The elf closed her eyes and sniffed the air near his membrane, her cheeks blushing slightly. "Your energy... it’s completely changed since last time! It’s not just more intense and powerful, like you devoured a small sun... it’s so pleasant! The scent of your mana... it’s like wildflower honey and summer rain. It’s... it’s delicious!"
Lisa rolled her eyes, but Lohan noticed she was also curious.
Lohan knew exactly what that was.
By evolving the Sacred Light Core to Level 11 and reaching level 16, his aura had gone through an intense refinement. The Active Purification trait didn’t just affect regeneration and recovery on contact with Sacred Light, it also altered his very mana signature for beings with high magical affinity, like elves, making the sensation it gave off much more intense and pleasant than before.
If it had already been pleasant to be near him before, with him giving off a nice scent, now the scent he gave off wasn’t just much more intense, it was also far more appealing.
Fortunately this was only noticeable to beings with high magical affinity, unfortunately, or fortunately, that kind of being was the most common in Thalendor, the Elven Capital.
But even though described this way, this wasn’t something extremely shocking that Lohan should worry about, in fact it wasn’t that intense at all, it was just as if Lohan now had a very pleasant natural scent, like someone wearing a nice perfume before leaving the house.
People around him would catch a nice scent, look at him with surprise, and feel that his presence was more pleasant than if he didn’t smell that way, but it wouldn’t shock people, or drive them crazy over his scent.
So much so that Lisa had only subtly felt that being in Lohan’s presence was more pleasant, and that she was also enjoying the subtle odor he gave off more, since even though she had high affinity with Spirit Energy, her affinity with Magic wasn’t as high as Aeliana’s.
But not sensing the scent that intensely didn’t stop the fox from feeling an unpleasant knot in her chest watching how Aeliana looked at Halon in that moment, especially after their relationship had grown so close over the past few days.
"Really, Aeliana? Honey and rain?" Lisa asked, in a tone subtly more acidic that Lohan found quite cute.
Aeliana laughed without noticing Lisa’s tone, let go of Lohan, and signaled for them to follow her. "Come on! My mistress is waiting for you upstairs in the laboratory. She got quite curious when I told her about the Astralis Requiem you formed, and she’s very interested in your abilities."
Lohan didn’t know whether Yrneha’s interest was really in their abilities, or more in her curiosity about him, considering his Sacred Light had come from digesting an extremely rare monster from the Archmage’s own collection.
They stepped into a crystal elevator, which rose smoothly through the levels of the tower.
Yrneha’s laboratory was a vast space, filled with floating prisms and mana diagrams that mapped the energy currents of all of Thalendor and its surroundings.
In the center of the room, Archmage Yrneha Ylasys stood with her back to them, watching a holographic projection of a dungeon core.
"Mistress, my friends have arrived!" Aeliana announced excitedly.
Yrneha turned slowly toward them.
Her expression was the usual mask of proud elven coldness and a subtle disinterest in everything, but the moment her eyes landed on Halon and Lisa, her wooden staff trembled imperceptibly.
The Archmage froze mid step as the magical monocle floating in front of her glowed with an intense light as it tried to process the information her senses were sending it.
The shock on Yrneha’s face was far greater than Aeliana’s.
As an Archmage of Thalendor, her magical senses were dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of times more sensitive than her apprentice’s. With senses that refined, she didn’t just see a "nice smelling" Slime, even with Halon applying the energy control technique she’d taught him a few weeks ago quite well, what she saw was a creature that had leapt from a curious level 9 specimen to a level 16 entity giving off a frighteningly strong internal power for something that should, by rights, still be so weak!
She had dozens of apprentices at various levels, having already trained other mages who, even if they hadn’t reached her level, had come very close, so she had experience comparing the magic and potential of each individual, and what she was seeing in that little Slime was completely shocking!
"This... this is impossible," Yrneha murmured, her voice coming out hoarse with disbelief. She walked toward Halon, completely ignoring Lisa’s presence for a moment. "Little creature... what did you do? I’ve studied slimes for centuries, and your kind’s progression is governed by laws of slow saturation. But you... you rewrote your own biological foundation under sacred light at such a staggering speed... good gracious... so this is the reach of the Goddess’s Blessing?! But... other Blessed by the Goddess don’t come anywhere close to the progression you’ve shown so far..."
Lohan vibrated his membrane, trying to stay calm under the Archmage’s oppressive pressure. "My greetings, Lady Ylasys, when you say Blessed by the Goddess, do you mean other outworlders like us? If so, I believe your reasoning is correct, it would be hard for me to have gotten this far this fast without that "blessing." And let’s just say the forest of Mythlorien has also been very generous with its nutrients."
This was a fully plausible explanation, after all, both of his mythic bases had come from the game’s system, which as far as they assumed, had been developed by the Goddess.
"Generous? You’re like a black hole for mana, boy." Yrneha shot back, finally regaining her composure, though her eyes still gleamed with a predatory curiosity.
Turning her gaze away, Yrneha finally looked at Lisa, and even though the fox wasn’t as shocking as the Slime beside her, it was still fascinating to see the growth of a Legendary creature like that up close, even more so noticing how refined and well developed this fox was. "And you, little fox... your spirit energy is so refined I can almost see the threads of fate bending around you... your development is also far beyond every record I’ve ever come across regarding Spirit Foxes."
Lisa stepped forward, her two tails swaying gracefully, not intimidated by Yrneha’s title, though still keeping her respect for the Archmage.