"... This place is pretty fuckin' huge. Are we really underground right now?" Lone asked as he and Glenn walked through the spacious and well-decorated halls of the palace.

Glenn shrugged. "Feels pretty small when you've worked here for as many years as I have. I guess it is pretty big though if you stop to look at it... Maybe as big as a normal-sized city? Anyway, yeah. We're under Leytograndia right now. This place is a secret, so no lip-flappin', yeah? As a favour from you to me. I'd appreciate it."

"Sure, I don't mind," Lone replied. "Why's it a secret though?"

Glenn shook his head. "That's not for me to explain. Anyway, we're here. Be ready to be slammed with a bunch of Divine auras. A good chunk of these fools ain't fond of you or agree with using you for what our resident Ancient wants."

Lone raised an eyebrow. "I'll be fine."

As an Ascending who had endured the aura of an Ancient - granted, a half-dead Ancient - Lone felt confident in his ability to appear unphased by the raw power a Divine gave off when they exuded their auras.

"I hope so," Glenn muttered as he opened the double doors in front of them and he then stepped into the room.

Lone followed and found himself in a large meeting chamber which possessed a long oval table.

There were 12 seats at this table, 10 of which were occupied by all manners of beings.

'A kind of humanoid rat, a super pale kid - probably a vampire given how pale he is, a High Elf... Is that some sort of dwarf? He's pretty tall for a dwarf and more than half of him is steamforged... Interesting. An old human... A... tabby cat? Some sort of blurry figure, a bearkin and then a Grey Elf... I recognise him. He's the bastard who nicked all of my gold back in Everlast,' Lone thought more in intrigue than in anger.

At the time he'd been upset, naturally, but now? 10-months later? Lone knew that gold meant nothing to him. Creation Magic saw to that.

How this man had stolen over a billion gold from his Dimensional Storage, however, well... that fascinated Lone to no end when even a master of space magic like Vice-headmaster Milos couldn't come close to just perceiving Dimensional Storage, let alone attempt to take anything from it.

Quickly, however, Lone's eyes were drawn to the final seated person he hadn't looked at yet.

A woman no older than perhaps 25 - if her looks were to be trusted - was sitting peacefully with her eyes closed.

'Damn. Her hair's whiter than even Gilbert's. That face too... It's on a similar level as Soph's or Eolande's, but something about it feels... odd. Maybe her cheekbones are too high?' Something else gnawed away at Lone about the woman. 'She reminds me of Soph and Kyuubi, somehow... Maybe she's got some sort of strange condition like Soph with Sophie split-personality or Kyuubi with her power to become a fox?'

Lone didn't know and neither did he have the time to find out before he was blasted with 5 separate Divine auras at the same time.

Lone struggled to keep his eyes open as his legs threatened to buckle under the massive weight that had been added to his shoulders.

'Fuck me! Their auras are way heavier than I expected!' Lone thought as he drew out his SSS-ranked aura to try to protect himself but that didn't do much, only helping to alleviate a very minute portion of the pressure he was being forced to endure.

'I think it's the elf, the old human, the dwarf and the cat? Who's the fifth?' Trying his best to trace the origin of the final Divine aura Lone felt it connect to the white-haired girl. "Damn. What a warm welcome, eh?"

Lone gave up and decided to use his Ascending Aura.

He wasn't able to use it force anyone in the room to submit to him but he was able to create a layer of Ascending Aura around himself which the Divine auras were unable to penetrate.

Glenn sighed. "I already told you numpties that he was an Ascending. Do you guys ever listen to me?"

The five offenders retracted their auras one by one. The High Elf turned her nose up at Glenn. "I didn't think our effort was best spent on him, Participant or not. I still don't, but I will admit, him not collapsing under our auras was a pleasant surprise."

The dwarf nodded. "Aye. Snow act'd like it was nutin' when even Charlie blast'd 'er at full power with 'is Ancient aura. This kid's barely worth the effort since 'e could 'ardly move with only five ah us pressurin' 'im."

Pipa - the blurry figure - exuded annoyance. "Snow was a triple-X-ranker at the time, Lone here is only a triple-S-ranker. Trust a dwarf who cannot even properly change his species to ignore proper facts."

John - the dwarf in question - slammed his steamforged fist onto the table. "Say 'at again, ya fookin' intangible cunt!"

Lone cancelled his Ascending Aura and scowled. "You're the cunt here, not... what's your name?"

"I am Pipa," the blurry figure answered.

"Not Pipa. Glenn's been nice enough, but you, you, you, you and you," Lone said as he pointed at all five who had surrounded him in their auras before adding, "You're all cunts. What kind of person fuckin' blasts their Divine aura on a Mortal-level being as an introduction? No less than five of you at once, too. You should all know that I'm damn-near immortal and a real bastard when it comes to holding grudges."

Bradros - the Grey Elf - held his stomach and started laughing furiously. "Ahahahaha! Man, this guy's got massive fuckin' balls! No wonder he fought that stupid dragon when he was only an S-ranker!"

