The first one, of course being that he will spare those who survive his first attack.

That only applied when he was killing people he shared no enmity with, of course. Because if and when someone made their way to his list, then nothing was going to save them. This one also had several minor implications with it that he did not want to add separately.

Like, he was not going to torture people and instead try to finish them in one strike. That might be a bit tough since even if someone survived his first attack, it would be hard for them to not be injured.

Well anyways, he also wasn’t going to kill random people for charges near the HCR or inside it. He was sure he could escape without ever showing himself but he needed some restraints. Else, he would clear out all the walkers from the Realm.

He also didn’t want the whole human population to be on his tail. That was definitely not because he was afraid, far from it. It would just be mildly inconvenient, that’s it.

This rule also served another purpose in his eyes. In a way, if a person couldn’t even survive one of his attacks, then they probably didn’t deserve to live anyways. They must not have faced any struggles in their life until now.

He knew that this thinking had several glaring holes. But did he care?

Moving on… He thought of two other rules that needed to go into his code. It was paramount for his continued existence.

One of them was ‘Take Orders from No-one’. And that meant No one.

He felt like this was a perfectly sensible thing to add to his code considering his past. And especially now since he would like to see who still dares to order him around.

And the last one for now will be that he can only use his shifted form when he needed it. No, on second thought, it will be when he feels like it. Yes, he can use it only when he feels like it. Ragnar felt that the one before was too restricting.

These were the only three that he could think from the top of his head, but he might add more in the future depending on the situation.

Ending his thoughts there, he fell sound asleep. He will feel it when anything approaches them on land, so he wasn’t worried.

***

Aura woke up from the voice of something scratching against the branch. She lazily sat up and rubbed her eyes to get a look at what had disturbed her beauty sleep. She was really confident about the lack of any dangers in this region of the Evergrows.

What met her was Ragnar’s apathetic gaze as he pushed the Queen’s body beyond the edge with no politeness whatsoever.

A loud thump was heard when the body hit the ground. That noise might have given Aura a jump scare if she was still asleep. So, she was thankful at the fact that she had woken up beforehand.

Ragnar took in a deep breath as a drop of sweat trickled down his nose. The Queen was quite heavy even for him. Even though his ability might be pretty strong, his body had clearly not kept up with his powers.

Looking at his haggard state, Aura seemed confused. Before she suddenly connected the dots and asked to confirm.

“You don’t know how to use Ether Essence to supplement your body?”

Aura was sure that was the case since his earlier action could be performed by her without losing a breath.

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Ragnar looked annoyed at her question. He knew what she was talking about. Ether Essence also had another use other than improving one’s control over their abilities. But this use only came with practice over time. So how was Ragnar supposed to do it when he had only turned Arcane yesterday.

“What do you think?”

Aura smiled knowingly as she expected him to ask her to teach him, after which she would show her goodwill by agreeing, furthering her plans. But her hopes were crushed before they sprouted as she heard him continue in his casual tone.

“How long do you plan to sit there and gawk at my face, we’re leaving.”

Aura’s smile crumbled as she scurried out of her sleeping bag and prepared for the journey ahead. Her hopes however, were not all lost as she planned to use this information to her advantage in the future.

They left the safety of the branch and started making their way through the final stretch before they could reach HCR.

Ragnar was still underground as he observed the trees around him getting smaller and smaller as they moved forward. However, the sky was still not visible as the blanket of leaves only left little spaces for sunlight to cut through.

They travelled silently again for around 5 hours without a pause.

The scenery did not change much. The path however, had become more noticeable. Seeming clear that it was made by humans now. Before, the flora around them was so large that they did not need to disturb any of it and could just travel under it or through it.

But now, it had become small enough that it would obstruct their path if they travelled straight. So, the paths that were made through it and travelled often, were more noticeable.

As they reached closer to the HCR, they started encountering other human groups that were heading out into the Jungle but none of them dared to approach or stop Aura after seeing her outfit. There were even Spectrals among them but even they only gave her a nod before going about their business.

Ragnar discerned that they must be close to the HCR already since the trees had also become comparable to 4 story buildings by now, so he decided to give up on these free charges.

At this point he finally saw something other than more trees at the horizon. A black strip could be seen stretching from left to right past the dense foliage.

After travelling a bit more, Ragnar finally saw massive black walls that towered even higher than the trees. They were double the size of the Jungle that surrounded them.

Aura did not pause as she headed straight towards a door that looked quite small for this massive structure.

Even Ragnar was awed by the boundary of HCR as it looked more like a strip of fortresses that had been through countless battles. There were windows in the walls along with gaps for weaponry, that were lined with things that appeared like canons to Ragnar. But he was sure they were artifacts much stronger than the canons that could be found on Earth.

Even after they had reached the gate, Ragnar didn’t leave the ground since he had already discussed this with Aura. Considering the Massive Body that he was carrying, he was sure to attract people’s attention if he appeared on the gates. And they will need his ID at the gate as well. Although Aura could get him through even without one, it was better to avoid all this hassle completely, so it was decided he would directly appear near the Trade Union.

She also mentioned that other Sylvancrests might catch onto the clothes he was wearing so it would be better this way. Ragnar didn’t have any problems with this arrangement, since he was really not interested in carrying around this huge weight with his muscles.

The gates looked like they would lead into another world. And in a way, they would. They were also made of the black material that formed the walls and looked quite sturdy. They had a faceless human with wings cast into them in the middle. His wings stretched wider than his height.

They were currently closed through as only a smaller gate was opened for all the flowing traffic. There was a queue formed of the walkers that wanted to enter the gates. They were all showing something to the guard at the gates before they were let in. There was another small gate on the other side from where people were leaving in a steady flow as well.

When Aura reached close to the gate, the queue naturally separated to make way for her. They seemed eager to make a good impression on this person. But she walked past them with her nonchalant expression and did not even cast a single glance at them.

When Ragnar reached boundary of the HCR underground, he noticed that the walls went quite deep underground. He could travel down and cross under it but he was curious. He tried to go through them and he found out to his absolute shock, that he did not feel any obstruction.

This discovery opened a lot of doors for him, since it meant that he could even travel through materials that had come from Earth, and not just natural terrain. Although it wasn’t a big difference, it was still nice since he could use this ability even in the regions that were trampled by humans all over.

Coming out of his thoughts, he saw that Aura had already gone quite far. He caught up with her and gazed at the bustling Human Controlled Region in the Realm.