Chapter 97 Crush... How Lovely



Sorry for the delay, if you didn't follow the news through Discord, my keyboard is kind of broken, but wait? Where did this chapter come from then?

Well... I'm using an old laptop, it's awful yes, but it does the job for me.

What about the other thing that has happened today?

Well... My grandma passed away...

It feels strange to even think about it, one of the characters from my Novels was even based on her.

It's strange to think it outlived her... Literally.

I knew t would happen eventually... But no so soon.

There were so many things to talk about with her still that...

Sigh... Let's move on for now.

A question before we go, did I post a chapter yesterday? Because I forgot if I did so, due to my keyboard problem.

If no I can post another no problem.

Peace...

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/Jump!/

Dale ran through the hallways and jumped across the entire set of stairs in a single motion, getting to the second floor without a single ounce of difficulty as he went in pursuit of Yumi.

He looked left and right, determining the source of the smell to be coming from the right.

"Hey!" He exclaimed as he ran to a room in the far right corner

/COUGH!/

Dale could hear coughs coming from the room, so he quickly opened the door without hesitation…

/CREAK!/

/Poof!/

"!"

A cloud of dark smoke brushed against his face when the door fully opened, grabbing him by surprise, which ended up with him breathing a large mouthful of it…

[DING!]

Dale heard the sound of a notification, but his body was completely fine, and right now, whatever was written on it was meaningless…

He had bigger priorities to abide by.

"COUGH COUGH!"

All because of the sight of Yumi laying on the floor coughing!

"What happened here?" He asked as he looked around, looking for clues

He quickly saw a potion vial broken on the floor, releasing dark fumes in exorbitant quantities, and a flame source still lit next to it.

"Cough... Shit."

'The fire...'

The first thing Dale did was extinguish the flame to reduce the risk of a fire, it was rather easy as he literally just shoved his hand on the fire and it extinguished under his mighty grasp...

Just kidding, Dale used a specialized metal cover on the side to cover the working bench, the fire would then extinguish on its own over time.

After that, he grabbed Yumi from the ground gently and took her out of the room, but before he could do so, she pointed at a shelf, precisely towards a wooden box.

Dale grabbed the box and opened it, there was a series of vials inside.

He quickly understood what he had to do.

Dale approached Yumi and gave her the box, or tried to as she couldn't hold it...

"Urg..."

She weakly grabbed one of the vials but had difficulty opening it, so Dale did the rest and quickly opened it, feeding its contents to her despite how awkward the situation was.

But he cared little about that.

"..."

Yumi was feeling weak, she couldn't move properly aside from staying there in his arms, watching him feed her a potion…

She felt like a child, but at the same time, she felt relaxed and safe...

This was probably the most embarrassing moment of her life… But she couldn't help but feel happy that someone was there... And that this someone was him.

Like the stories of old, a Hero did come for her.

[Yumi's intimacy has increased massively]

"?"

'What?'

Dale was hit off guard, but he shook his head, covering his emotions with a smile.

After he fed her the potion, he brought her to the corridor where the air was lighter and cleaner before going back inside the room.

"Urg... What was she doing?..." Dale frowned as he looked around

'It's too stuffy... And the smell is...'

/Clack!/

Dale immediately opened the windows for ventilation, letting the air move around a bit before he turned to the side to check the black liquid spilled on the ground, it was still releasing black fumes and bubbling…

He didn't know what it was, and its description was simply, Failed Potion.

He had the childish urge to touch it, but his self-control was bigger... This time.

"Looks like she committed a mistake... Thankfully I was here..."

He grabbed a box and covered it as a way to reduce the fumes being released a little.

He didn't try to gather the remains or clean them up as he didn't know what sorts of reactions he could cause by doing so…

Perhaps it would explode in contact with water?... Or somehow turn into a worse concoction if he were to cover it with a towel...

So in the end, it was better not to risk it.

/Clack!/

Dale left the room and closed the door, once again grabbing Yumi in a princess carry and bringing her to the first floor, far from the smoke.

"..."

It was safe to say that now that she wasn't in danger anymore, Yumi felt the full brunt of this embarrassment face-on.

But she was too weak to even lift her arms up, forcing her to blush in the open...

Thankfully, Dale wasn't paying attention.

...

On the way to the first floor, he opened as many windows as he could in an effort to make the house smell... Less awful.

And once he arrived on the first floor, he put her on one of the couches and waited for her to catch her breath and recover, staying by her side in case something bad happened again.

"..."

Throughout it all, Yumi's face was beet red, but Dale misunderstood it as a side effect from the smoke, checking her up close to see if she was okay...

And this made her even redder...

So time passed…

...

/5 minutes later…/

"Cough… Cough… AhhHh..."

Yumi coughed a few more times as she tried to speak...

But each time she tried she failed, however, it didn't bother her as much as before, the potions effects had already fixed most of the damage caused by the smoke.

Her lungs didn't feel as itchy as before.

"Are you okay?" Dale asked, slightly worried as he raised his head to meet her gaze

She looked at him and nodded.

