The second night was easier than the first.

After last night's battle, some of our party members had leveled up again. I had gotten ability points, most likely for investing into Iris' strength.

Iris had leveled up. Gob had leveled up multiple times again. Neither Aerin, Alex, nor Lili got any kills.

First, it was time to level up Gob. I want you to do the same as last time.

"Invest most of your points into sense."

"Okay, boss."

As always, we hissed and snarled.

I was making no progress on his language. It would have been smart of me to start teaching him some English.

"Iris, I also want you to do the same thing. Invest your points into strength."

"I will do as you say."

Aside from mentioning the gods all the time, Iris listened to me. She was willing to listen, unlike Aerin and Alex who were bitter.

I checked my ability points. I wanted to see if Iris investing points into her strength again and making Gob invest his points into sense resulted in more ability points.

Indeed. More points.

[Ability Points: 10]

I had no idea how the math worked. I'd gotten 5 more points. Maybe since they were something I'd already done before, I got less points compared to last time.

But today, I wasn't going to buy an XP potion. Today, I'd buy a skill book, worth 10 ability points.

These skill books from the ability points store allowed me to teach skills to heroes that normally couldn't learn them.

Here is an example. Teaching Iris to use black magic. Get it?

The two people who hadn't leveled up in our party were Aerin and Lili, and it was Lili's turn to get stronger. Aerin would have to wait.

She'd probably complain again.

"Let's see."

I started scrolling through the list of skill books.

I knew the kind of skill I wanted had to be here. It was a fairly basic one.

"There we go."

[Heal]

[Effect: Uses your faith to heal living beings like your party, like your comrades. Accelerates recovery. Decelerates negative effects such as poison.]

Purchased.

I was going to teach our succubus [Heal].

This innovative, but I had a reasoning for it. Succubi in Fantasy Survival mainly cast debuffs on enemies. They had two abilities that assisted this process.

One. They could turn into a spirit and approach enemies without being attacked.

Two. Whenever they used an ability that caused effects on the target, they could strengthen it by making physical contact with the enemy.

The only downside was that they couldn't debuff a bunch of enemies at once using these abilities. If the enemy was quicker than the succubus, she wouldn't be able to reach them at all.

But here was my idea. What if we use that effect not on our enemies, but on our party? The ability applied to everything. Buffs to debuffs, accumulative damage to drain attacks.

Could she make contact with one of our party members and use heal? Would that amplify its effect?

After making the purchase, I was left with the book in my hands. It was an F-rank skill book.

I walked over to Lily, who was sitting a few feet away from Iris.

"Mmm. It's rare for you to come and talk to me."

Lili looked up at me.

"Oh, what is this? You're saying reading this book will teach me an ability?"

"I know it doesn't make sense, but it's the [System]. It can do things that aren't normally possible."

Lili opened the skill book. The book was shining in her hands. Eventually, before she got a chance to read it, its light died out, and so did the skill book. It crumbled in her hands.

"I don't feel any different, but I somehow know that I can use, [Heal]."

"We're going need to experiment."

"What was that? Did I hear that correctly? You taught her a skill?"

It was Aerin. She seemed to have complaints again.

"You refused to level me up, and now you're..."

She was complaining again, but I felt like I had figured out how to stop it.

I grabbed her hand.

"I'm so sorry, Aerin."

"What are you doing?"

"I am so sorry that I'm no good as a leader."

I looked into her eyes.

"Well, you don't need to grab my hands."

She pulled away. She glared at me for a second or two, and walked away.

"Hmm. I didn't know she could be cute like that," Lili commented.

"If that's cute, then I don't know what cute is."

"Ha ha."

Lili didn't say more.

"But now we gotta experiment. Gob, come here."

We were going to experiment the effect of Lili's heal. To do that, we needed test subjects. I was gonna use myself and Gob. We had taken the most physical hits.

"First, I want you to use heal from a distance. Second, I want you to use heal while touching me."

When I said that, Iris visibly tightened and looked at me. She seemed to be saying something or two to herself.

"Touch...?"

I couldn't really make it out.

"Cracken, I believe in you, and everyone has physical needs. But can't you two at least go somewhere else?"

I was confused by Iris' words.

"Cracken, were you propositioning me? I don't think I would've ever known if it wasn't for our priestess."

I looked at Lili.

"How exactly should I be touching you?"

Lili smiled and gave me a knowing look. She was making fun of me. I turned to Iris.

"What are you talking about? All I meant is that she needs to be in physical contact with me, like putting her hand on my shoulder. That amplifies any status effects, abilities she uses on someone."

"Oh. I didn't know that."

Iris looked to Lili for help. Lili smiled and shrugged.

Iris took that as a yes. She blushed and looked down again.

※※※

The experiment was a success.

Initially, because of her low faith, I didn't feel the effects of her heal. However, when she put her hand on my shoulder, the effects were much stronger. Gob reported the same.

Gob also seemed to enjoy Lily's attention.

Since we weren't exactly in a video game, we couldn't tell how big of a difference it made. Whether it was twice as much, or three times as much, or more, or less.

However, the effects were noticeable. Once I invested enough attribute points into her faith, her healing abilities would probably exceed that of the priestess. She did have to make physical contact with you, so that would be a problem in situations where party members were spread out.

Here's how things were going, going into night three.

Gob, by virtue of the stat bonuses that come with each level up for goblins, was already becoming a pretty good melee character. Not at all OP, but good enough for the rank and level.

However, the points invested into sense were obviously creating an effect. He read enemy patterns better. He was more efficient and understood my instructions better.

Iris, the priestess, had become what I am currently calling a "holy archer." She didn't have the mobility, but she had was gaining range and power on her [Holy Arrow]. It tracked enemies well, and ignored defensive resistances. She also didn't have to worry about her arrow supply.

Lily, the succubus, was in the process of becoming a healer. I planned on giving her more buff skills. I imagined her turning into a spirit and moving between party members, putting a hand on their back, healing them and buffing them at an overpowered rate.

Alex and Aerin were pretty much the same as they'd been at the start. An F-Rank archer and an F-Rank vampire. Who was going to change next? You can probably guess the answer.

The third night was approaching.