"Now, I want to ask you a serious question." Carmel's expression turned serious.
"What is it?" Souta raised his eyebrows.
"Are you interested in promoting your rank?" Carmel asked as he rested his chin on the back of his palm. "Someone nominated you to become a Grain Leader."
"Someone nominated me...? Can I ask who is it?" Souta asked.
"You're familiar with her... She's Grain Leader Ibis, the one who worked together with you in defeating No God Emperor's vessel. She retired from her position after suffering heavy injuries." Carmel explained. "Actually, I would like you to accept the position. Your strength is more than enough and our legion lost a few Grain Leaders in the previous battles."
"What do you mean?" Souta narrowed his eyes.
"Our Pallas Division lose a total of thirty-two Grain Leaders in the past month. Several organizations just like Red Matter Association are rising one by one. Even the other god legions suffered great casualties from the battle."
"So the situation now is getting worse...?"
"Yeah, we lacked manpower and a big battle occurred in the Ruin Battlefield. The Grains of Land, Lady Demeter's legion, suffered horribly that various legions in Olympus sent reinforcement to help them."
"Do you know the exact details?"
"I'm sorry, even I don't know exactly what happened in the Ruin Battlefield. All I know was that even the samurai from Takamagahara was defeated by an unknown group."
Souta pinched the bridge of his nose.
The position of Grain Leader would give him a huge benefit but there's also danger to it. The chances of him being dispatched to a highly dangerous battlefield were high.
Plus, not every Grain Leader was Four Shackles. It was the basic strength requirement in the position of Grain Leader. Stronger Grain Leaders already reached the Fifth and Sixth Shackles Realm and Souta could only defeat Fourth Shackles with all of his might. Unless he could use his Archetype in combat, there's no chance of him defeating a Fifth Shackles Realm.
"Okay... I accept the position of the Grain Leader." Souta nodded with a sigh.
He wasn't afraid since he just gained the Emperor's Blessing Card which would let him fight an opponent of a higher level. If a Freedom Realm or a God hunted him in his mission, he still had a Blood Card to secure his life.
Souta just hoped that god wouldn't hunt him at this time. Gluttony would attack soon and a battle between gods would occur. Everything would be turned upside down so Blood Card would be needed in that moment.
"Are you sure?" Carmel asked.
"Yeah, I will take the position of the Grain Leader." Souta paused before he asked, "But a lot of warriors wanted to become a Grain Leader too, right? Is there a test?"
"In your case, no. Actually, your contribution to the matter in Hall Plains was enormous. The higher-ups made an exception for you. If you want to become a Grain Leader then there will be no examination for you. You can take that position immediately. Also, there are Grain Leaders that nominated you just like Grain Leader Ibis and Grain Leader Darwin." Carmel explained.
Grain Leader Darwin and Souta fought together against the Leader of the Rebels in the war in a subterranean world. So he has a good impression of him since both of them fought side by side at the stake of their lives.
"Plus, I nominated you too. I have great expectations from you." Carmel added.
"Oh, thanks for your trust." Souta smiled.
"But you have to be careful... Since you are a Grain Leader right now, the responsibility on your shoulder will become bigger." Carmel said.
"I know," Souta nodded. "By the way, what Grain will I take over?"
"It's Grain Leader Ibis' position, the Sixth Grain War Leader," Carmel answered.
"I see... So is there an official promotion? Or have you notified the Sixth Grain War about this?" Souta nodded and asked.
"No, we'll just send a memo to them that the new Grain Leader will be assigned to them. The Leader of Sixth Grain War has been vacant ever since Ibis retired but Ibis already informed her men that you're probably the one to take her vacant position." Carmel explained.
Souta inquired a little bit more about the position before he excused himself.
He became a Grain Leader so he had a relatively high position in Athen's Champion.
Souta walked around and found that the warriors were busy. Some warriors arrived with grave injuries and some of them were dispatched to battlefields. Then, he met with Eilish.
"Are you done?" Eilish asked.
"Yeah, I need to go and check my achievement points. What's the result of your achievements?" Souta asked.
"It's fine. I redeemed two spells and one pill that will greatly boost my strength." Eilish answered.
"I see. I'll check my achievement points too and see if I can find something useful in my current rank." Souta said.
While walking Eilish asked what happened to his report. Souta told her that he became a Grain Leader of the Sixth Grain War.
"You've become a Grain Leader?!" Eilish widened her eyes.
"Yeah, that's the reward I got after stopping No God Emperor," Souta said as he looked down.
Eilish stayed silent as she glanced at Souta's expression.
She knew the cost of stopping No God Emperor. Souta lost one of the most important members of his group, Yenxa. Souta wasn't the only one who lost a person close to him in that war. A lot of people of Astros experienced the same thing and one of them was Amanda.
Soon, Souta and Eilish arrived at a huge hall. It was a place where he could exchange his achievement points.
Souta went through the list of items available for his current rank. There were tons of things that he could get as a Grain Leader. He could even get some of the classified information if he had enough points.
Weapons, armor, materials, pills, potions, skills, or even mana fruit was available.
Souta ignored weapons and armor. He couldn't get any universal grade through this method.
He went through the skills and saw some skills for improving his growth rate. It was an auxiliary type just like his [Divine Dark Circulation] and [Divine Light Circulation] techniques.
These two techniques improved the training speed of his elemental power and even enhanced his capacity. Right now, he practiced the two techniques to the highest level. It let him reach the Integration Stage and his capacity would enable him to last close to an hour using [Element Drive]. The recovery of his elements was faster because of this.
Well, No God Emperor created these techniques for creatures that used best feram so it was extremely compatible with him.
His element power was already stronger than most of the experts that attained the Integration Stage. Aside from the techniques, the things that boosted his elemental power were the fruits that he received from Alexander.
After checking the skills, Souta looked through the pills, potions, and mana fruits.
In the end, he chose to use his points in one legendary fruit. Most of his contribution was gone just like that. After all, the fruit was at legendary grade.
It was called Field Energy Fruit.
Holding the strange fruit in his hand, Souta glanced at Eilish and said, "We'll find some room first. I want to absorb this and feel the effect of this fruit."
"I see... Then, I'll have to check the pills and spell that I've redeemed." Eilish replied.
"Okay." Souta nodded.
...
Inside a room, Souta used his energy to create a barrier to prevent the leakage of his energy. It was to prevent him from disturbing the other warriors in this place.
It was the basic etiquette of the experts that wanted to train their energy.
"Let's start..."
Souta raised the fruit close to his face. He widely opened his mouth and ate the fruit in one go.
Thud!
Souta gritted his teeth as he felt intense energy surging through his body.
It widened the flow of his energy in his veins by a little bit. It was only a small change since he already had [Star Veins] which made his energy output a lot higher than normal.
Ugh!
He felt a scorching heat inside his body. It didn't damage his body but it was an extremely painful experience.
Thump! Thump!
His heart beat wildly. It felt like it was about to burst out from all the energy flowing through his body.
The fruit continued to change his body.
Boom!!
A tremendous amount of energy exploded like a bomb within him.
The whole room started to shake. Luckily, he prepared several barriers before he started. The amount of energy that filled the room crushed some of the objects like chairs and tables. A layer of barrier was even shattered because of it.
It could hardly contain all the energy that was bursting out of his body.
Argh!!
Souta groaned in pain as his sweat drenched his body. There was nothing he could do about it.
