Chapter 207 - The Third Step

Whoosh!

And just like that, Aurus had left the inheritance, albeit awkwardly due to him being found out by Inhee on what he was going to do so with his newfound partial ownership. Letting out a short awkward chuckle after appearing a decent distance away from the inconspicuous magic circle that served as the entrance of the inheritance, he then made sure to forget that awkward situation as he started to teleport his way back to the alliance base.

Whoosh!

While he was making way back to the alliance base, Aurus could not help but think that he had not identified the skills and titles he had received from the Supreme Ruler of the Void, prompting him to command Theresa, who was still on his left shoulder, asking, "Theresa, could you bring up the descriptions of the skills and titles I've received from the inheritance?"

In response to this, Theresa replied to Aurus's question with a question of its own, saying, "Would you like me to bring up the descriptions of only the skills and titles you've obtained from the inheritance, or does that include the skills embedded within the skills and titles, Master?"

Hearing that some of the skills and titles he had received from the Supreme Ruler of the Void had embedded skills in some of them, Aurus unhesitatingly decided to choose the latter since he would still have to open up the description of the embedded skill either way.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

And just like that, Theresa followed Aurus's wishes, four small but slightly corporeal screens appearing in front of his field of vision as he continued to teleport his way back to the alliance base. Surprisingly, every time he teleported, the screens that he had summoned would appear at a fixed distance in front of his field of vision. This allowed him to skim through the descriptions without much problem while teleporting, letting out a slightly surprised gasp after reading up on the description of the embedded skill.

"The boosts given by the titles are still normal since [Junior Ruler of the Void] is the third-highest rank for a Ruler of the Void while the Area 52 Inheritance has a lot of power, which in turn gives me a lot of power as well since I'm a partial owner. But this skill…how strong is the Supreme Ruler of the Void to be exact?"

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[Junior Ruler of the Void]

Effects: Increases all stats by 125%

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[Area 52 Inheritance: Partial Owner]

Effects: Increases all stats by 150%

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[Blessing of the Void's Ruler] (Level MAX)

Grade: Unknown

Seeing the boundless potential of the Inanimate that he has tested, the Supreme Ruler of the Void decided to give this Inanimate a blessing that would allow it to manipulate the element of Void, which it had not done so after obtaining such a title. This skill allows the user to manipulate the element of Void, as well as tap into the powers of the Supreme Ruler of the Void for a short while.

> All active Ruler skills obtained from the [Ruler of the Void] title and its different ranks have now been modified to use up less FP than before.

> All active Ruler skills obtained from the [Ruler of the Void] title and its different ranks have now been modified to be variable in output, wherein the skill's power would depend on how much FP the user infuses into the skill.

> Gain access to the skill [Void Ruler's Parting Gift]

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[Void Ruler's Parting Gift] (Level MAX)

Grade: Unknown

Seeing the boundless potential of the Inanimate that he has tested, the Supreme Ruler of the Void decided to give this Inanimate access to a small amount of power, which would allow the Inanimate to gain access to a few of the Supreme Ruler of the Void's skills. Due to the great power of the Supreme Ruler of the Void, the FP requirements for each of the skills are incredibly high, but the damage they unleash is far higher than what the user is currently able to unleash.

> Gain access to the skill [Void Orb]

Note: The Supreme Ruler of the Void has decided to limit the number of skills available to the user to one for now. But if the user amplifies their stats to the limit of their body, the Supreme Ruler of the Void will increase the number of skills available to the user.

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Most of Aurus's attention was focused on the last two skills shown by Theresa, which was more or less the blessing of the Supreme Ruler of the Void himself. He could not help but ponder as to why the Supreme Ruler of the Void decided to give him a blessing, eventually coming up with a plausible conclusion as he muttered, "I guess the first skill was made because he noticed that my body had a limit on how much power I could amplify, so he went ahead and made the effects of the skills variable so I could maximize my amplification."

"As for the second skill…" As he got to this point, Aurus could not help but ponder even more, eventually letting out a sigh as he said, "I guess he just wants me to use the element of Void even more. Probably."

Whoosh!

