Looking at Dehya's affection skill effects, Nolan felt that the first part was decent enough.
After all, Shenhe's affection skill already made him immune to various forms of mental interference—but willpower wasn't limited to just that.
When facing adversity, stronger willpower also meant being able to confront difficulties head-on.
The real highlight was the latter effect: when challenging opponents of a higher level than himself, a portion of his attacks could be converted into true damage.
Dehya's level was in the seventies, and together with Nolan's, their combined level was close to two hundred.
That meant roughly twenty percent of Nolan's damage would be converted into unavoidable true damage.
That was terrifying.
Of course, this only took effect when facing enemies stronger than himself. Against weaker opponents, whether he had this skill or not didn't really matter.
It was already difficult for enemies below his level to defeat him.
But with this affection skill, he now had the possibility of battling much stronger foes. As long as he could land hits, perhaps even an Aeon could be worn down to death.
Uh… assuming their recovery speed wasn't too fast. Well, facing an Aeon was probably still a stretch.
But below the level of an Aeon—against their Emanators—he should be able to fight head-on. Someone like Phantylia that he had encountered before might not be impossible to defeat directly.
"Oh? What is this 'Lion King's Will'?"
At this moment, Dehya also sensed that she had gained what seemed to be an incredible ability, but it felt a little strange. She didn't quite understand how she had suddenly obtained such power.
"It's my special ability," Nolan said after a moment's thought. "Speaking of which, Dehya, being a mercenary is quite a dangerous line of work, so I wanted to help you strengthen yourself a bit."
He then turned his gaze to Candace and continued,
"As the Guardian of Aaru Village, you also need formidable strength, right? So I'll give you both some special abilities as well.
"It's not anything difficult, so there's no need to be polite with me."
Nolan explained the specific effects of the few affection skills he often gave to the girls.
After hearing him out, both Dehya and Candace were clearly tempted.
Teleportation, damage transfer, immunity to negative effects—each of them sounded extremely powerful and would be of tremendous help.
Whether it was carrying out missions in the future or protecting the village, these abilities would greatly increase their safety.
Most importantly, when encountering problems they couldn't handle, they could directly request support.
Thinking this way, neither of them stood on ceremony and accepted Nolan's goodwill. After all, they had already received so many benefits—one more didn't make much difference.
Nolan granted them the affection skills and gained more affection in return. As a result, Candace's last bit of affection finally maxed out:
[Candace Has Developed Good Feelings Toward You, Obtained 620 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.10 (MAX)]
The character panel popped up once again with a notification:
[Through sincere feelings and unyielding effort, you have become deeply intertwined with a fate that once had no connection to you. From this moment on, the maiden's constellation star shall shine together with yours. Ability acquired: Guardian.]
Judging from the name, it was unsurprisingly a defensive-type ability:
[Guardian: Gain the power of protection. You may mark targets—any target, including conceptual ones. Marked targets enter a "Protected" state. While in this state, before the user's skill expires, any damage at or below the tier of the "combined level of both parties" will be fully blocked at the cost of double the user's energy consumption. If the damage exceeds the tier of the "combined level of both parties," only the excess portion is taken as damage. You may mark up to "the combined level of both parties" targets.]
Nolan examined it carefully and found that it was exactly as he had thought.
Simply put, Candace's affection skill meant that any damage received by marked targets would be borne by Nolan's own energy instead.
It simply consumes energy at double the rate.
For example, if Nolan marks himself and takes damage with a power of one hundred, he only needs to expend two hundred units of his own energy to completely negate it.
As long as there is enough energy within his body, he won't be injured.
This "energy within the body" can be of any form, but it must truly be internal. The internal energy stored in his "Imaginary Space" does not count—otherwise, he could practically declare himself invincible.
That said, the amount of energy within his body is already immense. As long as he doesn't run into an absurdly powerful opponent, there's basically no risk of his energy being depleted.
As for the part about damage whose power tier exceeds the "combined level of both parties," the meaning is roughly this:
If Nolan's level and Candace's level add up to one hundred, and an attack comes in with a power of one hundred and twenty,
then they only need to bear the remaining twenty levels' worth of power.
Although that remaining portion is still quite strong, compared to the original one hundred and twenty, it's only about one-sixth.
Enduring it becomes much easier as a result.
Even though Nolan already has many defensive-type skills, there's never such a thing as too many of them.
Moreover, Candace's affection skill, like Keqing's, can also be used on others.
That meant he had gained yet another ability he could give away as a "gift" to build affection—and when he did so, he'd probably be able to gain even more goodwill in return.
Over the past few days, Nolan had basically achieved all his goals: successfully maxing out the affection of several girls and obtaining their affection skills.
Next would be inviting them to move into the Wonderland Space. That way, it would be much more convenient to train together and improve their strength.
Their affection toward him was already maxed out. Just like with Faruzan, as long as he guided things a little proactively, they would basically all agree.
Now wasn't the right time yet, though. The pasture had just been completed, and the villagers still needed to be arranged to look after the pack beasts.
Throughout the entire morning, everyone went around notifying the villagers, asking those interested in working at the pasture to gather at the plaza in the afternoon.
In the afternoon, they first filled all the positions for guarding the pack beasts and immediately sent them to work—after all, dozens of pack beasts were already out there in the open.
Because pack beasts were gentle by nature, as long as they had food, they wouldn't run around randomly. Still, they needed to be watched to prevent accidents.
And precisely because of their gentle temperament, the villagers assigned to guard them didn't need much experience.
By evening, the various positions—logistics, guards, and so on—had basically all been arranged. With that, Aaru Village's pasture could be said to be officially on track.
Any small omissions that remained could be gradually addressed later.
By this point, Candace and Dehya, having finished their work, were both a little tired. Seizing the opportunity, Nolan said he knew of a hot spring that was excellent for relieving fatigue.
He then invited them to go soak in it.
Since Nolan didn't mention that he would be joining them, neither of them thought too much about it, and they agreed.
But once they had changed and were sitting in the hot spring, the moment they saw Nolan walk in as well, they immediately sensed that something was wrong.
Just as they tried to stand up, Nolan had already squeezed in between them, sitting down and wrapping an arm around each of them, left and right.
His palms rested against their sides, the soft warmth of their skin transmitting clearly through his hands.
Candace's and Dehya's cheeks flushed red. They struggled lightly, but it was useless. Very quickly, Nolan leaned in and kissed them on the lips one after the other.
(End of Chapter)
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