Elane hesitated.

Even after already confessing to having two talents, this part clearly mattered more to her. Rohan didn’t interrupt or pressure her this time. He let the silence sit for a moment, letting her work through it.

’Her mind’s probably a mess right now.’

Eventually, she said, very quietly:

"It’s called Perfect Ally Gene."

Now that caught Rohan’s attention. His body stilled entirely while he tried to process it.

’Now that sounds... unusual.’

Maybe he was wrong about talent’s names being dead giveaways for their usage — but he couldn’t discount that theory just yet, not hearing Elane’s explanation and all.

But it was unusual enough that it immediately made him understand why she’d been so strange about all of this.

Rohan’s voice lowered slightly.

"What does it do?"

Elane inhaled slowly.

Then she let it out and forced herself to meet his eyes.

"It boosts my overall abilities when I’m fighting or working alongside someone I truly trust."

Rohan’s expression froze.

Then his face mirrored Elane’s awkward expression from earlier. ’Okay, yeah I get it now.’

If he had something like that as well, he would also be too embarrassed to admit it — unless pressured to under circumstances like these right now. Though it would be hard to hide it, since surely he would have noticed by now if Elane suddenly grew stronger while fighting alongside himself.

His head perked up in the next moment, having a realisation.

"Wait... no wonder I didn’t suspect a thing. Your gene doesn’t work when fighting with people you don’t ’truly trust’ as you said."

Outwardly, his expression didn’t change, but inside he felt his chest tighten. The only explanation was that during every battle they’d been through, Elane didn’t fully trust him, even in the most dire of moments.

However, he toughened his mind. ’Honestly, it makes sense, no matter how much it upsets me. We’ve only known each over for a little over two weeks now. I wouldn’t trust someone I’ve only known for such a short time either if I was her.’

Elane seemed to panic a little, as despite Rohan’s best efforts, he did alert her to his realisation with the words he’d just uttered.

"W-wait! I do trust you! And I still did back then, it’s just that the d-damn status didn’t qualify you as a trusted ally!"

Rohan’s ears perked up.

"...You spoke of that in past tense. Does that mean..."

He let her finish his question.

"Yes! After our fight against Liam, my status finally regarded you as a trusted ally. It even added your name in brackets beside the talent."

Although he tried not to show it, Rohan was relieved. If there was one thing that was more reliable than anything in the world at confirming someone’s trust in him, it would be the Origin Realm and its mysterious status.

Knowing Elane trusted him that much made him feel a certain way he never had before.

"That’s absurd."

Now that they were able to move past the awkward phase, Rohan decided to focus on the more important things.

He ran through all kinds of mental scenarios.

A talent that increased combat capability not based on enemy type, terrain, weapon or direct power source — but on trust?

That was unlike anything he’d heard of before, even in all the books he’d read.

’How personal...’

Once again, it was obvious why she hesitated to talk about it. Elane’s second talent was even more private and personal to her than it was for other Awakened.

"So how does it work?" Rohan asked.

But Elane shrugged her shoulders.

"I don’t know. It only added your name as a trusted ally after our fight with Liam, and we haven’t had the chance to battle again after that, so I can’t tell you much."

She paused, her face shifting to become more and more smug.

"But I can tell you right now that it works even while not in combat, as I feel twice as strong than ever before just sitting in your presence!"

She pumped her fist up enthusiastically as if to reinforce her point.

Contaminated by her infectious joy, Rohan raised one brow.

"Oh yeah? Wanna test that out right now?" He asked, rolling up his sleeve and flexing his own arm aggressively towards her.

Elane’s eyes glinted and sharpened.

"Bring it on!"

They immediately jumped off Rohan’s sofa and proceeded to utilise his kitchen counter for their impromptu arm wrestle.

***

"...No fair."

Elane sulked while Rohan continued to smirk, basking in his victory.

During their short but playful test of strength, Rohan could tell immediately that Elane was much stronger than before. He even nearly lost to her the first time round due to the unexpected boost in strength she had.

But a quick activation of his Firestone Gene was all he needed to completely overwhelm her in an instant.

"I would have won if you didn’t use your Gene!" Elane continued to argue.

"Yeah, well if it weren’t for me, your strength wouldn’t have doubled in the first place!"

Elane clicked her tongue and returned to silence.

"The gap will shorten when you get your own gene anyway. We don’t even have to slave away looking for Elite beasts to obtain a good one either — we can just find you a decent Normal tier one and then evolve it with my Evolution Gene."

Elane’s mood lightened after hearing that.

"But on a more serious note, I should head back over to my old apartment to fetch my last stockpile of Origin Crystals."

Now that he’d gotten everything to do with his talent sorted, it was time to focus on what actually mattered.

Their four disposable Genetic Armaments they recently purchased from Stella were waiting to be evolved, and Rohan could only do that once he had enough Origin Energy charged.

’Hopefully I have enough Origin Crystals stockpiled.’

Elane smiled and nodded. "Check what time the last shuttle departs, would you? We need to make sure we can make it on time."

Rohan stopped and turned to Elane. "We? You want to come with."

"Yeah! Why not? I’m curious to see how you lived before you were an Awakened. And besides, I’m even more curious to see how the evolution process works. You didn’t think you could just slip away and evolve them back over in Insulus while I’m not around, right?"

Rohan felt deflated. Elane hit the mark right on.