They stopped in front of Aaron, one holding out a sealed letter and the other, a huge bronze key filled with arcane symbols.

"The Guardian of the Light of the World," said the one with the key, "under orders from the Goddess of Light, has determined that the Kingdom of Illyria shall hold no branch of the Arcane Circle anymore. All its privileges and responsibilities have been given to the Herald of Light, Aaron Ironblood. I now give him the Illyrian Arcane Key to conclude this transition of power."

"I bear witness to it," said the other.

"And so it's done," the first completed.

Without even waiting for an answer, they dropped the letter and key on the floor and rushed out of the tavern. They looked terrified, but not of Aaron. Something weird was going on.

Aaron picked the objects up, then went to the counter.

It was early night, and the tavern was filling up. Everyone had seen what had just happened. The tavern owner, a man with gray hair, beard, and mustache, gaped at Aaron.

"A room for three, please," said Aaron.

"I- I dare not!" gagged the owner. "Herald of Light, my humble tavern is not up to your standards!" He bowed. "I beg for the Goddess of Light's forgiveness!"

"Bullshit," said Lana in a surprisingly sober voice. "The hand of the Goddess guided us here. Dare you say she was wrong?"

The man stood up and took a step back, terrified. "N- No! I would never! Forgive me! Our best room for three, right now!" he said and disappeared into the door that led to the kitchen.

Lana laughed. "Some of those who profess faith in the Goddess can be too zealous," she said back to her drunken voice. "It's useless trying to make them treat us like..." She spent almost a minute thinking about the word she would use. "...like people. Priestess training also teaches how to talk to them to get basic services." She laughed again. "Once, I had to threaten to curse a fervent believer so she would have the 'boldness' to give me a glass of water. I was dying of thirst!"

The innkeeper returned before Aaron could answer. He was sweaty and breathless. Bowing, he handed the room key respectfully, using both hands.

"Herald of Light, I beg for the Goddess's forgiveness for the delay! Our best room was occupied, but I have already transferred guests. I also changed the mattresses, the bedding, and the towels. I personally used cleaning and purification skills in the room too. I apologize in advance for assuming that my poor skills are enough for Your Holiness!"

Aaron just took the key and went to the stairs. In the corner of his eye, he saw other tavern customers prostrating themselves on the floor. Behind him, he heard Lana talk to the innkeeper.

"The Goddess of Light blesses you for doing your best for us. May the Light be with you, dutiful man."

The man let out a sigh of relief, followed by a sob.

Aaron shook his head in pity. In his lifetime, he had only become aware of a single god whose secrets he had not yet unraveled, but he was sure he would manage to one day. Gods were but flawed beings with selfish goals of their own, who didn't deserve such adoration.

The best room in the tavern was a master suite worthy of a three or four stars hotel on Earth. Not bad for a place at the end of the world, like Red City. It had a double bed larger than a king-size one and a normal double bed. A wooden countertop with three benches was in one corner, and a comfy-looking armchair in the other. A built-in wooden wardrobe occupied one wall, and the door to the bathroom in the middle of the cupboard.

Lana went straight to the bathroom and came back disappointed. "No shower."

Aaron would be surprised if there were any. The magical artifacts he had seen at the Royal Market weren't at a level capable of collecting and condensing ambient water, teleporting water, or transforming energy into water. The low technological level in Illyria, coupled with the absence of an aqueduct or water tank in the city, would not allow piped water to reach the second floor.

That said, he understood Lana. Cleaning skills were helpful, but they didn't replace a good shower.

He put Alys in the double bed and turned to Lana. "Can you check her again? She should have woken up by now."

Lana came over and touched her. As usual, Holy Energy went from her to Alys and came back. "She's the juuust as before. Mental trauma, coma, yada yada. She'll wake up just fine in a few days or so." Her eyes suddenly sparkled with excitement. "And she'll be right on the bed with you and me!" She threw himself on the bed, which scared the wolf and made him cry. "All three of us can fit this bed, handsome!" She laughed while petting the beast.

"Logan," Aaron said, cutting her off immediately. Her laughter disappeared, replaced by furrowed brows. Aaron placed the panther on the wolf's side. "Take care of her too, I need to cultivate. And be on your guard. If something interrupts me, we'll all die."

He sat in lotus position on the smaller bed, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

His passive energy sensitivity had already proven unfit for this world. First, he hadn't detected the High Lord. Then, he had almost died by an off-hand attack from the bird. Now, he had plenty of riches in his spatial ring, but couldn't even check it for damage to its internal formations.

Those three things could be solved by depending on others, but he dreaded the idea. It was one thing to hire a carpenter to build you a door, but another altogether to have your very life on someone else's hand. What if they didn't warn him of incoming danger on purpose? What if they were distracted? What if there just wasn't enough time for them to warn you?

And those were just the things completely beyond his means, but many other things could become more convenient by cultivating a second energy too. Cleaning himself, for one. Fighting, for another. The elementals would have been a piece of cake if he could have used energy outside his body. He yearned for versatility.

One energy fitted both categories perfectly.

