Chapter 17: An Honest Confession
I stared at Hero as he opened his character sheet. He looked to be selecting his first skill, maybe assigning stat points. I didn’t really know or care. His words revolved in my head like a wheel. “Didn’t.. Deserve.. Me…” I whispered almost in a daze.
I tried to make sense of his words. “You.. did.. Pick me?” My words sounded faint, and yet. I felt the truth in them. I felt… safe. I didn’t understand why he killed me. But I do understand what he just said.
He did pick me. He just didn’t believe we were meant to be. He believed I would suffer with him around. My eyes narrowed in anger. How dare he! “How dare you!” I screamed at him.
He didn’t even glance at me. So aloof as always, always trapped in his damn head! “Talk to me you coward! If you truly care about me, look me in the eyes and fucking *beep* say it!”
There was a pause, then. He slowly turned to look at me. He pursed his lips and opened his mouth.. Then turned away again, and said nothing.
I growled. “Admit it!”
Silence.. “Say it or I am walking away right now!” I snapped.
Silence once again filled the crevice. Aside from the sound of those cursed krabs.
I turned and went to walk away when I heard it. He was quiet, it was barely a whisper. But.. he said it. “I.. I love you Alissa.”
I froze and turned to look at him. He wouldn’t make eye contact, but I heard him as if he were standing right next to me.
I watch him for a moment. Then I walked over, and kicked him in the knee. He fell and I grabbed his head. I pushed my lips against his. After a moment, I pushed my tongue in too. I was going all the way with this!
After a moment, he pushed me away. I just licked my finger and smiled. “Your forgiven sweetie. Let’s get out of here.” I said.
It was true, I wasn’t fully over it, but it was hard to stay mad at him. Also, he had just saved me. Besides, if what he said was true. Then it was my mistake. I had always just assumed he agreed with everything. But thinking back.. He never actually agreed to any of it.
Not that I would ever admit that to him. “Okay, so last time I picked porcupine hands for this ability level. I am not doing that again.” Hero said to himself as he talked out loud. It was a bit weird to hear him talk this much. But I liked it.. I liked it a lot.
I figured I should pick my first ability too. Being reset to level one really sucked. But this was honestly kind of nice. To be honest, I am glad the Harem thing didn’t work out. I was never one to share.
I opened my character sheet and moved it over to my skill tree. One skill every five levels. Three skills to pick from.
I quickly selected ‘bubble pistol’ and summoned it into my hand. Now, things were about to get real.
I pointed the bubble pistol and fired it at the claws.. They bubble bullets popped uselessly against the rocks. I cursed under my breath. It seems I needed to go out there.
“Okay, I picked my ability.” Hero suddenly spoke up. I turned to see he was holding.. A spear? He walked over, lifted the spear above his head and began.. Poking the krabs with the sharp end.
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I frowned and asked “What.. are you doing?”
“Well, see, basically..” He started between jabs. “By doing it like this, we can level up without getting in danger. These krabs are great until around level five. We can take turns luring them in. It will just take me an hour to kill these ones.”
I stared at him for a long moment “umm.. No, allow me.” I said with amusement. I jumped out the front and dodged three krab pincers. The fourth one was still attacking Hero. I rolled and jumped before turning around and firing my bubble bullets at them.
Each bullet alone did negligible damage right now. But I had unlimited bullets and I could dodge them all day. Or.. so I thought. I dodged a few more times, then my vision went hazy and I couldn’t move. There was a sharp pain and I respawned next to Hero, who was still stabbing the first krab.
“What happened oh badass *beep* princess.” He snarked at me. I growled in response and summoned a new bubble pistol. I rushed between the rocks again, dodging the pincers. But this time, I focused on one Krab while trying to dodge the others. I think I almost got it before my vision went fuzzy again. “WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME.” I screeched as I was killed and respawned next to Hero again.
“Oh, you are running out of Stamina, how could you not know that?” Hero asked. Then paused and started laughing. “Wait, are you telling me as a miniboss your stats were so high, you never ran out of stamina?”
My cheeks flushed red and I pointed my bubble pistol at him. Before I could fire he spoke. “Do you really wanna make me an enemy right now?”
I slowly lowered the pistol. He was right.. Also, I didn’t want to upset my hubby so soon after making up. Instead, I walked over, sighed, and jumped out again, dodging all the Krab pincers. This time, I managed to get one of them super low. That stupid thing was limping. Then another one got me from behind.
I respawned and instantly jumped out, summoning my pistol as I did and aimed directly for the weak one. A few shots and it finally died.
I frowned at that. Only five? I felt a sharp pain and reappeared next to Hero. I opened my stat sheet. I found the XP bar and felt rage begin to bubble.
I was really starting to hate this place. Hero finally killed his first shortly after. The next time I jumped out, I came with a plan. I shot only one of the Krabs. It chased me, breaking off from the pack. I rushed over to a big rock in the sand and ran to the side of it. I fired at the crab while standing still. When it got close, I sprinted back and started firing again. I kept glancing around in case more appeared. After around seven times of running around in circles, I was able to bring the second one down.
I was starting to understand why Hero hated it here. I kicked the Krab and laughed bitterly. Only to feel a sharp pain as another one spawned and got me from behind. “FUUUCK” I screamed as I reappeared.
“From behind?” Hero asked. I nodded angrily. He nodded back at me. “Yea, the system is mean that way. Spawns mobs behind ya a lot. A good trick for that is right after killing on, put your back against a wall and count to ten. Sometimes they spawn on top of the wall and they can’t get down.
I sighed and went to leave but he grabbed my shoulder. I resisted the urge to stab him.. Mostly because I had nothing to stab him with. “Hey, um, a good trick is to kick sand in their eyes. It slows them down a little and makes them less accurate.” He said quietly before taking his hand off my shoulder.
I didn’t know what to say, and after a moment I just rushed past him and jumped out again. Dodging the pincers the same way I always did, I rushed over and fired at one of them. It rushed me as always. I waited till it got slightly close then kicked sand at it.
It didn’t seem to do much, but the krab actually slowed down, allowing me to run a little slower and conserve stamina a little. I was still draining it by moving at all, but it was a little slower. That made all the difference. This time, when the krab died, I put my back against the rock and counted to ten.
I looked up and saw a claw peaking over the edge of the top of the boulder. “He was right..” I whispered. I tried to shoot the one up there, but my bubble bullets didn’t reach. I sighed, so much for an easy kill.
I walked over to another one, these things were everywhere. This one didn’t attack me until I fired at it. That meant just like Hero had said, they were neutral until you were in combat. The problem was that the moment I attacked it. Another one nearby rushed me at the same time.
I managed to kill the first one by looping them around the rock a few times. I kicked sand in the second one's face and was barely able to dodge a few strikes before it finally got me. I instantly summoned my bubble gun and jumped from between the crevices. This time, I ignored the ones by Hero and made a dash back to the one that killed me.
After waiting for my vision to clear, I stood and pointed my bubble gun directly at it. I took a deep breath, and I spammed the trigger as hard as I could. I managed to burst it down a little, it looked weaker and I kicked dirt when it got close before running over to the rock and looping it around until it died.