Within the Seraph Kingdom, Kevin"s manor.
A serious expression crept up Kevin"s face as he took a few breaths to recall the spell he would use to suppress Aurus" soul strength from other ent.i.ties. As he did this, he extended both of his palms outward while subconsciously channeling his mana, letting it naturally release through the tips of his fingers.
Swis.h.!.+ Swis.h.!.+ Swis.h.!.+ Swis.h.!.+
As the mana naturally...wait a minute. A swis.h.i.+ng sound isn"t really a good onomatopoeia for this kind of setting. Rather than swis.h.i.+ng sounds echoing out through the room where Kevin was, faint whirring sounds instead resounded as the mana being released gradually turned into threads.
At the time the threads of mana had reached a length of five meters, Kevin opened his eyes, seemingly in a tranced state.
Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+
In that very instant, Kevin willed the mana threads to overlap over one another in an esoteric pattern only he understood out of all the other sages in the kingdom. Since he was the only one who understood this pattern, it would be multiple times harder to crack the spell that was going to be casted on Aurus.
Of course, Kevin was not satisfied with that. He felt that with enough time, other sages and mages would crack the pattern, allowing them to sense Aurus" true soul strength. And so...
He made the pattern more complicated.
As the pattern grew more and more esoteric, he continued to produce more threads of mana from the tips of his fingers, adding more layers to the pattern as it gradually a three-dimensional structure of condensed mana.
Thinking that this was enough, Kevin stopped producing threads and instead focused on creating a mana ball to act as the energy source of the esoteric structure he had made.
Fwoos.h.!.+
It only took an instant for Kevin to acc.u.mulate and condense a great amount of mana into an energy source that would last the structure for over a week or so. As to how Kevin came up with that figure, as a Great Sage, a cla.s.s of the 7th Rank, he had divination and prediction powers that could be only described with the words "overwhelmingly accurate".
Click!
Contrary to normally heard sounds, rather than making a vwoom sound or some sort of futuristic sound that would fit the situation more, the ball of mana clicked into the middle of the esoteric structure, instantly making the esoteric structure radiate a faint yet powerful blue light that had the power to restrict a certain thing. Indeed, this esoteric structure did not have a specific thing to restrict, rather, it was up to the caster as to what it was going to restrict.
Looking at the mana structure he had made, Kevin felt proud at the fact that he had not lost his touch after all these years. Not long after, Kevin snapped his fingers, causing a rift in the s.p.a.ce in front of him to open.
"Fusion Magic. 6th Circle. 3rd Sage Circle. Animus Miniatris Regulatii."
"[Soul Suppression PaG.o.da: Kevin Version]!"
Whoos.h.!.+
Without hesitation, the esoteric structure he had made entered the s.p.a.ce rift and headed towards the place he wanted it to end up.
With Aurus.
Swoos.h.!.+
And not even a second later, the tugging feeling Kevin felt had lessened by a great margin, becoming unrecognizable from its previous strength. With that, Kevin let out a sigh of relief as he pointed one of his fingers upward, creating a smaller ball of condensed mana in an instant.
"With that out of the way, let"s try and contact Aurus. I should really tell him to make his clone faster. That thing doesn"t really make a clone in an instant."
Fwoos.h.!.+
Rather than the mana ball exploding and connecting with Aurus" soul, it instead fizzed out into nothingness, casting a peculiar expression on Kevin"s face.
"Hm? That"s weird. I"m pretty sure this thing will connect anywhere."
"Unless..." The gears in his mind started to turn as he came to a possible conclusion as to why he can"t speak to Aurus.
"He"s in another s.p.a.ce as a whole. And only inheritances fall under that portion for his current abilities."
"I"ll try again once he"s done with his inheritance, I guess."
Outside the Seraph Kingdom was a forest that was termed as the Forest of Cruelty due to the sheer amount of strong beasts that roamed the territory. Surprisingly, a person was able to make a territory inside the forest for himself, becoming known as the Devourer of Chaos.
Of course, this person did not really do it for fame or fortune, but rather, this person wanted to stay away from people while being as close to it as possible. Not only that, this person did it in order to prove their strength.
This person was already at a Rank 5 Cla.s.s, enough to be considered as one of the elites within Seraph Kingdom. Not only that, the person could also open a school of thought or an academy based around their own cla.s.s.
But this person didn"t.
Why?
This person wanted to grow even stronger.
Rustle! Rustle!
As the bushes rustled with the breeze flowing through the forest, a modest looking cabin made out of the wood from the forest could be seen near the middle of the forest.
