Rainer glanced around the Void for longer than normal as he made his longest journey yet. What confused him was that he got the sense of it being endless, even though void travelling was able to cross such impossible distances while only traveling through a small part... Just how massive was the universe, then?

His thoughts were cut short as he roughly sprawled onto the ground. While the natural forces of the plane - or Isle, he supposed- seemed to have kept him on it, he definitely wasn’t where he meant to go. It seemed there was a bit of adjusting to do when [Void-walking] to such a rapidly, even on a cosmic scale, moving place.

After all, Earth moved too. But that he didn’t notice that movement through [Void-walking] showed just how large the difference in speed was. But he also didn’t notice a time dilation while controlling his Avatar. Something he guessed should have occurred at this speed. Whatever this ‘speed’ was exactly.

His jaw fell as he looked at the scenery around him. It was…

Mundane. Completely and utterly mundane. Nothing more than a rolling prairie. Given how Fai’Etah had mentioned her disgust at the Dungeon’s environment, he expected something far different. Did she just not like the color green? There certainly wasn’t much of anything green around him.

He assumed that was possible. After all, just as greenery pleased Humans, it might enrage other races. Dusting himself off, he walked forward. For some reason, he couldn’t use [Void Seer] on Fai’Etah, but given that she hadn’t sent a panic message through the Soul-Mark she should be fine. He needed time to recover his almost empty Void-Will in any case.

While he could use his Mana for [Void-walking], he still needed to tear reality with [Blade of the Void]. Prior to any talents, it would take his current Void Will pool of 231 a regular day to recover. As he currently needed 45 Void Will for a regular use of [Blade of the Void], that was a long time to wait. Thankfully, [Medium Void Affinity] doubled his recovery rate of Void Will.

He let out a long sigh as he realized he might be entering Stage 3 with next to no Void Will. That was hardly ideal. But there was no one to blame but himself for not thinking of making Fai’Etah leave one day earlier. He hoped the Dungeon would fully recover them prior to the stage, but had little hope for that. A nagging part of him also realized that using [Blade of the Void] and then his Mana to Void-walk would have been far more prudent. He shoved down this voice for later use.

As he walked along, his eyes opened widely as he looked at the little thing that jumped at him. [Appraisal] showed it as [Gopher lvl 1]. The furry mammal naturally settled and crawled up his arm. Rainer stared at it for a long, long time, before he immediately returned to his main body.

In the Rest Area, Rainer glanced at his arm, feeling the phantom sensation of something crawling on him before sending orders to the Avatar - no longer controlling it directly. A cycling use of [Arcane Rage] and [Arcane Invigoration] later, Rainer took full control of the distant Avatar once more.

He breathed harshly as he collapsed to his knees. Pulling up his sleeve, he saw it covered by rashes of blue and red, swirling and itching across his body. The ‘Gopher’ was anything but that. He ripped off the leech-like thing on his arm and threw into the air, right into an [Arcane Combustion].

The rippling of Arcane-Fire and the frightened screeches of other once approaching monsters brought his attention back to his surroundings.

Black living shadows covered the dark marsh spreading out around him. A deep fog that seemed to be responsible for his earlier hallucination accompanied it. Stepping past a bubbling pool of… something, Rainer ran forward, trying to check on Fai’Etah.

Watching the fight with [Void Seer], Rainer quickly realized that other than her, and a few who kept their robes on, he couldn’t recognize which side was which. But they seemed to be testing each other out currently rather than fighting to the death, as Fai’Etah’s side, or who he assumed was Fai’Etah’s side, slowly retreated and grouped together near the Dungeon.

There hadn’t been a trap waiting for them so much as just a group of people. After a momentary skirmish they seemed to be talking, leaving Rainer room to recover more.

He glanced around himself before rapidly manipulating Arcane-Fire into the air. He swirled it around him, lashing out and burning anything in his path. While his earlier show had scared away these weird things, they now came at him once more. Eventually he just flew high enough in the air and spun fire around him.

