Chapter 227: Advancement

"I'm sorry what? You're not in a position to scare me", Rex said with a slight smile.

Adhara can only glance at him teasingly and say, "Is that nervousness I sensed from you?", she walks past Rex heading towards the door.

Rex shakes his head amused by Adhara's cocky behavior,

"I'm not nervous!", Rex shouted making a smile appear on Adhara's face.

A couple of hours later, Rex was already ready with his suit that he bought with Adhara during the time they went to the hotel.

The perfectly fit black tuxedo hugs his body and he looks as formal as anyone can get.

He looked to the mirror and tidied his tie, he mumbles about something while tidying his tie as if he's preparing for a speech.

But then suddenly, the door opened as Adhara walks in.

Adhara looks at Rex in surprise before she asks, "Why are you wearing that? Did I need to dress up like you too?"

"You should because you might need to meet with Vargas", Rex replied casually.

Hearing Vargas' name makes Adhara's face darken, she remembers what he instructed last time, "No way, there's absolutely no way I'm going to meet with him"

"You're my right-hand right? Can I trust you?", Rex asks while looking at Adhara's eyes.

This caught Adhara in surprise because of the sudden change in expression, his serious expression makes Adhara shut her rambling and say, "Yes, you can trust me. But why do I have to meet with that guy?"

"You forget about yesterday's talk?", Rex asks after finally tidying his tie.

Adhara frowns trying to remember what Rex said before he continues, "We are going to make the SCO and UWO banded together at least until we get rid of the Supernaturals strongholds"

But this makes Adhara frown even harder, "And how are we going to do that?"

"It's easy, I'm going to talk to an influential person in SCO while you will be convincing Vargas to make the UWO agree to a temporary truce to fight the Supernatural", Rex added.

This news came like a bomb in Adhara's head, she still doesn't get what Rex is trying to say.

"Okay, there are two problems with that. First one, how can you talk with an influential person inside the SCO, and second, What is the odds of me convincing Vargas in doing that when the UWO is clearly hostile to the SCO", Adhara explained in frustration.

Rex chuckles hearing what Adhara said, "Are you still grumpy because you're not used to waking up this early?"

Hearing this, Adhara sigh helplessly, "Rex, I'm not joking. We can be arrested for colluding with the SCO and I'm sure it will not end well"

Rex finally sits down on the bed before he taps the place beside him signaling Adhara to sit, she then reluctantly sits on the bed.

"To answer your first question, I am a member of the SCO", Rex said truthfully.

Adhara tilts her head to the side while staring at Rex in aghast, she was at a loss for words before Rex continues, "For your second question, your odds will be higher than me because Vargas had a daughter and he lost her because of his mistakes"

This makes Adhara's gazes turn blank as she connected the dots as Rex walks out of the room leaving Adhara alone.

'It's not fair for Rosie to be the only one who knew that', Rex thought as he walk into the hall.

He then went to Clarice and asks, "Where's Kyran?"

She jumped in surprise when Rex suddenly asks her, Clarice shakes her head before suddenly Stuart answered, "Kyran is in the Geriatric Canyon"

Rex glance at Stuart before he knits his eyes, "Geriatric Canyon?"

"It's the Canyon that has just been found sir, Kyran goes there regularly and I assume that he's training", Stuart added making Rex confused.

After getting the information, Rex instructed, "Call him back right now"

Adhara got out of the room and saw Rex talking to the butler, Rex then walks towards her before she said, "I called Edward and I woke Rosie up and they will be ready shortly"

"Since when did Kyran go to the Canyon alone?", Rex asks in confusion.

He knew that he went out for a while because of the SCO's mission, but he didn't expect that Kyran develops a new habit since he left.

Adhara then replied, "Don't worry, the explored caves have already been marked and ranked based on the mutated animals inside it so it became a hunting ground for Awakened around here"

"Huh, I didn't know that", Rex said before he went inside the room again.

While waiting for the others to arrive, Rex locked the door and takes out one demon core from the inventory, and play with it in his hand.

'System, How do I use this?', Rex asks.

<The user need to crush the demon cores and put them in water before soaking in it, the process will take approximately half an hour as the energy in it will strengthen the user's body>

Reading this, Rex puts back the demon core in his inventory, 'No way in hell I'm taking off this hard-to-wear suit', Rex thought.

He then asks another thing, 'Then do you know how an Awakened advance into the sixth rank?'

<Explaination will cost 500 gold, Do the user want to continue?>

'Now I need to pay for getting an explanation? Fine just explain it to me', said Rex feeling annoyed by the system.

<Reaching Sixth Rank will require the user to create a media to store a spirit within the user's body, the way to do that is by gathering as much mana while creating multiple media inside the user's body that will then act as a chain to link the user and the spirit together. 12 media should be made on each of the user's main joints added with two media in the user's brain and heart. Creating 6 media is a mid-fifth rank, 12 is a peak fifth rank, and 14 is the sixth rank. The more mana the user can gather in each of the media, the stronger those media will be to hold a strong spirit. An Awakened has only one shot in this>

Rex reads the system explanation with a frown, 

The system gives pretty detailed information regarding how to reach rank sixth, it was the most explanation that Rex has ever got from the system.

