“What should I say when I meet him… Should I praise his wisdom in bringing me up? No, his plan didn’t exactly turn out right… What about… Oh~” Daydreaming about how he should go about meeting Rival again after “a pretty long time”, he felt happier than happy.

Ignoring the background clamor due to the presence of a fairy in a research section, he knew that avoiding this attention was impossible if he didn’t take drastic action, so he just let it be as he made his way to a certain experimental hall.

Opening the door with his second nature energy telekinesis, he and all his boxes went through it orderly and naturally.

Not caring more than that about this experimental hall and what was being experimented on in it, he just sought his mentor and didn’t try to hide it as he interrupted a probably-staff member, “Do you know where Rival is?”

Receiving slightly stuttered indications, he smiled and thanked the probably-staff member before heading around the massive mechanical monstrosities present around him.

After circling around a few of them, he finally felt it in him when he saw a very familiar unchanged shape of a black-haired man standing straight with his back turned towards him.

Approaching discreetly, which meant without producing a single sound for a fairy flying above the ground and being an energy life not interacting much with the air, he quickly confirmed without a doubt that the man working on infusing a massive mechanical monstrosity was really Rival.

“So charismatic… A man standing alone surrounded by only machines, his dignified focus accentuates his deep wisdom coming from both age and dedication to his path, there’s no doubt that only such a man could have taken on the weight of the whole world for his mentee…” Deepening his voice as much as he could with his advanced knowledge on singing, vocalizing, and talking, he winged the most dramatic introduction he could.

And surely, the man, identifying himself to the introduction, opened his eyes and turned around, sending a very familiar heavy gaze at the flying little being.

“I’m not here to talk about life or any such fantastic things, I’m here to start paying back the investment you made based on my incredible charisma!” Justifying himself to this very practical-minded mentor of his, Aven crossed his arm and confidently looked at him.

“And how will you do that?” Rival questioned him with a deep voice that perfectly let through his impatience.

“I don’t have time yet to write the perfect book of knowledge, so I’ll just bring your blank and century-old human body to a much better-talented state by feeding you tasty things,” being as honest as he could, Aven then looked around, “That’ll be 6 items, do you want to have them now or do you want to compete with Commander to know who can absorb them the fastest?”

“Hu!” Grunting, Rival simply started walking away.

“This rivalry is so romantic~ I love it!” Finding an escape gate for his suppressed social butterfly self, Aven enthusiastically followed behind his mentor who hadn’t changed one bit during the months he hadn’t seen him.

“You don’t have any hard feelings for me picking the undivided infusion specialization first, right? Yours wasn’t bad, but the circumstances forced me. If nothing weird happens I’ll take it at grade 4 to…” Traveling through medium-sized corridors as they headed towards where Commander was supposed to be, one chattering fairy and a taciturn old man “discussed” together.

Judging by the way the old man neither accelerated nor decreased his pace, he was neither interested nor annoyed by the discussion. He just accepted that it was happening and gave small grunts here and there, leaving their interpretations free.

Their walk together went on for more than 5 minutes before a military soldier came to escort them to where Commander was after learning of the news.

“Do you know why I didn’t see Commander at the strategic command center? I really thought if there was a place for me to meet him, it would be there. But no!” Aven latched onto this sudden inspiration he got, “I guess I’ll just ask him when I see him, or I could send him a message now? It would make for a good joke~”

Eventually arriving at a residential section located next to the industrial section where Commander should have been located, the duo were escorted to a peaceful small garden exposed to the noon White.

“Ho! Commander!” Accelerating a bit after seeing his favorite white-haired old man on Green, Aven nearly crashed into the exquisite table before he suddenly stopped, defying physics as he sat directly on the table, “Isn’t my new fairy form so freaking cool? I’m sure you’ll enjoy having one too someday~”

“Well, that’s certainly an argument for not slowing down one bit on my path,” casually taking in the news, Commander smiled as he put down the teacup he was holding, “I see that you’ve come really far in such a short time Aven.”

“I stopped trying to understand my own potential! That was the key!” Carefully settling down all his boxes and only keeping a single gun floating, Aven bragged shamelessly, “Having restricted myself to mortal limits had been a mistake, the moment I began daring to dream, my whole life changed. I’m sure you’ll see that-”

“Investment,” cutting him off abruptly, Rival settled himself and unhurriedly served himself a cup of not-tea.

“Oh, yeah!” Stopping his endless chattering, he brought up his shop and claimed 12 items, “By the way, what I’m doing is also an experiment to know what happens when I use my FCP to materialize items I then give back to my faction… Anyway…”

Energy Growth Wonder Flower (Claim?)

Energy Growth Wonder Flower (Claim?)

Tireless Apple (Claim?)

Tireless Apple (Claim?)

Crafter’s Delight Drop (Claim?)

Crafter’s Delight Drop (Claim?)

Self Revolving Energy Mutation Elixir (Claim?)

Self Revolving Energy Mutation Elixir (Claim?)

Energy Furnace Constitution Mutation Elixir (Claim?)

Energy Furnace Constitution Mutation Elixir (Claim?)

Armored Spirit Treasure Pill (Claim?)

