“You don’t have any objections to that right?”

“Well, the place I’m going to is extremely dangerous even for X-grade Inanimates. Not to mention, there’s a special method needed to enter the place where the skills are.”

“Can’t you just teach me the method and let me go with you?”

“Uh…there are tons of traps along the way that could easily reduce our HP to 0, plus there are a lot of S-grade and X-grade beings along the way as well. I want to avoid confronting any of them.”

“If I’m there, wouldn’t you get to the place faster since I can kill them in one shot? Also you’re a mage. Can’t you use long distance skills to trigger the traps from far away?”

“Well sure we can do that but…the skills I’m getting are only suitable for a specific species and I think you won’t be able to get it.”

“Who cares? If I can’t learn it then I’ll just get another member of our alliance to learn the skill, simple as that.”

“But the…” Aurus continued to think up of reasons to refrain Herellia from joining him on his way to the Tempest Ruin, only to be defeated by Herellia’s quick wits and logical answers. With a sigh, he started to roll towards the Tempest Ruin and said, “Fine, you can come.”

The cheery aura that Herellia exuded instantly became more vibrant as she said in joy, “Yay! I can go on an adventure!”

Seeing that Aurus was already heading towards the Tempest Ruin, Herellia didn’t dilly-dally any further and activated her movement skill. A gust of wind started to circulate around her body before getting enough oomph to support her body, letting her body hover a few decimeters above the ground.

Of course, with Aurus having the [Soul Perception I] skill acting as his eyes, he was able to see Herellia floating above the ground, allowing her to move at a speed that was superbly higher than Aurus, but in consideration to Aurus’ movement speed, she slowed down and maintained the same pace as Aurus, wanting to talk with him as they traversed the Tempest Ruin.

“Say Aurus, how did you know that there were skills hidden within the Tempest Ruin? Being the leader of the Tempest Branch Alliance that has its headquarters in the Tempest Cliff, it’s impossible for me to not know anything about every nook and cranny of the Tempest Cliff, but to think that there’s such a thing inside the cliff appalls me.”

It was a given that Aurus couldn’t talk about him being reincarnated as a stick, having the knowledge of his past life that was useful in his current life since he played a game that was based in the same world in his current life. Letting out a stifled chuckle, he replied, “Well, Ms. Herellia, I can’t tell you how I know. If I did do that, then I wouldn’t have let you come join me.”

Seeing that Aurus wanted to hide his secrets, Herellia didn’t dig any deeper as she heard Aurus’ way of calling her. “Since we’re going to be members of the alliance after this…well we’re already members so just call me Herellia.”

Aurus didn’t deny Herellia’s offer as he knew that she had a friendly kind of personality. “If you insist Herellia. Anyways, what’s the alliance like? What’s the hierarchy of power within it?” Since he was going to join Herellia’s alliance, it didn’t hurt to ask for information right?

“Well…although our alliance is the strongest within the Tempest Cliff, we don’t really have that much rules, allowing members to do what they want as long as it doesn’t hurt the other members,” Herellia replied after a bit of pondering.

She then continued afterwards, “As for the hierarchy of power, I’m the leader since I’m the strongest out of all the members. The next level of power below me goes to the 7 other X-grade beings within the alliance. I personally call them the Pillars since they pretty much molded the alliance into what it is. Below that are the strong S-grade beings, I call them Executives because they can help out at crucial times. The last level of power are the weak S-grades, just being normal members of the alliance. All in all, we number at around 69 members…well, 70 since you’ve joined.”

“To be honest, you’re an exception to the hierarchy since you’ve surpassed the strength of normal members, almost equal to the strength of the Executives. I don’t know where to put you in to be honest.”

“I don’t really care about position,” Aurus replied. “I just want to become stronger, and an alliance is the easiest way for me to do so.”

Herellia couldn’t help but have a good impression of Aurus. Aurus was just like her, pursuing to become the strongest. After a while, Herellia then asked, “Aurus, I want to ask something.”

