"I've brought Seele back. However, although she's connected to Cocolia, she doesn't possess much intelligence. Kaslana, do you have any other suggestions?"
They managed to return to Kaslana's Palace just before Seele's Palace collapsed.
Ren Amamiya looked at the white-haired figure in the distance, exuding a cold aura, and proactively greeted Kaslana.
"..."
Facing Ren's question, Kaslana responded with silence. It merely turned silently towards Ren, still holding the feather that glowed with a golden light.
"...Looks like there are no other suggestions."
The turned Kaslana and Ren stared at each other for a long time, as if in a contest of who would speak first, remaining silent and looking at him indifferently.
In the end, it was Ren who couldn't waste time playing a staring contest with Kaslana and broke the silence.
"I found this in Seele's Palace. Although I couldn't find the corresponding Treasure, just the Will Seed should be enough to create equipment, right? Kaslana, do you have a way to craft this Will Seed crystal into equipment?"
Ren took out the Envy crystal from the pocket of his phantom thief attire. While showing it to Kaslana, he asked.
Back in Seele's Palace, Ren had already asked Hare the same question.
And Hare's reply to Ren was filled with apology.
With only the Envy crystal, although Hare could also transform it into equipment, at best, she could only craft an accessory that slightly enhanced the power of Curse-attribute skills, unable to achieve further improvement.
Although Persona Arsene's innate skill pool was mainly Curse-attribute, Arsene's strength was already sufficient for most situations.
If he encountered an enemy that even his main Persona Arsene couldn't handle, then even adding a Curse-enhancing ring, which would merely be a cherry on top, would be completely useless.
Crafting the Envy Will Seed crystal into a Curse-attribute ring was the last resort.
If Kaslana had a way to maximize the latent power within the Envy Will Seed crystal, that would naturally be for the best.
Kaslana's icy blue eyes looked at the Envy Will Seed crystal lying quietly in Ren's palm. Faced with Ren's question, it finally didn't respond with silence again.
"I can, but I am not skilled in crafting equipment. If I were to do it, at most, I could create a short dagger capable of drawing out its latent abilities."
After a brief examination of the Envy crystal, Kaslana replied to Ren in an indifferent tone.
"Latent abilities? What kind of potential specifically?"
Hearing Kaslana's reply, which was distinctly different from Hare's, Ren's eyes instantly lit up, and he quickly pressed Kaslana for more details.
"The abilities hidden within this crystal vary from person to person, like an uncut jadeite. Before it's truly cut, no one can definitively say what kind of power it contains... Even I can only determine that it conceals powers related to curses and flames."
Kaslana crossed its arms, its tone as calm as still water as it replied to Ren.
After a slight pause, it unhurriedly informed Ren of the power attributes it had observed from the Envy Will Seed crystal.
The special skills carried by Will Seed accessories were closely related to the Will Seed owner's own desires. Like opening a blind box, some special skills were very practical, while others were merely average.
Before the Will Seed crystal was actually crafted into Will Seed equipment, even Kaslana couldn't definitively say what abilities it could unleash. That was only natural.
Compared to having Hare craft the Envy Will Seed crystal into a baseline Curse-enhancing accessory, entrusting it to Kaslana to draw out the latent power within the Will Seed crystal was undoubtedly more cost-effective.
Just as Ren was about to hand the Envy Will Seed crystal to Kaslana, commissioning it to craft the crystal into equipment...
Kaslana's tone suddenly changed, offering Ren another suggestion.
"I am not an expert in crafting equipment. Since Hare has already delivered the previous Will Seeds and Treasure to the Velvet Room, rather than entrusting this Will Seed to me for crafting, you should personally go to the Velvet Room and commission the experts residing there to craft it."
When Hare was staying in the Kaslana Stigma space, she had also communicated Ren's recent situation to the Kaslana Stigma Will.
Therefore, after Kevin forcibly took over the management authority of the Kaslana Stigma Will and read the intelligence records in this Stigma space, he naturally knew everything the Kaslana Stigma Will knew.
For example, Ren claimed he had already met the so-called "Evil God."
This was beyond doubt.
Because Kevin himself was the Evil God Ren spoke of, the one attempting to seize the freedom of all humanity. He certainly knew whether he had met Ren or not.
Ren's own aptitude and potential were indeed of a world-class rarity.
Even though Ren wasn't a Kaslana clan member who had awakened the power of the Kaslana Stigma, merely having accepted a facet of the Kaslana Stigma, the "Kallen Kaslana" part...
But after accepting Kallen Kaslana's Stigma power, Ren, relying on this access pass, had actually resonated with Kevin himself, who was a crucial core existence of the Kaslana Stigma space, isolated far away in the Sea of Quanta.
Even without Kaslana blood, Ren undoubtedly possessed the excellent aptitude to become Kevin's successor.
Although their contact was brief, Kevin had indeed used the mechanics of the Sea of Quanta, with the Kaslana Stigma space as a relay, to proactively project Ren's consciousness before him.
Unfortunately, before Kevin could communicate with Ren, Ren's consciousness, with the cooperation of Seele, who was also in the Sea of Quanta, successfully returned to the real world.
Only now, with Kevin having quietly taken over the Kaslana Stigma Will's account, and everyone mistaking him for the Kaslana Stigma Will, did he have the opportunity to communicate normally with Ren.
Recalling the scene where Seele helped Ren escape in the Sea of Quanta, Kevin's cold blue eyes inadvertently glanced at Seele, who was shrinking behind Ren, silently watching him without uttering a word.
Seele's past actions were not meaningless.
