The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

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By the time Bree woke up, Cecilia and Amber had long since left, while Amara had taken Vivian back to sleep in the other room.

The little blonde girl was still quite groggy, but she was still able to follow Evelyn back to their room, where the pink-haired girl started explaining what she had to do.

Evelyn was very glad for the spaciousness of her room at the moment, because even though she had felt that it was excessively large when she first arrived, it sure came in handy in situations like this. 

After all, be it the tentacles of the 'Thousand Eyed God', or the corpse of the Hallucigenia Mortalis, they took up a lot of space. At the same time, doing it out in the open would end up exposing Bree's ability, which was simply unacceptable.

Just imagining the sheer pandemonium it would cause if the word got out that there was a little girl who could extract abilities from beasts and turn them into consumable beads sent shivers up Evelyn's spine.

Maybe even hundreds of high-grade artifacts wouldn't compare to the greed such a thing could incite. This was exactly why Evelyn had no intention of letting a third party know of it, no matter who it was or how much she trusted them.

Of course, even if she didn't have a good enough private space to use Bree's ability, Evelyn wouldn't be stupid enough to use it out in the open. In that case, it would be better to just put it off for later when she could, eventually, carry the process out in secrecy.

"You remember the weird-looking insect we chased around before coming across that tree?"

Bree nodded.

Evelyn smiled. "Well, I'm going to take it out now, and I need you to go around stomping on it real good, understand?"

The blonde tilted her head in confusion. "The baddie didn't die?"

Just as she was about to give her an explanation, however, Evelyn paused. With her current child-like intelligence, would Bree even understand the whole ability extraction and purification thing? Since she was slowly recovering anyway, Evelyn decided it was fine to explain it later, and give a more 'kid-friendly' explanation for now.

The pink-haired girl rubbed her cheek in thought. "Well… I… um, I'm a little scared it might be alive, so I want Bree to check it for me, since you're such a brave girl. Just stomp it once to make sure it's dead?"

Bree immediately puffed out her chest, all her sleepiness disappearing in an instant. "Bree will crush that bug for mama!"

Evelyn coughed, feeling a little embarrassed all of a sudden. She had started to almost get used to it, hadn't she? It must look strange in front of others. But scolding the little baby would just feel bad, she had already done all she could, so Evelyn could only bear with the embarrassment.

Anyway, it would be far more embarrassing for Bree once she recovered, so that gave her some consolation, at least.

Evelyn shook her head wryly before ruffling Bree's hair. "Well, are you ready?"

The blonde girl nodded obediently.

Of course, since this time she wasn't dealing with the poisonous tentacles of the 'Thousand Eyed God' and the situation wasn't as dangerous, Evelyn hadn't kept Ruru locked out.

"Ruru, you go stay in the corner, alright?"

Currently, her little fox was in her 'thumbelina' form, as she usually was when they were more or less alone. Apparently, she had taken it upon herself to try to learn how to talk, though it wasn't going very well so far. 

"Uu."

Evelyn tried her best not to laugh at the cute little sound Ruru made as a response, and set her down on the ground as the thumb-sized girl ran away towards the corner.

And kept running.

Well, given her size and speed in this form… it might take a while.

Evelyn coughed.

Of course, sending Ruru a little further away was just a precaution, since she'd felt that her little fox had been only slightly affected by the abilities of the beast when it was alive. It was unlikely to actually cause too great of an effect just from its corpse.

Mobilizing her inventory, she pulled Bree a little backwards to clear the space in front of her. "When the baddie appears, rush up to it and start stomping, alright?"

"Bree is ready!"

Evelyn then took a deep breath, and with a wave of her hand, the strange, spiky corpse of the Hallucigenia Mortalis appeared right in front of them.

Bree didn't need any further instructions before she rushed onto the giant insect corpse and started stomping on it as hard as she could. Her face turned red from both effort and concentration.

The little girl may look small and cute, but her strength had already recovered to over two hundred points. Although it was still only a fifth of her original strength… each of her stomps was still powerful enough to produce a terrifying boom.

