!!!!! Pr Credits To Draconis Von BloodTrap & Dragonofsomesort Who Constantly Help With SR chapters, Please take the time to rep them for their work :)
Early Release today!. So some news, one of Srs great prs Dragonofsomesort will be taking some time off potentially after chapter 148's release, due to real life obligations that keep him busy. Hopefully when all is said and done he can come back and start pring again. In the mean time so far i have a new pr lined up to take his place!.
I hope you guys have been enjoying the world building so far. I'm trying to ease up a bit so you can all just see a broader picture.
Summary of Last Chapter.
Spoiler :
Last chapter avrin understood a bit more of what sorts of creatures lurk in the more barren areas after exploring it for a little bit of time. he then returned to the bazaar where one of the commanders of the Anzazia mercenary group named sulivan came to see avrin after speaking with toomios. sulivan and avrin after discussing a bit came to an agreement in regards to a trial deal, avrin ofcourse making a small profit.
avrin with a bit of valuable currency in hand decided to increase his knowledge of this world, ofcourse he did so buy purchasing several books with interest in that understanding.
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After finishing at the library, Avrin went into an alley hidden from view before using his Divine Step. When he reappeared, he was outside Calomia’s house. He blinked as he spotted Illisia wearing the dress he gave her. She was hugging her knees sitting on the porch with her eyes shut; she seemed to look a bit pale and tired.
Avrin walked over quietly and took out the velvet and silk cloth that was folded. He undid it before placing it over Illisia. At this point, Illisia’s eyes opened and she glanced towards Avrin. “Mister Avrin, you're back! Oo welcome back!!” As if she had come back to life she looked at him with a smile before blinking, surprised. She saw the velvet and silk cloth and was amazed. “Whoaa...it's beautiful and soft...what's this made from, Mister Avrin? Can I have it?!”
“You can. It's something special I picked up a while ago. Have you been out here long?” As he spoke Illisia gave a guilty expression and tried to look innocent. “I uhh…..only for a few hours…” Avrin smirked and gave her a pat on the head. “You’re going to get sick. Come inside, I brought some more food.”
Illisia jumped up to her feet after hearing the word food. She rushed inside before Avrin even had a chance to grab onto the door handle. Avrin reached under his cloak and Nebula Mist reformed into a medium sized basket filled with an assortment of meat, herbs and some fruits.
Calomia was inside. She was sitting on the makeshift rocking chair with a small opened cloth in her hand. Inside that cloth was a small, two inch square crystal that was flat yet resembled a clear opal. On the flat part of the crystal there was an image. It was a picture of a young woman and young man holding a little baby in their arms. Calomia was lost in her gaze towards this small object. One could see several dried lines on her wrinkled face from where tears ran. She quickly snapped out of her daze at the sound of the commotion.
“Grandma!! Grandma!! Avrin is back!” Illisia came rushing over. Calomia quickly covered the small etched crystal within the cloth and put it away in one of her pockets. “Oh? What did he bring for us to eat tonight?” Calomia was also excited. Anyone could see compared to before she had a healthier look due to the food Avrin had gotten for them.
“You both like to eat so much, it reminds me of a couple of people I know…” Avrin entered as he pulled the basket out and placed it on the table, though, of course, he was referring to Asura and Shandian who would often argue with each other about who’s eating whose food.
“I wonder who those two people are. Mister Avrin doesn't talk much about his past.” Illisia gave a curious, thoughtful expression as she rummaged through the basket to see several slabs of glistening meat. She was tempted to eat it raw, but Calomia quickly shooed her off before taking the meat and heading towards the small kitchen to prepare it.
“It's not good to pry into people’s lives Illisia. When Avrin is ready, I'm sure he will tell us.” Calomia responded. She was curious too, but after her talk with Avrin she decided to respect his ways.
Avrin walked over and sat on a chair. “A week from now I'm expecting a business deal that will benefit me greatly.” Calomia stopped for a moment and gave a crooked laugh. “Good! That means it benefits me and Illisia too. Of course, you're going to keep your end of the deal?”
