[All Basic Elents have been detected on the player.]
[The "Elental Temple" reacts to your presence.]
Leon stared at the panel in front of him, montarily confused.
He hadn’t expected anything like this to appear, not now, and certainly not inside an S-Rank assessnt that was supposed to end the mont he stepped into the altar’s portal.
But the reason quickly beca obvious. Leon had acquired all four basic elental sub-talents.
[Fire Integration], [Deep Water Affinity], [Wind Dominion], and [Earth Affinity].
Each of them represented one of the four fundantal elents: fire, water, wind, and earth.
And it seed the assessnt itself had acknowledged that fact.
’The [Elental Temple]...’ Leon’s eyes narrowed slightly as he reread the words. ’I never heard of this in my past life.’
That alone was enough to make his heart beat a little faster.
Leon knew the system well. He knew the major assessnts, the well-known rewards, and the common hidden chanics.
Anything he had never encountered before usually ant one of two things.
Either no one had ever fulfilled the conditions to trigger it.
Or the people who had... never lived long enough to talk about it.
It didn’t take much thought to realize that this panel only appeared when soone possessed all four basic elents at the sa ti.
And within the context of the [Elental Lands], that fact alone carried weight.
This wasn’t just a reward for clearing the assessnt. It was sothing more.
Sothing far bigger than simply reaching the altar and leaving.
And as if to confirm that suspicion—
Rumble!
The entire [Elental Lands] shook violently.
Leon instinctively lifted his head and looked forward just in ti to see the exit portal, the one floating calmly at the center of the altar, flicker... and then vanish completely.
"Oh."
Leon let out a quiet breath. His only way out had just disappeared.
The realization made him tense slightly. No portal ant no easy escape. Whatever he had triggered, the assessnt was no longer proceeding as intended.
Still, instead of panic, sothing else rose in his chest. Excitent.
Leon had thought this assessnt felt too easy. Compared to the first S-Rank assessnt: the divine hall, the pressure of the gods, the statues that could erase you with a single mistake, this one had felt almost straightforward.
Now he understood why. This wasn’t the real trial.
Leon fixed his gaze on the altar ahead. The small monunt began to change.
The four pedestals positioned at each corner of the structure started to glow faintly.
One by one, symbols appeared on their surfaces, clear and unmistakable.
A fla. A gust of wind. A droplet of water. A jagged piece of stone.
Leon didn’t need a system ssage to tell him what this ant.
’I’m supposed to interact with these.’
For a few seconds, the rumbling continued, the elental energy in the air surging wildly.
Then, slowly, the [Elental Lands] cald down. The ground stopped shaking, and the atmosphere returned to its previous state, heavy with power, but no longer unstable.
Leon exhaled and decided not to rush. Before doing anything else, he opened his sub-talent panel.
He wanted to confirm exactly what he had gained.
[Earth Affinity (C-Level): Your mana has begun to resonate with earth. You are able to control earth-based abilities more steadily than before, improving their stability and efficiency. Earth-related attacks will deal slightly less damage to you, and your balance and physical sturdiness are mildly enhanced.]
"Nice."
As expected, it followed the sa pattern as the other elental affinities. It wasn’t flashy, but it was solid.
Leon closed the panel, satisfied. Then he started walking toward the altar.
With each step, he could feel the concentration of elental power increase. This place was clearly the core of the [Elental Lands], where all four elents converged.
As he walked, Leon opened his [Storage Space], navigating directly to the section containing his sub-talent scrolls.
He hadn’t checked it in a while.
Given how many monsters he had killed without stopping, he knew there had to be quite a few scrolls piled up by now.
The panel appeared.
[Sub-Talent Scrolls: x14 "Wind Affinity (C-Level)", x18 "Fire Affinity (D-Level)", x3 "Fire Integration (C-Level)", x11 "Lightning Affinity (C-Level)", x1 "Pure Lightning Affinity (B-Level)"]
Leon’s lips curved upward.
