Watching Lokkishi did not prevent Allen from focusing on the Dragon Saint Battle Qi Core Embryo within his abdomen. In his "field of vision," wisps of dust drifted away from its wrinkled surface, revealing a tiny magic rune on one side.
It was shaped like a small tree, shrouded in a faint blue glow.
An instinct rose within him: if he thought of activating this rune now, Intermediate Healing Magic would take effect immediately.
A Healing Spell Rune. It could only affect himself and could not be cast outward. Did that mean activating it would essentially give his body a healing buff—Pseudo-Immortality? Would the physical limitations of the North God Style—Combat Faction be erased?
Wait, using it consumed his own mana. Unfortunately, he had no idea how long his current mana capacity could sustain Intermediate Healing Magic. He had been careless. At present, the less mana-consuming basic Healing Spell might have suited him better. Besides, his mana recovery rate was too slow, and the skill's cooldown would definitely be long.
He wondered whether the Dragon Saint Battle Qi buff that reduced mana conversion loss could stack with the Healing Spell Rune. Battle Qi was essentially mana too, so it should work—but would it consume Dragon Saint Battle Qi as well? He did not have much Dragon Saint Battle Qi either. Activating the Healing Spell Rune would surely affect the quality of his Battle Qi.
He would try it first and see whether it did.
A pair of small hands waved before his eyes, and Allen came back to his senses.
Now was not the time for this.
Allen looked at Lokkishi.
Because he had spent all of yesterday's journey wondering what he should say when he first met Rudy and Lokkishi, he had naturally dreamed of the two of them last night. Unfortunately, the versions he saw in that dream had been their two-dimensional anime appearances, without much sense of reality.
But now, Lokkishi herself stood right before him.
The sense of reality was far stronger.
He fixed his gaze on Lokkishi's face.
Before his eyes, the blue-haired, cool-faced little girl gradually came into focus.
Unlike the soft, adorable middle-schooler face from the anime adaptation of his previous life, the real Lokkishi looked young on the surface, but her features were so exquisite that she clearly did not look underdeveloped.
Her lips were a little thin, yet looked exceptionally soft. Her nose was small, with narrow wings that seemed naturally shadowed, and its tip tilted up slightly. Above it were half-lidded eyes the same color as her hair.
The wind stirred the campfire, and highlights flickered in her pupils like ripples spreading over a deep blue lake.
Within those ripples were fifty percent panic and fifty percent concern.
"Y-you... Why haven't you said anything? Could you still have internal injuries? Is your body feeling unwell?"
Allen blinked and shook his head, countless thoughts running through his mind.
The three-dimensional Lokkishi was more vivid and prettier than her two-dimensional anime counterpart.
A delight to the eyes and heart.
Feeling unwell?
Unwell, my ass! He felt great!
Seeing Allen staring at her, Lokkishi subconsciously touched her face.
"You don't look injured, so why do you keep staring at me? Is there something on my face?"
Still comparing the two-dimensional and three-dimensional versions of Lokkishi in his head, Allen casually answered her.
"No, your face is quite nice. Um, more than nice. It's much more real and delicate than the one I dreamed about last night. You look good in every way."
His words fell.
The campfire licked at the firewood.
The forest's deep night grew even quieter.
Allen waited for a long time without hearing Lokkishi respond. He blinked, then suddenly realized what exactly he had just said.
He looked at Lokkishi's stunned, lake-blue eyes, and his own expression froze.
Before his eyes, the hand she had used to touch her face had already stiffened. Under Allen's gaze, her cold half-lidded eyes slowly widened, their depths rippling like lake water.
The two looked at each other in silent stillness.
With a crack, a charred log snapped. The wind blew past them.
Stirring up dust that did not exist.
6. Marked red, bolded, and underlined. Maintain this state. Keep it up. Win Rudeus's favor. Rudeus: Countdown: 91:54:02
Allen went numb. More precisely, he had already been stunned when he realized he was saying flirtatious things to a "stranger," and the system's perfectly timed addition of fuel to the fire left him even more dumbfounded.
So this counted as flirtatious talk?
It certainly did.
There were no top-tier players in the world of Mushoku Tensei. Its culture lagged behind, carrying the foolish charm of the medieval era.
Flirtatious exchanges between men and women were even more blunt and simple than corny pickup lines, yet they had remarkable effects.
Such direct praise was not fundamentally different from flirting with a woman.
Lokkishi stared at Allen for quite a while before blinking dazedly. She puffed out one cheek, then subconsciously glanced aside.
The scarlet eyeball on the Terminator Boar's head glared furiously at Allen without even blinking, as though it deeply disdained him.
She took a deep breath and forcibly kept a straight face as she looked back at Allen.
He had plucked out several strands of his own hair and was carefully examining them to see whether they were yellow.
To Lokkishi, this somewhat annoyed-looking behavior actually suited his apparent age.
Did he not get the reaction he wanted from me, so now he's frustrated? Up close, his face still looks a little childish. He isn't that old, is he? He's just tall, that's all. It can't be because I'm short... T T But his swordsmanship... is exquisite.
A genius boy? Why have I kept running into geniuses these past two years? Rudy was one, and so is this child. Both act far more mature than their age, and both know how to say things that flirt with girls. So slick-tongued. We'd clearly never met before, so how could he have dreamed of me?
Maybe he thinks I'm his age, so he's deliberately trying to please me.
Lokkishi took off her mage hat and spoke with the bearing of someone teaching a child.
"That's not how you flatter someone. Don't let my height fool you. Actually... I'm old enough to be your mother. Saying things like that to flatter little girls won't work on me."
Allen looked at his still-brown hair, then shifted his gaze to the ahoge trembling atop Lokkishi's head.
"Flattery? Uh... fine, Blue Mom—!"
Lokkishi opened her mouth in astonishment as she watched Allen immediately cover it after misspeaking. Then, embarrassed and angry, she deliberately put on a gloomy expression.
"The reason I don't grow up is because I'm a demon."
As she spoke, she took hold of a lock of hair and held it to the firelight. Beneath the orange glow of the campfire, the ends of her hair faintly shimmered green. She leaned close to Allen, meeting his gaze with half-lidded eyes.
"See? A green-haired demon. I'm from the infamous Superd Race. If you call me 'Mom' again just to sarcastically tease me for being a child, I'll get angry. I'll eat you."
Allen released his hair and blinked as he looked at the blue-haired little girl's face right before him.
Her eyes were serious, and her lashes trembled faintly in the firelight.
"Then..."
"Eat me, then. Right now."
Lokkishi froze.
The instant his words fell, Allen wrapped Battle Qi around his fingers, curled one finger, and flicked the air before Lokkishi's forehead.
The wind pressure scattered her bangs. Deep blue strands fluttered aside, revealing the smooth forehead beneath.
Amid Lokkishi's somewhat stunned expression, Allen extended a finger and poked at her forehead from a distance, indicating that she did not have the Superd Race's distinctive red mana-sensing eye there.
"A god must not lie."
"A blue-haired, small demon. You're from the Migurd Race, not the Superd Race."
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