While s.h.i.+rohana was heading back to the Hall of Greater Divinity with bad news and a few shady plans, Aurus had just teleported back to the Tower of Seclusion, wanting to check the progress of Fenrir and Charisa in their skill grinding.
Whoos.h.!.+
Surprisingly, at the very moment Aurus appeared in front of the two, the two were not actually grinding their skills at all. Instead, they were waiting for Aurus to come back from where he left.
Of course, this disparity from what he expected slightly shocked Aurus, but he was able to understand as to why the two stopped grinding their skills up. He then looked at the two of them and asked, "Why aren"t you two grinding your skills? Are you both done already?"
"Mm, not at all," replied Charisa as her head flame swayed to and fro to express denial. She then turned her head flame to look at Fenrir, before looking back at Aurus as she continued, "To be honest, we were worried about you, Master! Why didn"t you tell us you were going to leave all of a sudden? Although you"re our Master, we can"t help but worry, you know~?"
"Master, Charisa is correct," Fenrir replied as he looked at Aurus with an aura of seriousness emanating from him. "Although we can rest a.s.sured that you"ll come back unscathed, there"s still a small part of us that can"t help but worry that something bad may befall you, Master."
Hearing words of concern coming out from the two of them, Aurus could not help but feel warm inside, although there was no heat whatsoever from the insides of his body. Nonetheless, his tone became a bit gentler as he said, "Okay, okay. I apologize for not telling you what I went out to do before leaving. From now on, I"ll alert the two of you about these types of things when you"re summoned, okay?"
With such a reply like that, both Fenrir and Charisa could not help but feel warm from the inside as well, their tones taking on a gentler feel as they simultaneously replied, "Okay!"
Not long after that, Aurus then asked the two of them, "Are you two serious about not being finished with maxing out your skills? Then again, it"s fine since I wanted to know just in case the war was coming soon."
"To be honest, Master…" Like before, Charisa was the first one to reply, but this time, there was a slight aura of shyness and confidence emanating around her. "Ehehe…For some reason, the two of us are almost finished maxing out our skills to X-grade Mortal. Well…to be more exact, Fenrir is already finished maxing out his skills, while I"m only a few grades from doing so, Master…"
Afterwards, a slightly awkward silence surrounded the three before being broken by Charisa as she added, "But that doesn"t mean Charisa is doing poorly…right? Right????"
From Charisa"s reply, Aurus could not help but become shocked once more as he knew for a fact that it took him around 10 days to max out almost all of his skills to X-grade Mortal. Of course, he also took into consideration that the amount of skills the two had were significantly less than what he had, but once he calculated it, he found out that it would still take them at least 3 days, unlike the one day they spent right now.
"Is that true, Fenri-" Just as he was about to ask Fenrir if what Charisa said was true, only to sense an aura of confidence and pride emanating from him. Seeing such an aura emanating from Fenrir was a sort of reply to unfinished question, so he decided to change the question instead.
"Fenrir, can you tell me what you felt while grinding up those skills?" Aurus asked, wanting to know if something special happened the two.
"Hmm…" Hearing a question like that come out of his master, Fenrir could not help but ponder a bit, trying to recall the feeling he felt while he was grinding. Eventually, Fenrir opened his mouth as he replied, "To be honest, before Charisa was summoned, I could still remember the times when we used to fight against bosses to help you out."
Aurus then tried to recall the memories spoken by Fenrir, pertaining to the boss killing spree he did to farm up OS Points. Not long after remembering these memories, he could not help but think, "Speaking of which, I"ve also ama.s.sed a few OS Points from grinding Genesis Points. I should allocate them later."
Of course, this thought was only a fleeting one as he put it in the back of his head as he replied, "Yeah, I remember. What about those times?"
"Well, when fighting against those kinds of beings, we tend to use skills," Fenrir answered Aurus" question. "Back then, the amount of inspiration I gained when using those skills were like droplets of water squeezing through a small hole."
He then continued, "But when you tasked us to grind all of our skills to their maximum levels, I could not help but notice the amount of inspiration I was obtaining from the skills. The sensation I felt while doing so was akin to a raging river, inspiration continuously coming into my mind as I enhanced my skills again and again."
Hearing those words, Charisa could not help but add, "That"s right, that"s right! That"s what I also felt while training my skills, Master~!"
