Elelaria walked around the Enchanter’s Guild looking like a woman who owned the place. Which she partially did. It was exactly the prestige she had wanted for so long, that even the Guildmasters of the Mage Guilds, and the leaders of Neutral City, had to speak to her as if she was an equal.

Especially when I have a delic - or rather powerful - second like Frederick.

Elelaria hastily corrected in her mind. Despite how attractive Rainer was, his personality was too far in argument with essentially her entire existence. Some clashing could be exciting but he simply leaned too far away from anything that she prioritized. She eventually got used to his appearance the same way one would a Divine-created painting. His grandfather, however, proved… acceptable.

Partially covered in a light enchanted armor made in part by their resident Tier 2 Elven magic blacksmith - how their enchanters loved him and often gave vastly expensive gifts to his apprentice - she had been training as a [Runic Swordswoman] ever since Frederick had decided she was too weak. It had been a natural class choice given that, while not particularly talented by clan standards, a [High Mana Affinity] was only one step from Strong. And Rainer’s body enchantments had only improved with his growing enchanting skills as a whole.

Added on to the single passive spell, [Passive: Zan Strength], which she managed to learn in that impossible dream space, she was a force to be reckoned with in the first tier. Easily getting the skill points for raising [Faaran Runic Language] that high came as a complete surprise.

It had been two and a half months since the auction and they had already recruited their first class of enchanters to train. Different from those who joined already skilled, the restrictions on these people were a bit higher. Rainer had disagreed, saying that wasn’t the point, but thankfully Frederick educated him on the issue of being too kind and not giving these people a sense of belonging. Once Frederick threatened him with having to actually run his Guild, Rainer gave up on the argument.

Though Elelaria had to admit his lack of restrictions had paid some dividends. Already their next auction would likely earn them more than the last, something impressive with the massive wealth they had attained, given the items they had received from the various Grandmasters making use of the free Mana.

All of them had an almost reverent respect for the mysterious [Archon] who granted them free Mana and freely showed and taught them how to make his minor-sized Spatial Rings. After years of having to deal with the restrictions of the various Mage Guilds in order to have access to Mana Crystals as well as any knowledge, it was a welcome change. Rainer had made himself a shining light in the darkness of being an Enchanter.

Many of the older Enchanters they recruited cared for nothing other than advancing their craft. And therefore melded quite well with his policies.

Of course, there were plenty who tried to take advantage. But Rainer seemed utterly unworried about the wasted Mana so long as they properly donated the knowledge of whatever they chose to create with it. The random tribe of powerful black-haired Wolfkins proved an formidable guard for dealing with any issues. That the 1st Tier of these warriors seemed to surpass any weaker Tier 2 Aura users was beyond surprising. Where had he found such beings?

Elelaria wondered just what this source of Mana was. She didn’t believe it was as simple as an inordinate amount of Mana Crystals, but had the good sense not to ask such questions.

Later that night in the [Sleep Learning] space, Rainer looked over the passive spells once more. He had learned all nine of them easily enough.

Raising them all to level 10 had taken - with the exception of [Passive: Zan Haste] - only a few weeks. At 6 skill points a piece, it had been enough to finally purchase [Void Harmony]. Just like [Void Insulation], the passive skill had taken 30 Mana and didn’t seem to have an obvious affect. Until he used [Blade of the Void] for the first time. The roughly 30% increase in efficiency was beyond useful. The theory books had left him a few ideas on how to raise these two passive skills but he had yet to be successful.

The rest of the past two months he had spent either sparring or focusing on Enchantment work with his grandfather for all the Dungeon Party members. He wouldn’t let them go in unprepared. His Dungeon party currently had fourteen members, although they were able to push further past that limit with the rule that allowed them to bring in one familiar without adding to the count.

There was himself of course, with Luna as his familiar, and Kara would bring Tiamat as hers. Gunthar would enter as his own man (or was it skeleton?), but his father, Theodore, would enter as Elru’s familiar. Mira and Laneth were coming as well, as were Sophia, Fredrick, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Art.

Art was also bringing a familiar, some strange plant that he had found. The Flame-Touched Goblin was coming with his [Ice Wolf Queen], Delilah, as his familiar, and Amer would have his Avatar filling the familiar slot. The final member was Aurora. Although they still had room for one more person, they weren’t really sure what to do with that slot.

Kara had oddly enough only asked for enchanted items that increased her Aura Attunement, or in other words, her maximum Aura.

Making more sense, his sister had asked for the same thing except for Mana. All the passive spells, with the exception of [Passive: Zan Haste], cost 90 Mana to maintain. With her current 712 Mana Pool, she would need some extra. The stolen amount from that Ambassador had helped. He supposed it wouldn’t be difficult to find some truly dark Mages for her to steal from with Tian’s help. The man had ‘kindly’ let him put a Soul Mark on him, so contacting him was easy.

Rainer had found most of the spells of limited use for himself. Unless he could find a way to turn them on and off quicker. As it was now, each spell took half a day of preparation outside of the limitless Mana of [Sleep Learning]. It didn’t matter in the long-run for someone like Sarah, but for him it did.

The [Passive: Zan Strength], increased both Strength by 100% and Constitution by 50%. Unfortunately, it was only additive and not multiplicative with [Arcane Awakening]. With his enchanted coat in the picture, the 50% considering only his base constitution was almost useless. The strength itself meant little when his blade could cut through all.

[Zan Haste], however, cost 150 Mana, making him dip far too low to make it worth it. The rest seemed only useful if passive spells were your main course of battle.

