Jasmine who still had a sleepy expression rubbed her eyes a couple of times, she touched her face and then used her spear-like staff to see her own reflect.
“Mm… what is this?”, she mumbled, apparently, she didn’t know why her eyes looked like that, besides that she didn’t notice any change in herself, so she kept calm, while she evaluated the situation.
Daimon on the other hand did notice something different the unmistakable sound of a notification ringing on his ears, to be more exact.
[Ding]
[An external beneficial force is trying to reach to the host (unknown effect), do you want to accept it Y/N]
Daimon stole a gaze at the white halo in Jasmine’s pupils and he raised an eyebrow, he has already seen notifications about blocking negative effects such as the curse that was casted at him back then, but this is just the second time he has seen a notification about a beneficial effect, but it wasn’t the same.
What caught his attention is that he has received buffs from other people’s spells before, Erin, Aura and Liz had done it quite a few times when he was training, or practicing any activity which required it, and he never got a notification put of it, the only exception was… Elaine.
A memory of Elaine’s passive skill flashed through Daimon’s mind, as he tried to find what this current situation had in common with what he has experienced before.
[Sleeping Lover (Passive): When sharing a bed with her lover, the user will be able to heal and comfort her chosen partner (It only works with Daimon Licht)]
It happened one day when he overstepped his limits when training, his body killing him, so he took a bath and simply threw himself on the bed to res, then before he fell asleep, he felt a soft and soothing sensation running through his body, Elaine who casually saw Daimon all beat up, laid down and cuddled with him, then he got a notification similar to this, the difference is that back then he didn’t have the option to not receive the benefit unlike this time.
‘Well, I guess it’s because Elaine is my soulmate’, concluded Daimon, still his instincts which now took into account the Black Armored Shark lineage, told him to accept, and the system also labeled it as a “beneficial force”, so accepted it.
Daimon immediately felt a comfortable wave of energy going through his body and then his battle aura’s reserves which had recovered to about 70% after eating, as he needed to rest for about an hour to fully recover because he hit zero when using that previous attack, suddenly reached maximum capacity.
‘What the hell’, thought Daimon, while he could replenish mana from the practically bottomless amount, he had stored in his magic core, and battle aura from eating food thanks to the Apex Predator constitution, his stamina took the toll, meaning that with each time he did, he would get tired, so even for him there was a limit as to how many enemies he could fight one after another, or the maximum amount he could take on at the same time.
Normally he avoids hitting zero in any of the two reserves, because recovering from that takes a longer time than when he just uses most of his reserves, but his instincts told him that if he didn’t give his all in that previous attack, it wasn’t going to be enough to accomplish his goal.
And to a certain extent his calculous was right, he eliminated one of the Bottom Shredders and damaged the enhanced one, while also cutting the number of Skelefiends in half, that was enough to leave the survivors shocked, so that they were distracted enough for him to make his exit.
Daimon saw that Jasmine didn’t notice what she did, in fact the small amount of mana which she had recovered after fainting, didn’t diminish.
‘So, it’s not a spell but an innate ability’, thought Daimon, just like when he uses “Ruler of the Sea” or when Mellie uses her “Analyzing Resonance”, whatever Jasmine did isn’t a spell but an ability as it doesn’t require her to use mana to activate.
That being said, she clearly didn’t know anything about which included how to activate it or deactivate it at will.
While Daimon was contemplating the implications of his new discovery, Jasmine got up with a bit of Mellie’s help, as she was still pretty weak after using all her mana, not to mention the mental shock she suffered due to Adam abandoning her like that… no he actually tried to kill her, using the Skelefiends to do the dirty job.
Once again, her eyes got teary but after sniffing a couple of times, she took a deep breath and calmed down, what she found weird because she was sure that being betrayed like that should have broken her, but instead besides some lingering sadness there was nothing else.
“Thanks for saving me, miss Delphini”, mumbled Jasmine.
Mellie bitterly smiled, she had nothing to do with it, so she shook her head in response.
“I’m sorry but it wasn’t me… in fact we couldn’t have arrived on time even if we knew in which situation you were, it was Gabriel the one you should thank, also just call me Mellie, in terms of status we are pretty much the same”.
Jasmine’s eyes had a complex expression in them, after what happened with Adam thought it was dumb of her to have trusted him so easily, you could say that in that aspect she learned a lesson, a painful but necessary one.
Still, she approached Daimon and then slightly bowed towards him.
“Thanks for saving me, right now I don’t have anything to repay you with, but if I make it out of this alive, I’ll be sure to ask my grandmother to reward you, for the time being please accept this bow from me as a sign of gratitude”.
Now that she was standing close to Daimon, she noticed two things, first, he didn’t have any mermen characteristics unlike the other people present, Aisha and the Risha sisters had imitated the fan-like fin ears of Mellie, as their characteristic of choice, but Daimon didn’t.
And second, she remembers having seen this silver haired boy before she fainted back then, and not only that she was surprisingly comfortable around him, in fact she was rather too calm considering what she went through.
