-----

Ervas glanced as Veronica did a lot of crazy things until she finished changing Jobs… through this whole time, he simply expected in silence as she separated herself into clones, danced, jumped, laughed, roared, converted her clones into golems, talked with herself, and then converged herself back to normal…

​​

"As wild as ever… I envy her bright emotions… I wish… I could be like her," thought Ervas with a mild smile. Despite being the other half of Veronica, Ervas was still developing his emotions, and he still could not simply get the gloomy part out of his system… he had lived like this for two years now, so it was awfully hard to begin forcing himself to experiment bright emotions.

Although Ervas did experienced things such as joy and happiness, they were different than Veronica's brightness, and they showed mental joy that he could not show to others… He already had done many incredible things and was beloved by literally everyone in the Kingdom, yet he still felt inferior to Veronica and this thing was slowly building upon him.

"What could I do to be like her… Despite not being a human, she is indeed very humane… And I, who is alive, is not…" he thought, Ervas felt as if his heart was slowly covering itself with a layer of hard and cold stone…

However, that stone quickly crumbled apart as his heart became bright once again, a warm sensation ran through his soul and heart.

"Ervas, what are you thinking?" asked Gaia.

"…Gaia. Nothing, I am fine" said Ervas.

Gaia flew towards Ervas's face, glancing at him directly into his deep crimson eyes, and his expressionless face.

"Tell me!" said Gaia.

"I… I was feeling a bit stupid, that is all. I should just accept things," said Ervas.

"What things?" asked Gaia.

"…Isn't it nice? Veronica is always so bright, she does not even feel like a part of myself… I just want, to be a bit more like her" said Ervas.

Veronica heard Ervas mumbling and approached him with a concerned look.

Veronica knew that she needed to immediately warm Ervas' heart whenever he had such thoughts, as he was a living being, he experienced rather strong changes in emotions, and because he couldn't express them well, such emotions kept accumulating inside of his mind. Although he was far from reaching his adolescence, he was already experiencing many changes in his body due to his hastened metabolism.

"Ervas, I already told you to not think things like those! I envy you as well, but I am not going to simply get angry for it!" said Veronica.

"…Eh? You? Me?" asked Ervas.

"That's right! Sometimes, it is very tasking to have such bright emotions, you literally cannot calm down despite being an undead! How can it be good for me? Yet, I try to cope with it as much as I can, I often envy you because you can keep your emotions in check, while for me, it is incredibly difficult!" said Veronica.

"I-I see… I guess I am once again having a twisted perception of things… Perhaps too many burdens and events are making me tired…" said Ervas.

"It might be, after all, you're still a living being, right? You're not like an undead, and even then, I often wish I could actually feel physically tired, as it would make resting more gratifying… Being a tireless undead comes with a lot of perceptions lost, such as time… If it wasn't for you and the rest, I would be lost, completely lost…" said Veronica.

"Is… that so?" asked Ervas with a slight blush, glancing at Veronica's honest words, he felt bad about having thought such things. He realized that both he and Veronica had their ups and downs…"

"Here, connect to my soul, this always makes us feel better," said Veronica, extending a small soul thread towards Ervas, as both of their souls connected once again, their emotions mixed together as both of them became capable of slightly sharing them between the other.

"This… Perhaps we should do this all the time, it does feel like I am more at ease… Thanks, Veronica!" said Ervas with a bright smile, he was now smiling with sincerity, and not forcing his muscles to form a smile. When Ervas was capable of sharing Veronica's bright emotions, he became even more adorable.

"Aw… You're such a cute honeybun!" said Veronica as she grabbed Ervas with her arms and hugged him, letting him rest within her arms like a baby, despite now resembling a boy on his four years of age at this point, or even a bit older.

"V-Veronica, I am not a baby anymore…" said Ervas.

"What are you talking about! You might look a bit older due to your skills and evolutions, but you are still the sweet, sweet little baby I love!" said Veronica as she snuggled her phantom face on Ervas'.

