Chapter 201 - Pure Destruction

Whoosh! Whoosh!

With strands of energy connecting Inhee's fingertips and the orb, a massive amount of information was sent to the inheritance Aurus was in without a problem. Of course, that was all due to Inhee's expertise in managing inheritances, only taking a couple of minutes for the changes the Supreme Ruler of the Void wanted to be finished.

After doing what she was paid to do, Inhee let out a long sigh as she dispelled the strands of energy on her fingertips, turning her head around to look at the Supreme Ruler of the Void before asking, "Is that suitable to your tastes?"

"More than suitable," the Supreme Ruler of the Void said in a slightly joyous tone. He then laughed in a low tone as he muttered, "Hehehe. With a mechanic like this, would you even be able to clear this stage, Inanimate?"

Just as the Supreme Ruler of the Void was going to continue laughing, Inhee poked him on the arm, interrupting his plans as he asked her, "What?"

She then extended her left hand outward as the Supreme Ruler of the Void was on her left, opening her palm as she said, "Payment for the hasty replacement."

"Haah…fine." As the Supreme Ruler of the Void let out a short sigh, he snapped his fingers as a small rift appeared a couple of meters above Inhee's opened palm, a small satchel landing precisely on it not long after. As the rift was closed, Inhee went ahead and checked the contents of the satchel, a smile plastered on her face as she looked at the Supreme Ruler of the Void like a treasure chest as she said, "You truly pay me the best out of the other Rulers, Supreme Ruler of the Void. After this, wanna go and grab a bite?"

"Sure," the Supreme Ruler of the Void responded to her question before letting out a chuckle that gradually took on a lecherous tone. "After grabbing a bite, wanna—"

"No thanks," Inhee interrupted him before he could finish his question. "Our relationship isn't even that close, One Shot."

"Fine, fine," the Supreme Ruler of the Void said as he shrugged his shoulders. He then focused his attention towards the orb before saying, "Anyways, don't you think you've given the Inanimate enough time to rest?"

"Ah, right," Inhee said in response. After that, she then focused her attention on the large stone room.

…

Within the large stone room.

"Your 5-minute break is now over, Aurus," Inhee said, slightly startling Aurus as he was talking about things regarding the system with Theresa. Nonetheless, these words attracted Aurus's attention in an instant, focusing his sense of hearing towards Inhee's next words.

"We shall now be starting the next stage," Inhee uttered as the area of the large stone room had increased to a great degree in an instant. Looking at the expanded stone room he was in, Aurus could not help but calculate how much it has expanded, eventually coming to the figure that the area that the stone room had right now was equivalent to about 9 stone rooms from before.

"What's the next stage about?" Aurus asked Inhee after the expansion, to which Inhee responded, "The second stage is about killing as many enemies in one shot. That's also why the name of this next stage is One Shot."

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

After Inhee was finished talking, a large number of beings appeared around where Aurus was, surrounding his field of vision with the sight of a being that was quite similar in appearance to Horell. The bodies of the beings were akin to Horell's, being made out of energy, but the shape of their body was more or less akin to a pillar. In other words, Aurus was surrounded by a ton of pillars.

Just as Aurus was about to ask the specific mechanics of this second stage, Inhee was one step ahead of him, explaining as it said, "Right now, you're surrounded by a ton of pillars. To be more exact, you're surrounded by 1,000,000 pillars. You might be wondering, after what I said a while ago, I just have to try and destroy as much of the pillars surrounding me, right?"

Even before Aurus could answer Inhee's question, Inhee continued with its words, saying, "Well, with that kind of mindset, you're half-correct. You indeed have to destroy as much of the pillars surrounding you as possible. But…you have to at least destroy 10,000 pillars with a single move or else you won't pass the second stage. Now, you're wondering, it wouldn't be that hard to destroy these pillars, right?"

And yet again, just as Aurus was about to answer back, Inhee did not even let him do so, continuing, "And that's where you're wrong. Each pillar surrounding is a Pseudo-Animate at the Epic grade. Not to mention, the stats of these pillars are all at 1…except for their Defense. Other than that, it's pretty straightforward. There are no tips or tricks to clearing this. You just have to hit them with your strongest attack."

After this, Inhee went silent, finally allowing Aurus to talk. With him not being interrupted by Inhee anymore, he then asked it, ���Although I used to have a lot of questions a while ago, most of it was answered by your explanation. There's one question in my mind that you haven't answered with your explanation though."

"And what question might that be?" Inhee asked, to which Aurus responded, "How many Power Baptisms have these pillars undergone?"

