[8 Phantom Energy gained.]
Rei killed another ferocious beast, a saber-horned rabbit.
So far, he had gathered 116 Phantom Energy by the time they descended the mountain on the other side.
And Rei would only stop after gathering 1000 Phantom Energy for Fate Crow's quest.
…
On the other hand, Xander regained consciousness, and the first thing he checked was the status of his [Mark of Prey].
'I lost.'
Xander opened his eyes, anger swirling in them. He couldn't track Rei anymore.
He lost the mark on Rei as he failed to kill his prey in the final confrontation.
That was the rule.
After ten minutes, Fatty Lu arrived before Xander and said with narrowed eyes, "Xander, your hunt of prey led to much destruction here. I am sure you will help me solve my problems when you are fixed."
Xander nodded with a deadpan expression. "It is my failure, I am aware of it. What about that guy and his companions?"
"They left, can't track anymore."
Xander clenched his jaw and fists both before taking a deep breath.
Fatty Lu patted Xander's shoulder before saying, "Since you are alive, he also failed. Continue walking on your path, and I am sure you will get to meet him again."
Xander turned to Fatty Lu, "Are you not going to join me like before? Planning to settle here?"
Fatty Lu laughed and shook his head.
"Nah. I'll join, but I get good money and women here, so I am taking a break for now."
Xander nodded.
Fatty Lu was an Elite-rank Exceed, and his Seals were more utility and control related, which were similar to Xander's. So he could understand if Fatty Lu needed a break and preparation to upgrade his Exceed Tree to the next level.
After all, Lu's Fourth Seal would be his first Median Seal. It was a significant power-up but a challenging journey to reach there as Fatty Lu was still in the process of evolving his Exceed Tree to Mystic level.
Xander's second Seal was also useless in direct fights but was a source of his raw strength as it was a utility Seal for enhancing his items in various ways depending on items, which was why his sword was more powerful than Rei's evolved katana.
"Lu, I'll help you, but I need an ingredient first."
Lu nodded.
"Yeah, you told me you needed one last ingredient to develop your Third Seal. Give me the details, and I'll bring it."
***
"Let's take a small break," Rei said as he sat down and leaned his back against a thick tree after clearing this area of ferocious beasts.
They'd been beast hunting for three hours, and Rei had gathered 382 Phantom Energy so far.
Naturally, he was not that tired, but Lia was. She sat down beside Rei and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Are you still in pain?" Rei asked.
"Not anymore," Lia replied before raising her hand to look at the injury.
It was an uneven vertical cut, and the blood had stopped. But the pain was immense since her Taint activated when she got that injury.
Her Taint increased the pain by five times!
Rei felt Lia's body trembling and asked, "What's wrong?"
"N-Nothing. I was a bit scared because of this Taint," Lia said, slightly dreaded. "I don't want to get hurt physically until this Taint is gone. The pain will make me mad even if I get a slightly more severe injury, and my Gifted ability also seemed to react to that."
Rei was startled. "How does your ability react to pain?"
"I don't know. Self-defense, maybe? I get the feeling that if I am in mind-wrenching pain or mortal danger, this ability will go berserk. I felt it activating this time, but I managed to keep it off since I was sane and conscious."
"That is indeed bad."
Rei nodded before he thought of something and smiled.
"Rest on my lap, I'll massage you to make you feel good."
Lia was surprised but also overjoyed. She quickly slid her head from Rei's shoulder to his lap before looking at his smiling face with a blush. "C-Can you massage my chest?"
Rei chuckled. "That was my intention."
A minute later, Lia's chest was bare as she had removed her t-shirt and bra for Rei to massage her breasts and enjoy the activity himself.
His finger gently pinched and rubbed her nipples as he massaged her breasts in various hand movements.
Lia was feeling good, but she wanted to feel better.
Abruptly standing up, she looked at Rei with pink cheeks and sat down on his lap as her tits slightly jiggled in front of Rei's face upon sitting.
Rei chuckled and understood. Opening his mouth, he started sucking Lia's right breast while his hand fondled the other.
His tongue played with her erect nipple as he also took occasional gentle bites, causing Lia to feel stings of pleasure.
After a minute, he switched to sucking her other breast. After all, he should give the same treatment to both, right?
Lia had locked her arm around Rei's neck while she sat with her eyes closed, feeling increasing pleasure in her being. Even the lingering pain she felt was curbed amidst this satisfying activity.
