Author's note: Alright folks, sorry for the wait but I'm back now. Thanks for being patient! :)

I read a few comments last chapter about how he hadn't tried drinking blood from dead bodies yet, but that isn't true. He killed ogres, trolls and the abomination before drinking their blood from the dead bodies and he was able to absorb abilities from all of them! I do realize though that I hadn't made this clear enough so I'm going to go back to the time he killed off his first ogre and emphasize that he can absorb blood from dead bodies too.

Without further ado, I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.

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As I stared at the women in front of me, I could see they really were determined to die. I could only appreciate their decision, as it is the smartest thing to do and more importantly it makes things a lot simpler for me.

I didn’t want to ask them “are you sure?” or something along those lines, as I was afraid that their minds would start working overtime, their hormones would take over and they could very well decide that they wanted to stay alive instead of wanting to die. Then, I would be stuck with them, and who would want that?

Thus, I simply said, “Alright. Say your goodbyes, this will be over quick.” While keeping my face solemn and my voice breaking as if I could start crying at any moment. Obviously, I wasn’t going to cry, but I hadn’t acted in front of anyone for a long time and I missed fooling others with my expressions! Plus, it would be nice for the women to think someone cared for them in their last moments, so it’s a win-win, I think….

Anyways, I took out my newly acquired sword from my pocket dimension space and readied to kill them. I had taken the sword when I visited Japan as the knives I had been using so far were not really suitable for fighting monsters. I had no idea what the proper name for the sword was, and no idea if it was any good or not, but it did its job and that’s all that matters. It was a simple double-edged straight sword with a simple hilt, nothing special.

They were all crying and hugging each other and saying their goodbyes, but I didn’t want to give them too long in case someone changed their mind. It takes just one person and then the whole group follows like sheep! I noticed Ariel had quickly said goodbye to everyone and then gone off to sit in a chair by the corner… I ignored her for now and prepared to behead them, as that would be the quickest and least painful death I could think of for them.

I yelled “It’s time!” and without giving anyone a chance to get alarmed I activated super-speed and used all my strength to behead everyone in a split second!

I stopped after slicing through Ariel’s neck and turned around to see the results.

Everyone had the same expressions they had before my yell, some were still hugging each other while some were wiping the tears off their eyes. I saw as their heads slid off ever so slowly and dropped to the ground without their faces changing their expressions once. Well, at least I did give them their wish of a quick, painless death. I’m such a nice guy.

Everyone was dead, so I turned around and made my way towards boss-bitch’s body. I wanted to see if I could absorb her ability now that she was dead. Logic dictates that she is dead which means her unique ability should be up for grabs, let’s hope this is the case...

I almost reached the body of boss-bitch when I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat from behind me! I immediately used hiding presence and teleported away from the place I was standing in.

I turned around and saw Ariel still calmly sitting in the chair she was on! I sliced through her neck too didn’t I..? How the hell is she still alive then?!

.....

Oh crap! You idiot Ben! Her ability!

Voicing my thoughts, Ariel said, “ Sorry to alarm you. But you should know that it isn’t that easy to kill me. If it were I would have killed myself long ago.”

Her neck must have healed instantly as I couldn’t even see a drop of her blood! How had I missed this! But wait… something doesn’t fit…

I deactivated hiding presence and teleported nearer to her and asked, “So why don’t you just deactivate your ability and then let me kill you? Everyone can turn off their abilities after all.” If she wanted to die she should have deactivated her ability and let me kill her. I assumed this to be the case, hence I didn’t think about how she could still be alive. I was actually planning on absorbing her blood later after I was done with boss-bitch’s corpse...

“Not everyone. As far as I know unique ability holders can’t deactivate their abilities. That bitch over there couldn’t turn her ability off either. Whenever someone touched her they would get their ability deleted immediately whether she wanted to delete their ability or not.”

What?!

That can’t be true!

I can easily use all the different abilities and activate and deactivate them as I please. She must be mistaken…

Hmmm…

My ability isn’t using different abilities, but absorbing blood, isn’t it? I’ve never really tried to drink blood but not absorb the ability...Hmmm… I need to confirm this.

I told Ariel to wait and used hiding presence once again. I moved over to the telekinesis guy and drank a bit of his blood from his burned corpse. I immediately got the prompt from mind-me that I had absorbed the blood. Then, I concentrated on ‘switching off’ my ability and drank some blood again and waited…

Blood successfully absorbed. Ability of telekinesis already present.

Damn. Didn’t work!

