Chapter 340: Looking for Trouble

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Sometime later, while Typhir entered one of the volcanic areas, Apollo settled for something much more worthwhile. He moved to temper his weakest affinity—his spatial ability. For this, he found himself in the eye of a spatial storm.

Not only did spatial winds threaten to tear apart his body, but it also felt like the energies were lacking, and even being drawn out of him, surrounded only by minor vacancies and a vacuum! While it wasn't to the extremity of being a void, it was still uncomfortable nonetheless.

The lack of useful energies made for stringent conditions, ones where Apollo could barely convert everything. However, Apollo could also tell his experiences were just an illusion. There was a faint connection between him and space, allowing him to feel minor readjustments in the flow of energies.

'The energies are just camouflaged by the disorderly orientation of the surrounding space. To fix this, I have to first understand how to unravel the jumbled mess,' Apollo thought. In his eyes, the energies resembled knotted hair—numerous fine strands tangled to present a headache-inducing issue.

Nevertheless, instead of becoming flustered, Apollo exhaled and calmed his mind. For a moment, he closed his eyes, focusing solely on the presence of spatial elements. Albeit sparse, he sensed the fleeting energies interspersed throughout the knots, however, they also appeared to be unbelievably fragile.

When he used his mental energies to guide one of the strands, it almost fractured upon his touch. 'Too forceful, not diverse enough to handle this situation. I need to tone down the force of my energy.'

Once again, Apollo felt as if his Tainted Temple was being trained. The refined usage of its energies pushed the progress of its evolution further along, gradually reaching the cusp of its current stage. Just like his body, his mind would soon undergo a thorough evolution as well.

However, this wasn't the height of his worries. Right now, he was focused on resolving this puzzle. Patiently, Apollo studied the properties of the spatial energies, relating them to what was known about sins.

'Each Sin can be said to cover quite a few properly. For example, Ira burns with ever-present wrath, incinerating not just its foes, but the mind of its wielder as well. Hence, why it gives birth to Hellfire. Superbia forever concrete's one sense of self in an unmoving state. This can be likened to grounding one's self or, harnessing the strength of the Earth,' Apollo mused.

Afterward, he paused for a short while to assess what was known about the other Sins. In addition to Ira and Superbia, there were also bits of Gula and Avaritia in his repertoire of knowledge.  For some reason, he felt these Sins were more related to Water, Darkness, and even Earth. Hence, in this situation, they didn't seem to be much help.

"I wonder... if you were to blend Gula and Avaritia together, what would you achieve?" Apollo questioned, his thoughts wandering to matters far beyond his current level. At the very least, if he wished to merge them as one, it'd require a highly evolved Domination Intent.

Once he realized his thoughts were without an answer, for now, he concentrated elsewhere. 

Carefully, Apollo separated the strands of spatial energy, each one flowing into him after successfully doing so. With each absorption, his link to the area grew stronger, allowing him to perceive the matters more clearly. Not only was it less strenuous on his Tainted Temple, but it also allowed him to decipher the clutter with less effort, resulting in an accelerating solving speed.

The first strand took somewhere between 80- 100 seconds to resolve, but the next dwindled to a stable 90 seconds. This pattern continued in varying amounts, sometimes larger, sometimes larger until Apollo's familiarity with the energies was seamless. In little to no time at all, he absorbed enough strands to elevate his affinity. 

〈System Alert: Congratulations, Spatial Affinity has increased to Level 4.〉

Within the Vermillion Night Academy, there wasn't really an area dedicated to knowledge surrounding spatial abilities. Not only was it increasingly rare to possess this affinity, typically, unlike the other affinities, but it also grew on its own. This was because the ability to morph space came along with a heightened cultivation realm.

Once one became an Emperor, they would be able to freely manipulate the space bounding them, releasing the tethers that kept man grounded. 

The speed of Apollo's hand continued to increase at a stable rate, an odd gleam spinning in his eyes as he opened them. Unexpectedly, he had entered the state he touched upon in the selection trial. 

