Rakna sighed. “All of these privileges are nice and all but… I once again have too many things to get used to. And here I had finally finished reaching Exceled with most of my abilities…”

“Poor you,” Higure said sarcastically. “What did you get anyway?”

“A bunch of skills, abilities, and a title. I’ll check them out tonight. I prefer to focus on my Quest for now. The good thing though is that with this, I reached level 97.”

“Damn, you’re super close to 100 already. You’re ahead of us.”

“Yeah, when I killed Aster, I jumped to over 80. This is to be expected,” Rakna said.

Aster was the name he had given to the Nightmare Chimera of the labyrinth. He sometimes used him when he needed a strong vanguard similar to Tyran. And, while slow, Aster was incredibly powerful as a Lv.300 Undead.

“You haven’t told us about your Quest yet, by the way,” Nyx commented. “What is it about?”

He glanced at her and shrugged. “It’s related to the task given to me by Eva. It’s better that I do it alone since it requires a bit of secrecy and stealth.”

She snickered. “I see. It is true that none of us can possibly be better than you at stealth. Sometimes I still get surprised when you speak up from a place I didn’t expect you to be.”

“Same,” Allan agreed. “It’s true that I’m not the one with the most senses in the group but damn, it feels like you’re more of a ghost than Evelyn. But still… I don’t believe you. That’s just your secret code to say ‘I want to go solo’. How much you want to bet that you’re going to raise hell?”

“I don’t partake in unfavorable bets.”

“…seriously? That’s an admission, you know?”

Rakna ignored him. “Alexa, can you start the transfer to the 34th?”

[Affirmative. It will only take ten seconds with your newfound privileges. Where do you wish to be dropped at? Even if you do not know any location, you can specify the overall type.]

“Hm, let’s go to a large city. Preferably, one that has the most chances of being related to my Quest; you know what to base it on.”

[Understood. You will be transported in ten seconds.]

Rakna nodded and turned to Pronos who was drinking at the edges of a pond with liquid chocolate in it with both Tyran and Higure. “Little guy, we’re going,” he said and the snake hissed softly and fizzled in a flash of blue from his position right onto his master’s shoulder.

“Be careful exploring this Plateau. It’s not because it looks picturesque that it’s not dangerous,” he said to his group and they nodded. “Also, I’m counting on you Nyx to bring Higure to the awakening room.”

“It will be done.”

“Mhm. Later,” he said and was teleported away.

[Transferring to the 34th Plateau - The Storm.]

* * *

Thunder roared, wind raged, and rain struck the land with incredible force. At every step, there was a risk of suddenly getting caught in a spontaneous tornado.

Rakna appeared right outside a large city made of buildings specially made to resist winds and the most persistent of rains with enchanted materials.

The design was fairly medieval but it had several advanced contraptions monitoring the weather on the roofs and which would then make the necessary changes to the array that surrounded the city, which adjusted temperature and wind direction to avoid the biggest disasters.

The second the therian was transferred, he freed his aura and reinforced himself at a level he could recover from in real-time. The effect was largely more powerful than last time on the 10th Plateau.

The cold was transmitted from a wind flow to another, one drop of water to another, and one cloud to another. After a few minutes, it was snowing, the water at his feet had iced, and the storm had turned into a chilly winter weather instead.

“Volcanic might be better for this but it works the same,” Rakna commented as he lit a cigarette and slowly walked to the entrance of the city of which the ground had been coated with water-proof material to avoid puddles and redirect all the rain into the drainage.

When he reached the entrance of the city, the guards at the front wearing thick and warm clothes stepped back from him. They could see his white fur and hair releasing crystallized air with each movement and the cold would get worse when near him.

“Don’t worry, I’m here for a Quest. I’m just passing by and I’ll leave after I’m done,” Rakna said to them since they didn’t seem eager to go through the usual process to welcome him.

“T-that is fine. We will just need your name,” the one in charge said from a safe distance.

“Rakna Xiorra,” the therian replied and went inside the city without another word.

The guards blinked at each other. “Wait… I’ve heard that name before.”

“Idiot! It’s from the Missive! He’s a new Emperor!” Someone said. “He’s also the guy who appeared on TV with a Nine-Tailed Wolf! Everyone knows about him these days.”

“Wait, THAT guy? Didn’t he have black hair?”

“Can’t you see it’s because his magic?”

