After telling Ruyue that he'd be back soon, Damien left the area. He wanted to try something that he couldn't show to others lest he caused them to panic.
Transcendent Regeneration.
He had an idea of what it could do. It was an evolution that he had been waiting for eagerly for a very long time. His regeneration had been stuck at High-Level without evolving ever since his days in the dungeon.
When Damien got to his personal practice area, he didn't waste any time. First, he turned his finger into a claw using Dragon Transformation and made a slit on his wrist.
It healed instantly.
By the time his claw went from one side of his wrist to the other, the wound had already closed.
'Damn! That's amazing!'
He took his experiment further. His first success had truly emboldened him. From cutting his wrist, his next move was to cut off an entire finger.
And as he expected, a new finger regenerated in its place within thirty seconds.
'Good! Good! This is how it should be! Now then, should I move into the real test?'
Damien's eyes shone with a light of mania. Mana coated his hand and turned into a spatial blade.
Shing!
Thump!
It cut cleanly through his flesh. His left arm fell to the floor as it was severed from his body.
'Hissss….' Damien sharply inhaled as he dealt with the pain. But even as he did so, his regeneration kicked in.
The clean wound he created made it even easier to heal. Starting from the bone, his arm began to regenerate until half an hour later, a completely new arm was formed in place of the one that was severed.
"Hahahaha!" Damien laughed victoriously. He was slowly becoming an unkillable zombie that could regenerate from even a single drop of blood.
It was perfect. Devour was an ability that could take care of his stamina, and Transcendent Regeneration would make it so that his wounds would never accumulate.
If Damien was ever put into a battle where he was one against many, he was guaranteed to be an unstoppable killing machine.
It almost made him look forward to war. But when he recalled the harrowing 10 years he had lived in Alaric's body during the first war, his excitement died down.
'Alright. Transcendent Regeneration is a truly life-saving skill. Now, all I need to test is Heal.'
Heal was the most unexpected thing in his status. From the start, gaining a trait from the Primordial Undying Tree never crossed his mind.
'But…Heal seems to be something that I can use on others rather than myself, since Transcendent Regeneration takes care of my own healing. Does it have any other effects besides just being a regular healing skill?'
Calling a healing skill passed to him by a tree with heavenly vitality regular was a huge understatement, but Damien never took healers seriously since he had always been able to do so without outside help.
But he could see the uses of a healing skill. Diseases, injuries, if his comrades ever suffered, he would be able to take care of them.
But he had Elena whose elemental affinities were for Life and Light. She was a born healer even though her preference was being a fighter.
His Heal trait would only be necessary when she wasn't around.
But he activated it anyway. Since it was, after all, a gift from Alaric that he definitely wouldn't have gained without Alaric's intention, it had to be something good.
A green aura filled with vitality surrounded Damien. Just like the World Tree in the 3000 Beast Mountain Range, his vitality spread into the environment and nourished everything around him.
"Ohhh, I see how it is," Damien muttered. This skill was far greater than he gave it credit for.
Damien's blood began to boil. His mana raged with more strength than he could handle as he sacrificed his blood vitality to strengthen it.
But at the same rate as it was being sacrificed, it was replenished by the Heal trait that Damien currently had active.
'This is broken. Too broken.' Damien shook his head inwardly. Alaric was too generous to him as always.
'With this much help from you, it's impossible for me to shirk the responsibility you gave me no matter how much I want to. Very well, so be it.'
Damien stopped burning his vitality and canceled the Heal trait. For now, his preliminary understanding of it was enough to get by. When he had more time in the future, he could properly explore it.
But now wasn't the time for that. He teleported back to Ruyue and the girls.
"Hm? It seems things were settled when I was gone." He commented. The first thing he saw when he arrived was Lily and Mei in Ruyue's arms.
"Big brother, I want it too!"
And the second thing he saw was a small black object hurling towards him at light speed. Using vector control to slow her down, he scooped Xue'er into his arms as well.
"Hmph! See, big brother likes me better!" Xue'er snorted while hugging him. Her gaze was locked on Lily and Mei.
"No fair! You cheated!" Mei yelled back.
"That's right! We were already with big sister, so it doesn't count!" Lily agreed.
"Hmph! Hmph!" Xue'er responded haughtily. Damien could've sworn he saw sparks fly in the air between the girls as they argued.
Ruyue looked at him helplessly, causing him to smile.
"Little Xue, have you been introduced to everyone yet?" He asked.
Xue'er nodded excitedly. "Lily and Mei are weird, but also fun! Also, there's a beautiful big sister! Big brother, where did you meet her?"
"Little Xue, if she is your big sister, then who do you think she is to your big brother?" He teased.
Xue'er tilted her head. "Hmm, your wife?"
"That's right!" Damien grinned. "Our Little Xue is the smartest!"
"Hehe!"
After appeasing Xue'er, Damien sent a sound transmission to Ruyue.
'So? What do you think of them?'
Ruyue looked at Lily and Mei. 'It's interesting. Even though we're meeting for the first time, it feels like I'm meeting my own kin.'
Damien nodded. 'It's only natural. Although they were born into the Ice Spirit Tribe, it's more apt to call them a Yin Elemental Spirit.'
'Elemental Spirit?!' Ruyue's eyes widened in shock. 'So when you said you had a gift for me, you meant…'
'Of course, I got you two cute little sisters!' Damien joked.
Ruyue giggled. 'Well, to say I'm not satisfied would be a lie. They are indeed cute little sisters that I want to dote on all day. But, why are they like that?'
Ruyue was obviously talking about the fact that there were two of them residing in the same body. It was natural for anyone to be curious when they met the girls. Even Xue'er was curious about their abnormality.
'Hmm, the story is a bit complicated so I'll explain it all to you later. For now, just know that they have a special body constitution.'
Ruyue nodded. It was the most logical reason why such a thing would happen. As for the story behind it, although she was curious, she knew how much Damien had to do at the moment. If she really wanted to know, she could hear it directly from Lily and Mei when the girls were ready to share.
Damien also nodded in satisfaction. Since Ruyue and the girls' got along so well that Lily and Mei didn't want to leave her arms, it meant that having them form a contract wouldn't be difficult at all.
So now, all they had to do was go through the process.
