Chapter 54: Splitting the Wealth and Filling Their Spaces! (bonus - )

Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Splitting the Wealth and Filling Their Spaces! (bonus Chapter)

"You’re late!" Evelisse said the moment the door clicked shut.

"...Hello to you too, Eve" Lucien said, dropping onto the couch beside her as the exhaustion caught up.

At the scent of the food being made his stomach let out a beastly growl, loud and unmistakable.

Silence.

Evelisse grinned slowly and started laughing. "Damn! Your stomach sounds like a monster, husband."

"I’ve had a long day."

"Apparently your stomach had a longer one."

Seraphina and Aurelia joined them once lunch was set to simmer, and Aurelia’s eyes narrowed the moment she got a proper look at him.

"So what happened to you?" she asked.

---

Lucien exhaled and told them everything that occurred with him meeting Rikas party and joining them for the upcoming dungeon run and then deciding to go to Blackstone’s for starting the master room expansuin so he could finally sleep with all his beautiful wives.

But on his way there he noticed the empty streets finally fighting the mysterious black-cloaked figure which was Vane’s clone, and finally Vane’s arrival.

"He’s a servant from House Aethernis," Lucien said. "Kind of my ex servant, actually, back when I still had a say to anyone there. Jumped ship the moment my mother disappeared and my status started tanking and ended up as Silas’s personal servant or maybe relief toy, still not sure."

He pulled out Vane’s phone, thumbing through it, no passcode, thankfully, though it turned out to hold nothing more useful than a truly alarming number of selfies some of which was not for the public eyes and he wished he never saw.

’Maybe I was right about him, what is Silas even doing with a personal servant like him, maybe this would make a good blackmail or as they say some spicy persuasion.’

Evelisse leaned over to look. "Wait a minute." She stared at him. "That’s the Vane you were fighting?"

"Yep."

"The Vane you were talking about? The one who tried to kill you? I thought you were talking about a guy, I know you said he is feminine but ate you sure that is a guy?"

"That’s the one and yes, he is a guy"

She snorted, scrolling through another photo. "He looks like he spent more time on his hair than most people spend learning to fight. It’s honestly impressive he made it to B-Rank."

"Are you sure he was even a boy?" Seraphina leaned over and asked, genuinely uncertain while squinting at one photo.

"Definitely male," Lucien said. "Confirmed the hard way when I was searching his dead body."

"Are you sure?" Evelisse pressed. "Because this jawline looks like it is used to doing a lot of work, from what he is showing."

"I split him in half with a scythe, Eve. Pretty thorough confirmation if I say so myself."

Aurelia sighed. "You shouldn’t underestimate someone because of their appearance, that’s the quickest way to die and trust me I’ve seen it happen more times than not."

"I wasn’t underestimating his appearance," Evelisse said. "I was underestimating his personality and choice of pics, there’s a difference."

Even Seraphina couldn’t hold back a laugh at that.

---

Aurelia’s expression sobered a moment later. "Lucien."

He looked at her.

"Are you alright?"

He knew exactly what she meant.

"Honestly?" He looked down at his own hands. "I expected to feel worse."

Seraphina’s brow creased with worry. Evelisse opened her mouth to lighten things, then closed it, sensing the shift in mood.

"He came to kill me," Lucien said. "I fought back. If I hadn’t killed him, he’d have killed me. So no, I don’t feel guilty about it." He paused.

"Maybe that’s the vampire in me. Maybe it’s how I grew up. Or maybe some part of me already understood it was him or me before it even started."

Aurelia gave a small nod. "Then don’t force yourself to feel something you don’t."

"I wasn’t planning to."

---

"Though there’s a much bigger problem now," Lucien continued. "Vane wasn’t there for some personal grudge, he was sent to kill me."

"By Silas," Aurelia said flatly.

"By Silas," Lucien confirmed.

The room went quiet.

"So now," Seraphina said slowly, "we’ve got House Aethernis, Silas specifically, and House Astrax all potentially coming for us."

