บท 36: Negotiation

Aurus looked at Herellia for a bit as he couldn't comprehend what happened just a few seconds ago. A furious gust of wind easily negating the red energy ball Loran threw and still have enough power to cut Loran's body into two? With his curiosity at its max, Aurus couldn't help himself from identifying Herellia.

Ding!

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[Herellia (Branch Grandius Forminosus — Blood Belhazard)]

Existence Level: Inanimate (X)

Level: 40/40 (MAX)

HP: 15800/15800

MP: 5700/5700

Stats:

[Toughness]: 3452

[Thickness]: 3825

[Blood Energy]: 6132

Skills:

Uncheckable due to the skill [Species Analysis] being low level

________

In an instant, he became dumbfounded at Herellia's stats. Although Herellia had lower HP and SP when compared to Horell who was a High Energistus, in other words a High Mage, it was already surprising for Herellia to have that much health already! Why?

It's because she's a Belhazard! And not only that, a Blood Belhazard, which means she has special abilities other than having the abilities of a berserker.

Of course, the fact that her attack power being about 3000 points higher than Horell also shocked him to the core. He concluded that this was the reason why she could cleave Loran into two so easily, despite Aurus being an A-grade having difficulties to kill her.

"Then again I'm already an anomaly," Aurus couldn't help but laugh at himself as he looked at Horell. Horell was looking at Herellia with a gaze filled with respect and awe...well that's what he was feeling thanks to their souls being incredibly strong.

Still within the defensive barrier, Aurus then asked Horell, "Horell, is this Herellia...the leader of your alliance?"

Taking another glance at her body, Aurus noticed that the red engravings wriggled around as she emitted a somewhat tense and suffocating aura, making Aurus conclude that she was a strict person. Horell, on the other hand, did not notice this and affirmed Aurus' question by saying, "Indeed, she is the leader of the alliance. She has made multiple branches and trees follow her up to this day, where we could be considered a strong power within the Tempest Cliff."

From this statement, Aurus inferred a few things from Horell's words and asked, "So you're telling me that your alliance is not the sole strong power within this place?"

At this moment, Herellia noticed that she was being ignored by the two men, forcing her to say, "Horell, remove the barrier around Aurus."

Horell, who didn't know what was going to happen, still followed her commands, dissolving the barrier that protected Aurus. Aurus panicked in an instant as he could sense that Herellia's aura intensified as she rolled closer and closer to him. "Please don't come closer! Ahhhh, please!"

Any normal person would panic once they see someone or something that is out of their league trying to get back at them. So it wasn't unusual for Aurus to be scared in front of Herellia, whose aura could already kill him if need be.

Horell looked at this situation from the side and couldn't help but say words of encouragement to Aurus. Of course, Aurus couldn't hear Horell's words as he was fully enveloped by Herellia's aura, making him look at Herellia as some sort of deity.

But this feeling changed once Herellia removed her aura around Aurus and let out a sigh. "Hah. I didn't have to do this but I needed to get your attention."

"My attention?" Aurus was somewhat confused for a bit before remembering that he ignored Herellia, talking to Horell instead. Knowing his mistakes, he hurriedly apologized. "I'm sorry for ignoring you. I was asking things about you and the alliance and the rumored powers within the Tempest Cliff...although you somewhat cut me off on the last part."

Herellia then looked at Horell and asked, "Is that true?"

Horell nodded as he replied, "Indeed. I was going to tell our friend Aurus here about the situation within the Tempest Cliff and I hoped that would persuade him to enter the alliance."

Of course, this question and answer portion happened through connecting their SP rather than speaking out loud from their souls. They didn't want to let Aurus hear their conversation.

Seeing that she misunderstood the situation, she hurriedly apologized as well before saying, "So, as you've heard from Horell, I'm the leader of the Tempest Branch Alliance. Name's Herellia."

After the aura around Herellia disappeared, Aurus felt that Herellia was approachable and friendly. Since Herellia was being kind to him, he reciprocated the gesture. "Nice to meet you, I'm Aurus. I've heard from Horell that you want me to join your Tempest Branch Alliance? Why is that?"

