Chapter 64 – Adaptive Barrier

Kieran made up for lost time with his family during the meal. His mother kept staring at him as if she feared he would disappear if she took her eyes off him for a second.

"You manage to create several barriers at the same time?" asked Kieran.

"Yeah, I've been training with Thomas since you left. I can now create three barriers at the same time. I can even stack them to create multiple layers of protection," replied Ryan.

"Does that increase their resistance by a lot?"

"I can withstand the attack of a peak stage rank Iron for several minutes."

"Your ability has progressed well."

'I wonder what his cultivation level is now?' thought Kieran.

He used his crystal sense to scan his brother. The crystal essence inside the body of Ryan was so weak that he could even sense his spiritual world through his crystal sense.

'He is still at the early stage of the Iron rank. I should try to help him increase his cultivation. It's just a shame that I can't use my ability to see his evolution paths.'

A golden halo suddenly appeared in his right eye at that moment.

[ Ryan Arvost]
[Crystal Tree Status:
Name: Barrier
Type: Manifestation
Rank: Iron
Ability: Barrier Creation
Refinement Rate: 33.76/100
Path of Evolution: 230 available paths]
[Crystal Essence: 33.76]

"What?!"

Kieran was so surprised at the appearance of the screen in front of him that he got up from his chair.

"What's happening to you, Kieran?" his father asked.

"N... Nothing."

Sitting back on his chair, he inspected the information on the screen.

'How is it possible?! I thought my ability wouldn't work on others...'

'Is it because of the difference in cultivation between us? Anyway, if I can see his evolution paths, I can help him evolve his crystal tree.'

Focusing on the available paths of evolution, the list opened before him.

[Barrier Evolution Path:
Evolution path (1): Adaptive Barrier -> Enhancing Adaptive Barrier -> Grand Adaptive Barrier -> ? -> ....
Evolution path (15): Water Barrier -> Grand Water Barrier -> Tidal Wave Barrier -> ? -> ....
Evolution path (230): Barrier ]

'Adaptive Barrier? Will his barrier evolve to adapt to each attack it blocks?'

He concentrated on the first path of evolution to see the conditions of evolution.

[ Path of evolution (1):
Adaptive Barrier. Evolution Conditions: Soul Crystal Elemental Adaptation Bronze Grade
Enhancing Adaptive Barrier. Evolution Conditions: Soul Crystal Mind Expansion Silver Grade
Great Adaptive Barrier. Evolution Conditions: Soul Crystal Enhanced Durability Gold Grade, Soul Crystal Enhanced Crystal Essence Control Gold Grade
????. Evolution conditions: ?
????. Evolution conditions: ?
........ ]

'What is this? Enhancing Adaptative? What kind of barrier is he going to create with that?'

"Kieran?" said Ryan.

"Hmm?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Kieran looked up as his brother called.

"I asked you if you plan to come back to the academy. Apparently, a guest of the academy is coming to train us starting tomorrow."

"A guest? What rank is he?"

"He's a Silver rank belonging to a large guild, but Teacher Marsk didn't tell us which one it was."

"Just a Silver rank..." Kieran muttered.

"Did you say something?"

"No, nothing. I don't think I'll be back anytime soon."

"Are you going back into a rift?" his mother asked anxiously.

"No, I have enough resources to cultivate for several months now. But I don't see any point in going back to the academy. Most of the teachers are at the peak stage of the Bronze rank, with just a few at the middle stage of the Silver rank. There's nothing they can teach me that I won't learn faster on my own."

Ryan's mouth twitched for a moment before he remembered that his brother had lived for two months in a rift. Most of his teachers didn't even stay more than a month through a rift in their entire lives.

'He may be right. None of our teachers could teach him. Maybe only the director who is a Gold rank can do it, but he rarely shows up in front of the students,' Ryan thought.

"You should come back to the academy from time to time, at least not to be expelled. The academy has announced that they will soon open their secret realm. It might be useful for you to still be a student at this time if you want to enter it," said Ryan.

