Chapter 121

Dwenvarian TSA

I will have to admit that the most annoying thing about traveling anywhere will have to be the border checkpoints. Now one could argue that only stupid criminals would attempt to bypass security screening areas. That the most logical place for a criminal mastermind to pass through security borders would be at places where there were no checkpoints in place. That cloaking oneself and teleporting a ship and their cargo to a remote location would be the number one way to avoid being detected. Particularly when one attempts to teleport illegal or counterfeit magical items. You of course would be correct.

If I was half the criminal mastermind that these Dwenvarian security agents think I am, I would have clearly never come near the Dwenvarian border.

Unfortunately, I need to be here. Or more accurately, I need to get past here to my official destination, the Dwenvarian temple. It doesn’t help that Dwenvarians have a sketchy at best understanding of what magic or psionic powers truly are. Their primary focus of course being on physical cultivation and prowess. Thus, their security measures have been designed to detect people with magical or psionic abilities. In particular, magical abilities that are well beyond what they consider to be the standard deviation for magical prowess.

Unfortunately, I currently constitute the definition for existing outside the standard deviation for magical abilities.

Thus, when I go through the known security control checkpoints and the like, I immediately set off every sensor possible. The idea being that I have so much magical ability and potential that I am either smuggling a magical wand up ass, or I am the walking equivalent of a magical nuclear weapon. A weapon they are willingly allowing within their borders.

Angry Beep.

“I’m going to need you to come with me.” The dozenth security guard calls out to me.

By this point I have taken to just wearing a bathrobe and slippers.

I follow the man to a back room, where several checkpoint agents are nearby to watch the show. I pause for a moment as I wait for the command that is inevitably going to follow.

“Strip.”

With that, I don’t even give my customary, not before I see the money line. Instead, I just raise my hands up, letting my robe fall to the ground and poof show that there is no way a wand can be shoved up my keister.

“What?” The male Dwenvarian says.

“I’ll take it.” An older looking female Dwenvarian calls out.

Snap.

I look to see she is putting on rubber gloves.

I just roll my eyes at that.

Fortunately, the female just takes the magic detecting wand and waves it over me. The second it does, it lets out an angry beep.

Stopping at my fingers, she looks to inspect them.

“Are you wearing magic nail polish?”

“Nope, they are naturally that pretty.”

“Hmph.”

With that she waves her wand around, letting it beep angrily all the time. As she does, I play my own magic trick, letting my own wand grow with every pass.

“Stop that!”

“Stop what?” I ask innocently.

Swipe, swipe.

Again, each swipe causes the wand to grow just a little bit more. I can theoretically do this indefinitely with my Master Tier Shapeshifting. Yep, mom would be so proud, I get a power like Shapeshifting and use it as a crude party gag. Still, the message is not lost. At least I hope the message is not lost as soon the Dwenvarian throws down the wand in disgust.

“Stupid thing is broken. Get me the body scans.” The old lady calls out.

“We are scanning him. Either his whole body is the magical item, or it is grafted onto his skin.” An agent calls in from an external speaker.

I do note that that voice is also female. Though it should be noted that Dwenvarians do not have the same cultural taboos associated with male or female anatomy. The fact that I am being inspected by a female, is meant to convey that this is someone who knows what male embarrassment is, especially as she was at one point a male, before she transitioned to her final form.

With that the elder agent nodded her head, then held out a finger to run against my chest. After which she removed the finger and licked it.

Eww.

I couldn’t help but be disgusted by that, this was going a bit far. And I was about to call it quits if this type of harassment continued.

“You are a Mage?”

I nod, not trusting my word to keep me from vomiting.

“Is your Power attribute above 40?” She asked.

I nod again.

“Can you prove it?”

I look at her like she is crazy. “I’m a healer, what do you want me to do exactly?”

She looked perplexed for a moment.

That’s when an idea hit me.

“I do have a minor affinity for Air, would you like me to create a breeze in here?”

“Yeah, if that will be strong enough to prove your power rating.” She admits.

With that a slight smile crosses my face, as I begin using Air-X.

First, I have the air create a path around everyone present. Then I have the air keep its speed, while not physically touching the different people. Then focusing further, I push the wind to whip around faster and faster.

Within seconds people’s hair is whipping back and forth. Loose garments of clothes are being blown.

Then the wind moves so quickly that it ends up ripping the clothes of the female agent inspecting me off. At the same time, I create a burst of air that pulls up my robe and puts it in my outstretched hand.

I could have done the same exact thing with Telekinesis-X but using tiny wisps of wind to cut apart clothing took both power and precision. Especially when said uniform was quickly blended into thousands of tiny particles.

Once that was all done, I looked at her and tilted my head as if asking if that was good enough. She of course replied with.

“Look sonny, if you wanted me naked, all you had to do was ask.” She said.

Bleh.

I threw up a little bit in my mouth at that.

***

Fortunately, the entire process was caught and recorded by their magical measuring tools. With that I got two stamps. The first denoting that I no longer needed to be subject to Dwenvarian strip searches. The second that I was put on a Dwenvarian terrorist watch list.

