Mixed Blessing System

After drinking the recovery potion Lothur had given her, Elke felt a little less tired, but she could still barely move.

Her face was pale, and her lips were dry. Seeing this, Lothur figured that the blood loss was probably imposing a state of dehydration and malnutrition on his girl.

So, he took a bottle of water from his spatial ring and tried to help her drink a little bit.

"Elke, I don't know if you can eat now, but I think it would be good if you did..." He was about to suggest it, but she soon refused to do so.

"No, I don't feel the mood or condition to do that right now."

"But..." He hesitated but decided it might be better to hear a doctor's opinion first. "All right, let's go back to that city and work it out."

"No!" She exclaimed in her weakened tone. "I'm not feeling so bad. So, since we're already here, let's finish this mission, Lothur."

"Why? Do you want to risk your life, Elke?" He thoughtfully looked at the beauty in his arms.

She looked into his eyes and answered. "Aside from my physical fatigue, I feel that I am not at risk. It's not as bad as you make it sound... So, let's continue. I feel like this place has something that will help you a lot."

"What are you talking about?" He frowned.

"After I awakened from my previous state, I've been feeling a strange but positive feeling coming from underneath this circle in the middle of this chamber."

"I think this is behind the phenomenon we were investigating. Not only that, I think this could be beneficial for you..." She took a hasty breath after saying so many words.

'Strange feeling? I feel absolutely nothing.' He looked at the circle inscribed on the floor not far from him and Elke.

'Is she saying that to make me finish the mission? Or maybe there truly is something there? Maybe the Physique or her Bloodline has awakened?'

Every living being, even mortals unable to cultivate, had a Physique and a Bloodline. And since there were infinitely many of them, with ridiculous conditions to awaken them, it was not impossible for Elke to achieve an awakening after such a traumatic experience.

But without in-depth knowledge of the subject, Lothur could not tell for sure what his girl's situation was. All he could do was trust his instincts.

'I'll see about that later. In any case, I don't think there is any immediate danger to her life just considering her current condition.' He thought about Elke's attributes and this woman's vital signs.

With that, he placed his partner on the ground and tried improvising something to carry her comfortably and safely.

"What are you doing?" She asked as she turned to him.

"You can't walk, so I am improvising an outfit that can hold your body facing me while I carry you without needing my hands to be occupied." He commented as he used his tailoring skills to transform the outfit he had bought with Annaliese.

"That outfit... Are you changing thIS outfit? Isn't it better to use something ordinary?"

"No, using quality materials will increase safety for you."

She took her eyes off him and felt terrible. "I'm sorry about that. I didn't want you to deal with such a big burden..."

"Hey!" He shouted at her as he approached his girl. "Don't say that. You are important to me, and none of this compares to our time together. OK?"

"OK." Tears dripped from her eyes as they stood there for another 10 minutes or so.

That time was long enough for Lothur to finish preparing the special outfit to hold Elke's body.

After his advancement in mental attributes, producing 1-star tailor items had become much more accessible. That's why he could finish his work so quickly, without mentally exhausting himself.

But he was pretty tired from his brief battle with Elise, so as he finished giving his girl her first care, he drank an Iron-grade recovery potion.

'I wonder how much better I will get when I recover from this battle?' He felt pain as he looked at Elise's dried corpse.

After that, he put the special clothing on Elke before connecting that to the part that was on his own body.

That way, soon Elke was face to face with Lothur, with her legs crossed around his back, with him momentarily holding her buttocks and back.

She laughed and said. "When we get to Lewerenz later, people will laugh at you carrying me around like I'm a baby..."

"They can laugh all they want. It doesn't bother me one bit." He massaged her back. "Anyway, I'll get that damned woman's belongings. I think the phenomenon will be back soon."

She nodded at him and looked over her left shoulder to where Elise's body lay. 'You deserved that!'

'It's just a shame I didn't have the strength to protect myself or do anything else... Otherwise, I would have butchered you for trying to end my relationship with Lothur!'

Meanwhile, Lothur had already gotten his hands on that woman's spatial ring, successfully having gotten another 100,000 bronze coins and several valuable items for sale or future use.

However, the most important thing he found were two letters that appeared to have been written earlier today. In them was written that Elise 'had' successfully eliminated him, the target of someone named Carl Stauss.

Lothur also discovered that one of the letters was to Kai Berger, with an address in the Mouse Company building.

'Mouse Company, huh? So it's you again?' He clenched one of his hands in hatred, feeling that there was no way he and these enemies could continue living in the same world.

Either he destroyed them, or they would do this to him!

There was no forgiveness for people who had hurt one of his own, and Lothur naturally would not let that go, no matter what happened from now on!

'You have threatened my life more than once, but this is the last straw! As soon as I get more power, I will eliminate everyone!'

As he thought about this, the system suddenly showed his status.

[Name: Lothur Ritter]

[Physique: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger]

[Bloodline: Life Devourer]

[Cultivation: level 5]

[STR: 10] [CON: 15.2] [DEX: 9.4] [AGI: 11.2]

[INT: 52.9] [PER: 52.9] [WIL: 49.4]

[EVF: 2.9]

'Uh?' He was taken aback by the system, losing his previous line of thought.

'My Bloodline... I have awakened my Bloodline?' He opened his eyes in surprise since he had not paid much attention to the system earlier.

[Display Bloodline information?]

A system message box appeared before him, but Lothur managed to contain his curiosity and turned down such a thing.

'No.'

'Now is not the time for me to think about that... I will do such a thing when I leave this place and have some peace of mind.' He sighed as Elke watched him.

On the other hand, he wondered what this new EVF attribute was.

'What is EVF?' He asked the system.

[EVF: External Vital Force is the form of life-related energy not connected to the host's life force. It can be used in conjunction with the host's Bloodline.]

'Oh? Life force, huh? Is that why Elke survived?' He pondered on such a thing, the only variable in his opinion that could explain Elke's sudden recovery from her mortal injury.

But as he thought more about it, even about how to use such a thing, the whole place began to shake, and the couple realized this was the sign they had been waiting for.

Lothur hugged Elke's face, protecting her from the effects of whatever was in this place.

Meanwhile, the woman looked at the circle on the floor, which was glowing in a golden color at this instant.

On the other hand, Lothur saw the statue as the small black crystal on its forehead seemed to flash at him.

And then...

A powerful pulse of energy broke from that thing as the said statue suddenly came to life and jumped toward one end of the circle with patterns glowing in gold on the ground.

"What?" Lothur wanted to back away, but Elke would not let him.

"No, let's wait!" She said in her weakened voice, looking at those patterns on the ground with a positive feeling in her heart.

And as he looked doubtfully at Elke, the statue spoke.

"999,991,541 interactions, there are 8,459 left until the soul fragment dissipates."

"Doubling speed of emergency signals to alert potential..." As the statue was about to say this, it suddenly emitted a pulse in Lothur and Elke's direction and changed her speech. "Candidates found."

The instant the statue said this, Lothur and Elke floated into the air, heading for the circle with inscriptions glowing on the ground. It was as if gravity had momentarily stopped working on them!

And as Lothur frowned, the ground below them opened up, revealing a hole over a highly well-lit area.

...