The Genius Evolution Store

”We’ve been tricked... by the ruins.” Auric shook his head helplessly. ”There is no maze entrance. There is only a locked one.”

Ellia took a deep breath to calm down while Arina facepalmed in frustration.

”Let’s go!” Ellia was so annoyed that she entered without hesitation.

Auric smiled helplessly and followed right after, making sure the entrance was still open for Arina.

Once they were inside, Auric could feel the difference between the outside and the ruins.

Inside the ruins, the energy in the area had increased noticeably.

”Does our recovery speed increase here?” Auric asked.

”In a way, yes. However, if you stay for too long, you will feel nauseous. In the worst-case scenario, you can also die. So, most of the time, people stay inside the ruins for three to seven days. If you want to stay longer than that, you need to use your energy to repel the energy from the ruins, preventing it from entering your body.”

Hearing Ellia’s explanation made him realize why Ellia wanted to set up the camp outside the ruins. If they had entered the ruins last night, they would have wasted a whole night just sleeping here.

Auric nodded in understanding.

”Did you see her technique earlier?” Lindwurm asked.

’Which technique? The sword technique?’ Auric didn’t understand why Lindwurm brought up this topic.

”Yes. Her technique. It is not just a simple sword technique.”

Auric frowned, contemplating. ’From what I can see, she drew her blade and swung it down. Then, the energy covering her blade flew forward. This energy somehow split into eight parts and hit the ground.’

”Not bad for your observation, but how did she split her strike?”

Auric paused for a moment. ’I don’t know. Maybe it’s a special sword technique?’

”No. She enveloped her energy with another layer of energy. That outer layer of energy was used to activate the teleportation. And she divided the whole sword strike into eight parts and teleported each part to different locations.”

Auric was quite surprised when Lindwurm explained it to him. The degree of control required to unleash this technique was beyond any technique he had learned. No, they were not separated by only a level. They were separated by two or three levels.

’So, this is the combat genius...’

Lindwurm nodded. ”Well, just know about it and think about what you can do with your own technique in the future.”

’I got it.’ Auric took a small breath to reset his mind.

They were inside a small corridor. There were small shops on both sides, but they had been destroyed by the beasts.

Fortunately, there was no sign of beasts yet, so they could proceed smoothly.

Still, they were spreading their energy while looking around through the goggles.

In the end, this place was in complete darkness. Normal eyes wouldn’t be able to see anything in the area. They had to be careful with the stuff lying on the ground as well.

They reached the first junction, but as expected, they couldn’t see anything yet. There was only another corridor similar to this one, but this time, they found an escalator leading up.

Ellia waved down. ”Don’t go up yet. We have to secure the floor first. We will clear each floor before going to the next one.”

Auric and Arina acknowledged the order. However, by the time they reached the end of the floor, they didn’t find a single beast.

”No beast. It’s weird...” Arina frowned.

Lindwurm suddenly warned him. ”There are beasts. More than you can imagine. Don’t rely on those goggles.”

”!!!” Auric immediately looked around, trying to see the beasts Lindwurm was talking about.

He couldn’t see anything.

Auric’s action actually caused Ellia’s instinct to kick in. She suddenly halted her steps and grabbed her sword’s handle before turning to the left. ”Get ready for battle.”

Auric followed her gaze. There was nothing but an empty store. Still, Ellia didn’t seem to be playing around.

He narrowed his eyes, trying to get a closer look. Suddenly, he noticed the energy leaking from them.

The color of the energy was actually gray, but he noticed there was also a brown tint color in the mix.

It was so small that it was hard to notice, but if he had relied on his senses instead of his eyes, he might have caught it right away.

Auric gathered his energy in his palm, while Ellia took a step forward and drew her blade, unleashing the same attack that had destroyed the concrete floor earlier.

The sword strike split into eight and flew toward the wall.

Bam!

Upon impact, the energy from the sword strike erupted and cut down several beasts.

However, the wall crumbled into pieces, allowing Auric to see the true nature of the wall.

”Stone Chameleons? Not just that. There is one more beast with a unique element!”

”No time to talk!” Ellia hurried forward. The chameleons were swarming them. There were at least fifty of them, all of them hiding like a wall, showing near-perfect mimicry.

The beast with the unique element perfected this mimicry by hiding its energy.

Arina used the Plant Generals, trying to sort out their movements.

Ellia couldn’t raise her sword. Due to the low ceiling usually found in underground mall corridors, she simply couldn’t raise her 130 cm sword fully. Still, it didn’t mean she planned to let them slip past her.

Still, they emitted hardly any heat, so the goggles had a hard time finding them.

Auric also noticed the problem. His fingertip shone brightly as he waved it as if he were drawing a line in the air.

Golden Finger.

Auric activated the Golden Finger, not for its firepower but simply for lighting.

Ellia could finally see them easily.

”Nice work!” Ellia rushed forward and cut one chameleon down. She then dodged another one and swung her blade, slicing two more.

In the meantime, Arina sent forth her roots to limit the enemy’s movement.

Auric wanted to join, but he focused on searching for the unique-element beast instead. It was good at hiding, so he had to be careful.

Auric tried to find any trace of gray energy in the area, but he had a hard time finding it due to the number of energy signatures.

