Learning [Devour All Life] had quickly turned into a smaller affair after a few hours. The lack of success was certainly a factor, and even the idea of it being fake was brought up, but Locklar doubted they’d screw Rainer over to such a degree. Especially given his world crossing abilities.

Mostly, he thought that was just the strange grey Devil’s excuse for giving up. It was hard to admit that a young 21-year-old was simply far more enduring and brave than you were. 21… His age had come at a great surprise to Locklar. Even when taking into account this mysterious space, it wasn’t enough to explain his strength. He had known Rainer was young from his first glance. But young to someone like him was still in the triple digits, if led by a one or a two.

The spell itself was… fiery. It was rare an attempt didn’t end in self-immolation of a most unpleasant sort. The ghastly blue flame that burned the very life from you wasn’t a tame beast. Of course they weren't taking the usual precautions to learning magic, but they also weren't planning on spending years or decades learning it.

Having obviously never died, it was a new experience for the Soul Mage. One he had no desire to repeat. He had mastered the ability to refresh a new body in record time in this mystical space simply out of the deep desire to never die again.

But his progress in the spell had stilled. Unlike Rainer who was willing to painfully burn as he tried to manage and control the after effects, mastering the spell far quicker than reason would otherwise allow, Locklar was not. Nor was anyone else. It was a pain that transcended physicality. It wasn’t even a pain of the Soul, lest the young man’s strange Dungeon reward would have maybe been enough. Even with several of them stacked it hardly reduced pain to the degree the [Archon] claimed. Not even close. But the pain of [Devour All Life] was something else entirely.

Only the ancient but young-looking redhead and himself stayed here for the long haul. But mostly it was commenting on Rainer’s attempts as he tried to cast it with his Avatars alone.

Said redheaded grandfather was more concerned in creating a singular version of this spell. And his interests seemed to lay more in its relation to Life Energy rather than its combat potential. Despite Locklar’s countless centuries of Runic experience, he couldn’t understand the slightest what this fellow ancient Mage was doing with the runes. Their masterful Mind Magic and his own skills had long solved the language barrier, so that wasn’t the issue, nor had it ever been the issue when it came to runes.

“That should be enough for tonight,” Rainer finally said. While casting it with Avatars, and technically only a single mana pool, limited the strength of the spell, it was still a fearsome thing to be sure. And he wasn’t that far from casting it successfully.

“I’ve wanted to fight a 3rd Tier for a while,” the young man continued as he turned to look at Locklar.

Locklar himself had been interested. He knew he couldn’t defend against that wretched black blade, but that same knowledge meant he’d never be hit by it in the first place. It was a truly powerful thing to face against blind. If a 2nd Tier attacked him with a magic blade, he would look down on them far too much to bother dodging and just block with magic. Against Rainer that would spell certain death. He had no doubt that much of those who fell under that blade underestimated it, the 3rd Tier monster he saw it used on included, even if Locklar had helped in locking down the beast.

“Let’s get started then,” he responded in turn.

Locklar stood across from Rainer as he readied himself. The [Archon] was the perfect counter to a Mage. He was truly a hard person to fight.

Aura users, while sometimes having the speed to keep up with teleportations, could be stopped the same manner. All he had to do was slightly increase the length of his teleportation until he had more than enough time to cast. Unless there was a large difference in power or in luck, a win for either side wouldn’t be guaranteed as the Aura user could simply run. If their focus was entirely on dodging without attacking, their Aura would also likely last longer than Mana.

It was rare a fight between two people of Lockar’s strength ended in anything other than a tie or a complete overwhelming of one side. Unless there was a reason neither could run.

Melee Mages weren’t that different. They were hard to kill but they often gave up some power in exchange for the utility of using magic and might together. So even if they could teleport and keep up with Mages, they might not be able to harm them that well.

Rainer however gave up no power, and in fact gained some, by acting in melee. It was most disconcerting and frankly unfair. Not that he’d openly complain about it being ‘unfair’ when he was facing someone a tier below him.

The disinterested Art threw a coin. The moment it hit the grassland they created for the fight, Locklar felt his entire body, mana, and even Soul freeze. He watched as Rainer reached him in an instant, using that strange flying spell of his.

A blade of violet came from the left, and a tattoo alight in the same color came from the right, promising an unspeakable strength.

Locklar’s eyes narrowed as his Soul erupted, striking directly at Rainer, knowing he would be enhancing his blade with his Soul. The spell fizzled out as the man stumbled, but the tattoo on his right fired true. At nearly point blank, a beam of pure Arcane exploded at him.

