Chapter 14: Intellectual Explorer

Neo and Bella returned home, as both were no longer in the mood for the party. He arrived in front of his door, taking out his key, but then remembered something and looked away from Bella toward his door, which wasn't there anymore.

"What happened here?" Bella asked, her eyebrows raised as she entered his apartment and saw the condition inside.

"Bolt happened."

Awo?

Bella looked at the charred furniture and fried electronics, then at Bolt, who was looking at them with a cute face.

She thought for a while and a red hue spread across her face as she asked with a weak voice, "How about you stay at my place tonight?"

Hey voice got so small at the endpoint that it was difficult for human ears to pick that frequency.

But Neo got the idea from the first few words and didn't know how to reply to her?

"Let's go out and eat. I'm famished." Blaze said as he picked up Bolt and looked at Bella with a smile.

Bella nodded and left the broken apartment. As if there was anything worth looting before, Bolt had already taken care of it.

They went to a small restaurant not like the Genivella that was too heavy for his pockets. After enjoying the meal, they returned to the apartment and Blaze took the lead as he stood in front of Bella's apartment and said with a grin, "You can't let your boyfriend stay in such a dark and desolate apartment now, would you?"

Bella's cheeks flushed as she opened the door and invited him in. Blaze entered the apartment and found that almost everything was identical to his room. Even the arrangement of the furniture was the same.

He looked toward Bella but found her nowhere in sight, and he heard a loud thud and the bedroom door closed. Shaking his head, he removed the coat and put it on a hanger as he loosened the tie and sat down on the chair and Bolt on the sofa.

{This girl is cute.}

Rocking back and forth, he waited, and after half an hour, Bella opened the door and came out of the room, her face still a little flushed, and she changed to casual jeans and pants.

She pouted and sat next to him. Blaze looked at her, He held her held which received a brief resistance, but then it stopped doing so.

"What is your quest for the 6th Evolution?"

Bella, with flushed cheeks, answered,

"It is about traveling to a specific ruin and deciphering the knowledge of that ruin."

"And are you having problems deciphering that?"

Neo found the quest to be pretty straightforward.

Bella shook her head and said, "No, I just have insufficient Intelligent stats. I fulfilled all the other conditions, even the optional ones, like clearing [Merlin's Trial] but I need to level up to get that many intelligence points."

She felt Neo turning silent and looking at her strangely, and she cleared.

"I know it looks simple, but leveling up to a higher level is no joke. I think I'll need one more year before I can level up."

"How many intelligence points do you need?"

Neo grinned when he heard what was bothering her.

{Wipe that smug expression off. I look like a pervert.}

Neo wanted to retort but stopped as Bella looked at him and said with seriousness, "I already have a high intelligence booting gear. So even if you give me something, it'll not work as the quest puts a restriction on equipment."

"So how much do you need?" He again asked, looking at her with a soft smile. Bella didn't know what he was gonna do even if he learned about it, but still told him to satisfy his curiosity.

"12 intelligence attribute points."

Neo nodded as he laid back, rocking the chair back and forth. Bella also got busy playing with Bolt when she heard Neo's voice.

"Bella, can you close your eyes?"

Bella turned toward him, stood up and jumped back, creating a distance between them. Neo raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"I--" Bella didn't know what to say when she saw his confused expression and knew that she misunderstood him.

'He'll think that I'm a pervert.'

Neo patted at the sofa next to him and motioned Bella to sit. She did and then Neo again asked her to close her eyes. This time, she trusted him and closed her eyes.

Bella was nervous as she didn't know what was Neo doing and a hint of nervousness and anticipation filled her heart. She waited and waited, but nothing happened. She wanted to open her eyes but did when she felt Neo grabbing her hand.

Her heart skipped a beat as her nervousness reached a new level, and then she heard a chime in her mind.

『 Strength+12, Agility+9, Intelligence+9, Stamina+16, Vitality +18』

『 Agility+3, Intelligence+4』

『 Strength+3 Intelligence+3, Vitality +2』

『 Strength+8, Agility+2, Vitality +6』

『 Agility+1, Stamina+3, Intelligence+7』

Bella was stunned as she opened her eyes and saw a strange flame in Neo's hand. Her face turned pale as she shouted, "What did you do? Why did you use forbidden magic to transfer your stats to me?"

Tears stained her face as she started crying. He was stunned as he looked at this pessimistic woman.

"There's a forbidden Magic that can make one transfer one's attribute points to another?"

Bella nodded subconsciously, but then her expression froze as she understood what he was implying. He used this chance and grabbed her hand and yanked her toward himself, making her sit on his lap as he wrapped his hand around her, embracing her.

Bella wanted to struggle but stopped as she got a strange feeling staying there and moved a little before finding a comfortable spot before nuzzling in like a little koala bear.

{If she looks up, I'll go for a kiss.}

Neo was stunned, but was looking forward to it but then when he heard Blaze's next word.

{Oh, look how happy I am. Idiot in love. Ptui!}

Neo wanted to strangle Blaze, but Bella will think that he's a freak if she saw him strangling himself.

"So, did you gain Intelligence attributes from any of them?" He asked as he combed her hair with his hand, admiring how beautiful they were.

Bella replied with a 'hmm' and then asked, "How did you do it if you didn't use forbidden art?"

She looked up, sitting on his lap. Neo looked at her lips when he heard Blaze's spitting voice.

{Ptui}

Neo came back from his imaginations and took out an Essence Sphere before giving it to Bella. Her eyes turned into saucers as she held it, then looked at it, then toward Neo and back and forth.

