Waking up in complete darkness, Aki imediatly righted his posture, even though there wasn't any phisycal matter on which he could naturally exert force, he didn't have 90% shadow affinity for nothing.

"A chosen of darkness, impressive." An ethereal voice that came from seemly nowhere said so. Aki imediatly locked into a seemly random spot as well, before getting wide eyed, a drop of blood came from his eyes, but that was enough for him to properly appraise the one in front of him. Several rows of sharp teeth appeared in his mouth imediatly. His snow white skin gained a metalic sheen and started to shine with several small rows of simbles in multiple colors.

"HOW MAY I HELP YOU?" Said the almost unreconizable voice of the Mc with an extremely loud and powerfull tone. The blood lust in the air kept raising until it was so dense one could problably cut it with a normal knife. As Aki assumed a beastly pose of a predator prepared to pounce, the shadow of a woman went out of her surprised state and finally answered. "I come delivering a message of the empress. You are to follow a route delivered later this same day to meet with her."

There was no change in her monotome and ethereal voice, but the woman fealt great fear for her life at the moment. 'The only time i've felt such intense killing intent was from the royal guard captain, when he fought against a similarly leveled oponent. This woman wasn't even supposed to be past level 200 yet, but she can create a pressure to scare someone past level 500... I'm not fit to hold this negotiation.'

To this, Aki fronwed and 'tsked', before spitting near the maid's feet. "Coward. I'd stop before you died. I understand and accept the orders of her majesty." Aki said berore striking with the tip of her fingers against the empty space, which tore and opened a tear in space letting to his room in the hotel near the academy.

*****

After Aki threw off his new apprentice and followed a ridiculously complex set of directions, he finally got to a restaurant in an area near his hotel. After following a the manager to a private chamber, he found an illusion construct of the empress doing some paperwork with ilegible words and a mantled magician without any distinguising features uncovered sitting on the floor. His appraisal showed he had the title of 'Eye of the empress'. Aki directly bowed towards the mage, who didn't move at all. "Is that the correct procedure or should i also bow towards the illusion?" Said Aki without much emotion. Inwards however, he was restraining himself, a lot. The woman was gorgeous to an unrealistic degree. The dress she used did not accentuate her figure, but it could not hide it either. Raven black hair with some strands of white, focused eyes that remenbered someone of a pair of diamonds, lips perfect to kiss, a small nose perfectly framed on her face, defined biceps and triceps, a hipnotizing waist, all that made Aki imagine how cute and perfect her navel, thighs and even feet would be!

"That will be enough, yes." Goodness, even her voice mellowed him! Strict but sweet, experienced, it made him want to hear her laugh and see her smile. 'BEGONE IMPURE THOUGHT!' Aki was feeling like summoning a ball of lava in his stomach and attach some pain receptor to it. This was the first time he even thought of someone other than his wife since they got together. Yeah, crazy people in love are scary. Even if he likes to joke around, that is literaly how he's ussed to talking when out of ear shot of his family, even before coming here!

"I heard much about you miss Akita, inteligent and wise enough to use the knowlege, pridefull but grounded, a great mage and almost as good in close combat itself, you even scared my maid away, truly a box of surprises." Said the empress while keeping her eyes on the documents in front of her and talking in a way to show that she was the one in control.

"I'm honored to hear such praise from the empress herself. If it isn't too sudden, however, i'd like to ask what have I been ordered here for." Asked Aki in the same monotome.

"It's simple really, i want to know what are your intentions to my daughter and my empire. Depending on your answer this conversation can go one of many ways though." She said while finally taking her gaze from the papers. Aki had to check again if he was not being charmed. Oh, he wished it was an actual spell.

"Your daughter i only see as a connection and maybe future apprentice, when she actually has a personality that doesn't only consist of bashing into her problems. Your empire i see as a promising ally. Unless something extreme happens or our relations sour, i want nothing but the best for it." Aki nodded and answered truthfully.

"'A promising ally', you say, what makes you think we would be allies with you? That dungeon? The trade company? They are both inside my territory and based sollely on it. If i killed you now and sent someone to take over, what would i lose?" Asked the empress with a predatory look on her eyes.

"Well, to begin with, the city i have my base on, i can explode it whenever." Aki started nonchalantly, getting a mere eye twitch from the empress, who quickly sent someone to check his claims. "As for the dungeon, i can use it as a battery and dirrectly use it to overcharge my soul, leaving an enormous crater right in the middle of you capital. Should take me about five seconds to do that. If i die it would cut off at least half the time." For once, Aki was being completely serious, answering her question with on same tone. "And finally, you'd be losing my brain and it's knowlege" He said more softly before taking out a ring. It was an extremely focused item, something that would supppress and cover a very specific title. "Apraise me again and tell whoever is on the other side what you see." He said while turned to the mage sitting on the ground.

For a moment there was silence, then the empress suddenly raised a brown. "An other worlder? That is certainly unexpected. Though it certainly explains some things I've heard." She said with a nod.

You might have noticed by now, but Aki has neither a reincanator or otherworlder title. That's because he had his soul transferred to a new body, which can be considered a reincarnation for all the system cares, but dungeons just aren't compatible with the title.

It is supposed to give out +50% XP to previously owned skills and -10% to any general XP received until you reach the same skills as in your previous life.

