The next day, Rayne and Belle stood in front of the door of the cell. Rayne turned to Belle before entering and asked her if she was ready one last time. She turned to him and he could see how firm her resolve was. No more words needed to be said, she was ready! Rayne nodded and entered.

"How's your morning Guntar? Had a good night's sleep?" Rayne startled Guntar, with the saddest facial expression he could muster and asked like he meant it.

"I've had it worse." replied Guntar, his face covered in frost, just like his cell.

"Well, don't let it get you down. Our day is just starting."

"Yeah? Well, fuck your day then! You think you're gonna get away with…who's the lackey?" Guntar asked, seeing the skittish looking girl behind Rayne.

Rayne glanced to the side as Belle hopped next to him and cheerfully greeted the strapped man in the chilled cell.

"Hi Gunty! The name's Anabelle and I'll be your host for today!"

*groan* "Is this your way of torturing people? Oh disgraceful former guild leader?" Guntar mocked.

Rayne didn't respond to the provocation. At least not by himself. "Belle, would you please?"

Belle grinned and placed her hand on a rapier by her waist. The next moment she disappeared from Guntar's sight and he hissed as Belle appeared from behind and pierced his tied up hands.

"See Guntar, the best thing about the freezing conditions of this cell is that you won't bleed out due to injuries. Now, I promised my little prodigy here", Rayne cocked his head in Belle's direction, "that I'll let her lead the interrogation today. As you might have guessed, she prefers interrogation by physical violence to get the answers. I, on the other hand" he leaned closer and poked Guntar's chest with his index finger.

A dim blue light squirmed its way from his finger and latched onto the prisoner's chest where it squirmed around for a bit until it positioned itself where his heart was. Then it disappeared and for a moment, nothing happened.

"You poked me? You on the other hand, will poke the answers from me? Are you ser…hhnngh *gasps*

Guntar stopped mid-sentence when he felt his heart squeeze. His whole body strained and spasmed. Anguishing pain went through his body, from somewhere deep within. He felt pressure unlike he ever felt before. A swelling sensation like he's going to burst at any second now. A second later, it was gone and once again the only thing he felt was the stabbing wound to his hand that was numbing with every passing second.

"How was it?" Rayne asked, crouching as he leveled his gaze with Guntar's.

"What was that? *groan* "What the hell did you do to me?"

"That is a good question. Ice, is my domain." proclaimed Rayne as a matter-of-factly.

"What you felt was the grip on your soul, Guntar. You will have to excuse me, I have matters to attend to so I'll be leaving you in Belle's good hands. I'll come by later to check on your progress." The last part was aimed at Belle who nodded her head frivolously.

Just before the dungeon exit, he heard a distant scream echoing the cold gray stone walls of the dungeons. "Seems like she's getting the hang of it." he smirked with a proud expression and left.

It was only the second day and he needed Guntar to understand how serious he was with the interrogation. He was the only proper lead to the man responsible for the attack on Westbrook. More importantly, he needed to know if the old man he had dealings with was Silva! The man he's been looking for!

If the old man really was Silva…it means he changed his appearance since the last time I saw him and it wouldn't be long until he changes it again! I need to find him before he disappears again! He clenched his fists tightly. A cold, unrestrained aura swept the staircase leading down to dungeons, freezing the steps he was standing on.

*sigh* He calmed down, he wasn't the rookie silver rank adventurer, fresh from the academy he was thirteen years ago. He remembered that dreadful day clearly. His father was the captain of the guard, commanding guards with keeping order in an area in close proximity to the palace. He wasn’t even supposed to work that day. He was just…in the wrong place at the wrong time.

An alert was raised coming from the royal palace and his father was killed in the line of duty trying to stop a group of assailants from escaping after the failed attempt at assassinating the Royal Treasurer. Rayne was in an Adventurer Guild at that time, browsing through the contracts when news of his father reached him.

An investigation was made, but the assailants and the man leading them were never found. Rayne didn’t stop investigating and over the years, he found out that the man leading the group was a middle aged man named Silva and the group he was leading were the Defiant Hounds. Silva was a known wanted criminal but he was very difficult to find and pin down because every report Rayne read about him, described him differently.

To think he was hiding in plain sight for over a year as a librarian…Rayne shook his head and continued up the stairs.

An old man stood by his office, waiting, invisible to normal senses. Nobody paid him any attention. Rayne locked eyes with the old man and greeted him.

"Greetings Guild Lea...master! You didn't have to come all the way down, where we mortals live."

*snort* "Brat, you don't call? You don't write? How else am I supposed to see you if I don't come down by myself!"

Both smiled at each other and Rayne led his master into his office. He made them a cup of tea and after a short and pleasant chit-chat, Rayne asked him why he was really here.

*sigh* "Rayne, my boy…" the old man started talking but found words difficult to say out loud. "I know I promised you will have your revenge but nothing good will come of what you're doing. That young lad you have in the dungeon? Was it really a necessary path to take?"

Rayne had mixed feelings seeing the expression on his master's face. The man was known to be as cold as ice and usually had a rather indifferent attitude towards what aspired in the kingdom. Most ascendants did, for their time to meddle in kingdom affairs had long passed. Even the current king had been absent for most of the last hundred years. To see his master showing such an expression made his heart falter for a moment.