The young presumed vampire nodded with a small smirk on his face. "I, too, think it was rather rude."

The white-haired girl looked at him disapprovingly. "Blood Sucker."

"Why yes, I am!" the young man replied happily. "Why the antagonistic tone though? You're just speaking the truth... Such a weird girl you are, Snow, dear."

The bipedal rat at the end of the oval table sighed. "Can you all please stop bickering."

Everyone shut up upon hearing his words, making Lone reevaluate him. 'Is he the Ancient? I can't feel a thing from him so he's at least a Divine, though everyone here is save for the Grey Elf and the Umber Bearkin.'

"Lone Immortus, I'm sorry for their behaviour. I hope you haven't taken any offence?" the rat asked as he gestured to an open seat.

Lone took the cue and sat down before nodding. "It's fine. Immaturity isn't really something that you can get rid of regardless of how old you are. It just takes different forms, in this case, it seems to be pride."

"Haha, right you are," the rat answered.

"Charlie, I presume?" Lone asked, resulting in a sharp nod from the rat. "I have a few initial questions before you get into whatever reason you asked me to come here for if you don't mind."

"Insolence!" the High Elf shouted. "This is your second invitation to The Ancient Foundation! How dare you be so rude when we have so graciously given you a s-"

"Grul'halla," Charlie called as he lowered his gaze and gave the woman a deathly sharp gaze. "Be silent."

The High Elf's mouth couldn't have closed faster even if she had wanted it to.

"Feel free to ask, Lone," Charlie said, returning to his amiable attitude. "I'll answer any concerns to the best of my ability."

"Great," Lone replied in confidence as he tried to hide his lingering anxiety. 'I have no more daily uses of Mental Destruction and Soph's out of commission for the foreseeable future. Honestly, that elf is right. I should try to be a bit more respectful when talking to an Ancient.'

"Well, my immediate concerns would be why do you want to meet me? Why did he steal my gold a year ago and why did he later show up to attack my friend when I was fighting Ythmagobla?" Lone asked as he gestured to Bradros.

"I'm not angry or anything. Money means nothing to me and he was obviously holding back against Swind since he's a triple-X-ranker and Swind wasn't even an A-ranker back then," Lone added.

Charlie chuckled a bit wryly. "Bradros here has a bit of a kleptomaniacal personality. I had strictly ordered him to just leave you with the standard invitation since his unique skill is rather special, but sadly, he's a fool at the best of times. Shows me to trust him to do a secret task, hmm?"

"I see..." Lone responded as he looked at the Grey Elf who smiled gingerly at him. 'Unique skill... So he's a hero too then.'

"As for the incident at the Eastern World Tree, he was testing the Lemurian to see if he was a Participant. Naturally, he and the rest of us do not mindlessly kill. As an apology for both incidents I personally saw to stopping that army of drugged-up humans that were intent on wiping out the exhausted forces of the Eastern World Tree," Charlie explained.

"That was you?" Lone asked as he slowly nodded his head. "I thought it was a Divine at first, but an Ancient makes a lot more sense. How did you get them to all turn to stone though? My understanding was that the drug only did that randomly between 6-12 months after injection, longer if the person has survived multiple injections."

The elderly human Divine sat at the table opened his eyes widely. "How do you know all of that?"

Lone shrugged. "Let's go with intuition," he said, unwilling to divulge that he had gained an ability from Clicker.

He didn't know if he trusted these people yet. No one on the whole continent seemed to know about the true gods or about Clicker, Tapper, Snapper and Flicker, so what was the point in him bringing them up now?

It seemed wiser to let them form their own conclusions for now. That was how he felt, anyway.

"Don't give me that!" the old man snorted. "It took me over a decade to learn even half of what you just said!"

"Marko," Charlie said, "Drop it. We all have our secrets."

Crossing his arms over his chest in frustration, Marko nodded reluctantly. "I want to talk after this, Ninetails. I will, however, drop the matter for now in respect of the Ancient Crafter's wishes."

Shaking his head, Charlie muttered, "Why do half of you insist on using my title even though its against those wishes of mine that you apparently value?"

He sighed then said, "How I triggered their deadly side-effects early is a bit of a secret, I'm sure you understand, however, Lone, do you know what a Participant is?"

Lone didn't answer for a few seconds to think on the matter before he shook his head. "I'm guessing you don't want the dictionary definition, so let's go with no. Is it like an Ascending or something?"

"Now, that's what is interesting, Lone," Charlie said as he smirked and twitched his whiskers. "Participants and Ascending are intrinsically linked, but no, they are nothing alike."

Charlie reclined back into his seat and looked at the ceiling before he said, "How much do you know about the gods?"

"The Primals?" Lone asked before sighing and helplessly shrugging. "More than anyone rightly should. These fuckers can be pretty damned annoy-"

"No, Lone," Charlie interrupted. "The true gods, not the fallen deities who once ruled this continent, but the gods who brought you to this world against you will."

Lone felt his breath stop. "... You mean you actually know about them?"

He quickly stood up and placed his hands on the table in eagerness. "Do you know where I can find them?!"