Chapter 165 - Improbable

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Of course, although Evelyn thought it was amazing, she could still spot some of the flaws in this grade seven artifact.

The biggest flaw of 'Frozen Tears of the Ocean' was, of course, the random positioning of the escape location.

It was very unlikely, but possible, that one could be teleported right next to where they were. If that happened, it would make the whole move useless. 

Granted, the random nature of the artifact could be mitigated to an extent by keeping it in a stationary and safe position most of the time, but that was obviously impractical. 

Not only would it defeat the whole purpose of the thing being useful in emergencies — since it would be stashed away — the duration required would also be absurdly long.

Moreover, even if doing things this way reduced the probability of appearing at a 'bad' location, it would still exist. Thus, the root of the problem would still be the same.

The other problem she immediately noticed was with its ability to 'erase' attacks.

Of course, the issue of randomly moving the attack back to where it was — or any other position that still led the attack to her — was obviously there, but that was a given because of the first flaw.

What concerned Evelyn was that she couldn't be sure if there was a possibility that homing attacks may not lose their target when this skill is used. From the looks of it, there was no dissociation applied to anything being moved, so that should indeed be the case.

If so, moving away such attacks would only cause them to come back to her later. And depending on the speed of the attack, its acceleration, as well as how of its momentum would be lost on the way… this might just make things worse.

Evelyn sighed. 'How good would it be if I could just decide where the target location would be? All of these drawbacks would just vanish.'

Of course, even though she couldn't change its properties, knowing the drawbacks of her own trump cards was still a must. Otherwise, she might be caught off-guard in a really sticky situation, leaving her with even less room to maneuver. 

Now that she knew all of this, however, Evelyn could also find her way around making things work more in her favor.

The pink-haired girl tapped her chin in thought. 'Even if the teleportation is random, it should be fine if I'm ready and expecting it. If I don't immediately move away, I can just do it again and again. Even if I'm unlucky once, it can't be the same every time.'

Of course, it went without saying that in the best-case scenario, she would move away to a decent location on the first try.

As for the second flaw… Evelyn didn't think that function was very practical in the first place.

After all, getting the timing right to move the attack away, and then having no control over where it went… there were just too many variables for Evelyn's liking. Unless she had no other choice, she would never use it.

Evelyn hummed in thought as she went over the description again. 'There are 7 charges left… can charges be 'recharged'? If so, how? I should ask Aurora… But even if they can't be recharged, it's still really good.'

The best part of it all was of course that it could move anyone she linked with her spirit power along as well. This meant that whenever she needed it, she could escape along with all her friends to safety!

This gave Evelyn renewed confidence in taking her friends along even to the most dangerous of places. After all, in the worst-case scenario, they could all just escape together.

The pink-haired girl shook her head. 'No wait, I can't be careless. We should still remain vigilant. A moment's inattention can lead to death, after all. Although this thing cannot be blocked, what if something happens before I can even trigger it in the first place? Still… it's great to have it.'

Whatever the reason may be behind Aurora not having this thing equipped on her at all times, Evelyn had no intention of doing the same. She immediately wrapped it around her left ankle.

It was a little loose, but not enough to look out of place. Evelyn thought it looked quite pretty.

While the redheads were busy arguing with each other over cheating in their board game, not everyone was quite as busy.

Cecilia blinked as she noticed the new addition on her friend's leg. "Eh, what's that? Did you buy it while you were out? It looks so cute on you!"

Evelyn smiled. "I didn't buy it. It's a gift from Aurora."

But thinking about it again, the pink-haired girl scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. "Well… to be honest, I kind of just took it at first, and then she let me have it. It still counts as a gift though, right?"

Cecilia grinned. "Ehehe… you've learned well from my art of bullying Aurora. Of course it counts! Let me take a closer look at what you nabbed~"

The ash blonde then closed in as she observed the anklet, even grabbing Evelyn's calf to lift her leg closer to her face. "Wow… this thing looks gorgeous… I couldn't tell before, but since it came from Aurora. Un, I doubt she collects trash like you—"

Evelyn rolled her eyes as she interrupted her friend with a gentle nudge of her calf. "I don't collect trash."

The ash blonde coughed. "Anyway, it looks so good… Don't tell me it's grade four, no… five?!"

The pink-haired girl shook her head with a smile. "Higher."

Cecilia gasped. "Grade six?! That's the same as Mister Chonkers, then!"

Even if Aurora was super rich, Cecilia still found it hard to believe how she could just give away such artifacts. Even in her Fulbright family, the highest grade artifact they had in their possession was only at grade five!

Evelyn smirked. "Not six… it's seven."

The ash blonde gaped in shock for a solid minute before she started rubbing her face against Evelyn's ankle and calf. "Wow… it's my first time touching a grade seven artifact! Rub off some magic on me!"

Cecilia didn't know about the treasuries of the royal families, nor did she know what kind of stuff the Timaeus vault had, but she was still sure that a grade seven artifact would definitely shock anyone on the continent without a doubt.

A grade five artifact was already enough to stir up entire clans, so it went without saying what kind of storms this thing could stir if people knew about it.

Cecilia was suddenly thankful that they were talking so gently, and the others shouldn't have overheard them, especially with all the ruckus on the other side. "Wifey trusts me so much! But you should definitely keep this to yourself, ah, don't tell anyone else!"

The pink-haired girl groaned at her friend's antics. "Of course. And don't be so silly, Cecilia, stop it with the wifey thing, and stop rubbing! You'll cut your face on the anklet if you're careless!"

Cecilia froze immediately and stopped moving her face around, though she still kept holding tight.

Evelyn sighed as she tried to pull back her leg, only to groan as she saw Cecilia moving along without letting go. "If you don't let go, I'm really going to give you a good kick."

The ash blonde coughed. "S-Sorry, it just looks so pretty on you. Wifey~ I feel a little bad now that I've never given you anything aside from the stone cookies. You even bought food today."

The pink-haired girl sighed in relief as the older girl finally released her hold. "Don't worry about it so much. You've bought me plenty of things before. And you even went through the trouble of taking back that torn dress to get it fixed—"

Cecilia waved her hand nonchalantly. "Those are just small matters, how could they count—"

Evelyn nodded with a smile. "Right. So stop minding such little things. Didn't you say you were my best friend?"

The ash blonde coughed. "Okay, wifey."

Evelyn groaned. "I told you to stop it with the wifey thing! Didn't you call me Eve before? Even little Eve is fine with me…"

Cecilia jutted out her lower lip in a pout. "Wifey~ Don't abandon me! I already don't have a fiancé, if you leave me, won't I be single forever?!"

The pink-haired girl huffed. "What's wrong with being single forever? That's exactly what I plan on, anyway."

Cecilia blinked. "Jokes aside, Eve, I'm really going to tease you a lot when you finally realize you're in love with someone. And if you confess to me, ehehe… I'll really make you eat your words, then!"

The ash blonde coughed. "Of course, that being said, feel free to confess anytime. Wifey. I definitely won't make fun of you. Definitely!"

Evelyn couldn't help but roll her eyes. "As if that would ever happen."

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