Rainer sat quietly, feeling a slight haze coming over him. Just like with staying too long in [Sleep Learning], staying up too long, especially constantly improving and controlling the remains of [Absolute Frost], had left him exhausted.

But a pleasant surprise was all the breaking down of his Soul, including some he did to practice with [Soul Presence] and Void skills, had let it grow a bit stronger. It wasn’t a big difference, but given the short time frame it meant many things for the future.

He let his consciousness drift around the frosted areas. He wondered just how his Elemental was created before. Even after all his infusing with Arcane Power and [Soul Presence], the frost was fundamentally the same. The sense of Soul and fake life was no more prominent than it was before.

Was it the thousands of Devil Souls that were frozen alongside the frost, the hunger in the spell for Miasma, or Rainer’s own emotional state that created such a result? Or was it a combination of the three alongside some impossible chance, like the impossible chance that had created the first living thing on Earth countless millions of years ago?

Either way, Rainer hoped it wouldn’t be long until he saw his child. At the very least he was comforted that it was probably treated well and that Elementals matured quite slow. Even with the time difference he wouldn’t have missed too much. But those were just small comforts.

Would his child be discriminated against if they somehow figured out it was somewhat artificially created?

He returned his thoughts back the frost, studying the spell and thinking over ways he could improve it. Not to level but to have it reach the 8th tier given its current 1/11 state.

As the counter ticked down towards the end of wave 60, Rainer maintained a high level of alertness. He had no doubt the cores would surge with strength again. And perhaps even more so when the boss monster was supposed to appear.

The rest of his party sat around, spending time to entertain and keep each other awake. It seemed even with no monsters, sleeping would still draw the core’s ire. It wasn’t something Rainer could easily suppress.

“Describe [Soul Presence] again,” Art asked, everyone else now listening to Rainer describe his newest skill. Given that he had learned to improve his manipulation skill with it, everyone was interested, especially Sarah. Especially when Talvara agreed that it might be the way to level 10.

Furtak, Art, and now Sarah as well, had the most to gain. After all, their altered Souls meant to everyone they’ve met thus far that it was impossible to pass the 3rd Tier Trial.

Rainer sighed and explained it again. It was a bit a confusing and he knew the odds of him learning to do this without the system’s aid weren’t high. It had truly chosen good rewards in that regard for him. Especially given the power he had towards learning new skills with his [Archon] class.

Time passed and Rainer nearly fell over as the ground shook. The boss monster of wave 60 was coming.

“Grandpa!” Rainer roared, standing up. He felt something trying to wrestle away his control of the frost.

More and more Arcane poured into the air suddenly, and Rainer quickly made a decisive choice, focusing on their original side and letting the other core go.

He pulled frost from the lost side and added it to the one he still had control over. Moments later the stolen frost from his spell started congealing, forming a powerful monster.

An Ice-Touched Hound growled loudly as it charged forward. The entire land of frost the core of life took over flowed behind it like a storm cloud.

As Rainer’s party prepared to fight, he himself slammed his palms together, forming another [Absolute Frost]. From the very beginning he used [Soul Presence] in casting the spell and noticed a change.

The originally chaotic and uncontrollable spell, that required a Magic-Infused word to even cast, seemed to calm the tiniest bit. If before he could only release it in a single 170 or so degree direction, he now could do 169.

It was a minor, normally unnoteworthy improvement. But if he could one day concentrate even a quarter of the spell’s power to a single point… What 3rd Tier Trial? He wouldn’t even fear a 4th if such a thing existed.

Just before the wave of frost reached them he unleashed his own, colliding with the enemies. He exerted pressure on the monster itself. His innate connection with the fake Soul of the resulting spell was even closer than before.

As it came from his frost, now submerged in it once more, the Ice-Touched monster was affected by his control. Added on to his manipulation was [Soul Presence] once more. The Arcane part of his Soul took heavy damage as he nearly fell over, but he maintained focus.

The beast and the approaching frost slowed to a crawl. Taking the chance, Talvara moved forward once more, eliminating the slow beast in a [Void Call].

It was a few tense minutes later, that Rainer could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

[The Test of Fire has been completed. 20% Static Experience Gained for the first time having cleared it.]

[Final Survivor in The Test of Fire. 20% Static Experience Gained for being the last to survive. All 2nd Tier Classes below level 22 receive 300% Static Experience. Title already held: Dungeon Pioneer. 30% bonus experience gained added to title. 5% General Improvement to all Attributes while inside a Dungeon added to title.]

[Harbinger has leveled up to lvl 20/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. 2 Attribute and skill points have been rewarded.]

