“Ummm… What’s a Dead World?” Leon asked, “And to answer your question, no clue.”

Leon went on to explain everything that had happened. Nadia apparently had lost all of her memories of nearly everything that had happened for the past several days. She remembered cuddling, being absolutely miserable and being pissed that Leon wouldn’t have sex with her for some reason. But once he’d gotten her all caught up to speed, she looked incredibly disheartened.

“So… the others are dead?” she asked, her voice cracking a little at the statement.

“I don’t know for sure Nadia.” Leon sighed, “I survived by pure luck of the draw. I’m sure that some of them had other mentors around that were able to protect them… But it seems likely that most everyone that was on the island is dead or they managed to use the gateways to escape. Right now, we can only hope.”

“I really do hope they made it out.” Nadia sighed, “From what you said, I can only assume that the overload of high Tier mana forced our gateway to drop us off on the dead world. Well dead world is kind of a misnomer.” Nadia explained, “They are not strictly speaking dead… They are however deadly. You already felt the mana here, right? Anyways, they are roughly spherical chunks of rock that float between the Layers, they average about 6,000 to 10,000 miles in diameter, usually have their own oceans, and biospheres. Oh, and the mana out here is usually… none affinity? Pure? I was never sure on that front exactly. Dead worlds are The Guilds training grounds for elites that they want to push through to higher Tiers more quickly.”

Leon felt at the mana in the environment around him. It was stupidly dense, but what Nadia had just said about mana purity seemed to be right. He hardly noticed it in normal everyday life back on the first layer, but the ambient mana was always a big mixture of every affinity. Here it felt… blank. And as he experimentally pulled some of it through his channels to his core, he understood why this environment would be used for rapid advancement. As the higher tier mana entered his system it stung like hell, but it also shifted and suddenly gained his affinities in the exact ratios that they were naturally present in his core. Most people could only draw in the mana that matched their affinity. Here all the mana was available and already bordering on the fourth Tier. Leon felt like he could probably push himself well into Tier 3 with only a few weeks of absorbing mana here on the surface.

“So, what do we do?” Luna asked.

“I’d say that first thing to do is explore this rock and see whether or not there are any Guild outposts here.” Nadia said, “If there’s an outpost here it will be only a matter of time until a ship arrives and we’ll able to get out of here. If not… Our only hope of getting back to the layers is going to be either building a ship that can get us home. Or we will need to get powerful enough to delve down to the bottom of this here Dungeon and use its portal gate to get to whatever layer it will take us to. There’s no guarantees when it comes to a dead world portal.”

“One. I don’t think any of us has the necessary knowledge or skills to build a ship capable of space travel. Two. The animal and monster life around here are undoubtedly going to be Tier 4 on average. Three. Judging by the mana density in the first room of that dungeon, it is abnormal, and we have no clue how dangerous even the first few floors might be. I would be willing to bet that the bottom floors are actually in seventh to eighth Tier meaning that it will be ridiculously dangerous, if not impossible for us to get down there.” Leon spoke.

“Then we are left with searching for a potential Guild outpost. Though I fear that is highly unlikely, if there was an outpost, it would be at the Dungeon.” Nadia said. “It is possible that there is another one, but I doubt it.”

“Not to mention that Leon is only Tier 2 right now. If we run across a Tier 4 monster it is highly unlikely that he would survive the encounter.” Luna cut in, “We need to find a nice place to hunker down while he can ascend to Tier 3 before we try exploring.”

Nadia seemed to startle at that, “Yeah… you are right. I always forget that he’s not a Tier higher than he is. Never freaking runs out of mana and is stronger and faster than his Tier would indicate… We need to find a good place pretty far from the dungeon entrance. It is a wild dungeon. We have no clue how often it experiences overflows.”

