Chapter 24: Chapter 21

Abble, being fine, didn’t last long. Eight hours later, she was vomiting and needed help walking back from the toilet. Disorientated, she could not respond to my words of concern as we stumbled across the room. 

Then, having laid Abble down on her bed, she began moaning in pain and violently shivering. My hand came to her forehead, and I panicked as soon as my palm contacted her skin. 

This wasn’t a regular fever.  

Looking around frantically, I tried to figure out what to do. There was no chance they had aspen bark onboard. And it wasn’t worth the risk of leaving the room to ask.

Wetting her skin would be wise. In the winter, Mother would put a damp cloth in the snow and place it on Yuridia’s and my forehead. Although I don't know how much it helped, I needed to try something.

I glanced over at the window—opening it might also be a smart idea.

Figuring it couldn’t hurt to do it for a few minutes, I swung open one of the window segments, letting the air rush into the room. Abble tried to pull the cover over herself, but I took them from her, making her feel the chill of the ocean breeze. 

Using one of her spare shirts, I wiped her skin with water from the cask in the room’s corner, trying to assist the cold air the best I could. 

Abble was unconformable, but she would die quickly if I didn’t lower her fever. It already felt like a losing battle, even with the window open.   

Hours passed, and Abble’s breathing became laboured and rattled. While her shivering had lessened, it was far from over. I sat Abble up against the bed’s backboard to calm her wheeze, continuing to wet her face and arms with the shirt. 

I didn’t sleep at all that night. Sometimes her breathing would pause, and I would shake her shoulder a few times, which caused her to gasp for air. I was confident she would have stopped breathing and died if I hadn’t paid attention.  

Abble whimpered and clawed at the blanket as her fingers and arm twitched uncontrollably, causing her much distress. I wasn’t sure what I could do for her beyond what I already had.  

Fortunately, I got a bucket just in time, preventing Abble from vomiting dark blue blood on her bed. She wasn’t very aware of her surroundings, but Abble had enough sense to clutch the bucket while I held her hair back. Luckily, that disgusting part didn’t last long, and I was cleaning her face and trying to get her to drink water soon after. 

This all reminded me of when I was turning into a revenant.

I tirelessly sat by Abble’s side as the sun rose and set. Time crawled by as my desire for this to end had long since arrived. At times, Abble seemed to get better but would quickly take a turn for the worse.

There was no desire to look at her health bar. If, in fact, this was a lost cause, I didn’t want‌ to know.  

Jordan just sat on the floor near the dresser, watching me with her unblinking red eyes as I cared for Abble. She would sometimes sit up when Abble worsened, but it was most definitely for curiosity rather than concern. 

It took Abble until the following morning for her breathing to normalise. She soon began sweating, and her ridiculous fever subsided. 

That tide disease wasn’t pleasant, making me wonder how I would have been if I hadn’t died prematurely from the bleeding.

On her own, Abble returned to her lying position on the bed, hugging a pillow as I closed the windows. I returned the covers since the harrowing experience seemed to be over, and she latched onto them when they came into reach.  

I sat on Abble’s bed, leaning against the backboard next to her, and brought the system menu up. Finally, it was time to look at the newly unlocked buttons. 

First, let’s see what this tree in the middle is.

So, I have three different talent trees? It looked like there might be more with how it was presented. I clicked on the skull since it seemed like it had the most to do with being a demon. 

This display was enormous… so much was happening here—many locks, which annoyed me. I was tired of not being able to see everything.
My finger hovered over the Newborn talent, which was the only one unlocked.

Five strength didn’t seem like a terrible choice.

I added one point to the newborn talent, but nothing else was unlocked. 

So it seemed I had to hit rank 5 to move on. 

Before I put any more into that, I wanted to check the other talent trees. 

The first talent of Protection followed a theme related to enhanced durability, while the assault one was attacking. 

Only Assault gave me two options: unarmed or Weapons. 

Hm. The demon tree’s newborn talent seems the most useful right now. Twenty strength is a lot, at least for me. Although exploring other trees would be worthwhile, there could be something in the demon one that could help me be… less noticeable at college. 

It was worth sticking to the vampiric talents for now. 

After some long contemplation, I dropped the remaining points into Newborn. 

Next was allocating all that damn XP I received for doing nothing against Alexander. I was curious about his experience with how much experience I gained from just biting him. He was nowhere near 400, that was for sure; Jordan killed him with no effort. 

There better be something in these talent trees that lets me see enemies’ health bars. I needed to ensure I wasn’t biting off more than I could chew in the future. Without Abble, the altercation with Alexander would've been anticlimactic.  

I dropped a significant chunk of XP into defence because the three stat points I had before were pathetic. Health was next, and then some experience was poured into regeneration. Scraps were used for dexterity since it was still ranked 1. 

Once I get my next chunk of XP, I’d see what Essence is all about. With the possibility of the crew still trying to kill me, I wanted all my combat stats to be good. I didn’t have the privilege of goofing off, seeing what giving myself Essence would do.

