As far as anyone could tell, there were no issues with the [Sleep Learning] space. Rainer spun his head around, glancing towards Locklar who quickly looked away. He couldn’t help but shake his own head. The old Soul and Space mage was acting like a teen with a crush, sneakily taking glances at Rainer. Said target of attention deeply regretted looking at Locklar with [Void Seer], thereby getting an unfiltered look. Having an old man stare at him that intensely was a bit much.

It had been entertaining at first, though it quickly turned weird. His Soul couldn’t have become that interesting, could it? Rainer paid it no further mind and decided to call in the person who decidedly knew the most of his own space: Talvara.

Even its technical creator, Frederick, didn’t truly understand how this space compared to the real world. Only the Void-being could somehow compare it to the natural laws that permeated other places. Not to mention that back when he was the owner of the space, Frederick couldn’t use it for Magic. Only Rainer’s transition into the system seemed to have allowed that for whatever reason.

Thankfully, the ancient being answered, though she didn’t seem all that happy to be here.

“Yes?” Talvara asked, her mind elsewhere as she thought over the changes in Rainer and also her earlier temper tantrum. Should she tell him of what she destroyed? That question had rattled around in her head to an annoying degree. Let alone the question of how she should handle him possibly being possessed by the partial Soul of an existence perhaps more powerful than her.

Rainer explained what happened to him, and the changes he eventually went under before asking if the [Sleep Learning] space had any changes, troublesome or not.

“Other than it being more perfect, I see no issues.”

“That’s good.”

“And?” Talvara said, finding herself weirdly annoyed.

“And?”

“That’s all you called me for?” Talvara glanced him, unsure of why she was so annoyed.

“What?” Rainer said, confused at how angry she sounded.

“Do not call me again unless it’s important,” she added before vanishing.

“What was that?” Rainer then asked while looking over at Art.

“What was what?” Art spared a raised eyebrow towards his grandson. Had his increasing beauty dulled his mind? She was clearly upset at being called for ‘just business’.

Rainer just shook his head, leaving it as one of the many mysteries of the world.

“Shall we go see how to blow me up better?” he asked, decidedly more chipper.

“I would like nothing more.” Art himself had plans of gaining an Avatar. So learning how to properly destroy it was a good path forward. Especially the Soul part. Like Frederick, the man had spent quite a bit of time already learning the prerequisites for the ritual. Only [Flesh Manipulation] and properly and safely splitting the Soul escaped the both of them. They doubted they’d learn it any time soon given the timetable Amer offered, but their skill in healing magic definitely paved a way forward. Not to mention the lack of any consequence the [Sleep Learning] space provided.

Rainer worked on yet another blood ritual until he suddenly froze. Wasn’t the answer obvious? [Arcane Awakening: Final Arcanum] already bordered on a sacrificial magic. It took all his Arcane Power and prevented Magic from being used for sometime. Was that not a sacrifice?

And body enchantments, what [Arcane Awakening]’s offshoots were based off, were themselves a sort of middle ground between Spell Formulas and Ritual circles.

There was a perfect solution to this problem.

Rainer stood a good distance away from his three created Avatars. They themselves spread out in a semicircle with Locklar in the middle. The old Soul mage found redirecting and defending against Arcane Magic to be good training, and therefore joined in this attempt at making Final Arcanum much more ‘final’.

Each of Rainer’s Avatars burned their Souls with [Soul Presence] as they dove into [Arcane Awakening: Final Arcanum] and tried to alter the runes. Rainer had already spent a long time training in sacrificial magic, so this was nothing new. The runes and rituals were already familiar to him, it was just a matter of adjusting them.

Rainer watched from afar, focusing on an Avatar whenever it seemed to get close to the desired goal. Thankfully, due to the change in his Soul or perhaps simply due to him trying at all, so long as he was quick enough he could reform an Avatar with the [Sleep Learning] space without going through the ritual. It wasn’t that much different than reforming his original body.

And so the hours went, a mixture of explosions, both of flesh and arcane, together with beams of violet light that attacked a singular mage of Space and Soul.

