A/N: Sorry everyone, I've been really busy and tired lately. After this and next week my schedule should be back on track. But I'll still find the time to write when I can.
Even with the huge group of zombies they had to fight, the amount of experience wasn't enough for Arachne to evolve. But Noah wasn't impatient enough to run off just to find something to kill. With how the world is now, living is a constant battle.
After pleasing the attention seeking Fenrir, Noah was approached by Arachne while on his way to his loot. He was curious why Arachne approached him, but he noticed something that he wouldn't be able to encounter before. Because of her bottom lips and developed cheeks, he discovered that she could smile.
To Noah, the smile was precious, but a half human, half spider whose head was more spider than human wasn't really a sight a normal person would consider precious.
Her smile was infectious to Noah who didn't realize he was smiling back. This was probably the first time he witnessed true emotions from his spider bedsides the feelings he experienced through their bond.
He waited for Arachne to say something and yet she stood there without a plan to speak. If it wasn't because of Fenrir earlier then he would have a hard time guessing what she wanted at this time.
"Don't worry, I saw everything. You really have grown strong enough to be a queen." He continued to smile as he talked to her, he could feel that Arachne's happiness was growing, but he couldn't allow for her pride to grow to a point that it could allow her to become complacent.
"But don't forget the reason you became this strong in the first place. If you slow down even for a little bit then you could potentially become a queen only in name."
His words caused Arachne's smile to abruptly disappear. Food and her status as a queen are two of her most sensitive things to talk about.
"I won't let that happen! I'll always be a queen!" She spoke with a heavy emotion. She didn't even want to entertain the thought of it.
Noah smirked before continuing to walk past Arachne to collect his loot while Fenrir and Arachne followed behind.
Ailetta was still recovering, not from the mana exhaustion itself, but from the strain of constantly controlling a tier one zombie's corpse. Her skill was more than just a simple order and guide, it involved concentration to achieve. The weaker the monster, the less consecration she would need to control it. While the stronger the monster, the more focus she would need or she could potentially lose effect of the skill or the commands would become less efficient.
Noah was determined to make her stronger, but the fight that just occurred was affecting him more than he felt it should. He just couldn't stop himself from having negative thoughts.
'Why does it feel that the reason she's only getting stronger is to protect 'those' people? She doesn't seem to even care about what happens to her at all, but she constantly puts their safety before her own…it's annoying….I don't like it at all…' He tried to preoccupy himself with the thoughts of his newly attained loot instead.
He didn't know that while he left Ailetta without speaking a word, she had also taken notice of his change. But she didn't know what to say, there was nothing for her to say unless she was going to apologize. However, that was something she was afraid of doing. Because saying sorry would mean discussing why she was apologizing and she didn't have a good reason to do what she did. She was just worried for her friends, but would he accept that?
She knew he wouldn't, she knew that the only way he would accept it was if she was stronger. He didn't need her help to take out the surrounding zombies and here she was, barely able to stand while only trying to keep her friends alive.
Sooner than later she knew she would have to make a decision, either it was to believe in Noah and focus on the path of her own strength, potentially losing her friends in the process, either by disassociation or through them dying. Or she will continue to put her friends before herself and potentially lose Noah, because she can already see the warning signs.
While those thoughts were going through her head, her imagination played through both options. Just after going through the options once, she already felt which one option was the one she just couldn't give up.
She looked at the strength she was able to gain in just a little time, she saw the amount of help she was able to give. And the person who made it happen didn't ask her for nothing in return and after all of his history.
Her eyes flickered briefly, before her gaze became resolute with a goal, a decision to do what she felt was the only thing to make sure she doesn't lose what was slowly leaving her grip. She set her sights to the chest that laid nearest to the zombie's corpse that she was no longer in control of and headed into its direction.
The other group were now trying to recover their bearings. They didn't have the satisfaction of being able to loot their drops immediately. Not only did they have to check over their deaths and try to cure the injured, but they also had to focus on curing those that were infected during the fights.
