Abystella - The Star of The Abyss

Chapter 6: The Sound of Humanity

Jack was, rightfully so, in a deep sleep, he had overcome massive disadvantages, used his ability not once or twice but four times in his first test. Thus, he lost a lot of blood in the process, anemia took away all of his energy, and this time, despite the tiredness, he dreamed. He dreamed he was back on that fateful shore training with his mother and father as he always would, and there Ed commented while they exchanged blows, both of them using the same pair of swords:

''You are a really mad Casanova, aren't you? Ignoring your instincts to save a damsel in distress sounds like the kind of crap I'd do in my younger years!'' A wide smile was stamped on his face while Anne looked at him from the side, she was definitely not pleased with the comment.

''Oh really? So that's the kind of life you led before meeting me, huh?'' A terrifying smile stamped on her face.

A deep sense of feeling at home swelled in Jack, who couldn't help but let out a hearty laugh. ''Don't listen to him, Jack'' she continued. '' I'm sure you saved her for other reasons, like keeping your promise to me, but remember that now you have to go all the way and truly help her. I'm proud of you, Keep up the good work and remember... even if the world turns you into a monster, what makes you human are the choices you will make.'' The next moment, Ed's blade went through the young one's defenses, and when it was about to cut his neck, he woke up.

When Jack came to, he noticed he was laying on something soft. He slowly opened his drowsy eyes to a truly magnificent sight: the girl he had saved was giving him her lap to lie on, just there, looking towards the horizon, the soft twilight of the setting sun gently caressing her features, the background of a thousand stars attempting to break the veil of the last minutes of daylight. He couldn't stop himself from marveling at the sight, the dream's sense of belonging still lingering.

Noticing some movement on her lap, she quickly turned her face and smiled. And thus they stood there for a moment Jack wished could last for all eternity, until she gently tapped him to get up, which he did. Just now, he was noticing many bandages adorning his wounds, which felt much better already, despite the pain. "Uhm, sorry, I got a bit stunned by the view..." The girl quickly blushed, and Jack thought: ''Damn, what am I saying?! Did Ed's personality rub off on me during the dream?!''

She looked back at him with somewhat reprimanding eyes, but kept silent. The awkwardness led Jack to ask, : ''So... what's your name?''

Upon the sudden question, the girl seemed to grow somewhat restless and pensive, then she suddenly lit up and tapped her open palm with her fist. Then she got up, reached for an arrow in her quiver, and began scraping at the hard stone floor. In the blackish gray marble, she scribbled the name Laura.

''Oh, nice to meet you, Laura, I hope this doesn't come out as rude, but I do have to ask to make sure, are you... deaf?'' The question seemed to catch the girl off guard as she showed a pained expression. ''Ah! I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked, but my instincts are pretty good, so I kind of guessed it... what am I even saying? Forget it.

She touched his anxious hand, nodded, and smiled. This calmed him down a bit, which led to his curious side taking over for a second. ''You are amazing... Surviving a place like this with such a hard disadvantage, how did you do it?'' Which she responded to by blushing a bit again and scraping at the floor: ''Eyesight ability.''

''I see, so you have an eyesight related ability that helped you navigate... But anyway, the most important question is: are there more humans in this damned place? And if so, where are they?''

She nodded happily and pointed upward. ''So we really will need to climb... Laura, I know we don't know each other so well yet, but let's work together to get stronger and make our way there.''

She thought for a moment, and a brief flash of his initial terrifying first impression ran through her head, but while taking care of his wounds with her first aid kit, she noticed a couple of things. Firstly, after seeing what he was capable of, she imagined he could be some kind of beast in disguise, but that was quickly disproven as what she saw was just a kid, bruised and hurt all over, breathing heavily, full of openings, and fragile, thus making him way too unlikely to be a beast. Secondly, she was amazed at how young he was and how much vitality he had. Laura noticed, with her almost professional amount of medical knowledge, that his horrendously overexerted body was healing and growing with every passing moment. It was a marvel to look at from a medical standpoint, even getting her to reconsider once more her monster hypothesis, on the other hand many awakened received many skills and blessings that would get any scientist's mouth to water. But one thing stood between her and her interest: her morals, blooded secrets, and skills, which were extremely valuable and frequently regarded as a life or death matter.''I couldn't do something like that to someone who saved my life.''

Back to the present, Laura stared into the now serious eyes of the odd young man, smiling after winning a bet by trusting his life to a stranger, whom he seemingly saved selflessly. She had her suspicions, but knew his power would be a valuable asset in returning to the settlement. Thus, she nodded again, showing a smile of her own while grabbing Jack's hand and bringing him somewhat deeper in the cave.

They reached the area of Jack's previous fight, against the 6 birds of prey. But what called his attention the most was, that there was almost no blood on the floor as there had been before, as he saw a shining red reflection in the darkness. A makeshift hole was built, it was basically a carving of the stone to funnel the blood in its surroundings towards the center, with the bleeding corpses of the birds on its edges to create a small pool of it at the bottom. It was somewhat gruesome, and the stench was overwhelming, but Jack knew what its purpose was—absorbing the blood of the fallen beasts to get stronger.