Arcane Energy.

Elemental Energy was too strict in its rules and would make things more complex than they needed to be. Using precise combinations of elements to affect the world subtly could take a few milliseconds longer than with Arcane Energy. Those milliseconds could be the difference between life and death.

Vital Energy was redundant. At lower levels, it only healed, and Lana could do that already. Healing himself while battling would make him more powerful in combat, but that was not what he sought.

Nature Energy was, frankly, useless to him. Mastering nature would make him dependent on a nature-rich battlefield, or on bringing animals and plants with him. That's was the opposite of not depending on others, which he wanted.

Psychic Energy would be useless against anything without a mind. Traps, for instance. Or lightning bolts from a Master Beast from a distance greater than he could feel or feel its mind.

Space Energy, like Temporal Energy, was too brute at lower levels. Its skills also consumed a lot of energy. Their detection abilities were the best, but they didn't fit his requirement for versatility.

Holy Energy was not an option, as relying on the gods of this world was plain stupid.

But Arcane Energy was perfect for Aaron.

Its skills had the lowest energy consumption of all energies. It could affect either body, spirit, soul, or mind on higher levels. It wasn't the best at doing anything but was second-best in almost everything. It was the most neutral of all energies, able to affect the others more easily. It required no external factor to be effective, unlike Elemental Energy, which required the elements to affect the world. And it could be shaped effortlessly even at lower levels, unlike Space or Time Energies, which would allow him to do tasks from small to big from level one.

Versatility was the very definition of Arcane Energy. He had even told Alys that Sorcerers looked like one of the best classes, just because they got access to Arcane Energy and bonuses for learning arcane skills.

And now, Arcane Energy would be his.

Arcane Cultivation: First Step!

Unlike Qi and Vital Energy, people didn't have minimum levels of Arcane Energy within them. But there were three particles of it occupying the same place as his body without affecting him, just like Lana's "butterfly" made of Holy Energy that he had touched.

He felt these particles and enveloped them with Qi. He brought them into his dantian, to the center of the whirling Qi hurricane, and forced the three of them together. He then used Qi to make the tiny blob of Arcane Energy spin too.

Arcane Cultivation: Arcane Absorption Matrix One-Three-Nine!

His Qi created a complex formation on the walls of his dantian, consisting of two parts. The first was the symbols he usually used to cultivate Qi. The second was an extra nine hundred and ninety-nine symbols floating less than a millimeter over the first part.

A formation over another formation, both ridiculously complex, interacting perfectly with each other. In that kingdom, it would be considered impossible.

The spinning Arcane Energy had no effect at first because it was too small. Aaron could do nothing but wait for extra ambient Arcane Energy to enter his body. Before becoming an Arcanist, he couldn't affect exterior Arcane Energy to pull it into himself.

Two minutes after he started, two particles appeared. He captured them and combined them with the others. A minute later, another particle. Three minutes later, five particles.

He could have used a Qi formation to attract Arcane Energy faster, but even he was cautious about putting a new formation so close to the other two. His mind was limited in that world, and he didn't want to stretch it beyond the necessary.

Particle by particle, it took almost two hours for the swirling volume of Arcane Energy in the center of his dantian to create its own pressure and attract other particles from the outside. Half an hour later, the volume doubled in size. Fifteen minutes after that, it tripled.

From then on, the snowball effect started an energetic vortex around Aaron that soon occupied the entire Red City.

Arcane Energy entered his dantian at a ridiculously fast pace. When he determined he had enough, he used Qi to create small tubes. They carried the Arcane Energy to the symbols floating on top of those he used to cultivate Qi. As if they were pens, these tubes wrote the same symbols of the same layer, using Arcane Energy.

Although Aaron couldn't control Arcane Energy, the particles used in the symbols didn't dissipate after he wrote them. They contained secrets of how the universe worked, and their deep meaning resonated with Arcane Energy. Like faithful people marveling at a Herald of Light, the Arcane Energy stood perfectly still, awed by the wonders of reality.

Soon, he had a third formation in his dantian, this one made of Arcane Energy. It had the same symbols as the second formation. He then completely erased the second formation.

Without the Qi of the second formation serving as a barrier, the first formation immediately tried to connect with the formation of Arcane Energy.

That's when the pain came.

In that world, every individual had Qi. Controlling Qi was natural, one only had to learn how to do it. But Arcane Energy was foreign energy.

When Aaron's dantian connected with the formation that forced Arcane Energy to have a space there, when that same Arcane Energy connected to his mind, when Qi and Arcane Energy intertwined, the ricochet caused extreme pain.

It was nothing close to the pain he felt when he passed through the portal and his being was erased, but it was enough for him to grit his teeth and need to focus to endure it.

Suddenly, he heard the wolf's thin croak, followed by Lana's scream and the sound of something heavy falling to the ground.

He didn't open his eyes. This was the worst time for something to happen. If he lost his focus now, his dantian would undoubtedly explode, and everyone in that tavern would die.

He could only trust Lana and laugh internally at the irony of having to trust her when he was cultivating an extra energy to depend less on others.