I Hate Systems

The three of them began the cleanup process.

Li Qiu began pushing the monster carcasses outside the supermarket while Prakash removed the Aria cores with the help of Enbi Arin's katana.

Enbi Arin cleaned each Aria core with a piece of cloth and stored them in two separate bags, one for the awakened Aria cores while the other was for the practitioner stage Aria cores.

They started with the spider followed by the alligator and finally came outside the supermarket.

Enbi Arin suddenly slapped the backs of both Li Qiu and Prakash.

"Anyway, congratulations on becoming practitioners to the both of you"

"Huh?" Prakash

"What!!" Li Qiu

It was only at this moment they discovered to their astonishment that they had successfully become practitioners.

"I don't even remember when I evolved" Li Qiu felt confused since the total amount of potential stats he had was twice that of his actual stats.

"I can't figure out the reason myself" Prakash too wondered about the different possibilities.

"It's not the first time we witnessed such a situation right" Enbi Arin chimed in.

"You mean like that ant?" questioned Prakash trying to connect all the dots.

"Yeah, normally you would have to slowly train and convert those potential stats into your strength in a natural manner. The other manner which we have witnessed was in the case of that butterfly and mosquito advancing through after eating the flesh of higher levelled creatures. The final method was by fighting against higher tiered creatures. Their stronger aura will naturally make you unleash all of your latent potential power as a defence mechanism to survive. But this method wouldn't be as stable as achieving through training since you wouldn't be accustomed to your new found strength" explained Enbi Arin giving her accurate reasoning as always.

"Now that I think about it, my last strike made the spider's head cave in. I initially thought that was due to my barrage of hits"

Prakash could finally infer all the details pertaining to their evolution.

"I guess big bro only advanced at the time when the spider was killed. Otherwise, your flames would have burned the spider to ashes"

"True" Li Qiu nodded as he clenched his fists feeling the brimming power coursing through his veins.

"I almost forgot" murmured Li Qiu which was picked up by Enbi Arin attentively.

"Forgot what?"

"I gained a new skill while I was fighting against the spider" said Li Qiu as he read out the information from his profile.

<Ding!>

<Skill: refinement>

<Pass your Aria through any object using an innate ability over a period of time to resonate with it>

<Hidden use: refine an artefact into an armament>

<Requirements to refine an armament: Adept stage>

"Perfect timing big bro. Adept stage, Armament, and Refinement. Now we have a direction of research to try to figure out their meaning and uses" Prakash

"What was the emotion, feeling, state of mind and method you used when you gained this skill. Describe all the details" said Enbi Arin

Li Qiu took a moment to recollect all the details from his memories.

"I was enraged when that spider trapped Prakash with that web attack. At that moment when I rushed at the spider, I felt as if something guided me to transfer my thermal flames through the wooden rod. I just imagined holding a pipe in my hand and water flowing from my palm into the pipe, filling it to the brim and bursting out along its edges. When I executed the skill for the first time, the flames just formed as clumps over the wooden rod. But after the second time, the rod seemed to have been strengthened a bit and gained a portion of my flames. It was comparatively easier to use on the second try. But all it ever acted was like a conductor. I couldn't shape my flames as I d.e.s.i.r.ed and they just burned over the rod's outer surface"

Nodding in understanding Enbi Arin focused her entire concentration into her katana and focused her butcher beam ability on it.

The frequency of both the sounds and the sparks kept increasing until when the blade gained a pale grey coloured coating over it.

But there were still static sounds that arose from the katana which sounded more like a wasp's buzzing.

"It feels way more crampy and time consuming to use it through the katana. And there is also that unpleasant sound which is being produced, this wouldn't be of much help in a battle. Guess I should find a more compatible weapon for myself"

Complained Enbi Arin with a sigh and turned to see Prakash starting into the void.

"How did it go for you Prakash"

"Huh, ohh" Prakash replied absentmindedly.

Enbi Arin just grabbed his shoulders and shook him back and forth.

"Wait....what.... Hey....sto..p....s..haki..ng...m..e"

Prakash bit his tongue due to all those shaking before he managed to break free from her grip.