He settled his resolve straight and replied. "I can't afford not to go down this path master. All my training and everything I did until now was to become strong enough and find the one responsible! Now that I have a possible lead you want me to do what exactly? Set my grievances aside? I can't do that master. Forgive me for being such a shameful disciple."

Seeing the look of determination on his face, the only thing the master could do was sigh. He knew it would come to this the moment he picked the boy up to be his pupil.

"I understand, I just don't want you to lose yourself in the pursuit of something that isn't real." The old man slowly stood up and on his way out of the office, turned to Rayne one last time and said. "You have so much potential Rayne, more than I did. I just don't want you to waste it all away for something that cannot be undone! If I can’t change your mind, at least make sure not to leave any loose ends! Thank you for the tea", and with that he left, leaving the frowning Rayne alone in his office.

"Something that isn't real? It's very real to me, master!"

Outside the closed door of the office, the master shook his head knowing his disciple wouldn't stop. It wasn't up to him to make his disciple's decisions. The only thing he could offer was guidance from someone who has seen it all and experienced it all.

*cough cough*

Bones stood up, ending his meditation and approached the wall of the cavern. He extended his hand and slowly went over the markings with his bony finger. He felt the incisions in the stone where the runes were engraved.

Nothing I can do but repeat the first stage, I guess.

The markings lit up for a moment and a prompt appeared before Bones. He accepted and disappeared, showing up in the safe zone he appeared the first time he entered the dungeon. Here…again. He looked ahead, toward the tunnel and wondered. Was it going to be the same dungeon? Nothing else but to venture forward.

The tunnel was the same as before. Dark and damp with motes of light from the spores on the walls showing him the way. He walked down the tunnel and reached the first biodome where the oversized ants were mingling about in a set of tens. Same as before then. "Let's get this done expeditiously."

…

Fifteen minutes into dungeon and chill, he remembered to check his inventory. To no surprise but his own, he found a couple of inventory slots occupied by ant drops. Drops were mostly chitin body parts and mandibles that were automatically stored into his inventory.

Last time he was in the dungeon, he dropped all the loot on the ground as he had no need for it. Now he knew someone that could make use of it. Well, not mandibles. He dropped mandibles on the ground and continued.

An hour later, Bones finished clearing out the biodome with the Ant-men in it. He estimated he was one-third done with the dungeon as he rushed through the network of tunnels. He gained no combat experience from the killings but monsters still served to improve his skills, no matter how miniscule these improvements were.

Bones chose to adopt hand to hand combat style with the purpose to improve his Bone Armor. He used Mana Blast over Bone Nova as it was more effective. His spars with Solin back in the city only confirmed what he already knew, that he needed to adopt a new fighting style.

There was nothing wrong with the way he fought. On the contrary, he moved a lot and often mixed feints with precise attacks when fighting, and it made his fights easy until now. His spar with Solin, however, proved he needed more than that. Solin said his movement technique revolved around empowering his body and using stamina in short bursts to move quickly and unpredictably. Bones needed a movement technique. One that will use mana as a source and not stamina.

A *splat* sound was heard as Bones ripped a hole through an Ant-man, its body hitting the ground hard. Bones empowered his attacks and expelled mana in short bursts with his fists. The impact they made was noticeable and mana expense wasn't high, far less than using Mana Blast. Satisfied with how well the short bursts of mana worked with his hands, he tried the same with the legs, hoping to move quickly in short bursts of speed just like Solin did. It worked the same with his legs, feet precisely and that was the problem. Instead of allowing him to move forward in short bursts, he was kicking the ground the way he was punching with his fists.

"This is frustrating to say the least."

I'm doing something wrong, but what exactly? The obvious problem is that Solin uses stamina for his techniques and I have no other choice but to try and use mana instead. The problem seems to be the way I'm using bursts with my feet. With hands, all I have to do is guide the mana flow through the hands and expel it in quick bursts. Expel?…I see. It's not about expelling mana, but holding it in until it's ready to burst and then… “And then what?”

Just when he thought he was onto something, he would hit a wall. Theorizing is good and all but without results, it's just empty words.

By holding mana I’m actually over-empowering my joints. My next course of action should be to try and propel myself with enough force to…move beyond what I was capable of? Sounds about right! Alright, might as well test it out. What’s the worst that could happen?

Bones engaged a fight against Ant-men, hoping to use them as test subjects.

Empower the legs and focus the mana flow into the joints and hold. Hooold.

"Hoooold!!!"...Now!

The thing about putting words into practice, is that more often than not, it ends with failure. The mana he held in his joints burst, blowing up his feet and sending them in different directions. Bones skidded across the dusty ground, barely avoiding the thrust of the Ant-man spear going over his head. Two more Ant-men closed in on downed Bones, aiming for his body. Casted with haste and fueled by anger, Bones used quite the explosive mana blast and blasted all three Ant-men away. All three dead and unrecognizable.

Bones sighed and pulled himself into a sitting position. I've held the mana for too long. I need to respond faster than that. One more time!

A few minutes later, Bones was hopping on one leg and using bone lances as makeshift crutches, headed in the direction where his other foot was blasted away again. A minor misstep, but he was getting the hang of it. Almost, but not quite there yet!