✨ Please take your time reading. ✨
After a couple of knocks, the door opens, and Teresa walks straight into the bedroom, heading right up to the bed. "Max, Max, come on, up you get." With that, the beautiful forty-five-year-old woman firmly yanks the sheet covering the boy.
"Give me five minutes," the boy says before rolling over to the other side.
"No, absolutely not, come on, up you get," the woman says again, but the boy just mumbles a few nonsensical phrases.
Seeing she's having no luck waking him, Teresa casually remarks, "Have you forgotten what day it is?" That's when Max's eyes fly open. "What day is it?" He turns his head, his gaze focusing on her face, slightly disheveled, with dark circles under her eyes.
Teresa offers a half-smile before answering. "It's your birthday; today you finally turn eighteen." Instead of being happy, Max rolls his eyes and turns away, pulling the sheet up to cover himself from head to toe. "Forget it," he says, his voice cracking. "You just have to forget it."
"For God's sake, Max, aren't you even going to try?" Teresa grabs the sheet again and pulls harder, insisting over and over, "Try you have to try."
This goes back and forth until the boy finally gives in. "Fine, fine—I'll do it, I'll do it." But Teresa knows Max like the back of her hand; she knows he'd never get up before 7:00 a.m. of his own accord, so she keeps tugging at the sheet.
"Okay, you win you win. I'll get up, I'll get up... but at least let me get dressed." The boy makes this remark before sitting on the bed, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand and yawning a couple more times. Teresa, however, doesn't budge; even though she lets go of the sheet, she remains tense.
"Fine, fine if that's what you want, then I'll do it. I'll sit here and meditate in my boxers, but the moment I fail, I'm going right back to sleep—and I might even snore a few times." With that, Max finally gets out of bed, looking thoroughly annoyed; he takes a few steps and sits on the floor in the middle of the room, settling into a meditation pose.
It takes Max a few seconds to focus; he begins reciting the first part of the meditation in his mind, but right then, a message pops up:
[ Passive Skill: +1 ]
This short, simple phrase leaves Max's eyes and mouth wide open, causing him to lose his concentration. "What? What is it now? Why are you standing there looking like a fool?" Teresa asks, seeing the look on his face.
"I did it, Teresa, Teresa, I actually did it!" Max shouts. He is so excited that he leaps up and runs to Teresa, hugging her and jumping for joy with her in his arms, all while shouting over and over, "I did it! I did it! I finally got one!"
Teresa is so bewildered in that moment that she asks, "Did what? What the hell did you get.?"
"A passive skill I have a passive skill! I got a passive skill," Max replies. After the initial shock wears off, Teresa finally joins him in shouting, and they keep it up until they're both exhausted from jumping around, and with good reason, considering the odds were less than 0.00001%. (Only one in a million cultivators gains a passive skill.)
Their shouting was so loud that Teresa's two daughters the twins, Melisa and Malena also got up; however, they didn't join the celebration, simply staying on the sidelines and listening from the hallway.
When the excitement finally died down, Teresa asked, "Alright, alright, now tell me what it says. What is your passive skill about?"
Max cleared his throat and replied, "It's a passive skill, and it's named '+1'." The woman nodded a couple of times but remained silent; the name didn't reveal much, and naturally, she didn't understand it at all.
Max took the opportunity to sit back down in a meditative position and focus. [*This passive skill only activates during sexual interaction, specifically, any of the four types. (It applies only to women.)*
*In turn, she also gains 0.2 (handjob), 0.5 (blowjob), +1 (vaginal sex), or +2 (anal sex).* The greater her Elemental talent or cultivation rank, the greater the benefits.]
"So that means the more power the woman has, the more points you receive? And why is it called '+1' if you can clearly earn '+2'?" Teresa remarked after hearing the boy's brief explanation. Max corrected her with a gesture: "We receive, because the woman benefits as well."
Suddenly, Teresa adds, "That means if you manage to be with a spiritual Queen or Empress, you gain more benefits than with a spiritual novice." Max grimaces and remarks sarcastically, "Sure, sure. Of course, all those beauties have nothing better to do than come have a roll in the hay with a nobody like me..."
Teresa understands the implication of that statement well, but she pretends not to hear his complaint, knowing it hasn't been easy for Max living with his appearance.
"This applies to any novice, too." Max nods, but before he can speak, Teresa adds, "What about those who lack the spiritual talent for cultivation? Do they receive those points as well.?"
