“What if it’s a matter of the Soul?” Amer spoke up, the group having failed at any attempts at leveling up the haste spell.

“Yes… the empire these spells came from knew about the 3rd Tier. What if the spell was meant to scale with a Soul’s strength, sort of to counteract the fact that the 3rd Tier Trial was harder based on your Soul?” Amer continued.

All of them shared awkward glances soon after before looking towards Rainer. While the Soul remained in the physical body during [Sleep Learning], damage was still reflected onto it in some manner. And also unlike Rainer, none of them were willing to die so painfully - and gain that bit of knowledge that came with seeing it through to the end - and instead learned to refresh their bodies prior to death.

“Yes, yes I’ll be testing it. Like all the other ideas,” Rainer said, partially annoyed. He lost count of the number of times he died painfully from some of the more outlandish ideas these old men came up with.

Rainer moved a bit away from the area, lest he take out others in his experiment, and set to work using [Soul Manipulation] to mess with the passive spell currently active inside him.

He prodded and tried to alter it in every way possible with [Soul Manipulation] and it didn’t seem to have any effect other than illicting extreme pain when he hit his Mana Pool. Something to experiment with later.

It was when he out of frustration used the [Devil’s Soul Language] on the passive spell inside him that he got a reaction. It nearly turned off.

A Soul…?

After a few moments of contemplation he used [Lothfane Soul Empowerment] on it. It seemed to destabilize and turn off the passive spell. But in [Sleep Learning] where he had enough mana to instantly set it back up, that was of little issue.

And it was only half-an-hour of testing the skill on it later that the passive spell seemed to morph.

[Passive: Zan Haste has reached level 2]

His eyes widened and he turned it back off. Remembering how it had changed, he easily turned it back on once again in its improved level 2 form.

“I’ve got it,” Rainer said as he rushed back to the group.

“So I was right?” Amer said with a bit excitement.

“No. But it did lead to my genius figuring out the right answer.”

“I am not fond of you, Human.”

Rainer laughed, “Back at you, Devil.”

It was moments later he called over Sarah and explained how he leveled it. He’d be planning to see just how far he could take it afterwards. Though his focus would be on seeing if he could level [Arcane Awakening] next and its attachments before the Dungeon. If he could improve the recovery rate of [Arcane Awakening: Final Arcanum], the difference could be huge in battle.

Thankfully, everyone had practiced [Lothfane Soul Empowerment] to at least level 1 in order to strengthen their Soul and stay in [Sleep Learning] longer. So it took Sarah, with his help, just minutes to reach level 2 with [Passive: Zan Haste].

Moments later, Rainer awoke from [Sleep Learning].

Kara paced through the open tundra, looking for a rock formation big enough to hide her for the night. Despite not sleeping the entire week she stayed here, she learned early on just how dangerous the dark was.

Finally finding a place, she curled into a ball and went straight into meditation. With her current abilities, staying in her Wolven form for months wasn’t an issue with regular [Aura Meditation]. But...

There was no progress on her goal.

She bared her teeth before gently sighing. Knowing how easy it was to spiral into questions about whether it was possible, she focused on her class skill.

[Dance of the Mystic Wolf]

Despite the romantic sounding name, it was a vicious skill. It was a repeated attack in which she built up her Aura stronger and stronger until she chose to release it in a powerful howl.

She had finally gained the second level despite months of failed attempts in [Sleep Learning] when she killed a near invincible monster with it.

The unlocked attribute of her class was certainly useful out here. It was almost like a passive skill; it automatically drew World Energy into her body and transformed it to Demonic Aura. The rate wasn’t that fast, but it meant another source of energy regeneration, and a longer time she could remain in her Werewolf form. The automatic process, so different from meditation, was where she got her idea for her mission out here.

Glancing at the healing side wound, she looked inwards, staring at the golden Aura inside her. With a powerful focus, the golden Aura seemed to warp and become far stronger, glowing a deep red, before returning to normal. She’d figure out a way to convert it to Demonic Aura or die trying.

She closed her eyes and began drifting off to sleep, missing the knowledge that she’d awake elsewhere.

Her eyes snapped open and she barely managed to roll her tired body to the side as a great weight descended. Snow erupted outwards, the buffet of wind nearly bowling her over.

Her Aura covered her body as Kara rushed forward, easily seeing the monster’s form despite the darkness. A winged beast. She mentally grimaced. She had fought this thing before, and it had been stalking her for days. Any longer, and she’d have to give up and call Rainer.

So with reckless abandon, she struck with the first attack of [Dance of the Mystic Wolf]. The claw was easily dodged but the Aura within her body started to build. She ignored the counter and continued attacking, letting her [Aura Cladding] and Body Enchantment shield handle the issue, receiving only slight/minor internal damage from the [Winged Ape King]’s attacks.

The Monster seemed far too weak to have not been scared off by her Aura, but she continued attacking, the Aura in her building further and further. But suddenly a fist from the Ape sent her flying back.

It was only now she noticed the Aura inside her, creeping around her Soul and Aura pools, restricting them. Moments later she stumbled backwards and the Ape moved, raining down fists toward her.

