Ding!

'The Genesis Seed has transformed into a Level 1 Genesis Tree!'

'Due to the user being blessed with a greater understanding of Wind and s.p.a.ce, [Void Gale Blessing] has been upgraded to [Nebulous Tempest Blessing].'

'Due to the Genesis Tree being at the first level, 1st Layer Genesis Skills have been unlocked.'

Looking at the notification screen that appeared in front of his field of vision, Aurus could not help but radiate an aura of happiness and excitement after reading through the notifications he had received.

"Although it took a while, I finally unlocked the Genesis Tree," Aurus muttered to himself with the aura around him gradually intensifying. "Anyways, what kind of skill would I unlock from the 1st Layer of this tree?"

As he asked himself this question, he opened up the Genesis Tree System, taking a look at the new layout since the Genesis Seed System was now replaced with the Genesis Tree.

Whoos.h.!.+

________

[Genesis Tree System]

Genesis Points: 420

[Void Gale Tree]

Level: 1 (50 points to upgrade)

Genesis Skills:

1st Layer (open/close)

________

Seeing as it took 50 Genesis Points to upgrade the Genesis Tree to the second level, Aurus decided to not upgrade the tree for now as he made up his mind to max out the skill of the tree's 1st Layer first. Recalling his memories back when he was still playing ISE, he knew that even a maxed-out 1st Layer Genesis Skill was enough to have a fighting chance against an Animate. Of course, it was only applicable in some scenarios, but it was still better than none.

He noticed that he could not see the 1st Layer Genesis Skill available to him from the screen, so he commanded the system to open to it as he wondered, 'Back then, when I was still playing ISE, the Genesis Skill I received from the 1st Layer was a skill that boosted all of my stats by 1000 percent, as well as increased my attack and movement speed by 500 percent. Then again, it costed like hundreds of thousands of SP (Stick Points) to activate it, plus the element of the Genesis Tree was purely Wind, unlike this time where I had both Wind and s.p.a.ce in.'

"I just hope that the skill could possibly give me an edge in the war," Aurus muttered in a slight expectant tone as the screen that showed information regarding the Genesis Tree System was replaced with another screen that showed information on the Genesis Skills he could currently unlock. At the very instant he looked at the skill's name, he could not help but ask himself, "Is this…what I think it is?"

Ding!

________

Genesis Skills:

1st Layer:

[Lesser Portal Creation] (0/2) - 100 points to unlock

________

From the name of the skill alone, Aurus had an idea on what the skill could do. He was thinking, that if his thoughts were correct once he looked at the skill's description, he would be able to create portals whenever and wherever he wanted…as long as he paid the costs needed to do so. With that idea in mind, Aurus could not help but sigh as he opened up the skill's description, wanting to know whether the skill needed a lot of FP to activate.

Ding!

Not long after his command, another screen appeared beside the screen with the Genesis Skills, allowing Aurus to take a look as to what the skill could do and how much it would cost to form a portal…only for him to shout out inwardly, "Holy s.h.i.+t! This skill is OP! If I had a skill like that back then, I might've even become a top tier player in the game!"

________

[Lesser Portal Creation]

Grade: 1st Layer Genesis

A skill imbued within the Genesis Tree aligned with the element of Wind and s.p.a.ce, fusing the two elements together to create a skill that transcends skill grades. This skill allows the user to create a portal in any location they want, as long as they have the sufficient amount of SP needed to do so.

Not only that, those that the user deems its allies shall be given a 10% boost to stats once they pa.s.s through the portal. While those that the user deems its enemies shall be given a 10% reduction to their stats once they pa.s.s through the portal.

FP Cost: 500 SP per 20 meters

_________

Reading through the description of the skill, Aurus could not help but imagine as to how he could use the portals to the alliance's advantage, allowing them to ambush Chonk and his army, increasing the chances of their alliance winning in the war. But when he noticed the FP to distance ratio of the skill, he could not help but sigh as he calculated that he could only set up a portal only a bit further than 200 meters away if he used up all of his FP.

"I wonder if upgrading the skill would improve the FP to distance ratio?" Either way, Aurus knew that it was going to be a good trump card in the war, using up 100 of the 420 remaining Genesis Points he had to obtain the skill. Not long after, he used up another 200 Genesis Points to upgrade the skill to its maximum level, which he did not regret as he used 50 out of the remaining 120 after that to increase the Genesis Tree's level to Level 2, unlocking the 2nd Layer of Genesis Skills.

After doing all of that, he checked on the skill's description once more, pretty satisfied since the FP to distance ratio was now 10 FP to 1 meter, instead of 25 FP to 1 meter like before.