"So, why were you shaking me up again" Prakash

Enbi Arin sighed "Well, I was asking about your progress on the refinement skill. It took me a few minutes to obtain that skill but since you don't have any innate ability that is pure energy-related like my butcher beam or his essence flames. I was worried if you could gain the skill but you were just staring blankly into the void"

Enbi Arin couldn't help but put on a concerned look on her face.

But Prakash laughed it off with "You don't have to worry about that. I gained the skill immediately the moment when I heard big Bro's explanation. These spider webs are really helpful in that regard, they can conduct my Aria without exerting any resistance"

The spider webs attached to Prakash even coiled around in the air and created a thumbs up sign.

Enbi Arin just rolled her eyes at him "So, what was the reason you were staring blankly like a goldfish"

"Oh yeah, I was just looking at the <information trade centre>. It seems to only have a few new posts per hour as compared to the millions on the first day. There was a new post there which caught my eye" said Prakash after which both Li Qiu and Enbi Arin accessed the same post.

<How to advance further?

Aria quality 2 ---> Practitioner

( Makes your potential stats as zero )

Aria quality 3 ---> Adept

( Requirements: 5 skills, 500 Aria )

If you want to know more detailed information, find me at the Grand Canyon>

"So the third stage is called an Adept. Can you find further info about armaments" asked Enbi Arin.

Prakash just shook his head "no luck there"

Li Qiu suddenly voiced his opinion "that feels like a trap, especially the last line"

"So what if it's a trap, it's not like we need to care about that. They are literally on the other side of the Earth. Moreover, we would be able to verify that person's claim when our Aria quantity hits 500. As long as we achieve a single requirement, all the other requirements would automatically be known by us. So don't worry about it big bro" consoled Prakash.

Since they were done with that small distraction, they started to remove the Aria cores from the monster carcasses nearest to them.

Prakash suddenly exclaimed with his webs assuming a stance just like the snakes on Medusa's head when she becomes alert.

"Everyone, there is still a creature that's alive over there"

The trio were quite amused or rather had a poker face seeing an injured practitioner stage ant slowly eating monster carcasses one after the other. The more meat the ant consumed, the faster its wounds were healing.

On seeing its recovery speed, Li Qiu wanted to immediately kill the ant but just when he was about to act, he was stopped by Enbi Arin.

"Let me take care of this"

As she said this, Enbi Arin slowly walked towards the ant which was busy tending to its injuries. Slowly the air around Enbi Arin's immediate vicinity started to be dyed with a tinge of grey.

The ant too stopped its recovery process after seeing the approaching 2-legged creature. The grey coloured air slowly wrapped around their area enveloping both Enbi Arin and the ant in a dome-like structure.

"What the hell is she doing" exclaimed an astonished Li Qiu.

"I have no idea either. Let's just hope she gets what she needs" retorted Prakash.

Inside the grey coloured dome.

The ant was staring at Enbi Arin with a tinge of anger in its eyes. Enbi Arin was also viewing the ant with obvious determination in her eyes.

She suddenly took a deep breath and allocated most of her stats to 'might' and 'agility' and the rest to 'toughness' and 'reaction'. She had kept only 2 stats worth in her Aria quantity.

After she was done with her preparation, she flickered towards the ant's rear and punched at the ant's abdomen. The ant rolled away sideways and tried to clamp Enbi Arin's legs with its mandibles.

Enbi Arin jumped back somersaulting in the air and then retaliated with a kick towards the ant's head. Her feet successfully made contact with the ant's head which made the ant crash into the ground with a loud 'thud'.

"Shit, that's a hard head you got there" complained Enbi Arin.

"Screetch"

The ant again immediately charged towards Enbi Arin but just when Enbi Arin was about to dodge, the ant suddenly accelerated and crashed head first on Enbi Arin and the both of them rolled a few feet due to the resulting momentum.

"Ugh..." Enbi Arin immediately stood up while releasing a small grunt and lunged at the ant for round 2. Strangely both the ant and Enbi Arin hadn't used any abilities or skills till now.

After about 2 hours had passed outside the dome in the timespan of which Prakash and Li Qiu managed to extract all the Aria cores from the various monsters.

Suddenly both Li Qiu and Prakash heard a 'crack' sound from the direction of the dome. When they came over, they spotted a crack form on the grey coloured dome after which the dome completely shattered into a grey coloured dust followed by Enbi Arin and the ant who came out walking side by side.