Mash waited for Priscilla to tell him if he got a new affinity. The anxiety was making him sweat. Even if they were still in the cold, he would probably be sweating. Only a few seconds had passed, but he had to endure each one.

[You got an affinity for soul magic, though a minor one.]

When he finally got the message, he didn’t know what to think. While that could be useful, he would’ve expected more from Luke. It wasn’t that he wanted to be able to steal all of Luke’s skills, but it felt like his skills should have given more. Instead, he had gotten something mundane. He didn’t think he could use it to heal either. Maybe he could, he did have a life affinity. He never did figure out where he got it, but he had one. Maybe he could try some things now that he had access to soul magic.

Mash looked toward the others who were watching him with anticipation. He wondered what result they were hoping for. He spoke clearly, making sure not to misrepresent anything.

“I gained a small affinity for soul magic, nothing else.”

He repeated Priscilla’s words. It was a strange situation. He had gained something, but it hadn’t been anything substantial.

“What do you mean by small?”

Luke asked the question. Mash opened his mouth and closed it, unsure of what exactly that meant. Mash turned the question to Priscilla. He sent her the message, but she was already giving him a response. The way they communicated was strange at times, it felt like he was talking to himself. Then magically, he would learn something new. He knew that didn’t make any sense, but he couldn’t think about it any other way. It still took almost a full minute to get all of the information.

“Priscilla said that it means that I won’t be able to do very much with it. There was stuff about affinities, but essentially it just means that it would be harder to use my energy for that kind of magic. She gave me a few theories as to why this happened to. She thinks that Luke might just have a poor affinity for it, and he uses his skills to compensate. The other possibility was that Mash’s own core was reaching its limit. She said that probably wasn’t true considering how he had gained the heat affinity without a problem.”

He told them almost everything Priscilla had said. There were a few things that she had transmitted that seemed a little blunt and unnecessary. Things about Luke’s possible talent, and so on. Mash hoped that there wasn’t a correlation with talent. Mash hoped that his explanation would dissuade any further tests along this line, but he saw that he wasn’t going to be so lucky. Red had walked closer while he was talking to Priscilla. She held something out to him, and he could tell what it was. A piece of flesh. Mash looked at her for a second, almost unable to believe what he was seeing.

“You can’t be serious?”

Red gave him a flat look before responding.

“Mash we aren’t forcing you to do anything. If you really didn’t want to, you wouldn’t. You are just as curious as the rest of us, whatever the results might mean. Honestly, we should’ve tested this before.”

Mash grimaced but nodded. She was right. He wanted to test the bounds of his skills too. As much as ethics was a convenient excuse to use, it was a hollow rebuttal. There was nothing forcing, and for all his protesting, he would’ve done this eventually. He grabbed the piece of flesh but paused before putting it in his mouth. He made a wooden mouth on his hand, one that lacked a tongue or throat. That was something he should’ve remembered before. It was literally the skill he used most frequently.

“You forgot, didn’t you?”

Red made the comment as she watched the wooden mouth devour the small piece of her skin. Mash looked down and made sure not to meet her eyes. In fact, he might just keep his head down for the rest of the night. There was another rush of stats. It was noticeably smaller this time. That probably meant there was a correlation with the person’s stats. He waited for Priscilla to find the affinity. She found something quickly, though it wasn’t what he expected.

[It is an ethereal affinity. It too is not very powerful but is better than the previous.]

Mash shook his head a little. He didn’t even have the foggiest idea of what she meant. Plus, that second part sounded like a dig at Luke. Mash had more important things to talk about but made sure that she knew that she was being too blunt.

[What do you mean by ethereal?]

[It is the best word for it I could find in your memories.]

He had been wondering how she came up with the right names for the affinity, but now he understood. She was looking through his memory and coming up with words that would make sense to him. Well, it seemed like she had missed the mark this time. He had absolutely no idea what she meant by ethereal.

[Try describing the affinity?]

There was a pause. It was long enough that he told the others it would take a second. That confused them, but they sat down and continued to eat their food. All but Jill who held a knife in one of her hands. She was probably preparing to copy what the others had done. Although she was waiting to see what he said. He had nothing to do but wait for a response. So, he walked over and grabbed a new bowl of stew. Even though he had only vomited water, it had still made his stomach feel empty. He needed to fill it again. There was some difficulty to it, and he tried not to think about all of the things he had eaten in the day. He tried to focus on the stew itself. It was pretty good, but he couldn’t stop himself from thinking of more disturbing meals. Although he did manage to avoid throwing up.

[It is like those strange mana creatures from before. Monsters that both do and don’t exist in this realm.]

