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Emilia was naturally unaware of what happened while she was unconscious, and when she woke up, all her thoughts were focused on observing the changes to her body after the evolution.
Her physique was obviously much better than before, and based on the strength and energy she could feel coursing through her, Emilia estimated that she should be at least twice as fast compared to her pre-evolution self.
Of course, her physique wasn't the only thing that changed.
On her system panel now, 'Void Initiate' had already been replaced with 'Void Disciple', and there were also two new entries under her 'Skills' that hadn't been there before.
"Phantom Sight, and… Predator's Mark?" Emilia frowned.
Based on their names alone, she couldn't really tell what the first one was supposed to be, so Emilia could only try them out.
Luckily, they were both quite 'low consumption' abilities, and she had a surprisingly large amount of energy left over even after her evolution.
Ding!
Phantom Sight activated!
Energy Reserve: 117.74 → 117.73%
Emilia felt her vision blur slightly before sharpening again, but aside from that, she couldn't really notice any changes.
"What the… Cynthia, can you help me out a bit? What's this thing supposed to do?"
The raven-haired girl sighed. "To be honest, I also don't have any idea. After all, while I did create your body, how you will evolve and what you will become ultimately depends on yourself."
Emilia could tell that her partner wasn't just teasing her, so she just maintained the ability for the next few seconds until she felt it was going to consume more of her energy, then canceled it. "I see… I should probably try it out somewhere with other people, maybe the effect will be more obvious then."
As for 'Predator's Mark', she instinctively felt that it needed a 'target' to lock on to for it to work, so Emilia didn't bother to try it and waste energy with only herself in the room.
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There was no point in staying in the love hotel anymore, so Emilia decided to check out so she could mingle with more people and try to figure out her abilities.
After all, while she had already been prepared to do what she had to, Emilia had the feeling that her new abilities would definitely make things much easier to pull off.
She once again changed into the ash-blonde lady knight's form she had been using earlier, and made her way down the stairs before letting the receptionist know she was leaving.
"No refunds."
"… I know."
The receptionist obviously remembered this 'special guest', either due to his mistake or because she booked the room for two days despite the somewhat high hourly cost, and gave her a pitying look. 'Ah, how sad… she got stood up by her partner, I think…?'
Luckily for him, Emilia remained completely unaware of his thoughts as she made her way out of the love hotel.
It was already dark out, but with the usual hustle and bustle of the big city, she didn't have much trouble finding a somewhat crowded area.
Ding!
Phantom Sight activated!
Energy Reserve: 117.73 → 117.72%
Almost immediately, Emilia was struck with a strong wave of nausea as the number of people in front of her seemed to multiply into a dense sea of indistinguishable figures that wobbled around strangely, and she didn't even try to make sense of what she was seeing before Cynthia made a clicking sound and helped her 'focus' the ability.
"Be more careful next time, okay?"
Emilia blushed in embarrassment. "…Sorry, I wasn't expecting that."
With her lesson learnt, she was much more careful as she focused on just one person in front of her, a middle-aged man in a three-piece suit.
Nothing strange happened whenever he was walking straight with confidence, but whenever he turned around or had to route around other people, his silhouette seemed to multiply, and Emilia could see different phantoms in his image doing various things.
Some went to the left, some to the right, some cursed, others frowned, and some event stumbled and fell after seemingly being tripped.
It took Emilia a while before her face lit up in realization. 'It's showing me all the possible actions he can take next!'
Of course, based on how it seemed to work, Emilia understood that it was more of a guideline to someone's future actions than it was an omnipotent ability to predict exactly what they would do next, but she was still ecstatic.
Emilia couldn't help but grin happily. 'I might be able to somewhat guess my opponent's next moves in a fight if I understand them well enough or if they're obvious, but this is definitely much, much better!'
Cynthia coughed. "Of course, you don't have to use it exclusively for combat."
'Of course.'
With none of her old abilities being lost, an enhanced physique, plenty of energy to spare, and even an amazing new ability, Emilia was already quite pleased, but she still wanted to figure out her other ability quickly.
Emilia pursed her lips thoughtfully. 'Now, let's see… who would be a good target for the Predator's Mark…?'
She didn't want to pick someone randomly as she had with the first ability, since she had no way to be sure if it would be harmful or not.
Spreading out her awareness and using chaos energy to sense a larger area around herself, Emilia slowly made her way through the streets while waiting for a suitable opportunity. 'I don't believe there won't be any troublemakers in a city this big at night.'
As if to prove her point, a fight broke out in a back alley not even a few minutes later, and Emilia happily made her way over.
She guessed that the couple must have made their way there to have a quick 'good time' in a somewhat secluded space, and ended up being interrupted by a bunch of hoodlums. Although she felt like they should have just gone to a love hotel or something, since it gave her a chance to test her new ability… she wasn't complaining.
Of course, when she really got there and observed their expressions closely, Emilia realized that she had once again underestimated how horrible some people can be.
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The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel