The night before the Dungeon Meet, Rainer sat across Sarah as she polished her armor. He couldn’t help from staring at her.
“What?” she asked, rightfully annoyed.
“What did you do to your Mana?” Rainer questioned, his eyes glowing violet with the use of [Arcane Revelation].
“You jealous? I stole Mana from the first Trial monster and it automatically started converting and heading towards my Soul. Probably won’t be long till I pass you up.”
“Envious.”
“What?”
“In this case I wouldn’t be jealous, I’d be envious. And damn fucking right I’m envious.” She skipped even more steps than he did. And it seemed to be all happening effortlessly with her. The overtalented [Manaborne].
“Stop fucking swearing,” their mom yelled over as she passed by the room, earning two eye rolls from her children.
“Well if you’re envious about that…” Sarah said as she showed off her earrings and ring she gained from her Trial.
[Ring of Learning Enchantment Manipulation: For 1 second increases one's ability to level Enchantment Manipulation by 450%. Destroys on use.]
“That’s cheating. That’s absolutely cheating and I won’t stand for it.”
Sarah just giggled, completely pleased with herself for thinking of this after hearing the story of how he dealt with Divinites for the first time. Her frustration for getting an impossible to level manipulation skill as a class skill gave her something useful.
“Get that smug grin off your face my genius little sister, you completely screwed up your second reward.”
“What’s wrong with it?” Sarah said, quite pleased with her design. The silver and sapphire-looking earrings went quite well with her eyes.
[Earrings of the Manaborne: Increases the effect of the [Manaborne] Talent by 20%. Can only be used by Humans.]
“Last I checked someone was particularly proud about changing their Soul with Mana.”
“So?”
“So.”
“Shit,” Sarah groaned as she realized. She wouldn’t be ‘Human’ anymore, when she became a Mana-Touched Human.
“Shit indeed.”
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Having woken up earlier the morning of the Dungeon meet, Rainer went elsewhere as he replaced his sleeping body with his second Avatar. There were only minor complaints from Luna and Kara.
They had all agreed to take a break from [Sleep Learning] to allow their Souls to be at 100%. He flew away from Neutral City, out over the open ocean. He figured looking at the islands he planned to set up his future school on wouldn’t be a bad way to distract his mind. As of now, however, he felt it was likely a good portion of that school would be on the Mana-Filled world. Teaching students the basics of runes while they naturally unlocked their Affinity seemed like a perfect solution.
He could have used [Void-traveling] to reach the places, but preferred to relax and fly. While he wasn’t at the point where he could easily travel places he hadn’t been like Void Lords could, he could get close enough. At least within a planet. As far as he could tell, [Void-traveling] had little potential for crossing worlds. No wonder they depended on those gates.
It was around an hour later that Rainer quickly realized why these islands were uninhabited. It was a combination of too small, too barren, or too infested. He himself didn’t want to deal with an island covered in insect-like monsters. How would one even go about getting rid of all of them without the risk of causing a plague or something worse via Art’s poison?
Staring at the calm waters, he had a different idea. If there wasn’t an island out there suitable for him, he’d make one. Or perhaps he’d leap straight to Francis’ idea of a floating Academy via the floating fortress core in the Mana-Filled world and instead powering it with the Mana-Well.
That would mean moving the Enchanter’s Guild into flight as well, but perhaps that was the safest place for it.
He disappeared moments later, ready to go to the Dungeon.
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Rainer glanced at the large-stepped pyramid that functioned as the Dungeon entrance. All around him, parties and individuals discussed and recruited. While many came prepared, just as many had a few spots open specifically to look for powerful people to add to their group. A variety of tents and hastily manipulated Earth functioned as temporary abodes for those who had to camp out here.
Away from everyone else were the parties that came from the Taranien Empire.
Were it not for the likelihood of a Divine Avatar descending, Rainer would have wiped them out. And given that no one else was acting, he guessed Elelaria’s ‘secret’ information wasn’t as secret as they thought.
He grimaced as he touched the scar on his cheek. Even if by Talvara’s words the Taranien Gods were nothing special in terms of Divinities, they were still fearsome enough to permanently damage his Soul. Unlike Augost for sure.
“We should enter first,” Art spoke up, eyeing the other parties around him as he made sure his words were heard.
“Please don’t piss off other people just so you have an excuse to gather test subjects,” Rainer sighed, making sure he was heard as well. As much as he liked the things about [Void Manipulation] he was learning via Art’s experiments, he didn’t think someone simply attacking them after a provocation warranted such a fate. Everyone seemed to have a different take on the final levels of [Void Manipulation], all of it likely leading to a singular source.
For those who were aware of what happened to the assassins and spies that had been caught in the Enchanter’s Guild, it wasn’t hard to see some of their faces visibly green as they rethought challenging the previous words. The Enchanter’s Guild was no longer a new power nor one that could be taken lightly.