To Aurus, the difference of a single Power Baptism would make this stage harder for him to clear. When a Pseudo-Animate hasn't undergone any Power Baptism, a single stat of theirs is equivalent to 1000 points of an Inanimate's. But when they clear a single Power Baptism, that factor increases by ten times, with a single stat of theirs now being equivalent to 10,000 points of an Inanimate's. If a Pseudo-Animate had undergone two Power Baptisms, their stats would be just as powerful as a normal Animate. That's the reason why Aurus had asked this question.

"Oh?" Inhee's interest was piqued by Aurus, making it wonder where he had heard of such a term. Nevertheless, Inhee suppressed this urge to know as it replied, "Although I'm quite curious as to where you've heard of such a term, these Pseudo-Animates have not undergone any Power Baptism yet."

"I see," Aurus said, inwardly letting out a sigh of relief. Although he did not know how much defense these pillars had, with him knowing that these Pseudo-Animates had not undergone any Power Baptisms, he was now a bit more confident in clearing this stage with his power.

"These pillars won't attack you while you're charging up your attack, so don't worry about being attacked and just give it your all," Inhee said a while later before adding, "If you don't destroy at least 10,000 pillars within 30 minutes, you would be stripped of your title."

"Good luck." And with that, Inhee went silent, leaving Aurus in a slightly annoyed mood as he let out a sigh, muttering, "You know, knowing that there's a time limit doesn't really feel good."

But then, he let out a light chuckle as he radiated an aura of confidence before saying, "Then again, I have a feeling I'll clear the stage far before time is up anyway."

After saying that, he then went ahead and focused his sense of vision towards a single pillar before muttering, "System, identify this being in front of me."

Ding!

Accompanied by a notification sound, a holographic screen that listed the stats of a single pillar had appeared in front of his field of vision not long after. He skimmed through it, eventually saying, "I kind of like the fact that the Defense stat is an exact number. But if I convert it to Inanimate stats, I need to have enough strength to pierce through…a million points of Defense."

________

[Super Duper Defense Pillar]

Species: Super Duper Defense Pillar

Existence Level: Pseudo-Animate

Grade: Epic

Power Baptism: None

—————

[HP]: 1/1

[MP]: 1/1

—————

Stats:

Vitality - 1

Strength - 1

Defense - 1,000

Agility - 1

Intelligence - 1

________

As he pondered over what he was going to do to have enough strength to destroy the pillars, he could not help but wonder how high his Attack stat is after what he had been through. With that in mind, he focused his sense of vision towards Theresa as he closed the holographic screen, asking it, "Theresa, could you show me my HP, FP, as well as my stats?"

"Sure thing, Master!" Theresa hastily replied to Aurus, a slightly corporeal screen appearing in front of his field of vision not long after.

Whoosh!

At the very instant the screen had appeared in front of his field of vision, Aurus went ahead and hastily skimmed through it, only to be left at a loss for words as he forced himself to ask Theresa, "Are you sure…these are…my stats?"

"Indeed, it is, Master! That's your stats, calculated by the Transcending Existence System millions of times to make sure there's no margin of error!" Theresa replied in a cheerful tone, increasing Aurus's level of disbelief as he looked at his stats.

Yes, he was feeling intense disbelief at how high his stats had become.

________

[Aurus]

—————

[HP]: 2,032,998/2,032,998

[FP]: 239,903/239,903

—————

[Tenacity]: 46,332

[Vitality]: 84,942

[Spirit]: 243,507

________

"240,000 Attack…" Aurus felt the most disbelief when he was looking at his Attack stat. His Attack stat was so high that it's more or less six times as high as his Defense stat. "Am I a glass cannon or something?"

Eventually, Aurus accepted that these were his stats, letting out a soft sigh as he commanded Theresa, "Could you convert these stats to Pseudo-Animate terms? A Pseudo-Animate that hasn't undergone a Power Baptism, to be specific."

"As you wish, Master!" Theresa soon replied to Aurus's question, hastily changing the values on the slightly corporeal screen in front of Aurus to smaller values. Although he let out a sigh of relief after his stats had changed its value, it was more or less due to the conversion factor. Looking at the current Attack stat on the slightly corporeal screen in front of him, he still needed 757 points of Attack to destroy a pillar.

And that was just one pillar.

Of course, that did not mean that Aurus needed another 757 points to destroy two pillars at the same time. He just had to increase his attack to a high enough level for him to be able to send an attack with a wide area of effect that would surely fulfill what he needed.

Then again, Aurus already knew what he had to do in order to bridge the gap in terms of attack. With this in mind, he looked at Theresa and told her, "Theresa, minimize the screen in front of me to where I could only see the Attack stat. Keep the same conversion. Also, when [Supreme Deification] reaches the maximum level, evolve it as fast as possible."

