Ning Xin, or Xin Rime kicked her feet back and forth.

It had been a month since Ebony started evolving, and she finally relaxed properly.

This area's mana density was too much for Kiva, so she insisted they return and had Hector and Apa escort them home a while back.

Training with Hector was alright, but he wasn't all that good of a fighter. Unless they were trying to kill each other, then his full enhancements and that one-hit wonder of a punch he had otherwise, he was just too slow for a proper fight.

Apa on the other hand, was a different story.

The Apex Ape was everything Ebony said and more.

Unadulterated power and ferocity.

They had almost killed each other.

The Apex Ape did not understand that her killing intent was used as a weapon; she could differentiate and not land the actual blow with a bit of drawback. Hence, Apa took her seriously.

And boy was he strong and ridiculously fast. Above her by leaps and that was saying a lot. Thankfully, Apa couldn't understand that her Art built up and never interrupted her despite having the ability to do so. She also had her transmutation, which saved her life.

She managed to torch and bind Apa by blood magic after injuring him and slowly pilfering his Vitality. At the end there, Apa was punching hard enough to blow her transmuted flame body into gusts of wind too dilute to reform. Truthfully, she would probably lose if they fought once more.

With her sparring partners gone on a short trip, Xin was brought to reality now that she was alone.

"I really need to get a hobby."

Cooking and eating were her passions, but she wanted to do a little more.

Browsing Eidolon for the past hour, she was getting bored while chewing on fried potatoes. Hash browns, as Ebony called them. She preferred them bite-sized, cubed and crispy, hot and tender inside.

But food tasted….less when she ate alone. Her flavouring was busy evolving.

She stood up and got out to train, not using her personal training field so that her senses weren't cut off from the surroundings.

It would be bad if she was alone and started to think about her husband's evolving blood that would likely get more nutritious, possibly sweeter and tastier.

Bullying the Apex Apes, fending off the hungry beasts that were attracted by Ebony's growing essence and weakening aura. It was odd how his essence was growing when it was reducing in volume since it was absorbed for his evolution.

She was bored.

"I need zoomies…." She sighed when her halo restricted the avian beast that tried to get past her and Dusk.

"Here are some most related search results," Eidolon answered her sigh. She got a little spooked, having forgotten she was still connected.

Eidolon pulled up some images and moving images of vehicles.

"What are these?" She asked.

"Hover bikes, one-man cars, ships, planes, rockets and more from various technological groups within Hex. We interpreted 'zoomies' as your desire for the feeling of acceleration. A common search result for your fellow speed lovers."

"And these vehicles do that?"

"Yes. These are reviewed to satisfy most of their purchasers."

"Hmm, I'll take a look."

"Would you like us to search through some specifications you might have?"

"Which can go the fastest?"

"That would depend, are you looking for fastest top speed or fastest acceleration?"

"None that's both?"

Search result, zero.

"Acceleration, but show me their top speed too."

She got thousands of results this time.

She removed all the results with an encapsulation; she wanted to feel the wind if she was to go fast.

The ones that caught her eye best were hover bikes. Just some magical mechanical bike with two wheels. They looked…cool.

"Can this really go 350km/s?" That was faster than her top speed in movement; she had no idea of her swing speed though. Her sword art doesn't help her legs move faster. She had already adopted the metric system fully, and it was not unknown to Hex Eidolon either.

That kind of speed can get her from Arcta to Plainston in half a second. Crossing the entirety of Bubble Hills, 'minimal environmental disruptions' was also advertised, but she doubted it could be more silent and unimpactful than her husband's movement technique. He could move at any speed, yet doesn't cause so much as a whiff of wind by 'passing between' winds or whatever nonsense he spouts that she couldn't understand.

She would've copied parts of his skill if she could. The Imperial knights and Ebony's past fanboys did copy his skill to an extent, tier 2 maybe a mutated tier 3 version, but so far, she hadn't seen anyone able to move as silently with that kind of acceleration and speed.

"It burns slightly under 2 Reds an hour, and yes, this supplier has been verified multiple times."

The housewife with time on her hands spirit-shopped for the next hour while the scent of blood filled the Apex Ape's territory. At least this place had monsters that didn't fear her intent and essence. They dared come even with her presence and the Apex Ape's long-known extreme violent tendencies against intruders.

She finally found something that caught her eye. A hover bike. Black, red, glossy, sleek look. And it matched her size and humanoid body. With a top speed at 320km/s and accelerated twice that of the previous selection, to be able to reach top speed in 0.63 seconds.

She wasn't rich like her husband, but she wasn't poor either; she could afford it with her money, but was absolutely crushed when she noticed that the delivery was more costly than ten of what she wanted to purchase. It could even be thousands if she wanted it fast, like travelling through the Spirit Realm fast, or even faster, direct teleportation of her goods.

