With his motivation rekindled to an unbelievable height akin to an incredibly ardent flame that could swallow mountains and seas thanks to the unexpected key of the inheritance, Aurus decided to take things more seriously unlike what he did before in the Tempest Cliff Inheritance. Though he became the owner of said inheritance in the end, the previous owner of the inheritance gave him this position without his own volition, basically attributing it to his own luck.
This time, he did not want to rely on his own luck. Although he knew that after he was reincarnated into a stick...well, we can call him a Spiritas Flux now, that his luck had turned for the better, allowing him to achieve great things and gain multiple rewards unlike other Inanimates out there, he wanted to see how far he could push his rationality and logicality in order to achieve the same effects of his stupidly good luck.
As to why he decided to do this, it was because of the fact that this inheritance he was currently going to attempt revolved around the Comprehension Leaf. Hence it would make sense if the inheritor had to use their brain"s power to the limit, right?
And so, Aurus decided to think up of a plan as to how he was going to clear the inheritance without any problem. The only obstacle blocking his way from this happening was the fact that...he had no clue whatsoever as to whaf mechanics these trials had.
"Hmm..." Knowing fully well that he had 10 minutes before the trials start, Aurus decided to use this spare time to create a few plans for the first trial. In other words, creating educated guesses and using the one plan that fits the actual trial when it happens.
"From the name of the trial alone, Comprehension, one would pretty much think that the trial would revolve around the inheritor"s speed of understanding a certain thing," Aurus muttered to himself as his mind geared into overdrive, creating multiple what ifs in the process.
"But comprehending something is different from understanding something as the comprehension of a certain thing would allow one to gleam into the essence of said thing, reducing the difficulty of understanding said thing towards a tolerable level, while understanding said thing would only grasp the intricacies of said thing, but not the essence, allowing one to have knowledge of said thing, but not truly all of the knowledge of said thing."
While talking to himself, Aurus noticed that his mind was moving faster than before, even allowing him to think of concepts that were not even there in the first place. Slightly surprised, he could not help but ask himself, "Is this the effect of increasing one"s Soul Power?"
Since he had no basis as to whether increasing Soul Power would do just that, Aurus placed this question at the back of his mind and continued to mull over the mechanics of the trial, finally arriving to a few conclusions almost two minutes before the start of the first trial.
"Finally, I"ve come up with three possible mechanics for the first trial." Aurus let out a sigh of relief as he looked at the three motes of light that intangibly existed in his head, containing the three possible mechanics he had come up with.
"The first mechanic for the first trial would probably be a trial where the inheritance would give me some sort of text, and from there I would have to try and grasp the essence of the text as fast as possible."
"The second mechanic would probably be a trial where the inheritance would give me a skill for me to read over, and from there I would have to grasp the essence of the skill and improve it to a great degree, basically creating my own skill from a derived skill."
"And lastly, the third mechanic would probably be a trial where the inheritance would give me a certain item which I would have to examine, delve deeper, and grasp the essence of, creating some sort of output from this bout of comprehension."
And with that, Aurus" three conclusions were stated by him as the few remaining seconds left before the start of the trial ticked away into nothingness, revealing the voice that resounded ten minutes earlier as it announced the mechanics of the trial.
"Ten minutes are now over, inheritor. The first trial of the inheritance of Area 52 shall now begin."
"The Trial of Comprehension shall test the user"s skills in enhancing and expounding on extremely basic techniques, creating a myriad of things out of a single thing. The inheritance shall give the inheritor a basic technique to enhance and expound upon with a fixed time span of 2 hours. Not only that, the amount of experience needed to enhance said technique would be halved, while the amount of experience obtained from expounding on the technique shall be doubled. In other words, the speed at which the inheritor shall comprehend the technique will be quadrupled."
"In order to pa.s.s the first trial, the inheritor must, at the very least, enhance this technique of Mortal grade to Transcendent grade. If the inheritor goes beyond this grade, then the inheritor shall obtain additional rewards on top of the fixed rewards. Note that the enhanced technique cannot be kept by the inheritor."
Hearing the mechanics from the disembodied voice and trying to grasp the essence of said mechanics, Aurus could not help but dumbfounded as he muttered, "So...my three conclusions are useless in the end?"
