A few months passed in what seemed like a blink of an eye. While many things happened, from conquering several dungeons alongside Blanca to fighting off ferocious beasts, not much changed except the impending end of the contract between Blanca and me.
At the beginning of our journey together, I hated her, but as time passed, my dislike for her slowly faded, and my annoyance began to dissipate. I would no longer shout at her whenever she did something stupid or flirtatious and instead simply roll my eyes or let out a disappointed sigh while looking at her like a father who just watched his daughter go down the wrong path in life.
While I did not gain any romantic feelings for her at all, after our first talk about relationships, Blanca seemed to have toned down her acts and began to act more and more like a decent human being, not that she was one, and neither was I. However, over time she began to use her snake form less and less by the day, sometimes even making me forget that she was a snake, not a human being that happened to tattoo their forehead with red ink.
This fact only made us grow closer in the last couple of months, yet not once did we thoroughly speak about each other's origins since both of us did not seem to be comfortable with the idea of learning about each other's pasts. For all she knew, I was just another elf who had mutated at birth and chose to leave the elven settlement due to all the horrible things they did to me.
While I did not tell her that I was emotionally hurt, she was wise enough to realize that my emotional scars wouldn't allow me to speak about my past, and so she chose not to ask since she knew that pain herself.
"Your cooking skills are improving. When we first met, your cooking was so bad that the food you made almost allowed me to gain a tolerance to poisonous foods." I commented while chuckling slightly, yet before I could take another bite out of the piece of meat that I was eating, I felt something hard and powerful slam into the back of my head and fling me forwards, smashing me into the far wall of the cave we situated ourselves in for the meantime.
"You better be thankful. I am considered a princess back in my clan. I would never cook for anyone other than my parents, siblings, and maybe even a..." Her voice trailed off while her eyes slowly directed themselves at me, who continued to stay in the collapsed position on the wall of the cave with a piece of one of meat in my hand held high.
A slight blush broke out on her face, but she quickly turned and spoke again with a timid voice- "A-And maybe even a husband if I were to get married."
My brows raised slightly, but I quickly shook my head and took a bite out of the meat I held in my hand before beginning to savor every chew as more and more of the meat's juices flooded my mouth, making me almost tear up due to the blissful sensations that filled my taste receptors.
Blanca glanced at me from the corner of her eyes, yet after she saw me chew with tears of joy streaming out of my eyes, she almost spat out a mouthful of blood due to the annoyance and anger she felt at that moment.
"Moron." She muttered under her breath, and even though my ears were powerful enough for me to have the ability to hear them even though I was a few meters away from her, I still did not react to her words due to having been completely subdued to the power of food.
'Maybe I can make him come with me if I tell him I'll make him infinite food... No, I probably shouldn't do that. He is still...' Her eyes narrowed slightly before a sad smile appeared on her face.
'He is still hurt afterall.'
After finishing up our food and cleaning up, I finally looked at Blanca with an excited and warm gaze.
"I think I might be able to break through to the gaseous realm after a few dungeons."
"Really?" A smile extended on her pretty face before she turned her head and began to look into the distance, a sad smile on her face, but in an instant, a determined one replaced it.
"It's terrifying to think that you wield so much power even though you're mana core is still ethereal." She chuckled, making me look at her with a raised brow before asking-
"Is that not normal?" I asked, a slight shiver going down my spine as I was reminded of the power, strength, and control of the man I fought against in the inheritance realm.
'And to think that man had his cultivation reduced the whole time... How terrifying.' I thought.
"Of course not!" Blanca retorted, her voice booming in every direction and scaring any of the nearby smaller animals who could not withstand the strength of her voice.
"Even when I was your age, my power was nothing like yours. 19-year-old white snakes are considered infants by the likes of my father, who have lived for thousands of years, yet even though my cultivation was higher than yours at that time due to me having been firmly in the liquidous realm, I still feel like we would have been equal or I would have lost." She explained, making me widen my eyes in realization.
It must be understood that the mortal realm is split into five stages, each representing the state in which one's mana core is when one reaches that cultivation level. Every stage would increase the power of the cultivator dramatically, yet due to my system, I could not cultivate the usual way but instead, had to use levels to move up in cultivation, and from what I could understand, every 10 levels meant that my cultivation would advance by one stage.
'These system limitations might be more of a blessing than a curse...' I mused
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