Rainer thought that the way Art looked at the resources was a bit disturbing but guessed it was good to get it out of the way. Standing in [Sleep Learning], it was easy enough to recreate the mass amount of rare items collected during the first Dungeon Stage. His grandfather had asked to see them, and he figured this was a better place than in reality.
“I heard you’re the reason I was born. Can you create another one of those seed thingies?”
“No respect for elders these days. Am I so obtuse to not realize that you are mocking my life’s work by calling them seed thingies.”
“I would never,” Rainer said with a gasp.
“All this for saying one bad thing about your rock,” Art grumbled, mostly to himself. “It won’t work.”
“What won’t?”
“My creation, a Seed of Life. It won’t help that pretty hybrid of yours.”
“Why?” Rainer asked.
“Mages are ‘infertile’, yes. Which is often a range, not a yes or a no. That hybrid of yours, she is likely to be completely sterile, rather than infertile. Of course, this is just a guess. And I can’t be sure of the Fairy. This is meant for Humans, after all. Not beings of Magic. I won’t say it isn’t worth a try, but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t work. And given I only see enough of what’s needed for one Seed… unless you are willing to compromise on health and talent of the child.”
“Let’s go to a happier subject then. We’ll have the first stage of the Dungeon available for a month after completion.”
Art’s eyes widened at the prospect.
“Yes, I’ll help you find things you need,” Rainer said preemptively.
“And the other subject of making you a Dragon,” Art redirected.
“Part-Dragon. A very small part,” Rainer corrected, uncomfortable with the grin his grandfather had. No matter how crazy his experiments may be, he felt Art’s would be worse.
“Do you have an answer, though? For Kara’s possible issue.”
“Already looking to be a father?” Art quipped.
“I’m going to live a long long life. No reason not to prepare. Plus she asked me.”
“I’ll think on the subject.”
“Thank you.”
Leaving Art to experiment on his own, Rainer went back to training with [Soul Presence]. Partially, he worked on casting entirely with his Soul, rather than just enhancing, but he knew he was still quite far from achieving that. Especially considering taking out the middle man, [Soul Presence], was something Rainer felt needed to happen first.
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With most of his time spent in the painful throes of leveling [Soul Presence], the days passed far quicker and less restfully than desired. It was his last night in [Sleep Learning] before the next Stage. Rainer didn’t plan on pushing himself too hard and had half a mind to just sleep normally. But, alas, his party demanded otherwise.
Standing across from his grandfather, he readied for the first duel in quite a while. His grandfather reaching the 2nd Tier with two classes had begun a long line of duels where Rainer either lost or abused [Void-walking] to simply escape. The recent gains from the below level 22 bonus likely would make it even worse, even if he received a bonus from [Harbinger] himself
But, in the end, influencing magic with [Soul Presence] was in a league of its own. It was almost as if he was casting the spell twice, if quite weaker.
Two [Arcane Domain]s clashed against each other, his grandfather’s slightly winning over his as space buckled and weakened. With both his classes under level 22, his grandfather had gained quite a bit of strength in this Dungeon.
Rainer’s [Harbinger] gains weren't enough to match it nor was [Arcane Awakening] enough to combat the attribute gains over a long life. If only [Soul Presence] did more than just increase the efficiency of [Arcane Awakening].
He gently used [Soul Presence] and weaved his Soul’s strength with [Arcane Energy Manipulation] and [Arcane Domain]. He pushed forward, overtaking his grandfather as the old man sent him a long look.
“How long can you keep that up?” he asked, seemingly unbothered as his own [Arcane Domain] was pushed and shrunk towards him.
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“As long as I need to.”
Rainer charged forward, already pinning down his grandfather with [Void Hold]. Accelerating with [Eldritch Flight], and an [Arcane Blade] already extending from the hilt in his hand, he planned to end this with power alone. He used [Soul Presence], now mixed with the manipulation of the blade, as he slashed through a shield and prepared to weather the storm of his grandfather’s attacks.
The cycling Arcane of the blade almost seemed hypnotic. He could even feel flaws and inefficiency within it far clearer now. He barely managed to use [Arcane Awakening: Shield Mode] as he let momentum carry him forward through a barrage of attacks.
He countered his grandfather’s magic with his own deadly beams of Arcane via [Arcanum]s soon after, then he pushed down on the old man’s [Arcane Domain] with his own enhanced [Arcane Domain]. Many slashes of an [Arcane Blade] later, with his newly enhanced physical status, he managed to finish off Frederick before his Void Will ran out.
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“New rule, no [Soul Presence],” his grandfather sourly complained. Losing to what amounted to brute force in a battle of [Arcane Domain]s and a skill to keep him rooted was depressing. But it did signal a big weakness of his.