After he read up on all the skills he had obtained from that impromptu trial, he soon closed all of the screens up before experimenting with the new variable output feature of the Ruler skills. It did not take long for him to realize that the new variable output feature of the skills would allow him to limit his strength if needed.

And so, Aurus made his way back to the alliance, taking around 30 minutes or so this time around to get back since he was experimenting with the variable output of [Zenith Nihility Dash]. At the very instant he had arrived in front of the alliance base, he could not help but mutter to himself, "I'm finally back."

"Welcome back, Aurus!" Not long after saying those words to himself, Aurus heard a shout from behind him, prompting him to scream out in slight fear as he hastily turned his sense of vision around. After seeing who it was, Aurus let out a sigh of relief as he said, "Couldn't you just properly greet me next time? Scaring me at night isn't good for my health, you know."

"Your health? You know Aurus, you talk like an Animate sometimes." In response to Aurus's words, the being that shouted a while ago, replied before letting out a chuckle. This being was made out of pure energy, its aura making Aurus feel like he couldn't beat the being if they were only basing it on their normal stats. This being was none other than Horell, who was the Supreme Guardian of the Verdant Blossom Branch Alliance, but still acted like how he used to when the alliance was called the Tempest Branch Alliance.

"So…how did your adventure go?" As Aurus made his way into the main hall of the alliance base, Horell proceeded to chat with him, asking him this question. In response, Aurus radiated a slight aura of happiness as he responded, "Quite swell, to be honest. I've gotten most of the things that I need before I go ahead and evolve."

"Oh?" Listening to Aurus's words, Horell could not help but radiate an aura of curiosity as he asked him, "You're going to evolve soon?"

"Yeah," Aurus replied to Horell's question. He then added, "I've acc.u.mulated enough power to become someone invincible amongst Inanimates. Don't you think it's time for me to evolve to X-grade Inanimate and become even more invincible than that?"

"Well…" Horell pondered over Aurus's question for a while before responding, "I don't really see the problem with evolving based on how much power you have right now, but in terms of the length of time you've been an S-grade Inanimate, I feel like you could still acc.u.mulate some more."

"That's if I go to the areas that are far away from the Tempest Cliff," Aurus said in response to Horell's question. "Do you really want to see me be grabbed by an Animate and turned into a weapon of theirs?"

"Of course not. Why are you thinking about those things?" Horell replied to Aurus's question, letting out an aura of slight melancholy over the situation that Aurus made him imagine. In response to his words, Aurus let out a light chuckle and said, "Well…why not? Think of it this way. If I evolve to X-grade Inanimate, the chances of me being caught by Animates would become incredibly low, allowing me to acc.u.mulate even more power than ever before. Don't you think that's a good trade-off?"

"Uh…sure," Horell replied before letting out a sigh. At this moment, the two of them were slowly traveling through the corridor that led to the small ecosystem of the alliance. Of course, that's when their speed is compared to how fast they normally travel, with the two of them being reliant on teleportation.

While they were slowly traveling through the corridor, a thought popped up in Horell's mind after the two of them were finished conversing on what Aurus was going to do next, prompting him to focus his sense of vision towards Aurus and tell him, "Now that I think about it, Herellia is going to evolve soon as well."

"Eh?" Hearing this piece of news, Aurus was at a slight loss for words. He knew that Herellia would evolve to a greater existence level eventually, but after the war against Chonk? Wasn't that a bit too soon?

"Why is she going to evolve so soon?" Aurus could not help but ask Horell, to which Horell replied with a tone of unsureness, "She's probably evolving for the same reason you're evolving to X-grade Inanimate. To acc.u.mulate more power."

"Is it for the alliance?" Pondering over what Horell said in response to Aurus's question, this was the first question that came to his mind. In response to this, Horell said something that slightly surprised him.

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" Aurus said in response, to which he added, "But you're the closest being to Herellia?"

"Well, I don't really see an obligation for her to tell me everything she does," Horell responded to Aurus's question. He then added, "She just does it because we're just that close. If she decides to hide something from me, then I'll respect that. Who knows, it might just be a surprise for the alliance."

"Ah, we've entered the ecosystem," Horell said not long after the two of them had exited the corridor. Not long after that, Horell went ahead and said to Aurus, "I guess we'll both part ways here. I need to tell Herellia about what you're doing. Anyways, good luck with your evolution."

