Killian opened his mouth to say the most accursed swear words. Shivers ran down his spine when he got another alert about his affinity, but he quickly swiped it out to keep staring at the capacity.

He shook his head, pacing about the forest. He could vividly remember how getting 30% for the Fire Element had been such a hassle.

"Yet I get almost 200% capacity just by eating a tree?" He smiled.

"Perhaps when I finally need to unlock another element, I wouldn’t need to work hard for capacity, right?"

"Definitely. And due to the sudden expansion of your capacity, as opposed to your earlier steady increase, the skills that unlock with the different stages of capacity are yet to catch up."

Killian chuckled softly at those words. His WLog couldn’t keep up with him, and owed at least 4 Void Skills. He returned to the tendrils when they stopped scrambling, watching them blankly.

"This must be what having a talent feels like; everything would be laid at your feet with minimal effort."

He nodded at his reasoning, accepting his good luck.

The capacity increase stunned him enough already, but his eyes suddenly caught something lodged inside the entangled tendrils dancing on the ground. He breathed out heavily, and bent to reach the egg.

[Void Reborn: 1%]

"Void Reborn surely takes its time but at least I have capacity to hold the elements it will unlock."

Killian picked up the egg, inspecting it carefully. "It looks like a bird egg."

"Rude."

Kilian scoffed, wondering why the Void sounded personally offended. The egg was just a slightly bigger and shinier version than a normal bird’s egg. He was in a forest so this wasn’t the most spectacular thing he could see.

"She’s in there?"

"Yes, give her time. Twenty minutes at most."

The Void sounded like he had personal stakes in the egg. Killian carefully wrapped it with extra healing strips he had before sending it into his inventory.

Thistle fell into his arms as he did. She looked around confused.

"How are you doing?" He raised her to his head and made her sit on his shoulders as he walked away.

The girl looked around the forest, having so many questions on her face. But she asked the most important one.

"Did I get thrown out?"

Killian laughed, as he was in a good mood. "No, I left an egg there. You are rowdy."

His honesty didn’t bother her as she nodded, then lowered her head towards him, asking the next important question.

"Did you do something to your voice?" She brushed his hair away, and added. "You seem taller too. Do humans grow that quickly?"

Killian also looked down at himself to be sure there had been no odd transformation, but his physical features remained relatively the same.

"I think I’m the same."

Except for the empty feeling in his stomach— which he couldn’t figure out if it was because he hadn’t eaten much or the Void Capacity had more space than it needed— everything was fine.

No changes, apart from his voice. No sudden evolution, at least not on the outside.

Everything seemed to have worked out, yet that annoyed him somehow because he expected even another inch to his height.

"You don’t grow taller immediately after drinking milk," the Void said flatly.

Killian frowned slightly. ’I forsook natural biology after you made me eat a tree.’

"Not literally."

’Still.’

"Well, it’s good that you feel the displeasure of the tendrils when they have to eat things that aren’t tasty. Apart from the great ambient mana within it, it tasted very much like bark."

’You can taste it as well?’

"I can share their senses more keenly than you do."

’Fair.’ Killian paused his thoughts, looking down at his WLog that lit up again. ’I could bring the Knight in here and let her get devoured, right?"

Before he heard a response, his phone vibrated in his pockets. It particularly surprised him because there were usually no signals within realms.

"I should probably check George’s message on WLog first." He sighed, tapping the message notification that George sent.

[Meet immediately. The mission has been compromised.]

Killian sighed again. "Yeah, I guessed so."

He answered the phone call from George.

"I’m not coming back—

"Killian? Why not? They said that this wasn’t the right mission for the Amega Region."

Killian sighed for the third time. The one who picked up had to be Evelyn, and he couldn’t think of a good excuse to stay back. "I just need to scout some more—"

"The mission is over so you don’t need to scout. Are you in trouble? Should I come get you—"

"No," he said quickly. "Just that..."

As he searched for an excuse, Thistle gestured above him, pointing to herself then acting scary.

Killian quickly added. "Just that there’s a scary monster here that I really just want to defeat. That’s all, I’ll catch up later."

The other end was quiet before he heard her hum. "You do like thrills. Okay. We’ll leave without you."

"Okay..." he didn’t finish before Evelyn cut the call.

He stared at the phone. He knew she definitely didn’t buy it, but her suspicion of him and his element had faded since he constantly used the fire element so there would be no holes there.

"Did I help?" Thistle asked innocently, smiling.

"Sort of." Killian typed back a message to George on WLog. "I just need to eat this Knight and head back. I could even get there at the same time."

"Eat a Knight? Is it a corpse?" Thistle asked, and Killian’s slight smile confirmed it was. She clicked her tongue like a disappointed mother before resting on his head. "Can I go back now? Are you waiting for the egg to hatch?"

"I don’t really know what I am waiting for." Killian found a clearing within the forest.

His tendrils following behind him, instinctively mapped themselves along the perimeter of the clearing. With every blade of grass covered, the large body of the wolf slowly rose from the darkness.

Killian stood back, preparing himself just in case the corpse wasn’t actually dead.