The Rewards

In the room where the two teenagers were, Eden could be seen sitting on a chair, right next to the Athis' bed. The latter was still sleeping soundly, and this was beginning to worry Eden.

'He's like that because the injury exhausted him, right?' He thought to himself that everything was fine. He did, however, have a very worried look on his face, which showed how worried he was about Athis.

Thinking he couldn't do much else besides watching Athis sleep, Eden decided to watch the latest events to try to see if he had forgotten anything. He only remembered the main lines of the fight, but nothing about what had happened after it.

He was sure that things had happened in the end. Something or some rewards for level up twice. It was at this moment that he remembered one of the elements that had marked him.

'Wait, wait, wait... how did I manage to hear a voice inside me? Was it telepathy? But I know no one who could use it on me so how?' Eden thought hastily before calming down. He couldn't think properly if he panicked like that.

"Let's start from the beginning. I was healing him with my life force when I heard a voice telling me that I had to stop. Wait, how am I still alive if I used my life force?' He abruptly thought.

For the first problem, that of the voice, he did not see how he had managed to hear it. For as long as he can remember, he had never read a book with cases like this. The only two things he could think of was one, that it was telepathy. Even though it seemed very unlikely, it was still more plausible than the second one.

The second thing he thought of was that in his body, two souls coexisted together. This would therefore mean that Eden, after reincarnating, would have either taken the body of a person already living in that body or even maybe he had reincarnated at the same time as another person. This second possibility, however, was very unlikely because the only way to reincarnate that he knew was through the system and rewards. It was also like this that Eden had reincarnated.

'Unless there are other possible ways to reincarnate?' He thought after pondering the different possibilities.

After sorting out his thoughts well, he concluded with the fact that it was telepathy. He concluded or rather wanted to believe in this because first of all, it seemed the most probable. Who knows? Maybe it was Aether who sent him a message with one of his subordinates.

Or two, he did not want to share his body with another entity. All his life he had dreamed of becoming like a vampire, and since now he was one, he would not share it for anything in the world.

However, in the back of his mind, he still thought it might be a good thing that there was someone else with him. If a person was with him in real-time, he could have an outside opinion at any time on all different subjects. As long as this person was a person with no ulterior motives, it could only be beneficial to him. And then, he did not doubt this point. After all, if he hadn't stopped him at that time, he could very well have died with Athis.

Unfortunately, while he was thinking about all of this, he was not receiving any response from his mind. He tried several times to speak inside him, but nothing happened there. He had even tried to go inside him where his mana channels were, but again, there was absolutely nothing.

Once he had finished thinking about this voice and concluded that he would not be at risk, Eden began to think about how he had survived.

He was sure that he had indeed used his life force to heal Athis. If not, how could he still be alive? All this seemed to make absolutely no sense to his liking. Then, he remembered that he was a vampire, and everything made sense.

Vampires were a race living thousands and thousands of years, so it was no wonder that it still went so well. If he were to live 2000 years, he may have used only about fifty, so it was absolutely nothing at all in comparison.

'Well, that explains everything now'.

After thinking this out, Eden had almost every piece of the puzzle in his possession. All he lacked was the thing he had received just before he fainted.

'If I remember correctly, it said I had unlocked-...' Eden thought before hearing moans.

« Hnngh »

"Athis, you're finally awake," Eden said as soon as he saw Athis open his eyes. His voice was so cheerful that Athis smiled instinctively.

"Where are we?" Athis asked as he straightened up on the back of the bed.

"Well, I don't know if you're going to enjoy this but..." Eden stopped a moment before continuing. "We are at your mother's palace"

Hearing this, Athis' expression changed from a joyful one to a dark one. Just hearing that he was at his mother's house sent shivers down his spine.

"Can we leave?"

"Believe me, I'd like to leave too, but your mother won't let us. She told me that we were going to stay here until we left for the academy. She even put some guards in front of the door."

After hearing what Eden had said, Athis' expression darkened further. It was very clear that he was not feeling well. Even his skin was beginning to whiten.

'This bit*h! What did she do to him to make him like that when she heard that he was at his mother's house?' Eden thought furiously. His friend was clearly uncomfortable, and what could he do to help him? Nothing. He just couldn't beat the people around him. Their level was just too high for him. He could perhaps be called a combat genius, but at that moment he feels even worse than a less than nothing. He was absolutely useless.

After calming down, Eden saw that Athis had become even paler than before. He was even clenching his fists so hard that his nails were sinking into his palms, tinting his white blanket in a reddish hue. Seeing him, Eden's blood began to boil. However, he could only do one thing, and that was to comfort Athis who was really in bad shape. So he immediately stood up and took Athis in his arms.

"Athis, please don't inflict all this on you for people who are not worth it. I promise you that I will take care of them when I can." Eden immediately said with a trembling voice. He didn't know why but everything affected him much more than he thought.

Hearing Eden, Athis noticed what he had done. He hadn't felt the wounds he had inflicted on himself just now, but now that he had regained his spirits, he finally felt the pain.

"I'm sorry Eden, I didn't want to worry you, I promise." He said before bursting into tears. "I'm sorry for what I did while you were fighting with all your might. The only thing I did was watch you. They're right when they say I'm a good-for-nothing, I didn't even help you. I don't even know what you find in me. I have absolutely nothing special and I have nothing to offer you so why did you choose me when you had the others? I can't keep staying with you if it's to put you in situations like this."

Hearing Athis vent everything he had on his heart pinched Eden's heart. He felt extremely bad for his friend. He wanted to calm him down, but he knew very well that he had to let him empty his bag. It could be seen that he had kept it all in him since he had no one to talk to. For how long, only Athis knew. But given how he had burst into tears, the only answer was that it had been for a long, long time.

"Athis, everything will be fine from now on. I absolutely don't blame you if you didn't want to help me or if you were afraid."

"Rather, I should be the one apologizing. If I had taken care of him and hadn't had fun, we wouldn't be where we are so please don't apologize."

"And one last thing," Eden continued, this time looking at Athis straight in the eye while holding his cheek with his hands. From this angle, he could see his visage. He was extremely sad. "I don't want you to treat yourself like garbage anymore. If there is one person that tells you this from now on, I'll take care of him or her when I can, so you absolutely don't need to worry about them."

"And Athis, if it was just my choice, I would bring you with me wherever I would go, but I can't force you, so I'll let you think about what you want to do next. You have until we leave to decide." Eden said.

After calming down, Athis began to fall asleep again. He had used much more force than one might think when he was crying.

Of course, before he went to bed completely, Eden decided to take care of his friend's hands. But to his surprise, there were already healed.

'Well, that's just one more unanswered question.' He thought as he saw Athis go back to sleep peacefully.

Once he had gone to bed, Eden decided to leave the room. He had some things to do and discover. But aside from these things, he activated the notification he had received when he fainted on the hill.

[Congratulations, you have created the spell: Equivalent Exchange]