"Basically," Lucien said. "A great roster, seems Ike we are pretty important, huh." he said chuckling.

---

He shifted the mood by pulling Vane’s spatial ring onto the table.

"He also had this besides the phone."

Aurelia examined it immediately, eyes widening slightly as the contents scrolled past.

Mana crystals ranging D to A-Rank. Tens of thousands in gold. Healing potions, weapons, cultivation resources, an unsettling assortment of miscellaneous items Lucien had quietly decided not to mention.

"...He was a servant?" Evelisse said.

"Apparently."

"Can I become your servant and be spoiled like this?"

"No," Aurelia said instantly.

"Why not?"

"Because youre my wife which is higher adventurers a servant and you’d spend my entire fortune on food within a week."

"...Fair."

---

Lucien moved Aurelia’s healing resources into Vane’s ring before sliding it across to her.

"Take this."

"Lucien—"

"You need somewhere for your weapons and recovery items, this has more than enough space for everything."

She hesitated, then accepted it. "This is yours, though."

"And you’re my wife, so what’s mine is yours too."

She said nothing further, but the faint softening around her eyes said enough.

The chime rang instantly.

[Ding!]

[Investment Detected — Rare Spatial Ring → Aurelia Astrax]

[Multiplier: ×36]

[Reward: Super Rare Spatial Ring — 1,000m × 1,000m]

Lucien blinked at the notification. ’...I just gave away a ring and got a better one back for it. Excellent and efficient system.’

---

Evelisse raised her hand. "Excuse me."

"Yes?"

"Where’s mine?"

He smiled and handed over his old ring, still stocked with mana crystals, monster cores, and scattered cultivation resources.

Her eyes lit up. "You’re giving me this?"

"Yep."

She slid it on immediately.

[Ding!]

[Investment Detected — Various cultivation resources (Mana Crystals, Cores, etc.)→ Evelisse Noctis]

[Multiplier: ×24]

[Reward: C Rank Mana Crystal and Cores× 30, D Rank Mana Crystals and Cores ×150.]

"You’re spoiling us a lot," Seraphina said, watching.

"Nope, I’m investing," Lucien said, "in my family."

’Only I know how literal that word actually is, he thought, hiding a smile.

He handed Seraphina Vane’s potions next a whole collection of Rare-grade magical herbs and various alchemy ingredients and healing items.

Her eyes went wide scanning through them. "Lucien, these are quite expensive things."

"Then they’re useful for you."

[Ding!]

[Investment Detected — Various alchemy resources (Magical herbs, potions, etc.)→ Seraphina Lilith]

[Multiplier: ×29]

[Reward: 5× Rare Healing Potions, 3× Rare Mana Recovery Potions, 1× Epic Purification Elixir]

Seraphina’s mouth fell open slightly at the elixir’s rarity.

---

Finally, he split Vane’s gold three ways.

Aurelia protested immediately. "You should keep this."

"No."

"But—"

"We’re a family," Lucien said simply. "If one of us gets stronger, all of us benefit from it and I’ve got enough gold on me, so you guys should take this."

Nobody argued after that.

The chime rang a final time, gold multiplying neatly across all three shares and went straight to his system inventory.

’Man, I really love this system, getting strong by spoiling my wives. What a way to cultivate.’ Lucien thought, satisfied.

---

Lunch finally arrived, Crimson Herb Roast Horned Rabbit, Mana-Grain Pilaf, Moonroot Vegetable Stew, and a Honey-Moonberry Custard that Evelisse attacked before anyone else had even picked up their spoon.

"The rabbit’s juicy," she announced through a full mouth. "Herbs aren’t overpowering. Rice has just a touch of sweetness. And the sauce—"

"You’re reviewing it like a restaurant critic," Lucien said.

"Because it’s good, that’s why."

Seraphina blushed at the praise, glancing toward Aurelia, who nodded her own quiet agreement.

---

Once the plates emptied, the conversation turned serious again.

"We can’t keep reacting after things happen," Lucien said. "We need to actually prepare."

"We need strength," Aurelia said.

"And resources," Seraphina added.

