SSS Awakening: I am the First Legendary Mage

The answer was obvious. It was obviously the Advanced Blood Vitalization Spell, especially since it could also boost his physical strength and would therefore fuse better with Superior Body Reinforcement than Blood Strengthening Spell.

If Alex’s theory was correct, spells that had greater compatibility with each other should also produce better results when fused. That made Advanced Blood Vitalization the obvious choice, but there was another reason that further confirmed his decision.

Previously, when Alex used Blood Vitalization together with Superior Body Reinforcement, the physical boost from Blood Vitalization had been completely overshadowed by Superior Body Reinforcement. Now that Blood Vitalization had reached Level 10, however, he could gain the physical enhancement from both spells at the same time. That meant, he could use physical boost of Advanced Blood Vitalization with Superior Body Reinforcement.

[Advanced Blood Vitalization Spell learned.]

[Advanced Blood Vitalization Spell, D Rank, Level 1.]

[The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.]

[Effect: Allows you to boost your blood with life mana.]

Alex stared at the description for several seconds, completely baffled by it. Why was something like that being used here. Was the System simply bored because Alex had not been reacting to its strange insults?

Perhaps the System had decided to start making jokes and references because Alex wasn’t giving it enough attention. He shook his head and stopped thinking about it before activating the new spell.

As expected, the effect was impressive. Alex could feel strength flowing through his entire body, while his stamina also seemed to have increased, judging from the energetic feeling he was experiencing.

His senses had improved as well, and he confirmed he could now combine the physical boost from Advanced Blood Vitalization with Superior Body Reinforcement. The two spells no longer interfered with each other, allowing him to gain the physical enhancement from both at the same time.

The spell also reduced the burden on his Mana Heart.

Everything about the spell was useful, but there was one problem that Alex couldn’t ignore. The amount of compressed life mana required by Advanced Blood Vitalization was tremendous, so there was a high possibility of making a mistake while using the spell and that could cause some kind of tumor or other abnormal growth.

He therefore adjusted the spell carefully and made sure he didn’t mess up. With the current compression of life mana, the tumor that could be born form it would be no joke.

Just as he finished making those adjustments, Joseph, Emma, and Yulia finally returned. Alex immediately noticed that their expressions were stiff, and the hair on their necks and hands was standing up as if they had experienced intense goosebumps.

"You guys were quite late. Did you encounter any monsters?" Alex asked while preparing to grill the remaining Kraken meat so everyone could eat together.

He was still feeling as though his stomach was twisting because of the news about his mother, but he couldn’t allow himself to remain distracted by it. For now, he needed to focus on the present and make sure everyone could survive Hell Difficulty.

"We did encounter some monsters, but that’s not why we were late," Emma said as she swallowed nervously.

The group sat down around the flames that Alex created, and Joseph remained quiet for a moment before finally speaking. "You remember the broken castle walls around this place, right?"

"Yes," Alex and Sarah answered together.

"We saw a somewhat intact wall near the top of this hill. There was a plaque on it that said the wall was the entrance to the Eighth Winery," Joseph explained.

Alex’s expression immediately changed, and goosebumps rose across his skin as he realized what Joseph meant. He stared at Joseph for several seconds before asking, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Joseph replied with a firm nod.

"What is strange about it being a winery?" Sarah looked between them with confusion.

Alex turned toward her. "This place is the Land of Origin."

"And?" Sarah asked, still not understanding.

"Why is something here written in a language that people like us from Earth can understand?" Alex asked.

Sarah froze as she finally understood what Alex was implying. Her expression changed immediately, and she looked toward the others as the same realization reached her.

Alex remained silent as countless thoughts passed through his mind. The Land of Origin was supposed to be an entirely different dimension, yet there was a place here with a name written in a language that people from Earth could recognize.

He couldn’t figure out why.

The ruins around them had been abandoned for decades at the very least, and perhaps even centuries. Alex tried to think of what was happening. There were too many possibilities, but without more information, Alex couldn’t determine whether the language had originated on Earth, the Land of Origin, or somewhere else entirely.

Since they couldn’t reach a useful conclusion, they decided not to waste time thinking about it. They still had more immediate problems to deal with, and continuing to speculate wouldn’t help them survive.

The group ate the Kraken meat instead. Joseph and Emma grilled it over the fire, and despite everything that had happened, the meat turned out to be surprisingly delicious. Alex could feel the meat nourishing his body.

While they ate, Alex explained his theory about Pioneers having two lives and why some Pioneers could no longer return to Earth after one of their bodies died. Contrary to what Alex expected, Joseph and Yulia accepted the news rather calmly.

"That’s fine. It would’ve been a pain to keep traveling between two worlds anyway, so I might as well focus on only one of them," Joseph said with a chuckle.

"Besides, we travel around frequently, so we don’t have much attachment to our house," Yulia added.

Alex nodded after hearing their responses. Petra was also surprisingly normal about the news, which was something Alex hadn’t expected at all.

He had thought the little girl might become scared or cry after realizing that she couldn’t return to Earth. Instead, she barely reacted, and if anything, she looked somewhat relieved.

Alex noticed the expression but didn’t ask her about it. He didn’t know what had happened to her on Earth, and if she wasn’t ready to talk about it, he had no reason to force her.

After talking for a little longer, the group decided it was time to leave. The moonlight had appeared for some time now, and the water levels were falling again, which meant the parents of the egg might return to this area soon.

They needed to leave before that happened.

As everyone prepared to move, Emma looked at the large egg with a troubled expression. "What should we do about the egg? We can’t put it into our inventory because of how much mental strain it creates, and it’s almost as big as an adult human, so dragging it along would also be a hassle. We can’t even put a scratch on it, so damaging it to obtain its gene potential isn’t possible either."

"Let me try. I have something I want to test," Alex said.

If he could destroy the egg, he would obtain the Gene Potential of a species above Mid rank, which was extremely valuable.

..

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