“Have you thought over when you’ll start enhancing your Draconic self?” Art asked.

Rainer sighed. Tiamat was basically at her limit and Delilah only needed a slight push into the 3rd Tier, so there was plenty of Draconic essence just waiting for him alone. And now that he had already transformed himself the next steps shouldn’t be that difficult. It should be quite easy and straightforward in fact. Just a simple absorbing of more Draconic essence and he would get stronger. And become more of a Dragon.

“I figure I’ll wait for a bit, make sure there’s nothing negative in my body,” Rainer said. He unfortunately noted that at no point during the process was his [Archon] class bonus involved. That meant there was no correction. And therefore he couldn’t even be sure everything was done even close to correctly.

“A shame.”

Rainer chuckled, noting the mad scientist truly was a bit disappointed. He was likely quite looking forward to the changes. His focus snapped to an Avatar as he watched the runes on its [Arcane Awakening] covered arm change and morph. Was this the one?

He felt his flesh vanish and his Soul burn as he turned into a violet man of energy. The Avatar vanished for a brief moment, seeming never to have existed at all… before a angry roar of pure Arcane energy made itself known.

The beam of pure power overtook Locklar’s attempt to redirect, tearing through his body in his surprise. Together with the burnt Soul and the sacrificed flesh, the violet beam of Arcane energy had surpassed any attack Rainer could otherwise muster.

As Rainer moved back his focus to his main body he watched in amazement. This was an attack of stunning power, even for him. [Arcane Awakening: Final Arcanum] combined with [Soul Presence] and [Soul Consolidation] already nearly doubled its strength. The addition of a sacrifice of flesh and a burning of the Soul, temporary and fake as it may be, added a double on top of it. It was an attack that reached well into the third tier in power.

[Skill Gained: Arcane Awakening: Violet Death lvl 1/10]

The sacrifice itself was almost peaceful. The Avatar’s flesh merely turned to violet light, before slowly vanishing. The end to that was of course nothing but peaceful, as a powerful roar of Arcane Energy erupted soon after.

Rainer’s eyes widened as he went to test something. Normally, he couldn’t use [Soul Presence] to enhance a spell or skill before putting it into the [Arcane Tattoo of Storage], but this was a sacrifice.

His own body vanished in a violet hue, leaving only a marble like object to drop from where he stood and bounce on the ground.

“What on Earth…” Art said blankly as he felt the sheer power radiating from that little bead. He groaned as he saw the smug look on his grandson’s face as he reappeared. It looked like his little exclamation had been heard.

“I’d like to see what a 2nd Tier Trial could cook up in the face of that,” Rainer said, gently picking up the little violet marble. Locklar was already hurrying over after his accidental death. While part of it had been the unexpected nature of the attack after he had gotten used to a certain level, it was still a force to be reckoned with.

“How about we test it further before you do anything rash,” Art said, looking at the rage that was now slowly building on his grandson’s face. There was no doubt in Rainer’s desire to go throw Avatars at the High Chancellor of Zan.

Only after a long breath did Rainer finally agree.

Further testing in [Sleep Learning] had determined that Locklar himself couldn’t catch a wisp of Soul before the Avatar sacrificed himself. It wasn’t enough to say the High Chancellor of Zan couldn’t, but it at least meant he didn’t have to act so carefully with his Avatars.

After waking up from [Sleep Learning and making all three Avatars, Rainer sent one to the City of Wealth, their next auction not far away, and another to guard the Mana-Well as always.

“How’d the testing go?” Kara asked from behind him as he left the ritual room.

“Successful. It’s just a matter of doing it faster.”

“Why faster?”

“Well, it would be pointless to sacrifice my Avatar if it didn’t let it escape someone’s grasp.”

“You mean you actually worked on that?” Kara asked, stunned. She had been asking about his testing in becoming more Draconic. She fully expected him to dive into that.

Rainer laughed, before rubbing her ears a bit harder than usual. The two settled into a comfortable silence as they went out to the balcony not far from their bedroom.

“Do you think we’ll ever be able to relax?” Kara asked.

“Of course. All we have to do is wait for our child to grow up. It’s the classic retirement plan,” Rainer said with a chuckle.

