With Aurus' movement speed being boosted by [Tempest Levitation] and [Gale Hover], plus adding in the fact that Aurus and Fenrir hunted X-grade Inanimates around the proximity of the alliance's base, meant that it only took Aurus around ten minutes or so to get back to the base, entering into the small ecosystem without hesitation.
He did not bother to stay within the large hall and alert everyone of his appearance due to him being an Executive level member. Since he was an Executive level member, someone who had a bit of authority within the alliance, he did not really have to notify anyone, save for the Pillar level members and Herellia.
But when he was travelling to the small ecosystem though, he shouted out Horell's name, which made Horell teleport beside him.
"You definitely come at the instant you're called." Aurus could not help but laugh at the way Horell appeared all of a sudden.
"Is there any problem with that?" Horell could not help but laugh as well, explaining how he was basically the right-hand man of Herellia in terms of governance afterwards. "So…what can I do for you?"
"Can you notify the other Pillars and Herellia of my appearance? That's a rule in our alliance, right?"
"Indeed, it is a rule. Not to worry, I'll make sure they're notified. Anything else?"
"Can you also tell them that I cannot be disturb for over 2 weeks? Is that possible?"
Hearing that Aurus could not be disturbed for 2 weeks, it startled Horell quite a bit. "Well, it's definitely allowed for an Executive level member like you but…"
"Why?"
At this time, Aurus could not help but release a cheerful aura as he removed the restraints on his power, concurrently activating the [Spirit Aura] as well. In an instant, Horell was immersed in an aura that was akin to the feeling of being in the center of a tempestuous storm. Not only that, he also felt the density of energy particles in the surroundings rise within the proximity of Aurus' aura, specifically Wind energy particles.
Sensing this aura, Horell instantly formed a conclusion in his mind, asking, "Is the reason for this seclusion perhaps…"
Sensing that Horell was on the same train of thought, Aurus radiated an affirmative aura as he replied, "Indeed. I have reached the limit of A-grade and I feel like my strength cannot grow any further. I shall take this 2 weeks of time to evolve into an S-grade Inanimate."
Hearing that his hunch was correct, Horell could not help but release a cheerful aura, replying, "That's wonderful news! Alright, I'll tell the others that you cannot be disturbed for the next 2 weeks."
Horell then decided to gradually dissipate into thin air, returning back to whence he came. Just as that was about happen, he became corporeal once more, asking Aurus, "I almost forgot. If it's incredibly urgent, where can I find you?"
"The Sparring Tower. Thanks, Horell," Aurus crisply and straightforwardly replied before radiating a cheerful aura as he sped up towards the small ecosystem, heading for the Sparring Tower in the shortest time possible.
…
A few minutes later, he arrived at the Sparring Tower, hastily heading towards one of the rooms before closing it. Aurus took a few deep breaths through his body as his excited emotions gradually calmed down. After a while, the emotions he felt calmed to a still, allowing Aurus' rationality and logicality to kick in.
"Fenrir, come out."
Ding!
With the accompaniment of a notification sound from the system, a large yet roughly detailed wooden wolf appeared in front of Aurus, kneeling on its four stubs before yelling out through Aurus' mind, "Master!"
"Mm," Aurus replied with a soft sound as he was occupied in his thoughts. After a while, Aurus looked at Fenrir before saying, "Hit me with your full power."
"Eh?" At the instant Fenrir was summoned, the first thing Aurus wanted it to do was…hit him? Thankfully, Fenrir was able to easily recover from the confusion, instantly knowing what purpose it served. "Is this the same as before, Master?"
"Yep." Since Aurus was inside a secluded room, he did not need to restrain or hide anything at all, even using Fenrir without second thoughts. He also knew that he could grind his skills faster if Fenrir was around. "Open skill screen."
Ding!
Surprisingly, Aurus decided to open the skill screen once more. It seemed that Aurus forgot which skills he was going to grind up.
"Hmm…" Aurus could not help but hem and haw at the list of skills he had, knowing for a fact that he had a lot of skills that were unleveled.
______
Active Class Skills:
[Middle Spirit Spell Core (Wind Variant) Lv. 10], [Spirit Power Transcendence Lv. 5], [Grand Vitality and Spirit Transformation Lv. 3]
Passive Class Skills:
[Supreme Purity Spirit Energy Core (Wind Variant) Lv. 12], [Spiritas Seed Lv. 10]
Active Species Skills:
[Tempestuous Spiritas Glide (Special) Lv.17], [Spirit Sword of Seven Hells (Rare) Lv. 7], [Century Polymorph Lv. 1], [Wrath of the Spiritas Lv. 1], [Unyielding Spiritas Lv. 2], [Branch Benevolence Lv. 1], [Spirit Clone Lv.1], [Spirit Aura (Rare) Lv. 1], [Alliance Call], [Judgement]
Passive Species Skills:
[Soul Perception II Lv.4], [High Wind Affinity Lv.1], [Zenith Purity Spiritas SP Vessel Lv. 1], [Transcendent Vitality Anima Creation Lv. 7], [Seeker of Two Destinies Lv. 1], [Grand Vessel of Higher Sentience Lv. 1], [Greater Illusion Resistance Lv. 1], [Blessing of the Tempest Lv. 1], [Power of the Alliance (Executive A-grade Variant) Lv. 5], [Blessing of the Reincarnation Goddess Lv.MAX]
Active Life and Will Skills:
[Blooming Vitality Lv. 1], [Indomitable Will Lv. 1], [Sentience Lv. 1]
______
Some of these skills were leveled due to the fact that Aurus used them for the most part while he was killing X-grade Inanimates for the [Spirit Aura] skill.
