24 Misunderstanding

Now, the time for her breakthrough had come, as the water in the tub was filled to an acceptable level. Elizabeth entered the bathtub and controlled her Inner Strength to make another breakthrough. She had the stats to reach Level 4, but unfortunate with her Inner Strength capacity should would run out of energy before completing the transition from Level 3 to 4. Thus, it was with much displeasure and discomfort that Elizabeth had to struggle in the nasty bathtub to regain 300 points to her Inner Strength before she could complete the breakthrough.

Thank god her Intelligence had made significant gains after she awoke from breaking her limits, as the boost to her perception and consequently control of that perception allowed her to focus just enough to recover the required Inner Strength.

When she added 300 points to her already existing 100, the breakthrough event continued until every last speck of Inner Strength made its way across Elizabeth's skin and just about saturated most of her pores. The Inner Strength that infiltrated and fused with her body this time, solidified all the gains she had made to her physical attributes and now when she returned to treat Sun, her body wouldn't combust with energy as her skin grew resilient enough to handle all that new and concentrated Inner Strength.

But first… There was just as big a mess Elizabeth envisioned created in her bathroom. So, first things first, she cleaned off all the gunk and tar that stuck to her like molten sugar, ever happy that the changes to her skin made the process easier that she estimated. Alas, while she might have had an easy time cleaning off that mess she made on herself, the bathroom itself would need a god-tier level cleaning session if it were ever to hope being restored to its previous impeccable condition.

Right now, wasting time cleaning the bathroom was not as important as lessening the suffering Sun had sustained to rescue her; at least that was Elizabeth's opinion. Thus, she left the bathroom in a "less than desirable" state, and continued to put on clothes before returning to Sun's side.

Elizabeth hadn't spent that much time conducting her breakthrough and bathing, thus when she returned, she sat down on the still wet and bloodied marble-lined floor. It didn't register how sitting in such a unbecoming place would shape her appearance, yet the scene carried on with Elizabeth looking less and less like a troubled lass and more and more like a battle-hardened trooper not letting aesthetics get in the way of practicality.

She sat back down, her clothes getting stained with slightly watered-down blood, and after a couple minutes of meditation, it was time for Sun to receive a more intense healing session. Without moving the acupoint needles from where they stood, Elizabeth fully restored Sun's slightly displaced pancreas, before moving on to the next organ. With her Inner Strength more than doubling, she managed to heal Sun's right lung and slightly upset heart, before having to recover even more Inner Strength.

Thereafter, fixing his liver, left lung, stomach, and diaphragm took another round of her Inner Strength from full capacity. The healing was this exaggerated from all the healing she had already done before she collapsed, as she managed to save Sun from a critical condition to a more mild, just "wounded," state. It also helped that her Accupoint Skill in medicine had leveled up twice and thus made her healing prowess much more potent.

Taking a look at her Accupoint Skill, a very noticeable change to how hard it would be to improve instantly became apparent.

[Accupoint Level 3: 1,895/3,750

Description: Using needles to cure any ailment and promote the body's healing. The Accupoint skill allows the user to resolve almost all medical ailments with just a couple needles and energy.

Current Effect: Requires 30% less energy to resolve Low-Mid Grade Mortal-tier ailments and wounds.]

When Elizabeth questioned P about why this was the case, the never-present goddess said "Occupational Skills can't evolve. Thus their level will be kind of like your own Level of cultivation."

"Evolve?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yeah, it's just what we call the ascend past the Realms of cultivation. So when you reach the end of the road as a Mage at the end of the Mage or Mortal Realm, same thing really, you'll "evolve" or enter the Spirit Realm."

"Oh, ok." Elizabeth said, as she brought her attention back from talking with P to healing Sun. She was just about done with healing the damage to Sun's organs when the man in question started twitching; a sign that he would probably wake up soon. Before he woke up, Elizabeth took the liberty of withdrawing all her needles, lest she have him freak out and hurt himself in confusion.