After several minutes of back and forth, Leon, Luna, and Nadia, headed out in what they guessed was an easterly direction. They wanted to put several miles between them and the Dungeon entrance, preferably several dozen just to be safe. Leon under the cover of all his stealth skills acted as their scout. The terrain around here being a sort of icy tundra with occasional clumps of strange trees that almost looked metallic in nature. With long thin branches like those of a willow tree. They did not encounter any monsters as they traveled, but they definitely heard the sounds of predators hunting and roaring in the distance.

After nearly twelve hours of beelining it away from the Dungeon entrance the group of three finally decided that they had gone far enough, and they started hunting for shelter. Leon had plenty of food and water stored up in his Utility Pocket so they wouldn’t need to worry about food for a good long while. What they needed right now was a hideaway. Somewhere where Leon could focus on pulling in the ambient mana and growing his Tier to the third level.

It took a while, but they finally decided on a patch of the weird trees. There were maybe thirty of them in total all growing around each other in a roughly spherical manner. Reaching the trees Leon was fascinated by their feel and composition. The branches were springy and flexible, but hard enough that his daggers could barely cut the material. The leaves were thin and long, and were sharp as hell, they even cut into his Knull Armor. There were no monsters about, which was good. But it gave Leon a weird feeling.

“I don’t know if its safe to be around these trees.” Leon murmured to himself.

“What was that?” Nadia asked from beside him.

“Oh, I was just thinking that these trees might not be safe to be around… We haven’t seen anything besides these trees living around here. But we’ve definitely heard a lot of creatures off in the distance. Why wouldn’t animals take shelter in the trees?” Leon spoke as he gestured around. There wasn’t even any brush or shrubs around the trees, “Also doesn’t the dirt around here look like it’s been disturbed recently?”

Nadia and Luna both began examining the ground and surrounding a bit more, but nothing seemed very dangerous or even inherently hostile in nature. Just tons of long thin branches that drooped almost to the ground itself. Something was still bothering Leon about the area until he decided to use Identify on the trees.

Razor Willow (Tier 6)

The Razor Willow is a species of tree that has developed on the Icy tundra of planetoid b2-432-5. As a species they have developed nearly perfect affinities for both Sharpness and Sky Iron mana types. The wood is highly flexible, very tough, and very lightweight. The leaves are razor sharp and aerodynamically designed to catch the wind.

This particular specimen is over 500 years old.

“Never mind, I figured it out.” Leon said to the others. Obviously if windstorms were common here then most of the animal life around here would avoid being anywhere close to these trees. During a windstorm the area around these trees would turn into a Tier 6 blender.

“If we are going to stay here, we are going to need to either dig ourselves a pit to hide in, or we need to figure out a way to prevent these branches from flailing around whenever a stiff breeze moves through here. Otherwise, I’m fairly sure we’d get turned into paste by these branches.” Leon spoke gesturing around at the trees.

“Oh!” Luna said as she connected the dots, “We could probably weave these branches together in one area and tie them to the base of the trees. Should be able to make an area that is safe enough in the center.”

“Well, we had better get it done quickly. We are lucky that there hasn’t been a gust of wind already while we’ve been in here.” Nadia said as she rushed towards the center of the grouping of trees. Careful to avoid the leaves and branches as she went.

It took the better part of five hours to weave themselves a shelter out of the willow branches by hand. It was not easy; the Tier 6 razor sharp leaves were several inches long and with barely a jostle of the whip like branches the leaves would start spinning like they had a mind of their own. Needless to say, that it was a very good thing that Leon had Lay On Hands as a skill. Otherwise, he very well may have lost a hand… Twice. The ground around the area they managed to weave walls into was covered in blood from not only Leon but also Nadia and Luna’s. It was a trying process to create the woven structure. But when it was done the small group was at least safe from the trees murdering them accidentally if the wind picked up.

“What the fuck are Tier 6 trees doing here anyway?” Nadia said as she slumped to the ground after Leon healed her from yet another dangerous leaf that nearly severed her finger.

“I’d imagine that one of these Razor Willows reached Tier 6 years ago and its seeds were naturally born at Tier 6. They took over because they were higher Tier than their competition.” Leon responded.

