"I've been out making some friends and getting materials, one of which I'm sure you'll find surprising"

Grabbing a small bag hanging on his hip he threw it up the pedestal where Belinda sat

"What is this I wonder? It seems so unpleasant yet tantalizing at the same time"

"This is a flesh fruit, a wondrous thing that can produce miracles in the right hands"

"This rotten fruit is? Would it be a gift by any chance?"

She blinked her eyelashes enchantingly to which he surprisingly said yes

"Oh~ I'll gladly accept your advances, I would love to reciprocate them even"

A stream of blood carried her from the high up pedestal, as if she was gracing them with her descent before slithering to him seductively

"It's too soon to do that when you've yet to eat it and know its true value"

"I plan to, after a little more research"

"No, I insist you try it now"

The voice rang beside her ear when she had yet to reach him, attracting her eyes to the side where YuJu now stood, smiling in his own convincing way

Belinda stared into that honest looking face, one that she used far too often to be deceived by

"Is this all that I am to you? A test subject?"

"I don't see how that's bad, so far my experiments have had a hundred percent success rate"

'That's because you only showed me one'

She didn't say out loud, keeping the thought to herself, and while knowing that she might only serve as a research subject she still leaned toward accepting this experiment

'Whatever hidden agenda he has I want to be part of it, idling here....will get me nowhere'

This place may have given her power but it was also her trap, and while it didn't seem like she would get much freedom with this man before her he at least had a glimmer of hope for her advancement, if she ended up serving under his rule anyway

"Only for you, my forgotten friend"

Without hesitancy she gulped down the fruit, rotten and disgusting as it may be, of all the things she ever ate across her life this was by far the worst

Holding back from throwing up she switched her focus to the fruit traveling into her gut, tracking it down with her energy to make sure it wasn't anything bad, as well as to research its use

The fruit didn't cause any major disturbance, it got digested, spread across her body, and seemed much like any normal fruit

"Haaah"

That's what it seemed at the beginning before her body heated up, going from normal range into boiling heat in the matter of seconds, this produced a hot sigh from her lips

Before she could ask or comment on what was happening her skin started to itch, a very familiar yet long forgotten itch

What followed was a unique skeptical of a half woman, half snake shedding her skin, the shedding made the scale turn bluish for a while, her eyes looking opaque as the new lids blinded her, what's more her human like skin started to turn white and fall off every time she wiggled out of the shedding

"Hnnnng"

With the last piece peeled off sensationally, Belinda turned to the two with some exhaustion, if her heaving chest was any indicator

"I don't usually fancy being forced, this time though I seem to have taken a liking to it~"

"I'm curious as to what skill you obtained"

Belinda turned silent upon his first comment after her shedding, she was gobsmacked inside at the system alerting her of a new skill but hid it from showing on his face yet he knew exactly what would happen, looks like he knew this miracle fruit inside out indeed

"Why it's nothing major, the skill is called Mind Rattle, it allows me to shake my tail producing a rhythm that enchants those who hear it"

Demonstrating her skill she shook the tip of her tail which now looked much more hardened than the rest of her snake half

The produced sound wasn't exactly a rattle though, it sounds more like a chorus of bells, like a symphony in the wind, like...

'Ellis!'

Before she was lost to the melody YuJu snapped her out of it through their connection, the redhead took a look at Belinda's even more perfect figure again before turning her eyes away, embarrassed that her mind lapsed again even with her skill supposedly warding such abilities

"Hmm, not too bad, I suppose the physical boost was more with it this time"

"Indeed, it feels like I'm a century younger"

"Let's move onto the matter I came for then"

"Allow me to call for someone to take the shedding out first, such a sight much is too embarrassing"

YuJu glanced at the shedding, swiping his hand to 'dispose' of it, which actually went to his spatial storage

"Oh my, you must really be in a hurry"

She smiled looking unbothered, feeling actually embarrassed for once on the inside

"First, I need the gem I gave you as payment as I've brought something in exchange for last time's experiment and the one I plan on achieving today"

"Is that safe? Enough time has passed for them to surround this place meaning the experiment might be interrupted"

"No worries, this time I didn't come through that big foul mouth"

He meant Mimi, something she found unbelievable since there was no other passage to the floor other than the main entrance, even teleportation was impossible with how the middle and upper floors

On the other hand she also knew he wouldn't put himself in a compromising position, with how pale he became the last time she believed being surrounded wouldn't be good so it must be that no one knew he was here

"This is the promised payment"

He handed her two wooden bottles she needn't an explanation to recognize, this was the very same poison she helped in containing so that her faction could sneakily assassinate him

"It should help with your research regarding the purple swamp, with how hard it is to bring long lasting samples I'm sure it should be worth the trouble we're causing you"

"And much more, I'd even forgo the payment for our friendship"

This was her way of saying that she wanted to be on good terms with him, guessing that he already knew of her hand in this assassination matter

To this YuJu merely smiled and headed toward the red room where that useful blob was residing

Anput wasn't around to help them this time, making things a bit of a hassle, unless he could put an idea to use

Though he was careful not to show his mist to others since he didn't want people, especially those from Hortus, to link him with the shadow trader, he still exposed this ability in front of Belinda, this woman was sort of blocked from all communication anyway, not to mention her double faced nature when it came to things regarding her benefit

"This looks far too different from your follower's, is it an upgraded version of the same skill?"

"No, it is an aura, her's is a natural control and not a skill"

It intrigued Belinda as to what type of aura this was, and what that hound was controlling, both she couldn't put her finger on what they exactly were, except with that one she could guess to be something to do with death, this one, on the other hand, being a total mystery

"It is not harmful"

He said, allowing the smoke to cover Belinda momentarily

"What a splendid aura, I could feel nothing of the outside when it covered me, not even the directions anymore"

She praised as the smoke receded from her and swept over the red big crystal in the middle of the room, covering it entirely

"Open the dome"

He ordered, his earlier actions being a test to check if the smoke worked on beings as strong as Belinda, which proved to be positive meaning the Biomass wouldn't be a problem either

As the specialized prison opened the smoke filtered in before the Biomass could take notice, plunging down to disorient the blob from knowing which way was the exit

'It isn't moving?'

The blob didn't act like he thought it would, staying still upon being enveloped and not at all reacting in any way

Motioning toward Belinda he got her to fetch over the gem since the payment was fulfilled, something she wasn't sad to part with seeing how useless it was in her hands

With the gem in hand YuJu set about chipping as many pieces of this blob as he could, the process being much easier than the last time since it seemed too afraid to move other than reeling away from the place that got sliced

Meanwhile, Belinda was viewing his actions with thoughtful eyes, one's that harboured almost no doubt and only expectations, it was the right move to accept a deal with this man, he just might be the true path toward her evolution