Chapter 14: Unexpected Visitor.
Chapter 14: An Unexpected Visitor.
Hitoshi let out a long, exaggerated sigh, his small body sprawled flat across the simple bed in his servant quarters. His limbs twitched now and then, little spasms of lingering soreness shooting through him like tiny jolts of lightning.
" I...h-have to get up.." He groaned, shifting slightly before flopping back down in defeat.
" Ouch..."
"I can't believe Eri Onee-san was way too rough..." He winced as he tried moving his arm, only to be reminded of the rather intense scrubbing session from earlier.
It wasn't fair!.
He wasn't even that dirty!, Nevertheless, She had still scrubbed him like she was trying to remove a devilish curse from his body!.
Even now, His skin still felt raw.
Hitoshi let out another helpless sigh.
"I know Onee-san didn't mean to hurt me, I'm sure she did this because she couldn't control her strength...
" Eri-Onee-san is super strong so of course she'd have a hard time controlling her strength when it came to weak old me..."
" If only I was...." A long sigh escaped his lips again. But just as he was about to drift off into self-pity, a constant, almost irritating beeping noise chimed in his mind.
«[Ding!]»
«[Ding!]»
«[Ding!]»
Hitoshi blinked at the sight of the multiple transparent panels that suddenly emerged before his eyes.
' why hasn't it stopped yet?.' he wondered, his little face wincing a bit in irritation at the systems constant beeping.
His system had been acting weird for a while now, throwing notification after notification at him, and he had been too distracted by his aching body to actually check. He furrowed his brows, sitting up with a slight groan. Just as he thought of checking his notification screen.
His eyes widened in shock when he saw a series of notifications flood his vision.
[Congratulations you've leveled up!]
[Congratulations you've leveled up!]
[Congratulations you've leveled up!]
.......
The notifications emerged again and again before his eyes, each one stacking on top of the last until they blurred into a mess of numbers and exclamation marks.
His jaw dropped.
"Eh?! Why did I level up so many times?!"
His fingers trembled slightly as he scrolled down, skimming over the dozens of level-up messages until he reached the last one.
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 20!]
[You have 150 unallocated stat points and 150 skill points!]
Hitoshi's mouth hung open. "150 each?!"
That was a ridiculous amount!.
He sat frozen for a moment before muttering, "But… but how?, I only took a bath with Onee-san so how come I got this much?."
As if responding to his confusion, another system message popped up in front of him.
[All affinity points were generously gifted to you by Eri, the Head Maid.]
His brain short-circuited.
"...Eri Onee-san?"
" But I don't remember helping her out today?, we just took a bath, didn't we?."
He tilted his head, staring at the system messages as if the system had just spoken in an alien language.
She gave him Affinity Points?, Hitoshi had long since pieced together that Affinity points seemed to appear whenever he made someone happy yet, his naive little brain couldn't remember ever making his Onee-san happy to such an amazing extent.
He first wondered if it was because she had secretly been happy while scrubbing him so hard earlier.
" Could it be that the reason Eri Onee-san scrubbed me so hard was because she just wanted to help me too?, and because of it, she forget to control her strength and went too far?."
" Hmm..." Hitoshi put on a serious face for once as he contemplated the idea. If that was really the case then it meant his Onee-san really liked him and only put him through that rejuvenating yet tiresome bath, just because she wanted him to look and feel better.
" I can't believe I didn't think about it before!." Hitoshi suddenly screamed in shock as he propped his upper body to sit upright on the bed, completely forgetting the aches that simultaneously emerged all over his body.
At the moment, all he could think about was just how much his Onee-san cared about him, Just the thought of it caused a stupid grin to creep onto his cute little face, his hands holding his face which now had a euphoric expression.
" Eri Onee-san really love's me....." The memory of his past traumatic life with his father suddenly surfaced within his mind yet it was slowly suppressed by the memories he'd shared with Eri till today. Unlike his father who never showed any appreciation towards him in his past life, His Onee-san had saved him from slavery, gotten him a new home to stay, given him a chance to continuously prove himself and now she was doing her best to take care of him even more.
" She loves me...."
" Eri Onee-san love's me..."
" She love's me so much...." He kept mouthing unconsciously, as if trying to solidify that thought into his mind.
Just as Hitoshi was about to fall deeper into his strange thoughts, the system sent him a new notification.
[After a well rounded analysis, The System highly recommends utilizing your stat points and skills to further enhance your prowess.]
[With higher stats and multiple skills, The system assures that the host will be able to complete more tasks with much more ease.]
