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Chapter 49: Psionic Skill
🕑 Added 2025-06-11 15:14:09 +0000 UTC"This must be my Aura Reservoir," Ethan thought, recalling the plot from a fantasy novel he had read before; all psionic energy was stored in a central core. He then looked at other places within his internal landscape and found that in the area of what was probably his left arm, where the Omnitrix resided, the Aura there was particularly pure and white, and the surrounding psionic gaps and crevices had all been filled by this new, vibrant energy.
"Looks like this place is my first 'Psionic Skill Slot.' Because I successfully used this slot to scan the Wind Spirit, the Aura circulating here is more abundant and refined than in other places."
After confirming his own internal situation, Ethan withdrew from the state of internal vision. He took a deep breath, then opened his eyes and saw Lily looking at him expectantly.
"How was it? Did you confirm it?" Lily couldn't wait to ask.
Ethan nodded. "You were right, Sis Lily. Scanning the Wind Spirit's DNA did indeed occupy one of my available skill slots. I only have two left for this Rank. But the Wind Spirit race itself is very powerful. I didn't lose out on this deal at all; in fact, I feel like I profited immensely."
Hearing this news, a slight, satisfied smile appeared on Lily's face. She patted Ethan on the shoulder and said, "My guess was right. Since that's the case, you'll have to consider carefully when you scan DNA in the future. After all, the number of slots is limited, and every choice you make will affect your future development and combat style."
Lily continued to say, "The Wind Spirit is a powerful elemental spirit. Once it grows up, its strength will be quite considerable. Later, I'll have Sylph teach you how to properly use this new power."
Ethan grimaced slightly. "I just hope she doesn't find me annoying."
"As long as you don't make her angry again, it should be fine," Lily said with a laugh. "Alright, you should hurry up and get back to your training. Stay at home for now and don't run around. I'll go out and buy you a few more potions to help you along."
Ethan nodded heavily, then returned to his room to continue channeling Aura.
"Speaking of which," he thought to himself as he sat down, "why do I feel like I've been taken advantage of somehow? ... Forget it, she's my aunt anyway, so it doesn't really count as being taken advantage of." After a while, hearing the sound of the front door opening and closing, Ethan confirmed that Lily had already left.
"Okay, let's assess. The resources I have on hand now are two attribute-less F-rank Aura Cores, but those are to be used when I break through to Level Ten and then into Rank Two. I've just broken through to Level Nine now, so using them at this point would be too much of a waste. Sis Lily said she was going to buy potions for me. The quantity should not be small, but even so, it would probably only be enough for half a month's time to just barely break through to Level Ten. To break through to Rank Two... it's estimated that it will still take a long time."
Ethan decided not to think about it so much and calmed his mind to focus on his training. As Ethan had broken through to Level Nine, the difficulty of his cultivation had also gradually increased. Although the speed at which he could absorb Aura was fast, the total amount of energy required for the next breakthrough had also increased exponentially, so his overall progress still felt slow. It's often said that true cultivation takes countless months and years of patient effort.
Ethan channeled Aura for three straight hours. At five in the afternoon, Lily, Sarah, and Simon returned together. Ethan came out of his room and couldn't help but sigh. "Three hours, and my progress only increased by two percent. This is too slow!"
Lily smiled. "Don't worry, see what your dear aunt brought back for you." With that, she held out a sparkling, earthy-brown stone.
Ethan's eyes widened. "Holy crap, an Aura Core! How did you buy one?"
"The production of Aura Cores in this small city is pitiful; there's simply no stock available for purchase," she said with a casual shrug. "But there are plenty of monsters out in the wild. I found a pack of E-rank ape-like monsters, wiped them all out, and one just happened to drop a core. I was lucky."
Damn, is that even a human thing to say?
Ethan and his friends had to carefully set up an elaborate pitfall trap just to deal with a single F-rank Direwolf. And even then, if it weren't for Wildvine's unique abilities, they might have "overturned their car" and failed spectacularly. As a result, Lily had just casually found a whole pack of higher-ranked monsters and wiped them all out for a chance at a drop.
Ethan didn't feel that she was being particularly cruel. After all, humans and monsters were fundamentally enemies. Either you kill them, or you have specialized beast tamers or summoner-type psionicists sign contracts with them, or you use artificially raised ones to ensure one hundred percent security. There was no third possibility. Ethan just thought she was incredibly amazing and hoped that one day he could also be like that. To give his own nephew a gift, he would just go out and slaughter a whole pack of monsters. Just thinking about it was awesome!
Sarah looked concerned. "You must have spent a lot of effort to get this one Aura Core, Lily dear."
"This is nothing," Lily replied. "Ethan's ability and innate talent are both very good. This can be considered as cultivating a top powerhouse for humanity's future."
Simon added, "An Earth-rank talent is indeed very good, but when placed at a top institution like Pinnacle University, it shouldn't be considered anything that special, right? Isn't it a bit too arrogant to say he's a future top powerhouse?"
"It's not arrogant," Lily said confidently. "Relax. When he grows up, he will definitely blow everyone's minds."
Simon looked at his son. "Ethan, your aunt has so much confidence in you. You must train well and not let her down."
"Rest assured," Ethan declared. "I have a hunch, I will definitely be able to break through to Level Ten this week!" It was no joke. A fresh Aura Core—if he couldn't even break through to Level Ten with this thingamajig, what was he even doing? Now he had three Aura Cores in his hand. One for reaching Level Ten, and two for breaking through to Rank Two. Perfect! However, he had just broken through to Level Nine, so he still needed to consolidate his rank. It would be too much of a waste to use this new Aura Core right now.
Lily had come back with not just the Aura Core, but also the advanced-grade psionic potions she had promised. Now that Ethan had broken through to Level Nine, the enhancement he received from advanced-grade psionic potions was getting smaller and smaller. At Level Eight, he could still get a five percent boost to his progress from one vial, but now it was only two percent. Don't assume that because high-grade psionic potions are refined from Aura Cores, they would be just as powerful. Although one Aura Core could be diluted into ten such potions, the effect of using all ten vials together was still not as good as directly using one raw Aura Core. This was because in the process of making the potion, a part of the psionic energy would inevitably be lost, and because the medicinal properties were too potent for a low-ranked psionicist to handle raw, many medicinal herbs that could soothe the energy were added. This led to the energy in the potion being very easy to absorb, but the total amount was small. Overall, using ten vials of potion was not nearly as cost-effective as using one raw Aura Core. It could even be said to be a bloody loss in terms of efficiency!
The Aura Core Lily had brought him was an F-rank upper-grade one, while the two he had gotten before were F-rank lower-grade. Don't look down on the difference in grade; she had once traded five ordinary cores for just one Skill Aura Core, plus a whole bunch of advanced psionic potions. The value was significant.
Ethan had already planned it all out in his head. Next, he would first use the potions to slowly train and build his foundation. When his progress reached the absolute peak of Level Nine, he would use one of his F-rank lower-grade Aura Cores to break through to Level Ten. Then, he would use the F-rank upper-grade one that Lily had given him to directly break through the major watershed to Rank Two. Perfect!
After setting the plan in his heart, Ethan began to train with peace of mind. Just like that, another half a month passed in a blur of focused Aura channeling.
