“A Biodome?” Zeke asked, his single brow rising.

“You’re serious?” Cloud asked. There was no hint of grumbling or even curiosity. An intensity was behind his eyes, glaring right at Zacharia who sat by on a chair on his own. “An actual Biodome? Right underneath our own town?”

“I wouldn’t joke around, Cloud–especially not this one,” Zacharia said with absoluteness. Cloud only slumped back on their sofa with Val’s mouth open and in surprise.

“If that’s true, then… Cloud, we might have found a literal treasure trove!” Val said, holding and shaking Cloud’s arm to the point of shaking his entire body along with it.

Of course, Zeke and Mikella could only stare at each other confusedly. Dungeons they heard about, as well as towers, but Biodomes?

“Okay, so…” Mikella raised her hand, deciding to break the ice for themselves. “What are Biodomes?”

“I’m not surprised you wouldn’t know, being alien visitors to our world,” Zacharia said. Apparently the general didn’t know that his words brought them to scowl at him as he continued. “But everyone who knows about dungeons knows about the legends surrounding Biodomes.”

“You can ignore him,” Val said, displaying a scowl at the general as she turned to the two with a gentle smile. “Biodomes are self-contained worlds within our own, with similar concepts to a dungeon like back in the tower–but this is on a much grander scale!”

Val opened her hands as she exclaimed, her eyes practically glittering in excitement. This actually got the two excited as Cloud continued for her.

“Generally, dungeons and other sorts of spatial instances carry national treasures people can take. That includes skill books, equipment, Attribute Fruits, perhaps even some treasures to raise attunement tiers. But biodomes are a step beyond that. Unique monsters and materials never seen before, and more importantly–they don’t run out. Each biodome has their own unique Mana atmosphere, and some could distort the very fabric of reality.

“Ordinary monsters become stronger or weaker depending on the biodome’s influence. But no matter the changes, the amount of experience gained will dramatically increase. In other words, it is an area that every major faction and province should have at any cost, and an area every minor town or village could only dream of.”

All of that information blew their minds straight out of their heads. Zeke marveled at the mystery behind this strange Mana atmosphere that had caused so much changes to the area, and Mikella had that look in her eyes that spoke of a possible challenge to improve herself.

Either way–the two were clearly hooked on exploring this biodome and taking everything they could get their hands on it.

“So, this Biodome thing has been near us this whole time?” Mikella asked, shaking her head slightly. “Wait, is that the reason why that dirty Bastion faction attacked us? For the biodome?”

That took Zeke by surprise, but it wasn’t unexpected. It made perfect sense now on why they attacked them outside of the obvious Unity Core control. Even if there were several smaller reasons why Bastion wanted to take control of Eve Glade, if they knew about this biodome, then it wasn’t entirely strange to consider that this was their main goal.

“It shouldn’t be possible,” Cloud stated, rubbing his chin. “Though you have a point. Outside of normal means, if they also knew that there was a biodome near us, it’s no wonder they were relentless in taking us down. However, even we didn’t realize its existence, and the king certainly hasn’t told us about it despite giving us his permission.”

“Zacharia, you said that you found this out after exploring the hole Zeke created, correct?” Val asked, prompting Zacharia to nod in agreement.

“The only natural way they would’ve known is either they divined the answer, or we have a spy in our midst. Normally, I would’ve considered you two to be responsible… but I believe you’re more actual treasures we stumbled upon rather than spies to take us down. It was solely because of Zeke’s overwhelming power that we discovered this.”

Zacharia stared hard at Zeke after he spoke. Mikella quickly tensed as she noticed this, and Zeke could only stare back.

“Which, by the way, I would like to converse with you about. That was the power of your attunement, the one you got from the higher realms, correct?”

“...Yeah,” Zeke nodded. “I wasn’t able to control it, so it wasn’t like I did it on purpose.”

Zeke stared back at his hands, recalling the memory of nearly losing himself in that power. It was such a distinction, he wasn’t truly afraid of using magic again despite it being possible that he might blow up if he loses control.

But he knew that his attunement is always there, its god-like power dripping into his Mana any chance it got.

“And you have no way of controlling such power,” Zacharia rubbed the well-trimmed beard on his chin. “Perhaps a collar to control the output might be necessary for you to wear temporarily.”

“What do you mean by ‘collar’?”

Mikella’s voice turned hard as she glared at the general. Despite the level difference and the obvious power gap, Mikella didn't take his words well.

Zeke almost fumbled as he raised his hand. “Whoa, hold on! He’s talking about a device that helps me monitor my mana! He’s not talking about a collar to control me!”

“He’s right,” Cloud said, also noticing the words and her mood turning sour as he spoke gently. “I was actually about to mention the same thing. This is so that in case his mana goes out of control, the collar will drain his Mana to a low level to avoid abusing his channels. This is a safety measure for mages who took on troublesome attunements out of bad circumstances.”

Thankfully, Cloud’s careful words brought Mikella to cool down. Her shoulders slumped, and she exhaled through her nose as she looked down.

