"Aldred, you sure want to go in there?" Mira asked. "I feel a terrible aura is oozing out of that ruined temple."
"That's the aura of death. And if we don't go, how can we proceed further?"
Bartrem frowned as he stared at the temple. "I feel what Mira is saying. Whenever I look at the dark entrance, I feel I shouldn't go there."
"We have entered a lot of places we should not have entered. Are we going to step back now? After all we have been through?"
They all looked at each other in thought.
"Sorry, Aldred. It's just some short hesitation," Bartrem said.
"Having hesitation is normal. It makes us think. It makes us prepare and plan for what is ahead."
"What about the dragons? Should we bring them in the dungeon?" Bartrem asked.
Wena and Zara stood side by side, waiting for the answer.
"Well, the dragons are huge. I don't think they can fit in the ruined temple."
Mary sighed. "I am sick of dark, smelly, underground dungeon!"
Suddenly, the ruined temple shook.
"What is going on?!" someone shouted.
"Look. The temple is crumbling!"
"What!?"
The ruined temple crumbled like sand, and then a gigantic tree burst from it and grew up into the clouds, and went pass it.
The trunk became larger as it grew taller and taller to the point that the adventurers had to run away.
After the tree went so high, the adventurers watched from the distance. The branches spread out, throwing green particles of nature in every direction looking like flower petals.
The branches were as big as an entire city, and the tree was like a continent.
In other words, the tree was a world in itself.
They looked at the biggest mountain nearby and compared it with the tree. There was no comparison. The mountain looked so small and insignificant. No. Small wasn't the right word. It was microscopic.
"Goddess Aura! What is that?!" The general widened his eyes in shock. He had never seen such thing before in his life. It was like miracle as if goddess herself created this tree.
"We should climb it," Aldred said.
Suddenly, a little girl's voice reverberated in the sky, singing.
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king's horses and all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again."
The song ended with the girl's giggling, and her voice completely disappeared after that.
Everyone looked at each other and had the same look of confusion and wonder on their face.
Aldred began to think twice of climbing the tree. But another voice whispered in his ear.
"Aldred… climb the tree… I will help and guide you."
Aldred looked to the side but there was no one there except a single leaf blown by the wind.
"What should we do, Aldred?" Mareona asked.
"We climb. It is clear that this here is our next challenge."
"This is our final phase. The third phase," Stella said.
"Yes. And after this, we can go home."
Everyone had different feeling when hearing that statement. For most of them, home was the Ceraisian Empire, but for his wives, home was staying by Aldred's side.
For Aldred, home was the floating castle where his father, mother, and sister reside.
"Let's go."
Aldred rode on the dragons with the others, and they immediately flew to the sky.
The treasure hunters below were amazed that these dragons could fly here.
"Stella, try to use your teleportation spell," Aldred said.
Stella waved her hand, and large portal opened in front of them that teleported them high in the sky.
"This is the limit. I cannot use it near the tree."
"That's fine."
They landed on one of the branches.
"Can we go higher?" Aldred asked.
Zara talked with the dragons and said to Aldred: "It's impossible. You have to defeat the monsters here."
"Why?"
"They said if we continue to fly, we will fall."
"As I expected. So I have to kill monsters here before we can begin flying again?"
"That's what they said," Zara replied.
"Oh, look! There are monsters over there!" Ivette pointed.
"Let's get hunting!" Aldred shouted before he leaped towards the monsters while summoning his Phantom Doomblade.
Wena was speechless when she see this. "I just noticed, but he really loves fighting."
Mary and Mareona laughed.
"He do indeed loves fighting."
Aldred was slashing left and right at the monsters until he received a notification.
[You are in the Holy Nature's presence]
[Your mastery over the sword has increased]
[You have obtained 'Sword Will']
[Sword Will (Not Yet Learned)]
As a sword master, your mere presence can be sharp. It is so sharp that with a breath, the heart of your enemy will be cut to pieces.
'Not yet learned?' Aldred looked at the notification with a weird expression. He had never seen a Not Yet Learned skill before.
'So how do I learn this skill?'
The system then told him everything.
"I see. So I just have to keep killing with the sword while pondering about my technique."
Baendjbi saw the sharp aura oozing out of Aldred's body and he was shocked to see this.
"Sword Will? Have Aldred reached that stage of mastery already? Impossible! But yet, that aura… that aura cannot lie. Only a master-level swordsman could let out such aura. It has to be the sword will."
Baendjbi approached Aldred to feel the aura a little more, and he confirmed it was a sword aura.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Sorry, but how can you obtain Sword Will already?"
"I just did."
Baendjbi was flabbergasted when he heard that.
"Is it that impressive?"
"The Sword Aura is impressive! Only true swordsmen can learn it! It can't be acquired just by training with a sword, as you can train with a sword for your entire life without understanding Sword Aura. However, some people learn it within a couple decades of training! In order to be a swordmaster, you need to have Sword Aura! However, you have only been practicing with the sword for less than a year! People will be begging you to become their disciple if they learn of your talent!" Baendjbi said to him with excitement.
"Wait a minute. Why do I have to be their disciple. Why don't they become my disciple instead?"
"Uhh…" Baendjbi did not think of that. Usually, swordmasters would recruit talented swordsman so they could pass the torch and increased their status. But all of them have to learned the Sword Will for their entire life. Aldred had done it around a year, so why didn't they ask him for guidance instead?
A Diamond Rank swordsmaster asking a Gold Rank for guidance… no matter how he looked at it, it seemed so… impossible.
Don't even mention asking for guidance, even looking at Gold Rank would make the Diamond Rankers felt disgusted sometimes.
And yet, there was Aldred, who was asked by his peers to teach them! He couldn't believe what was happening! And most importantly, the aura coming out from this boy was amazing!
"You really are something else! Do you realize you are one of those people born with genius?"
Aldred replied with an expressionless face: "No."
"But that's a very high level aura," Baendjbi told him in awe after being enchanted by it.
"Meh. It's not that great."
It's just a skill that let him hurt his enemy without moving. It wasn't anything special because he had a lot of skills like that.
If Baendjbi heard that, he would be bleeding from the ears.
