Prelude to the Madness

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Even though the duration of [Tempest Burst] was done after about 30 seconds or so, in the midst of his crazed emotions of wanting to obtain more Alliance Points, Aurus subconsciously noticed that [Tempest Burst] was done, casting [Gale Hover] on himself, which boosted him to a speed that was faster when compared to his previous speed with [Tempest Burst] activated.

"Herellia? Where are you?" Of course, Aurus did not forget to scream out Herellia's name as he continued to fly through the alliance base. Not long after the start of Aurus' crazed motion of calling out for Herellia, some members at the lowest level of the hierarchy could not help but look at Aurus weirdly for a bit before passing the message onto another Inanimate being.

Gradually, the lowest members would pass it to the Executive level members, which would then be passed onto the Pillar level members. It only took a couple of hours or so for the news of Aurus calling Herellia out to spread throughout the alliance base.

…

Within a specific part of the Tempest Branch Alliance's base of operations.

Not knowing what was occurring throughout the alliance base, Herellia was currently occupied with honing the [Tetraelemental Tempest Affinity] skill she obtained from the Tempest Cliff Inheritance. Concurrently, she was also honing the [Blessing of the Tetraelemental Tempest] skill where the respective affinity skill came from.

Fwoosh!

With her sense of vision shut off, she started to sense the rapid movement of the energy particles that surrounded her body, most of them being of the Wind element. A few seconds later, with the help of her original [Tempest Affinity] skill, she manipulated a few of these Wind element particles and forced them to coalesce as the image of a raging fire consumed her thoughts.

Not long after, a small green spark started to appear above Herellia's body, which gradually intensified to the point where a soft explosion resounded throughout where she was, prompting her to open her eyes.

She could not help but focus her vision on the top of her body as a small green flame started to crackle and flicker like a normal flame. If not for the fact that the flame was colored green, then it would be hard for someone to notice that it was made out of Wind element particles.

Ding!

Not long after being mesmerized by the sight of the Wind flame, a screen appeared in front of Herellia's field of vision with a notification sound accompanying it.

'[Tetraelemental Tempest Affinity] has leveled up.'

'[Blessing of the Tetraelemental Tempest] has leveled up.'

Seeing that both of the skills she was honing leveled up, she could not help but let out a cheerful aura.

Whoosh!

Basking in the happiness of growing slightly stronger, Herellia could not help but stop celebrating her feats as she heard a few bushes rustle from not far away, making her vigilant as to what or who the being that made the bushes rustle was.

A few seconds later, the being that rustled the bushes was finally revealed to Herellia who was vigilant all this time, making her let out a sigh of relief as she said, "Oh, it was just you Horell."

"Hehe, I do apologize for disturbing you," Horell let out a chuckle as he replied to Herellia's statement.

Fwoosh!

Herellia decided to extinguish the Wind flame she created just a while ago before continuing to talk with Horell. "So? What brings you here when you know I'm currently training?"

Horell maintained a cheerful aura about him as he replied, "Since you're training, then it's expected that you haven't heard of what Aurus was doing, right?"

"Aurus?" Herellia was confused as to why this name popped up in Horell's conversation. "Did he do something wrong?"

"Oh no, not at all." Horell chuckled. "It's just that he's searching for you throughout the whole alliance base. I feel like he would go to great lengths just to find you if you don't respond long enough."

"Eh?" Herellia could not help but utter. "Why does he want to find me?" Since Horell told Herellia that Aurus was currently searching for her, Herellia subconsciously activated her movement skill, waiting to move at the instant she could do so.

"I don't know, but sensing from the aura he's emanating, I'm pretty sure it's important," Horell replied, which was then answered by a strong gust of wind not long after. Before Horell could even speak a bit more, Herellia was already gone, activating her movement skill to the fullest.

"Hah…" Horell could not help but sigh as he lightly chuckled. "I guess Herellia relies on Aurus a lot." Not long after, Horell started to hover in place before muttering to himself, "Then again, they're the two things that are the impetus for a great change in the Tempest Cliff."

Whoosh!

And just like that, the place where Herellia was training was now left vacant in just a few seconds.

…

"Herellia? Herellia…" Even after a couple of hours have passed, Aurus did not stop shouting Herellia's name, subconsciously using the [Gale Hover] spell every time it was off cooldown. If one were to calculate the distance Aurus has traversed throughout these past couple hours, it would equal to the distance a normal person would walk in about one and a half hours or so, around 7.5 kilometers to be specific.

