Chapter 78: The Step After Awakening(2)

Seraphina looked down at the rough, colourless marble-like core resting in her palm.

The faint, dark colour it had earlier had vanished, and it looked lifeless right now. Even the faint pull she had felt from it had gone away.

She rolled it slowly between her fingers for a second.

“I felt something,” she muttered softly, remembering the strange feeling she experienced while absorbing the core.

Her voice carried a thoughtful tone as she tried to grasp a sensation that had already slipped away from her.

She had felt it.

Mana.

The strange sensation of energy travelling through her body.

She tried to get that feeling again, as she closed her eyes for a moment.

She didn’t have a problem with focusing, since she had been doing something like this for years.

Reminiscing about her son in the mental facility for hours, spending countless days as she blankly stared at the wall, as if it were a projector showing her those memories.

That had been her usual routine for years.

So, she didn’t have much difficulty focusing.

It came to her naturally, and with her high talent, it was even more simpler.

But it wasn’t that simple either.

The sensation she had felt earlier was clear in her memory, but recreating it wasn’t as easy as remembering it.

Lucian watched her quietly for a moment.

He wanted to say something, that she should try to use another core.

If she did that, she would probably understand the flow of mana much more easily, but he stopped himself before speaking.

He wanted his mother to try it herself.

Seraphina rarely got interested in things.

Even now, the only habit she had developed recently was reading books quietly in the living room.

So seeing her genuinely curious about something new wasn’t a bad thing.

He turned to Lia, who had also closed her eyes, as she tried to focus on the core in her hands, gripping it tightly within her fingers.

Her eyes were furrowed deeply, and her lips were pressed together with determination.

Lucian smiled gently at both of their behaviour.

Watching them like brought a faint warmth in his chest, and for a brief moment, even the harsh reality of the apocalypse faded into the background.

He could see that Lia seemed to be jealous of his mother.

When she awakened a higher talent than her.

When she absorbed the monster core before her.

It didn’t slip his eyes.

But… he didn’t mind that.

Sometimes, jealousy was what pushed people to surpass others.

As long as it didn’t grow into something harmful, it could be useful.

And he had nothing to worry about unless her emotions deviated too much, something he’ll never let happen.

Just like that, half an hour passed.

Lucian remained seated calmly on the floor.

All this time, rather than using another core, Lucian began studying both Lia and Seraphina. More precisely, he was observing the mana around them.

His newly evolved skill allowed him to perceive faint flows of energy in the environment.

He noticed how Lia was struggling to absorb the mana despite it being only an F rank core.

From his perspective, he could see faint strands of mana trying to move from the core toward her body.

But the flow wasn’t smooth.

Sometimes it would stall… or disperse back into the core.

But he could see that she was slowly, but surely absorbing it.

Even though the process was slow, Lucian had no problem with that. As long as she grew stronger, he was happy.

On Seraphina, though, he couldn’t study much, since she was trying to sense the mana and not absorb it.

After a few minutes, the core in Lia’s hand slowly turned colourless too.

Lia suddenly opened her eyes and looked at the core in her hands in disbelief, which had lost its colour.

Instantly, her eyes brightened.

“I did it!” she shouted in pure happiness.

Her voice echoed loudly through the basement.

For these awfully long minutes, she had almost thought she couldn’t do it.

The slow process made her doubt herself.

But finally—

She did it.

Lucian chuckled lightly at her enthusiasm.

Seraphina opened her eyes as well.𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

A small, gentle smile appeared on her face as she watched Lia celebrate her success.

‘I can feel the mana,’ she thought inwardly, feeling the mana inside her body.

It was faint, but present.

Although she couldn’t really tell what it was at first, after a while… she understood.

It was mana. Flowing inside her body.

But… that was all she could do for now.

She didn’t say it out loud, since she didn’t want Lia to feel insecure again.

Although Lia had tried to hide the small jealousy earlier, both Lucian and Seraphina had noticed it, but they hadn’t said anything to her.

Lia suddenly lunged at Lucian, wrapping her arms around him tightly.

“I did it…” she muttered again, this time more softly, as a bright smile lit her face, closing her eyes briefly.

Lucian stiffened for a moment.

The sudden closeness caught him off guard.

