Chapter 22: Elemental Upgrade

'Chapter 18 is now available' or so the system said but only significant things would be happening here. First, a fight between two acolytes of our own academy and second, a monster that would be appearing some time tonight, I think.

This world sure is amazing having this kind of flying machine. Though I'm too lazy to understand how these thing works. If you're a really meticulous person who would love to make a flying vehicle like this, then good for you but that's not my thing. Even in the past life I've avoided the Mecha genre, I'm kinda glad I guess to be here instead since I actually have motivation to learn magic but then... I prefer a safer place too. Why not just put me in a safe, easy going novel who has a simple adventuring life with monsters that don't bleed and only go poof? ...I'm a peace-loving guy I suppose.

"Seely?" Leylin brought me back into reality.

"Get ready, it's almost our turn."

Very soon it was Abyssal Bone Forest Academy's turn, and Dorotte led the way, stepping through the door first.

The acolytes hurriedly followed. The floor gave off a sturdy reverberation, as if they were stepping on a limestone floor.

"What a strange material! It looks like wood but it's sturdier, is it some kind of alloy?"

Leylin looked at the greyish, patterned floor and couldn't help but think about it.

Seely couldn't help but think too. Couldn't help but think that Leylin, the MC, would look like a newbie who've never seen a floor before. Sigh, Can't help it.

"We're here! This section of the corridor, from number '13' to '32', is the area designated for our Abyssal Bone Forest Academy, you all can allocate on the rooms on your own. Remember, my number is '14'. Look for me if you need something!"

After he finished talking, Dorotte turned, and his black cloak fluttered as he entered his room with the two servants.

"Alright! Now let me designate the rooms!" Kaliweir stood out and said.

"Hng!" Jayden harrumphed and casually picked a room, number '18', and walked inside.

Kaliweir's face turned red, and then white. He clenched his fist several times, only to put it down.

Seely saw this and told Kaliweir, "Calm down. Don't get angry just because of that or it would look like he won getting you angry."

"I understand, Seely." Kaliweir seemed to calm down.

"Good! Jayden chose room 18. Next, Beirut, you will be in room 15, Raynor you're in room 16..."

Jayden left, and the remaining acolytes, Beirut, Raynor, and Leylin, were in the same clique as Kaliweir. As for Guricha and his group, they did not dare to object at all but there was someone who had suggested to move somewhere else.

"Excuse me, but can I have the room the farthest from here? I would also like if Leylin joined me on the next room."

"Don't you want to be near us?"

"I have... situations... that needs me to be isolated and it would be great if my brother could accompany me there."

Leylin stared at his brother and Seely stared back.

'What situation do you have, Seely?'

'Its important...about my abilities, I w-'

"I'm sorry Kaliweir! My brother's situation is a thing we cannot ignore. So I'll be taking him first!" Leylin grabbed hold of Seely's hand and stormed to the farthest cabin.

"Goodbye!" Seely was just able to say goodbye to them. He mouthed a 'sorry' to Kaliweir.

Geez, I guess my brother was really curious of my abilities to go and drag me like this.

Leylin was curious. Really really curious. He didn't say anything and hurried into which would look like his cabin.

There was a still a room farther than that but that would be Seely's cabin.

The room was rather small; it was just a partition. There was enough space for a bed, but hardly any room to stand at all.

This reminded Leylin of the beds on the trains in his previous world, which were also as cramped, with barely enough room to stretch his limbs. Though the thought pass and went like a wind then he laid his brother on the bed almost to the point of throwing him.

"So brother~ Wanna tell me about your abilities~?"

'First, stop mimicking my speech pattern and second, use your mind to talk. We can never be careful in this ship which is filled with beings stronger than us."

Seely said that but with his stats, he might just be an opponent to a Rank 1 magus and that's just because his Agility is higher than other Rank 1 magus. What you can't hit, you can't hurt.

'Sorry.. but...tell me now.' Leylin was very... obedient? This wasn't like the original Leylin but I guess having someone to lean on changes you.

'So first... I can hide my power'

'How?' Leylin asked.

'and there's more?'

'I don't know. I just can. The second is I can hide things somewhere. Remember all those stolen magic crystals? Well, I got them~'

'You got them? What do you mean? Where? You were the one stole those magic crystals?"

'You're so calm. I thought you would be more... like shocked?'

'It's not that but...I can't see it? so I'm having my doubts... Is than an ability or did you hide them somewhere in this ship?'