“The King of Rodenhiem would award an Archdukedom title to anyone who brought him one such seed.” Luna said whimsically as she rolled a couple of the seeds in her hand.

“A Tier 6 tree would not be able to grow on the first layer. Just the seed itself could cause the very ground of the first layer break and weather patterns to shift. A Tier 6 tree can at most safely grow on the 3rd layer. Even then it is dangerous, and they absorb all the nutrients in the soil around them.” Nadia spoke, “The guild purposefully controls materials of higher Tier than a layer can reasonably handle.”

“I thought that the guild restricted the materials because they were just being selfish.” Luna said derisively.

“You ever wonder why there were so few Tier 4s on the first layer? Besides the obvious I mean.” Nadia asked.

“They always move on?” Luna half asked.

“Its because the first layer can really only handle one Tier 4 every couple thousand miles from each other without causing… basically natural disasters.” Nadia said, “High Tier mana does not interact well with lower Tier mana except in certain cases. Mostly enchanting materials. And then only really lower tiers going into higher tiers. There’s a whole science behind it. I don’t really know how it all works and its not a hard and fast rule as far as I know. But it’s just not a good idea to have anything over Tier 4 in the first layer unless it is highly contained.”

“A lot of this would be easier to accept for her if the Guild didn’t suppress so much information flow.” Leon interjected.

“I’m sure Malorie told you about the way the Guild sees it all.” Nadia said.

“I know that I personally disagree with censoring.” Leon said, “I believe that information should be shared freely and with everyone. The only time that information is truly dangerous is when it is only in the hands of a few.”

“I disagree.” Luna interjected, “I have learned many things that would have been dangerous had it gotten out into the general public.”

“Spoken like someone in politics. Let me ask you this… Would that knowledge have actually been dangerous to the people or… to those in power? Or did you simply think that masses would panic and that you alone knew better? It’s insanely stupid to hide information to ‘Protect’ people from themselves.” Leon said in disgust.

“This seems like one of those topics that the girls and I decided to not antagonize you about Leon, so I’m just going to drop it and acknowledge that we have different viewpoints.” Nadia said while giving Leon a noncommittal gesture. Luna seemed to want to argue her point but also looked a little disturbed.

“You should focus on drawing in this mana Leon. You are no use to use to us as a Tier 2. We should try our best to push for Tier 4 as well.” Luna spoke after a minute.

Leon sighed a bit, “You are right… Sorry I get touchy about certain topics.”

With that Leon dipped into Meditation completely and started focusing on spinning the Containment Blocks as fast as he could make them go. All the while analyzing his skill Stalagmites and Stalactites. Trying to ignore the intense stinging pain of the nearly Tier 4 mana being pulled into his system. It was breaking down as it entered his body, but it was rapidly increasing the density within his Containment Blocks. He could feel them straining slightly as mana rushed into them.

Checking on the development of his skills Leon found that his Soul related skills had all been pushed to the absolute limit of Tier 2 during his time submersed in the Madness Affinity Mana. Soul Regeneration+ (lvl 99), Soul Resiliency+ (lvl 99), Soul Strength+ (lvl 99), Soul Shield+ (lvl 99), Heresy Resistance+ (lvl 99). The exposure to high Tier Madness Mana had apparently done his skill leveling a solid favor.

As Leon was just sitting there absorbing mana from his surroundings and pulling mana from his Source there came a balance point. He was draw in an equal amount of mana from both his Source and the surrounding ambient mana. Though the amount had actually dropped quite significantly because his Core was technically full. So, he was just slowly building up density by maximizing the rotation speed of his Containment Blocks. It was an odd sensation pushing himself like this. It was his first time really trying to advance after he’d gotten his Containment Blocks set up.

At a certain point. Leon found that Mana was no longer entering his Containment blocks and instead whirling around within his Core like it used to Slowly building up into a cloud around the rings and Source. Building up a strange sort of pressure that he hadn’t experienced before.

