The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

Even if Craig was the Crown Prince of the Terrans, the resources they could invest into him were limited to those that enhanced his rate of cultivation and artifacts that increased his combat efficiency. His skill set, on the other hand, could only have slowly expanded with time — had his life not been cut short.     

Meanwhile, Evelyn had a far greater variety of skills available at her disposal despite her short time in this world, and that number was only likely to grow as years passed. While the most efficient method of using the high-grade assassination artifact 'Shadow Strike' was indeed only through 'Lethal Leap' for Craig, Evelyn realized that she had a far superior assassination technique.     

And that was, of course, the cloaking ability of her 'Advanced Spatial Manipulation'.     

While it did take some time to prepare the cloaking skill, removing it was almost instantaneous. Even without 'Shadow Strike', Evelyn had been quite confident in the lethality of an ambush laid using this move, with its only limiting factor being her own offensive strength.     

Obviously, this didn't solve the biggest issue she had with the cloaking technique's offensive part — it was stationary, and its effectiveness depended greatly on whether she knew in advance exactly where her opponent was going to be.     

And that's when an idea had suddenly come to her… what if she combined them both?     

Evelyn assumed that if she was going to assassinate or ambush someone, she would at least have to know their rough location. Hiding around that area using her advanced spatial manipulation would make it possible for her to lay the perfect trap. And once they showed up close enough for the distance to be within the range of 'Lethal Leap'…     

Evelyn smiled. "With how quickly Craig was able to jump on me, I think it should be quite possible to execute it all in one go before the opponent even detects my presence. But who do I test this out on?"     

The pink haired girl wracked her brains for a while before her eyes lit up. "Right! I heard that the beasts in the core region all have their own territories, and generally only leave to hunt. If I can get in there and find a nest, I can lay an ambush and wait until the beast returns, and strike at the perfect moment!"     

Of course, this was easier said than done, since high level beasts had terrifying instincts and senses. Evelyn knew that she would need a lot of effort to avoid alerting these kinds of beasts, even with her perfect cloaking skill. After all, simply cloaking herself after entering wouldn't automatically erase all the clues she could end up leaving before that.     

Evelyn couldn't help but sigh. "I guess I'll have to start looking into some sort of stealth techniques, since I already have everything else I need for this sort of attack. It would be a pity to leave a glaring hole in such an otherwise perfect combo."     

Shaking her head, Evelyn tossed the ornate box into her inventory while setting the grade six artifact 'Shadow Strike' aside.     

With the first box giving her such a good loot, her expectations were obviously a little higher than before. Even when the next three boxes only contained some 'unremarkable' things, Evelyn didn't really mind.     

-[ Tealeaf Preservation Pod: Grade Two ]     

— Able to store any kind of plant based material, though mostly used for tea leaves.     

— Enhances the effects of the stored material slowly over time.     

— Can be stored within spatial artifacts, but the functions will not work.     

— Rate of flavor enhancement = 6% per year for the first ten years, and 1% per year from afterwards.     

— Current Status:     

- 30% filled with Ashflower Tealeaves [Flavor Enhancement: 20%]     

- 10% filled with Dimbreath Tealeaves [Toxicity Enhanced: 20%]     

- 60% Available     

"Ohh? This looks like it could be quite useful if I ever come across some leaves that give buffs. Over time, those buffs will continue getting stronger, right? Not bad, though not too impressive either."     

As for the fact that Craig was apparently carrying poisonous tealeaves in his 'teapot'? Evelyn didn't particularly care.      

After going through four more boxes of grade one and three more of grade two artifacts, she finally came across another 'jackpot' — two shiny silver beads the size of chickpeas.      

Even though this was one of the smallest of the ornate boxes in the 'Heart of the Earth', it contained not one, but two tiny little artifacts! And not only that, they were both of the seventh grade!     

Given how the man at the auction house had behaved, even grade six items were supposed to be considered great treasures that would be the center of attention at a grand auction!     