"See? That is all you needed, Ervas-kun! Love!" said Gaia.

"I guess… But do not ask all the time when you see me gloomy, it might just be my normal face" said Ervas.

"Hmmm… Noted!" said Gaia.

Jason moved towards Ervas as he hugged his son as well.

"Were you feeling down again, my son? Do not worry, we are all here for you… And I am sure that your mother is always thinking about you and wishing you the best, wherever she is," said Jason.

"Father… Thanks…" said Ervas.

In the end, most of the people present hugged Ervas, which made him very embarrassed… He thought that they were going a bit too far, and there wasn't any need for a giant group hug.

"Perhaps I should change Jobs now…" said Ervas while still being in Veronica's arms, despite being made of metal, she had learned how to change the texture slightly and made them as soft as cushions with the help of the 'Comfort Maintenance' Skill, that made any of her body parts comfortable to sit on or be at.

"Hm, I've always wondered what Jobs you get…" said Veronica.

"Me too, but it seems that we cannot appraise up to that point… yet," said Ervas.

"I wonder if one day we'll get the same Job?" asked Veronica.

"It might happen… or not. I think that the System is actively trying to not give us the same Jobs for some reason…" said Ervas.

"It might be a way to foment our separate growth… Anyways, I don't want to interrupt you anymore, so continue" said Veronica.

"Okay…" said Ervas, glancing at his Available Job Options at last.

-----

[Name: Veronica

[Race: Death Nether Acheron Living Armor Executioner Queen.

[Age: 0 years, 4 Months.

[Titles: Monster Tamer, Mysterious Demon Knightess, Army of One, Queen of Death, Crowned Princess of the Igni Kingdom, Squirrel-kin Beastmen Queen, Rabbit-kin Beastmen Queen, Raccoon-kin Beastmen Queen, Ghoul Queen.

[Type: Undead/Ethereal/Material

[Rank: 8

[Rank Level: 016/100

[Job: Malevolent Necromancer Witch of Dead Spirits.

[Job History: Armored Unarmed Fighter, Soul User, Shadow Soul Fighter, Spectral Soul Knight, Apprentice Spirit Caster, Apprentice No-Attribute Mage, Armored Shapeshifter Fighter, Slime User, Apprentice Warrior, Metamorphosis Synthetic Knightess, Wicked Metallic Legion, Accursed Shadow Soul Metallic Knightess, Light & Darkness Spirit Caster, Self-Body Alchemist Crafter, Cursed Shapeshifting Demon Vehicle, Murderous Metallic Mistress, Soul Breaker, Yin, Synthetic Phantasmal Engineer, Metallic Self-Golem Transmuter.

[Job Level: 001/100

[Health Points: 27.548/27.548 > 29.254/29.254

[Mana Points: 29.560.340/29.560.340 > 42.139.910/42.139.910

[Extra Mana Storage Capacity: 21.197.837/40.000.000 (Level Up!) (+20 Million More Extra Storage!)

[Strength: 9335 > 9835

[Defense: 7520 > 8012

[Magic: 5900 > 6530

[Resistance: 4290 > 4830

[Agility: 4408 > 4785

[Memory Retention; Level 6]

[Special Five Senses; Level 7]

[Superhuman Strength; Level 6]

[Abyssal Soul; Level 7]

[Phantom Form; level 8]

[Mana Enlargement; Level 6]

[Magic Enlargement; Level 6]

[Abnormal Status Immunity]

[Strengthened Physical Power; Level 7]

[Physical Damage Resistance; Level 6]

[Armor Rearrangement; Level 7]

[Absorption Healing (Mineral, Materials, Armor); Level 6]

[Chant Revocation; Level 5]

[Strengthen Followers; Level 6]

[Commanding; Level 6]

[Coordination; Level 6]

[Self-Enhancement; Following (Ervas); Level 6]

