I Reincarnated As A Stick

However, before Aurus could continue his monologue, the two of them stopped him. Slightly frowning just as he was about to get to the good part, he quickly noticed the confused expressions written all over the pair’s faces, now understanding why they stopped him.

Seeing Aurus go silent, the two could not help but let out an inward sigh of relief as Herellia told him, “I know you’re eager to explain that ‘mastery’ thing to both of us, but could you explain it to us in a way that we would both understand? Remember, I’m actually going to need to remember it since I’m the only one here among us three who has to go through it.”

“Yeah, my bad.” Aurus scratched his head as he wryly smiled in response. “I got too engrossed for a bit there.”

After that, he went silent once more, rubbing his chin as he pondered over the best way to explain the concept of mastery levels to the two. Eventually, a good idea surfaced in his mind, prompting him to look at the two with renewed vigor as he said, “Alright, I’ve got an idea on how I’ll explain it to you two. So, I’ve mentioned earlier that there are four mastery levels: Novice, Adept, Veteran, and Expert.”

With the two nodding in response, Aurus went ahead and continued. “Let me put it this way. We’ll be using the skill [Water Manipulation] as an example. For someone who’s at the Novice mastery level, the most they could do is conjure a small ball of water and throw it. On top of that, it takes about ten seconds or so for them to conjure that ball.”

“Now, we move onto the Adept level. Once someone is at the Adept mastery level, the speed at which they can conjure those water balls would be faster, only taking them a couple of seconds or so. Not only that, but the size of their water balls would also be bigger. In some cases, they could even dictate where the water ball will head toward.”

“Following so far?” he asked before he continued onto the last two levels. Seeing them nod in understanding, Aurus nodded back in response before continuing where he left off.

“Now, a person with [Water Manipulation] at Veteran level would not only be able to create large water balls almost instantaneously, they could even have it take different shapes. Want something with more penetrative power? Create a water spear. Want to bind someone in place? Create some water rope. But of course, there’s a limit to this modification, which is being limited to simple shapes. Nevertheless, the skill at Veteran level mastery is already multiple times more versatile than the skill at Adept level mastery.”

“With that in mind, [Water Manipulation] at Expert level mastery would be like looking at another skill altogether. Once you have a skill at this mastery level, you could say that you could modify this skill as much as you want. Want to create a water dragon that attacks on its own? You could do that with the skill at this level. Want to create a tsunami out of thin air? You can definitely do that and even more at this level. In fact, this is the minimum mastery level needed in order for you to evolve a skill to the next grade.”

“So, anything else you want me to clarify?” Wrapping up his explanation for now, Aurus asked the two. Unexpectedly, Herellia lightly nodded, asking him, “How do you reach the higher mastery levels?”

“Repetitive usage,” Aurus replied, prompting expressions of confusion to appear on the pair’s faces. Seeing that, he clarified, “However, it’s not in the way you think. Instead, you repeatedly use it to gain a deeper understanding of the skill itself. You repeatedly use it to understand every part of the skill you’re using, from how you activate it, to how much energy you consume, to what you could improve, so on and so forth. Eventually, after fully understanding it, you can make modifications to it, allowing it to exude greater power. That’s what the Veteran and Expert levels of mastery signify.”

Naturally, the two of them could not help but become curious as to how Aurus had come across this knowledge. Though, after recalling how he had the ability to call powerful beings whenever and wherever he wanted, it didn’t take long for them to connect the dots on their own.

“Any other questions?” Aurus asked yet again. This time, it was Horell who asked. “You mentioned in your monologue— I mean, in passing a while ago that there were a few more levels after Expert. What are they?”

“Hmm…” Hearing the question, Aurus pondered over it for a bit, wondering if it would be good for them to know. After all, in his memories, those who had achieved a mastery level beyond Expert for their skills were as rare as phoenix feathers. In the end, he was unsure if achieving something like that was as rare in this world as it was in ISE, so he decided to play it safe for now and only introduce the level after Expert.

“Well, now that I’ve mulled over it, there’s not much point in telling you the levels beyond Expert since the chances of anyone having a mastery level beyond Expert for a skill is very low as far as I’ve heard. Nevertheless, there’s still a chance you come across one, so let me tell you what comes after Expert.”

“Unsurprisingly, the level above Expert is aptly named Master, which already says a lot about how thorough one’s understanding of the skill is at that level. I won’t give any example for this level since it’s pretty hard to explain, but just know that any skill at Master level mastery can show the power of a skill at least one tier above it,” he told the two.

“A tier above?” Herellia could not help but focus on that part. “What do you mean by that?”

“Check your skills again. Any of the two,” Aurus said in response. “Now, tell me what skill grade they’re at.”

“Let me see… it says here they’re Tier 0 Mortal,” Herellia said after opening up her system again. “Is that the same as C-grade Mortal?”

“In concept, yes. In reality, far from it,” Aurus replied, trying to recall as much information from the original Aurus’ memories on this part as possible. “Instead of C-grade Mortal to X-grade Mortal, the skill grades for Animates go from Tier 0 Mortal to Tier 9 Mortal, basically doubling the number of skill grades you have to go through until you reach Transcendent grade for the skill.”

“Anyways, I think that’s enough explanation for now,” he said soon after before lightly grinning. “Don’t you think it’s time for us to start training?”

Hearing that, smiles could be seen on the pair’s faces. Though, once one looked closely, one would notice competitive intent hidden beneath their light grins.

“Let’s make it more interesting, shall we?” Herellia suggested all of a sudden. “How about… the one who kills the least creatures has to do a punishment?”

Hearing that, Aurus and Horell unhesitatingly agreed as a flame was lit up inside them. The flame of competition.

“You’re on!”

…

With that, the three wholeheartedly focused on honing their strengths, with some of them getting into more trouble than others at times. Nevertheless, every night, the three would gather at the clearing and talk about what they had done that day, allowing the others to gain more experience and enhance their knowledge as a whole while they rested.

In fact, the three decided to work on their strength as a team after focusing on their personal strengths for a few days, utilizing formations and strategies while fighting the creatures of the forest. Of course, they still focused on their personal strength for the most part. Though, it was no surprise that they considered fighting together far more interesting than fighting alone at that point.

Unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end, which was what happened two weeks after they had arrived at the forest.

As the sun shone its rays down from the peak of the sky, the three of them gathered at the clearing, looking at each other to see that each of them had considerably improved in strength compared to when they had first arrived. For Herellia, she had increased her mastery for both of her skills to Adept level, though she was certain that it wouldn’t take long until she reached Veteran level as long as she focused on them for a bit more. On top of that, she had increased her level to Level 5, which was about halfway to the maximum level for her current grade.

Horell, on the other hand, had progressed far greater than Herellia, evolving to Grand-grade and even reaching the maximum level for it within these past two weeks. Not only that, but he had also evolved a great portion of his skills to higher grades, increasing his personal strength even further. Then again, as a Pseudo-Animate, he gained a lot more experience whenever he fought against an Animate creature.

As for Aurus, it was no surprise that he had also reached the maximum level for Grand-grade. However, as he was already in Grand-grade before their training spree started, it took him a lot less time to achieve his feat, allowing him to focus all of his remaining time on maxing out his skills.

And max them out he did.

May the skill be passive or active, all of them were now at X-grade Mortal, with a select few among them even going past beyond that and reaching C-grade Transcendent. Nevertheless, with all of them at the maximum level for their grade, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that Aurus now could thrash Aurus from two weeks ago without a problem.

In any case, with all of them achieving a lot in these past two weeks, it was now time for them to head back to town and prepare for what they were about to do.