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After a few moments that seem eternal to me, Alessia regains consciousness and begins to cry inconsolably.
Delia rushed to embrace her in silence when she saw her fall, and now she continues to embrace her, as if she believed that in this way she could protect her from all evil.
But I remain paralyzed, staring at them, lamenting the pain my girl must be experiencing and my own inability to protect her from it.
'A pain that she is reviving because of me... Damn me and my stupid interface.'
While Alessia is still crying in Delia's arms, I absentmindedly look at my first girlfriend's status to try to distract myself.
[(Royal blood)]
'Just as I imagined...
Now that the Blood Seal is gone, it's impossible not to notice the striking altered state 'Royal Blood' in her profile...
But that detail can't appear in Alessia's status. I'd better move it to the 'Hidden' section.'
I can't think of much more, probably due to how tired and helpless I feel for not being able to help Alessia.
However, seeing that several minutes go by and she doesn't seem to recover from the emotional blow of having recovered her memories, I try to cheer her up somehow.
"Don't worry, Alessia... I am going to dea-"
But the edges of my vision become blurry all at once, and I feel my mind begin to shut down mid-sentence, finally overcome by exhaustion and accumulated stress.
Before sleep finishes enveloping me, a few last thoughts run through my burned-out head.
'Haa... It was to be expected... How many days has it been since I last really slept? I'm not sure... But there's just so much to do.'
***
I wake up in the arms of my girls, who, despite being asleep, have me tightly hugged between the two of them.
Looking out onto the balcony, I can see that it's already dark.
Alessia's eyelids are reddened from how much she must have cried, but other than that, she seems perfectly fine, judging by the calm expression on her face.
For the first time in a long time, I feel completely rested.
It's a wonderful feeling.
It's as if a veil of fog has been lifted from my mind.
It is incredible that I did not realize until now how much the energy potions were limiting me.
True, they did help me to be able to stay longer hours in the labyrinths, but the price is too much.
'Yes, I'm definitely going to stop drinking energy potions...
This can't happen again. I can't risk blacking out again without warning...
And I'm sure that, under normal conditions, I would have been able to avoid what happened to Delia...
Besides, the potions were screwing with my sleep schedule more and more...
Without realizing it, I was abusing them more and more, to the point where I was hardly sleeping at all...
I was an asshole...
It's not surprising, but it still bothers me...
Hmm, come to think of it, I still haven't had time to edit our statuses...
But first I should start by improving our skills, taking advantage of the materials I got in the family cellar at my parents' house...
First, Delia's skills'
Emir: !!!
[Healing (Ex) Lvl. 35] [1|3]
'It seems that Delia's work at the clinic not only serves to improve the lives of other people...
But it's a pity that, when I finally got the last material needed to level up her healing skills, it turns out that she no longer needs it.'
(Concentrated Mana)
'Hmm, it's good to have it anyways...
Maybe I'll need it in the future.'
Checking the skill description, I see that the level increase in Healing now allows Delia to use the skill without chant.
'That explains how she was able to heal simply by uttering the name of the skill...
And I imagine that now her heals will also be much more powerful.'
The rest of my lovely fox girl's skills have also leveled up, but not as much as Healing.
That makes sense, since Healing is the skill she uses the most.
'Hmm... Since I can't upgrade any of Delia's skills, I guess I'll have to content myself with upgrading Alessia's Inventory.'
[Inventory (Ex) Lvl. 66] [2|3]
With this change Alessia is now able to use her Inventory simply by intending to do so, and will no longer have to think or say the name of the skill to activate it.
'Hmm, I won't tell her about the upgrade and let her figure it out for herself...
That way, it will be more enjoyable for me and more beneficial for her...
Nice. Now that I'm done upgrading my girls' skills, it's time for mine.'
[Space Travel Lvl 66] [2|3]
[Eagle's Eye Lvl 33] [1|3]
With these upgrades, now my Eagle's Eye allows me to see more easily in the dark, and I am able to use Space Travel simply with the intention of doing so.
Considering the benefits of the previous upgrade, this new Space Travel upgrade surely also allows me to create illusory doors much closer to restricted areas, but that's something I'll have to test for myself.
'Ok... Now let's see our statuses...'
[Alessia Addari] [Great Adventurer Lvl 26] [Archer Lvl 24] [Sword King Lvl 20] [Explorer Lvl 22] [Strategist Lvl 18] [Survivor Lvl 13] [Harem member Lvl 29] [Barbarian Lvl 33] [Knight Lvl 39]
HP=48 || MP=12
Agility=48 || Strength=48
Intelligence=48 || Luck=14
[Resistance]
Physical=20 || Magic=20
Poison=20 || Curse=20
[Visible]
[Hidden]
[(Slave)]
[(Royal Blood)]
[(Masochist Lvl 17)]
[Alessia Addari has 19 free points.]
'It's amazing how much my girls and I have changed in this short period of time...
My user interface is really something extremely crazy...