“Haven’t you ever heard of respecting your elders? Honestly, you millennials.”
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for someone over 1,000 years of actual age to use that term. That’s confusing. And Elizabeth, stop teaching him weird things.”
The short redhead pointedly ignored him.
“Besides, we’ll be entering last. We have some people to wait for.”
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To his surprise, lining up to the enter the Dungeon went pretty orderly. He supposed fighting to be a few seconds ahead of another group wasn’t worth the effort and potentially getting injured, or wasting resources, prior to such a thing was a poor idea. Most posturing was left for later. The Farseers seemed to be acting diplomatically where they could, making it a simpler affair.
Rainer watched as they shuffled in, staying far back alongside unaffiliated monster hunter parties. He couldn’t help but wonder how many people died in the pursuit of actually reaching such levels hunting monsters. The number of times he saved his family during their hunts had gone beyond what he could count with his hands.
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“Amer, watch for spatial, Aurora for Void, and I’ll look for Souls,” Rainer said, occasionally sending an [Appraisal] towards the entering parties, wondering who, if any, of these people would be Tier 3 in the future. As well as how many would never be seen again.
He nodded to a few he knew, but most seemed too focused on the Dungeon to bother with any usual business or pleasantries. Only the Flameborne Guildmaster and a walking corpse, likely holding a similar position to the fallen [Cursed Lightning Magus] Yazir, by his side had bothered to glare at him.
The hundreds of peak Tier 2 experts surprised him, but he supposed with how old many of them were, it shouldn’t have. They had been waiting for an opportunity to cross that last gap for a long time.
It was several minutes after everyone entered, leaving behind only a few dozen Farseers dealing with the aftermath of their barrier and some still organizing their parties, that a change occurred.
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Zan-Lan put a hand on his niece’s shoulder as he tried to calm her down. Elsewhere, the Imperial Magi under her command were setting up a portal. To make sure it would stabilize for a Soul as powerful as his meant extra work. If there were any other Tier 3’s following, it would increase exponentially in cost to travel such a long distance.
“Remember, we have no idea how the natives will react. So rush towards the Dungeon immediately, ignoring all else. I’ll watch over you, and assess the world in the meantime. I should be able to find something useful since many of their strongest will likely be in the Dungeon.
“I know, Uncle,” the white-haired young woman said with a sigh. Though her excitement could barely be hidden. The 14 she had chosen as her party members were just as excited. They knew full well what having the [Pioneer] rewards for a Rank 6 Dungeon could mean.
One by one, they entered the portal, with Zan-Lan going in last, causing it to destabilize behind him. It was off to a new world.
Yet another they would conquer.
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Zan-Lan nodded approvingly as his niece ignored the natives gawking at them and rushed to the Dungeon. There were a few too many peak Tier 2 experts hanging around for him to easily protect his niece.
He froze as he felt a familiar power in the air. Where was it coming from? He didn’t understand how there could possibly be Arcane Elementals native to a planet. When it came to planets, their species were generally humanoids of flesh, with minor differences. It was only when you went to out to planes, and then even stranger cosmic formations, that the races and environments started to significantly vary. And vary in strength as well. They, and many other cosmic empires, tended to avoid such places unless they were looking for rare resources. Never would they dream of conquering a place where too long exposure could lead to them bleeding from every pore. Or worse.
He would have never come here alone if he knew of the existence of Elementals. His eyes narrowed as he glanced over to two Humans. So it was an existence even worse than elementals.
Arcanists.
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“Rainer.”
“I saw,” the tall white-haired High Elf was clearly looking at him and his grandfather. And it wasn’t a pleasant thing.
“Then our route is chosen,” Frederick stated. An influence capable of planetary teleportation would certainly lust after the Arcane just the same as Earth. They had already expected such a thing. And the Farseers warning of great calamity certainly didn’t paint a pretty picture.
“Let’s kill them all.”
Rainer vanished in a Void-walk, sending out messages through the [Soul-Mark]s.
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Zan-Lan’s eyes widened as he tried to charge over to his niece. With a strange magic of darkness by an ashen-skinned Elf, one of his niece’s party members were killed. Beams of darkness sliced at a few others just as they entered the Dungeon and managed to get away. Their attempt at retaliation had only met with thin air before they rushed fully in.
Before he could even strike out in anger, a chill went up his spine. A blade of pure darkness descended upon him, rage visible in the Arcanist’s eyes as he glowed with the disgusting violet light of the Arcane.
Zan-Lan’s body glimmered with magic as he dashed away, not bothering to even attempt at meeting that blade. His movements let him strike at the back of the Arcanist within moments. He pressed down with [Spatial Manipulation], hoping to keep the teleporter in place. The failure of it as his fist hit thin-air, a sonic boom coming from it, shocked him.
