Chapter 233: Popularity
Auric kept thinking about his situation. He couldn’t help but ask, ’Lindwurm, what do you think about that conversation, especially the last part?’
"The fact that you don’t have an avatar?" Lindwurm asked for confirmation.
’Yes. I hadn’t thought about that, so when he mentioned it, I couldn’t help but agree.’
Lindwurm raised one finger. "Once you evolve all your elements to rank 2, you will find the answer."
’Hmm?’ Auric couldn’t really argue with this answer.
In the end, if he didn’t experience anything after evolving all his elements, it meant that his lack of an avatar would become his weakness.
Of course, he still had all the elements, so he shouldn’t be greedy. Regardless of the situation, he was ready to face it in any way he could.
"However, there is one thing that I need to say."
’What is it? Do I actually have an avatar or something?’
"No. This time, you were led by the nose.’
’Excuse me?’
"That old man should have figured out almost everything about you. The fact that you are Sunlight, the fact that you don’t have a master, and even the fact that you don’t possess an avatar."
Auric was startled. He was confused why Lindwurm said that, but he suddenly fell silent, realizing that he might have given away too much information.
’From my reaction?’
"Yes. While you have been able to maintain your poker face, you should know how to answer a question. For example, if they ask one plus one, you answer with two. It means you understand basic math.
"However, if you instead ask them why they ask this question or what the meaning of this question is, you can carefully steer the conversation in a way that doesn’t let them know that you have the answer."
Auric sucked in a cold breath. He realized he had made a grave mistake. ’This could become a problem...’
"Fortunately, that old man was genuine about the fact that he wanted to nurture all talent. As long as you keep growing, that old man will support you. That’s why I didn’t say anything.
"I want you to learn from this conversation, fully aware that it won’t really bring you that much disadvantage. Make sure that you are careful about what to talk about next."
’I understand. Next time, I will just say one plus one equals murder.’
"As long as you understand." Lindwurm nodded. He knew Auric was good at learning, so he didn’t doubt that Auric could overcome this problem in the future.
Of course, if he talked to a person that could harm his interests or his life, Lindwurm would immediately help him.
"But for now, I can give you a small reward."
’For what? I don’t think I have done anything that deserves a reward.’
"I’m talking about your previous escape attempt. It ended in failure, but the fact that you could last that long far surpassed my imagination. However, since it ended in failure, I could only give you a small clue."
’A small clue?’
"Yes. Don’t worry about the lack of an avatar. That old man’s opinion is valid. You don’t have an avatar, so transformations, fusions, and other powers that require an avatar are restricted for you. However, you can still use them in the future."
’I can use them?’
"Sorry, but that’s all I can say."
Auric contemplated before looking at Lindwurm. ’Don’t tell me, you’re the answer to that problem?’
Lindwurm remained silent as if he hadn’t heard the question.
Auric suddenly thought about it. If he didn’t have an avatar, he had Lindwurm. Lindwurm might be his father’s avatar, but he was still an avatar.
In that case, could he use Lindwurm’s power?
Still, there would come a day for Lindwurm to depart. It didn’t seem that Lindwurm was going to stay with him forever. So, it might mean something else.
Unfortunately, his knowledge was still too shallow to figure it out.
’In any case, now that my schedule has opened up, I can focus on evolving all my elements.’
Auric was about to evolve his fire and unique elements. He had originally intended to evolve both of them during his time in the capital city, but because of the research, he didn’t have much time to increase his energy.
Nevertheless, he should be able to evolve two of them within the next seven days. He would then focus on the earth element, the water element, the dark element, and the light element in that order.
At the very least, he managed to copy many elements, both rank 1 and rank 2. This meant he shouldn’t have a problem with his elements for the next couple of months.
’I should be able to evolve all my elements within one and a half months, but we will see how busy I will become because I revealed my status as a silver-grade evolution master.’
As he expected, the moment he reached the store, that popularity hit him in full force.
When he came out of the car, the people who had been waiting in front of his store abruptly turned around and rushed to him.
"Mr. Auric, I’m from the White Deer Alliance. I have an offer for you."
"Mr. Auric, I’m from the Terence family. I’d like to invite you to my estate to have a meal with my niece."
"Mr. Auric..."
"Mr. Auric..."
They were surrounding him, trying to get him before anyone else could.
Still, for his safety, a barrier suddenly appeared around Auric, making sure that no one could touch him directly. There was no telling if the enemy was among them, trying to eliminate him.
