"So, what have you been doing in the past few days?" Maya asked. "Don’t surprise me again like last time. If you want, I can help."

It had been five days since he began the project in earnest. Ellia would soon become the first person to surpass Grade S affinity.

Auric thought for a moment. He didn’t really want to reveal everything, but he thought it would be fine to tell Maya about it.

All this time, Maya had been helpful, so he felt a bit bad surprising her all the time.

So Auric raised one finger. "My project. It’s called the Artificial Heart Method."

"Artificial Heart Method? You’re going to revive someone who’s dead?"

"No, it’s a method to increase your affinity."

"What?!" Maya felt like her heart stopped for a second. She looked at Auric in disbelief. "You..."

The gathering technique was already a big enough matter. The fact that he was a unique-element evolution master shattered her common sense.

This time, Auric went one step further by increasing someone’s affinity.

They only knew their affinity after their awakening. This affinity stuck with them for the rest of their lives.

If they didn’t have high enough affinity, that meant their talent was just at that level.

Yet Auric had come up with a method to increase that talent.

Auric smiled. "I’m still not done with my experiment, but it looks like the project itself is successful."

Maya’s hands were shaking. She let out a long sigh. "You really keep surprising me all this time. What next? Are you going to upgrade the planet?"

"Come on. Even for you, that idea sounds too ridiculous." Auric looked away. "That’s the gist of the project. It should take a few more days before it’s completed."

"I see. Do you want me to test it?"

"Are you perhaps interested?" Auric smiled. "Well, Ellia has become the first subject. Once it’s done, I will probably look for others."

Maya never thought that the test subject would be Ellia. She knew about Ellia’s background.

If that old devil in the capital heard that Auric made Ellia undergo such an experiment, he would probably be furious.

At the same time, if Ellia succeeded, this meant that other people could do it as well.

"Still, can you even do it with me? I mean, your senses are still overwhelmed by my energy, right?"

"Don’t worry. I just need you to weaken that energy to understand the flow of your energy better. Once it’s done, you can use it immediately. Still, because you are at that level, you will probably need time to upgrade it from the basic form to the form matching your current level."

"..." Maya was speechless, wondering if Auric actually understood how ridiculous his words were.

It was already crazy enough to make this concept a reality. The fact that someone like her could also use it meant that everyone else could use it as well.

"What will happen if someone who has the highest form of avatar uses it?"

"Well, they can probably use it as well. However, the time it takes will significantly increase. The stronger your energy is, the harder it is for you to shape it. It will be different if you increase it gradually. That’s why this technique is much more suitable for use from the beginning, but it doesn’t change the fact that other people who have higher-form avatars can still use it."

Maya looked down, falling into deep thought. "Do you understand the implications of this technique? It might cause a massive wave in the world..."

Auric nodded carefully. "I know. I just haven’t set a price for it."

"Price? You’re going to sell it?" Maya widened her eyes in shock.

"Well, I’ve been selling my gathering techniques, so..." Auric smiled wryly. "I’m going to sell this one as well for an appropriate price."

"There’s simply no appropriate price for this technique." Maya shook her head helplessly.

"Not exactly. Using the basic technique alone will allow you to upgrade your affinity no matter how strong you are, but the stronger you are, the harder it is to increase your affinity. After seeing the changes in Ellia, I know I can further optimize the method for higher-form avatars. I can probably sell it like the gathering techniques."

"..." Maya was speechless. For those old monsters, the price shouldn’t be a problem. Maya said, "You said you have also sold the gathering techniques..."

"Yes. This is the store page." Auric showed the Sun Store. "I’m planning to open a new store for the Artificial Heart Method. Both of them will follow different paths, but combined, they will lead to a single path."

"A single path?"

"Yes. The Genius Evolution Store. That’s my overall concept. I want to create geniuses. Humanity is barely surviving because of the beasts, so I want to at least help humanity to survive."

"They will probably say that if you have that kind of generous heart, you should have donated it to society. It will benefit everyone."

"We’re living in a capitalistic era." Auric shook his head.

Maya shook her head helplessly. "Let me see the store. I want to see whether I can get information about you. I’m worried that troublesome people will target you."

Auric thought for a moment. Although he had done it carefully, with Maya’s resources, she might be able to find his information. Auric nodded with a serious expression. "All right then."

"By the way, how are you going to handle the payment? Surely, you don’t link your bank account, right? That’s the easiest way to track."

"No. I haven’t linked it, so all the money is still stored there. I haven’t withdrawn it yet."

Maya crossed her arms. "In that case, I can ask my brother to create many paper companies for you to hide the money flow. No, maybe it’ll be easier for you to ask Ellia to do it. She can do it directly since she’s in that kind of business, unlike me. You’ve already involved her anyway, so it won’t hurt to ask her to do it."

"Oh. That is a good idea. I’ll ask her the next time we meet." Auric nodded. "Thanks for the suggestion."

"For now, I’ll try to find out about your information and see if I can patch the hole. But you eventually have to make it legitimate."

