Although Topaz didn’t express her desire to Vaan, he could tell she wanted the Realm Fragment.
After all, she had experienced the benefits of the Realm Fragment once, even though she was a little slow on the realization.
As such, she knew it was something good for her.
However, she also understood that Vaan had been searching for the Realm Fragments. Thus, she didn’t want to take what he searched hard for.
Seeing how Topaz clearly wanted the Realm Fragment but was holding herself back, Vaan thought she was kind of cute.
He smiled slightly before tossing the Realm Fragment towards her, albeit suffering terrible cuts from touching it.
However, the wounds on his hand naturally healed themselves.
‘Kyuu…?’
Topaz slightly retreated from the Realm Fragment with a startled look as it landed on the ground in front of her and sunk into the ground. She glanced up at Vaan with uncertainty shortly after.
“Take it. It’s yours,” Vaan stated.
The last Realm Fragment may have been an accident. But this time, he willingly gave the Realm Fragment to his contracted earth spirit.
It didn’t matter too much which of them received the Realm Fragment’s power.
After all, Topaz was still a part of his power. The stronger she becomes, the stronger he becomes as well. More importantly, earth magic was much stronger in her hands than it was in his hands.
Her strength had already reached the same level of an earth-attribute Peak-stage Senior Witch.
If she could reach the next level, it would be no different from having a secret bodyguard at the High Witch rank.
“Kyuu!”
After she received Vaan’s permission to absorb the Realm Fragment, Topaz’s eyes seemingly sprung to life as they brightened with excitement.
She flapped three laps around Vaan and rubbed against his cheeks excitedly before she flew back to the Realm Fragment to absorb it.
Shortly after, the same process occurred when she drew too close to the Realm Fragment as it was attracted to her body like a magnet.
Her body lit up with blue light before dimming after some time, returning to normal once more as if nothing had happened.
Just like before, she experienced no apparent changes to her appearance, but her existence underwent a major upgrade.
…
Ding!
=====
«Contracted Spirit/s»
First Spirit: Topaz (Named Spirit) (Earth Spirit)
Spirit Rank: Peak-Mid rank → Early-High rank (Peak-level Rank 3 → Low-level Rank 4 equivalent)
Contracted Magic 1: [Telepathy (You can commute with other earth spirits)]
Contracted Magic 2: [Earth Manipulation (Power Limit: Peak-level Rank 2 → Low-level Rank 3 (One rank lower than contracted spirit))]
Contracted Magic 3: [Earth Transmutation (Transmutation Limit: Peak-level Rank 2 → Low-level Rank 3 materials (One rank lower than contracted spirit))]
Mana Capacity: 600/600
=====
Looking through Topaz’s changes, Vaan didn’t find it surprising that her mana capacity did not increase as much as last time.
Rising through the same rank was not the same as advancing to the next.
‘Kyuu, kyuu!’
Topaz happily flew back to Vaan and rubbed her face against his cheeks, showering him with affection as she shared her joy.
“Alright, you’ve become so strong now. So don’t bully me in the future, okay?” Vaan casually said with a smile.
‘Kyuu, kyuu, kyuu!’ Topaz quickly shook her head before she patted her chest pompously and proudly, expressing that she would protect him instead.
“Then you can start now.”
Right after saying that, Vaan leaned against the wall and got some shut eyes to recover more mental energy.
An hour of deep sleep for him was equivalent to another person’s night’s worth.
Alas, he couldn’t really enter deep sleep due to his senses picking up ripples of vibrations from above and below. But although he couldn’t completely shut off his senses, he could relax his mind and blend with the background to rest his mind to some degree.
As such, some rest was still much better than none at all.
Topaz duly guarded his body as Vaan rested. She wasn’t sure what she was guarding against, but she kept a careful watch as she sat on his head.
An hour later, Vaan’s eyes snapped open.
‘Kyuu, kyuu!’
After sensing he was awake, Topaz happily chirped, saying how she didn’t slack in her guard duty and kept his body safe.
“Thanks, Topaz,” Vaan smiled.
He patted her head with one finger due to her tiny body size. At the same time, Topaz grabbed his finger and rubbed her cheeks against it.
Shortly after, Vaan cracked his slightly stiff neck before making a tub-shaped hole in the ground with Earth Manipulation and transmuting it into a smooth silver surface with Earth Transmutation.
‘The Grand Inquisitor’s magic tool can detect wolf bloodlines. But given its rank, its detection range should be limited. Moreover, since I’ve descended quite deep into the underground, I should be far out of its range,’ Vaan mused.
In the next moment, he took out the four wolf-men corpses and drained all their blood into his tub-shaped hole.
He also added the small amount of Shadow Wolf Blood he had previously obtained.
Once Vaan completed those steps, he further added some magical herbs with blood-enriching properties, including some Gehenna flowers and grass with recognizable traits and properties.
Crimson Stoneflower was an especially good ingredient with blood-nourishing properties.
Nevertheless, he then heated the tub of blood and magical herbs by increasing their kinetic energy with Kinetic Energy Manipulation, bringing their temperatures to a boiling point.
Silver was always a great head conductor.
‘All preparations are done. Now, I only need to soak in it,’ Vaan decided.
His chances weren’t high when he only had the Rank 3 Shadow Wolf Blood. However, it was a different story now that he had also obtained Rank 5 Demon Wolf Blood.
As he was only using the wolf blood to stimulate the awakening of Immortal Lycan Bloodline, soaking in the enriched wolf blood was all he needed to do.
If he tried to absorb the various blood types in the tub, it would only dilute his Immortal Lycan Bloodline and make it more difficult to awaken in the future.
‘Kyuu?’
Topaz stared at Vaan’s activity with growing curiosity.
Nevertheless, he didn’t mind her watching what followed as it made no difference due to their spiritual link.
He stripped himself naked and entered the boiling blood tub without hesitation.