Cail had a new problem. It's probably not a 'real' problem, but now, he's freaking out.
"Void energy depletion can cause pica?" Cail wondered.
In his hands was the Chaos Coin.
They were gold coins with a strange rune-like symbol circling around the edge of the rim. On the center was an... eye? Well, that's what it looked like to Cail.
It was a very minimalistic drawing. An oval with a round circle in the middle. But whatever was on the center, Cail didn't care that much, what startled him the most is that he seemed to find the coin appetizing.
He sniffed it, it didn't smell like anything. Why did he feel very tempted to eat it?
Cail looked at it and blinked, "Should I try it?" Hmm, just a taste, so why not?
"This seems to be dirty... I should disinfect and wash this first."To eat a coin, that idea didn't seem that absurd to Cail. Of course he wouldn't really swallow it.
He hummed cheerfully as he cleaned the coin in the sink. He looked at himself in the mirror and noticed that the bleeding in his eyes had lessened.
"This should be gone after a week."
Just as he was about to take his sight off his eyes, he suddenly noticed something.
"My eyes, why do they look a bit reddish?" He touched his left eye and pulled the eyelid open, he tilted his body towards the mirror and used the phone flashlight to illuminate his eyes.
The moment the light hit his eyeballs, his eyes dilated, but despite his blurry sight, being this near to the mirror made it clear that yes, his eyes had turned red. A dark shade of red.
"..."
Such weird changes in his body, Cail went silent and turned off the flashlight. His left vision was a bit off because of the bright light a while ago.
He took out the golden-rimmed glasses from his space. Now, he was already quite flawless when it comes to pulling something out of the space and putting something inside.
He put on his glasses and looked at the mirror. The red iris of his wasn't actually that noticeable. Unless you point a really bright flashlight at him, you probably wouldn't notice anything. The only reason that Cail saw it was because he had been very sensitive about his eyes a while ago. Any changes were noticeable to him.
He didn't take off his glasses. They would function like a normal pair as long as he didn't turn the gears.
"Let's ignore that for now," Cail said. It's not that he was being careless, but there was really nothing he could do about it for now.
He went back to the living room with the coin in his hand. He sat down for a bit and scrutinized the 'delicious' coin once more.
"It's hard." Obviously, but Cail was already having second thoughts about his decision.
"Well, since I made the choice, no backing out now," he said.
He put the coin inside his mouth. Before he could even analyze what he felt, the coin suddenly melted like those sweet candies.
It tasted sweet. Like too sweet that it was cloying. For the first time, Cail made a sour face from eating something sweet.
"Fuck!" He scrambled and ran all the way to the water dispenser. After drinking three glasses of water, the taste vanished.
Still dripping in sweat, Cail stuck his tongue out. "I didn't know that something too sweet could cause this much damage." He felt like he just burned his taste buds.
Aside from the 'damage' that he suffered in his mouth, once the melted coin was in his stomach, he could feel a burning sensation inside.
It reminded him of what it feels like after drinking beer. The spiciness in the throat and the heat inside the stomach.
Cail sighed, he turned the gear in his glasses and looked down. What he saw was the 'ball of light' in his stomach glowing a bit more brightly than before with golden mist swirling around it.
It didn't feel painful or anything, just a bit hot. He could feel that his void energy capacity seemed to have increased.
His eyes brightened, "This is a good thing."
Still, after remembering the taste of the coin, he frowned. He went back to the living room and picked up a coin. He put the rest into a small tray and placed them on the table like cookies.
Cail felt puzzled. "It still felt appetizing despite me knowing that it tasted like shit." Before he was even eating it, his face was already twisted into a grimace, "I feel like I'm being forced to do something against my will."
He ate the second coin, this time, his reaction was even more extreme than before. Although he braced himself for the suffering, it wasn't enough to prepare himself for this awful taste.
Eat, drink, then check the glowing ball inside his stomach. He repeated the process again and again, and when he was already at the last coin, he heard a very soft step on the stairs.
He looked up and saw his mother halfway down. She was wearing a white nightdress, her long waist-length hair freely swaying from her movement. To be honest, it looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
She was looking at Cail, there wasn't any sudden reaction on her face, it just looked blank. She asked, "What are you eating?"
Cail looked down at the coin in his hand, "Chocolate. Want some?" Then he threw the last bit into his mouth.
He literally held himself with all his will, just not to grimace from the nightmare-inducing taste in his mouth.
His mother looked at him skeptically, "I have a leftover from dinner... Last night. If you're hungry, go eat that."
Cail nodded, he couldn't speak.
"Then I'll go back to sleep," she said. After that, she hurriedly went back upstairs.
Cail opened his mouth. He hissed. He bit his cheek in order to stop himself from randomly making facial expressions.
Recalling his mother's expression, "She probably knew." Cail knew her too well to be tricked by that fake nonchalant look.
"Oh well, I already gave her an excuse. If she wants to believe the truth or not, she gotta choose."
She was probably thinking "My son finally went crazy."
Cail looked at his stomach. The golden hue had now become brighter.
"Neris brought me the beginner's guide book and the tester. Maybe it's finally time to check my strength." It was actually one of the things he asked Neris to bring during the transaction.