A vortex of swirling energy slammed into the spirit of Oozagh’s avatar, momentarily appearing to rip through the spirit plane itself.

  This improved version of the attack was undoubtedly powerful, but Oozagh still stood, and worse, he didn’t look particularly fazed by it.

  “Baha, what an attack! Impressive! But can’t you feel it, twig boy? The energy I had at this stage?!”

  He could feel it, and Aaron nodded in understanding. Oozagh’s avatar was either peak E grade or very close to it. He might have beaten peak E-grade monsters before, but this was the avatar of a god.

  Reaching godhood was an incredible feat in and of itself. Anyone capable of it was a generational talent. And Oozagh wasn’t just any old god. He was a supremely powerful god. Of course, his avatar was incredibly powerful. Was it as strong as Yendal’s? Maybe not, but to judge greatness against such a high bar was foolish in and of itself.

  The fact that he had disrupted Oozagh’s energy as much as he had with the attack was a feat, an incredible one. But he was practicing for Mo’han Khan. The strongest man in the sector. A region of likely trillions, based on how many worlds there were within the sector.

  Mo’han was almost certainly god material, assuming he survived the trials of the multiverse. And Aaron would be flicked aside if he challenged him again unprepared.

  “Shall we?” The ogre god grinned.

  “Of course,” Aaron smiled back.

  The fight had been slightly longer than previously, and he took the chance to land his new and improved spirit punch a few times throughout it. It was capable of blasting away chunks of the ogre’s energy and, in doing so, slowing him down quite a bit. That was enough to drag the fight out, but not even close to beating him.

  Oozagh had tremendous amounts of energy and could eat a dinosaur leg about as fast as Aaron could devour finger foods. Beating this improved version wouldn’t be easy.

  Returning to the hallway, he immediately jumped to his feet as fired up as he ever was.

  It was clear that there was still a final piece missing, and he was damn determined to figure it out.

  However, he doubted there was much more refinement to be achieved with the attack itself. He had increased the speed at which the aether spun tremendously, and whilst there might be some room for improvement, it was well and truly past the point of easy gains. In all likelihood, whatever improvements he would make would be extremely incremental and likely come gradually as he continued to use it.

  But if that were the case, then what did he need to do to improve its power?

  Aaron mused on this. If the attack was suitably strong, what was there left to improve?

  A lightbulb flashed in his mind. It was power. He needed to find a means of harnessing more power and funneling that into the attack. With how far he had improved his technique, additional power would simply multiply those improvements, and with any luck, create a devastating spirit punch that not even Oozagh’s avatar could resist.

  But where to start?

  He thought on this for a moment. Now wasn’t the time to get distracted with other things, and he wanted to jump straight back into another trial. Besides, the experience was pushing him close to level 35, which was a necessity in itself.

  Perhaps another Trial of Endurance?

  Whilst there were more low-level trials he could grind out, perhaps he needed something to push him a little. Besides, it was one of the trials he desperately wanted to finish before leaving. After all, he had no idea how easy it would be to come across ingredients for his cooking once he returned to Superearth. And he had drained through much of his supplies. Building up his stockpile with greater and more valuable ingredients was almost as important as the gains themselves. Besides, if he wanted to work on increasing power, a dish that increased his energy was a solid place to start, and if it used the new ingredients he unlocked, even better.

  With solid reasoning in his mind, Aaron approached the dial and waved away those pushing their goods on the fast-moving line.

  Man, I really hope I can get some cash before I leave this place. He had tried to avoid paying much attention to what was on offer, but his new and improved spatial container had quite a bit of space. If he could pick up more valuables to throw in the scabbard before leaving, that would be a nice bonus.

  Appearing in the Trial of Endurance, he stood beside the towering form of Oozagh. Without the pressure of combat, he also realized that the ogre’s gut appeared bigger than ever.

  He really is evolving to get fatter, isn’t he?

  He remembered how racial evolutions worked, and a shiver traced his spine as he imagined ogre women at the peak of evolution. If they were already this big, they would only get bigger.

  The trial itself was a giant expanse without a single tree, structure, or mountain. However, it did have craters dotting the landscape, and they looked odd. As if they had been machine cut to square perfection.

  He looked across to Oozagh’s avatar, who in turn looked up into the sky.

  Across the entire sky, hundreds, maybe thousands of asteroids were plummeting down to the planet.

  Aaron narrowed his gaze.

  “Huh? What the…”

  Just like the craters, the asteroids were also perfect squares. Or rather, blocks. They were made up of perfectly cut blocks, some single blocks, others lines, or even strange shapes.

  “This reminds me of something…”

  He had little time to ponder on the similarity of these cubes, because they were traveling incredibly fast, and he had to get moving.

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  The cubes came blindingly fast, slamming into the ground. Of course, Aaron was fast himself, and he could read fate, which made dodging them rather simple. If only that were all he needed to do.

  When they slammed into the ground, they sent apocalyptic blast waves rippling out and blasting everything away.

  After almost dying, Aaron realized that the best strategy was to bound up into the sky and dodge them above the surface. The mana cost of constantly using [ Gust Step ] was considerably higher, but he would drain his aether quickly if he were forced to withstand too many of the shockwaves.

  This continued for hours until exploding asteroids started to pour down. They were like frag grenades, exploding shrapnel through the sky, and looked exactly like the normal ones.

  For most, this would be extraordinarily difficult to withstand for a long time. Any flying techniques that drained energy would be difficult to keep activated for so long, and surviving on the ground might just be impossible.

  But the exploding asteroids were what would end most attempts. Without being able to tell them apart, trial takers would need extraordinary speed to dodge the fragments or peak-tier resilience to survive them.

