Chapter 437: Long Forgotten Beings

With all of them growing stronger, it was no surprise that it took less time for the three to return to Verdant Breeze Town thanks to their strengthened spells and skills. In fact, Delmann was quite surprised to see their town leader return this early even though he was told that the latter was going to be out for a month.

“Sir Argentum!” Delmann, who was going through some of the town’s development projects at that moment, quickly appeared in front of Aurus and bowed. “Is there a reason for your early return?”

“Just settled those personal matters of mine earlier than expected,” said Aurus in response as he took over Delmann’s job for a bit. After making sure that all of the town’s plans stayed on track, he lightly nodded before looking back at Delmann. “Any updates on the search for ore veins?”

“Er… give me a second, sir.” Hearing that, Delmann quickly flipped through the documents he was holding, eventually stopping on a certain one as he read its contents. “According to what the others have told me these past couple of weeks, our men have found 10 more ore veins, most of them being iron. These ore veins are already being mined as we speak to increase our stockpile of ores for the blacksmiths. As for the remaining ore veins, we haven’t touched any of them as we don’t have any blacksmith skilled enough to make use of them.”

“Is that so?” Aurus raised his eyebrow. “What kind of ores did you find aside from iron?”

“Just mana steel, sir,” Delmann replied.

“Mana steel, huh?” Aurus rubbed his chin in response, becoming silent for a bit. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t mana steel the cheapest metal available that can absorb and conduct mana?”

“That would be correct, sir.” Delmann nodded in response. “Even though it may be the cheapest metal, according to the information we’ve collected from nearby cities and towns, any equipment made out of mana steel fetches at least 10 times the price of what our iron equipment can fetch.”

“Hmm…” After pondering over it for a bit more, Aurus eventually came to a decision. “For now, start mining a bit of the mana steel. I’ll try and find a blacksmith capable of working with mana steel within this week at the very least.”

He then added, “As for the iron veins, keep mining them. While I find a blacksmith for the mana steel, I’ll recruit a few more blacksmiths that could work with iron.”

“Anything else?” Aurus asked after that, prompting Delmann to inform him of the issues that had popped up in town while he was gone. Fortunately, Aurus was able to offer a solution to all of them, though some of them could not help but make him let out a sigh from how troublesome they were.

Eventually, the two had finished going through all of the issues, allowing Delmann to continue what he was previously doing as Aurus was leaving for the manor. However, before he did so, he told Delmann, “Ah, right. I forgot to mention that I go by the name Aurus now. Make sure to inform the others about it as well.”

“Will do, Sir Argentu— I mean, Sir Aurus.” Delmann nodded, albeit a bit confused as that came from out of nowhere. In response, Aurus chuckled as he left him to his own devices.

With that, he made his way to the manor, where Herellia and Horell were waiting for him.

…

Entering a certain room in the manor, Aurus was greeted by the sight of the two. With a light frown, Herellia could not help but ask him, “What took you so long?”

“Had a conversation with Delmann regarding the town’s development.” Aurus wryly smiled in response. “Then again, you two chose to head here first.”

“Anyways, you two know very well what we’re going to do next, right?” he asked soon after, with the two nodding at his question with solemn expressions.

Nodding back in response, he then circulated a bit of his energy towards a certain part of his body, utilizing the connection he had made with a few beings through Spirit Contracts.

“Come here as soon as possible, I have something important to tell you.” This was what he sent through those various connections, quickly obtaining responses from those on the other side a few seconds later, with the slowest among them taking a minute. With them being on the way, he dispelled the connection he had just created as he looked at the two, more specifically Horell.

“Although you’ve already given me your word, it doesn’t hurt to ask one more time,” Aurus said. “Are you sure you want to become an Animate? You can still back out if you want.”

“Since you’re asking one more time, then I’ll remind you one more time,” Horell replied, his gaze determined. “There’s no point if I’m the only Pseudo-Animate among the three.”

“Plus…” As he said this, he could not help but let out a light chuckle. “You did say back then that it would be boring if you were the only one aiming to reach the Divinity level.”

“I’m surprised you still remembered that.” Aurus laughed back, making the atmosphere in the room lighter as the three bantered for a bit more until the beings Aurus had contacted came.