[Harbinger has leveled up to lvl 21/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. 2 Attribute and skill points have been rewarded.]

[Harbinger has leveled up to lvl 22/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. 2 Attribute and skill points have been rewarded.]

[Bonus added for being the Final Survivor]

[Calculating Bonus rewards.]

Rainer and his party vanished to the rest area.

Kaltek let out an unresigned roar. Half his body quickly became consumed by fire as he ran from the wave 60 boss. Even with his incredible defenses it vanished to ash. He rushed with his Aura, a golden light shining as his body regrew at a fast pace.

He would find out who won somehow, and in the next stage he would let out his frustration on them. How he hoped for a competetion of some sort. After the skill he gained from the last stage reward how could he endure such a loss? What could he have gained from winning this stage? Such thoughts were the only thing that kept him going as parts of his body repeatedly turned to ash and his Aura diminished further and further.

He formed a giant version of himself with golden Aura and surrounded himself like an armor. With a final strike he clashed with the boss monster.

Yet in the end, the likely Tier 3 Monster reformed in an instant and consumed him in a massive flame.

[Calculating Rewards based on Classes, Skills, Spells, Familiars, and Miscellaneous factors.]

[Can Choose 1 of Each]

[Attributes Available: Elemental Synergy, Magical Perception]

[Items Available: Treads of Frost, Soul Sheath, Arcane Harmonizer]

[Bonus Attribute: Soul Resilience]

[Bonus Item: Dimensional Ring]

He stared at the large black ring that fell into his hand. Unlike the thin spatial ring, a requirement in its enchantment for a variety of reasons, this was far thicker. He glanced inside, noting the space was at least four to five times larger than his largest ring, perhaps even bigger.

Having a hunch, he threw the primordial rock inside and wasn’t surprised when the ring was unaffected. He wondered just what Dimensional meant as the inside didn’t feel any different than a Spatial Ring. A quick look with [Arcane Revelation] showed him a level of complexity that almost made it seem like he was just looking at pure Mana. How did they fit such runes on such a small thing?

Rainer couldn’t help but laugh as he looked at the items and attributes offered. The reward was surely worth it. After all, wasn’t it a gathering of all the potential from those who tried to last till the end but failed?

[Soul Resilience: Improves the healing ability and curse resistances of one’s Soul.]

He frowned a bit at that, the attribute not being particularly useful in most cases. But with a quick test, it seemed the natural recovery improved synergistically with [Arcane Invigoration]. It was as if the skill suddenly healed his Soul one and a half times as well from just the [Archon] given attribute gains.

Given his recent discoveries with [Soul Presence], that was the same as increasing his strength by a decent margin. Seeing how perfectly this fit him, he immediately went through the other attributes offered. The rest of his party was quiet as well, all exploring their rewards.

The beautiful and vast expanse that was the rest area was left for exploration later.

Fai’Etah glanced around the rest area, enjoying the tranquil pond of Veil Shadows. That would be a relaxing place to disrobe. How she wished to stretch out her body after such a feast.

“Etah, are sure it was wise to ask for his aid?” her brood brother asked. Always a cautious one. She had no doubt the previous display had frightened him. The silly thing would have night shivers for months.

“If he brings doom and death, they can only blame themselves for chasing us to such a conclusion.”

“Evil as always…” her brood sister muttered.

She ignored her moral quandaries. What purpose did the greater brood serve if it sought to eliminate them? She may as well gift them to the charming Arcanist.

Fai’Etah glanced around, noting from contortions of their shadows that they still had residual fear towards the Arcanist. That he was an Arcanist was enough in and of itself. The display of power that shouldn’t be possible in the 2nd Tier certainly didn’t help that image. She herself couldn’t combine the image of the Almighty Arcanist of Frost and the Rainer she knew, so she felt little fear towards the pleasant, if sometimes teasing fleshling.

The rewards were great as always. Though she knew the hope that Rainer could help her in the next, and perhaps final stage, were low. That they got so far, rather than dying in the first stage as they originally thought, was a blessing already. They could only leave the rest area and hope to survive long enough to receive Rainer’s aid.

They were aberrations amongst their people. Individuals that were not innately connected to the hive. They were accepted at first but later chased and hunted for what they were. Some of her brood chose to artificially connect and were accepted, but she decided against that. The loss was too much to bear. It seemed too odd to join a group in such a manner when she was a singular entity.

They were not a race of a hivemind like others on their Isle, but they were normally still connected in a close manner.

She could only hope that Rainer stayed true to his promise and would come for her the moment he completed the Dungeon. After seeing that land of frost, and some of the actions of his party, she had little question to who would be claiming a final victory.