Damien was ascending the seemingly never ending library steps trying to reach the top floor. The place smelled of old paper and dust was prevalent on many surfaces. The faint glow of expansion runes coated many of the walls and dim lights hung from the towering ceiling. There were no dewey decimal system here and the books were separated by rarity or in alphabetical order from the author’s last name. Nearly reaching the fourth floor of the grand library he looked at all of the scrolls books and massive tomes that were all around him, mouth agape.

Damien was simply overwhelmed. There were more books in this one place than he had ever thought could exist in one location. Whoever put this place together hopefully was paid a fortune. There was no way Damien could read even a fraction of these books even in a few lifetimes. He would have to see what the system could do to help him. He didn’t have many DP after purchasing his new spells. Not being able to think of anything, Damien turned his attention inwards to the system. "System I need to be able to absorb the spells, maps and any info about all of the kingdoms of this world from the past to the present from inside of this library. Since the paper is made from the earth, I should be able to absorb everything within 1,000 meters. Is that possible?"

The host is able to absorb the books and scrolls in this structure. The host's mind is powerful, but there is far too much information for the Host's mind to retain it all. There is the possibility of a brain aneurysm or other unknown negative mental effects if the host tries to upload all of this information at once. The host can separate what he wants to upload first and the rest will be retained within the system. Does the Host want to begin the partial absorption process?

"Yes, begin the absorption."

Affirmative. Starting absorption. 1%...10...15%...29%...34%...50%...67%...80%...97%...100% Absorption completed.

The absorption process took over an hour to complete. Damien was waiting as patiently as he could sitting at the table and pondering what kinds of spells might receive once the process ended. When he heard the system inform him that it was completed, he nearly jumped out of his skin from surprise. System focus on spells that I can use right now. What do you have?

There are a few branches lost branches of spells that have been written in lost languages. The system can upload this knowledge into the host. Would you like the information uploaded?

"Hell yes! Lay it on me, babe!!" Damien said with uncontrolled excitement.

Affirmative, but the system is not a baby. It is an artificial intell-

" It was sarcasm, system...sarcasm, ugh, just give me the damn spells please!"

....new lost branches of magic uploaded into Host. New highlevel spells uploaded into the hosts’ body. Dimensional Magic, Chrono Magic, Magical Constructs. Dimensional Magic - A created section of artificial space made of mass and matter that is frozen and manipulated according to the creator. There are no limits to the number of dimensions that can be created. There is only a limit to the size of the dimension according to the creator's mana put into the dimensional space that's created. The mana consumption for this ability is great, therefore only the strongest of mages could attempt this ability and survive the magical backlash. Must have access to Chrono and Spatial magic, so that a point in space and time can be frozen.

Learned Dimensional Magic spells: Dimensional space -A space in a separate dimension created by the mage with their mana.

Physical Dimension- A spell that changes the size of a physical location, inside of the current dimension.]]

Chrono Magic: Also know as time magic. Once mastered, the caster gains the ability to accelerate, slow and/or stop time for others while being able to move freely among other uses. The application to this is only limited to the user's imagination, intent, will, and mana pool. Must have access to Spatial Magic. The mana consumption for this ability is great, therefore only the strongest of mages could attempt this ability and survive the magical backlash. That is due to the constant mana drain of the spell caster. Chrono Magic spells: Time stasis field - can slow, speed, or freeze time in a particular space around or away from the spell caster per tier level. *Currently 2x2x2 Meters. The application of this effect is limited to the spellcasters Tier strength. (UNLEARNED)

Magical Constructs: mage can turn the magical energy into tools, objects, weapons, and other items, create semi-living constructs and/or create structures/buildings of varying permanence with runes or mana stone. Users who have mastered this ability can use it for almost any situation, creating anything they need with their available mana pool.

All of these spells were highly advanced spells with extremely high mana use, Damien thought to himself. These spells were written with a mana pool in mind, not a mana core, Damien noticed. He could handle these spells with time and practice, even without his staff. It would most likely still be a major drain on his mana, but with time he could make anything permanent with runes or his willpower.

These spells with his runic magic were game changers for him. He could create storage rings now! Or make structure a small hut on the outside, but the building is the size of a skyscraper when you step inside the door. All of this is without a person even knowing they walked into a new dimension. The books had the information scattered but the system pulled it all together and kept what could be used.

I would definitely have to try to strengthen my chrono magic, but I know nothing about time to even begin to make the spell function. Even with the knowledge of the idea, I'd still have to be able to know how the spell works. The intricacies of a spell. For example, I can use an inferno spell to burn hundreds of men alive, but I couldn't avoid friendly fire, and be sure I wouldn't hurt or kill a comrade. To alter the time around a 1 ft cubed area around me or something else was eyeopening and also currently, impossible. Essentially, I have a time shield if I can get this to work. Or I can speed up the yield of crops from days or months, into seconds! Damien could not wait to try out his spells. This library was created with a physical dimension spell. Damien wondered how many powerful mages did it take to create such a place. He needed the headmaster at his own mage academy to teach these new spells to his students.

Damien cast the magical construct spell and made a sword out of magic. This spell came much easier to him due to his insight on mana. So long as he keeps pumping mana or arcane energy into the construct, it will last forever. These magics were some of the legendary lost arcane arts from a few millennia earlier. The magic order and they called themselves were wiped out in time. How exactly they were lost to time was not in this library.

A magical suit of armor, magical barrier, or even a new face and body, which would become handy in the future. He could create magic armor, weapons, beast, and people. The issue is keeping them into existence. Damien no longer feared anything that could come at him in this world. He now had the strength to protect himself. Even still, nothing beats experience.

He would still go to the tournament to gain battle experience against other mages. It was imperative that he do so for the upcoming battle he knew would befall his city someday. He just hoped someday was far off. Still sitting at a table in the library, Damien looked at his fake gold and jeweled Dimensional ring. He could now create an actual dimensional space and wanted to create an actual Dimensional ring and bags for his companions.

With the knowledge that was uploaded Damien, he had to visualize a space, what he wanted in the space and channel what he wanted through a mana source and his will. It's actually much harder than that, but with the system, he could cut many corners. A normal mage in his village would have to experiment for weeks or longer with on and off channeling to input what they want inside. A mage without a mana pool would probably die before they could finish the spell if the pool were not big enough. Damien had the system and his staff to cut many corners. His students and himself would be able to do this much easier because of them all having mana cores and powerful staves.

Little did his students know that suffering through a mana core process had made them top mages in the world. Thinking on his students Damien needed them to begin studying these works as soon as possible and he needed to give all of this knowledge to his villagers. He needed a massive space to work with to mass-produce these works. Before he got lost on all of this new knowledge, he needed to finish up here in the library. Despite his absorption ability it still had a range limit. This library far exceeded that limit. Damien kept the absorption skill active and flew up and down each aisle on each floor. This whole process took over 10 hours. A bit fatigued from all of the high level channeling, Damien finally left the library.

Walking outside, the sun was high in the sky and the streets had a steady busy hum of people coming and going. Damien was thinking about his next steps. He wanted to raze the graveyard, but without Allen back at the village to organize everything he wasn’t sure it would be a good idea to do so, as of yet. If Damien wanted to create an army orc, for example, he needed Allen to pacify the villagers and to get every new troop housed and to calm the original villagers. Right now, he had a random villager to help build housing for all of the newcomers when they arrive. Seeing it was light outside, Damien had missed his nightcap with Mary, so he would need to find housing in town for the next couple of days. He could make his own, but he was trying to travel and bringing little attention to himself. The issue was, he was finding that to be harder and harder every day with his increase in strength. As Damien pondered where he would go to train for the tournament, he began to walk to any of the inns in the city to hopefully find a place to sleep for a couple of days. At the same time, a brown and white dog followed Damien as he went along his way.

_____________________________________________________________________

Algarian Kingdom - Private room

King Ganesh sat in a soft cushioned black and red decorated chair, inside of his private quarters. He was holding a gold encrusted goblet filled with red wine that was spinning in circles while the king waited. He was staring at the goblet which came from the former a Duke who he felt like was a threat to his throne because of the secret meeting he found out the man was having interactions with a well known mercenary group with plans to usurp his throne. After a spy confirmed the meeting, the king put the man and his entire lineage to the sword down to the infants. He would not have anyone still breathing who could get into the way of his or one of his heirs rule.

The large room that the king sat in was made grey block stone and had an open window and the walls had elaborate tapestries behind a large bookcase and a fireplace that had the skull of a wyvern mounted above it. The wall mounted burning lamps kept the room well lit and there was a second mage stone powered light on a desk filled with opened and a few unopened scrolls with reports about the kingdom that needed the kings' attention. He summoned his advisor and court mage to get a verbal update. The king's adviser and court archmage waited on the king that had summoned them in nervous anticipation.

“Report.” King Ganesh said to the town men in the room.

The adviser had spoken first. “Yes, my liege. Our patrols and spies have gone house to house and questioned every man of every age down to the child. Unfortunately, they still have not located the archmage that we seek. The only oddity has been a Lord who is rumored to have unnatural healing abilities, but that was from the small backwater village of Tropes, and the authenticity of that message is to be highly questioned. It was also rumored that the Lord of an unknown kingdom from the southern region has arrived with a merchant caravan and powerful looking guards armed with a metal that shined brighter than any that this kingdom has ever seen, according to reports.”

“Does it look like an invasion force? Why is this so-called Lord just being brought to my attention and has not been brought before me? ” The king asked emphatically.

The adviser jumped at the king's tone. He knew that the king's anger was immense and whole towns have been decimated down to its foundation before the king had a chance to weigh in on the consequences of doing such things. A bead of sweat rolled down the advisors' forehead and he swallowed and continued his report to the king.

“They have appeared seemingly out of thin air and they came from the west. The town of Trope only said that he had just appeared one day and the nobles in the village are saying that had not come across any nobles or healers, but they did confirm that a large caravan suddenly arrived in the middle of the town seemingly from the west. The reports from the next two villages confirmed that they were only a peaceful merchant caravan and that they only had hired guards with the merchant leader. They had sold extremely rare goods in their strange merchant cars. Goods that would be rare treasures in any kingdom.

The king's brow perked up at this news.

"There was no mention of the Lord after the village of Tropes, he had seemed to disappear into thin air. The merchant caravan is currently arriving in Talan City, but we also have received reports that the caravan carriages are still being seen outside of Mire Village. It is reported that the caravan is over 100 carriages long with trailers on the back carrying foreign goods. There are over 150 troops and even a couple mages, but there have been no attempts at thievery by bandits. It seems this caravan has items never before seen in this kingdom. According to the caravan leaders, they are going to enter the gates of Algeria last before they head back to where they had come from.”

Upon receiving this news the king stopped focusing on his wine and looked up at the adviser in shock. He couldn’t fathom how an unknown lord could posses a caravan carrying an entire kingdom’s worth of riches. How could an unknown lord have such a caravan moving inside of his kingdom and without his knowledge? If a lord had this kind of riches then, what kind of coin and power did the king have at his disposal? He would tread carefully while dealing with this new lord. King Ganesh hadn’t made it be king of the most powerful human kingdom in the central continent by being rash. Ruthless but not rash. The second bit of news was also unsettling, that this lord was able to move within his kingdom unnoticed, EVEN NOW! This he could not allow. He must have this man before him and have his answers to all of these anomalies. In all of his days, the king has never been this clueless to the inner workings in his lands. This must cease immediately. First a rogue mage, and immensely powerful archmage at that and then, a lord who can disappear out of thin air suddenly? Far too many questions.

The court archmage had begun to speak, but the king raised his hand cutting him off. Much to the irritation of the entitled mage.

