Max stared at her face for a second, still struggling to believe this was actually happening.

He was finally about to lose his kiss virginity.

It had only taken one entire lifetime, an untimely death, and his soul getting shipped off to another world.

Honestly, when he thought about it like that, the achievement felt a little ridiculous.

Not that he cared.

At this point, excitement was winning the battle against common sense by a landslide.

The fact that the woman in front of him was much older barely even registered anymore.

’She doesn’t look old...’

The thought surfaced as her age briefly crossed his mind.

As he leaned closer, he found himself studying her face. Her skin still held a surprising softness and suppleness to it. There were wrinkles, sure, but nowhere near as many as he would have expected. Only a few faint lines lingered near the corners of her eyes, subtle signs of age rather than the deep marks he had imagined.

The closer he got, the less he found himself thinking about her age at all.

Instead, his attention slowly drifted downward.

To her lips.

They were a muted reddish-pink, carrying more color than he would have expected from someone who smoked as much as she did.

As he leaned in, he took her lower lip between his own and kissed her softly, surprised by how incredibly soft it felt. He could taste the faint trace of her saliva while letting her taste his, lingering there for a few seconds as he cautiously explored an experience that was completely new to him.

Then Zerena pulled back, breaking the contact before it could last any longer.

"Does that count?" she asked.

Max immediately shook his head.

Partly because he genuinely wanted to know what her definition of disgusting was, and partly because he had become far more distracted by the softness of her lips.

"What about this, then?" she asked.

Before he could answer, she leaned in this time, and took the initiative.

And unlike him, she actually knew what she was doing.

Her lips moved against his with an ease that completely destroyed whatever confidence he had left. Then her tongue slipped past them, teasing and playing with his in a way that sent his thoughts scattering in every direction at once.

For a brief, humiliating moment, Max forgot every rune he’d ever learned.

His brain simply clocked out.

Arousal surged through him so hard that, if the system had an arousal meter like the one hovering above Zerena’s head, it would’ve shattered the scale and started asking for emergency maintenance.

Arousal surged through him so hard that, if the system had an excitement meter, it would’ve shattered the scale and started asking for emergency maintenance.

He kissed back hungrily, completely abandoning any remaining dignity as he tried to keep up.

Failed.

Spectacularly.

His hips jerked involuntarily as he kept grinding against her, chasing the overwhelming sensations flooding through him. Heat rushed through his body, his chest tightening as his breathing grew uneven.

His eyes watered slightly.

Not because he was sad.

Not because he was emotional.

But because, for the first time in his life, he experienced an orgasm from grinding against an actual person instead of relying on his own body part or some questionable piece of plastic. The sensation hit him so hard his brain briefly forgot several important functions, including coherent thought, dignity, and basic motor control.

It felt like his soul was actively trying to leave his body, and for once Max had absolutely no objections. He kept grinding and spurting in his pants, far too overwhelmed to care about dignity, common sense, or any of the other qualities respectable people were supposed to possess.

Meanwhile, the kissing continued.

Her tongue played with his own, completely dismantling what little remained of his ability to think. Max eagerly sucked on her lips, chasing the sensation with the enthusiasm of a man discovering his new favorite hobby in real time.

The sounds filling the room were also noticeably louder than the soft, romantic kissing scenes he remembered from movies.

Not that he was complaining.

This was way better.

Those movie characters had clearly been holding back. Either that, or they had never experienced anything remotely this mind-melting before.

And Zerena seemed to be tolerating it too. She even adjusted the angle slightly, deepening the kiss in a way that immediately convinced Max his heart had filed for early retirement.

For a few moments, everything continued.

Then she felt him breathing harder and harder.

Zerena pulled back at once, "Please tell me that counts," she said, sounding a little breathless.

Wiping her lips with the back of her hand, Zerena looked thoroughly disgusted. "Because if it doesn’t, I’m done. I don’t know how much more disgusting kissing can get than that, and I’d rather not find out."

"It does..." Max managed to say between breaths.

The orgasm had hit him harder than anything he’d ever experienced before, leaving him slightly shaky and feeling like his soul had briefly clocked out of work.

’Man, I almost died...’ he thought.

Then, after a moment, a grin slowly spread across his face.

’...I could get used to it.’

Which was probably not the lesson he was supposed to be taking away from the experience.

Meanwhile, his body still hadn’t received the message that the event was over. Despite the orgasm, he kept absentmindedly grinding.

Despite already climaxing once, Max found himself hard again almost immediately.

Which, honestly, felt a little unfair.

Surely there should’ve been some sort of cooldown period.

Instead, the moment he pressed himself against Zerena, feeling her breasts compress softly between them, his body apparently decided that previous accomplishments were irrelevant and that further investment was both necessary and highly encouraged.

Meanwhile, Zerena had officially taken over.

Because if Max’s previous attempts at kissing had proven anything, it was that he possessed all the natural talent of a confused intern accidentally assigned to a specialist position.

So she kissed him herself.

Aggressively.

Reluctantly.

And with the visible annoyance of someone forced to complete a task she thoroughly disliked but had already committed to finishing.

Even though she clearly hated how sloppy and messy the whole thing felt, she still took control completely, pushing her tongue into his mouth and forcing him to follow her lead whenever he inevitably started falling behind.

Occasionally she even sucked on his tongue in return, no longer seeming to care about the saliva being exchanged.

Inside, however, Zerena couldn’t wait for this entire ordeal to be over.

’He’s so disgusting...’

Not because he was doing anything especially outrageous at the moment.

The problem was that Max approached kissing with the skill level of someone whose previous training regimen had apparently consisted of folding his arm and pretending it was another person.

Which, unfortunately, was not a joke.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much she could do about it.

If these ridiculous system requirements were going to continue, then she needed to get used to the activity sooner or later.

Preferably sooner.

Because the alternative involved finding someone else willing to deal with Max.

And that sounded simple right up until she actually thought about it.

First, there was the problem of trust.

Second, there was the problem of secrecy.

Third, there was the problem that Max was, for lack of a better term, an absurdly valuable magical resource disguised as an idiot.

The idea of handing him over to someone else felt about as sensible as leaving a chest full of gold in the middle of a busy street with a sign that read:

"Please Don’t Steal."

She had found a gold mine.

And unlike normal people, Zerena had absolutely no intention of sharing her discovery.

If keeping it secret required threats, intimidation, or killling, then so be it.

Some opportunities were simply too valuable to leave unattended.

And compared to everything else she’d already put up with, this was just kissing.

A requirement she deeply wished had never existed.

But still just a requirement.

So she pushed down her revulsion and forced herself to continue, stubbornly treating the entire situation like unpleasant business negotiations.

The less emotional investment involved, the better.

Besides, she still held out a small, increasingly desperate hope.

Maybe Max would eventually decide the whole thing was too awkward.

Maybe he’d find it disgusting.

Maybe he’d discover some alternative method to satisfy his system’s absurd demands.

Maybe the system would suddenly develop reasonable standards.

Unfortunately, every one of those possibilities seemed equally unlikely.

Because as far as Max was concerned, this was simply how kissing worked.

He possessed exactly zero practical experience, zero alternative techniques, and somehow even less shame than that.