Chapter 37

Rydel felt stronger than ever. There was only one problem, his physical stats were lagging behind, and not just by a little. His spirit was a raging storm that filled his body with inextinguishable energy.

His spirit was almost ten times greater than his endurance, he was on the limits of what his body could support. He needed to find a solution to balance his stats.

This wasn’t a videogame but the real world. Each attribute was a representation of the growth of certain aspects of his body. He was lucky because the physical and spiritual attributes were representatives of entirely different things, even if they were ultimately intertwined.

Thankfully, he was still a mortal, an E-grade being, the resources meant to increase his attributes were rare but not impossible to get. He hadn’t requested anything yet from the Elders as he had recently evolved and he was preoccupied with preparing for the war.

Moreover, there were hundreds of E-grade elves in the Elphyra Clan, everyone that wasn’t a kid had long entered this rank. Resources were spread thin and he hadn’t really done any contributions to the clan previously to fighting in the war.

As he was right now, forming another Daodrop was a gamble unless he was sure that it would increase his body stats. Ideally, he would reach 200 points in every attribute before evolving, gaining the pertinent trait of the E-grade, like his Superior Protosoul.

He had studied about these traits in his last years of school. Obtaining the superior version of the trait meant that his foundations in that particular attribute were incredible, and it was rare to have one of them.

Gaining two superior attributes would be extraordinary, three being the stuff of legends. For a person to receive two, meant that they had stalled reaching the 200 points to the limits, staying for decades in the early stage of the E-grade.

This wasn’t very good either, as with the passing of years and the reduction of lifespan, potential would be lost. Stagnating for so long wasn’t an ideal outcome, cultivation was all about keeping the momentum strong to breakthrough stages. It wasn’t good to rush either, as the foundations would be shaky at best.

And thus was the difficulty of the cultivation path. You needed to rush without damaging your foundations. To risk your life over and over to find the next insight, without dying in the process. And to find your own original path that resonated with your inner being.

Rydel sighed, he understood how so few people were able to become Ascended. It was in the title itself, they were people who had managed to ascend a step to the heavens against all odds.

He thought about his current objectives, there was the expedition to the human lands in about five years. He’d need to compete with the strongest E-grades of his clan to claim that spot, some of them having been stuck in the peak for centuries.

The Elders wouldn’t join the expedition, they needed to stay here to defend the Clan against whatever could happen. In terms of power, under the Elders, there were a couple of elves that were as strong as his parents.

It was his chance to see the humanity of this new world. Also, it’d allow him to expand his wings in freedom away from the attentive gaze of his parents. It’d be dangerous, but it was something he needed to eventually do for his own dreams.

Of course, he could explore the rest of the Afrein Peninsula, it’s not as if it was small. However… his heart beat for the unknown. He had read countless books about the different types of elves that lived there. From the sand elves to the east to the frost elves in the south. It just wasn’t the same.

Anyways, it wasn’t like he suddenly could become stronger even if he wished. He’d do his best to claim a spot though.

There was only his date with Shael in two weeks. He hasn’t asked her out only because she was a beauty, Rydel has his own motives. Of course, that she was a beauty helped in creating that specific plan, but it wasn’t his main goal.

He needed to make a favorable impression if he wanted to succeed. He would find some ingredients in the forest while he was testing his new abilities.

‘Don’t worry, continue ignoring me while daydreaming. It’s not like I only have you to talk with.’ An irritated voice vibrated in his head.

‘I’m sorry. I was just thinking about the future.’ Rydel wryly responded.

‘Yeah of course, about your future date with Shael. I get it, now that you have found a beauty, I’m just the annoying partner that you have to care for.’ Neena huffed.

‘…are you mad?’ Rydel tentatively asked.

Neena gazed at Rydel in response. Her expression was very human-like from his point of view, if she had brows they’d be furrowed right now.

‘What do you think?’

‘What do you want?’ Rydel knew her well.

She looked at the side shyly for a moment, before focusing on him again.

‘You have committed crimes of being obnoxious against my royal self. You’ll receive my pardon only after helping me… with you know what.’ She elevated her head and imperiously looked at him.

‘Are you sure? Only that thing?’

‘You dare! How can only be that thing.’ Neena whacked him with two tails. ‘Be sure that it has triple layers.’

‘You sure are greedy.’ Rydel rolled his eyes.

What Naveena was referring to was a cake that Thalia and he had made for her last birthday. She had become in love at first sight, secretly demanding more sweets from then on. Rydel didn’t know what was about foxes and cakes, why they liked it so much.

