The next day.
As promised, Mr. Popo returned to the store. He was accompanied by his wife, who was a professor in the Evolution Department. As a student who was about to join the department, Auric greeted her warmly.
With them was a girl of a similar age to Auric. She had long brown hair tied into a ponytail, but her complexion was slightly pale, as she had just landed.
Milinda wasn't concerned about Auric's face, as her main concern was to expose his scam.
Auric asked, "Should we begin?"
"Please." Mr. Popo nodded vigorously.
"All right. I need you to show me your battle technique," Auric said.
"Battle technique?" Milinda was surprised. Her mother, Professor Vienna, had already heard about it from Mr. Popo, but she was still clueless about this treatment.
"Don't worry. He has done the same thing to all his customers." Mr. Popo assured her. "I've seen it personally."
Milinda was confused, but since her father trusted Auric, she had no choice but to comply.
She slowly raised her hand as a star formed. "This is my battle technique, Dream Maker. I am able to manifest things from my dreams."
Auric narrowed his eyes. "I see. 99% element…"
"!!!" Milinda and Professor Vienna were startled. Auric could correctly measure the amount of energy in her body.
Mr. Popo became even more energetic. But he soon hung his head low and explained the situation. "It was my fault. I was so eager to help my daughter evolve.
"My wife is an evolution master, while I'm a fighter.
"I have been gathering her materials and my wife has been calculating everything.
"When I brought back a material that was supposed to give her the remaining element to evolve, I actually damaged the body of that particular beast more than I was supposed to.
"It was due to my power that the effectiveness of that material decreased."
Mr. Popo gritted his teeth. He had been blaming himself all this time. If not for his mistake, his daughter would have advanced a long time ago.
His arrogance had ruined his daughter's future.
Professor Vienna was stroking his back while holding her tears. She knew perfectly well what had happened to their family.
Auric rubbed his chin before he asked, "In that case, can you please show me your most explosive battle technique?"
"My most explosive?" Milinda asked, confused. She had never done anything like this for an evolution master before. But seeing her father like this, she complied. "This is my strongest technique right now."
Auric squinted his eyes, observing her power carefully. He had already gotten the idea of how to obtain this power, but it was so unique that he believed he wouldn't be able to find a battle technique that would suit this element.
Still, Auric could take advantage of the magical energy it would provide, even if he couldn't use it directly. The space element was already sufficient for him. And a unique element was quite rare, so it was better to take any opportunity that presented itself.
But before he could explain the treatment, Milinda explained, "Sorry about this. My element is Dream Creation. It's all about dreams. These two battle techniques are practical, but there is a battle technique that I can't show you right now."
"What kind of battle technique?"
"It's a battle technique to explore dreams. Do you perhaps know REM sleep?"
"Rapid Eye Movement? The phase of sleep where memorable dreaming occurs, if I recall correctly."
"Yes. This battle technique allows me to take advantage of those dreams to train. In other words, I can get stronger in my sleep."
"!!!" It was Auric's turn to be surprised. This technique was actually much more powerful than he had originally thought.
His talent was comprehension. He could understand many things quickly.
However, he didn't have a photographic memory, which was why he didn't learn many battle techniques from the library without bringing them back.
He could comprehend them, but he might end up forgetting a part of them. This would make the battle technique incomplete.
In addition, learning and mastering were two different things. The time he needed to master them was too long for him, even if he learned all the techniques.
Hence, he chose only those he believed were required for him to get stronger.
If he could also learn this battle technique, he might be able to master those techniques in his dream.
Auric took another look at Milinda's information.
Name: Milinda Kompo
Avatar: Dream Walker
Grade: Baby
Affinity: Dream Creation (S)
There was no problem with her information. Even Lindwurm agreed with him.
This process should go smoothly.
On the one hand, he wanted to ask them to go back and return the next day. This would allow him to write down the battle technique.
On the other hand, they looked so eager. After hearing the story, Mr. Popo might accuse Auric of cheating him.
That was why Auric said, "I can help her."
Mr. Popo gasped. The other two were stunned. They were prepared to be disappointed again, but Auric looked so confident about it.
"Are you sure? You're not joking with me, right?" Mr. Popo grabbed Auric's shoulder and shook him, demanding confirmation.
Auric smiled and waved his hand down, asking him to calm down. "Yes. I have enough confidence to handle it. In fact, with your daughter's aptitude, I think she can evolve tomorrow at the latest."
Mr. Popo simply couldn't believe it. He felt as if it were a dream, but nothing had been confirmed yet.
Although he had worked with Auric the previous day, he didn't know whether Auric was telling the truth or just toying with him.
"However, I'm sure I have mentioned that I would ask some sensitive questions, right?"
"Yes." Mr. Popo nodded. "As long as you can do it and don't destroy my daughter's reputation, I'm willing to do anything!"
"Well…" Auric turned to Milinda. "I will need to review your battle techniques, specifically the three techniques you mentioned earlier."
"What?" They were dumbfounded.
