Chapter 214 - Hot and Cold

"I'm done reading through the description, Theresa," Aurus said as he focused his sense of vision towards Theresa before adding, "Go ahead and let me evolve."

"As you wish, Master," Theresa soon said in response to Aurus's words, gesturing with its fingers as a white halo of energy surrounded Theresa a few seconds later, radiating an aura of magnanimity and power at the same time. Just as it was about to manipulate this white halo towards Aurus, a thought suddenly appeared in Aurus's mind, prompting him to ask Theresa, "Do you know how much time this evolution would take, Theresa?"

"Around 4 weeks, Master," Theresa replied to Aurus's question, to which Aurus could not help but lightly chuckle as he muttered, "I guess Argentum would be looking at my evolving body for 2 weeks or so. I wonder how strong he'll be after I evolve."

Whoosh!

After Aurus was done muttering to himself, Theresa went ahead and directed the white halo surrounding it towards Aurus, being absorbed by his body not long after as an aura of great intensity radiated from him soon after, jolting Aurus's allies from their engrossed grinding. They then looked at the origin of the aura they felt, eventually looking at each other with a chuckle as they soon found out that their master was now evolving.

A few seconds after that, they went back to their grinding while Aurus's body was slowly transforming into a cocoon, expanding into a white dome that covered a decent portion of the room. Of course, Charisa, who opted to grind beside Aurus, moved away from this dome since she did not want to disturb her master in his evolution process.

In the center of this white dome was a jade green blob of energy that had motes of light with various colors surrounding it. Red, blue, yellow, white, and black. These were the colors of the motes of light surrounding the green blob, as if the colors were pertaining to something that existed around and inside the green blob.

Nevertheless, at this moment, Aurus was fully unconscious, his senses of the outside temporarily gone. A few minutes after the beginning of his evolution process, a notification from the system resounded in an unknown place, taking on Theresa's voice since it could not be in its personal assistant form with Aurus evolving.

'[Aurus — Tempest Walnut Spiritas Flux (Rare+)] has evolved into [Aurus — Zephyr Spiritas Flux - Semis Regulus (Epic+)].'

'The fate of the world has slightly changed due to this action.'

…

XXXX Continent, outside the Tempest Cliff.

"Fire!" 

With three humans, two males, and one female out in the open, and four hidden, Argentum could not help but let out a sigh as he activated his polymorph skill. In an instant, Argentum's distinctive figure as a Wind Spirit was soon transformed into something that could be barely seen by the n.a.k.e.d eye if one looked closely.

A grain of black sand.

At the very instant Argentum had transformed into this shape, he hastily suppressed his usual aura, making it seem to the humans that he had disappeared. Hearing the arrows that were aimed at him collide where his 'head' would be, Argentum let out a sigh of relief not long after, moving towards a spot wherein he could still see all of the humans, but in exchange, the humans would not be able to see him.

Fortunately, it did not take him that long to find a spot, heading up to the peak of a decently large tree as he watched the humans panic over his disappearance. While they were panicking, Argentum could not help but think of his next move, now knowing that these humans were out to get him, even though it was just a mere chance that allowed them to do so.

'Should I just go and leave them? Making them look like lunatics?' This was the first thought that came into Argentum's mind, eventually thinking that it could be a thing that he would possibly do. Although the humans have surrounded him, they have not inflicted any damage on him yet, which meant that there was no grudge whatsoever between him and the humans.

Just as he was about to act upon this idea and leave the humans behind, the thought he had a while ago when he looked at them by the campfire had sprung up once more. With this new thought in mind, he was now conflicted as to whether he should go ahead and leave them alone, or kill them as materials for his ascension to Super Animate.

'By the looks of it, these humans only seek profit, not having any moral limits whatsoever,' Argentum thought as he looked at the humans once more, who were frantically searching around the area using their spells. Listening to their conversations a bit more, the decision in his mind was eventually made, leaving a question which he had to answer on his own.

'Do I have enough power to kill these humans?' This was the question that popped up in Argentum's mind after deciding to go ahead and kill these humans. Although he was indeed killing these humans to procure materials for his ascension to Super Animate, he decided that he was not going to use their flesh and blood, but rather, their energy.

"From the aura they're radiating, the strongest out of them seems to be the peak of Rank 0 Animate," Argentum muttered to himself, making sure to not alert them while they still scoured the area. He then added, "Even though a Rank 0 Animate's flesh and blood would be enough for the process, Erea did say that the stronger the origin of the flesh and blood, the greater effect it would have for my path to becoming a God in the long run."

"Yeah, I'll just use them for my Power Baptism," Argentum said around half a minute later, his decision now incredibly firm. With that now done, he then went back to his previous train of thought, which was regarding the dilemma as to whether he had enough power to kill them or not.

'With [Tempest Awakening] at Adept mastery and [Lesser Wind Magic] at Expert mastery, would I have enough power to kill them in one shot?' Argentum asked himself in his mind, eventually concluding that thinking about it would serve no purpose. And with that in mind, he then went ahead and attracted the attention of the humans as he shouted, "Well, well, well, how the tables have turned."

At the very instant his voice was heard by the humans, one of the humans that revealed themselves to him shouted in a shrill voice, "Wind Spirit!"

As for the others, they were silent since they were slightly anxious. It then occurred to them that even though he was a Wind Spirit, they had no idea as to how strong it was, making their anxiety gradually intensify as their thoughts turned pessimistic.

Ignoring what they were thinking about, Argentum continued to talk, saying, "Good thing I'm still within the vicinity, right? I hope you try your best to find me." After that, he went ahead and let out a chuckle with a hint of arrogance.

