Outside Philadelphia, in a remote patch of land surrounded by sparse trees and empty fields, a huge black jeep was parked.
Under the dark sky, where not even the chirp of insects could be heard, the vehicle gently rocked in place.
What was happening inside?
But after a few more moments, just as the shaking began to ease, the faint rumble of another engine approached through the silence.
It was a large truck.
And in the driver's seat sat a beautiful woman dressed in a maid outfit, with another equally stunning woman seated beside her, wearing the same attire. The truck pulled up next to the jeep and stopped, its engine quietly humming. But the women inside did not get out. They simply waited.
Eventually, the jeep's door opened.
From within, a man stepped out… his hair tousled, his shirt creased, but his expression radiant with satisfaction and a surplus of energy.
Only then did the two women in the truck exit. Nina and Alpha descended with graceful precision, their eyes briefly scanning the surroundings before settling on him.
Christian greeted them with an easy smile and said, "Alright, back to work. The corpse's already gone stiff."
With that, they got to it. Between two essence-trained humans and one android, moving the heavy biological transport capsule posed no real challenge.
The abomination's corpse, securely wrapped and prepared earlier, was transferred into the large capsule. Once that was done, they sealed the container and moved it to the jeep.
Christian, now ready to head to his next task, turned to Nina and said, "I'll go with Alpha for some business. You take the jeep and return home."
"Eva's asleep, so try not to wake her up."
He gave a few more short instructions regarding the corpse's handling and monitoring, then headed to the car Alpha was preparing to drive, disappearing down the road soon after.
Left behind, Nina approached the jeep and opened the door.
And immediately wrinkled her nose.
The scent that flooded out wasn't bad… on the contrary, it was familiar. Very familiar. The kind of smell she'd grown used to catching faint traces of around the house.
But inside the sealed space of the jeep?
It had accumulated thickly, enough that even as a first-circle mage, the sheer concentration made her lightheaded... and just a little flushed.
Stronger now, more potent, likely due to her strengthening physique.
Cheeks already tinged pink, Nina sighed, opened all the windows, and thoroughly ventilated the car before finally settling into the driver's seat.
Her eyes lingered on the sleeping Eva with a satisfied smile for a moment, with unknown thoughts, then she looked forward and started the engine.
Back inside the truck, with Alpha at the wheel, Christian sat in the passenger seat, his gaze fixed on the road ahead, but his mind somewhere else.
He was in a daze, deep in thought.
Many things were swirling in his head. Despite the calm and carefree demeanor he showed when he was with Eva, he couldn't help feeling some urgency. Killing that abomination had only reinforced it.
And on top of that, Iris had finally sent him multiple reports after a full week of silence.
Things in the world were changing… faster and faster.
Although Christian was growing stronger by the day, with both his strength and his means steadily increasing, and although he no longer needed to constantly worry about his own safety like before, he couldn't shake the sense that something was wrong.
That's why he was heading to Zero now.
After upgrading his own body, Christian intended to let Zero operate more aggressively… no longer just managing but actively steering the course of things. Still, deep down, he didn't think that alone would be enough.
That's why he'd made up his mind to accelerate his power with the Core Creation System.
He wanted to reach Second Stage Mastery.
Only then, perhaps, could he allow himself to relax more.
But how should he go about that?
Should he assign his "Breath of the Shadow Blade" technique to all of his Idle Practice slots?
He considered the idea for a moment but couldn't come to a conclusion immediately. So, naturally, he opened his system interface.
[Idle Practicing Slots: (0/6)]
[First Slot – Space Technique: 16:10:30 / 96:00:00]
[Second Slot – Essence Manipulation: 16:10:30 / 96:00:00]
[Third Slot – General Mechanic: 16:10:30 / 96:00:00]
[Fourth Slot – Breath of the Shadow Blade: 16:10:30 / 96:00:00]
[Fifth Slot – Perfect Body: 16:10:30 / 96:00:00]
[Sixth Slot – Blacksmith: 16:10:30 / 96:00:00]
Christian's eyes lingered on the list.
His expression turned a little strange.
Aren't most of these… directly related to my personal strength?
He couldn't help but think it.
After a few seconds of silence, an idea flashed in his mind, and he made his mind.
He would change just the sixth slot.
The third slot, related to mechanics and his technological path… it was too important to replace. Everything he'd built rested on this foundation, after all.
But as for the sixth… it's importance was less.
So, what would he assign instead?
The answer came easily: he would develop a technique that allowed him to train multiple attributes simultaneously.
Christian was already developing a space technique for his sister, after all, and then he would also probably make specialized techniques for all those around him later… to add on top of all of that, he was also going to upgrade Olivia's technique.
He felt that then, the most efficient way, so he can also train with the said techniques when he developed them, was this way.
As essentially, later, he would be training in three or more essence techniques together, and that would naturally, in turn, accelerate his plans, in regard to raising his strength!
But, then, what kind of technique, did he plan to make to allow that to happen?
Christian pondered slightly, before his gaze turned to the fifth slot, at the Perfect Body, and he remembered Eva's situation.
In the end, an idea occurred to him… instead of making a technique that allowed multi-attribute practicing, wouldn't making a body that would let that happen naturally, be better?!
With the decision made, Christian immediately moved to action!
[You have received 32,500 Experience]
[The skill Mortal Blacksmith has become Lv.2 (85%)]
[The Idle Practice in the Sixth Slot, All-Path Body, has started.]
[The skill Mortal Harmony Physique has been created.]
[Currently, the skill Mortal Harmony Physique is Lv.0 (0%).]