Chapter 163: An Empty Field of Grass

Rainer’s second Avatar stopped just before [Void-walking]. Was it really the best idea to head back there right away? Now that he gave it some thought, Rainer easily saw the connection between himself and the High Elf back on Alvra. The only difference was the information provided by the Farseers, information he hadn’t fully trusted until the High Elf himself confirmed it.

Deciding to give them some time, Rainer sent his Avatar back to get ready to enter the Dungeon once more. The group spell he gained would be enough for now. And the next time he met them, he’d do so openly rather than start off on a more clandestine note. Besides, perhaps letting them stew in all the possibilities of what his coming meant might leave them more open to negotiation.

Any missing members of the party were replaced by Art’s side of the family. As not all of them qualified for such a thing, some had already gone to the Mana-Filled world to oversee things alongside Rainer’s own chosen leaders. More strength never hurt.

As he Void-walked everyone over, he wasn’t surprised at the other parties gathering in the area. All the reserve strength of the Guilds and Countries of any merit were converging over, perhaps to meet up and work together inside. Any thought to protecting their holdings in this world was abandoned in favor of the Dungeon.

Rainer paid them little mind as he sent his Avatar inside with the party. Commanding his Avatar to follow along and warn him whenever monsters or people of certain strength appeared was well within his capabilities. Though a part of him hoped to perhaps use [Soul Presence] to help him push into level 8 of [Avatar Control]. He felt quite close to achieving that level.

Entering in the Dungeon, the scene in front of him was surprising. And perhaps a little worrying when he considered other worlds. All that came from the same planet, Alvra, seemed to have ended up right here, with the exit to the Dungeon here as well. The similarly formed pyramid on this side stood in a forest, almost haphazardly placed in a mess of trees, many of which had been cut down to make room for camps.

But the system message meant at least those closest to him would be safer.

[Re-Entering Competition-Style Dungeon: King of the Pyramid]

[Persistent Stage: The Gathering]

[Victory Condition: None]

[Defeat Condition: Death]

[Time Remaining: 693:15:17]

[Lives Remaining: 0]

It took only a quick confirmation to note that everyone else previously here had kept their lives. Why his Avatar didn’t share lives with his main body, Rainer couldn’t say.

“We should move quickly,” Rainer said, joining up with Kara’s father whose party was waiting nearby. There was little harm in making sure his father-in-law stayed safe. It was no longer a zero-sum game.

“Rainer,” Ymir said, his face a mixture of being pleased to see him and annoyance. Dying like he had must not have been pleasant. But, Rainer guessed he had lost to the Golden Aura user all the same, which meant his loss to Rainer didn’t actually matter.

“You lose to that monster as well?” Ymir guessed.

“Nope,” Rainer said, sharing his level 25 [Archon] class as confirmation to that.

His answer left the rest of the Wolf King’s party and Neutral City’s parties, which he had just called over, shocked.

Ymir laughed uproariously.

“Good! My son-in-law should be such a man,” Ymir said, though he was a bit pained at his own daughter reaching level 25 before him. He wondered where she was, but paid it no more thought.

While some had made the connection with Kara’s golden eyes, none around them knew they had an actual relationship with the royal family.

“We should get going, lest everything good gets taken,” Art spoke up. Unlike the other side of the family, he didn’t care about getting to know the in-laws. Several of the resources they collected last time had proven to be great tonics for his homegrown poison. Having to wait a day for Rainer’s Avatar was already too long in his opinion.

Tian stood in the back of the party. Their Guild had already spread the message of what was to come, but no one seemed to care. They were far more concerned with using this Dungeon.

He could only sigh and place his hopes in the [Archon] and the rest of his absurd companions.

Once things were settled in the Dungeon, Rainer put the planned group in his Living Storage along with filling his Dimensional Ring with other needs.

“Rainer, I can’t go in there,” Gunthar protested, being the second to last of it.

“Why not?”

“I’m not living,” Gunthar said ‘sadly’.

Rainer laughed as he grabbed the Undead’s shoulder and shoved him in. He didn’t truly resist, making it an easy task.

Before leaving, he sent a final confirmation to Fai’Etah’s group. They had found the Forbidden Land an interesting concept and seemed to gain strength from the curse that covered it rather than lose it. Or more accurately, their pools were still affected but their race advantages grew. They would be spending their time exploring, though with the warning from Rainer about Unicorns.

They hadn’t found it strange, but Rainer himself had felt quite awkward explaining to a group of scary things in their own right why they should fear a beautiful horned horse. His warning about dangerous plant life, however, had been met with firm fear and agreeance.

Taking out the Cosmic Map, it took only a few seconds of use to gather the memory and location of that planet he had ended up on. After a moment to recall whether there had been Divine intervention, he with some excitement realized this was likely to be a system world. Or a world Divines gave up trying to block…

Rainer vanished moments later, unable to keep his excitement down at exploring a new world.

