, to give them the privacy he wanted, I left and shut the door behind me. Then, as soon as I was outside… I couldn’t help but to feel proud of myself.

Sexual Expertise? I think I remember something about that. It was pretty rare. Only those who are seriously great at sex get it to level zero. I bet Lada has it at level one if her general level is at least ten. But if mine is at level zero now… that’s probably recent. Korova did seem to feel extra good earlier. If I get it to level one, that means I’ll be able to make Lada and Korova feel even better without having to do anything extra. They’ll feel better just from it being higher. In that case, I think I know what it’s time for. Not to mention that I have a new tentacle I can try out.

Doing lots of adult things surely counted as living a simple life so, with that, I nodded and came to a conclusion.

Training combat might have been a bad idea until I could learn more about how my soul operated, but training lewd things?

Me and Lada were going to do a lot of training once work was over for the day. I had a new tentacle to experiment with and a skill to level up.