Author's note: Whew! Finally managed to complete this chapter. Although I was half-asleep as I was typing it so I'm not sure how good it is... If you guys spot any mistakes or plot-holes let me know and I'll fix them in the morning. Thanks for reading! :)

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“Alright. We believe you, for now. If you can really heal us, please do.” Said an older looking guy from among the group.

Dammit! I was so hoping that I would get to knock these idiots out… but a little part of me felt relieved to hear the decision too… strange. It has to do with that girl…

I pondered over what it was about the girl that was making me act unlike anything I normally do as I put on a fake ‘relieved smile’ and went towards them to start healing. I looked over at the girl. She had nice, long hair, a pair of hazel eyes and fair skin. Her face could be considered cute, but not outright beautiful. Her figure wasn’t too bad, but again it was nothing special. There was nothing I could see that would make me so attracted to her… but then I saw her eyes closely.

Her hazel eyes, which were still looking at me suspiciously, were filled with life and a desire to fight. I remembered when I saw her earlier while she was fighting, and she continued on with a determined look in her eyes despite the terrible situation. Her eyes, or rather her spirit was the reason for me being attracted to her.

I had long ago realized that I was attracted to a girl who could hold her own, rather then a girl who was beautiful. I learned of my preferences rather cruelly when I was around 13.

I had a major crush on our neighbor, Samantha, who was 19 at the time. She had a smoking body, a great personality and a charming face, triple threat! I was completely smitten over her, until the day she got brutally raped…

All my feelings instantly disappeared. Not because she got raped, but because how she acted afterwards. She blamed everyone instead of herself. She blamed the rapist, obviously, but then she also blamed the police, the government, the neighborhood watch, and just about anyone else while she cried and hid away inside her house.

She couldn’t see that the blame should fall on the rapist, yes, but also on herself.

I’m not like those idiots who blame rape victims because of stupid reasons like ‘she provoked them’ or ‘she led them on’ etc. I know the fault lies with the bastard guy who did the raping.

My problem lies with the fact that most women in our society do nothing about it. They could take basic self-defense classes, learn basic fighting techniques or at the very least learn how to use basic weapons like a taser or pepper spray. But no, most women don’t bother with such things, even though the news is filled daily with rapists and kidnappers. Instead they sit on their asses and pray that such things don’t happen to them, or they just turn a blind eye to the realities of the world.

I know there are probably millions of women in the world who can kick my ass up and down the street in a fight, or at least there were before all this abilities and monsters crap. But the problem is that they represent only a small part of the population of women. I had practically forced my mom and sisters to take self-defense lessons and bought them pepper sprays and tasers too, why can’t other brothers or parents do the same for their sisters/daughters?

The problem with Samantha was the same. I figured after this horrible experience she would at least get motivated to learn how to defend herself, but even after all that she still blamed others and instead asked her parents to get her a bodyguard. Thus, I lost all respect for her. I then found out I was only attracted to girls I could respect. And this telekinesis girl was one such girl.

I had been absentmindedly healing everyone while I was thinking all this and it was now the girl's turn to be healed. I approached her and stretched my hand towards her, but she instead pulled back and muttered “I’m fine” before moving away.

I was going to go after her when I was interrupted by mind-me…

Blood successfully absorbed. Ability of super-strength has reached maximum potential. Drinking more blood of same ability holders will no longer have any effect.

Huh…?

It took a few seconds for my mind to come back to reality and then I remembered all that blood I had swallowed during the fight with the ogres.

So, there is actually a cap of some sort with how much an ability can be grown. Is this cap just for me so that I don’t keep drinking blood to get overly-powerful? Or is this cap the same for everyone, meaning there is the same limit to every ability, whether absorbed or original?

Another thing is that I didn’t really gain any other abilities from all the ogre blood I swallowed. So all of them had to have the same ability: super-strength.. Do all monsters of the same species have the exact same abilities? I know animals had different abilities. Two dogs of the same breed could have completely different abilities. But are these other-worldly monsters limited to one ability per species? Or was this the case just for the ogres?

Speaking of ogres… these guys were working together very well, but from what I had seen outside when all the monsters appeared was that the monsters were fighting each other as well. I had seen plenty of monsters of the same species fighting each other. But these ogres are co-operating and only kill humans…

The bats from earlier had been working together too! So, does this have something to do with species? Like how lions are sociable creatures who live in prides but tigers like to live alone?

Ugh.. so many questions, so few answers. I could probably figure most of these questions out by thinking about them, but it would have been so convenient if I had some sort of system help!

“Hey, mister…?”

Hmmm… me…?

I turned around and saw the guy who had approved of me joining the group. I replied, “Yes? Don’t call me mister though, my name is Ben.”

“I see. My name is Hammond. We were going to go look for survivors over the hotel and were wondering if you could help us?”

