"Y-yeah..."

Elane replied eventually. She’d completely forgotten that Rohan would have to come into direct contact with her in order to check if it really worked or not.

Rohan moved slowly.

If he rushed into it, he felt like he might make a mistake that he’d regret big time, and making the atmosphere any more awkward was the last thing they both wanted.

Elane stood right in front of him, shoulders just a little too stiff and face just a little too red, trying very hard to look calm and composed while doing a terrible job of it.

To be fair, though, Rohan wasn’t doing much better himself.

This was already a weird enough situation without the fact that both of them knew exactly why his hand had to go where it was about to go.

"Huuu..." Rohan let out a slow breath, trying to wrestle his own nerves. "Just... don’t move around too much. I need to focus."

"That isn’t helping make this sound any less weird..." Elane muttered so quietly under her breath that Rohan hardly heard her.

He almost pulled back and told her to forget the whole thing, but he resisted the urge. This was too important a test to pass up on. It reveal whether or not he would be able to upgrade her gene in the future after she already absorbed it. If his Evolution Gene could really do that, then it would change a lot for the future.

So he steeled himself and pressed his palm gently against the upper part of her chest.

Elane immediately froze. Her whole body locking up like she’d suddenly forgotten how to breathe, and the flush on her cheeks deepened enough that Rohan noticed it even in the dim lighting of the room.

"T-too low!" She hurriedly eeked out.

"Sorry... it’s dark in here. Please just bare with it for both our sakes!"

Rohan swallowed and kept his face as neutral as possible.

Then finally shut his eyes and concentrated after repositioning his hand.

The feeling was easy to fall into by now. Each time he evolved something, or even just absorbing Origin Crystals, he had to fall into this trance-like state, so it was starting to become second nature to do it by now.

He reached for that same sensation of his Evolution Gene, keeping his hand steady against Elane while trying to sense whether there was any reaction, any pull or even the faintest spark of resonance between his talent and the Spike Beast bow residing somewhere within her.

’Hmm?’

He felt the faintest twitch, like he’d caught onto something.

But the moment he tried to follow it, it vanished like smoke.

Rohan frowned and concentrated harder.

Nothing. The feeling was gone, and it hadn’t returned.

Not wanting to give up too early, he kept trying.

One minute passed, then two.

Then tree...

The silence in the room gradually changed from awkward to unbearable for Elane.

Rohan may have been able to force himself into his trance so he could concentrate on what was important, but it was the exact opposite for her.

The more she felt Rohan’s hand tightly pressed against her chest, the more she started to sweat, and the more her heartbeat started to rise in intensity...

’There it is again, it’s back!’

At the same time, Rohan’s Evolution Gene caught onto a whiff of that same sensation as before. However, he noticed that it started to follow a certain rhythm. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

’What is that?’

He listened to it and sensed it carefully, until he finally recognised it.

’Thump... Thump..., is that her heart?’

He very quickly noticed it speed up even more, and as if connected, the pulling sensation his Evolution gene felt started to become clearer.

’No! Fuck, don’t go again!’

But once again, the feeling disappeared.

"Uh... is something supposed to be happening?"

Elane, who had initially followed Rohan’s warning and had been too embarrassed to speak, eventually became too uncomfortable not to.

Rohan slipped out of focus at that moment, and the first thing he noticed was that he was drenched in sweat all over!

"Holy... did I really use that much energy just to concentrate?" He muttered.

His eyes flew open.

"I had it! I could feel a faint sensation, so I think it could work, but it felt so faint that I could barely latch onto it. I don’t think it will be possible now as it disappears every time I look for it, but if I can find a way around that in the future, then evolving your absorbed genes in the future might just be possible!"

Rohan explained excitedly, but he failed to notice Elane’s beet red face barely registering anything he was saying.

"...Rohan."

He blinked.

Still halfway caught up in the previous sensations, he looked at her blankly.

"Huh?"

Elane’s lips parted.

Then closed again.

Then parted once more, as if she were trying very hard to say something at the very tip of her tongue.

Until her eyes finally flicked downward.

Rohan reflexively followed her gaze, and immediately realised the problem.

"Ah!" He snatched his hand back so quickly it was just a blur of motion. "...My bad."

He was so preoccupied with digesting all the findings from that small test that he’d completely forgotten that his hand was still... latched onto Elane’s chest.

"Ahem..." Rohan cleared his throat and quickly changed the topic.

"Even though it wasn’t an immediate success, it’s still good news...!"

"..."

His vain attempt just made the atmosphere even more awkward.

"...We should get back and start hunting. The longer we delay, the less time we’ll have for searching for some more Elite beasts."

Elane turned away and started to walk out from the cave, without making eye contact with Rohan even once.

Rohan followed a few feet behind her.

***

"...You really felt something?" Elane asked after thirty minutes had passed and they were long gone from that cave.

Enough time had gone by for her to calm down and think more rationally.

"Yeah. Twice." Rohan answered. "It was faint, so faint that if I hadn’t fully concentrated, it would have missed it completely. But it was there."

"Why didn’t it work, then?"

"Well, I can’t really give an answer to something I don’t know. But it did feel like it was resisting the evolution gene’s pull, rather than falling right into it like it usually does."

Rustle.

Their conversation stopped abruptly after they heard movement in some bushes near to them.

"What was that?" Rohan asked, highly alert.

"I don’t know," Elane answered. "I hadn’t even sensed it until it made that sound, and it’s barely 10 metres in front of us, so it must be strong whatever it is."

Both of them heightened their caution to the max. If whatever caused that sound was able to evade Elane’s enhanced senses and move in so close to them, then it had to be an Elite tier at the very least.

And one that was particularly good at hiding its presence.

Rohan wasn’t worried about his own safety, but he definitely was for Elane.

If it could hide that well, then it could quite easily perform an ambush on her. Without any defence like Rohan’s, against the attack from an Elite tier beast, Elane would be seriously injured at the very least.

Rustle.

"There it is again!" Rohan whispered.

But this time, it came from behind...