Chapter 427: Rank 3

Two months later.

Auric was sitting in his office chair. While he looked like he was relaxing, he was actually trying to gather the energy from the air.

He had been doing his best, alternating between absorbing the artifacts or absorbing the energy in the air.

And finally, it looked like his hard work paid off.

As soon as he reached 100%, he could feel the energy starting to move toward his heart, specifically to their respective cores. All nine elements gathered and strengthened the cores.

"…" Auric couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows. The fire energy made him warm, but the water energy cooled him down. The lightning energy numbed his senses, while the wind energy made the sensation refreshing.

But that refreshing feeling was blocked by the earth element, while the plant element gave him the feeling of breathing the fresh air early in the morning.

The light and dark elements were interfering with each other. Even though he had his eyes closed, the light coming into his eyes was changing as if someone were intentionally turning a switch on and off repeatedly.

The unique element was the only one that didn't give him anything special.

After a few minutes, all that energy burst and spread all over his body.

However, he noticed something. While it was true that the energy spread all over his body, 70% of it actually flowed back to his eyes as though there was a new anchor in that place.

Since he had awakened his eyes, the energy strengthened his eyes further.

"Huuu…" Auric took a few deep breaths, sensing his energy to gradually calm down.

After another ten minutes, he opened his eyes and looked at the world.

To his surprise, the world looked the same.

"Hmm?" Auric frowned. He could see the energy particles in the air, but everything looked the same. "Did nothing change?"

"No. Try to focus your eyes like usual," Lindwurm answered.

"What do you—!" Auric abruptly stopped because he noticed something had changed from the usual vision.

He tried to single out the fire energy, but what surprised him was the fact that he could further eliminate the noises.

In other words, after removing all the energy except for that one belonging to the fire element, he could even remove all elements other than the specific rating.

If he wanted to see only the fire element with a 4.5 rating, the particles would become much scarcer.

"Oh?! This is…" Auric gasped. "Doesn't this mean I can find out which place has a specific energy that I want?"

"Yes and no. I mean, does this even help you or anything?" Lindwurm asked, unable to figure out what Auric could actually do with this change.

"I can do a lot, actually. For example, the gathering technique will be more effective. Until now, I have only been able to observe someone's element because they're using it, right? This time, I am able to observe the movement of energy particles in the air to see if something has changed in their behavior… maybe in the ruins. This will help a lot with the research.

"Furthermore, think about the gathering techniques. I use the energy from their own battle technique to create battle techniques, right? What if I can single out and focus on their specific element?"

Lindwurm contemplated and said, "Usually, the gathering technique only gathers the element for a specific rating. However, humans can endure the energy within a 0.5 range of the rating of their element. Wait…"

Auric grinned. "Yeah. I am wondering if I can improve the gathering technique. For example, if the original technique only allows you to absorb fire energy with a rating of 3.7, what if I improve it by allowing the technique to absorb fire energy with a rating of 3.6 to 3.8? Will that allow you to gather it faster, or will it allow you to absorb more energy?"

"It might be the latter." Lindwurm gasped.

"Exactly. If I can improve it like this, doesn't that mean you can gather around 40% or even 60% of your element just by using the gathering techniques? What if I improve it more and increase the range? Will humans be able to get 100% of their element and evolve without even hunting beasts?"

"While killing beasts is still necessary to protect our own, this will allow humans to grow stronger safely and have the strength to fight beasts. They won't be reliant on beasts. At this rate, you might call it the Fire Breathing Technique or something instead of the gathering technique?"

"Maybe." Auric chuckled. "However, this might be another key to fusing my elements in the future. I don't have a concrete idea yet, but I just have the feeling."

Lindwurm sighed. "I guess this is a big win for you…"

"Yep." Auric couldn't contain his smile. This was more than just a big win. "A technique that will allow you to evolve from 0%, a method that will increase your talent, a store that will solve your problem if you happen to exceed 100%… Isn't that what a Genius Evolution Store means?"

