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Not to mention anyone that tried would be met with the innumerable amount of various spies and traps blocking their way. Not the best way to enter a life-threatening dungeon.

Yarik ground his teeth at the casual dismissal but said nothing else on the subject.

”I hope you do not come to regret this course of action,” Yarik said, leaving in a huff and no longer caring to maintain a political decorum.

Maverick shook his head at the sound of thunder that rang out soon after Yarik left, having already covered himself in a [Mana Shield] created to block sound. A measure against the petty little action to travel with lightning within the Guildhouse. The son was nowhere near as even tempered as his father. His old age seemed almost an illusion.

The [Master of Tides] glanced for a moment at the glass of wine in his hand, the liquid slightly shaking from the sound, wondering just what sort of waves Yazir's killers would make.

Rainer sat in the bed that had previously been unused. It seemed along with the tidings of war now was not a good time to hunt Monsters, with most of them heading away, deeper into the island to mingle amidst stronger Monsters far beyond the caliber of most Hunters.

Tiamat sat on his chest as he lay awake alone in the night. She had insisted on going with him tonight, her red slitted eyes staying open without sleep the whole time.

He wondered just what the little dragon seemed to feel after experiencing that storm. The confident, and according to his little sister's delusions, cheeky dragon seemed a bit more meek. Rainer noticed for the first time since advancing his ability relating to the Soul, that a familiar bond was not just a connection of Mana. Rather the Mana was a medium, perhaps not even truly needed between two souls.

And he also noticed another connection forming in Tiamat's Soul. Something Sarah mentioned earlier during the long trip at sea.

”What are you acting so nervous for? You think some disembodied Soul is something you need to worry over?”

Tiamat glanced at him before snuggling into his chest, confirming she was in fact worried, though not whether she actually understood what he said. Even on the small ship, Tiamat spent time either practicing flying with Gunthar's aid, the undead often squealing if Tiamat looked too close to the edge, or in Lilia's arms like some stuffed toy.

To be attached to him confirmed to Rainer that Tiamat may very well have sensed the same thing he witnessed with [Arcane Revelation]. An unsettling confirmation, but a confirmation nonetheless.

”Dragon, Divinity, and whatever else. Does it matter? What more well-known legend is there than of an [Archon].”

Rainer received no response from the dragon that decided to sleep with him tonight, himself deciding now to head to sleep. Kara and Luna were already asleep, both eager to enjoy a normal bed, even despite other desires.

They all had long lives and plenty of time for anything else.

But when tired, nothing beat a comfortable bed.

Rainer took a few minutes to set his party off on their own Auto-piloted [Sleep Learning] sessions, after ignoring a grumble from Sarah to start enchanting her.

”A resounding success,” Talvara said as she came into the White Void.

Rainer noticed the Void-being glance to his right.

”So the scar is even in here…” He assumed, running his fingers over it. A quick use of [Soul Detection] found his Soul scarred, and no use of [Arcane Invigoration] seemed to do otherwise. Of course, compared to the whole of his Soul the damage was minuscule but present nonetheless.

”Yes..the scar. I would not worry, it doesn't detract from you. I imagine something unexpected descended?”

”It was after an [Appraisal],” Rainer added, not particularly seeing a reason to deny it.

”Have you reconsidered taking Void Will as a reward?”

Rainer hummed thoughtfully. His interest in more Void Will was limited. It would be a welcome addition but it wouldn't be groundbreaking by any means.

”What about for someone else?”

Talvara returned a smile.

”It can be done. Anything beyond what we agreed upon?”

”Can I kill you?”

Talvara raised an eyebrow, of course knowing there was more to the question than the obvious.

Rather than explain, he first opted to kill himself. Forming a rune in his brain with [Internal Runic Formation], Rainer let it instead go out of control, exploding and killing him instantly.

Moments later, with his previous body and all other parts disappearing, Rainer reformed.

”I'm not sure how it'll affect other people. Or even if the reform is automatic.”

”And you wish to check if it's safe for your party members? And by using me? My, how callous of you.” She jested.

”Who but you could recover from anything?”

Talvara laughed at the compliment, that technically was trying to convince her to die. She thought over the premise in the past before, but in the end, she would have never come here if she feared such a thing.

