Chapter 1047: Heroic Explorer Rowan was in a unique situation, his technique for Ascendancy was being fueled by the Aura pouring into him at a feverish pace, while he was performing a hundred other tasks at the same time, he was near a tipping point and he needed more of his consciousness power or he was going to fail. The two Explorers behind him were no longer focused on him; instead, they were battling with the Calamities that saw them as a choice buffet. Although the majority of the Calamities were still at the mortal level, their numbers meant the Explorers had no chance to survive as whatever move they made drained them of energy against what could be considered an infinite number of abominations. Rowan would have been in the same position with them if not for the fact that the Shiik had erupted from below the ground and swallowed him up. With its impressive armor and size, the Shiik could easily wade through the chaos, and with its mouth opened wide, it began swallowing tonnes of flesh and blood, Rowan was going to need all the vitality to survive what was to come. Although he would be collecting parts of his consciousness into this body, he would still be hiding its presence, and to carry a weight like this inside a mortal body, that body had to be severely powerful, even if it was perfectly compatible with his consciousness. Directing the Shiik away from the battling Explorers who were doomed, Rowan told it not to stray too far so he could take advantage of them once they were properly weakened, he needed the time to awaken to become a Heroic Explorer. Then the two Deific Explorers would become among the first he would be hunting for the Glorious Rank upgrades. Settling down into the stomach of the Shiik, a part of him began to process the vitality arising from the vast amount of smaller calamities the beast was consuming, merging them to his cells according to prearranged settings he had laid down, he would need a body powerful enough to hold the nameless Ascendant technique he created and hold his incoming consciousness. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢 Rowan had witnessed countless evolutions of the Calamities as they grew from mortal up to the Legend Rank and he had pulled enough data to begin forging the pathway to the Shiik to the Glorious Rank, but first, he needed to upgrade his body and spirit to the Heroic Rank before he began upgrading the Shiik, but there was no reason he could not start the process also. He was already creating the pathway to a higher rank in the Heroic center of the Shiik situated in its stomach. It was the rune that resembled a withered hand. At this moment the hand had three fingers, and Rowan was on the way to creating a fourth. There was a large pool of Ascendant Aura in his stomach at this moment frying his mortal flesh to ash, but he kept healing it instantly with the flood of vitality entering his body, Rowan had been holding it back for the right moment, waiting for his cells to grow strong enough to handle the surge of Ascendant energy, and when he deemed himself ready. It was easy to determine that because his body began to easily hold the massive Ascendant Aura without his flesh turning to ash, and Rowan began channeling the Aura directly into the Heroic Center he had created in his heart, disregarding the rest of his body. If he used the same method to consume Aura when he became an Enlightened Explorer and allowed it to enter every cell in his body, then he would need a hundred times more Aura than he had to work with. He could slowly fill up the rest of his body with Ascendant Aura after his ascension was over. A normal Explorer would only gain a Heroic Center after they reached that stage, but that was because they had no hope of understanding such a high-level concept, even an Ascendant would find it difficult to understand the nature of a World's Will, but Rowan was in a unique position to do something like this. His Heroic center rapidly filled up with Ascension Aura and his heart turned blue like a Sapphire. This could not just be seen with Aura's sight, his heart had truly transformed from flesh and blood to a crystal that could process Ascendant Aura to a degree that could be seen as ridiculous. Rowan's body seemed to ripple as a surge of energy erupted throughout his cells, transforming it in a manner that aligned with the nature of his heart. He arched his back as blue Ascendant energy erupted out of his body from his eyes and mouth, this was no longer just Aura, but a power derived from Aura that could make fundamental changes to reality. Rowan stood up and walked out of the Shiik, to behold the madness that reality had just transformed into. For a mortal this scene would be impossible to describe, to see billions upon billions of creatures that filled both the heavens and the earth, fighting, dying, and consuming each other in an orgy of violence that could rival that of the Great Abyss itself. Multiple explosions of power erupted from the masses as countless Calamities evolved, creating a sound like multiple earthquakes that remained ever ongoing without ceasing. He floated until he stood in the red hair of the Shiik, the powerful creature despite its size and armor was beginning to suffer damage, in the short time that Rowan had taken to Ascend to the Heroic level, multiple Legend State Calamities had been born, and just brushing against their Aura would lead to injuries. The Shiik had been able to survive for this long only because of its impressive regeneration capability. In the distance, Rowan could see the two Deific Explorers weaving around the battlefield, mountains of corpses below them, but despite the Aura they were gaining from the slaughter, it was all useless because they had no time to process it. Becoming an Ascendant did not only depend on Aura alone, but many other factors, and perhaps if they could survive this onslaught, they would be filled with so much Aura they could begin the attempt to become an Ascendant. However, this was a futile dream, for their injuries were already horrifying.