Dungeons don't receive XP the same way as others to begin with, so the bad part would not work on Aki, and the good part would simply have stopped being effective two days after Aki got his pseudo avatar, so the system simply decided to withdraw the title due to several complications it would cause on Aki's soul.

"You are not from the famous 'earth', but this certainly increases your value. Say, you wouldn't be willing to discuss some knowledge from your birth place, would you?" Asked the empress while changing posture and emphasizing her already big bust. As a royal of drow blood, she obviously had several seducing techniques and skills she could activate at her leisure. Though most are not at max efficiency since this is a projection.

"Only if you consider hiring me as an intern on the bureau part of the palace. The lowest position would be fine really." Asked Aki while lining his head with her bust and inspecting her cleavage with genuine interest.

What? When talking to someone shameless you need to show you have no fear of running around a town naked and screaming words of love to the top of your lungs, otherwise they will just push you around.

"I see." She said while looking at him expressionless for a moment before getting a serious look again right after. "I am very tempted, but such thing would be too hard to pass unnoticed." She said with an air of helplessness, but otherwise she didn't stop trying to seduce him.

"Not at all. We just need the right kind of attention. Get one relatively low ranked loyal subject of your's to appoint me, that way I can attract incompetent and stupid people, help with cleaning your ranks from the bottom up till I am a minister." He said an actual linked his gaze with her eyes now. "I'm no spy, and I wish not for any kind of absolute power. If anything, I will just directly go to the temple next and offer my services to the queen of spiders. If I do enough of a show I doubt the greedy bitch will refuse to listen to me. I just prefer to work with politics instead of religion, if you understand what I mean." Aki said while straightening his back. Then he gave a charming smile. "Of course, even this lowly one understand that such important negotiations are based on the trust between both parties. I have prepared three presents from my hometown, as is 'costumary'." He said with a nod and them the smell of blood started to surge on the room.

When the eye of the empress noticed it was coming from himself he panicked slightly and was about to try and scape, but his legs gave way under him. Aki got up and slowly walked towards the man. Touching his back, the man certainly didn't expect to be healed.

"This isn't an attack agent. Just me being accertive and showing off. When you give your report, tell the empress: 'Unfortunately your man was unable to keep the transmission going both ways, so our meeting falls short. A pity. As compensation I shall take the skill level ups I got from this and not complain. I await your response. P. S: I know it wasn't your intention, but it is considered quite impolite to not introduce yourself in these situations where I come from. As such, I intend to refer to your majesty as Sugar tits until I learn your name from your mouth. '" Aki noded and helped the man to his feet before teleporting away.

The agent imediatly started to try and contact his partner to report to the queen.

*****

On the other side.

"How is she?" Asked the empress to the healer she had by her side.

"She has several ruptured blood vessels and a part of her brain was slightly damaged. The biggest problem is the mana well damage, which I cannot help with. Luckily it was only superficial and will heal naturally in a week. Till then, no magic or there will be more damage." Diagnosed the healer. After healing everything, he ordered two golems to carry the ranger away for rest, but she held his hand and started to talk.

"Wait. My brother..." *cough cough * She started to cough some blood and the healer was about to say that there was no way to know of her twin's fate, but then he noticed he had already fully healed her. Even with a weak body she should at max be without stamina. The blood could only mean she was magically exerting herself. He imediatly pumped healing mana into her. "What did your brother say?"

"He's still there. The otherworlder healed him. Left a message. Then left." She explained.

"We shaw bring him back them. For now rest and don't use magic for the next two weeks." The healer told her before she was taken to the infirmary.

With that, the empress decided to simply take the books on the ground herself instead of waiting for her appraising team to determine the safety of them.

"It's been more than a century since someone has treated me like this." *tsk* She complained in a murmur and clicked her tongue. After opening the first completely black book she read the title on the front page: 'The Prince'. A short read later and it was obvious this Maquiavel knew what he was talking about. This could easily be used to educate the nobility and future rulers. Heck, it remembered her of lessons she had already forgotten even.

Putting it on her table, she got the second book: 'basic calculus', however was that pronounced, and found out that she could barely keep up with the content. It'd been long since she'd last needed to cast the full thousands of circles she could use, so her skills were not at their peak, but she was no idiot either, so she could somewhat understand it, nevermind that she had to check the formulas every time she passed a page.

Some forty pages later she found herself close to trowing the book away in anger, instead she took the closest mage and ordered her to get this delivered personaly to the head court mage before giving them her crest mark.

Having been tired a bit by the cauculus book, the empress decided to simply look at the front page of the next book, but she was actually stopped by the mages that kept to her side nervously.

"Your majesty, please give us a bit more time to understand this enchantment at least. It the largest and most intrinsic of the three, the other books are orders of magnitude simpler." One of the humans in her service said, anxiety obvious on his face. It was hard so say if fearing for his ruler or fearing her, but anyway...

"There's a simple way to know what it does, activating it. Which i'm the most prepared to do, so now just wait by the side." Said the empress, having already forgoten there were supposed to be enchantments on the covers to begin with. Pushing her mana through the pathways present, the cover started to change from a dark black to a deep orange with gold extremities and crimson letters telling the name of the book: 'The art of war'

It was relatively short book when looked at, but checking the summary the empress saw that there were three hundred pages, chapter titles told that they were most likely complimentary for those that did not know of the story behind the book nor of the place where it happened, and some more pages were for anotations, to write down what you could take from the book.