"Okay, I'll try to get there occasionally," replied Kieran.

"How strong did you become during your time in the rift?" his father asked with a smile.

"I improved a bit."

"How about a training session with your old father?"

"Honey. Kieran just got back. Leave him alone," said his mother.

Davis suddenly felt a chill down his spine, his wife was looking at him with a smile on her face, but her eyes were saying something else.

"Ha... Haha, your mother is right! You just got back. You must be tired."

Kieran looked at the exchange between his parents, and a feeling of nostalgia invaded him.

'It's good to be home.'

After dinner, Kieran spent some time with his parents before going upstairs, where he entered Ryan's room, who was sitting cross-legged on his bed.

"I see that you no longer use the cultivation technique offered by the alliance."

"Yes, The Great Transcendent Way technique you sent me is on a whole new level. Even without a crystal core to cultivate, I feel like I'm improving a little every day."

"That's great. Take this. You should be able to reach the peak stage of the Iron rank before the end of the month with it."

With a wave of his hand, ten crystal essence stones flew toward Ryan.

"Are those crystal essence stones?! Just how much did you earn in those two months for buying so many things?!"

A slight smile appeared on Kieran's face.

"Don't worry, little brother, your big brother has come back. I will help you become a powerful cultivator," he said before leaving the room while laughing.

"Who's the little brother!"

Ryan's scream came from behind him as he entered his room.

"Well, where can I find an Elemental Adaptation soul crystal."

He spent the next hour researching the aurora net but found no rift near Ozryn that contained a crystal beast that could form this soul crystal. Left with no other choice, he opened the starlight industry home page before searching for soul crystal.

"The price for an Elemental Adaptation soul crystal is 92,000 nova. It's not that expensive. I'll order it now and give it to Ryan when he can breakthrough to Bronze rank."

"When did you find an evolution path for your brother? I didn't see you buying one when we were in Aldrines," Runihoril asked suddenly.

"I..."

Kieran rubbed his head, trying to find an answer to give Runihoril.

"You don't have to explain to me if you don't want to," said Runihoril, seeing him hesitate.

"I don't really know how to explain it."

"Just try."

"Since my awakening, I have acquired an ability that allows me to see the information of my crystal trees and their evolutionary paths, but it is not tied to any of my crystal trees' abilities."

A look of shock appeared on Runihoril's face.

"You can see the evolution paths?! Are they real?"

"Yes, that's how I chose my evolution path. Until today I thought I could only see my own evolution paths, but just now, I could see my brother's crystal tree information too."

"It's really amazing. Can you see all the future evolutions of your crystal trees?"

"No, I can only see two ranks above mine. The rest is filled with question marks."

"What a strange ability... And it's not from one of your crystal trees."

Runihoril was lost in thought when he remembered what Kieran had said.

"You said that until today you thought you could only see your own evolutionary paths. Why is that?"

"When I got this ability, I tried to activate it on several people, including my brother, in vain, but just now, the ability activated when I inspected his cultivation level with my crystal sense."

"You may need to see or feel their crystal tree to be able to activate this ability. Since you can sense your crystal trees at any time, you have no problem activating it on yourself, but if you want to see or feel someone's crystal tree with your crystal sense, they must remove their crystal essence from their body and leave it defenseless so your crystal essence can see into their spiritual world or you must be stronger than them for your crystal sense to pass through their crystal essence without any resistance."

"So I can see the evolution paths of everyone who is weaker than me?"

"If I'm not mistaken about your ability, then yes, but you shouldn't tell anyone about this ability. The fact that you can get soul crystals every time you kill a crystal beast is already a reason to chase you around the whole universe. If people find out that you can also see the evolution paths, everyone will chase you regardless of their cultivation rank. You must be very careful with this matter, Kieran, don't let anyone find out."

Kieran's body shivered at the thought of being chased by the entire city of Ozryn.

"I understand. I won't tell anyone. I'll just tell my brother that I bought an evolution path for him in Aldrines."