"Welcome, welcome!" Auric smiled. As expected, a lot of people had come here.
He definitely wouldn't recognize them, considering he hadn't even seen them before. However, this was indeed an opportunity.
"Hello, Master Auric. I am Sunny. I'll be your classmate soon. This is my cousin, a fire element user." A girl with a drill ponytail introduced herself along with a man who was two years older than her.
"Welcome. Please come this way."
"I came here because of you, but is he even reliable?" The guy glared at his cousin.
"He definitely is. Don't you see his badge? What? Are you going to be arrogant in front of an evolution master?"
"…" The guy's eyebrows twitched.
"Ahaha. I don't mind. If you want, we can close the blinds so that no one can see what's inside." Auric laughed it off.
"No need." The guy harrumphed.
"Alright then. Please show me your battle technique. It will allow me to assess you more accurately." Auric nodded calmly.
The guy didn't know why Auric asked him to show his battle technique, but not wanting to delay further, he agreed. His fire was not fiercer than Titus' firebird avatar, whom Hans had previously failed to help.
Auric nodded in understanding. "Thank you. That's enough."
The guy casually retracted his avatar and wondered what Auric planned to do next.
"It's not a big problem." Auric wrote down a note and handed it to the cousin. "This is the bill. Please proceed with the payment."
The man didn't see any difference in the price that he'd heard before. So, Auric didn't seem to be scamming them.
"I'm going to settle the bill first, Cousin." Sunny waved her hand as she exited the room.
"Shall we begin?" Auric then turned to the man. Since there was no problem with the price, the man nodded in agreement.
"There's no need to close the blinds. I don't mind people watching."
"All right." Even though Auric understood the reason, it was easier to handle it this way since he wouldn't have to explain it to the other people who would come next.
Auric proceeded with the evolution.
There was another reason why Arina was sent to Auric, which was also something Auric considered before accepting her.
Even though the room was separated by glass, there were blinds so that the customer could choose not to show himself when they were evolving.
However, there was some prejudice, similar to the way Angelina and her brother treated him when they first arrived. So, he intentionally chose not to hide the entire process.
'Miss asked me to observe him and his skills. Even though he had shown his skill when helping me and Miss, we didn't know about his actual skill as an evolution master.'
Arina observed carefully to figure out his exact skill.
However, what she found left her speechless.
'What is that? Did he just solve the problem before the evolution even started?'
Arina simply couldn't believe it. 'Normally, only a high-level evolution master could do it. From what I've heard, they require a specific sensitivity to know the location of the problem and pour a precise amount of energy to solve the problem. If they pour too much, the other party might not have enough energy to evolve.'
Auric not only did it precisely, but he also finished it so quickly that no one could react.
Everyone was surprised that the first guy managed to evolve without any help during the evolution.
When they saw how smooth the evolution process was, the people who had lined up became a bit more excited and relieved.
'I thought his skill would be normal, but there's nothing about him that's normal.' Arina gasped.
After seeing the unknown methods, such as adjusting a battle technique or creating a new technique no one had ever seen before, she thought his skill as a 'normal' evolution master would be quite common.
It turned out Auric was also a monster in this area.
"Miss, I want to sign up as well. Hurry up. I'm first. Here is my credit card!" Another female student rushed to Arina.
"Wait. You should check with the master first. The rate might be different." Arina stopped her with a wry smile.
However, another one came to her. "I don't mind the difference. Just let me go first!"
"Please calm down." Arina tried to stop them, but they simply became even more agitated.
"Just take my money already!" They angrily shouted while shoving their cards at her.
"You guys…" Arina glared at them as her energy started increasing. "You are my juniors, right? How about I start disciplining you guys before the semester begins?"
All of them were dumbfounded. They were overwhelmed by Arina's gaze, considering they hadn't even started absorbing elements.
"If you are going to misbehave, what if I tell the master here to kick you out?" Arina pointed up. "Go back and line up!"
The people who came with them also couldn't say anything in response. Since Arina had evolved, she had the power to suppress them.
Besides, if they finished their evolution and caused a problem in the store, people might talk about them, and no evolution masters would accept them anymore.
So, those people hurriedly restrained their cousins, sisters, or whoever had brought them to this place.
"Congratulations." Auric nodded to the man.
"Thank you." The man's attitude changed drastically. His tone became very polite. He even bowed to him. "I apologize for my rudeness before."
"No problem. It's fine." Auric just patted him on the shoulder while opening the door.
Once the man exited, Auric raised his head. "Alright. The second one…"
"Wait, Auric." Arina abruptly stopped him.
"Yeah?" Auric tilted his head in confusion.
Arina didn't want to embarrass him, so she whispered, "What are you doing? If you get someone to evolve inside, the residual element from the previous evolution will linger in the room. Do we have no spare evolution chamber?"
Arina was simply worried that it would affect his reputation if he ended up failing because of such a simple task.
If there were no spare rooms, she planned to suggest at least fifteen minutes of rest to ensure the room was clean.
What she didn't know was that there was a dragon circling around the evolution chamber.
His hands were in front of him as the power of the unique element cleaned up the residual elements as he kept chanting the same thing over and over again. "Money, money, money. Food, food, food."
Auric simply pointed to the room. "Why don't you check the room first?"
Arina was confused. If she entered, she would definitely find the residual flame element… or so she thought until she entered the room.
"Eh?" Arina looked around. "It's… clean?"
Auric winked playfully. "Now, there's no problem, right?"
Arina had a hard time closing her mouth. She simply couldn't believe it. What did Auric do to clean up the room?
She found no trace of elements in the room. If she were to tell this to Ellia, would she believe her?
"Anyway, please." Auric had turned back to the next customer before whispering to Arina. "Come on. Close your mouth first and smile."
