’Not bad...’ Ash’Kral said lazily, expecting such a result.
"Damn, it’s really hard to push through Solarbound rank." Levi wiped his forehead while requesting his spiritual energy to be restored from the system.
Anyone renting for an hour was given the right to a free one-time recharge of any type of energy wasted in the training exclusively... the same amount was recharged, so no one would abuse the system.
After feeling his spiritual energy rejuvenated, Levi’s dizziness was treated before it could cause any issue.
"It’s expected... You have received only evolutionary enhancements from a rookie rank, which are barely enough to help you cover one stage... in your next evolutions, the enhancements will be much higher in quality." Ash’Kral said.
Hearing this, Levi couldn’t help but feel rewarded for his pain... although the mutations were awesome, he still couldn’t use them properly.
But if he kept improving like this, by the time he reached Solarbound (prayers requested), even with one Ancestral Tree, his strength might rival that of Tier 6 or 7 nightcrawlers!
Just from evolutionary enhancements!
This might not seem that impressive, but one should understand that starting from tier 6, there was a massive chasm between the rest of the ranks.
A single stage skip was considered amazing, but to skip an entire rank or two? It was an impossibility in motion. But for now... it was nothing but a dream.
"Alright, show me my current measurements."
Levi opened up a dimensional screen of his profile in the Facility, showing him his current calculated measurements, appearing as such:
Name: Levi Larson
Current Rank: Junior Daywalker (Evolution Stage)
Physicality Power Level (N): 37.1N
Strength: 39N
Speed: 37N
Endurance: 36N
Lifting/Carrying Capacity: 34N
Agility/Reflexes: 39.5N
Spiritual Prowess: 56.6N
Total Innate Abilities: 6...(6N)
Total Ultimate Abilities: 2...(4N)
Average Power Level (N): 46.85N (Solarbound Daywalker... no stage completed.)
"46N... a freshly baked Solarbound." Levi scratched his chin, "Not bad..."
Levi knew that the readings were decently accurate if one took the tests seriously... in his case, since he signed the CRS Rifter contract using only his Nine Senses, Nocturn’s strange spiritual system discovered only six and two unlocked abilities... Each innate ability was given one N value, while ultimates were doubled.
In the case of nightcrawlers, their created techniques were considered innate abilities since their shadowlife seed had no inherent abilities.
With a value lower than the average value of those physical and spiritual values, the eight mentioned abilities were excluded from the equation, as their value was considered erroneous and would have negatively affected the average.
But now? 56.6N + 37.1N = 93.7N.
If we divided by the number of values (2) in this case, we end up with an Average Power Level of 46.85N, which was at the entry level of a Solarbound Daywalker.
However, Levi wasn’t foolish enough to believe that he could now fight a Solarbound... his spiritual prowess carried him to this average power level. In reality, if he were to fight a Solarbound, he would get absolutely mauled alive... of course, without adding the Sun and Void forms to the equation.
Solarbound Daywalkers had Dominions, which separated them from the rest of the herd.
Still, if Levi were to fight an entry-level Solarbound right now, at very, very ideal circumstances, such as no Dominions, no mutations, and similar battle experience, he might go toe to toe with him.
Unfortunately, Levi knew that Nocturnal Ring didn’t care about such things... the moment he hit the minimum Power Level needed to be named a Solarbound, he would either be put against other Solarbound or, in his case... A Promotional Game.
’At least, I won’t straight up be put against other Solarbounds... which are most definitely all Baron-ranked, and powerful enough to remain in it.’
Levi thought to himself as he exited the Testing Facility, having read that for such powerful entities that broke the scale, the Nocturnal Ring put them in a single Promotional Game.
Winning the Game would straight out promote them to the next rank without needing to abuse weaker Rifters in the same rank or get forced into a rank with much more powerful monsters than them... It was like creating a new rank just for them, and the network already gave it a name: The Abnormal Rank.
Levi had no plans to face any of them at the moment, knowing that if he was going to be put against other Scale Breakers like him, he should prepare much more than this.
For now, he had two goals in mind... locate a miracle medicine for his Instructor, who believed and gave him a shot, not many would have done in the assembly; also, to gather as many sun-related treasures from the Ancient Site, knowing that it was a rare opportunity that would not repeat.