Looking with [Arcane Revelation] he found a strange magical presence in the distance, along with seeing that every Monster here were almost pure creatures of magic. Flying over, he came across a single normal looking grouping of flowers. Completely out of place within such a shadowy wasteland. Normal-looking being the key word. He flew back as tendrils and spiked leaves lunged at him at incredible speed.

Arcane-Fire seemed to cow it, but it didn’t do much damage. [Appraisal] didn’t reveal much given that it was a strange monster without any obvious modifier like ‘King’. Gaining a hint of why Fai’Etah and her people might not like plant-life, he flew elsewhere, keeping a swirl of Arcane-Fire around him.

Curiously, he used [Soul Presence] to enhance his manipulation, spreading the fire farther and farther while sinking into it, only for his body to fall out of the sky and slam roughly into the ground. It was only with a powerful will not to die that he managed to heal his now wisp of a Soul with [Arcane Invigoration] before he lost control of this body.

When he had used [Soul Presence] to enhance his trip here, he had done it only for a moment. Now he noticed just how much of his Soul was quickly consumed. It seemed the Avatar wasn’t meant for extensive uses of [Soul Presence].

It took a few minutes of fighting off weird leeches and other monsters of shadow and using [Arcane Invigoration] on numerous broken bones and punctured organs, before he healed himself enough from the fall. Another check of [Void Seer] showed that things had changed around Fai’Etah.

Seeing things heating up, he Void-walked into the air above them. Immediately, he unleashed half of his stored [Arcanum]s; the Arcane-weaved circles sent out powerful beams of Arcane at several Phantous in the distance. The Tier 2 creatures showed their innate weakness to Arcane as one died instantly, while the other three retreated immediately with large amounts of damage.

Rainer appeared by Fai’Etah’s side moments later. In the lull of combat created by him, the rest of the party grouped together and donned their humanoid forming robes.

“How dare you!”

Rainer saw a previously relaxed Phantous rush to the forefront, but paused as he felt the Arcane pouring into the air.

“You would bring this thing to us, it seems our decision was not wrong,” he said, seemingly only looking at Fai’Etah and ignoring him.

Rainer didn’t even need to appraise this shadow to know he was in the 3rd Tier. The strength of his Soul said it all. But it seemed his fear of Arcane won out over any rational thoughts. Even then, Rainer wondered if the weakness of their race was enough for him to cross the tier gap in a fair fight.

As if to explain herself, Fai’Etah was about to speak only to be interrupted by Rainer’s laughing.

“Our deal is complete. I shall take you from this world,” Rainer declared, letting them think whatever they wished about said ‘deal’.

The Phantous joined hands as planned, though many didn’t like what he had said, and Rainer took them away with a Void-travel, picking a random distant place on this Isle.

“This… this is still our Isle?” Fai’Etah asked, now confused. She didn’t like the impression Rainer left, as even despite what had occured she didn’t want to cause harm to her hive, even if she had accepted that bringing Rainer here might.

“I need some time to recover before I can take you,” he reminded, having mentioned this possibility before. He scratched at his arm, angry, as he sent another round of [Arcane Rage] and [Arcane Invigoration] to clear the poisoned air from himself. He tried to use [Wind Manipulation] to separate himself from the poison, but it was too intertwined. It was either breathe in the poison, or don’t breathe at all.

“Any reason you didn’t mention your air might be poisonous to me?”

“Compared to the filthy air in the Dungeon, this is paradise. What poison do you speak of? I know some other races of the Isle tend to stay away from our Hive’s lands.” Fai’Etah paused as she looked at his bare arm.

“Is the ‘poison’ forcing you to reveal your true form?”

“This is my true form.”

“That’s what I was asking.”

Deciding she had to be doing this on purpose, he focused on his Void Will. He didn’t know of any methods to recover it quicker, but he figured exploring it with his various Attunement and Meditation skills wouldn’t hurt.

