Memories - Becoming a Hedonist

*Ding*

[+1000 Satisfaction Points]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don't know how long it's been, but judging by the light from outside it's almost dawn.

Looking around I noticed I was laying down with Alexia in my arms.

I didn't move, just continued to lay there while checking the system to see what boosts I've gotten.

Skills: [Heal], [Parallel Thought]….

Physique: God's Chosen, Supreme King [!!]

Immediately my eyes gravitated towards my new staggering point balance.

Looking through the backlog of notifications, it seems Alexia provided around 4,000 while the rest came from the satisfaction brought about by a new physique.

My overall strength seems to have gone up by fifty. I can feel the difference, but it's still not strong enough.

Finally I checked out the exclamation mark that alerted me of my new physique.

[Kings Aura]: A commanding presence that can intimidate and potentially cause weaker foes to flee or submit.

[Supreme State]: Body and soul are in perfect harmony, enabling rapid enhancement of strength, speed, and resilience.

[Unyielding]: Enhanced durability and resistance to physical attacks and poisons.

[Supreme Senses]: Heightened senses such as sight, hearing, and perception, allowing the owner to detect danger and opportunities from afar.

[Impenetrable]: Unbreakable willpower and resistance to mental attacks, illusions, and mind control.

One word….

What?!

I'd be happy with even one of these skills, now you're telling me I've gotten five? And there's still two locked ones!

I figured the physique would be good but…this is amazing.

I casted a glance at Alexia and saw that she had two different abilities.

Replacing my [Unyielding] and [Impenetrable], she had [Graceful Regeneration] and [Divine Insight].

[Graceful Regeneration]: Rapid healing and recovery from injuries, maintaining a royal appearance.

[Divine Insight]: Enhanced intuition and the ability to see through illusions and lies.

'Interesting…the insight could come in handy, and her regeneration puts me somewhat at ease. I don't know how effective it is, though I hope I don't have to find out.'

'More importantly…what's this error I'm seeing?'

'What? I thought the body enchantment I had would've removed any illnesses in me. How has this gone unnoticed? What even is it?'

the system soon continued.

My mind ran rampant with questions. 'Can I remove whatever it is?'

'Might work?…oh well, let's give it a shot. Before that…'

During my thoughts, I laid there while absent-mindedly stroking Alexia's hair.

A few minutes passed until I came to my senses. Fearing interrupting her sleep, I stopped for a second before seeing her expression. She just smiled and moved closer to me.

Looking over at the time it was still early and I knew she wasn't going to wake up any time soon so I thought about my next course of action.

Originally I wasn't going to go to school today, but I realized that if I wanted to keep up the life I had, I needed to be a bit more ruthless in how I do things.

Last night did nothing to put me at ease. If anything, I wanted to protect everything I had even more.

I struck at Daniel first, but that was by no means going to stop him. I especially want to find out what's going on with his friends and Lena.

My plan? Well I don't have one yet so I'm mostly going to play it by ear and see what happens.

About the Silas issue…while he's mad at Daniel, it's still his grandson, so he definitely wouldn't like it if I went too far.

Based on my rare healing physique, saving his life, and my friendship with Sierra, I'm confident that as long as I didn't kill him, Silas won't come looking for trouble over it.

And if he does…

'Anyway, I need to get stronger.'

———

Shop

Balance: 10,100 SP

[Strength Potion] 50 SP

[Stamina Potion] 50 SP

[Agility Potion] 50 SP

[Stone Hands Pill] 1,000 SP

[Titans Endurance] 1,000 SP

[Crystal Breeze Pill] 1,000 SP

———

Scrolling through the shop I was overwhelmed with all of the things listed.

At the bottom of the list I saw items going for a few hundred thousand points to a million.

Focusing on my price range, the pills seemed like a good idea. They brought my stats up by 25 which wasn't bad. The potion brought it up by 50 but it was only a temporary boost of 5 minutes.

