The top floor of the Valmont Medical Research Facility, Orinfeld Branch, exploded without warning, causing chaos for the surrounding passersby. Thankfully, due to the magical protective measures ced, no civilians were injured.


    As for the three present on the top floor...


    *Cough!* *Cough!* *Cough!*


    Aster coughed, inhaling a good deal of the dust that was raised by the explosion. Thankfully, Mistelle was with him, and she was able to cast anotheryer of protective walls to hide them from the heat and shockwaves of the explosion. As such, the two were rtively uninjured.


    "Vanessa...!"


    Aster called, worried. After all, she was right where the explosion urred! As soon as Mistelle removed the walls, Aster ran forward to the spot where the man was pinned before. However, he couldn''t take another step forward, seeing that the ground ahead of him was destroyed, revealing the floor below.


    Looking through the edge, he could see a figure standing in the middle of all the smoke and dust, a woman with ck hair fluttering with the strong windsing from the destroyed windows.


    "Are you al... right?!"


    And just as he was about to check for her safety, he noticed the change in her appearance. Her clothes were almost all gone, leaving nothing but scraps sticking to parts of her body. She''s no different than being naked right now, but other than that, no signs of injuries could be seen from her.


    "I''m alright." She replied lightly while staring at her own body.


    "But the bastard destroyed my favorite pair of clothes! If he didn''t die from that, I''d be killing him a hundred times over by now!"


    Despite being exposed, she didn''t even bat an eye at it. Rather, she didn''t even mind Aster seeing her body!


    "You, officer. Go report this to your higher-ups and call for someone to fix this ce." And as if nothing happened, she continued to givemands to Mistelle.


    "And you, my little test subject, stop gandering at my body ande down here. We''re on a tight schedule, so we''ll proceed with the sample gathering quickly."


    Vanessa walked around the room and grabbed a rtively undamagedb coat that was lying on the ground.


    "..."


    But rather than helping with covering her body, it turned even more provocative-looking instead. As if she were an exhibitionist, ready to spread the front of her robe open to show passersby her godly proportions!


    "Ah, right. I''ming." Aster snapped back to reality and looked down.


    The floor below was about three meters high, so it wasn''t too far. He simply jumped down,nding on the part of the floor that didn''t have too many cracks running across it. As hended, he quickly chased after Vanessa''s back, walking down a set of stairs as they went.


    Along the way, they found a few corpses of what looked like security forces stationed in the building. Their bodies were mangled badly, almost leaving them unrecognizable. Aster frowned as they passed by the corpses, continuing onward.


    ''These people are her hired security, so she must be familiar with them, right? Doesn''t she feel bad seeing their deaths?''


    Aster wondered lightly, seeing how Vanessa remained unaffected even after they passed by more than a dozen corpses by then.


    "Is this your first time seeing a dead body?" Vanessa asked lightly without turning around.


    Aster stood in attention, keeping a constant pace while chasing behind her. "No... I''ve taken the lives of a few kidnappers too, so it''s not really my first time."


    Vanessa nodded her head in understanding.


    "I see. Well, in time, you would find corpses boring to look at too." She eximed with a sigh. "As an adventurer, you would be walking alongside death most of the time, so you should get used to it soon."


    Aster wanted to ask how old she was, hearing her talk about "time" and all that. However, he didn''t want to appear rude by asking that question. As such, he silently epted her "tips" and took them to heart.


    "We''re here. Myb."


    Soon, after going down for six floors, they finally stopped before an auto door. Vanessa ced her hand on the panel beside the door, which scanned her handprints and matched them with the security database, before turning green. The doors slid open quickly, along with the sound ofpressed air releasing.


    The floor was filled with clouds of cold air, telling Aster that the room was chilled enough to cause water vapor to turn back to a fog-like state.


    Experience new worlds on M-VL-em|p,yr


    As they entered, the lights turned on, shedding light on the various machines and pods filled with mysterious fluids here and there.


    "Over here. Sit." Vanessamanded Aster as they reached the operating table in the middle of the room.


    "We don''t have much time left, since such chaos just happened. When the policee here, then that might mean that my permitted interaction with you would end too."


    They were ambushed by a member of the Anti-Human Movement right as they arrived at herboratory. Meaning, the exchange between her and Magnus was leaked! That also meant Aster couldn''t stay there, as the location was already leaked to the "enemies."


    "First, let me get a blood sample. About... 200 mL should be good enough."


    From the nearby table, Vanessa took a blood pack with a tube connected to what looked like a small patch. "Give me your left hand, and rx your muscles." She requested.


    With professional, swift movements, Vanessa used a cotton swab to clean the area on the other side of his left elbow, where the median cubital vein was. After that, she carefully ced the patch connected to the tube over it.


    "...!"


    And then, without even feeling pain, Aster''s blood started to get drawn. The blood pack filled to half before stopping, extracting roughly 200 mL of his blood.


    "With this much, I should be able to do much research." She smiled while checking the contents of the airtight bag, letting its contents slush inside. "Next, let me see your Nameless Disease in action."


    She quickly pulled a chair over, sitting right across from Aster. She also had a stethoscope over her shoulder, making her look like an authentic doctor—if not for her robe being open, exposing most of her chest, and practically everything else.


    Aster tried to keep a straight face as he removed the bracelet from his left wrist. It was there for quite a while, to the point that he already forgot he even had it on!


    "... Ugh!"


    As soon as he removed it, he started to feel that his energy was dropping with every breath he took. Now that he was even more sensitive to energy, it felt even more oppressive and scary to him. It was like a water balloon with a small hole, leaking water out.


    Vanessa stared at Aster intently, her eyes darting from here and there, observing his entire body without missing a single detail.


    "This is... I see... interesting!"


    Right after, she pulled out her stethoscope and started to check the sound of Aster''s heartbeat and breathing. After about three minutes of continuous observation, the police finally arrived, and put a stop to their session, just as Vanessa expected.


    "I was nning to check his life essence and get a sample too, but... too bad." Vanessa sighed as she watched Aster get escorted by dozens of police to safety.