Chapter 104: Past: Origin of the Stone Heart skill

Bai Zemin decided to stop joking around and Lilith gave him a slightly worried look before moving slightly back without looking directly at him for fear of turning him into a toy.

After a few seconds, she quietly asked, "Are you okay?"

She felt a little bad as for the first time he was fighting back at her teasing, which she found amusing and interesting and caused her to slightly lose control over her own natural charm.

Feeling slight guilt in her voice, Bai Zemin acted as if nothing had happened and smiled refreshingly as he said in a somewhat complex voice, " Everything's fine... Although I must admit that you're really awesome, Lilith."

Lilith's attention was drawn by his words and seeing him acting calm, neither looking at her with strange eyes nor raising his guard against her, she secretly sighed in relief.

"I know I'm awesome, didn't I tell you that several times?" She jokingly boasted before asking curiously, "But... What part of me do you find amazing?"

Bai Zemin thought for a moment before deciding it was okay to show her. His absorbed and earned records quickly slid back. Soon, he reached what he was looking for and stopped.

"This is..." Lilith's eyes widened slightly before they flinched unnoticed as she saw the message before her eyes and the information of the contents.

"That is the skill I acquired several days ago." Bai Zemin responded honestly as revealed to her and showed off his Stone Heart skill.

"Now I understand." Lilith sighed and shook her head softly. "Regardless of how you think about it, it's not natural for your behavior and attitude to remain calm and indifferent after killing a person for the first time... But with a passive Third Order skill entering the scene things are different."

"What do you mean?" Bai Zemin asked, sensing that there might be important information for him regarding his Stone Heart skill.

"Before that, I need you to be honest with me." Lilith stared at him and asked in a soft voice, "Bai Zemin, why does this skill especially target the opposite sex? The Soul Record literally visualizes and utilizes the lived experiences of every existence, storing everything in something similar to a separate file as if it were a supercomputer. Each existence has its own file and within that file everything lived is recorded, giving form to incredible skills and powers depending on the records acquired through training, experiences, or simply by absorbing records from other living beings."

After a brief pause, Lilith continued, "According to this record, your Stone Heart skill was born from a past trauma that transformed and created your current personality... So, surely a woman was involved, wasn't she? Otherwise, this skill wouldn't especially focus on protecting your heart against women."

Bai Zemin looked to no particular point and his memory went back to the past. His voice was casual and without any particular emotional fluctuation as he slowly narrated, "In the past, there was a girl two years older than me that I really liked a lot. The me at the time was barely a teenager, and I didn't have enough courage to confess my interest in her."

He paused and couldn't help but laugh as he slowly said, "You know what I mean, don't you? The innocence of a young boy... However, my best friend, another young man my age who was in my high school, pushed me several times urging me to ask that girl for a chance. In the end, under his constant prodding and moral support, I decided to try my luck. I mean, why not? It wasn't like I was losing anything anyway... To my surprise, she agreed to give me a chance to know her."

Lilith paid attention to his words but mostly in his eyes and in his voice. However, he really seemed indifferent as he recounted the past as if it really wasn't something important to him anymore. This made her feel relieved as the first step one had to take to get better was to overcome past traumas, otherwise one would always be stuck without being able to move forward properly.

"She and I started dating... Ah, but we weren't boyfriend and girlfriend by any means... I was just head over heels for her, after all, she was my first crush as a teenager." Bai Zemin pointed out before continuing, "Time passed and everything was going well until almost a year later during which we were getting to know each other and having good chemistry, I decided to ask her to officially go out as boyfriend and girlfriend."

Here, Bai Zemin couldn't help but shake his head and said in a somewhat sarcastic tone, "The answer I got back then I can never forget... That girl teased me mercilessly and told me that she and I were two people from different worlds since her family had considerable power while my family was just a small family of common workers."

The sarcastic tone in his voice disappeared and now returning to that casual indifference he continued, "Well, I was crying in the corners for a long time after that. However, eventually I came to learn that this girl was actually my best friend's fiancée... Apparently, they were both engaged by their families and were just enjoying themselves laughing behind my back. When I found out about this and came out of the shadow of depression, finally getting over this girl, I snuck into the male dorm one night, and well... My one time best friend had to spend several months in the hospital after that. Since no one knew about me or saw me and the male dorm was crawling with men, no one could point the finger at me, the depressed guy."

"As for the girl, to be honest I didn't care about her and simply learned my lesson." Bai Zemin shrugged and concluded before looking at Lilith. "Although I don't care about the past anymore, I did become very cautious and don't trust women easily. So what do you think?"

"Mmh..." Lilith closed her eyes softly and after about a minute seemed to come to a conclusion. She looked at him and said calmly, "I think I know what happened."

Bai Zemin nodded, waiting for her to continue. Their hands were still close together as he still needed to see two more records and she also wanted to see his progress up close so they simply remained seated in the same manner.

"Heartbreaks are normal and while not everyone does, almost everyone experiences one throughout their lives." Lilith slowly explained, "Judging by your voice, I don't sense that you hate this girl nor can I sense any trace of positive feelings towards her. She's simply someone transitory in your life, isn't she?"

"Em. That's right." 

Lilith continued, "However, as a consequence of your high magical control and large reserve of natural Mana, the Soul Record probably gave special importance to the natural records that were deep in your soul. The wound in your heart was so deep that, when united with the Mana in movement, that record was magnified and resulted in this skill called Stone Heart."