Arina still couldn't get over her shock, so Auric chose to take care of the next customer instead.
Surprisingly, the next customer was actually someone who wasn't supposed to be here.
"I have a water element. It is a problem, right? However, my little sister forced me to come here, so just reject it and I'll leave."
The man had no intention of causing a mess here. If not for the sister next to him, he wouldn't have gone here in the first place.
"Brother…" His sister pouted as if she were angry that her brother had embarrassed her in front of Auric.
Even Arina thought they'd better send the customer off. There was no reason to check him unless he wanted them to pay.
'When I consulted an evolution master regarding my own evolution, he charged me a consultation fee while pushing me to buy a material… Is he going to do the same thing?'
Arina didn't really want to believe Auric was a profiteer.
To her disappointment, Auric opened the door. "Please enter. We can check it first."
Arina felt like her heart had just shattered. She thought Auric was better than this.
However, Auric added, "You come to find a solution. So, if I can't provide you with a solution, you don't have to pay."
"Are you sure?" The man was surprised by Auric's choice.
"Of course. I admire your love for your sister. So, please." Auric extended his hand, asking him to enter the room.
Since he also had a harmonious family, he respected people who also shared the same feeling.
The man hesitated for a moment, but when he looked at the big puppy eyes on his sister's face, he couldn't say no.
In the end, they entered the evolution chamber.
"So, let's take a look at your condition. Please show me your battle technique."
The man nodded. He formed a ball of water in his hand. It looked normal at first, but Auric could see the torrential flow of the particles. In addition, the intensity was also quite high.
"You have quite an amazing element," said Auric in amusement.
"As expected of a master. This is a raging ocean wave." The man paused for a second. "Still, will it be a problem? This is a high-tier variant, close to an extreme variant, so…"
The man thought Auric would give up, but to his surprise, Auric remained calm as if he had figured out the problem.
"I see." Auric nodded in understanding. "I can solve it."
"What?" the man was startled. Auric wasn't even a lightning or fire evolution master, so how could he do it?
Auric raised one finger as he explained, "Do you feel like you are drowning from time to time?"
"Ah, yes." The man nodded furiously.
"It's actually a pretty simple problem. Can you please show me a battle technique that directs your energy toward your mouth?"
The man was surprised that Auric knew about such a battle technique.
Since Auric asked, the man showed the battle technique, albeit without releasing it, or the entire room would be filled with water.
"Alright. That's enough." Auric waved down his hand before writing the fee. "If you don't have a problem with the fee, I can do it."
The man had 14% excess elements. Now that Auric had gained some experience, he figured out the man had 12% caused by the battle technique while only 2% was from the excess energy from a material.
When the man saw the amount, he was quite surprised. "Is this it?"
"Yeah." Auric nodded.
"Brother? Is there a problem? Is it too expensive? I'm sorry… because of my selfishness…" The girl looked down. She was excited before, but if it ended up ruining her relationship with her brother, she wouldn't do it.
"No. It's cheaper than I originally thought." He had quite an intense variant, so he would spend at least close to a hundred thousand.
Yet, Auric charged him only 72,000 credits.
Auric explained, "60,000 credits was for two materials: the Lightning Ant Mushroom and the Lightning Mouse's Essence. The rest is for the consultation fee. Since the material will be the one doing all the work, I won't charge you for my work."
He had obviously heard about the two materials. The Lightning Ant Mushroom was simply a zombie ant that had been taken over by a mushroom, but because the ant possessed a lightning element, it turned into this type of material. The other one was, as its name implied, a lightning mouse.
If Auric failed, his reputation would be smeared, and these people would stop idolizing him like crazy. If he succeeded, the frenzy would go even harder.
After some thoughts, the man nodded his head while handing his card to his sister. "I understand. Please proceed."
"Please bring the two items inside." Auric asked Arina.
Arina first brought the two items inside before settling the bill. Still, she was curious whether Auric would fail or not.
'Is he going to surpass my expectations again?' Arina crossed her arms while observing carefully.
Auric then grabbed the Lightning Ant Mushroom first, which was the more potent one. "Please eat this. Channel your energy down your throat."
The man followed Auric's instructions. After swallowing the ant's essence, the material dissolved in his mouth as the energy flowed down his throat.
The fierce lightning energy clashed with his excess energy, which loosened it up.
If he paid attention to his status, he would see that his element was going down until it stopped at 104%.
The fierce lightning energy was enough to loosen it up, but it wasn't enough to completely erase the excess element from the battle technique.
However, Auric had prepared the second item. He asked the guy to swallow it as well, but this time he had to direct the energy into his heart.
During its travel to the heart, the lightning energy broke down the remaining excess energy around his mouth. The residual energy from the Lightning Mouse's Essence would then suppress the excess energy from the material, ultimately lowering his element to 100%.
Auric smiled. "It's done. You can evolve now. If you don't believe me, you can check your element first."
The guy opened his bracelet and realized the treatment had indeed worked. Without hesitation, he proceeded with the evolution, which ended up being just as smooth as the first one.
"I…" He didn't expect he would evolve so smoothly, and the price was even lower than his expectation. "…Thank you very much, Master Auric."
"No problem. Let's head out. Your sister is waiting."
"Yes."
"Brother!" His sister jumped to him the moment he came out. "Thank you very much."
"No problem. You should celebrate your brother's evolution together." Auric waved his hand with a smile.
When the people witnessed that Auric was capable of even helping someone who had elements other than fire and earth, their eyes lit up with excitement.
The people were fighting and even began to overwhelm Arina, who was in shock.
"I don't care whether you are my senior or not. Let me be the next one!"
"No, it's me!"
"Don't fight me, you idiot gorilla."
"You baboon!"