Chapter 242: Two Energies

"Can I speak to you in private?" He asked, his words catching Aurora off-guard.

?The sudden request briefly broke the Bladecrest heir’s stoic composure. Her pitch-black eyes widened a fraction.

?"Sure, Lord Asher."

?The moment Aurora said that, a heavy ripple of spatial energy warped the air around them. She, Asher, Kelly, and Juliana vanished completely from the blood-soaked battlefield, bypassing physical distance entirely to appear five hundred meters away from the city in an untouched land of silent wilderness.

?Aurora moved her gaze around the empty wilderness, listening to the howling wind rustling the dry grass, then looked at the three people standing unified before her:

?’Is this privately?’ She thought with a raised eyebrow.

?"I want to ask you about Doomsday Dungeon, why are the ancient families after this dungeon?" Asher asked, his arms folded behind his back, his golden eyes unblinking as they locked onto her dark ones.

?Aurora raised an eyebrow, her posture stiffening defensively: "I can’t tell you that."

?"Astrid invited me to join this expedition, I can’t reach her right now, so I can’t ask her directly; but I’m pretty sure you know the answer to my question, if I want to work with you guys, I need to know everything about this dungeon, right?" He asked. His tone was level, projecting the immovable authority of a patriarch demanding an equal exchange.

?Aurora was silent, lowering her gaze to the ground. Astrid had already told her about Asher, but the core reason for this expedition was highly classified among the top-tier families. She had no true metric to judge if Asher was trustworthy, or if his sudden rise was a threat to their monopoly.

?"I will tell you on one condition." She said, looking up at him, meeting his intense stare.

?’Condition, if this woman’s combat power isn’t this high, I won’t even bother with this; I need more information.’ Asher thought. He slowly nodded his head, maintaining his perfectly indifferent expression while analyzing any advantage.

?"My condition is simple; You must join this expedition, and help us till the end. Do you agree?" Aurora stared at him, the chill wind whipping her black hair around her shoulders as she waited for his response.

?’This way, he won’t back down, and also won’t disrupt the expedition... Besides, he doesn’t look like someone who will backstab someone.’ She reasoned inwardly, searching his golden eyes for any hint of deceit.

?Asher exhaled a quiet breath: "Alright, I accept."

?"Good; the four ancient families discovered a dungeon within a dungeon in the Doomsday Dungeon." Aurora revealed. Her words hit like a physical shockwave, stunning Asher, Kelly, and Juliana in place. A nested anomaly of that scale defied conventional logic.

?"You should know that when Dungeons appear, they gain a countdown... This countdown varies, but a double dungeon is different, instead of one countdown, it has two." She raised two slender fingers at them to emphasize the twisted mechanics of the anomaly:

?"Five years ago, the first dungeon’s countdown clocked zero, and monsters flooded out, destroying every single living creature on that Island... Then three years ago, the second dungeon within the first opened, and the main Boss who goes by the title ’King’ entered our world, with his Subordinates... The ancient families detected this, and chose the Genesis family to deal with it... But instead of personally handling this matter, they took hundreds of SSS-RANK Awakened from the five cities in Vaeloria, and sent them all to their deaths." She explained, the grim history hanging heavy in the air.

?"Wait!" Asher said, his expression instantly turning dark as the terrifying timeline aligned in his head.

?"So the Genesis Ancient family are the ones who sent all the Awakened to Doomsday Dungeon three years ago?"

?"Yes... We gave them the task, but they gave it to the people, I don’t even know why. Their Head doesn’t want to say anything, so the other families dropped this issue." Aurora answered. Focused purely on the political implications, she completely failed to notice the murderous expressions brewing on the three faces before her.

?’So the Genesis family is the same family who invited Sara. When she refused, they forced her into that dungeon expedition three years ago, which resulted in her current condition.’ Asher thought. A slight, dangerous frown formed on his face as the pieces of the tragedy clicked together, connecting the ancient family directly to the trauma that haunted his home.

?’Their ruthlessness led to the death of countless SSS-RANKs, even big sister Kelly lost her mind in that dungeon... If I had known, I would have given that guy a beating.’ Juliana thought with raw killing intent, her fingers twitching near the hilts of her daggers.

?Asher forcefully calmed himself down, suppressing the violent aura threatening to leak from him. Aurora had unknowingly handed them the true identity of their greatest enemy. He was one hundred percent sure the Genesis family had no idea Sara had survived that hellish day.

?’Wait for me, you dirt... I will start with your young master.’ Asher thought with frigid killing intent, perfectly concealing his homicidal promises behind his calm golden eyes so Aurora wouldn’t suspect a thing.

__

?Several miles away, safely outside the city’s ruined perimeter, the blue-haired noble suddenly shuddered. Draven looked over his shoulder at Talitha, his blue eyes wide with a sudden, inexplicable unease:

?"Strange, why do I feel a chill down my neck?" He muttered in a low voice, rubbing his nape as if a phantom blade was resting against it.

?"This place is filled with dangers, let’s leave." He added. Waving his hand to activate his spatial artifact, both he and Talitha vanished from the outskirts of the battlefield, narrowly escaping the lion’s den without realizing just how close to death they had come.

___

?"Please continue." Asher said, returning his unwavering gaze to Aurora.

?’Please? He’s actually this polite.’ She thought, momentarily stunned by the courteous tone coming from someone with such unfathomable power, but she quickly recovered and answered:

?"The reason we are after this dungeon is because the second dungeon within has Aether Stone mines."

?{...}

?The system interface flickered, utterly silent, as if processing the sheer weight of the revelation.

?"Aether Stone mines?!!" Asher was stunned, his stoic mask finally cracking. The existence of such a resource was legendary; even his system seemed dumbfounded.

?"You see, when an ordinary human becomes an Awakened, they will need two steps to increase their strength. One is by cultivating, absorbing spirit energy from the air; while the second is absorbing Evolution stones which can be gotten from high-tier monsters."

?The three of them nodded slowly, tracking the logic of basic progression, as she continued:

?"Once an Awakened reaches SSS-RANK, Evolution stones become useless. They have to cultivate, and try to improve their spirit energy purity to 100%... After that, with the help of the ancient families, they will advance to Ex-Rank... Once you reach this rank, evolution stones become completely useless, and you’ll unlock another energy bar."

?"Another energy bar? You mean, Ex-Ranks can use two energies?" Kelly asked in profound shock, her eyes widening as she stepped closer to Asher.

?"Correct, those in Ex-Rank can use Spirit energy, and the new energy is known as Aether energy." Aurora revealed.

?Her words slammed into Asher’s consciousness, locking the final piece of the world’s power into place and leaving him absolutely rooted to the ground.