'[Roll] has leveled up.'
Hearing that announcement made Aurus' mouth curve from both ends. Although it was just an increase of 2 meters per hour per level up, to Aurus, it was progress.
Nonetheless, he was already getting sick of the sight, but since he had to continue moving forward, he just dozed off as he constantly rolled towards the place he set a marker on.
Now, let me ask you this question? What place did Aurus put a marker on wherein he still has 748 meters left to trek and is one of Aurus' main objectives in order to become fast?
Well of course, this Heavenly Body here shall answer that question while answering another question. The latter question shall be saved for later.
Anyways, Aurus is heading to a place that every player in ISE always heads to first.
If you're not a gamer, you wouldn't guess this but, it's a grinding spot! A grinding spot allows players to do speed leveling in order for them to evolve to higher grades and existence levels.
No wait. I'm sure you've probably guessed it's a grinding spot since almost every person that stumbled upon this novel is for sure a gamer.
Anyways, for the gamers, you can skip to uh...nowhere. For the people who don't play MMORPGs, I explained grinding spots. Anyways, normally, grinding levels up at a certain spot early-game is a big no-no since you wouldn't get used to your newfound strength.
But in ISE, speed leveling is basically the way to progress. Although playing as a stick is interesting, players evolve into higher grades so they become less and less stick while obtaining more skills. Do you understand?
Now Aurus here is heading towards the closest grinding spot that could be traversed from the Forest of Beginnings.
What is its name? The Lesser Experience Haven.
Although it's self-explanatory, for those who are new to the game, and of course this novel as well, this place is filled with enemies, specifically twigs and sticks.
That's all for the place Aurus is heading towards. Now this Heavenly Body shall now answer the other question. What am I? Specifically, what are Heavenly Bodies?
Oh wait, I forgot to play the special music. Let me try that again.
*Vsauce music plays*
What are...Heavenly Bodies?
Although there is no concrete evidence on scientific basis that Heavenly Bodies exist, we Heavenly Bodies are a manifestation of the Creator's imagination in order to act as an overseer for an entity. Although I'm not given a name by the Creator, I usually call myself Hebo.
Also, even though Heavenly Bodies are made by the Creator to act as overseers, Heavenly Bodies are made to fulfill different purposes. Defense, offense, support, reconnaissance, pleasure, everything could be done by Heavenly Bodies.
Now, there is also another type of Heavenly Bodies that aren't made by the Creator himself, these are called Artifixes, Artifux when it's just a single one.
These Artifixes are made by the Gods the Creator made to rule over the Eternal Plane, Eternal Plane being the universe.
Well, now that I think about it, isn't it weird that Kurohana didn't make an Artifux for Aurus? And for some reason, I became the overseer for Aurus?
The Creator is definitely weird, but he has his reasons.
What to do...what to do...how can I stall time while Aurus is still rolling?
Ding!
Eh?
I received a message from the Creator himself. Let me read it out for you.
'For those that are reading this novel, hello. I am the Creator. This novel is actually some sort of a mirror of the Eternal Plane I created and I'm quite bored so I'm currently writing this. As for spoilers, do you want some? Nah. I guess you won't need it.'
And that's al—wait, there's more.
'Anyways, I wanted to pull an April Fools joke on everyone that's reading this by turning All Star into binary, but then I thought... I'm too lazy to do that. So here I am, writing this letter to give to Hebo while you guys are waiting for something interesting to happen. Anyways, that's all from me. You might hear from me sooner or later, but it'll mostly be later than sooner.'
*Poof!* And just like that, the Creator's letter disappeared.
Ding!
Ah, finally. Aurus made a bit more progress after I rambled for a while.
...
4 hours have passed since [Roll] has leveled up.
The place Aurus wanted to go to is still far from his reach, with 736 meters left between them. Even so, there was a bit of change in Aurus' surroundings although he didn't notice that.
The thing he did notice was...
Ding!
'[Roll] has leveled up!'
'[Roll] has reached the MAX level!'
'[Roll] has met the requirements and is now ready to evolve.'
"Ah." Aurus heard the notification sound and made a short gasp of surprise before going back to normal. Since his [Roll] skill was now at MAX level, it was quite obvious that Aurus would evolve it. But before he did so...
"If I remember correctly, the [Roll] skill was a C-grade Skill right?" Aurus tried to recall the thoughts of every single skill he had encountered before confirming that that was the case.
Since [Roll] was the most basic skill a player could have, that meant that it would start off as a C-grade Skill, the lowest grade for a skill possible. But once one were to max it our and evolve it, it could allow the player to move exponentially faster than before and even allow the player to do amazing things like teleport or fly!
But he was still far off from evolving [Roll] into that sort of skill so he commanded, "Evolve [Roll]."
Although [Roll] would only become faster and not allow his body to fly, it was better than nothing.
Ding!
________
Please choose the skill that [Roll] would evolve into:
[Flash]
[Roll+]
________
From the two options given to Aurus, he was sure that he was going to pick [Roll+] since it would eventually turn into the great [Hover] skill. But for some reason, he felt an urge to check the skills one by one to see if Kurohana tampered it.
"Identify [Flash]."
Ding!
________
[Flash] (Level 1/5)
Experience: 0/5
An upgraded version of [Roll] focused on traversing short distances at short times. Instead of allowing the wind to propel the stick forward, the stick instead stores the wind within it and explodes it into one go, propel the stick at a speed incomparable to before.
Distance traversed: 20 meters
Cooldown: 2 hours
________
"Hm. No difference at all," Aurus said. He then checked the [Roll+] skill.
Ding!
________
[Roll+] (Level 1/5)
Experience: 0/5
An upgraded version of the [Roll+] skill focused on staying true to the original. With the stick's mastery, the stick can harness more of the wind to propel it faster.
Rate of movement: 10 meters per hour
________
"Although the distance traversed by both skills are the same in the same timeframe, I'd really pick [Roll+] instead of [Flash] since I hate staying in one place for a long time." Making his mind up, Aurus confirmed his choice of evolving [Roll] into [Roll+] and waited for the notification sound.
Ding!
'[Roll] has been evolved to [Roll+]!'
"Well, that's one step further in the journey to becoming God-tier again," Aurus sighed.
Afterwards, he activated the [Roll+] skill, continuing to head towards the Lesser Experience Haven.