Chapter 106: Back to the Wild ( PLAT )

Marcus was about to start feeding Aura Cores into the Aura Gatherer when Ethan quickly stopped him. “Hey, hey, hey! Before you do that, you guys eat this first.” Ethan took out two of the mid-grade Aura Gathering Pills from his ring, their cyan surfaces glowing softly in his palm.

His two friends looked at the glowing pills, their eyes widening, but they still shook their heads and refused. “No, Ethan,” Marcus said, his voice firm with a mixture of pride and principle. “You should keep those for yourself. If we want them, we’ll ask our families.”

Hearing this, Ethan rolled his eyes. “Come on, this thing is incredibly hard to get. When I broke through to Rank Two before, my family was lucky enough to get me one. By the time it's your turn to make a formal request through all the family channels, who knows how long that will take? And it's not like I'm just giving them to you. You guys can just buy them from me.”

Seraphina, however, shook her head and said with a bitter smile, “This is different, Ethan. A thing like this is practically priceless. Our families don't lack credits, it's true, but even with all their influence, they can't even buy one or two of these a month on the open market. They're too rare, too strategic.”

“Relax,” Ethan said with a sly grin, his hand dipping back into his storage ring. “I still have three supreme-grade ones.” With that, he took out the three more lustrous, more fragrant, supreme-grade Aura Gathering Pills. “This should be sellable to you guys, right? Want them?”

Seeing the three supreme-grade pills, Marcus and Seraphina were instantly stunned, as if they had been turned to stone. After a long moment, Marcus came to his senses and stammered, his voice filled with disbelief, “N-no way, Ethan… where in the world did you get so many good things?”

Seraphina, on the side, was also full of surprise, muttering to herself, “Supreme-grade Aura Gathering Pills… Even the Thorne family can't necessarily buy those whenever they want.”

Ethan smiled and explained, “This was my compensation from Mayor Thorne and General Valerius. By the way, the fact that I killed those apostles has also been officially written into our school files. Now, many of the top universities have sent us recommendation notices. You two should have gotten one as well, right?”

Marcus smiled. “Of course. But I still want to try for the real college entrance exams and get into Pinnacle University on my own merit.”

Seraphina nodded. “With our current strength and Pinnacle's new exam policy, getting into the top ten in the city is basically a sure thing.”

“So we don't have to worry about school,” Ethan continued. “As for these two mid-grade pills, you guys should eat them first. Don't worry about the credits; I'm not short on that little bit right now. Let your families pay me back later. Otherwise, if you wait to request one from your families, it might not fall into your hands.”

Seraphina knew Ethan was right. Even as the heir, her father was not the sole decision-maker. Precious resources like Aura Pills were usually circulated among the most powerful elders. It was only when an heir was about to break through a major rank that she might be granted one.

“So,” Ethan said, pressing the pills into their hands, “hurry up and eat. Look how much you've all fallen behind me in rank. Are you going to let me just carry you for the rest of our lives?”

Sure enough, the goading method worked. As soon as his two proud friends heard this, they immediately took the pills, their eyes burning with a new competitive fire, and prepared to eat them.

“Wait a minute!” Ethan suddenly interrupted, startling them so much they almost dropped the precious pills.

“I have a relative who also awakened his ability a while ago. His ability level is Celestial-rank. Before, when I got so many Aura Cores, my mind was full of credits, and I sold all the low-level ones, completely forgetting to leave him a couple to get started with. So I plan to go to the wilderness again next week. Are you two going?”

Marcus blinked. “Oh, is that all? Just for that… wait.” His eyes suddenly widened, processing the casual bombshell Ethan had just dropped. “What did you just say? Your relative awakened? Before the unified time? And he's a Celestial-rank!”

Seraphina's eyes also widened in disbelief. “Celestial-rank! And he awakened before the unified time? Has there ever been such a person in the entire history of New Veridia?”

Seeing their shocked expressions, Ethan was a little puzzled. “Huh? Don't you guys know about this?”

“We should know about this?” Marcus exclaimed. “There's been absolutely no news about it at all!”

“Oh, is that so?” Ethan said. “Then it seems my uncle's secrecy work is pretty good.”

“Your uncle?” Seraphina asked. “You mean… Leo Atherton?” They had met him a few times when they were younger.

“That’s right, it’s him,” Ethan confirmed. “He awakened a Celestial-rank beastification ability.”

Marcus threw his hands up in the air, a look of comical despair on his face. “Holy crap, you guys, your whole family are just a bunch of perverts! Originally, I could barely accept that you can transform into so many different forms. Now there's another Celestial-rank psionicist in your family!”

Although Seraphina didn't say anything, the twitching corners of her mouth had already sold her out. She was equally flabbergasted.

“So what?” Ethan grinned. “Are you going or not?”

“Going! I must go!” Marcus declared without a second's hesitation. “Why wouldn't I go!”

“Before, our ranks were too low,” Seraphina added, her mind already calculating the possibilities. “We had to be extremely careful. Now we've all broken through to Rank Two, and what's more, we have you, this bug-like existence, on our team. This time, our harvest will definitely be bountiful. There's no reason not to go.”

“Alright, then get ready,” Ethan said. “We'll go when the weekend comes.”

Marcus looked up at the ceiling of the training hall, a dreamy look in his eyes. “With our current strength, it looks like we have to go to a farther, more dangerous place this time. Maybe we can even fly there.”

In a flash of green light, Ethan transformed into Stinkfly, his insectoid form hovering in the air. He looked down at his two friends, his multifaceted eyes gleaming. “Just bear with it,” he said in his buzzing, alien voice. “When the time comes, I'll be the one carrying the two of you.”