“Find this lord and bring him to my throne room now, but do not disturb the caravan. Send spies to keep an eye on its whereabouts and send in constant reports directly to me. The archmage will expose himself, eventually. This new development takes precedence over all else. The moment the caravan makes it inside of our gates I will hold the entire caravan inside of the outer gates of the city until this lord makes an appearance in my throne room. You are both dismissed.”

The king just sat staring out the window and wondered what the hell is was going on inside of his kingdom?

____________________________________________________________________________

Outskirts of Algaria

It was evening time and the sun was setting and the moons a few bright stars had begun to slowly appear in the skies around planet Damascus. In the forest outside of the Eastern gate behind the graveyard, there was a round dome a few miles inside of the forest. The forest had a light breeze and all was quiet everywhere except for the strange 2 stories sized, round stone dome. A sweaty man in a green sleeveless tunic could be seen with a purple, arcane 7 foot tall doorway. Damien had succeeded in creating a dimensional space. In fact, that part was quite easy. The hard part was fixing the time issue, inside of his space.

Damien at first had tried to put a time cube outside of his space and he thought that it would alter the time inside of the dimensional space. He had failed countless times until now. The time spell would never hold and would violently disperse sending waves of time energy into the forest. The shattered time waves would speed up, slow down, or altogether freeze the aging process of any object or creature it had come in contact with. He had a horned The only reason Damien was not affected was that his powerful shield had absorbed the impact from the time energy. He had actually learned this completely by mistake. His shield was much more versatile than he thought initially.

Damien was currently onto a major breakthrough, despite all of his failures. He had been at the task since he went into the forest early in the morning and was finally at his goal. His problem was that he had constantly been trying to separate space and time using them as separate energies. Damien had used his enhanced intelligence and remembered an old high school report on space and time and how they were essentially the same thing or at least connected. Which is why I needed access to space and time to even be able to begin to alter dimensional magic.

Damien combined the spells of spatial and Chrono magic inside of the dimensional space and when he didn’t feel any magical resistance and in fact, he felt the spell set into place he had stopped. Next, he cast an expansion rune onto the doorway as if it were a canvas of a painting and made the room expand for 1 mile of cubic square feet. He slowed the time down to a crawl. For every hour that passed outside of the space, a month would pass inside of the space. Damien was not worried about time passing for himself since he had effectively expanded his own age limit by hundreds of years because of the strengthening of his cells. He had to fix how to not have the time not affect the person thats training but only the time around them. Right now he could not worry about that.

He now had to bind the dimensional space to an item or area. Once completed Damien bound the dimensional to his staff. He now had is own training center. Damien opened up the portal to his training dimension and stepped in and the portal closed. He only had a few days before the tournament and he wanted to be as ready as possible. He had been neglecting his individual training up until this point but now, with time literally on his side, it was time for some personal advancement.

Inside of the Training dimension...

Damien was inside a dark void type of space until Damien visualized a city from home. He gave his space all the physics of Earth and the city similar to New York. The cars moved around in traffic like normal and the shouting naturally angry people walked about the streets and sidewalks. Damien was standing in Times square. Damien didn't feel like seeing blood so he decided to play a joke on the unsuspecting citizens of his dimensional space.

Damien put his staff in the air and the world was covered in a large shadow, then it suddenly turned bright red. The temperature in the air rose drastically and it became hard to breathe. Damien cast his shield around himself. To brace for the impact. He had to test his power. Moments after having those thoughts, a large meteorite the size of what Damien thought Texas would be. Damien had the system input what the speed and temperature would need to be for a rock that size falling from the sky.

