Chapter 283: Daydreaming, Eyeball's Sinister Plot
…
It only took one day for everything to return to normal. They rebuilt destroyed buildings, shops, houses, and everything quickly using various magic and manpower available.
After all, nobody was weak here. The greatest disaster was that mountain. It could cause major destruction, but Amu stopped it before anything happened.
The next day, Erix went to suck dry Elina and Runia again while Rin, Lilith, Aria, and Maleina faced assassination as expected.
But since they knew it, they had an escape plan and successfully got away while also killing a few of them. Aria was particularly powerful with her new Bloodline and newfound powers as Amu completely became her familiar--a contracted spirit of sorts--at the cost of losing a portion of its power in the process of cutting off the bindings that bound it to this land and pond that birthed it.
After the assassination attempt, Erix also acted naturally and asked help from Elina and Runia about the attack on Rin and others.
Those two foxies reassured him with smiles while cursing internally.
After Erix left, Elina sat at the table with Runia and said, "Why was Aria with them?"
"No idea, but it doesn't matter," Runia snorted. "It's fine if she dies with them."
They had no idea about Aria's newfound powers. Not yet.
Taking a sip from a juice glass, Runia said in a foul mood, "The important thing is to make our next move."
"They will stay here for a few days at most. Damn it! I want him! Mother, we have to kill those bitches!"
Elina nodded, her expression thoughtful. "We can only try assassination as they go out tomorrow again."
"That Lily is not leaving the pond, but we can kill her later."
…
Dream.
Elina and Runia were daydreaming daily.
They would dream in pleasure when Erix roughs them up and then dream about killing Rin and others.
Their next assassination attempt also failed.
On the other hand, Erix finally broke through to 3rd realm of Space affinity, giving him a major boost in power.
The 3rd realm of Space, the Delta realm, was known as Space Weaver.
This level of mastery allowed him to condense and shape space matter and weave it in a more complicated manner. In simple terms with an example, Erix couldn't create a 'physical' space blade or object before and couldn't severe space, but upon reaching the 3rd realm in Space element mastery, he could achieve that.
Naturally, he could do much more when incorporating new applications of Space in his skills, which increased his lethality, defense, and utility in an all-around way.
The next target was making the Nihilir element reach the 2nd realm. He had long met the requirement to proceed in it but wanted to get his Space affinity to the 3rd realm for the big boost.
'Once we are done with our stay here, Rin and I can use the skill creation attempts of our Classes and create more powerful skills,' Erix thought as he recalled the powerful and complex formations of Tier-4 and Tier-5 skills.
One needed Prana for Tier-4 and higher-ranked skills because Prana had advanced applications of magic that Mana didn't have.
After all, Prana was not just energy, but something that was truly magical because, in basic, it was a fundamental combination of Mana and Spirit, giving it a wider range of utilities.
Thus, more complex and unconfined formations birth more powerful and exotic skills.
Erix wanted to dive into creating skills, but it was better to focus on comprehending powers with Pond giving increased speed of comprehension and increasing their Spirit power.
'Nihilir element's 2nd realm…What will I get and create once I understand and reach its 2nd realm?' Erix's excitement shifted to this. He cleared his mind and focused on Nihilir.
The requirement of breaking through the following realms in Exotic and Super Exotic Elements was rather unique.
For Erix, he had to reach the 2nd realm in Death, Flame, and Space elements before he could attempt to reach the 2nd realm of Nihilir.
He met that goal many days ago, but he put Space as his priority because it was simply too useful and all-rounder supportive.
At the moment, the progress of his elements was as displayed below.
-> Fire element—2nd realm—Sigma—Blazing Composer.
-> Metal element—4th realm—Zeno—Metal Lord.
-> Death element—2nd realm—Sigma—Death Wraith.
-> Space element—3rd realm—Delta—Space Weaver.
Breaking through to the 3rd realm of Space also increased his Spirit stat by 50.
While Erix resumed his training, Lily was still in her enlightenment state from using Insight Scroll.
Rin was in deep meditation with tiny motes around her that looked like clocks, drowned in understanding the essence of the Time element.
There was an object around her neck—A necklace of some rusty-looking dark silver metal with a tiny pocket watch attached.
Amu gave her this item from its stash as it contained the essence of Time and had abilities of Time-attribute.
On the other hand, Lilith, Aria, and Amu were in a discussion at a table a few meters away from the pond.
"This eyeball…" Amu's eyes glinted.
Lilith and Aria sat across each other at the table while Amu faced the wooden case with the strange eyeball sealed inside, inspecting it deeply.
"It belongs to a Reverend-order powerhouse, but since it's weakened and broken, the Abyss didn't expel it when it arrived here," Amu frowned. "A part of his soul is in this eyeball with some strange knowledge."
"I think it was trying to revive," Amu looked at Lilith, expression somber. "It can affect Erix and others subtly, Lilith. We should destroy it."
"Be my guest," Lilith weakly smiled. "I couldn't do anything except for sealing it with my current level soul and spirit."
"I will help," Aria said, her eyes showing a faint golden-white six-pointed starry pattern.
"Your progress in Spirit and Soul is shocking," Lilith chuckled. "Aria, teach us about the next level of Spirit later. We'll need it."
"Hehe, okay," Aria cheerfully smiled.
"She can teach you all, but don't hope to achieve all six transformations like her," Amu proudly said, "She has it because of me and her affinity, but what you all awaken depends on you."
"I know, I know," Lilith playfully rolled her eyes. "Back to the main topic, how do we handle this eyeball?"
"Mhm," Amu nodded and opened its mouth before spitting a spiritual energy blob on the wooden case. "Let's extract its power and refine it."
"But I also need a hand."
Amu produced a pair of tiny hands that wrapped around the wooden case while the energy blob seeped inside and covered the eyeball.
"Support me with your Soul energy."
Aria and Lilith nodded as they started channeling their soul energy into Amu. In contrast, Amu started working to extract soul power from the Eyeball and refine it into a pure soul essence that could empower one's soul.
But after a minute, Amu's expression suddenly changed and stopped the process. 'This is terrible…'
"Did something happen?" Aria curiously asked.
"What a sneaky asshole…" Amu muttered and turned around to look at Erix, Rin, and Lily who were deeply focused on the pond.
"Did Erix and others come into this Eyeball's contact?" Amu asked Lilith.
Lilith frowned as she got an ominous feeling, "They did… Why?"
"This thing has planted something into Rin, Erix, and Lily…into their unawakened, budding soul wisps," Amu's expression was severe. "This Eyeball is waiting to get killed."
"The moment it dies, whatever conditional power trigged by its death will activate, and it will possess one of their souls, most likely Erix's soul since it will be more suitable."
Lilith's expression paled while her eyes raged with anger.
She was angry with herself.
"Don't fault yourself. Your soul and spirit senses are not powerful enough to sense this eyeball's trickery."
Lilith bit her lips as she looked at Rin, Lily, and Erix. "Erix is in more danger, right?"
"Sigh, I don't like this," Lilith looked at the wooden case, feeling frustrated and angry.
"What to do now?" Aria asked, her eyes showing intense worry and panic, "Amu, you have to help."