"Hmm…alright." It took Aurus over a minute to decide on which skills he was going to level. He decided that he would level all of the C-grade Mortal skills first before moving onto B-grade skills, then onto skills that he wanted to be maxed out.
"Looking at the skill screen, there are six skills that haven't been evolved to B-grade yet."
"[Wrath of the Spiritas], [Unyielding Spiritas], [Blessing of the Tempest], and the three remaining Life and Will skills."
"I'll grind the Life and Will skills first, then the Spiritas related skills, then the [Blessing of the Tempest]." This plan was formulated in an instant after seeing the six unevolved skills.
"Oh, I'll also level up [Branch Benevolence] while I'm leveling the others as well."
"Fenrir!"
"Yes, Master!" Hearing its name being called, Fenrir hastily replied, eager to wait for its master's orders.
"Alright, I'm ready. Hit me as hard as you can!"
"Alright then! I won't hold back, Master!"
Whoosh!
"[Blooming Vitality]!"
Ding!
Bang!
"[Branch Benevolence]! Man, that's a lot of damage!"
…
And so, a few minutes have passed since the start of the grind. Thanks to the low experience requirements of the skills, and the fact that Aurus had a lot of Life and Will points, Aurus was able to easily max out the three Life and Will skills, not hesitating to evolve them not long after.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
'[Blooming Vitality] has been evolved to [Blooming Vitality+].'
'[Indomitable Will] has been evolved to [Indomitable Will+].'
'[Sentience] has been evolved to [Sentience+].'
Looking at the new names of the three Life and Will skills, Aurus could not help but feel a little nostalgic. "Ah, it's been a while since I've seen a plus sign on a skill."
He then placed this thought at the back of his head as he looked at the three remaining skills on his skill screen that were of C-grade. "Two of these skills have long cooldowns while one is a passive skill. I guess I'll just use the two whenever they're off cooldown as I train this passive skill."
Bang!
As he was still formulating his next step, Fenrir hit Aurus with the full strength of one of its stubs, making Aurus collide with one of the sturdy stone walls of the secluded room.
Instead of getting angry at being interrupted in his thoughts, Aurus knew that he could not afford time to get angry as he only gave himself 2 weeks of seclusion. Then again, why would an Inanimate ask for 2 weeks of seclusion if they did not even have to do anything important for multiple days?
Nonetheless, Aurus was going to stick to his limited timeframe. He casted [Branch Benevolence] onto himself, which netted him a level up of the skill from Level 3 to Level 4 due to the amount of heals he has used these past few minutes. Afterwards, he told Fenrir that whenever he wanted to raise his healing skill up, he would shout the word 'Hit' out. Being a loyal pet, Fenrir followed Aurus' commands and lied down on the floor, waiting for Aurus' next shout of the word 'Hit'.
As for Aurus, he stood on the center of the secluded room, closing his sense of vision as he tried to sense the Wind energy particles surrounding him with his body. After a few minutes, he was able to sense little tiny specks of green light floating around his body. He then urged these specks of green light to coalesce and gradually form a tornado as he willed more and more specks of green light to enter the tornado.
What was Aurus doing? Just like how Herellia manipulated the Wind energy particles around her to make a Wind Flame, Aurus was manipulating the Wind energy particles around him to create a tornado, the easiest thing to form that was related to the word 'Tempest'. That's right, Aurus was leveling the [Blessing of the Tempest] skill up.
Ding!
'[Blessing of the Tempest] has leveled up.'
Hearing words come from the system since his sense of vision was closed, Aurus was slightly startled from the speed of leveling up. "That was fast."
After that, another ten seconds passed by, resulting in another notification sound from the system. This time though, there was a slight surprise.
Ding!
'[Blessing of the Tempest] has leveled up.'
'[High Wind Affinity] has leveled up.'
'[Blessing of the Tempest] has reached the MAX level.'
'[Blessing of the Tempest] has met the necessary requirements and is ready to evolve.'
"Eh? [High Wind Affinity] leveled up?" Hearing these words come out from the system prompted Aurus to stop manipulating the Wind energy particles and open his sense of vision.
This occurrence got him thinking for a bit. After a while, he realized that it was natural for [High Wind Affinity] to evolve. "Since [Blessing of the Tempest] is a passive skill related to Wind, it would make sense for [High Wind Affinity] to level up as well."
With that in mind, he closed his sense of vision once again, formulating a crazy plan that would definitely hit multiple birds with one stone.
"It seems I won't stop at B-grade for [Blessing of the Tempest]."
"Since the rate of leveling is quite fast for both skills, I'll just level them up to X-grade, while making sure to max out [Wrath of the Spiritas] and [Unyielding Spiritas]!"
"It's settled then!"
"Evolve [Blessing of the Tempest]!"