In the past I had never been interested in making the most of it...
But I just needed a motivation to do so...
However...
Maybe we are changing too fast...
To the point where we don't really know our limits...
That's dangerous...
What happened to me when I went to rescue Delia is proof of that...
Alessia and Delia could end up doing irreparable harm to someone by mistake in the clinic, simply because they don't know their own strength...
Hmm, I'm going to stop changing the classes that have already reached a high level to low-level classes...
It's true that it's the easiest way to get stronger quickly, but I think we need to get used to our new limits first...'
[Alessia Addari] [Great Adventurer Lvl 26] [Archer Lvl 24] [Sword King Lvl 20] [Explorer Lvl 22] [Strategist Lvl 18] [Survivor Lvl 13] [Harem member Lvl 29] [Barbarian Lvl 33] [Knight Lvl 39]
HP=50 || MP=14
Agility=50 || Strength=50
Intelligence=50 || Luck=14
[Resistance]
Physical=23 || Magic=22
Poison=22 || Curse=22
[Visible]
[Hidden]
[(Slave)]
[(Royal Blood)]
[(Masochist Lvl 17)]
'Besides, we already have more than considerable strength...
Alessia probably has a strength comparable to that of the strongest people in the kingdom...
And the same can be said for Delia...'
[Delia] [Saint Lvl 18] [Adventurer Lvl 36] [Archer Lvl 39] [Lancer Lvl 42] [Warrior Lvl 41] [Harem member Lvl 30] [War priestess Lvl 33] [Explorer Lvl 23] [Great Adventurer Lvl 18]
[(Nymphomaniac Lvl 6)]
HP=44 || MP=44
Agility=44 || Strength=44
Intelligence=44 || Luck=9
[Resistance]
Physical=20 || Magic=20
Poison=20 || Curse=20
[Delia has 18 free points.]
'Hmm...
The first thing I should do is to hide her altered state...
It's problematic to leave it as it is now that I know there are means, other than my interface, to detect it...
And then...
In her case I'm going to add a considerable number of points to Physical resistance...
I'm going to make sure that Delia doesn't suffer anything like that again...
And one way to make sure of that is to increase our resistance stats...
Hmm, maybe I should dedicate the stat points we acquire from now on exclusively to that...'
[Delia] [Saint Lvl 18] [Adventurer Lvl 36] [Archer Lvl 39] [Lancer Lvl 42] [Warrior Lvl 41] [Harem member Lvl 30] [War priestess Lvl 33] [Explorer Lvl 23] [Great Adventurer Lvl 18]
HP=46 || MP=46
Agility=46 || Strength=46
Intelligence=46 || Luck=9
[Resistance]
Physical=28 || Magic=20
Poison=20 || Curse=20
[Visible]
[Hidden]
[(Nymphomaniac Lvl 6)]
'Haa... I'll have to think about it...
The resistance stats are only useful at very specific times...
But our useful stats already have pretty high numbers...
Haa...'
[Emir] [Great Adventurer Lvl 45] [Sniper Lvl 39] [Sword King Lvl 34] [Assassin Lvl 38] [Harem Lord Lvl 32] [Traveler Lvl 36] [Hero Lvl 13] [Explorer Lvl 24] [Strategist Lvl 20]
[Workaholic Lvl 5]
HP=76 || MP=76
Agility=80|| Strength=80
Intelligence=80 || Luck=16
[Resistance]
Physical=26 || Magic=21
Poison=21 || Curse=21
[You have 38 free stat points.]
'Workaholic has leveled up again...
However, it doesn't appear to be negatively impacting me in any way...
For the moment I won't increase my Strength, Agility and Intelligence...
My stats are the ones that have changed the most radically lately...
The Hero class can be annoying sometimes, but most of the time it's ridiculously useful...'
[Emir] [Great Adventurer Lvl 45] [Sniper Lvl 39] [Sword King Lvl 34] [Assassin Lvl 38] [Harem Lord Lvl 32] [Traveler Lvl 36] [Hero Lvl 13] [Explorer Lvl 24] [Strategist Lvl 20]
[Workaholic Lvl 5]
HP=80 || MP=80
Agility=80|| Strength=80
Intelligence=80 || Luck=16
[Resistance]
Physical=30 || Magic=29
Poison=29 || Curse=29
'I think now I could surely face my parents on equal terms...
Their strange Luck can't be all-proof...
However, I'm not particularly interested in that right now...
Now that Alessia is asleep, I should seize the opportunity to speak with her friends about the possibility of hiring them as bodyguards...
It's true that Alessia didn't seem very happy with the idea...
But it is also true that she was quite upset at the time...
They always got along very well...
I'm sure she doesn't really dislike the idea of having the three annoying beauties around...
Hmm, I should concentrate on stopping mentally using that nickname for them...
If one day I slip up and say it out loud, that could create a lot of problems for me now that I'm probably going to be interacting much more frequently with them.'