Avrin nodded. “Indeed. I was going to say, this environment is not good to live with for you and Illisia. A week from now it would be good to move to a better home. I will have a large one built, and it will also act as a business establishment.” Calomia’s heart stopped for a moment. “Move to a better home? And one large enough to be a business too? Just what sort of deal are you getting to make enough to move? You holding out on me boy?”
Avrin ignored her and removed his hood and mask. “You will see. That being said, I need to keep on the move. I will be gone for this week to go over some things and gather materials. Before I leave, I'll have enough food for the week delivered to you both. After that, it would be best to pack your thi-,” he remembered there wasn't really much to pack. “Just get ready to move.”
Calomia remained silent and didn't respond to Avrin quickly. “You can take Illisia with you...as for me… I would prefer to remain here…” Avrin was stunned. He didn't expect her to decline his offer, but he wouldn't push. “Very well, I'm sure you have your reasons. Be sure to tell Illisia about this. Of course, I'll also make sure you're not in a bad position. I'll have this place renovated for you and for necessities to be delivered to you every day.”
Avrin stood up. He truthfully would have preferred to keep to himself but these two did help him and he wasn't sure how to properly pay off this debt completely. As made his way to the door, Illisia rushed over. “Mister Avrin!! You're unfair!!” Illisia grabbed onto the back of his cloak and pulled. “Huh?.. What's wrong?” Avrin blinked with a bit of surprise, not sure what she meant.
“You just came back, why are you going again so soon!! And you didn't tell me how I looked!! Let’s go play!” She gave a frustrated look as she frowned, clearly referring to the dress he got her. Avrin glanced at her and spoke. “You look fine. I'm sorry I can't stay long; I have things I need to take care of… Maybe next time.”
Illisia sighed and nodded, letting go. Ever since Avrin appeared, her life had gotten better. She didn't have any friends and Avrin was someone new. She thought he was bad but had turned out to be good. She wanted to be around him more, but now he was rarely around and at most it would be for a few hours. Avrin glanced at her to see the sad look in her eyes. It made him feel somewhat regretful. It reminded him of when Kael finally understood his father. Avrin knelt down and opened his right hand. “Look, this is for you,” Avrin began to gather swirling Nebula Mist that formed into a two foot tall stuffed bear toy. Avrin had made it from wool as well as the velvet and silk she liked, hoping it would keep her at ease.
Illisia was stunned at how something had come from nothing. Her eyes glittered with excitement as her little body shook. She reached over and took it, hugging it tightly. “It's soft like that cloth you gave me. Thank you, Mister Avrin. I'll forgive you this time. Next time, bring me another one of these and some roasted meat and maybe I'll let you off a second time.” She quickly caught on to this feeling. She could use it to get more gifts from Avrin. Truly, she was a little schemer, and Avrin was shaking his head thinking the same thing.
“You….fine, we will see, heh. I'm going now. Be sure to not give your grandma trouble.” Avrin walked out as he watched Illisia wave with one hand and hug the stuffed toy with the other. “I won't, Mister Avrin!!! Don't forget to bring some more food!!! Oh, I want something sweet too!!! Can you get cakes?” She called out louder as Avrin got further away.
After reaching a large rock and going around the side of it, Avrin’s Divine Sense extended out before he vanished. He reappeared in the barren area. The weather was now clear but the sun was burning hot and the ground that was parched was already hard and crumbling with the bones of dead creatures. Avrin looked with surprise. The ground was ripped apart, the creature was no longer inside of it!
“Where did you….” Avrin’s Divine Sense extended out again. He immediately detected it several kilometers away. Avrin quickly Divine Stepped, he didn't want anyone to find it before him. He was wondering why it left suddenly. He was certain it would obey him and remain after giving it a Sphere of Knowledge.
