[A.N: The Chapter is brought to you by Supreme_slothful, Panda2332, SpecialEagle105 and Calyddon.]
[Thanks for the support!!!]
Alex’s brain blanked for a moment, and he forgot to chew before swallowing.
He almost choked on the piece of meat and had to gulp down a large mouthful of water to keep it from going the wrong way.
Udara simply confirmed with a glance that he was alright and returned to eating her meal, silent and composed.
Meanwhile, Alex’s mind was caught in a whirlpool of chaos.
’Amazon, Drow, Dryad, and Succubus...’
Learning Udara’s racial profile suddenly clarified the mashed, chaotic aura he always sensed around her.
Her untamed wildness came from the Amazon blood, her graceful litheness from the Drow side. The intoxicating charm she wielded with almost zero effort was rooted in her Succubus heritage, while her effortless harmony with nature could only come from the Dryad within her.
It all fit. Her ferocity in combat—Amazon. Her unnatural stealth—Drow. Her rapid regeneration—Dryad. And her deceptively disarming aura in battle—Succubus.
Each trait complemented the next, shoring up weaknesses and forming a formidable synergy. The Drow and Amazon sides clearly contributed most to her core nature, but the Dryad and Succubus additions smoothed out the jagged edges.
But there was one tiny, difficult to fathom detail Alex couldn’t ignore.
All four races—Amazon, Drow, Dryad, and Succubus—were genetically xenophobic.
And more than that—they were all exclusive female races.
Their bloodlines followed absolute gender-based heredity laws.
When they mated with males of other races, the rules were simple.
If the child was female, she would belong completely to the mother’s race, bearing no trace of the father’s lineage. If the child was male, he would instead belong wholly to the father’s race, with no connection to the mother’s.
The only recognised exception was when the father possessed an extremely pure humanity-aligned bloodline. In such rare cases, the father’s blood might remain buried within a female child, and vice versa for a male child.
However, in both cases, the buried bloodline was a one-time fluke, passed only to the immediate offspring. After that, it would be purged from the genetic pool altogether.
In essence, it was genetically impossible for someone to be both Amazon and Drow.
Or at least—it should have been.
Yet Udara wasn’t just a genetic impossibility—she was a damn paradox.
Amazon. Drow. Dryad. Succubus.
There was no doubt in Alex’s mind now: her birth—or creation—was far from natural.
Yes, nature sometimes gave birth to rare, blessed individuals... but this?
This wasn’t a rare miracle.
This was clearly designed.
Alex calculated mentally—using simple probability, it would be over a million times more likely for Earth to halt its orbit, reverse spin, while keep all of its lifeforms alive, than for someone like Udara to exist by sheer chance.
The only questions that remained were:
Who had the knowledge, the resources, and the absurdness to even attempt something ?
Why would they go so far to produce such a being?
And if they succeeded...
Why was Udara here—eating stew beside him as a mere Shadow Guard—rather than standing as the centrepiece of some grand, world-shaking project?
Alex’s first thought was to doubt her.
Almost as if she sensed it, Udara’s body gave a fearful shiver.
Alex’s mind cleared the moment he saw it. He remembered the oath of allegiance she had sworn to him. A person sent to spy or with malicious intent wouldn’t make such an oath—not without coercion, and certainly not to him.
He could trust her... at least, as much as he could trust anyone.
This, he realised, was why she’d hesitated to speak. She had known it could lead to misunderstanding—possibly even a fracture in the tenuous bond between them.
And yet... she told him anyway.
"I’m sorry," Alex said quietly, eyes lowered. "Sometimes, my mind’s too overactive for its own good."
Udara’s eyes widened slightly, caught off-guard. Then, slowly, she shook her head and gave a soft smile.
It made Alex smile too.
The two of them, along with Chef Fen, returned to their meal in silence. Not an awkward one, but the kind born of quiet relief and mutual understanding.
Udara’s fears hadn’t materialised. Her gamble had paid off.
Not only had she preserved her bond with Alex, but her decision to come forward—her trust—had earned more of his in return.
And though his mind still itched with questions about how her surely unique combination of natures had come to be, Alex refrained from probing any further. He could tell she’d reached the limit of what she was willing to reveal—for now.
In time, when she felt truly safe and secure beside him, she would tell him herself.
So instead of obsessing over answers, Alex chose to savour the journey toward them... the slow unraveling of a mystery yet to be solved.
Because the charm of a good mystery didn’t lie solely in its resolution.
No, it was in the build-up. The suspense. The process.
The truth might one day prove disappointing or mundane, but if the journey was thrilling—if the anticipation remained potent—then the mystery was worth it.
And now, the real mystery was; how could he make Udara comfortable enough to open up further?
Countless ideas spun through his mind like a churning tide.
’Heh... worry not, my dear,’ Alex inwardly chuckled like a gleeful villain. ’You’ll be spilling your secrets to me willingly soon enough.’
The little exchange did more than earn trust—it grounded him. For the first time since the goblin cave, Alex felt truly back at peak condition.
He was ready to face whatever the Dankrot Forest had to offer.
And as though it had been waiting for that very moment, the forest answered.
As it turned out... the Dankrot Forest had a dark sense of humour.
The next challenge it hurled at him was one of its most infamous horrors.
A creature avoided by all who walked its depths.
[A.N: *Ring Announce Voice* Introducing...]
The unholy spawn of Mother Nature’s dark whims:
The bane of lower torsos everywhere... The piercer of family jewels, and the ender of legacies—
The Needleback Badger!