Before I could purchase anything however, a sub section caught my eye

———

Special

[Dragonheart] 3,000 SP

[Lightning Essence] 3,000 SP

[Phoenix Tear] 3,000 SP

———

'What makes these items special?'

I sat in contemplation for a moment before deciding. With my points I could raise all my stats by 75 right now.

On the other hand…

'Fuck it, why not? I'll buy one of them and see how it works out. Worst case scenario I have to earn more SP"

After settling myself, I bought the Dragonheart and watched my points disappear.

A few seconds later, a crystal clear box materialized in front of me, a glowing beating mass of red and black lying inside.

Quickly opening the box I picked up the wet organ and took a bite.

The taste surprised me, and you wouldn't believe it if I told you, but in all honesty?

It tasted like absolute shit.

Did I finish it?

Hell yeah I did. It was 3,000 SP.

Immediately I felt a pounding sensation in my head as a loud roar rang through it.

It wasn't painful, necessarily, but it made me dizzy as the room seemed to shake.

I just closed my eyes and let the feeling pass as I sat there trying not to vomit.

Eventually it calmed down and I felt a wave of strength course through me.

To verify the feeling, I checked my stats and was not disappointed.

[Strength: 275]

A solid increase of 150! Unfortunately I couldn't tell what the other effects were but I'd find out eventually I'm sure.

With newfound confidence, I happily purchased the other two items and a similar scene repeated itself.

Only, this time, the lightning essence came in a bottle, a faint bright blueish white strand bounced around inside.

I timed its movements before unscrewing the lid and allowing it to bounce into my reach.

Without much effort I digested it, bringing about a tingling feeling through my body as it felt like every pore was given a jolt.

After that settled and I received the boost, it was time for the phoenix tear.

It appears in a vial this time and it was simple to drink. But the feeling of being on fire that followed was not.

It wasn't very fun, but the results were more than worth it.

With my remaining points I bought a Stone Hands pill and a Strength and Agility potion

Now my stats looked something like this…

Skills: [Heal], [Parallel Thought]….

Physique: Eden's Grace, Supreme King

While not enough for Silas, If I used supreme state and some potions, I had more confidence in at least preserving my life in a fight.

This emboldened me greatly. Since I can't outright kill Daniel now, shouldn't I have some fun with them?

After all, killing them off would be a far better mercy than they deserved.

'Now…let's see what's up with this imperfection.'

Steadily, I placed my hand on my forehead and sent in my aura from both physiques.

[Heal]

'I don't know if that—'

"AAGH!" An unexpected sharp jolt of pain ran through my head and I couldn't hold in my voice.

I fell off the bed onto my knees as I grasped at my head.

"hmm?…Akashic is that—What happened?!" Alexia stirred awake, jumping to her feet as she saw me.

Quickly she ran around the side of the bed and kneeled next to me, placing her hands over mine.

As I took in her scent, it mixed with the pain I felt and I blacked out. It felt like I was floating in space as more images began flashing in my mind, this time with voices.

{"Mom! Look! There's a girl in the rain over there! We have to help her!"}

{"What's your name? I'm Akashic."}

{"*Sniff* Alex…*Sniff*…ia"}

The memories were shaky, the scene quickly changed to somewhere else, the same purple haired girl still present, however another woman was in the room, though I couldn't make out her features.

{"Awww, is my little man in love? Little nebula stole your heart already, huh? Your aunt is going to be jealous she has all your attention!"}

There was no way I could ever forget the voice. My eyes started to water at the thought.

'Mom…'

Again, the scene flashed, changing to a dark room.

{"That damn whore! She laid up with that filthy creature and your brother still allows that abomination to be heir! Our son is a much better fit and is pure blood as well! You should do something!"}

{"No, no, no. It's too risky with Selene in her position. We'd be dead before we even began. When we make our move, it has to be untraceable."}

Again, the scene flashed.