But while reading this, the frown on Rex's face didn't fade, 'Then why did Chandler tell me to master that technique first?', Rex thought.

<Creating media varies depending on the elements, some elements are docile like water, earth, ice, while some are brutal like wind, dark, lightning>

After reading this, Rex finally realizes the reason why Chandler insists on telling him to master the technique he gave.

The reason for that is because just like the system said, lightning is a brutal element during this advancing process.

Although Rex doesn't know what will happen, he sure knows it will be bad.

'To sustain Devo the Gatekeeper, how much mana would I need in each media?', Rex asks again, Devo the Gatekeeper is his choice of spirit.

<Devo the Gatekeeper is a spirit that has lived for almost 12,000 years, the required media for sustaining this spirit will need the user to gather mana for a week for each media or an equivalent of 180 high-grade elemental stone per media>

Reading this, Rex's eyes widen as his eyes wanted to jump out.

180 high-grade elemental stones per media would result in 2520 elemental stones in total, and Rex didn't even manage to use 100 elemental stones that he got from before.

This is certainly a huge expense, but that is exactly what the elemental stones are for.

'Will I survive if I force the advancement?', Rex asks curiously, but the system's answer makes him smirk in delight.

<Very Painful process, but the user will not die>

Half an hour passed, and the others have arrived.

Rex walks out of his room and finds Adhara and the others are waiting, but his eyes landed on Rosie who is waiting amongst them.

He then approach Adhara and whisper, "Why did you ask her?"

"When you said the others I thought that she's one of them, besides, I told you before and you didn't seem to mind about it", Adhara replied coldly.

Seeing her cold behavior, Rex was confused but he decided not to think about it.

"Alright we'll talk about what we're gonna do on our way", Rex said to the others while glancing at the butler who stood by the side.

But when Rex was about to walk out, Edward stopped him.

He glance at Edward in confusion before Edward takes out a key from his pocket, "Aren't you tired going somewhere by train? Let's just use this", he said with a smile.

Seeing the key, Rex smile feeling guilty, "I told you I'm going to take it"

"And I know that it's bullshit, so as a good friend I took it myself", Edward said sarcastically.

Rex can only smile wryly before he takes the keys,

When they're about to leave the university, a voice suddenly called out to them from the side making them stop.

Rex glance to the right and saw Kevin walking towards him,

Looking at Kevin's smug face, Rex knows that he's up to something, "What is it Kevin? I don't have much time to spare talk right now"

"Where are you guys going?", Kevin asks with a genuine smile.

This makes Rex even suspicious of him, "We're going out, so if you'll excuse us we need to get going right now"

But when Rex was about to leave, Kevin held his shoulder.

Rex sent Kevin a questioning gaze to him, he's clearly annoyed by this.

"You didn't get an invitation? The ranking fight is about to start, and you will not want to miss this because there's a new transferred guy shining over your reputation", Kevin said playfully.

Rex turns his body towards Kevin and said, "I didn't get invited because the university and everyone knows that I'm number one, Adhara is number two, and you're number three"

"Judging from your expression, the shining guy probably not as strong as you", Rex added.

Kevin then replied with a chuckle, "You're correct"

"Now that we're on the same page, I need to get going", Rex said while turning his body away intending to leave.

But then suddenly, "You're right but there's one slight problem"

Hearing this, Rex stops at his track and lazily turns towards Kevin again.

"You, Adhara, and Edward might not be required as a top ranker, but I'm afraid Rosie will not be coming with you", Kevin said with a smirk.

Unknowingly, Rex's breathing becomes heavy.

He walks towards Kevin and stopped towering in front of him, "Listen to me, I can do what I want and you will not stop me from bringing Rosie"

"No, you can't, because Rosie is not ranked yet and the regulation said in quote Every student of Faraday University is required to be ranked above any circumstances", Kevin recited making Rex's blood boiling.

Adhara approach Rex and stands between him and Kevin, she then touches Rex's chest to calm him down and whispers, "Just let him take her, you said that you didn't want her to come anyway"

Hearing this, Kevin's smile grows wider, "You heard her Rex, Why don't you let her go?"

Rex's face becomes red in anger seeing Kevin's smiling face, his heavy breathing didn't stop as he glare at Kevin keeping his eye contact.

This makes Adhara frown, her expression clearly stated her confusion.

After seeing Rex's stiff expression, Kevin walks past him bumping Rex's shoulder before he grabs Rosie's hand and leaves under Rex's gaze.

Rex saw Rosie leave the place with Kevin, and he even saw Rosie looking back at him until they're gone on the corner.

He then snaps out of his daze and notice Adhara is looking at him,

"What was that about?", Adhara asks suspiciously, she clearly knows that Rex is angry.

Realizing what he just did, Rex's expression turns back to stoic, "Nothing", he said before he walks out of the university.

Edward looks at Adhara weirdly as he too was confused about what just happened, but they then follow after Rex outside.

Inside the car, the tense atmosphere still follows them.

Edward volunteers to drive as Rex sit on the front passenger seat while Adhara and Kyran sat in the back, and along the way, Rex is silent for some reason.

Adhara looks at Rex from the back seat with a frown before she bit her lips in displeasure.