Chapter 121 - 119: Is the Aftereffect Too Strong?

"AHEM! Miss Steele, is there any other reason for your visit today besides checking on the child?" Mr. Fuller asked with a dry cough.

"Oh, it’s nothing major, really. I just wanted to ask you..." Sev Steele paused.

Mr. Fuller figured that the moment had arrived. She was definitely here to ask for a handout. He decided that as long as her request wasn’t too outrageous, he would agree to it.

"If my Firestone eats more of these First Tier mutant larvae, will it harm his body?" Sev asked.

Mr. Fuller was a bit taken aback. He hadn’t expected this woman to genuinely care about her adopted son.

"From what I can tell, he can easily consume twice as much as the other children.

"If you have the means, giving him even more would be beneficial. It helps accumulate Energy in his body and will push him to awaken his Ability sooner.

"To be completely honest, in The Gilded Ward, as long as they can afford it, parents feed their children as much of this stuff as possible.

"They’ll keep feeding them until they approach the absolute limit of what their bodies can endure," Mr. Fuller explained.

His words carried a hint of testing her. Even if this woman was too stingy to feed the child more of these things, he still planned to supplement Firestone’s nutrition appropriately. After all, this was the apprentice he had chosen. He could grind down the boy’s willpower to toughen him up, but he would never shortchange him when it came to his physical development.

"Alright, then the next time I make this dish, I’ll add more cracklings and bring it over," Sev said.

She naturally trusted that Mr. Fuller wouldn’t steal food from a child’s mouth just to satisfy his own appetite. He might have eaten a few extra chunks of radish, but earlier, when he tasted the Energy in the diced meat and realized it was suitable for the two children, he had tried his best to leave it for them.

Sev gathered the plates, stood up, and prepared to leave. Mr. Fuller, who was still waiting for her to ask for a handout, was dumbfounded. He wondered if he had judged her too harshly and misread the situation.

Remembering the bare plate and the bowl she had used as a makeshift lid to keep the food warm, he called out to her. "Wait!"

He opened a cabinet, pulled out a three-tiered thermal food container from the very back, and handed it to her. "Take this. It’ll make carrying food much easier."

Seeing his awkward, "you’re getting a steal" expression, Sev knew this old man was the type to have a tough exterior but a soft heart.

"Thank you! It’s very pretty!" Sev smiled and nodded. As she took the food container, she noticed that the outside was entirely covered in a pattern of pink hearts!

"This was a gift my son gave to his wife a long time ago. It’s been gathering dust in the cabinet for years. This isn’t an ordinary thermal lunchbox. It’s made of constant-temperature material and can keep things warm for over three days. They always used to take it with them when they went on missions," Mr. Fuller explained, looking a bit embarrassed.

What he didn’t mention was that his son had begged him to make this lunchbox, and the exterior pattern had been carefully designed in advance, all to woo a woman he had fallen for at first sight.

The past was the past. Mr. Fuller shook his head and watched Sev leave.

Even after she had been gone for a long while, he still couldn’t figure it out. He wondered why the woman, who had clearly come today to ask for a handout, hadn’t actually asked for anything. Then it hit him. She had walked away with the constant-temperature lunchbox he had treasured for years! He scoffed internally. This woman was truly cunning. She had conned him out of his belongings without even opening her mouth! He resolved to be more careful next time and never let her take advantage of him so easily again.

Snapping back to reality, Mr. Fuller suddenly realized something. Why were the two children so quiet?

Before this, his granddaughter would bicker with his prospective apprentice whenever she had a free moment. Could a delicious meal have completely changed her personality? His gaze swept over the two kids, and he immediately noticed the anomaly!

His granddaughter’s face was flushed red, and her entire body was enveloped in a halo of watery blue light.

Was this... the precursor to awakening an Ability?

He rubbed his eyes vigorously, almost unable to believe what he was seeing.

