"What would you like to talk about, Miss Shira?" Yilfont smiled as he poured a cup of tea for Shira.
"I'll get straight to the point then." Phina sighed. "You see, Mister Yilfont, I'm nearing the Apex-rank. I have started to get a little anxious as the days pass by. I have been trained all the way to the Advanced-rank. Every rank I've achieved after that was through experimentation. I was already on my last leg after getting my Founder-rank. I want...no...I need advice. You've reached it, so please tell me how to reach the Apex-rank!"
"..." Yilfont suddenly burst into laughter. "Hahahaha!! I apologize, but I've never seen anyone ask about the Apex-rank!"
"I-I..." Phina was scared she had given herself away, but she didn't know how to recover.
"I don't mean to mock you, Miss Shira." Yilfont said as he held in his laughter. "It's just that I don't think I've seen such confidence of reaching it before. Well, it's actually quite simple. The way to achieve the Apex-rank is to infuse all four main Elements into your Elemental Core! Once you do so, you'll feel an insane amount of comfort with the world, which will allow you to release the natural Aura of your body as easily as breathing!"
"Aura?" Phina tilted her head in confusion.
"It's similar to Battle Intent, like this." Yilfont said as he released his Aura.
Phina's eyes widened with shock. 'That is it! That is the feeling I got from the Generals!!!'
"It seems like you realized something." Yilfont smirked. The first time he had felt someone's Aura was the same day he got an Aura of his own. That inspiration allowed him to find the comfort of letting the Elements enter his Core.
"I did." Phina nodded. "Thank you for your time, Mister Yilfont. I must leave and find somewhere to train."
"Very well, then. It was a pleasure chatting with you, Miss Shira." Yilfont said with a smile.
"I promise that when I become a Lord-ranker, I won't forget this kindness." Phina said seriously as she left.
Yilfont merely shrugged and shook his head helplessly. Only those who were at the top knew how difficult it was to reach there.
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"You're out already?" Pida asked as he saw Phina approach him quickly. "I thought you were going to talk to the branch manager?"
"Already done. Have you picked out a quest already?" Phina said in a hurry. She wanted to quickly reach the Apex-rank. 'Reaching the Founder-rank should be simple. After I'm done with the Peak stage of the Expert-rank, I can immediately go on to the Peak stage of the Founder-rank. Then, I'll finally be one step away from becoming an Apex-ranker.'
"This one seems good." Pida said as he handed Phina a quest paper. "All we need to do is deliver an item to the Elven Hellzone's capital city, Sanctuary. We get paid by the receiver and I wanted to go to the capital to search for my grandpa either way. It's win-win."
"Alright, let's take this one." Phina agreed. They didn't have to fight or kill anything, so she didn't really mind.
Pida stood up and approached the front desk once more. "We'd like to take this quest. Can we please speak to the person who issued it?"
"That person would like to stay anonymous. They said they don't care as long as it was a Gold-star Hunter that accepted it. Here is the item and a crystal picture of what the person who's going to receive it looks like." a handsome middle aged man in a suit said as he handed a beautifully made jade cup and crystal that would show the receiver's face when World Energy was ran through it.
"Alright, thanks." Pida said as he took the cup and placed it within his bag. He turned to Phina and said. "Let's move now. We should be able to make it before sunset."
"Sunset?" Phina thought she heard wrong. Although the sun had just rose, it would take a long time to reach the capital. She then opened up the map that Pida had given her in case she got lost. "It should take us over a month to get there."
Pida merely chuckled as he motioned for Phina to follow him. Phina shrugged as she followed behind.
After a few minutes of walking, Pida spoke. "You know, Shira...a lot of people think we are just in prison forever, but over the years, we have evolved to fit our new home. We might not have the comfortable weather of the outside world, but we do have great minds that have adapted to our surroundings."
Pida entered a shop at the edge of the city. He smirked. "I present to you...the Sand Sails."
Phina saw a bunch of boats around this shop. "So we're going to sail? On sand? Seriously?"
"It seems you won't understand until I show you." Pida walked forward and rented a single boat. The boats were already outside the city's actual walls, so it was pretty easy to get them ready for leaving.
The boats themselves were just that...boats. The only different thing about them was the glass ball beside the navigator's seat and two giant tubes pointing at the sail.
"Alright...you ready?" Pida smirked as he put his hand on the glass ball.
"Ready for what exac-"
BOOOM!
Phina was cut short by the boat breaking the sound barrier. She barely held onto the mast for dear life, while Pida was strapped into his seat.
After around an hour of moving, Pida stopped the boat.
Phina's knees gave out when he did. She fell to the deck of the boat and tucked her knees in to curl into a ball. "W-W-What was t-t-that?"
"That was a Sand Sail." Pida said as he was catching his breath too. "You put a little of your World Energy into that ball and it turns it into an Apex-rank gust of wind right into the reinforced sails. I just need to rest a little to recover my World Energy. You can sit in the seat next to mine."
"There's another seat?!" Phina hatefully glared at Pida who just chuckled.
"Just sit there and train or something. Seems like people already think you're stronger than you actually are. You might as well match or surpass their expectations." Pida said as he rested.
"..." Phina strapped herself into her seat on the other side of the glass ball and silently started to try and fuse the Holy Element with her World Energy core.