Did he experiment with the new skill after upgrading it? Indeed, he did, creating a few portals here and there to clear out some questions he had in mind. And once he cleared out most of the questions in mind, he let out an inward sigh of satisfaction as he activated his flight skill, gradually making his way towards the area of the dilapidated Blossom Breeze Alliance base as he did not forget the mission given to him by Herellia.

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

Since he was in a place that was just a kilometer away from where Chonk and his army was recouping, it only took him a couple of minutes to obtain a decent view of all of the members of Chonk's army, including Chonk. Of course, to make sure that he was not seen by any of the members, even if he was in current small twig form, he changed his form once more, transforming into a speck of sand.

Did he transform while floating in midair? No, he went down first before transforming into a speck of sand, before floating once more to start his reconnaissance mission on Chonk's army.

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

Since he was now a speck of sand that's pretty much invisible to the naked eye once it's high enough, he then took in information of how much they were, how strong their forces were, what kind of advantages they had, and so on and so forth, storing it in his mind, since a vessel that could use FP as a storage for information would definitely give him away as it could grow to a large size. He just made sure to remember each and every detail he could, with the intent of forgetting all of it after he gave all of the information to Herellia.

Now, how was he able to obtain information on their combat power, as well as their advantages? This was all thanks to the highly upgraded Battle module of the Existence Evolution System, which combined with the [Species a.n.a.lysis] skill he had, allowed him to obtain detailed information about the enemies.

It took thirty minutes for him to finish collecting all of the information regarding the enemy army, with an aura of disbelief radiating around him as he went back to the area he first arrived in.

"I can't believe it…" Aurus muttered to himself. "To think that h.o.r.ell's a part of Chonk's army!"

Although Herellia talked to Aurus about how h.o.r.ell left the alliance and how she was suspicious of his actions from the start, Aurus had an at.i.ttude of seeing before believing. In other words, if he did not see h.o.r.ell within the enemy army, then it meant that h.o.r.ell left the clan for another purpose, unlike what Herellia said back then which was related to Chonk.

"But why though…" Aurus still couldn't believe it. "Why did he leave the alliance just to be a part of Chonk's army? Is it because he doesn't believe that we can defend against someone of Chonk's caliber?"

"If he knew that I had an ability that could create Animate clones, would have he left the alliance?" The more Aurus thought about it, the more delusional his ideas became. Fortunately, in the end, he was able to stop himself from thinking any further about h.o.r.ell, deciding to just face h.o.r.ell as an enemy rather than as a comrade in arms.

Whoos.h.!.+

And with his mission of spying the enemy army out finished, Aurus reverted his appearance back to that of a wooden sculpture. Afterwards, he activated his newly improved teleportation ability, using up less time than before to arrive at the alliance as he had also activated [Zenith Nihility Dash] while doing so, taking around five minutes or so to appear in front of Herellia, who was currently grinding her skills out.

"Ah! You're here," Herellia was caught off guard for Aurus' arrival, eliciting a brief scream from her as she hastily composed herself not long after. "So, what did you find out?"

"I'll send the information to you," Aurus replied as he created a tendril out of the Flux surrounding his body, connecting it to Herellia as heaps of energy started to flow through the Flux tendril. It took around thirty seconds for the transfer of information to finish as Aurus dispersed his tendril, waiting for Herellia to process all of it.

"Mmm…Good work." It took a couple of minutes for Herellia to process the information, looking at Aurus in a new light as she did not expect that the information she got from him was extremely detailed in terms of combat power and skills each and every member had. She then asked him, "Let me just confirm one thing. You're telling me that there's two Animates and a Pseudo-Animate in their ranks?"

"Yeah," Aurus replied, sighing not long after. "I thought that we would be fine handling against Chonk since we have trump cards and whatnot. But with the addition of another Animate and a Pseudo-Animate, I can't help but doubt our chances of winning against them."

"Don't worry, don't worry!" Herellia replied with a light laugh, exuding an aura of confidence and happiness. "The trump cards this alliance has wields greater power than you'd imagine. You'll definitely be blown away once the war starts."

"Anyways, I do have a question. Chonk is one of the Animates, while h.o.r.ell seemingly evolved into a Pseudo-Animate, which quote unquote reduces the chances of our alliance winning. He did say that he was about to break through to a higher existence level, so this was not a surprise. As for the second Animate though…"

"Is this really the Animate's name?" Herellia asked, her aura radiating intense doubt and curiosity.

"Yeah, it is," Aurus replied with an aura of confidence surrounding him. "I've double checked it with my system, and that's what it seriously says."

"Chungus…it doesn't really fit the Animate's species," Herellia replied, thinking that the Animate's naming sense is pretty bad.