Rainer let out a long contented sigh as he left the rest of the party behind and moved deeper into the rest area. Luna sat on his head, mumbling to herself about which reward to pick. How he wished to fall down and sleep right now. But the fact that he couldn’t resist entering [Sleep Learning] to play with his rewards removed that desire quite quickly.

[The Rest Area shall remain for 7 Days. Head to the Control Orb to meet with other parties]

[167:57:23]

Everything about this place… it was... relaxing. Even the air seemed to have something special, though [Arcane Revelation] revealed nothing. Walking down the stone path, he guessed it wasn’t far to whatever accommodations were given to him.

[Elemental Synergy: Increases the compatibility and the power of magical elements when merged together.]

It could be exactly what he needed. But did Arcane count as a magical element? Did the Void when casted through magic count? Even without that, compatibility alone meant great things for his future experiments along this line. Especially when considering future improvements to [Deliverance] and other spells he might devise in the future. With [Sleep Learning]s safe testing, who could compare with him in merging elements? Add an attribute, leveled instantly to 26 by [Archon], and it was truly beyond compare.

He could really use the skill points from leveling a Tier 7 spell to 10, and this seemed like a good boost for it, even if it only worked for [Deliverance] and not [Absolute Frost].

[Magical Perception: Increases the ability to see magic.]

A far more general and useless description, Rainer thought. What was ‘magic’ in this case? Runes? And what was ‘seeing’ truly referring to? A weak innate version of [Arcane Revelation], or something else? There were too many unknowns for him to properly judge this attribute.

Given the effects of [Soul Presence], Rainer had little doubt either of these two attributes wouldn’t be extremely useful to him. The question was, just like last time, which would be the hardest to get on his own?

Given his [Arch Magus] title, Rainer wondered if he already had a rare class that could unlock something like Elemental Synergy. Or if he wasn’t far from one. Especially with his [Excellent Arcane Affinity] giving him the equivalent of a Medium Affinity in every elemental category. Alternatively, Rainer had no leads to unlocking Magical Perception. Despite the ‘unfair’ - as any Enchanter would call it - and extensive uses of [Arcane Revelation], there was no title for it.

So the choice was obvious. He blinked a few times, and soon realized there wasn’t any obvious changes. At the very least, at level 26 there should have been something. But looking at the enchanted items that littered his body, he ‘saw’ nothing more. He moved on to picking his other rewards, a slight trust in the system that wasn’t there before let him ignore that he couldn’t see any immediate effects. That the system never punished him for what he attempted with his sister’s killer’s Soul was a large point in its favor.

For items, it was a somewhat harder decision.

[Treads of Frost: Boots of powerful Ice Magic. Increases control and Immunity towards one’s own Ice Magic by 30%.]

‘Control’ certainly was useful, and more immunity meant more mental space to ignore preventing himself from freezing to death. Not to mention he wouldn’t mind a pair of powerfully enchanted boots to add to his defenses.

[Soul Sheath: An incorporeal item that defends the Soul against outside attacks and increases resistance to Soul-based pain by 50%. When removed, increases strength of Soul by 20% for 10 seconds once per hour.]

Already, Rainer had no choice but to put the boots out of his mind. The last part was stronger by itself even if temporary. But when were his life and death fights ever long affairs? There was no information on how Ice control would stack with all his bonuses, but strength of Soul had far less crossover to anything else.

[Arcane Harmonizer: A wisdom tooth covering. Increases the efficiency of any Arcane-Elemental spells by 25%.]

He was tempted, but given his luck thus far, Rainer wouldn’t be surprised if he was forced to take the 3rd Tier Trial earlier than planned. Not only was there the looming invasion of the place where that 3rd Tier High Elf came from, he had also made his fair share of Divine enemies.

Not to mention Talvara’s issues. Francis’ leftover emotions meant that no matter what danger faced her, he couldn’t just stand by. And even beyond that, she was a close friend. That Kara ‘approved’ of her only made those originally foreign feelings stronger. He was truly stuck. As if some many millenia old Void-being returned his mortal feelings in any way.

A possible rush to the 3rd Tier meant that, as of now, nothing was more important than learning to benefit from his powerful and mutated Soul any way he could. Only then could he truly stand a chance at the Trial. Though… who knew what Jor gained from consuming that Divinity to his source. That Jor was weak in Soul, also meant that he could unsheath this item and immediately add it to Jor’s own Soul. Jor himself had an enchanted item to protect its Soul, but it was hardly a ‘sheath’ and instead a collar. It was a percentage rather than an actual defense.

Not to mention that adding this item to his known collection of enchanted items related to the Soul meant he had one to store, one to harvest - held by Gunthar in the form of a dagger - and one to protect and assist in attack.

It was all he needed to try and understand the Soul, specifically how to do damage with it and improve that damage, and create perhaps his own items or skills that could draw on and augment his Soul. Or get his Guild to do so as far as items were concerned. That’s what he created it for after all. Now he wondered if he might try to create a lesser version of [Arcane Sight] for the ‘common’ man so that they could help him more with this. But that was a thought for another time.