I concentrated harder and drank more blood, but got the same prompt again and again. Turns out I really can’t turn my ability off! Hmmm…

This must be why the old lady with the ‘true immortality’ ability was so pissed off! She couldn’t turn off her ability either! But what about the other unique ability holders like the girl with the absolute control ability or the shapeshifting unique ability…? How can they live if their abilities are always active…? Hmmm…

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Oh well, who cares about them. What matters is that I can’t turn off my ability either. The good thing is that it won’t affect my life, at all! The bad thing now is that I have to be careful when I go crazy fighting a bunch of monsters, I can no longer afford to swallow blood unknowingly and end up with a shitty ability.

Now, back to the matter at hand. I wanted to see if I can absorb unique abilities after their previous ‘owner’ has died. Boss-bitch’s ability could potentially make it impossible for me to touch someone without taking their ability away, but I’m not too big on touching others anyways so it doesn’t really matter. Plus, if I can absorb it I could delete abilities easily and make fighting the stronger monsters much easier! The pros far outweigh the cons in this case.

I still didn’t want to touch boss-bitch, so I controlled a syringe taken out from my pocket-dimension and used it to take out some of her blood. I proceeded to drink it and waited…

Blood absorption unsuccessful. Unique abilities cannot be absorbed.

Dammit! Why doesn’t it work?!

She is dead! She can’t even use her so called ‘unique ability’ now! It should work!

.......

Alas, no matter how many times I tried it still didn’t work. This is so frustrating!

Before I could go on a rant I was interrupted by Ariel once again clearing her throat loudly and pointedly. Annoying bitch.

I sighed, deactivated hiding presence and spoke one word to her, “What?”

“I don’t know if you realize it or not, but we are kind of surrounded by dead bodies on all sides. Could we please leave now?”

Well… she does have a point, I thought as I looked at the pile of body parts, corpses and the blood flowing in the room. The smell was starting to spread too and I didn’t particularly want to stay here either.

But, it does annoy me how she automatically assumed that I would be taking her with me! Though her ability sure is useful, and it could prove to be helpful in fights against stronger opponents. Okay, let’s take her with me then… Though she should know her place!

“Sure, we can leave. But, if you want to stay with me I am going to need you to do something for me from time to time.”

She immediately glared at me and snarled rather then asked “What do you want me to do?”

Oh right, she did spend what I assume to be a long time getting used as a sex slave by a number of men so she must have immediately thought I wanted those ‘favours’ too. I really should have worded the question a bit differently… oh well…

“Calm down. I’m not a bastard like those others. I merely meant that you would need to use your ability if I ever get hurt. You might also need to come with me if I ever decide to fight someone or something, so I can rely on your healing powers. What do you say? Deal?”

She looked surprised for a bit before she calmed down and smiled a little. “Deal. And thank you.”

I simply nodded in answer. I then moved towards her, asked her to give me her hand, which she hesitatingly extended, and I immediately teleported us out of there. I moved to a building close by which I had been to previously and let go of her hand while she looked surprised and looked all around at the changed surroundings.

“We just teleported. Don’t look so surprised.” I said as Ariel still had an alarmed expression on her face.

It seems I am stuck with her for the time being. I would prefer to be alone but her ability really is useful. But, if she turns out to be an annoying bitch I’ll just dump her ass and move on. I can’t be bothered with babysitting bitches…

“Oh, right... I thought you had simply been moving extremely fast all this time. I’ve been meaning to ask you, what exactly is your ability? You showed a lot of different abilities over at the room, and now you can teleport too! Shouldn’t everyone have just a single ability?”

Hmm… I was expecting this question. Time for her first 'test'…

“My ability is unique. It allows me to use the abilities of others if I drink their blood.” I answered seriously while looking straight into her eyes. She looked shocked, so I continued with the planned 'test'...

I sighed, and turned my expression into a dark one while saying in a low voice, “I know it’s disgusting, but I had to do what I had to do in order to survive.” I took another glance at her and saw her expression was softening. Time to make my ‘exit’. “I’ll be right back.” I said in a low voice and immediately used hiding presence.

I concentrated on Ariel’s facial expressions and saw that she was deeply troubled. She was probably thinking that it was stupid of her to ask about my ability, and how I was haunted by the ramifications of my own ability. She then murmured, “Stupid Ariel. You just had to drive away the guy that just saved you from that hellhole!”

I felt I was going to lose it right then and there and immediately teleported to the roof of the building before I started to laugh!

She simply asked me a basic question, which wasn’t even wrong of her to ask, but me acting like I was troubled with her question led her to believe she did something wrong! She can be manipulated easily! Which means she passed my little 'test' with flying colours! I really did miss having no one around to manipulate during my time travelling!

I guess having a new companion isn’t too bad after all, I thought as I wiped the tears of laughter off my face.

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P.S. My novel has now crossed 50k words! Woohooo! :D