Chapter 22

  Eve stared at Ben with a distraught expression. She lost track of how much time she just watched him fight. She didn’t even acknowledge her own level-up, which was unusual for her. That’s how overwhelmed she was.

  She clutched tightly into her two-handed staff and nibbled nervously on her bottom lip. She could hardly deal with her emotions.

  Ever since Ben leveled up, he and his cherubs had kicked into another gear of destruction. Ben received consistent buffs from the Cherub White Mage, so he was permanently enhanced with Minor Haste, Minor Frenzy, and Minor Holy Weapon.

  Those spells needed to be refreshed constantly. They only lasted about a minute. But the Cherub White Mage’s mana regeneration was so high that it could cast the full arsenal of its spells indefinitely, as long as it didn’t spend too much mana on healing. With Eve’s Soul Link, its healing was so efficient that it effectively had infinite mana. At least while they slaughtered the relatively weak level 10 Orc enemies.

  The other cherub mages also had little mana issues. They cast their massive area-of-effect attacks as soon as the cooldown was available.

  Eve knew that wasn’t normal. She had spent months watching the beta players stream, which included Youtube videos and online articles. She knew how big of an issue mana regeneration was. Mages had to manage their mana carefully to not go OOM, or Out-of-mana. It was a noob trap to just spam the strongest abilities possible every time they came off cooldown.

  Ben’s cherubs didn’t have that problem. She could tell that their mana regeneration and mana pool was unnaturally high. In addition, the cost of their spells was noticeably lower than they should be.

  A chain lighting cast by a level 10 mage should have cost at least a third of a mage’s mana pool. Ben’s lighting cherub cast the spell for a fraction of that cost.

  Eve was confused for a while but she quickly put the pieces together. It was Ben’s proficiency. Eve could see his character sheet. She had read it dozens of times since the fight with the Eagle players. She probably understood his character sheet better than he did. Unlike Ben, she had plenty of time to analyze.

  Ben was a man of action. He liked to test his limits by throwing himself into battle. Eve was much more theoretically minded. She figured it out with ease, and the realization terrified her.

  Ben’s cherubs truly had inherited all of his proficiencies. That included Ben’s mana and spell mastery. Eve had no idea how Ben had such advanced proficiencies. She suspected that he knew and he simply wouldn’t tell her, but she had no proof to accuse him of hiding anything from her. What she knew for sure was that he had circumvented the normal progression of players.

  Ben had an advanced form of virtually every proficiency that she knew existed, and some that she didn’t know about. He even had an intermediate cooking proficiency. When did he have time to practice cooking in the game?

  That wasn’t even the full extent of Ben’s strength. Upon hitting level 10, the non-caster cherubs also changed. Their weapons and armor received a notable upgrade.

  Their equipment changed from a common rarity, to uncommon rarity. Eve could tell even without her eyes of truth. Their equipment looked higher quality, more polished. Their equipment also radiated an obvious glow of power. They looked more angelic than before, while still maintaining their childlike features.

  The result was immediate. The hammer masters, spear masters, warriors and archers tore through the enemy at an even more feverish pace. The orcs that used to put up at least a little resistance, were now torn through like paper.

  Ben even changed his roster to take advantage of the increased power of his cherubs. He dismissed the archers, spear masters, and the warriors to replace them with three new types of cherubs that Eve hadn’t seen before.

  [Level 10 Cherub Swordmaster]

  A group of three Cherubs appeared. They replaced the spear masters. The cherub swordmasters wielded long, two handed claymores. The claymores were comically large. LIke the sword that Cloud and Guts wielded. The swordmasters wielded them expertly and cut through the orcs at a frightening efficiency. Three to five at a time with each swing, as long as there were sufficient numbers of orcs that were grouped up.

  [Level 10 Axe Master]

  Three cherubs wielding huge great axes appeared and joined in on the slaughter. They replaced the cherub warriors. The heads of their double-bladed axes were also comically huge. It allowed them to cut through multiple orcs at a time.

  [Level 10 Cherub Halberd Master]

  The cherub archers disappeared to be replaced by three cherubs wielding long halberds. The blades of the axe portion of the halberds were exceptionally long, which allowed for a wider lethality range. Eve’s eyes widened when she witnessed their frightening prowess. They were on an entirely different level to the rest.

  Eve could immediately tell that the Halberd Masters were the most skilled, by far. They moved more efficiently, struck more efficiently, killed more efficiently.

  They inherited Ben’s grandmaster polearm proficiency.

