Chapitre 36: Lili (2) - 35
"Ka-thunk"
I felt something small hit my head.
If it was before, than I probably would have immediately blacked out, but now, it felt like nothing more than a little tap.
As she was still weak, I was able to force the rest of the potion into her mouth before removing my mouth from hers.
She started dragging herself away from me, a desperate attempt that would do nothing at all.
"You should know, kid, that I just saved your life. If you don't believe me, just look at all the potion bottles on the ground and how you basically have no more injuries on the outside of your body."
She stopped dragging herself and looked back at me with wide eyes.
Sighing, I readjusted my mask so that it covered my mouth again before getting to the topic.
"Alright kid, as you sadly know how this world works at such a young age, I'll be giving you an opportunity."
"Do you wan't power? Enough power to be able to defend yourself against trash like the guy in the first room so that something horrible like what you just experienced never happens again and much, much more?"
"If you want it, I can give it to you and the only thing you have to do is sign this contract."
I pulled another contract out of thin air and handed it to the little kid.
To be honest, I kind of felt like a devil asking people to sell their souls at this point.
"All the contract says is that you have to follow me for the rest of your life. Of course, I'll be making it so that your power will be strong enough to surpass the gods."
Or course, this was solely due to the fact that she was getting a god implanted in her, as I didn't have the time to grow two people to the level of gods, when I had barely the time to grow one, myself, first.
I didn't even know if a 5-year-old kid from the slums could even read, so I walked over to her and pressed the button that read the contract out loud so that she could hear the contents.
I waited until the voice finished reciting what was in the contract before asking her again.
"Are you willing to do anything to grow stronger?"
She nodded her head weakly.
All the tension that had been built up in my body slowly relaxed itself.
'Hoo, I won't die, at least, not yet.'
//Hey Verminus, what do I do now?//
//I'll just create another thing you call a "little worm". Just hand it to her and it'll all be good.//
I held out my arm, and just like that, a worm like thing popped out of my skin.
I stared for a little bit at the unfamiliar phenomenon of a worm like creature popping out of my skin.
//It's because a portion of my powers have already been integrated into your mana circuit and blood, so you can do things like this effortlessly now.//
I got over my initial wonder and asked her the more important question.
//And this thing is supposed to hold 30 percent of your power? I mean, it looks kinda small to me.//
//Dummy, don't you remember how small I looked with 100 percent of my power?//
//Oh yeah, I forgot about that.//
Well, I took the worm that allegedly contained 30 percent of her power and handed it over to the little girl.
The girl held if curiously in her hands, but then her body seized out of shock as it crawled under her skin.
Like me, she was reduced to just staring blankly at it as it climbed up her body and then reached her brain.
Unlike me, she didn't yell out in pain when it dug into her skull.
'Was she that traumatized?'
'Well, it doesn't matter to me, all that matters is that I'm saved now.'
Now that 30 percent of Verminus' power was gone, my body felt lighter and I felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off of my back, both figuratively and literally.
It was only then that I noticed that the little girl was floating in the air, pink mana swirling around her, only the whites of her eyes showing, as she arched back in the air.
//Hey Verminus, is this supposed to happen?//
//Yeah it is. Because she has such a high affinity with me, I am able to consolidate a lot more power into her body much more quickly than say with someone like you, who I don't have much of an affinity with.//
//And how long will this process take?//
//About an hour?//
When I heard this answer, I almost choked up blood.
//So you're telling me that if I hadn't found this girl in 23 hours instead of 24 hours like you said, I would have died?//
...
//...Sorry, I totally forgot about that.//
I guess this didn't count as her lying to me, as 24 hours was technically the time until I would die, but still, it kinda pissed me off.
//Sigh, just don't forget about important things that could lead to our deaths in later situations.//
Man, I mean, I was just honestly really tired at this point from dealing with all these women. I was now starting to think that I really was a protagonist of a novel, after being surrounded by all these women.
'Can't a bro come out now author?'
Of course, I knew that I wasn't living in a novel as I wasn't an insane person or anything, just a person that was indifferent to everything.
'But man, I haven't been feeling that indifferent lately due to all these little sister figures too. Ugh, can't I just keep being emotionless and badass, author, instead of fawning over all these little girls?'
Well, this was just how I was made, so I had to accept it.
I waited another hour before finally, the pink mana stopped swirling and the little girl touched her feet back onto the ground, all the blood and muck having been cleaned off of her.
Facing her, I extended my hand to her, trying to look like a savior type figure.
"What's your name little one?"
"...I-it's Lili." She said, in a whisper barely audible to the ears.
"Well Lili, let's go and become stronger together."
And that was the start of my journey up the tower with a little girl by my side.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
WorthyAdversary
WorthyAdversary My WSA 2022 submission,"When the Reader Descends Into the Novel with a System" is now released.
(When I talk about chapter numbers, I'm talking about the number that is after the dash in the title instead of Webnovel's numbering, because I like to start my novels with a chapter 0.)
Thanks for reading!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone