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Chapter 56: Aura Pills
🕑 Added 2025-06-14 16:08:24 +0000 UTCIris Thorne could barely maintain her cool and detached expression. "Aren't you even going to be a little humble?"
"I trained desperately, working my butt off for so long," Ethan said, his voice ringing with genuine conviction. "Wasn't it all for this exact moment? And you still want me to be humble? The achievements I have are the ones I've earned; they are the result of my hard work, not a fluke."
Iris Thorne thought for a moment. It seemed to make sense. When someone has clearly put in an immense amount of effort, but still has to act falsely humble when accepting praise, that can feel a bit pretentious. In contrast, his frank and open manner, while arrogant, made people feel more comfortable.
Iris Thorne gave a light, almost imperceptible laugh. "That's true. I accept my defeat this time, but I will win against you in our next match."
"You lost to me this one time, and you probably won't be able to win against me ever again," Ethan said with an impossibly cool air. "There's no helping it; I'm just too excellent." With that, he gave Iris a light, friendly pat on the waist.
Regardless of how narcissistic this statement sounded, she just shook her head with a faint smile, turned around, and walked off the stage on her own. Seeing that she had left, Ethan didn't linger on the stage either. He quickly got off, leaving the space for the next group. They were all disciplined; after the competition, they had to return to their respective class positions in the stands.
It was almost twelve o'clock, and the morning's matches were about to end.
Marcus clapped him on the back. "Ethan, man, you're so awesome. If I had had to go up against Iris Thorne, I definitely wouldn't have had the confidence to win."
"Actually, I also won by a bit of a trick," Ethan admitted. "If we had really fought head-on with pure power, I might not have been her opponent."
"A win is a win," Seraphina interjected. "There's no need to say so much. You've really made a big name for yourself this time, Ethan."
Mr. Gordon walked over and patted Ethan on the shoulder, his face beaming with pride. "Well done, Ethan. You really made our class proud today!"
Ethan grinned. "What can I say? With me on the team, how could we lose?"
"After this competition is over," Mr. Gordon explained, "the school will re-form the classes based on your performance and official rankings. The first class will be designated as the key class, and the resource allocation for those students will be much more generous. Based on the current situation, although Iris Thorne was eliminated in advance, her strength is solid. So, you, Marcus, Seraphina, and she will probably all go to the same key class."
Ethan perked up. "Speaking of which, how will the resources be allocated then? At our current rank, things like basic psionic potions are becoming useless."
"How could they possibly give you that kind of basic thing?" Mr. Gordon chuckled. "Those are all diluted products. Potions are actually just a type of low-level resource. Above them, besides raw Aura Cores, there is another, more refined thing, called Aura Pills."
"Aura Pills?" Ethan asked, his interest piqued.
"That's right," Mr. Gordon confirmed. "Different Aura Pills have different, often powerful, effects. Some particularly powerful pills can even be used in conjunction with Aura Cores for training, with synergistic results."
"Such a good thing exists? Why haven't I heard of it before?"
"These things can't be bought on the open market outside, not in a small place like ours," Mr. Gordon explained. "Only the school, through its official channels, or the great families have the ability to procure them from those major capital cities." Then he looked at Marcus and Seraphina. "Even you two probably haven't seen them often, right?"
Marcus nodded. "Indeed. I've heard that my family does buy Aura Pills, but they can only acquire one or two per month. Someone at my level basically has no access to them. But my dad did say that when I break through to Rank Two, he'll try to get one for me."
Seraphina added, "Indeed, this kind of thing is very precious. For Aura Cores, as long as you are bold enough, you can go outside and kill mutated creatures, and if you're lucky, you might get some. But for Aura Pills, you must have established connections with people in the upper echelons of power. In a certain sense, they are even rarer than Aura Cores."
"The people who can refine this kind of pill," Mr. Gordon continued, "we call them Alchemists. Only they can skillfully fuse various rare medicinal materials together, often with Aura Core dust as a catalyst, and successfully refine powerful Aura Pills. Our school is an official government-backed force. Every month, we can get three Aura Gathering Pills distributed by the government. After taking one, for the next twelve hours, the speed at which you can absorb ambient Aura is doubled."
Ethan's eyes widened. "That's so powerful!"
"Of course," Mr. Gordon said with pride. "This is the result of us experiencing five hundred years of the Aura Resurgence and combining that new knowledge with the five thousand years of herbal literature and alchemy from before the Resurgence. It took a huge amount of effort and resources to research and develop these techniques. To this day, there are still countless people who want to research new pills, and every time a new one is successfully developed, it can deepen the foundation of our human race by another bit."
"Then besides pills, are there any other amazing things?" Ethan asked.
Mr. Gordon laughed. "You're quite greedy, you little brat. But yes, there are. You know about psionic gear, right?"
"I know," Ethan replied. "When I was getting my talent re-tested, the thing placed next to the Awakening Crystal seemed to be a 'detector mirror' psionic gear."
"That's right. For the specifics, you'll be taught after school starts. You just need to know that during your studies here, you will all have a chance to obtain such items."
Hearing Mr. Gordon's words, Ethan's heart couldn't help but burn with excitement. There were Aura Pills and psionic gear, so many good things to strive for. Just thinking about it made him want to get his hands on them!
Not long after, the morning's matches ended. The students went back to their respective homes to find their families.
Simon and the others quickly came to Ethan's side.
Sarah rushed over, beaming. "Aiya, my good son, you've really made your mother so proud today! That match was fought so wonderfully!"
Simon added, puffing out his chest, "I always knew my son was special! Look at him—his future is limitless."
Ethan's uncle, David, also went forward to praise him. "Not bad, Ethan. Honestly, you surprised me a little. I originally thought your opponent was a Rank Two psionicist, so I was a little worried for you. I didn't expect you to actually win."
At this moment, Ethan had become "someone else's child," the benchmark of success.
"Uncle," Ethan said with a grin, "you're too kind. I'm just a billion points more excellent than a normal person."
Simon said with some regret, "It's a pity your Uncle Steven and Aunt Clara have gone to Pinnacle City to do business. If they were able to see your performance today, they would definitely be very proud." That's right, the reason why no one from David's side of the family had come to watch before was because Ethan's other paternal siblings were not by their side. Ethan also had a paternal aunt and a paternal uncle, one named Clara Atherton and one named Steven Atherton.
Back when Ethan's family had received help from the Linley family, their lives gradually got on the right track. This also meant that they would have the full ability to take care of Ethan's paternal grandparents. After that, Clara and Steven had frantically saved credits as if they were possessed. Finally, after five years, they had saved up a respectable sum of capital. Actually, the three of them had had a lifelong ambition since they were young, which was to go to the biggest city in the nation and make a big name for themselves. It was just because of their family obligations that this plan had never been implemented. Now that they had no more worries about their parents' care, they naturally wanted to pick up their childhood dreams again. Simon had also lent them a large sum of credits back then to help them get started. The two of them had promised that as long as they were well-settled there, they would bring Simon's family over as well. And they had done it.