As I exited the inspection room, I met Día who hands me my violin case and a set of my clothing that she took through the Dwevnarian screening. Once I have my security case, and my set of clothing in hand. I realize that I am the last one out, as the rest of her team has already been assembled. Quite a few of whom were women that had apparently bonded over being victims of my brother.

“So how did it go, tiger?” Día asked, as her eyes went down to the raised portion of my robes.

I just shrug.

“I’m apparently free to go through security, while also being a terrorist. Not quite certain how that works.”

“Oh, that would explain the travel bans we have.” Día said, as she pulled up a new itinerary. “It seems we are only able to go to the Dwenvarian Temple as form of a diplomatic exchange. Also, once we are done here, we cannot go and purchase a mechanoid suit.”

I just wave my hand at the part about the suit.

“Those suits are all hype anyways. Unless you are Dwenvarian sized you cannot really use the higher tier models.” I say.

Día just raises an eyebrow, before commenting “I thought for a Master of Shapeshifting, like yourself, getting to the size of a Dwenvarian would not be a problem?”

At that, I paused. Then I looked down at my passport that had clearly been marked with a Dwenvarian terrorist stamp.

Then thinking about it, I didn’t really mind. This was after all the fourteenth universe, a lot easier to mess things up here, then go back to my own universe than to do everything here.

Fortunately, with me finally through all stages of security. I was finally able to take a moment and change into my space suit, which I did at the next bathroom break.

“Ahh, I was getting used to the playboy grandpa look.” Día said, a slight pout to her face at my change in wardrobe.

I just shook my head. “Figures you would be attracted to someone who was closer to your own age.”

“Ah!” Was all she got out, then she pouted in a way I found myself being more and more attracted to.

This is going to be bad. I thought to myself, before I just followed Día and the rest of the team.

The Dwenvarian temple was set up much like the Human and Endarian temples were. Basically, there was an alien structure, that had an entrance. Then all around that giant structure a much larger defensive structure was built to encapsulate and protect the product. In this case, it looked like the Dwenvarians built an entire mountain over top of the structure, then put in giant statues of famous Dwenvarians that were clearly compensating for something. In all, the statues seemed to be done in two different fashions. Male statues, or the younger version of Dwenvarians, were placed in rows leading up to the temple entrance. Then on the back side, where one would inevitably exit the temple were female statues that all seemed to tower over and around the temple.

The message was simple to understand, you went in a weak male and came out a stronger female. Or at least able to become stronger once you made it to the female portion of your life. Honestly the whole thing was rather interesting. Unfortunately, it seemed that Día and her crew either didn’t care or didn’t understand the importance of their statues.

Then I realized that such knowledge about the transitioning of Dwenvarians was likely either a secret, or something this universe might already know. Again, what was different and the same from each universe became confusing after a point.

All I knew for certain was, while the species might remain the same, that was about it. The interpersonal relationships between people, races, and historical events seemed to change drastically from universe to universe.

The only thing I was slightly positive of, was that this universe seemed to be on a similar timescale, at least when compared to the fifteenth, which seemed to be ahead by a few years. But for all I knew, they could all be the same time, just things happened at different intervals causing five years to randomly disappear from the timeline of the fifteenth universe.

Regardless, here I was, standing for my first time in front of the entrance to the Dwenvarian temple.

“Let me lay out the ground rules.” Día began, instantly taking charge in her way that was both commanding, and slightly exciting to watch. “Kyle Goldman will be point. He will go in and attempt the temple on its most difficult settings. Once he comes out, he will give a detailed list on everything that happened, how many floors there were, if there were any traps etcetera. No one leaves until he gives a briefing on what happens and what to expect. Any questions?”

“So, we just wait? Can we go around and explore?” A female asked.

“Unfortunately, no. We are here solely on a diplomatic mission now. Any attempts by us to leave this area will be seen as hostile actions and will likely result in the revoking of our passes.”

“How did that happen?”

“One of our members got added to a terrorist watchlist.” Día said, as she turned her full gaze to me.

I tried to look around, like I was trying to find said person. Unfortunately, no one was even near me. Yeah, I need to work on making friends, or patsies to help hide my activities with.

“Are there any other questions about what we are expected to do in the temple?” Día asked.

A few more questions were asked, all of which seemed to boil down to just wait until it is your turn, then enter.

With that out of the way and an extra thirty minutes wasted, I was finally allowed to enter.

Before I entered, I exchanged my violin case for a giant backpack that I could use to carry hundreds of thousands of certs. While I was reluctant to let the violin out of my sight, I knew it had a far greater chance of being destroyed if I entered the temple with it. So, I left, feeling sort of naked as I entered the temple.

Now Entering new temple. Please select your intended difficulty level.

“Nightmare.”

Nightmare mode initiated.

With those words, I let a smile appear on my face as I prepared for what would hopefully be a challenging temple run. This was going to be fun.