“Join the Tempest Branch Alliance or die,” Loran said to Aurus as an aura that instilled fear emanated from her tree body.

Aurus felt that the tree in front of him was incredibly strong. Not only that, the branch was also strong, considering the fact that it was able to shoot out a gust of wind towards him in a matter of an instant.

Staying silent for a bit, he commanded the system to identify the both using [Species Analysis], only to be shocked by their stats, levels, and HP and SP amount.

Ding!

________

[Loran (Young Tree — Energistus Sub-Fearus)]

Existence Level: Inanimate (S)

Level: 19/20

HP: 3500/3500

SP: 1250/1250

Stats:

[Toughness]: 276

[Thickness]: 375

[Root Rigidity]: 523

Skills:

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

________

________

[Horell (Branch Grandius Forminosus — High Energistus)

Existence Level: Inanimate (X)

Level: 32/40

HP: 25500/25500

SP: 7800/7800

Stats:

[Toughness]: 2213

[Thickness]: 2435

[Spirit Density]: 3263

Skills:

[Middle-High Spell Core], other skills are uncheckable due to the skill [Species Analysis] being low level

________

“…” Aurus didn’t know what to say. The strongest enemy he has fought against was Exos who had an attack stat of 130! That alone was enough to remove a quarter of his HP even with a grazing attack. Now with the attack stats of the two beings in front of him being over 500 and over 3000 respectively, it wouldn’t be weird for him to die under a single touch of their bodies!

“The Tempest Branch Alliance…” As Aurus was thinking of the possibilities on how they were able to gain that much stats when in comparison, the enemies he fought at their grade had less stats, this name came in all of a sudden.

Alliances within ISE allowed players to have boosted stats that could easily crush players who decided to play solo. Most of the time, these solo players tend to avoid these players who have joined alliances not only because of that, but they also had a plethora of skills to their disposal.

Of course, who wouldn’t want to enter a place that allowed them to reign over players with their higher stats? That way of thinking resulted in almost every alliance being filled up to its limit with players.

“Who knew that Kurohana would also add this function,” Aurus couldn’t help but mumble to himself. Composing his thoughts, he looked at the two beings and respectfully said, “No.”

“No?” This time, Horell was the one who spoke. With his calm and collected voice, it brought chills to Aurus who was only A-grade, two grades below him. “May I asky why you declined our offer?”

“First off, it’s because you two are forcing to enter an alliance that I don’t even have an idea about plus the way you look at me is just—” Aurus explained the reasons why he declined the offer in a rational manner that had bits of his emotions added into it, only for a root that travelled at an insanely fast speed to nearly hit him, a sonic boom forming not long after.

Aurus froze in place and looked at the origin of the root. It came from Loran, who looked at Aurus as if he should thank the both of them for the chance of entering a prestigious alliance. She then spat out coldly, “You know what? Since he dares to be cocky, let’s just kill him.”

Without hesitation, Loran’s leaves started to glow a faint green as a tornado manifested above her body. Horell looked at this and looked back at Aurus as he sighed. He then said to Aurus, “I don’t know what you did to her, but I can’t control it. Think of it as a test of sorts.”

Of course, Horell didn’t bother to join the fight as he knew that he could easily Aurus with just a single Lower Level 0 Spell. Instead, he casted a barrier around the two as he made sure to check on Aurus every once in a while, because he knew Herellia’s true intentions.

After a few seconds, the tornado hovering above Loran’s body grew to a size that could deal large amounts of damage along its path. Once it reached a certain point, Loran shot the tornado towards Aurus as she shouted, “[Tornado of Fear]!”

As she shot the tornado out, cackling sounds could be heard coming from the tornado all of a sudden. Once Aurus heard this sound, a few notification screens appeared in front of his field of vision.

Ding!

‘You have been inflicted with the Fear debuff for 2 seconds.’

‘System estimates that getting hit by this skill will result in the user dying!’

“Well no shit!” Aurus couldn’t help but curse as the tornado gradually got closer to his body at a fast speed. Since the gap between them was only around 10 meters, it was a given that this tornado would hit him before the Fear debuff was dispelled.

The Fear debuff made enemies freeze up in place. In other words, it was a debuff that allowed the person attacking the enemy to bombard multiple amounts of skills within the specified amount of time.

