Chapter 51: Judgmental Stares

Chapter 51: Judgmental Stares

...She said she likes me. Shit, I've never been in a romantic relationship... How do I handle this?!

Okay okay okay. Calm down James. You knew this was coming. This is normal. It only makes sense that after everything, she would be interested in me. You've read about this. You got this. I've got this.

I should meet her with my sincere feelings and

She speaks back up, I mean as a person, of course

FUCKINGDAMMIT

But as a man, as well.

Oh.

But I want to keep things like they are now.

Sigh.

I dont know why I was getting so excited about this...

I can feel the waves of disappointment wash out of me and into her nostrils.

She gives a tiny laugh, where I shoot a glare at her. She snorts a little more.

Haha, Im sorry. When you get flustered or confused, it looks so cute that I couldnt help but tease you.

She gives a delighted smile before giving a somewhat serious smirk.

I really do like you a lot and maybe when things are safer, in the future we can look into exploring it more.

Ah, right.

I forgot about that. Something like that is even worse than a Romeo and Juliet scenario in this world demi-humans and humans being attracted to each other is almost unheard of in this world.

That is not even including that the disgust would be from both sides. There would most definitely be verbal abuse thrown, not to mention potential physical, if we werent strong enough.

Im not sure if I am supposed to take that as a compliment or insult but she is pretty much right regardless. Even if this is coming from the girl who was somehow trapped by said guy.

Her eyes flicker over to me, before looking back to Gong.

Gong then looks over to me, Now for the part you guys dont know. Before the attack, Big Sis Crane and I had managed to work out a deal with the Yellow Sashes. They would support my claim to my area. Most people already stayed away or recognized it as such, but since I never did anything with it, there was no reason to challenge it.

Now that we will be utilizing it and have the power to protect it, we needed support from other groups. That way the other three gangs dont descend on whatever we do there and take everything we have.

Ai speaks up, I may be wrong, but didnt you and Big Sister Crane already have that agreement?

Well, yes. However, it was unofficial which in the information world is still huge hole. It allows people to still move on us, like the Vermillion Stripes did. They will be able to plead innocence, since we werent officially allied to anyone at that time.

Which leads me to the James here. He actually managed to get the Yellow Sashes to declare a full alliance with us. Though, they did name our little group, the Maroon Spiders.

Both Lin and Ai look sharply over at me. What the heck did you do to get those women to recognize you? Lin exclaims.

Well I may have given them the cure to a spreading STD in their ranks, that was paralyzing quite a few of their members.

Silence falls over the two of them. Hmm I really shouldnt be surprised at this point. Lin says that with a straight face.

Gong squints her eyes and adds something unnecessary. Oh, he didnt tell you the best part though. He got their attention by healing one of their members, without touching them or talking to them. Without cultivation, I hear.

I can feel their judgmental stares from here. Gong gives a sigh, Ive already grilled him on it, so we dont need to go down that path again.

After a continued feeling of staring, it abets a bit. I give a nervous cough and speak up.

Despite my clear misjudgment on how to use my powers, I did learn something interesting. I may be able to use my ability to provide ranged, instant, constant healing. Specifically, if you get seriously injured and Ive marked you, you can get automatically healed. Ill have to practice it a bit, but Im confident I can make it work.

Hmm, that could be pretty useful if we get into a tight spot. Does it have any downsides?

Yeah, this one definitely has a maintenance cost, as I like to call it. I can only do it on so many people, at a certain distance, and to a certain distance. What those are, I dont know yet. For right now, though, Ill set it on all of us.

Okay, it feels like the cost is pretty low probably because we are right next to each other. It doesnt even make a dent into my mana regeneration either Though that will probably change the farther they get away. Definitely will have to test this.

I continue to explain more. What the four of us will also have on us, is the instant and continuous healing. So, if you get a fatal injury, you should automatically healed. Now, if I was to put just the continuous healing over time, on a spider, it costs me even less. By my estimations, I believe I can support the entire group of spiders with a really low continuous heal. With a look at Gong, I believe that should help their survival rates, as I felt how many died due to post-fight deaths.

She looks down in sadness, Yeah, we lost quite a few of the big spiders. Though, all of the spiders are growing pretty well.

Theres a moment of silence, before I continue.

Alright, so thats one idea on the table. Whats next?