Chapter 90 Elena’s Change!

"Arghh! It hurts!" yelled Elena.

"Incredible, so there are limits like this? I see."

Watching his sister in pain, Ethan didn’t reach out to help her. Instead, he activated his Mana Sight, trying to observe what was happening.

Sure enough, what he discovered made him glad he had decided to use his sister as a test subject.

With her hyper-speed regeneration, at least he didn’t have to worry about her suffering permanent injury.

"So it turns out that even Awakeners can’t devour cores without care."

"From what I can see now, each time she swallowed a core, the mana from it strengthened her body while a large portion was absorbed by her own mana core."

"Unfortunately, because she absorbed so much in such a short time, her body wasn’t strengthened enough to deal with the rapid changes."

"As a result, now that she has reached the peak of F-rank for her transition to E-rank, the energy released by her core has begun to tear her body apart."

Muttering this, Ethan had just understood more about Evolvers than he had comprehended throughout his whole past life.

Another detail he observed was that as she devoured each crystal, the energy split in two and flowed into each half of her core, most likely representing her dual abilities.

’In that case, does it mean that ten of these low-class cores are enough to make the average Awakener advance to E-rank?’ With his hand on his chin, Ethan felt his hypothesis was correct.

However, he would require more data to confirm it, something he would do later.

Right now, he had to study and understand the evolution process as thoroughly as possible.

"Arghh! Brother, why didn’t you tell me it would be so painful?! I feel like my whole body is being destroyed and regenerated!"

"Just what is going on?!" Gritting her teeth, she struggled to ask.

To this, Ethan had no choice but to calm her down.

"Relax, Sister, it’s almost over. Just hold on, I promise you won’t regret it!"

Christian also chimed in, trying to comfort his granddaughter.

"Don’t worry, Elena. Didn’t you always tell Grandpa you’re the strongest? Then use this chance to prove it!"

The other veterans saw the strain on her body and, imagining the excruciating pain she was going through, offered their own words of encouragement.

"Little girl, hold on, you got this!" Lauren called out.

"Come on now, little girl. Grandpa Kenjiro here heard you like to duel; if you get through this okay, I promise to teach you my sword arts," Kenjiro added.

One by one, they gave their words of advice. Hearing their voices, Elena began to calm down.

Although she was still in extreme pain, she at least managed to stop screaming.

Now, all she had to do was hold on until the transformation was complete.

Time passed quickly. Perhaps because it was only the transition from F-rank to E-rank, the process didn’t take too long.

After around fifteen minutes of rapid destruction and repair, Elena finally returned to normal.

All abnormalities, from her hair to her brows, completely disappeared.

The only thing different was her aura.

Just sitting there, in the eyes of mages who were sensitive to mana and possessed Mana Sight, she had transformed from a flickering candle into a blazing stove as her internal mana shone brighter than ever before.

"How do you feel, Sister?" Ethan asked, his eyes scanning her physique for any lingering damage.

"I feel great! Not only do I feel like my abilities have taken a qualitative leap, but just from stepping into E-rank, my attributes have increased by twenty-five points!"

"Not only that, but by the time this stored energy is fully digested, I should be well over one hundred points in each attribute!"

Checking her property panel, Elena was more than surprised.

From what she could feel, her body hadn’t even absorbed half of the energy released from the crystals yet, and she was already this strong.

By the time she finished digesting it all, just how powerful would she become?

Ethan just nodded in response. Her words matched his theory that an E-rank baseline hovered around a threshold of one hundred attribute points.

After all, when he last checked, Elena’s baseline average had hovered around 45 points.

Now, she was about to hit one hundred; her combat strength had more than doubled!

"Alright then, Sister. Be sure to let me know what your final attributes settle at." He paused, looking back toward the table.

"And as for everyone else, do you see what I mean?"

"As you can see, mana crystals are extremely important for helping Awakeners grow stronger."

"And while Elena can no longer use these low-rank crystals to continue advancing due to their tier limit..."

"...the utility of these crystals doesn’t end here!"

Saying this, Ethan began outlining his broader strategy.

"First off, we still have more Awakeners in the base whose abilities we can improve if needed, or we can use the crystals as incentives."

"Also, because of how valuable they are, I foresee these crystals becoming a universal currency for trading between Awakeners of different factions."

"Because of that, organizing an expedition to scout out and locate other bases for trade should also be put on the table soon."

"With all the supplies we’ve hoarded in our shelters, we should be able to acquire quite a few crystals in exchange."

As he spoke, he turned his gaze directly toward Darius.

"Also, if we secure enough crystals, I can test out some of those operational theories you suggested and perhaps succeed."

"In any case, acquiring more crystals through monster hunting or trade needs to be prioritized before more people realize their true value."

Hearing this, everyone nodded in understanding.

Going forward, the quantity of crystals one possessed would serve as a major status symbol across the new world

Under his guidance, before anyone realised what happened, they would have swept up most of the crystals in Emerald City, firmly establishing their position!