Her eyes again filled with tears. Neo wanted to laugh at how easy it was to impress this simpleton.

{Look Who's Talking.}

Blaze wiped her tears and said, "Silly girl, stop crying, or I might end up burning this world. This will be our little secret."

He planted a kiss on her forehead and then put her head on his chest. Bella, meanwhile, felt that she was on a rollercoaster of emotions as they changed suddenly from sadness to happiness, then to despair, then to happiness, and so on. Now this kiss from him elevated her to a level that was foreign to her.

"You didn't answer me. Did you get enough Intelligence points?"

To which Bella nodded, Neo then gave her an Ultimate and the last Divine potions and said that she should look after herself.

Bella, who just reeled her emotions in, was again sent back and his care for her made her want to cry again, but she held back her tears and tried acting brave, to which Neo/Blaze shook his head and said, "Silly girl, I'm here. You don't need to hold your emotions back."

And one more round of Bella crying ensued, and she ended up crying herself to sleep. Neo carried her to her bed, took her slippers off and tucked her. He took one last look at her, her tear-stained face fuelling his fury as she had to hide herself behind false bravado.

Neo closed the door behind him and sat on the chair, rocking back and forth. Bolt was fast asleep on the sofa, unaware of the entire ordeal that took place next to him.

'I need to level up fast.'

{…. The tower is not done with its repair.}

Neo closed his eyes and looked at the tower or two towers as both of them were stuck together with their bottom to the other one. He tried accessing it but couldn't.

'Still not done.'

{Then I can check the big fella outside. Sleep now, I'm dead tired.}

Neo also nodded and closed his eyes and surrendered to the gentle pull of slumber. His breathing slowed, deepening into a rhythmic pattern as he drifted off into a peaceful sleep, the cares of the day melting away.

….

Bella woke up early the next morning, sitting dazedly on her bed, recalling what had transpired yesterday. It was like a dream, as the contents of it were too good to be true. She opened her status panel to check.

When she saw the increase in her attributes, she knew it was not a dream. She got down from her bed and went to the washroom, freshened herself, changed her clothes and then left her room, but was stunned when she saw Neo sleeping soundly on the chair.

A gentle smile appeared over her face as she went close to him, and stood next to him, her face an inch far away from his, her breath touching his face.

Blaze suddenly opened her eyes and grabbed her as he pulled her into his embrace.

Bella yelped in surprise but got herself pulled in as with her level. If she wanted, she could send Neo sky-high.

"This is a marvelous way to start the morning. I want this kind of morning every day."

To which Bella giggled and got out of his embrace and said, "Then you'll have to work hard for it, mister."

Blaze nodded and patted his chest, "Don't worry, you can leave it to me."

He or to say Neo prepared breakfast for them when Bella asked, "Which class did you get?"

Neo paused as he hesitated a little, but Blaze, on his behalf, replied, "It's [Technomancer]"

{Let's not involve her in this for now.}

He shared the [Technomancer] panel. Bella looked through it before saying. "You'll need the knowledge of both Magic and technology for this class."

Neo nodded and didn't know where to get that. He thought about advancing with other classes. Not caring about this one when Blaze said, "Yeah, does your guild have someone with knowledge of machines?"

To which Bella grinned and said, "You are looking at the walking library of every knowledge known to this world."

"Oh?" Blaze got out of the kitchen and moved closer to Bella, staring at her.

"I still can't see it clearly. How about I move a little closer?"

But he could, as Bella had already disappeared from his sight. He looked around but couldn't find her.

He shrugged and went back to the kitchen and made breakfast. Bella also returned and was looking at the recent news, which talked about some ranker clearing a dungeon in record time and someone got lucky and gained an epic level weapon and so on.

Neo came out with breakfast and entered the living room. Bolt also opened its eyes when it smelled the fragrance and got ready to eat. They enjoyed breakfast when a notification appeared before Neo.

『 Bella Oswald shared the [Element Basics Knowledge] 』

『 Bella Oswald shared the [Electronics] 』

『 Bella Oswald shared the [Machine Master Knowledge] 』

『 Bella Oswald shared the [Advance Computing Knowledge] 』

『 Bella Oswald shared the [Magic Circuitry] 』

『 Bella Oswald shared the [Runes Knowledge] 』

『 Bella Oswald shared the [Gnomes Machinery Knowledge.] 』

『 Bella Oswald shared the [Knowledge of Merlin.]』

Neo saw the dizzying amount of notifications and looked at Bella, who giggled and said, "You might not learn all of them. So the rest of them are sealed until you reach the required intelligence attribute."

Neo nodded and checked that he could only learn the first two and for the third he needed 200 intelligence.

"You can share your skills?"

To which Bella shook her head and said, "What is shared are not skills but knowledge which I could because of my Unique class [Intellectual Explorer] which evolved from [Skilled Researcher] and then the one before that, lets forget what it was. Sharing knowledge like that is only because of this class."

Neo nodded and felt a little disappointed as he thought that if one can share his skills, then he'll buy a bunch of them and spam them.

{Keep Dreaming. The pressure would crush my soul}

Neo obviously ignored that as he turned to Bella.

"You'll be leaving for the promotion?"

Bella nodded and gave him the key to the apartment. Her face flushed a little.

"You can have it until I don't return. After which we'll get ourselves a house."

Her voice, as usual, turned meek at the end, but Neo could hear it, and he nodded before he closed the distance between them and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Good luck."