Rohan was shocked that Elane chose to stake her life on the agreement, but inside he was glad. It meant she took this just as seriously as he did.

However, one curious thing he did notice was that she also swore upon her ’talent’. Knowing instantly what this meant, Rohan was surprised to find out that she actually had one.

All this time, he was completely unaware she did, and Elane had done a damn good job of hiding that fact.

As this was a one-sided agreement, Rohan didn’t have to swear anything himself, which would seem unfair to others – but for Elane, what she was about to hear made up for any of that unfairness.

However, Rohan decided to swear an oath as well. Both for his sake and Elane’s.

"I also swear I won’t reveal any of our conversation to anybody else; let the Origin Realm strike me down if I do."

Elane was left shocked by the fact that Rohan chose to swear an oath as well. Even if what he said was a little vaguer than hers, it still carried just as much weight. Once the Origin Realm was invoked, there was no taking those words back. No crossing one’s fingers behind their back and pretending it did nothing.

However, she also understood the implicit reason behind his choice.

’He also wants me to open up as well...’

A part of the air in the room changed after that.

Neither side could tell, but a hidden presence had descended once both parties agreed to the oath.

Elane swallowed, suddenly feeling her pulse quicken. For all the times she’d heard her father talk about the times he swore an oath or watched others do so, this was her first time being involved in one.

And Rohan...

Rohan was staring at her in a way she hadn’t seen before.

Not suspicious, exactly.

Curious.

Now that she’d let slip that she had a talent of her own, Rohan was deeply curious to hear about it. If it were any other Awakened, he wouldn’t even think twice before moving past such a deep topic. After all, one’s talent was one of the most secret and protected things for any Awakened — he of all people understood that very well.

But having just swore an oath, even if Elane told him her entire life story and all her deepest, darkest secrets, he’d never be able to tell another soul about it if he wanted to continue living.

Making this the perfect opportunity for both sides to open up.

Then he exhaled slowly, returning to his serious stature, and sat down opposite her on the sofa, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees for a few seconds before finally looking up.

"You already know a part of it," he started.

Elane frowned.

Did she? How?

"The reason your bow changed inside the Spike Beast gate."

Her expression sharpened immediately.

There it was, the very reason all of this started, the thing that had been nagging at the back of her mind ever since it occurred a few days ago.

She’d been unable to let it go until now.

The moment was still vivid in her memory. How in that bizarre moment he took her bow, hid it for a few seconds, and handed it back as something entirely different, a whole tier stronger than before.

She had her guesses, a lot of them actually.

But she’d forced herself to not pry too aggressively while he was recovering, and because a part of her already knew whatever the truth was, it would be far too dangerous to do openly.

Now, sitting in the bare living room of his new apartment with the evening light slanting in through the windows and hitting his face, that danger felt very real.

Rohan met her eyes.

"My talent," he said quietly, "is called Evolution Gene."

Elane blinked once. Then again.

A thousand ideas she’d been carrying in the back of her mind snapped into alignment so quickly that it almost made her dizzy.

’His spear... my bow... even that Firestone Skin!’

Up until now, she was never able to understand just how Rohan was able to stay so far ahead of her and how he seemed to be struggling so much in his fight against the Soldier Ant but managed to turn the tables all of a sudden and kill it in the next few moments.

"Evolution gene...?"

Rohan nodded calmly.

He watched her very carefully, clearly measuring her reaction.

"It lets me convert Origin Energy into evolutionary progress. That’s the simplest way to put it."

He glanced briefly at the floor.

"To be honest, even I don’t know enough about it with the way the Origin Realm makes us figure it all out on our own. But so far, I’ve managed to upgrade two items. My spear and your bow."

Elane’s brows rose and her jaw hung low as she listened intently to his explanation. But then her face tightened in confusion.

"But what about your Firestone Skin? Isn’t that Elite too?"

Rohan laughed, expecting her suspicion already.

"Haha, no. That one really was dropped by the Soldier Ant. Do you know how hard it was for me to conceal it the whole time we were in the Origin Realm. It’s the reason I was stressing so much about dying to the E rank Elite on the final day, since I would have lost it otherwise!"

Rohan found her twisting face amusing. He thought that revealing such protected information about himself would be nerve-wracking, but truthfully he felt more at ease now that he finally had the chance to talk to someone about it.

Elane’s breathing quickened as she realised just how powerful his talent was.

"Wait... so does it also work on genes?? What about upgrading their rank? Does that work, or is it only limited to their tiers!?"

She practically spewed her questions out in an amalgamation of words with how excited she was.

Rohan could tell from her reaction that it was exactly as he’d suspected — something like his talent was practically unheard of in the Federation.

’It’s a good job I made her swear an oath to keep it secret.’

After he was done answering her questions, his turn to ask her some of his own came.

"So, what about your talent?"