  Eve collapsed. She fell on her butt and looked up in distress.

  Given how engrossed Ben was in the battle, it took him a few moments to notice. He had an elated grin on his face while he fought alongside his cherubs and witnessed their prowess. He glanced back at Eve to gauge her reaction. He couldn’t help feeling a little pride. What he saw shocked him.

  Eve was crying. He could tell even despite the mask that she wore. Ben’s eyes widened in alarm. He rushed over to her and inspected her frantically.

  “Eve, what’s wrong?” He said.

  Ben checked her health. She was at full health. She didn’t appear to be injured or under the effects of any negative status.

  Eve didn’t respond to Ben. He looked past her towards the cherubs. She looked shellshocked.

  “Eve, Eve!”

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  Ben dropped down on one knee and lightly shook her shoulder with one hand. Eve finally snapped out of her daze and looked up at Ben in surprise. She raised her hands to trail a finger along her cheek. She just realized that she was crying.

  Eve panicked. She began to wipe her cheeks with one arm while frantically typing with her free hand.

  “I’m sorry, I’m fine. I’m ok,” she typed.

  She turned her face away in shame. A pathetic attempt to hide her distress.

  Ben frowned in confusion. She clearly wasn’t ok, but he didn’t want to pressure her. He didn’t know her. Not really. They had only just met earlier in the day. Ben still felt the need to comfort her.

  “If I did something wrong, you can tell me,” Ben said.

  Ben spoke in the gentlest tone he could muster. Eve forced herself to smile and shook her head.

  “No, it's ok. It’s…I’m fine. It’s nothing,” she typed.

  Despite her words, Eve was clearly trying to calm herself. She was failing miserably. She couldn’t even rise from her feet. She was a mess. Ben was astounded. He had enough experience in his last life to recognize her behavior for what it was.

  She was having a mental breakdown. Ben narrowed his eyes.

  “Eve,” he said.

  Ben spoke with a notable firmness that caught Eve by surprise. He spoke with the same air of authority that he did when they were at the restaurant. Eve snapped her attention to him.

  “You are really worrying me. I need you to be honest with me. I can’t continue if I’m constantly worrying about you,” Ben said.

  Eve understood the veiled threat, even if Ben didn’t mean it in that way. If Eve didn’t get herself together, they couldn’t keep partying together. She would hinder his progress. That really hammered home the feeling that had caused her so much distress.

  “He really doesn’t need me,” she thought.

  A new set of tears poured from Eve’s eyes, to Ben’s great alarm. She tried desperately to compose herself.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. This isn’t like me. Please give me a moment,” she typed.

  She misspelled multiple words and had to hit the backspace several times in order to create a coherent sentence.

  Ben nodded silently and put his halberd away. He sat down in front of her and watched her with worry. His cherubs continued to slaughter orcs in the distance, which gave the pair relative peace.

  Eve took a moment to compose herself. Finally she smiled while wiping away the last of her tears.

  “What’s going on, Eve?” Ben asked.

  Eve shook her head.

  “Nothing. I’m just being silly,” she said.

  Ben frowned. He wanted to respect her privacy, but at the same time, he needed to know that she wasn’t going to freak out again in the middle of combat. His mind raced. Maybe he had pushed her too far today. They had been grinding non stop, all day. Ben’s expression softened.

  “Silly isn’t so bad,” Ben said.

  Eve smiled lightly in appreciation of his attempt to lighten the mood.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Eve finally rose to her feet and took a deep breath. She typed with a much more steady hand.

  “I’m ready to go,” she said.

  Ben rose with her and looked at her skeptically. Eve bit into her bottom lip and avoided his gaze. Ben narrowed his eyes.

  “Eve,” he said.

  Eve forced herself to look up at his intense gaze.

  “Tell me,” he said.

  His domineering tone returned again. Eve paled and bowed her head submissively.

  “Ok,” she typed.

  Eve hesitated for a moment longer before continuing to type.

  “I guess…I am just worried that…you don’t need me anymore. And…you’ll leave me soon. Today has been so fun. I really like adventuring with you and…I feel like you are just going to leave me behind. You are so strong. Stronger than you have any right to be. Your class, skills and talents aren’t balanced at all. You are an army all by yourself. How am I supposed to be useful to you so you won’t leave me!”

  Eve became more frantic the longer she continued to type. Eve hesitated before finally hitting send.

  Ben stared at the message for several awkward moments. He re-read the message, looked at her, then re-read the message again. Eve couldn’t look him in the eye. Her cheeks were burning such a bright shade of red that it shone through even beneath her mask.

