3x Cloning System: The Fleshmancer's Undead Army is full of Heroes-Chapter 40: "What are you, perveted?"

"The voices speak to me in tongues I cannot understand," She said, frustrated, a tear sliding down her cheek. "I wish I could say they go away once I pick up my sword, but the truth is the voices just stop yelling in my ear. They’re still whispering, and their whispers are getting louder everyday."

To his surprise, as this odd lady spoke, the system kept spamming alarming updates in his ear.

[-20 Life Essence Points]

[-44 Life Essence Points]

[-200 Life Essence Points]

At the last notification, his world went dark for a second. He did not understand why, until he asked the system.

[Your heart just exploded.]

In the meantime, Clayton still had his hand on her shoulders. He could feel her muscles flexing, hard as a rock, and he foolishly wondered if touching one’s shoulder could cause a heart attack.

When she moved her arm, she nearly broke his wrist, and he feared that she was going to try and attack him again and make him lose even more points, but thankfully that was not the case. She just grew more frustrated as she talked about the voices that haunted her.

Nevertheless, he was itching to figure out if she exploded his heart, even if by accident, so he asked, "I apologize for stressing you out with my questions, but can you remember when the voices started... whispering to you?"

"As long as I can remember," She said, "Maybe before I could even walk."

"And you’ve been practicing with your sword for...?" He followed along.

"Ten years, nine months, seventeen days." She said, her voice coherent and precise.

"Ten years, so you were ten years old when you started practicing?" He asked, "That’s a bit earlier than other kids. How did your parents feel about it?"

"I started late, actually. I was twelve, not ten." She corrected, "My father didn’t want me to touch a sword, because he thought I was crazy, and would kill the innocent."

"Well, you did try to kill me," He added.

"You were my first victim after all these years," She sighed, avoiding eye contact, and trying to regain an inkling of her discipline, "I wish my father was alive to see that I grew up to be far more skilled, and disciplined than these useless bastards around me."

[-3 Life Essence Points] 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

[-5 Life Essence Points]

[-20 Life Essence Points]

[Your heart is fine this time, but she did attack your liver a little bit.]

Clayton was intrigued. He wondered if the direct contact with her kept putting his body at risk, so he put it to the test.

"So your father died?" He asked, let go of her shoulder, and sat down on a chair that was positioned near this lady’s house. "Was that when you started practicing?"

"Yes," She nodded, "What’s the matter? Are you still drunk? I saw you stumbling like a three-legged horse earlier."

"I’m not drunk," He smiled.

[Remaining Life Essence Points = 2,408]

The system didn’t spam him with further notifications. He was quick to notice the fact that he stopped losing points after he let go of her shoulder. Contact with her could kill a lesser man, and he was wondering if this had to do with the voices in her head.

Clayton bent over, coughed up a mouthful of blood, and spat it out.

"Are you okay?" She asked, and for once she was visibly concerned. "Do you want me to get you some water?"

"No," He started chuckling between his coughs, "Go grab a chair, and sit down with me. We’re going to figure out where those voices in your head are coming from."

The young lady was confused, but she was desperate for a change, for a fix, so she rushed inside her house, grabbed a wooden chair, and placed it in front of Clayton. She got down to his eye level.

"What’s your name?" He asked.

"Arlene," She answered.

"Alright, Arlene," He leaned forward, and cupped her hands with his.

"Gross," She pulled back, "What are you, perverted?"

"Not all old men are perverts, Arlene," He chuckled. "They usually don’t have the tools to follow that humiliating path."

Arlene chuckled in response, for the first time ever since he met her a moment ago. He could tell that she doesn’t smile much, on account to her condition, so his heart felt warm for a moment.

Afterwards, he added, "You are likely not aware of it, but you exploded my heart a moment ago. To clear the confusion, that’s not me courting you, and you did actually destroy my heart. I was dead for a short moment."

"What?" She blurted, confusion riddled on her face. "How is that possible? I never stabbed your heart."

"You didn’t have to," He said, "Which leads us to my next question. What Branch of Magic were you born with?"

"None," She sighed, "My father took me to a Priest when I was five years old. He wanted to figure out why I didn’t bear any sort of magic, and why I heard voices, but the priest simply called me insane, and a mistake from the Gods... I do remember the voices in my head getting stronger after the Priest said that."

"The Priest didn’t know what he was talking about. He was a buffoon." He said.

"It’s not wise to talk ill of the Priests," She leaned back on her chair, and scoffed. "I hate the way I was born, I hate it everyday, but these past couple of years, I began to wonder if he was right. I did cut your head off earlier."

"Killing people isn’t as demonic as the Priests make it out to be, Arlene," He said, "Heroes don’t bat an eye when they kill Necromancers, for example. People who consider themselves normal, cannot wait for the opportunity to kill, even if they preach otherwise."

"I suppose," She said.

After another minute of convincing, Clayton managed to grab Arlene by the wrists. He was fairly certain that she still suspected him to be a perverted old man, which couldn’t stem further from the truth based on his self-image, so he tried to be as respectful about the process as he could.

He fully intended to conduct an experiment, to see if she could hurt him again, even if unknowingly. Direct contact with her was his main puzzle piece, so he had to put it to the test!