Weakness

When everyone was gathering up I went directly over to Yao Ya to continue our previous conversation, hopefully clearing up her misunderstanding.

"Yao Ya about earlier I-" Before I could even finish my first sentence a set of foot steps came behind me and took my left hand. With that came a pulling force which tried dragging me away.

"You've wounded your leg, come over here and let me fix you up!"

"What? No, It's okay let me go." Hearing the voice I knew it was Rao Nuan and turning towards her only confirmed it as I tried to regain control of my arm.

As I struggled Yao Ya came over and placed her hand on where I was hit by one of their projectiles. A warm sensation appeared over the wound. After removing her hand the minor wounds had disappeared and she gave a "smile" to Rao Nuan.

"There he isn't hurt anymore, you can go now."

"...You're right.. I'll take my leave." Reluctantly she let go of my hand and headed over to the others.

'Weird, does she gain anything by doing this?'

Once Rao Nuan was far enough Yao Ya asked me, "So what did want to ask me?"

"..Uh I'd thought you would be angrier when you saw me being held by her. Aren't you jealous she did that?"

Her smile was still on her face as she turned towards me "Well, of course I'm a little jealous she did that to you.. BUT I've done more haven't I?" A corner of her lips arched up a bit more of a grin.

"Well I suppose, but don't you see her as competition?"

"Competition? She's got nothing on me. I've known you since we were children, even if we were apart for a while I still know you the longest. I also have full confidence in my "assets" over hers. Besides how many times has she even spoken to you, like twice?

Wait a minute! Don't tell me you're actually falling for her! Look at me! Look at me and tell me you aren't!" As she got towards the end her voice changed to one of slight worry. She then placed her hands on my shoulders before violently shaking me.

".. N-no no! I was just wondering that's all!"

"Really?"

"Y-yes"

"Hmm.. Ok, I wouldn't be able to believe it if she won your heart so quickly anyway. Just tell me if she's bothering you ok? Or for a matter of fact anybody does, ok?"

".. ha.. ha... alright. Let's go and rejoin the group, they're about to leave."

'I feel like I was too blunt when asking those questions. Maybe next time I should be a little subtler.'

"Alright!" Grabbing my right arm with hers she engulfed it between her breasts. Meanwhile her left arm reached around to grab ahold of my waist pulling me even closer to her. When she did this while we walked towards the others it really made me question her answer from beforehand.

…

After that we all went back and got our reward before going back to whatever we have been doing.

For the next month had continued to train my swordsmanship and the footwork technique at least once a day along with looking for more strands in my body. I had advanced to the fourth level while on this schedule. On occasion I went out doing more missions accumulating points and practicing my inscriptions.

In the process of practicing I also learned a couple new ones. Those being an escape one and a invisibility one.

When I needed more inscriptions I went back to that old man's store to buy some. I learned how to sew clothing up a little too since every time I went out I always gained some kind of tear or rip on my clothes.

I had gained quite a bit of money as well from the missions I've been doing. Since those points could become turned in for money I became what I thought was well off, at least for a while. One whole silver to my name. I only have around 207 points now though since each point was about an iron coin, but that's also the only thing I've bought with those points since I haven't really browsed through much yet.

…

Alright I think it's time to go out again. This time I'ma go out alone this time, maybe it'll stimulate my body into revealing the final two Qi strands required for my fifth level. To go on this quick journey for a couple strands I brought Two of each of the known inscriptions I knew of just incase there really was something I couldn't handle.

I went to the mission hall and took a simple 1 star herb collection one with unlimited time so I could get a few easy points while looking for something to challenge myself with in the nearby forest.

When I reached the edge of the forest within an hour I had already gathered the required herbs from the outer edges of the forest. Any creatures which I met around here weren't a challenge to me. Since my main reason for heading out in the first place was to challenge myself I had to head in.

As I went farther and farther in the beasts started becoming harder and harder to kill. It was starting to become a challenge and that clearly meant that I was getting close to something that would fair off well against me. Though this was all based off a 1v1 basis, anymore and I would start to be troubled a bit.

'Am I becoming one of those battle crazed protagonists? Or maybe a cultivation addicted man? Nah, first of all where is MY golden finger of a protag? I don't have a magically seal amulet with a wise and knowledgeable teacher inside, memories of a past life, max level luck, nor a system!

