As five small yet slightly corporeal screens appeared in front of Aurus's field of vision, he did not hesitate to read through their descriptions, as well as the effects each of their Ally skills give. It did not take long for a single thought to consume the entirety of Aurus's mind, his mind in complete approval over this single thought. After reading through the five Ally skills, the thought had transformed into its vocal form as Aurus muttered, "Holy f.u.c.k.i.n.g shit."
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
________
[Blessing of the Tempest Wolf Monarch]
The description has been omitted in order for the user to read through all of the requested skills without a problem.
> Defense +50%
> Attack and Vitality +150%
> Gain access to the skill [Tempest Control]
________
[Unwavering Spirit of the Yin-Yang Flame]
The description has been omitted in order for the user to read through all of the requested skills without a problem.
> Attack +250%
> Gain access to the skill [Supreme Yin-Yang Flame Manipulation]
> Gain access to the skill [Samsara's Flame Domain]
________
[Blessing of the Great Flower Sisters]
The description has been omitted in order for the user to read through all of the requested skills without a problem.
> Vitality +250%
> Gain access to the skill [Intermediate Light Manipulation]
> All skills now have the ability to heal the user based on a certain percentage of the damage dealt.
________
[Aegis of the Worldly Fortress]
The description has been omitted in order for the user to read through all of the requested skills without a problem.
> Defense +250%
> Gain access to the skill [Intermediate Earth Manipulation]
> Gain access to the skill [World Shifting]
________
[Marchioness of Frost: Grand Blessing]
The description has been omitted in order for the user to read through all of the requested skills without a problem.
> All stats +250%
> Gain access to the skill [Supreme Aqua Manipulation]
> Gain access to the skill [World of Shattered Frost]
________
After muttering those words, he then closed the five screens before focusing his sense of vision towards the five Allies he had, letting out a sigh of wonder and pride. Hearing this sigh come from their master, the five of them could not help but radiate auras of slight confusion, with Terrence taking the initiative to ask him, "What's wrong, Master? Why'd you sigh?"
"This is a sigh of wonder, Terrence," Aurus replied to Terrence's question before radiating an aura of happiness and elation. He then added, "I'm left at a loss for words after looking at your Ally skills. To think that all of you have great command over your respective elements. You guys truly leave me in awe."
In response to Aurus's words of praise towards them, some of them let out a giggle, some of them radiated an aura of shyness, while some of them responded to his words…like Marielle, who replied, "That is to be expected from the Allies of Master."
"Don't forget that you were the one who raised us, Master," Charisa could not help but say after Marielle, a stark contrast from the latter's opinion. "You gave us all of your experience points to raise us instead of focusing on your own power."
"When you get stronger, I get a little bit stronger as well so don't say that," Aurus said in response to Charisa's words with a chuckle, inwardly feeling the care in Charisa's words. Just as he was about to move on to the other part of the third step of his plan, a thought flashed in his mind, prompting Aurus to let out an "Ah" sound as he focused his sense of vision towards Fenrir and Charisa for a bit.
"I almost forgot to max you two out," Aurus said before adding, "Let me do that right now."
Before the two could even respond to his words, Aurus went ahead and looked at Theresa on his left shoulder before commanding it, "Use all of my unused experience points to max out the levels of Fenrir and Charisa."
"As you wish, Master," Theresa soon replied to Aurus's words as it gestured with its hands, creating yellow strands of energy that went towards Fenrir and Charisa's bodies, leaving them with no chance to talk, just like how Marielle and the others weren't able to speak while they were being infused with experience points. Fortunately, it did not take long for their levels to max out, only taking around a few seconds or so.
After that, Aurus thought about the next part of the third step yet again, only for another thought to flash in his mind regarding the new Allies. He pondered over this thought for a while as the five Allies conversed with each other to pass the time, eventually deciding to follow through with the idea as he focused his field of vision towards Marielle and the others.
"Marielle, Terrence, Eu, Phoria, come here," Aurus said as he teleported towards one side of the room they were in, prompting those who were called to come closer to Aurus. As for Fenrir and Charisa, they looked at each other for a bit, deciding whether or whether not to come close to their master as well, eventually deciding to not come closer since they knew that there was a reason for their master to call them.
