Within one of the stone rooms of the Area 52 Inheritance.

"Well then, this is definitely leagues beyond the previous version of the skill. If this was an extremely rare skill, then the difference might be more obvious." After skimming through the description of the newly evolved skill, Aurus could not help but mutter and sigh in amazement as to how much the skill has improved.

The previous version of the skill, [Boundless Spirit Tempering], at its max level, would only give a stat boost of 30% to Aurus' base stats. That's it.

But now that Aurus has evolved it to [Essence Refinement] (shortened because who would want to read the full name many times), this stat boost was increased to 50 percent, and that boost was not even from the max level of the skill, allowing one to see the might of a Transcendent grade skill when compared to a Mortal grade skill. Not only that, the skill also obtained another effect, which enhanced the efficacy of soul-based techniques by 50 percent.

Aurus pondered about this effect for a short bit and wondered, "Do I have any soul-based techniques on me?"

He opened his skill list through the system and read through every skill he had, but alas, he had no soul-based technique whatsoever. But with that came another question to Aurus' mind.

"Why do I feel like my mind is sharper and clearer than before I evolved the skill?"

He pondered on this question for around a minute or so. After seeing that he was getting nowhere, he could not help but say, "Bah, I'll find it out sooner or later. I must first focus on upgrading [Essence Refinement] as much as possible, as well as use the Learning module to level up the other low-leveled skills I have."

And that's what he did all throughout the remaining time of the first trial.

Closing his sense of vision to enhance his perception and sensitivity towards the existence of the essence that made up his spirit, he then started to absorb energy from the surroundings in a unique way wherein the energy would pierce through the essence, expand towards the spirit, and explode towards the body.

Although it was his first time levelling the newly evolved skill up, the proficiency of how he absorbed energy from the surroundings in this unique manner seemed like he has been practicing the technique for months already.

Not only that, even the exterior appearance of Aurus changed after evolving the skill to Transcendent grade. When he was still levelling the skill while it was Mortal grade, rays of light that seemed like it came from the heavens would emit out of his body. This time, it was around the same category, but more profound.

Rather than emitting light all throughout his body, the light instead coalesced on a few spots on his body, specifically, his head, where his throat would possibly lie, where his heart would possibly lie, and the four limbs on his sculpture form. And while absorbing energy from the surroundings, all of that energy would head towards the light on his head before making its way downwards, as if the light on the head was a dantian and the other lights were meridians, the energy he absorbed being qi.

Then again, the closest thing to qi in the world of Erudinia was life energy that existed within the bodies of Animates, and it operated quite differently from qi... doesn't say it's impossible though.

Ding! Ding!

'[Flux Armor Creation] and [Flux Enchantment] has reached the MAX level.'

'Both skills have met the necessary requirements and are ready to evolve.'

Hearing these notifications from the system, Aurus, who was levelling the trial's skill up, could not help but be surprised at the speed of maxing out low-leveled skills through the module.

Splitting a small part of consciousness to pique his curiosity, Aurus was able to find out that skills within the Learning module would obtain 5 XP per minute at its current level, which meant that enhancing it would allow it to give more XP per minute.

"Hm...this would definitely be useful for those skills I have hard time raising," Aurus muttered inwardly.

"Evolve both skills before removing them from the module." After piquing his curiosity, Aurus, who had split a small part of his consciousness to stay alert for updates in the system, responded to the system's notification not long after.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

'[Flux Armor Creation] has been evolved to [Better Flux Armor Creation].'

'[Flux Enchantment] has been evolved to [Better Flux Enchantment.'

'Both skills have been removed from the system's Learning module.'

After receiving a few more notifications from the system, Aurus stayed silent for a bit as the energy from the surroundings continued to head towards the multiple lights. He then commanded the system a few seconds later after making a decision in his mind.

"Place [Flux Sacrifice] and [Greater Illusion Resistance] into the Learning module."

Ding!

'Both skills have been placed into the Learning module.'

After hearing the notification from the system, Aurus then went back to putting his full consciousness towards the levelling of the skill given to him by the trial, pa.s.sing through a few more grades as time pa.s.sed.

While evolving the skill to higher subgrades, Aurus noticed that the weird phenomenon that happened when he evolved the skill from Mortal to Transcendent grade did not repeat itself, but rather, evolved like normal in a sense.