When Avrin arrived fifty meters from it, he looked on to see an interesting sight. The hulking creature had changed significantly. The large crystal protruding from its back had turned dark. Replacing the Haze crystals and Unclouded crystals were dark cores of all sorts of sizes. The large crystal itself was in the shape of a thorned spike, and somewhat transparent Nebula Mist was swirling about in it. The creature's body was now a dark grey color with its build more muscular and fit than before.
Its eyes were a deep blue and the walrus-like tusks were emanating an aura of dark matter. Along its back, connected to the thorned spike crystal it had sharp spines with purple veins pressing against them. The spines glowed a soft purple every now and then. The creature also had grown a long, furred, muscular tail. At the end of the tail was a large, claw-like hand that made it look quite monstrous. This claw was a quarter the size of the creature and looked impressively strong. Even more so that its height had grown by at least ten more meters.
In fact, the creature was in a fight against two of its own. It had one of them by the neck as it raised the towering hulk into the air effortlessly, showing just how strong it had become. The other hulking creature was already dead, having been stabbed and slashed at by the claw of the creature's tail.
One could see a berserk look on this newly converted creature's face. Obviously it had a bone to pick with these two. The remaining creature it grabbed kept punching towards the converted creature’s chest. In its eyes, it held no fear, only surprise. In fact, it had such strength that the converted creature's body was shaking a bit. But other than that, it showed no signs of pain. Its head turned at an angle slightly as its throat bulged somewhat. A deep, hoarse voice spoke out. “D….Diiiiieeeee…” Speaking that word in a long, drawn out matter it squeezed with its hand, breaking the neck of the creature it held before letting go.
Avrin remained quiet. This was definitely a unique sight to behold. He could feel that this creature's intent to kill was much stronger than before. Strangely enough, the creature’s bat-like nose sniffed a little before it turned to gaze at Avrin. The aura of its eyes was impressively intense.
“Yoooouu….” It began to walk over to him with its hands balled into fists. Each step it took caused the ground to tremble. It had killed two creatures at the mid Grandmaster level with ease. Avrin felt that its strength had shot up it was now at the early Sage level, about to hit the mid Sage level.
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Avrin showed no worry at all. The creature was still insignificant before him, even more so that it was made out of dark matter now. As the creature approached him, with each step it took causing the ground to crack and tremble, it stopped when it was five meters away from him. It looked down at him and made a deep thinking sound. “Mmmmmmmmm……” It looked as if it wanted to say something, but wasn't too sure.
Its throat bulged again before it finally spoke in that same frightful tone. “Mmmmm…..Maasterrrr…” Its body eased up as the glow in its eyes faded. It knelt to Avrin. Obviously it recognized him. Avrin was at a loss for words. He felt before that it wanted to fight him, but the killing aura it emitted was not even there anymore, as if it was a new, sensible creature.
“How do you feel?” Avrin spoke. Regardless, right now it was one of his kind, and that meant he had to show care for it. “Mmmmmm,” the creature mumbled as if it wanted to say something but couldn't.
“Your vocal cords haven't completely developed yet? That's fine.” Avrin raised his hand. Two surges of Nebula Mist shot out towards the two dead creatures, engulfing them and turning them into dark cores that then hovered over towards them. “When you kill something, you either eat it or bury it. These two were not friends of yours; true enemies are shown no mercy. Finish your meal.”
The creature looked at the dark cores with fascination. The Sphere of Knowledge hadn't set in yet and it was still in shambles to a degree. It leaned forward with its bat-like nose and sniffed at the dark cores. The large, thorned crystal on its back suddenly cracked slightly as a transparent, ghost-like tendril emerged from within. It shot towards the two dark cores before a purple static emitted out.
The dark cores were shrinking at a rapid pace and while this occurred the dark cores and the thorned spike on its back began to grow slightly. When the dark cores it absorbed were gone, the tendril slipped back into the thorned spike and the crack healed in a near instant.
