While Kyrion and Lin wasted the day watching Volain like a hawk due to not getting a concrete answer. Ander and Kyrie were in the middle of a sparring match. Neither of them was prepared with the world around them began shaking and the ceiling cracked.

In moments Ander had vanished from the space in which he stood while Kyrie ceased to exist altogether.

Kyrion found himself standing in an updated version of the town Karl had built while Lin was nowhere to be found.

“It isn’t Volian. But there is something odd about him.” Kyrion said unperturbed before he began to meditate, checking through his mana tags before scowling as he noticed that the number had increased by one, while another seemed to hold even more of his mana than it had originally.

“Oi. Kyrion. Care to let me out again so that I can continue my training?” Kyire interrupted Kyrion’s train of thought.

“Sure give me a moment to grow a body.” Kyrion pulled out his bag of seeds and scowled.

A body resembling Kyrie’s form from the day before shot out of the ground already prepared.

“Nevermind.” Kyrion stated as he sent Kyrie into the clone.

Kyrie did some stretches. “If you don’t find any clues this time then you should come train with us for a day.”

“Sounds good to me.” Kyrion popped his back as a bolt of lightning appeared to fly into the dungeon.

“Can we continue where we left off?” Ander shifted from a mass of energy into a physical body faster than he had previously.

Karl spoke from above. “I can start from the last room you were in, but you’ll have to start the fight over.”

“Fine by me. Rie? How do you feel about starting over?”

“Easy. Tiger Splits the heavens Heaven and Dragon Erupts from the Abyss?” Kyrie asked as a halberd appeared in his hands.

“Thats a long name.” Kyrion stated.

“It’s an ultimate combo technique, that can be used because you have an absurd amount of mana and I have a decent mana pool.” Ander stated.

Kyrion blinked twice, as a memory left behind Kyrie played in his mind.

First Kyrie creates pillars of earth shoot from the ground to restrain their target. This is followed by Ander shooting a bolt of electricity meant to stun the target temporarily. Then both vanish as Ander flies high into the sky, while Kyrie tunnels under their target at high speed before using fire mana to melt the earth above him. Finally, Ander summons a powerful bolt of lightning that strikes the creature from above, while Kyrie opens up a vent below the creature and lava shoots up from the earth covering the creature and coating them from below. What doesn’t kill the creature will further restrain the creature as fire shoots out from below for a long while.

“You two are gonna kill someone with that move.”

“Thats the point. This tournament is a break, or vacation. I can feel the winds of war on the rise.” Ander stated.

“Why would a combo technique not be meant to kill someone?” Kyrie asked trying to alter the subject.

“So long as you aren’t surprised. I’ll let you get back to your training.”Kyrion left the dungeon and began to continue his meditation.

The sliver of mana was within the city around the inn area. He’d make a point of checking it out personally.

That was when Lin arrived. “Rion. I believe we can cross Volain off of our list, last I saw he was peacefully eating his third dinner when the shift happened.”

“The best dinner in my opinion.” Kyrion nodded as he looked about.

“I believe so. I can feel my mana signature somewhere in the city and would like to figure out why it’s there. Well why it’s getting stronger.”

“Why would your mana be inside someone?” Lin squinted.

“There are a few ways, the first being an attack or healing effect that’s still lingering, the second through reproduction which is impossible, the third being through shadow mana and draining some previously. Finally they could have been tagged with a spell or sliver of mana so that I can constantly keep an eye on them.”

“One and four sound the same.”

“Yes. On paper. But unless my goal is to share regeneration or posion someone then they are completely different. I only tag people I want to avoid. Like Minah, Midas, Volain, Nicole, and Ander. It isn’t getting strong within Ander and he isn’t trying to cut off my legs anymore.”

“Why Minah though? Isn’t she your..”

“Teammate, but before that she was a crazed stalker looking to constantly challenge me to fights.” Kyrion stated unabashedly.

“And Midas?”

“He rubs me the wrong way. So I’m keeping track of his movements. When he encounters Minah I make it a point to be in listening distance.”

“Sounds like your the stalker.”

“Guess so.”

“And Nicole?”

“You ever feel like your being hunted by someone who has ulterior motives? It was also removed two loops ago I believe. The link is gone.”

“Not until recently.” Lin raised an eyebrow.

“Then you should get it. Easier to stay hidden when you keep your distance.”

“What I don’t get is how they haven’t noticed your intrusion.”

“It’s an expensive process if you aren’t trained and even then my mana tends to be hard to discern naturally. Would you notice a blade of grass that was shorter by a millimeter in a field of grass?” Kyrion said as he vanished from Lin’s sight.

Lin immediately froze everything around her in a 15-foot radius sphere. No one was there.

Kyrion sat atop a tree branch 20 feet away when he reappeared. “You’re jumpy.”

“You just turned invisible.”

“Many seem to believe thats what I’m doing. Maybe they have it right. To me It feels like i’m becoming one with the world around me when I do this.” Kyrion dropped from the branch and moved toward the city.

