Chapter 288: Sad
"This is the feast I have promised you." Auric spread his arms. "5 million worth of materials for each element, 40 million in total."
"Whooaa!" Lindwurm looked excited as his drool started dropping. As soon as they returned to the mansion, he could see the enormous amount of material.
"Well, you can eat first. I’m going to make a call."
"Sure." Lindwurm nodded furiously, because he had a hard time containing himself. As soon as Auric exited the mansion, Lindwurm immediately threw himself into the materials.
Meanwhile, Auric called Maya. "Welcome back."
"Oh, thanks to you, I’ve been able to meet my family again. Thank you, really."
"No need to thank me. That’s what I’m supposed to do." Auric chuckled.
"I have been thinking about a few things you may want to do. Do you intend to find a couple of unique element users?"
"We can talk about it later. I’m sure you are pretty busy with your work right now, considering you left for almost two weeks."
"Okay then. Let’s have a talk after this."
"Yeah. Thanks for lending me the mansion. I don’t know where to send the materials."
"No problem. Besides, I heard you also sold a lot of artifacts to my family."
"Ah, that. Yeah." Auric had just remembered it. "No problem."
"Okay. See you later."
"Yep, see you later, Teacher." Auric smiled. He didn’t know where he should put all these materials after all. If he brought them to his store, they would cause a commotion.
His mother might ask him a lot of questions if he brought it to their house. So, the only option was to rely on others. When he asked Maya, she didn’t mind and even took care of everything.
Auric also called another person, but not over the phone. Instead, he called Eric to come to the mansion.
"Why do you want me to come here?" Eric asked.
"I’d like to give you something."
"I don’t want to accept it," Eric answered without hesitation. He had owed Auric a lot, so it wouldn’t be wise to accept his gift.
"Look, I’m not going to convince you or anything. I know you’re going to reject it just for the sake of rejecting it." Auric tossed the book. "Anyway, take this."
Eric caught the book so that he could return it, but Auric added, "That technique can increase your absorption rate as well as your magical energy sensitivity. In other words, your affinity grade.
"As you know right now, for Grade E affinity, your absorption rate needs to be 1% to 20%. Grade D affinity requires you to have an absorption rate of 21% to 35%. Grade C’s range is 36% to 50%. Grade B is 51% to 63%, while Grade A is 64% to 75%. Anything above 75% earns you Grade S, but we all know that no one has ever gone beyond 85%.
"According to the theory, that technique can increase your absorption rate from 5% to 20%, at least for now. I don’t have enough data yet to determine what factors cause the difference in results.
"However, most people I have tested have gotten an increase of about 12% to 15%. So, I believe the average range is 8% to 15%.
"Even though your affinity is grade A right now, I believe that your absorption rate is about 73% or 74%. It’s very close to grade S.
"If you use that technique, you may only reach grade S if you’re unlucky, but you may also reach grade SS if you manage to pass 85%. That is a technique tailored specifically for the water element with a rating of 3.4."
Eric was quite surprised, even though he didn’t show it on his face. After all, Auric once again created something absurd.
It was tempting, but he should reject this. "I don’t need this."
"You think I’m just coming up with a weird technique that will ruin you?" Auric placed his hand on his chest. "I’m hurt now."
"You know that’s not what I mean." Eric’s eyebrows twitched. "I don’t think I deserve it."
"No, you deserve it. Besides, this kind of technique is already being sold to others. It’s not popular yet, but that’s because I don’t advertise it and I sell it in another country. So, eventually, you will get it as well.
"In that case, why don’t you just use it first?" Auric shrugged.
Eric was speechless. "You’re actually selling this kind of technique? Do you know what this technique can do? If you choose to build an organization, your organization will become an elite organization with so many talented people. The quality of your organization will be above the rest."
"Yeah. That’s why people will do everything they can to crush me and my organization to steal the technique. So, rather than letting them spread it, I should spread it directly. At least I will profit from it and my status will increase if they know about it." Auric shrugged.
"Is it like your Sun Store?" Eric asked.
"Yeah." Auric nodded.
When Auric confirmed it, Eric realized that the technique might not even be in the store yet. No one knew when Auric was going to post a new technique. If he posted one that suited him and told Eric to buy it, Eric knew that Auric did it because of him.
In the end, he would still owe Auric.
"Besides, I’m doing you a favor." Auric smirked. "My sister-in-law’s family will definitely push her to me because of the previous incident. You need to be talented enough to shut the mouths of all opposition. And to do that, you definitely need Grade S or Grade SS affinity."