That was the right, the three conclusions he created were in fact, not even close to the mechanics of the actual trial. Well...the second one was incredibly close, but it veered off along the way.
In simple terms, the mechanics of the first trial were like this.
One, the inheritance would give Aurus an incredibly basic technique.
Second, Aurus would have to enhance and expound upon the technique, increasing its intricacies and complexities along the way.
In simpler terms, Aurus would have to enhance and evolve the technique he would obtain from tbe inheritance.
Now, as the creator of the Celestial Plane, the wielder of the one and only Primordial Decree...what has Aurus been doing all this time?
Right! He has been enhancing and evolving techniques from the start!
In other words, Aurus would be able to clear this trial without a problem! If one thinks about it deeper, he would even go beyond!
Why?
Because of a certain pa.s.sive skill that allowed him to be where he was now. That"s right, [Blessing of the Reincarnation G.o.ddess]. It effectively increases his experience acquisition rate by 50 percent, which would mean that he would not obtain four times the amount of experience needed to level a skill but rather...six times the experience!
Coming to this conclusion, Aurus could not help but chuckle softly. After a bit, it turned into raucous laughter. Not long after, it turned into a cackle that greatly resounded throughout the large yet plain stone room of the inheritance.
It took him around a minute or so to finally regain his composure and notice that the first trial had already started. Realizing this, his mood had turned serious as he noticed an incredibly bright mote of light at the center of the large room, easily deducing that this mote of light held the technique he had to enhance and evolve.
With a cheerful aura covering his body, he activated [Tempest Levitation] in order to drastically enhance his movement speed, reaching the mote of light in what seemed to be an instant for Inanimates.
As his body touched the mote of light, the mote of light burst out into a myriad of colors, covering Aurus" body with various colors as he shouted with glee, "It"s time to grind!"
While Aurus was teeming with happiness as he started his first trial from the inheritance of Area 52, in another boring yet large stone room that spanned at least twice the area than Aurus" room.
Herellia stood...well...uh...stood at a certain place within the room that was nowhere near the center, calmly a.s.sessing her surroundings as she waited for the inheritance to make its move.
And make its move it did.
While Herellia was looking at her surroundings, a voice resounded throughout her mind, stating, "Inheritor, welcome to the inheritance of Area 52."
"Through a thorough scan, the inheritance has deemed the inheritor not a inheritor, but rather, a candidate for the position of ruler as the ruler candidate has the Bronze Key of Area 52."
"Unfortunately, this Bronze Key would only allow the ruler candidate to obtain a position of Marquis at most."
"Would the ruler candidate like to go through the Trials of the Ruler to enhance the Bronze Key to a Silver Key?"
As Herellia heard these statements and questions come from the inheritance, Herellia could not help but ask herself why she entered the inheritance again. To be honest, Herellia was only introduced to the Bronze Key once she cleared the inheritance, only aiming for the Comprehension Leaf at most.
But when she found out about the effects of the Bronze Key, Herellia could not help but ponder as to what effects the keys of higher quality would have. Unfortunately, Herellia did not have another chance to enter the inheritance as she had to manage the alliance.
That was until...Aurus came.
Under the guise of protecting Aurus along the way, Herellia was now attempting the inheritance one more time, wanting to seek the limits of this inheritance"s key.
Without hesitation, Herellia responded, "I would like to go through the Trials of the Ruler."
A few seconds of silence pa.s.s by before the voice could respond. Not only that, this voice was now different from before as it contained a small hint of vitality in it.
"Ruler candidate, from the power you exude, I see that you are deemed fit for a path that would combine speed and blood. Not only that, you also exude great strength beneath that speed, allowing me to ask you the question..."
"As the Supreme Ruler, would you like to tread the Trials of the Sanguine Ruler, becoming a Sanguine Ruler yourself?"
At first, Herellia was dumbfounded as she did not really expect that her powers would be taken into consideration as she pursued a key of higher quality. But since she pursued great strength, this coincidence was definitely great timing.
"I shall tread the trials."
Bang!
"So be it."
"We shall now witness the birth of a new Sanguine Ruler."
"Let the Trials of the Sanguine Ruler..."
"Begin."