Midas awoke with a start his chest was burning. Why was it burning? He must have died again. But how? Who killed him? He hadn’t done it himself.

The image of a fiery-haired man with vermillion eyes shot through his thoughts, that image passed as a second one played and he saw a red-haired figure with emerald eyes standing over him their hand holding his heart as the light faded slowly.“Who was that? Is Rion going to pretend to be someone else and kill me? I need to get some help.”

Midas hopped off his bed and put on his golden robes. He’d be hiring some assassins, as a prince he was taught how to find where they did business in case he needed their services.

The tailor association was everywhere, and finding them was easy as they didn’t hide. So when Midas stood outside of the old shop that seemed nondescript he entered.

A young man in silk clothing sat behind a desk. He seemed bored if anything. As Midas entered the young man looked up at him with a smile. “Welcome welcome. How may I be of service?”

“I need you to fit someone for the last suit they’ll ever need.”

The young man whistled. “Wow. That is a rather tall order. Are you sure that you can afford such a job?”

“Yes, and i’m certain that they don’t have any ties to people of power.”

“Who needs the fitting then?”

“Rion, of Drisil academy, orange hair and vermillion eyes. Doubt he’s anything special.”

“He’s the captain of a powerful team. One whose already had a captain fitted by ammatures. I’m certain that failure could be letal and success would be quite hard.”

“Who was their previous captain?”

The young man grimaced. “A young healer with red hair and green eyes. I believe his name was Kyrion.”

Midas clenched his fist in panic as he realized that those two were working together. “I see. Well this is a prince’s request and my target is suspected of treason. His fitting should prove enlightening.”

“All right then. It will cost around a kings ransom paid on completion.” The young man stated.

“I can afford that. Don’t you worry.” Midas stated as he soon left the shop. With that done he left the tailor alone.

A small girl walked from a back room and eyed the young man suspiciously. “Do some research on your employer. Prince or not, going after an experts disciple would be dangerous.”

“It’s highly unlikely that I’ll actually complete this request. Even If I tried, they are a fire user which means resistant to half my techniques. As well as hard to pin down at times. It’s like I’m going to be hunting another assassin.”

“This will be a learning experience. Good luck Everest.” The short woman said before fading into a swarm of blue butterflies.

Master knows something. Which means this is potentially important to his growth. “What den of snakes will I have to crawl through this time?”

Kyrion had agreed with Lin to split up and cover more ground. He had planted a tracking rose on her clothes briefly only for her to casually remove it in front of him.

“I’ll be fine Rion. What’s the worse that could happen?”

“Fine fine. One option is team sunburst. The other is Midas who seems most likely to be up to something.”

“Sunburst should be neutral towards me. I doubt that they are strong enough to do much damage and I’m used to dealing with fire.” Lin crossed her arms.

Rion nodded. “Then I’ll go after Midas.” Rion held out his hand. “Pinky promise to meet up and discuss what we’ve seen?”

“What are you? Five?” Lin scoffed.

“What? Is a pinky promise too much of a mundane act for my princess?” Rion winked.

“Fine. Fine. Why do I even put up with you?”

“Because I complete you.” Rion swooned as their pinkies met and Lin pulled him forward.

Rion stumbled forward and was hit by a surprise slap that left a frosty brand on his face.

But not before their pinkies touched and he planted a seed into her robes and sent a tiny thread of mana into it, just in case she ran into trouble.

“Sorry. That may have been too much.” Rion rubbed at his jaw. I’ll meet up with you in a bit.

Volain was beyond annoyed. First, he almost hurts himself trying to save an unlucky kid. Then he gets stalked by said kid's, guardians. Those he could forgive and understand, but no, what was unforgivable was that someone interrupted third dinner. Nobody plays with Volain’s food, not even the goddess herself.

The dark-skinned boy got to his feet and muttered a strange mantra. “I’m going to look for you, hunt you, and I’ll eat you.” His teeth grew sharper as his mouth seemingly extended to his ears and opened into a smile with teeth that appeared to rend flesh.

“Boss! Why talk to self?” Yaclack asked.

Volain looked at his uninjured teammate and scowled. “What happened to your legs?”

“What you talk bout?”

“That shadow dude broke both of your legs after tricking you into following him down an ally. Don’t you remember?”

“I only fight Zebra. Zebra no use shadows.”

Volain looked at his giant orc comrade, who focused purely on raw strength alone and sighed. “Who did I fight today?”

“That magic dude. Eye sometin'.” The orc stated as the human tongue was difficult.

“Oh. Oh no…” Volain realized that he had to deal with those weak opponents again, which would be a pain, given that they were both so weak and hardly entertaining.

“Do you need to dig a hole in the forest?” Yaclack asked.

“Huh?” Volain asked.

“You got the thinking bug. Just do what you want.”

Volain wanted to figure out who ruined his meal. And so Volain decided to follow the scent trail of that girl always with Rion. Because, for some odd reason, his seemed to be the most inconsistent.