OP Absorption

Scarlet flopped back onto the surprisingly comfortable bed. The room Arachne had shown her to was... functional. Clean lines, muted colors, no frills.

A far cry from the opulent chambers she’d sometimes glimpsed in Castle Varn, but infinitely better than the sterile holding cells or rough field camps she was more accustomed to.

Honestly, after getting shot full of holes, a soft bed and four solid walls felt like absolute luxury.

She stared up at the ceiling, which seemed to be made of the same smooth, dark stone as the throne room. This whole place was weird.

Fin’s personal dimension? ’How does a kid stumble into owning something like this?’ He was strong, sure.

That display back there, that power, the sheer pressure... S-rank? Definitely. Probably low-to-mid tier, if she had to guess. The way he healed her, that green energy felt different, not like the raw destructive power of the Mana Cell she sensed before.

’He’s got layers,’ she mused, rubbing her side where the worst wound had been. It barely twinged now. Impressive healing.

But still... Varn was Varn. Ancient, powerful, playing games on a scale Fin couldn’t even comprehend yet. Fin was strong, maybe even King-level potential like she sensed, but raw power wasn’t everything.

Varn had centuries of experience, influence, armies... Fin was just a kid who got lucky with an artifact and somehow manifested a domain.

’Yeah, definitely need to be careful around him. Interesting, maybe. Powerful, yes. But survivable? Long term? Jury’s still out.’ Sticking around felt like the least bad option for now, though.

Freedom was nice, but being hunted by both Varn and the Association sounded exhausting.