Creak...
At an unknown time later, the door to this cabin was opened, revealing an average looking man, except for the fact that his eyes glistened like rare rubies.
This was none other than the person known as the Devourer of Chaos by the ma.s.ses, a Rank 5 Cla.s.s Wielder, specifically the cla.s.s Primal h.e.l.lbringer.
From the name of the cla.s.s alone, one would think that this person was some sort of buff and short-tempered guy that would probably fight against the main character of a novel and end up defeated. That was not the case here.
He took in a breath of the fresh air around him and grabbed the axe he had made from the bones of the beasts here and...
Started cutting down some of the trees near the vicinity of his cabin.
Chop! Chop! Chop!
With every hack he made in chopping trees, he would exert his full strength into it, chopping off the trunk in one swing. This was something he would do every day as there was no source of heat inside his cabin other than the fire he would create from the trunks he cut.
"It"s getting chillier these past few days. I should cut a few more trees so I don"t have to step out on the snow when it falls," he muttered to himself as he continued cutting trees.
Whoos.h.!.+
As if it was like a gust of wind, a strong feeling instantly spread throughout his body, prompting him to stop cutting as his instincts shouted that if he missed the opportunity, he would probably regret it.
With the instinct taking over his rationality, he swung the axe he was holding hard onto a trunk before running like a mad man throughout the forest, trying to find the opportunity.
"Where is it? Where is my treasure?!" Of course, from the name alone, there were some side effects to obtaining the cla.s.s, one of which was becoming berserk when instinct took over logic.
Thankfully, this incident did not last long, with the foreboding feeling fading away around ten seconds later, forcing his rationality to kick back into high gear.
"Eh?" As he noticed that he was quite a distance away from his cabin, he could not help but look at his surroundings with shock. "How did I get here?"
He tried to recall what had happened before he got the place he currently was, only for him to fail. In the end, he let out a sigh and started to walk back to the cabin, remembering to grab the axe he vaguely remembered he had stuck onto a trunk.
"I wonder what took over me."
"Oh well, it"s not like it would help me or something."
Within the Area 52 Inheritance.
"The thirty minutes of preparation time is now up." Without caring for what Aurus was doing, the monotonous voice started to resonate throughout the large stone room he was in. "The third trial, the Trial of Soul Strength, shall now start."
Hearing these words come out of the inheritance, Aurus could not help but let out a sigh of relief as he muttered to himself, "I"m glad I was able to finish tinkering with the system somewhat."
Of course, the system he was pertaining to was the Genesis Seed System. He had used all of his Genesis Points in order to boost his seed"s grade by 5 grades, and his seed"s maturity level by 30 points. As for the type of seed he was going to nurture, he was still undecided.
"I still have around 50 Genesis Points to spare," Aurus said to himself. "I"ll think about the seed type after this trial."
And as if the Inheritance waited for Aurus to finish talking to himself, the monotonous voice of the inheritance started talking only after Aurus was finished.
"The third trial, the Trial of Soul Strength, shall focus on the rigidity and the power of the inheritor"s soul. In other words, it is a trial in order to find if the inheritor"s soul strength is enough to obtain the lowest ranked key of the inheritance or a higher ranked key of the inheritance."
Hearing the word "key" being mentioned, Aurus" sense of hearing perked up as he gradually become excited for the third trial. "I wonder if a Soul Power of 188 is enough to clear the third trial."
Whoos.h.!.+
While mumbling to himself, a part of the stone room started to expand upwards, turning into a tower of sorts as it divided itself into levels that was replaced with dim lights not long after. The borders that differentiated between the levels gradually grew more and more intricate as a huge part of the bottom of the stone tower extended outwards towards Aurus" direction, turning into a stone plate that seemed to serve a purpose.
While looking at the tower that was transforming in front of his very own sense of vision, Aurus could not make a heads or tails as to what the thing in front of him was. But as he heard the instructions from the inheritance, he instantly knew what it was.
"The mechanics of the third trial is simple. The inheritor must manifest their soul strength into a tangible object and use it to hit the stone plate as hard as possible. With that, the soul strength of the inheritor shall be measured. A soul strength value of 10 is enough to pa.s.s, and a soul strength value of 50 is enough to fully reap the rewards of the third trial."
"Wait a minute..." Aurus was filled to the brim with shock as he said to himself, "Ain"t this soul strength measuring doohickey..."
"A f.u.c.king machine from a carnival?!"