Chapter 417: Stupid Enough
"So," Zenovia said suddenly, "you sure got bigger."
The group had been travelling for roughly three hours now. Perhaps after spending that long staring at the wide expanse of Elion’s back, she had finally decided to voice the thoughts that had been circling in her mind.
"Was the bloodline you got that good for it to cause such a drastic change in your physical build?"
Elion glanced back at her over his shoulder with a light smile on his face, "I guess you could say that. How about you? Have you not merged with yours yet? I do not feel like anything about you has changed."
His eyes moved over her briefly, "Or perhaps it did not come with any visible physical changes?"
Zenovia harrumphed, "Unlike you, the rest of us prefer to prepare properly before doing something that dangerous."
Elion put on a thoughtful expression, "Is it really that dangerous? I mean, yes, it was excruciatingly painful, but in the end, I don’t think it took more than a few minutes."
Zenovia laughed, "Of course you would say that."
Elion raised a brow.
"Haven’t you heard the stories?" she asked. "Bloodline improvement is a matter of life and death. If you do your research, you will find that over the years, many people have tried to use different methods to improve their bloodline or talent, only to die miserable deaths."
Her tone became a little more serious.
"Of course, a method that comes from such a mysterious trial would have a higher chance of success. But if I had to guess, I would still say it is roughly fifty-fifty."
Elion’s brow twitched slightly, "Fifty-fifty?"
"That is already much better than the one percent chance, or even lower, that comes with common methods," Zenovia said. "But with proper preparation, maybe you can increase it to sixty-forty. Perhaps even higher, depending on what resources you have."
Elion gave it some thought; perhaps she was right.
He had not really considered it at the time. The pain had been so overwhelming that all he could do was endure it. That feeling of having his body torn apart and rebuilt had been a terrible experience, and that was putting it lightly.
Maybe he really had gotten lucky. The agony had clouded his senses too much for him to make a proper assessment back then.
If only he knew how accurate Zenovia actually was.
Had it not been for his human bloodline, empowered by the Origin Core, stabilising the conflict between the Dragon and Incubus bloodlines, he might have met an untimely end inside that reward chamber.
Once again, without knowing it, Elion had dodged a deadly bullet.
Marilyn, who had clearly been eavesdropping on their conversation, suddenly chimed in from a nearby mount, "She is right, you know."
Elion looked toward her.
"It is not surprising that the rest of them chose to put off their bloodline integration until later," Marilyn continued. "I told the young ones to do the same before entering the trial."
Elion raised a brow. So this was supposed to be common knowledge? Well, perhaps not common knowledge exactly.
But if one was intentionally sending a group of young talents into a bloodline trial, then of course, they would research such things beforehand. Unfortunately, Elion had not had the luxury of that information.
’System?’ Elion called inwardly.
[Their information is correct.]
Elion’s brow twitched.
[If I had been present, I could have helped make the bloodline integration process smoother. But everything turned out fine, so you did not need me.]
Elion felt the urge to grumble, but he had nothing to say.
The system, however, did not seem to be finished.
[And I thought I should add, you did well without me there to babysit you, Host.]
The comment made Elion’s lip twitch.
That should have been a compliment; it was clearly meant to acknowledge his efforts during the trials, yet somehow, this snarky system had found a way to turn it into an insult.
Before Elion could even recover from that, Marilyn added calmly, "In any case, you either have to be very confident in your own abilities or just stupid enough to do something like that without preparation."
Elion’s mouth parted slightly.
Did he just get verbally attacked twice?
How was it that this pair had managed to team up and insult him in quick succession without even knowing about each other’s presence?
’Fucking hell,’ Elion cursed inwardly.
Once again, it seemed the universe was quietly working against him.
"You said you got te—"
Zenovia was just about to ask something else when she suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
The sounds around them vanished as well, and everything within a certain radius came to a sudden, complete halt.
The birds in the sky froze mid-flight. The mounts stopped beating their wings. The rushing wind became still. Everyone around Elion went deathly silent, their bodies locked in place as though time itself had been paused.
"Huh?"
Elion looked around in confusion, and his guard rose immediately.
He had no idea what the hell was happening, but since he seemed to be the only one who could still move, it was obvious that he was the target of whoever had caused this strange freeze.
A familiar giggle entered his ears. Elion’s head snapped around, looking for the source to confirm what he already suspected. A moment later, he released a breath of relief and relaxed.
Zenith’s figure materialised in front of him on the mount, seated close enough that there was barely any distance between them.
She appeared facing him, her eyes bright with amusement and affection. Before Elion could say anything, she reached out, held his face between both hands, and kissed him deeply for a good minute or so as their tongues battled it out.
Elion’s eyes softened as the warmth and wetness of Zenith’s mouth enveloped him. He eased into it as their lips smacked together repeatedly, the only sound being their breathy exhales and the wet smacks of their lips.
The kiss lasted for a long while as they savoured it as much as they could, and when they finally separated, a thin string of saliva briefly connected their tongues before breaking down the middle.
Zenith looked into his eyes with deep affection, "You made it out safely," she said softly.
It was not really a question, but Elion still nodded. He glanced around as if looking for something, or rather, someone, "Where is Isla?"