  Aaron, on the other hand? Well, he could see fate, and thanks to that, he could avoid the most deadly ones. Not only that, but he could eat rather leisurely without someone attacking him, and so keeping up with the level was relatively easy, and he had little to no chance of running out of energy.

  For a seventh-stage trial, he was quite satisfied with his performance, even if his skill set was rather tailored to endurance.

  Stage seven of [ Trial of Endurance ] COMPLETED!

  You have tested yourself against the falling blocks of doomsday and survived.

  Quest Rewards: Material Fusing Device [ Epic ], Crafting Station upgraded to level 7!

  Experience rewarded for completing a quest stage!

  Perhaps the trial hadn’t been the most suited for the training he required. But not every trial could be perfectly designed to assist him with the current challenges he had in front of him.

  However, Aaron wasn’t too concerned. He was not yet sure how exactly he was going to increase the power of his attack, and having new ingredients might just prove useful.

  Making his way to the crafting station, he picked up Sooty and collected everything available to him.

  But as he pondered over what to cook next, he spotted some peering eyes.

  “Can I help you?”

  It was a woman. Very human-like, save for pointy, white rabbit ears. He was pretty sure he had seen pictures of someone who looked suspiciously similar when accidentally wandering into the wrong part of the internet.

  “Yes,” she eagerly nodded. “I’ve been watching you cook. I’m actually an alchemist myself. It’s quite fascinating how similar Professions work so differently, don’t you think?”

  “Er, I suppose,” Aaron shrugged.

  “Sorry, am I coming on too strong?”

  “Err, no? You can just come out and say whatever you want. It’s a struggle to offend me.”

  “Well,” she rubbed her arm. “I’ve been struggling to collect soul-strengthening foods. I’ve gotten a few from the dining hall, but not enough to hit my E grade race evolution yet. I’ve still got some time before D grade, but still, I’d like to reach it sooner if possible. I don’t want to get stuck at E grade and waste experience, y’know?”

  “Sounds reasonable,” Aaron nodded.

  He didn’t have anything against helping her, but soul-strengthening ingredients weren’t necessarily common, even here. Sure, the weaker ones might not be as effective as he pushed toward D grade, but he wasn’t just going to give them away.

  “I was thinking we could help each other out. You make me some soul-strengthening dishes, and maybe I could help you with whatever you’re trying to cook?”

  “You can cook?” Aaron’s brow scrunched up.

  “No? Wait, you’ve never worked with another Profession, have you?”

  Aaron grimaced. He felt like this was going to be another one of those situations where he learned about how much he had missed by not having the Tutorial.

  “Um, well, most finished products benefit from multiple high-quality inputs. Really, it doesn’t matter what Profession you practice; whatever you’re making can likely be improved by working with other Professions. I used to make tonics for another cook back in my Tutorial. It was quite the improvement on what they were making beforehand.”

  “Was it now?” A grin creased across his face. “Then let’s work together!”

  “Fantastic!” She extended a hand. “The name’s Clementine.”

  Whilst it was a little difficult working with someone else, as Aaron was used to entering a crazed trance, it was kind of fun.

  They also discovered that Aaron’s [ Foul Ichor ] Profession Skill was quite useful in alchemy as well. Not only that, but when Clementine used it in her formulas, it seemed to naturally alter the tonics she created so they already matched Aaron’s affinity, allowing him to naturally blend them into his dishes with little effort.

  In return, he cooked up a couple of soul-strengthening dishes with ingredients he had on hand, which Sooty had stored earlier. She was beyond ecstatic and consumed them immediately, and at an impressive speed for someone so dainty.

  She even informed him that she felt extraordinarily close to her racial evolution. Unfortunately, she would have to wait until his kitchen restocked.

  However, she was more than happy with the results and eagerly brewed up a stockpile of impressive tonics for Aaron.

  With new ingredients and tonics at hand, it was time for him to cook. And Aaron said goodbye to his new partner in Profession, and returned to his trance-like state.

  His kitchen once more turned into a whirlwind of mess and chaos. And at the heart of it all was the Spirit Cloud Berry. It was the prize of his room seven unlock, and the tart little thing was what he was basing his entire recipe around.

  The tonics were a great aid, but they were simply fuel to help push the prize ingredients to get more out of them, and to create something even more outstanding. But without the prize ingredients, they meant little.

  Blended into a syrup, he gently poured it across a stack of impressively edible-looking pancakes and stepped back to admire his work.

  A large amount of experience has been rewarded for discovering a Legendary recipe!

  Ding!

  [ Ogre Gastronomist ] has LEVELED UP!

  38 → 40

  Spirit Cloud Berry Stack [ Legendary — E-grade ]

  Delicate, sweet, and soul-binding. This dish is known by mystics across the multiverse for aiding in linking the spirit and the body, and is treasured and highly sought after.

  Provides: Special Effect—Spirit Body Link.

  Aftereffects: Death.

  Conditional: Requires an active Aether soul.

  Huh, thought Aaron as he looked at the pancakes.

  He wasn’t sure exactly how this would help him. Improving the connection between body and spirit sounded like it could be good, but he wasn’t certain exactly how it would help with his spirit punch.

  I guess there’s only one way to find out, he thought with a shrug.

  He was about to take it to go test it out in the meditation room, but then he noticed Sooty yapping with another trial entrant at their profession table and facepalmed. He had just reached level 40. He had a Skill upgrade.

  “Sooty!” he called.

  Sooty excused himself from whatever conversation he was having and trotted over to Aaron.

  “What’s up, bossman?”

  “I’ve got a new Skill selection to take care of. Would you like to help?”

  “Would I?!” Sooty replied, eyes sparkling.

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