Vritra waited for the attack, but even a couple of minutes later she didn’t react in any way.
He wondered what was going on in her head, but using this peaceful time he made the dimensional book disappear and decided to upgrade his other skills.
’Hmm, let’s upgrade Internal Shuffle now.’ He thought and spent another twenty million coins on Internal Shuffle.
As he waited, the same messages appeared in front of him and the process started.
[Upgrading Internal Shuffle.]
[0%]
[1%]
...
[100%]
[Upgrade Complete.]
And soon new messages popped up.
[You have obtained the skill Intra Shuffle]
『
[Intra Shuffle]
[Skill Description]: This skill allows the user to transcend their flesh and assume any form they imagine whether living, non-living, or abstract.
Flesh, bone, and spirit seamlessly adapt — from stone to wood, from steel to rubber — the user’s body rewrites itself into the chosen state while retaining full awareness.
The size and form have certain limitations.
』
’OH!!’ Vritra stared at the skill description in excitement.
After understanding its working, he straightened his right arm slightly, the same one the empress was using as her pillow, and focused.
Even though the name had remained the same, the skill itself had a complete evolution.
[Intra Shuffle Activated.]
Instantly, his fingers transformed into long vines, stretching several meters in an instant before turning into stone and then into wood.
As long as he imagined, Vritra could turn himself into it.
’I would have to try it later on and see what its limits are, but overall it’s a great skill.’ He thought, but still felt like something was missing.
All the skills he obtained from the sin wheel were great and increased his battle prowess by a lot, giving him means to escape or turn the tides at any time, but something was still lacking.
’Aside from the Demon Lord’s core and the other core in my body, I don’t have a very destructive skill, like some sort of trump card or anything.’ He thought, but he would have to think about it later.
While he still had some time, he decided to upgrade his next skill, which had an absurd name but was quite powerful.
Suck! Suck! Suck!
’I wonder what sort of changes this skill will have, so far all the skills have been better than my expectations.’
[Upgrading Suck! Suck! Suck!]
After a few minutes of waiting, the message of the skill being upgraded popped.
[Upgrade Complete.]
[You have obtained the skill Suck! Suck! Suck!]
Without wasting a moment, he opened the description.
『
[Suck! Suck! Suck!]
[Skill Description]: Just like before, what’s there to understand? Just start — SUCK! SUCK! SUCK! Anything that is energy, even attacks, are meant to be sucked and swallowed.
』
Vritra read the skill description. The name was the same, and even the description was nearly the same, so he wondered if there was even any change in the skill.
’This skill was great and all before, but don’t tell me I ended up wasting 20 million sin points... though I doubt it. Alright, let’s give it a try.’
He parted his lips ever so slightly and activated the skill, thinking maybe its effect and radius got bigger. That would be a nice upgrade too, though a little less than he expected.
[SUCK! SUCK! SUCK! Activated.]
In the next instant, a tiny, barely visible black hole appeared behind Vritra’s body just a few inches away from his skin.
With just a slight pull, an extremely powerful suction force was released instantly, making the room devoid of most of the energy as the temperature immediately dropped and became chilly.
The closest and biggest source of energy to Vritra was Yennefer, so the moment the suction force appeared, her face tilted upward and her lips parted as if something was about to leave her body.
Vritra was startled as he hurriedly turned the skill off, but Yennefer was no longer as strong as before.
That strong of a pull was enough to push her towards him — or rather, his mouth.
Chuuu~
Their parted lips were pulled towards one another like magnets being attracted, and they smashed with a soft sound against each other.
Both were frozen as they felt the soft, familiar feeling of each other’s lips.
As a moment passed, Yennefer opened her eyes in surprise, their lips interlocked in a seal-tight kiss unlike the previous kiss in the train.
As he got over his shock, Vritra slowly broke the kiss before giving a peck on her lips again and saying: "Good Morning, Yenni." He smiled faintly, acting as if this was perfectly normal.
Then he moved out of the empress’s arms and sat up. Getting off the bed, he stretched before walking out of the room, leaving Yennefer completely confused and flustered.
’W-What was that?!!’ She touched her lips, the feeling of his still lingering on hers.
"Is that... a morning kiss? From what I have read, I am sure he really does love me a lot!!" Yennefer concluded. From her observations, she was completely sure that he had strong feelings towards her.
She patted her chest, feeling like her heart was about to jump out. Even getting stronger or killing demons never gave her this sort of excitement or joy.
’But what is this tightening feeling in my chest, did I fall for him too...?’ Yennefer didn’t know much about feelings.
She didn’t even know exactly what love is.
Shaking her head, she got off the bed, her mind still filled with complex thoughts, but all she could think of was Vritra.
The bathroom was a bit dirty but usable. They both took baths but had no other clothes to change into, so they wore the same ones.
Both of them were feeling pretty hungry by now. After getting ready, they walked out of the house and looked around the town properly.
"Seeing all these people, this place feels perfectly normal. They are just living their daily life as if... they have already accepted it." Yennefer spoke, watching dozens of people carrying on with their lives.
"Maybe they have already given up on finding a way out. Let’s go meet the chief, we have to get more information before we can try anything." Vritra said.
Yennefer nodded and started walking along with him. She was already wearing her veil. As the two walked towards the town hall, all the people stopped and looked at the new entries.
"Hello, so you two came here last night?" One of the old men, reading a book and sitting on a wooden chair outside his house, spoke.
"Well, hello." Vritra nodded, and without stopping, he continued to walk.
Maybe it was just the eerie atmosphere, but even the people looked at each other with such serious expressions.
"Hey Ben, how was your first night here? Guess you didn’t try your luck last night as Chopper had suggested, by seeing that thing, I mean."
From the distance, across the town hall, Mark called out with a wry smile.
"...Yeah, anyway, what’s going on here?" Vritra asked, seeing a small crowd of people gathered outside one of the houses.
"Sigh... Hubert. He had been here for nearly three years. Last night he got too drunk and didn’t close the door of his house. H-he died." Mark said, his brows furrowing in sadness.
❖❖❖
Thanks for reading...