A shining ghost-like item appeared in front of him, looking no different than a sword sheath, and when he touched it, he instantly understood how to equip it. With a thought, it disappeared and wrapped around his Soul, surrounding it in a shining silver presence.

How mystical.

He arrived at the mansion that was the focal point of the rest area. Right as he entered he found the communication described by the system message.

At the strange orb in the middle of the foyer, Rainer went through the list of parties, searching for Fai’Etah’s in particular. Given her call for help in return for the [Soul Mark] there was much that they needed to discuss. He had grown fond of her as a friend and certainly didn’t wish for her to die. But he wasn’t going throw himself to death either.

[For the Hive]

Rainer raised an eyebrow at her party name. What did that mean? Was her race a part of a hive of some sort? But then who was chasing her? But he called them to his rest area nonetheless. It was just a matter of accepting his invitation.

He decided to wait to enter [Sleep Learning] on the premise that Fai’Etah would soon accept his invitation.

He set a small glance towards Luna, using [Arcane Revelation]. She looked the same as always but something seemed a bit strange. He could almost ‘see’ how the magic within her was Fae in origin. A part of her anatomy, rather than just magic itself. And so for the first time he could see far more clearly magic that wasn’t Fae.

She was part dragon. He had already somewhat assumed this, given what he learned from Yulia’s Soul about Luna’s creation, but seeing it was another matter. Something he could only discern from the rest of her magical self with his recent gains in [Draconic Anatomy] and then perhaps his Magical Perception attribute. The former Fae Queen had truly spared no expense in creating a vessel to rebirth the Sacred Faerie Fire.

Of course, it was a miniscule percentage, not even denoted by a whole number. Without that Dungeon reward, perhaps he’d never be able to notice that slight discrepancy in her magical body. Though it was likely responsible for her ability to change size, similar to Tiamat.

And so he wondered, not if he could change Luna further, but rather himself. He twirled a small vial of Draconic Essence as he sat down in a lush comfy chair. Luna quickly took the opportunity to nap on his lap, pretending that as a familiar she wasn’t allowed the comfort of sleep and was just as tired as the rest of them.

He guessed that in the future the fully human part of his body, or even his Soul, might not be strong enough to be a buffer between Arcane and Void as he continued to change himself. It wasn’t a surety of course, but it also wasn’t impossible.

After all, if the Soul was changed, then the body was changed, and then when the body changed enough it changed the Soul while the Soul then changed the body even further. It was a loop that grew stronger and stronger and would only be slowed down when the body reached its absorption limit. Even Furtak, while very very minor, still experienced small changes. And Rainer could tell that he himself wasn’t anywhere near the limit of his unique process. And that in the future there might be issues.

But what if he was part Dragon?

Even more importantly, there was the Draconic ability to treat Mana as not a limited resource but as air in their lungs. So long as they took a breath, they’d always have more. If he could have even a fraction of a Dragon’s Mana regeneration, how strong would he become?

But it had always been a fool’s dream to do such a thing. After all, it was a monster’s innate ability to devour and improve themselves with the strength of other monsters. Luna was a cosmic miracle in that sense. Her very existence was a large factor of pure chance. Even then, she didn’t absorb it, but was rather made partially from it unlike a monster’s absorption ability.

But he had witnessed both an example of monster absorption, and Draconic bloodline where it didn’t belong, first hand with [Arcane Revelation]. In a way that likely few if any could.

And he had [Sleep Learning] and Avatars on top of that to work out any kinks. Even more importantly, he could create an endless amount of Draconic materials for use in [Sleep Learning]. That had certainly been a huge factor in limiting any experiments in this direction. How easy was it to acquire rare and concentrated parts of a real Dragon?

Given the strength of one of the vials he had gotten, one that Tiamat had yet to absorb, he guessed that a single Dragon’s blood might not even be a enough to produce something like this. Or the Dragon was ludicrously strong, presenting its own issue for gathering in that sense.

But was giving up the benefit of being a Human worth it? The current lack of a racial experience penalty was nice, but Rainer knew he’d be stuck in the 2nd Tier for a long time. Not to mention he’d likely receive an experience penalty anyways once Arcane and Void changed him enough. But was that something he needed to consider? Especially with the massive amount of titles he gained as an [Archon]?

As it was just a theory, he pushed it aside for now. He had many things to experiment with. Maybe he should focus on getting [Avatar Control] to level 8 first?

He withdrew the [Primordial Rock] and threw it between his hands. And what exactly was this thing? With his trust in the system improved, he was hesitant to underestimate this thing. His thoughts were quickly interrupted by a high-pitched giggling. It took all of Rainer’s willpower not to throw the rock at his sister who had just entered the room. It wouldn’t actually hurt her after all.

It was a good reward! Probably. What did he need to be mocked for?

“Stop giggling!”

“D-don’t ask for the impossible. While everyone got incredibly powerful items, you... got… a r-r-rock.”

“What do I even have family for?” He sighed dramatically, chuckling at Luna’s, ‘because Luna is the best’, reply. Likely referring to herself as that family. Which she was.

“Mocking your each and every mistake and benefiting from your successes?”

“Sounds about right.”