"Amazing." Faen nodded and praised sincerely.
In this kind of environment filled with high-voltage electric currents, it would be really hard to say what would happen without Zeri leading the way.
And from another perspective, Zeri was indeed a little genius.
After awakening her electric magic, she didn't undergo any systematic training, relying entirely on her own exploration and experimentation. Being able to develop her own combat style by combining it with Zaun's environment under these circumstances proved her innate talent from any angle.
Zeri's hands-on practical skills were especially strong—her magical talent was linked to her emotions; when her emotions ran high, her destructive power would increase, while her control would decrease accordingly. Because of this, Zeri simply used the scrap metal and copper from Zaun's garbage dumps to build the circuit jacket she wore and the device called the "sparkpack" to absorb and store excess electricity.
For example, last night, when Zeri made her desperate final push, she released the electrical energy stored in the sparkpack. If Faen hadn't suddenly appeared at the alley exit, Zeri would probably have really escaped.
Entering the secret base, the space inside wasn't very large, about twenty square meters. There was a small table, a pile of circuits, wires, screwdrivers, pliers, and wrenches; the traces of work were very obvious. The equipment currently on Zeri's body was basically all hand-crafted by herself. A small bed was reasonably clean, showing that it was well taken care of on a daily basis.
Thinking this, Faen also glanced at the spark gun tucked at Zeri's waist.
Unlike the red-painted spark gun in the game, this spark gun was the color of raw iron and looked relatively rough. According to Faen's guess, this should be made by Zeri herself. The craftsmanship was still relatively rough, and it would still malfunction when exposed to water. It wasn't the one her mother made for her by hand after Zeri returned home disheartened...
Noticing Faen staring at her, Zeri wasn't shy. Although the current Zeri hadn't realized it yet, the fact was that after absorbing Faen's blood plasma, Zeri's attitude towards Faen had become much more relaxed, possessing a natural trust and an inexplicable affection.
Especially Zeri, because her electric magic was directly linked to her emotions, the current Zeri could feel that the electricity in her body would become more active than normal when she saw Faen. However, out of trust in Faen, Zeri didn't mind. She just put on her goggles and said, "I'm going to modify the base's door so you can come back by yourself even if I'm not here!"
"Okay," Faen nodded, then reached out and summoned a ball of water. "Then I'll clean this place up first."
"Hehe, sorry for the trouble!" Zeri chuckled. Although she loved cleanliness, after all, she was born in a place like Zaun; no matter how clean she was, she was still a member of the Sump. Under her parents' influence, she was an engineering and handcrafting girl. Although Zeri would keep herself perfectly clean, when she got busy, the room would inevitably accumulate some dust and debris.
Although the not-so-large secret base wasn't considered dirty and messy, even the corners and crevices of the bed had faint, inconspicuous traces of oily soot.
Considering that Zeri was either fighting guerrilla warfare against the Chem-Barons every day or making her Mickey Mouse clubhouse gadgets here, she simply had no time to clean up properly. It could only be said that the current environment was truly helpless.
After speaking, Zeri wasn't idle either. She quickly stuck up her round, perky little butt, shooting electric sparks from her fingers to weld with a sizzling sound.
Admiring her for a moment, Faen also praised his own aesthetics in his heart—Zeri's tight and energetic figure was just perfect for tight clothes! Her perky little butt raised high, swaying back and forth along with her work, was simply a feast for the eyes.
He didn't stare for too long, after all, he had already admired it for quite a while during the sponge bath yesterday. Subsequently, Faen controlled the water ball to soak into the bedding on the side. The water ball soaked in and out, quickly bringing out fine grayish-black dust and dirt. After a few trips back and forth, the half-clean bedding and pillows were like new, soft and pure white.
While cleaning, Faen also paid a little attention to Zeri.
Zeri didn't have much understanding of the spirit realm, but as an Ionian, it was impossible for Faen not to know. Coupled with the blessing from Ashlesh...
Absorbing my blood plasma will imperceptibly make her develop an affection for me?
Thinking this in his heart, but somewhat unsure, Faen also cast his gaze at Zeri on the side.
And Zeri, who had just finished a section of welding and modification using her electric magic, happened to have just completed a stint of work. She raised her goggles and wiped the fine sweat from her forehead. Noticing Faen's gaze, Zeri wasn't nervous or constrained; instead, she returned a vibrant and radiant smile.
And along with this smile, the joy and happiness she produced for Faen in the spirit realm also became part of the joy Faen needed, further confirming the guess in Faen's heart.
However, Faen didn't say it out loud directly. Instead, he returned a smile and continued tidying up—having just come into contact with Ashlesh's blessing, Faen himself had to explore for a period of time and sort out the situation he was facing. For example, what he had gained and what he had lost.