I groaned inwardly.

This is why I wanted to stay alone. Why did I have to get attracted to a stupid girl?!? These guys will now drag me all over looking for survivors to rescue and save. All I wanted were their abilities…

Oooh! Wait… this is actually a good opportunity!

I put on my best fake-comforting smile, and said, “Why are you all going out? I should go alone. I can turn invisible and can search the whole building much more quicker. Plus, this way you guys won’t have to risk your lives. I can handle myself, and even heal myself if I do get injured. I should be the one to go, not anyone of you!”

I put on my most sincere expression at the end there, and it seemed to have worked. The idiot in front of me visibly relaxed and then smiled, “Thank you very much Ben! We owe you a lot! I apologize for the way we all acted at the start.”

“Oh, no need at all. I have to admit I really did look like a monster!”

He laughed and so did a few others, but I noticed the girl didn’t. She’s smart. These guys are believing me so easily, but I guess she can look straight through my act. Her reputation grew up a further few notches in my eyes…

I put on another fake smile, and with these words I turned around and left: “Take care now. I will be back as soon as possible. Don’t leave this place, and if monsters come here make a lot of noise somehow and I will come back immediately if I hear the noise.”

I first made my way back to the room I had landed in, checked through my bag to see if all my syringes were safe, and then left in search for the survivors. My plan was simple really, the people here would be defenseless, scared and will do just about anything I tell them to if I appear as their ‘saviour’. Which means these helpless bastards were the perfect way for me to gain abilities!

I turned invisible and went downstairs, from where a lot of noise had been coming earlier. I passed by a lot of ogres, but I ignored them completely. There was no use in killing them, as their blood would no longer give me any benefits. On the contrary, keeping them alive means that everyone else will be reluctant to leave that ballroom, so I could easily roam this hotel in search of abilities!

I hummed in a low voice as I activated heat-vision to see if I could spot any survivors...

…..

5 minutes later I finally found a guy three floors lower then the one with the ballroom. He was hiding inside a room, under the bed. With such an unoriginal hiding place, it was a wonder how he had managed to stay hidden from the ogres…

I approached him without my invisibility, and said in a low, tense voice, “Hey, anyone there? I’m here to try and find survivors.”

He immediately scrambled from under the bed, came towards me and hugged me while crying! What’s with all these dudes hugging me lately?!? Why couldn't the telekinesis girl have hugged me…?

I pushed him off and he said in between his sobs, “Hi! *sob* I’m so thankful someone came! I have been *sob* hiding in here for God knows how long!”

I patted him on the back and calmly said, “Don’t worry. We can get out of here if we work together. But first, tell me your ability. We should know about each other's powers if we are to make it out alive.”

“Yes, yes! My ability is observation! I guess I can observe things more carefully so we can get out in a safer route...?”

Ugh… useless. I pretended I heard something outside and motioned for him to hide. He went back under the bed, and I half had a mind to leave him there, but then I thought of a better option. I turned invisible, crept under the bed and smacked him hard on the head, making him unconscious. I then picked him up and rushed back up to the ballroom. I would later make an excuse that he got hurt when we were ambushed while hiding in a room... or something that would explain how he got unconscious.

I figured if I were to bring in survivors the ballroom group would become even less wary of me, making it easier for me to get their blood.

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At the end of a few hours, I had ‘rescued’ 17 people. Unfortunately, almost all of them had useless abilities like perception, enhanced charm etc except for three useful ones, and I had gained these abilities from them:

Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Air manipulation. You will now be able to manipulate air and make it do what you wish.

With this, I had gotten all of the four basic elemental manipulations! The other 2 new abilities were:

Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Heat and cold resistance. You will now be more resistant to the rise and fall of temperature.

Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Hiding presence. A step further then invisibility, this ability allows you to completely hide your presence from any sort of detection.

The heat and cold resistance I figured would be useful if I found myself in a place without shelter, and hiding presence was a jackpot! With this ability, I could sneak around and take all sorts of abilities from everyone without even bothering with all this need for manipulating them first!

I also drank blood from people who had abilities I already had, namely night-vision, enhanced speed and observation. I ended up drinking blood from the first guy because I remembered that I only had a drop of blood from Chloe, meaning this ability was too weak right now and I needed more blood to improve it. As for why I didn't absorb all the other abilities, my reason was the same as before, I would rather have a few useful abilities then be filled up with useless ones that I would never use.

I was happy with all the ‘rescuing’ I did today, especially because of the abilities gained but also because it did make the ballroom group drop their guard, including the telekinesis girl! This will make it so much easier for me to get their abilities and finally get away from them!

Planning on how to best extract abilities without alerting everyone, I made my way back to the ballroom with a satisfied grin on my face.

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P.S. 10 chapter done! Is it still too early for me to shamelessly ask for reviews/ratings...? :P