However, it was true that Rydel had focused too much on himself. It’s not like he could suddenly find moon-related resources laying around to help her, he hadn’t seen any since leaving Akemi’s domain.

Moreover, he also didn’t know what Dao she was cultivating. She only told him that it was related to the Moon, as he could suppose, but she didn’t want to tell him which exactly.

‘Let’s go, we have stalled long enough.’ Rydel said.

They were both in the periphery of the wild zone. It was currently morning and the sun was bright in the sky.

Rydel activated his Mantle of Night, enveloping himself in a royal mantle that made his presence more difficult to discern. The effect wasn’t as effective as it was during night-time, but coupled with his efforts in stealth, it was difficult to see him when he was surrounded by a dense forest.

He looked at Naveena who was next to him. He sent a tendril of moonlight to her, it flickered a little by the sunlight but he was able to connect it to her shadow.

Rydel sent more moonlight through this tie, enveloping Naveena in her own Mantle of Night. When he looked at her, she appeared to reflect the light in a subtle way, unconsciously making you look in another direction.

This was something that Rydel was only able to do thanks to having better-quality moonlight energy coupled with a bigger pool of spiritual energy. If he’d tried to do this in the past, the tendril wouldn’t even make it past a meter.

Naveena caught what he was trying to do and used her skill to make them even more invisible.

‘We are barely a shadow.’ Rydel said.

‘If we were a little stronger our abilities would make us truly invisible. Just think about the possibilities.’ Naveena’s eyes shone with desire.

‘Stop thinking about causing mischief, you have to be more mature.’ Rydel’s eyes shone with the same amount of desire as her.

They didn’t lose any more time and dashed into the forest in search of prey. Their steps were fast and barely touched the ground, they almost didn’t produce any sound.

Rydel soon located a green lizard that was perched on a tree. It was in the early E-grade, a perfect target.

Rydel flashed almost in front of the lizard, he unleashed a blanket of moonlight that covered the lizard without leaving any area left. He took his sword, covered with the same energy, and slashed at the head of the lizard.

The angry cry of the lizard was silenced by the blanket, the same with the slash. Rydel rapidly saved the corpse on his spatial ring. The motion was made in instant, not letting any blood stain the tree.

‘Wow, that was clean. A perfect assassination.’

‘Of course, assassins are warriors of the night. Who better in that job than me?’ Rydel proudly responded.

This was Rydel’s take on a silencer. It followed the same principles as his Mantle of Night, just applying it to a foe, with the added effect that the dense energy covering it reduced the noise. He could kill anything in broad daylight without being too flashy.

Well, if you didn’t count someone suddenly disappearing in the middle of a street as flashy.

Rydel practiced this ability with a couple more beasts. The ether that he received was just a pittance, but it was normal. The ether received was proportional to the effort that you made to get it. That’s why he could level up a couple of times after risking his life against an Ascended.

The ability in itself wasn’t a great effort to cast, but it was compensated with the overwhelming odds against him surviving doing it. He was also penalized for being helped by Grand Elder Pyria.

The system was very stinky, it’d be super easy to just give him enough ether to go all the way to D-grade.

After looking for a bit more, Rydel found a leopard that was skulking around, probably in search of prey. Just like him.

He reduced the quantity of energy employed and unleashed his Rain of Stars. This time instead of covering a big zone with rocks falling from the sky, Rydel managed to summon just a few above the Leopard’s body.

The leopard didn’t see it coming and was crushed under an avalanche of basketball-sized rocks in an instant.

‘Those abilities are very good against weaker foes.’ Naveena analyzed. ‘Your combat capabilities are already in the middle E-grade, maybe barely touched the late stage if you used both your berserker abilities. Before you think about it, don’t you dare use it, you’ll leave your body mangled.’

‘We need to try them against something stronger then. I can be more daring with your support.’

‘Don’t forget that my skills put a strain on your body too. It’s like having very mild berserker abilities.’

Rydel nodded. He was on the alert of not missing any beneficial plants either. They had been in the forest for a couple of hours, and they had already collected some low-level plants on their way.

They barely had any good properties, as they were still too near to the village, but anything was good in his books.

He and Naveena looked around for a while more until they found a yellow goat that radiated the aura of middle E-grade, almost touching the late stage. It had two horns that constantly sparked lightning, the goat was munching the corpse of an eagle in a relaxed way.

Both of them gazed at the goat. They had found the perfect adversary.