The Genius Evolution Store

Chapter 195: Treating Katarina

"..." Auric was completely speechless. "Why do you people always have a black and white view?"

"So, you don’t have such a fetish?" Katarina frowned.

Auric shook his head. He was just shocked by the maid uniform because someone sneaked a picture of Maya wearing a maid’s uniform into his room.

"..." Katarina looked down as her face turned red. She was mostly showing a poker face, so her embarrassed face somehow had much more impact.

However, she also noticed that Auric had quietly taken a few steps back. "Why are you moving away?"

"Nothing. I just have the feeling that you are going to slap me for your own misunderstanding," Auric answered gracefully.

"What—" Katarina was dumbfounded. "Do you think I’m an unreasonable woman who would hit someone because of my own fault?"

"I’m not so sure, especially when you came here wearing those clothes."

Katarina looked at her clothes again, unable to give a rebuttal.

"Anyway, why don’t you change your clothes?" Auric sighed.

Katarina fell silent for a moment before saying, "No need. It doesn’t matter anyway."

"Doesn’t matter?"

"The moment I choose to work for you, it’s already over. It doesn’t matter what clothes I’m wearing." Katarina shook her head.

"Won’t they think I’m a pervert?" Auric pointed to himself.

"That sounds like a good idea, but I have told you before that this place admires strength more than any other place."

"..." Auric’s eyebrows twitched. He was a bit skeptical, while Lindwurm just kept laughing the whole time. "I once told you that evolution masters have some screws loose in their heads, right? The people in the capital city just have a bit less."

’So, that means Dad has gone to the capital city long enough that you know that they are crazy?’

"!!!" Lindwurm gasped and hurriedly covered his mouth.

’Thank you.’ Auric scoffed inwardly.

Since Auric was silent for a while, Katarina couldn’t help but ask, "So... now that I’m here, what am I supposed to do?"

Katarina looked around. The store looked the same, but it looked like Auric had placed some materials inside.

"The treatment, right?" Auric pointed to one of the rooms. "Follow me."

Auric led Katarina to the treatment room.

"Lie on your stomach. There are six spots where I have to touch you if I want to get rid of the energy accumulated in your body. Will that be fine?"

"I’m aware of the treatment. This is not the first time I have received a treatment. Though some perverts usually use this excuse to touch me, especially when they ask me to lie on my back. I haven’t encountered one, but I know the stories."

Auric chuckled. "Well, who cares about that? Anyway, get ready. I need to ask you to circulate your energy to the place I touch. Can you do that?"

"I still need to do something? Shouldn’t evolution masters do everything by themselves?"

"I am silver-grade while your avatar is already in the adult form. My strength is only good enough to handle the juvenile form. If not for the fact that the amount of energy is not too much, I wouldn’t be able to treat you at all."

"Oh!" Katarina definitely forgot about this. There were no gold-grade evolution masters in the university, so normally she would go to her friend who was a silver-grade evolution master.

That friend would suggest that she go to a gold-grade evolution master after checking her condition.

Auric might have become a silver-grade evolution master, but his strength should be quite low due to how much time he had spent polishing his power.

"Okay. I will do it."

"Very well." Auric came closer. "What is this place called?"

"Sorry?"

"The ruins."

"Ah. It’s called Severed Disaster. It was a plane crash site, which ended up turning into ruins."

"So, it has fire, water, and plant." Auric placed his hand on her right forearm. He didn’t use the chaos element this time. After an avatar evolved to the adult form, it would strengthen the user’s strength.

If he used his chaos element on Katarina, there was a high chance she would find out.

That was why Auric chose to rely on what he had. He had revealed more than enough power to solve this problem. As long as there were no light and dark elements, he could handle all the problems.

"Yes. When a plane crashes, it’s obvious that an explosion will be the first thing to happen, especially with all that fuel. And there is a huge amount of liquid inside it. Later, it became covered by vines."

"So, the ruins are developed thanks to the abundance of elements?"

"No one knows yet. It’s like asking whether the egg or the chicken came first."

Auric recalled what had happened with the ruins he had visited last time. The darkness was abundant, but he didn’t know about the light. Yet, for some reason, that place contained all the elements.

"Hmm..." Auric squinted. He had broken down the element on her arm, so Katarina channeled her power into her arm, gradually pushing it to her fingers.

Auric then used his power to expel the energy outside.

He then placed his hand on the back of her neck. Just like the first time, he broke down the elements first before channeling that power into her fingers.

"This is actually easier than I thought."

"Glad that you feel that way." Auric didn’t say much. All this time, he had been using the Extreme Bridge Management to make sure that the energy didn’t disperse to the entire body while Katarina pushed it. It was definitely not something easy to do for a silver-grade evolution master.

As soon as the spot was cleared, Katarina realized that not only had her energy flow returned, but also her control over that spot had returned to what she remembered. It looked like Auric truly treated her.

Auric continued the same treatment for all the spots. However, there was one troublesome spot, which he saved for last. It was on her butt.

Auric said, "Why don’t you turn around?"

