Chapter 89 - Rank 1 Flux (1/2)
Tempest Cliff, within the base of the Tempest Branch Alliance.
Within a secluded place inside the small ecosystem found within the inner reaches of the Tempest Branch Alliance base, Herellia was currently engrossed in training her skills up to at least X grade in order to prepare for her inevitable evolution to an Animate. Although she could decide not to evolve into an Animate, the goddess that chose her wouldn't let her to do that, as her goal was to create a family that she would not regret. With that line of that thought, do you think branches can create families?
Of course not.
And that's why it was inevitable. Anyways, while Herellia was levelling up one of her skills, the sound of wind passing through her body alerted Herellia of a person entering the place she was currently in, prompting her to open her sense of vision that was closed all this time to look at the person. Not long after, Herellia let out a sigh of relief, realizing who the person was in front of her.
”Oh, it's just you Horell. You scared me there.” Stopping the skill that she was just using and letting her SP regenerate back to its full capacity, Herellia could not help but let out a sigh of relief after knowing that the silhouette was someone familiar to her.
”I apologize for startling you, Herellia.” Horell released an apologetic aura, letting Herellia know that Horell was sincere in his apology. ”Nonetheless, I need to bring you a report from one of the executives of our alliance, the newest one at that.”
”Oh? Aurus? What about him?” Hearing the phrase 'newest executive' come out of Horell's mouth, it was a given that Horell was talking about Aurus.
”Well…” Horell thought about what he was going to say for a bit. After a few seconds, Horell started to speak. ”Around sometime ago, Aurus finally got out of the Sparring Tower, successfully evolving into an Inanimate of the S-grade. Instead of letting you know about his successful evolution at the instant he got out, it seemed that he had other things to do that were of greater priority…which is why I'm here to tell you that he is currently outside travelling in order to head towards a place he dared not to tell where.”
”I knew he was bound to evolve to S-grade eventually.” Rather than being mad at Aurus not telling her that he evolved, she instead became elated at the fact that a strong mage at the level of Aurus at A-grade now became a mage that could be beyond Horell's strength at max level, or even be beyond her own strength. Add in the fact that they were both blessed with systems hence she did not worry about Aurus being away for a long time, or even if he did go missing for a long time, he would be able to come back unscathed.
”Thanks for letting me know that he evolved, Horell. I'll make sure to increase his authority after I finish what I have to do,” Herellia thanked Horell for telling her about the whereabouts of Aurus, albeit vague. After saying this, she expected Horell to leave the premises, but for some reason, Horell stayed around, radiating an aura of anxiety.
Sensing this aura around Horell, Herellia asked, ”What's wrong, Horell? This isn't like you.”
Hearing Herellia speak broke the thin line that barred Horell from doing what he wanted to do. He looked at Herellia for a short bit as he let out a long sigh of intense melancholy. A few seconds later, he then said to Herellia…
”I'll be leaving the alliance.”
…
While this was happening within the alliance base, Aurus, on the other hand, had finally crossed the barrier between the Tempest Cliff and the outside, letting him feel like an intense weight has been removed from his shoulders…or his branch body anyway.
With his speed already reaching a speed that surpassed 3 kilometers per hour, it only took Aurus almost 2 hours to leave the Tempest Cliff, which is a drastic reduction in time used to traverse the same distance. He calculated, that at his current speed, it would only take him at most, another 6 hours or so to reach the Lesser Experience Haven so he can kill the boss of said experience haven.
Now, with his current strength surpassing any normal S-grade at Level 1, one could not help but ask a one-word question.
Why?
This was because Aurus wanted to use all of the Genesis Points he could get his hands on to bolster the strength of his future Genesis Tree. As for what the functions of the Genesis Tree are, those shall be explained in the future.
As he zoomed through his surroundings, Aurus noticed that he had a lot of spare time he could use to experiment with his newfound abilities as most Inanimates that got close to him would try to escape from someone like him, an S-grade Inanimate.
”Hmm…what should I experiment with first?” Aurus muttered to himself as he looked at the blue line that was overlapping over the ground, letting Aurus know the most efficient route towards his destination. After a while, a skill was brought up to the surface of his mind and decided that it was the one. ”If I don't upgrade it anyway, I wouldn't even be able to experiment with any of the other skills available to me.”
The skill that Aurus was referring to was [Nine Flux Transformation], which was a passive skill that tempered the Flux that covered each and every Anima making up his body. Although a few hours have passed since he checked the detail screen for the skill, he could still remember the requirements needed to upgrade the skill.
”100 SP and 1000 Wind energy particles huh…”
And so, while he was flying towards the Lesser Experience Haven, he used his heightened sense for Wind energy particles to manipulate the Wind energy particles in his current surroundings before manipulating them to cluster over his head as they accumulated towards a certain point. After seeing that the cluster was dense enough, he then willed the particles to enter his body.
Ding!
”Hm? A notification?” Aurus did not expect a notification to come up at this time. Nonetheless, he commanded the system to bring up a screen regarding the latest notification.