'Alisha's sister? I didn't know she had a sister,' said Aaron, shocked.
Unlike Alisha, Lorelei's demeanor was much rougher. Her tomboyish personality made Aaron somewhat doubt the truth of her family tree.
"Which group are you from? Are you planning to kill me?!" said Lorelei.
"Woah! Look, I have no such intentions. I came here as Alisha told me to."
Aaron remembered the detection slip Alisha had given him earlier, perhaps Lorelei would soften if she saw the white slip.
The young man took it from his digital storage. It was displayed in Aaron's palm which he immediately showed to Lorelei.
Lorelei was startled until her eyes were rounded wide, the woman knew the white slip had belonged to her sister, Alisha. Still, Lorelei was curious about why Aaron could get his hands on such an item.
"It's a detection slip, Alisha owns it. How did you come to have it?" asked Lorelei, curious.
"Alisha sent me over here for a few days. Did you see something above my head?"
Lorelei followed Aaron's index finger, seeing the red title with the word murderer above Aaron's head. That shocked Lorelei even more, as it had been quite a while since she saw such a title.
"Murderer?!"
"Did you kill—"
[One Incoming Message]
[You have an unread message]
Lorelei blinked as the incoming message panel appeared before her face. She could confirm that the message was from Alisha since she only had Alisha on her friend list.
[Sender: Alisha]
[Liel. Are you there? I've sent a young man over there. I'm sorry to tell you now. He's Aaron, and he's an elemental user similar to you. Be kind to him.]
Although Lorelei opened it before Aaron, Aaron could not read it due to the private nature of the message. In the young man's eyes, the writing on Lorelei's messaging system panel looked blurry.
"Huft!"
"She should have come by herself to tell me," said Lorelei.
Without Aaron knowing it, Liel —Lorelei's childhood nickname— had activated the blood magic ability behind her back, a dagger with a long blade as a sign of caution.
After getting the message, Liel no longer felt threatened by Aaron's presence. She reabsorbed her blood magic and opened the dome door for Aaron to come in.
"Come inside. It's not safe to be outside for too long."
Aaron let out a deep sigh. He suspected that it wasn't him who managed to convince Liel but the message from Alisha.
Aaron stepped in first, with Liel trailing behind. The two had finally arrived at the front yard of the safe house.
"Think of it as your own home; you can take one of the rooms there. But don't enter the room with the red door. That's my room!" emphasized Liel, pointing at Aaron's face.
It was easy for Aaron to understand the rules in the house, from choosing his room, the task for cleaning the house to the task for cooking. Liel would organize the arrangement; Aaron didn't mind at all.
Liel left Aaron to go to her room, leaving the young man alone in the house's living room, which was made of wood and had the architecture of an American log house. It was relaxing enough to live in it.
"Alright. It may seem short, but I'd better start getting used to this place."
***
Evening.
Dimension Justice Safe House.
Liel, who was staying in her room, seemed busy painting on a canvas —her routine. Even though Aaron lived in the same house as her, but Liel still felt lonely. It was probably due to the awkwardness between them.
THUMP!
The woman gasped as she stopped her activities for a while. She felt a strong thump of energy fluctuations in this house. Her mind immediately went to Aaron.
"That guy! What exactly is he doing?" she asked.
She left her paintbrush and canvas and stepped closer to the door. Through the energy vision she had learned, Liel saw purple energy as the base color of the dark element flowing steadily into Aaron's room.
Liel put her ear to Aaron's bedroom door; the woman didn't hear anything from inside it. But, what Liel didn't realize was the door didn't completely close.
The more curious Liel became, the more she pushed the door until it opened completely, making Liel fall to the ground. Aaron turned his eyes from the abilities status panel to Liel.
"Liel? What the—"
"Wait! I came here because I sensed a fluctuation of dark energy. I'm just making sure that this safe house is safe from monster attacks," said Liel, getting up as fast as she could as she interrupted Aaron's words.
The woman saw several crystals beside Aaron, five EXP crystals and two MP crystals. Not only that, Aaron also took out some items from his storage that he might need at the moment.
"Now, I know the reason for the flow and fluctuation of energy. You're trying to use those crystals, right?" asked Liel, pointing to the two objects beside Aaron.
"Yeah. These crystals will be enough to help me get stronger."
Aaron picked up the five HP crystals, 3 Level 7 EXP and 2 Level 4 EXP crystals. Aaron placed the five of them on his palm, then crushed it firmly.