Even though he had hugged her a lot of times previously, now…

Now something was different.

He felt too conscious around her.

Her hands gripped the fabric on his back tightly, her body pressed firmly against his.

Her breasts pressed softly against his chest.

Lucian’s body tensed instinctively.

But still, not wanting any of them to notice his sudden change, he hesitantly raised his hand.

His fingers moved slowly, brushing gently through her soft, silky hair as he could still smell the shampoo lingering in her hair, along with something softer, her natural scent.

He looked at her gently, seeing her being so clingy.

There was a smile on her face, like she was very proud of herself, which made him chuckle inwardly.

Seraphina frowned slightly, seeing her son behaving a bit weirdly.

She couldn’t really describe it, but the way Lucian was looking at Lia right now…

It was almost similar to how Lia looked at him… usually when he was unaware.

Lucian suddenly came out of his daze and slightly pulled Lia away.

Lia sulked a bit, but Lucian just patted her head before focusing on the topic at hand.

“Since both of you can now absorb mana from the cores, absorb all of them,” he said, making both of them nod.

“What about you?” Seraphina asked.

Lucian had been the one fighting, so it would be stupid to waste these cores on them, since both of them were just deadweight right now.

Her chest tightened slightly as she realised how helpless she currently was.

But there was nothing she could do… at least not yet.

“I don’t need them,” Lucian answered.

“Did you forget? The cores don’t help me increase my rank.”

Both of them nodded slowly, remembering his earlier explanation.

Although they felt it was weird since it looked like he could absorb the core in his hands.

They had literally seen him do it.

But… he couldn’t increase his rank?

They didn’t understand that, and neither did Lucian.

Also, Seraphina had been thinking this for a while…

If Lucian couldn’t increase his rank or strength by monster cores, then how was he so strong already?

“Anyways, let’s keep that aside,” Lucian said suddenly, seeing Seraphina blanking out in her thoughts.

“Let’s try both of your affinities,” he said calmly, before pausing for a second.

“Also, I’m already telling you. I don’t know anything about affinities or how you can access them. I can help you with some questions, but nothing more than that.”

Both of them nodded slightly.

They understood what he meant.

They would have to figure it out themselves.

Lia was kind of anticipating using her fire affinity—to hold a fireball in her hand—something she had only seen in fantasy movies before. Also, she wanted to surprise Lucian, since he didn’t have any affinity.

Which meant he couldn’t control elements like fire or water.

If she could master her fire affinity, she could become useful to him.

She could help him in ways he couldn’t help himself.

Just thinking about that possibility made her motivation grow stronger.

Just like that, time passed.

For lunch, Lucian just told them to eat from the cans and containers, because it was too dangerous to go outside right now, especially for both of them.

Also, he wanted them to get used to such a situation.

The world had changed, and normal meals would not be possible anymore.

Although Seraphina had no problem eating such plain food, Lia could only grumble slightly before eating too.

As for the bathroom… the basement had one, even though it was smaller than the one upstairs.

After lunchtime was over, both Lia and Seraphina returned to absorbing their cores.

Seraphina quickly absorbed three monster cores, while Lia took the same time just to absorb one.

Her process was slower.

The mana inside the core resisted slightly whenever she tried to draw it in.

Lucian, seeing that Seraphina had already finished, wanted to give her the E rank core, since it would be more ambient in mana than the F rank one.

But he stopped himself.

He didn’t want Lia to feel left out just because of that.

But then something surprising happened.

Lia herself picked up the core and gave it to Seraphina.

“I know you’ll be able to absorb it much faster than me, Ms Seraphina,” Lia said with a smile.

She then briefly glanced toward Lucian.

“And you don’t have to consider that much about me.”

Saying that, she handed the E rank core to Seraphina before focusing back on the F rank core in her own hand.

Seraphina stared at the core in her palm for a while.

This one was slightly larger and less dark than the previous ones.

She looked up at Lia, her expression softening slightly.

“Thank you,” she muttered quietly

“You’re welcome,” Lia said, before adding with a mischievous smile.

“But I won’t be left behind.”

Although her words sounded light, she actually meant it, and she was serious about it.

Both Lucian and Seraphina smiled slightly at her firm determination.

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