Humanity

"Just from consuming the blood from the elk and boar, I can tell that I've gained an affinity for Ice and Fire. It's also to a degree that I can likely materialize it, though I think I'll need to practice it to do anything practical with it."

There was one thing that came to Hazel's mind after hearing what Ethan said.

"That's a very OP power…. You're pretty much a cheat character from a video game or one of your light novels. A being that has no limit on how much power they can obtain and will always grow in strength."

Ethan let out a slight laugh. "Yea, but it's not completely perfect either. I could tell that when my body was evolving and the pain I was feeling wasn't just from the evolution. I believe that a portion of that pain came from absorbing the Affinities and Attributes from the blood.

I don't think that I'll gain all the Abilities, Attributes, or Traits that the owner of the blood possessed. Maybe a certain percentage, but definitely not all of them. I will also have to train these new Abilities since they're new to me and not something I had naturally."

"Even with those flaws, it's still an overpowered ability…. I can see why you were so excited after learning this."

"That isn't the only amazing thing I learned from reading for the past few hours." Ethan had a gentle smile on his face and continued to talk. "I'll be able to gain the System within the next few years."

Hazel adjusted herself to sit up straight and knitted her eyebrows together, then placed her hand on her chin and began thinking of this fact that should be impossible. Though what if it wasn't true?

Ethan let out a small laugh as he continued to smile. "Since my first memory, I knew that I wasn't Human or Hybrid, and because of that, I thought I'd never be able to awaken the System…. It's true I know that what's written here could be a lie, but it still makes me have hope that I could obtain the System.

It said that the Bloodborne's base race needs to be Human and I'm pretty sure that's what mine is. Nothing is certain, but just learning this makes me feel like I'm not completely a blood-consuming Monster, that there's still something that still connects me to Humanity."

Hazel lowered her hand and then looked down, while there was a sullen look on her face, and wasn't trying to show Ethan her sadness. She clenched her hand into a fist and gritted her teeth soon after.

'I know I said that even if you look at yourself as a Monster that needs to consume blood to survive that I'd stand by you, but to think you already considered yourself that and that you held no attachments to Humanity….'

She sighed then relaxed her hand and looked up at Ethan.

"You're a fucking idiot, you know that?" She puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms, then looked away from him. After a few moments she spoke again. "If you thought you had no connections to Humanity, then that would mean you didn't consider me your friend."

She turned her gaze to look at him and saw that his smile had disappeared while he was also rubbing the back of his head. He was looking down but after sensing that Hazel began to look at him, he parted his lips and looked up.

"I do consider you a friend, but besides that I don't think I really hold any connections that I can think of at the moment. Like I said before, several feelings that describe staying in touch with Humanity are lost to me.

Even if my mind is more clear and didn't take a turn for the worse, I've never considered myself having any Humanity and would've stayed away from Humans or other races. I've always been constantly scared that I'd be killed for whatever I was and never planned on talking to anyone unless forced into a situation where I needed to."

Hazel lowered her arms then looked at him and parted her lips. She had no idea what to say to him after hearing that or what he's always thought would happen to him if the church found out what he was.

"E- Ethan I-"

"To be honest I would've stayed like that for the rest of my life, however, an annoying little girl constantly bugged me while I was reading a book and kept trying to get me to talk to her. Eventually we exchanged names and I went back to reading, but she brought up a subject that I liked so I began talking to her about books.

After talking about my interests for a while I began to open up to her and we eventually became best friends. If that annoying little girl never bugged me I would still be shutting myself off from the rest of the world and always scared of dying."

Ethan formed a gentle expression across his face as he looked at Hazel, who was looking down and blushing after hearing what he said because she was embarrassed of hearing how she was in the past when they were children.

Ethan let out a little laugh and continued to speak.

"Hazel, you can think of yourself as the person who saved my Humanity from completely disappearing and the first person who I had ever let into my life, even if you always thought I was a Hybrid until last night."

Hazel took a deep breath then looked up at him with her blush-ridden face and, still being embarrassed from what he was saying, began to shout at him.

"Okay! I get your point, so stop saying stuff like that!!" She then began to mumble to herself. "It's embarrassing to hear you talk like that…."

Ethan laughed and had a wide smile across his face, knowing that his words would embarrass her and was telling the truth, but also wanted to see how she would react to hearing him say those words.

However, after a few moments, Ethan's eyes began to close and he started falling to the side, but caught himself and placed his hand on the side of his head while looking down.

"Shit…."