[Moreover, the speed at which the host can gain Affinity Points would increase even more so.]
[Would host like to allocate Stat Points]
[Y/N]
Hitoshi stared at the message for a long moment, his little index finger tapping rhythmically on his left cheek as he pondered the systems offer.
After some time, Hitoshi suddenly sighed before saying.
"Nah."
[????]
[The System would like to ask the host why?]
" Why?..." Hitoshi suddenly held his chin in thought. " We'll I don't think I need any of it now."
" I did feel tired when cleaning my room yesterday, and cleaning the scullery, also when skeleton no 4 took me to look for that spoiled brat, but..."
" It wasn't to the point that I collapsed so I think I can continue working for Eri Onee-san like this."
" Also, after that bath with Eri Onee-san, I feel like I can do even more work!." Hitoshi beamed when he recalled that strange rejuvenating pool Eri Onee-san had washed him in.
What Hitoshi didn't know was that the same pool Eri Onee-san and he had bathed in was a Vitality pool. Most undead's usually feed on vitality to survive, whether in the form of souls, life essence, flesh or blood, it was all vitality in the end.
As servants of the manor, the Aoi family linage gifted all their servants vitality pools to help nourish and increase their strengths, though each vitality pools effects were obviously different, moreover, Eri Onee-san's own personal Vitality pool was one of the best within the manor, if not one of the two bests within the servant area.
With that thought, Hitoshi waved his system panel away and flopped back down on his bed.
However, his system didn't seem to get the message.
[The System still thinks that the host should utilize his stat points and skills to further enhance your prowess.]
A new screen popped up directly above his face, hovering inches away from his nose.
Hitoshi twitched. " Sorry.. but no, I'll use it when I need to, not now, it would be wasteful if I I'd, so stop pressuring me." Hitoshi pouted before waving at the system panel to vanish.
To his surprise, It stayed there instead, seeing this, His eye twitched harder.
"..I said...Shoo~!" Hitoshi finally got irritated and waved his hand at it, this time trying to swat it away like an annoying bug, but the glowing screen stubbornly remained in place.
" What part of i don't want to, don't you understand." Hitoshi frowned and waved harder yet.
Nothing.
"Your bullying me aren't you~!" Hitoshi's voice cracked a bit, his eyes moistening a little, feeling even more annoyed than ever, he flailed his arms a bit, attempting to "physically" swipe it out of existence.
Poof!
As if not willing to push him any more, The screen finally dispersed.
"...Hmph~!"
" Mean system~!" He crossed his arms with a huff before swinging his legs over the edge of the bed.
' Mmmmm.... maybe I should start heading to work.' Hitoshi suddenly thought, the systems antic's had left him frustrated.
" Washing a few dishes should calm me down." He muttered beneath his breath as he got off the bed, ignoring the aches in his body as he walked towards his closet.
_________________________________________
After changing into his fresh set of servant clothes, since his other one was already worn yesterday. Hitoshi dusted himself off and made his way to the scullery.
However, just as he stepped outside his room, he nearly bumped into a tall, looming figure standing in the hallway.
" S-so-orry...I didn't see you there."Hitoshi stopped abruptly, blinking up at the unfamiliar face.
A male ghoul.
His skin was pale and sickly, with sharp, sunken eyes that gleamed dimly in the dim lighting. His long claws twitched slightly, and his mouth filled with razor sharp fangs, curled into something that wasn't quite a smile.
Hitoshi stiffened at the sight. He couldn't help recalling when Eri Onee-san had warned him during the bath about three of the other servants in particular who he should tell her about if anyone of them approached him.
He remembered her mentioning a Ghoul, Zombie and Skeleton.
The man Infront of him didn't look like a Skeleton so the little clueless boy was at a loss.
' is he a Zombie or a Ghoul?.' Hitoshi wondered, with his limited knowledge, he didn't really know the difference between a Ghoul or Zombie since both of them looked like walking corpses to him.
[Would the Host like to acquire the skill, Appraisal, for 5 Skill points?.]
The System suddenly emerged Infront of Hitoshi's eyes.
' I'm not talking to you...bully system~!.' Hitoshi refused in his mind, obviously still unhappy with the system.
As if it could sense his hostility, The system panel vanished yet unlike before, it strangely crumbled apart before his eyes this time before scattering into multiple glittering fragments, leaving Hitoshi surprised, yet when he recalled what happened earlier, he simply harrumphed before turning his attention back to the strange mister Infront of him.