  Ben laughed, hard.

  He started with a small chuckle that morphed into an uncontrollable cackle. Ben grabbed his stomach and hunched over helplessly. He couldn’t control himself. He looked at Eve and forced himself to look away. Seeing her only made him laugh even harder.

  Eve pouted at first. After a moment she smiled then began to laugh along with him.

  It was ridiculous. Ben literally met Eve that day yet she was so unbelievably clingy and insecure. She acted like they had been dating, or even married for years. She had absolutely no business being so attached to him so fast. It was absurd.

  Ben couldn’t help but find the humor in it. A girl he just met was having a mental breakdown at the thought of them not partying together anymore? Ridiculous. There was no better word to describe it.

  Ben took a while to calm himself down. He had to wipe a few tears from his eyes. Eve couldn’t maintain eye contact with him.

  “I told you it was silly,” Eve typed.

  Ben shook his head and stared at her in exasperation. She fidgetted and bit into her bottom lip. She knew she crossed a line. She must have seemed crazy.

  “You’ve got some serious abandonment issues, I see,” Ben said.

  Eve pouted but couldn’t deny it. Instead, she placed her hands on her hips and typed back.

  “Well…you’ve got trust issues,” she typed.

  Ben chuckled lightly.

  “True,” Ben said.

  Eve hunched her shoulders meekly.

  “Like I said, I am sorry. I know how silly this is. This won’t happen again. If you want me to leave…I’ll leave,” she said.

  Eve forced herself not to cry again. Ben shook his head. He placed a finger under her chin and gently lifted her head. Eve was shocked by the touch. She looked up at him with a wide-eyed expression.

  “I said I would get you to level 15, and I meant it. Even if you are a bit silly,” he said.

  Eve felt a wave of relief.

  “Really? You aren’t freaked out?” Eve typed.

  Ben’s eyes wondered.

  “Honestly, I am. But, not as much as you’d think. Just, hm,” Ben began.

  Ben paused to consider his words. He didn’t actually know what to say to her.

  He should have been more disturbed. She clearly had issues. Deep issues. But it didn’t bother him as much as it probably should have. It endeared her to him. He almost felt like she deserved to be so clingy, which was an insane idea in and of itself. How could he possibly have that feeling for someone he just met?

  He looked down at her in bewilderment. She swayed gently from side to side and looked up at him with bated breath.

  “Is it just because she is pretty? I can tell that she is beautiful even despite the mask. I am in my younger body. Maybe it is hormones. Although, it can’t just be her beauty. I can’t even see her full face. This is more than some superficial attraction. I feel this otherworldly pull towards her. But why?” he thought.

  Ben mentally shrugged and grew a relaxed posture. He wasn’t going to overthink it.

  “Eve, I have been thinking about this and I’ve decided. I am going to get you to level 20. Not just that, but after we hit level 20, we can do all the dungeon achievements as well,” Ben said.

  Eve’s eyes widened. She couldn’t hide her elation.

  “Really?” she typed.

  Ben nodded with a warm smile.

  “Yea, really really. Whether you believe it or not, you are super useful to me. So much so that I would be the silly one to not use your skills. I know how strong I’ve become now. And you clearly know how strong I am as well. I don’t need a party. But with you, my farming and clear speed skyrockets. With you, I don’t need to use defensive oriented summons like the Cherub Warriors and to a lesser extent, the Cherub Spearmasters. I don’t even need to use a strategic summon like the Bow Masters.

  I can focus 100% on the most powerful offensive summons because you essentially make me invincible. You probably improve my farming speed by double, at least. And you double our experience so there is literally no downside to partying with you.

  To top it all off, you have the ability to see hidden features on the map and secret areas within dungeons. You can even spy on other players and their abilities, which will make them easier to fight if we are forced to PVP again.

  You are the only person in the game of Eternity that is worth partying with. You are special,” Ben said.

  Ben’s last sentence sent a shock to Eve’s system. She didn’t know if her heart could literally skip a beat, but she felt like it just did.

  Eve held her hands to her chest delicately and looked up at Ben in reverence. Ben grew a satisfied smile.

  “Much better. Now stop worrying. We still have some farming to do,” he said.

  Eve wiped her last tear away. A tear of pure joy. She nodded excitedly and stepped to his side, which signaled her readiness to continue to follow him.

  Ben nodded in approval at Eve’s renewed strength and led her back into the fray.