Noticing the serious aura radiating from Aurus, Theresa responded to him in a serious tone as it hastily manipulated the slightly corporeal screen in front of Aurus's field of vision, saying, "As you wish, Master. I've adjusted the size of the screen and moved it to where it wouldn't block Master's view."

"I've also enabled the automatic evolution of [Supreme Deification] for now," Theresa added, to which Aurus only replied with one word.

"Good."

"[Supreme Deification]."

Whoosh!

In an instant, the aura radiating from Aurus had intensified by multiple times, giving him the feeling that he had the power to destroy mountains and rivers with a single move. Of course, this was just a feeling and not the real effect of the skill, with the real effect of the skill being quantified as Aurus looked at his current Attack stat.

[Spirit]: 1,464.

A few seconds later, Theresa's voice could be heard near Aurus, saying, "[Supreme Deification] has evolved to B-grade Mortal level!"

Hearing those words, he took a look at the Spirit stat once more, noticing that it has increased by over a hundred points. What Aurus was doing right now, since there was still a lot of time, was increasing the grade of [Supreme Deification] to a decent enough level. He was solely relying on his greatly improved comprehension speed right now, hoping that it wouldn't take a long time for the skill to reach a decent enough grade while waiting.

Of course, he was not idling around, just waiting for [Supreme Deification] before he made a move. In the off-chance that there were only a few seconds left before he could unleash an attack, he was now preparing his attack beforehand, conjuring a hundred swords around his body before congregating it over his head.

Whoosh!

"To think that the ultimate art [Lucifer's Claw of Damnation] would become a normal move in [Spellswords of Ruination]," Aurus muttered as he let out a chuckle, focusing his sense of vision towards the congregation of swords as Theresa told him that [Supreme Deification] had reached A-grade Mortal level.

With the swords now congregated over his head, he then manipulated every one of them to fuse as one, transforming into a giant claw made out of swords. This claw radiated an aura that it came from the underworld...as if this claw came from Lucifer himself.

"This is the first time I've used such a skill, but the power it exudes might be more than enough for me to kill Chonk by myself without a problem," Aurus muttered as he stabilized the claw made out of swords with his FP. A couple of minutes later, Theresa told him that [Supreme Deification] had reached S-grade Mortal level, his Attack stat now close to 2,000 points.

It was then that he decided to stop waiting for the next evolution after [Supreme Deification] reaches X-grade Mortal level, thinking that it was enough of a boost as long as he used that skill. And so, with that in mind, Aurus waited for a few more minutes, with Theresa eventually telling him, "Master! [Supreme Deification] has reached X-grade Mortal level!"

"Cancel the automatic evolution, Theresa," Aurus told Theresa, to which Theresa hastily responded as it replied, "Automatic evolution has been disabled, Master!"

"Alright then," Aurus said with a chuckle. Just as he was about to activate the skill he had in mind, a stray thought in his mind took over his whole train of thought, prompting him to ask Theresa, "Theresa, how many times can I amplify my stats before my body implodes from the power?"

This thought came into his mind after remembering a player in ISE that relied on active buffs that increased his stats. One day, that player went ahead and activated all of his active buffs, increasing his stats to an unimaginable level for someone at his existence level…only for his body to explode in an array of various colors. After that, he lost all progress on his account, forcing him to start all over again.

Of course, Aurus knew that his current life wasn't a game, so if he amplified his stats too much, he would surely die from the implosion of such power. And with that, Theresa replied to Aurus's question, saying, "Master's body can only hold an amplification of 100 times at most before Master's HP is constantly decreased."

"I see," Aurus said as he brought up the description of [Supreme Deification] while making sure that the claw made out of swords was still together. After closing it, he then brought up the description of [Dark Universal Blade], letting out a slightly crazed chuckle as he closed it, muttering, "A factor of 72 times…I wonder if I could fight an Animate with that much power?"

"[Dark Universal Blade]!" After checking through the descriptions of those skills, he then activated the skill that he last checked up on, amplifying the aura surrounding him to an outstanding degree. Not only that, but since Aurus's Attack stat had greatly increased, the power held by the claw made out of swords had increased as well, giving off the aura that it was not just Lucifer's claw that was in this large stone room, but instead, the claws of all of the great demons in the underworld…combined.

Aurus had a hunch that the power imbued within the claw made out of swords was more than enough for him to destroy at least 10,000 pillars. After taking a look at the small screen that showed his current Attack stat, this belief was more solidified, prompting him to manipulate the claw as it moved towards the pillars in a circular fashion.

[Spirit]: 17,568.

"[Spellswords of Ruination]…"

"[Hundred Sword Embodiment]…"

"[Lucifer's Wrathful Claw]!"

…

…

Bang!