“...I’m sorry. I overreacted,” Mikella said, facing the general with a clearly disgruntled look. Despite her not making an effort to make an apologetic expression, she was still clear on wanting to keep eye contact out of respect for the other person.

“It was my mistake for not making myself clearer,” Zacharia waved it off. Zeke let out a relieved breath himself.

He had to admit that despite Zacharia being a constant hardass that put everyone off, he had a lot of patience dealing with people’s outbursts despite his high position. Maybe it was something he was forced to pick up as he kept being such an ass.

Somehow, that’s more plausible than I realized, Zeke said, almost smirking as he put his hand over Mikella’s shoulder. “Thanks, though. Trust me, I’m not looking forward to wearing it myself. From the books I read, mages who were forced to wear them aren’t… usually mentally sound.”

“It doesn’t mean you’re lesser for it, Zeke,” Val said, restoring Zeke’s mood as she spoke. “They’re looked down upon because it showed the mage’s weakness in controlling Mana. Honestly, it’s more of an ego thing. It takes a big man to admit he needs a collar if it means protecting their comrades and loved ones.”

Cloud nodded. “Yeah, even I wouldn’t like wearing a collar, even when I know better. But such is life–and Zeke, right now, the rest of the town is dependent on your barriers. If the incident happened again and we weren’t prepared for it, we’re in for some serious shit.”

Zeke nodded. “Yeah… I’ll do it.”

“As for the attunement,” Zacharia spoke up, getting their attention. “I believe more training is in order. If you can learn to control even a fraction of a fraction of it, the path to Journeyman might not take so long for you compared to the others–and in return, Mikella would be in the same boat.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“I just prefer not to have Zeke burn himself out for once,” Mikella shook her head. “Anything to get him to stop using mana to kill himself half the time is all right by my book.”

Zeke honestly couldn’t respond back to that. She had a point, and it was seriously becoming an issue for him. The idea of being a nuke in boots wasn’t exactly his preferred path.

“But…” Mikella eventually said. “Won’t Bastion try to take us out while we’re exploring the biodome? I don’t want the town to end up being attacked again while we’re away like before. Even with the barrier in place, won’t it still be dangerous to just leave it like this?”

“Valid points, both of which I’ll be happy to explain,” Zacharia said, steepling his fingers together. “First, the barrier. I was actually about to ask whether the barrier can still be in place even if Zeke is not within the town. Is that possible, Cloud?”

“Yes,” Cloud nodded, much to both Zeke and Mikella’s surprise. He sounded more agreeable to Zacharia as minutes passed. Perhaps the idea of a biodome so close to their home was helping him not care about their grievances to each other. “As long as Zeke is connected to the Unity Core, the barrier will still be in place. When it was disrupted by the heavy flow, it was normally due to his barrier tinged with his attunement being affected by the same level of power. Otherwise, it is a wall that will never be broken.”

Cloud then turned to Mikella, showing a small smile. “In fact, I would dare say I wouldn’t mind leaving Ana here while both me and Val are away. That’s how sure I am of this barrier as a mage.”

Hearing Cloud say that, it definitely got Mikella to visibly relax. Both Cloud and Val were more reasonably crazy when it came to protecting their daughter just as Mikella was protective of Clara. Hearing those words of encouragement, Zeke couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed and proud of his barriers.

“Good, and as for the second,” Zacharia returned to the topic at hand. “While we have reasons to believe that they are spying on us even as we speak–we have our own intelligence team against them. We found out that the effects caused by their ambush have actually hurt them financial wise. While it’s impossible to figure out the total costs, we can surmise that it would take a long while to get back into the swing of things. The kingdom is also on task to investigate them, and of course, that also includes the major power backing them.”

“The Aetheric Federation, right?” Zeke asked, getting Zacharia to nod. “Do you think they’re trying to get a hand on the biodome too? I thought those countries had some treasure or two of their own.”

“You’d be right, but nobody is saying they won’t stop trying to get more stuff,” Val shrugged her shoulders. “Still, they would rather cut their losses than to try and piss off the kingdom. Every powerhouse is trying their hardest to measure up or even surpass the kingdom, but they’re also weary of what might happen if the kingdom considers them an enemy within their own territory.”

“Forget about wars–it’ll be a slaughter,” Cloud finished, getting the two to realize the implications behind that.

In the end, even fantasy worlds have to go along with politics. The power dynamics is the only reason why Bastion, or even the Aetheric Federation, aren’t trying to crush Eve Glade to pieces at this very moment. Zeke had been weary about why Bastion hadn't attacked them after all this time, or even tried to send scouts to study their patterns like they did before.

Figuring out that even Bastion had limitations made him ease up, but it was still burning at the back of his mind.

“Now then, we have decided to take a few days off to rest,” Zacharia continued, standing up from the chair and returning to his full 6 to 7 feet of height. “Afterwards, I expect all of you to come by to explore the hole to find the biodome. I expect you to rest, especially you, Captain. While I’m glad to see you up and about, do try and take care of yourself.”

“I will, thank you for your concern,” Val said, a pleased smile on her lips to see him worried for her.