“Mmmnnmmm…….mooooorrreee…” It looked at Avrin like a child wanting its parent to give it more food “Strange…” Avrin was impressed by the uniqueness of this creature; it was definitely different to what he has seen.
Avrin had opened his cloak and reached into the enchanted sack before pulling out a small dark core. It began to give off a purple glow before expanding and reshaping into an aged, thick book. Avrin realised a while ago that it would make carrying things easier. He didn't have the enchanted sack and after leaving the library he immediately converted these before Divine Stepping away.
The book he held was Sordjians Glossary of Creatures 1 & 2. It began to reform into Nebula Mist that streamed out. Avrin opened his mouth and the stream of Nebula Mist shot through the mouth slot of the white mask, sliding down Avrin’s throat and being absorbed. The knowledge of the book entered his mind quickly, showing just how proficient he was in this regard.
A rough, charcoal sketch of the closest thing resembling this creature appeared in his mind. After going over the details, it matched perfectly. The creature was referred to as a Crystalline Behemoth. These creatures were exceptionally rare and preferred places where the sun was shining. Supposedly, several million years ago, there was a battle between gods. One of the gods was destroyed and the fragments of his body traveled across the universe, which in turn gathered power from the sun to heal them and become these creatures.
Avrin wasn't sure if he was to believe this or not. Only those exceptionally powerful deities would surely know. Then again, when he read that the crystals on the creature's back converted sunlight into mana and what it eats to help grow the crystal on its back, he held some belief. It was also stated that these creatures were hunted for the crystals on their back and for many years no one had seen any, and those that got close that weren't at the Grandmaster level would surely perish.
There was also some other information that added to the fact that these creatures neared extinction, such as they seemed to be incapable of feeling fear and will fight anything that taunts it, even if it was God himself. They lacked any form of intelligence other than fighting and eating.
It's also said that many arenas offer great rewards for live specimens to be turned into contestants in battle.
Avrin glanced at the creature, which looked at him a little confused. It reached up with its large right hand and began to scratching its head as some drool slid down the right side of its mouth. It seems it was waiting for Avrin to feed it. “You're going to make nice deterrence. Do you like the food I gave you?” Avrin questioned the creature as if testing its current smarts.
The creature tilted his head. It seems it understood what he said but was still somewhat sluggish. It leaned back and sat on its butt with a thump. It seemed quite docile after its conversion. “Moooooarrr…..” Avrin extended his hand and began to use Nebula Mist to form a dark core from the mana in the air. He began forming them at such a rapid pace that they explode out of the mist like a fountain. The area around them began to distort slightly. Avrin only stopped after a thousand or so dark cores were littering the area.
“Mnmmmmm….!!” The creature gave an excited grumble before it smashed its hand into the ground, picking up a whole lot of dirt along with dark cores before stuffing both into its mouth, clearly not caring about the taste of parched dirt and stones.
Avrin watched it carefully. He could visibly see the strange crystal on its back grow very slowly. It was barely visible even with his vision. “If you want more, you have to listen to me at all times, understand?”
The creature stopped eating, some of its fingers still in its mouth. It nodded at Avrin and spoke. “Listeen…...giveee...fooooood...yoooouu….maaasteerrrrr…” It seemed to understand, but wasn't too good at sentences just yet.
“Good. Hmm, a name. You're quite slow, but also crazy when angered. I’ll call you Tardiff’Maras.” After Avrin spoke, the creature grumbled again. “Mmmmnnn strooonggg….beaaauuu….beauuutaaafalll…..nooo duummbb….” Avrin’s right eye twitched. It seems the Sphere of Knowledge was definitely absorbed by this creature, how else would it know a word such as beautiful.
“Of course you are, and because you that, you're going to be good and listen to master? Otherwise when master is angry, Tardiff’Maras will get punished, understand?” The creature glanced down at Avrin and frowned. “Noooo...threatteeen….I…...gooood…”
Avrin smiled under the mask. “Great! You are good, so listen now. Remember, I’m the master, you're the follower. I'm going to leave you here for a week. You can't go around and kill a lot of things because they made you mad, only kill to eat, and when you eat make sure you clean up behind yourself and convert the corpse into dark matter. That was the first technique I gave you in the sphere. You understand so far, correct?”