"What seems to be the problem, Master?" At the very instant the four of them had arrived in front of the teleported Aurus, Eu took the initiative to start the conversation, obtaining a response from Aurus not long after as he said, "No problem. I just want to ask the four of you if you could grind all of your skills to the Transcendent level."
"The Transcendent level?!" Marielle could not help but shout in response to Aurus's words, attracting the attention of Fenrir and Charisa for a bit, before adding, "Doesn't it take a long time to grind one skill to the Transcendent level? And you're telling us to grind all of our skills to the Transcendent level? Master, you must be joking, right?"
At her words, Aurus let out an inward sigh as he focused his sense of vision towards Phoria. He then asked her, "Phoria, could you use one of your basic skills in front of us?"
"Me?" Phoria responded to Aurus's words with a question. After that, she went silent for a few seconds, eventually mustering up her courage as she responded, "As you wish, Master…but, don't laugh at how bad I activate the skill, okay?"
"I won't laugh, don't worry," Aurus assured Phoria as he added, "Just forget that we're here and use one skill."
"Alright…" Phoria said before taking in a deep breath through her body. A few seconds later, a small ball of light appeared in front of her body before expanding into an array of flowers made out of light.
"[Luminous Bouquet]!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Since it was Phoria's first time activating the skill, although the appearance of the skill was somewhat dazzling, the impact it had was not that much. Of course, since all of the beings around her were her Allies, every one of them complimented Phoria, saying things along the lines of how beautiful the skill was, how she could do better, and so on.
But Phoria seemed to have ignored these words of praise, radiating an aura of shock, which was a stark contrast to Eu beside her. Noticing that Phoria was acting weird, Eu went ahead and asked her, "What's wrong, Phoria? Are you okay?"
Hearing Eu's voice, Phoria was snapped back to reality as she responded, "I'm fine…but…"
"But?" Eu asked her so she could continue with her words. Unsurprisingly, Phoria's words did not just shock Eu beside her, but Terrence and Marielle as well.
"I'm fine but…for some reason, just that single activation was enough to increase the level of my skill by a lot. It's only a couple of levels away from reaching the max level…"
"What? That's impossible!" Marielle could not help but say in response to Phoria's words. She then voiced out her opinion, saying, "Normally, skills would take a ton of activations before they would be able to reach the max…level…"
Just as she was about to finish her sentence, her sense of vision gradually focused on her master and asked him, "Master…is this the reason why you asked us to raise our skills to the Transcendent level?"
"Of course," Aurus responded to Marielle's words, adding on, "Why would I ask for something impossible if I don't have a way to circ.u.mvent the problem?"
He then continued, "I don't know how much is carried over, but my comprehension speed is at 40 times the normal speed. One activation of your skill would probably be more than enough for you four to grind all of your skills to the Transcendent level within a few hours."
"I do wonder if you're up for the test though?" Aurus soon asked the four this question, letting out a playful chuckle in the process.
Surprisingly, Marielle was the one who took the initiative to respond to Aurus's question, saying, "I won't just grind all of my skills to the Transcendent level, Master. I'll even surpass it and reach the peak of the Transcendent level!"
Whoosh!
After that, she then turned around and headed towards one of the corners of the room they were in, instantly covering that corner in a slightly intense aura of frost. As for the remaining three, they looked at each other for a bit before looking back at Aurus. Noticing what they did, Aurus said to them, "You don't have to reach the peak of the Transcendent level just like Marielle. As long as you reach the Transcendent level, that's more than enough for me."
"That would just be akin to tarnishing your goodwill, Master." Terrence took the initiative out of the three to respond to Aurus's words, saying, "Plus, it would make us weak when compared to Marielle, who has the greatest potential out of all of us. Don't you think so as well, Eu? Phoria?"
"We may not be able to beat her in terms of potential, but we could stand on an equal level in terms of skillfulness," Eu responded to Terrence's question before adding, "Let's go ahead and grind our skills as well."