'Its hard to explain so I'll just... *Clap*

Magic Crystals filled the room. It occupied the space inside. There's nowhere to even step on anymore. Since the cabin is already cramped, the magic crystals reached to their knees and that wasn't all of the magic crystals Seely have. He chose not to bring them all out.

"H-How?" Leylin stuttered and stared at all the magic crystals. He just stared at them for a whole 2 minutes then composed himself.

Leylin looked at his brother and asked again. "How?"

"Well, I can store things...in an invisible space."

Leylin was thinking... He was really thinking. Theories from his past life went and surfaced. He even muttered some terms Seely couldn't follow and doesn't know.

At that point, Seely had to reject for a moment the thoughts that he was hearing from Leylin.

"Leylin... LEYLIN!"

"huh? what?"

"What happened?"

"Nothing... I just.... Hmmm.. but how?"

"Inborn ability? hehe?"

"I'm not convinced."

"Sorry but that's the best explanation I have since I just also recently discovered this ability when we were travelling at some point, same with the ability that I can hide my powers." Not a lie though, Seely thought.

"and I think I only have these abilities because I've grown stronger." Technically not a lie since I levelled up so that the inventory could be available.

What Seely didn't expect though was that Leylin would use the A. I. Chip on him while he was explaining.

'A. I. Chip, any results?'

[The target Seely Farlier's statistics cannot be determined. Unknown energy blocking further analysis.]

'Investigate if Seely lied?'

[Task Established. Commencing Investigation. Heartbeat is normal. No signs of unnatural sweating. Motions of eyes are normal. Total behavior of the target shows that the target has a 15% chance of lying.]

Hmmm.. even so... 15% is a low result but...Sigh.

'I understand but I'm reserving 10 of these for myself. That's for keeping secrets from me.'

'Okay! No problem. Can I go now to my own Cabin?'

'Yeah.. but..'

"Make these disappear before you go."

Seely waved his hand and all of the magic crystals returned to the inventory.

"That's impressive." Leylin thought.

"Hey brother... "

"Yes.. Seely."

"Sorry."

"Yeah. Its...a bit too much to take in but I'm not so petty to make a big deal out of this." Leylin tried smiling but made it just awkward

"Okay. I'll be next door if you need me."

Seely went out and closed the door before hurriedly entering his own cabin and slamming the door shut.

Seely stood there with his back leaning on the door, already having regrets of telling Leylin about some of the system's function.

"Sh*t... I think I messed up. Still he would find out sooner or later... Sigh...What am I even doing."

Seely went and lay on his bed, feeling uncomfortable.

On the other cabin, Leylin was also at lost on what to think... He already gave up trying to figure his brother's ability through science.

"So even powers in this world relies on talents... No... even our father hasn't had those powers. Maybe Seely is just... special? I don't know. This should be a good thing but... I feel like he's still keeping something from me... Everyone has secrets, that's a fact back on my world and in this world too. Even I have secrets that I can't tell him."

This world is too unpredictable. Leylin and Seely thought at the same time. Whether it was because of their mind links or just because of coincidence, they both thought that this world still had so much to offer and too little they can understand with how they are now.

"Having a bed is considered good; I was just sleeping in my seat when travelling in the Great Plains of Death!" Leylin tried to change the topic in his mind and comforted himself.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the dirigible, I am your captain – Kirkwul Kroft Leebar, I wish you all a pleasant journey ahead!"

"There are a few announcements of note. Apart from the professors, the rest are not allowed to walk on the decks unless you wish to go flying down from the skies!...The cafeteria is in Hall 1, and Hall 2 is where the washrooms are. As for Hall 3, it's a lounge; everyone is welcome to go there!"

A low pitched male voice rang throughout the room. Leylin looked around and noticed the sound was coming from a yellow bronze pipe, but did not know if it was an air duct or megaphone.

"We're taking off!" Leylin felt weightless for a moment, and the ship swayed. His curiousness covered up a little his deep thinking towards this world. He hurriedly scrambled towards a window.

This window was only the size of a soccer ball and was very thick, so it was hard to see what was outside.

On the other side, Seely also felt the change in himself and took a look outside but when he saw they were getting high, he looked back instantly.

"Can't believe I forgot that I'm afraid of heights."

I guess not even being transferred to another world can change that.

"Now that I think about it, I usually got motion sickness but I was fine in the carriage. Maybe because of My Vitality stats?"

Seely laid down on his bed trying to imagine he's safe in his own room back on earth.

Following the dirigible's ascent, the ground became smaller and smaller, and gradually, the camp in Leylin's view turned into a black dot.

