As Ryzen ate the fruit, nothing happened for two seconds.

The hollow was quiet. Rivera held his hand. Lyra observed with unreadable eyes. Rudrean and Aelira stood close, Phoenix Flame already coiling at their fingertips in slow, ready wisps.

Then Ryzen’s face changed.

Not gradually.

All at once.

His eyes went wide. His jaw locked. Every muscle in his body seized simultaneously, as if something had reached inside him and grabbed every fiber at once and pulled in opposite directions.

A sound left him that wasn’t quite a scream. Too strangled for that. Too total.

The fruit’s essence had entered his bloodstream.

"Now," Rudrean said.

Phoenix Flame surged from both of his hands and spread across Ryzen’s body in a warm net of deep orange light, threading through his skin and into the tissue beneath. Aelira mirrored him from the other side, her flame gentler in touch but equally precise, finding the points where damage was already starting to accumulate and flooding them with regenerative heat.

Ryzen’s body arched backward.

Rivera caught him before he hit the floor, pulling his upper body into her lap, her hands shaking but her grip firm.

The essence was moving.

They could see it, not directly, but in what it was doing. Ryzen’s veins lit faintly beneath his skin in a crawling blue-white pattern, the fruit’s power tracing every channel in his body and then pressing outward against their walls as if it were testing them, finding weaknesses, and then exploiting them.

A blood vessel in his left forearm burst.

Rudrean sealed it in under a second with a focused Phoenix Flame press to the point.

Two more burst in his shoulder.

Aelira covered both without breaking rhythm.

"It’s moving fast," she said, her voice even but her eyes concentrated.

"It’s testing his compatibility," Isalyn said from the Pot of Aruao. "The essence doesn’t just give power. It remakes the pathways it wants to use. If his body can’t handle the remaking in time, the pathways collapse entirely."

Ryzen let out a broken sound through clenched teeth.

His right hand had gone a deep, bruised purple from the wrist to the fingertips. The ice attribute was crystallizing inside the tissue, tiny formations of magical ice building between the cells themselves, displacing them.

"His hand," Rivera said, her voice tight.

Rudrean was already there. He pressed both palms flat against Ryzen’s forearm and pushed Phoenix Flame inward, not to burn, but to melt. Precise. Controlled. Just enough heat to dissolve each micro-crystal before it could anchor.

The purple receded slightly.

Then came back stronger.

"It’s accelerating," Aelira said.

The ice crystallization was spreading now, up Ryzen’s arm, across his collarbone, creeping toward his chest. The blue-white vein pattern had turned harsh and jagged, splitting at angles that natural veins did not follow. Lightning blitzed through the pathways, speeding up the damage whenever it passed through.

His back bowed violently.

"Argghh!"

Rivera’s knuckles were white where she held him.

"Ryzen." Her voice was barely audible. "Stay with it. Just stay with it."

He couldn’t answer. His jaw was fully locked now, every breath coming in shallow, grinding bursts. His eyes were half-open and unseeing, focused somewhere past the hollow’s ceiling.

But his hand tightened around Rivera’s.

Rudrean and Aelira moved without speaking, reading each other’s coverage instinctively. They were now going all out in regenerating the damage Ryzen was suffering.

For three minutes, they held it.

The damage came, and they answered it.

Every rupture sealed. Every crystal formation dissolved before it could set. Every collapsing pathway flooded back open with regenerative flame.

Ryzen was still alive. Still here.

But the fruit’s power was not slowing down. It was increasing.

The crystallization shifted its pattern, no longer spreading in straight lines but branching, fractal, and hitting multiple points simultaneously in bursts.

It was established.

But the damage was also increasing.

This was the last stage.

Rudrean’s breathing deepened.

Aelira’s jaw tightened.

"He’s losing ground faster than we’re giving it back," she said.

Rudrean didn’t answer immediately. His hands were moving across four sites at once, Phoenix Flame split into thin streams for each, but the precision required meant less power per stream, and the ice formations were starting to win the race at the edges.

"Yeah, this won’t work." Rudrean’s eyes flashed. "I think it’s time."

[100,000 LP consumed.]

[Talent: Phoenix Flame evolved to 2-star.]

Instantly, the purification and healing power received a significant boost.

All the damage was restored as Ryzen was completely healed.

The fruit’s power found a solid foundation as it continued to carve its affinity, no longer able to damage Ryzen with the constant regeneration of Phoenix Flame coursing through him.

Finally, after two more minutes, Ryzen completely settled down.

His eyes opened, flickering with an icy blue bolt.

"I awakened... I awakened a talent!" Ryzen got up, trembling. "It’s called Tundral Thunder, and it’s a 1-star talent!"

"Well then, how about you two farm monsters around here?" Rudrean suggested. "Aelira and I will join once we finish setting up our runes in the Arcane Path."