“Hm?” Aurus hemmed at Herellia’s question while looking at the path in front of them. They have already traversed over 300 meters inside the Tempest Ruin. They needed to cross around 1500 more meters to be at the place where the skills would be at. “What is it?”

“I was just wondering…are you perhaps the same as me? Being blessed by the g—”

Herellia’s question was cut short as the two of them both felt a menacing aura from a few meters in front of them. Looking ahead, Aurus couldn’t help but say, “We’ve got company.”

…

Tempest Cliff, outside the boundary of the Tempest Ruin.

A muscular man with multiple scars on his face was currently looking at a crystal that had a red dot inside it blink every once in a while. This man was Artan, the one who Dane hired to capture Aurus. Beside him was a solemn-looking woman who had a magic staff that was taller than her, being almost the same height as Artan. Nonetheless, she looked at the Tempest Ruin in front of her as if its secrets were already exposed by her. This woman was Mira, the one Dane asked to come with Artan.

“So this is why Dane told me he was going to pay me 5000 gold coins if I successfully captured that thingy. It was actually within the Tempest Cliff. Even I wouldn’t go here unless I had a reason,” Artan muttered as he continued to pinpoint the direction of the thing he needed to capture.

“Well we better capture it as fast as possible,” a soft yet firm voice came from the side. It was Mira’s. Being a mage herself, she knew why Dane would pay 5000 gold to capture a Spiritas.

Although it was a stick, it was a stick of legends! Many magic items, when crafted using a Spiritas as a main material, would suddenly be more effective than any other magic item out there!

“Alright, I’ve tracked the location of the thingy,” Artan said after a while to Mira. “Since we finally have a rough direction to follow, cast Fly and a movement speed boosting spell to let us traverse the ruins faster and hopefully get that thingy before it escapes.”

Mira looked at Artan and couldn’t help but say, “You better give me 60% of the pay you get. Casting magic is extremely hard.”

Tapping the magic staff she held on the ground, she started to chant as the mana in the surroundings started to cover their bodies.

“1st Circle. Holos Miselus Levitas.”

Weeennggg!

Not long after, their bodies started to float in midair as the Fly spell was successfully casted. After that, Mira casted a spell that was more complex compared to the Fly spell. In exchange, the efficacy of the spell in tandem with the Fly spell would allow them to traverse hundreds of meters within a few minutes.

“3rd Circle. Holos Supris Vitalis Grandus. Gravitas Supris Vitalis Less. Esper Supris Widus.”

“Child of the Wind!”

Whoosh!

As if they were the masters of their surroundings, they had the feeling that they could traverse thousands of meters within seconds. Of course, that was just an illusion.

With both spells activated, Mira looked at Artan and said, “Let’s go! The movement speed boosting effect will only last for two minutes at most!”

Nodding his head, Artan looked at the ruins in front of him and started to fly inside, with Mira following from behind.

…

Inside Kurohana’s space.

Kurohana looked at the orb in front of her and noticed that the image shown on the orb did not only have Aurus in it, for another stick was beside him. With her divine powers, she was able to sense the stick’s affiliation with Aurus. Not only that, she also sensed something special from the stick.

“Hoh…a friend for Aurus. How great. Wait…I can sense a trace of divinity from that stick. Has a god also reincarnated a soul into a stick and sent it to the same world?”

Seeing that another god has discovered her plans, Kurohana instantly showed her aggressive side as a strong killing intent suffused into the surroundings, yet there was no one around her to truly feel the terror of her killing intent. After a while, she perceived something within the orb that was not obvious, but it could change Aurus’ fate in the future. Calming herself down, she thought of how this fate would play out, predicting the path Aurus would take in the future. She then laughed not long afterwards, looking at the orb with interest.

“I see. If that’s the case, then I don’t have to use him as a catalyst anymore!”

“I just need the mortals of that world to use him as a weapon material and let him evolve over time!”