"Sure," Dalin replied, though the hoverjet had already begun moving at Adyr's request. The cabin hummed with a light vibration as it shifted direction.

How can someone rise so quickly in both authority and power? Dalin wondered, realizing the chain of command had already tilted the instant Adyr stepped into the cabin.

She recalled who he had been before all this Beyond and Practitioner life began.

Once a nobody without even a surname, Adyr was now standing at the top of all Humanity. His every word was received like a divine order, even by soldiers trained to obey only the chain of command.

The thought made her let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Relief that she remembered their first meeting. Back then, she had almost dismissed him as a nobody, just another man with no background.

Relief that she had chosen the right side, aligning herself with him instead of making the wrong choice. The wrong choice, the kind that would not get a second chance. The kind that would be corrected once and never forgiven.

Whether it was that realization or the strange, delicious scent flooding her senses, subtle and warm in the recycled air of the cabin, she was certain of one thing.

Adyr was definitely the right person to follow.

While those thoughts drifted through Dalin's mind, Adyr watched them in return. He measured his new stat's effect on her and the soldiers, tracking their micro-reactions the way he always did.

The way they looked at him resembled a colony of bees staring toward their queen. They were pulled by the invisible push of pheromones, obedient without fully understanding why.

"By the way." Adyr leaned back in his seat, settling into a more relaxed posture. "Is there still no one awakening a bloodline talent?"

He already knew that if anyone awakened one, they would inform him immediately. Still, he brought the subject up. He wanted to see what their current level of understanding looked like.

Dalin watched him closely, trying to understand why he was asking now. "No. We don't even know how to awaken one, or whether we can awaken one at all." She walked over and sat in the seat beside him, lowering her voice out of instinct even though everyone could hear in such a tight space.

Adyr had told them what bloodline talents were and how they worked, but he had never told them how to awaken one.

For one reason, he wasn't sure whether the Human race was capable of awakening bloodline talents. Adyr might be the only exception among them. Another reason was simpler. He didn't want to give them more information about it, not until he decided they had earned it.

Today, he chose to offer a hint.

"I awakened my Grace bloodline talent from the Cooking talent," he said casually, like he was commenting on the weather.

"Cooking?" Dalin reacted with mild surprise, her brows lifting. She knew bloodline talents were evolved versions of normal talents, but she hadn't expected divine healing light to be an upgraded form of something as ordinary as cooking.

Adyr nodded once, then explained the process. "I was trying to level up my talent by cooking meals using self-developed recipes. I kept testing them until the result changed."

He did not disclose the specifics of those self-developed recipes. He also didn't mention that he had been preparing those recipes for his family and Boy to influence their thoughts.

Even without those details, Dalin seemed to catch onto something. Her focus sharpened, as if several pieces had just slid into place.

"So we need to be creative to awaken bloodline talents?"

Adyr nodded. "And you need to view it from another perspective. A unique one. You can't awaken a bloodline talent by focusing only on cooking. It isn't about the meal itself. It's about what it does to someone after they taste it. What it shifts in them."

He shared it despite the STF soldiers waiting in the cabin. It was information too valuable to be spoken so openly. Yet he dropped it anyway, almost like a test.

Dalin didn't seem to care that extra personnel were hearing it either. She focused only on what she had gained, replaying the logic in her head.

Adyr gave her a moment to sit with it. Then he asked, "What is your current Level 4 talent?"

Dalin hesitated before answering, but she told him in the end. "I have 2. One is Marksmanship, and the other one..." She paused again and glanced at the other faces in the cabin, aware of how many trained ears were listening. She clearly didn't want to expose her strongest side like this in front of others.

Under Adyr's unwavering gaze, she answered at last. "The other one is Appraisal."

Adyr looked genuinely surprised. Having two Level 4 talents was impressive by any standard, especially when you think Dalin was at most 18 years old and had little real experience in her life with anything.

Then there was the second part: she had the Appraisal talent at Level 4.

It was a talent only those with many years of experience should have been able to develop in their lives, like collectors, traders, and jewelers.

Even Adyr didn't have that talent in his arsenal. In his previous life, he hadn't needed a talent focused on appraising the monetary value of things. He had always assessed value in different ways.

Is it because she is from a trader family that her talent is this high?

Ravencourt wasn't only the biggest logistics company on Earth, it was also involved in many other trading businesses, so maybe this kind of talent ran in their genes.

After thinking a little, Adyr asked, "I bet you've been trying to level up your Appraisal talent by only appraising objects?"

Dalin nodded at first. Then she realized what the question implied. Her expression shifted. "So you mean I need to try to appraise living beings? Like people?"

That was the hint that Adyr had been trying to convey to her. Approach the talent from a broader angle. Think uniquely. That was what led her to the conclusion.

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