The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

Although Evelyn had been trying to get the most information out of him as she could, that didn't mean she was going to let something go wrong under her watch.     

Even if she hadn't been able to determine the exact function of the array, from both the message and the man's behavior, it was clear that it must be some sort of transmission array.     

As for whether it would take the physical message away, just its contents, or something else… Evelyn had no intention of finding out just yet.     

The moment the man was done with his preparations, she had already started the Lotus Throne's Nirvana. Before the man could even begin channeling his energy to activate into the white marble array disk… his soul had already been obliterated without posing even a shred of resistance.     

Despite the man being only level sixty-two and the vast difference in strength between the two of them, Evelyn still couldn't help but gasp.     

-[ Killed mid-level Human (Benjamin Rottenborn): Experience +62,000 ]     

— Spirit Power: [885 / 1299] → [915/1329]     

Waving away all the experience and leveling messages, she quickly tried to fight off the dizziness. "I-I suppose I shouldn't activate this technique twice in a row unless really necessary…"     

From what she saw in the status messages before, though, Evelyn couldn't help but note that this time she had gained only thirty spirit power from killing this 'spy' from the temple, which was much lower than the sixty points she got from the deacon earlier.     

That was only to be expected, however, given that the Lotus Throne's Nirvana was only able to absorb a fraction of the opponent's spirit power, if that.     

What she didn't understand, however, was why it hurt so much to use the technique the second time.     

The first time with the deacon, she had used the loopholes she discovered in the array formation to bypass the illusory monk formation and hit the deacon directly with her Lotus Throne's Nirvana.     

With the timing of her attack and the guardian's precious artifact striking the deacon immediately after, it naturally became almost impossible for anyone to notice anything wrong.     

In fact, had it not been for the enhancement of her spirit power, maybe even Evelyn wouldn't have been sure if it was her own attack or that of the guardian that ended up killing the deacon.     

At that time, there had been no pain from the ability, and the experience was identical to what she had gone through when killing professor Donna the first time she used the technique in combat.     

Moreover, with her speed of recovery under Amara's buffs, she had long since completely recovered her spirit power from executing the attack, and was back at her full strength when she used it just now.     

Staring at the intact corpse of the temple's observer, the pink-haired girl suddenly had a realization. "Could it be… the pain is related to the enhancement of spirit power?"     

Although she couldn't see any confirmation or hint from the system messages when she checked, the more she thought about it, the more likely this seemed to be the case.     

After all, the abilities that came from Ruru, or more precisely, the Lotus Throne itself, were all quite mysterious and unfathomable. The restrictions and limitations they had were things that she had no hope of figuring out with just theory alone, and she could only rely on practical experience to slowly come to some conclusions.     

"It seems like while there is no limit to 'how much' spirit power I can gain from a single defeated opponent I beat using my ability, there is a limit on how many I can 'absorb' from in a row."     

If this was so… she would have to be more selective with whom she used it on the future. After all, there was no way for her to know just how severe the repercussions would be if the second time she used it was on an actually stronger opponent.     

In case she really couldn't bear it and ended up in a vulnerable position… Evelyn didn't dare to imagine the consequences.     

Aside from Bree, most of her companions were still far from being able to protect themselves properly against opponents that could give her trouble, after all. So even if she managed to deal with the strongest ones, Evelyn didn't dare to bet they would be able to remain safe if she really messed up.     

Perhaps feeling her distress, Ruru quickly climbed up her body to stand on her shoulders before she started rubbing her little fox head against the girl's cheek.     

Evelyn couldn't help but giggle. "Okay, okay, don't worry. I'm not sad."     

She wasn't just saying this to pacify her little fox, of course.     

Since they weren't far from being able to contend with the opponents they were likely to encounter on their way and were rapidly getting stronger, this situation really shouldn't last too long.     

Not to mention being a liability, they should even be able to assist her in dealing with even the strongest of her opponents.     

After all, the synergy of their team was already exceptional, and they only needed to balance their strengths a little more for their moves to have a qualitative change when used in combination.     

In a much better mood, she decided to quickly deal with the situation here first to get back to her friends before they got worried.     

Of course, although she had already killed her opponent, Evelyn was still very careful. She couldn't be sure of the other throne's means, after all, and even though this was only an insignificant subordinate, she couldn't completely rule out some tricks.     

After carefully checking the corpse with both her Eternal Ripple and soul power, she chucked it into her inventory beside the older pile from the academy.     

Then, she proceeded to carve out an almost ten square meters of area around the array using her spirit power, and fully moved it all into her inventory… including the soil.     

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