Chapter 99: More than Meets the Eye

Ding!

‘You have obtained an Ally with SS-grade potential, [Burnt Twig].’

“…” At first, Aurus was extremely excited with the new Ally he received from the system, seeing that the potential it held was SS-grade, a grade higher than Fenrir’s. But when he read the name of the Ally he received, he could only become speechless at the utter disbelief one could feel when associating such a name to a grade.

“…” Although Fenrir could not see the name of the new companion he would be with to protect his master, after feeling the aura that radiated from Aurus after he looked at his notifications, Fenrir could only stay silent, feeling that he might have wronged his master.

Finally, around a minute later, Aurus barely mustered out the words to ask a single question.

“Are you fucking serious?”

After asking this question, Aurus could not help but sigh. While he was sighing, Fenrir could only move closer towards Aurus in a swaying manner, stammering in a soft yet somber voice, “Did I…make the wrong choice, M-Master?”

“Hah…it’s not your fault in this one, Fenrir.” Aurus tried to appease Fenrir’s emotions, knowing very well that it was the system who gave him such an Ally. “But man, my luck definitely sucks these past few days.”

Although Aurus felt that it was weird for his luck to be this bad, he did not have even a smidget of a clue as to why this was the case, leaving him to shrug his nonexistent shoulders towards this problem and bear with it.

If he knew that Kurohana’s presence equated to his luck in Erudinia, then everything that felt off for him during these past few days would make sense, since Kurohana was the Goddess that governed over the Law of Reincarnation, allowing her to control a bit of the Immortal Verdict of Fate.

“You know what? I won’t touch this system when I have incredibly bad luck,” Aurus promised himself inwardly while deciding to check Burnt Twig’s appearance while they were still here.

“Hey Fenrir, do you want to see your new companion?” With a slightly somber voice, Aurus looked at Fenrir and asked.

Still feeling the aura radiated around Aurus, Fenrir let out a soft sigh, replying with, “If you want to, Master.”

“Well, we’re bound to see the guy sooner or later so why not.”

“Summon Burnt Twig.”

Whoosh!

With a small flash of light appearing in front of Aurus and Fenrir’s field of vision not long after the command, Burnt Twig’s full body appeared in front of the two in its whole entirety.

“Master…” Looking at Burnt Twig’s body for a bit, Fenrir looked at Aurus and asked, “Are you sure that’s my companion? It looks a bit…burnt.”

“Yes.” Aurus could only answer Fenrir’s question with a serious tone. Not long after, Aurus could not maintain his serious façade, sighing instead. “Before we go back to the alliance, do you think we should check its stats?”

“Go ahead Master, I don’t mind,” Fenrir voiced out his opinion towards Aurus’ question.

“I hope it doesn’t disappoint,” Aurus muttered to himself. “Identify Burnt Twig.”

Ding!

Not long after, a status screen appeared in front of Aurus’ field of vision. Alongside it was the information on Burnt Twig’s Ally skill, allowing Aurus to skim over Burnt Twig’s information.

At first, Aurus could not help but have low expectations towards Burnt Twig’s power, although knowing fully well that it was of SS-grade potential. But as he continued to read on, especially on Burnt Twig’s Ally skill, his nonexistent eyes lit up as he could not help but scream, “What the heck?! You can actually obtain that from an Ally?!”

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[Burnt Twig] (Level 1/10)

Potential Grade: SS

Experience: 0/10 (can be filled with unused experience points)

Species: Twig Chardus Burnerei (Rare+)

Existence Level: Inanimate

Grade: C

[HP]: 5/5

[SP]: 3/3

Stats:

[Flame Body]: 3

[Fuel]: 5

[Flame Power]: 15

Skills:

[Charred Movement Lv.2], [Lowest Charred Energy Vessel Lv.3], [Charred Flame Shot Lv.1]

Ally Skill: [Tempered Heart of Charred Flames]

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[Tempered Heart of Charred Flames]

Grade: C (Mortal)

Through unforeseen circumstances, a Twig that has been in close proximity with flames will undoubtedly burn. But this Twig’s willpower allowed it to slowly obtain a tolerance toward flames and even the power to wield flames…at the cost of its body being extremely frail. Nonetheless, with this Twig’s willpower being extremely strong, its power in turn is also strong.

>Attack stat +20%

>Obtain the skill [Flame Infusion] (grows in level as the Ally grows)

>Obtain the skill [Charred Field] (grows in level as the Ally grows)

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“What’s wrong, Master?” Fenrir looked at Aurus’ expression…well aura, feeling that the aura of severe disappointment was now replaced with shock, but more importantly, excitement.

“Nothing’s wrong at all! Your companion will definitely help you out in the near future!” Thinking of possible team plays with Fenrir at the flank and with this Burnt Twig beside him as they attack from afar, Aurus could not help but have his nonexistent blood boil.

“Eh? Is this…companion of mine really that good?” Fenrir could not help but still have doubts towards this Burnt Twig, since he could not see Burnt Twig’s status screen.

“Just you wait, Fenrir.” Aurus decided to use his unused experience points to hastily boost up Burnt Twig’s level and grade, a choice he did not do for Fenrir since it would definitely cost him a lot of experience to raised a being of his grade.

“System, use my unused experience points to max out Burnt Twig’s level.”

Ding!

‘500 unused experience points have been deducted.’

‘[Burnt Twig] has reached the MAX level.’

‘[Burnt Twig] has reached the necessary requirements and is ready to evolve.’

“Evolve Burnt Twig!” Seeing that Burnt Twig used up an extremely small part of his pool of experience, Aurus decided to evolve Burnt Twig to A-grade, and if possible, S-grade.

Whoosh!

Due to Burnt Twig being a C-grade Inanimate, its evolution did not take long at all, only lasting a few minutes before having a change in its body structure and aura that it radiated.

