The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

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Looking closer at the pinkish-yellow bead that Bree had created, Evelyn couldn't help but frown. "I can't sense any chaos energy from this thing… don't tell me…"

[Checking status…]

-[ Illusion Bead ] 

—Permanently increases soul value by 10 points when consumed.

—Permanently increases spirit power by 20 points when consumed.

—Effects of the primordial ability [Calamity] detected. May lead to either involuntary subjugation or harvest of ability. Extremely dangerous! 

—Unknown effect upon consumption. 

Evelyn sighed. "As expected, the part about the chaos essence is missing… The rest all looks as expected."

The permanent enhancements were small, but Evelyn wouldn't exactly cry about a few extra points in each of her stats. Who knows, maybe even a single point could make a difference between winning and losing in a critical situation.

The pink haired girl hummed as she looked over the description. "It seems like each of these beads will still come with this 'subjugation' function, huh… But I wonder if it will work in the way I think, and if it would just boost someone's affection level…?"

She was also curious about whether Bree would be able to consume it. Since she clearly spat this thing out, it clearly had already been inside her with no effect. 

Evelyn shook her head with a smile. "She's pretty much the 'source', so it's unlikely that she would be affected."

Of course, the rest of the 'danger' and 'unknown' prompts simply meant getting another ability for her, as she had already determined from last time. And based on the name of the item itself, Evelyn could pretty much guess what it was going to be.

Without a doubt, it would be some sort of hallucination inducing or illusion making ability. But since the ability of the beast had failed to take hold on her, the inner workings of whatever illusion ability this thing held were still a mystery.

Evelyn didn't ponder on it anymore, and directly popped the bead into her mouth. As it was only the size of a small marble, it easily slid down her throat with a gulp.

Within moments, a strange tingling sensation started spreading from her belly, but settled down just as quickly as it came.

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— Soul value permanently increased by 10 points!

-[Soul Value: 2,273] → [Soul Value: 2,283]

— Spirit power permanently increased by 20 points!

—[Spirit Power: 1207] → [Spirit Power: 1227]

-Final dimensions of the inventory space changed:

From

109.88 meters long x 109.88 meters wide x 109.88 meters high

To

110.79 meters long x 110.79 meters wide x 110.79 meters high

— Acquired New Ability: Dream Weaver!

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Evelyn smiled and quickly checked her new abilities description. "I hope it's something useful!"

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—Dream Weaver: Level 1 [Proficiency 0%]

— Uses energy to weave an illusion directly in the opponent's mind. Effectiveness depends on the type of energy used and the opponent's resistance to mental attacks and the strength of their soul.

-When proficiency reaches 100% and certain requirements are met, the ability can evolve to higher grades.

— Grade 1: Simple and small objects can be made to appear or disappear.

— Grade 2: Large objects with more complexity can be made to appear or disappear.

— Grade 3: Living beings and other complex objects can be induced into the opponent's mind as hallucinations.

— Grade 4: Dream worlds can be induced into the opponent's mind, but may be unrealistic due to not having self-contained laws.

— Grade 5: Realistic dream worlds with self-contained laws.

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Evelyn frowned after looking over the description. On one hand, it seemed like an extremely useful ability at higher levels, but on the other hand… she had no idea how to upgrade it.

Of course, from what she understood, upgrading wasn't as easy as practicing the skill, as that was only the proficiency part.

The pink haired girl scratched her head in confusion as she checked the system logs just to be sure, but there really wasn't any additional information available, even with her full authority. "Just what in the world are 'certain requirements'?"

Evelyn sighed as she rubbed her head in annoyance. "Oh whatever, I'll just work on getting this proficiency to 100% by practicing first, maybe I'll be able to get some hints just by using it all the time, or upon reaching that point."

Given that it was pretty much worthless at grade one, using it during combat was impossible. Instead, she would have to use it everywhere else.

The pink haired girl nodded to herself after thinking about it. "Well, having a few objects appear and disappear shouldn't be too noticeable anyway. I can probably do something like making illusory shoelaces or hair ties for myself. Oh… I can work on clothes! Free new wardrobe every day!"