Rather what caused her, begrudgingly, to admit to fear in the past, was his ability to keep her here. But apart from her Soul connecting here, all else appeared but an illusion. And there were advantages to testing this out when he wasn't actually trying to do her harm.

”Make it quick.”

A short flash of an [Arcane Blade] later, and the formerly dead Void-Being reformed in the White Void.

”Well?” Rainer asked.

”It was..odd. It happened too fast for me to really note it. Nothing painful. More like falling asleep only to wake up again moments later.”

”Did you have to reform your body on your own?”

”No,” Talvara answered. Rather she tried to halt the automatic reformation out of curiosity before letting it happen. It was...an odd experience.

Rainer nodded. He had wanted to make sure death in the White Void wouldn't affect his party members any more than it affected him. And a god-like Void-being seemed the best test subject to recover afterward if there were ill effects. Did she even sleep? Or was she even anything that could be denoted as such at all?

”Why do I believe you've thought something rude of me?”

”Never.”

Talvara laughed for a moment before speaking again, ”For the time being, I must be off. I shall visit again when I can,”

”Thank you for the help, honestly,” Rainer remarked before Talvara vanished.

Moments later Rainer pulled his originally Auto-piloting party members back into the Void. All of them appeared with clothes, with him having told them to train as such. Apart from the issues of modesty and him very much not wanting to see his sister naked, he imagined it'd be a helpful exercise for the other abilities of [Sleep Learning].

”For now, we're going to see how long you can stay in here before your mind starts feeling foggy. We'll wake up every half-hour and then try again,” The after-effects of [Sleep Learning] were hard to notice while you were actually in the place.

They all began making their best use of the time here. Rainer opted to help Lilia try and learn [Mana Manipulation] while at the same time demonstrating what each rune of [Arcane Bolt] had to do with an actual [Arcane Bolt]. He repeatedly cast the spell for this effort, mimicking his grandfather in doing certain parts as slow as possible.

”What's it like to learn runes,” She asked him, staring attentively at the [Arcane Bolt] formed in his hand.

Rainer thought over the question himself, he guessed she meant what it was like when it finally clicked, and Runes were more than just over-complicated letters on a page.

”Well…”

Rainer himself never asked this question to his grandfather. Really, Runes had come a bit too easy for him to ask any sort of questions. After a moment of thought, he figured out the best way to describe it.

Canceling the spell he brought out a piece of paper. He drew a square in the center of it.

”Imagine this as a normal letter of any language. The first step, and now the next step” he drew on the square to make it resemble a cube, including the dotted lines as if it was see-through.

”This will be the next step, a normal Rune. And truly understanding Runes, is seeing that one more step further. Almost as if you are seeing the magic that it can bring about. Another dimension to the object that wasn't there before.”

”And that last part is what you see when you look at Runes? And why it can give you headaches? Or make you cast spells with your Mana,” Lilia asked.

”Exactly. Think of a written riddle. And if you can't read…”

”Then the riddle can't tire out your head thinking about it no matter how much you stare at it, Nor can you come up with an answer to it,” Lilia added.

Rainer smiled, glad she was quick to understand his example he wasn't sure was particularly good. He continued demonstrating [Arcane Bolt] and explaining what each Rune did to cast each part of the spell.

Elsewhere Luna used massive amounts of her flame to...well, Rainer couldn't view it as anything other than playing around. But at least she seemed to be improving her control despite the apparent fun she was having burning reproductions of his enchanted ship with the unlimited energy available in the white void.

”Luna,” Rainer stopped her just as she was about to burn down yet another ship, ”How about trying to burn only the enchantment? As training?”

Luna looked at him like he just insulted her most prized possession.

”See, Luna was right…” She mumbled.

”Right about what?”

”That if I trained, everyone would expect Luna to always keep training…”

”Alright...just burn the ship,”

Luna let out a happy yip before she fluttered back over and continued her pyromaniac adventures as Rainer occasionally suffered a flashback towards his real destroyed ship.

Kara and Sarah opted to begin sparring only to change their minds. Or rather Sarah did as fighting Kara when there was no reason to hold back showed just how far the difference between the two was, even sans Wolf form. Though while Sarah refreshed her body with no issue after a broken forearm, she did not experience death.

Both then practiced various skills in ways they could not do outside the White Void.

The night went on, and with Luna's help, every participant was woken up 30 minutes later and then put back to sleep when no effects were observed.