"We can't keep going on , we lost so many already…If this keeps up then who knows how many will be left in the end." Jasmine tried to be the voice of reason to the group. Noah's words earlier constantly played in her mind, especially now after so many people died because of her brother's decision. She was beginning to feel guilty and the guilt was affecting her actions, as well as making her doubt her leadership. However Mark didn't like the way Jasmine was acting.
"And what do you think we should do? Go back and wait? Or are you thinking of letting Noah take care of everything? Neither of those decisions are going to keep us alive and you know it! We have to fight, we have to grow stronger so we don't have to continue losing people in the future. If we had fought like I wanted in the first place then we would be strong enough to prevent this from happening." His words were a small wake up call to his sister. It wasn't enough to overshadow her doubt, but it was enough to allow her to allow others to make the hard decisions for a while until she was sure of herself again.
The small conversations stopped when Bailey spoke out a name. A name most of the people there who were there from the beginning knew, especially after seeing the zombie that was wreaking havoc against the other zombies. By this time they all knew who skill it belonged to, and the ones that didn't had found out through word of mouth.
Bailey wanted to thank her for all that she's done, but when she called out to her Ailetta didn't respond. Her expression didn't change nor did her eyes change directions. It was almost as if she was in a trance. The rightful source is ⓝovelFire.net
This worried the others, especially the people who were considered close to her as Jasmine, Bailey and Alicia came forward to check on her.
When they approached her and touched her shoulder, Ailetta became startled and raised her rod to defend herself before realizing who it was.
At first she was surprised, and then momentarily happy to see her friends before her eyes grew conflicted. The change was too obvious that the others were quick to pick up on the changes.
"Ailetta what's wrong? What happened?" Jasmine was the first to question her. None of them could easily guess what was the cause for such a change in her. The question made Ailetta aware of the expression she wore, the conflicted demeanor disappeared and was replaced with a look of disappointment.
"It's nothing…I'm just not happy with myself….so many people died and…and I'm just too weak….excuse me, but I just can't talk right now…" She continued to make her way towards the chest that she knew was hers, leaving the three girls behind, bewildered as they all watched her walk away.
"Do you think Noah said something to her? We all saw what she was able to do, why would she say that?" Alicia asked out loud.
The three were left to speak their own theories about what occurred while both Ailetta and Noah opened their chest. Ailetta was able to obtain a platinum chest after killing so many zombies that were as strong as her or even stronger, While Noah obtained the same kind of chest for defeating multiple monsters that were a high tier.
Both received an attribute orb, sadly for Ailetta, the orb she recieved was orb to increase her strength by 25 while Noah obtained a orb that increased magic. She held onto the orb while she stuffed it into the bag. She didn't feel that strength was necessary for her and she wanted to repay Noah after all he's done.
Besides the orb, both chests dropped an upgrade stone for a tier zero skill, but Noah recieved a tier one health potion while Ailetta received a skill. The skill happened to be the imbue weapon skill that originated from the priest class, she recalled that someone in their group also had the skill, but sadly he was one of the casualties after encountering the tentacle zombie. The two collected their equipment and gold in the end. Ailetta wasn't knowledgeable to decide what was good or not when it came to her equipment so she decided to make her way towards Noah nervously.
She was aware of the prodding in the back of her mind, she has leveled up plenty of times to know what the feeling meant by now. When she looked at the results, she was astonished to see that she had increased by a level and was already more than halfway to reach another. She hesitated to use her points, she felt that she should discuss it with Noah first before she decided. He seemed to know the best way to get stronger so she felt that her decision was right as she made her way back to him.
She forced herself not to look back or she might second guess the decision she had come to.
With a heavy mind, a troubled heart, but a decisive gaze, she acted oblivious to the fact that Noah still hasn't said anything to her, she still looked him in the eye and said.
"Noah, please tame me!"