"This is an individual engineer and machinist, although his reputation is above average for individual manufacturers. Please note that they are not Hex verified."

She begrudgingly bought it by Sprit Realm delivery, relatively fast and not an outright scam.

Hector and Apa were back before her expensive toy came. They were just on time for her new dish.

She claimed victory in the eating competition with Apa. It caused the Alpha some boos from his people. She was amused by the Ape patting its bulging belly in dismay before it was distracted by its wonderful biceps and beautiful twitch muscles that smacked the cheeky Apex Apes that laughed.

Then, the two of them oversaw Hector's training. His perception and movement technique needed work. As for his boxing style, Xin wasn't in a position to help, but Apa could.

Then, Xin practised some teamwork with Hector to challenge the monstrously powerful ape.

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If they weren't desperate, they didn't seem to stand a chance.

Xin was shocked by how strong this newly evolved King was.

Its twitch punches might as well be lightning fast to them. They were also nothing like Hector's explosive punch that destroyed everything in its path. Apa's punches only impacted what they contacted. It was definitely a Skill, maybe even Fortification backed. One that utilised both mana and life force to make sure the force of its punches doesn't go through far and all to explode only within its target.

Apa could focus this force explosion to even tighter ranges, to make a hole in the barrier Hector used as an item effect. The barrier item wasn't made by Navin, there were no curse magic knockback effects. There were plenty of Lord family members, and many were Kings. It wasn't far-fetched that they gave their children strong barrier items. Especially Hector, the only one with their family name, who was mostly incapable of barrier magic. He was bad with just about any external conjuration but an absolute genius with internal enhancements.

Her delivery had came when Hector jumped onto his feet and was ishock.

"What's wrong?"

"Apa?" Apa nudged Hector with its gigantic, grubby fingers as well.

"Th-the Empire is under attack. 3 Cities have fallen under a foreign influence's control a few hours ago. Many more towns.... destroyed."

"What? By whom or what?"

"I don't know. Mal just called me to go back to Tidal immediately. I-sorry, Scarlet, I have to go."

"APA!!"

"You wanna come to buddy? It's…either going to be dangerous or really boring as the adults handle it."

"Apaa!"

"I probably don't have to say this but take care Scarlet."

"Mmm, go. Keep in contact, tell me if you see Sister Jing snooping around." With that, her only guests left her alone.

With Dusk that lost the ability to talk and seemed to be in semi-hibernation with relatively horrible reaction times her only companion.

Miss Wiggles is fully hibernating in their pool.

She was alone.

The rest of the Apex Apes don't come close to their house unless Apa is around. A few of them did answer her call from time to time, after she beat their Alpha in an eating competition. The rest of them still held some fear and precaution near her. Okay...fear was a stretch. They had both bark and bite, and...they loved her food.

Over the next months, she slayed any creature that rushed over for a taste of Ebony. She almost forgot how delicious Ebony's mana and essence were to a monster. It was clear every monster in the area could tell that their delicious meal was in the midst of evolving and couldn't fight back.

Xin fiddled with her divination coin, but she had no questions she wanted answered right now. She was even bored enough to use divination for her cooking, to divine what ingredients would result in a more delicious combination. Using herself as the definer of deliciousness. It worked surprisingly well but nothing she did felt…right. Everything felt a little less than she should be feeling.

She realised that perhaps having no one around her lets her emotions numb a little, as she can't feel a flood of external emotions anymore. She feels emotions multiplied when her targets are killed and in pain, she feels them. Now, there was absolutely nothing.

She was feeling a little emptier due to the sudden absence of emotions.

But hey!

She broke open the delivery crate in record time

Her toy came, and it tickled something inside her she never knew she had.

The hover bike was beautiful.

She swept the manual aside and let her intuition figure the machinery out.

"My legs rest here, and my body needs to lean all the way forward for my arms to grab these bars? The handles can be twisted… It's not moving. Right energy." Xin knew that everything that moves needed energy.

At least the universal Red-Ancient quality mana ores had long arrived. Eidolon bank was closer, and exchanging for mana ores can be done at any time. It was something that could be found in abundance when they could make it by compression.

This model burned 4.3 Reds an hour. Acceleration wasn't easy to come by; it had a built-in chamber that liquifies mana ores, but it was preferred to directly feed the right fuel for efficiency. Almost 3 times the efficiency. She didn't fall for the expensive trap of transporting loads of fuel over too and this fuel was something only the creator made.

Money, it all fell on money.

Anyway, she dumped a hundred Reds into the solid fuel chamber after imbuing her divination coin with mana and tossing it towards her new toy. It landed where she needed to place the solid fuel.