Every single member of Rainer's party lasted the whole 6 hour night. And towards the end of the [Sleep Learning] session, he practiced on a replication of the spear the Village Chief had.

The next morning they stood around in discussion, wondering why no one suffered ill effects.

”So either it's different for others, or it's not related to Intelligence,” Rainer started.

”Is your space not related to your Soul, Sorcerer?” Gunthar was first to ask.

Rainer laughed a bit. That would make more sense. And just as his Intelligence rose, so too did his total Mana Pool. And a Soul's strength was naturally nurtured by an individual's energy pools, Mana, Aura or otherwise.

With [Arcane Revelation], and his newly improved [Soul Detection], Rainer glanced at his party. Luna, oddly had the strongest Soul, followed by Gunthar's which also seemed to have a strange density to it, likely from his skill. Next was a near tie between Kara and Sarah, and then finally Lilla.

That surprised Rainer the most. His apprentice, despite having almost no energy to speak of, was only slightly behind the Aura mammoth Kara and the Mana-stealing Sarah. And in terms of density, seemed to surpass Gunthar.

Was a Soul Affinity that strong?

Still, his own was a bit above everyone's. Perhaps even an effect of having the two voids attached to his soul.

”We'll be careful about it, but for now I doubt there will be any problem with staying awake for longer periods in the White Void.”

Along with pleased looks, was Sarah speaking, ”Time for my enchantments.”

”Let's go meet with the village chief again,” Rainer mentioned, promptly ignoring her.

Soon after, the party headed back to the Chief's house to overlook his various maps he kept from his time as a sailor and later a captain.

”Right here is the range of the Ship-killer,” Sav pointed to a circled off area on the map. It was directly south and then slightly east of the Port Rainer set sail from.

So the ship drifted a bit...or for some reason, the Ship-killer was able to leave its area…

Rainer now guessed on the former. From the hidden library of Nalmar, he knew several things about poltergeists, though of course nothing relating to such grossly powerful ones, assuming it was one at all. And it was agreed as a rule from various sources that without the aid of a Necromancer and a ritual to bind them to another thing, they could not leave their original resting places.

And if the storm truly chased no one past a certain range, he doubted it could leave. But the doubt wasn't enough that he'd sail by one again with a Dragon Enchanted ship. At the very least his partial worry at it following them for Tiamat was abated, alongside the fact it didn't really pursue them when they ran.

”What is a Ship-Killer?”

Sav chuckled for a moment before answering, ”Who knows? Most consider them magical storms. I once was on a ship with the Tideborne Guildmaster in my younger days. He was convinced they were the ancient remnants of Dragon Magic, or Dragons themselves, and was quite enthusiastic in telling everyone he could about his theories. Mind you this isn't coming from me, but even his two apprentices with him looked at him as if they were containing eye rolls.”

Rainer saw no reason to confirm the truth.

”Right now the war between the Sea King and Serpent King is ramping up,” Sav continued talking, ”It won't be long till others join in. Already several countries have called back divisions of their army which regularly hunt monsters.”

Sav's explanation continued. He wasn't giving away any information that most people who made the Isles their home didn't already know.

”Any small war like this seldom stays small. Other countries join in at a chance to gather quick experience for their armies and nobles, or for their territories to expand.”

Through his words, Sav kept glancing at Kara, seeing her more clearly in the bright light of day.

”What's wrong?” Rainer asked. He didn't think that man was so daring as to ogle her in front of him, so it had to be something else. Or rather, so daring as to ogle her in front of her.

Does he have a special skill that can sense her Demon-half?

”Ah..apologies,” Sav said with a cough and quickly sought to explain, ”She has the eyes of the Wolf King's bloodline. I was just a bit distracted,” What went unsaid, was he automatically assumed this Aura user was a former slave. It was the only way he could understand how someone who unmistakably had the unique eye color of that line had not come from the Dragon Isles. Why someone who had the Aura Talent of the Wolf King's line ended up a slave, he couldn't say. Nor why a mage would treat any of the Wolf King's descendants nicely, let alone enter a romantic relationship.

He smirked for a brief moment, thinking this clueless mage had run away from home relating to that. He had spent a considerable sum on acquiring a few love stories he gained an interest in reading during long travels at sea with nobles and mages who had nothing better to do then speak about literature. Some were smart enough not to treat the people who held their lives in their hands poorly.

