Adriel stared at the blue ball for a while until he relaxed, and then he felt his arm begin to burn with intense pain.
His hand instinctively reached for the wound, but he stopped: his hands were dirty and there was a huge risk of infection.
A white glow covered Adriel and Kael's faces. A status window appeared in front of them, as if reality itself had been cut away just to let it manifest.
"Congratulations, you have killed two early-stage goblins, category F. You will be awarded 2 coins.
Monster code name: Worker Goblin.
Class: none.
Information: Small goblins, their qualities are poor, with almost no endurance or strength."
Adriel's expression showed the ecstasy he felt upon seeing that message. 'In any case, I need to know what this is.'
Adriel held the sphere up to the light and could see some text, which he read aloud:
"Vanity item: Ordinary clothing. This contains a black raincoat, a large red shirt, and equally large black pants."
Adriel's reading was poor, slow, and full of mistakes due to his excitement.
Adriel saw the other three bodies and felt the same attraction he had felt when he obtained the first blue sphere. Without even waiting, he smashed the rib cages of the other three and obtained three more spheres.
Unlike Adriel, Nico was about to vomit from his own actions, while Kael watched his behavior with disgust.
"What are you doing?" Kael approached Adriel and grabbed him by the shoulder.
"These spheres have clothes, so we'll be able to fight more comfortably." Adriel's voice tried to infect Kael with his euphoria.
"No. How can you destroy them without hesitation?" Kael's tone radiated confidence and cut Adriel's excitement short.
"What are you talking about? I didn't... I didn't do anything wrong. Did you see the water? We just need some wood to make a fire so we can disinfect it! We can probably use clean stones for the process... I think." Adriel began pointing in different directions, trying to divert Kael's attention.
"Adriel..." 'Don't mention it!' "You should..." 'No, I swear to God I'm normal!' "Calm down."
Adriel tried to stop Kael in his thoughts. His expression became chaotic, he dropped to the ground, clutched his head tightly, and his breathing quickened.
"We... we have to focus on the good stuff!" 'Please listen to me.' "We have water and new clothes! There are even canteens!" 'Please do it. I need to not see that. Let me think of something else.'
Adriel raised his head, tears in his eyes.
"...I guess I can make an exception for today."
Adriel's expression darkened, but he didn't complain; he knew how bad he was. Kael reached out his hand to help him up. They waited for Nico to finish vomiting, and when he did, they started to leave. However, Adriel stopped.
"I'm going to clean up the mess here... try to take your time." His voice trembled from the earlier problem with Kael.
"Yes! Try to do it quickly so that Lio... the girls don't see it." Nico corrected himself nervously and began to move awkwardly, trying to hide his favoritism.
A small smile appeared on Kael and Adriel's faces.
When his friends were about to leave, Adriel stopped them again by grabbing Nico's shoulder.
"I almost forgot." He took three balls out of his pockets, each the size of a palm, with the description of the garments reflected on them. "Two are men's garments and the other is for women, although I think they are unisex. Read it for yourselves."
Adriel left the balls with Nico.
When he turned around, Kael stopped him:
"Weren't there four blue balls?"
Hearing this, Adriel felt his body temperature drop.
"No...? Couldn't I keep one...?" His tone revealed his nervousness, which had not yet dissipated.
Kael nodded slightly.
Adriel made a gesture with his lips that resembled a "thank you" and turned to begin collecting the bodies.
'Now that I think about it, it was a good idea to give him the ball. Since they have clothes, he'll just have to take off what he's wearing so they won't see him covered in blood.' Kael thought to himself as he watched the corpses paint Adriel bright red.
A slow breath escaped the exhausted Adriel, who had been walking for more than 30 minutes with the goblin bodies on his shoulders. He soon found a ravine and, without hesitation, threw them toward the cluster of trees that rose below his view.
On his way back, he noticed the excessive blood covering him. He quickly grabbed some leaves and stripped naked to clean himself.
"The smell won't go away," he thought as he rubbed a leaf on his arm, removing the bright red. Soon, he got rid of all the blood, sat down, took the blue ball, and closed his eyes.
He didn't know how to use it, but he was sure he could. At one point, he pretended to feel something coming out of his body, and a blue flash forced him to open his eyes. He saw a projection coming out of the sphere:
"Do you want to claim this object of Vanity as your own?"
Two options appeared next to the inscription: "Yes" and "No." Adriel pressed "Yes" and felt the clothes promised by the sphere adhere to his body.
"The first item I obtained..." he murmured incredulously, looking at his new clothes.
The fabric was perfect, but he felt that the trench coat didn't fit him well. Even so, his euphoria and dopamine levels continued to rise.
Adriel looked at his old clothes. "They won't be of any use to me from now on." He discarded the dress pants and shirt, but kept the belt because it seemed useful.
When he returned to the lake, he found no one there. Noticing that he was still alone, he took more leaves to superficially clean the ground.
"I'll tell the guys to say this blood was already here when we arrived." He threw the leaves into a nearby bush and sat down at the edge of the lake.
He closed his eyes and imagined a completely black place, with himself standing in nothingness. Then masks appeared in the shape of his face, behind which were inscriptions such as "Student" and "Son."
"I must create a person," he thought as he formed another mask. He imagined how he should act when wearing it: "Someone decisive, strong, who doesn't give in to complications... something like a hunter."
The more he thought about it, the more meaning it took on in his psyche. He let it go and let it fly away with the others. When he tried to put it on, he felt afraid; he knew he couldn't be something like that.
'I must start to control my mind more.'
"Hello!" Adriel jumped a little when he heard Kael's voice. He saw him peek in and signal that he had finished cleaning.
"You just have to imagine something coming out of your hand. By recreating that feeling, the clothes will come out and cover you. I wasn't wearing any clothes when I did it, so I don't know if it's a good idea to activate it while dressed."
Adriel explained patiently to Nico, while Liora and Selene listened attentively.
'I think Nico didn't keep a word to himself. He probably told them everything, and that's why they didn't come near me.'
Adriel shook his head from side to side, looking for something to entertain himself with, when he saw Amara with her hand over her mouth, staring at him.
"What's wrong? Do I have something on my face?" Adriel asked.
Amara came over and grabbed his trench coat without warning.
"You look ridiculous. You looked like a weird guy trying to show off his 'great look'. This kind of thing really doesn't suit you."
Adriel pushed her hand away and looked away.
"I don't have any other clothes. Besides, I didn't know I looked so bad in your eyes," he said, feigning a hurt voice, as if he were a lost soul insulted on a demon's whim.
Everyone continued talking and playing until the sun began to set, and they decided to go to sleep.