After dinner, Isaac moved to the study room. Emily trailed behind him, dragging her feet slightly.
“I already ate… do I really have to study too?” she mumbled, hugging herself like a sulking child.
Isaac glanced at her over his shoulder. “If you’re confused about any topic, I’ll help. But you still need to study.”
She pouted.
“Can I sit on your lap then?”
He stopped. His lips twitched. “How would that help either of us study?”
Emily looked away, muttering, “It will make studying more tolerable.”
“No, we won’t be able to study since that position will leave us unable to place books properly.”
He gave her a light pat on the head and guided her inside.
She sat with a groan.
Still, she opened her book and began flipping through it.
Unlike Isaac, she had no memory of her childhood, and as a result, her curriculum had to be built from the ground up. It was heavier, more complex and as a result, much more annoying.
They studied together for the next two hours.
Isaac patiently explained difficult concepts, quizzed her gently, and helped correct her notes. Emily slowly began to engage more.
By 11, she looked half-dead, her eyes drooping.
“Alright, go sleep,” Isaac said.
Her eyes lit up, and she flew out of the room with surprising speed.
Isaac chuckled, shaking his head. “That much enthusiasm just to get away from books.”
He stayed behind, flipping through his own notes. Mana theories. Cultivation experiments. Soil combinations. Everything was piling up. But he kept going.
At midnight, his crops were ready.
Isaac stepped outside into the small field he’d cultivated.
The air was cool, and the pillar light painted the plants with a faint silver sheen.
He grabbed his hoe, and swung it.
2000 Tier 1 Vitality Grain Crops harvested. Mana +1000. Constitution +1000.
You have obtained 10,000 Tier 1 Vitality Grains.
3240 Tier 0 Vitality Grain Crops harvested. Mana +288. Constitution +288.
You have obtained 16,200 Tier 0 Vitality Grains.
Completing the harvest, he burned stalk, spread the fertilizers and replanted fresh seeds.
It was a bit tiring to do with his limited mana pool, but he didn’t rush to share Alice’s bloodline.
He had to be careful to make sure his timing of his stat increase and his actions before that was not suspicious.
If his stat limit suddenly disappered just before the harvest, it woud look like he had been waiting for it to gain the stats, something that should be impossible.
As he worked, his thoughts wandered.
’I’ve already asked Professor Catherine for vegetable and grain crops. Hopefully, they arrive tomorrow. My field should be good enough to grow crops for something that will make tasty food for Emily.’
With the seeds all in place and the field reset, he dusted off his hands and returned to their room.
The light was dim, just enough to see.
Emily had fallen asleep on her side of the bed, half-covered by the blanket.
But the way her hand dangled toward the door, and how her eyes weren’t fully shut, told him she’d been waiting for him.
He walked over quietly and gently adjusted the blanket over her. She stirred a little but didn’t wake. Her breathing was calm.
Isaac sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, watching her.
Then he reached for the pendant around his neck.
With a flicker of consciousness, he entered the soulbound space.
The shift was smooth, like slipping through warm water.
When he opened his eyes again, he was inside the wooden house in the pendant’s sub-dimension.
Isaac stood still for a moment, letting the silence settle before pulling up his status sheet from his Bonded Blessing System.
The translucent blue panel appeared in front of his eyes.
Name: Isaac Hargraves
Title: Mana Resonance, Formlock, Mind Echo
Talent: Genesis Farmer
Rank: Initiate, Lv. 10
Stats:
Strength: 62
Agility: 85
Constitution: 100 [1000]
Spirit Power: 100 [2]
Mana: 100 [1000]
Skills:
Shared Skills: Spectral Claws (SSS rank), Life Drain (S rank), Phantom Step (SSS rank), Demonic Eyes (SS rank), Phantom Parade (SSS rank), Phantom Ward (SSS rank)
Talent Skills: Seed of Providence (SSS rank), Reaper’s Bounty (SSS rank), Sovereign of Land (SSS rank)
Bonds:
Wives: Emily Warren (Netherborn Phantom Empress), Alice Calloway (Sun Dragon)
Bound Beasts: Tyr (Ironwood Sentinel of Life), Tirra (Noctavern Wraithbird)
Affection Points:
Balance: 810.22 → 870.91
Class Quest:
Class: Genetic Harvester
Rank: SSS+
Requirements: Enhance one of your Talent skills to perfection (Incomplete). Find or create a Tier 2 Seed and harvest it (Incomplete). Absorb a Genetic Catalyst (Completed). Survive the Evolutionary Trial (Incomplete).
His eyes scanned the status, and a quiet grin stretched across his face.
“This is a good status, now…”
“Share Alice’s bloodline!”
The moment he said the words, the panel shimmered and a ripple spread through his chest. Then, he felt it.
His heart skipped a beat. Then again.
A sudden surge of heat, not burning, but warm and steady, like sunlight settled beneath his skin.
His back straightened instinctively. His posture grew firm, and grounded. His body felt cleaner, and lighter.
His senses sharpened.
The dim night inside the soul pendant subdimension no longer felt dim.
He could pick out the faint dust particles floating midair. Even his skin prickled slightly, as if it recognized the space around him more intimately.
He raised his hand and curled his fingers into a fist. He could feel the dormant energy coiled deep inside his bones, like a dragon resting.
He exhaled lightly.
He could feel the changes in his blood. It was now thicker, and stronger.
The Sun Dragon Bloodline gave him the instincts and potential of dragon. It made his foundation solid.
A grin tugged at his lips again when he saw the system messages.
[Apex-rank Bloodline detected.]
[Stat limit is being re-adjusted.]
Spirit Power: 100 [2] → 102
Constitution: 100 [1000] → 1000 [100]
Mana: 100 [1000] → 1000 [100]
Your Constitution and Mana has reached Stat limit. You have gained….