“Oh, this is nice,” Fai’Etah said, surprising Elelaria who Rainer had Void-walked the Phantous to. As it was, they were in a metal room that had yet been assigned any purpose, leaving it a bare and metallic black. There was no reason to leave a [Soul Mark] as he could just use a blood-tracking spell on Fai’Etah. He paused as he wondered if he might end up sensing her whole race.

Or if she even had blood. It seemed overtraining with [Soul Presence] had made him forget a lot of things today.

“Wait ‘till we get outside,” Rainer said with an eyeroll. Maybe a metal room wasn’t the best first impression. The group followed him, glancing around. He was sure he heard a few whispers about an evil Arcanist hoarding everyone’s Trial items as they glanced around the Guild. Coming from a place that had nearly no Enchanters, he supposed that was a fair assumption.

They stepped outside soon after. Rainer spun around as he heard a hiss from behind him. Fai’Etah had collapsed on the ground and was now trying to crawl away from the sunlight. Rainer rushed over to help her only to see the rest of her party being completely fine under the light. In fact, they seemed to avoid looking at Fai’Etah, seemingly embarrassed.

So Rainer helped her… by throwing her towards the sun.

The shadow-being floated mid-air before landing on the ground.

“That’s no way to treat a birthmother!” she complained.

“You have children?”

“No?”

“Then how are you a birthmother?”

“The potential is there,” Fai’Etah replied, giving him the image of a shadow sticking out her tongue.

Rainer just chuckled and led them towards the dorms of the Enchanter’s Guild. He decided to make a point of showing them around, if only to add even more credence that he originated from a strange and powerful place.

Rainer snapped back to his main-body as the timer for the Rest Area ended.

[Beginning Stage 3]

[Lives Gained: 1]

[Victory Condition: First Party to reach 100 points or become the Last Party standing.]

[Defeat Condition: Run out of Lives or Another Party reaches 100 Points.]

[Enter the Next Stage? Y/N]

It was an easy decision, especially with the hand-holding from the system. His original guess of this Dungeon wanting to wipe out the strongest parties seemed to have been proven wrong. Though whether or not rewards would be lost if you failed this stage was another question.

Elelaria quickly contacted him, and it wasn’t long before he knew which parties had left. More importantly, the one which mattered to him. A group of fourteen Elves had been seen rushing out of the Dungeon. They were unarmed and ran at incredible speeds. It was likely far too long for Rainer to track them down with an Avatar.

Before Rainer even had a chance to look around the 3rd Stage, he switched to his Avatar and headed to their captive. He stared at the High Elf with [Arcane Revelation] before finally seeing a tendril of magic trying to connect to his Soul. It was easy enough to dissipate it. Calling on Fai’Etah’s people to help guard him, he Void-traveled them all to a random island. He’d need to check on his Avatar repeatedly now to make sure they wouldn’t track this Elf down.

Rainer frowned as he thought of the invading force. Now that one of their own had been captured they would be far more cautious. Losing the arrogance of a powerful invading race, even partially, would be a big negative for Rainer’s side.

And was there anyone who had a chance of reaching the 3rd Tier soon to counter them? Rainer himself planned on winning the Dungeon, and while the remaining zone offered by the Dungeon would have experience opportunities - according to Fai’Etah - it likely wouldn’t be quick. Even then, how many would actually pass their Trial? Amer was powerful, but so was his Soul even if it wasn’t mutated. And Mira didn’t exactly have a reason to risk her life to take the Trial earlier than she needed to. Both Frederick and Art were still far from level 25 as well.

He realized only Aurora could be counted on to reach the 3rd Tier, assuming Talvara could possess her during her Trial. It was already strange to be able to do so during the Dungeon, so the pair had high hopes of using this trick. Not even descended Divinites could possess their chosen within Dungeons.

Leveling another 1st Tier class and then going through that Trial would be the easiest test of that.