Moving on to the other unlocked things, I clicked on the chest armour next. 

Oh, so clothes give me bonuses? That’s nice, even though my shirt and pants only gave me two of this thing called armour. It seemed to differ from the defence.

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Sigh. 

Being naked wouldn’t make things much different. I wonder what metal would provide because cloth attire was absolutely useless.  

I was only getting resistance to the sun from my ring. Unfortunately, the massive stats it provided were greyed out. 

The level of the item in the box’s corner said… 666. 

Yeah, I never got to that level. Aside from the sunlight resistance, this ring was trash for me. 

I opened the group button after that.

This didn’t tell me much, just what I already knew. However… Jordan had something called a… sire bonus.

Shit. 

My eyes slowly glanced up at Jordan with her head on the ground, and she still held her red gaze on me. 

Jordan must’ve sensed my discomfort at finding this out because she sat up and tilted her head. 

So… Jordan was my sire. The one that Cain warned me about. She wasn’t doing anything to make me think she would enslave me. If anything, she had saved Abble and me. Jordan could have easily been feeding on the crew, but did not. Being level 408 gave her a pass to do whatever she wanted, yet she hid when nobody on this ship was a threat.

All of this may have resulted from her not wanting the ship to turn around. I had to be careful when assuming virtuous intentions. As Cain said, she could have wanted me to get stronger, so her rescue might have had other motives.   

Putting that all to the side, Jordan was a wolf. How was I going to be the pet in this situation?  

I slinked out of bed and sat in front of Jordan, crossed-legged on the black wood floor. We stared into each other’s eyes, and I don’t think she blinked once the whole time.

Sitting this close to her face, I noticed that the red of her eyes radiated from the pupils like fire. The flame rotated around the black centre so subtly that I wouldn’t have seen it whirl if I hadn’t been paying attention.

My hand brushed over the soft ebony fur on her chest, and she inched a tad closer, which made me smile. I was glad she enjoyed my affections. Invoking her wraith was the last thing I wanted to do.    

I sighed. “Are you intending to control me?”

Jordan’s head tilted back and forth in a manner that I would say suggested confusion.  

“Cain said you would try to make me a pet. Is that true?” 

She gave a loud huff, looking away. 

“I really wish we could talk”—my hand dropped from her fur—“you’ve helped a lot, and clearly, killing you will not happen even if I wanted to.”

Jordan’s attention was drawn to me again. 

“It’s probably safer not to tell Cain about you, even though I have so many questions, like how a wolf becomes a demon”—my palm reached out to her—“you’re following me for a reason, and I don’t think it’s because you want a slave... I can feel that’s not why. How about we help each other get what we want?”

Jordan’s head tilted.

“You help me get stronger, and I help you with whatever you’re trying to accomplish. Also, ensure I don’t die for some stupid reason… and if necessary.” I glanced around, double-checking that Cain wasn’t in the room. “Help me kill Cain because… I don’t think he will ever let me return home.”

Jordan’s eyes looked over my face intently for a few seconds before she sniffed my hand, nuzzling it. 

“So that’s a yes”—I clapped my hands together—“when we get to the College, I will try to find answers on how we can communicate. Then we will take care of your problem first.” 

Jordan’s ears perked up, and her tail swished on the floor—that was a wag, for sure.

I stood up. “Now, all we can do is wait for this damn boat to make landfall. I’ve grown tired of this trip. A change of scenery is needed.”

Abble mumbled something, catching my attention, and I quickly stepped over to listen. She grabbed my hand weakly as I bent over, putting my ear near her lips.   

“Are you okay, Abble?” I whispered to her.  

Abble’s hand squeezed mine. “Please… stay…” she muttered.

I paused. “Like in bed with you?” 

There was no response, but she wasn’t letting go of my hand. I crawled into the bed and under the blanket, lying beside her while she clasped my hand. She continued to mumble things I couldn’t understand as our shoulders pressed against each other.    

I moved a lock of hair from her face. “You probably can’t hear me, so this is a perfect time to say something embarrassing… I am really glad you lived. You’ve mentioned not having friends, but I’ve never really had them either… I guess I’m just glad I met you. I think we both deserve some companionship, and what better way to do that than to become friends with someone who has felt your loneliness?”—I glanced down at Abble’s hand holding mine—“I don’t want to go home anymore… at least not right now. Returning home would mean we would not see each other and… I think I want to stick around until you grow tired of me, if that’s okay.”

Abble, of course, didn’t reply. 

I watched her sleep for a short while, which was probably creepy, but seeing her take breaths was relaxing, likely because that meant she was alive. The swelling in her face had gone down, returning to her normal round shape. 

Even with the disasters going on around me, I had excitement for the future; that was a first since this adventure started. I had viewed the crystal appearance as a curse, but the actual curse was my meaningless existence in Draycott. 

Mother and Yuridia would be okay without me for a while. I need to grow as a person before coming back. The man I would return home as would make them proud.    

My eyes became heavy, and it wasn’t long before they fell shut for the first time in days.

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