The 13th Crown Princess of Zan growled as she slapped an orb off her table.

“No need to get so angry,” her uncle chastised, his long white hair fluttering as he cast a spell to repair the damage.

“Nine months, nine entire months and not a single barbarian from that backwater place has entered the Rank 6 Dungeon.”

The Duke of Zan pursed his lips but didn’t bother correcting her. They didn’t know anything about the place where the Dungeon was to make any assumptions about it. Until someone entered the Rank 6 Dungeon they divined, they would be unable to gather its location. They had long since theorized this was a safety put in place by the system, as with the right magic the unique presence of Dungeons were easy to feel, but their locations were not. Though no one could ever gather enough information to claim anything about the system.

“Patience.”

“Patience? I have spent nearly half my personal savings repeatedly divining it’s location. Why, why hasn’t anyone entered it yet?!”

“Perhaps they are wise enough to prepare themselves properly?”

His niece snorted at the notion. The [Pioneer] rewards of such a Dungeon were simply too valuable, something they should know from Rank 5 Dungeons. The Duke agreed; after all, their worlds-spanning Empire was founded due to the rewards First Emperor of Zan received after fully clearing all the stages of a Rank 6 Dungeon. Such rewards went beyond simple physical items.

“Many others have decided to give up on tracking this particular Dungeon. Consider it your boon these natives are taking their time.” Though that they had the ability to exhibit such unity wasn’t promising. But he doubted the natives could handle even their farm-raised Tier 3 warriors.

Actual Tier 3 experts of their empire didn’t surpass double digits, and of course none had approached the accepted non-existent fourth tier. The experience required for even the first level proved severely crippling.

The ‘farm-raised’, as they were so ‘lovingly’ called, were those who chose the least rare class for every trial while being brutally trained and equipped beyond reason with enchanted items until they passed the last of the Trials. Even then, it took both talent and luck to train from level 24 to 25, and pass the last Trial no matter how weak their class was. The success for the Tier 3 Trial was far too low no matter how well they seemed to prepare.

“Focus on getting your party prepared, I’ll handle the rest of the tracking,” Zan-Lan conceded as his niece hugged him. He knew her losing her temper was partially an act, but it wasn’t as if the Tier 3 mage had much to spend his wealth on apart from slaves and whatever objects appealed to him. So he was fine with being ‘fooled’. And there was no doubt she’d share some of the benefits gained so long as he helped.

“Thank you, Uncle.”

Elizabeth’s hands shook as she started at the mountainside in horror. A white blur rampaged through their ranks, only held back from truly killing someone because of Frederick pulling people away with Magic, often only half of them, before the Yeti-like monster could finish the job. Sophia’s great skill as a healer was being worked to its limit. Roots jutted from the ground but they were shredded or easily avoided as Arturius tried to get a handle on it.

The beast suddenly turned mid-air, charging straight towards her. Before she could even get a spell in, her life flashed before her eyes only for the world to turn dark and for her to appear dozens of feet away feeling far too cold. A black and mirage-like skeleton stood beside her.

The Undead who saved her shifted again, strange black and purple muscles growing on his body as he enlarged in size and height. A powerful misama pulsed from him as he collided with the beast in a straight charge. But his improved form only held up for a few blazing fast exchanges as the monster bisected him at the waist. Not that it seemed to matter as Gunthar changed to a shadow and reformed a small distance away. The beast dodged Arcane spellfire as it moved further from their group, assessing them from a distance.

Suddenly, the beast’s eyes widened in panic as it tried to use it’s Aura movement ability to escape, but it only stuttered a short step forward. Before it could reenforce it’s [Aura Cladding] further, a glowing figure descended, beheading the monster in a single motion of violet. The beast made a final mistake of trying to run instead of trying to outlast the strange force holding it in place.

Even from this distance she could hear the snapping and cracking of bone as Rainer shattered various parts of his body from such a fast landing. She looked in shock as the same noise occurred, except this time from his bones snapping back into place.

“Sorcerer, you finally slayed this beast,” Gunthar said excitedly.

Elizabeth suddenly understood why Gunthar had yelled for them to run and call for Rainer the moment this thing appeared. It apparently wasn’t their first encounter. Even if they ignored the running part until limbs starting flying. Though why it ended so easily, for Rainer at least, this time she didn’t know. Was it related to the ‘rejoining’ with his clone that her sister mentioned?

She saw Rainer walking over with a smile on his face, stretching as if he just got off a couch rather than broke and repaired most of the bones in his legs. What sort of absurd healing ability was that? And wasn’t the damage from descending from so high and so fast a bit low? He never even stopped standing.

“Not a bad way to level,” Rainer said, the grin on his face seemingly showing that he didn’t even feel a smidgen a pain from what just happened.

Is this ‘system’ really the only reason that her 20-year-old nephew could become so impressive?

Sitting in the white void of [Sleep Learning], Rainer looked at his 94 Skill Points and thought over the last of Francis’ memories. Sophia, Frederick, and his Aunt-Cousin, were excitedly experimenting in [Sleep Learning] in the background, having been allowed here for the first time. He kept away the rest of his extended family until he knew them better, though his mother insisted on Elizabeth being invited.

Francis paced side to side, having asked to speak with Talvara alone in [Sleep Learning] as Rainer finished the final touches on his Avatar’s transformation. He wasn’t sure what he was doing. In just a few hours he’d rejoin with his original self, and for better or worse, either merge completely, become flavourless memories, or simply… disappear.

So what was the point of doing something like saying his last words? If he truly believed he wouldn’t merge completely with Rainer, then he wouldn’t be so willing, so it wasn’t as if he was actually dying.

“Francis?” Talvara asked, appearing from thin air. She looked over him normally, giving Francis no indication that she viewed this as last rites.