''Did you do this as a thank you for me saving you?'' He asked, turning around to look at her, surprised at the girl's preparedness, he theorized that maybe she was already planning to join up beforehand, and she nodded again, despite taking a bit longer to read his lips in the darker environment.

''Thank you... have you already taken a share?''To which she responded in disagreement, then pointed at Jack.

He somewhat understood what she meant, he knew that usually in battles for blood, the common courtesy is that whoever kills the beast gets the blood. But that was not so much a rule as a guideline, and not everyone followed it. Jack liked that honesty, and the girl went back to the well lit area of the cave to give him some privacy. When she did, Jack stared at the pool, sighed, and went in.

Unbeknownst to him, that was definitely not the normal reaction, You see, Jack hadn't given that much importance to a single difference between him and other people: he didn't need to drink the blood to absorb its power, just bathing in it was enough. And when he did both, like he was about to now, his whole system absorbed the blood equally, guaranteeing much greater results. As a result of his savage decision to not care about being bathed in blood during battle, he was able to grow while fighting without even noticing it, and his absorption speed and limit are now above and beyond even talented veteran blooded.

Inside the small pool of blood, he was able to submerge himself to the waist in blood and begin drinking it. His first taste of monster blood felt wrong, but it tasted so good that he couldn't stop himself, drinking as much as he could as quickly as he could until it wasn't enough and he decided to sit down and completely submerge.Drinking, tasting, breathing, and feeling the blood, he felt every single cell in his body bursting with energy, his skin growing tougher, his muscles stronger, and even his mind sharper. And above it all, he felt his skills slowly growing, becoming clearer in his mind. He'd been submerged for half an hour, absorbing blood, his face finally revealing itself, completely tinted red.

Outside, Laura was starting to get worried. The fact that he didn't know where the human settlement was, indicated that he was a rookie, and this could be his first time drinking blood. "Something might have happened," she reflected, frowning."There's no way someone this attuned to combat hasn't tasted blood from a fresh kill yet, and does it wrong, right?"Time passed as she looked at the moons and stars to get a rough estimate.When an hour had passed, she couldn't hold herself any longer and was almost sure he might be overexerting himself again, trying to consume too much blood. The deeper in the cave she went, the more anxious she became, accelerating her pace.

The young deaf girl knew all too well what had caused her to lose her speech and hearing, a combination of golden opportunity and a lack of information turned into misfortune.

However, upon entering the scene, the gruesomeness she had expected was nowhere to be found, in fact, the place was so clear of blood that it seemed to have been sterilized. Laura peered into the hole, where she discovered Jack sitting peacefully in meditation, not a speck of blood around him, and even the corpses were bloodless.''Has he just... absorbed the entire blood of seven monsters in the span of an hour?!'' She ran into the hole to check if he was even alive, and just as she was about to get close to him, his two eyes opened so fast that she took a step back in shock. Jack looked at her in confusion. ''What?''

Laura was staring at him incredulously, not knowing even where to begin and try to convey all the things in her mind. ''Uh, Laura, how can I even say this... can you leave, so I can get dressed?''

She froze for a few seconds before realizing that if he was bathing in the blood, he would most likely be... naked.She immediately turned around , completely embarassed, confused, and irritated at his nonchalant attitude. In the next second, she was gone, presumably to heed Jack's very justified wish. While he was dressing himself, he decided to take advantage and check out his progress.

[Jack Fortune (?)]

[Awakened Blooded *]

[Inherent Trait: @#$$&@! Realization Progress: 4%]

[Skills:]

[Inherent Skill: *%#)(% - Mastery Progress: 0.04% (Restrained due to Difficulty)]

[Monstruous Instincts - Mastery Progress: 47% (Obtained due to Inherent Trait)]

[Monstruous Physique - Mastery Progress 44% (Obtained due to Inherent Trait)]

[Uncertain Swordsmanship - Mastery Progress: 9% (Obtained Due to Skill @#$$&@!)]

He was somewhat disappointed at the minimal increase in his inherent advantages, but the great improvement in his physique and instinct overshadowed the slow progress of the others. ''Maybe when I reach 100% mastery on the three lower skills, I'll see greater progress on the main ones," he theorized.

Now fully clothed, he came back closer to the entrance of the cave, where she was waiting for him. ''What was that all about?'' He inquired, perplexed, about Laura's current attempt to conceal her face.''For you to come back in a hurry like that, did something dangerous happen?'' She couldn't take her embarrassment and annoyance any longer, so she just signed a bunch of things that Jack had no idea what they meant because he didn't know sign language.

''Uh I don't know sign language or what any of that meant, but I'm done here and we should begin exploring, maybe there is another higher-up cave connecting to this one, and that could lead us to a huge shortcut.''

Laura sighed and gave up, mentally exhausted as they tried to decide how they would communicate in the darker environment where she wouldn't be able to lip-read him.