[Several Hours Before]
Several hours prior to nightfall, and an hour after Hilda had left Roxy’s camp, the warehouse back on the western side of the port was coming along well.
The walls were better reinforced with rebar and metal sheets, albeit both were fairly corroded, and the spiked barricades outside had grown numerous. Though... the quality did vary compared to the old and existing barricades.
At the moment, everyone in Rusty Den was taking a break, awaiting further orders from Ross, who had yet to leave his workshop in the back.
Nadia, who was calmly sitting in a random corner of the warehouse, was currently helping Seraphine in her training.
"I did it!" Seraphine sat up with arms enveloped in a greyish aura. She then quickly tested her newfound ability on a crate filled with heavy-duty equipment.
She grabbed its sides and picked it up. Although she couldn’t keep it up for long, she was still able to display more than double her physical strength.
Nadia watched Seraphine drop the crate with a loud exhale and nodded. "Well done, you’re a talent. It took you nearly two hours to achieve this, if we don’t count your initial attempt outside," she congratulated stoically.
Unfortunately, it sounded like sarcasm in Seraphine’s ears.
"Ehm... that’s totally a compliment, right...?" Despite knowing a lot about Nadia, even the way she talked, Seraphine just couldn’t help but ask for clarification... It was like an instinct.
"It... was meant to be one... I apologise if I wasn’t clear on that," Nadia clarified awkwardly, glancing away for a split second out of embarrassment. "I’ve heard that people usually take longer to get to this stage, so I... just wanted to let you know that you had talent for this..."
"O-oh, i-is that so?" Seraphine rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "It’s fine! I wasn’t offended, anyway. Even if it was sarcasm, I wouldn’t have taken offence to it, since I still have a long way to go."
"That’s a good mindset to have."
Seraphine then noticed her arms were still enveloped in her Vitality, which led her to notice the tinge of fatigue knocking at the back of her consciousness. The Transmigrator could sense it growing stronger over time, as evidenced by the droopiness of her eyelids.
Noticing a sway in Seraphine’s pupils, Nadia reacted.
"Ah. I should tell you how to gather your Vitality back in now, shouldn’t I? Basically, what you have to do is—"
"Nope, nope. It’s fine..." Seraphine held a hand out before entering a meditative posture.
There was a scene like this in the Visual Novel where Nadia had to talk someone through a situation before they exhausted themselves to death. For some reason, this process was explained in more depth than how to manifest Vitality.
Seraphine focused on the centre of her Heart. Apparently, the solution required a visual process involving some kind of pulling force. While some imagined a whirlpool, a tornado, or even a vacuum itself, she thought of something else... Something rather unorthodox.
She imagined a vacuum cleaner sucking the Vitality supplied to her arms back into her Heart. Although the process was a bit slow, taking a few seconds to finish, it was ultimately good enough for her first time.
Once she was done, she opened her eyes and found Nadia staring at her beadily.
"Is... everything okay?"
"... Do you know how to do it on instinct too?"
"Ugh—" Seraphine recoiled at that.
She remembered that, since Nadia’s awakening, she always had a sense for things when it came to Vitality — an unnatural talent, basically. Apparently, if it wasn’t for the LCEO’s lack of resources and capable Vitalists to teach Nadia, the woman would’ve quickly learnt the foundational techniques for Spiritualism.
’She has potential equal to or even higher than Hilda, after all...’
Hiding her wryness, Seraphine responded:
"Haha, I just happened to remember something from a page in the guidebook. That’s all..."
"I see..." Nadia sighed, slightly disappointed. She then turned to glance around the warehouse aimlessly, as if looking for something. Or...
For someone.
"She still isn’t back yet," Nadia noted, instantly grabbing Seraphine’s attention.
"Huh, oh yeah, she isn’t..." Seraphine scratched her head. "It’s already evening and not a single person saw her once today. It’s weird..."
Nadia couldn’t help but narrow her eyes at this. Even till now, she hadn’t been able to come up with an idea as to what Hilda was up to, apart from one at least.
It was obvious she had gone out to hunt Predicaments, but there were just a few things that still puzzled her.
She then let out a loud exhale.
"Haa..."
Seraphine tilted her head at this curiously.
"Are you worried about her?" She asked, then added, "It is growing darker outside, so it is understandable for you to be. But I don’t think you have to be worried about her—"
"I’m not," Nadia interrupted with a shake of her head.
Remembering what happened on the first night, and wincing at the phantom pain from her late injuries, she said:
"I’m not worried about her... not exactly. It’s obvious she’s perfectly fine when it comes to taking care of herself, so I don’t really care about her. I just want to know what she’s up to, besides killing Predicaments, for her to stay out for so long."
"I see... well, maybe she’s going around and killing all the Predicaments in the city!" Seraphine stated in an odd tone, giving off the impression she was hoping for that scenario.
Nadia hummed at that. "That’s definitely a possibility."
She then turned to Seraphine. And after glancing at the girl’s hand for a split second, she said:
"Since you know how to control Vitality, I’ll try to teach you how to imbue objects with it now. Given your talent... it shouldn’t take the end of this exam to figure it out."
"Really?! Thanks, Nadia—!"
BANG. BANG. BANG.
Right before Seraphine could finish her sentence, a loud banging noise resounded from behind the doors to Rusty Den. Everyone in the warehouse immediately turned towards the noise, including the two of them.
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