Tardiff’Maras thought for a moment and nodded. It raised his right hand and Nebula Mist began to slowly but steadily form. Avrin knew this creature was dangerously powerful and it gave him a sort of feeling as when he met Shandian. Its potential was definitely no laughing matter.
“When I come back after a week, I'm going to take you to a new home. In this new home you're going to do a bit of work, but you're going to be able to eat a lot and grow bigger and stronger. Would you like that?” Avrin couldn't confuse it with complicated words. He also tried to talk to it as if it were a child. It seemed by doing this it was happy as it gave a crooked smile with its mouth opening to show its large, pointed teeth. It looked quite scary. Even Avrin felt somewhat creeped out.
“Good. Don't forget, you have to practice what I gave you as much as you can. I have a strange feeling we will be seeing your brothers and sisters soon. I want you to show them just how good you are and not let master down. You may be the strongest out of them all if you practice hard, otherwise they will be stronger than you!”
Tardiff’Maras, listening to Avrin, suddenly tensed up as veins pressed against its skin, its body going rigid. “Nooo….nooo!! tarrdfff mrassss….wiiillll beeee pracccticeee!!” It seemed to show some worry as if it may lose its position. It had an understanding thanks to the sphere Avrin gave it, and no doubt like Asura, who was also a bit slow at first, it would become more intelligent over time.
“Good. I'm leaving now, do not kill any people. Focus on dangerous creatures. I don't want any trouble.” With that said, Avrin Divine Stepped away. He didn't plan on an extended training period; he simply wanted to check on his inner workings. Right now he was so very close to stepping over the line and entering the peak of the Dark stage. He may be injured, but the particles still retained their power. They were previously high quality batteries, so to speak, that were simply emptied and needed to be recharged after the fight with Orphelium, and right now the recharge rate was getting faster as he waited. It wouldn't be too long before he recovered.
After searching for twenty minutes for an underground cave system that wasn't riddled with creatures or those ant humanoids, Avrin felt that he wouldn't find a natural formation that wasn't populated. But soon after thinking that, he noticed the perfect spot. It was a one-hundred-and-fifteen meter wide cavern with stalactites and stalagmites littering it. There was also an underground river. But this place also had creatures. That being said, Avrin had a solution for this.
Currently, several of the ant creatures were wielding bone clubs and using their hands to attack a large worm identical to the one Avrin killed earlier. Of course, this was a one sided massacre with them trying to either flee or go for its weak points. One could tell this was a hunting group. There were fifty of them trying to surround or get on the creature, but for every attack several of them would be smacked away.
“This is my area now, get lost…” A surging Phantom Pulse smashed against the worm, blasting it against the wall. The pressure was so strong that it caused it to explode into bits and pieces of gore that littered the wall. The ant humanoids were terrified as they looked at Avrin, seemingly remembering who he was and how easily he killed their nemesis. They began to flee, but not after grabbing handfuls of flesh from the worm. One could even see little ant humanoids that had makeshift baskets. They rushed around grabbing what they could before fleeing into the many tunnels.
Avrin quietly grunted before walking off. He walked twenty meters before sitting cross-legged and leaning against the wall. The sound of the underground river flowing after he relaxed made it somewhat peaceful, but the stench of the worm was annoying. He raised his hand and a small dome of Nebula Mist formed into a barrier for him.
He quietly faded as he entered his inner workings. The feeling of doing so again after being disconnected made him joyful. When his consciousness entered to see the particles that made up his body, he was stunned.
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Avrin's Inner Workings Status
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Dark Stage Control ParticlesType 12100%Dark Stage ParticlesType 12100%God Essence WeaponsAstaroth-ScytheLimos-VajraGod Essence EquipmentSarcanus-Armor