Chapter 453: The calm before the storm

Apart from the girl's finding a cause in trying to break through the walls protecting Aiden's heart, the group kept up with their training, solving several of the hardest ongoing challenges posted on the Guild's Mission Board.

As such, each member of their group, Aiden included, gained several advancements in their skills and have grown considerately stronger.

For Aiden, the growth was quite obvious, just from looking through his status page on the System. 

For the main page, the change was already quite obvious.

[ *Status* | Lab | Domain |  Activities ]

[—Status Screen — ]

[ *Main* | Skills | Analysis | Inventory ]

[Name: Aiden Vordragon

Race: Primal (Evolver)

Current Form: Ancient Dragon (Human)

Level: 15

Condition: 100%

Resource: Soul Power (Level 2) : 1250 SP / 1250 SP

System Points: 18450 EXP

******

Attributes:

Might: 40

Agility: 39

Spirit: 45

******

Note: For quicker, faster navigation please use the keywords in the following order: "Status", "Main".]

He gained a boost to all 3 of his attributes, growing even stronger, faster and through the increase in his Spirit, had an even closer, more stable connection to the Spiritual Pool of the universal energy. 

Though the changes weren't huge, they still earned him a substantial increase to his Soul Power reserves. Unfortunately, however, there seemed to be some unknown hurdle, thwarting him from breaking into the 3rd level, making his current progress being stuck at 99.9%. 

[…

Resource: Soul Power (Level 2 - Progress: 99.99%) : 1250 SP / 1250 SP

…]

He tried, meditating for multiple nights, spending and wasting away hours upon hours making absolutely no progress. Strangely though, it seemed that neither the system nor Enya, his guide seemed to be bothered by his struggle, and did not give any hints or input on the matter.

Well, at least not until the 3rd night, when finally they either felt sorry for him or maybe just some hidden restriction was finally lifted.

Either way, in the middle of the 3rd night, his session was suddenly interrupted when the system's notification sound rang inside his mind, pulling him out of his meditation.

Taking a look at the newest message, Aiden was surprised to see a new quest arriving on his screen. After days and days of system-generated side quests that were just carbon copies of the missions they accepted from the guild, it was a fresh sight to see something new.

Not to mention, the type of the quest seemed to be something new, or at the very least something Aiden had no memory of ever seeing. Not Main Quest, Not side quest, not even Evolution or Fusion related, but of the new category of System Quests.

*Ding!*

[New System Quest: Path to Divinity - Part 1: Beyond the Mortal Limits

Difficulty: S+

Objective: Learn more about the Primordial Laws of the Universe, Create the skill 'Basic Divinity' and reach a basic understanding of it (Level 1 - Progress: 25.00% required)

Reward: Unlock Spirit Power Level 3, ????]

There were several surprises in this update that shocked Aiden when he received it. 

For one, there were no failure conditions or any penalties, meaning that for the first time, he wasn't punished nor forced to undertake the offered quest. Still, just from a quick read through it was clear that if he wanted to continue growing stronger he would best focus on this particular quest chain and work on completing it diligently.

Second, the objectives were too vague, it gave no clue or indication of what exactly was expected of him. He needed to 'learn more', but how much more exactly? When would the system draw the line, deem that his current understanding of the topic was 'satisfactory'?

Also, how is he expected to create such a strange skill? So far he has found two ways of acquiring new skills. First was through the natural, instinctual way of absorbing the life energy and mass of his defeated foes. This however was not something he could reliably count on, as there was no way, at least for now, to tell the beast or monster he was facing, what would he gain, or if even, he would be able to gather enough data to create the new form. 

The other was through this 'Lab' this fusion of skills feature in his system. Yet, that was even more unpredictable than the former, as it would combine two or possibly even more of his currently existing skills giving him a new one with little to no way to force a more preferable outcome.

Although not much, when asked, Enya gave a cryptic, vague response about the matter.

'[Enlightenment Awaits in the Promised Land.]'

No matter how much Aiden tried, Enya wouldn't provide anything other than that, or as it later he realized, she wasn't able to. This was something along the lines of the limitations, enforced upon them by some higher driving force, she was unable to go against her directives as it was clear from examples from before.

The breakthrough in this finally came just last night. Feeling helpless and increasingly frustrated about the lack of progress in deciphering the text, Aiden decided to make a visit to Gupta and check on his people over there.

However, as soon as he got to Haven and noticed the vast changes, the massive progress the residents have made during the time of their Master's absence, Aiden was once again stunned.

The small makeshift village was steadily growing, slowly transforming. The small, crude wooden huts were gradually replaced with sturdier, stone-made dwellings. The dirty, trodden dusty roads were also given a grand makeup, stone, and marble tiles being placed down.

Still, the most obvious and eye-catching change was the creation of a central square with a depiction of him as a giant statue placed at it. Offerings of flowers, clothes, or anything that the residents that thought of any value were placed in front of it. Even more, the villagers, or better referred to as citizens now, could be seen kneeling in front of his metallic figure.

His image had a bronze-like metallic shine, making Aiden even more surprised and baffled as to how the residents have achieved so much in such a short time. Though he was aware of the time dilation effect, the progress Gupta has made, transforming itself from a small, crude settlement into something that was slowly progressing towards a city, was just too unbelievable.

As he was lost in the marvel of changes, Aiden noticed that as he focused his attention on the statue through the system's top-down view, a new menu has appeared offering gradually appearing new options.

Initially, only a single option was available: By spending his gathered faith, he could invest and upgrade the statue by 'giving it a 'Divine Blessing'.

This, though would spend all of his gathered reserves of the 5000 Faith, it would also transform the site into a Holy Place. It wouldn't just provide him an increase in Faith through the offerings and prayers whispered on its grounds, it also gave him a slew of new opportunities in the system…

One of these was the option to 'Cogitate'…

—-

"Aiden, you okay there, man?"

The sound of his friend, Drake pulled him out of his thoughts. Donning his usual, calm and collected-looking cool smile, nodding at his inquiry.

"Yeah…" He responded, gazing over each and every friend of his, eventually resting his gaze at the silver-haired adventurous prince. "Let's go in, we have much to discuss." 

---

AN: Hey there Readers!

Just a friendly reminder, that from wherever you are reading (although I wholeheartedly thank you if you are reading and enjoying the story through Webnovel), you can reach out to me using any of the below methods!

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