Chapter 3: Deg PleasureKray, still shaky and slightly nauseous, helped Era back to the bakery, assuring her, with a forced cheerfulhat felt hollow even to his own ears, that her ankle would be “right as rain in no time.” He k was a lie, a pathetic attempt to salvage some dignity from the wreckage of his test healing fiasco.

  Back at the farm, he retreated to the retive solitude of the barn, seeking refuge amongst the familiar st of hay and livestock. He slumped onto a bale, his mind still buzzing with the residual weirdness of his fainting spell. Skill… Pleasure… unlocked. The words echoed in his head, stubbornly refusing to be dismissed as mere halluation.

  With a sigh, he reached into his mind, hesitantly probing for… something. He focused oraification, trying to recall the exact w. And then, it was there, flickering at the edge of his awareness, like a translut s overid on his vision. It was his status, or at least, a part of it.

  Name : Kray(18)

  Css : Healer

  Level : 1 (0/10)

  LP (Love Points) : None

  ---

  Skills : [Pleasure : Lvl 1]

  He stared at it, his brow furrowed in disbelief. It was real. The System… or whatever this straerface was… was real. And it had bestowed upon him… Pleasure. The sheer absurdity of it almost made him ugh, a bitter, humorless chuckle. Of all the healing skills imaginable, why pleasure? It sounded more like a… well, a skill for a pletely different profession altogether.

  Hesitantly, he focused on the [Pleasure : Lvl 1] skill. The translut s shimmered, and the skill description materialized beh it, filling his vision with text.

  [Pleasure : Lvl 1]Type: ActiveDescription: A massage teique that targets pressure points and energy pathways in the body. els a subtle, soothing energy through touch, promoting deep rexation, pain relief, and accelerated natural healing. The recipient experiences pleasurable sensations during the massage. Effectiveness scales with skill level and Love Points (LP).

  Kray read it again, and again, his initial disbelief slowly giving way to a bewildered curiosity. Massage-based healing? Rexation? Pleasurable sensations? It was… unventional, to say the least. Still, the description did mention healing, albeit iwined with this bizarre cept of pleasure.

  Could it actually be… healing? Or was it some eborate ic joke, desigo further mock his already pathetic attempts at being a healer?

  The only way to find out, he realized, was to try it. But on whom? He certainly wasn’t going to volunteer himself on any more vilgers after his ret… performance.

  Then, a dull ache in his shoulder reminded him of his earlier overexertion, the strain of desperately trying to force healing that simply wasn’t there. His own body, ironically, was his most readily avaible patient.

  Hesitantly, he raised his hand, fog on the [Pleasure] skill. He wasn’t even sure how to activate it. Was it a mental and? A specific gesture? He simply… inteo use it, direg his will towards his ag shoulder.

  Almost immediately, a faint tingliion bloomed in his fiips, a subtle warmth that radiated outwards as he pced his hand on his sore muscle. He began to knead his shoulder, mimig the massage teiques he’d vaguely observed in town – mostly womenfolk massaging each other’s necks and shoulders after a long day’s work.

  And then, it happened. A wave of soothing warmth spread from his hand, seeping into his tense muscles. The ache began to melt away, repced by a deep, rexiion. It leasant. More than pleasant, actually. A subtle, almost… tingling pleasure resohrough his shoulder, spreading outwards like ripples in a pond.

  He massaged for a few more moments, experimenting with pressure and rhythm, surprised by the almost intuitive uanding he seemed to possess. The ache vanished pletely, leaving behind a lingeriion of blissful rexation. He lowered his hand, staring at it in wonder. It had actually worked. Something had worked. His shoulder felt… amazing.

  He flexed his arm, rotating his shoulder joint, testing for any lingering stiffness. Nothing. It was pletely soothed, tension pletely gone. And the faint, pleasurable ti was still there, a subtle undercurrent of sensation that sent a curious shiver down his spine.

  He was still processing this bizarre revetiohe barn door creaked open, and Alice stepped inside, a pyful smile on her face.