Rainer appeared in the same grassland as he had before, quickly letting out those he brought with him after a scan with [Arcane Revelation] showed them alone. The World Energy here seemed to be quite higher, but there was otherwise no difference in the air. At least none readily noticeable through breath or through magic sight.

“So, where to?” Kara asked.

Rainer shrugged, “I know as much about this place as you do.”

“That way!” Luna pointed from her spot on his head.

Rainer shrugged and started heading there. They made no plans to rush or randomly Void-travel until something was found. So they flew/ran quite slowly for their strength. Lilia sat on a larger Tiamat’s back, kept on through the side effects of [Eldritch Flight] rather than physical ability. Tiamat’s full size was closer to a large wolf or perhaps lioness. But she was still the same playful Dragon who preferred to be tiny most of the time.

Rainer chuckled as he heard a loud scream behind him. It seemed Tiamat was having some fun with one of her favorite Humans. That was an impressive loop, he thought with a nod.

Rainer frowned as he sat down on a blanket, holding Luna’s hand in his as he fed her Mana. The Fairy’s squirming went unregarded as he considered the problem they ran into. There was no sentient life. They hadn’t seen a monster, an insect, or any sort of creature in the grassland they traveled on.

He was determined to figure out the mystery locally rather than start teleporting and checking the rest of the planet for signs of life. And everyone with him agreed.

“L-Luna, my hand,” Rainer complained, quickly snatching back his fractured hand. It took only a second to heal to normal, but it was the principle of the matter.

It was in the brief moments of grabbing a pouting Luna’s hand again that he realized something. No matter how hard Luna tried, she should have never been able to hurt him. Especially after recent changes to his body and enchanted item gains.

Staring at the Fairy sitting beside him, he realized she looked far different to his [Arcane Revelation] enhanced vision. Her once Soul-centered Fire partially spread throughout her magical body. It was beautiful to look at and made him wonder if it was soon time for her to enter the 2nd Tier. Not even his overprotectiveness could deny that this and her familiar made her more than ready.

Not that he’d ever convince the far more obedient Fairy it was time to risk her life for greater power. Worrying over Kara and now his younger sister was enough for his heart. No matter how Arcane and Void enhanced said heart was.

“Having fun with a new passive skill, huh?” he asked, accusingly. He wasn’t actually mad. Even if he had never hurt her, his increases in strength meant a few instances of throwing Luna from the bed in the middle of the night. Or pulling the blanket so strongly as to spin her in the air.

“Luna has no idea what you are implying,” she responded, though the guilt in her tone was obvious.

“Yet you know I am implying something?”

“Luna feels Rainer is reading too much into what she says.”

“Ah huh.”

“Ah huh,” the Fairy replied, making no note of his sarcasm.

“Any chance you’d let me know you’d suddenly become physically stronger than me?”

“No?”

“Sounds about right.”

“Luna feels like her feelings should be hurt.”

“It’s your imagination.”

“So my feelings are imaginary?” she asked with an offended sniff.

“Yes.”

Luna had nothing to say to that, having not expected it.

“I’m sorry.”

“If you hadn’t hurt me when I was giving you mana, I’d be offended.”

Luna nodded, and said nothing else as she leaned on his shoulder.

“We should probably go a bit farther from the rest, I found a nice spot over there,” Kara said, walking over to the two.

“Let’s.

In the White Void of [Sleep Learning], Rainer stared at two marbles in each of his hands. Kara was standing close by, more than excited at what they were testing.

One of the marbles looked like it had storm clouds of violet, and the other messed with his vision and seemed as if an angry animator erased a part of reality.

Without further ado, he poured Arcane Power into the violet marble, feeling as if it was asking something of him. A thought of [Arcane Awakening] later and the question disappeared. It was within a few seconds that the marble was full.

He tossed it over to Kara, who caught it before quickly transforming it into a tattoo on her hand. Arcane rumbled as her body quickly became covered in runic like lines. Her Aura surged as she enhanced herself and covered her body in a standard cladding.

It was almost hard to look at her with [Arcane Revelation].

“Shall we duel?” Kara said with a feral grin. Rainer wasn’t the only one to receive a large upgrade from the Dungeon’s rewards. And the boost to all her attributes...

“Let’s finish testing it first?” Rainer said, half complaining. Of course the first thing she would want is to win an unfair duel.

Kara nodded, switching off the [Arcane Awakening]. It was to both their pleasure she could turn it back on. ‘One use’ apparently covered a large term.

A few different tests later, they realized spells or skills that were more attacking in nature, could only be used once, no matter how much power was actually used. [Void-walking] fell in this category as well. But healing spells, or skills like [Arcane Awakening] or [Arcane Invigoration] could be turned off and on, until the energy was depleted. And everything seemed to function off of Rainer’s abilities rather than whoever used the tattoo.

It was a gift worthy of the Dungeon they beat.