The day after the ritual, Zoe was still in the same state, her hairs were still turning in a dark green color, it reached a state where half of them were dark green and the other half of the beatiful gold she inherited from her family.
Everyone in the palace was worrying, they started to think that Zoe would not get out of it alive. Zach still didn't get to see her, he also started to worry about her, he knew it has something to do with her soul thus at every given time she could die.
There was another thing which occupied his thoughts, he was thinking about why the awakening ritual wasn't the same for Zoe than for every other who underwent it.
'As the ritual didn't unfold the same as the other for Zoe the effects shouldn't be the same as well, there could be minor or major differences with the other, I only hope that they would be improvement and not regression.'
The King announced that until they discovered what happened to Zoe or until she regain consciousness no awakening ritual would be done.
Days went by, Zach didn't get the permission to see her, after a full week Zoe finally regained consciousness.
Everyone was very happy and she immediately got summoned by the King and the old elf to explain what happened to her, only the three of them were in the throne room.
"Can you explain what happened to you Zoe ?" The King asked in a worried voice, he still feared that she would fall unconscious or dead at any moment due to what happened.
All of Zoe's hairs became of a green malachite color, in fact it was a bit darker than green malachite, it wasn't the same dark green as the others.
"I don't know what happened to me and why it happened. The only thing I know is that I never felt the ambient man as clear as I can right now." She explained.
When they heard that both the King and the old elf didn't have any new clue, it was the same for every other one who awoke their bloodlines. Considering that she didn't mention something else they were both clueless about why this anomaly happened.
Zoe was sent back, the King and his father talk about this event. "Father, what do you think we should do ?" The King asked, he was too much hesitant in selecting the course of the next events.
The old elf stroke his chin and replied in a calm tone. "We should make another ritual at the next full moon night, if the same thing happen again we will let some time go to see if there are some side effects we didn't see."
The King nodded, they would do the awakening ritual again, this time they would awake the army's elite soldiers. Now that everything was in order, the king would be able to think about the genius squad's punishment for the failure in the snake extermination mission.
He thought about the best punishment to give them, considering what happened during the mission he wouldn't be too hard.
He decided that the best would be to narrow the bound between them, he decided that all of them would team up and fight against an experienced team in the army. He wanted them to cooperate and to at least not lose by a too great margin.
It would be a war simulation, in the wild, the genius squad against an experienced team, if even after that they were not able to at least put their grudges asides during a mission, he would show himself firmer.
This would unfold a week later, in the plain just behind the town, he hoped that it would be enough, after all those 21 kids were the greatest hope of the kingdom. As for Zach he could be considered like a mercenary, after the war against Kartelion the King didn't know what he would do.
The next day everyone in the genius squad gathered in the throne room, Kimstros was also there, he had great difficulties to walk but he was alive and he would be able to fully heal.
The King announced what he decided for them, most of them didn't mind this situation but for some of them like Xaratus or Galitos, both of them prefered to do things on their own, it was a punishment that bothered them quite a bit.
It was the same for Kimstros but in his misfortune he would not participate too much in this fight considering his body's state, at most he would discuss with them about strategies but that's it.
The King hesitated to send Zoe but she forced him to send her with the others, in the end the King could only bow his head.
It was the first time Zach could see Zoe since the awakening ritual, he could now try to observe her soul. He took a good look but he didn't have an accurate idea of what was her soul's state, it was like her soul was shrouded in a mist, he couldn't get a clear idea of it.
He would either need to improve his soul cultivation or maybe his Soul mastery skill would be able to help him understand what happened to Zoe's soul.
Everyone scattered, Zoe and Zach meet up in the garden to talk like they already done a few times before. "How are you feeling ?" Zach asked, he was quite worried.
"I'm fine, during the awakening ritual I think the seed created by the core of life method resonated with my awakening, the seed sprouted a bit and there is a root that appeared when I woke up."
Zach put his hand on his chin and started to think. 'Was it because she practice the core of life method that her awakening was different ? After all it would made sense, I already suspected it to have an effect on her soul and when she was unconscious something was going on with her soul.'
Right now he couldn't be sure about what happened to her soul, he would need to at least wait until he could gather a few souls and understand his new skill to see if he could understand what happened to her.
He didn't know when the next mission where they would kill beast would be, at the moment he would only be able to put Soul mastery level 2 and it was thanks to the level up ticket, he would not use it when 10 System points would be enough.
Zach started to feel that even if he improved at a very fast pace in the begining, it would be a lot harder as the time passed, after all he would need to level up twice just to put his soul mastery level 2 and he still had quite a lot of locked skills.
He started to see that even with all the System points he saved thanks to the Void Body method, he would have to manage his System points carefully.
Suddenly he thought about Zaalem, this bizarre thing craved for souls, he had to see what it would become if he fed it a few ones. Zach knew that it was something valuable but maybe it would be a priceless thing, until he fed it souls he wouldn't know.
He didn't know what it would become, maybe it would be a weapon, a golem or something else it could be everything and if it was a weapon Zach didn't know what kind of weapon it would be, he hoped that it would be a scythe, he didn't want to learn how to master a new weapon from nothing.
Even if it was a great weapon if it wasn't a scythe Zach wasn't sure to use it, after all he spent 5 years in mastering the scythe, he would take a long time to attain the same level he had with the scythe with another weapon.
"Are you there ?" Zoe's voice suddenly dragged Zach out of his thoughts, he shook his head and answered with a big smile. "Yeah, sorry I was thinking about something, in any case I find the new color of your hair great, beatiful, it fits you very well."
Even if a close color from Zoe's hair would eventually end on the head of all the awakened elves, she may be the only to have all her hairs of a new color.
When she heard this Zoe blushed, when she first saw her new hair color she was surprised but after thinking about it she wasn't bothered about her new hair color. But when she heard Zach's compliment about them she was very happy, so happy that she stuttered. "Th ... Thank y ... you."
She was so emabarrassed that she ran away, when Zach saw her running away he chuckled, he took her aback. It was a first for Zoe, usally the compliments she got were empty ones, it was just to get closer to the royal family as her siblings were officials in the army and quite hard to approach.
Just before she ran away Zach could feel that her cultivation had also improved. This time she was on the verge of breaking through in the low rank 3, it also could have a link with her odd bloodline awakening.
They only had to wait for the war simulation to happen, until then they could do everything they wanted, Zach was still bothered about not having a proper scythe, he decided to go to Viggo's minister to see if he could help him.