Just as it seemed that one of the humans was about to respond to his words, Argentum interrupted them from speaking as he hastily thought of what they were thinking, shouting, "Also, I've changed my mind. Back when I checked your clearing, I was supposed to kill all of you."

This statement brought shivers to everyone, leading everyone to believe that the Wind Spirit they were up against was far stronger than they initially thought. Feeling the tense atmosphere surrounding the humans, Argentum let out a chuckle inwardly as he muttered to himself, "It seems they planned to attack me without a strategy. Time to increase their fear towards me."

"How about…we play a game?" Argentum soon asked them, to which one of the humans responded with a shaky voice, "A game…?"

"Indeed, a game," Argentum soon replied with an arrogant laugh as he thought about the type of game he would have them to play. It had to be a game wherein he would fool the humans that they were getting closer to capturing him, only to find out that they were not even close. Eventually, he thought up a good game to play, albeit the prize for him losing was quite extreme.

"Here are the rules," Argentum shouted, attracting the attention of the humans as they went silent in an instant. Seeing that their attention was focused on his voice, Argentum went ahead and explained the rules of the game in mind.

"Do you know the game 'Hot and Cold'?" Argentum asked all of them, to which everyone slowly nodded their heads in response. Looking at them slowly nod in response to his question, Argentum could not help but wonder as to what kind of culture these humans to have a game from his previous life.

Either way, he continued with his explanation, saying, "We're going to play that game, but with a twist. I'm the object you have to find."

He then continued, "You must choose one person to go ahead and find me with a bow at hand. I'll tell them whether they're near where I am or far from where I am. Once that person has an idea as to where I am, they must shoot an arrow as to where I am. If the arrow grazes me or comes close to me, you can go ahead and capture me, sell me, use me as a slave or whatever."

Hearing that the prize, if they won, was the Wind Spirit they yearned to capture, the humans all had elated expressions on their faces, thinking that this game was in their favor. But after they listened to the next portion of Argentum's explanation, all of them could not help but gulp their saliva.

"Of course, there's the opposite. If the arrow hits a place far away from where I am, I go ahead and kill the one that shot the arrow," Argentum said with a light chuckle. Normally, at this moment, the humans would be complaining about the rules of the game due to how unfair it seemed. But since they did not know how strong Argentum was, they thought that it would be better for them to accept the wager instead.

"Are the rules clear?" Argentum soon asked them, to which they all nodded simultaneously. After letting out a light chuckle, he then went ahead and shouted, "It's time for the game to start! Go ahead and choose the first person to seek me!"

With Argentum done speaking, the seven humans went ahead and huddled together in a circle, whispering to one another as to who was going to go first. Eventually, the humans had a unanimous agreement, letting the human with the shrill voice go first as he tightly grasped the bow with slight anxiety and fear.

Noticing that they had finally chosen a human out of all of them to start the game, Argentum focused his sense of vision towards the human with the shrill voice and said, "Let the game begin. For every move you make, I'll tell whether you're hot or cold. Best of luck."

In response to Argentum's words, the human with the shrill voice nodded shakily as he loaded his bow with an arrow before going ahead and moving towards a random direction. After a few seconds, Argentum shouted "Colder", prompting the human to head towards another direction after that.

A few seconds after changing his direction, Argentum then shouted the word "Warm", slightly increasing the human's confidence that he would be able to shoot Argentum with the bow and arrow in his hand. He then continued to move in the same direction where he was told the word "Warm", gradually getting closer and closer to where Argentum was.

In the end, the human with the shrill voice had stopped in front of a large tree, to which Argentum shouted "Insanely hot" in response. At this moment, the human's confidence was at an all-time high, thinking that he would win this game in the first round. He then looked around his current surroundings, deducing the possible place where Argentum could be.

It did not take long for his rationality and logicality to kick in, ending up with the conclusion that Argentum was in the leaves of the tree in front of him. With a grin on his face, as well as expectations of great honor and pride, the human with a shrill voice pulled the string of the bow back to its limits, releasing it soon after the arrow passed through the leaves at great speeds.

Twang! Whoosh!

Not long after, the arrow had soon gone past the leaves of the tree, making the human slightly doubt his conclusion of Argentum being at the leaves of the trees.

And it seemed…that it was indeed the case.

"It seems you've failed to hit me," Argentum soon said with a loud voice, his tone slightly disappointed. He then said, "You know what that means, right?���

Thud.

In an instant, the knees of the human with the shrill voice buckled, kneeling on the ground as he looked up and pleaded, "No…don't…I still have a family…"

"What does that have to do with me?" Argentum scoffed at the man's words in response. "You wanted to capture me, so this is what you deserve."

"No…no…" As the man repeated a singular word signifying his denial over the conclusion of this round, he slowly got up on his knees before slowly heading towards the opposite direction of the large tree. At first, he was trudging along…then jogging…then running for his life as he shouted, "I don't wanna die!"

"Too late," Argentum said in a serious tone.

"[Tempest Awakening]."

"[Lesser Wind Magic: Wind Bolt]."

Whoosh! Bang!

Surprisingly, the bolt of wind had come from the large tree, though the other humans did not see it since they were looking at the man who was running away. It only took a short while for the bolt to catch up to the running man, hitting the man squarely on the head, piercing through it as blood, chunks of flesh, and other viscous fluids splattered soon after.

Thud.

With the running man landing on the ground face first with its face mangled to the point where his facial features could not be made out, the other humans could not help but shudder in intense fear and anxiety, incredibly fearful that they might end up like the running man just now.

Contrary to what they were feeling, Argentum went ahead and let out a light chuckle before saying, "Let's start the second round, shall we?"