"Thanks," Aurus replied to Horell's words of well-wishes as he radiated an aura of slight happiness. A few seconds after that, Horell disappeared in front of his field of vision, appearing in a place far away from where he was not long after. After looking at Horell's hastily fleeting silhouette for a while, Aurus muttered to himself, "I should go and get ready for evolution as well. I still need to finish a step before evolving."

Whoosh!

And just like that, Aurus disappeared from where he was, gradually making his way towards a room within the Tower of Seclusion, the place where he would usually grind his skills.

…

Whoosh!

It did not take long for Aurus to appear within the Tower of Seclusion, letting out a sigh of slight wonder as he recalled what had happened about an hour ago. To him, it was the first time he had truly went all-out in terms of power. It was also the time when he realized that his body was his limiting factor, giving him even more reason to evolve to X-grade Inanimate as soon as possible.

"Theresa," Aurus said all of a sudden. In response to this, Theresa turned its head to look at Aurus with a curious gaze as it replied, "Yes, Master?"

"Bring up the Ally Gacha," Aurus replied to Theresa's question not long after. As he commanded Theresa, he was thinking over the third step of his plan of solidifying his foundation before his evolution, wondering if he truly had enough unused experience points to do what he wanted to do.

Of course, the thing that he wanted to do in this third step, other than max out Fenrir and Charisa's levels, was to summon more Allies until he had reached the limit. Then again, the limit as to how much Allies a player can have in ISE was 5, which was also the case for a max-level fusion attack, so Aurus just needed to summon 3 more allies before he would reach the cap.

"As you wish, Master!" Theresa said in response to his command, a fun-looking screen appearing in front of his field of vision not long after. Unsurprisingly, the design on the screen attracted Aurus's attention, prompting Theresa to go ahead and explain the things that were on the screen.

"Due to Master evolving to S-grade Inanimate, the costs for the Gachas have been reduced! The Normal Gacha only needs 100 FP for a single summon, while the Premium Gacha now uses FP instead of the previous Life and Will points!" Theresa proceeded to explain. "The Premium Gacha now costs 1,000 FP per summon…but that's not all! Since Master has done a lot in the War of Tempest Cliff, the system thought that the rewards Master has obtained was lacking. And so, in response to that, the system has decided to add in two more banners to the Ally Gacha!"

Whoosh!

And just like that, two more screens appeared beside the fun-looking screen, both of them having more exquisite yet fun-looking designs when compared to the first screen. At the instant these two screens had appeared, Theresa went ahead and said, "The first banner is the Super Premium Gacha! In this Gacha, the rate for A-grade to Omega-grade banners have been greatly increased! The cost for a single summon in this gacha is 10,000 FP and 5 Life and Will points!"

"As for the second banner…" Theresa then went ahead and moved the rightmost screen to the center, allowing Aurus's field of vision to be filled with the sight of the screen. After doing so, Theresa then continued, "This is the Ultra Premium Gacha! In this gacha, the rate for S-grade to Omega-grade banners have been greatly increased! Not only that, but the chance of obtaining an Omega-grade Ally has been tripled as well! As for the cost…it's 100,000 FP and 25 Life and Will points!"

Listening to the banners being explained by Theresa one by one, it did not take long for Aurus to decide as to what type of Gacha he was going to summon in.

"I can regenerate a lot of FP, plus I could regenerate my Life and Will points in the Life and Will Fountain as well," Aurus muttered to himself. "I've decided!"

"Do one summon on the Ultra Premium Gacha banner!" Aurus soon shouted, to which Theresa boisterously replied, "As you wish, Master!"

Whoosh!

Not long after Theresa's reply, the content on the center screen had changed into that of an egg, a glimmering golden egg to be exact. This egg gradually intensified in its shaking before eventually cracking open and revealing a line of text on the screen. Aurus then went ahead and read the words on the screen, only for him to look at Theresa on his left shoulder with an aura of doubt as he asked, "Are you really sure that the rates have increased?"

Ding!

'Congratulations! You have obtained an Ally with B-grade potential, [Eu]!'