After about two hours of actively pulling in more mana than he should have Leon couldn’t take it anymore and ceased the rotation of his rings. The mana in core still naturally bunched up near the Containment Blocks and he figured that the cloud around them right now amounted to filling up about 5% of the area inside his core. The way that this was going, Leon was fairly certain that he’d need to fill up his entire Core surrounding the Containment Blocks and then spin them fast than he’d ever achieved to be able to push into Tier 3. And now he was pretty sure that he knew exactly why Containment Blocks were useful for advancement. They overall doubled the amount of mana that he could pull into his Core and made it easier to increase the mana’s density. He still didn’t know what the books had meant about taking on aspects of the mana once you reached Tier 4 though.

Pulling out of Meditation Leon went about digging a small pit in the center of their little cleared area in the middle of these Razor Willows. And filled the thing with Coal. Making a nice little pile before lighting the coals on fire with some fire starter oil and matches. Luna paused in her little meditation session of her own and watched him setting up the little fire pit.

“How do you pull in mana that fast?” she asked once he’d sat back to gaze into the little fire he’d started.

“Containment Blocks make it easier to draw in mana.” Leon said with a shrug.

“What are Containment Blocks?”

“I’m not entirely sure? They are like having extra cores inside of your Core to contain specific Affinities. They can hold the same amount of mana inside them as your overall Core can even though they are physically smaller… Though I guess that in a metaphysical space size is really just a conceptual thing?” The whole concept of the Core was strange to Leon.

“And how does one go about acquiring said ‘Containment Blocks’?” Luna asked.

Leon being Leon, he really didn’t care about giving away something that was supposed to be a secret. He wouldn’t censor information out of fear of what others might do with it. So, he explained everything to her that he knew about the creation process, the benefits, the pain. He held nothing back. Luna occasionally asking for clarification on one point or another. And sometimes asking questions that he hadn’t considered and really should have before. Some of the questions had him kicking himself for not having considered them before.

“I would have questioned the wisdom of you sharing that with her at any other time.” Nadia said from across the fire, “But right now we all need each other to survive. Every advantage we can get will help.”

“And so far, what are your experiences with this Containment Block method?” Luna asked Nadia.

Nadia grimaced, “Making the one that I have was probably the worst experience I’ve ever put myself through… But I would do it again. The benefits are amazing. I’m pulling in mana several times faster than I was previously and it’s making it easier to increase the density of my Core. You should consider doing it if you have the ability to do so.”

Luna looked contemplative but didn’t seem to be in a hurry to try it out herself. After a few minutes of watching the fire slowly burning through the coals Nadia slinked around the fire and practically sat in Leon's lap while snuggling up to cuddle with him. He’d long gotten over any embarrassment caused by PDA so he didn’t mind it at all.

“Are either of you hungry? I have a lot of food stored up in my storage skill. Want anything?” Leon said as he decided to pull out a snack for himself.

After a round of affirmatives Leon dished out a couple of meals along with utensils.

“You know that Storage Skill of yours is stupidly useful. And here the rest of us mortals are stuck with whatever kind of Dimensional Bags we can afford.” Nadia half complained as she ate a freaking raw steak.

Elves as a general rule didn’t really like food cooked per say, just slap spices on some raw meat and they loved it. From all of Leon's old memories of fantasy Elves tended more towards being vegetarians if not Vegans. But in this world, they were mostly carnivorous and preferred raw meat over cooked. At least most of the Elves that Leon had had a lot of contact with were that way. Nadia still enjoyed cooked foods. But she was more of a raw fan.

“So, what is the plan for the next few days?” he asked.

“You need to get to Tier 3, push all of your skills to Tier 3, make a Trait, and then we can start looking around to see what the average Tier of wildlife around this world is. Depending on what we figure out… we may just need to hunker down here in our little fort until we can all push to Tier 4. I know a lot of training methods. Ways to push your skills in new ways. But even with the mana density here, this kind of restrictive area will make it take a few years at least to reach Tier 4.” Nadia said, “Lets hope that we can make do with just getting you to Tier 3 Leon. Otherwise, we are definitely going to be stuck here a lot longer. Oh, Malorie did teach you about making Traits, right?”

