ushernet Chapter 85 Looking over the New Things? (edited)
Chapter 85 Looking over the New Things? (edited)
"Eh? Bathe?" Lillian followed her through the door. She thought for a moment before smiling, "How about we go together?"
Marionette stared back at her intently.
"We could. Do you perhaps want that? Do you perhaps want the thought of me running my hands over your nu—"
"O-okay... you can go first..." Lillian gave in—a faint blush on her cheeks.
Marionette nodded, "I see." and walked away, presumably to the bathroom.
Lillian sighed, walking into the living room and taking a seat on the couch. She looked around, noticing that the room was identical to hers.
"So they aren't biased. Huh?"
She hadn't ever stepped foot in Marionette's room, even in the game before. However, she did have a sneaking suspicion that it would be the same since even the Second Prince's room was also the same as any other.
Tshhhh...!
Lillian's ears perked up at the faint sound of running water originating from the bathroom.
'So she began showering...'
Lillian laid on the couch, reaching towards one of its pillows and embracing it tightly, 'If I said that I wanted to bathe with her... would she actually do it?'
She couldn't help but feel flustered at the thought and had even begun to imagine a bit of the scenario. However, she soon shook her head clean of its degenerate thoughts.
After calming down from the embarrassing thought, she slowly realised something.
'Did she intentionally say it like that?'
Did Marionette predict she would stray from the idea of bathing together if she made her flustered enough?
"Man... well, isn't she quite manipulative~?" she giggled, burying half of her face into the pillow, 'How interesting~...'
She then sat up, moving her hand over her necklace.
"Moving on... let's turn this into a Shard, shall we?" she said, linking and feeling a thin connection with it to her Mana Realm, turning it into a Shard.
'Since the Sonata was destroyed and I was able to achieve more room in addition to succeeding in the Trial, I should begin increasing my arsenal.'
Lillian sat up, pulling her legs into a crossed-legged position and closing her eyes, falling into a meditative state.
Her mind tickled at the string of connection her Mana Core had with its realm before eventually tugging at it. Soon, she felt her mind enter a vacuum of space before eventually stabilising.
Lillian opened one eye, making sure she was indeed in her Mana Realm, before stretching her back with a satisfied moan.
Getting off the solid surface of the ocean, she wandered around a bit, taking in the calming scenery before stopping.
"Here I thought I was able to get rid of you, you despicable over-sized beetle..." she said with a grin.
The Beetle watched as the white-haired girl walked towards its side, patting one of its legs.
"But here we are. It'll be nice to have a dependable ally, though—especially one that can take the beating instead of me finally." she chuckled lowly, imagining the sort of situations she may find herself in before clutching its leg.
The smooth black surface of its exoskeleton became glassy and semi-transparent before transitioning into an ethereal and gaseous substance.
The Beetle's formed returned into a cloud of glistening dust before swirling into a vortex and transforming back into its shard, which Lillian held between her index and middle fingers.
She gave it one last curious look before casting it back into the ocean, watching as a bubble shot out from the surface of the water and catching the falling shard.
It bobbed up and down for a moment before eventually falling back down into the ocean once it discovered Lillian had lost her interest in discovering more about it.
Soon after that, she opened her system, taking a look at the newly acquired element she had managed to achieve.
An element she had acquired from the gods that decided to use her for their amusement.
Elements and Traits. Rewards given upon completion of the Trial are dependent on what the Trial was about and its key features.
A Trial taking place in the sea may reward you with a Trait related to swimming or an element relating to it, like... water or, strangely, salt, if the Gods found it funny enough.
Lillian analysed the key themes of her Trial.
The Catacomb was an underground environment, with most of its area shrouded in darkness—as well as being home to a zone of True Darkness.
With these themes, she may have received a Trait that allowed her to see through darkness or an Element closely related to darkness or itself.
The Earth Element wouldn't be too much of a stretch either, although she may not know what Trait she could have gotten. Maybe one where her skin would have the toughness of stone.
But the Gods overseeing her boon must have felt quite curious and playful with her rewards. It wasn't because her boon wasn't anything overly ridiculous... but it was just that...
[Elements: Water, Parasitic]
'A damn element around parasites?' Lillian's eye twitched. She knew that she had relied on Marionette the entire time to escape the Trial, but who wouldn't? Marionette was the easiest and most obvious solution to getting out.
But she didn't expect the Gods would call her out on it. What theme did this even link back to? Lillian thought for a bit before coming to a realisation.
"Ah... The Parasitic Evergrower... so it was enough to be labelled as a theme for the Trial. Huh? I haven't heard of the Parasitic element before in the game... which makes sense since there was an infinite amount of things I could've gotten..."
She thoughtfully rubbed her chin, "I wonder how I can use this... there are some obvious ideas, I suppose."
The most apparent application of her element would be to leech off her opponent's mana and revitalise hers.
"I do tend to run out of mana fast for some odd reason, so this is a good development. But I wonder if my affinity with it would allow me to do much with it..."
Just as she was about to test her Element's ability, she felt a sort of warm breeze pass over her body.