[Slime Binding Technique; Level 5]

[Parallel Thought Processing; Level 6]

[Fast Speed Thought Processing; Level 6]

[Surpass Limits; Clones; Level 5]

[Automatic Mana Recovery; Level 5]

[Increased Mana Recovery Rate; Level 5]

[Strengthened Attribute Values; Legion; Level 4]

[Death Attribute Charm; Level 6]

[Golem Transmutation; Level 6]

[Soul Binding; Level 5]

[Dominate Created Undead; Level 5]

[Grotesque Mind: Level 3]

[Hardworking; Level 7]

[Appraisal; Level 6]

[Charge; Level 7]

[Unarmed Fighting Technique; Level 8]

[Javelin Technique; Level 6]

[Axe Technique; Level 3]

[Shield Technique; Level 6]

[Armor Technique; Level 6]

[Thread Reeling Technique; Level 4]

[Artillery Technique; Level 6]

[No-Attribute Magic; Level 6]

[Mana Control; Level 7]

[Spirit Magic; Level 6]

[Dead Spirit Magic: Level 1]

[Cursed Wounds; Level 7]

[Soul Materialization; Level 6]

[Phantom Materialization; Level 6]

[Tame; Level 4]

[Body Form Manipulation; Level 6]

[Long-Distance Control; Level 6]

[Digestion; Level 5]

[Cooking; Level 3]

[Butcher; Level 3]

[Alchemy; Level 4]

[Crafting; Level 4]

[Blacksmithing; Level 3]

[Engineering: Level 2]

[Body Size Alteration; Level 5]

[Fission; Level 5]

[Mining; Level 3]

[Aura of Fear; Level 5]

[Magic Fighting Technique; Level 3]

[Space Expansion; Level 2]

[Comfort Maintenance; Level 2]

[Rough Road Travel; Level 2]

[Precise Driving; Level 2]

[Self-Enhancement: Murder: Level 4]

[Murder Healing: Level 4]

[Mind Attack: Level 1]

[Armory; Level 5]

[Soul Break; Level 6]

[Legion; Level 4]

[Surpass Limits: Soul: Level 2]

[Soul Fusion: Level 2]

[God Slayer: Level 2]

[Kelsus & Anir Fusion: Level 2]

[Mana Storage Armor: Level 2]

[Soul Parasite: Level 1]

[Self-Enhancement: Family: Level 1]

[Yin: Level 2]

[Lamus' Divine Protection]

[Vedon's Divine Protection]

[The Fallen Demon Kingdom's Citizens Divine Protection]

[Kelsus' Dark Scales]

[Slot 1: [Kelsus' Sinful Demonic Living Armor of Dark Storms] [Armor]

[Slot 2: [Accursed Basilisk Shield of Reflection and Poison] [Shield]

[Slot 3: [Rock-sharp Silver Serpent Living Armor] [Armor]

[Slot 4: [Venomous Fanged Dark Winds Spear of Blazing Blizzards] [Weapon]

[Slot 5: [Anna's Catastrophic Thunderstorm Axe of Anir's Bones] [Weapon]

[Slot 6: [Emerald Wind Magic Blade]

[Shade, Spirit of Shadows and Darkness (Light-Attribute)]

[Slot 1: [Rank 8: Giant Ocean Water Slime Princess, Aqua]

[Slot 2: [Rank 7: Giant Nine-Eyed Phantasmal Crimson Armored Black Widow, Charlotte]

[Slot 3: [Rank 7: Giant Armored Venomous Dark Drake Worm, Nidhogg]

[Slot 4: [Rank 7: High-Voltage Giant Thunderous Rat, Kyuu] (Rank up!)

[Rank 7: Dark Shadow Phantasmal Gazer Ghost, Ozgeth]

[Rank 5: Thunder Millipede Ghost Emperor, Pete] (New!) (Shares a strong bond with both Veronica and Ervas)