Hearing that Aurus wanted to know the reasons for him joining the alliance, Herellia didn't hesitate to reply in full honesty even though they've only met for the first time. "It's like this. Well, I'll continue from where Horell left, which is the powers inside the Tempest Cliff."

"The first strong power in this Tempest Cliff is of course, our Tempest Branch Alliance, being filled with S-grade and X-grade branches and trees, fighting for the sole cause of defeating one of the other powers within the Tempest Cliff."

"The next two powers are also alliances, albeit somewhat weaker than us. The two alliances including ours have decided to form a peace treaty to not harm each other's members and alliances, only focusing on the sole remaining power within the Tempest Cliff."

"And that is?" Aurus asked since he felt that this last power must be extremely strong to force the three alliances to create a peace treaty.

"Actually, this power isn't an alliance but instead an individual," Herellia replied. "This individual has already broken to the Animate level and gained sentience, allowing it to crush us branches and trees like nothing."

"The form this individual took was a..."

"Wolf."

"Wolf?" Aurus paused for a second, not believing what Herellia said. "Shouldn't Animates be sentient and intelligent like humans?"

Herellia did not know the answer to that as well, replying, "I've been in this world for around 3 years and I've gained a soul after one more year, learning tons of information for 2 more months. But after all of my learning, I still don't know what that individual is thinking."

Aurus looked at Herellia for a bit and sensed a feeling of helplessness exuding from her body, seeing that she had no idea as to why that individual chose to become a Wolf rather than a Human. Of course, being in this world for only a few weeks, even with his early-game memories unsealed, he didn't know why the individual chose that path. He did know that the choice to become an animal as an Animate existed, but he didn't see advantages in it.

"And you want me to join the alliance to...?" After Herellia explained the four powers of the Tempest Cliff, Aurus got back to the main topic, which was the reason for Herellia inviting him to join the alliance.

"I've seen your capabilities and I feel like once you've evolved to S-grade, you will exceed Horell's capabilities as a Mage, being a powerful asset for our fight against the wolf," Herellia explained from a logical perspective. "Also, you have that heaven defying skill where you nullify any damage you take and that would also help out a lot."

Although Herellia didn't directly answer Aurus' question, Aurus was able to get the gist as he asked, "So what you're saying is...you want me to join the alliance for my skills and capabilities?"

Herellia didn't disagree with the idea as she said, "Well that's not wrong."

"Okay then, I'll join your alliance," Aurus agreed to Herellia's offer since he realized that Loran's case was just a unique case. Talking to her for a bit, he realized that the alliance was quite a suitable place for him. Hearing his reply, Herellia became ecstatic as she said, "Sweet! Let's go back to the main hall and—"

Only to be cut off by Aurus.

"But on one condition."

Herellia lightly coughed for a bit as she noticed that Aurus was not done talking. She then asked, "What's your condition?"

"Let me enter the Tempest Ruin," Aurus replied. "I need to grab something from there before I can join your alliance."

"If you don't mind, can I ask what that thing might be?" All of a sudden, Horell asked from the side.

Since Aurus knew that these two people were going to become his compatriots for a while, he honestly replied to Horell's question. "Well it's not a thing, but things. I have to get two skills from the Tempest Ruin, one being a skill that allows me to move faster, and the other one being a skill that allows me to heal HP."

"Did you just say...healing?" Horell and Herellia asked at the same time. The fact that having a healing skill would allow them to do more things without any fear. So far, within their alliance, only one member of theirs had a healing skill, but it had a long cooldown that lasted hours.

At that instant, Herellia then said to Horell, "Horell, broadcast to all of the members that I'll be gone for a while. The reason being I have to do something important."

Horell got the hint hidden between Herellia's words and nodded as he sent out multiple strands of SP out to the sky before respectfully saying farewell to both Herellia and Aurus, basically leaving the two of them alone.

Aurus instantly felt like something was off after Horell left in a sort of monotonous manner. Facing Herellia, he asked, "Since Horell left, aren't you going to leave as well?"

"Me? Why would I leave?" Herellia gave off a cheery aura as she replied. "Is it wrong for me to join you on your way to Tempest Ruin?"

"You don't have any objections to that right?"