[EXP crystals used]
[EXP +111000]
[Total EXP: 120807/46500]
[DING! Congratulations on leveling up]
[Level 40]
[Attention!]
[You have unused ability points]
[Point Ability: 60]
"Hmm... You're trying to level up by using EXP crystals... If your talents are trash, you're just screwing yourself," said Liel. Aaron smiled, aware of the balance of level and CP.
"Sure. Do you know a reasonable average CP when you're level 40?"
"Around 55000 CP, perhaps."
"Then I'm good."
"What do you mean?"
Liel stared at Aaron's abilities status system panel, both Liel's eyes popped open with gaping mouth wide when she saw Aaron's status.
"W-Wait! How could your CP get so high? You should already be at level 60 with such a high CP."
Aaron smiled. Indeed, it wasn't his level that had contributed to the significant amount of CP, but rather his talents and servants. Still, telling Liel about his ace in the hole wasn't a wise choice.
"Call it luck. These days, my luck is good," Aaron said.
The young man seemed busy allocating his ability points to several important attributes. Again, Aaron prioritized increasing the magic attack and critical damage chance. By doing so, the enemy could die in a single attack.
'He has a higher CP than me, even Alisha. I have to be careful with him,' Liel said.
"Hey, I heard from Alisha that your murderous red title came from you killing Denis. Am I right?"
Aaron's activities were paused when he heard this. He cast his eyes ahead, looking at Liel, who had a fairly athletic body for a woman, wearing only a tank top and shorts.
"Yeah. What makes you interested in that? Dealing with a murderer like me will only put you in trouble."
"He must have been killed by your dark elemental power, right?" asked Liel.
In order to convince Aaron that Liel had no bad intentions, the woman unhesitatingly materialized the purple energy typical of the dark element in her right hand. Aaron turned his head and, to his shock, noticed that Liel had the element of darkness.
"W-Wait! How can you have the element of darkness? Who are you exactly?" asked Aaron, shocked.
'I thought I was the only one with the element of darkness in this place. It seems she is, as well.
"I didn't expect that there would be other adventurers who had the element of darkness, even if it was fake."
Another voice appeared in the conversation between Aaron and Liel. Aaron heard the voice, which seemed familiar to him but not to Liel.
The woman instantly went on alert while manifesting the ability to use blood magic due to manipulating the element of darkness.
'Blood magic? This is quite surprising to me,' Aaron said.
A dimensional rift was present between Aaron and Liel's places. Aerith stepped out elegantly. Liel saw the presence of a stranger sneaking into Dimension Justice's shielding dome.
'She's not affected by the pressure of the shield dome. She's a dangerous person, more dangerous than Aaron,' Liel explained.
Aerith opened her eyes and glanced to the side, looking at Liel's blood magic and face thoroughly. Through her enhanced vision, Aerith had come to realize that Liel's dark elemental power was a temporary one.
"Your original element is fire. Am I right?" asked Aerith. Liel gasped even more and reflexively jumped backwards to avoid Aerith.
"How do you know?"
"What exactly happened to her, Aerith?" asked Aaron.
"Her dark elemental power is vague, but she has it. There are only two possibilities for this."
"First, she was cursed by a pure darkness elemental wizard."
"Second, she consumed food contaminated with the element, one of which is Aranth fruit."
Liel fell silent, still pointing the blood dagger forward to guard herself from any threats. Aerith did not show any threatening behavior towards Liel. Instead, she felt sorry for the woman's fate.
"Aranth fruit?"
"It's a common fruit in the Dark Pillar Tower. People mostly avoid it since they know it's poisonous. The poison in question is the result of dark elemental contamination."
"I have no other choice. If I don't eat, I'll die!" said Liel.
"AKH!"
Liel groaned in pain as she dropped her two blood daggers. The veins all over her body turned purple as the woman tried to endure the pain. Aaron gasped as he got up from his chair.
"What happened?" asked Aaron.
"The dark elements are trying to take control of her body and seize her soul. If this continues, she may turn into a Lich."
Aerith stretched her hand to the side, releasing pure dark energy into Liel's body. In time, her pain subsided, and the veins all over her body returned to normal.
COUGH!
"What did you do to me?" asked Liel.
"I restrained your dark power with mine. From now on, you will have to rely on Aaron."
"What? Why should I?" asked Aaron.
"Because you have the pure darkness element. Only you can help her."