When Faen finished cleaning the room, Zeri's voice, full of astonishment, came from behind.
"This... you cleaned this up?!"
Turning her head to look, Zeri's face was full of surprise and disbelief.
The plush mat, which was originally somewhat dirty due to the environment, was now as clean and tidy as if it had just been bought from a store. That fluffiness visible to the naked eye made Zeri, who had been wandering alone for a long time, itch to try it.
Seeing this, Faen chuckled and extended his hand, gesturing for her to enjoy. Seeing this, Zeri made a sprinting dive, landing on the soft mat, hugging the pillow and rolling back and forth.
"Hooray! Finally, a clean place! Hooray!"
Feeling Zeri's joy, a smile appeared on Faen's face. He then controlled the cleansing water ball to compress the dirt inside into a dry little block and expelled it. Then, he controlled the restored clean water flow to fall onto Zeri's body, rolling and washing, cleaning off the sweat and grime from her work.
The water ball gently washed over her body, like a pair of slightly cool, large hands. This made Zeri think of something, causing her pretty face to blush. She immediately buried her head in the soft mat and stopped speaking, only unable to hold back two soft whimpers when the water ball washed over her inner thighs.
Faen's eyes darkened. The sense of emptiness belonging to Ashlesh within his body was madly clamoring for more, more intense "joy". He didn't stop the water flow's washing; instead, he controlled the water ball to morph into several thin streams of water, drilling into Zeri's tightly closed legs like flexible tentacles.
"Ngh... wait, wait a minute, Faen, you don't need to wash there..." Zeri cried out in alarm, wanting to close her legs together, but Faen's large hands forcefully pinned her knees down, spreading them apart.
The icy water flow accurately struck that already engorged and swollen pink clitoris, bringing a surge of electric-like numbness. Zeri's waist suddenly arched up, irrepressible moans spilling from her mouth. However, this was just the prelude. Faen controlled one of the water streams to become as hard as a pillar. Smeared with the muddy, lustful juices she had secreted herself, it slowly squeezed open that tight, unexplored vaginal opening.
"Ah, ah! It's going in... something is going in! Faen... haah..." Zeri writhed on the mat like a dehydrated fish, her eyes forced into a misty haze by lust.
"Relax, Zeri, the water will make you very happy." Faen's voice was low and hoarse. The water pillar in his hand began to thrust rapidly in and out of her vaginal canal. The lewd "squelch, squelch" watery sounds were clearly audible in this cramped secret base. Every deep thrust accurately scraped past her most sensitive soft flesh, forcing Zeri to climax continuously like a female beast in heat. A massive amount of scalding, milky-white love juices spewed out from her twitching labia, mixing with the washing water flow, completely ruining the mat beneath her in a messy state.
Over the next two days, the two chose to live a low-profile life. Their main time, apart from buying supplies, was spent following Zeri to the garbage dump to recycle scrap copper and rotten iron.
Zeri's mother was a craftsman. Having lived with her mother since childhood, Zeri had also developed excellent mechanical skills.
And in this process, Faen was also constantly trying to understand what the situation of Zaun in this world was actually like...
It was no wonder Faen had to specifically look into it, because the official operation and planning of the League of Legends worldview was truly terrible.
It's hard to imagine that a game that has been running for fourteen years still has its background story at the starting phase, and even the major events end up being anticlimactic.
Zaun and Piltover were even worse. They had been changed seven or eight times back and forth. Just when they had finally stabilized, the release of Arcane Season 1 became an instant massive hit, prompting an envious Riot to immediately declare Arcane as the main universe canon. They completely disregarded the fact that Arcane directly wiped out the origins of Hextech crystals, the tragedy of the Brackern, the unknown serial killer 'Jin' (not Jhin), and the foreshadowing of Piltover's shadow government.
Although he was born in Ionia, the closed-off nature of Ionia was truly beyond imagination; just from what Faen knew, it had been isolated from the world for a thousand years. Now that he had come to Zaun, he at least needed to determine which version of Zaun this world was—after all, Zeri had no role in Arcane.
And after three consecutive days of gathering information, Faen gradually understood the situation of this world. Generally speaking, it was the story happening after the end of the first three episodes of Arcane Season 1.
Vander had already exited the stage, and Silco was the uncrowned king of Zaun. But according to Zeri, Silco didn't seem to be that glorious. Many Chem-Barons were uninterested in Silco's so-called rise of Zaun. Instead, they were happy to sell out Zaun's own interests for greater profits, thereby obtaining more valuable things from the trade families of the Topside, willingly becoming Piltover's black gloves in mutual cooperation.
But as for the specific situation... Zeri was just an unranked rebel in Zaun. She had only just begun resisting the Chem-Barons, so she didn't know what the exact situation was either.