Glancing at the robe he and his grandfather had just created, he decided to use the last few weeks before the Dungeon Meet to finish off improving his own strength. No longer being his grandfather’s match after the old man had obtained not one but two Tier 2 classes was tough. It was time to even things up.

“I’m off to go train. Old man, make sure you get the requests from everyone what Body Enchantments and regular Enchantments they want.”

Frederick just grinned at him in an annoying way. Obviously he had been just as bothered by losing to Rainer as Rainer was now bothered by losing to him.

“Stay smug while you can,” Rainer ribbed.

“You mean for the rest of my life?”

Rainer just ignored the uproarious laughing coming from behind him as he walked away.

Sitting across from Furtak, Rainer talked over his current progress in becoming… whatever he was becoming. The Fire-Touched Goblin was possibly the only living expert of it after all. As he felt he was just a bit away from leveling up his Void talent, and likely his body, he decided to get a second opinion.

And also to inform Furtak what Tian said about the Magic-touched when Rainer asked.

Furtak’s shock and a little bit of envious rage over the ease of Rainer’s progress was wiped away after what he heard about the Tier 3 Trial.

“How… how do they know they always fail?”

“Records, and also records from the people who founded the Empire.”

Furtak let out a long sigh. Though a small part of him was glad Rainer was having the same issue. No doubt this impossible thing would discover a solution.

“And they never found an answer to the problem?”

“No. And from what Tian said, it’s likely impossible to become Magic-Touched after reaching Tier 3. All classes seem to have a Soul component at Tier 3. Though as far as I am aware, no one from the Northern Empire actually reached Tier 3, so this information is second-hand. But, this is then why he thinks the Tier 3 Trial might be based not only on the rarity of your classes but also on your Soul.”

Furtak rubbed the long beard on his face. He knew much of his strength was based on being Fire-Touched, which meant he had little to no chance succeeding in the Trial as he was, even with Delilah’s help as his familiar. And he would never risk her if there was a high chance of failure.

“Any ideas of your own, [Archon]?”

Rainer gave a self-deprecating smile.

“Well since you’re Fire-Touched, you might be able to receive Body Enchantments.”

Furtak shared with him that awkward glance.

“Is it worth it?”

“Is what worth it?”

“Having to see bodies like mine in exchange for…”

Rainer thought it over. It definitely wasn’t worth it. Especially given his two beautiful girlfriends. Perhaps only the Lamia... biological interest of course. But he figured he’d agree to make this perverted Goblin happy. Diplomatic, Elelaria and his grandfather would call it.

“Yes.”

Rainer stared at his empty hand, the white void spreading all around him. Beating his grandfather was no longer a simple duel. It was a match between himself and a Divine Avatar or Tier 3 Beast. Normal methods of overpowering him were pointless, especially since one of his classes related to the Arcanium. It was an enemy he couldn’t surpass with sheer power alone.

[Blade of the Void] assisted by his Arcane magic was his only option. He had thought of making a similar blade with the Arcanium as the base but had no success. Improving his [Arcane Blade] seemed to be the only option in that case. And perhaps that was the path to its eventual final tier.

Rainer would have thought this competition silly if his grandfather, in his overpowering nature, didn’t represent exactly the type of enemies he needed to be most wary against. After all, had it not been for the ‘help’ of Earth’s Mages and the Divinity’s arrogance and rage, there was no way they could have killed that Divine Avatar.

He stared at his [Blade of the Void]. Even with [Void Harmony], all that he could manage was a single slash. Any longer and the power required far exceeded his reserves.

He let himself sink into the Void, trying his best to maintain his original self. Focusing on what the blade truly did, Rainer concentrated on the ability to cut through space.

He casually swung the blade around, relying on his [Arcane Blade Mastery] to keep himself from accidently losing any limbs. He’d make a dedicated mastery skill for it when he could. Given that the last one was earned running and fighting for his life, there was a chance it wasn’t easy to learn either without a teacher or in real combat even with his [Archon] class bonus.

He watched the effects of reality tearing with his [Arcane Revelation]. It was truly marvelous to see this kind of concentrated destructive power.

Trying to understand how the blade truly worked, he focused on the Void the blade itself drew from. And he pulled harder, feeling as if the Void itself was slightly closer in the blade.

[Blade of the Void has reached level 2]

His [Archon] class bonus had let him guess the future skill relied on even further closing the distance between the Void and reality. Attacking the very natural laws of the world with the power of the Void.

The closer he could bring the two worlds, the more efficiently he could use the blade. Its damage already ruptured reality itself, so all that was left was the cost of its use and the permanency of the damage. He had already experienced on his own body just how much harder it was to heal something cut off by this blade.

Rainer formed a simple mannequin as a target.

With [Arcane Chain]s borrowing from [Arcanum] ritual circles, Arcane-weaved chains inscribed with a distorted ritual circle formed from mid-air around him as they tied up his target. He further pinned it down with [Arcane-Spatial Domain] as he slashed twice with [Blade of the Void].

The reality around the figure collapsed, the frayed edges of the two tears expanding the damage ever so slightly before reality corrected itself.

With the level-up and with [Void Harmony], he could slash twice before his Void Will emptied. Another step closer.

As Rainer thought over other ways to up his combat power, he was met with a familiar voice.

“Rainer.”

“Talvara, been a while,” Rainer responded. The Void-being was in her preferred form of an abyssal Elf but with eyes entirely of a spinning Void.

“I need your help. I-”

“Of course.”