Bab 48: Logically Dashing Forwards

"The ten minutes of rest time shall now begin. The inheritor shall be reminded of the second trial once only a minute remains," the disembodied voice that resounded throughout the hall when the first trial was happening resounded once more as it told Aurus about the second trial.

"..." For a while, Aurus was at a loss for words, not knowing what to say after the disembodied voice told him the next trial he would have to face. It only took Aurus around ten seconds or so to recover from his silence as he let out a sigh and looked up at the ceiling.

"Man, I don't know if this is karma or not, but heck, with this, I think I might just believe in it."

Aurus said a few words of apologies in his mind before his soul felt lighter thanks to the guilt being lessened. Getting back to his somewhat lively condition back again, Aurus started to think up of what he was going to do in the second trial.

"Since the second trial needs me to traverse 10 kilometers within the span of 24 hours or less, it would feel extremely easy if it was just a straight path that had no obstacles whatsoever."

"This would possibly mean that the path I'm going to have traverse would be crooked and have tons of obstacles that vary in size and possibly, threat."

"With my movement skill being boosted by three levels, my movement speed is now over 300 meters per hour, which means I can traverse 10 kilometers within 34 hours or so, considering the fact that the path in front of me is clear."

Aurus closed his sense of sight for a bit as he tried to visualize the process of the second trial according to what he said to himself just now.

He imagined that the path in front of him would be extremely crooked, with rocks and twigs and even some enemies at the side. After visualizing the path, he then started to think a bit more.

"If this is what is going to happen in the next trial, then first priority would be to clear the path I'd have to tread. No wait, some parts of the path since I have [Gale Hover]. No, wait again, there could be a few obstacles that [Gale Hover] can't go over because of its height. Wait...why am I thinking about this problem too much? I can just dodge those obstacles."

"I almost forgot, I also have [Tempest Burst] that would boost my movement speed by 100% for 10 seconds. Wait...something feels off. When I used [Tempest Burst] about a few days ago, I felt that the skill lasted longer?"

It was at this moment that Aurus opened his eyes and commanded the system to reveal details about the [Tempest Burst] skill and his movement skill.

Ding! Ding!

In an instant, two screens appeared in front of him. He first looked at the details about his movement skill as he wanted to make sure that he really had a movement speed over 300 meters per hour. Seeing that his movement speed was now at 310 meters per hour, he closed the first screen and looked at the screen that talked about [Tempest Burst], only to turn silent in shock.

________

[Tempest Burst] (Lv. 6)

With high proficiency and affinity with the wind, the stick can temporarily control large amounts of wind, allowing the stick to either move faster, attack faster, or attack with stronger force.

Effect: 2x the movement speed, attack power, and attack speed

Effect duration: 20 seconds

Cooldown: 5 hours

(Note: The effect, effect duration, and cooldown will improve based on the level of the movement skill)

________

Of course, knowing that [Tempestuous Spiritas Glide] is just a transformed and renamed version of [Tempest Roll], he knew that he could still use [Tempest Burst]. But to think that his [Tempest Burst] actually improved in terms of effect duration and cooldown, it was absurd.

Slapping his nonexistent face with nonexistent hands, he snapped back to reality, closing the screen before letting out an aura of wonder and awe.

"With the [Gale Hover] spell and the [Tempest Burst] skill activated simultaneously, I could have a movement speed that is beyond 1 kilometer an hour! If only I had a longer lasting [Tempest Burst] and [Gale Hover], this trial would be finished in less than 10 hours, tops!"

Solidifying the plan he had in mind to complete the second trial, he let out a sigh as he muttered to himself, "And this is why I should always grind my skills up. After grinding Life and Will points, I'll make sure to raise all of my active and possibly passive skills to S-grade or even X-grade."

After that, Aurus waited out the few remaining minutes of rest he had, taking this time to deactivate his [Spirit Energy Ascension] skill that unknowingly went up two levels in the first trial and explore the entirety of the green jade hall.

It only spanned around 50 meters in radius anyway so it didn't take him long to see everything within the hall.

"Only one minute remains before the second trial starts," the disembodied voice resounded throughout the hall all of a sudden, which Aurus only paid a little attention to as it wasn't the real thing.

It was only exactly a minute later did Aurus truly pay attention to the announcement of the disembodied voice.

"The ten minutes of rest time are now over. All of the inheritor's skills shall be reset as the second trial, the Speed trial, shall now begin."

Whoosh!

In an instant, the green jade hall that only spanned 50 meters in radius, expanded towards a single direction as it gradually became a long corridor that Aurus couldn't see the end of.

He looked at the hall for a bit and noticed that there were no obstacles whatsoever. Aurus thought that it would take a while for the obstacles to appear so he waited a few more minutes...only for it to be futile.

"The Speed trial begins! 24 hours are now counting down."

Hearing this announcement, Aurus activated his movement skill as he couldn't help but mutter to himself, "All that preparation I did was for naught?"

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

...

In another green jade hall.

"Reward has been rolled. The passive skill [Blessing of the Tetraelemental Tempest] has been obtained."

After hearing this statement, Herellia knew instantly that this skill was something extremely great from the name alone.

Not long after, a special sound could be heard throughout the green jade hall.

Normally, it would only be heard when Aurus had a skill leveling up or doing something related to the system. But in this case...

Ding!

'The skill [Blessing of the Tetraelemental Tempest] has been obtained.'

'[Blessing of the Tetraelemental Tempest] has shown great compability with the user's [Tempest Affinity] skill.'

'A new skill has been formed. [Tetraelemental Tempest Affinity] has been created.'

The sound resounded throughout Herellia's hall as well.

Not long after, a holographic and semitransparent screen that was the same as Aurus' screens, appeared in front of Herellia's field of vision.

"Oh? Two skills in one go?" Herellia couldn't help but smile inwardly as she felt that the trial was definitely a blessing in disguise. While smiling at the gains she got, she remembered that she planned to leave the trial once this trial was done.

Only for that decision to change.

"You know what? I'll just apologize to Aurus once I'm done with this trial," Herellia let out a cheerful aura as she prepared for the next trial she would have to face.

...

Within the Tempest Ruin.

A few hours have passed since Artan and Mira reached the place where they saw the red dot blink, sparing all of this time to train their wind-related skills inside this place where the wind was extremely concentrated.

Letting out soft huffs every once in a while, Mira, who was practicing her wind elemental spells, couldn't help but look at Artan who was consistently swinging his axe up and down at a steady pace.

"Hey, it's already around 4 in the afternoon? Don't you think we should head back and tell Dane about the Spiritas' disappearance?" Mira couldn't help but ask.

Hearing her question, Artan brought his axe down and brought out the crystal Dane gave to him from his pocket. Noticing that there was still no red dot inside the crystal, Artan couldn't help but let out a sigh as he nodded and placed the axe on his back.

"Yeah, I think it's time to tell him. You better help me out on explaining this, okay Mira?"

"Hehe. Only if you pay me a few gold coins."

"Tch. Miser."

As they cracked a few jokes in the middle of their journey back to the Seraph Kingdom, Artan and Mira didn't know that...the red dot was still there.

It was still at the tip of the crystal.

Only covered by Artan's finger when he looked at it.