And the reason why Zeri couldn't return home now and firmly opposed the Chem-Barons was also very simple... she had long been dissatisfied with the Chem-Barons' tyranny. Especially a few days ago, the Chem-Barons claimed they had discovered a resource better than Hextech crystals, which could make Zaun wealthier and stronger, so they built a mining facility nearby. Yet the Chem-Barons never told the people what risks this kind of mining carried.
Coupled with the harsh production environment, the vibrations produced during the underground excavation quickly formed a regional destructive earthquake under Zaun's special geological conditions—the Chem-Barons knew there was such a risk, but still refused to provide any safe production equipment for their own interests, instead forcing the workers of the chem-factories to gamble their lives at work.
During the earthquake, Zeri used her abilities to find and save many people—but Zeri knew this was avoidable, so Zeri decided to fight against them.
However, compared to these matters, Faen cared more about today's dinner.
He used the money swiped from the factory thugs to buy some fresh vegetables—this was quite expensive in Zaun, but as an Ionian, Faen simply couldn't accept that thick green soup boiled from giant rats contaminated by chem-tech mixed with various types of mushrooms.
It was too terrifying.
When Zeri handed over the soup bowl, Faen even wanted to ask what the price was...
It couldn't be the fate of the Ionians, right?
This was the third day; Faen really couldn't bear it anymore. Ignoring Zeri muttering under her breath that he was a spendthrift, he went to buy vegetables the first chance he got after swiping some money from the factory thugs.
Although forced, he was still the Emissary of Joy for the primordial demon Ashlesh, but now using this ability to steal money to buy groceries... it also rendered one speechless.
Speechless as he was, having not eaten properly for two consecutive days, Faen excitedly stir-fried three dishes and a soup.
At the very beginning, Zeri had some complaints about Faen's extravagance, looking at Faen using various seasonings lavishly with such heartache that she couldn't breathe. But after seeing a sumptuous dinner full of color, flavor, and taste, she obediently shut her mouth.
Sending the fresh, spicy, and fragrant stir-fried meat slices into her mouth, the slightly spicy taste was a completely new taste experience for Zeri, who had never eaten anything good. Immediately not caring to say anything, she gave a thumbs up wildly while burying her head in eating.
But after finishing the meal, Zeri was also puzzled—"Your cooking is delicious; why didn't you cook before?"
Faen glanced at the rat skull fully the size of a human fist not far away, and chose to shake his head in despair—even the cleverest housewife can't cook a meal without rice. Zaun's ingredients couldn't even count as life-sustaining meals; it was literally drinking poison to quench thirst. It was just that the vast majority of Zaun workers wouldn't live until the toxins erupted, either dying suddenly during processing or dying horribly in production accidents...
The polluting toxins were just poisons affecting health, while the Chem-Barons were evil tigers that ate people without spitting out the bones... neither were good things, but Zaunites had no choices either.
Seeing Faen not speaking, Zeri didn't know what to say either. After all, she grew up in this environment and had long been used to it. Furthermore, she was still a little girl with limited worldly experience; asking her to understand was purely forcing her beyond her capacity.
After the meal, Zeri continued her handcraft work excitedly—the previous spark gun would break when soaked in water, she planned to modify it. And the electric jacket on her body too, she planned to enhance the sparkpack, striving to store more electrical energy.
While Faen directly controlled a water ball to clean the pots, bowls, ladles, and basins.
At first, Faen was quite happy when he discovered Ashlesh's demonic power was so convenient. But as he got used to it, the joy provided by this happiness reached a threshold, unable to save Faen from the invasion of the emptiness of disordered joy.
When Zeri finished her work, Faen also patted the bed. Subsequently, Zeri made a short run and dove right onto it.
Landing on the soft mat, her face was full of happiness—a constantly clean and tidy environment could equally make people feel cheerful. Unfortunately, just like using the water-controlling ability to assist daily life, it had been the third day; this kind of small joy from Zeri could no longer satisfy Faen's needs.
The space in the secret base was very small, with only one bed in total. However, considering Faen mostly replaced sleep with meditation, the space was still very sufficient.
It was just different today... Completing the intelligence gathering on Zaun's current stage was a good thing, but three days of getting along also meant the joy Zeri could produce couldn't satisfy Faen's daily needs—the threshold had increased, and the joy from normal play with Zeri could no longer satisfy Faen.
Feeling the torment originating from the emptiness in his heart, Faen knew he couldn't continue waiting anymore. Immediately, his gaze towards Zeri, who had already fallen asleep beside him, revealed a fierce glint... He quietly covered her with the quilt, and took advantage of the night to leave the secret base.
But Faen didn't know that after ingesting Faen's blood plasma, Zeri's perception of Faen had also become very sharp, or rather sensitive. Coupled with Zeri's electric magic happening to be related to emotions, not long after Faen left, Zeri opened her eyes.