Chapter 166 – Rest–New Request?
After catching up with Ash for a while, Anleas said her goodbyes and continued their short stroll around the city.
They said hello to some familiar faces and bought a fair amount of food, but they kept their walk short. They bought a few supplies at Syrus's request, and eventually they returned to their home.
“Looks like no one has stolen anything,” Anlesa commented.
[Ash said she checked on it a few times.] (Luna)
[She was nice… it seems like she kept it clean as well.] (Eva)
[You can always pay her back with potions.] (Syrus)
[I could. I want to back a batch to sell anyway, to recover some of our finances.] (Eva)
[Going back from broke to stable. Always fun.] (Syrus)
[You were the one who just spent the remainder of our money on some oils and a whetstone.] (Luna)
[They didn’t cost that much.] (Syrus)
[Still, was the rest of our money after we bought all that food?] (Luna)
[It was a well-deserved meal. You enjoyed it as well.] (Syrus)
[I didn’t say I didn’t enjoy it, but we did just burn through the remainder of the supply outside a little Lilly had set aside for potion materials.] (Luna)
While Luna and Syrus were having their back-and-forth, Eva got to work organising the supplies in their bag and preparing everything to make some potions later. She had already calculated the cost of the remaining ingredients she had to buy. Taking a detour through the forest for supply gathering was part of the itinerary, but she was a little worried about whether she would find any plants. With all the injuries and patients, there was a high likelihood that the forest had been raided for all useful supplies for the emergency.
[We have enough to make a few. I will make a small batch to sell to get the rest of the supplies needed.] (Eva)
Eva undid the Morph transformation. It had been a while since they had swapped back, so they were reaching their limit.
They shrank ever so slightly, along with the standard slight differences to facial features. Eva had been tinkering with the Syrus disguise ever so slightly to make it look ever the bit closer to Syrus as she improved.
[Eva… is our horn longer?] (Syrus)
[What?] Eva stopped and looked towards the small mirror they had.
[....] Eva took a moment to process the change in their appearance. [How…]
[Can’t you adjust the size anyway?] (Syrus)
[I can, but this appearance of ours is when I am not applying any changes, so it shouldn’t have gotten longer.] Eva did a quick once-over of their entire body to see if there was any other difference, but they discovered nothing.
[There are no other physical changes, so it has to be something that only affected the horn…] Eva began rambling. [Was it simply an effect of our body stabilising? No, that can’t be right; we would have seen a progressive change. Perhaps due to my advancement in Morph? No, that can’t be right. When our body changed for the first time, it felt like everything had properly awakened at that time. Then it must have been something that had happened recently… The Demon Home? The only logical point would be the redux crystal, but why would that affect that aspect of our appearance? The only reason it synced so well with our body was because of Syrus’s Blood attribute. Both attributes do affect the body in substantial ways, but there is still a dividing line between them, especially for us, since they are controlled by two different people. The redux crystal itself is supposed to be mainly useful for those with demon blood, but even Alraius said we didn’t have it. If we did, that logic would make a little more sense, but we have evidence against it, and we know our family tree is human up to at least great-grandparents on both sides.]
Syrus and Luna kept quiet to let Eva ramble to sort out her thoughts, but then the comment of demon blood popped up.
[Luna would have a heart attack if that were the case.] (Syrus)
[Don’t kid yourself.] (Luna)
[It would be funny to watch.] (Syrus)
[Not it wouldn’t. As well, such a thing would be impossible.] (Luna)
[I am inclined to agree with Luna. Morph is something taken from my previous life, and while Soul-related elements may be brought over, blood is still part of the physical body.
[Then we find it there because of some strange combination of Morph, our Souls, and my Blood attribute, trying to recreate our bodies from our previous life, then using the redux crystal, we inadvertently give us demon blood.] (Syrus)
[Please don’t create wild theories…] Luna sighed. Syrus' thoughtless pitch gave Luna a headache.
[That would be a fascinating outcome.] While Eva was debating, as a possible outcome. [But that would mean one of us, likely I, would have had to have demon blood. Which isn’t likely; I knew my family history going back multiple generations… who knows how much of that is accurate, but that on top of an Exotic attribute is certainly a lot I didn’t know about myself.] Eva chuckled, having a little bit of fun with it. [If we looked at the plausible outcomes, then parts of what Syrus suggested could be the cause. While the redux crystal is supposed to be for demon growth, we know it heals and helps humans as well, so out of the possible solutions, since we did absorb many times the regular amount of energy those crystals produce, there is a good chance it did affect our body in a small way.]
[Look, all I know from the body perspective is that nothing has changed.] (Syrus)
[Then there is no cause for concern.] (Eva)
They left that conversation on that note. Eva wanted to research more important things and concluded it was likely just a side effect from the tremendous amount of energy they absorb when combined.
After the rest, they continued their work. Spending the next few days collecting supplies, crafting potions, and selling the batches. Eva, during these days, was slowly eyeing materials that she wished to use for future experiments.
Strolling through the streets, they were keeping an eye out for anything useful. Taking any hunting jobs wouldn’t be the best, considering that the market for meat was well taken care of by the existing hunters who were working overtime.
“Syrus!”
“Hey, Lavender…” Syrus waved back.
Lavender complained, “What’s with that lacklustre greeting?”
“It’s been a long few weeks, and look at you, already running about, I see,” Syrus commented on Lavender’s appearance. She was wearing a new set of armour with a spear and shield. No longer supporting herself with a cane, but with her spear being pressed on the ground, it appeared she was still a little sore in the legs.
She shrugged. “Could be better. What are you up to now?”
“Looking for more work. I've been stuck inside for a few days, so I'm looking at other options.”
“Fair fair.” Lavender paused before smiling, “You still haven’t been around the Clarzxa Guild or the Leaf Leave Hunting Guild.”
“Correct.”
“Figured, well, if you would be interested, there are a few well-paying commissions that I have been eyeing, but they all require at least two people.”
Syrus sighed, “What are they?”
“Well, I got an escort quest to go to Teleast.”
“No.” Luna denied that. Teleast was the country that held the central Aurora Church organisation. They had enough dealing with those people for a while.
“Well, I also got a commission for Eletscoep.” She coughed and quickly whispered, “It was something Maca asked of me before his vanishing act.”
[Oh?] (Eva)
Syrus asked, “Any others?
“I’ve got another escort to the Jenate Republic.”
“Do you only have long-distance escort commissions?”
She shrugged. “They were what was worth a lot of dough.”