Until then, he could only hope this High Elf might be a useful hostage or that their invasion took longer. He snapped back to his main body as it was teleported to the next stage.

Rainer glanced around the Stage 3 Arena they had been brought to after selecting yes. Other than the empty white stone platform, there was nothing else. They all tensed as they expected another party to appear across from them, only for a system message to appear instead, along with a single statue.

[Parties Remaining: 41]

[Round 1]

[Qualifying Condition: A single Party Member must destroy the statue with a single spell. The Party Member will be matched with an opponent.]

[Competition Type: Duel]

[Duel Condition: Magical Energies unusable.]

[Reward: 1 Point]

[00:09:45]

“What do you think happens if no one can do that?” Sarah asked.

“Maybe it’s a different Round depending on your party? Or maybe you don’t even get matched up with someone who had the same challenge,” Rainer thought aloud.

“Either way, the choice for this one is obvious,” Sarah said, looking towards her brother.

Rainer glanced around his party, many of them eventually looking to him. The choice was obvious, especially given the amount of magic given off by the statue. He was one of the few who could destroy it with one spell alone, and likely the only one who could still fight without said magic.

Furtak might be an exception if Familiar’s were allowed, but that would be a taking a big risk. Not to mention, he had no idea what would happen to a Flame-touched if Magic suddenly wasn’t allowed by some mystical force.

Noting that his Void Will hadn’t been recovered, Rainer was a bit disappointed. But he supposed it didn’t matter for this type of challenge so long as he had enough for a single [Void Call].

He raised a hand forward, and the artificial light of the room quickly gathered. There was no need to be too conservative with Arcane Power given the challenge of the next Round. The light around them dimmed, and a beam of Arcane ripped through the nondescript human statue.

After being destroyed, the remains of the statue collapsed in dust before vanishing.

“Now what?” Rainer asked after a few seconds.

“Probably waiting for someone to match up with you. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were figuring out a way to increase their chances of winning. Perhaps enchanted items meant for melee combatants? It’s probably too late to put on items now, given you already completed the condition. Don’t lose this for us,” Amer said petulantly, annoyed they didn’t even consider him for this. He was quite capable with Soul-based skills was he not?

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Rainer said, and a few minutes later he vanished along with the rest of his party.

In an identical Arena, Rainer stood across from his opponent. Both parties of each were watching from the stands. He wondered what exactly was keeping them from interfering?

[Warning: All spectators are unable to interfere. Interference will result in ejection from Dungeon and loss of all rewards.]

[Warning: Performing actions outside the Round’s parameters will be considered a loss.]

There went his inner question about whether he should extort the Mage across from him for spells or not.

Rainer barely kept from chuckling as he recognized the Mage across from him. Who would have thought he’d run into the Flameborne Guildmaster so soon. Judging by the anger on the old man’s face, it seemed ‘barely kept’ was a lie.

“I’ll make it quick,” Rainer laughed and, noticing that his pools had been refilled, and Void-traveled behind him. Judging by the Guildmaster’s attire, it seemed he had been loaded with a variety of close-combat enhancing items. Likely from his other party members.

The Guildmaster spun around, but it was moot. The teleport was merely a distraction for the [Void Call] Rainer used right after. Given that the red-robbed mage only managed to gather up enough items to barely be considered a Tier 2 warrior, the result was obvious.

[Round 1 Won.]

[Current Party Point Total: 1]

Moments later he and his party were teleported out of the Arena and back to their own empty one.Rainer realized just how easy this Stage might be. While they lacked any practice as a party, individually some of them were beyond most tier 2 experts. But, who knew how the next rounds might challenge them? He wouldn’t be surprised if eventually they had to send no one and forfeit the round because of too few lives.

Suddenly, everyone looked over as the Arena extended by what seemed like a mile.

[Round 2]

[Qualifying Condition: A single Party Member must reach the end of the Arena within 10 seconds.]

[Competition Type: Race]

[Race Condition: All energy pools unusable.]

[Reward: 1 Point]