Chapter 95: An Unexpected Punishment

Returning back to the present where Aurus had just recently killed the unnamed boss of the Greater Experience Haven, obtaining another OS Point for his use.

Feeling satisfied with the effects of the newly obtained Battle module from the [Artificial Intelligence] option he unlocked from the Existence Evolution System’s OS, he decided that it would not be a waste for him to allocate another OS Point to the Battle module. Heck, even if he decided to allocate all of the points he would obtain from killing bosses to the Battle module, allowing it to max out, he would not even have a tinge of regret!

That’s how reliant the Battle module is!

“Upgrade [Artificial Intelligence: Battle Module],” Aurus commanded to the system, without even a shred of hesitation.

Ding!

‘Are you sure you would like to upgrade [Artificial Intelligence: Battle Module] to Level 2/10? This will cost you 1 OS Point!’

Although the system alerted him that he could not go back on his choices, he ignored it and confirmed his decision.

Whoosh!

Rather than upgrading in an instant just like the other things he could upgrade, it seemed that there was a delay in the upgrades for [Artificial Intelligence], which did somewhat make sense due to it being an upgrade to the performance capabilities to the system’s OS if one looked at a different perspective.

Thankfully, the system told him that it would only take a few minutes at most, and that it would not affect the other aspects of the system while the Battle module was being upgraded. Since he had nothing else to do within the Greater Experience Haven, he decided to fly away, heading towards the Inferno Grounds, one of the places in Aurus’ list that housed a boss he could kill with his current power.

“System, open my status screen.” Out of sheer impulse, Aurus decided to open up his status screen, randomly wondering about his current stats.

Ding!

Just like what the system said before, any other aspects of the system were not affected at all, evident in the holographic screen that appeared in front of Aurus’ field of vision.

________

[Aurus] (Level 9/20)

Experience: 900/5120

Species: Tempest Walnut Spiritas Flux (Rare+)

Existence Level: Inanimate

Grade: S

[HP]: 5176/5176

[SP]: 2040/2040

[Flux]: 15/15

[Life]: 125/125

[Will]: 125/125

Stats:

[Tenacity]: 200

[Vitality]: 280

[Spirit]: 367

Synchronization Rate: 60%

Unused Experience Points: 214855

Unused Genesis Points: 41

________

“Tsk.” Aurus could not help but click his tongue. “Just by evolving into an S-grade Inanimate, my measly HP from when I was an A-grade, is now comparable to a normal X-grade. Even my SP was increased by a bit, it seems that the Class Seed obtained from evolving to S-grade is quite more powerful than an A-grade one.”

“Heh…I still have over 200 thousand experience points that I haven’t used.” After looking at his status screen for a bit, he noticed that he has not touched it even after evolving into S-grade. He did decide that it might be useful to use it to max his level out, but since he was going to kill bosses that would give him a lot of experience along the process, he finally decided otherwise.

“Wait…the maximum Flux I can hold now is 15?” Aurus was somewhat dumbfounded at this number, although it was only a 50 percent increase. He knew that he originally had a maximum Flux amount of 10 at all times, so he asked himself, “When did it increase to that number?”

Closing his status screen, he opened up his notification log, instantly alerting him of two skills that could already be evolved whenever he wanted.

Ding!

‘[Flux Vessel] and [Flux Weapon Creation] have reached the MAX level.’

‘[Flux Vessel] and [Flux Weapon Creation] have met the necessary requirements and are ready to be evolved.’

“Eh?” At first, he was quite shocked to see that these two techniques could already be evolved. But after a bit of mulling over, he could not help but laugh loudly.

“To think that my hypothesis was correct!”

Since he did not dismantle Staff No. 1 after creating it, it seemed that his hypothesis, where the weapon passively increased the experience for [Flux Vessel] and [Flux Weapon Creation], was correct.

“Evolve all of the evolvable skills,” Aurus commanded.

Ding!

A few seconds later, a notification screen appeared in front of his field of vision, letting him know the new names of the skills.

‘[Flux Vessel] has been evolved to [Expanded Flux Vessel].’

‘[Flux Weapon Creation] has been evolved to [Better Flux Weapon Creation].’

While reading the new names of the skills, the upgrade of the Battle Module coincidentally finished as he closed the notification screen, increasing the happiness Aurus felt by a margin.

Although he was eager to check out the new effects brought by the Battle module’s upgrade, he knew that he could always try it out on the boss of the Inferno Grounds he was heading towards.