Second of all I don't need to "defy the heavens" because of my lack of talent. I won't force it too hard since I'm just a background character anyway. If I reach an unpassable bottle neck then I won't risk a probable death scenario to pass it.

What would the point of me trying to do so be anyway? I'd rather just relax as who I am in a nice and maybe quiet place. It's not like I'd be forced into a situation where I'd need to step up and be the hero anyway. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would gladly fill in that role for me.

Damn, where are the creatures?! I've had so much time to myself I even had to think about my future to occupy myself!'

At one point after a long time without even knowing it of traveling through the forest, beasts stopped attacking and the place became eerily silent. The area around looked the exact same as earlier except for the sound part nothing looked amiss here.

Even though the place was odd, creepy from the silence, and was basically telling me to go back I moved forward deeper in the area. Might as well try and conquer a few fears while... alone in this... dark and... eerie forest....

After half an hour of nothing I had started thinking that there wasn't even anything in here, but then I heard a woman's scream deeper into the forest. Finally hearing a sound it made me jump from it's suddenness. Then I began to think about it.

'Why is there another person here? Should I save them, can I even save them?'

"AHH, HELP ME ANYONE PLEASE!!"

'I guess I can try, in any case I could probably still escape using the escape paper right?'

I rushed toward the scream as fast as I could, but when I made it there only a woman with long white hair and peculiar red eyes in a dirty and tattered all red robe was sitting on the ground. There were no signs of battle or even footprints, but I didn't think much of that at the moment.

"What happened? Do you still need help?" I asked scanning the surroundings for some kind of threat.

"Nothing happened, but thank you for coming!"

"Huh?... Then why did you scream for help?"

"To get your attention of course." Finishing that line she stood up and began stripping off her tattered robe.

Instantly I looked away in hopes of avoiding being called a pervert. "Whoa whoa whoa! What are you doing put your clothes back on!"

There was never a situation that I've seen where a man or woman was in front of another and one was naked wasn't called a pervert, no matter who's naked or whose fault it was. The guy is always blamed with nor reprisal possible for him. The world of social etiquette is always dominated by women.

"How cute, you think I'm doing this for you?" Her answer was a surprise, but a welcome one.

Hearing that line I look back towards her. She had transformed into something else becoming seven and a half feet tall! Her upper half was still the same except she wasn't wearing anything and her ample breasts were shown proudly as she puffed her chest out, looking down I saw a huge black abdomen behind her and eight legs extending from a central part.

I slowly raised my head to look at her face. "Are you some kind of arachnid m-monster?"

"You could think of it like that.. Did you not come out here to kill me? Well I can't let you go back since you might bring others, so why don't you stay with me? I promise to be gentle with you! Everyone who came here before was too strong for me to safely keep around so I had to kill them, but you're weak and you won't be able to do anything to me, so you're perfect!"

'Weak? Fuck, maybe I should be stronger, with strength comes respect right? There goes all my plans of not wanting to push myself. I don't want to captured and turned into this creature's plaything! I don't even know how to use any Qi yet!

No wait, Ah ha! Behold my escape inscription!'

Rapidly taking out my escape inscription I placed it on my body and I started quickly flying in a random direction. Not two seconds later I feel something soft hugging my head as the momentum stopped and a pair of arms wrap around my chest not letting me go.

Luckily the sudden stop in speed wasn't like a car crash. I hadn't even gain enough momentum to fly 10 meters!

"Where do you think you're going. Why don't you tell me your name? We're going to have a lot of fun together from now on!"

Reaching for my other one in a panic I managed to grab a hold of it, but not a second later I could feel it being snatched from my hands.

"Your trick won't work on me twice! Why don't you just obediently become my foo- pe- I mean friend? Why don't I take you over to my home? It's a cozy little cave I found nearby."

"HELP! HELP! HELP ME! ANYOOONNE!!!" I screamed struggling all the while to escape her grasp.

Turning me around to face her "Hey don't do that anymore it's loud, and besides not many people even come in this deep to hear you. I was lucky that you even wandered so far in. There hasn't been anyone who's come in this deep for a long time!"

At that point I couldn't even scream if I wanted to. When she turned me around my face was stuffed between her breasts and her right hand even pushed my head deeper almost suffocating me as she carried me into her cave.