“Mm?”, Daimon came out of her dare as he saw Jasmine bowing to him, before she extended her hand and poked his right cheek.
Then as if she confirmed something, she retracted her hand as fast as she could, after that she noticed Daimon and the others looking at her and she flushed a bit.
“Sorry… I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, I remember seeing you from afar before fainting, but I thought my brain was playing tricks one me, since I was a few minutes from death”.
Daimon frowned, what Jasmine said was impossible, by the time he arrived she has had fainted for about twenty minutes already, and he flew hole using dark curtain and only descended when he was about to attack the Skelefiends, so she would have only seen him once he landed near to her.
“Actually, what happened was…”.
Daimon proceeded to tell Jasmine a resumed version of how he got an “emergency call”, while they were travelling, and that by the time he arrived she had already fainted and the Skelefiends were attacking that light cube, of course omitted some details and only made it look like he managed to trick the enemy so he could retreat with her.
The mission only required him to keep her safe for the rest of the day, and Daimon didn’t know what was Jasmine’s standing in all this, so he had no reason to be completely honest with her, not only that, the last girl he met who has so affectionate with Ada, was that crazy woman from the Penddra family.𝑶𝐕𝓁𝒩xt.𝔠𝐎𝐦
She was obsessed with Adam to the point of Daimon considering it brainwashing, and he had related it with the “light blessing” mentioned by the angel girl who administrated Adam’s system, that’s why he was a bit wary of Jasmine, he didn’t know how much Adam had progressed with her.
He could have done something similar if he used the title Casanova he unlocked a long time ago, but the difference is that he wouldn’t brainwash them, it was more of a strong suggestion, and he didn’t want to do that to Aisha and the others, so up to this point he had deactivated it.
‘I wouldn’t worry about that, have you noticed that this girl who should have been devastated due to being so attached to that hero guy, is only having a small sadness and resentment period’, said Evangeline.
‘Yeah, but what does that have to do with this?’, asked Daimon, just to hear Evangeline’s playful giggles.
‘Well, let’s just say you have become her “hero” now, she is only feeling a normal deception, as that guy’s tricks were rendered null now that she has positive feelings, after having interacted with you, I would bet that’s what triggered that change in her eyes, her lineage is responding in kind since you helped her~’.
Jasmine had a contemplative expression on her pretty face right now, as she tried to make memory, just to confirm the fact that she was sure of having seen Daimon before fainting, while it was true, he wasn’t there physically, he was indeed looking and listening to the situation when everything happened, so maybe she perceived that, it probably had something to do with that oath.
“Whatever the case you saved me, thanks…”, before Jasmine could finish her sentence, her stomach let out a low but still noticeable growl, making her face redden.
“Sorry, I had been on the run since I arrived at this underwater space”, she added.
The girls softly laughed and then offered Jasmine some of the food they prepared which was still hot thanks to Leslie’s flames.
Jasmine gladly accepted the food and then she told them everything that has happened to her since the beginning of the beast hunt, as they wanted to see if maybe she had new information about the current situation.
During the conversation, Daimon couldn’t help but notice she wasn’t wearing a spatial ring nor she had a life-saving treasure, which was weird, Mellie has her pendant, she refused to use it, but she had it with herself, so it was strange for the granddaughter of two Emperors to not have one.
Jasmine noticed Daimon’s interrogative gaze and she sighed before saying.
“I gave my ring to him so he could keep it safe after discovering we couldn’t access to it, as for my life-saving treasure, I used my grandmother’s previously when the pirates tried to capture me at the Elemental Sea, as for my grandpa’s… he gave his to that guy as he was supposed to be my bodyguard”, by the end of her sentence, Jasmine’s voice became rather cold without her noticing it, before it returned to normal.
Daimon inwardly shook his head, Adam did a pretty big number at the Elemental Sea apparently, to the point that he gained the favor of the shaman.
Once Jasmine finished eating, she thanked the girls for the food and then after doubting for a moment, she turned to see Mellie to ask what was in her mind.
“Would it be a problem if I stay with your group while you rest here, Mellie?”, she was beaten and needed a proper rest, where her life wouldn’t be in danger preferably, and to she mysteriously felt pretty safe right now.
Instead of directly answering, Mellie gazed at Daimon, ultimately by ay means he was the captain of the team.
“Sure, we can’t go out right now, and in any case given the current state of things, the more we survive the bigger the chances are that the Trident Marshal realizes there is something wrong with the beast hunt”, said Daimon.
In the outside world the sun will be setting down by this moment and with his infinity eyes, he saw that the mist which originally was only present high from the ground, had now spread across the whole place, it was so thick that it was hard to see through it, and he also had a bad premonition as if there was something hidden in the mist waiting for its prey.
Since there was no use in hiding it, and Adam didn’t have the capacity to use his inventory, Daimon didn’t care to take out another bed, for Mellie and Jasmine to share, while the Risha sisters, Aisha and him stayed at the first one.
‘In any case this favors me, it would have been awkward to ask her to stay within my sight at least for the next hours’, thought Daimon as he saw Jasmin hopping onto the bed to rest.