This was indeed a sensitive question. A battle technique was important as it contained their way of using their element.
However, Milinda's element was too unique. So, there was no point in keeping it a secret. Even if they knew it, they couldn't do anything about it.
Besides, she was weak because of her inability to evolve, so no one would target her.
"That's all?" Milinda asked.
"Yeah. Of course, I also have one condition."
"One condition?" Mr. Popo gulped down. He was ready to kneel or even become Auric's slave. As long as Milinda could really evolve, he could endure everything.
Auric had mentioned that the evolution could happen tomorrow at the latest, so he wasn't going to drag this out for a year or two just to take advantage of him.
So, he wondered what kind of condition Auric would give them.
Auric raised one finger. "Well, it's a simple condition. I just need you to sign a non-disclosure agreement."
"Ah?!" Professor Vienna was the first to realize what was going on.
If Auric could really help Milinda, Auric would become the first unique element evolution master in the world. That kind of achievement would be unprecedented.
From what she heard, Auric was known to be a plant-element evolution master. And with his wind element, he could also become a wind element evolution master.
Just giving this condition made her realize that Auric clearly had some confidence in treating her daughter.
Professor Vienna asked, "Why? If people find out about you…"
"Yeah, then what? They're just going to swarm me with requests from all the unique-element users in the world. Besides, I'm still a student. Do you think people will believe me? The method I plan to use is quite unique, so I cannot share it publicly without proper preparation. The least you can do is to respect my decision, right?"
"I'm sorry. It was careless of me." Professor Vienna understood what would happen to Auric at that time.
His life would completely change. His decision might not be his own anymore, as people would pressure him to help them.
Or some people might even want to kill him. The unique-element users were spread all around the world. They might be rare, but people would find them from time to time.
Due to their characteristics, these people were strong, so they could overpower others at the same level. Due to the evolution limitations, their progress was quite limited.
If this limit were gone, the people who had grudges with those unique-element users would kill Auric, the only unique element evolution master, to stop them from advancing.
It was a reasonable judgment.
Professor Vienna lowered her head. "My apologies."
The way Auric conducted himself showed more and more evidence that he could help Milinda. Professor Vienna had shown her approval as well.
"We will sign it!" Mr. Popo answered.
Auric nodded before turning to Milinda.
Milinda clenched her hands into fists. She originally wanted to expose this scam, but this was the first time her parents were convinced by someone. There might be hope for her.
"I have the digital copies with me. Is that fine?"
"That will be fine. Please send it to my email," Auric confirmed and walked to the door. "Let me bring the contracts first."
Auric went to his office and took out the contracts from his Space Storage. He had prepared the contracts in advance, knowing that he could convince them.
Auric returned two minutes later, giving them the contracts.
Mr. Popo skimmed the contract. It was just a standard contract that emphasized the non-disclosure agreement. He wanted their assurance.
"I have sent you the copies of my battle techniques."
Auric checked his email and saw the three copies. He skimmed them first before nodding. "All right. This should be possible. Give me thirty minutes."
Auric walked back to his office. Mr. Popo was a bit confused, but since Auric was still in the store, there was no way he could escape.
So, they waited.
Auric read only the most explosive ones. He wanted to use this battle technique as the foundation for the gathering technique.
Once he grasped the concept, he started altering the technique.
"Have I gotten used to this?" Auric muttered. "Still, this technique can only be used for this specific element, not all elements in the unique category, unlike the other eight elements."
Lindwurm confirmed, "Indeed. The unique elements are so random that you can't find something to group them with, like the other eight elements that are defined by intensity ratings."
"That is a shame, but I guess this is still useful for us. Just not useful for many people. We can market it, but it will just be bonus income if there's anyone willing to buy it." Auric shrugged. "Fortunately, the girl's element doesn't exceed 100%."
"If that's the case, we can't treat her. We can only increase her energy, but I don't think you have to worry about that."
"Why?"
"The unique element is extremely careful in choosing its materials. More often than not, they won't have enough to surpass that number."
"Well, I don't know about that. But it's a shame that we can't treat someone with that condition. Maybe there will be a solution in the future? Who knows?" Auric sighed.
"Right? We can think about it in the future. For now, let's give the waiting family a big surprise."
Auric smiled and walked out of his office.
"Please take a look at this."
"What is this?" Milinda was confused. Mr. Popo and Professor Vienna took a look as well.
"It's a gathering technique. I can't explain the exact concept, but this technique will allow you to gather energy from the environment and store it in your body. There is a limit, of course, but in your case, it will be more than enough to reach 100%.
"With your current condition, you should be able to reach 100% tonight or tomorrow. This is how I helped Miss Ellia evolve.
"How about this? You can take this technique first and come back tomorrow."
Instead of Milinda or Professor Vienna, Mr. Popo was the one who replied, as he remembered what had happened the previous day.
"Well, I don't think that's possible now." Mr. Popo pointed to his back with his thumb.
There was a crowd waiting for the store to open.
Another hellish day was about to begin.