The restriction grew tighter and tighter, and yet Kara didn’t panic in the slightest. It was when her Aura was nearly completely blocked off, that she pushed. Part of her Golden Aura became tainted with her fear and rage, and slipped into a pool where it didn’t belong. It transformed from a glowing gold and finally completely the last step she sought.

[Skill Gained: Aura Conversion: Demonic lvl 1/10]

[Title Gained: Lord of Aura]

[Experience Gained: Deferred, Deferred]

Bit by bit she temporarily transformed more and more of her Golden Aura, increasing her Demonic Aura by five for every part of Golden Aura converted. And with every converted bit of Aura, Kara poured it into her defenses and into her struggling attacks against the monster.

The restriction snapped, and the Wolven Kara clawed the monster back. As if sensing the change in strength, the Ape rushed to the air, but a wolf howl followed. The monster’s organs tore from inside as the Demonic-tainted sound wave ripped through his body.

The Ape died before he even hit the ground.

[Experience Gained: 54%, XX, XX]

Kara let out a feral grin. She had finally done it.

The [Soul-Fire Seer] had rushed over to awaken the [Archon]’s Avatar, only for the dire situation to resolve itself. Now he was left with the man looking at him weirdly.

“A false alarm. Though, from the look of it, she has accomplished what she set out to do. Would you like me to connect you to her location?”

“She can wait,” Rainer grumbled; he had already looked with [Void Seer] when he felt the connection of the bonding ring establish.

“In the meantime, I do have something I wish to speak to you about,” Tian said as he sent for servants to bring up tea and food at his command.

“I don’t see why not. Thank you again.”

“Anytime,” he lied.

Tian tapped the table as he thought over what to say to the [Archon]. At least the tea had been properly made for once. His damn apprentices always screwed it up.

His watching of the… Half-Demon… had been easy enough. As she stayed in her Werewolf form all the time he didn’t even have to be worried about being truth read over seeing something awkward. Better for everyone involved. Mostly himself.

“What’d you need to speak about?”

Could the [Archon] not even speak a single pleasantry to give him time to think over his speech?

“I’m sure you’ve been wondering why we supported a Dungeon Meet in the first place.”

“Not really. Kind of forgot about it.”

Tian barely kept from spitting out his tea. What kind of response was that? Eventually, Tian got his bearings straight and managed to explain what they had seen and what they had inferred from records of the Northern Empire.

“So… they can track Dungeons. But until someone enters a Dungeon it can’t be tracked?”

“Yes. And even the most untrained Seer can see the world-shaking danger involved with anyone entering that Rank 6 Dungeon.”

“Why didn’t you spread this?”

“Who would believe us except a world-traveler like you? It would only negatively affect our plan to close it down for a year to gather all experts and give this world the best chance of producing Tier 3 experts before anyone comes here to conquer us.”

Rainer was a bit shocked at the world-traveler revelation but wouldn’t give Tian the satisfaction of knowing he was surprised.

“And why tell me?”

“What better motivation to defeat the Dungeon?”

Rainer frowned as he sent his main body to go pick up Kara. But a part of him was excited to see just how strong these invaders would be.

Kara had to admit that a small part of her expected a romantic reunion; instead, Rainer treated her normally and Luna was ignoring her. She really should have said goodbye to the Fairy as well, but Kara was worried about being talked out of it the more people she spoke to.

“So, what’d you accomplish?” Rainer asked, unable to help his curiosity no matter how much the small Fairy on his head wanted him to ignore Kara as well. Luna could at least stop pulling his hair so hard.

“Look,” Kara said, as she then started converting her Golden Aura into Demonic. At a rate that was at least one to five.

A large part of Rainer’s dissatisfaction vanished. If it wasn’t the rash and crazy decision he thought it was, he really couldn’t blame her for it. Mixing Void and Arcane certainly carried a far larger risk than staying a week in dangerous Monster territory, simply because he didn’t want to lose Void Will.

“I got the idea from your Arcane Power and then the Earth Mage’s theory on where Mana comes from. I figured it should work given the malleability of the Golden Aura that allows it to be made into strings of Aura and also mixed with one’s body, assuming you can figure out the technique. But without any pressure, I couldn’t get it to take the last step in converting.”

Rainer stared at her wide-eyed. With her recent levels and gains from the bloodline change, she had a total of around 700 Aura. Half of which was from her Wolfkin side. If she could be converted at such a high efficiency...

“Wouldn’t that mean your Golden Aura is far stronger than Demonic?”

“Is Mana stronger than your Arcane Power?”

Rainer laughed before pulling Kara into a kiss, ignoring another yank that threatened to loosen his hair despite the Fairy’s weak strength.

“Good point. And good luck getting Luna to forgive you easily.”

“Speaking of your other women, how did it go with Talvara?”

“An excellent dodge. And Francis was pretty sure she didn’t like him back, so it went about nowhere. Not that I had time to think about her while worrying you were going die and I’d never find out.”

Kara had the good grace to look embarrassed.

“Are you ready for the Dungeon Meet?”

“Just a few more things to level.” And a Dungeon Trial to nervously worry about as his little sister tried to reach the 2nd Tier. He almost regretted figuring out how to level Zan Haste. At least he would have regretted it if he thought that would have slowed Sarah down at all.