"Sister-in-law? I’m single."
"For now, yeah." Auric shrugged.
"I don’t have any romantic interest."
"Don’t worry. I believe you." Auric had a smug smile on his face.
"Has anyone told you that you’re a jerk?"
"Yeah, you. Many times. What else?"
Eric felt like arguing, but he knew that Auric would just find one way or another to shoot him down. "Whatever. I’m going to take this technique, alright?"
"You should have accepted it from the start." Auric smirked.
"If that’s all, I’m going to leave."
"Yeah, yeah. See ya." Auric waved his hand.
Before he left, Eric stopped for a second and added, "In the future, you can ask me three things. I’ll come running to you even if that means risking my life."
Auric suddenly grabbed his shoulder and teased him. "In that case, I want to ask one thing right now. I want to hear it directly from your mouth. Say ’Thank you, my bro, friend, or whatever.’"
Eric was speechless and annoyed. On the one hand, he was annoyed by the fact that Auric used those favors like this. For other people, using one of those favors might have been a small price to pay.
On the other hand, Eric felt like he was being insulted. He loved fairness more than anything. Auric teasing him like this felt like an insult.
"You motherlover!" Eric punched Auric in the face, causing Auric to stumble to the ground. He didn’t look back. "Think carefully before using your favor."
"Ugh." Auric was holding his cheek while returning to the mansion.
Lindwurm, with his cheeks bloated because of all the materials he stuffed in his mouth, couldn’t help but turn to him while holding materials with both hands. "What’s wrong with you?"
"Remind me never to tease Eric’s favor." Auric was using his light element while blood leaked out of the corner of his lip.
"You really should stop teasing Eric. That’s karma. Besides, I think a lot of people want to punch you."
Auric shrugged. "I am a man who inspires strong emotions."
"No, you just have a punchable face." Lindwurm shrugged. "By the way, shouldn’t you head home first? Now that your teacher is back, you can go home now."
Considering he had been staying in college ever since she left, it was true that he should go home soon.
"I guess I will go home after you’re done." Auric agreed.
"Oh! I wanted to enjoy this a bit longer, but I guess I should finish it up." Lindwurm flew to the middle of the room and opened his mouth as wide as possible.
Suddenly, the energy from the materials flickered before flowing into Lindwurm’s mouth as though it were being sucked by a black hole.
Auric was taken aback. Lindwurm took less than thirty seconds to actually absorb all the energy.
"I’m done. Now we just need you to burn these dried-up materials."
It was true. Now that they no longer contained any energy, the materials looked pale and brittle.
"You can actually do that?"
"Of course, but I love to enjoy things when I can." Lindwurm nodded.
"Well, I can wait for a bit, you know?"
"It’s fine. We should go home now."
"..." Auric paused for a moment before sighing. "We’ll have another buffet next time, but the energy is for the store."
"Ohhh!" Lindwurm smiled.
In the end, Auric cleaned it up first and burned the empty materials before going back home. He intended to return to the mansion at night since Maya wanted to talk.
Once he returned, Auric spent a lot of time with his mother, telling her stories about his adventures.
Since he still had plenty of time left, he chose to spend the rest of his time writing new techniques for either the Sun Store or the Moon Store.
Unbeknownst to him, Lindwurm was actually flying to the living room where his mother was.
Lindwurm looked at her and said, "You are in very bad shape."
If Auric were here, he would be surprised because Natalia actually looked at Lindwurm while saying, "I know."
"I’ve brought you some nutrition." Lindwurm flew toward her hand, extending his claw to her palm. The energy he had absorbed earlier began flowing into her body.
"Huuu..." Natalia let out a sigh. She covered her body with clothes so Auric wouldn’t see her body turning translucent.
If Auric were here, he would realize that Lindwurm had actually wanted the buffer because of his mother.
"Are you sure it’s fine to use this much energy? Won’t he be suspicious?"
"No. I earned this separately after I received an instruction to help you."
"I see." She closed her eyes.
"Also, I received another instruction. Because he began searching for his father, that person wanted me to tell him about ’that’ once all his elements reach rank 3. Looking at his determination, he might be able to achieve it within half a year. He doesn’t care about lying low anymore. He intends to break the record if it means getting that information. Of course, I will prevent him from doing anything reckless, but yeah..."
Natalia bit her lip. "I see. As expected, I don’t have much time left. I wonder what he will feel after learning about ’that.’
"I don’t want him... to be sad."