Chapter 19: Page One

Micah mentally accompanied the stream of pol as it swam another couple of laps around his body. He didn't say anything, nor did he open his eyes. But he didn't have to do anything. Or even look at Baldas to know that things weren't going as well as they should. Since they were dealing with things completely foreign to him, Micah's only option was to listen to Baldas and hope that things would work out in the end.

After a while, Micah heard Baldas begin to pant, despite the eye demon not having a mouth. He was curious about why, but he didn't open his eyes. It was clear that it was from Baldas straining himself, which meant that Micah also had to put in some effort and make sure that he followed the one thing Baldas asked him to do.

Suddenly, as Micah continued tracking the stream of pol through his body, he felt another surge of pol enter him through his chest. Micah didn't even have to guess that the pol came from Baldas. Micah didn't know what was going on, but it was obviously working since he could feel his body begin to absorb some of the pol on a deeper level than when he absorbed it to become physically stronger.

Eventually, most of the pol was gone, and Micah heard Baldas let out a sigh of exhaustion. He instinctively opened his eyes and saw Baldas stagger in the air as if he was drunk. His eyelid was about to shut, and Micah could tell that Baldas was about to collapse. He reached out with his hands and caught Baldas before he could hit the ground.

"Freak."

Those words were the last thing Baldas uttered before he passed out in Micah's hands. Micah naturally wanted to wake him up and get some answers since he was dying to find out how it had gone and what had happened. But he couldn't really get himself to do that since Baldas had exhausted himself to the point of fainting just to help him. Of course, helping Micah was tantamount to helping the Hell Restoration Project, which was probably Baldas' priority.

However, it was undoubtedly true that Baldas had gone the extra mile to help Micah. And Micah wasn't so mannerless that he would ignore that when he would get the answers he wanted by being patient.

And they came even sooner than he thought. Only a few moments after Baldas passed out, Micah heard a slightly mechanical tingling sound as the system's holographic screen popped out in front of his eyes and began reading up the message on it.

[Congratulations! Your ability has awakened. The Hell Restoration Project System has been designed to help you control and master your ability.]

As the message ended, Micah saw a blinking second tab at the top left corner of the holographic screen. It didn't take a genius to figure out that it was related to his ability, and Micah nervously pressed it.

Since the system screen had been worryingly unresponsive before, and the only thing Micah could do with it was to move it around or shrink it, he worried that nothing would happen when he pressed the tab.

Fortunately, his worries were for nothing since the screen flickered and changed tabs when Micah pressed the blinking one.

Right below the upper edge of the screen were the words [Negotiation Tactic Handbook] and, below those words was a book with that very title on the front page. The book cover was a pale red, and Micah suspected that it was due to the holographic screen.

With building anticipation, Micah reached out and tried touching the book, which turned out to be all he had to do to open it and reveal the first page.

[Page 1: Persuasion - Passive

Effect: Your voice is convincing, and you have an easier time making listeners agree with you.

Remark: A great negotiator can close a deal with nothing more than a few words.]

Micah read the first page of his ability with a little disappointment. It sounded like a useful skill since it would make it easier for him to make people listen to his orders. But it didn't seem like it would help him with breaching Pride's Mansion.

But it was only the first page, and he hurried to tap the book again and flip it to the next page.

The second page was even more disappointing than the first. It was completely blank. It was almost so blank that the red holographic pages were white.

Refusing to believe it, Micah flipped through several more pages. Only to end up even more disappointed since they were all completely blank. Now, he was really eager to wake Baldas up and shake him while asking him what went wrong.

His ability, which Baldas said held noteworthy potential, was completely useless! Something had to have gone wrong during the forced awakening. Why else would he only have a single functioning page?

Not only that. All the pol Micah absorbed to strengthen his body had been devoured in addition to the silver coin he brought back. He was back to ordinary human strength, and all he got in exchange was that he would have an easier time convincing people to listen to him. It was the same thing that a pair of heavy fists could achieve. Micah was outraged at the results. But it looked like Baldas was about to die, and if he did, Micah wouldn't have anyone to blame.

So, Micah decided to wait for Baldas to recover while he tried to get the rest of his pages to show some text.

As he inevitably calmed down, Micah quickly realized something. Baldas had been right. His ability did have incredible potential. If it worked like he thought it would have if Baldas hadn't fucked something up, every page corresponded to an ability.

Granted, his Persuasion didn't seem very strong or useful in combat. But if he got five, or ten, or twenty abilities of similar strength, wouldn't he be quite overpowered?

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