Paige Summers stood stiffly, letting the woman who had thrown herself at her hug her and cry. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Ever since Paige had suggested that the woman might be her mother, Wendy Lowell had lost control of her emotions.

’She must have misunderstood something,’ Paige thought.

But she was, after all, the mother of this body’s original owner. The intense rush of warmth that struck her chest was real. This affection, however, had been building for twenty years and seemed far too fervent. Paige felt a burning sensation begin to grow in her chest, and the energy churning within her grew increasingly restless, creating a familiar stir.

’This is... I’m about to promote?!’

Realizing this, she had to quickly push Wendy Lowell away and get to her feet.

"Paige..."

Wendy Lowell looked at her, stunned, her eyes filled with sadness and confusion. ’Didn’t she accept me? Why is she pushing me away again?’

Paige calmed herself. "I’m sorry, my mind is a mess. It would be better if you both left for now."

Wendy Lowell opened her mouth to speak, but Sean Raines took her by the arm. "Aunt Lowell, this is all very sudden for her. Let’s give her some time alone."

’He had a point...’ Wendy Lowell swallowed her words and said instead, "Alright then, Paige. Mom will leave for now. I’ll come see you later."

Paige didn’t acknowledge the title. Now wasn’t the time to argue, so she just stepped forward and opened the door.

Wendy Lowell left dejectedly.

Paige hurried back to her room, sat on the bed, closed her eyes, and began to guide the energy within her.

Only now did she feel the immense power of a mother’s love—something she’d had no real impression of in two lifetimes. The goodwill from the mark on her chest transformed into a surging tidal wave of energy. Not only did it flood into her body, but it even managed to fill a significant portion of her left earring, an artifact whose energy needs were like a bottomless pit!

When Paige finally promoted smoothly to the Seventh Rank, her body underwent another significant refinement. Moreover, the earring now held nearly half its energy capacity.

She opened her eyes. She had spent the entire night on her promotion, but she felt no fatigue at all. On the contrary, she was full of life.

Her body felt so full of power that she couldn’t possibly sleep.

The sky was beginning to lighten, so she went out to the living room.

After weaving between the furniture a few times, she started using her superpower without even realizing it.

She was already skilled at nimble, agile movements, so using the living room as a training ground didn’t feel out of place. There wasn’t much furniture anyway—just a basic sofa, a coffee table, and two cabinets.

As she wove around, her speed increased.

She could feel the difference herself. Over the same distance, she was at least five seconds faster than she had been at the Sixth Rank!

She remembered when she was just a First-rank Superpower User recovering at The Citadel. Nola had told her that if she kept developing at this pace, no one would be able to catch her once she surpassed the Sixth Rank.

Back then, Nola had just been making a casual comment, and Paige had treated it as such. But now, she really felt it was true!

She could be as fast as the wind.

No, perhaps even faster!

She could also feel that her body was tougher and could completely ignore the strain of moving at high speeds.

And in her right arm, all sorts of tools felt much lighter in her grip.

She was extremely satisfied with this. This aspect of her superpower was the most practical for Artifact Making, as it allowed her to work for extended periods without feeling fatigued.

She savored the wonderful benefits of her promotion, her mood soaring.

Finally, she took out a specially made vial and began to collect the Poisonous Liquid.

But when nearly ten milliliters of the liquid flowed from her fingertip into the transparent vial, she was astonished.

She had assumed that, like previous promotions, this would only increase the amount of Poisonous Liquid. She hadn’t expected that while the volume had indeed increased, the liquid had become thin, almost like water. And most importantly, its color had completely changed!

The original black had turned into a strange, multicolored liquid, as if several colors were mixed together. It wasn’t ugly; in fact, it looked a bit like shattered rainbow fragments.

But this was too strange!

Paige stared intently at her hand. After a long moment, she clutched the small vial and knocked on Levi Young’s door.

Levi Young had been busy with his experiments and had just fallen asleep. No matter how good-natured he usually was, being woken up like this was enough to put a thunderous look on his face.

"Who the hell is..."

Before he could finish, the door opened. He saw Paige staring at the vial in her hand with a grave expression. A shiver ran down his spine, waking him completely. "What is it? Did something happen?" he asked hurriedly.

The vial was thrust at him. "Take this and analyze it. Right now, preferably. I need to know what its components are!"

Levi Young had a feeling this was something major, so he didn’t ask any questions. He just took the vial and headed straight for his laboratory.

He didn’t emerge until the sky was fully light. His eyes were bloodshot, but the man was practically bouncing off the walls, his excitement almost frightening.

"Where in the world did you get this Rainbow Water?!"

Seeing his reaction, Paige suddenly relaxed. "Rainbow Water? Did you name it that?"

"Uh-huh! So, is there any more?"

She replied calmly, "First, tell me about its composition."

Levi Young excitedly picked up the half-full vial and held it up before them. "Do you have any idea? This Rainbow Water, in its pure form... less than a single drop is enough to kill someone!"