Fortunately, the beast actually came to the front.

The enemy was transparent, but it was still the same type of chameleon, just with a different element.

Auric hurriedly used the fastest attack he had, the Night Arrow.

”!!!” Ellia was startled, but her instinct was telling her danger was coming from the right instead of the back.

Suddenly, the Night Arrow hit an invisible enemy, causing it to wail in pain.

Ellia was startled. The invisibility had disappeared, revealing the chameleon.

”Thanks!” Ellia swung down. The chameleon was trying to block it with its claws while sending forth its tongue toward her head.

Unfortunately for the chameleon, Ellia used the same technique one more time, splitting the sword strike into eight parts. This time, one sword strike was used to cut the tongue, another one was used to cut the arm for the block, and two more were directed at the chameleon’s body to kill it.

The rest of the sword strikes flew to the left, hitting all the beasts that had lunged themselves toward her.

With just a single sword strike, she killed the chameleon while stopping the beasts that were coming for her.

Since the unique-element chameleon had already died, Auric used the Piercing Thunder to stop the chameleons on the right side.

Once they halted their steps, Auric used the Plant Outburst to launch three spikes into the ceiling to act as a wall to slow them down.

Without missing a beat, Ellia stepped to the right while cutting down any chameleons she could.

Then Auric used the Golden Finger again, creating a curved line instead of a straight line this time.

When he activated this power, the curved line flew forward and expanded outward aggressively, both illuminating the room and blasting the chameleons.

”Scree!” The chameleons were panicking. As expected from the Golden Finger, the strike alone killed five chameleons in one go. Then, Arina swept in with her roots.

Once they had a hard time moving, Ellia gathered her energy and swung her sword.

Severed Sword.

Ellia split the sword strike again, killing another eight beasts. There wasn’t much left after all the attacks, so they simply overwhelmed them right after.

These chameleons might have an earth element, but they were much more adept at mimicry. They hid from their enemies and snuck up on them.

The unique-element chameleon had proven how effective it could be. If it hadn’t been for Auric, Ellia would have been in trouble.

But in a frontal clash, even Auric could kill several of them with a single attack.

Ellia looked around. ”I need some light over here. Just to make sure all of them are dead.”

Auric drew another light and confirmed it. ”Yeah. It’s over.”

Ellia nodded in agreement. ”Good. Also, thanks again.”

”No problem. Besides, I doubt you will have too much trouble with it.” Auric shrugged.

”Sadly, the beast essence is a bit too damaged. We really need to be careful when cutting down beasts from this point onward.”

”It’s hard to find a unique-element beast after all. Also, plant-element beasts.”

”Thanks... for not forgetting me.” Arina chuckled.

”All right. We should first burn these corpses. I will prepare lunch. Arina, go protect us. There should be no more beasts in this place, so just block the entrance to the upper floor.”

”Got it!” Arina walked away while waving her hand.

Meanwhile, Auric finally had time to gather his thoughts.

While burning the corpses, Auric observed the energy around and said to Lindwurm inwardly, ’From the looks of it, the energy in this place didn’t seem to be that strong.’

Lindwurm agreed. ”Still, I think you will benefit from it.”

’The unique elemental energy is quite thin, but I think it can bring me to my current limit, which is around 70%. After all, I’m just a single person. No way I can absorb all of it.’

”How about the other elements?” Lindwurm tested Auric.

’The fire element rating is 1.8, while both of my fire elements are at 3.2. It’s too high. The same applies to the water element. However, I should be able to absorb it through the Speedy Lightning here, but it will only push me by 18%.

’Typhoon Wind also works, but not Tempest Wind. The earth element can’t, but the Forest Root can absorb the energy from this place. Maybe because it’s underground and devoid of light, it has very thin light energy but a large amount of dark energy. I can use it to fill the Shadow energy, but unfortunately, my teacher’s Eternal Night is too strong.’

Lindwurm nodded in agreement. ”It looks like you’re able to assess it correctly. Just focus on your safety first, then absorb the energy whenever you can. Considering your absorption speed, it shouldn’t be that troublesome for you to get everything even with limited time.”

’Yes. I will probably start absorbing them when we’re about to rest,’ Auric agreed. ’Still, I’m glad that I came to this place.’

”This place is good for your experience and energy, so I understand.”

’No. I’m thinking about the locked entrance and all this energy in this place. The energy in this place is rushing into our bodies because there is a difference in density.

’What if we use a different density in our heart to create an artificial heart? And because it’s a heart created by the host’s original energy, it will connect to the original heart.’

”That might be possible.” Lindwurm somehow felt a bit more convinced of the theory this time. ”But because each element has its own way of flowing, you need to create a lot of techniques.”

’Not really. It will be the same as the gathering technique. While it’s true that the flow is a bit different, they’re pretty similar. As long as the ratings are not too far from each other, it should work.’

Lindwurm couldn’t see the particles, but he knew there was something Auric sensed that he didn’t. So, Auric’s claim might not be empty.

”I will assist with the technique creation in any way I can, but this is yours, so you have to make sure everything is covered.”

’I know that. And no one has bought a gathering technique yet...’

”Don’t remind me of the fact that we’re still not successful.”