The description of the tiny thing was comically long though, and it took a while for Evelyn to go through it all.     

-[ Seed of Rejuvenation: Grade Seven ]     

— Buff: Natural recovery of spirit power enhanced by 50%.     

— Debuff: Greatly increases the effectiveness of toxic substances on the host.     

— Both the effects are applied at the same time.     

— The seed needs to be held within the body for the effects to be applied.     

— This is a natural artifact with the ability to grow.     

— Once pushed down deep enough inside the body, the seed can take root, and slowly consume the host from within.     

— The buff provided by a rooted seed are twice as effective, and the debuff is no longer applied.     

— A small chance to upgrade the seed by one grade each time the host dies. The probability decreases with each upgrade.      

— The host has to be above ten times in level as the grade of the artifact for the upgrade to be possible. Current requirement: Level 70 or higher.     

— If the host gives natural birth while the seed is still rooted, it may be passed onto the child instead. The host will still perish, but the leftovers of their vitality can nourish both the seed and the child.     

— Grade 7 to Grade 8 upgrade probability is 0.006% per sacrifice.     

"Wait just a minute… this…"     

Looking at the whole thing again, Evelyn suddenly had a realization. "If the rooted seed can be passed on to the child in a natural birth… don't tell me it was able to be split in two when the children were twins?"     

And for the both of them to be grade seven artifacts, it had to have happened when the seeds were at grade seven already!     

"No, it's even possible that the Terran royal family has more of these seeds, even if they may not be of the same level. This might even be what made them the 'most talented' family in their kingdom!"     

Evelyn couldn't help but shake her head. "No wonder Craig was always enthusiastically looking for wives. Attracting high-level partners from other kingdoms is the best source of 'sacrifices' for this artifact, after all. And as his wives, they might even give birth to twins or even triplets before their death."     

A woman perishing during childbirth wasn't uncommon in this world, and wouldn't raise many suspicions. This was one of the reasons why most high level couples chose to splurge on a spirit egg, after all.     

Not only would the child born be considerably more talented, there was also no risk of the mother's death. Moreover, unlike natural pregnancy, neither of the couple would have to be extra careful of external threats, as both of their combat efficiency would remain at the peak.     

That being said, there were still some high-level couples who went with the more 'romantic', natural process of giving birth to children. With enough resources and proper coaching, these children wouldn't necessarily be too far behind the worst of the spirit children, after all, and many considered only these to be their 'real' children.     

"Craig was definitely a spirit physique… right? I don't know what the royal family did to convince the concubines and wives to go for the natural birth, as I doubt they would be very willing if they knew they'd just end up becoming sacrifices."     

Of course, the royal family could just force them, but that wouldn't be a long-term solution. As long as they knew about it, there would always be a risk of one of the concubines or wives somehow being able to leak the secret out.     

Evelyn realized that she would definitely have to look into the fatality rate of Terran girls during childbirth. Only that way would she know just how heavily the Earth Kingdom had ended up exploiting this particular artifact already.     

"If my hunch is right… that explains the dominance of the Terrans in the recent years… I'm not sure how useful this might be against the Terrans, to be honest, but maybe it could spark some civil unrest there? I'll have to be careful, though."     

As for the artifact itself... of course, although the negative effects of this thing were quite severe, Evelyn still planned to use it. How to go about doing that safely, however, still threw her for a loop.     

"With my poison immunity, the debuff probably won't even work, but I would rather not take any chances with that disgusting rooting effect…"     

Given that she had two of these things, the best scenario would be to use one for herself, and one for Amara. After all, as their main support and the one responsible for casting all the buffs, the older redhead's spirit power regeneration was probably the most crucial in their team.     

"I think it should be fine if we put it inside something too large to be accidentally swallowed before putting it in our mouth during combat, right? No wait, there are probably far more efficient ways, I'll discuss this with the others later."     

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