Just as Terrence and Eu and Phoria headed towards the other remaining corners of the room, covering their corners in an intense aura of the earth and light respectively, Phoria's voice faintly resounded throughout the room, saying, "But I don't wanna work hard…"
"Pfft." Hearing Phoria's words, Aurus could not help but let out a short chuckle. Around this time, Fenrir and Charisa made their way towards Aurus, with Fenrir asking Aurus, "I presume you've tasked them to do the same thing as us before the war, Master?"
"Exactly," Aurus said in response to Fenrir's question, letting out a slight chuckle in the process. He then asked them, "Are you two jealous?"
"Why should we be jealous, Master?" Charisa responded to her master's question with a chuckle. "If anything, the task you made us do back then would give us a headstart right now if we decide to grind our skills as well."
"To be honest, I was actually going to give you the same task as them," Aurus said not long after, radiating an aura of slight awkwardness. He then added, "Of course, you can go ahead and opt to not grind your skills as well and that'll be fine, but I'm going to go grind my skills pretty soon in preparation for my evolution."
This was what Aurus had in mind all this time before being distracted by the sudden thoughts. The next part of the third step had something to do with him grinding all of his skills to the X-grade Transcendent level, which would now take a slightly longer time since a decent amount of the skills he had were now at the C-grade Mortal level thanks to the mass fusion. Nonetheless, after all of those skills have reached the X-grade Transcendent level, the power he could command would be far greater than before.
In response to Aurus's words, Fenrir and Charisa looked at each other for a bit before radiating an aura of slight elation. After that, Fenrir went ahead and said, "It's fine if you want us to grind our skills, Master. It's kind of boring in the system anyway."
"Plus it feels like we're growing stronger alongside you when grinding skills, Master~" Charisa continued where Fenrir left off, a cheerful giggle resounding from her soon after.
Listening to their words, Aurus let out a sigh that said 'It can't be helped' as he radiated an aura of happiness before saying, "Alright then. If you two want to grind your skills as well, go ahead. Only one corner is left in this room, so which one of you will be beside me while I grind my skills?"
"Ooh! Me! Me!" At the very instant the two of them had processed Aurus's question, Charisa was the first one to answer to his question, wanting to beside Aurus while he grinded. Hearing Charisa's eagerness, Fenrir let out a chuckle before saying, "I guess it has been chosen. Charisa will be the one grinding beside you. And before you say anything, Master, I don't mind this at all. Go ahead and reach a new level of power, Master."
"Thanks, Fenrir," Aurus responded to his words before adding, "I'll make sure to make up for this in the future."
"I'll be waiting then," Fenrir said with a slightly playful tone before making his way towards the remaining corner of the room, instantly covering the corner with the aura of great winds…well, a great portion of the room to be more exact.
Looking at Fenrir's body for a bit, Aurus then focused his sense of vision towards Charisa as he said, "Let's move to the center so we don't clash with the others in terms of auras."
Letting out a sound of approval in response, the two of them soon made their way towards the center of the room, with Charisa taking the initiative to say, "I'll be grinding my skills now, Master! You'll surely be blown away after I'm done with this!"
"I'm quite eager to find out," Aurus said in response to Charisa's words as an intense aura of flames soon radiated from Charisa, covering a great portion of the room as well, just like Fenrir. With him being the only one left unoccupied with something, Aurus took in a deep breath through his body before muttering, "It's time to grind my skills as well."
Not long after that, Aurus soon went ahead and closed his sense of vision, allowing the acuity of his other senses to greatly improve. Just as he was about to go ahead and grind the C-grade Mortal level skills he had on his skill list, a thought came to his mind, prompting him to communicate with Theresa through his mind as he commanded it, "Theresa, bring up my status screen in my mind. Just the HP, FP, and stats."
"Understood, Master," Theresa's voice soon resounded in Aurus's mind as a notification sound resounded not long after Theresa's voice. It was soon followed up by a slightly corporeal screen filled with numbers, prompting Aurus to take a look at it…only to be left at a loss for words, amazed at how much three Ally skills could do to his stats.
Nonetheless, a question popped up in his mind as he looked at his current stats.