CHAPTER 291: 291

Within Michelle’s body, Nyxaroth could see what was going on.

The Life Stone was forming a contract with Michelle. If that was the case, it would have formed it with the blood it had to push through to come out of Michelle’s forehead. But it didn’t react to that blood.

Nyxaroth couldn’t exactly tell why the Life Stone ignored that blood, but he could guess. It had been joined together from parts within that blood, so it didn’t even take it as a potential material to use. But when it peeked out from under Michelle’s skin, and new blood touched it, it started sucking it in.

As for what it wanted the blood for, it was aligning itself with Michelle’s spirit energy, which was flowing through her blood. It was basically becoming a part of her.

After sucking in the blood from her finger, the Life Stone let it leave and join the blood around it, so even after a long time of having her blood sucked, Michelle didn’t feel dizzy. She wasn’t losing blood.

When the Life Stone’s spirit energy flow was aligned with the flow of Michelle’s spirit energy, it stopped sucking on her blood, and she was able to pull her hand down. "Well, this is strange..." Michelle didn’t yet know that the Life Stone was returning her blood to her, so she found it strange that she wasn’t feeling dizzy.

But before she could think about it any further, she felt her forehead sting as the Life Stone completely retracted under her skin, and the wound left behind by it closed up.

It looked like nothing had happened, but Michelle knew that wasn’t the case. She could feel that her body wasn’t the same as before, but she couldn’t exactly tell how.

So she decided to test it.

To do that, she first needed to clear away all the Life Stones scattered on the ground. If she just left them like that and then accidentally hit them, it could result in a catastrophe.

Squatting down, she picked up one Life Stone. Instantly, a frown formed on her brows.

When she was taking the Life Stones out the first time, they felt different. Her senses must have changed.

Turning the Life Stone in her hand, she stared at it for a long time.

"What’s wrong?" Alexander asked curiously.

But Michelle didn’t answer. Instead, she just took out a pouch and started storing away the Life Stones. Depending on what element they belonged to, they felt different to the touch.

At the start, Michelle was only picking up Life Stones that weren’t of her element. Before the experiment, she had separated them.

She didn’t think much about what would happen when she touched a Life Stone of her element.

But maybe, if she knew what kind of monster the Life Stone she ate belonged to, she would have been more careful.

When Michelle reached out to touch a black Life Stone, Nyxaroth sensed that something was wrong. But he didn’t have enough time to react. When he left Michelle’s body, she was already holding the black Life Stone.

The moment her fingers touched the surface of the stone, she felt a cold shudder run through her. Then, without her controlling her hand, her grip tightened around the stone.

Nyxaroth left Michelle’s body and grabbed her wrist.

She didn’t even look at him. She knew something was going on, since she couldn’t control her hand, so she kept her gaze locked on her hand.

Constantly, she could feel the muscles in her fingers tightening around the stone, as if trying to shatter it.

And it happened.

After a few seconds, the stone cracked before shattering in Michelle’s hand. The shards stabbed all over her palm and through her fingers.

"Ouch..." she frowned a bit. She felt her hand pulsing in pain.

But she could control it once again.

"What was that...?" she muttered as she lifted her other hand to pick the shards out of her palm.

But before she could do so, she saw the shards shrinking and sinking into her blood.

Seeing what had happened, a guess appeared in Nyxaroth’s head. "Michelle, have you ever collected a purple Life Stone of a big poisonous spider with clear orange fur behind its head?" he asked.

When Michelle nodded, Nyxaroth frowned. "So it seems the one you used was from that monster..."

Michelle raised a brow. "How can you be so sure?"

"That spider you killed was the Orange Widow. They usually target other monsters, mostly those of the same element as them. They do it so they can snatch away their Life Stone and absorb it. That’s their food and elevates their power," Nyxaroth explained.

Michelle was fairly intrigued by that. "So, by taking a Life Stone of such a creature, I gained some of its abilities?" she raised a brow.

"Basically," Nyxaroth nodded. "Either this was just a one-time thing, or you will be able to absorb the Life Stones of monsters that have the same element as you."

Nodding a bit, Michelle stared down at her hand. It sounded like a great way to cultivate, but at the same time, she wasn’t all that tempted to use it. By absorbing the Orange Widow’s, she gained one of its abilities. So if she absorbed other Life Stones using the Orange Widow’s abilities, maybe she would gain new abilities.

That didn’t sound all that bad in itself. But if Michelle considered the fact that she had no clue about what creatures the Life Stones in front of her were, it turned dangerous.

Also, even if she knew what creatures the Life Stones were from, she still wouldn’t use the skill.

No monsters had just one ability. There were abilities that came with the general group of species they were from.

For example, the Orange Widow was a spider. Additionally to its ability to absorb others’ Life Stones and possessing poison glands, it could create nets and climb. It had numerous eyes and could sense nearby movement with the thin hairs on its eight limbs.

It was similar with most monsters. Additionally to their special abilities, that only their kind had, they had abilities of the general group of monsters. Most felines could see in the dark, most birds could fly, fish could swim, and so on.

Standing up, Michelle looked at the Life Stones scattered around her. "Nyx, could you clean it up for me?" she handed him an empty pouch. She decided not to put Life Stones of her element into a pouch with other-element Life Stones so she wouldn’t accidentally touch them. She didn’t want to recklessly gain new abilities.

Nyxaroth understood why Michelle didn’t want to touch the Life Stones, so he swept his hand and picked them up with mist made of his dark element spirit energy. Then, he just pushed them into the pouch and handed it over to Michelle.

She stored it and sat back down. She had to admit that her experiment was getting a bit out of hand.

First, she had to figure out how the new Life Stone in her blood would affect her.

The only clue she had was that it was black, so of dark element spirit energy. So it was best for her to summon her dark element spirit energy and observe it for any changes.

Though Michelle doubted any changes would show directly in that.

Just like with the Life Stone of the Orange Widow, the element of her spirit energy didn’t necessarily have to be affected. It could be a bodily function or a physical ability.

Thinking back to all the monsters Michelle had killed, she couldn’t remember all of them.

Quite a few times, she had ended up with a horde of monsters and beasts surging on her because the scent of her blood had attracted them. In those cases, she didn’t remember what monsters she killed. She just focused on defeating them. When she was done, she would collect the Life Stones and leave.

Summoning her dark element spirit energy, Michelle let the black mist freely dance around her hand, watching it move. She was hoping she would be able to spot at least a little difference.

But nothing happened. It was completely without a result.

Feeling a bit down, Michelle let a bit more spirit energy out. As it flowed around, it brushed along her skin every now and then.

And in those moments, Michelle felt a strange tingle under her skin.

A frown formed on her face. What was that? It seemed like she was on the right path to finding out.

So she controlled her spirit energy and had it flow around in a way that it stuck to her skin.

The tingle instantly reappeared, making Michelle’s eyes gleam. She couldn’t see through the black mist what was going on with her skin, but she could feel that it was changing.

After a while, Michelle decided to retract the spirit energy. It had been on her skin for a while, reforming it. If Michelle wanted to see it, she couldn’t have the spirit energy blocking her gaze. And she doubted that the change would disappear instantly. She believed she would have at least a few seconds to see what was going on with her hand.