Evelyn's eyes shone, suddenly feeling like this wasn't such a useless ability, after all. It was just a lifestyle skill! And on higher grades, it will become even more useful!

Although grade one was limited to simple and small objects, she would be able to create illusions of even larger and complex objects at just grade two! 

That should already cover most of the requirements for basic illusions, right?

What made her curious was the sudden shift in the ability at grade three. After all, instead of just 'creating' illusions around herself, she would then be able to directly attack an opponent's mind!

It made sense, since creating a huge illusion around herself would probably consume was too much energy, and it was better to simply manipulate the opponent's mind directly instead.

Evelyn tapped her chin in thought. "But then… this thing will probably only work on weak-willed opponents anyway, right? Ah, no, if it depends on strength of the soul… that's soul value, is it not?"

The pink haired girl hummed. Although she wasn't particularly interested in grade three and four of the ability, if she could somehow upgrade it all the way to grade five, there were some possibilities there that she really wanted to try.

Being able to create realistic but illusory worlds had more uses than just trapping opponents, after all. Though it was a deadly attack, as well. After all, if she executed it correctly, the opponent wouldn't even know they were in an illusion. 

To them, it would appear that everything was as it should be. Even when it was too late, they may not realize what happened.

Mobilizing her spirit power to weave the ability, Evelyn tried it with something simple first.

With a little concentration, a small red ball appeared in her palm, though there was no tactile feedback or weight to it. With another hum, it flattened into a coin, and then cycled through a multitude of colors before turning to smoke.

—Dream Weaver: Level 1 [Proficiency 0% → 0.01% ]

Evelyn nodded to herself with a smile. "Alright, I guess it's not that hard to level. I consumed one point of spirit power with each transformation. Next is…"

Experimenting for a few more minutes, the pink haired girl quickly determined that maintaining the illusion for ten minutes took another point of spirit power, even if she didn't transform the shape.

Another interesting part was that although the illusion didn't appear to be solid, it could be 'attached' to other objects, and move along with them. 

If she wasn't directly in contact with said object, though, she would have to pour the spirit power into it in advance in accordance with how long she wanted the illusion to last.

So if she wanted a hairband to appear on Bree's head for an hour, she would have to create it using a total of six spirit power, and the girl would be able to move around and do as she liked no problem.

The pink haired girl smiled. "Somehow… isn't this thing perfect for pulling pranks?"

Of course, she usually wasn't one to make fun of people for no reason, but it could still come in handy, right?

Playing around with it a little more, she was able to determine that the ability worked the same with soul value as well.

Evelyn shook her head in disappointment. "It doesn't seem to be better in any way? What a waste of soul—! No, wait… it should be possible to dispel the illusions somehow, right? In that case…"

Eyes shining, the pink haired girl quickly created another illusion. Her own and Ruru's spirit power was still able to pass through it like before, which had caused her to overlook this point, but this time she called over Bree.

The blonde girl looked a little groggy again, as she had almost fallen asleep when Evelyn gave her a rude awakening. "Make wave?"

The pink haired girl coughed, feeling a little embarrassed for waking her up when she just told her to rest earlier. "Y-Yeah. Do it like this… do you feel something here? Okay, then—"

Evelyn made sure that her instructions were simple and clear as she guided Bree on how to make a wave of spirit power, though she wasn't sure if it would work.

Thankfully, Bree was able to easily follow her instructions step by step, and execute the move almost flawlessly, leaving Evelyn's jaw hanging in surprise.

Of course, her illusion had also disappeared.

"Mama?"

"A-Ah, good job, Bree. Good girl! You can go back to sleep now, if you like."

Bree grinned as she received both a pat on the head and a candy, happily wobbling back to the bed while stuffing it into her pocket.

Evelyn rubbed her nose as she saw the scene. 'Don't tell me she caught my hoarding habit? A-Ah, not that I have such a thing! I just make good use of my inventory. That's it.'

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