Without hesitation, the large branch shot out the thing it aimed towards Aurus. It was a walnut. From this alone, Aurus knew that he was up against a Walnut race of the higher grade.

"Huuh...haah..." Aurus took a few deep breaths as he looked at the shot that was gradually inching towards him. Well to be more exact, it was travelling at a speed that's fast for a normal branch, but not for Aurus. Aurus calmed himself down and regained his composure as the remaining normal walnut on his body started to compress and elongate into a weird shape. A few tenths of a second later, the walnut transformed into a small trident that definitely did not look like a walnut at all.

"This is gonna take out a lot of my current SP, but I have a high regeneration rate anyway." Aurus thought for a bit before weighing the pros and cons. The pros outweighed the current cons.

"[Nut Trident Triad: Law]!"

Swoos.h.!.+

Of course, after fully realizing that he was living a life in the world of Erudinia, he didn't use his skills for a single purpose anymore, allowing him to become flexible when it comes to multiple situations. At the current moment, Aurus decided to test out his new offensive skill in blocking the nut shot by the large branch.

Bang!

Since the nut trident shot by Aurus was faster than the nut shot by the large branch thanks to the [Wind Affinity] skill, the nut shot by the large branch was easily shattered into pieces thanks to the nut trident's homing function. Since the nut trident still had spare strength, it continued to head towards the large branch.

"Intruder!" All of a sudden, the large branch started to speak.

"Eh? It can speak? Is it something like the Sakura Tamer I fought against back then?" As far as Aurus knew, the Synchronization Rate is the gauge for the level of a stick's soul. The large branch was able to say a word like 'intruder' easily, making Aurus guess that the large branch was at least grade.

After a few more seconds, the nut trident shot by Aurus collided with the large branch's body, inflicting some damage to the large branch, but not enough to scare it.

Ding!

'Aurus has dealt 24 HP to [Branch Formosus — Energistus].'

After looking at the notification screen, he placed it where it couldn't block his field of vision. Afterwards, he looked at the HP bar on top of the large branch he attacked.

"Holy heck. I only nicked off like 10% of its HP after dealing 24 HP damage?" Aurus said in disbelief. "I'm guessing it has a maximum HP of around 240 or something if that's the case."

"But first, I should get down on the ground. Being in midair would make me incredibly vulnerable."

With a lot of effort, Aurus was able to get down on the ground thanks to his recently improved [Wind Affinity] skill. Nonetheless, the time it took for Aurus to get down was incredibly long, allowing the large branch to shoot a few nuts along Aurus' way. This forced Aurus to waste some SP on destroying the nuts; it also damaged the large branch by a bit, bringing its HP down to 70%.

"Haah, finally on the ground." Aurus couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief after travelling in midair for a while. Although it would allow him to comprehend the wind faster, he didn't really like the feeling.

Ding!

"Hm?" Aurus' interest was piqued after hearing a notification sound...only to sarcastically laugh afterwards.

'[Revitalising Fruit Creation] has leveled up.'

"I almost forgot. The level ups are still delayed." Aurus then looked at the damage screen he got a while ago, showing the name of the enemy he was currently fighting against.

"A [Branch Formosus — Energistus]. Definitely a long name I wouldn't bother remembering," Aurus said to himself. "Anyways, knowing my enemies is basically winning 99% of the battle or something like that so..."

"System, what is a Branch Formosus? And what does Energistus mean?" Aurus noticed that the two of them were separated by an em dash, which got him thinking that perhaps the second part was a variant of the first part.

Ding!

Not long after, two notification screens explaining the two parts appeared in front of Aurus. In the midst of all this, the large branch shot out three more nuts towards Aurus, making Aurus retaliate with a single [Nut Trident Triad: Law].

"How much SP do I still have?" Aurus checked his SP bar by looking upwards. "Ah. 60% left? I guess that's enough to check the two remaining forms of [Nut Trident Triad]."

Placing that matter in the back of his head, he then checked the information given by the system.

'A Branch Formosus is an evolved version of the Branch, one of the two paths a Branch can evolve to, other than the Sapling path. The Branch Formosus is the grade version of the Branch.'

'An Energistus is a variant of the species that specializes in manipulating and channeling energy, allowing them to do things that are usually impossible to do. In fantasy terms, the Energistus are mages.'

"Heh...my goal huh?" Aurus looked at the enemy in front of him in a new light. "Since I'm planning to become a mage, then I should kill a mage first, right?"

All of a sudden, the large branch shouted out once more. "Puny branch...die!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three nuts were shot towards Aurus. But instead of the three nuts being side by side, these three were shot in a triangular formation, which meant that Aurus could not destroy them all with a single nut trident.

But Aurus couldn't help but laugh at the large branch. "Then again, its Synchronization Rate is at most 40% if my deduction is correct. It's nowhere near my intelligence!"

Of course, he didn't destroy the three nuts but instead...

He dodged them!

Whoos.h.!.+

"[Tempest Roll]!"

Since he was already on the ground, why would he need to use up SP to stop the three nuts if he could just dodge it?

"Next up, [Tempest Burst]!" Aurus shouted.

Bang!

As if a large explosion just occurred within Aurus' body, an iridescent aura instantly covered Aurus, letting him feel that he could do anything if he wanted to. But of course that feeling was just an illusion.

Whoos.h.!.+

Nonetheless, his speed that was already at 260 meters per hour was doubled to over 500 meters per hour, allowing him to close the dozen meter gap between them in just seconds!

"Identify!"

Since Aurus wanted to be sure, he checked the status of his enemy that was already damaged. He also wanted to find out which form of the [Nut Trident Triad] he would use.

"You know what? I'll just use the other form later."

Ding!

________

[Branch Formosus — Energistus (Special)] (Level 5)

HP: 153/250

________

"Hm. My guesses were correct. This large branch had around that much HP," Aurus let out a light smile. "But to think that this enemy was an Elite? Heh. It's gonna die here anyway."

Within seconds, Aurus formed another nut trident that hovered over his body. After using 30 of his SP to increase the attack power of the nut trident, he then aimed it towards the large branch.

"Take this! [Nut Trident Triad: Judgement]!"

As he said this, the large branch tried to get away from the nut trident shot by Aurus. But alas, it was all in vain.

Thanks to the large amount of SP Aurus used to execute the Judgement form, it was bound to have some unavoidable properties. Combine that with his [Wind Affinity] skill and his activated [Tempest Burst], this nut trident held an attack power and speed unrivalled among the B-Grade Inanimates!

Bang!

In just one shot, the large branch was disintegrated into multiple small pieces of wood, leaving Aurus standing as he looked at its remains. It couldn't even leave any words before it died.

But Aurus didn't mind it, he was instead eager to see the results of his fight.

Ding!

"Here it comes...!" Aurus then looked at the notification screen, only to have a face filled with utter shock.

'Critical hit! Aurus has dealt 162 HP damage to [Branch Formosus — Energistus].'

'Thanks to Aurus for fighting an enemy surpa.s.sing his grade, the experience received will be doubled!'

'Experience +200'

'Aurus has leveled up!'

'Aurus has reached the MAX level!'

'Aurus has met the necessary requirements and is now ready to evolve!'