One Last System

"No matter what shit is going on in the world, this is a peak of happiness for me," I muttered to myself, staring down at Mia's sleeping face.

We went at it for several hours, an achievement someone my age should be proud of, especially when considering how tired I was beforehand. And now, once neither of us had any strength in us to continue, we simply laid down on the bed, enjoying each other's company.

"You were saying something?" Mia mumbled through her sleep, always ready to respond to me. She rubbed her chin against my chest as she slowly pried her eyes open. "How long was I...?" she then asked, cutely blinking her eyes as she attempted to chase off her drowsiness.

"Just a short while," I replied, gently moving my hand up and down Mia's back.

I immersed myself in the feeling of my fingers gently running up and down Mia's spine. Her skin softly bent under my touch, turning this little caress into an unspoken massage.

"I really don't want to move," Mia whimpered, hiding her face in my chest.

I moved my hand from her back to the back of her head.

Surrounded by nothing but Mia's warmth, my only desire was to spoil the girl as much as was humanly possible. Feeling her skin sticking closely to mine, her arms wrapped around my shoulder, her breasts pressed tightly to my side...

Right now, Mia was in her most vulnerable position. Yet, despite that, she was fully relaxed, quickly lulling herself back into sleep with her steady breathing.

'Damn,' I thought when I noticed Mia munching on a stray strand of her hair with a happy smile. "What, are you a kid?" I whispered, reaching out to pull her hair from her mouth. Yet, just as my thumb rubbed against Mia's cheek, she turned her lips and caught on it instead.

Her lips wrapped around my thumb while the rest of my fingers rested on her cheek. Her tongue swirled inside her mouth, quickly covering every inch of it with Mia's sweet saliva.

I released a deep sigh.

"You are awake, are you not?" I asked leisurely, letting the girl play around with my hand.

Mia's eyelids slowly moved up, revealing the depths of her eyes.

They were still moist after the nap that she took, but they were already filling with passion.

"I'm sorry, dear," I shook my head as I moved my sight to the room's ceiling. "I don't think I have it in me yet," I added, excusing myself even before Mia could hint at her growing desire.

"It's okay; I didn't really mean to," Mia whispered softly, only to turn her attention back to licking my finger. "After what I did... sucking on you somehow makes me feel at ease," she added, swallowing the entirety of my thumb.

Staring down at Mia's drowsy expression and listening to the sloppy sounds she was making, I could feel my kindling reigniting.

It lacked the nutrients to reach full recovery, but I was at the very least on a good path.

"I wish we could remain just like that," I muttered while changing my position on the bed.

Rather than allowing Mia to just rest her head on my shoulder, I turned to my side and brought her into a tight embrace.

Deprived of the finger to suck on, Mia's lips moved towards the angle of my neck. She showered my skin with kisses while pulling herself into my body as well.

"You are so damn soft," I whispered to Mia's ear when I felt her pushing her flesh on me. Her breasts flattened against my chest while her legs entered a playful dance with mine.

"I'm glad you like it," Mia whispered, only to move right back to marking my neck with hickeys.

Yet, instead of just enjoying the cuddle, I looked deeply into her eyes.

While I had nothing against it, wasn't Mia marking me with hickeys... A sign of possessiveness?

It wasn't something major. Most of the time, a small detail like this would go unnoticed... But with my attention fully focused on Mia and Mia alone, I ended up noticing it.

'Is she worried about...?' I thought, scanning my recent memories to quickly notice the potential source of Mia's worry.

"If it's about that girl, then I don't care about her," I said, trying my best to mend whatever was causing Mia any form of grief. "I fought another mana monster before and ended up killing its host. He asked me to save the others before drawing his last breath," I explained.

Bringing this unpleasant topic up made my body tense up a little.

"Huh?" Mia jerked her head up, staring at me with her eyes wide open. She then shook her head sideways, only to drill her eyes into a singular point on my chest and bite her lips. "That's not what I was worried about," she added, resting her forehead on my solar plexus.

"What's wrong?" I asked, running my fingers down Mia's hair.

"I'm just a burden," Mia muttered, her lips tickling the skin of my chest. "Sure, I can make you feel good, but," she raised her head and looked me directly in the eyes.

Looking up at her face, I could feel my heart beating faster and faster. The way she bit on her bottom lip, sucking it a little into her mouth. The fragile part of her that she so willingly bared to me...

Everything about this girl was making me go crazy.

"What in the world are you talking about?" I asked, moving my hand down on Mia's cheek. My eyes opened up wide in surprise.

"I know you don't really care about that girl. It's just that..." Mia stumbled for words, once again hiding her face in my chest. She then purred a little as she swung her hips to the sides. "I want to give, but I feel like I'm only taking," Mia confessed, her body tensing up in my hands.

"I thought I grew quickly enough to be of use for you, but..." Mia uttered, tears squeezing out of her eyes.

"Seriously," I rubbed my hand against Mia's cheek before gently raising her face up.

Seeing her tearful expression, I felt my soul shiver.