'Hey Seely, I heard Professor Dorotte say that the journey will last for roughly a month, what a long period of time! Half a year has already passed since we left our family, but we still have not reached the academy yet!" Leylin used his mind link to communicate with Seely.

'Yeah, can't believe it's been that long.So many things happens. Let's be strong. Many more things will be happening.' It's also been half a year after I was transferred here.

Leylin thought back on how dangerous the journey was to the both of them. They were lucky to survive. Lucky to be alive right now but they couldn't rely on luck forever.

Absentmindedly, Leylin shut his eyes.

After a few minutes of resting, Seely didn't sleep. He couldn't. He still had something to do. The reward of the system.

'System, I'd like to use the elemental affinity reward now on one of the elements I have an affinity to.'

[Reward is available to use. What element would you like to upgrade to the max? After upgrading the element you choose, you would have a perfect affinity with that element. Please choose wisely.]

[Name: Seely Farlier

Elemental Affinities:

Darkness: 90%

Shadows: 90%

Water: 50%

Plant: 3%]

'Upgrade the Plant Affinity, please.'

"Preparing for Upgrade! WARNING: The user will be asleep during the process of upgrading. Please make sure the user is in a safe environment."

Seely was inside the Cabin right now. It's the safest place here right now. 'This must be a big deal if I need to be asleep during upgrading.'

"System, start the upgrade."

[Starting the upgrade.]

Before Seely fell asleep, he noticed plants growing fast and glowing bright from the wooden floor of the cabin. The plants filled his room in an instant. Green beautiful lights filling his room. Flowers filled the room with a sweet scent. Fruits and berries gathered in the middle of the cabin as if the plants was offering food for their king. Plants surrounded his body until he was surrounded in a green cocoon.

The green lights endlessly going inside the cocoon. More and more green lights are being produced but never slowing down or never stopping to go inside the glowing green cocoon. Everytime a light went in, the dark green color of the cocoon would become lighter.

"It feels warm and good like being embraced by someone you love...but.. warmer *Yawn* Good Night."

All the passengers inside that had affinities to plant, water, earth, wind earth, light and fire turned around unconsciously to where Seely was but didn't know why and some who were casting spells with those elements found out that they couldn't cast anymore. Some panicked but feeling their connection not totally broken to their elemental affinity, they were relieved. All the acolytes still couldn't cast spells on their own so they didn't notice.

All the plants, trees, anything to do with the plants of this world, swayed as if dancing to celebrate a new born ruler of their species.

The Plant Elements glowed brightly. The water, fire, light, earth and wind events also gathered around the plant elements as if congratulating them and joining their celebration. This happened everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

The powerful beings was forced to take noticed of what was happening but even the most powerful that uses the elements affected wouldn't get an answer as if the elements themselves refuse to listen to anyone in this moment of time while Seely was upgrading his Plant affinity.

This went on for hours and made some places panicked.

...

"Ding...Ding Dong..."

A melodious note rang, waking Leylin from his sleep. Leylin climbed out of bed and looked out the window, and was greeted by darkness.

"It is already evening!"

"Ladies and Gentlemen, good evening!" Right now, the cafeteria is providing dinner. Today's menu is foie gras with truffles roast chicken, white bread, squirrel meat..."

"For all the Magus boarding, the captain would like to hold an emergency meeting. Please go to... "

This time, the pleasant voice was that of a female's.

"Emergency Meeting? Did something happen while I was sleeping?"

Leylin rubbed his stomach and hurriedly stood up. He straightened his clothes and went outside of his cabin.

*Knock knock knock*

"Seely? It's dinner time!"

*Knock Knock knock* "Seely, Let's go out and eat."

Leylin was given no response from Seely.

"Is he asleep?"

Leylin thought of this reason and just let it go. According to the A. I. Chip, Seely couldn't be detected because of an unknown energy. Knowing that, Leylin was relieved. If the A. I. Chip couldn't detect Seely or anyone in the room, it's either, Seely was already outside or fell asleep but since he can hide his power, the A. I. Chip couldn't detect him.

In truth, Leylin was hungry and made the most possible reason he could think off.

He continued to ran towards the cafeteria.

The corridor was rather dim and there was a small lamp every few steps, which produced a yellowish glow.

...

In Seely's room, it was like a paradise of fruits and flowers. Straight from a fantasy world as they call it back on earth.

You couldn't even think this was a cabin anymore. This was a beautiful garden. On what was supposed to be a bed was a cocoon. The cocoon itself wasn't glowing anymore but the body inside the cocoon could be clearly seen shining brightly form the outside of the cocoon. The green lights still entering inside.