"Turn around? Is it over?"

"No. Just one spot left. I have to either touch your butt or the front side."

"..." Katarina’s eyebrows twitched. Normally, the evolution masters would just go with the flow. They had been talking during the whole treatment, so the atmosphere around them was good. Even if Auric touched her, she wouldn’t say a thing.

The location was slightly to the side, so even if she turned over, it wouldn’t really matter.

From this one action alone, she had confirmed Auric’s character.

"Well." Katarina flipped her body.

Auric began with the last treatment. Looking at his serious face, Katarina asked, "Now that I think about it, someone like you should have gotten a girlfriend, right? Why don’t you leave your girlfriend and let me keep you?"

"You want to keep me?" Auric chuckled.

"I think I have the talent and resources to do so." Katarina smiled.

Auric didn’t know whether Katarina was that special or the people in this city were just this weird.

The previous day, Katarina was judging his character or talent. It didn’t even take a full twenty-four hours before she decided to ask him to be a kept man.

Then again, she wasn’t the only one who had asked that question of him. Ellia and Milinda had never said such a thing, but after failing to awaken his avatar, he had been asked that question a couple of times.

Of course, there was no way he would do it. With the Sun Store taking off, he would get more than enough money to take care of himself.

"I’m going to pretend I don’t hear that." Auric scoffed before taking a step back. "Anyway, I’m done."

Katarina rose from the bed and looked at her body as if trying to check whether everything felt the same as in her peak condition.

Auric crossed his arms, examining her. "Well, it should be fine, but how about you use your battle technique just to be safe?"

"Battle technique?"

"Yes. When you use a battle technique, your circulation is much more apparent. It’s especially important in this case due to how small the change is. Use rank 1 battle technique if you can."

"Rank 1? Can’t I use the ones I normally use?"

"Rank 1 battle technique directly channels your power from the foundation. Besides, it’s easier for me to see that, especially since not all my elements have evolved."

"..." Katarina paused for a moment. She was a bit confused, but Auric had been accurate all this time, so she decided to follow his instructions.

Little did she know, Auric simply wanted to get her element. Her element was simply too strong for him to ignore. Besides, with this, he managed to get the last element required to evolve his earth element.

Katarina raised her hand. "This is my ability. Bullets. I have been using this ability and upgrading it all this time."

"What? Really?" Auric was quite surprised. Normally, people would be looking into another ability once they evolved. It was rare for people to upgrade their abilities.

Katarina simply formed a dozen bullets. These bullets looked like simple metal balls, but Auric could see that they were packed with energy.

"I tried using all kinds of weapons, from swords to guns. Nothing felt right. The most comfortable weapon I used was a gun, but it was still lacking. The gun didn’t have the flexibility that I wanted.

"That was why I had been experimenting with my power. After some time, I found this ability. It was a very simple ability, but it felt so good that I dropped everything and chose to master this power."

Katarina snapped her fingers. The bullets flew around. Each bullet had its own trajectory and flew without hitting anything in the room.

This was elemental manipulation. Katarina simply trained it to a very high level.

"But your earth element... is quite strong. Shouldn’t you capitalize on it?"

"I do." Katarina formed six more bullets. The size of these bullets was three times that of the ones she had previously summoned. "Like this."

Auric could see that she actually took advantage of the toughness of her element to make these bullets. "The amount of energy compressed in them is different..."

"Yes. By the way, have you seen my condition? Is there still something wrong with my body?"

"Ah, I almost forgot about that." Auric acted as if he were scanning her from top to bottom, even though he already knew there was no more problem. "Nope. You are clear."

"So, we’re going to open the shop now?"

"I’m still waiting for Milinda." Auric thought for a moment. Since she had just shown such marvelous elemental manipulation, Auric couldn’t help but remember Schad’s research. "Now that I think about it, have you tried combining your bullets?"

"Professor Schad’s research?"

"You know about it?"

"He is practically asking for all students who are good at elemental manipulation to assist him. It looks like he’s interested in you too."

"Well..." Auric scratched the back of his head.

"All I can say is that I have thought about composite bullets. That research will definitely help me in doing that, but... no." Katarina shook her head helplessly. "I couldn’t help with that research, so I still can’t form composite bullets."

Auric contemplated. He wanted to see Katarina’s element manipulation. It might actually allow him to see something he didn’t know. That knowledge could also be a clue to the research.

Auric asked, "By the way, do you want to have a spar with me? I would like to know more about elemental manipulation."

"Sparring?" Katarina looked up, pondering whether it was a good idea. "Well, I actually don’t mind, but this is outside of our agreement, right?"

"That’s true. I can compensate you... maybe?"

Katarina suddenly came up with a great idea. "There is actually something that I want you to take a look at."

"What is it?"

"This!" Katarina took out her phone and showed the Sun Store. "Have you heard about this store? I actually want you to take a look at the gathering technique. A genius like you usually has a different perspective."

Auric smiled, but inside he was troubled. He couldn’t help but ask himself inwardly, ’Don’t tell me... another member of my cult... I mean, another fan?’