Armored Spirit Treasure Pill (Claim?)

“I’m here to make a debt-clearing down payment,” he retold what he had already said to Rival as 12 mesmerizing light and color shows manifested themselves around him, “I can’t properly focus on transmitting you all the amazing knowledge I acquired over my pretty-fast growth, so here’s a foretaste~”

“First is… A flower able to give you a talent optimizing your energy cultivation gains! Don’t underestimate it as it’s on my priority list of talents to increase!”

Acting like a variety show MC, he began introducing each of the 6 items as if it was an auction.

“Next is the most beautiful jewel-like tireless apple, say goodbye to the regular day and night cycle with it! Bite on it once, gain an hour, bite on it 2 times, gain 4 hours, bite all of it, and you’ll give your spirit the weapon it needs to fight against your biological and spiritual exhaustion! Third is a drop of…”

More enthusiast than ever, he expressed his social side more than he had during the last few cycles.

His 2 mentors went along with him and listened carefully all along, giving out perfectly timed reactions where there was a need for one.

The fake auction went on for a few minutes, the time it took for the 12 items to finish materializing themselves, before Aven used his energy telekinesis to… Open one of his boxes, and inside were more boxes, exquisite boxes.

“Thanks for attending the fairy auction, your prizes will be sent to you shortly. They are even being packaged as we speak!” Bowing deeply once, he packed 1 copy of each of the 6 items in a box before beautifully writing “Commander” and “Rival” on top of them.

“Your prizes are here~” Finished with his whole skit, he made the 2 boxes politely float towards their intended owners.

“Thank you, young fairy, I look forward to-” Commander attempted to thank him but was interrupted by Rival who directly opened his prize box and started eating the pale green jade-like flower while sending him provocative looks.

“Your rival has started to acquire divine talents Commander, how will you react? By reciprocating and confirming your rivalry? Or will you be the greater man and let him surpass you? Choose now, centenarian human!”

Aggravating the provocation as if he was a background narrator, Aven adopted the spectator mindset.

“Sigh…” Sighing at first, Commander too showed his true color and opened his prize box to start consuming the 6 items contained inside.

Left on the side with a fulfilled smile, Aven continued to narrate the whole thing to try and tire even a bit of his endless chattering self.

“And just like that, the 2 rivals entered into yet another conflict from which there could only be one lone winner at the end. Rival, with his quick wits, pulled ahead, but will that be enough to make a difference?”

In the end, the three spent the following hour in this exquisite small garden isolated from the world, or it would have been if the sound of faraway explosions couldn’t reach them. Two competed, one commented, and it was only after all their prize boxes had been emptied that they all started wrapping up.

“Before I go back to my supremely efficient contribution grinding,” changing the subject without hesitating as he thought of something, Aven pointed at Commander, “Why aren’t you at the command center? Do you use a subordinate center? Or are you only a commander for applied strategies?”

Only after taking a few dozen seconds to think about how to turn his answer did the white-haired old man began exposing them.

“I’m less focused on leading nowadays for some reasons, not really relevant ones to be honest, so forget about all your theories and change them to ‘Commander is lazy so he doesn’t contribute his strategizing experience’, that pretty much sums up the situation.”

“Well, I don’t need to know that, it’s not like your presence there would change anything,” he bragged honestly, “If I had to, I could take over all of Eland’s abomination surge strategizing dilemma. The only problem, if such a thing happens, would be that I wouldn’t be able to oversee their correct on-field applications.”

“Can you really?” Half-joking and half-resigned, Commander took this news in stride, “How far have you come on the tech-production path?”

“Around 890% average tech-enhancement? But my knowledge application skill can’t catch up to my… Astonishing knowledge base anyway, so… Yeah, I’m still probably below you two in that aspect, which is unfortunate,” Aven admitted regretfully.

“It’ll come with time, you just need to guarantee your safety and continued growth in the meantime,” Rival used his deep voice to make sure he was heard, and he was.

“Hehe~ My safety, right? My safety…” Aven mused over this term for a bit too long as he thought of what had happened in his life recently, “This world is deeper than you might think, something like that?”

“Even being a fairy can’t protect you from everything. Not even grade 5 supers dare guarantee their own safety against the unavoidable tides of nature and man,” becoming a bit philosophical for a moment, Rival talked for much longer than his character should have allowed him to.

“Yeah, exactly my thoughts,” the brown-haired and blue-eyed fairy sitting cross-legged on the table whole-heartedly agreed, “I can only try my best~”

The moment he said that all his boxes began floating in the air, and a slight flutter of his wings similarly made him take off from the table slowly without shifting from his initial cross-legged position, “And talking about trying my best, I have a whole world waiting for me to revolutionize it, and I’m itching for returning to a very lucrative activity.”

“I also have things to do that have been unfortunately postponed due to this meeting,” standing up, Commander declared that he also wanted this meeting to end.

“Hu,” echoing their two vocalized thoughts, Rival skipped the “social goodbye” process and simply walked away.

