Chapter 166: Refining The Beast

Chapter 166: Refining The Beast

By the time Bree woke up, Cecilia and Amber had long since left, while Amara had taken Vivian back to sleep in the other room.

The little blonde girl was still quite groggy, but she was still able to follow Evelyn back to their room, where the pink-haired girl started explaining what she had to do.

Evelyn was very glad for the spaciousness of her room at the moment, because even though she had felt that it was excessively large when she first arrived, it sure came in handy in situations like this.

After all, be it the tentacles of the 'Thousand Eyed God', or the corpse of the Hallucigenia Mortalis, they took up a lot of space. At the same time, doing it out in the open would end up exposing Bree's ability, which was simply unacceptable.

Just imagining the sheer pandemonium it would cause if the word got out that there was a little girl who could extract abilities from beasts and turn them into consumable beads sent shivers up Evelyn's spine.

Maybe even hundreds of high-grade artifacts wouldn't compare to the greed such a thing could incite. This was exactly why Evelyn had no intention of letting a third party know of it, no matter who it was or how much she trusted them.

Of course, even if she didn't have a good enough private space to use Bree's ability, Evelyn wouldn't be stupid enough to use it out in the open. In that case, it would be better to just put it off for later when she could, eventually, carry the process out in secrecy.

"You remember the weird-looking insect we chased around before coming across that tree?"

Bree nodded.

Evelyn smiled. "Well, I'm going to take it out now, and I need you to go around stomping on it real good, understand?"

The blonde tilted her head in confusion. "The baddie didn't die?"

Just as she was about to give her an explanation, however, Evelyn paused. With her current child-like intelligence, would Bree even understand the whole ability extraction and purification thing? Since she was slowly recovering anyway, Evelyn decided it was fine to explain it later, and give a more 'kid-friendly' explanation for now.

The pink-haired girl rubbed her cheek in thought. "Well I um, I'm a little scared it might be alive, so I want Bree to check it for me, since you're such a brave girl. Just stomp it once to make sure it's dead?"

Bree immediately puffed out her chest, all her sleepiness disappearing in an instant. "Bree will crush that bug for mama!"

Evelyn coughed, feeling a little embarrassed all of a sudden. She had started to almost get used to it, hadn't she? It must look strange in front of others. But scolding the little baby would just feel bad, she had already done all she could, so Evelyn could only bear with the embarrassment.

Anyway, it would be far more embarrassing for Bree once she recovered, so that gave her some consolation, at least.

Evelyn shook her head wryly before ruffling Bree's hair. "Well, are you ready?"

The blonde girl nodded obediently.

Of course, since this time she wasn't dealing with the poisonous tentacles of the 'Thousand Eyed God' and the situation wasn't as dangerous, Evelyn hadn't kept Ruru locked out.

"Ruru, you go stay in the corner, alright?"

Currently, her little fox was in her 'thumbelina' form, as she usually was when they were more or less alone. Apparently, she had taken it upon herself to try to learn how to talk, though it wasn't going very well so far.

Evelyn smiled as she ruffled the girl's soft blonde hair fondly. "Good girl, you can go sleep now, alright?"

Surprisingly, the corpse of the Hallucigenia Mortalis beast was still there, mostly intact aside from a few extra 'scratches' here and there, probably from where the energy had seeped in and out of the corpse.

Turns out that it was a good thing that Bree's stomps hadn't destroyed the carapace! After all, if Bree really started breaking it down, the value of the corpse would probably be lower than it was when the thing was intact. If she could still sell it wasn't this double the value?!

In the worst case, it was still an alchemical ingredient!

But that wasn't the most important thing right now. Feeling her heart speed up in anticipation, Evelyn quickly sent a probe into the blonde girl on the bed, who only gave her a confused look in return. 'Please change!'

[Checking status]

- Bree Devaughn: Level 82 [ Exp: 119,230 / 967,230 ]

Hybrid Special Physique: Blessed Thunder Qilin

[ Anomalous state, currently unable to determine. ]

Physique: 214 / 1156

Spirit Power: 491 / 786

Soul Value: 62 / 779

Vitality: 1581

[ Enhancement (available): Raijuu's Blessing ]

[ Affection: 100% (Max) ]

[ Unable to view skills until the anomalous state is removed. ]

Unfortunately, contrary to her expectations, Bree's 'recovery' hadn't been sped up despite refining the beast's corpse, as her status remained the same. Her experience was a little higher than the last time she checked, but that was it.

Thinking about it again, though, Evelyn shook her head in denial. "Hm no, I still can't completely discard the possibility. This beast wasn't strictly the 'poison' type, after all, and it wasn't quite as high-level either."

Bree's recovery wasn't something that could be easily dealt with, after all, and Evelyn couldn't overlook even the most unlikely possibilities. Even Aurora believed their best bet was to head to the spirit lands to seek out 'experts' on the matter, but that wasn't something they could immediately carry out.

At the very least, they would have to wait until Aurora was 'free', as the journey was both long and arduous, even for her.

Evelyn sighed. "I hope that's not my only option now that I'm stronger, it should be possible to hunt a more appropriate beast and check for myself."