Chapter 142: Fruit of Metamorphosis - I

Province Ellea’s central tower.

The new ruler had not yet renamed the province according to tradition, making its residents suspect that he was nonexistent and did not value the Fruit of Metamorphosis about to ripen.

Thus, the greed in their hearts was like fanned flames, burning brightly, and for the sake of this moment alone.

Even though they knew that a single Fruit of Metamorphosis was insufficient to push them towards Evolution, they desired a bite nonetheless.

All they needed was an inch, and they could take a mile.

A single fruit could turn the tide of the delicate balance between those at the peak of A-Rank.

Even those at B-Rank and below could charge through the ranks, their existence aligned by the miraculous Fruit of Metamorphosis.

Such a fruit was simply a god-sent treasure for those whose paths forward were blurry and vague.

Aventine was like the silent abyss, standing beneath the slowly ripening Fruit of Metamorphosis, bathed in its radiant white light.

Surging around him was an aura of austerity, regal yet cold. Like a king sitting atop a mountain of crystals and gold. Gemstones and silver.

[Power of Death]!

The most enigmatic of his three A-Rank <Traits> related to nature, capable of eluding the heightened senses of an SSS-Rank <Archmagus>. Of course, said <Archmagus> cared not for the ability to precisely sense his surroundings when those surroundings could be annihilated instead.

Even here, in this upcoming battlefield, the <Power of Death> could permeate the world. Even when the source of avarice was not a gleaming gold bar, but a radiant fruit instead.

The <Power of Death> continued to proselytize!

Wealth and death walked hand in hand. For the sake of treasures, wealth, and power, lives were always sacrificed—willingly and unwillingly.

Aventine’s eyes saw more this time.

Unlike before, he had comprehended a part of Fleim’s <Law of Fate>.

Although it was a seemingly minuscule amount, this was the realm of the divine! No mortal should have been capable of comprehending a <Law>, much less the <Law of Fate> that not even the gods could freely comprehend.

These Beings of Laws, the slaves of <Fate>, and the unfortunate worker ants of the world were incapable of interfering with <Fate>. Most of them at least...

But even the select few capable of doing so were never <Fate’s> governors. Despite their greatness, they were the ones most bound.

And therefore, this restriction made them blind to the intricacies of their own shackles.

’So the <Power of Death> works like that, huh?’

All mortal beings were destined to have an end. Death was the endpoint of all life, and the fated occurrence of every existence.

<Fate> and <Death> were therefore inextricably linked, allowing the <Power of Death> to corrupt the foggy grey wisps with a tinge of black avarice.

All around Aventine, the threads of <Fate> extended outward, with insect-like black dots crawling along each line into the void. An inescapable corruption suffused outwards, giving his regal aura a weight that seemed to deform space-time, drawing all ambition towards him without the other party’s knowledge.

The subtle influence he now exuded manifested in an odd manner, but this interference had just bolstered Aventine’s insight even further.

[Law of Fate Comprehension: 0.59% » 0.60%]

[Law of Fate Comprehension: 0.60% » 0.61%]

[Law of Fate Comprehension: 0.61% » 0.62%]

[Law of Fate Comprehension: 0.62% » 0.64%]!

The numerical representation of his comprehension was manifested by the Gaea System, confirming all of Aventine’s conjectures and understanding.

"Heh,"

He couldn’t help but cackle, his voice echoing in the emptiness of white brilliance. The light was growing more and more blinding as the fruit inched towards perfect ripeness.

Only when the Fruit of Metamorphosis could be plucked for consumption would this brilliant brightness recede.

And that moment...

...Was just an hour or so away from happening.

—Boom!

The low resonance of a distant explosion made Aventine smile. The ants crawling through <Fate’s> threads had tangled several together, creating a knot that only conflict could untangle. This was common sense when broadly considered, of course...

But what Aventine was observing now was something a lot more detailed than that.

Similar to how humans can naturally infer the nature of gravity—and that it pulls things back down to the ground—and thus understand how it works enough to create catapults, bridges, and castles... Anyone who was aware that <Fate> manipulated the world could also do something similar.

This was why the Game of Walvaskaz existed. The greatest underneath the gods—the SSS-Ranks—were all aware that <Fate> would always scheme and plot to create certain situations. Thus, the <Law of Fate> could be understood as the driving force for coincidences and the connectedness of the world.

As long as one schemed well and placed all the right pieces down at the right time and place, the <Law of Fate> could allow one to plot far into the future.