"Don’t worry! That’s my intention." Auric smiled. "Even the greatest villains can be put behind bars because of tax evasion."

"As long as you understand that... not that it will matter. With all this, any country will pardon you from taxes." Maya shook her head helplessly.

"Also, according to Ellia, you seem to be able to sense the flow of your energy much more accurately, which means you can control it better. That’s the side effect."

"That’s a plus instead of a side effect."

"Well, that’s all. While it’s true that the technique is successful, I will conduct a bit more research before selling it. I will consult you if I want to open the next store."

"You’d better do that." Maya felt a headache. If Auric were careless, his identity might be revealed far too soon. She couldn’t imagine what would happen next.

Even her family might not be able to protect him.

That was why it was better to check everything and make sure that the information wasn’t spread quickly.

"In that case, I will be off again."

"Go." Maya nodded and started checking his information.

...

Once Auric reached Ellia’s villa, he checked her condition carefully. There were already 90 strands in her heart, so she had almost completed it.

"It looks like you completed it today." Auric smiled. "How’s the change?"

"It’s the same. My sense of energy keeps increasing. I am still adjusting my control, but with this level of control, I feel like I can become twice as strong. My power relies so much on my control, so it might be different from others."

"I will take that into consideration. Let’s finish it, shall we?"

"Sure." Ellia focused again.

While she was practicing, Auric asked, "By the way, can you set up paper companies?"

"Yes, why?" Ellia calmly answered.

"I’m wondering if you can set one up for me, maybe two."

"Since I get an additional benefit from your technique, I don’t mind. I need to know why, though."

Auric showed the Sun Store. "This store. There’s also another one that I will create. I need a reliable method to withdraw the money."

"!!!" Ellia widened her eyes. "You’ve sold so many books already? Isn’t this enough to cause a ruckus? One or two cities might already be aware of this..."

"Maybe. I have been so occupied with this Artificial Heart Method that I haven’t been able to check the news, so..."

"I will check it later. Well, I can set up paper companies for you." Ellia thought for a moment. "Still, it won’t be as easy to withdraw the money from these companies. However, they make a good slush fund. If you really want to withdraw it, you should ask me directly. I can help you with the process so that it remains untraceable."

"Is it that hard?" Auric raised his eyebrows. "I know a thing or two, but not in depth."

"Yeah. At this point, the country must already be paying attention. The moment this money is moved, they’ll track it. So, I have to keep bouncing it off from one place to another until it becomes too complex for them to keep track of. I will know if they’re trying to take them down to find you. In the end, you want to set up these companies because you don’t want to be found out, right?"

Auric nodded. "Can I leave it to you then?"

"Of course." Ellia was more than happy to do this kind of task. With more things connecting them, it would be harder for Auric to leave her. This meant he would continue to be her evolution master.

Auric let out a breath of relief. "Okay then. Thanks."

"No problem."

After that, Ellia focused on forming the last ten strands and finally completed the creation of the artificial heart in six hours.

The moment the artificial heart was completed, she felt something was different. The flow of energy became more apparent as her senses had been heightened.

At this rate, she felt confident about doing what she intended to do.

"I’m done." Ellia smiled.

"Congratulations. Do you have the materials ready?" Auric asked.

"Yes." Ellia took out the beast essence she got from the ruins. She hadn’t used them yet because she had been using the artifacts to increase her energy. They were more reliable and gave her more energy compared to the beast essence.

She intended to challenge Abel, so absorbing the energy from the artifact was a much more reasonable option.

It turned out her action would actually help them to test the power of the artificial heart.

"Okay. From the looks of it, this material has about 14% element. With your affinity, you should be able to absorb about 11%."

"My current element is 34%." Ellia nodded.

Auric noted it down. "All right. Let’s begin."

Ellia didn’t swallow it. She had more than enough control to absorb it directly from her hands. The energy surged within her heart.

The artificial heart converted the energy at a high speed, allowing more and more energy to be converted.

Still, Auric could see that some particles were still reflected away, but it couldn’t be helped.

Auric carefully observed her and muttered, "12%... no, 12.5%."

Ellia opened her eyes and looked at her information. "It’s now 47%."

"It seems to have increased by 14%. So, your absorption rate has increased from 78% to 92%. Isn’t this close to 100% already? If this is SS, I guess 100% would be SSS, right?" Auric gasped.

Ellia jumped toward him and hugged him without thinking. "We’ve succeeded!"

"Y-Yeah." Auric smiled wryly. "Congratulations on becoming the first human to possess a grade SS affinity."

"Thank you!" Ellia cheered. After meeting Auric, her life had completely changed. Not only did he help her evolve, but he also improved her talent. At this rate, she might have to change her goal from becoming someone like her grandfather to someone who would surpass her grandfather and become one of the humans with the highest form of avatar in this world.

In a way, she felt more indebted to Auric compared to how Milinda felt.

That was why what Abel had done was completely unacceptable to her. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Even Auric wouldn’t expect that three days later, the academy would produce shocking news.

Ellia pointed her blade at Abel and coldly said, "I challenge you to a duel. If you lose, you are going to drop out of this college."