Mixed Blessing System

After receiving Elke's consent, Lothur put her on the bed and covered her with the sheets from there, without putting anything on her body that would complicate both of their lives later...

So, he put on a pair of shorts, sat on the floor between the bathroom and the bed, and took the Skull Soul Bone from his spatial ring.

He had no idea how to absorb a Soul Bone since, from the explanation Viktoria and Annaliese had given him, it seemed to depend on soul cultivation. But Lothur remembered how the system had asked him if he wanted to absorb the bone his sister-in-law had bought, so he was calm about it.

Hence, unsurprisingly, as he touched that colorful bone, Lothur soon saw the system message box in front of him.

[Absorb General Skull Soul Bone?] The system asked him.

'Yes!' He felt excited at the thought of that answer.

As Lothur's heart beat faster, Elke watched with curiosity what he was doing. She had never absorbed a Soul Bone before, but she knew what that process was like and was eager to see him do it.

'I think Lothur will be doing this for at least an hour...' So, she pondered when she suddenly saw that bone floating in front of his face.

At that instant, the Skull Soul Bone glowed brightly, and as if there was a suction force on Lothur's face, such a thing disappeared in his head in the blink of an eye.

"What?" She exclaimed in surprise as she saw how the Soul Bone had shown no resistance to it.

Soul Bones were items produced by demons. Thus, there was always some remnant of that one's willpower behind that bone, something that brought pain and required effort on the part of humans trying to absorb them.

Elke knew this, so she expected that Lothur would at least take some time to fuse with that bone. However, he seemed to have skipped some parts of the process and already had such a thing inside his body!

And that was just the case there. Lothur did not have a powerful soul because he had never cultivated it. But the system was there to help him, and the moment he authorized the absorption of that bone, the system subdued such a thing for him.

After doing so, immediately the Soul Bone began to fuse with Lothur's skull, taking the place of the normal bone there, then building the first contact between him and his spirit body.

Since this part of the process was not pleasurable, Lothur soon began to tremble in pain, clenching his fists tightly as he used his best to resist the experience.

What he felt at the moment was not a bit weaker than his pain when he transmigrated to this world. But, on the contrary, such an experience was even more painful!

He felt as if someone was crushing and then rebuilding the nerves in his skull while such a powerful resource connected his uncultivated soul.

And feeling his soul beginning to inflate uncontrollably, Lothur could not help but feel terrified by the experience, almost losing his lucidity in the process.

'Damn it!'

'This hurts!' He screamed in his mind, but as he thought of his girl and how she had been hurt because of him, his willpower soon showed signs, making the torture more acceptable.

Elke watched all this in concern, feeling bad that her man was suffering.

'Lothur...' She watched him trembling in pain, pressing his teeth against each other so hard that blood began to drip from his mouth.

At the same time, his face was pale, and sweat soon covered his entire body, forming a small puddle of water below him.

But while he was going through this situation, the system moved again, pressing this young man's soul to stop inflating while stabilizing his body condition.

The system was not an 'emergency item' that Lothur could trust. But since it had volunteered to begin the process of absorbing that Soul Bone, it would naturally not let its host down.

Once Lothur had reached his limit, the system sealed his soul to contain it and finished the fusion process.

[Skull Soul Bone successfully fused with the host.]

Lothur saw the system's message as he opened his eyes, feeling a little dizzy and his eyesight blurred.

But then a force surged within his being, pulling the spiritual energy in the surroundings into his body. Then he opened his eyes and began to feel his strength returning, along with the signs of advancement.

He smiled as he felt this and rushed into the bathroom, noting how the spiritual cleansing this time seemed less significant than the last.

Seeing that, Elke relaxed on the bed, relieved that he had succeeded. 'That was faster than I thought...'

'At this rate, we'll still have the rest of the afternoon in Lewerenz.' She smiled, imagining what it would be like to be with him now. 'No matter what happens later, I can't show any discomfort to him, or Lothur won't touch me again!'

While Elke was thinking about him, Lothur was already finishing with his advance.

'The 1st stage focuses on the body, so it strengthens and cleanses the body to receive a powerful soul.'

'However, each past Transformation distances the body further from its mortal condition. Therefore, the impurities eliminated will decrease as it gets closer to the 2nd stage.' So, he thought as he noted how much less terrible such an advance seemed compared to the previous one.

But that did not mean spiritual cleansing was less effective at higher levels. No, the problem was that the cleansing eliminated the outermost toxins in the body, which were precisely the most numerous at lower levels.

However, the most problematic for cultivators were those deeply rooted toxins in their bodies, which required more power to be eliminated. Therefore, spiritual cleansing at higher levels was even more critical than at lower levels of the 1st stage!

So, as he went through this experience, Lothur felt better and better, as if he were recovering from an infection or something of the sort.

And after 20 minutes, he finally saw his status appearing in front of him!

[Name: Lothur Ritter]

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

[Bloodline: Life Devourer]

[Cultivation: level 6]

[STR: 14.5] [CON: 21.5] [DEX: 14.4] [AGI: 16.4]

[INT: 68.8] [PER: 68.8] [WIL: 66.8]

[EVF: 2.9]

'Wow!'

'Impressive!' He laughed in satisfaction as he saw how much this Soul Bone had made him improve his mental attributes.

Then, as he finished wiping his body with a white towel, he tried to activate his new innate skill.

[Passive ability: All Seeing Eyes] [Rank: Silver]

[Characteristics: increases the host's field of vision; x-ray vision; spirit vision; soul vision.]

[Progress: 0%]

He saw the system messages and looked around his surroundings with curiosity, seeing nothing significant at first other than seeing much better. But as he left the bathroom and stood before Elke, he soon saw something on her body.

As he narrowed his eyes, Lothur had the strange experience of seeing Elke's body normally, then seeing her bones, then her organs, and then black streams of energy running from one side of her body to the other.

He shook his head and tried to focus, gradually mastering such a thing.

So, he soon saw Elke's normal fleshy body turning gray together with her surroundings, while the energy forms inside her were distinguished in different colors.

He saw a ball of red energy near her heart, gradually fading. But, on the other hand, black 'sparks' circled her whole body, trying to penetrate the red ball.

'That's the vitality I passed on to her, and that's the problem with her body...' Lothur felt a little bad at seeing that troubling image for the first time.

"Lothur?" She looked away and saw him watching her seriously. Elke understood the problem, so she tried to ignore the dangers near her and looked at his naked body. "Honey, will you take care of me now?"

Lothur then deactivated his passive ability and softly breathed before climbing onto that bed and smiling at her. "Don't worry, Elke. We'll sort everything out, and you'll be fine."

"I know..."

"Now, let's try to make this work, OK? If you feel bad at any point, alert me immediately, and we'll stop." He got under the sheets, positioning himself so that he could easily control the situation.

"Hmm, I know what to do." She smelled him, watched his face, and could not help but feel shocks through her body.

She blinked at him and laughed. "Now, you must kiss me..."

Lothur paid attention to her expression for a second and then did what he should, hugging her and then kissing her.

"Mmmmm~"

...