Rakna groaned as he distanced himself from the voices and skillfully attuned his senses to stop hearing them. With senses like his, control was the only way to stop hearing things without him willing to.

He looked around at the rather empty streets. From what he understood of the time he was on the 30th Plateau, inhabitants of ‘The Storm’ rarely came out during the day since it was the time where the weather was at its worst.

‘In other words, it’s a nocturnal society… a good thing if you want to be a slave dealer,’ he thought and leaped on top of a building to inspect the city from there. His objective in this Plateau was of course the Hit Task he had taken two weeks prior. He was here to demolish a criminal organization and assassinate its leader; one that goes by the name of Fang.

‘Well, while I spend my time here… Fray, are you still here?’

“{I am, indeed.}”

‘Fill me in about that then. Did you find anything?’

“{As a matter of fact, I did,}” the author replied. “{I am currently trying to find more material on it because it is quite an obscure text.}”

‘Obscure?’

“{Yes. I will be frank, what I found is rather… surprising. The text that included similarities to your soul realm; I remember it now. I read it when I was young; I never expected it to be anything more than a small fable. It was such an ingenious and meek story. The thought that it might have been real never crossed my mind.}”

‘Stop yapping and tell me already. What is it?’

“{The Sage of the Crystal Mountain,}” Fray said seriously. “{It is an anecdote. Or, I believed it was a simple anecdote. It is about a Sage living on top of a mountain made of crystal. The Sage is told to be omniscient and omnipotent.}”

“{The story goes like this; ‘If you find yourself in the endless path of turmoil, you might end up on the Crystal Mountain. If you see a chalet, knock at the door, the Sage will answer. He will let you in and inquire about your wish. If you pay a sufficient price, he will fulfill that wish, no matter how ridiculous it may sound’.}”

‘A Jinn…? Is that my Kzanaria?’

“{You got it wrong. Jinns do not exist. To be exact, there is no True Jinn. None of them can fulfill all wishes, regardless of scale. But… this… Sage is told to be capable of everything without fail. Even if he demands a price, it is not what he uses for his powers. The wish-granting abilities come from himself and himself alone. For all intents and purposes, he is omnipotent. I understand now why Wis claimed that your Kzanaria could rival Eternal Night.}”

‘Wait, Wis said ‘if they were still alive’. That means… this Sage was real but died at some point. How did someone that powerful perish?’

“{That is what I’m trying to find out. I am searching everywhere for a book that relates to the main story but I have not had any results for now.}”

‘I see…’ Rakna mused. ‘A wish-granting being… what I can tell is that he doesn’t seem to be described as a sort of god. Then, there’s the ‘Endless path of turmoil’. The wind currents in my soul that lead to the mountain might be a representation of that. Then what should I do now? Make a wish?’

“{I am more inclined to believe that the path is yet to be over,}” Fray said.

‘Not over, huh? Maybe the winds are the first part… But that would mean… that I need to, myself, fall into turmoil to have the access to that mountain granted.’

“{Indeed. It is plausible that you will find yourself on that crystal peak when you are at your very lowest and require a miracle; such as an all-powerful wish-granting Sage.}”

Rakna snorted and looked down from the edge of a building as a layer of snow began to cover the city. “I guess we will see in time. Now, wandering around here is getting me nowhere,” he said and produced a beautiful paintbrush with Star Hearth. He started drawing a very simple pattern with only ten variations.

“[Star Monarch – Pyxis,]” he intoned.

The constellation optimized its arrangement and then changed shape to construct a cold energy compass with several needles. They collectively started spinning and stopped to point in different directions.

Rakna looked at the dozen of needles and mused. This was a very candid spell he had made back on the 40th where he had no idea of where to go because it was exclusively underground. It was a Tier 9 spell with twelve needles. Once cast, the needles will spin in a direction that is beneficial for the caster. Based on the description, it was very similar to divination-type magic.

“Four of the needles appear random but the rest is situated around one needle that points about 40° North,” Rakna commented. “That needle is probably what I want. It’s most likely calibrated on my objective while the ones around are correlated to it… I guess I know where to go.”

“{That is an interesting spell,}” Fray said interestingly. “{Did I miss a lot while I was preoccupied with searching my library?}”

Rakna very faintly smiled. “You can say so,” he replied vaguely and disappeared from the rooftop in a blur; silently and unnoticed, as always.