I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 144: Decluttering

Ding!

‘You have successfully upgraded the Existence Evolution System’s OS to its limits.’

‘Would you like to upgrade the system’s OS to greater heights?’

“Eh?” This was the first sound that came out of Aurus after looking at the notification that appeared in front of his field of vision. To be honest, he was not expecting for the system to have a notification like this as he thought that after maxing all of the abilities of the OS, it would all be done with.

Thanks to this notification he received, Aurus could not help but think, ‘Are there more things this system is hiding from me, which reduces my methods of becoming stronger?’

With that, he decided to go over the memories from his past life, recalling all of the features within ISE aside from the features he had already received that would allow him to become stronger than before. Unfortunately, even after what seemed to be about twenty minutes of recalling and going through his memories, it seemed that all of the features that allowed Aurus to get stronger as an Inanimate had already been obtained by him.

Not only that, there were also some additional features from the system that weren’t in the original game, prompting Aurus to think once more that his current life was not a game, but a real and actual life. Of course, this thought was already inside Aurus’ mind as a lot of the experiences he had throughout his current life was vastly different from the one he had in the game, as well as the fact that he could upgrade the system, which he could not do back in the game.

After going through all of his memories and not seeing a feature that wasn’t unlocked by his system yet, Aurus could not help but ponder for a bit. The train of thought that was currently coursing through his mind was that, once the system’s OS was upgraded, it would give him access to more features of the system that weren’t originally there.

Then again, he had already obtained a few features that were not originally there, speaking from the standpoint that all of the features came from ISE. The Soul Enchantment System he obtained was not part of ISE in his previous life, nor was the first part of the Genesis Tree System, the Genesis Seed System.

There were also a few bits of the features he obtained from the system which came from the game that had a few deviations from the original features. For example, the Ally system which normally boosted his stats and allowed him to create an ultimate attack with 5 beings, was even more than that in this current life of his.

In the end, he decided to ask the system. “What would upgrading the system’s OS do? Would it unlock something or upgrade something that’s currently a part of the system?”

A few seconds of silence ensued from that question, the system only replying half a minute later from that question as a monotonous voice resonated within Aurus’ mind.

‘Unfortunately, this system cannot divulge that information.’

Obtaining a disappointing answer from the system, Aurus decided to ask one more question. “Is there a cost to upgrading the system’s OS?”

Ding!

Unlike before, the system replied in an instant this time, the monotonous voice resounding throughout Aurus’ mind once more.

‘The user needs 100 OS Points to upgrade the system’s OS.’

“Oh. I’ll postpone it then,” Aurus said without hesitation after hearing the cost. After upgrading all of the abilities of the current system’s OS to its maximum level, he only had 9 OS Points remaining, a far cry from the 100 points he needed to upgrade the OS. Not only that, he also had a feeling that this upgrade would definitely be more deterimental to him rather than beneficial.

Thankfully, after telling the system that the upgrade was going to be postponed, the system did not push the matter any further, maintaining silence for a while until…

Ding!

Another notification appeared.

“What is it this time?” Aurus could not help but ask himself after obtaining notifications where he did not know where it originated. But as he opened up the notification screen to look at the notification he received, he could not help but mutter to himself in shock, “How the heck did I get this chance?”

‘Transcending Comprehension Leaf has been fully absorbed.’

‘You have obtained 9 chances to max out your skills, no matter what grade it is.’

Of course, what caught Aurus’ attention first was the fact that he could upgrade 9 skills of his to the maximum level, no matter what grade it was, which resulted in the question he asked himself. Fortunately, he continued to read through the notifications, finally understanding where his chances came from as a slightly hazy memory surfaced from his mind, with the voice of Herellia faintly resounding throughout the insides of his mind.

‘There are three grades to Comprehension Leaves. Those are, in order from weakest effect to strongest effect: Soaring, Fleeting, and Transcending. I’m sure there’s a few more grades of Comprehension Leaves that’s stronger in effect, but I haven’t absorbed them yet so I won’t tell you those for now…’

‘Transcending Comprehension Leaves have the greatest effect as they allow to increase the experience you obtain for your skills by 14 times, bringing it to a total of 15 times. Not only that, it also gives you the option to max out 10 skills!’

With those words lingering for a bit inside Aurus’ mind, Aurus could not help but say in a soft tone as he did not want to startle both Fenrir and Charisa, “Ah…so that’s what it is. I’ve already used up one chance of the Transcending Comprehension Leaf to max out my SP storage skill. Then again, from what the system is telling me, I still have nine more chances to do the same thing.”