Space distorted and with a use of great mana enhanced by his Soul, spatial magic redirected it elsewhere. It ripped through the air violently, but in a completely different direction.

However it was in that moment Rainer’s fist, still gripping an enchanted hilt, punched through his Mana-made shield. Locklar’s eyes widened as he was sent flying backwards, barely defending himself in time to protect his body.

Beams of Arcane appeared from floating circles of magic as Rainer charged him again.

Spatial magic stopped his flight and held him fast in the air. He threw magic around as all the beams were redirected, manipulating the forces of the world as he massively increased gravity over a wide swath of land. He forcefully pushed down with an even stronger spell of gravity directly on top of Rainer, the sheer force even preventing his unique brand of teleportation as Locklar manipulated space in a way similar to the group spell of his people.

It took only an instant for Rainer to lose consciousness and what should have been his life. How he managed to stay alive and keep healing was beyond Locklar’s knowledge. Rainer even defended against the gravity magic partially with a domain of his own. But the sheer pressure of the gravity stopped that attempt, limiting Rainer’s magic to within his body. Locklar only pressed harder, prepared to end it in an instant as his Soul flared and enhanced every single effort of his to it’s highest degree.

His pupils narrowed to pinpricks as he felt death coming. It should have been impossible for Rainer to shoot a spell at him; just from the sheer pressure on him, using any of his energy pools offensively should have been impossible. And yet here it was. Being too focused on finishing him off, Locklar was just a moment too slow, and he disappeared in a wide sphere of unspeakable darkness.

Having refreshed himself, Locklar stared at the Mage currently digging himself out of a deep hole in the plain.

The loss burned his pride more than he’d ever admit. Those ridiculous Dungeon rewards were truly a force to be reckoned with. Not to mention the thing that killed him was based on Rainer’s own abilities.

No wonder this group was so absurdly confident about beating 2nd Tier Trials. There went his lecture about not underestimating the Trials, even the 2nd Tier ones. Treating them as mere annoyances in between Tiers rather than challenges... If they had access to such items, how could they fail? Any insurmountable challenges could be defeated with a flick of the wrist. Technically less than that.

How did Rainer stay alive against his spell in any case?

“That fucking hurt,” Rainer complained, a bit hollow to Locklar’s ears, as he got out of the hole, still looking injured and a bit wobbly as he continued his healing. As if such a thing as having all your organs crushed by gravity would be more than a simple annyonce to this man.

“How about we go again?” Locklar said, knowing it wasn’t fair in the slightest now that he learned yet another secret of Rainer’s. There was little chance he would lose now unless the Mage had even greater secrets.

Rainer gave him a knowing grin before agreeing. Locklar felt his face burning, but powered through. He was far too old to feel this embarrassed.

Rainer wasn’t too bothered about the following losses. He had won once, and even if it was largely due to a surprise, Locklar had already known a few of his other surprises, so it was hardly something to complain about. The sheer difference in strength was expected. Locklar not being able to dodge his [Void Call] from the [Void Tattoo of Storage] had been a surprise. It was his last ditch effort after all.

That every fight after the first started and ended with him being almost instantly locked down wasn’t a fun prospect. Locklar could manage to lock him down before Rainer got a chance to get [Void Hold] going after the first attempt. It was just too large of a difference in sheer Attributes.

And it wasn’t one he could overcome… yet.

The rest of [Sleep Learning] was spent on the group spell. He figured learning one would help him with all the others. All of them were very interesting and complex bits of magic and he planned to fully change them to their Arcane variation and see what else he could do with them. Figuring out ways to capitalize on the fact he had multiple nearly autonomous versions of himself was high on his list.

After a week and a few days, a lightning group spell by the name of [Eye of Judgement], [Devour All Life], and [Converging Desolation], an Ice spell, were all that he managed to make progress on. He was close to learning all three of them; switching between them whenever he got stuck seemed to produce the best results. [Converging Desolation] interested him dearly, since it involved a start that wasn’t too different in concept than [Absolute Frost], but ended in the entirety of that frozen magic converging onto a single target. And afterwards, in theory, being able to jump to another.

The Guildmaster that owned this group spell noted on the scroll they never got the second part working. So they often just backtracked and let the spell rampage.

For the most part, he was entirely on his own, the cowards. Though he kept that last thought private. He was aware of his lack of normalcy and didn’t need to shine a light on it.

