Chapter 202 - A Heartfelt Fight (1/2)

Bang!

At the very instant the claw made out of swords had touched the pillars, due to the great amount of power imbued in the claw, the pillars' defense was more or less akin to paper as their pillar shape had been destroyed. What remained after the collision between claw and pillar were only remnants of energy that could be attributed to the 'strong' pillars from before.

Then again, the power imbued in the claw was more than enough to create a shockwave as it collided with the pillars, destroying the pillars in its surroundings through the shockwave it has formed. Surprisingly, the number of pillars destroyed by the shockwave was more than the number of pillars destroyed by the claw directly colliding with them.

Nonetheless, after looking at the destruction caused by the claw, it was evident that Aurus had successfully passed the second stage, even exceeding quite a bit at that. After the claw he had conjured had dissipated into thin air, Aurus deactivated both of the status boosting skills he had activated beforehand while he told Theresa to remove the small screen that showed his Attack stat.

Whoosh!

Not long after doing those things, the remaining pillars, which haven't been destroyed by either the claw or the shockwave from the claw, gradually dissipated into thin air as the area of the stone room had reverted to its original area when Aurus had first appeared in this room.

As he looked at what was happening, Aurus could not help but say in awe, ”I'm surprised how the inheritance can clean things like that up in a matter of an instant.”

”I'm more surprised at how powerful you truly are, Aurus,” a voice said not long after Aurus, slightly startling Aurus as it took a while for him to recognize who was talking. Realizing who it was, Aurus said, ”You startled me there, Inhee.”

”Anyways, how many pillars did I destroy?” After calming himself down from the slight startle, Aurus went ahead and asked Inhee this question with an aura of intense curiosity radiating from him. In response to this question, Inhee took a deep breath before saying, ”You've destroyed about 5 times as many pillars when compared to the minimum number needed to destroy.”

”In other words…?” From what Inhee was saying, Aurus was now sure that he had exceeded the minimum number of pillars needed to be destroyed. But what he wanted to know was the exact number of pillars he had destroyed, which Inhee fortunately answered not long after, satiating his curiosity.

”…49,704 pillars. You've destroyed 49,704 pillars,” Inhee said before muttering to itself, ”What a monster. An Inanimate that has enough combat power to even rival Animates…for every being that was like that, an era of change would surely follow.”

”Would a new era arise due to this Inanimate right here?” Inhee could not help but ask itself this question, letting out a sigh as it decided that there was no point thinking about the future since it could not even look into the future.

After pondering over those things, Inhee went ahead and asked the elated Aurus, ”Since you've exceeded the minimum requirement for clearing this second stage, you can choose a reward that exceeds your current power slightly. What will you choose?”

Hearing this question, Aurus, who was surprised and elated that he had destroyed that many pillars, snapped back to the situation at hand as he pondered over what reward he was going to get. Surprisingly, it did not take long for Aurus to choose a reward this time as well, saying, ”An All-seeing Comprehension Leaf would probably be the reward I ask for again, to be honest. I just want to max out my comprehension speed.”

”Seriously?” Inhee could not help but ask Aurus. It then added, ”I could give you access to as much All-seeing Comprehension Leaves as you want to max out your comprehension speed, but you still have enough merit to ask for another reward, you know.”

It then asked, ”Are you sure you only need Comprehension Leaves? Don't you need skills? Experience points? Things like that?”

”Experience points…” After hearing that he could obtain experience points as a reward from what seemed to be an impromptu trial, Aurus quickly made his choice, telling Inhee, ”Then…I want access to as much All-seeing Comprehension Leaves as I want. As for the remaining merit I have, please convert all of it to experience points I can use.”

”Finally,” Inhee said before letting out a sigh. It then said, ”Give me a few moments to prepare the rewards for you. For now, you can take a break.”

”Alright,” Aurus said in response before recalling the sensation he felt while he had his Attack stat amplified by a factor of 72. At the instant he had activated [Dark Universal Blade], there was a faint feeling inside his body that he was going to implode due to the power, but that's all. Only a faint feeling. At the moment, he was wondering how he, who had activated all of his status boosting buffs back when he was doing a fusion attack with Fenrir and Charisa, had come out unscathed after that.

With that in mind, he then went ahead and asked Theresa this question, to which Theresa replied with a light smile, ”The answer to that is simple, Master. Although Master's limit is 100 times the normal stats, for Charisa and Fenrir, who have both reached X-grade, their limit is 500 times the normal stats. In other words, after your amplification multiplier went over your limit, due to what you three were doing, the excess stats went towards Charisa and Fenrir.”

Aurus repeated this answer in his mind a few times to process the answer, eventually understanding what Theresa was trying to say. He then asked Theresa, ”In other words, if I don't do a fusion attack with Fenrir and Charisa while I activate all of my status boosting buffs, I would inevitably die.”

”Best case scenario, a constant decrease of HP. Worst case scenario, instant death,” Theresa replied to Aurus's question in a slightly comforting tone. In response to Theresa's words, Aurus let out a sigh of relief. After indirectly knowing that evolving to X-grade increases the limit of amplification by a factor of 5, Aurus felt the increased need to evolve to X-grade as soon as possible.

”I'm back.” Coincidentally, after Aurus found out about those things, Inhee was finally finished preparing the rewards as three All-seeing Comprehension Leaves appeared in front of Aurus's field of vision not long after. After that, Inhee went ahead and said, ”After absorbing one Comprehension Leaf out of the three in front of you, another Comprehension Leaf would appear in its place. As for the experience points you asked for…”

Ding!

A few seconds later, a notification sound resounded in Aurus's mind as Theresa told Aurus, ”Master, you have obtained 80,000,000 experience points.”

”80,000,000 experience points…” Aurus repeated Theresa's words, a chuckle resounding from him not long after as he said, ”I see, I see. I don't have to resort to the back-up plans, then.”

After that, Aurus went ahead and extended a tendril of FP towards one of the All-seeing Comprehension Leaves in front of him and dissolved it. As he retracted this tendril back, an All-seeing Comprehension Leaves appeared in the place of the Comprehension Leaf he had just absorbed, making him wonder how it worked.

Whoosh!