…

Around ten minutes later, a rift opened up in the room, revealing a woman in a red dress and a man in a blue tuxedo. As they had interacted multiple times already, Aurus was no stranger to them. “As usual, you two would be first.”

“Well, your town is closest to our inheritances, after all,” replied Felix with a chuckle. Though, just as Eleanor was about to say something, another rift appeared, revealing a man in light green clothes and a woman in a lavish light gray suit.

“To think you’d actually wear the suit,” Eleanor could not help but say as the two appeared, prompting Rosalia to lightly smile in response. “It’s been a while since I’ve worn it, after all. So, when I was contemplating over what to wear, I thought, why not?”

“I see my greatest fan has gotten stronger,” Helios said after the two were finished talking, prompting the others to finally take a look at Aurus. It was only then did they sense the stronger aura emanating around him, inwardly surprising them once more with his speed of improvement.

“That’s one of the reasons why I called you here, actually,” Aurus said in response to Helios’ words. “Though, for the second reason, we’re still waiting for another person.”

“Another one? Who would that even—”

Whoosh!

Just as one of them was about to finish that question, a rift opened up right in one of the corners of the room, revealing a young man wearing dark clothing that complemented his dark brown eyes and hair. As they witnessed the man appear, the other four could not help but be at a loss for words as never once did they expect him to arrive.

“Melzarin? Is that actually you?” Felix was the first one to ask, to which the dark-clothed man nodded in slight confusion. “Yeah? Is there something wrong with me being here?”

“No, not really…” replied Felix as he looked at Aurus. Noticing this, Aurus lightly nodded as he called for everyone’s attention. Seeing that everyone was looking at him, he then started to talk.

“Well, the main reason why I called you five here is because me and my friend Horell here have reached the peak of Grand-grade. We’ve also gone through our first Power Baptisms, just so you know.”

Hearing that, the room became silent as each of the five pondered over what Aurus was trying to say. Surprisingly, Helios was the first to break it as he recalled their meeting some time ago. With a calm expression, he asked, “Is it that?”

“Yeah. It’s that.” Aurus nodded.

Listening in on their conversation, the other three quickly understood what Aurus was trying to say, with only Melzarin being clueless as to what was going on. Then again, he was the only one among the five who wasn’t a part of that meeting.

“Well, let me be blunt, Melzarin.” Of course, Aurus wasn’t going to leave him hanging. “My friend and I have met the requirements to use an Existence Transition technique. We’re planning to become Animates.”

In response to that, a hint of shock appeared on Melzarin’s face before it gradually disappeared, becoming that of understanding. “I see… but what does that have to do with calling us over?”

The other four nodded in agreement, also curious as to why they were called. In response, Aurus told them, “Well, you see… I was wondering if there was a way to enhance the effects of the Existence Transition technique we’re using while keeping the same requirements.”

With Aurus’ answer, everything was now clear. Thus, the five looked at each other as they talked for a bit, their topic being what aspects of the Existence Transition technique they could enhance. Eventually, they collated all of the information they’ve obtained and had a representative among the five explain it to Aurus and the other two… which unsurprisingly fell onto Felix.

“So, to sum things up, we can actually enhance everything regarding the [Mortal Grasping Corporeality Manual] while keeping the same requirement,” Felix told him.

Nodding in response, Aurus then asked, “Is it possible for the Existence Transition technique to consume every skill I have except for one?”

“That…” When they heard that, the five got into another discussion once more, even getting slightly heated near the end. Eventually, Felix shook his head as he told him, “Unfortunately, we don’t have the skills to do that.”

“But we do know someone who does,” said Melzarin all of a sudden, instantly piquing Aurus’ interest as the four had slight frowns on their faces. “If it’s a matter of modifying Existence Transition techniques to that extreme, then Lucius and Silvia are the ones you’ll have to ask.”

Just as Aurus was about to ask who those two were, he noticed that the other four had gone eerily silent. In fact, Melzarin had already noticed this while he had mentioned those two names, feeling the auras of the four pushing down on him. Eventually, he had enough of the silence and asked, “Is there something wrong with what I said?”

Yet the four still did not respond.