"...And training," Evelisse said.

Everyone looked at her like she had said something unbelievable.

She huffed. "Don’t act so surprised. I can be serious sometimes."

They laid out priorities, Aurelia continuing her recovery and combat training, Seraphina pushing her alchemy research further, Evelisse committing properly to cultivation and combat, and Lucien focused on cultivation, weapon mastery, and everything his Talent could offer.

After discussing and planning how they would move forward with everything that has happened and likely will happen, Lucien decided now was was better time than any.

"There’s something else," Lucien said, once the plan settled. "Something I haven’t told any of you yet, but nows a better time than any."

Three sets of eyes turned toward him.

"I awakened a Talent."

Silence.

"...When?" Evelisse asked.

"A few days after we got married."

Aurelia’s eyes sharpened. "What rank?"

He hesitated. "Divine."

Nobody spoke.

Evelisse’s jaw dropped open whiel Seraphina nearly lost her grip on her teacup and Aurelia simply stared, processing the fact that Lucien had a laye awakening and that under all those circumstances he awakened a divine rank Talent.

"...Divine?" she said finally.

---

He explained it roughly, refining blood into cultivation, mana, or life force, extracting traits and combat memories from consumed blood and temporary physical enhancement through his own reserves.

"You can refine blood into life force?" Seraphina asked immediately, eyes bright with interest.

"Doesn’t that mean blood acts like certain potions for you? That’s very interesting." Se said staring at him like looking at a lab rat which was scaring him to be honest.

"Seraphina, you okay?"

"You can even gain racial traits from consuming blood?" Aurelia added.

"Wait," Evelisse said, holding up a hand. "You’re saying you can eat monster blood and get their abilities?"

"...Sometimes."

She stared at him. "That’s disgustingly broken. If you drank dragon blood, what would happen, would you suddenly gain the ability to breathe fire or there dragon scales?"

"Or what what if you consumed blood from other powerful races, you’d basically become an unstoppable monster, damnit why couldn’t I have a Talent that would make me stronger by eating?"

"Seems like Lucien will become the pig in this family." She finally said.

"You ate three plates of Flame-Boar yesterday, and you’re saying I’m the pig?" Lucien pointed out.

"That’s completely different."

"How?"

"It just is."

---

Then Evelisse’s eyes went wide with a different realization entirely.

"Wait." She pointed at Aurelia. "Divine Talent."

She pointed at herself. "Divine Talent."

She pointed at Lucien. "Divine Talent."

She looked between all three of them. "...Are we secretly the strongest family in the world?"

Seraphina laughed softly while Aurelia allowed a small smile.

"Potential isn’t strength," Aurelia said. "But," she glanced around the table, "if we survive long enough to actually realize that potential and grow this small family to heights others can only dream of."

"Than we’ll become people nobody can afford to touch," Lucien finished.

Nobody argued with that either.

After a while of talking and hanging out with each other, they decided to split up and head to do their own tasks.

"I’m going to cultivate," Lucien said eventually, rising.

Evelisse groaned. "Already?"

"Someone’s trying to kill me, so obviously I don’t want to die."

"...Fine. Point taken."

He headed upstairs, the master bedroom still the same as always, quiet and undisturbed hopefully changed by tomorrow.

He settled cross-legged on the bed and drew a measure of Vane’s remaining blood from his Infinite Sanguine Cosmos storage, letting it hover in the air before him, dark and slightly luminous.

’Let’s see, he was a B-Rank and a Vampire, like me. I wonder what that weirdo has got, booefully not anything that would make me like him, please.’

He activated Blood Trait Extraction.

[Blood Traits Activated.]

[Blood Detected.]

[Target: Demon (Vampire)]

[Bloodline: Shadow Creeper (Rare)]

[Beginning Trait Extraction...]

His eyes narrowed, waiting as the blood before him slowly turned to mist and entered his body.

[Ding!]

[Trait Extraction Successful.]

"Please be nothing weird." He prayed to whatever God they had in this world, so that he got nothing that would make him regret doing this.