The next day, when Azrael went down for breakfast, he was surprised that Ashara didn’t mention anything about him going to Slayers Academy.
He glanced at Silas from the corner of his eye and understood that he had somehow convinced Ashara to let him go.
Silas noticed Azrael’s glance and raised an eyebrow in a proud manner, as if saying—See? That’s how you tame your wife.
However, in the very next instant, he felt someone looking at him gently and his face stiffened.
He turned his head sideways to look at Ashara, and upon seeing her signature gentle smile—the one she only showed whenever she needed to tell him to sleep on the floor—he began to sweat.
He wanted to say some sweet words, but before he could, Ashara looked away from him.
"Here is the gift that your grandfather prepared for you," Ashara said to Azrael, placing something that looked like a scroll on the dining table.
Azrael looked at the scroll, and his eyes lit up with joy.
"An Essentia Art," He muttered in a low voice, picking up the scroll.
The cylindrical-shaped scroll was about fifteen centimeters long and was light green in color, with a great sword image imprinted at the top.
"This Essentia Art is very suitable for you. You need to have the power of wind to learn it, and it requires a sword to show its full power," Ashara explained. "You can learn it after activating your powers. And with the Fallen Star in your possession, its power will only increase in your hands."
Azrael nodded in understanding and felt it was a pity that he couldn’t learn it before activating his powers.
Unlike skills, Essentia Arts are different.
To use a skill, people don’t need to have any kind of special power like the power of wind that Azrael possesses or any other.
For example, if a person uses a skill book or skill crystal to learn the Fireball skill, he would be able to cast Fireball as long as he can utilize cosmic energy.
For unawakened people, who can’t even bring their cosmic energy outside their bodies, it’s impossible to cast a skill before they awaken and condense their source core, which gives them the ability to control their cosmic energy.
Of course, Azrael’s case was different. Even when he was unawakened, he could utilize cosmic energy because of the mid-level breathing method, and if he had learned skills like Fireball, he would have been able to cast them even while still being an unawakened person.
The reason Azrael didn’t learn any skill other than the breathing method was because, even if he could cast the skill, its power wouldn’t be great.
Before his awakening, if he had learned Fireball and used the mid-level breathing method to cast it, the fireball he would have been able to cast would have been just slightly stronger than a lighter’s flame.
In battle, that kind of fireball wouldn’t have played any significant role. The power of other skills would have been the same. This is why Azrael didn’t learn any skills.
Now that he had a source core—a thing that acts like a power plant for cosmic energy—the power of the Fireball skill would increase if he learned it.
But Azrael had no intention of learning skills like Fireball for now because his offense was already very strong.
He had been learning to use a greatsword from Ashara over the last two months, and his swordsmanship had improved greatly.
Now, with only three days remaining before he entered Eonrift, instead of wasting time learning a skill, he would rather refine his swordsmanship further—which was his strongest move for now.
Simply put, skills can be learned by anyone, regardless of their nature.
A person with the power of water can also learn the Fireball skill, just like a person with the power of fire learning Fireball.
But Essentia Arts can’t be learned by just anyone and have strict requirements.
Take the Essentia Art that Zyrek prepared for Azrael, for example.
This Essentia Art is called—Skyrift Slash!—an Essentia Art for wind power users.
If a person wants to learn Skyrift Slash, he must have the power of wind and use a sword to cast it.
A person without the power of wind wouldn’t be able to learn Skyrift Slash because, instead of cosmic energy like skills, Essentia Arts utilize the awakened power of the user.
Like skills, Essentia Arts also have five levels of mastery. From low to high, they are: Entry, Mid Level, High Level, Peak Level, and Perfection.
Compared to learning skills, learning Essentia Arts is ten times more difficult. From what Azrael had heard from Ashara, a normal person would take months or even years just to reach the entry level of an Essentia Art.
As for reaching mid and higher levels, it takes years or even decades of effort.
Azrael wasn’t worried about the difficulty of learning an Essentia Art.
With his Eternal-grade trait, the thing he was best at was learning, so he didn’t care about how difficult Skyrift Slash was.
"Here, these are the gifts that your father and I had prepared for you..." Ashara said after seeing Azrael putting away the scroll for learning Skyrift Slash.
"We wanted to give them to you last night, but someone ruined the whole mood, so I didn’t feel like giving them to you at the time."
Azrael’s mouth twitched slightly at Ashara’s sarcastic words, and he looked at the two items she placed on the table.
A ring and a bracelet.
The ring was golden in color, and a small red gem was embedded in it.
Meanwhile, the bracelet was completely silver, with beautiful patterns engraved upon it.
"Thanks, Mom. Thanks, Dad," Azrael said as he picked up the two items, and the information of both flashed before his eyes.
He read the information on both items, and a stunned look appeared on his face.
The ring was a prop that actually contained one of Ashara’s attacks. If he activated it, he would be able to release a powerful attack that could instantly kill almost anyone below the Cosmic King level.
Unlike artifacts, props can only be used one time. Once used, they are destroyed. So Azrael could only use this ring once.
However, it was still a life-saving item that could help him in case of danger.
The bracelet was also a prop, but it contained one of Silas’ skills. Once used, it would immediately teleport the user away from their current position.
It was a very powerful escape item. The distance this prop could teleport its user was also vast—reaching a maximum of 1000 light-years.
Unlike props, artifacts have strict requirements for usage, such as the user’s level.
Azrael was still at level one and couldn’t use any powerful artifacts, which was why Ashara and Silas had prepared these two props for him.
As for relics, they stood at the top of all creations.
Relics are above artifacts, and once a relic appears, all top-level individuals will try their best to obtain it, as a single relic can change a person’s fate.