Max understands exactly what Teresa means, given that she herself lacks the spiritual talent for cultivation; yet now, he too pretends not to hear the question, while out in the hallway, the twins lock eyes with a certain intensity.
Final exams at the spiritual high school are just a couple of weeks away, but due to their meager spiritual talent, there is no chance of getting into a renowned academy—or at least one prestigious enough to ensure a bright future.
If they fail the exam, they will be left behind and forced to wait until the following year.
🔸🔸🔸🔸
Then, Teresa asks another question aloud: "Is it all their talents combined, or just the elemental talent of the girl you sleep with.? What happens if she has two or more talents, like fire and wind.? Do you get a point from both talents, or just the dominant one.?"
Before Teresa can ask anything else, Max shrugs and says loud and clear. "Who cares.? I just want the point. Literally, one hookup saves me a hundred days of cultivation." This speaks volumes, given that Max's aptitude for meditation is the lowest in the entire academy—though Teresa is actually referring to her eldest daughter, Dalia, who has awakened her second talent.
Max requires 100 days of meditation to gain a single point of progress. While others might earn that point over months or weeks, and the truly gifted in just a week, or the exceptionally talented in a mere couple of days Max's progress is so sluggish that he resembles a "spiritual snail."
At that moment, Max reflects on his tragic past, recalling the beatings he endured just for attending class—times when girls had to intervene to stop him from being assaulted during lunch or after school.
Meanwhile, Teresa is thinking about the future; she knows she must take the initiative, or she risks ending up alone at home. Although she has several questions on her mind, she wisely keeps her mouth shut, trying not to overwhelm the boy.
With this in mind, Teresa clears her throat and says, "How about you stay home today.?"
"Stay home.?"
"Exactly. You just need to pretend you have a stomachache. When you're eating breakfast in front of the twins, feign stomach pain so you can stay behind; that way, the two of us can explore the limits of this passive ability." Max nods readily.
"Remember to wear your uniform when you go down to the kitchen. Before you finish breakfast, your stomach should start hurting badly enough that you have to go back to your room," Teresa says, a hint of excitement in her voice.
Max nods again in confirmation.
"Then I'll head to high school with the twins, and you just have to wait for my return." With that, Teresa stands up, turns around, and leaves the room, walking down the hallway toward the kitchen. The woman glances back at the twins' ajar door, catching sight of two silhouettes behind it; it is obvious the pair overheard their entire conversation, but this time Teresa pretends not to notice and walks unhurriedly toward the stairs, heading for the kitchen.
💠💠💠💠
Thirty minutes later, the three of them come down for breakfast, but before finishing, Max clutches his stomach and rises from the table, rushing toward the bathroom. No one is surprised by this, nor do they stop him; they simply watch him run to the bathroom as if his life depended on it.
Teresa is the first to speak up: "And Max?" Malena shrugs, and it is Melisa who answers, pointing toward the upstairs staircase: "He ran off to the bathroom; I think he's feeling sick." An odd silence follows as the three women exchange glances.
"I just hope he isn't having a hard time at school," Teresa says before going back to cleaning, acting as though the situation has nothing to do with her. The minutes tick by and the time to leave for school draws near, yet Max does not appear.
"I don't think Max is coming," Malena says, and her sister nods, confirming the obvious, before adding, "Mom, we're going to Aunt Gladis's place today, and we might very well stay the whole weekend."
Teresa's eyes light up a little at this, but she ends up nodding. "Just don't give your aunt any more trouble, and remember that your final exam is in a couple of weeks. Remember what happened to your cousin Lucia—failing a year isn't easy, and neither were all the consequences that followed."
The twins look at each other for a few seconds and both nod almost simultaneously. "You don't have to worry, Mom; we'll both surpass the spiritual point requirement to pass that final exam." At that moment, Teresa knew what they were both thinking, but she decided to ignore the subject completely.
"Max, it's time to go," Teresa calls out from the living room.
"No, I don't think I'm going; my stomach feels really bad," the boy replies from the upstairs bathroom.
Teresa doesn't insist that Max go to school; she simply shrugs before looking at the twins. "Alright, time to go." The twins nod, and each grabs her bag before leaving the house, followed by Teresa.
◈—◈—◈
✨To be continue...remember, if you like this story, consider adding it to your library, that helps me to know that you are liking and I will give it more priority. ¥ $ ₤ ₯ € ₨ ₩..✨