Chapter 113 - Transcendence (1/2)
Within one of the large stone rooms of the Area 52 Inheritance was a smooth-looking wooden sculpture that was green in color. If one had eyes that could perceive the movement of energy, one could see that a strong energy that was not inclined to any element except Wind was emanating from this sculpture. Not only that, one could also perceive that a boundless and vast source of energy resided within the depths of this sculpture, wanting to burst out in one go like a phoenix soaring to the skies.
Of course, this sculpture was none other than Aurus in his form at the time he evolved to an S-grade, his supposed original form as an S-grade Inanimate. Because he was still not used to his body shape being somewhat humanoid, he always had his morphing skill active, in the form of his branch form in his C-grade to A-grade days.
Nonetheless, thanks to the skill he received from the inheritance, he now had a reason as to why he had to be in his original form. To be honest, at the current level of the skill he received, which was X-grade Mortal level, if he were to fight the old him without receiving the skill, he would probably remain undefeated even after hundreds of rounds.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
After a certain span of time, multiple notification sounds resounded throughout Aurus' mind, prompting to open his sense of vision as he had a hunch as to what these notifications entailed.
”System, open the notification log.”
Ding!
Whoosh!
Not long after he commanded, a holographic screen appeared in front of Aurus' field of vision, allowing him to skim through the notifications he received. A few seconds, the aura around Aurus, which was suppressed and solemn all this time, finally changed into an aura filled with expectation and excitement.
'[Boundless Spirit Tempering] has leveled up.'
'[Boundless Spirit Tempering] has reached the MAX level.'
'[Boundless Spirit Tempering] has met the necessary requirements and is ready to transition into a new level of power.'
'[Boundless Spirit Tempering] has been exposed to great amounts of skill experience, allowing it to inprove itself and refine to become something better. Once the skill evolves, the skill will have a guaranteed chance of becoming a Special grade skill.'
After reading through the notifications, Aurus could not contain his excitement and awe as he could not help but mutter, ”Finally, after months of being reincarnated as a stick in the world of Erudinia, I can finally say I have taken the first step towards Godhood.”
”I will finally have a Transcendent grade skill of my own.”
Though he knew very well that he already had a Transcendent skill in his arsenal which he could use, he still wanted to accept the fact that the first Transcendent skill he received was a skill he grinded from its humble beginnings to where it was now.
Just as the aura around him intensified towards a certain peak, it instantly deflated as he could not help but wryly chuckle at himself.
”Then again, this is just a skill given to me by the inheritance. I'm pretty sure my progress is going to be taken away once the first trial is over.”
Letting out a sigh and clearing his mind afterwards, the aura around him returned to its previous state of expectation and excitement as he could not help but say, ”Then again, when's the last time I've evolved a skill to the Transcendent grade in ISE?”
”Evolve [Boundless Spirit Tempering]!”
Whoosh! Whoosh!
At the very instant Aurus was finished commanding, something magical happened.
Out of thin air, a mote of light gradually manifested on top of Aurus' body, a mote of light that, if one looked at it closely, it looked quite similar to the shape of Aurus' body but shrunken to an extremely miniscule size.
This mote of light then started to hover higher and higher as a thin strand of light could be seen connecting the mote of light to Aurus' body. It flew upwards until it reached the ceiling of the stone room.
And there it stayed for a bit.
Before exploding into a great array of colors that enveloped the whole stone room. At first, Aurus was shocked as to what was happening since this was not the situation he would encounter when he would evolve a skill to Transcendent grade. But then, as he continued to think, Erudinia was not like ISE's Erudinia in the first place. One was made out of 0s and 1s, but one was made by a god, a god that gave life and realism into it.
Not only that, he did not even feel the skill dissipating from his memory or something as he could still see that the strand of light connecting him to the mote of light was not severed at all. A few seconds later, he would find out the strand's purpose.
At the time when the stone room was conpletely covered with a myriad amount of colors, the origin of these colors, the mote of light, started to absorb these colors through the strand of light that connected it to Aurus, creating a sort of tempest that originated from Aurus as the colors were gradually being absorbed by the mote of light.
As time passed, Aurus could gradually see the improvement the mote of light was getting from the colors. The first improvement was that its size was bigger, multiple times bigger when compared to its previous state. The second improvement to it was that the mote of light felt more lifelike in terms of its outer appearance. If one were to think that the previous mote of light had 80% of Aurus' features down, this current mote had 90% of it.
And last but not the least, the third improvement the mote of light had was that, at the instant the mote of light absorbed all of the colors, Aurus felt that his senses were clearer and sharper when compared to before. Not only that, he also had a feeling that he was stronger than before, though he could not find out the reason why.
It took a couple of minutes for the mote of light to absorb every color from the stone room before returning back into nothingness as Aurus heard the ever familiar notification sound from the system.
Ding!
'[Boundless Spirit Tempering] has been evolved to [Essence Refinement of the Heaven's Spirit (Special)].'