Within one of the large stone rooms of the Area 52 Inheritance was a smooth-looking wooden sculpture that was green in color. If one had eyes that could perceive the movement of energy, one could see that a strong energy that was not inclined to any element except Wind was emanating from this sculpture. Not only that, one could also perceive that a boundless and vast source of energy resided within the depths of this sculpture, wanting to burst out in one go like a phoenix soaring to the skies.

Of course, this sculpture was none other than Aurus in his form at the time he evolved to an S-grade, his supposed original form as an S-grade Inanimate. Because he was still not used to his body shape being somewhat humanoid, he always had his morphing skill active, in the form of his branch form in his C-grade to grade days.

Nonetheless, thanks to the skill he received from the inheritance, he now had a reason as to why he had to be in his original form. To be honest, at the current level of the skill he received, which was X-grade Mortal level, if he were to fight the old him without receiving the skill, he would probably remain undefeated even after hundreds of rounds.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

After a certain span of time, multiple notification sounds resounded throughout Aurus' mind, prompting to open his sense of vision as he had a hunch as to what these notifications entailed.

"System, open the notification log."

Ding!

Whoos.h.!.+

Not long after he commanded, a holographic screen appeared in front of Aurus' field of vision, allowing him to skim through the notifications he received. A few seconds, the aura around Aurus, which was suppressed and solemn all this time, finally changed into an aura filled with expectation and excitement.

'[Boundless Spirit Tempering] has leveled up.'

'[Boundless Spirit Tempering] has reached the MAX level.'

'[Boundless Spirit Tempering] has met the necessary requirements and is ready to transition into a new level of power.'

'[Boundless Spirit Tempering] has been exposed to great amounts of skill experience, allowing it to inprove itself and refine to become something better. Once the skill evolves, the skill will have a guaranteed chance of becoming a Special grade skill.'

After reading through the notifications, Aurus could not contain his excitement and awe as he could not help but mutter, "Finally, after months of being reincarnated as a stick in the world of Erudinia, I can finally say I have taken the first step towards G.o.dhood."

"I will finally have a Transcendent grade skill of my own."

Though he knew very well that he already had a Transcendent skill in his a.r.s.enal which he could use, he still wanted to accept the fact that the first Transcendent skill he received was a skill he grinded from its humble beginnings to where it was now.

Just as the aura around him intensified towards a certain peak, it instantly deflated as he could not help but wryly chuckle at himself.

"Then again, this is just a skill given to me by the inheritance. I'm pretty sure my progress is going to be taken away once the first trial is over."

Letting out a sigh and clearing his mind afterwards, the aura around him returned to its previous state of expectation and excitement as he could not help but say, "Then again, when's the last time I've evolved a skill to the Transcendent grade in ISE?"

"Evolve [Boundless Spirit Tempering]!"

Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+

At the very instant Aurus was finished commanding, something magical happened.

Out of thin air, a mote of light gradually manifested on top of Aurus' body, a mote of light that, if one looked at it closely, it looked quite similar to the shape of Aurus' body but shrunken to an extremely miniscule size.

This mote of light then started to hover higher and higher as a thin strand of light could be seen connecting the mote of light to Aurus' body. It flew upwards until it reached the ceiling of the stone room.

And there it stayed for a bit.

Before exploding into a great array of colors that enveloped the whole stone room. At first, Aurus was shocked as to what was happening since this was not the situation he would encounter when he would evolve a skill to Transcendent grade. But then, as he continued to think, Erudinia was not like ISE's Erudinia in the first place. One was made out of 0s and 1s, but one was made by a G.o.d, a G.o.d that gave life and realism into it.

Not only that, he did not even feel the skill dissipating from his memory or something as he could still see that the strand of light connecting him to the mote of light was not severed at all. A few seconds later, he would find out the strand's purpose.

At the time when the stone room was conpletely covered with a myriad amount of colors, the origin of these colors, the mote of light, started to absorb these colors through the strand of light that connected it to Aurus, creating a sort of tempest that originated from Aurus as the colors were gradually being absorbed by the mote of light.

As time pa.s.sed, Aurus could gradually see the improvement the mote of light was getting from the colors. The first improvement was that its size was bigger, multiple times bigger when compared to its previous state. The second improvement to it was that the mote of light felt more lifelike in terms of its outer appearance. If one were to think that the previous mote of light had 80% of Aurus' features down, this current mote had 90% of it.

