[ Quests! ]
[ Awakener’s Mana Absorption ]
[ Requirement: Learn how to sense the mana naturally present in the air and absorb it. ]
[ Reward: Skill ’Silent Footsteps’ will be upgraded. ]
Jenny blinked blankly at the translucent blue screen hovering in her vision.
Sense the mana in the air and absorb it manually?
The concept felt completely foreign to her. In her mind, mana had always functioned like a hidden resource bar in a video game—an internal reservoir that quietly regenerated on its own over time.
Besides, her current skill didn’t even require any mana, so the idea of actively pulling energy from the surrounding atmosphere seemed redundant.
Still... she couldn’t deny that the reward was tempting.
Upgrading Silent Footsteps would be very worthwhile.
Her mind immediately flashed back to that quiet night inside the grocery storage facility. She had caught Fredrinn sitting cross-legged in the dark, meditating while visible, swirling currents of energy converged onto him.
At the time, he had casually brushed it off as an innate skill, but what if there was more to it?
Turning her head, Jenny looked up at Fredrinn from the plush seat of the Camry.
"Freddy~" she cooed in a soft, melodic tone. She wrapped both of her arms snugly around his bicep, leaning her chest against him as she looked up through her lashes with wide, imploring puppy eyes. "Will you answer something for me honestly?"
Fredrinn let out a low chuckle, thoroughly amused by her sudden shift into shameless cuteness. "What is it?"
"That night back in the storage room... you were meditating, and a ton of mana was flowing straight into you. I even came over to ask you about it," she said, her voice dropping into an earnest whisper. "Was that really just an automated skill at work?"
Fredrinn gave an easy, careless shrug. "No, it wasn’t. Why do you ask?"
"Uhm... if you don’t mind, could you show me how to do that too? Just once is plenty! Please?" She widened her amber eyes even further, pushing her lower lip out into the most adorable pout she could muster.
Fredrinn suppressed a grin, immediately connecting the dots.
’So your new quest is manual mana absorption, huh?’ he thought to himself. ’Why the hell wouldn’t I help you out? I’m getting double of your rewards anyway.’
Whatever enhancement she earned would passively boost his own capabilities through their connection, making her growth an effortless investment for him.
"Sure," Fredrinn agreed easily. "First off, this car is an enclosed metal box, so detecting the ambient flow inside here is going to be a pain in the ass. Let’s head outside."
Before Jenny could voice a single complaint, Fredrinn pushed the car door open and stepped out onto the asphalt. His belt was still loosely unbuckled and his jeans hung low on his hips from their heated encounter moments ago.
As he adjusted his clothes, his eyes instinctively flicked toward the yellow school bus parked down the street.
For a split second, an icy, predatory gaze locked onto him from behind the tinted bus windows.
The glare was so suffocating and razor-sharp that an involuntary shiver raced down his spine.
Fredrinn blinked hard, rubbing his eyes—and just like that, the oppressive aura vanished. The window was completely empty.
Fredrinn swallowed hard, a drop of cold sweat prickling his nape.
’Did Rose see everything...?’
He knew building a network of capable companions was essential for his survival, but dealing with the possessive instincts of a literal succubus was turning out to be an occupational hazard.
Behind him, Jenny carefully slid out of the backseat.
Her cheeks were burning a vivid beet-red as she tugged self-consciously at the hems of her denim shorts, trying her absolute best to pull the fabric down.
She was painfully aware of the slick, warm trace of moisture still clinging to her inner thighs from her recent climax, and the last thing she wanted was for anyone nearby to notice.
"W-What now?" Jenny asked quickly, clearing her throat to break the lingering embarrassment.
Fredrinn turned back, letting his gaze sweep over her athletic, toned figure with an appreciative smirk.
He closed the distance between them, casually taking her hand in his and guiding her toward the front of the Camry.
A couple of mangled zombie corpses lay crumpled against the pavement near the tires, filling the warm air with a thick, nauseating stench of rotten meat and stagnant blood.
Jenny instinctively scrunched her nose in disgust, but Fredrinn didn’t seem bothered by the gore in the slightest.
Reaching out, he lifted her by the waist and sat her firmly onto the hood of the car.
The sheet metal was warm from the sun, and the sudden heat pressing against the bare skin of her thighs made Jenny let out an involuntary, breathless gasp.
She instantly clamped her teeth over her bottom lip to choke back the sound, glaring up at him with a volatile mix of flustered arousal and strained restraint.
’Not here. Not right out in the open like this,’ she chanted silently in her head. ’Focus on the quest.’
"Close your eyes," Fredrinn’s calm voice broke through her racing thoughts.
Jenny followed the instruction without argument, shutting her eyelids tight.
"Can you smell the rot around us?" he asked.
Jenny nodded stiffly. "Yeah. It’s disgusting."
"Good. Now completely ignore it, clear your head, and try to sense the floating blue beads drifting through the air."
Jenny’s brow twitched behind her closed eyes. She winced inwardly at his idea of a tutorial.
Subconsciously, she realized that despite the combat gifts Fredrinn possessed, teaching definitely wasn’t one of his specialities.
Truly, one cannot have everything.
Ignore a rancid, throat-gagging stench of dead bodies right under her nose? Try to magically visualize floating blue beads out of thin air? How was that supposed to work?
Still, refusing to fail, she let out a slow breath and tried to follow his vague direction.
Her breathing remained shallow as she fought off the repulsive odor assaulting her senses.
Every time she tried to calm her mind, the pungent smell of decay forcefully dragged her back to reality.
Finally losing her patience, she raised a hand to pinch her nostrils shut, muffling the worst of the smell so she could pull in deeper breaths and focus entirely on visualizing the particles he had described.
A few seconds ticked past in total silence.
Nothing happened.
Her mind remained stubbornly locked on the effort of blocking out the environment rather than expanding her senses outward.
Then, quite suddenly, the subtle air pressure around her shifted.
The suffocating smell of rot began to peel away from her face, pulled along a sudden, gentle breeze that drifted toward her left—straight toward where Fredrinn was standing.
Intrigued by the shifting current, Jenny extended her internal awareness, following the path of the draft.
To her absolute shock, the darkness behind her closed eyelids bloomed with light. A dense, shimmering river of vibrant blue particles was flowing through the atmosphere, swirling together in a brilliant stream as it converged directly into Fredrinn’s frame.
’Is that... actual mana...?’
Jenny paused, "F-Fredrinn... I think I can sense it..." She said in absolute shock, mixed with awe.
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