Chapter 443: It’s a Secret

A day later, the three had appeared at the Everdark Mountains once more, making their way to the inheritance Lucius owned.

“We spent too much time in the kingdom,” Melzarin could not help but say with a sigh. At the moment, he was utilizing his mastery over Earth to its maximum as they sped through the plains. “I don’t really like moving through places at night.”

“Sorry,” Horell apologized in response. “I guess we got a bit too out of hand and lost track of time here.”

“You don’t really have to say sorry to him, Horell.” Aurus looked at Melzarin and gave him a knowing grin. “I’m pretty sure he also enjoyed that time we spent in the kingdom.”

Hearing that, Melzarin looked away from the two as he let out a light cough. “Well, I tried telling you two quite a few times that we had to head out as soon as possible. However, you two wouldn’t even listen. So, eventually, I just… stopped…”

At that point, Horell even gave Melzarin a knowing grin, prompting the latter to scratch his head as he asked them if they could change the topic while they were on their way to the inheritance.

They didn’t.

…

By the time the three had returned to the Void Mind Inheritance, the sun was only a couple of hours from setting.

With great dexterity, Melzarin dispelled the platform of earth beneath them as they stood on solid ground, wondering how long it would take Lucius to appear from the temple. However, once they looked at the temple’s entrance, they were surprised to see Lucius and the woman already standing there, seemingly waiting for them to arrive all this time.

Naturally, the question the three had in their minds at that moment eventually popped up.

“Were you waiting for us all this time, Lucius?” Melzarin asked.

“I wish I had that much free time, but no.” Lucius shook his head in response, which elicited solemn expressions from the three as they looked at each other. “Instead, I started waiting for you three by the time the sun was at its peak earlier.”

Hearing that, the three’s eyes widened in slight incredulity, all of them wondering how Lucius was so confident that the three of them would return to the inheritance that quickly.

“How did you know we were going to return this quickly?” Aurus asked, speaking out what the three wanted know at that moment.

“Mostly intuition,” Lucius replied. “But when I was talking to you, young one, you seemed like you were adamant to find the Mana Tenacity Cores in order to get that Existence Transition technique of yours modified as quickly as possible.”

“And well… you could say it’s that feeling I betted on. Glad to see my guess was correct.” Lucius flashed a smile after that.

“Well, what if we don’t have the Mana Tenacity Cores you wanted? What if we wanted to ask you to change the item to something else instead?” Aurus asked after that, only for Lucius to let out a chuckle in response. “And why should I? You wouldn’t have come here if you hadn’t brought the Mana Tenacity Cores, no?”

“Crap…” Aurus quickly turned and scratched his head, eventually letting out an awkward chuckle sometime later. “Yeah… I guess we wouldn’t have come here if we were empty-handed.”

After saying that, he then looked at Melzarin, who quickly rummaged something out of his pocket. Just as he was bringing out a small pouch, Lucius’ eyes widened as he hastily appeared in front of him.

“What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?” Melzarin could not help but ask, taking a step backward in slight shock. In front of him was a man with a crazed expression on his face, giving off the feeling that he was going to devour anything in front of him whole.

Realizing what he had just done, Lucius lightly coughed before returning his expression back to normal. Taking in a deep breath, an apologetic smile appeared on his face as he said, “Sorry. I was just a bit too excited.”

“But still… to think you’d be able to procure five Grade 4 Mana Tenacity Cores in such short time. I’m incredibly impressed,” added Lucius as he looked at Aurus and Horell.

After that, he went silent as he rubbed his chin for a bit, pondering over something. A couple minutes later, he looked up at the sky before letting out a light sigh. Then, looking at Aurus and Horell, he nodded at them. “Alright. Let me hold up my part of deal and modify your Existence Transition technique for you.”

Hearing that, Horell and Aurus looked at each other before looking back at Lucius with smiles on their faces.

“Thank you. So, do we have to leave you be for now and just come back here later?” Aurus asked, to which Lucius shook his head. “There’s no need. The modification you’re requesting from me is actually simpler than you’d think, so it’ll only take me a while.”

“Plus, I’m not like the others who want to remove all of the distractions surrounding them. In fact, I consider distractions as untapped possibilities for new ideas,” added Lucius with a chuckle.

With that, he stepped back for a bit before sitting on the ground cross-legged. Then, with a hint of his energy, he tugged onto something, prompting a small sphere of energy to come out of his mind. After that, he made the ball of energy hovering a small distance away from him before infusing more of his energy, creating a cage made out of Dark element around it.

As he watched the process unfold, Aurus could not help but ask, “What’s the ball of energy? Plus, what’s the cage for?”