“What should I do…” Aurus was trying to think of ways of dodging the tornado but he realized that he had no skill that allowed him to remove debuffs on his body. With that, he couldn’t help but sigh as he accepted his fate of dying under the hit of the tornado.

Only for a spark to flash in his mind as he remembered a skill that might not remove the debuffs on his body, but it would allow him to solve the case of dying under the tornado.

“[Unyielding Spiritas]!”

Whoosh!

At the exact instant the tornado collided with Aurus’ body, Aurus’ body was instantly covered with a silver light as the tornado was completely absorbed by the silver light…as if it wasn’t there in the place.

Ding!

‘You have received 1 HP damage from [Loran].’

“What?!” Loran, who knew the terrifying prowess that tornado had, was shocked to see that it didn’t even deal any damage to Aurus at all. She wasted around 500 SP in order to form the tornado, but it ended up dissipating into thin air? What kind of joke is this?

Horell, on the other hand, was surprised to see the skill that Aurus activated. At that point, Horell understood why Herellia wanted the Spiritas in front of him to join their alliance. Since he was also an X-grade being that had an intelligence nearly comparable to a human, he had a hunch as to what Herellia’s plans were.

“Now I wonder…” Horell mumbled to himself. “Will this Spiritas fight back?”

…

“Holy shit,” Aurus couldn’t believe it. He knew what the skill could do, but he didn’t know that it was this overpowered!

________

[Unyielding Spiritas] (Level 1/3)

Grade: C (Mortal)

As a Spiritas who treads both the paths of Life and Will, you do not succumb to the temptations of both, but instead forge your own path.

> All damage taken is reduced to 1 for 3 seconds

Cooldown: 12 hours

________

Looking at the two beings’ faces of shock, Auurs couldn’t help but laugh in a grim manner as he said, “Since you’ve attacked me, it’s time to return the favor!”

“[Spirit Energy Ascension]!”

At the instant he activated the skill, his SP was drained furiously as the 18 SP recovery Animas surrounding him madly regenerated the lost SP, the silver flame surrounding his body taking a corporeal form.

Ding! Ding!

‘[Spirit Energy Ascension] has leveled up.’

‘[Spirit Energy Ascension] has leveled up.’

As the skill leveled up twice, the height of the silver flame rose up as an aura of terror exuded from Aurus’ body. Loran and Horell looked at this, with Loran furious but curious to find out what Aurus was doing.

Not long after, a notification screen appeared in front of Aurus’ field of vision.

Ding!

‘The exchange of SP into power has reached its limit, boosting the user’s power by 110%!’

Of course, this was not over.

“[Spirit Ascension]!”

Bang!

After activating this skill, a loud explosion resounded out of Aurus’ body as the silver flame surrounding him turned black. At this moment, being fueled with a lot of SP, the black flame surrounding Aurus grew stronger as it became more and more corporeal.

The [Spirit Ascension] skill increased the stat boost limit by 50%, thus allowing him to have a stat boost limit of 165%!

During this time, Aurus also activated [Tempest Burst], which doubled movement speed, attack speed, and of course, attack power.

Ding!

It didn’t take long for the black flame to finish engulfing SP, boosting Aurus’ stats by 165%.

Aurus took this chance to look at Loran as a Spirit Spear made out of Anima hovered above his body while being covered in black flames and tempestuous winds.

“You know what? Since you’re so prideful to not even let me explain the reasons why I don’t want to join your alliance, just let this be the reason why I don’t want to join.”

The Spirit Spear’s ferocity grew in size as an incredibly sharp aura surrounded the spear. Looking at his SP bar refilling back to its maximum amount, he then shot the spear towards Loran as he shouted.

“[Spirit Spear: Acceptance]!”

Loran thought that the aura exuded by the spear was extremely terrifying, but since it came from an A-grade Inanimate, she thought it would only reduce her HP by around 200 at moment, making her relax as she laughed.

As for Horell, he knew the power behind the spear as he kept silent, mumbling inwardly, ‘Let’s just say this is a wake-up call for her.’

“Hahaha! How much damage could that puny spear d—urgh!” Continuing to laugh, Loran belittled the spear shot out by Aurus, only for a large chunk of her HP bar to be removed.

Ding!

‘Aurus has dealt 3338 HP damage to [Loran].’