Evolution
"Madam, your husband has awoken."
"Huh? That fast? I expected Jane to wake up first.", Lara was surprised, which earned her a disdainful look from Mia.
"Do you really think so low of my ability? Of course, he would wake up first. How couldn't he after I have worked on him?"
Already used to her excessive pride in her work, Lara hurriedly nodded in agreement, because if not she would hear a long sermon. She then hurriedly stood up and escaped into the room.
On the bed there laid the very pale Ivan. While on the sofa her daughter is sleeping peacefully.
"How do you feel?", she then asked and unconsciously there was some concern hidden in her voice.
When Ivan who had just woken up and was still feeling dizzy heard her question he was shocked. He never would have expected her to be worried for him like this. So although his whole body felt powerless and even the slightest movement created pain, he collected some strength and smiled, just barely.
"It's alright. What happened?" He himself didn't know what had happened. After their daughter had formed the small kitten, his blood had started to boil and after that came that heart-wrenching pain. Just the thought of it made him shudder.
"I'm not sure.", she answered uncertain, before describing everything that had happened.
Only now did Ivan see the small lizard laying relaxed in her bosom.
"It should be the same as Jane's, right?" There was a bit of uncertainty in his voice, as he himself wasn't sure. After all, there was a big difference between what had happened to him and their daughter.
"It should be. Do you feel any connection to it? And what about System messages?"
Hearing her ask, he immediately checked for System messages and unsurprisingly there were some, but they were minimized, so he had overlooked them just now. Delaying, checking them out, he first concentrated on feeling if there is a connection to the little lizard.
It didn't take long before he could feel a faint connection, but this connection was even fainter than the one with Vlada at the beginning. Maybe it too would need time?
"There is a connection, but it is very faint. Even worse than the connection to my pet."
"That's good. I don't know what this little guy is, but I'm sure it would be bad if there was no connection. After all, he came out of your body."
Ivan hesitated and then he decided to directly share the System messages. He had seen, that she was concerned about him, and after all, was said and done, she was still his wife and his daughter's mother, so he did not want to hide anything important from her.
<< Warning! Bloodline Resonance has been detected. Due to the severity of this case, the System reserves its right to directly intervene. >>
Seeing this message, both of them sharply inhaled. Usually, the System had a hands-off strategy. It would only directly interfere if there was a direct threat to the entire realm. They didn't know what Bloodline Resonance was, but for the System to announce the willingness to intervene, it should be something, that if it went wrong, would have terrible consequences.
Ivan felt that he really needed more information about bloodlines, but sadly there were no available.
<< Congratulations! Your bloodline has evolved to 'Spiritual Chaos Dragon God (Unstable)'
By absorbing the 'Spirit Sparrow' bloodline through Bloodline Resonance and
Because of the severity of this case, the System will calculate a strategy to stabilize the bloodline.
Remark: This time it's free of charge. The next time, you better be prepared to pay.
>>
Once again the message didn't tell them much since they weren't really able to understand what it talked about. The only thing both of them were sure about, was that it was bad that the bloodline was unstable.
"Hurry, check if the System has issued any quests.", Lara anxiously said. She really didn't want to know what would happen if he failed in stabilizing his bloodline.
Ivan wordlessly obeyed and checked out the next message.
<< New Quest: Stabilizing the Bloodline (Grade S)
To stabilize the bloodline 'Spiritual Chaos Dragon God (Unstable)' permanently, it is necessary to strengthen the spiritual part. To achieve this it is necessary to absorb other spiritual bloodlines through either marriage or contract. The effect depends on the strength of the absorbed bloodline.
The contract only works for beasts, while marriage only works for higher beings, like humans.
Current Strength: 1/100
Time Limit: 10y
Rewards: If successful the bloodline will be stabilized, while failure will ignite the bloodline, destroying every carrier as well as dealing immense damage to the realms they are in.
>>
They both stare at the last part. "Do you think Janes bloodline has changed too?", Ivan asked with fear in his voice. If it was only his, that had changed, then even if the worst case happened, at least only he would be implicated. But if his daughter was implicated too, then he really couldn't stand it.
"I don't think so. She has inherited your bloodline long ago and it shouldn't have changed now. But to be sure, we will have to ask her when she wakes up."
"Then let us look for beasts with a spiritual bloodline.", Ivan focused on what he could do, in order to not think about what might happen to his daughter if he failed.
Lara shook her head, "I don't think that would work, at least not in this realm. Because I only know of five different beasts that have a spiritual bloodline. Sure there are many beasts we don't know about, but if we don't know about them, then how can we find them?"
"At least ten years aren't that short, so we will have time. Maybe I will be able to go to the upper realm and find these beasts there?"
"I don't think so. Sure you have increased in level very fast until now, but you have to understand that after level 250 the speed decreases significantly, with bottlenecks at level 500 and level 750. Both of which will require you to do some hard quests."
"Then what are we supposed to do?", he didn't know when, but they had started to see this not as only his problem, but theirs, which was a huge step in their relationship.
"I don't know. I will talk about it with Mom since she knows more about it. After all, she has also gone to the upper realm."
"She has?", this came as a surprise to him. He hadn't thought that Miranda was so strong.
Seeing his incredulous look, Lara had to laugh. "Did you think she was just a weak woman? As the empress, she, of course, has to have some strength. Besides that it is also necessary for her to be strong enough, so her lifespan is long enough."
Ivan is embarrassed since he had never thought about it. It was just that the image she gave of wasn't something he associated with a woman who was so strong because one had to be level 1000 to be able to enter the upper realm, which wasn't easy to reach.
"Besides that, I don't think we can ignore the other option.", she then mentioned the option, Ivan had just ignored.
"Oh please no. I already got two wives, which whom I honestly don't have anything to do.", Ivan was really annoyed, that the wives just seemed to increase. He wondered if the System did something just to annoy him this way.
Seeing his discomfort, Lara once again laughed. The look on his face was just too funny. "It's not like you really have to take them as your wives. You can take them as just your concubines. Even though this is also recognized as a form of marriage by the system, it isn't eternal, since you can divorce after just five years. And there are fewer responsibilities for both parties."
"Will this really work?", he hesitated. Just these two women were already enough for him to handle.
"It should. But there are a lot of differences for taking a wife and a concubine. I guess you aren't familiar with the role of concubines in our current society, so I will explain it to you.
Unlike wives, which are taken by the male, concubines are selected by the wives, in order to share their burden. For example, taking care of the household or the children, but also of the husband's needs."
"Then why would anyone want to be a concubine? Isn't it better to be a wife, instead of getting all the work?"
"One reason is the possibility to divorce. Besides that, the treatment a concubine get's is just about the same as a wife and if they divorce there will be a huge payment. Another important point for noble families is, that there are no status demands on concubines, so it is a good way to marry a lover, without anyone being able to say anything. Sadly this works only for male nobles. But on the other hand, the status demands for females aren't as strict, since they don't have to continue the family line."