Roots sprung up from the ground and reached out towards him. He ignored them as he charged forward, looking to kill any target that couldn’t teleport. They were clearly unprepared for his speed as he appeared in front of a red-haired woman.
His fist lashed out and hit the young man who appeared in front of her at the last moment. The martyr exploded in a shower of blood, splattering over Zan-Lan’s white robes.
Zan-Lan literally froze as he felt a powerful force holding him down and an assortment of attacks striking down at him. The momentary stumble let a violet blade of evil Arcane chop at his arm and nearly removed it as he blocked his head, somehow surpassing his layers of defense. A wave of Arcane seemed to fill the air, lashing at his passive spells, and his very being was attacked by a language of Soul.
He roared in fury and broke whatever containment they used on him and dashed away, escaping everything. The wretched Arcanist tried to keep up with him but Zan-Lan knew spatial magic himself.
He vanished tens of miles away in a [Shrinking-Dash] before repeating the effort. He needed to figure out what poison had afflicted him. And then he’d slaughter these lesser things by the thousand.
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Zan-Lan sped away, every dash taking him countless miles. Landing on an unoccupied island, he kneeled and started coughing up black blood. He looked at the wound caused by the Arcanist and saw the exploded blood from earlier crawling further and further into his body, charged with magic.
He tore off his outer clothes and without a moment’s hesitation created a small blade of Mana and removed his damaged arm.
“What sort of poison is this…” Mana flowed through his damaged body as he tried to get rid of it, only to suddenly seize in pain. Aided by his powerful Soul, he tried to manipulate and group up the poison, but even his Soul started to become tainted. He collapsed on the ground, the poison ravaging through his body faster and faster. The aliveness of it reminded him of an adventure in a certain plane. He tried to remember how his father had gotten rid of it. Moments later his Mana rampaged through his body, slowly but surely killing off the poison. Just a few seconds more...
A finger traced across his face as he looked up. He rose to attack only for his entire body to be pinned in countless roots. His eyes widened as he realized the wretched Arcanist had managed to disable some of his passive spells when he was fleeing. At the time it had felt as if he was dumped into a vat of inescapable Arcane. Truly revolting.
The poison attacked him with a renewed vigor as the chuckling mage waved his fingers and sent more into him.
“Look how many years you made me waste. Even for a Soul like mine, having to reform my physical body is an annoying thing, especially after your attack damaged my Soul to such a degree. I’ll have to extract as much value from you as I can.” The red-haired man continued to laugh hoarsely, as Lan convulsed in further pain, “I’m certain my grandson will catch some useful things for me If I give him all the passive spells on your Soul. Such an interesting race… I wonder if I can find your secrets of world travel in your head…”
“You…” The insults on Zan-Lan’s tongue left him.
“Yes, me.”
There was only darkness after.
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Following a small distortion of space, an uninjured Art appeared before the party.
“I knew an old bag like you wouldn’t die so easily,” Frederick said, seeing the young red-haired Mage teleport before their party. Art had learned the spell from Amer months ago. But it was easy to see the relief in his voice, the idea of having an angry Tier 3 expert after them was far too frightening to imagine. He was simply too fast.
And it had been Talvara possessing Aurora that he had escaped from… Even if she wasn’t anywhere near her true strength, it still showed what kind of [Void-Hold] this man had escaped from.
“I’m afraid ‘old bag’ only applies to women.”
“I stand by my insult.”
“How childish.”
“You okay, Art?” Rainer asked with concern, having just seen him explode into a bloody mess. Only Frederick’s assurance that it wouldn’t kill ‘such an evil thing’ assured him.
“Something so small wouldn’t kill me, and look, I come bearing gifts,” he chuckled as he dropped the unconscious Tier 3 High Elf on the ground.
“I’ll bring him back to the Guild and then we’ll deal with this Dungeon,” Art said, the glee visible in his voice.
“Let me check if he has any outgoing connections,” Rainer said as he used [Arcane Revelation]. He found one coming from his Soul, which Rainer easily removed with a concentrated application of [Arcanium Descent].
“Such a thoughtful grandson.”
After taking a few moments to drink Mana potions and recover as best they could, Rainer and his party entered the Dungeon.
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[Warning: Entering Competition-type Dungeon. Time will now be dilated until enough Parties have entered all connected Dungeons.]
[Enter Time Dilation? Y/N?]
[Time Dilation canceled. Enough Parties have entered.]
[Beginning Stage 1]
[Lives Gained: 3]
[Victory Condition: First 100 Parties with 1000 Points or only 100 Parties remain. Victorious Parties will be teleported to second stage.]
[Defeat Condition: 100 Parties reach 1000 Points or all party members have lost their lives.]
Rainer stared at the message before he realized that other than Luna, he was completely alone.
So the hunt began.