Paige nodded.

’Looks like it hasn’t lost its original function.’

’Good.’

’Without this ace in the hole, the effectiveness of my Crossbow Arrows would be significantly reduced against Mutant Beasts.’

Levi Young grinned. "Sounds a lot like a poison, right? But it’s not. It contains an immense amount of energy that can instantly enter a person’s body and destroy their natural energy equilibrium, throwing all their bodily functions into total chaos!"

"I see." Hearing him mention "energy" repeatedly gave Paige an idea. She had always assumed this superpower was awakened after being bitten by that giant python. ’Could it be that’s not the case? Could it have been caused by the mark on my chest?’

The more she thought about it, the more likely this seemed.

Her hand unconsciously drifted to her chest.

Levi Young suddenly became alarmed. "You didn’t get any of the Rainbow Water on you, did you?!"

Paige snapped out of her thoughts and smiled. "Don’t worry, I’m too cautious for that."

Levi Young looked her up and down and saw nothing amiss. Then he realized that if she had touched it, she certainly wouldn’t be sitting here talking to him so calmly. He finally relaxed.

"After reaching that conclusion, I thought about my energy experiment, which has been stalled. So, on a whim, I tried adding a small amount of diluted Rainbow Water to the Guiding Potion that wasn’t working on the Crystal Cores..."

"And guess what I discovered?"

Paige’s eyes widened. "Don’t tell me it worked?"

"Yes!" Levi Young declared, his voice powerful with excitement. "The energy in the Rainbow Water caused an ’explosion’ inside the Crystal Core! With the help of several buffering agents, it doesn’t destroy the Core, but it ’blasts’ all the energy out of it!"

He carefully placed the vial on the table and abruptly pulled Paige into a hug.

"We did it!"

He was unbelievably excited, his heart racing. Paige felt much the same, and the two of them laughed and jumped around for a while. Luckily, Claire Chapman and the Forrest Siblings, who lived in the adjacent rooms, weren’t home, and most of the others were out, so there was no one to complain about the noise.

After celebrating for a while, they both gradually calmed down.

Paige tapped her head. "You know, I’ve been thinking about the implications of this experiment. If we can really extract the energy from Crystal Cores, just using it as a fuel substitute would be a huge waste. I wonder if it could be applied to weapons?"

Levi Young paused, thinking for a moment. "Theoretically, it’s possible. But the practical application... that will be up to you!"

"True."

"Right, you still haven’t told me where you got this. Did we collect it on our way to Central City? Was it from a mutant plant or animal? Can we get more...?"

Paige smiled and stretched.

"You don’t have to worry about that. There isn’t much, but there should be more to come."

Levi Young stared for a few seconds, then broke into a smile as well. "That’s great."

The sky today was exceptionally clear, as if all the gloom had been blown away.

Paige didn’t stay in her room. She was in too good a mood to settle down and work on her artifacts. So, she decided to go for a walk and head to the commercial district to check on the preparations for the weapon shop.

She had faith in Claire Chapman’s abilities, but as the owner, she couldn’t just ignore everything. That would be too irresponsible.

’Alright, I’m really just looking for an excuse to burn off some of this overflowing excitement before I go back to my grand undertaking of Artifact Making.’

Since she was just strolling to clear her head, she wasn’t moving quickly.

As she passed a nearby restaurant, she glanced over and happened to see a face light up with sudden joy...

"Paige, you’re out so early!"

Other than Martin Warren when he was acting up, only one person here would call her that.

Paige’s expression mostly vanished. She offered a polite "Hello" to Wendy Lowell, who had abandoned her breakfast to hurry outside.

The clear distance between them left Wendy Lowell at a loss, and her smile became strained. "Are you heading... Oh, I mean, may I walk with you?"

She was so hesitant that Paige had no choice but to nod. "Of course."

A solo stroll had turned into a two-person march, and the atmosphere grew somber.

It wasn’t that Paige disliked her; there was simply nothing to talk about.

’After all, her real daughter is already gone.’

’No amount of love can reach her now.’

’Besides, that car and those people following from a distance must be bodyguards. This woman’s status is clearly extraordinary; she’s probably from a major family. This whole business of claiming a long-lost daughter... I’d better just drop it. I really have no intention of inviting trouble.’

Wendy Lowell now understood that Paige was not at all enthusiastic about acknowledging her.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t hurt by it.

But in the end, she was the one who had failed her.

’It seems the idea of bringing her back to the Reid Family will have to wait. I can’t risk upsetting her and losing even this small chance to be with her.’

Each lost in their own thoughts, the two of them walked onward.

To end the walk sooner, Paige took a shortcut, turning into a narrow alley.

But just then, the unexpected happened.

Two men approaching from the other end of the alley, looking like ordinary pedestrians, suddenly launched an attack!

A Flame, mixed with a cold glint of steel, shot straight for Paige’s chest!