Her Intuition told her what to click, what to twist as she let her body move without her brain thinking.

When the bike lifted off the ground, the vibrations ran through her hands and legs through her body. She felt alive. She could feel the beastly power this construct had in her.

And then she was off.

'Fast!' Her hair flung back and dragged along with her body. She didn't expect to require her augmentations to see properly.

Her Core Skill Unwavering Immortal's Pulse, partially runs in passive. Her base stats were technically far higher than Ebony's, as all his augmentations were active. Even his runic one could be shut down and was not semi-passive like hers.

Yet, she still needed to run mana through her eyes and body to keep up with this machine.

She was headed right into a conjured wall of a group of snow foxes, but her intuitive reflex already pulled her around.

It was fun.

She learned how to control the machine in minutes.

No matter how long she was on it, she never got far away from her home. Circling around was a little sad, she could've seen more but she wasn't willing to go too far away.

She had so much fun, she ran the fuel dry.

"Phew…did I spend a day on this?' she kept her new hobby toy into her bracelet and went back for grub.

Days later, her best friend Athena called.

"Scar-things are looking real bad. Some past ruler of the Empire came back with an elite group and wants to take back what's 'rightfully' his. He's a madman and so are his people. They don't negotiate and declared all who was under Barrier King's rule as traitors that should be honored to dirty their hands with their lives."

"Group? Not an army?"

"I hear there are only a few dozen of them but every single one of them are Emperors. A few of them already established their own rule in the Cities they overtook. The Barrier King's curse killed two of them, and cursed another 2. But they believe there are still at least a dozen people actively killing for no reason whatsoever. The Imperial Seers and the Muse girly believe they are harvesting souls. Also, the Guardian Knights have been pushed out of Lacuna Expanse and they can't hold the line from a flood of monsters. Smells like Lure all over the place. It's been two hundred years or so, but it wouldn't be the first time Lure tried something similar."

"How's the situation at Tidal?"

"Quiet, no one has tried a thing yet. After the 2 deaths and horrible state the other 2 Emperors were said to be left in, none of them dared to come or touch the Barrier King's barrier again."

"Tell me about these rumours of the curse effects." She had always been interested in Navin's powers.

"The most obvious one is the Curse of Regression. Hostile attacks on Tidal's barriers cause its attackers to regress in power and skill levels. I heard they used this against the Troll's Old Hag as well. But the barriers are also compounded. Old wounds burst open. Ageing hastens. Vitality poisons itself. Their mana starts attacking their own body. Their stamina chokes them. All flesh starts rotting. The rumours got impressive enough that I can't tell what is real or not anymore."

Xin took her coin out while Athena drifted from the state of the Empire to what she's been doing.

'…All of those curse effects are true. And they are effective on Emperors.' Xin kept her divination coin in her bodysuit. She hadn't taken her bodysuit off for weeks, only during showers did she remove it.

"Oh, there's a famous new mage that stood up against an Emperor and successfully defended a City and barely anyone heard of him before."

"Is that so? What's his name or did people already give him a moniker?"

"Nah, haven't heard any titles. But I hear he goes by the name Hardock."

"…Smells like Lure all over." She repeated her friend's words.

'Tuffock is fighting against them? Well, I don't care, but I wonder if he's still Grandmaster or already evolved.' She used to baselessly believe in her combat superiority. For her first party to contain Ebony and Tuffock, who kept up, Tuffock was an oddity.

'So is Hector, I suppose.' She didn't forget about her other party members when she just walked out of her home in Xienor.

The archer…. Ryley was not forgotten. Because Ebony had his Numbers visit Ryley's grave occasionally. It was in Hata town. His body was consumed by their now friend, Ordina, but they got a grave for him in Hata where a family member was the Baron. So far, the Numbers leave flowers they have grown and sometimes news about their Viscount family.

Xin told Athena all about her new student and asked her to check on her student for her. They've been exchanging short calls, but it was difficult to contact the rabbit girl over a callstone with limited range, and her student didn't have a portable module of Hex.

It was thanks to her essence skills that she could succeed with her Cuisine Set Buff and evolve her cooking skills, so she was rather grateful to the young girl. She asked Athena to check if the rabbit girl had anything she didn't understand about her Vitality manipulation skills.

She also asked for her husband's student because she was a considerate wife and lady of the household. Or so she tries.

Athena was more than sufficient to whip all of Ebony's students into shape. Though not quite as strong as Hector, she was more well-rounded and had better perception along with a refined fighting technique. Not to mention, her battle instincts were the best amongst any Imperial Citizen Xin had encountered. Only worse than Ebony and herself around their age group, for all she knew.

All Hector knew was elemental enhancement and how to punch harder, not exactly the best tutor to have.

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