บท 64: New Gift
[Assimilation Complete]
[Soul Rank: Chosen]
[Soul Saturation: 0/1000]
[Soul Essence: 500/500
[Gift: Breath of Essence]
[Description: Accelerate the growth and division of cells and increase soul essence production]
[Enhancement: Breath of Essence is applied to self]
[Relics: Enlightened Nimbus Charm]
Emile slowly wiggled and stretched himself on the floor. He felt a calm breeze kiss his skin, but along with it came the nauseating smell of iron.
Opening his eyes, Emile gazed into the endless gray sky.
'The sky?'
Pushing himself up, Emile urgently looked around. The dilapidated tree's, the red miasma, and the descending hole into the ground. He was back at the entrance to the labyrinth.
'Where's Blood?!'
Panicked, Emile stood up and called out his name.
"Hey…." A barely audible, nasal voice crept from the entrance to the labyrinth. Rushing over, Blood laid face down in the stone. His breathing was severely obstructed and his skin became murkier.
His once rosy white skin was dull and diluted. Blood already looked like a corpse. Kneeling beside him, Emile pushed his palm onto Blood's forehead which was incredibly cold.
'Breath of Essence'
Instantly, Emile felt a warm current heat his body up. The warm tingling spread from his chest to his shoulder, then flowed into his palm.
A warm blush surfaced on Blood's forehead as color returned to his skin. Meanwhile, as Emile healed Blood he concentrated on his soul to see the new changes.
'0/1000 Soul Saturation!'
'492/500 Soul Essence!'
'All of those kills! All of those fights! Reduced to nothing…'
'But then why did my Soul Essence increase?'
'Was my saturation exchanged for Soul Essence?'
Blood exploded into a coughing fit, interrupting Emile's thoughts. He nudged Emile's hand away and easily propped himself up. After a stretch, he looked at Emile with ease.
"That really hits the spot!" Blood announced, "Why did it feel so good that time?"
"Well—"
'Should I tell him my Gift changed? Or evolved? I'm not really sure what happened myself, but Blood knows I drank the potion. He's probably going to ask me what the potion did anyway'
"I think my Gift evolved or something when I drank that potion." Emile stated.
Blood paused mid-stretch and looked over at Emile, "You have a different Gift now?"
"Yeah—" Emile replied, "it increases your essence regen now too."
"What?!" Blood blurted out. He looked around their surroundings, at the bleak lifeless mountains and murderous forest, "Spright! Do not tell that to anyone!"
"Why?"
"Spright, are you stupid?!" Blood roared, "Essence is, I mean it's everything! It's the fabric sewn into our outfits and the heat that radiates off a flame. It is the one and only true currency of the universe and now you are the only person I've ever heard of who can disrupt the natural production of essence, but not only disrupt, actually increase it!"
Blood eventually ran out of breath and had to pause, but quickly kept speaking afterwards:
"I really can't believe it. I've never heard of a person's Gift actually changing. Wait! What's your Rank? What else changed?!"
"I'm still a Chosen. It sucked all of my Soul's Saturation away so I'm back at zero and it also increased my Soul Essence from a hundred to five-hundred." Emile said.
"Five-hundred?!" Blood yelled again, "Spright, I only have three-hundred and I'm Enlightened! What the hell was that potion?!"
Emile inexplicably remembered the journal he packed away from the storage room in the labyrinth. Pulling it from his waist, he opened the cover and found the author's name again.
"It was Madame Mercy's—at least I'm pretty sure." Emile genuinely answered.
"Who?!"
"It was her labyrinth." Emile replied, "She wrote all of these journals in the storage room remember? They all had something to do with essence: essence conversion, production, manipulation, this one is about creatures that have essence manipulating abilities…" Emile rambled.
"Okay! Okay! I got it!" Blood shut him down, "So I guess you're some sort of bad*** now." Blood gently punched Emile's shoulder.
Emile felt relieved. Blood's response was perfect. He immediately understood the sensitivity of the information and encouraged Emile to keep it a secret.
Then he truly realized the meaning behind the gift, the type of enhancement it really was. The effects it could have. And even then, he smiled and supported Emile.
Blood didn't seem jealous or upset that he hadn't taken the potion for himself. And at the end of it all, he even congratulated Emile in his own way. Emile and Blood were getting closer and Emile didn't mind.
He was still learning the ropes around this new world, his training wheels had just come off a couple months ago. But one thing Emile was sure of is that you need trustworthy people by your side.
Anyone can have a Gift and among them anyone could have an extraordinary Gift: mind control, telekinesis, someone probably had Cupid's arrow at their bowstring. The point is, no matter how strong you get you'll always have a weakness and that weakness can be nulled by comrades.
Emile liked Blood. He reminded Emile a lot of Emma. They both had the same uncaring, in your face personality. Blood's was used for picking fights so he could kill something, but similar nonetheless.
"Well come on, we gotta report to Collector." Blood stood up and prepared to leave.
"Wait—" Emile stopped him, "we should check out the pit. A rampaging Drake is probably something the Collector should know about too, right?"
Blood paused and looked up in thought, "Yeah, I guess she would."
Then, the two got back on their trail that led them up into the Hollow Mountains towards one of the villages that resided in the Black Gates.
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