And last but not the least, the third improvement the mote of light had was that, at the instant the mote of light absorbed all of the colors, Aurus felt that his senses were clearer and sharper when compared to before. Not only that, he also had a feeling that he was stronger than before, though he could not find out the reason why.

It took a couple of minutes for the mote of light to absorb every color from the stone room before returning back into nothingness as Aurus heard the ever familiar notification sound from the system.

Ding!

'[Boundless Spirit Tempering] has been evolved to [Essence Refinement of the Heaven's Spirit (Special)].'

As he read the name of the skill, he now had an idea as to why the skill went through such lengths to show its improvement. Maybe it wanted to show Aurus that the skill was connecting to the heavens as a way to show its power over Mortal grade skills?

Anyway, with Aurus evolving [Boundless Spirit Tempering] to its Special grade Transcendent form, Aurus took the skill out of the Learning module before placing two skills he rarely used into the module.

Ding! Ding!

'[Flux Armor Creation] has been placed into the module.'

'[Flux Enchantment] has been placed into the module.'

Seeing that he chose the two skills he wanted to raise, Aurus said to himself, "With me evolving the skill given by the inheritance to Special grade, it would be overkill to mutate it into a higher grade."

"That's only suitable for skills I can keep."

As for the reason why Aurus chose these two low-leveled skills to be raised in the Learning module, it was because Aurus realized that he did not grind out the levels and grades of his skills anymore. Though he was able to get a few levels for some of his skills here and there, it was unlike before where he spent around two weeks to raise multiple skills into a high grade.

"Before I evolve to X-grade, I hope I can raise all of my skills to the limit of Mortal grade." While committing this goal into memory, Aurus commanded the system to identify the newly evolved skill he received, wanting to know effects of a Transcendent grade skill.

Ding!

________

[Essence Refinement of the Heaven's Spirit] (Level 1/5)

Grade: C (Transcendent)

When one peers beyond the spirit, one eventually finds out the existence of essence, the intangible yet tangible energy that makes us, us. If one strengthens their spirit, then one strengthens their connection to the body, making the body exert more power. Therefore, if one strengthens their essence, which makes up the spirit, one strengthens the foundations of the spirit, which increases the limit as to how much power the body can exert depending on one specific value of the spirit.

With this skill, one can refine one's essence through the help of the mysterious energy of the heavens, allowing one to be a cut above the rest.

Note that only one's original form can handle this enhancement, any other form or morphed form will let the skill be forcefully disabled in order to not damage the form the being is currently under.

> Increases the efficacy of soul-based techniques by 50%

> Increases the base stats of the user by 50%

________

Within the x.x.xX Continent, slightly far away from the Seraph Kingdom.

Whoos.h.!.+

Just like creating something out of nothing, two men appeared near the boundaries of a place that seemed to exude extremely strong energy of the Wind element. Although they stood near the boundaries of this place, their clothes still flailed around as if there was a storm happening nearby.

Of course, these two men were none other than Dane and Vanadir, with Dane finally letting out a sigh of relief as he could not help but mutter, "We're finally here."

As for Vanadir, at the very instant he was able to gaze upon the place in front of him, he could not help but tighten his grip on Magnus Tempestria as he said, "We're finally at the Greater Tempest Cliff!"

With his eyes lighting up akin to a flame that soared above the skies, Vanadir looked at Dane and said, "Hey Dane, let's enter! I want to try out the skills of this new sword! Not only that, I also want to enhance my combat power!"

As for Dane, who heard the prince's words, he could not help but lightly smile as he snapped his fingers, creating a barrier that covered the both of them as he said, "If that's what the Highness wishes, then let us head on our merry way."

"Haha! That's what I'm talking about!" Vanadir could not help but visibly shake with excitement as the two of them entered the Greater Tempest Cliff, finding a beast to test Magnus Tempestria on.

While heading deeper into the cliff, Dane could not help but feel that the pulling feeling on the back of his head grew stronger. As a serious expression creeped up on his face, he asked himself, "Did the Spiritas just...transition into an Animate? That quick?"

"I hope it's that and it's not the Spiritas going through a fortuitous encounter because no Inanimate can possibly have a soul that strong, one's vessel cannot handle it."

"But if there was the slightest chance that the Spiritas could handle such soul strength then..."

"I have no possible excuse to s.h.i.+rk away from this desire. I must definitely get my hands on that Spiritas."