Of course, Aurus placed this matter in the back of his mind, continuing to grind as much as possible.

"The two hours are now over. The Trial of Comprehension is now over." While being fully engrossed in levelling [Essence Refinement] to higher grades, Aurus heard the voice from before resounding throughout the stone room, prompting him to stop his grind.

"The inheritance shall now check the progress of the skill and will allocate rewards according to the inheritor's effort." As he heard these words come from the disembodied voice of the inheritance, he could not help but become anxious towards the results. Will he get little rewards after expending so much effort in grinding?

Of course, only the inheritance would tell.

Time ticked as the voice remained silent. Seconds started to tick away before turning into minutes that ticked away. Thankfully, the inheritance only took around two to three minutes before arriving at a conclusion.

"The inheritance has seen that the inheritor has enhanced this C-grade Mortal skill into an S-grade Transcendent skill within the span of two hours. Not only that, the inheritor has also mutated the skill to Special grade, increasing the power of the skill." Hearing the voice that resounded throughout the room, Aurus could not help but be proud of what he did.

Though S-grade Transcendent level did not seem all that powerful, one would always remember the effects of another S-grade Transcendent skill, [Spirit Clone].

"Due to this being unforeseen, the inheritance has hastily made a decision to reward the inheritor with the skill it has expounded upon without reverting it back to its original level..." As the voice continued to talk, Aurus' mood turned better, his aura radiating sheer excitement. But as the voice continued to talk, Aurus could only stand in place.

"...As well as allowing the skill to mutate to a higher grade. Not only that, the experience required to level the skill has eternally been halved until it reaches the peak grade it could possibly reach."

While Aurus receiving the fruits of his labor from the inheritance, Herellia was still going through the Trial of the Sanguine Ruler, maintaining the same position she had all this time.

"Haah...haah..." At this moment, Herellia's body looked like a branch that was about to snap apart...a bleeding branch at that. With the red engravings on her body being broken, a viscous red fluid started to ooze out of the broken paths, making Herellia seem like a branch that was used for killing people.

Nonetheless, the aura she emitted was vastly stronger when compared to her previous aura before entering the inheritance.

Ding!

'After absorbing the remnant blood aura from your enemies, the skill [Sanguine Aura (Lesser)] has transformed into the skill [Sanguine Aura (Greater - Impure)].'

Hearing that the skill she obtained many battles ago had transformed into a stronger skill, Herellia extended the blood red tendril she used to fight outwards as she commanded, "[Sanguine Art: Blood Rebirth]."

Whoos.h.!.+

In an instant, the blood red tendril turned 180 degrees to charge towards Herellia's body before enveloping it as a whole. Not long after, the blood red tendril started to radiate a red light as the red engravings on her body gradually fused up, repairing itself at a speed that was visible to the naked eye.

A few seconds later, the blood red tendril retracted itself to revealed a fully healed Herellia that was still covered in the viscous red fluid. Nonetheless, the viscous red fluid would not hinder her at all.

"I wonder how many more waves I would have to clear before ending this trial," Herellia could not help but mutter to herself in annoyance as she had already faced against 20 waves of enemies from the start of the trial until now.

And it seemed like there was no end.

"Candidate, it seemed that you have a will that is unwilling to give up and is yearning to the see everything to the bitter end," the voice that talked to her before started to resound once more as Herellia kept her silence.

"Thankfully, a few waves remain before the first part of this trial is over. Once you clear through all of it, you shall obtain the [Condensed Sanguine Aura], allowing you to fight against enemies of a higher level without being at a disadvantage, that is not to say that you're not already strong. Making it this far is already a sign of your strength."

"I wish you the best of luck and may the blood rain down from above."

After that, the voice did not resound anymore, leaving Herellia all alone as she waited for the enemies to manifest.

It was at this time that a certain being popped up in her mind, the one being that allowed her to have the chance to go through this trial. If he was not used as an excuse, she would have not been able to enter the trial in the first place.

Chuckling in a mocking manner, Herellia could not help but say, "I feel like I've done something wrong. But I can't turn back, now can I?"

"I wonder how Aurus is doing?"

"Knowing him very well, I'm sure he's blazing through the inheritance."

"As for me though...hehe..."

"I just might die from this."