He wasn’t really startled by Priscilla’s message. Just as she could look through his mind, he could do the same if he tried. He had been doing exactly that. He hoped that it would let him get a better understanding of her thoughts. It proved quite effective, and he kind of understood what she meant. The more he tried to understand her intentions, the closer he got to the right word. Then it hit him, and he said the word aloud.

“Spirits! You mean spirits.”

The realization hit him, and he unintentionally shouted the words. The others had heard him. Mash paused and tried to explain to both Priscilla and the others simultaneously. It was surprisingly difficult to send Priscilla his thoughts while communicating them at the same time.

“I got a spirit affinity. But wait, why did I get that?”

His comment made everyone turn their heads toward Red. She did not have spirit-related magic, or at least not that she knew of. They were all thinking about the question. Red came up with the answer, her words breaking the silence.

“It's blood. I mean bloodlines or maybe race if you want to take it that way. Beastmen, or rather Luke, was born with an affinity for the magic. I am a half-elf. Elves tend to use spirit magic.”

“So, Mash doesn’t get what people have earned, but what they're born with?”

Jill spoke, but still cut a small piece of skin from her hand. If what Red said was the truth, that would mean that Jill’s flesh would probably not do anything for him.

“Wait, you didn’t need to do that, right? I mean we’re both just human.”

Jill shrugged her shoulders, responding nonchalantly as she tossed the piece of skin to him. Mash didn’t catch it, but let a wooden limb pluck it from the ground. She replied before his wooden creation reached it.

“We need to test it still. My family doesn’t have anything fancy to it, so you shouldn’t gain anything.”

He guessed that made sense. The wooden hand that was about to grab the piece of skin turned into a mouth. It devoured the piece in one bite, and Mash felt the usual rush of stats. Priscilla confirmed their theory, and Mash was glad to share as much with the others.

“You were right. I didn’t gain any affinities. I don’t know if it’s race or blood or whatever. I think it might be because the class system is something external. Well, it doesn’t really matter.”

Mash was more than satisfied with the information. It meant that he wouldn’t have to eat other humans. That was kind of unfair to the other less human races, but he just didn’t mind as much. Demons were barely humanoid, and he knew that there were probably plenty of monsters like Priscilla too. He wasn’t bothered about eating things like that, and he knew that humans weren’t any different really. However, his thinking wasn’t rational, nor did he want it to be. People were never meant to be logical, regardless of what some might believe.

He wanted to do a little dance or something, but something else drew his attention. In all of the excitement with the whole affinity thing, it seemed like Sarah had taken the opportunity to leave. He checked his domain and even looked around. She was nowhere to be found.

“Where did Sarah go?”

The question wasn’t directed at anyone in particular. Normally, he would be the one in charge of watching something, but it hadn’t really been a priority. Maybe he should’ve kept an eye on her, but she felt weak. Not to mention she was terrified of him. She was probably waiting for a good chance to flee. Well, he wasn’t planning on chasing her down. Jill raised a hand and lazily pointed in a direction. Mash turned to look where she was pointing but didn’t see anything. He didn’t even see any signs of footprints on the snow. He was about to ask her what she saw, but Jill spoke before he could ask.

“She went that way, probably heading to her secret base or something. I’m guessing she’s been here for a while. At least I hope so. That pelt cape thing would be very weird otherwise.”

Mash wondered how Jill knew but guessed that she had put a mark on her. No one commented on the remark about the wolf head cloak. Honestly, Mash had thought it was pretty cool. It might not have been fashionable, but it was an interesting item in a practical sense. The wolf fur was strong and dense and would let her blend into the snow easily. Not to mention that it probably helped her disguise herself from other wolves. Ultimately, they didn’t really care about Sarah.

None of them got up or did anything with the information either. There was no point in following her. If it ended up being a poor decision, then they would deal with it then. Even if they wanted to be cautious of the girl, they wouldn’t do anything like imprison her. There was a large gap between being cautious and hunting her down for running away. They weren’t going to murder some random girl because of the chance of danger later. There was another reason not to care though. Simply put, they weren’t planning on sleeping here.

“Time to head back?”

Luke spoke, a yawn escaping his lips as he did. Mash wasn’t really sleepy. His hibernation and reconstruction skills healed things like fatigue. That wasn’t true for the others though. Although Red didn’t look very tired either. Mash wasn’t entirely sure if she slept anymore, but she acted like she still did. At least she had done that so far. It wasn’t his place to interfere. Mash finished cleaning pretty quickly and left the imitations of Priscilla to scurry around and try and find Sarah. He didn’t think they would succeed, but it was the least he could do. With that out of the way, Jill teleported them all back to his brother’s house.