“Now that I think about it, I should change my current weapon for something better, seeing that I can use more Flux in creating a weapon, as well as having a higher ranked Flux as material. Would it speed up the experience gain of both skills? Would creating armor speed it up as well?” With these thoughts in mind, he flew towards the Inferno Grounds with great speed.

…

While Aurus was flying towards the Inferno Grounds, wondering about the effects of the upgraded Battle module and other things…

Within the vast and seemingly boundless Celestial Plane.

Whoosh!

Two beautiful silhouettes appeared near the entrance of an extremely extravagant hall, exuding a radiance that it could not be sullied or destroyed by any external entity. This extravagant hall was the Hall of Greater Divinity, while the two beautiful silhouettes were Phatia, who came with Kurohana to punish her for her wrong deeds.

As the two of them entered the large hall, the aura Phatia subconsciously radiated instantly attracted the attention of the Greater Gods within the hall, who were previously minding their own business.

“Damn! That’s some extremely terrifying aura!”

“Shhh! Don’t say that out loud! One of the Immortal Verdict Wielders just entered the Hall!”

“Ah?! Why would an Immortal Verdict Wielder enter our Hall if they have their own hall?”

“Probably for a reason we’ll never know.”

As the Greater Gods that noticed Phatia and Kurohana started to animatedly discuss the reasons why an Immortal Verdict Wielder entered the hall, Phatia and Kurohana’s journey was cut short as a goddess that radiated an intense aura of darkness instantly appeared in front of the two of them.

Whoosh!

“I apologize for not personally seeing you into this Hall of mine, Phatia.” With a slightly respectful on her face, the woman that appeared in front of the two said as she slightly bowed towards Phatia.

“You don’t need to think about it that much, Nix. I know you’re a busy woman, especially with the fact that you’re close to wielding an Immortal Verdict.” Phatia responded to the woman’s words, whose name was Nix, with grace. She also took this time to say, “Let me also congratulate you in advance in becoming the ninth Immortal Verdict Wielder of the Celestial Plane.”

Nix, who did not expect Phatia to congratulate her, slightly shuddered before hastily composing herself as she lightly smiled, her smile acting as light amidst the darkness she radiated.

Just like her name, Nix was the Goddess that governed over the Law of the Void. Thanks to her supreme mastery over the law, many Greater Gods have given her the title of the Goddess of the Void, sometimes even being called the Empress of Nihility. Add in the fact that her mastery allowed to peer beyond her law and take grasp of an even greater law, this allowed her to wield a small part of an Immortal Verdict which melded quite well with her own law, making her a Pseudo Immortal Verdict Wielder.

“I shall treat you to some tea after this.” As she said this to Phatia, she finally noticed Kurohana beside Phatia who was silent all this time. Looking at how Kurohana was with Phatia as they arrived, Nix instantly understood the reason for Phatia’s visit.

“It seems you’re punishing a Greater God under your Immortal Verdict?” Nix raised her eyebrow, having great confidence at her speculation.

“Mm, this girl right here did not ask for my permission before wielding my Immortal Verdict, thankfully the part she controlled fused back with my Immortal Verdict, or else I won’t be standing here talking with you.” Although Phatia remained a calm and composed expression on the outside, she still could not help but become angry whenever she looked at Kurohana.

“How many missions are you planning to give her? What difficulty as well?” As the overseer of the Hall of Greater Divinity, Nix immediately went into the crux of the matter, asking for the level of punishment Kurohana would have to go through.

“3 missions, each one netting at the very least 20 God Sparks.” Phatia recalled the punishment she gave Kurohana and repeated it to Nix.

“Quite a lenient punishment,” Nix lightly chuckled before looking at Kurohana, asking, “Do you have any objections to this? If you try to avoid your punishment, you’ll be banned from the Hall, lest you accept a punishment of a greater level than this.”

Kurohana sighed lightly as she softly replied, “I have no objections.”

“Then that makes things somewhat easier,” Nix lightly smiled. She then waved her hands in the air for a bit, before three motes of light appeared in front of her.

“I have handpicked these three missions for you. Since you’re so cooperative, I’ve decided to choose missions that netted out 20 God Sparks, not even 21,” Nix said as she looked at Kurohana.

“The first mission you shall undertake is…”

“To satiate the built up lust accumulated by the Greater God of Pleasure, as well as find the crux of why it has accumulated.”