Chapter 168: Breaking In (1/2)
”If it's not your puppet, what is it? Do you have another clone somewhere else that is taking your mana?” Kaelith asked uneasily when Rakna started acting weird. This was the second time she had seen him lose a bit of his cool and that obviously included the shifts in his eye color as well as the nature of his presence. But she had never asked him about it.
Rakna didn't answer and stared at the System window for a few seconds before enough mana had finally been taken out of him to heal Tyran fully as a new notification popped up.
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❮ ◈ ❯
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Tyrannos Mors has been completely healed.
The subject remains incapacitated.
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❮ ◈ ❯
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”Fuck!” He swore loudly. ”Alexa, initiate a transport to the Thirteenth Plateau.”
[Affirmative. Countdown initiated.]
”Hey, hey, you can't just leave me hanging here!” The fox princess uttered. ”What's happening?”
”Marie's Tomb. Flavia went there with one of my pets. That same pet has been gravely injured.”
She scowled. ”Pronos is an anomaly, you know? Normal pets aren't as strong as him. Why do-”
”Tyran is level 50 with two attributes above 60 on top of being an Anti-Magic Asura.”
Kaelith promptly closed her mouth as she heard that. It was even more outrageous than hearing about Pronos' potential. She should have known anything concerning Rakna couldn't possibly be normal.
”That can't be…” She muttered. ”If what you're saying is true, the Dungeon should pose no problem at all for them to clear. That's why I suggested it for your friend…”
”I don't blame you. I need to know what happened.”
[10 seconds before transfer.]
”Wait, you're going there right now?” Kaelith asked and he nodded. She groaned. ”Putting aside the reason why you can do that without going to the Pavilion… here, accept it,” she said and sent him a friend invite. ”We hadn't done that yet. I'll follow you. I don't know where in the 13th I'll be but I will get to you as fast as I can.”
Rakna accepted the invite with a nod. ”Thanks.”
[3, 2.]
”If something's really happening don't be reckless,” she warned.
He huffed. ”No promise,” he replied and the light of the System transportation engulfed him. When she was left alone, Kaelith summoned a spiral of flame that swallowed her. She then reappeared right in front of the Pavilion in the next moment.
”That was probably a Badge of Honor, huh?” She muttered to herself as she entered. ”But I thought only Gold Ranks or higher could do that. That little...”
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* * *
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The very second Rakna was dropped off by the teleportation in front of the Thirteenth Plateau's Pavilion, he didn't even bother checking his surroundings and flew off with Shadow Step whilst deploying his wings. To the regular people, all they managed to see was a flash of silver and black disappear in the sky.
Rakna opened his friend panel and promptly activated his mana flight to double his speed whilst heading in Flavia's direction. Thankfully, since they had advanced from the Tenth to the Fifteenth in a party, the same rules applied to the Thirteenth, so Rakna wasn't very far from her location.
He flew across the desert as fast as he could, even going as far as transforming into a wolf midflight before he landed at his destination, around two minutes later. He landed on all four and scowled at the odd oval portal that led to Marie's Tomb.
[That is a Dungeon Tear,] Alexa provided. [This is a type of Dungeon of which the entrance exists in the System solely under the form of a pathway to another dimension. In other words, Dungeon Instance.]
Rakna grunted and approached the Tear and touched it with his paw. He jerked back as a painful shock stopped him and a negative warning was given to him.
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❮ ◈ ❯ Another Host is currently going through this Dungeon! Entry rejected! ❮ ◈ ❯
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”Shit…” He cursed and became even more restless. He had already expected this but seeing it made him even jumpier. ”Alexa, is there a way to force my way into the Dungeon?”
[I cannot say…]
”You are forbidden?”
[Yes… I apologize. But… there is no rule about me saying that you do possess a way to do it.]
Rakna's eyes widened. ”What is it?”
[I cannot… say,] Alexa responded with a pause as if she was struggling with something. [Please… think of… Grit Castle…]
”Grit Castle? Do you want me to use Cataract again? Didn't that work only because of the collapse?”
[…]
”Alexa!” Rakna raised his voice at her silence, his increasing frustration gradually pushing him to the edge of triggering Obsidian Blood.
”{Calm down, Rakna,}” Fray spoke rather seriously. ”{The AI lady is already pushing the limits of her programming for you. If she goes farther, she'll be labeled as a malware and erased.}”