The following morning would be the day of the auction. He continued to work on the Group spells as the night plodded on.

It was towards the end of [Sleep Learning] that he received a call from Art. Had he made progress in the Dragon transformation? Reaching the limit of his own transformation, just prior to [Strong Void Affinity] it turned out, making his original guess wrong, he was more than ready for it. Especially as he had already acquired the [Soul Dragon] essence. If canceling the auction was possible without large issues he would have, as an event following his theft made the money unneeded, but Elelaria recommended against it.

It turned out stealing the essence of a [Soul Dragon] was a gross if easy affair. [Void Suppression] seemed to mask the essence to most, but Locklar said the essence made it much easier to detect him. That is, unless he put it in his mouth. A pocket wasn’t good enough unfortunately.

Having a vial of what was essentially blood in his mouth and then swapping it for one that who knows how many people touched after doing who knows what, was an experience he’d leave in the back of his memories.

But, he now had the essence of a [Soul Dragon] traded for one of a [Fire Dragon]. The stall owner didn’t seem notice. And neither did the person—who was likely a follower of the Divinity he pissed off—notice when she paid full price for the traded essence. Along with the rest of his stall. Given that the rest of the stall didn’t even cost a single Coin of Tor, let alone anywhere near 3,000 of them, it was likely an easy guess what Rainer wanted from there. He wasn’t happy to lose it, but it was by far his most common one. That he could laugh in the face of a God when she tried to blackmail him later was almost worth it.

Reaching his grandfather, he noticed that Kara was beside Art, likely still using the experiment to train her Aura. He’d have to ask her about her gained levels later. He himself wondered if training Aura should be done soon. At least with an Avatar set aside for it.

“You rang?”

Rainer said, gaining a confused look from Kara. He had explained a few metaphors relating to technology, but “you rang” was a new one to her.

“Yes. I believe it should work this time, assuming you can guide it.”

Rainer nodded. He was nowhere near close to perfection, but he could manipulate both his Soul and blood close enough to how a monster did naturally. Changing his body with Arcane and Void, along with the constant healing with [Arcane Invigoration] made him an expert when it came to his own body at least.

Art injected the altered essence right into Rainer, of a [Soul Dragon] specifically. It wasn’t like they had to save anything in the [Sleep Learning] space.

Rainer focused deeply, starting with his Soul, and was helped by the injection itself as he guided it to modify him. The process seemed to be going well, and Rainer even had a thought of trying to enhance his ‘Humanness’ rather than become Draconic, but the essence resisted that attempt and did as it pleased. Becoming Draconic it was.

His Soul changed and it quickly led to his body following. However, as everything seemed to be going well, the changes suddenly went out of control. They battled against his very nature and started destroying it and not long after destroying him wholesale from the inside. He fought against it and tried to guide it as much as he could but it eventually ended in failure.

“What happened?” Art asked, showing disappointment for the first time since they started these experiments. It looked like he expected this one to work.

“I haven’t the slightest idea. It worked at first, and seemed to have no issues,” Rainer even distinctly remembered how quickly his Soul strength climbed, “but it went out of control for seemingly no reason. Maybe I need to get better at mimicking a monster’s method.”

“Perhaps,” Art said, unconvinced. But he doubted the old man would give up anytime soon. He was used to much longer experiments after all.

As [Sleep Learning] ended, Rainer could only hope it was a possible thing at all.

Rainer glanced over the filled auction house. Given the numbers, they had little choice but to ask for a deposit at the door to keep out any people just looking. It wasn’t hard to pick out the richest and more important among the group. In fact, given the manner of dress combined with their races, he even recognized the country of two groups of people in here.

Both the Zan and the Ling were simply too large for him to care about the effects of a few Trial armor sets. He wouldn’t say no to their money. He even considered putting something on the armor so he could track them and steal them back. But the risk to their reputation was a bit too high no matter how much the idea appealed to him. Not to mention the physical risk of entering their world.

Especially since the armor would only help significantly in the 2nd Tier Trial. Percentage type enchantments rarely played well together and weren’t really fit for a 2nd Tier Trial set, assuming you weren’t like Rainer who had no issue mixing any and every kind of enchantment. Which meant the flat bonus offered by the Trial set in Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution simply wasn’t that useful for someone at the peak of the 2nd Tier.

But when someone from Zan tried to intimidate another group from their spot, Rainer’s pride wouldn’t let that go.

Looks like he’d be having some fun with these enemies of his after all.