“If anything, what just happened told us how strong Tiamat might be,” Kara replied.

Rainer nodded, wondering just how he might fix that last non-Draconic part of Tiamat. It was of course for her own growth and not for the ‘retirement plan’. Even if his joke had some truth to it, he wouldn’t rely on her in such a manner.

“Should we get ready for the Dungeon?” Rainer asked, knowing Kara had been raring to go into the First Tower.

“We’ll need a strong enough team. Don’t forget to invite my father.”

“Why would we need a strong enough team?” Rainer asked. Kara alone was hard to find a match for in the 2nd Tier. Not to mention the others they planned on bringing. That was not even counting the possibility of Rainer’s Void Will being usable.

“How can I have fun with my strength advantage over you if I’m busy beating the Dungeon?”

Seeing the look on her face, Rainer wondered if he should be excited or scared.

“Heh. And I can’t wait to see how you function with the attributes of a mere Human,” Rainer ribbed back. They were planning on doing the Third Tower eventually after all. Especially as it hadn’t been beaten yet. The pioneer rewards were nothing to scoff at. In fact, that was a big reason for inviting Kaltek given the strength of that Golden Aura user’s body was partially unrelated to attributes.

Kara frowned a bit at that. She hadn’t had the attributes of a ‘mere Human’ since before she could remember. Even if all 10 was a bit above average for most normal Humans.

“I’ll have enchanted items,” she reminded him.

“But it’s only right to get used to the changed attributes without any enhancement first,” Rainer countered, wondering if that sounded reasonable. Thankfully, Kara being stuck in thought was enough, whether he had an actual point or not.

He laughed as he kissed her before heading off. He was pulled back into the room before he could, figuring he could start the day just fine an hour later.

While he himself went to go find Lilila, and therefore Tiamat, his last Avatar went across time and space. It was time to see if their Golden Aura friend wished to venture into the First Tower of Conquest with them. The Avatar first went to the Golden Aura father-in-law to invite him to the Dungeon.

While that went on, it wasn’t long before Rainer himself found the little Dragon he was looking for. The dark-scaled monster dove into his embrace, rubbing up against his chest as he held her.

“It’s good to see you too,” Rainer said, barely keeping from laughing at the jealous look Lilia sent him. Tiamat had been in her arms just a moment ago after all. The [Strong Soul Affinity] apprentice stared at him a bit longer, no different than Locklar in her shock at his changed Soul. Her opened mouth and wide eyes were, however, far cuter than the old man’s.

‘Father.’

Rainer raised an eyebrow at the voice that entered his mind. He glanced down at Tiamat, noting her meeting his eyes. The voice reminded him of Jor’s, who was still seemingly digesting what he consumed, but had far more lievity and femininity than the monotoned piecemeal that was the serpent’s mental call.

“That’s me,” Rainer said with a smile, wondering if the change in Soul made him more open to her speaking. As he considered his lifespan to be in the thousands, the idea of being an actual dad wasn’t as scary, in theory at least. Either way, he wasn’t bothered by the responsibility. Even if the childhood of the ‘child’ in front of him measured far past the usual human 18.

Tiamat nuzzled closer to him and Rainer momentarily wondered if he should show off his new closeness with her to Gunthar.

Rainer wasn’t sure what to expect when he ended up [Void-walking] over a small group. Being attacked after the sudden visit was almost to be expected. Especially as he didn't have a [Soul Mark] to give warning with. Instead he had used the [Cosmic Map] and [Void Seer] to figure out the position of Ol-dea and Kaltek.

But the warm hug from the man was definitely not the expectation.

“Rainer, my friend, it is good to see you,” Kaltek said, smiling widely. His three-eyed Spatial Mage wasn’t far, giving him an equally warm if not as vocal or physical welcoming.

Rainer just blinked at him in confusion. When had they been good friends? Then, when he felt the several 3rd Tiers around him, all glaring pointedly at said hugger, he guessed just why the reception would be so warm. They didn’t seem to be enemies, but they weren’t friendly gazes either.

What exactly had he stepped into?