Explaining the Care

Lifting Hopp up, Carl felt the heat that had yet to dissipate around them and asked fearfully:

"Are you... starting to awaken the bloodline of a Tiefling?"

As a race that inherited the blood of Hell, Tieflings naturally possessed fire resistance.

Aside from that, some Tieflings awakened innate spellcasting abilities after reaching level 3.

This racial trait, known as an Infernal Legacy, manifested differently depending on the Tiefling's constitution.

Most Tieflings awakened a spell called Infernal Rebuke at level 3.

Hopp's situation was rather special. She had probably inherited the trait of Hellfire and gained the ability to cast Burning Hands.

Aside from that, some Tieflings awakened the ability to cast Charm Person at level 3, while others grew batlike wings beneath their shoulder blades and gained the ability to fly.

"I—I don't know. I'm so hot!"

Only then did Carl realize how hot Hopp's body was.

Carl reached out and touched Hopp's forehead, then hissed. It felt as though she had touched a teapot that had just been filled with boiling water.

Seeing that Hopp's eyes had already gone vacant, Carl didn't dare delay. She immediately picked Hopp up in her arms and ran toward the cabin.

After placing Hopp in the wooden bathtub she had just carved yesterday, Carl took out the Alchemy Jug and changed the liquid type, which she hadn't altered today, to wine.

"Whoosh~ Gulp~ Gulp~"

Nearly four liters of wine poured over Hopp, and the heavy smell of alcohol instantly spread through the cabin.

As everyone knew, evaporating alcohol carried heat away.

If Hopp had a fever caused by a cold, Carl truly wouldn't have dared do this. But her temperature had risen because her Tiefling bloodline ability was awakening and she was being affected by the fire element, so Carl's method was relatively safe.

Four liters of liquid wasn't that much, so Carl could only repeatedly scoop up the remaining wine from the bottom of the tub and splash it over Hopp.

The cooling effect was fairly good, but clearly still insufficient.

Carl looked around the room, saw the four wooden barrels, gritted her teeth, and ran over to move them.

She had made the barrels two days earlier to store the liquids produced by the Alchemy Jug. She had planned to accumulate more over the next couple of days, since they were needed for firing bricks and quenching, but something unexpected had happened to Hopp.

Carl opened the barrel filled with salt water, put on her Power Armor, and carried it over to the bathtub.

The barrel contained nearly a hundred liters of salt water, which Carl had spent two days accumulating.

With so much liquid poured in, the bathtub was filled at once.

However, because of the salt water's buoyancy, Hopp floated straight up.

With no choice, Carl removed her Power Armor and used her hands to press Hopp's body into the water, leaving only her head above the surface to breathe.

The liquid in the bathtub heated up quickly. Before long, Carl felt it growing hot against her hands.

"C-Carl~"

Just as Carl was about to slowly pull her hands out of the bathtub, Hopp opened her eyes and called Carl's name in a weak voice.

To be fair, Carl now somewhat suspected that the results of Hopp's intense training during this period had all been converted by her bloodline into Charisma.

Just a few days ago, Carl would have found it hard to imagine that Hopp could call her name in such a coquettish tone.

But what else could she say now?

Her companion, who had shared life and death with her, was calling her name through illness. All Carl could do was hold her hand and say in a steady voice, "I'm here!"

Carl had heard in some educational video or another that sick people felt the most insecure.

"I—I feel awful. My body is so hot!"

Looking at Carl with a pained expression, Hopp twisted and intertwined her thighs as if trying to release the heat inside her body that way.

But it clearly wasn't working.

"It's all right. This is a normal phenomenon when your bloodline awakens. Many Tieflings go through something similar during puberty. At least you aren't growing wings. I hear that takes two months of development."

Carl splashed the liquid mixed with wine and salt water onto Hopp's face while encouraging her and teaching her some things about Tieflings.

But Hopp didn't hear a word Carl said. She stared blankly at Carl for so long that Carl began to feel uneasy before Hopp finally spoke slowly and coquettishly:

"I wanted to sleep in a separate room because I..."

As if she wanted to explain why she had been so eager to sleep separately before, Hopp actually lifted her hands to support her breasts.

"I know, I know. You've developed too quickly lately, so it isn't very convenient for us to keep sleeping in the same room."

Carl pressed Hopp's hands back down and wiped the sweat from her forehead. A bad feeling suddenly arose in her heart.

When she says she's hot, could it be more than just the effects of her bloodline awakening? Could she be... drunk?!

It was no wonder Carl thought that way. Hopp was speaking two beats slower than usual, and her eyes were vacant, which fit the signs of drunkenness perfectly.

Unfortunately, her skin color made it impossible to tell whether her face had turned red. Otherwise, Carl could have reached a conclusion sooner.

As Carl was thinking this to herself, Hopp suddenly stood up in the bathtub.

"I... I..."

Hopp's body swayed constantly from side to side. She stood there saying "I" for a long time but couldn't get anything else out.

Carl touched Hopp's forehead again. Although it was still somewhat hot, Carl felt that this was probably Hopp's normal temperature after awakening her Tiefling bloodline.

Carl lifted Hopp out of the bathtub, sighed, and carried her back to the right-side room to look after her.

At the edge of the Mushroom Woodland, the Mind Flayer—formerly a Hobgoblin—was leading more than a dozen Brain Eaters out hunting. He glanced in the direction of Carl and Hopp, then turned his gaze back toward the Goblin tribe.

He was extremely hungry, desperately craving the brains of intelligent creatures.

But the beasts around the Mushroom Woodland couldn't satisfy the appetite of a newly born Mind Flayer. Thus, the former Hobgoblin had set his sights on the tribe where he had once lived.

As mentioned before, after a Mind Flayer fully transformed, few could retain their former way of thinking.

They were more like new souls that had absorbed the original host's memories and taken over its body.

The tentacles on his face moved slightly as the Mind Flayer took a deep breath, seemingly trying to relieve the hunger tormenting both his mind and body.

Several seconds passed before he continued floating forward with psionic power.

Brains! I need brains!

Amplified by psionic power, his intense thoughts spread in every direction, but the Mind Flayer didn't care whether this behavior would reveal his whereabouts.

After all, whether it was the Hobgoblin's memories or those left behind by his "mother," they had given him the impression that there were no other intelligent creatures in this woodland.

Yet neither set of memories mentioned why there were no other intelligent creatures in this woodland.

The Goblin tribe's situation might have been caused by a severed line of inheritance. As for why the Mind Flayer who had served as his "mother" had built her base here without emphasizing the reason...

That, he didn't know.