”It's fine,” Rainer said, glancing back at Kara who seemed to have sunken into thought, ”Continue.”

”The small port town further south on the island deals with some of the earlier entries into the Dragon Isles. Often ships from the North that have no plans to go further in. A great place to acquire Northern goods.Though not the most popular choice.”

At the end of the conversation, Rainer had one final request.

”Can I see your spear?”

Sav looked at him dubiously but with reluctance handed the spear over.

”And a private room?”

”Might I ask what for…?” Sav asked nervously. He couldn't even fathom what was going on.

”I can't very well let anyone see the enchantment secrets of the Nvos family.”

While still skeptical from what little he knew of enchanting, Sav hurriedly led the strange Magus to an empty room.

After a quick use of [Soul Detection], Rainer took out the Mana-Well. As he didn't seek to get Sav in trouble for having something that was possibly incredibly rare, Rainer opted not to use [Draconic Enchanting].

The Mana-Well sang with power as Mana flowed into Rainer's control. The spear shook as Runes appeared within, inscribed by its current holder.

Different from the usual enchantment, Rainer sought to let the Mana flow into the spear itself, mixing in what he learned from [Draconic Enchanting] into the Faraan variety. It wasn't much of an improvement, but it was worth it to at least do it.The end result was somewhere in between the shorter, more superficial enchantments, and the longer more permanent ones of the Faraan kind.

The wood was far thicker than anything he'd ever seen and the metal was stronger than ordinary steel. Rainer took his time, having already figured out the maximum amount he could enchant the spear with in [Sleep Learning].

Close to half an hour of work passed and with a final burst of the Mana, the enchantment took hold.

[Strengthened Ardul-Steel Spear: An Ardul-Steel spear which has been heavily strengthened by enchantment]

Exiting the room, Rainer held out the spear to the stunned Sav.

”I...Thank you, Magus…” Sav recognized the gleam of enchantment instantly. Had this Magus truly spent Mana crystals on him?

”It's just a strengthening enchantment, consider it payment for services rendered.”

An Aura enhanced grip and attempt to bend the spear told Sav it was most certainly not just any enchantment, but he wasn't one to argue.

After heading back to the Inn to prepare to leave, Kara and Rainer sat alone in their room, with the exception of Luna on his head.

”What do you think about what he said? Do you think it's true or a coincidence?” A pretty large coincidence her eye color would have to be, given her mother's gifted Spatial Ring and the recognition from a random village chief.

”I'm not sure. Can we go to the Wolf King's territory?” Kara asked. The countries themselves had names but were more often than not referred to as their Ruler's territories.

”Of course. But that wasn't what I was asking.”

”I'm...not sure. If he did, in fact, give that ring to my mother, and I can't deny the chance she didn't just take it,” She laughed a bit, her mother was a bit wild as a person, ”then isn't it a high chance he knowingly abandoned her and me?”

Rainer sighed, not really knowing what to say.

”But can I even be mad at him for it? For all intents and purposes, a child of a Demon and anyone else is always a Demon. It wasn't as if she or I could safely live in the Dragon Isles, let alone as members of some sort of royalty. Nor would it be the best life for him to go with my mother...”

”All we can do is look for him. You can decide how to feel when you meet him,” Rainer said, putting an arm around her shoulder, ”and if he makes you feel like punching him in the face, I'll help by holding him down.”

”A roaring first impression on your future in-law that'll be,” Kara added before realizing she may have spoken that far too soon. A smile went across her face at him not even reacting to that. A part of her now wondered what his traditions for marriage were, rather than thinking about her possible father anymore.

”Luna will hold him down too,” The fairy cheerfully added, eliciting a laugh from both Kara and Rainer, ”Luna was serious,” She complained in faux hurt, a statement that did nothing to quiet either of the two.

Giving a final glance back at the small town, Rainer wrapped the group in [Eldritch Flight] and ascended into the sky, making towards the port located near the World Tree Branch.

They would make their way into the Wolf King's territory and Rainer planned to use the seedier parts of cities to gather information he needed about Rogue Mages and the Isles itself.

And for Kara, to see if she truly descended from some part of the Wolf King's line and if they could find her father among that line.