"Nice," he muttered. "With this... I should be able to push a few of them higher."
He didn’t hesitate.
Leon imdiately began fusing the scrolls together, prioritizing the ones that could directly strengthen his current sub-talents.
His goal was simple: raise everything as high as possible before stepping fully into whatever awaited him.
The process wasn’t smooth.
Ding!
[Fusion failed.]
Several scrolls shattered into motes of light.
Leon barely reacted. He continued.
Ding!
[Fusion failed.]
More losses.
Then—
Ding!
[Fusion successful!]
A faint glow spread through his panel. Leon’s eyes sharpened, and he kept going.
The process repeated over and over again. Failures outnumbered successes, as expected. Fusion past C-Level always carried a high risk, and attempting multiple evolutions in sequence was even worse.
Still, Leon pushed through. Minutes passed.
Finally—
Ding!
[You have evolved "Fire Integration (C-Level)" to "Fire Control (B-Level)" to "Absolute Fla Control (A-Level)"]
Ding!
[You have evolved "Pure Lightning Affinity (B-Level)" to "Supre Lightning Affinity (A-Level)"]
Leon let out a low breath.
"That worked."
Unfortunately, luck wasn’t infinite.
He attempted to evolve [Wind Dominion (A-Level)] as well, but that required three consecutive successful fusions, an almost impossible condition.
As expected, the attempt failed. All the related scrolls shattered at once.
In the end, the only scroll left unused was a single [Lightning Affinity (C-Level)] scroll, which Leon deliberately kept aside.
’That one’s for later,’ he thought. For Emilia, or for future companions.
He hadn’t even included so of the scrolls he planned to give away in his fusion attempts.
After organizing his inventory, Leon opened his sub-talent panel again to check the new descriptions.
[Absolute Fla Control (A-Level): Your mastery over fire has reached a superior level. You are able to manipulate flas with extre precision and efficiency, greatly enhancing the power and stability of fire-based abilities. Fire-related attacks will deal significantly less damage to you.]
[Supre Lightning Affinity (A-Level): Your body and mana are now perfectly synchronized with lightning. Your control over lightning-based abilities has reached an exceptional level, allowing near-instant activation and flawless precision. Lightning-related attacks will deal significantly less damage to you, and your reaction speed is greatly enhanced.]
Leon studied them carefully.
"Hm."
The wording wasn’t dramatically different from before, but the implications were clear.
Satisfied, Leon closed the panels and continued forward. He soon reached the altar itself.
The structure was quiet now, the four pedestals glowing faintly as if waiting.
’I wonder if Emilia already left,’ Leon thought briefly.
If she had, she was probably waiting for him by now. He had no idea how much longer this would take, or if he would even leave through the sa exit.
Still, there was no turning back. Leon stepped fully onto the monunt and looked around.
The mont he did—
Ding!
[Player "Celestial" detected with all basic elents on the "Elental Altar"]
[Do you wish to open the "Elental Temple" or leave the assessnt?]
[Do note that it is extrely dangerous.]
Leon stared at the panel. Then he smiled.
He didn’t hesitate even for a fraction of a second.
"Open it," he said calmly. "I knew there had to be sothing."
The first S-Rank assessnt had led him to a divine temple and rewarded him with the [Celestial] title. There was no way the second S-Rank assessnt would end without sothing similar.
Fwoosh! Ding!
[Confird.]
Instantly, four glowing orbs burst out from Leon’s chest.
Each one shone with a different color related to their respective elent.
The orbs hovered for a brief mont before shooting forward, each one flying toward a different pedestal and settling perfectly into place.
And then—
RUMBLE!
The [Elental Lands] shook once more, far more violently than before.
[Unlocking the "Elental Temple" from its ancient seal.]
Leon turned his head. In the distance, beyond the altar, the ground began to split.
Stone cracked. Earth rose. A massive structure slowly erged from beneath the surface, towering higher with each passing second.
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