At that point in time, a memory surfaced in Aurus" mind after hearing Fenrir"s reply, a memory that was incredibly fresh as it was about him grinding up all of his skills to C-grade Transcendent level. Indeed, he could not help but come to the conclusion that the effect of the Transcending Comprehension Leaf was also pa.s.sed on to Fenrir and Charisa.
Thinking about it, Aurus could not help but mutter inwardly, "I don"t know how the effect pa.s.sed onto those two, but I"m pretty glad that it did."
After organizing all of his thoughts, Aurus took a deep breath through his body and looked at the two of them, saying, "Alright. Since there"s still a ton of time before the war by the looks of it, I"ll have to change your goals."
"Go ahead and grind up all of your skills to at the very least, C-grade Transcendent level."
"Eh?" Fenrir and Charisa could not help but say after hearing their master"s words, thinking that their master became slightly delusional. Fenrir was the first one to ask Aurus, saying, "Are you…joking, Master?"
"Not at all," Aurus replied. "Although the gap between Mortal skills and Transcendent skills seem to be large, I believe that the two of you can bridge that gap. The two of you can do it…right?"
To be honest, Aurus was not expecting that the two of them would end up becoming slightly shocked over his words as breaking through the Transcendent grade of skills for him was easy. Was it not the case for others? With that in mind, he just decided to encourage both Fenrir and Charisa, with its effects appearing not long after.
"Yes! We can do it, Master~!" Charisa was the first to reply, heading towards a corner of the room they were in before closing her sense of vision and starting to train her skills. As for Fenrir, he could not help but look at Aurus and say, "I"ll try my best to fulfill your expectations, Master."
With such a weird tone on his reply, Aurus could not help but say, "Don"t feel so glum, Fenrir. We"ve been through more stuff unlike Charisa. I know your true potential, and it"s pretty large. Are you gonna let your master down?"
Hearing such a question from Aurus, Fenrir could not help but answer back, his tail slightly wagging, "Of course not."
And with that, Fenrir headed towards another side of the room, starting to train up his skills as well. This meant that Aurus was left alone again, pondering as to what he was going to do next.
He then decided to follow up on what he thought up earlier, regarding the amount of OS Points he received from killing those Inanimates for Genesis Points. In actuality, he had ama.s.sed a decent amount of OS Points, possibly enough to max everything out if his calculations were correct.
"System, open up the system"s OS," Aurus commanded, with the system following his words not long after.
Ding!
________
[Existence Evolution OS]
OS Points: 35
Level Up Synchronization (1/10)
Cost to upgrade: 1 OS Point
Memory DLC (2/3)
Cost to upgrade: 10 OS Points
Artificial Intelligence: Battle (MAX)
Artificial Intelligence: Learning (3/10)
Cost to upgrade: 1 OS Point
________
Seeing as there were three portions of the system"s OS that wasn"t upgraded, he decided to upgrade the one that would possibly help him out the most in this war, which was the Memory DLC portion of the system"s OS.
Ding!
"Memory DLC has been fully upgraded."
Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+
Not long after, inside his mind, the remaining parts of his memories from his previous life that were shrouded by fog gradually broke free from the fog. To be more exact, the fog that was surrounded these memories gradually dissipated, revealing the remaining memories of Aurus from when he was a decently leveled Animate up to the time when he had attained G.o.dhood.
Recalling all of the memories from his previous life from when he was an Inanimate up to G.o.dhood, Aurus could not help but let out an aura of happiness and say, "I now know more ways to improve myself even faster."
Not long after, he then went on to upgrade the Learning module of the system, costing him 7 OS Points. Although he did not find a use for it right now, he knew that it could allow his skills to turn into Special skills. The only problem was the time it took for it to happen, as well as the limited amount of skills he could put in at once.
Lastly, he upgraded Level Up Synchronization to its maximum level, costing him 9 OS Points as he just wanted to get this part of the system"s OS over with. He could still remember that it was because of this system ability being locked which had his level ups becoming delayed. Although he did not see a use for the ability being at maximum level, it was still better to have maxed than not.
Ding!
"Eh? A notification?" Aurus could not help but ask what this notification was for, only to hypothesize that it might be because all of the abilities in the system"s OS have been fully maxed out. As for what it entailed, he did not know.
And so, he opened it.
"You have successfully upgraded the Existence Evolution System"s OS to its limits, Aurus."
"Would you like to upgrade the system"s OS to greater heights?"
"Eh?"