“The ball of energy you see is the Existence Transition technique in its condensed form,” explained Lucius. “In other words, it’s the Existence Transition technique you gave me a few days ago, just in a somewhat tangible form.”

“As for the cage, it’s the main method as to how I’ll interact with the various elements of the Existence Transition technique, thereby allowing to modify and manipulate its contents. I just have to infuse it with a bit of my energy and small tendrils will extend from it, allowing me to fine-tune my modifications.”

“Just so I don’t forget, the modification you want for the technique is to have it remove all of your skills, except for one of your choosing, right?” he asked, to which Aurus nodded in response.

“Anything else?”

“The requirement for the technique must stay the same, which is to be at the peak of Grand-grade and undergo one baptism,” Aurus replied. “Also, if it’s possible, could you enhance the technique a bit further?”

“The first one’s already a given.” Lucius gave Aurus a smile. “As for the second one, I’ll try and see what I can do.”

After saying those words, he returned his attention to the ball of energy in front of him. Taking in a deep breath, he then extended a few tendrils of his energy to the cage surrounding the ball, allowing a couple of tendrils to extend from the cage out to the ball of energy.

Eventually, once one of the cage’s tendrils touched the surface of the ball, Lucius’ demeanor instantly changed, giving off the feeling that he was the epitome of wisdom and knowledge.

And thus, the modification began.

…

Although the process was mesmerizing at the beginning, by the time ten minutes had passed, both Aurus and Horell had grown bored of watching. As for Melzarin, he was doing something else in the meantime, deciding to create an art piece of sorts utilizing his mastery over the Earth element.

Naturally, the three of them had expected that the entire process would need silence, so they feared speaking up, even going so far as to establish connections with their energies to do so instead. So, once Lucius opened his mouth around thirty minutes into the process, the three were slightly shocked.

“Did you know there’s actually something special about this Existence Transition technique you gave me?” asked Lucius all of a sudden, looking at Aurus.

Seeing Aurus shake his head after a bit of silence, he then explained, “This is actually the first Existence Transition technique I made. I gave them to Eleanor and the others just in case they would have a need for it.”

“Well, let’s just say I wasn’t expecting that need to be this,” said Lucius with a chuckle. After that, he let out a sigh as a wry smile was plastered on his face. “Aside from that, did you know this technique was my first attempt at trying to revive Silvia?”

Hearing that, all three of them stared at Lucius in silence once more, not expecting him to say it outright. Noticing their reactions, Lucius could only wryly chuckle. “I may want to revive Silvia back to life, but it’s not like I haven’t realized that I’m a madman for thinking it’s possible.”

“In any case, I won’t give up until I breathe my last. After all…” As he said this, Lucius looked back at the woman standing near the temple’s entrance before lightly smiling.

“She’s the only reason I’m still in this world.”

…

Eventually, the cage had hundreds to thousands of tendrils extending out of it, all interacting with the ball of energy at the center. At this moment, Lucius focused all of his attention on the ball of energy, infusing a great amount of his energy as all of the tendrils touching the ball moved forward, causing a great amount of change to the ball.

Whoosh!

In an instant, a small shockwave spread out from the ball as all of the tendrils disintegrated, leaving only the ball of energy behind as it hovered in the air.

If the ball of energy took on a milky white hue before, the ball of energy that the four were currently looking at had a tinge of gold to it, giving off the feeling that it felt too valuable to touch.

After admiring it for a while, Lucius enveloped the ball with a bit of his energy before using the same energy to throw it at Aurus.

Seeing that, Aurus formed a hand with his energy to catch the ball before allowing it to meld with him. Soon, an influx of information entered his mind, which he quickly processed and organized as a new Existence Transition technique was committed to his memory.

After making sure that the technique had stuck to his mind, Aurus then looked at Lucius and asked, “I was just wondering… would you like to give this technique a new name, Sir Lucius? After all, it’s so vastly different from the original.”

“I was just about to tell you that I came up with one, actually,” Lucius said in response. “With how you start from next to nothing once you ascend to a higher existence level, I could not help but think, calling it the [Phoenix Rebirth Technique] is a great fit.”

“[Phoenix Rebirth Technique]…” Aurus could not help but get attached to the name. “It does seem quite fitting.”

“Anyways, I guess it’s time for us to leave. Thank you for modifying the technique for us,” he said soon after. However, before the three could get any farther, Lucius called out them. “Oh yeah. Just so you know, I added a little bit extra to that technique.”

“Hmm? And what would that be, Sir Lucius?”

“Well, you’ll have to use the technique to know.”

“It’s no fun if it’s not a secret.”