Back when they encountered that devastating Beast Tide, his heavily pregnant daughter-in-law had been bitten by a mutant venomous snake. She had barely managed to give birth to Shannon Fuller before passing away. As a result, the baby had absorbed the toxins while still in the womb. He had traded two top-tier weapons to enlist the help of a highly respected Great Pharmacist. Although the toxins in the child’s body were neutralized, she was diagnosed with a damaged innate foundation, rendering any hope of her awakening an Ability in this lifetime completely impossible.

The reason he had been so incredibly picky when taking on an apprentice was to find someone with good character, honest loyalty, and high potential. He wanted someone to protect his granddaughter after he died. He didn’t ask for riches and status; he just wanted to ensure that she wouldn’t be bullied by outsiders.

Yet, against all odds, the day had actually come when his granddaughter’s damaged innate foundation was being repaired! Prior to this, he had tried all sorts of legendary and precious medicinal herbs, but unfortunately, none of them had much effect. He had already given up hope, but this miracle had quietly arrived when he least expected it!

Mr. Fuller wasn’t naive enough to think this was a blessing from the heavens. His mind immediately went to the diced meat and roasted radishes they had just eaten. He remembered that he had instructed his granddaughter not to eat too much of the meat, so she had furiously devoured the radishes to vent her anger. Later, when he had broken up Nutrition Blocks to dip into the broth, she had snatched up more than half of it for herself.

So, the question was: was it the diced meat, the radishes, or the broth at the bottom of the plate that had repaired her damaged foundation?

Mr. Fuller couldn’t figure it out, nor did he have the time to dwell on it. He hurriedly took out two treasured Second Tier Water Element Crystal Cores and pressed them into his granddaughter’s palms. As he watched the colorless, transparent Crystal Cores slowly grow dim in her hands while her breathing remained relatively steady, Mr. Fuller’s anxious heart finally settled.

But in the blink of an eye, he noticed that something was wrong with the boy next to her, too.

When his adoptive mother had left earlier, he had only had a faint flush on his cheeks, much like the color he got when he was swinging a hammer to smash rocks. Now, however, his face was as red as an apple. He looked adorable, sure, but it was clearly not normal!

This sort of reaction was typical of ordinary people who had eaten too much Mutant beast meat, but given Firestone’s physical tolerance, this shouldn’t be happening. Mr. Fuller thought back to the dish from earlier. He had felt the diced meat in it was perfect for boosting the children’s nutrition, so he had held back from eating too much of it himself. His granddaughter had a low tolerance, so he hadn’t dared let her eat too much either. As a result, the vast majority of the diced meat had ended up in Firestone’s stomach.

Fine, it was his own negligence. He had just assumed the boy had a large capacity and could eat freely, so he hadn’t worried about him overeating. But under normal circumstances, overeating would immediately result in a drunken state. Yet, at the time, both children had appeared perfectly fine.

Who could have known that the food they ate this time would have such a massive delayed kick to it?

Mr. Fuller was now extremely anxious. Given Firestone’s current state, there were only two possibilities. The first was that he would awaken his Ability right then and there. The second was that he had overeaten to the point of rupturing his meridians.

The latter would lead to severe, irreversible consequences—a heavy burden Mr. Fuller couldn’t bear. But the former was equally troublesome. He didn’t have any spare Low Tier Fire Attribute Crystal Cores on hand, and the process of awakening an Ability required a massive influx of Energy of the same attribute. If the Energy wasn’t replenished in time, the best-case scenario was a failed awakening. The worst-case scenario was that his Ability potential wouldn’t be fully unlocked, crippling his overall Ability strength and future advancement for the rest of his life.

The more Mr. Fuller thought about it, the more frantic he became. He immediately tapped his watch and sent out emergency signals to several Fire Ability Users he knew, urgently seeking to purchase high-quality Second Tier and Third Tier Fire Attribute Crystal Cores.

At the same time, he sent a message to Doctor Jenkins, requesting medicine to repair meridians that had been torn apart by excess Energy, preparing for the absolute worst.