Her and Ren's positions had reversed, and now she had successfully reaped the rewards, gaining the possibility of returning to the real world with Ren's help.
However, it now seemed that Seele and Ren, who had unconsciously helped each other, had clearly failed to recognize each other's identities.
When Ren's consciousness was pulled into the Sea of Quanta by Kevin, he was wearing the Chiba Academy uniform of the current civilization.
But now, Ren wore a white spirit bird mask concealing his face, and a mysterious and cool black, bird-wing-like windbreaker.
It was understandable that Seele, having only met him once, couldn't recognize Ren's identity.
And when Kevin summoned Ren's consciousness to the Sea of Quanta, he was in the depths of a dim, lightless, gloomy sea area.
Ren's perspective as a consciousness was different from a normal person's. Coupled with the chaotic and disorderly rules of the Sea of Quanta, it would be strange if he could see Seele's face clearly. At most, he could probably make out her silhouette.
Whether it was Ren claiming to have met the Evil God, or commissioning Hare to deliver Will Seeds and Treasure to the "Velvet Room" to be crafted into equipment, these were all things Kevin could understand.
The only thing that somewhat baffled him was Ren claiming to have received the MetaNav app from the Evil God.
As the Evil God himself, Kevin naturally knew he hadn't sent any application that could stealthily navigate to other worlds to Ren's phone.
Although the Previous Era possessed technology capable of this, Kevin was not a research-type talent. He didn't have the technical data for guiding users to other worlds stored in his mind.
Even if Kevin wanted to develop an application similar to the MetaNav app, he would have to issue commands to World Serpent's researchers using Previous Era data. It was absolutely impossible for him to quietly download the MetaNav app onto Ren's phone from the Sea of Quanta.
The one who truly gave the MetaNav app to Ren was clearly a mysterious individual who had yet to reveal themselves.
Kevin, far away in the Sea of Quanta, had no way to speculate on the identity of that mysterious person.
What he could do now was to open the passage for Ren to the "Velvet Room," also known as the Elysian Realm.
Kevin gently flipped his palm. A ball of light, exuding an extreme frosty aura and engraved with a symbol composed of a greatsword and shattered crystals beneath it, flew from his hand and slowly floated before Ren.
"Although this Mark of Deliverance carries no power, it is more than sufficient as a key to open the sealed door of the Velvet Room in the real world."
Watching Ren catch the ball of light, which carried the aura of the Mark of Deliverance, in his palm, Kevin slowly explained.
Kevin's main body was still in the Sea of Quanta. Even using the Kaslana Stigma space as a medium, he couldn't maintain focus on Ren for long.
Kevin wanted to verify if Ren possessed the character of a savior.
If Ren could truly walk the path of salvation, then his companions waiting in the Elysian Realm would definitely greatly accelerate Ren's growth, shortening the time Ren needed to truly confront him.
Although Ren possessed the Key of Erosion, Jizo Mitama, a powerful Divine Key with great restraining ability against data spaces...
Kevin believed in his companions.
He had already engraved the information that Ren possessed the Key of Erosion into the Mark of Deliverance, which served as a key.
As long as Ren entered the Elysian Realm, Vill-V and Aponia, as its administrators, would be able to receive the message he wanted to convey immediately.
The Key of Erosion was powerful, but the Thirteen Flame-Chasers were even more powerful than the Herrscher of Erosion.
As long as they knew of the Key of Erosion's existence beforehand, the Flame-Chasers in the Elysian Realm could definitely keep the risk within a completely controllable range.
"Open the door to the Velvet Room in the real world, huh... Thanks, Kaslana. I really need this."
Ren had only entered the Velvet Room once.
If he wanted to enter again, he could only wait to be pulled into a dream by the Evil God when he slept at night, which was extremely inconvenient.
But after receiving the key from Kaslana, Ren could proactively open the door to the Velvet Room in the real world and go there to work on his Personas.
No longer needing to lie in bed every night waiting to fall asleep.
After obtaining this key, capable of opening the gap between mind and matter, Ren could completely open the door to the Velvet Room on a street in the real world.
It would be even better if I could avoid being kicked into the Velvet Room by Caroline!
"But, why do you, Kaslana, have a key that can open the sealed Velvet Room?"
Just as the thought of storing the ball of light arose in Ren's mind, the orb, exuding a cold aura, actively submerged into his body.
After clenching his slightly chilled palm, Ren looked up curiously and asked Kaslana.
"..."
Facing Ren's question, Kaslana crossed its arms again, returning to a state of silent indifference.
"Is it because of the similarity between you and the Evil God? Or is it because I've already formed a contract, so as long as I use the key to open the gap between mind and matter, I can directly visit the Velvet Room?"
Ren successively proposed his conjectures to Kaslana.
However, Kaslana maintained an expressionless, cold demeanor. He simply couldn't discern any useful information from Kaslana's expression or eye movements.
Hare, standing behind Ren, also noticed something. Her delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly, a somewhat suspicious expression appearing on her exquisite face.
To be able to easily grant others a key to enter the Elysian Realm... to bypass all of World Serpent's cumbersome procedures and directly authorize others, only the Lord of World Serpent, that terrifying Evil God, should be capable of that.
However, the Kaslana Stigma space was, after all, inextricably linked to Kevin Kaslana.
If the Kaslana Stigma Will could imitate Kevin's power and create a Mark of Deliverance key to enter the Elysian Realm, it wouldn't be entirely unbelievable.
Hare, after all, had never personally seen the Lord of World Serpent, and her understanding of the Kaslana Stigma Will was not deep.
Therefore, although doubt arose in Hare's mind, she couldn't definitively determine if her guess was true.