Divine Beast Ascension

Chapter 493: Dual Essence Mace

This forced Trenk to make a decision. Going blow for blow wasn’t a bad option. However, the greatest question was whether or not Trenk would be able to tank a direct blow from Oli. And the obvious answer forced Trenk to react and readjust.

Trenk added a hop step to his attack. This weakened his stride and allowed Oli to narrowly evade his sword. But it also allowed Trenk to dip past Oli’s mace.

Crunch...

Cracks spread across the ground as Oli’s mace landed in the dirt. Trenk’s slash attack missed Oli but a trail of fire and dark essence managed to barely come in contact with him. However, the dark essence fizzled out on impact, colliding with Oli’s half-dark and half-death essence. Also, the residual fire essence was trounced by the Oli’s earth essence, since it lacked the penetrative force of the sword.

“Shall we go again?” Oli asked with a big grin.

Trenk took in a slow, deep breath. “... No. I think that’s enough to test us... You’re a low elder now, right?”

Nodding, Oli stored his mace. “Yeah, I ascended a few days ago. I’ll still keep cultivating but I’m not sure if I’ll manage to reach mid-elder by the first round of the qualifier. It’ll be close.”

.....

Feeling a mix of envy and respect, Trenk nodded quietly as he started walking back into the inn. As he reached the doorway, Trenk paused his steps. “... Thank you, Oliver. It’s a great learning experience to face you. Before the qualifier, let’s do this again.”

“Sure thing,” answered Oli, giving Trenk a thumbs up.

Oli then joined the others standing by the doorway as he was bombarded with questions. They wanted to know about his recent ascension, about what he and Fulkar had been up to lately, and if Oli had any tips for acclimating to the environment. Oli just gave basic answers to everything, apart from a telepathic message that startled Fulkar.

‘Meet me in my room. I have something for you.’

Fulkar was amazed to hear Oli’s voice in his head, particularly because he still didn’t know that Oli was in fact a beast in human form. But after a few minutes passed, a knock arrived on Oli’s door.

“Come in.” Oli was smiling as Fulkar entered alone. “Good, now I can finally give you what you wanted.”

While Fulkar was getting ready to sit on a cushion across from Oli, an icy-blue blade appeared on the ground between them. Fulkar reached for it out of instinct. But he caught himself and asked, “This... I can have this, right?”

“No need to hold back,” chuckled Oli.

Hearing that, Fulkar snatched the blade and rushed to his feet. A few test swings were made and a gaze of pure enthusiasm riddled Fulkar’s usually calm or neutral face.

After a couple minutes of testing, Fulkar finally started breathing normally again as he de-escalated his pitched emotions. “... Thank you, Oli. I don’t think I would’ve ever gotten such a sword without you.”

“You’re welcome. But that’s not all...”

As Oli took a few minutes to inform Fulkar of Rykard Willis’s recruitment, all Fulkar could do was stare in silent shock. He was in awe of the youth before him. Fulkar was amazed at how Oli had completely negated the need for the auction and so much more, while also supplying his allies with a far better end result.

“Does that mean we’re not going to the auction?” asked Fulkar.

Oli shrugged. “We’ll see. On the day of, we’ll check the catalog and see if anything catches our eye. If that’s the case, then we’ll participate. If not, then we’ll just refund most of the deposit and leave.”

“True. They’ll post the catalog...” Fulkar nodded in agreement while still admiring the new sword in his hand. “Thank you, Oliver. Thank you for everything.”

“No need to thank me so much so soon. Wait till after your family is elevated to a new status and power,” Oli jested. “Either way, you’ve all agreed to join us so it’s our duty to provide. Your family will see that even more after relocating to Iron Town.”

With that, Fulkar left the room and hurried to the backyard to test out his new sword.

Oli spent the rest of the day relaxing and eating. He spent some time with Yeter but ended up in the ice baths by nightfall. His training cycle was reestablished as he spent the next few days there until he left to eat.

Six days later, two masked figures appeared outside the inn. Before they could ask for Master Oli, they were greeted by Zelsh at the door and welcomed inside. Zelsh took them into his room before alerting Oli of their arrival. A few minutes passed while Oli got out of the bath and joined the men in Zelsh’s room under a silent formation. “So, how’d it go?”

Rykard replied with an overly enthusiastic grin. “Great! We sold it all, from the house to the items up for auction. And we sold it all for surplus so we won’t have to come back and collect any auction winnings.”

“So you’re ready to-”

“Yes! Here’s your weapon, Master Oli.”

A new mace appeared in Rykard’s hands. It was larger than Oli’s current mace, and it had one side that rounded into a single, short point. Such a point couldn’t be called a spike since it was too shallow. But it would concentrate all of Oli’s attack power to a single point in case Oli needed to inflict more damage or better contend with a candidate’s heavy defenses. In the handle were two pearls of black and yellow energy, the concentrated and condensed remains of the earth and death essence cores that Oli had given to Rykard.

“This is perfect...” Oli eagerly accepted the weapon and felt an immediate resonance with the new mace. The feeling was incomparable to how it felt holding the old mace built with only an earth-based formation.

“I’m glad you like it!” Rykard commented with a bow. “And I hope you form your divine core quickly. Otherwise, I’ll go mad with anticipation to make your next weapon.”