Chapter 177 - Striking Fear (2/2)
He made sure to not attract the attention of the opposing army as he moved these soul balls. Fortunately, it did not take him too long to realize the soul balls were too high up for the opposing army to even see, prompting him to move these soul balls at the fastest speed possible. After using up a few minutes to move these soul balls, Aurus radiated an aura of slight excitement as he muttered, ”Phase 2 complete. Time for Phase—”
Whoosh!
Just as he was about to start Phase 3 of his plan, from the two perspectives he had of the opposing army, he could not help but notice that the aura radiated by each member of the army had intensified by a considerable level. Not only that, he noticed that it increased after a certain amount of time. With that in mind, he could not help but recall what Horell told him.
”Make sure to break the barrier before he shouts the phrase 'Tenfold Power'!”
”Is this what Horell meant? The intensification of aura?” Aurus surmised that this was possibly the case. It was in line with what Horell explained to him about the three phases of Code Omega as well. With that in mind, he decided to keep a close eye on what level of increase they were at, manipulating the soul balls to move to a lower altitude, which would possibly allow him to hear what Chonk says through [Unified Soul Control].
After that, he then asked himself, ”What phase was I on again?”
”Ah, right. Phase 3.” Recalling what phase he was currently at, Aurus then hastily transferred his control to his clone, Argentum.
Whoosh!
…
”It'll take a while for me to get used to this.” At the very instant control was transferred over Argentum's body, Argentum could not help but shudder a bit as he muttered to himself. Not long after, he stood up and commanded the system regarding his progress on completing the Tempering skill.
Ding!
”Hoh? An increase of 0.4 percent? That's quite nice,” Argentum could not help but say to himself in slight joy.
After finding out that Chonk and his army were getting closer to the alliance base, Aurus hastily decided to transfer his control back to his original body while he commanded the system to let his clone increase his progress on the Tempering skill. Although the speed at which one cycle was completed was slower when compared to when he did it, Aurus…or rather, Argentum, was satisfied with this bit of progress.
After standing up, he started to do some light stretching as it had been a while since he was in this body. Not long after, he then went to the main matter at hand, which was to break the barrier. Indeed, Argentum was his trump card to break through the barrier, which would inflict high psychological pressure to Chonk's army. Not only that, he thought that with Chonk and his army not knowing who or what broke the barrier, this would increase the psychological pressure they felt to incredulously high levels.
He then spread the fingers of his right hand as he muttered the incantation for [Nature's Wind Bolt], a Level 0 Spell that dealt insanely high damage thanks to the difference in existence level. It did not take long for his right hand to glow white as he had gotten a taste of using the spell.
”Let's see if the damage is still the same,” Argentum muttered to himself as he extended his right hand towards the trunk of a tree before shouting, ”[Nature's Wind Bolt]!”
Whoosh! Puu! Puu! Puu!
And just like before, a bolt of white shot out of right hand, piercing through ten tree trunks before dissipating. Looking at it for the second time, Argentum let out a light chuckle of disbelief before saying, ”Even though I know it's a Level 0 Spell, I still can't believe the level of destruction it can inflict.”
Soon after, he rubbed his chin with his forefinger and thumb while thinking about the possibility of him breaking through the barrier with the stats of his current body. While he was thinking, he could not help but think out loud as he started to mutter.
”The energy of a Pseudo-Animate, a Rank 0 Animate, and a Rank 1 Animate combining together to create a barrier that is nigh impossible for Inanimates to break through. With the difference in existence level between the three, wouldn't the limit of the barrier be equivalent to the average existence level of the three?” Argentum muttered to himself.
”In other words, the limit of the barrier is around the strength of a high-ranked Pseudo-Animate, or a Rank 0 Animate. And that means…”
”I can break through the barrier easily with my current strength.” Argentum let out a sigh of relief after calculating that he had more than enough power to break through the barrier. Nonetheless, he wasn't finished thinking as he said, ”Although [Nature's Wind Bolt] packs a lot of punch for a simple Level 0 Spell, the shock value of it is not high. It's not flashy enough.”
”I'm still far away from unlocking a new spell, seeing as I need to reach a progress level of 15 percent.” Argentum let out a sigh. Not long after, he started to look back through the memories of his past life, wondering if there was something he could use to make his spells flashy.
”Ah! That could work!” Fortunately, it only took him a couple of minutes of recalling to obtain what he needed from the memories, recalling a memory wherein a player casted two of the same spells one after the other, making the two spells fuse with one another. With that in mind, he extended his right hand once more towards the trunk of a tree as he muttered the incantations of [Nature's Wind Bolt] again.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Not long after, he shouted the name of the spell, with a white wind bolt shooting out of his palm an instant after. But then, while the white wind bolt was traveling towards the trunk of the tree, he then extended his left hand and hastily chanted the incantation of the spell one more time, shooting out another white wind bolt towards the trunk of tree.
Whoosh!
Surprisingly, as the second white wind bolt followed behind the first one, it seemed as if the second white wind bolt had a strong suctioning force behind it as it absorbed the first white wind bolt in front of it, increasing the bolt's power, size, and most importantly, flashiness.
Fwoosh!
With the fused white wind bolt now looking more like a white spear with wind swirling around its tip, it then pierced through the trunk of the tree without a problem…then ten…twenty…thirty-five. The energy behind the fused white wind bolt had been used up after it had pierced through the thirty fifth tree trunk, leaving Argentum at a loss for words at the power increase.
”One plus one doesn't equal to two in this case…” Argentum muttered as he wondered as to how much wind bolts he could fuse, and how much damage it would deal.
Ding!
Just as he was about to experiment with that in mind, he had obtained a notification from the system, prompting him to open up the notification screen. After reading through the notification screen, the aura he had radiated had done a 180 degree turn as he hastily sent his control back to his original body on the top of the alliance base.
”Well, well, well! To think the heavens haven't abandoned me!”
Ding!
'The user has conjured the [Nature's Wind Spear] spell without relying on the mastery of the Tempering skill. Due to the conjured spell being close to the strength of a Level 1 spell, the system has increased the progress of the user's Tempering skill by 10 percent.'
'The user has achieved 15% progress on [Divine Wind Spirit]. The user now has access to the [Nature's Wind Vortex] spell.'