Armad threw a small stone into the force field. The four pillars and the woman statue at the centre lit up, crushing the stone to dust.

So it increases gravity? Armad thought. Even the earth element force fields had their their own effects: some affects gravity, some produce lava, some produce battle golems and so on.

Deleting the runic architecture required an exceptional talent in runology, which he didn't have. Absorbing the nature energy required his Miyura, which wasn't an option in his current situation. So he was left with destroying the elemental base, which involved destroying the four pillars and the woman statue.

Armad started with the pillar closest to him. He created a 30cm sphere of lightning and fired it at the pillar.

The lightning collided with the pillar and dissipated - or at least he thought it had dissipated until the bolt reappeared next to the pillar and exploded. When the explosion settled, the pillar was gone.

Armad fired another bolt and took down the next pillar. Two more bolts took down the two remaining pillars, leaving the woman statue the only thing holding the force field together.

The woman statue withstood the first bolt but after ten bolts, the statue crumbled to pieces.

Armad threw another stone into the force field. This time the stone passed directly to the other side.

A Tier 7 force field shouldn't be this weak. What's going on...

He waited for the confirmatory notification but it didn't come.

"Is.. that all?" Aish gasped in surprise. The force field she had been trying to break for a whole year had been destroyed in seconds.

"No, I don't think it's over yet." Armad said.

"Yeah, probably. But why?"

"A, no confirmatory notification, B, my lightning bolt isn't that powerful: it shouldn't have been this easy. You must have already weaken it considerably. Even if you are just a level 18 Alchemist, you can do it if your Djinn is strong... Wait, what's your Djinn's name?" Armad asked, coming to a sudden realization.

A proud look appeared on her face. "She is R'Taurin, she is so strong. She can... "

R'Taurin? Armad frowned and looked away. Any Djinn with the prefix R, W or B in their name belonged to the weakest Djinn hierarchy.

She has little hope. Even if he helped her out of the force field, the challenges ahead would be much harder.

"Why did you enslaved such a lower level Djinn? You know you'll only have one chance. Why don't you give up on becoming an Official? Go back to the South, there are plenty of opportunities there."

Aish visibly paled. In truth, the moment you enslaved a weak Djinn your fate was sealed.

"I will not live as a slave. I'll become an Official no matter what it takes." She said.

Armad shrugged. He couldn't tell her how to live her life.

His mind went back to the confirmatory notification, why was it still not showing up? The force field was a quest: he should receive a notification for completing it, even if there was no reward.

Aaaargh....

Aish screamed.

Armad turned around hurriedly. The four pillars and the woman statue he'd just destroyed had pieced together into an energy bolt, which shot directly into Aish's chest through her back.

Quest completed.

Reward: none.

Armad and Aish were forcefully ejected out of the force field and teleported to the nearest teleportation room. He was used to teleportation but the effects were still serious this time. He vomited a mouthful of blood and fell on his knees for several seconds.

Aish laid unconscious a few meters away from him. She was still vomiting blood when Armad got to her and helped her up.

New quest: take your Cursed comrade back home before she died.

Reward: none.

"Shit. This is the type of force field specially designed for one person. Whoever created it didn't expect someone else to get in, so everything was designed just for her. She couldn't have broken it even if she was more powerful. They put a Curse as a backup plan to kill her in case she managed to break it. They don't want to take any chances." Armad murmured to himself. Just who is she to warrant this treatment?

The sunlight blinded him as someone opened the door into the teleportation room.

"Come out, you two." A scratchy voice ordered.

The speaker strode into the room and dragged Aish out, muttering a few curses under his breath. He came back after throwing her out and tried to drag Armad as well. Armad reacted faster and pulled the man's collar to lower him to his eye level.

"That woman you casually threw is someone's mother. How would you feel if someone threw your mother like that?" Armad said, summoning a minor bolt in his other hand.

The man visibly shook. "Y... you are a mage? A Djinn Master? P... Please forgive my insolent behavior."

"Where is this place?" Armad snapped.

"A teleportation room in Shid, my lord, how may I serve you?"

A teleportation room? That means the portal web that was closed after the rebellion was reopened. Armad mused. The main reason he'd to pass through the interworld dungeon was because the portal web was closed.

"Do you have a teleportation room to the Fourth World?" Armad asked.

The man shook his head. "No, but there is one in Seith. It's just fifty miles away."

"Seith? Do you have any map to this place?"

"I... I don't." The man stuttered.

"How do I find one?"

The man hesitated but he quickly resumed talking after casting another glance at Armad's lightning bolt.

"I know someone who can help you find the safest and shortest route."

"Good. Take me to them."

***

Shid was a small village on the Fifth World, northern hemisphere. Although, it had no walls or any big structures, the village was meticulously clean. Each street was paved with colorful flowers and the atmosphere was very conducive.

It was a part of the teleportation web from North to South. Bigger terminals that could teleport between Worlds were usually in the capital and a few big cities.

Armad counted three teleportation rooms, the same as the one they'd landed in.

The population of the village wasn't much and few people paid any attention to him or to the woman he carried.

The map in his hands was a hand drawing, depicting a clear route to Seith. The journey would take two days. Armad could shorten it with Lightning Flash, but he didn't want to, not until he figured out what really happened to the three months he'd lost.

His plan was to drop Aish in Seith, and then use the teleportation room in the city to go to the Fourth World. His only problem was the cost of using these rooms.

There were ways to get money: one, he could rob bandits, two, he could visit any Adventurer Guilds and take on a job, he could even take on a quest directly from the immortal dais... He had many options but each would take months to get the amount needed to use the portal web. He didn't have months.