But not only was the Hallucigenia Mortalis a level sixty-five beast, it was also covered with a tough exoskeleton that was especially resistant to physical attacks. Bree's stomps had a lot of impact, but she wasn't smart enough to imbue them with spirit power, thus failing to cause any damage.

Of course, that was as Evelyn had expected, the main point of the whole thing was just to get Bree in touch with the remnant effects of the beast's 'poison' to trigger her ability.

Evelyn observed the situation closely, ready to react in case anything didn't look right.

Unlike the detached tentacles of the 'Thousand Eyed God', the corpse of the Hallucigenia Mortalis wasn't quite as 'effective' after its death, and it took a few seconds before the effects spread enough to reach Bree and trigger her ability.

Instantly, her golden hair started shining as it floated on its own, and a pure, soothing aura started spreading with her at the center, though the girl remained wholly unaware of her changes as she diligently tried her best to crack the hard shell of the annoying insect below her feet.

Soon enough, sparks started flying from her body, and small bits of purified poison seeped out of the corpse below from time to time, vanishing as it came in contact with her glowing golden hair.

As soon as the strange energy started entering her body, Bree turned a confused glance at Evelyn, who nodded. "Don't worry. Remember the last time you made that blue candy for me? It's the same thing now, just focus. I think the big baddie is already dealt with."

Bree blinked in confusion, then closed her eyes with furrowed brows, trying her best to follow the instructions of her 'mother'.

Evelyn wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but the flow of the particles did seem to accelerate slightly once Bree started focusing. 'Does that mean she will eventually be able to control this ability?'

There was no way to be sure how useful it would be, but the pink-haired girl felt that having more control over it certainly couldn't be bad.

Before long, the energy stopped seeping out of the corpse, and Bree's hair stopped glowing as the girl slowly opened her eyes.

Opening her mouth, she quickly spat out a pinkish-yellow bead on her palm. The girl quickly wiped it off on her dress before handing it to the pink-haired girl with a grin. "Look! Bree made it!"

Evelyn smiled as she ruffled the girl's soft blonde hair fondly. "Good girl, you can go sleep now, alright?"

Surprisingly, the corpse of the Hallucigenia Mortalis beast was still there, mostly intact aside from a few extra 'scratches' here and there, probably from where the energy had seeped in and out of the corpse.

Turns out that it was a good thing that Bree's stomps hadn't destroyed the carapace! After all, if Bree really started breaking it down, the value of the corpse would probably be lower than it was when the thing was intact. If she could still sell it… wasn't this double the value?!

In the worst case, it was still an alchemical ingredient!

But that wasn't the most important thing right now. Feeling her heart speed up in anticipation, Evelyn quickly sent a probe into the blonde girl on the bed, who only gave her a confused look in return. 'Please change!'

[Checking status…] 

- Bree Devaughn: Level 82 [ Exp: 119,230 / 967,230 ] 

Hybrid Special Physique: Blessed Thunder Qilin 

[ Anomalous state, currently unable to determine. ] 

—Physique: 214 / 1156 

—Spirit Power: 491 / 786 

—Soul Value: 62 / 779 

—Vitality: 1581 

[ Enhancement (available): Raijuu's Blessing ] 

[ Affection: 100% (Max) ] 

[ Unable to view skills until the anomalous state is removed. ] 

Unfortunately, contrary to her expectations, Bree's 'recovery' hadn't been sped up despite refining the beast's corpse, as her status remained the same. Her experience was a little higher than the last time she checked, but… that was it.

Thinking about it again, though, Evelyn shook her head in denial. "Hm… no, I still can't completely discard the possibility. This beast wasn't strictly the 'poison' type, after all, and it wasn't quite as high-level either."

Bree's recovery wasn't something that could be easily dealt with, after all, and Evelyn couldn't overlook even the most unlikely possibilities. Even Aurora believed their best bet was to head to the spirit lands to seek out 'experts' on the matter, but that wasn't something they could immediately carry out. 

At the very least, they would have to wait until Aurora was 'free', as the journey was both long and arduous, even for her.

Evelyn sighed. "I hope that's not my only option… now that I'm stronger, it should be possible to hunt a more appropriate beast and check for myself."

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