“Hahaha! I’ll do just that! It’s so cool when he does that!” With one leading by example, Aven voluntarily forwarded his polite and friendly goodbye ceremony and flew up, and up, and even more up, “Goodbye Commander and Rival~ See you~”

He wasn’t limited to using corridors, he was a free-flying fairy, and he knew how to best use that advantage by… Flying straight towards where he wanted to be.

His return trip took him half an hour, the same as what it took him to reach the area his 2 mentors were located, and when he arrived the first thing he did was pass by an ERA office to drop off all his boxes.

He had only taken them with him because there was a chance things could go “very wrong” to begin with, but now that he was back in his area, if things actually went wrong he would have all the scary weapons he would need to make sure the wrong was transformed into right.

After dropping everything and only keeping a single handgun and box full of random survival gears and stuff, he then went to the command center.

‘Maybe the news of my absence…’

Having left only a few hours ago, he didn’t expect things to have gone wrong there, he just checked to alleviate his worries.

“Surprise inspection!” Bursting through the door in the same way he found to be extremely enjoying, he directly flew above the table to see the development.

And considering how the whole room was filled with people looking at each other and an extremely dark purple dot was heading towards the central wall area controlled by Eland, Aven knew that he had hit the jackpot, “An emergency? I love emergencies! Which is it? A27?”

“Ah!” He remembered all the reports he had read and scenarios he had created based on this erratic grade 5 abomination, “I knew this one was up to no good! Now, which grade 5 powerhouses can help us…”

Using his energy telekinesis to pick up 2 files a 4-star general actively waved at him, even Aven couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows at who the 2 files he had been handed belonged to, “Ho~ Interesting… And very weird considering the circumstances.”

“Yeah,” a 5-star general gathered his attention, “But this is something personally requested by our guest, so we just have to make it happen in the best way.”

“Well…” Aven looked around the room, “Seems that our guest isn’t there to listen, and I don’t know how the 2 will not end up interacting… Hence…”

Taking a careful look at the 2 files, both bearing the legendary and currently very controversial name of “Emma”, he gave them back to the kind 4-star general, “I’m out! Good luck, I’ll be there for support if the battle happens near where I am, but that’s it.”

…

Knowing a grade 5 abomination was heading approximately towards where his bunker room on the Forbidden Wall was located didn’t worry Aven that much.

Other places already had to deal with grade 5 abominations testing themselves against them, and it was at those times that the supreme advantage of having a permanent satellite observation network installed showed its might once combined with a solid defensive position.

Those 2 advantages, one perfected over more than a few centuries and the other a recent addition thanks to the establishment of Star Trail a few decades ago, were extreme assets against the abomination surge.

Rightly so, using one of those 2 advantages by firing his artillery sniper again and again without having to worry about being swarmed by thousands of abominations, Aven didn’t care about how much time he had been firing.

Counting didn’t really matter as long as his phone was there to remind him when it was time to make a visit to the command center.

Pulling the trigger and seeing his target and everything behind scatter in a not-always red bloody mist despite surely being a grade 3 abomination, he lifted his head from behind the scope to get an extended view of the situation.

‘That…’

Looking to his right, at the limit of where the curvature of Green allowed him to see, a large red cloud had appeared and was rapidly growing bigger, as if it was advancing towards where he was.

‘The princess really answered the call…’

Due to her proximity to Eland from the extreme northern area of the Emma-manned part of the wall, she was even a bit early. She also seemed to have more energy than she needed as she was traveling by directly cutting through the abomination ocean, showing her prowess to the world.

Lowering himself to scope level, he changed the alignment and zoom level drastically to get a clearer picture of this new generation powerhouse than what his inefficient fairy eyes could give him.

And there she was, in all her glory, Emma Lenia, grade 5 elemental super, eldest firstborn daughter of the current Emma Emperor, an actual contender, and an extremely favored one, for the throne in the succession war sweeping through the Emma Empire.

‘An elemental super specialized in blood, innate ability allows her to transform as much of her blood into life blood, then consume as much of it as she wants to push her body to martial super territory and even beyond.’

Reviewing what he knew about this princess who was the first to bring the succession war into the Forbidden Continent, Aven knew for sure that she was an untouchable being for him.

“Well, between reading about her in the reports and seeing it with my own eyes… Hehe~” Nervously laughing by reflex, he felt both mesmerized and scared by the scene of an indistinct human figure covered in crystallized blood wielding a shining red sword surrounded by a blood tornado he was seeing through the scope.

‘A martial-like elemental super wielding overpowered all-round capabilities in every department… The first of a long line of living proofs that the Emma Emperor’s offsprings are all monsters, capable of revolutionizing the world simply by their existence…’

Confirming this seemingly exaggerated part of the reports he had read about her, Aven felt they weren’t so exaggerated at the end, which probably meant that the second grade 5 powerhouse intended to come…

Averting his scope from the still faraway blood tornado, he focused back on what was in front of him.

Grade 5 was a dreamy level, the one symbolizing that someone had reached their peak. Times had changed, and while such a peak wouldn't be accepted as such back in the wild ancient era, the fairy era, or even the disaster era, it was currently the human era.

“I hope I’ll be able to see for myself what a battle at the peak looks like…” Whispering a small wish, he found an abomination that stood out, adjusted his aim, and pressed the trigger.