"Okay." Lyra nodded. "With my items, they will be safe at least."

"Let’s go!" Ryzen clenched his fist as ice sparks flickered around his body. "I can finally help. This ice-lightning hybrid talent... I will explore it and bring out its potential."

Rivera smiled. "Even if we can’t kill as fast as you two, we will stay safe and stable, so you two take your time setting up your Arcane Path."

"We’ll go ahead." Ryzen grinned as he adorned the Magic Suit and used Expert Eyes. "I can’t wait."

"Wait. Take this C-rank rune and use it." Rudrean handed over the C-rank Blank Rune he had. "Since it’s only one, I can’t even combine it anyway."

"Oh, nice. Thanks." Ryzen took it and slotted it instantly.

"Alright, we’ll be going now."

Ice rolled forward through his feet as he slid out of the hollow in a smooth glide.

Rivera followed him on the ice slide, moving with her Starlight Stream.

Lyra took out a bunch of floating orbs, each one with different patterns and designs. Then a pair of hybrid mechanical-plasma wings unfolded behind her as she flew out.

Rudrean and Aelira sat down cross-legged and took out their runes.

[Isalyn: The first-slot runes that you automatically got are D-rank by default. You can remove the rune, but don’t do that. Instead, superimpose a B-rank Blank Rune on it so that you can keep the existing effects.]

"Oh? That’s pretty good." Rudrean was glad. "I didn’t want to lose this active effect of being able to appear next to you and Aelira at 10% of max mana."

"Same. My active effect can boost the overall potency of any spell or arcane martial art by 100%. That’s a big boost." Aelira nodded.

Both of them first superimposed a B-rank Blank Rune over their first-slot rune.

"This... so powerful?" Rudrean was startled as he saw the upgraded version of his first-slot rune.

[Slot 1: Voidante’s Drive (B)]

—> +200% Action Speed, +1500 resistance to any atmosphere.

—> +2000 Ice Resistance.

—> +2000 Water Resistance.

—> +2000 Lightning Resistance.

—> Active: Can appear next to a person who has your undying love at the cost of 10% of your max mana. Distance and accessibility do not matter.

—> Passive: The lower the vitality, the higher your physical parameters, up to a 100% boost at 30% vitality.

[Isalyn: Woah. As expected of Legendary-rank paths. You are basically immune to Ice, Water, and Lightning of the Core Genesis stage if they are released at 2-star or lower quality of craft.]

"This is awesome." Aelira grinned as she also shared her overhauled first-slot rune.

[Slot 1: Voidandi’s Halo (B)]

—> Control Immunity of all kinds against 5-star or below arcane craft.

—> +1500 Omni-Magic and Omni-Physical resistance.

—> Active: At the cost of 10% mana, you can increase the overall potency of any spell or arcane martial art by 100%.

—> Active: Initiate Magic Flux, restoring 10% to 50% of your maximum mana based on your environment. Cooldown: 1 minute.

"You now have total control immunity against 5-star and below craft? That’s awesome indeed." Rudrean smiled.

[Isalyn: I have to make you guys catch up with me so we can journey into higher Secret Realms together. The poison is gone, but since I abandoned my considerably developed Arcane Path, I am weaker than before.]

"Oh yeah. You also need to enter a Secret Realm to develop your Voidandi of Everlasting Devotion," Aelira said. "Maybe we can speak with Elder Tyoga about you. He seems trustworthy."

[Isalyn: That thought also crossed my mind, and we should do that, but after some more observation.]

"True." Rudrean nodded.

[Isalyn: Do it. All slots have different mechanisms.]

"That said, we can also fuse runes to get higher-ranked runes. How does that work?" Aelira asked.

[Isalyn: It’s like this. I am projecting a chart, so look at it.]

[Rune Combinations] 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

2 x D-rank = 1 C-rank.

3 x C-rank = 1 B-rank.

4 x B-rank = 1 A-rank.

5 x A-rank = 1 S-rank.

6 x S-rank = 1 Epic Rune.

7 x Epic Runes = 1 Legendary Rune.

"So Legendary is the max?" Rudrean blinked.

[Isalyn: Yes. The problem is that Legendary Runes are almost impossible to get. Those who have them are like gods. Epic Runes are also extremely hard and rare to acquire, as they only drop from final bosses of Ascension-rank Secret Realms, the highest rank, which are also a rare phenomenon. Whenever one appears, major wars occur between the Riglight Galactic Alliance and the Rophalo Galactic Empire.]

"Damn. It seems we won’t get Legendary Runes anytime soon." Aelira wryly smiled.

"Yeah." Rudrean nodded. "Anyway, let’s fill the remaining three slots with B-rank runes and join the fight outside."