---
Ding!
[Link Feature Activated.]
[Accessing all skills of Elise Vans.]
[Elise Vans (S-rank Rogue)]
--Skills Unlocked--
> Passive: Shadow Adaptation (S-rank), Fatal Instinct (S-rank)
> Active: Phantom Step (SS-rank), Dagger Bloom (S-rank), Silent Extraction (S-rank), Backstab Chain (SS-rank), Silent Veil (S-rank)
---
The system didn’t care about Soren’s monologue and quickly showed him the plethora of skills belonging to Elise, leaving everything bare.
*Swoosh!*
At the sa mont, Soren felt complex information flash through his mind, flooding his thoughts like a raging torrent.
Countless symbols, nas, and intricate details intertwined, forming a web of knowledge he could barely grasp.
In no ti at all, everything went silent, leaving only the faint headach causing Soren to rub his forehead with a frown.
’What was that?’
A bit confused, Soren tried to focus his mind, only to feel the presence of complex symbols etched into it.
Although he couldn’t see them, he could feel that each symbol represented the skills he had just seen.
Curious, Soren tried to grasp one, only to suddenly feel his body twist unnaturally, as if he were phasing from one point to another in an instant.
The sudden shift nearly sent him slamming straight into the tent. Fortunately, he stopped himself on ti.
"Hah..."
Still, the feeling of phasing from one place to another like this wasn’t pleasant at all.
It was so unnatural that Soren breathed in deeply, trying not to retch. This was the first ti he had felt like this when he used a skill.
Previously, as long as he awakened a skill, he could naturally use it without much issue.
’Maybe because it doesn’t truly belong to ?’
Soren guessed after finally feeling a bit better.
He realized that although this SS-rank Phantom Step was a good skill, he might need to practice a bit to use it perfectly.
’Then... what about passive ones? How do they work?’
Suddenly, Soren thought of the passive skills of Elise. She only had two, both of which were etched in his mind in a similar manner.
And when he tried to probe them with his ntal power, he suddenly felt sothing within him change.
Only, it was very minimal, so faint he might not have even noticed it if he wasn’t paying attention.
Unlike his active skills, however, it continued to operate on its own, consuming a trace amount of mana constantly.
’Hm... it seems it is now activated?’
Soren wasn’t sure, but he didn’t stop the skill like the active one and let it operate constantly. It only consud a very small amount of mana anyway.
Rather, he once again ca to his bed and sat cross-legged, finally taking out the last item he had gotten as a reward for conquering Elise.
A transparent crystal, faintly glowing from within, as if sothing had been sealed inside it and persisted for a long ti.
---
[mory Crystal: Hidden Lore]
[Do you want to use it?]
---
’What is this?’
Soren fiddled with the crystal to see if he could see sothing, but found nothing.
In the end, he stopped wasting ti and gave the order,
"Yes, use it."
*Swoosh!*
The mont he said so, the crystal in his hand shattered on its own, before everything dissolved into smoke that drifted upward and drilled directly into his head.
Then Soren felt his consciousness being pulled sowhere, his body going rigid in place, completely still.
A cold, unfamiliar sensation spread through his mind as everything around him faded out.
***
"Elise? Where were you this late at night?"
While Soren had gone into an unknown trance, Elise finally returned to her tent, as stealthily as possible.
As much as she wanted to spend the whole night with Soren, he was unfortunately summoned by Professor Lyra.
In the end, she had to return to her tent on her own. And now, she was spotted by her sister even though she had tried hard not to disturb her.
"E-Elara...? W-What are you doing in my tent?"
Elise was a bit shocked by her sister’s presence and stuttered, her face turning red all of a sudden.
She thought she was caught red-handed.
Fortunately, it was only a false alarm, as she saw her sister fidgeting in her place nervously, unlike her usual self.
She didn’t even realize she was wearing only a short skirt and a thin vest beneath her cloak.
"Umm... Elise, let’s talk."
Rather, she seed to have been waiting for her all this ti, sothing gnawing at her mind.
"..."
For a mont, Elise was a bit stunned by her sister’s unusual behavior.
’What happened to her?’
This was unlike her sister’s style. As her twin, she could of course feel her unease and those dodging eyes, as if in guilt.
She seed deeply troubled.
"Okay, then let’s talk. What happened to you suddenly that you got so restless?"
Elise was a bit tired and wanted to sleep, but Elara’s weird behavior successfully caught her attention.
So she imdiately ca and sat next to her, signaling her to continue.
She was in a great mood tonight with how things had progressed with Soren. So she didn’t mind helping her sister if needed.
Only...
"Elise, I-I t S-Soren today."
The content her sister began to talk about was nothing she had ever guessed.
It seed that, after running away from Soren, Elara felt extre guilt toward her twin sister.
At first, she did think of hiding the incident or glossing over things.
However, in the end, she realized that she really couldn’t lie to her sister at all.
Not when she already shared so many secrets with her.
She felt that it would be unfair to Elise.
Besides, what had happened was just an accident, and Elara had a faint hope that Elise might get excited about Soren’s feelings toward her and even forget about their kiss.
But...
"So... you two kissed each other?"
Her hope was quickly crushed into smithereens as Elise didn’t react the way she had thought.
She didn’t even care about Soren’s confession and directly asked the one thing she was ashad of with that dead-cold glare in her eyes.
"..."
Now she felt that, maybe, she really should have lied.
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