"I think you can add one more to the list." Lindwurm said, pointing to the table on his left.

The table was full of equipment.

Those were his prototypes of magic items. His father had given him the book of magic items, but he knew that the book was actually his own creation or something that couldn't be easily accessed by the public.

That was why he was able to progress so fast. However, there were some prototypes that hadn't been finished yet. Those were his primary focuses. "It's not working right now."

"If you just want to create a magic item, you can already do it."

"Yes, but you know I don't want a magic item like that. Besides, there is one more problem. Even if I succeed, I need to find a way to ensure that no one can replicate it."

"Fair point." Lindwurm nodded. "Still, to think you've accomplished that much in just two months…"

"I'm good at studying." Auric shrugged.

Lindwurm sighed. That was indeed Auric's overwhelming talent. He was exceptionally good at studying, which allowed him to achieve a lot of things in a short period of time. His eyes were the ones that enabled him to do so.

"Okay, it's good now that you are awake, but it's time to open the store. Actually, people are already waiting for you outside."

"Oh!" Auric snapped his fingers. "I forgot about that."

Auric rushed out. He was startled to find Stella right outside his room. She was standing to ensure that no one entered his office. He had told her that the office was off-limits, so she was merely doing her job.

"Oh, Stella! Hi!"

"Are you done?" Stella nodded. She had been working hard for the past two months, gathering all the artifacts from multiple cities while hunting the beasts that could increase her power.

She made it to Rank 5 in just two months on her own. Of course, Auric's money helped. She used the money to hire a group to help her hunt and pay for a lot of other things that made the trip convenient.

"Yeah." Auric nodded. All his elements had reached Rank 3, which made him officially a Rank 3 human.

Auric lifted his gaze and saw a lot of people coming.

Maya, Katarina, Ellia, and Supervisor Jacob were already here.

"Sorry for making you wait." Auric approached Supervisor Jacob while apologizing to the others. "I'm going to handle his last treatment really quickly. Please wait a moment."

"Of course." Maya nodded. "Take your time."

"Let's go!" Auric opened the door for Supervisor Jacob.

"We are just going to expel the remaining energy. It shouldn't take more than fifteen…" Auric suddenly stopped as he noticed something about Supervisor Jacob's energy. 'Lindwurm, is that what I think it is?'

"I have your senses, but I don't know what you're currently seeing." Lindwurm said, shaking his head.

'I'm talking about passive energy.'

"Hmm?" Lindwurm squinted his eyes. He finally saw what Auric mentioned.

Supervisor Jacob no longer had accumulated energy. Instead, the flow of the energy was still messy.

If Auric had to describe it, his energy was flowing along a road filled with speed bumps.

He needed to remove the speed bumps so that Supervisor Jacob could return to his peak. After his evolution, he was surprised to see the passive energy in the speed bumps.

Originally, he was trying to apply filters to all energy except one type to see more details, but when he turned on the filters, he found something else.

'Passive energy is an energy that is not a part of the circulation system. It's normally found in the material after it is removed from the beasts. The passive energy moves to fill a space or flow because of an outside system, which is why the passive energy won't resist other energy.'

Lindwurm nodded in understanding. "Yes. All the remaining energy in his body is passive energy. In fact, the accumulated energy, which is usually the problem, can probably be considered passive energy. We couldn't see it before because we couldn't single it out, but…"

'I can see that the passive energy in his body is actually trying to communicate with the energy from the outside. The reason it's still stuck there is the flow of his energy. What if accumulated energy is just passive energy that is trying to escape but is blocked because of the natural flow of energy?'

"All you need to do is just stop or redirect the flow and force the passive energy to 'communicate' with the energy in the air, which will let it flow out naturally." Lindwurm pumped his fists excitedly.

'I couldn't do it before. I mean, we could match the energy with a specific rating to the energy in the air, but I couldn't see the energy in the air that could match it. I couldn't single it out before, but now…'

Lindwurm smirked. "This is going to be a walk in the park."

"Mr. Jacob, do you mind gathering all your energy in your heart?"