Leon just nodded in confirmation. He knew the general theory behind it. Get skills right to the edge of Tier 3, meld them together and somehow blend them totally into the walls of his Core. He already knew that he was going to use all of his soul related skills for the process. He had been hoping to incorporate his weapons mastery skills as well. But he wasn’t going to be able to get them there in a reasonable time for their continued survival.

“Since you brought it up…” Luna hedged, “What do you know about advancing to Tier 4?”

“I know that advancing to Tier 4 is different from the others. Those who advance to Tier 4 become… more. Their affinity or affinities begin to express themselves through the individual’s body. From hints I’ve received… I’ve deduced that there are ways to control what form those expressions take on. Aside from that, I all I really know is that it is about increasing the mana density of your Core just like the other Tiers.” Nadia spoke between mouthfuls of bloody steak.

“I’m pretty sure that controlling those expressions has something to do with Containment Blocks.” Leon said, remembering something about that from the books he’d harvested, “At least, that’s something that was mentioned in the books that Malorie gave me.”

“You think that making the Containment Blocks somehow gives you control over it?” Luna asked.

“I’m not entirely sure…” Leon responded, “The mentions were vague. Like whoever wrote those books only had an idea about what was happening but hadn’t experienced it themselves.”

“I fear that we are going to have to figure it out ourselves darling.” Nadia spoke as she handed him her empty plate. “Now I’m fairly certain that you owe me something…”

“Not right now Nadia!” Leon spoke in horror as she ground her butt against his lap.

“You are no fun.” She pouted, not stopping the motion of her hips.

“Look, if it was one of the others, I would be fine with doing whatever you wanted. But Luna here is not part of the Pod as you all call it. And it would be rather rude to just do anything right in front of her.” Leon spoke in exasperation.

“I can give you two some privacy if you need it.” Luna said with a strange edge in her voice.

“It’s not safe for you to leave this little shelter we’ve got here for the amount of time that would take.” Leon said with a sigh.

“Well… It wouldn’t be anything I haven’t seen before.” Luna replied, “I don’t really mind. I’ll just go over to the edge over there and you two can have your fun.”

“See Leon, you don’t have to be such a prude.” Nadia said as Luna edged her way to the edge of the woven shelter they had.

“I highly doubt she’s ever actually seen what you want done… I did bring the thing.” Leon said while trying to think of a way to not do this right now.

Apparently mentioning ‘the thing’ was not the right course of action. Because Nadia practically squealed and redoubled her grinding motion. Luna sat at the edge of their shelter, and instead of turning around was watching them. It was making Leon rather uncomfortable.

“Listen Nadia… I’m not comfortable with doing anything right now.” He said as he wrapped his arms around her abdomen and hugged her tightly. “I have to process some things for little while. So can you wait for just a few days? At most a week.”

Nadia huffed and the motion of her hips stilled. “Fine.” She said finally, “But you will use it then. And I also want you to blindfold me, gag me, and choke me until I pass out.”

“You do realize that it takes like two hours of not breathing to make you pass out at this point, right?” Leon pointed out, “Your neck is going to get all bruised up from that.”

Nadia didn’t respond she just turned to him and smiled as semi tackled him to the ground to use him as a pillow. Apparently, she just wanted to go to sleep right now.

“I look forward to it.” She said after snuggling into him.

Leon had produced a bunch of blankets for them from his Utility Pocket earlier in the day, so it wasn’t like they were laying directly on the ground. He sighed Nadia practically draped herself over him like she was trying to maximize the amount of her body that was in contact with his own. Luna was wrapped up in a bunch of blankets on the other side of the fire pit from them. and she was practically staring a hole them. Leon didn’t know what to make of it. So, he just focused on meditation and trying his best to increase the amount of mana he was drawing in overnight.