With nine chances to max out whatever skills he wanted, Aurus pondered for a bit as to what skills he would max out with the chances given to him. Eventually, after around a couple of minutes, he said to himself as he went over the decision a couple of times in his head, “Yeah, I’ll use up two chances for now. I’ll save the 7 chances for later since I have a feeling it’s going to come in handy.”

Not long after that, he then commanded to the system in his mind, “System, use up two of my chances to max out [Spellblades of Nonagon Domination] and [Ninth Purity Heavenbinding Essence Transformation].”

Ding!

‘Two chances have been used, leaving the user with seven chances remaining.’

‘[Spellblades of Nonagon Domination] and [Ninth Purity Heavenbinding Essence Transformation] have both reached the MAX level.’

‘[Spellblades of Nonagon Domination] and [Ninth Purity Heavenbinding Essence Transformation] have met the necessary requirements and are ready to evolve.’

Looking at the notifications he received from the system, as well as the feeling he felt after maxing out both skills to the max level, which was akin to obtaining super strength in an instant, Aurus could not help but reinforce the idea that the decision he made was worth it.

As to why Aurus decided to max out the two of these skills to the max level for now was because of their importance to his combat power. Although Aurus had a Spell Core, he was more reliant on this spellblade skill of his, which originated from a simple [Nut Shot]. A great contrast to its origin, it gave Aurus access to a few ultimate skills that could deal devastating power.

As for the essence transformation skill, by upgrading it to the max level and evolving it, it would increase Aurus’ stats by a large amount, which in turn, increases the power behind his attacks. The downside to it was the fact that his soul power would grow stronger by a few notches, which was thankfully alleviated by the fact that he had a strengthened soul sealing skill already.

“Evolve both skills to the next grade,” Aurus commanded the system without hesitation, as unlike a lot of Mortal skills that had a lot of choices to choose from in terms of skill evolution paths, Transcendent skills had a linear path of evolution, which gave them more power in what they did best.

Ding! Ding!

‘[Spellblades of Nonagon Domination (Rare)] has evolved to [Nine Damnation Spellswords of Ruination (Rare)].’

‘[Ninth Purity Heavenbinding Essence Transformation (Special)] has evolved to [Heaven’s Zenith Essence Ascension (Rare)].’

Whoosh! Whoosh!

After evolving the two skills to their next grades, the feeling that Aurus felt a while ago coursed throughout his body once more, this time with more force behind it, giving him the feeling that he could kill thousands of foes with a single attack. Of course, as he was still an S-grade Inanimate, this feeling becoming a reality was quite distant, but at the same time, was not far off thanks to the grades of the skills he currently had.

He then tested out the newly evolved spellsword skill he obtained, using the nine spellswords that came with the skill one by one, before doing a few experiments of small scale, making sure to not disturb Fenrir and Charisa as they were still grinding their skills. Getting to the conclusion that he could still recreate the ultimate skill he formed with the previous version of the skill, as well as enhance its power even further, Aurus was satisfied with his experimentation.

After doing so, he could not help but think of what to do next as he was saving the 7 chances to max out skills for later. Although Herellia told him to create trump cards, he did not know what skills he should use to create trump cards that would tip the scales to their favor in their war.

“Speaking of skills…” Aurus said to himself as he became fixed to the word ‘skills’, opening up his skill list not long after. “I seriously have to do some decluttering. Although most of them are still passive skills, there are still a lot of active skills I don’t use that often.”

As to why Aurus was doing this right now instead of back then, the reason behind it was because the method to removing skills from his skill list was locked behind the memories that were recently unsealed. If Aurus had those memories unsealed even earlier, he would definitely have his skill list organized by now.

“Anyways, if I could remember correctly, back in the game, there were a few specific places in the game’s world where I could remove skills, exchanging them for a permanent boost to my stats. I wonder if the system could do that?”

“I guess it’s worth a shot,” Aurus said to himself as a stray thought screamed out at the back of his head, telling him that it isn’t possible as the system wasn’t upgraded. Unfortunately for the stray thought, most of his mind was telling him to try it out at the very least.

“System, can I remove skills from my skill list?” Aurus asked the system inside his mind. At first, there was only silence coming from the system, but thankfully, the system replied to his question not long after as a screen appeared in front of his field of vision.

Ding!

‘The system does have this option, yes. Unfortunately, due to the user having a low existence level, to remove skills, the user must sacrifice their levels in proportion to the grade of the skill they want to remove,’ the system replied.

“Well then,” Aurus said to himself after a few seconds of mild shock. “I wasn’t expecting that kind of compromise. I do have a few million points of unused XP so…”

“Let’s get to decluttering then.”