***
About twelve days later ...
Heliodor’s Raiders, under Feng Ling’s supervision, were seen coursing through the sky in a ’V’ formation.
Feng Ling was in the lead, standing on top of his saber... as a Wind Specialist, the sky was his home, not needing a nightmount for anything since he could fly without harming his solar energy tank.
In fact, he was so in control of the wind as an element, he was capable of finding the best jet streams on the way, assisting the team’s mounts fly at an increased speed than the norm without needing to waste too much of their stamina... In addition, he was flying in front to shield them from the roar of the wind.
While he had surrounded his head with an anti-wind barrier to smoke in peace, the rest of the team were chatting amongst each other about their latest nest destruction.
For the past couple of days, they had been mercilessly destroying any nest that was on their way from Heliodor’s region to the fallen Sphinx’s Region... As long as they weren’t signed to the platform, their destruction was guaranteed.
Of course, Ash’Kral’s new evolutionary appearence hadn’t gone unnoticed... instead of choosing to hide him, Levi decided to mask the two Sun/Void evolutions with his Pathfinder rank Evolution.
He told them that he had broken through the Pathfinder rank and even showed them the Harmonic Spine, which he had always kept hidden behind his hoodie.
As for Ash’Kral’s extreme evolutionary appearence? Levi told them that Ash’Kral was of a unique nightcrawler species that didn’t have a fixed form, and could easily change depending on the genetic traits touched. Since he had used a perfect evolutionary recipe, his mutations were quite extreme.
Knowing that nightcrawlers were an infinite sea of knowledge that no one dared to claim to know it all, who would question him? Everyone took his words at face value and congratulated him on his evolution.
All they cared about was Levi getting stronger since they knew that no easy picnic awaited them near the Ancient Distorted Site.
Right now, they were a mere dozen kilometers away from reaching their destination, leaving them to gaze at the Three Great Pyramids at Giza from above the clouds... Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure.
"Hmmm, they really cleared up the place while keeping the Pyramid of Khufu maintain its level of corruption," Arthur commented in intrigue as he gazed at the largest pyramid being the sole piece of area that was still tainted with black, corruptive miasma.
The rest of the pyramids and the area surrounding them were much clearer, as if they didn’t belong to a fallen region.
"Once it concerns them... the Solar Aegis Sanctuaries will do wonders," Shia uttered coldly.
They had seen pictures or videos of the fallen Sphinx’s Region... hundreds of kilometers of surface area were corrupted... even the Nile River wasn’t spared.
In less than two weeks, the land was healing again... shadow corruption was burnt after being beamed on by the rented Holy Beam.
Their control of it was so precise, they were capable of beaming the entire region while leaving behind only the Pyramid of Khufu.
"Prepare to descend." Feng Ling announced expressionlessly while slowly breaking off from the jet stream.
The rest swiftly followed him, descending at a gradual pace until they arrived at a camp near a hundred meters away from the Pyramid.
The camp was made out of decently sized houses in the shapes of tents in a wide circle... they were somewhat far from each other, while the central plaza connected them.
As Levi glanced down, he noticed dozens of powerful spiritual auras... all contained to one’s skin, but he could still tell their rank.
Only one person he failed to recognize his rank... his spiritual aura was blue, but it was extremely thin, to the point Levi started wondering if he was using something to hide it.
’That must be him... Sir Dominic, the appointed supervisor of the SAS Headquarters.’ Levi thought inwardly, matching the shape of his spiritual aura to what he saw in the network.
As expected, once the team descended in the center of the plaza, he was the first to greet them with a friendly smile, "Nice of you to join us... what took you so long? Feng Ling? I started to think you got cold feet."
"We decided to take some trash out along the way."
Feng Ling replied casually while his saber transformed into a black tie... he fixed it the moment his foot touched the ground, making no noise.
"How kind of you."
Dominic chuckled for a moment before his eyes landed on Levi and the rest of the team behind him.
"You guys must be the hope of Heliodor’s region..." Dominic showed a smile of encouragement, "I have seen some highlights of your work, and I have to say, I have been pleasantly surprised."