Lunaria suddenly got out of the car. "Oh, you guys are really shameless. Don’t you see that he’s the guest of my family? Not long ago, you guys were helping his opponent’s family to crush him. Now, you’re fawning over him? There’s a limit to how shameless you can be."
"..." They suddenly fell silent. After all, the woman standing before them had a big reputation in the military.
"It’s... Lieutenant General Lunaria."
Lunaria glared at them. "Step aside... please."
They instinctively took a step back, feeling not only her pressure but also her charisma.
"Just go inside. I’ll take care of them. These unruly people who are so eager to recruit you... Just treat the patients and be done with it."
Auric nodded politely to Lunaria.
He entered the store quickly and saw Katarina and Milinda already waiting for him.
"I’m sorry for making you guys wait this long."
"It’s not a problem. Did you talk to the Supreme Chief of the Evolution Association?" Katarina asked.
"Yes, why?"
"Nothing. The Supreme Chief is hard to meet. Even my father doesn’t have the qualifications to meet him. He might not be the only adamantine-grade evolution master in this country, but he’s the only one with rank 6 strength. Do you understand what this means?"
Auric pondered for a few seconds. "He is one of the few people in the world who can help rank 6 humans evolve to a higher level?"
"Exactly." Katarina nodded. "Other adamantine-grade evolution masters may have a lot of connections in the capital city, but he is the only one who can have a connection with the seven strongest people in the world."
Auric could understand that. "I see."
"Well, let’s not think about that. There are a lot of people who want to recruit you. What are you going to do with them?" Milinda asked, pointing at the door.
"I will just reject them. There is no reason for me to join anyone yet."
"Fair enough. Your value will increase quickly, so you shouldn’t join any forces yet." Milinda nodded in agreement.
"Well, it’s better to focus on the store for now. At least there are customers, right?"
"From the looks of it, yes." Katarina nodded. "For now, I will try to sort out the customers."
"Please." Auric smiled. "We’ll open the store now."
Katarina and Milinda agreed and immediately went to their respective positions.
This time, many customers came because of his reputation as a genius. Still, there were customers who came to test his skills.
They didn’t believe that someone as young as him would be that good.
Unfortunately for them, Auric shut them up for good with his skills.
He helped them to evolve without any problems. In fact, the problems themselves had been treated before they began to evolve.
Since there were a lot of high-grade evolution masters, they understood that the service Auric provided them was similar to that of expensive evolution masters.
However, since he was still a silver-grade evolution master, he charged them according to his grade as well as the standard pricing.
In other words, Auric was like a high-grade evolution master at a cheap price. It was obvious people were tempted.
Once he’d built up his reputation here, he could go anywhere else and become popular. This was just an added bonus in exchange for revealing his status.
Of course, there were a lot of people who came to offer him a position in their companies or families. Auric could still be nurtured to become one of the top evolution masters after all.
This was the testament of the Supreme Chief of the Evolution Association. Even if he wasn’t perfectly accurate, he wouldn’t miss the mark by that much.
And Auric was an evolution master that could be treated as multiple evolution masters because he possessed many elements.
His time at the store had truly become chaotic because so many interests were clashing within the store.
Fortunately, Katarina helped inside of the store while Lunaria took care of the outside.
This way, Auric managed to survive the first day. The ’battle’ the next day would definitely be far worse.
However, Auric wasn’t the only one who had a chaotic day.
The principal of Kallarnos University was also experiencing the same thing, especially with two gentlemen sitting in his office.
The first person was obviously Mathias. He wanted justice for Auric, so he had to demand it directly from the principal.
This time, Mathias had come with Arnie. By bringing the active chief adjudicator, he could finally pressure Kallarnos University.
"..." The principal let out a heavy breath, looking at both of them.
"Isn’t this embarrassing, Principal? Your university has actually hosted terrorists. Do you not check their background or something?" Mathias asked.
The principal’s eyebrows twitched. Of course he checked them. This was the most important thing because he wanted the students to study in peace. This way, no families, organizations, or companies could use the teachers to pressure the students at least within the academy.
Arnie took out a few documents. "This is the oldest document I’ve found about Schad. He has been with this organization for eight years, but he has only been with this university for six years. In other words, he was already a terrorist before entering this university."
"Won’t this become a problem, Principal? The university is already chaotic, but if they were to know about the terrorist, who knows what will happen to this university." Mathias smirked.
"..." The principal felt like cursing. He could only regret having invited Auric here. Why would he invite that jinx?