"Just a bit of... Cough... Smoke… I'll be fine… After 2-3 hours…" She replied slowly, still immobile on the couch

"... What happened?"

"Urg… It's embarrassing…"

'More so than this...'

"I was making a painkiller or trying to… An old recipe but... The vial I was working with cracked because of its age... Spilling its contents into the ground and directly into the flame… Causing it to... Cough!"

"It's okay, take it slow."

"Cough... Thank you..."

"It was my mistake, I should've checked it first... I wasn't okay to heat it up after so long..."

"Is it bad to breathe? Do you need something else?"

"The painkiller isn't dangerous in any way, but when burned, it becomes an extremely potent tranquilizer…"

"Before I even had the time to process things, I had lost strength in my legs…"

Dale's eyes darted open.

"That was extremely dangerous."

Yumi smiled awkwardly…

"Yes… It isn't dangerous per se, but I've been there for around… 3-4 minutes before you arrived, so the amount of fumes I inhaled has made my body almost completely numb."

"The only risk was the flame, and the heated liquid, but thankfully none of it fell on me, neither did the flame fall onto the ground…"

'There was no risk of that though...'

'But a running flame is always a danger... And a waste of resources.'

Dale looked at her with a worried expression before asking:

"I can see that it wasn't your fault, but next time, try to run first and call for help, or at least, prepare some countermeasures so such a helpless situation doesn't repeat itself."

'Her father died in a similar way as far as I'm aware, it would be tragic for her to leave this world like this as well...'

"I sure will… This experience wasn't exactly… Pleasant." Yumi said with a thin smile

"Aside from that… Are you sure you're okay? You also inhaled a portion of the fumes..." She asked Dale with a frown

But Dale only laughed, saying:

"Why wouldn't I? My body is pretty sturdy."

Just to be sure, Dale checked the notifications, but as expected, his high Constitution made short work of the side effects...

This sort of thing was incomparable to the Miasma... Although it may be wrong to compare them in the first place.

"..."

Yumi smiled.

"Yeah… You're… Pretty reliable. Thank you for saving me... Again." She said with a slightly red face

[Yumi's intimacy has increased greatly]

"..."

'It keeps rising up even though...'

"... But what now?" He asked as he raised an eyebrow

'It would be a tad irresponsible to leave her alone now...'

"I... You fed me a potion, it isn't an antidote, but it should counteract some of the effects…"

"Overall, I should be okay within half an hour." She said, trying her best to move

/Twitch/

Yumi tried to move her fingers, but they only slightly twitched…

She let out a sigh of frustration, it was embarrassing, but she needed someone to nurse her as it wasn't wise to remain alone right now.

"I will… I'll be in your care…" She said in a low tone as she dropped her head slightly

…

/Time passed.../

For the next 30 minutes, Dale stayed by Yumi's side.

Since she didn't have much to do, so she kept talking about her potions and her experiments in order to pass time.

Dale listened with great interest, after all, this was a subject that he would likely need to be acquainted with in the future.

But because it was getting late, he covered her in a warm blanket, and to further add to his extensive care, he even gave her water from time to time.

And this made her feel strange, this was something she hasn't felt in years, and it wasn't a bad feeling… To be cared for like this, by none other than Dale…

[DING]

[DING]

[D...]

And this was reflected in the several notifications Dale heard throughout his stay …

How ironic, a few hours ago he was the one being healed, but now it was her time to be pampered... Taken care of.

Her intimacy grew so much that by the end of their conversation, a new Emerald heart had grown atop her head, shining in all of its glory…

And a new, smaller one, was already shining on the side...

By the time the feeling of touch returned to her feet and legs, allowing her to walk, Yumi thanked Dale with a hug, only to then realize her own mistake…

But before she could even stop, Dale hugged her back and said:

"Try not to break anything again okay?" He joked with a smile

"... I'll try." Yumi said as she looked at the ground

Only then did she stop hugging him, realizing how long it had been.

"If that's all, I'll make my leave, if you need my assistance in the future, just call me." Dale said as he turned around

"Yes!" Yumi said with a smile

/Creak…/

But once Dale left, her face turned crimson as she rushed to the bathroom…

She had been holding her urge for a little while…

At least as fast as could, her body still felt rather numb.

…

After visiting Yumi, it was time to talk with Testros and resume his training.

To learn how to properly control this new energy within him and how to properly apply it, be it in combat or in his day-to-day life.

"Old man, you there?" Dale asked as he knocked on the door of Testros' house

"Come in, I've been waiting for you." Testros replied from the window on the second floor of the house

Dale nodded, getting inside.

It was time to take the first step into an even greater change.

The first of many.

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Notes

We currently have 40 Golden tickets, which is way more than I expected!!

Because of this, we have a few bonus chapters to be released, and since we'll likely surpass 250 soon...

Well, right now is a bit late and I still don't have my keyboard, it took me 1 and a half hours to edit this small chapter, so it's best if I stop by now.

See you all soon, don't forget to leave your power stones and suggestions!

Like, what kind of images would you all like?

Or just normal comments on the story.

I'm interested in it all!