"Herellia? Herellia—" In the midst of his crazed shouting, Aurus stopped where he was hovering from and noticed an ever familiar silhouette that was covered in red engravings. In an instant, the aura Aurus emitted changed from crazed into a cheerful one as he flew towards her while he shouted, "Herellia!"

"…" On the other hand, sensing Aurus' cheerful expression, Herellia could not help but stay silent as she waited for Aurus to get closer. It only took Aurus around a few seconds to decrease the gap between them to a few meters, prompting Herellia to ask, "I heard from Horell that you were searching for me these past few hours. What's wrong?"

"Haah…" Aurus let out a sigh as only now did he realize that the actions he did these past few hours were a bit too overboard. Although he was a human at heart, he was currently a stick, hence emotions did not affect him that much unless it reached a certain threshold. Composing himself, he then replied, "Let's go somewhere private."

Although saying that in his previous world would elicit some disgusted looks from women, since Herellia took Aurus' words literally, she replied with "Okay."

Whoosh! Whoosh!

A few minutes later, the two of them hovered under a tree that was somewhat far away from the alliance's base of operations. Aurus looked at the surroundings for a bit before muttering to himself, "I guess this is a good place."

Of course, Herellia could not help but look at the surroundings as well before asking, "So…why'd you want to find me?"

"Hehe." Aurus could only let out a stifled chuckle. "I just wanted to know how to obtain Alliance Points since I obtained 1000 Alliance Points from killing Connor back then. I don't know any other way to obtain them to be honest."

"Wha—" Herellia was dumbfounded. She did not expect that this was the reason why Aurus wanted to find her. Composing her emotions, she asked, "Did you unlock the Alliance Tech and Alliance Shop feature perchance?"

"Yeah, why?" Aurus did not hide anything from Herellia since this had something to do with the alliance anyway.

"Well…I figured as much," Herellia could only softly sigh as she replied. "Anyways, there are multiple ways of obtaining Alliance Points. You could either do Alliance missions, kill members that have malicious intentions, or…"

"Kill a lot of Inanimate beings."

"Wait…what?" Now, it was Aurus' turn to be confused. He did not expect that the one of the ways where he could earn a ton of Alliance points was something he used to do before entering the Tempest Branch Alliance. Lightly coughing after Herellia's response, he then asked, "What's the fastest way to earn a lot of Alliance Points then?"

"Killing Inanimate beings," Herellia instantly replied without hesitation.

"Do their grades give out different amounts of Alliance Points?" Aurus asked as a follow-up question.

"Yep," Herellia replied. "C-grades give out 1 Alliance Point each, B-grades give out 3 Alliance Points, A-grades give out 5 Alliance Points, S-grades give out 9 Alliance Points, and X-grades give out 15 Alliance Points."

Hearing that he could obtain 15 Alliance Points for every X-grade Inanimate he kills, Aurus could not help but feel his motivation rising up to great heights. In his previous life while playing Infinite Stick Evolution, he would usually go and do PvP with other players, which was surprisingly the reason why he felt his motivation rise up.

Letting out a cheerful aura, he then said, "I see. Thanks Herellia. I'll repay you for this information once I get back."

"Alright then," Herellia replied before instantly putting the thought at the back of her head. The only thought that occupied her mind currently was the fact that she had to level up and evolve both skills that were related to the Tetraelemental Tempest. Seeing that her job was done, she turned around and hastily went back to the alliance base, leaving Aurus alone under the tree.

Normally, the boy would become sad when the girl left him alone. In this case, Aurus was ecstatic to see Herellia hastily leave.

"Fenrir, come out!"

Whoosh!

A few seconds later, a stick that was larger than Aurus with two protrusions on one of its end, appeared in front of Aurus as the small twig on the other stick's end started to sway left to right.

"Master!"

"Fenrir." Aurus could not help but feel happy that he was finally able to utilize Fenrir in a real situation. "It's time for you to get stronger."

"Stronger…" In an instant, the aura around Fenrir turned into an ecstatic one that was filled with hints of ferocity in it. "Yes! I get stronger so I protect Master!"

"Haha." Aurus could not help but laugh after hearing Fenrir's response. He then turned his body towards a certain direction before looking at Fenrir and asking, "Are you ready to start getting stronger?"

With Fenrir's bloodlust being ignited by Aurus' previous words, Fenrir could only respond with, "Yes, Master!"