June came out of the portal and found the reason behind the uncalled teleportation. She was about to ask for clarification but easily made the conjecture, finding Jenni lying on Gale's knee like that.
Another portal opened behind her, as a dark figure came out, still in her meditative state. Agnes' eyes fluttered open as she looked at them questioningly. "What happened?"
"She's having trouble opening Mind Palace," he cried, turning his attention to June. "I want you to calm her mind and remind her what she's doing wrong..."
"Are you sure," June couldn't help but ask. "If I were to link with her mind when she's in such a state, I fear I'll—"
"Do it," he said, drawing out his very core power. Jenni had already begun to stabilise after he steadied her essence flow. Now June just needed to tell her that she was in safe hands. "I will take care of the rest."
June nodded, clutching Jenni's palm. She closed her eyes and tried to dive into the girl's mind. Immediately, she found resistance, two layers of them. One was clearly created out of Jenni's subconsciousness, while the other was Gale's radiance essence protecting her mind from any mishaps.
As though noticing her approach, he let her in while June scanned the subconscious restriction to find a way in. It wasn't difficult to enter, but it was difficult to make sure she wasn't hurting her.
It's fine, June transferred to her mind. We are here, everything will be fine...
Jenni had stopped squirming long ago, and with her reassuring words, the wrinkle in her brows eased as well. She was seething with sweat, even in such a cool environment.
"Tell her to go easy on herself," Gale assured. "We'll be here all day if she needs..."
June nodded.
"Check her storage. Jenni might have some elixir to help her with opening the aperture," Agnes pointed as she moved to the study table to check.
Everyone thought Jenni had taken an elixir which pushed her into this state, but that wasn't the case, because Agnes easily found a vial of blue liquid among the first things in her study desk.
"A superior aperture opening elixir," Agnes said, taking a sniff after opening the cork. "Let her drink this."
Jenni opened her eyes to find herself lying in the bedroll of her room. Dawn was sitting next to her, her expression brightened, finding her awake.
"Ouch... I feel so lethargic," Jenni muttered as she sat upright. "What is this smell?"
She clasped her nose shut, only to find the terrible stink was oozing out of her body. This was the expunge of the advancement? I succeeded.
"I succeeded?" she repeated out loud, unable to believe herself. "This is so stupid, I thought I'd di—"
She didn't finish, finding Dawn staring at her unblinkingly, resentment in her eyes. Jenni bit her lips. No, she shouldn't celebrate at this moment. As far as she remembered of the event, it felt like she was dying. Of course, she wasn't dying; at worst, it would have crippled her, but that wasn't the time to consider that.
"Before you blame me for being irresponsible," she began, though unable to finish.
"I'll go call Gale and the others," Dawn said, standing up. She didn't even listen to what Jenni had to say and hurried out of the room.
"Wait, are you saying you advanced to silver by just eating some meal?" Agnes asked, her lips curving upward in a smile.
"Well, I did a lot," Jenni blushed.
"You could have been crippled," Gale glared at her, "or had brain damage if Dawn hadn't noticed you quickly."
"It's not my fault that I didn't see it coming," she muttered, pouting.
Gale sighed and turned to the others. "What do I do with her?"
"I guess it wouldn't have been that much of a problem if she wasn't talented," June muttered. "It seems her body could almost completely digest the rich essence from the meals, and also she had that weird fascination for your food."
"Even still, she should at least have the readiness to call someone," Gale said, looking at her coldly. "The process shouldn't have put her in immediate trouble."
"Alright, I'll be more careful for my next advancement," Jenni said. "I got through this one, right? Let's leave it at that."
"Girl, you have no idea how you advanced, have you?" Agnes asked, shaking her head.
Jenni looked at her questioningly, but Agnes provided her with no answers, stuffing her mouth with rich roasted pork.
The truth of the matter was that the advancement triggered when she fell asleep after eating a load of the food. Jenni wasn't in the right state to delay it further, and by the time she got her wits back, she was in deep water, choking on it.
"Anyway, we are all silver rankers," Jenni said, sitting straighter, looking between everyone at the table. "Let's discuss like we are all equals now."
Not only the people at the table, but Jenni was also the only Iron ranker among the whole group that resided in the guest house. She didn't have any insecurity because of this, or inferiority complex... if she hadn't gotten into trouble in the inheritance ground, she would have been a Silver ranker weeks ago.
But now she had finally risen to the stage, and she demanded all the mutual respect and praises.
Instead, what she received were chuckles from almost everyone at the table, while they exchanged gazes with the only man, who also couldn't help but smile.
"Am I missing something?" she asked. She pointed at Gale. "I know for a fact that you used to be a Gold ranker, don't try to deny that, Dawn had told me all about this."
Gale shrugged.
"Even then, it's just a Gold ranker," Jenni continued. "It's not like you transcended the ranks and became—"
"Ahaha~ I cannot help it anymore," Agnes burst into laughter. She stood up, holding a drink. "Why is this so funny?"
"Why is this funny?" Jenni asked too, turning to Dawn in askance.
Dawn shook her head unhelpfully. She felt like Dawn was more of their friend than hers in a situation like this, but Jenni couldn't help it.
"I'll give you this," Gale said as he stood up. "If you can become a master Runesmith within a year, I'll tell you why it is funny."