“I just don’t want another situation where Cloud would kill us all otherwise,” Zacharia said, bumming Val out as he turned and left the room. “Have a good night.”

Soon the general left the house, leaving the four behind as Val grumbled about the general should at least try to be sympathetic while Cloud could only stare back at him.

“I get that Cloud can be a little unhinged, but is it really that strange?” Val asked the two, stumping Zeke but Mikella still answered.

“Not really. I was planning on just abandoning everyone and leaving with Zeke before,” Mikella said off-handedly which got the barrier mage to look back in fright at her.

“Oh, I totally get you,” Val nodded in affirmation. “Glad to see that it’s not unreasonable to worry about your loved ones above others in a tough situation. And it’s not like Cloud actually went through with it anyways…”

Zeke decided to tune out the conversation. He felt that there were a lot of unethical implications in this conversation, something that even Cloud wasn’t so keen on entering. Still, the news of the biodome carried excitement over the next few days as the town recovered and prepared for the next venture.

…..

Three days since the incident, Zeke was hard at work before the venture into this strange new biodome.

Cloud came in with a collar much as Zeke read about. It was a simple collar, not like a dog’s collar, but more of a fashion-statement if anything. It was black and sleek, the bands covering the entire neck around and small enough to look like a clothed necklace if anything else.

But what was more dazzling was the small well-formed blue jewel encrusted at the center of the collar, and incredible to read once he identified the collar.

> Collar of Mana Control (Rare):

>

> A collar designed to inhibit a mage’s magic. It was replicated for the purpose of training a mage to understand their full might.

>

> Enchantments:

> Mana Inhibitor

> Mana Constraint

Zeke was… not pleased with the collar, even as he forced himself to put it on without complaint. He read about the two enchantments, the Inhibitor part meant to decrease the amount of mana he can cast, and Mana Constraint is the part where he can control it more to further understand his now decreased power. Even though it should be nothing but beneficial for him, he still soured at the thought of having to use it.

Cloud watched with a sad look in his eyes, as though understanding his plight.

“This doesn’t mean you are incompetent, Zeke,” Cloud reassured him, and hating himself for it, Zeke was glad to hear that. “Lots of mages are fools to consider this looked down upon. I hated using it, and I grumbled and bitched about it, but I was glad that I didn’t end up hurting those I care about.”

“Did your attunement create a large hole that could have destroyed the entire town?” Zeke said dryly, and Cloud only smirked and chuckled.

“Let’s just say that’s not the first time I saw something as immense as that.”

Zeke tilted his head at that, but left it be. He kept forgetting that the dude lived twice as long as he had while looking as fresh as a college student coming to adulthood. The joys of reaching the Journeyman stage.

He fumbled about with the collar, testing on a few things. Thanks to the constant Mana regeneration, he didn’t have an issue of running out for his experiments in time for something unexpected to happen.

He found out that the collar allowed him to fine tune his mana just a tad, but he also felt that there was a… filter of sorts on top of his magical channels. He didn’t have to use his Recovery to feel that, almost like wearing training gloves for a child.

It’s no wonder why mages looked down on this collar. It’s basically a muffler for a dog who can’t learn to behave. It forced his magic to be dampened, though it didn’t look like they were reduced in potency. He had a feeling that if he were to have actual attacking spells, those spells would be reduced in damage.

Though that didn’t mean he liked the feeling. It felt stifling whenever he used his magic, but now he knew that he felt safe even if he tried to use his attunement.

Though thanks to what happened, he still doesn’t feel confident in controlling it just yet. He can at least use his magic without getting anyone scared of him losing his shit and becoming a nuclear bomb.

That, and if the collar’s effect is true, he won’t have any issue of wasting so much mana to the point of abusing his channels again. Still, he knew he had to take it off at some point if he wanted further control to take charge of an emergency, like the ambush on their town.

Throughout this, Zeke really had no other choice but to take a small vacation day along with Mikella and the other soldiers. The town was finally working on its own, their own citizens getting back into the other reconstruction projects that wasn’t a high priority. So while he experimented with his collar, he decided to do exactly what the lords said to try.

Zeke asked Mikella and Clara out to have fun in the town. While he wasn’t really keen on asking Mikella out on a date, even though it didn’t sound bad in his mind at all, it was way too much for him at the moment.

But if Clara is involved, it feels natural, like a god-given right. Thankfully, Mikella and Clara were ecstatic to be invited out as they left the house to head out to do that.

Though as for what they can do out in the town, they were a little stumped. They decided to just go out for a walk and if Clara wanted to do something, they'd do that. Thankfully, Clara became quite a popular girl there as she greeted the folks she knew with a wave and a smile. She usually does this with Ana, so seeing that just made Mikella smile widely.

Zeke did too. There were times when he found Clara out of her element, and sometimes staying by herself. He can’t even imagine how a girl like her would be feeling in this situation, but to see her smiling and enjoying herself in this dangerous fantasy world was a heavenly sight to his eyes.

The Ashton family enjoyed their first ever vacation day together, something that truly neither Zeke and Mikella ever thought was possible ever since their descent into this world.