[Descend ended]
[Processing this Descend's settlement—
Settlement as follows:
Discovered Blossom Valley lifeforms, gained exploration value 16. Discovered special Blossom Valley location: Autumn Moon Grove, gained exploration value +6. Discovered Blossom Valley wonder, gained exploration value +3.
Discovered Blossom Valley deity, activated this character panel, gained exploration value reward 50.
Exploration settlement in progress…
This exploration rewards obtained:
1: Soul Strength +3.1
2: Special character favorability +2, unlocked this character's personal information.
3: The special character shared her insights with you. Obtained special item — Contract of the Nine-Tailed Spirit.
Congratulations, Summoner.]
The exploration value was high, but his Soul Strength only went up by 3.1. Logan didn't find that strange—last time he'd already realized exploration value and Soul Strength weren't a simple one-to-one add.
Still… Ahri's personal info, and the Contract of the Nine-Tailed Spirit?
Logan checked his panel first.
[Name: Logan]
[Race: Human Soul]
[Soul Strength: 10.4 (Scattered Soul)]
[World Exploration: 1.5%]
[Current Item: Contract of the Nine-Tailed Spirit]
He looked at the item slot. There was a stone stamped with a fox paw print. He took it out and read its details.
[Contract of the Nine-Tailed Spirit (Bound)]
[Quality: Red (Mythic)]
[Required Level: None]
[Effect: Charisma increased, Affinity increased]
[Description: A powerful deity took interest in you and left a mark upon you. But is being noticed by a deity truly a good thing?]
"Charisma… affinity?"
Logan turned the stone over in his fingers, then chose to use it.
The description warned that being noticed by a deity might not be a good thing—but for Logan, he needed power. He wanted Zaun to change, and strength was non-negotiable. Spirit Blossom was what he relied on. And besides… being marked by Ahri was still better than being marked by Thresh, right?
Logan could only feel relieved now—seriously, thank god Ahri had shown up back then. If Thresh had left a mark on him… would he even be able to return to Spirit Blossom?
That creepy old bastard.
He opened the character panel and looked. Inside, besides the already-lit Thresh, there was Ahri—wearing a long dress, one hand emerging from pink sleeves as she played with a pearl-like orb, her seductive face smiling sweetly.
Logan reached out and tapped Ahri's icon. Her profile opened.
[Blossom Valley — Ahri]
[Soul Strength: ???]
[Personality: Gentle, kind, cheerful; intensely curious about the world]
[Likes: Hearing stories she's never heard, seeing souls she's never seen]
[Stage: Encounter]
[Status: Guiding a newly transformed soul onto the right path.]
Different. Her Soul Strength still didn't display, but two new fields appeared—Personality and Likes.
Was the system basically telling Logan how to raise Ahri's favorability?
She liked listening to stories…
Logan started wondering if he could bring things from the outside world into Spirit Blossom. If he could, maybe bringing Ahri books would make her happy.
And looking at her personality description, Logan felt reassured.
Someone like Ahri—how could she possibly hurt him?
Meanwhile, he could already imagine what Thresh's personality would look like in the panel: antisocial, gloomy, deranged.
Just thinking about Thresh killed Logan's good mood. He muttered curses under his breath, closed the panel, and exited Spirit Blossom.
He still had one Descend opportunity left, but there was no need to use it right away. Those three points of Soul Strength had already pushed Logan through another qualitative leap.
He could feel the obvious changes in his body. If he had to put it into words—his speed was at least twice what it had been before. His strength was probably about double too.
Bending a five-centimeter-thick steel plate barehanded… yeah, that didn't feel impossible anymore.
The weapons Jinx built could barely smash through two millimeters of steel. With this kind of strength, Logan was genuinely beyond human.
He wouldn't exactly be able to stroll through both cities like he owned them—but if it were just him alone, then yeah… if Logan wanted to do something, there probably wasn't anyone who could stop him.
If there was someone…
Maybe Camille.
And maybe that Zaunite "deity" no one had seen—never heard from, only ever appearing in murals?
With those thoughts in mind, Logan woke in the material realm.
As he sat up, he twitched his ear—he could hear voices outside.
Once Soul Strength passed ten, his senses had sharpened with it. Even inside the tent, he could clearly hear what was happening out there.
"That's Powder!"
"We've gotta get over there—go get Logan!"
"Vi, calm down! I'll go get the bos—"
Marsen didn't even finish his sentence before he froze, staring blankly at Logan who had suddenly appeared in front of him. He jumped.
"Holy—Boss, when did you get here?"
"Just now. What happened?" Logan looked at Vi.
Vi was just as confused. She'd personally watched Logan go into the tent twenty meters away. While she was talking to Marsen, she'd even pointed at that tent.
So why was Logan here now?
What the hell?
But she didn't have time to dig into it. She looked toward the distant blue smoke rising in broad daylight and said urgently, "That's Powder. That has to be Powder. That's the flare signal I gave her—we need to go find her right now!"
Vi's face was tight with panic.
Yesterday she'd still been arguing with Jinx, but now that something might've happened to her, Vi was the one who couldn't sit still for even a second.
Logan lifted his head and saw it—blue smoke, thin and intermittent, rising from somewhere not too close to the Spirit Blossom Gang's base.
"Marsen. Didn't I tell you to send people to protect Jinx?" Logan's voice turned cold.
"Boss, the two we sent—Light and Marvins—lost her. She took Isha and shook them off," Marsen explained.
Logan didn't scold Marsen any further.
Because… it was Jinx.
If she could behave and stay put, the Twin Cities wouldn't have half its problems.
Staying quiet just wasn't her.
"Fine. I get it. Wake everyone up. Grab weapons. I'm going now."
"Wait—take me with you!" Vi reached out and grabbed Logan.
Logan hesitated, then wrapped an arm around Vi. "I'm fast. You'd better brace yourself."
Vi instinctively wanted to argue, but she remembered Logan appearing out of nowhere just now. She nodded hard. "I'm read—waugh?!"
A blur flashed.
Marsen shut his eyes and started coughing. When he opened them again, he stared stupidly at the figures already dozens of meters away—shadows sprinting across rooftops.
His mouth fell open.
"What the hell…?"
He knew Logan was strong, but…
Was that still human?
And that weird chem-tech tin-can that wiped out the Blinding Gang back then—could it even move at half of Logan's speed?
Marsen's body started trembling, excitement surging up his spine.
Following someone like that—
The future was bright as hell.
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