Cosmic Peak

'The voice mentioned that I am not allowed to use anything besides the powers of my path. This itself has a hint in it, or maybe not? Maybe I am allowed to use the methods of this world as well? Hmmm...Anyway, I will not find if my path's powers work or not until I try,' Aren thought as he stretched his hand forward but didn't let it enter into the magia-deviant spot.

He then released Armalist force from his hand as it entered inside the magia-deviant spot.

*siiiiiiiiiiiii....*

Right as the Armalist force entered into the spot, the amber liquid of different shades of orange with sparks in them became restless.

"T-this...what kind of power is that, sir?" Perambol asked in a shocked voice. He had never heard of the energy of magia-deviant spot becoming like this, and usually, they would just get attracted by anything and attack whoever entered the spot.

But right now, those amber liquids were restless and moving away from Aren's Armalist force.

Aren was surprised and curious as he muttered, "Interesting..."

The amber liquid and sparks were restless, but they didn't go out of their 1 square meter spot.

On the other hand, Aren continued to pour in his Armalist force, and after he released all of his Armalist force, he started controlling it to interact with those amber liquids.

Until now, the liquids were running away from Armalist force, but now Aren controlled his Armalist force and forcefully touched amber liquid.

The liquid that touched Armalist force disappeared immediately after the interaction happened, and Aren felt strange hotness inside deep within him.

This hotness was not at the physical level but spiritual level, and it felt like his soul felt the hotness.

'It looks like I have to try and focus on this place that is inside my body on a spiritual level. Hmm...This is a chance to find and see the so-called Armalist Drive and my soul by focusing on this sense of hotness.'

Aren focused as he continued to interact with the amber liquids in the magia-deviant spot.

He focused and concentrated hard enough to lose the sense of time as he finally saw three bright things in the darkness.

He first saw a dreamy blue cube with six sections in a honeycomb shape, 'So that's my Armalist drive. Hmm...'

A small amount of sparkling blue aura surrounded the cube, and Aren instantly knew that the sparkling blue aura was Armalist force.

Inside the center hexagon section of that dreamy blue cube was a white orb with a slight golden hue that exuded a sense of oneself, 'That...looks like my soul.'

He tried to use soul energy, and instantly, white energy released from the orb, confirming his guess that he was sure of.

Aside from all that, his Armalist gears were also inside that dreamy blue cube's other three hexagonal sections while the remaining two sections were empty.

The second thing he saw was a dark blue orb filled with spirit energy. The orb had vein-like patterns all over its surface, 'That looks like my spirit core as I can feel spirit energy inside it.'

However, the sense of hotness he felt was some distance away from his spirit core.

At that place in darkness, A sparkling orange energy was gathering, and by now, it had gathered in great amount.

Aren thought about opening his eyes which he opened, and the scenery he previously saw disappeared as his eyes looked at the magia-deviant spot that...was half empty.

Without turning back, Aren spoke, "Perambol!"

"Yes, sir?"

"How much time passed?"

"Ten minutes, sir."

Aren nodded as he focused on the activity in front of him and absorbed all the amber liquid with sparks in them.

'For now, I'll call that dark place where my Armalist drive, spirit core, and this amber energy situated as Inner space,' Aren thought while absorbing the amber liquids.

After absorbing all of it, he took back his Armalist force and waited for a minute, but nothing happened, 'I guess that would be too easy. But since I absorbed the amber energy, I should be able to do something with it.'

He then closed his eyes and tried to see his inner space with his consciousness again and succeeded.

At this time, there was a large amount of sparking amber energy gathered.

'Since Armalist force had an effect on its physique outside, then it should have an effect here as well,' Aren thought as he controlled his Armalist force that was surrounding his Armalist drive and moved it towards the amber energy.

When both of them interacted, something strange happened.

The small amount of armalist force that touched the small amount of amber energy combined before becoming a sparkling orange crystal.

'T-this...,' Aren was surprised at this reaction between them. Outside, his Armalist force was not consumed at all, and it just acted as some kind of portal to transport the amber energy here. But now that it was here and both of them interacted, this happened.

Seeing such a thing happening, Aren enveloped all amber energy with his Armalist force as both of them combined, and crystal started to produce.

However, the moment more crystal produced, they vibrated before getting attracted to each other.

After a while, Aren finished the entire process of turning amber energy into crystals using his Armalist force.

In the end, all crystals stuck together as they shined before becoming a perfectly round solid ball with different shades of orange color patterns on its surface. Aren also felt a strange connection with that crystalized ball, just like his connection with Armalist Drive, his soul, and his spirit core.

[You have gained S-grade ability: Amber core of Eturnia]

[Task 3 completed.]

[Due to completing task 3 in an unorthodox way, you will be allowed to keep the Mutated-magic ability even after the test ends. But you will have to learn how to use it yourself.]

'So if I completed task 3 in a normal method like using the methods of this world, then I wouldn't have kept the gained Mutated-magic ability. Well, I guess my overthinking or out of box thinking helped me get an advantage,' Aren smiled as he felt slightly happy.

He didn't think about learning how to use the ability gained right now and decided to focus on completing the other two tasks. He thought about checking the core of that Amber of Eturnia while moving.

"Perambol, do you know a location of any small settlement with minimal numbers of mutated species living in it?" Aren turned around as he asked with a smile.

Perambol was shocked at how easily Aren absorbed the energy from that magia-deviant spot before he snapped out of his thoughts and answered, "I know one such settlement, sir. It's not very far from here."

"Alright, then lead the way."

...

The settlement that Perambol mentioned was ten kilometers away from the eruption zone.

On the way, Aren used the connection he gained with that amber crystalized ball and tried to control it.

In the Inner space, he could observe the crystalized ball shining, and suddenly, his body started to turn hot.

"Why it's so hot?" Perambol muttered as he glanced behind while driving the bike but was startled to see Aren turning orange colored and oozing out hotness.

However, Aren was not feeling anything.

But something about his status changed as a new tab appeared.

[Mutated-magic Ability]:- Amber core of Eturnia.

---Skills:- none.

"S-sir...can you please stop using that ability? I can't handle it if you exude even more heat," Perambol spoke as he was sweating like a bucket and his skin turned red.

Aren wryly smiled as he deactivated the ability.

'It looks like I have to create a skill, but to do that, I have to learn to control this ability properly,' Aren thought, 'Well, guess I'll just complete the two tasks first. Hopefully, they are not too much of a pain in the ass, especially the conquering one.'

...

After a while, Perambol and Aren arrived at the small settlement that was really small, like a tiny village.

Dark green glowing wooden fences two meters tall surrounded the village with approx twenty houses in them.

"Sir, do not touch those wooden fences or don't cause any conflict. The people in this settlement are small but ruthless, and they have expertise in deadly magic poisons," Perambol said as he and Aren looked at the entry gate of the settlement where two guards sat on the chairs.

The guards were mutated species with the upper body of the snake. Their skin was shining red and dark green, and they had a spear in their hands that was also laced with poison, just like on the fences.

Aren narrowed his eyes while thinking, 'Pig...this place looks dangerous even though the settlement is small.'

He decided first to check their information as he focused and looked at the two leisurely sitting snake-head guards.