Lenny saw the description for the mission by the Satan System.
He had to admit that he contemplated a little whether he should take it or not.
After all, he would get a Badge for it.
So far, Lenny had noticed that Badges did not exactly contribute to his fighting prowess.
He was not a fool.
He knew that in one way or the other, if the System was giving a task, then it meant that the task was important.
However, as enthusiastic as he was about taking on this mission, he was also skeptical about it.
In fact, he actually contemplated taking it.
The system could not force him to take the mission, but that did not mean that it could not annoy him with it.
Even if he wanted to rest a bit or take a nap.
<Alert>
<Mission: Eat 50 different plants of the same Genus or specie to gain a new Badge>
The mission update would pop at the most unexpected of times, and even though he would push it away, it would only be a while before it popped back up.
Even after instructing the system not to bring it back up, the mission would still pop.
On this journey, Lenny was not the only one with his own share of suffering.
Of course, there was Crusher and his longing for his bug-woman. Which made his attitude towards the rest of the party very sour.
However, there was someone else whose suffering occurred silently.
It was Hector.
These days had been a mini version of hell for him.
Even though he had reverted back to his normal form, he could still hear it-subtle whispers in his mind.
It was an echo of voices begging him to do very terrible things.
Sometimes, he would be cuddling with Athena and he would hear the echoing whispers.
"Pull her hair out of her skull.... Rip her face off... Yes, you know you want to. You want to tear her chest open and see her insides... You know, just to check if she really loves you..."
He would dismiss them, but soon, they would be back.
This was most especially true for when he wanted to enter his comfort zone.
The whispers would be there to make life an easy hell for him."yes... That Lenny, skin him and gauge out his eyes... Yes, those eyes. He is using them on my Athena..."
Hector had tried to ignore the whispers and sometimes, he would even try to tire himself any how he could, including sex just to drown the whispers in his head, but it was of no use.
Hector was unaware of this, but his change in behavior was something that Athena already noticed.
Her powers had grown since then, and sometimes, if she listened hard enough, she could even catch words from the heads of people.
After the incident with the exploding baby, she had been trying hard at it.
After all, a skill like that could potentially save lives.
However, discovery on any level was a daunting process. One that was filled with pieces of a puzzle, difficult to solve, leaving the mind with so much zeal to find the answer that it could sometimes start to give it's own answer. Of course, this answer is usually purely based on perspective.
And perspective, as many know could be very misleading.
An example would be her trying to listen in on Crusher's thoughts.
"Thank heavens.... Insect-B.... Gone.... I get... Athena.... From... Hector!"
This information was easily misread by Athena, with the thought that Crusher was happy that Insect-B was gone and wanted to snatch her from Hector.
This was further confirmed by her when Crusher suddenly made eye contact with her, and then frowned.
Meanwhile, what had happened was entirely different from what she had concluded.
For example, Crusher only looked at her that way because he realized that she had been staring none stop at him for a long time-a unconscious behavior she had developed when she tried to focus on the person's mind that she was interested in.
Besides, what Crusher was thinking was, "Thank heavens that Insect-B saved my life, but now she is gone, and I get to watch Athena Day and night unable to peel herself from Hector."
Communication itself was either received or given out based on one's perspective.
However, so was the interpretation.
This was the same thing when she tried to Listen on Perseus's thoughts.
All she got was bits and parts in return , and being unable to hear the complete thing, she naturally assumed the worst.
After all, she had been a gladiator all her life.
Since she was in the F class as a child, and her senses kicked in, she had learnt to trust the feed back they give her of the outside world without question or doubt.
After all, this was what had preserved her life for so long.
Then again, even the senses could be misled.
But she was not to be blamed for this. Her limited knowledge of the world added with her lack of a formal education with added spice of the mental trauma she had growing up for all her life, fighting for survival or dodging both demon and Half-borns who wanted to constantly pin her down and rape her had made her become extremely conscious of her external world to a very terrible fault.
And now, it has also led to the lack of trust for a party of people she had just fought with against the rest of their formerly known world.
While Athena was in her own head, and misinterpreting the little bits of information that slipped through the cracks of others, except of course, Lenny's because of the Satan system that was an excellent security system, Perseus too also faced his own internal crisis.
For Perseus, his struggle was with his new Darkline ability that let him use electricity.
None of these people were aware, but the moving Forest of Discarded Sufferings had already started it's influence on their minds and dicisions...
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