Perhaps she had always just considered him as a bleaker Rainer… and her recent revelation of Divine troubles puts a different spin on their entire relationship. It was easy to forget this was a countless millennia old Void-Being and not a sexy Elf who was terrible at video games. He shook his head, no reason to mistrust her just because he was feeling a bit off.

Not knowing what to say, he switched gears. Having his likely pointless feelings for her rejected would be a sad final act of life. Better let Rainer deal with all that baggage. Procrastination never felt so good.

“I’ve been meaning to ask if you ever heard of these two skills, or anything like them,” Francis started and then read aloud his two [Harbinger] Skill Store skills, having no idea where else to take the conversation.

[Void Harmony: Cost 100 skill points. The Void is omnipresent in its existence, always available to a Harbinger in their purpose. Showing them the way amidst the tides of change.]

[Void Insulation: Cost 100 skill points. The Void is omnipresent in its existence, always available to a Harbinger in their purpose. Allowing them to defend against any intrusion.]

“Hmm, [Void Harmony] seems like [Body of Void] and [Void Insulation] sounds similar to [Mind of Void], but given your class is designed around the idea of using Magic to control the Void, who knows.”

“Then-”

“For the record, I haven’t the slightest clue how to teach those two skills. Most Void Lords have those two in their class stores depending on their exact class. And such things are a natural part of me and not Skills. The former connects you closer to the Void, making all your abilities in relation more efficient - and at higher levels can make you semi-corporeal - while the latter protects against mind attacks, letting them only see and feel the darkness of the Void. I’ve seen it at work a few times; most who venture into such a mind end up worse for the wear if not brain dead. It is fascinating to witness.

“Was that all?”

“That’s it.”

Rainer frowned. When had he ever been the type of person not to speak his mind? But the feeling he got from the memory was more so leaving a future problem for Rainer then it was cowardice. It felt odd being vindictive against himself, though thankfully that feeling was all but gone and had mostly been playful in nature in the first place.

With [Archon] and a Void Lord’s help, he could likely eventually learn [Body of Void], and [Mind of Void]. Francis’ process of creating [Void Suppression] showed just how powerful his [Archon] class bonus could be.

But that wouldn’t give him his class store skills. It looked like he had little choice but to buy them. As of now, he had only two things to do in [Sleep Learning]; work towards the Third Tier, and prepare for the Dungeon Meet. There was Kara’s request hanging over him, but he had Earth’s knowledge to draw from in that case. Plus, it was very likely he could create two Avatars now, even if his level 6 [Avatar Control] wasn’t enough to make it too useful… yet.

Rainer started going through his list of spells, looking for anything he could focus on. In the back of his mind, he wondered why Talvara had suddenly stopped her daily visits after their merger.

Early in the morning, Rainer saw Elelaria walking towards him just as he had finished creating a second Avatar. The first was already in the Enchanter’s Guild central tower, working on enchantments as usual. With his current level of [Avatar Control], level 6, he could have them working autonomously so long as there was nothing subjective to be done. Combat and conversation was a no, but mindless and simple enchant copying was perfect.

“Someone from the-”

“Not interested.”

Ele gave him a long stare that even made Rainer nervous. He stopped focusing on controlling his new Avatar, wondering what he should do with it, and looked towards her.

“Sorry for interrupting.” That was a bit rude of him considering all she was doing for him even if she did benefit as well. She wouldn’t bother him with anything unimportant, especially now that Frederick was there.

“Someone from the Enchanter’s Guild wishes to meet with you. Numerous freelance Enchanters have tentatively joined us under the promise of free resources in exchange for knowledge, and many of them wish to meet the maker of the auction items. Plus, you’ll have to be present for when our clients bring the items they wish for ‘us’ to copy. I’m sure you can spare a body for that purpose.”

Rainer nodded his head. His desire not to meet with others was because of political reasons. But to those who were craftsmen he held no such prejudice. In fact, he wished to see how many might share similar goals to him. The eventual goal for the Guild was to teach as well, with no regard for talent so long as they had some indicating them as mages. The Mana-Filled world provided a perfect place to teach them runes while naturally awakening their Affinity. But that was a goal for after the Dungeon Meet. They were too small as of now to truly start teaching another generation at a large scale.

“Also, the Tideborne Guildmaster is still staying in the City, continuingly wishing to meet with you. And finally a magic blacksmith is claiming you owe him a favor.”

“Alright to both.” He had heard the Tideborne Guildmaster was the reason a large part of the North didn’t practice slavery, and that the Skyborne prevented the same thing due to their alliance. For that alone he should be willing to give him some of his time. He almost blushed at the mention of that blacksmith. Apart from the question of how he found Rainer, he felt bad for forgetting their deal.

His specially made swords had been a great boon in learning enchanting. And no doubt the man himself would be useful in the future.

When enchanting, an example item itself was like a Calculus textbook in an unknown language. Sarah’s simplification was a book of Precalculus or lower, [Arcane Revelation] the translator, [Time Manipulation] practice questions, and finally the swords themselves a high-tech calculator. All had their uses in ensuring he learned enchanting at a pace beyond reason even if he didn’t also have access to unlimited Mana to speed that up even further.

But each addition to the process almost produced exponential results. It meant he could outpace grandmasters of the art despite not always understanding the theory behind much of what he was doing. That led to his partial disinterest in enchanting, as he currently lacked the ability to really make anything new. He was currently no better than a 3D Printer, incapable of making his own blueprints, impressive, but not something a person who didn’t care for money would aspire to.

But learning from these old grandmasters, his own grandfather included, could solve his issue. First, however, he needed to go grab a certain Flameborne Ambassador before he left. What better job could there be for his newly made second Avatar?

As if he’d ever let someone who threatened what was his get away.