Mixed Blessing System

After some time moving around where most of the young people who entered the Secret Realm were, Lothur realized that Elke wasn\'t around and headed to the next lower-level area.

He would spend the next 3 hours looking for her in that place, using his visual skills to the maximum to identify his wife\'s position.

Just as he was beginning to get nervous about Elke\'s situation, Lothur found her calmly eating in the middle of the forest.

He then checked her status through the system\'s message boxes.

[Name: Elke Becker]

[Soul Cultivation: level 14 -> 15]

[Body Cultivation: level 12 -> 13]

[STR: 71.4 -> 99.9]

[CON: 293 -> 345]

[DEX: 74.6 -> 98.8]

[AGI:75.6 -> 102]

[SOU: ???]

"Elke?" He said in a loud voice, drawing attention to that young redhead about to start eating the meat from the skewer she had just taken from the fire in front of her.

Immediately upon hearing Lothur\'s voice, Elke looked up at him, rising from where she was sitting on the carcasses of the opponent she had defeated minutes ago.

She smiled at him and dropped the skewer in her hand to run to him.

Lothur smiled at her, seeing she was doing very well on her own, unlike Viktoria, who had had a hard time at Larissa\'s side.

"Elke, you are much stronger! Congratulations!" He said as he hugged his woman.

"Hmmm, I focused on finding items compatible with my level during the first few days of the Secret Realm and got resources compatible with me... I was lucky." She said as she smelled her man\'s scent.

"Very good. Anyway, now I am in a hurry, and I would like to know if you want me to take you to Viktoria or if you would prefer to accompany me?" He said before explaining himself further. "The place I\'m going won\'t have any resources for you, and I don\'t know when I\'ll be able to be free to help you. As for Viktoria, she is at Larissa\'s side and will be clearing the area ahead in search of more resources."

"I want to go with..." She was about to say, but Minos interrupted her. "Think it over, Elke. Viktoria is almost advancing to the 3rd stage. So going with her might also benefit you to reach that level.

It would be nice if we were all at that stage when we leave."

"Oh? Have you advanced to the 3rd stage? Are you already a Transcendent?" She opened her mouth in surprise, not expecting that but also not shocked by the information.

"Hmm, and I plan to advance to a new level very soon, hehe." He said, smiling.

She understood, and so as not to fall behind nor suffer through \'training\' with Lothur, she decided to stay away from him for a little longer within the Secret Realm.

"All right. Take me to Viktoria. I\'ll stay by her and Larissa\'s side until you find us, or we return to Peters City."

Hearing this, Lothur took his woman in his arms and departed, running with all his speed toward the place he had left Viktoria and Larissa hours ago.

...

After leaving Elke, where Viktoria and Larissa were still meditating while absorbing the energies of the crystals they had obtained, he set off for where he had met the young men of the imperial family earlier.

As he stopped at that spot, he looked toward the sky and called out for the insect from earlier. "I am ready. I already have the item!"

A minute of silence later...

"Are you with the item? Quick, let\'s go to area 18 to test this!" That creature appeared in flight, quickly approaching Lothur.

When it got close enough to this young man, it saw Lothur jumping on its back and settling on top of it.

With that, it was soon heading to the area its boss had assigned for them to test the theory that that item could be used without what Lothur intended to absorb.

"That item differs from ours but seems to have similar fluctuations." That insect said, seeing and feeling the item in Lothur\'s hands. "Let\'s see if it works."

"Hmm, I\'m looking forward to it. How exactly will we test it?" Lothur asked, curious.

"That\'s simple." The beast said. "If this item is like the one we have in the Sacred Altar, then its very presence will cause the sinister aura in the area we will boil with rage.

That will stimulate specters and weak beasts in the surrounding area to become more agitated and try to attack us."

"Oh?" Lothur opened his mouth in surprise, remembering Viktoria and Larissa\'s situation moments ago. \'Several beasts and spectres surrounded them... Not for nothing, so it wasn\'t just because of what they had gotten, but because of Viktoria\'s necklace.\'

In fact, of all the people entering the Secret Realm, Viktoria had been one of the few who had encountered extremely violent spectres and beasts at various times, even when in areas of low affinity with beings of darkness.

She had had a difficult journey, second only to Lothur\'s. All because of the item she had earlier on her neck, which was now in the hands of her husband.

Knowing this, Lothur breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that his wife would probably be safe from now on and that he would be able to follow through with the deal with that level 18 beast.

"Then it will be all right. When I found my wife, she was surrounded by many of these beings." He said to that insect.

"Let\'s see if that works in the place we\'re going. That place is a little special, so things might work a little differently there." That beast said while flying at great speed.

...

Meanwhile, in the square in front of the Morning Star Academy...

That place had been bustling for the past 6 hours when three of the most promising youths had perished.

Of those three, two were members of the imperial family. As such, the envoys of House Leopoldine were naturally unhappy while the crowds discussed theories of what might have happened.

They knew that at the time of the three\'s death, Lothur, Viktoria, and Larissa were nearby. But since none of the three had collected the belongings of those young people after their deaths, it was not so simple to tell how those deaths had happened.

At the same time, those youths had killed several powerful beasts and sustained numerous injuries before dying.

But some were suspicious of Lothur, even without proof. That was because, before one of those young men died, young Ritter had supposedly killed two enemies, which had gone into his recent killing record.

As such, the entire city was in the commotion over these events, but also over Lothur\'s advance and the end of his senseless killing.

Many observers were changing their bets for the last days of the event, while others were preparing for the end of the Secret Realm and the actions that would happen with the end of this event!