酷视

Chapter 13: Changes

My body felt... Strange.

\'No, that\'s the wrong way to put it. It feels... I feel better than ever before!\'

Normally, after waking up, it would take a cup of a really strong coffee or an adrenaline kick from my aunt coming to intrude on me to chase away the drowsiness and exhaustion.

Yes, for me it was a norm to wake up exhausted, always struggling to get enough sleep between school, part-time jobs, and all sorts of duties my adopted family pushed on me.

But now, I felt a strange energy in my muscles, something I never experienced before. It felt as if my body... was raring to go?

Baffled by my findings, I slowly opened up my mind. And then all the thoughts of the curious change got swept by the lovely sight before my eyes.

Judging from my perspective, I was lying down on the lap of the fox-girl from before. The girl herself was staring somewhere off, patiently waiting while she enjoyed the view of the clearing.

Forced to acknowledge that the torture of this bait didn\'t end nor was but a dream I had, I now realized that as she stared off, this strange girl gently moved her hands up and down, caressing my scalp and gently rustling my hair.

And even though her perfectly round and bouncy pride was just a few inches away from my eyes...

I didn\'t feel horny, not at all.

The distant look on her face, the gentle massage of her fingers, the refreshing gust of wind that cooled down my face... How could I feel horny when this moment was so relaxing, so wholesome?

My eyelids lingered, growing heavy the more I relaxed...

But my body was raring to go. Filled with this newfound energy, I found it hard to just stay still.

"You are awake, human Peter," the familiar voice of the massive fox sounded in my brain.

Unable to pretend any longer, I reluctantly rose up from the soft lap and wiped my eyes for a moment before looking at the massive beast.

"I am," I mindlessly voiced out before pulling my hands away and taking a look at the situation.

We were still in the clearing to which we returned after burying the adventurers that challenged the massive fox before I even came to this place. The only difference was how the fox-turned-girl was now sitting down on her knees, staring at my back with curiosity brimming in her eyes.

That...

And the massive changes that happened to my system.

To the left, I could see my attributes... That was much higher than before my second nap. Yet, as my eyes drew toward the explanation of the Blessing of a Celestial Fox, things suddenly started to make sense.

But the change to my wisdom brought about another difference, something that revealed itself even earlier yet I failed to notice it thus far.

[Suggested mission: Bounties of the forest

- Easy route - Find out the three precious herbs populating the forest that will help accelerate your growth.

- Master route - Reach level five before leaving the forest to gain a special title

- "Are you fucking serious?" route - Find a Celestial guardian and gain its blessing. //Completed//

The alert on how I needed to reach 1.5 in wisdom to unlock the information about paths was now nowhere to be seen. And the highest-difficulty path of that mission... Was now marked as complete.

\'I guess it wasn\'t all just a random luck for me to meet those foxes...\' I thought, raising my eyes to the massive fox... Only to realize that I was rudely silent after barely replying to its words.

"Shall I assume everything is settled...?" I asked, not really sure how to form the question that plagued my thoughts.

Between all the changes to my system, the sudden growth, and how I was slowly beginning to realize that my body moved far faster and smoother than even before... I failed to organize my thoughts. And it was all because of one reason.

It was all due to what happened before my nap.

"Are you dissatisfied?" the massive fox asked again, only to see me squirming to deny with my entire body by shaking my head to the side while crossing my arms to make a huge X sign.

"Not at all," I finally managed to get the words out of my tightened throat. "It\'s just that..."

A long wrinkle appeared on my forehead when I combed through everything in my mind to find the right words and ideas that I wanted to express.

"Please, wait. Let me start again from another angle," I requested before raising my eyes and looking at the lazily resting beast the size of a truck.

In exchange, the massive fox could hardly be bothered to look back.

\'It seems I denied it strongly enough yesterday,\' I thought, recalling some of the events that transpired before I went to sleep.

"I might be able to show you something interesting, but before that..." I hesitated for a second. "How long did I sleep?"

The fox finally turned its eyes and looked back at my face properly. It seemed my question managed to take it by surprise, sparking new flames of curiosity in its soul.

"Before, you slept for five hours, out of the exhaustion of your flesh," the fox replied with a huge yawn that revealed the two long sets of extremely sharp teeth. "Now, when your body had to adapt to the sudden growth, you slept for nearly thirty more."

\'That makes it thirty-five in total,\' I thought, gritting my teeth in frustration... Only for my forehead to tense up again. \'Or forty? Did it mean thirty hours or five and then thirty hours for the second nap? Wait, regardless, how the hell did I sleep for so long? And what\'s with all that about my body adapting...\'

Now that I\'ve learned something, my mind finally switched the gears back to its analytic mode. As I finally started to process all the information I had on hand, I only ended up shaking my head in renewed frustration when I managed to figure out two whole nothings and then some.

"Well, I don\'t know if it will work, but let me try anyway," I muttered as I turned my back to the foxes and focused on a random spot of the clearing, as far away from the three of us as I could. Then, as I swiped my hand, the gate appeared as if it was the most obvious thing to happen in the world.

"Can you see it?" I asked, turning my head over the shoulder to gauge the reactions to my little stunt.

The bigger foxes snapped on their feet, showing any signs of focus for the very first time since I first met them. On the other hand, the fox-girl nearby continued to patiently sit down on her knees, as if hoping I would change my mind and return my head to where it belonged...

\'Wait!\' I shook my head, trying to get the memory of resting on those lovely, soft things from my mind.

"Human Peter, what is it?" the voice of the massive fox filled my brain, this time with an obvious hint of wariness.

"To my understanding, your words from before I fell asleep mean that you wish to entrust your child to me," I spoke, turning my whole body towards the massive fox while leaving the gate as it was. "Is this understanding of mine correct?"