'How can she be so damn precious?!' I screamed inwardly, bringing both of my hands up and locking Mia in a tight embrace before rolling on my back. With the girl now resting on my chest, I swayed her to the sides while rubbing my cheek against the top of her head.

"If you are worried about this," I muttered, only to purse my lips right after. Yet, after a moment of consideration, I took a deep breath and leaned over Mia's head.

"Then I know how to easily help you," I added, pushing away Mia's hair before placing a gentle kiss on top of her forehead.

"Huh?" Mia raised her face, looking at me with an intense expression.

Only a few centimeters separated our faces. At this distance, I could feel the heat radiating from her lips. The wind carried her smell right into my nostrils, packing them up with Mia's pheromones.

And then came the look on Mia's face as she looked at me with her big eyes, filled to the brim with hope and reliance.

'What the hell?' I thought, struggling to catch a breath.

In this one moment, Mia looked as if she fully embraced her dependence on me and then relished in it. Rather than trying to be independent, she fully accepted the idea of relying on me.

Once I realized this, I started to notice an entire plethora of emotions hidden in the depths of Mia's eyes. Hesitation, shame, hope... All sorts of feelings coursed through her soul, explaining why she tensed up so much.

"Up until this point, I refrained from doing so," I whispered, tightening my hug over Mia's shoulders.

The warmth of her soft body, now pressed tightly against my skin, sent my brain into the abyss. Yet, when Mia suddenly relaxed in my embrace, I felt as if my entire soul would shatter.

I hid my face in the corner of Mia's neck, using her softness to ward off the attack of cuteness overdose.

"You reached eight-stage, didn't you?" I asked, looking deep into Mia's wide-open eyes.

Her current level was in plain sight for me. And after several hours of enjoying each other, I could see the small changes happening to Mia's level of cultivation.

It was the offshoot of the energy that I failed from stopping.

As this was our reunion, I forcefully restrained the flow of my energy. After using both this foreign mana and the pure one from the engine, I was worried about contaminating Mia's flow if I were to make use of dual cultivation.

That's why the changes in Mia's situation were so small. But on the other hand, it was pretty damn easy to change it.

"Are you proud?" Mia asked with upturned eyes before licking her lips clean. A look of hesitation fleshed at the bottom of her eyes.

"You did great," I replied, raising my face from her neck and placing a small kiss on her cheek. "That's really impressive," I added.

And I wasn't lying.

I wasn't as shameless as to believe that my rate of progress was normal. Right now, I was too worried to even look into my system to check how much I had improved ever since meeting with the first monster.

The fact that I could now use the pure energy...

'No, I still don't have the time and energy to think about it,' I thought, taking a deep breath. 'Also, I have more important things to deal with,' I added, taking a lungs-full whiff of Mia's delicate scent.

"But I want to be stronger," Mia said, her hands coiling into fists, showing her determination. She then once again raised her face only to bring it down and connect our lips.

For the next while, we simply enjoyed the kiss. The taste of each other saliva, the feeling of coiling our tongues, experiencing the warmth of the other in yet another way.

"Haaa," Mia moaned slightly when our lips finally parted. She kept her eyes open as she stared down into my eyes. "Tell me, can you help me get stronger?" Mia asked, leaning in for another kiss.

Unable to hold myself back any longer, I pushed my chest up. Then, rather than allowing Mia to just lay on me, I brought the two of us up and made her sit on my lap.

"Please?" Mia asked, looking up into my eyes only to snuggle forward, climb my chest a little and wring yet another kiss out of me.

"There is a way..." I replied a moment later, only to turn my eyes away. For some reason, knowing what I had to say next made me strangely embarrassed. Strangely, because I would ask for something that Mia did to me on her own just a moment ago.

"Tell me," Mia whispered, resting her forehead on mine and just staring down my eyes in silence.

"Aaah..." I released a deep sigh, seriously ashamed for some strange reason. "I need you to suck me off," I finally said, averting my eyes at the very same second.

"Is that it?" Mia jumped a little, her eyes opening even wider than before as she looked at me with surprise.

"I held my energy back before," I stated, lowering my eyes. "It's not that I didn't want to help you, but I was worried that it could cause you harm," I explained myself.

Between the shame of asking for a blow and the sudden shame of admitting the things I only realized as I spoke about them...

I didn't know which one was worse.

"Wait, are you for real?" Mia asked, still unable to deal with her surprise.

And then, her mouth quivered, only for the girl to erupt in a bout of clear, sweet laughter.

Mia then allowed her eyelids to fall down as she looked down on my lips and then bit down on her own.

"There is no point in waiting, is there?" she asked through her giggle. In a sense, she appeared to be relieved, as if a massive burden had dropped out of her shoulders. "Then, I will be in your care," Mia added, placing a gentle peck on my lips as she slid down my naked chest and brought her face down towards my crotch.

"Now then, let's see if I can squeeze a little bit more juice out of this sweet guy," she laughed as she gently grabbed my precious partner and brought it towards her lips.