Elizabeth didn't have to wait for too long to see Sun open his eyes. His awakening though… it caused many problems on own as well, since you know… she didn't know what to say. Thankfully, Sun was less awkward that her and he was the one to start the inevitable conversation.

"You… y-you're safe?" Sun winced in pain upon trying to move as he shifted some still broken bones. Yet the concern and worry plastered on his eyes caused Elizabeth to soften up a little as she had never seen anyone so worried about her. Granted, she had never entered a situation warranting the current amount of care Sun was giving her, as she was a pampered and spoiled child of a pair of multi-billionaires; but still…

Elizabeth gave in to the worry she herself was harboring for Sun as she moved to restrain him from further undoing the healing she had conducted. She gently pushed him back down to the floor and said "Don't move… you're still exceedingly hurt… I- We're fine."

Sun didn't struggle as she pushed him back down. However, upon delving back to his memories of their night's encounter, he assured himself that it would have been hard to escape death back then. He let Elizabeth adjust his body as she seemed to know what she was doing, and after a couple seconds passed, he brought up the question that wouldn't leave his mind.

"Say… what happened after I lost consciousness?" Sun asked.

"After you took that hit for me… I took you here to my house… healed you, at least to the point where you wouldn't die. You still have many broken bones though and your skin is very burnt..."

"You healed me? Mhmm… If I recall correctly, I got shot thrice and my organs were almost completely destroyed. How exactly did you… wait..." Sun took a closer look at Elizabeth and noticed that her Inner Strength had more than doubled from the last time he had seen her. He also noticed his current declothed state and after surveying his wounds with Inner Strength, a dastardly though crept up in his mind.

Sun thought 'S-she couldn't have done that, right? Prime Essence Exchange… B-b-but there's no other way I could have healed. My most damaging wounds are all completely restored and her Inner Strength has more than doubled, so the after effects of Prime Essence Exchange are definitely present…. Wait. She probably doesn't even know what Essence Exchange is. I mean, she didn't know martial arts not two days ago and her experience shows in her training of Muay Thai. But still, it's the only way for me to not have died...'

As Sun's mind was racing, Elizabeth was panicking thinking of what excuse she could possibly give him. She didn't know whether telling him about the Accupoint skill would trigger any bad outcomes as it was entirely possible that Accupoint was unknown to her world. Yet, regardless of what she had said, Sun would have eventually wanted to know how it was possible to have lived through that certain death scenario.

Never in a million years would she have expected how the actual conversation would actually turn out…

Sun actually took her hand and with a quivering voice said "F-for me, you would actually…" He choked on his words, almost bringing up what he thought to be the most humiliating moment of Elizabeth's life before he continued saying "I-I'm sorry that you'd have to do that for me… Y-your essence, I'm sure it would have been put to better use with a less incompetent man, but given that this was your choice, I'll have to take responsibility."

Virtual flames of complete seriousness and resolution manifested in the wake of Sun's proclamation as a notification prompt almost caused Elizabeth to trip, even from her currently sitting position…

[Hidden Quest: Forever Loyal (Complete)

Difficulty: Incalculable

Objective One) Reach the highest level of affection with anyone.

Optional Objective 1) Have said first person be a male. (✔)

Optional Objective 2) have said first person be a female. (✗)

Description: Whether it be through love, comradery, or just sharing the same interests, the relationships you build with people will be of critical importance throughout your journey. And, unless you plan to become the God of Solitude, you better make those positive relationships you build count. If by some miracle you, an antisocial borderline sociopath manages to complete this seemingly impossible task, I promise reaching this absolute peak will become less troublesome for the rest of your endeavors.

Deadline: Unlimited (Completed upon finishing all primary Objectives)

Rewards:

Affection Functions Unlocked!

**********: Holy shit! You actually completed this quest? And so quickly too! Mhmm… Its a bit unfair how you managed to bullshit your way through two quests in a row. But hey, I for one like this Sun guy, so I won't discredit the quest~]