The next moment the meteorite began incinerating the top of the skyscrapers, the wind from the incoming rock shattered all the glass and sent cars and people flying down the street. It was like a vacuum had sucked all of the people and debris out of all of the building and haul them away in all directions, screams of fear and death were all around. Even though Damien knew it wasn't really the physics made it feel real so that's how Damien trained. The skyscrapers had all but disintegrated and flew away like a metal dust storm. The incoming meteorite continued its path toward Damien until it impacted his shield. Damien never felt a pressure that was so immense. His shield was shrinking and growing at an incredible rate. His muscles shook and his bones ached from the pressure. He didn't know so much of magical defense dealt with the body's endurance. The staff glowed brightly to show that it was working but the core was being drained without a chance to recover. Therefore the burden would then fall onto Damien mana core. Even though the situation looked like it wasn't going in Damiens's favor, Damien smiled at the challenge. He was only going to use his elements from the tournament and his new spells for now.

Damien cast a water blast and a massive stream shot the rock. Damien continued the stream but only began cutting a hole in the rock. He then used the wind gust ability with his full power. The meteorite stopped advancing for a moment, then continued its assault on Damiens shield. Damien closed his eyes and channeled more and more mana into the wind gust spell. When Damiens felt like the pressure on his body was too much he released the spell with every ounce of his power. The rock began moving off of Damiens mana shield slowly at first, but then it began to move away faster until it hit the limits of the dimension and it stopped. Damien then held the rock up with his earth magic. He lifted the meteorite like this for countless hours until it became like lifting a large rock when he uses earth magic on a large rock.

Damien trained like this with all his abilities. He stopped hurricanes in their tracks, he stopped milehigh tidal waves, waves of every man and monster he could think of from all the video games and movies he's seen. He made them attack from all directions from all terrains. He had mages blasting him in ancient ruins, valkyries swooping down cover in invincible armor and Damien had to guess which element the armor was and blast them to death, but it was also immune to all other elements so they were pretty difficult.

In his elemental spells he advanced leaps and bounds but his newly learned advanced spells were harder to master. His chrono magic increases at a crawl. His magical constructs are quite real but quite weak. Any construct that I make that is any bigger than a honey bee is softer than cookie dough. Magical constructs are going to take time to learn to master. In particular mana density control. Damien knew for certain that it was going to take him time. As much as he wanted to train the whole time, while he waited on the tournament he knew that the time dilation is enormous. 2 years in this dimension for 24 real world hours is enormous.

Damien resigned himself to get stronger.

That was his purpose. Not this world's politics. Power. Damien has to get back to his child. That was all that mattered. Not playing house power. He has to prepare for anything. Yet, for now, he has to prepare for a king that could care less about his life. He needed a defense. That defense came in the form of magic and the System. With determination, Damien trained almost non stop for 2 years. Pushing every ability to their utmost limits. Damien nearly died many times during his training. He would constantly heal hundreds of scars all over his body but then he got tired of doing so after almost two years.

He left the few scars he did get but they became very few after training for such a long while. Damien had trained for two full years. Damien was sitting on the top of the skyscraper. Looking at the sunrise. He lifted his hand and cast a beam of light, the beam neatly went through every skyscraper in the direction that pointed before igniting in massive explosions. When Damien first arrived here he was worried about the people but now he didn't bat an eye at the screams and smells. Without even noticing, Damien became another person. Colder but calm. He had an air While he was off world in his personal training dim. He still had his staff but somewhere along the way he constructed a sword and put it in his dimension ring. Damien saw birds fly near him and he stopped them in mid flight before letting them go again. Damien was ready to face the world. He just used the mage's tournament as an excuse to do what he already should have done. Worrying about fulfilling some role when I can do anything with the power that I have now. "Especially with the power that I currently have. I no longer need to cast spells. I directly influence my magical attributes. I have to keep this hidden as long as I can. I still by no means think that I am invincible, but the power that I feel surging through me is undeniable. It was time to leave.

Of course, fate always has other plans than to let Damien enact his plans.

The moment Damien stepped out of the portal, back into the planet. Damien heard a familiar voice.

"Lord Sorlen! There has been an incident. Lady Selene has been taken to forced quarters in the king's palace."

"Ugh! What now!" Was all Damien could think as he wiped his hands down his face in annoyance.