Clementine shook her head, giving him a completely different response, which was totally out of his reasonable assumption and also against the arrogant personality she had shown up to now.

"I don’t mind becoming part of your experiments, not like you’re capable of harming me as you’re now, husband. Still, at least tell me beforehand so I could prepare and wouldn’t get so dirty for no reason," she complained in a huffy tone. Her annoyance was like a sudden breeze ruffling the surface of a regal pond.

"You..."

Aezaleon did not know if he should feel happy or ashamed at her harsh words, but he definitely was speechless.

"Let’s forget about this, it’s a pointless subject," she waved her hand dismissively. "Instead, tell me what you know about this <Matter Absorption> ability of yours, then I’ll share my findings with you."

HM!

"I don’t know much either, just that the sub-ability: <Essence Devour Ascension: Matter-Soulmatter Absorption> can raise the strength of me and my companions through material and soul sacrifice. It is a Growth-type ability of sorts," he answered in a thoughtful voice.

—[Types of materials, Limitations—Unknown.]

"Oh, and I also have the soul of this calamity I just killed. I have it because of my other ability; sub-ability effect four of ability effect 5: <Soul Compendium Archive>. This one is a passive one. A Storage-type ability where it automatically collects the wandering souls of the dead, any form of metaphysical matter-essence or information."

—[Metaphysical Essence—Energy. (Abstruse-Type!)]

"Moreover, it also passively absorbs the souls of all the lifeforms that I will kill or have killed. It’s like an attractive and consuming supernatural force that comes out of my soul the moment someone dies by my hands or abilities, and automatically pulls the soul of the deceased into my soul sea."

His soul was a dark magnet, inexorably drawing the spirits of the fallen into his personal abyss.

"However, I don’t know if this effect is only limited to me, or if you as my companion also count. How about indirect kills, the distance, the intent, the space, the location? There are many questions which we have to find the answers to slowly. So, is there anything else you got by absorbing the body of a rank 3 calamity aside from the overflow of energy, Clementine?"

Aezaleon gave a long speech and asked again.

MHM!

Clementine closed her eyes.

Her arms crossed below her breasts, her finger in a constant motion of tapping against her arm.

HMM!

After 30 seconds, her eyes opened and she shook her head. "No, aside from the overflowing energy, I did not get anything; no concepts or anything else for that matter."

"However, I think that is partly because of my own unique condition of having five ascension cores instead of just one, because of one of my own innate abilities. Also, partly because the information in an unintelligent calamity would be in a far too chaotic and disharmonious state for any ability to extract it or for anyone to comprehend it, even if that someone is me."

"Lastly, this lack of results must have also been because of the [Low Proficiency Level] of the calamity in his own concepts, which from my guess after examining it, should’ve been at the—Proficiency Level Zero: Initiation/Initiate!"

"That is a lot more detailed than I thought," Aezaleon commented in a surprised tone. Taking a few seconds to digest the information Clementine shared, he ignored the statement she mentioned about herself for the time being.

"Regardless, I appreciate the thorough analysis, future wife."

Clementine smiled radiantly.

"Well, since we are done here, let us get a move on," she voiced with renewed energy.

With that, both headed further into the forest and quickly encountered two more rank 3 calamities, approximately as strong as the venomous porcupine, both of which were again fought by Aezaleon.

One was the calamity known as the Six-banded Black Armadillo!

It was a three-meters-tall mammal with black, obsidian-like crystal stone armor. It was quite strong physically and even more so defensively. It really made a mess of the forest by destroying all the trees in a diameter of 100 meters, like a living battering ram, turning ancient trees into mere splinters with every charge.

His mad charge was purely strength-based, while his body also created many one-meter-long, spear-shaped obsidian crystalstone projectiles, which the calamity kept shooting at Aezaleon; this was the main reason behind the rampant destruction it caused.

Alas, the calamity’s main weakness was his speed, where even his concepts were only focused on offense and defense. This was something which Aezaleon took full advantage of with his insane speed.

He practically made this calamity into his training dummy, against whom he practiced his amateurish basic sword moves.

Clementine also shared the fundamental movements to learn the basic sword techniques with Aezaleon, such as the proper grip, balanced stance, eight angles of attack (vertical, horizontal, diagonal), and also the defensive parries.

With essential skills including controlled distance, efficient movement (footwork), and also combining thrusts with cutting strikes to maintain a defended action throughout the battle.

Instructions which Aezaleon listened to attentively. Thus, he took his sweet time against the calamity: six-banded black armadillo.

After 30 minutes, he finally killed the calamity, leaving the body bloodied with many cut wounds and holes.

However, Aezaleon was only able to breach the calamity’s defenses because of the blood claymore he was using.

It was made by Clementine herself, with her very own blood. Through her mastered concept of [Blood Construct Condensation], it easily overpowered the calamity’s initiate proficiency level concepts. The sword was like a hot wire cutting through wax, ignoring the armadillo’s stone-like hide.

After the battle, Aezaleon rested for the next 10 minutes to relieve the accumulated fatigue and to also recover the energy he expanded in the battle, just from running around and dodging the spear-shaped obsidian crystalstone projectiles.

After he was done, he again utilized the sub-ability—Matter Absorption—on Clementine. Afterwards, they both left the destroyed place and soon found their next target.

A calamity known as the: [White Ibex].

It was a four-meters-tall goat-type calamity covered in gray-white fur, with his two-and-a-half-meter-long horns curving backward; combined with his red eyes, it really looked intimidating.

However, that wasn’t all; it was absurdly strong too, with initiate concepts such as: [Frostbite], [Freezing Aura], [Cold Penetration], [Movement Impairment], [Hardened Ice], [Strengthened Ice], [Frost Land], [Flesh Crystallization], [Frost Creation], [Cold Armor], and [Calamitous Frost Dust].

The last concept was the most dangerous one.

Even Clementine admitted that with such a strong concept, the calamity had the potential to ascend the Mortal phase, reach Ascension rank 7 and become a—Transcendent—or as some called them—The Immortals!

Furthermore, this calamity wasn’t just a rank 3 material one, but also a rank 1 spiritual one. The last concept was something which was influenced by the catastrophic nature and the unique energy of a calamity. Henceforth, it evolved from the concept of [Frost Dust] to the current concept of [Calamitous Frost Dust].

Ultimately, it changed the very principles the previous concept worked on. It was a strong inferior concept, mainly geared towards offense.

The White Ibex’s defense and offense both were off the charts. Even his speed matched Aezaleon’s; both were at 50 m/sec acceleration, where the calamity got 40 from his rank 3 and 10 from his rank 1 ascension core.

It was a brutal battle, like a dance on the edge of a razor, where a single slip meant an icy grave and honestly, Aezaleon, someone who hasn’t even learned a single concept yet and didn’t know how to utilize his amazing abilities, would have never survived this battle normally.