Chapter 214 - Hot and Cold (1/2)

”I'm done reading through the description, Theresa,” Aurus said as he focused his sense of vision towards Theresa before adding, ”Go ahead and let me evolve.”

”As you wish, Master,” Theresa soon said in response to Aurus's words, gesturing with its fingers as a white halo of energy surrounded Theresa a few seconds later, radiating an aura of magnanimity and power at the same time. Just as it was about to manipulate this white halo towards Aurus, a thought suddenly appeared in Aurus's mind, prompting him to ask Theresa, ”Do you know how much time this evolution would take, Theresa?”

”Around 4 weeks, Master,” Theresa replied to Aurus's question, to which Aurus could not help but lightly chuckle as he muttered, ”I guess Argentum would be looking at my evolving body for 2 weeks or so. I wonder how strong he'll be after I evolve.”

Whoosh!

After Aurus was done muttering to himself, Theresa went ahead and directed the white halo surrounding it towards Aurus, being absorbed by his body not long after as an aura of great intensity radiated from him soon after, jolting Aurus's allies from their engrossed grinding. They then looked at the origin of the aura they felt, eventually looking at each other with a chuckle as they soon found out that their master was now evolving.

A few seconds after that, they went back to their grinding while Aurus's body was slowly transforming into a cocoon, expanding into a white dome that covered a decent portion of the room. Of course, Charisa, who opted to grind beside Aurus, moved away from this dome since she did not want to disturb her master in his evolution process.

In the center of this white dome was a jade green blob of energy that had motes of light with various colors surrounding it. Red, blue, yellow, white, and black. These were the colors of the motes of light surrounding the green blob, as if the colors were pertaining to something that existed around and inside the green blob.

Nevertheless, at this moment, Aurus was fully unconscious, his senses of the outside temporarily gone. A few minutes after the beginning of his evolution process, a notification from the system resounded in an unknown place, taking on Theresa's voice since it could not be in its personal assistant form with Aurus evolving.

'[Aurus — Tempest Walnut Spiritas Flux (Rare+)] has evolved into [Aurus — Zephyr Spiritas Flux - Semis Regulus (Epic+)].'

'The fate of the world has slightly changed due to this action.'

…

XXXX Continent, outside the Tempest Cliff.

”Fire!”

With three humans, two males, and one female out in the open, and four hidden, Argentum could not help but let out a sigh as he activated his polymorph skill. In an instant, Argentum's distinctive figure as a Wind Spirit was soon transformed into something that could be barely seen by the n.a.k.e.d eye if one looked closely.

A grain of black sand.

At the very instant Argentum had transformed into this shape, he hastily suppressed his usual aura, making it seem to the humans that he had disappeared. Hearing the arrows that were aimed at him collide where his 'head' would be, Argentum let out a sigh of relief not long after, moving towards a spot wherein he could still see all of the humans, but in exchange, the humans would not be able to see him.

Fortunately, it did not take him that long to find a spot, heading up to the peak of a decently large tree as he watched the humans panic over his disappearance. While they were panicking, Argentum could not help but think of his next move, now knowing that these humans were out to get him, even though it was just a mere chance that allowed them to do so.

'Should I just go and leave them? Making them look like lunatics?' This was the first thought that came into Argentum's mind, eventually thinking that it could be a thing that he would possibly do. Although the humans have surrounded him, they have not inflicted any damage on him yet, which meant that there was no grudge whatsoever between him and the humans.

Just as he was about to act upon this idea and leave the humans behind, the thought he had a while ago when he looked at them by the campfire had sprung up once more. With this new thought in mind, he was now conflicted as to whether he should go ahead and leave them alone, or kill them as materials for his ascension to Super Animate.

'By the looks of it, these humans only seek profit, not having any moral limits whatsoever,' Argentum thought as he looked at the humans once more, who were frantically searching around the area using their spells. Listening to their conversations a bit more, the decision in his mind was eventually made, leaving a question which he had to answer on his own.

'Do I have enough power to kill these humans?' This was the question that popped up in Argentum's mind after deciding to go ahead and kill these humans. Although he was indeed killing these humans to procure materials for his ascension to Super Animate, he decided that he was not going to use their flesh and blood, but rather, their energy.

”From the aura they're radiating, the strongest out of them seems to be the peak of Rank 0 Animate,” Argentum muttered to himself, making sure to not alert them while they still scoured the area. He then added, ”Even though a Rank 0 Animate's flesh and blood would be enough for the process, Erea did say that the stronger the origin of the flesh and blood, the greater effect it would have for my path to becoming a God in the long run.”

”Yeah, I'll just use them for my Power Baptism,” Argentum said around half a minute later, his decision now incredibly firm. With that now done, he then went back to his previous train of thought, which was regarding the dilemma as to whether he had enough power to kill them or not.

'With [Tempest Awakening] at Adept mastery and [Lesser Wind Magic] at Expert mastery, would I have enough power to kill them in one shot?' Argentum asked himself in his mind, eventually concluding that thinking about it would serve no purpose. And with that in mind, he then went ahead and attracted the attention of the humans as he shouted, ”Well, well, well, how the tables have turned.”

At the very instant his voice was heard by the humans, one of the humans that revealed themselves to him shouted in a shrill voice, ”Wind Spirit!”

As for the others, they were silent since they were slightly anxious. It then occurred to them that even though he was a Wind Spirit, they had no idea as to how strong it was, making their anxiety gradually intensify as their thoughts turned pessimistic.

Ignoring what they were thinking about, Argentum continued to talk, saying, ”Good thing I'm still within the vicinity, right? I hope you try your best to find me.” After that, he went ahead and let out a chuckle with a hint of arrogance.

Just as it seemed that one of the humans was about to respond to his words, Argentum interrupted them from speaking as he hastily thought of what they were thinking, shouting, ”Also, I've changed my mind. Back when I checked your clearing, I was supposed to kill all of you.”

This statement brought shivers to everyone, leading everyone to believe that the Wind Spirit they were up against was far stronger than they initially thought. Feeling the tense atmosphere surrounding the humans, Argentum let out a chuckle inwardly as he muttered to himself, ”It seems they planned to attack me without a strategy. Time to increase their fear towards me.”

”How about…we play a game?” Argentum soon asked them, to which one of the humans responded with a shaky voice, ”A game…?”