{"I'm so sorry, honey. This is the only way to protect you now. You may hate me forever, but you'll always be my sky. You and my sister are the most important people in the world to me."}

A lady I'd never seen before was looking at me, tears running down her cheeks. My heartstrings tugged as I saw her face, but I couldn't recognize her.

{"Oh god, when she finds out…that little girl is going to kill me…"}

With those words, the flashes ended and I shot awake.

"Haa…haa." Gasping for air as sweat rolled down my forehead.

Looking up, I was met with Alexia's worried face as tears filled her eyes.

Now that I saw her again, the little girl from my memories became clearer. There was no doubt about it.

I put my hand to her cheek and wiped her tears that were about to fall.

Here sparkling eyes reminded me of the name my mother called her.

"Nebula…"

"Oh god, you're alright! You scared me—" she began in relief before my words set in.

"!!!" Alexia's eyes widened, disbelief at what she heard.

"You—How—did—WHAT!?" Stuttering over herself, she looked at me incredulously.

"Such beautiful eyes, I understand why she called you that." That was confirmation for her as she gripped my face in excitement.

"You remember!?!" Her reaction was the happiest I've seen her. Even more so than last night. It made it a little difficult to dash her hopes.

"Not really. I was trying to fix whatever happened to my mind when that episode happened. I saw bits and pieces but I don't have the full story." Her grip lessened but her smile remained.

"Hehe, as long as you remember one day…Our promises." She leaned down and nuzzled her face against mine, making happy noises.

"Why didn't you tell me we knew each other? It had to have been hard for you, seeing how close we must've been."

She simply shook her head. "When I found out you were gone, I tried everything I could to find you. I wasn't told where you went, just that you'd be safer if I didn't know."

"When we met in high school, it was coincidental almost. I just stayed in the town where your grandparents were, hoping I'd see you eventually. When I realized you didn't recognize me, it was sad, but I saw it as a chance to prove our connection and rekindle it." The love in her eyes poured out as it grew more intense.

"I was right. Even though you didn't remember me, our connection was stronger than ever. I was happy with just that. I still didn't know what threat to your life there was, so I didn't tell you anything."

"When you told me about your mother, it broke my heart. She was an amazing woman and treated me like her own. I wish I could tell you more but I don't know anything about why your aunt sealed your memories. It should come back to you eventually though."

Her words made sense. I didn't blame her, I was just curious. My aunt, though… Is she still alive? I doubt Alexia would know since she's been spending her time looking for me.

I hope I have a chance to meet her one day.

"Now, you can see why I don't mind Lena. Besides the other reasons, she could never replace me."

I smiled at her, in full agreement.

[+125 Satisfaction Points]

*Growl* x2

The growling of our stomachs woke us from our bubble. I forgot that we hadn't had anything to eat before we started last night.

Standing up, we took a shower together. Alexia sat in the room while I went to make some breakfast.

Unfortunately, upon opening the fridge I realized that I didn't have many Ingredients here.

I haven't had a chance to go grocery shopping so I only had some basics and stuff from my apartment.

Scrounging together what I had I was able to make a neat breakfast of French toast and some fruits. I was thankful for the cooking skills and quickly set the table.

Looking at time it was almost 8:00am and we had a class to attend.

I put a covering over the food to maintain its warmth before heading upstairs to let her know the food was done.

Entering the dim room I saw her lying under the blanket, now in the spot where I was.

After that debacle, I guess she was still tired.

I gently sat next to her and began calling her name.

After a few seconds she lazily opened her eyes and looked up at me.

"Nnn?"

She mumbled before closing her eyes again.

Before I could say anything she inched closer to me, wrapped her arms around my waist and buried her face into my side as she went back to sleep.

Seeing that, I no longer had the mood for school as I gave up the idea.

Since I was staying home, I sent Lena and Luna a message, telling them I'd deliver the clothes when their classes ended.

'Eh, whatever. Nothing major'll take place today anyway.' I then adjusted my position and just laid there while I thought.

Chapter 16 - Memories