“New rule, no centuries of modifying your Intelligence.”
“That’s not possible.”
“That’s too bad.”
His grandfather chuckled, thinking over just how he would deal with a skill like [Void Hold]. His own loss, and the fact that the 3rd Tier Elf partially lost to it, was eye-opening. Was using raw power to escape it the only answer? [Void Call] brought him a similar fear. After seeing how Talvara handled that boss monster, he had asked her to do the same to him. Even when he knew it was coming, he lost to it half the time. And that was only because he was already prepared to dodge as quickly as possible.
“Can you do what Talvara does with [Void Call] when possessing Aurora?”
“Do what?”
Rainer called for Talvara soon after his grandfather explained.
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“I can try. Your passives resemble the passives of Void Lords. But part of it is letting your mind be influenced by the Void,” Talvara answered to his request.
“In what way?”
“You learn to dampen your desire to kill the target with Void Will, and then mirror that approach in how you use Void Will when using [Void Call]. [Void Manipulation] and [Void Mastery] are helpful in this. They are less likely to feel their coming death.”
“That… so you try and make the actual [Void Call] have less ‘killing intent’? I don’t even know where to begin with that. Does ‘it’ even want to kill in the first place? Or want anything?”
Talvara shrugged. Something she never really had to practice, only do, was hard to explain. Only a few of her Void Lords had ever managed this, and she couldn’t be sure if it was in spite of her explanations or because of it.
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The next day, Rainer relaxed, staring at the blue sky above him. Luna lay by his side while the two of them were on Kara’s back. The transformed wolf took them deeper and deeper into the rest area, away from the lakeside mansion.
They had only a few hours left before the start of Stage 3, and elsewhere Rainer’s Avatar was preparing to head over and rescue Fai’Etah. He equipped quite a few newly made items by his Guild, to make up for the lack of items the Avatar had.
“What do you plan on doing after this?” Kara asked.
“Hmm, settle things down around the Guild, and then head to the leaf-covered people’s homeworld. Maybe head to all the others I Soul Marked before they get the chance to remove them. I’ll then put a mark on some random nobodies who wouldn’t notice it.” He cringed a bit at the memory of what the Earth Magi did to the people he marked, and decided to rethink that option.
He’d find another way of marking the worlds. Or, he could just find someone evil enough to mark that it wouldn’t matter much if they got killed. But would he then be guilty of finding such a person and not killing them or handling them otherwise? He would technically be able to visit other worlds with [Void-travelling] after visiting them once before, but that skill was far less affected by not only his bonuses - [Void-walking] was a spell after all - but less affected by loosened space as well.
“With me and Luna, of course,” Kara added.
“If I am taking my real body. Then sure.” He wasn’t so naive to think he’d be met with welcoming arms at any of the places he visited. But their very weak Souls meant his Avatars were now decently weaker than him. Not to mention Kara’s constantly increasing strength would be a great boon to have with him, especially now that he could just keep any passengers in [Living Storage].
Even with just one 2nd Tier class, the recent level ups made Kara stronger by quite a bit. If there was anyone who had a chance of truly matching a rare-class 3rd Tier in fair combat other than him, it’d be her. He guessed it wouldn’t be long either till she was ready to push another class to the 2nd Tier. Already, a large part of the Enchanter’s Guild was working on improving an Aura-combatant's Armor set.
He had made a set of such armor in front of them, and he guessed it was only a matter of time until it improved given their access to limitless ‘Mana Crystals’. Not to mention the enchanter’s themselves could then make the armor for their friends or family. It was an easy motivation when the continued existence of your loved ones depended on it.
“It’s time,” Rainer said, his Avatar feeling the [Soul-Mark] on Fai’Etah no longer being blocked by the Dungeon.
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Rainer, now controlling his 2nd Avatar, closed his eyes in focus. Far. Truly far. And if his senses weren’t fooling him it was moving at an incredible rate. Given the distance he usually crossed, Earth’s ‘slow’ speed wasn’t even registered when he Void-walked. For him to feel the movement meant that this so called ‘Drifting Isle’ was soaring through space at incomparable speeds.
He began weakening the space around him with Arcane, before creating a [Blade of the Void] in his hand. With [Soul Presence] added onto [Void Manipulation], Rainer sank deep into the Void Will of the blade, and watched as the space ruptured in front of him with a swing. Space frayed around the tear in ways it hadn’t in the past - the flat 30 or so percent increase from his current level 6 [Soul Presence] was hard to ignore.
What was once an impossible distance could now be crossed.