  “What are you doing, moping in here, Dray?” she teased, her eyes sing the barn before nding on him. “e help me sort the apples. My shoulder’s killing me from lugging those baskets all m.” She dramatically rubbed her shoulder, feigning exaggerated pain.

  Kray’s eyes widened. This was it. A perfect opportunity. But the thought of actually using pleasure on Alice… it made his palms sweat and his heart thump erratically. It was ohing to experiment on himself, ao use this… intimate sounding skill on his own sister.

  “Um… maybe… I could… try something?” he stammered, his voice suddenly crag.

  Alice raised a pyful eyebrow. “Try something? What, going to hit me with another one of your herbal poultices? No thanks, I’d rather suffer.” She wrinkled her nose, pyfully mimig disgust.

  “No, no, not a poultice,” Kray rushed to expin, his cheeks flushing. “It’s… a eique. Massage based. For rexation.” He mumbled the st part, avoiding her gaze.

  Alice’s eyes narrowed with curiosity. “Massage? You? Since when are you a masseur, Dray?”

  “It’s… part of my healer ow, I think,” he mumbled, still hesitant. He couldn't bring himself to say the word “pleasure” out loud. Not yet. Not to Alice.

  Alice, ever game for anything slightly unusual, shrugged. “Alright, alright, Mr. Healer-Masseur. Show me what you’ve got. But be gentle, you brute.” She turned her ba, presenting her shoulder, her pyful demeanor masking a hint of genuine disfort.

  Kray swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly dry. He hesitantly reached out, his fingers h over her tense shoulder muscle. He focused on the [Pleasure] skill again, eling the faint tingling energy into his fiips. And then, he began to massage.

  He started gently, tentatively kneading her shoulder, his movements awkward and unsure. But as the subtle warmth of the skill flowed through him, his touch became more fident, more fluid. He mimicked the massage teiques he’d used on himself, guided by an instinctive uanding of pressure and rhythm.

  And then, Alice reacted.

  First, a soft giggle escaped her lips. Then, another, slightly louder. “Hehe… Dray… that… feels… kinda… ticklish!” she excimed, her voice breathy, almost shaky.

  Kray’s heart hammered in his chest. Ticklish? Was that… pleasure? Or was he just doing it wrong? He adjusted his pressure, trying to be gentler, more soothing.

  “No, no, don’t stop!” Alice protested quickly, her earlier pyful tone repced by something… different. Something softer, breathier, almost… excited? “It’s… not ticklish anymore. It’s… actually… really nice.”

  Her words sent a jolt through Kray. Nice? She found it nice? He tio massage, his movements being more assured, more… sensual, though he didn't sciously intend it. The subtle energy of the [Pleasure] skill seemed to be guiding his hands, leading him to press on specific points, to knead iain rhythms.

  Alice’s giggles dissolved into soft sighs, then into low, almost inaudible moans. Her shoulders rexed visibly, her body leaning into his touch. Her cheeks flushed a delicate pink, her breathing grew shallow and rapid. She even closed her eyes, her lips slightly parted, a small smile pying on her face.

  “Oh, Dray…” she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper, “that feels… so good.”

  Kray’s mind was a whirlwind of fusion and… something else. Something warm, tingling, and undeniably… perverted. Alice’s reas… her giggles, her blushes, her moans… they were intensely stimuting, igniting a fire in his belly he hadn’t knowed. His healer’s mind was fasated by the skill’s effectiveness, the obvious rexation and pleasure it was indug in Alice. But his… other mind… was fixated on her flushed cheeks, her parted lips, the soft sounds esg her.

  He was a healer, yes. But he was also… undeniably, thrillingly, a pervert. And this new skill, this skill of pleasure… it seemed to be unlog both sides of himself in ways he was only just beginning to prehend. A strange, uling, and undeniably exg path ening up before him, a path paved with healing… and pleasure. And Kray, despite his initial fusion and awkwardness, found himself strangely, dangerously, drawn to it.