Rei was truly good at sucking her boobs as she was increasingly stimulated and feeling pleasure.
After a while, Lia opened her haze-filled eyes while trembling. She quickly stood up before turning around and pulling down her trousers and panties as quickly as possible.
"Nnghh~"
A moan escaped her mouth while her vagina sprayed out love juice, squirting like a fountain.
'Nipple orgasm?' Rei was surprised and lightly laughed.
Standing up, he grabbed Lia from behind and inserted his left-hand finger inside her pussy while using his right hand to continue fondling her breasts.
"Aanhh~"
Lia moaned in pleasure at getting fingered and fondled, feeling an absolute blast of ecstasy.
But she soon realized something when she felt Rei's crotch at her butt. Wasn't it unfair that only she was feeling such pleasure?
She suddenly turned around, surprising Rei, and sat on her knees as she faced Rei's bulging crotch. 'It looks like it's suffocating.'
"Can you remove your pants? I might hurt it if I remove your pants," Lia said. She was exhilarated because Rei was pleasuring her, but it was unfair if only she felt good.
Rei smiled and nodded. He was rock hard and also feeling slight pain.
…
Five minutes later, the sound of flesh hitting flesh rang out as Lia stood in front of a tree with her palms resting on the trunk and her back bent as Rei was thrusting vigorously from behind.
He reached the deepest in her pussy with every thrust at a moderate speed, but enough to send jolts and jolts of pleasure with his every move.
They were in the out, so Rei finished it quickly after ten minutes, increasing his thrusting speed as Lia's eyes rolled upward in pleasure.
She had already climaxed once, but when Rei poured his load into her, she climaxed again with a loud moan as her body twitched in euphoria.
Rei tightly hugged her from behind after pulling her back and shut her mouth by kissing her while his meat rod twitched inside her throbbing pussy as they both climaxed.
Lia was still twitching in pleasure while being kissed, and since Rei's hand was free, it roamed over her tender breasts freely, massaging them and pinching her nipples.
"Haaah…" Lia breathed hard after the kiss, looking at Rei with eyes full of love and mirth. "Rei…"
Looking at her infatuated expression, Rei felt a rush and again locked his lips on hers.
She was by no means a top-quality beauty. Her looks were better now but barely above average.
However, a woman in love was always beautiful, especially if she displayed such infatuation for you.
…
Half an hour later, Rei and Lia continued with their hunt.
Lia was in high spirits and a good mood, feeling happier than ever as she walked alongside Rei in search of the next ferocious beasts.
It was not long before they encountered one, a porcupine the size of a normal tiger with sharp black spikes. It readily noticed them and looked at them with its red eyes.
"Barrier!" Rei quickly said as soon as he noticed the beast and drew his katana.
He feared it would unleash those spikes from its body since it was not a normal porcupine, like all the beasts they had previously encountered.
And it did release those spikes!
Fortunately, Lia was quick and covered them in Bond Barriers before Rei finished speaking.
*Swoosh!*
Rei extended his katana half a second after that beast released spikes and pierced its head.
[9 Phantom Energy gained.]
"Next one is yours. Use the basic magic attack of your ability that you practiced to kill it after I hurt it," Rei said.
"Yes, boss."
Lia nodded with a smile. She was covered in the gorgeous royal violet-purple dress of her ability with wisps of light and dark purples.
Her limit was releasing four balls of purple flame until her stamina was exhausted.
They also tested [Bond Barrier] uses Lia and found that she could only use this Quirk a total of 6 times in a row before she exhausted her stamina.
Furthermore, she could only walk with ragged breathing after exhausting her stamina every time, and to recover her stamina, she must rest for roughly half an hour.
Leo, Rei, and Alice would also exhaust their stamina if they used their powers too much.
But this limited stamina was bad during emergencies and dangerous situations, as resting wouldn't be an option. That's why Rei decided to prioritize enhancing everyone's physiques after leaving this planet.
Time passed, and another day went by.
After returning to the ship at 8 p.m., Lia took a birth-prevention pill as Rei and others had also purchased clothing and other items in addition to their new spaceship on the last planet.
Meanwhile, Leo was not as tired, so he and Terrana tried to gather more information by sending abstract radio waves to connect to networks of space stations and other planets' data centers.
There was so much information everywhere about various things, so some might become useful in their journey even if they just randomly started hoarding information in Terrana's Neo AI core whenever they got time and opportunity.