It was... a very surface-level utilization of one’s common sense with regard to the <Law of Fate>, akin to that aforementioned understanding of gravity.

Aventine, on the other hand, dug a little deeper with his direct comprehension of the <Law of Fate>.

Using the gravity analogy, where others only understood that gravity pulled objects to the ground, Aventine was slowly inferring the cause of gravity itself, and thus deducing the gravity of other heavenly bodies.

Right now, he had an exact value of the acceleration of objects due to gravity when one ignored air resistance. When translated into his understanding of the <Law of Fate>...

He now knew what amount of force one needed to exert on the strings of <Fate> to create corresponding events.

More specifically, he was using the <Power of Death> to gauge how many ’ants’ were needed to create a conflict from afar, simply by stirring the greed in people’s hearts.

—Boom! Boom!

—Bang!

The conflict wasn’t even happening near the central tower.

Aventine had to throw his senses out a few kilometers, where he noticed a group of bear-like Beast Humans ambushing a bunch of Wisdom Boars.

Physiques as large as the cars on Earth repeatedly clashed, yet their attacks never struck the surrounding buildings, clearly wary of the Empire’s Guards.

Instead, every bear-like Beast Human and Wisdom Boar took each other’s attacks head-on with their own flesh and bones. The explosive sounds Aventine could hear in the distance were simply the collisions wrought by their dense bones and toned muscles.

Blasts of pressurized air caused the lungs of unsuspecting bystanders to implode!

Wisdom Boars were wise only when their craniums were sufficiently damaged. Thus, healthy Wisdom Boars were no different from normal unintelligent beasts, forced to endure the pummeling of the bear-like Beast Humans capable of Martial Arts and group urban warfare.

’Alas,’ Aventine already knew where this battle was headed, ’These Beast Humans were too arrogant.’

Using blunt-force martial arts against the thick hide of the Wisdom Boars meant that the battle before them was one of attrition. Whoever could last longer was the victor...

And the longer the fights went on, the more that each Wisdom Boar could charge against the bear-like Beast Humans, slamming their heads into their rugged bodies, again and again and again.

—Boom!

—Boom!

—Boom!

Each shockwave that the bear-like Beast Humans were forced to block slowly contributed to their approaching defeat.

The Wisdom Boars... were growing smarter.

With every collision, a Wisdom Boar’s eyes would regain an inch of clarity. With every wave of attacks, the Wisdom Boars would somehow grow more coordinated.

A trace of schadenfreude seemed to emanate from their snouts, their tusks and fangs bared in derision.

It was...

’All part of their plan, huh?’

As expected of a race specifically labelled with ’wisdom.’

Their ability to scheme was formidable, allowing Aventine to send his gaze elsewhere—to where the Wisdom Boars were truly aiming.

An ear-shredding squeal tore through the air.

—SQREEEEEEEE!

Then, the thundering sound of heavy hooves striking pavement sent tremors through the ground.

It wasn’t the sound of a stampede, no...

Aventine watched as a Wisdom Boar the size of an 18-wheeler truck’s cab barreled through the streets of Ellea’s province. At a glance, this Wisdom Boar... had long broken the sound barrier.

Wherever he passed by, the buildings themselves would tremble, and any bystander would swiftly turn deaf or turn into splatters of blood and flesh. Like a freight train moving at the speed of sound, this Wisdom Boar utilized a combination of Martial Arts and Magic Spells to make turns and maintain his terrifying velocity.

Just the Wisdom Boar’s hooves were already wrapped in the aura of at least three 5th-Circle spells, and were further encompassed by a 6th-Circle spell that cloaked his body.

Within his flesh and blood, the Wisdom Boar used several Martial Arts in a steady rhythm. Each time his hoof struck the pavement, he would use his combination of <Burst Step>, <Rapid Charge>, and <Flowing Water>, forcefully maintaining his momentum and crossing a huge portion of the province in the span of only a few dozen minutes.

Observing the Wisdom Boar’s impeccable control and uncanny finesse, Aventine felt his horizons widen.

This was akin to what he was doing with <Mind Force> and <Pure Instinct>, only more refined and well thought out.

’Still, the simplicity of this combination is also a massive advantage. Their passive enhancements matter more to me than something as exhausting as what this A-Rank Wisdom Boar manages to maintain.’

Concluding such thoughts, Aventine thus moved his senses and observed the A-Rank Wisdom Boar’s target.