SSS Awakening: Creating Primordial Beasts To Be My Summons-Chapter 35: Random Development

Deep in the forest lay a region people rarely entered due to the scarcity of monsters.

It was the location Cohen had claimed to discover—though in truth, Farid had informed him about it.

Noon had just passed, and Cohen sat at the foot of a tree.

He sat expressionless, watching the distance where the Outliers—excluding Stein’s party—and about seventy Awakened were hunting.

Bobby and Hide, his two publicly revealed Primordials, were also hunting ahead.

Scattered around were other Awakened who had chosen to simply watch for the meantime. Their levels were above most of the monsters here, so the hunting was left to the lower-leveled individuals.

’So if I were... a normal Awakened... or just a normal person, I would be moving on with my day, unaware of what was coming.’

Cohen let out a quiet chuckle.

’There’s still something peaceful about that.’

It was a life where danger didn’t stretch beyond what you could see. Where fear had limits. Where tomorrow wasn’t carrying something incomprehensible.

But now, Cohen knew how easily people could be manipulated, how literal wars brewed in the background, how even worse dungeons would be coming.

The proof of the monsters migrating to this region was a testament to the incoming change.

But ignorance wasn’t just peace. It was helplessness wrapped in comfort.

’I don’t hate my position, though. I will put myself in danger to protect my family and myself.’

In the midst of his thoughts, Maya sat beside him, taking a break from the fray Dax was primarily leading.

She brought out a water bottle from a pouch at her waist.

She lowered the bottle from her lips, her gaze staying on the distant treeline where Dax’s voice occasionally cut through the noise.

Cohen didn’t look at her. He was still watching the same distant point as before she arrived.

A comfortable silence passed between them.

Maya spoke first.

"You looked like you were somewhere else just now."

Cohen glanced at her briefly. "Was it that obvious?"

"I know someone that acts like that," she said.

He turned back to the trees. "Just thinking about how life has changed."

Maya considered that. She turned the bottle in her hands slowly.

’If you don’t know what to say, you don’t have to talk to me,’ Cohen mused, observing her actions.

"My mother taught me something to do to calm the mind... I can do it to you if you don’t mind?"

Cohen turned to her with a curious smile. "I don’t mind."

Maya sat for a few seconds, pulling on the strands of hair that covered her forehead.

She then knelt down and approached Cohen.

She opened her hands and brought his head to her chest.

"I think... You are doing a very good job with how you’re working hard. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to hunt here."

Cohen’s head rested against her chest.

He froze. Not out of discomfort, but confusion.

This... wasn’t something he knew how to respond to.

Cohen stayed completely still.

’This girl...’

The confusion on his face had nowhere to go, so it just stayed there.

Maya’s hand rested lightly on the back of his head, the way someone does when they’ve done this before .

"My mother used to do this," Maya said quietly, above him. "She said it was harder to stay heavy when someone was holding the weight with you."

Cohen said nothing.

After a moment, Maya sat back, returning to her spot beside him as if nothing extraordinary had occurred.

She brought the bottle back to her lips.

Cohen stared forward.

"...Thank you," he said. His voice came out quieter than he intended.

Maya lowered the bottle.

"Don’t mention it," she said simply. "Uhm... You smile even though you’re dealing with a lot... I think that’s nice. I hope you’ll be fine so you’ll have an even better smile."

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had something this... simple. Not Ceha, who he protected. Not Haru, who he respected. Not anyone.

Bobby, who had been watching from a distance, slowly turned its rift eyes away.

Even the slime had enough sense to leave this one alone.

And then, because she was Maya and she had apparently decided today was the day she would be unpredictable in every possible way —

"Why doesn’t your slime like me? It’s always staring at me with those eyes," she said, eyes fixed on Bobby in the distance.

Cohen blinked.

Then he laughed. Fully, genuinely, the weight from earlier gone somewhere he couldn’t locate anymore.

"It likes you that’s why he’s looking at you," he managed.

Maya turned her blue eyes to him. "Really? Then can I pet it?"

Cohen wore a smile. "Of course. Do you like pets?"

"They’re the best!" Maya answered. "That’s another reason I like you. You have cute looking pet beasts. I wish I had one."

"Maybe I can get you one," Cohen said.

Maya’s eyes seemed to glow. "Sweetheart," she muttered.

Cohen laughed again.

And just like that they were talking—from beasts, to archery, to their sessions.

Maya spoke more than Cohen had ever heard her speak, steadily, without her usual careful rationing.

She didn’t seem to notice.

Cohen did.

When the conversation finally settled into a natural lull, he stayed in it for a moment.

He realized, with something warm and slightly aching at the same time, that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had this either.

Just talking. No heavy weight behind the conversation.

Just a person beside him and nothing needing to be solved.

He glanced at Maya, who was looking at the treeline, a bottle resting on her knee.

Instead he just looked back at the trees.

And smiled, quietly, to himself.

’An occasional moment like this clears the mind.’

It was especially needed because Cohen was going to be diving back into the underworld level one dungeons before nightfall.

His other primordials, having recovered, were far from where the Awakened could perceive them, undergoing their own unsupervised but slow growth in preparation for what was coming.

All that was left was for him to personally level up.