Chapter 1295 - Taming the Old World - Compulsory Reaction - 6

Chapter 1295: Chapter 1295 - Taming the Old World - Compulsory Reaction - 6

Larissa and Liora stood by the base of the glowing pillar, staring at him as if a stranger had just stepped into his boots.

The flustered Ren from sixty seconds ago, the boy who had been tripping over his own tongue and hiding behind dry, academic explanations of mana conduits because he could not finish a simple sentence, had vanished into thin air. Standing in his place was a young man with his chin held high, a crooked, almost roguish grin tugging at the corner of his mouth, and his good hand extended toward them with a poise that bordered on brazen challenge.

As the ambient glow of the subterranean ley line shifted, the pale crystals tracing the side of his jaw caught the light. It gave his profile a sharp, masculine edge that, frankly, did not do any favors for either girl’s willpower.

"That..." Larissa blinked twice, her poise wavering as she tried to reconcile the image in front of her. "That is not the same Ren who was stammering at us a minute ago."

"It is the dragon energy," Liora murmured, her voice dropping into a slightly husky register as she kept her eyes locked on his face. "It magnifies everything... And it clearly does not stop at nature or combat instincts."

It was becoming very obvious that the refined essence of the ancient dragons did far more than swell a Tamer’s mana channels or sharpen their reflexes for war. The golden current had also amplified something buried deep in Ren’s demeanor, pouring a heady, unshakeable boldness straight into his bloodstream right alongside the power.

????

Thirty paces back, tucked into the shadowed archway of the vault’s entrance behind their concealment artifacts, Min and Mayo had stopped laughing.

Every trace of mirth had dried up in their throats. Now, the two of them simply crouched there with their eyes wide open, frozen in stunned silence.

"...Are you seeing this?" Min whispered, for once in his life coming up completely empty on a punchline. "Ren just... Wait a second, does this mean now Ren Player Patinder will come out of retirement whenever he absorbs dragon energy?"

"The man went from forgetting how to speak his own language to... to that." Mayo slowly shook her head beneath the illusion veil, struggling to process the shift. "And he did it in three seconds flat."

"Nobody upstairs is going to believe us."

"Not a single soul is going to believe us," Mayo agreed, her voice dropping to a fierce whisper. "Which is why we are burning every detail of this into our memories right now, Min. What we are looking at is worth more than any treasure buried in the ancient ruins."

Holding their breath beneath the stealth array, the two of them kept their eyes glued to the center of the cavern as Larissa finally drew in a shaky breath. Her knees were visibly trembling beneath her skirt, yet her stubborn pride refused to let her be the only one of the three to chicken out.

Squaring her shoulders, she took a firm step forward toward the General who waited for her with an outstretched hand and that dangerous new smile.

????

In the days to come, both Liora and Larissa would insist that they only had vague, fragmented memories of what happened there.

At least, that was the official story they stuck to whenever Ren dared to pry into the subject. If asked, they blamed the dense draconic current, claiming the overwhelming surge of foreign mana had clouded their senses until the entire exchange blurred into a warm, golden haze without any clear edges.

It was a very convenient case of selective amnesia, and a remarkably timely one.

Even so, the aftermath was impossible to hide from anyone paying attention. Over the following days, all three women carried a noticeable spring in their step and a bright, lingering warmth in their moods that went far beyond their usual baseline. It did not matter that the world was teetering on the edge of ruin, or that a monstrous horde capable of doubling its ranks overnight was marching across the plains. There was a quiet, radiant satisfaction in the way the three of them traded glances and smiled to themselves that did not fit a war for survival at all, and not a single one of them ever bothered to explain why.

At the moment, however, while the transfers were still wrapping up by the pillar, Min and Mayo remained crouched at the edge of the chamber.

"I wonder what that actually feels like?" Min murmured from his spot right behind Mayo’s shoulder, his gaze distant and fixed on the center of the room. "For a simple energy transfer to make someone as guarded and proper as Larissa melt onto the floor like that... the sensory feedback must be on another level entirely."

He went quiet for a second, the analytical gears of his brain beginning to turn.

"Do you think I could replicate Ren’s method?" he mused aloud, slipping into the focused cadence of a scholar tackling a tough problem.

"Draw a small charge of dragon mana into the meridians, rotate it 15 times clock wise, channel it toward the surface, and initiate the transfer taking the receiver level... In theory, once you understand the underlying mechanism, if I could take some small amount of dragon mana from my core then the conduit shouldn’t be exclusive to him."

Without realizing what he was doing, Min leaned in closer over Mayo’s shoulder, squinting through the dim light as he tried to study the exact mechanics of the exchange. "If I creep a little closer while the stealth artifact is active, just to get a clear angle on how the contact point..."

Mayo reached back and smacked him square across the crown of his head.

"Ow!"

"Do NOT lean over my neck with that creepy pervert face!" Mayo hissed, shoving him backward as a hot flush crept up her cheeks. "I can hear every word you are saying, and I know what you were thinking!"

"I was analyzing the mechanics of high-density energy conduction!" Min protested, rubbing his scalp.

"You were getting ready to KISS ME, you shameless degenerate!"

"KISS YOU?! YOU?! IT WAS SCIENCE!"

The shouting match echoed off the curved stone walls, shattering their cover instantly.