At the instant its evolution was finished, Burnt Twig gradually turned its body around to look at Aurus before saying, “Master. Firewood here, serve you.”

“Pfft.” After hearing Burnt Twig—no, Firewood, introduce itself to him, he could not help but stifle his laughter, knowing fully well that his Ally was a wood-based Inanimate just like him, where it could not be helped that the names could be related to wood.

Aurus looked at Firewood for a bit, seemingly satisfied with the change. Its body grew bigger to become half of Aurus’ body size, but it now hovered off the ground in a slanted position as a small yet powerful black flame flickered on top of the side that was most off the ground.

“Do you want to protect me, F-Firewood?” Though Aurus was serious in asking the question, his Ally’s name could not help but make him snigger a bit.

“Yes, until Firewood die!” Thankfully, Firewood did not differentiate between emotions at his current grade, only answering Aurus’ question with sincerity.

“Since you’re eager, system, use unused experience points to max out Firewood’s level.”

Ding!

‘12000 unused experience points have been deducted.’

‘[Firewood] has reached the MAX level.’

‘[Firewood] has met the necessary requirements and is ready to evolve.’

“Evolve Firewood!” Not even an instant has passed after the notification of Firewood reaching the maximum level, Aurus commanded the system to evolve Firewood once again, this time to A-grade.

Whoosh!

This time, Firewood took around ten minutes to evolve, with Aurus eagerly waiting for its change, while Fenrir was sitting on the sides, slight disbelief written on his face. “It seems that…Master’s words would turn out to be correct.”

Although Aurus could not feel it, Fenrir felt it extremely well as he examined Firewood’s full body, sensing the existence of an extremely dangerous power that would not harm him nor Aurus, but definitely harm the enemies that stood along their way. What Fenrir did not know was that, this power he felt was the potential grade of Firewood.

Ten minutes later, Firewood’s new body revealed itself to both Aurus and Fenrir, shocking Aurus a bit since its new body looked extremely familiar to him.

Compared to its previous body, Firewood now stood upright in exchange for its height shortened by a bit, though that did not mean that Firewood was now short. It reached Fenrir’s chin quite easily.

Not only that, it also had four rough limbs on its body, which could be said as the reason for its reduced height. The number of black flames on its body increased from 1 to 9, one on its head, one on each limb, two on where its chest lied, and one on the gap between the two lower limbs.

After seeing it for a short bit, Aurus could not help but say, “Ah. Firewood’s a female.”

“Greetings Master!” At the instant Aurus was finished talking, a cheerful and somewhat high-pitched voice could be heard coming from Firewood, its…well, her head flame slightly intensifying a bit to show her excitement. “Firewood is my previous form’s name, you can call me Charisa Flamerei, Charisa for short.”

“Well…nice to meet you Charisa,” Aurus could only go along with the girl’s words, since not long after, Charisa’s head flame intensified by several times, growing in excitement.

“Aaaaa!!! I have a lot of things to say to you Master after evolving into this form! I want to ask you a lot of things as well! I also want to do a lot of things with you as well! And then! And then…!” With her heightened excitement, Charisa started to blurt out a lot of words she would never have said in her B-grade form, and that’s not taking into consideration the level of intelligence she had.

Then again, Aurus hurriedly evolved him from B-grade, so he did have the feeling that Charisa was going to be subservient, but this…this was way out of his expectations.

Slightly coughing at Charisa’s words, Aurus could only radiate a slightly cheerful aura as he said, “If you don’t mind Charisa, can I see your stats?”

“Ah!” While she was rambling on about what she wanted to do with Aurus, Aurus asked her a question, prompting Charisa to stop before nodding with her head flame, replying with, “Go ahead, Master!”

Charisa then went silent for a bit as she kneeled down on the ground, her flames slightly dimming down in order for Aurus to get closer.

Seeing this, Aurus could not help but mutter a soft ‘Thanks’ from the side before commanding the system, “Identify Charisa.”

Ding!

Just like before in Charisa’s C-grade form, two screens appeared in front of Aurus, revealing her stats, as well the details of her Ally skill, to which Aurus could not help but exude an extremely cheerful aura, dreaming of the multiple possibilities and choices he now had in battling.

“My small investment was definitely worth it!”

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[Charisa Flamerei] (Level 1/50)

Potential Grade: SS

Experience: 0/25 (can be filled with unused experience points)

Species: Lesser Treantis Formosus — Sentient Charisadae (Epic)

Existence Level: Inanimate

Grade: A

[HP]: 110/110

[SP]: 200/200

Stats:

[Flame Body]: 40

[Fuel]: 45

[Flame Power]: 105

Skills:

[Darkflame Flight Lv. 15], [Boundless Darkflame Energy Vessel Lv. MAX], [Charred Flame Symphony Lv. 8], [Darkflame Spirit Core Lv. 8], [Middle-Low Darkflame Spell Core Lv. 4], [Charred Sacrifice Lv. 7], [Unyielding Flame Lv. 3], [Flaming Escape Lv. 4], [Flame Immunity Lv. 8], [Sentient Charisadae Seed Lv.1]

Ally Skill: [Unyielding Soul of True Darkflame]

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[Unyielding Soul of True Darkflame]

Grade: A (Mortal)

With the Twig’s tempered heart being evolved to greater degrees, this allows formation of a Lesser Treant with the sentience of a being higher than one grade. Not only that, this Lesser Treant has extremely strong willpower, as well as great control and immunity over flames that hold a greater power over normal flames. Who knows how high the Lesser Treant’s ambitions will be.

>Attack stat +100%

>Obtain the skill [Darkflame Manipulation] (grows in level as the Ally grows)

>Obtain the skill [Supreme Field of Darkflame] (grows in level as the Ally grows)

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