Although it put stress on his mind and was difficult to sustain without his knowledge, just its presence alone caused Apollo's hand speed to surge threefold. The next strand took just under 30 seconds to decipher, wholly absorbing it.

An intense aura seeped from Apollo's eyes, working in tandem with his hand to unravel the remainder of the energies. Even though it was producing a droning sensation in his mind, Apollo paid no attention to it. His current state was too focused to realize any discomfort.

'Fwoosh!' 'Fwoosh!'

Apollo's hand moved rapidly, creating dissipating afterimages. By the time one faded, he was already onto solving the next. A continuous stream flowed into Apollo which soon shifted into a torrential river. 

Before he knew it, the energies in the zone were completely unraveled and he exited his focused state, the intricacies of the energy flow dispersing before his eyes.

〈System Alert: Congratulations, your Spatial Affinity has increased to Level 8.〉

"It hasn't reached the maximum of the elementary boundary. There isn't enough essence for me to absorb and comprehend. I need more," Apollo muttered. Unlike any time before, when the energy melded with his body, it was seamlessly absorbed.

There was no period of respite needed to digest and comprehend the knowledge hidden with the essence. Apollo merely rose to his feet and ventured towards the next zone—the zone of dismantled earth.

Passing through, Apollo was enraptured by the rock that floated with a minutely changing path. When it returned to its initial position, it had completed a shape similar to an elongated "0". 

However, when it returned, it never actually touched the same position. It moved in a pendulum shape, creating numerous overlapping lines. While they weren't visible to the naked eye, if one sensed it with their mind, they would notice the outline. 

"For some reason, it's much easier to solve this one," Apollo whispered, surprised by the lack of difficulty. He clapped his hands and halted the movement of the rocks as he walked to their center.

There, he allowed them to resume their flow, but he altered their path with him as their core. A formation appeared, as a result, chipping away at the rock until they started to disintegrate into rock the size of grains of sand.

Except, that wasn't rocks. It was the base of their essence and Apollo absorbed it, not just increasing his Earth Affinity, but fortifying his vessel as well. When all was said and done, this area was sucked dry of its essence as well.

But, when he approached the zone filled with metal, he noticed an anomaly. It was as if a veil was torn down because he could sense multiple signs of life nearby. Although none of them possessed any familiarities, this matter excited Apollo.

"It seems we have finally returned to the same space," Apollo murmured, grinning at the same time. Slowly, he approached the metal zone, inching closer to the positions of the signatures of life.

A few minutes later, he came across a few teams dressed in identical yellowish and silver information. Naturally, it was the attire of their respective academy, but Apollo couldn't care to verify their identities.

He could sense the waning energies of this particular metal zone but it was nowhere near how fast he devoured the other zones. It seemed as if these 10 people barely managed to drain 1% of the zone's total essence every minute.

Meanwhile, Apollo alone absorbed 2-4% of a zone's essence every time he comprehended something. His body was simply a gluttonous monster!

Regardless, Apollo advanced towards the zone, securing a spot on the outskirt before placing his palm on the ground. Instantly, he sensed the presence of metals and metalloid fragments in the ground. Some of which were so potent that they merged to create metal spurs of extreme purity.

If it was harnessed to make a weapon, the grade would undoubtedly reach a decent tier. This was without inscriptions and the like to complete the weapon.

All of a sudden, the rapid waning of the energies astonished the 10 individuals whom of which claim this area first. The leader amongst the bunch opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings in search of an anomaly. 

After all, inexplicable disappearance of energy was impossible here, the entire space was made of overly large quantities of it!

Soon enough, the leader came across Apollo's presence. The fact he didn't hide his presence from the others meant he welcomed anyone to approach and, so the prey fell into the trap.

"Oi, what da fuck are yer' doing!? We claimed this area first. Get the fuck outta 'ere," the brawny leader yelled. His shout alerted his teammates, causing them to open their eyes and focus on Apollo. 

Hostility festered in the atmosphere as they all glared at Apollo. At first, they thought their actions would come across as menacing, however, Apollo's response trampled upon their threats.

"Well, if that's what you want me to do, then why don't you make me~?"