Reyphas heard Nick say the phrase 'foreign crony', and he bitterly laughed aloud for a few seconds. He decided to answer Nick's rhetorical question:
"Because you have not contacted the Order of the United Realm regarding the term that you must serve. Did you forget about the agreement that you signed when you accepted your academy scholarship?"
While he spoke, all of Reyphas' cuts shone with rainbow light, and were healed within moments. After hearing Reyphas' words, Nick finally had a realization:
(Right…the Order of the United Realm. I was supposed to serve a term with them after graduating from Richter Order Academy. I was so busy up until now that I forgot about the obligation completely.)
With the intruder's identity revealed, Nick found it awkward to continue fighting Reyphas:
(If I killed one of The Order's own, my goose would be cooked…)
Nick had read about the Order of the United Realm in passing during previous years, so he was not totally ignorant as to how they operated. Magicians who went after their employees did not have a good end, even if the former were a little justified in their actions.
Nick stood on the spot, contemplating while the molten-orange floor below him cooled to its original hue. After a few seconds of collecting his thoughts, Nick spoke to Reyphas, who stood about six meters away from him:
"If you came here to get me to honor my obligation, why did you instigate our battle by acting mysterious and using your magic against me?"
Reyphas' expression became neutral as he shamelessly replied:
"Well…I have the habit of observing people within their natural habitats for a while, so I did the same thing when I came here. In addition, I was curious about how strong you were. That's it."
Reyphas pointed his right index finger at his ID card, and it shone with rainbow light for a few moments before disappearing. Ripples then appeared all over his ruined clothes which seemed to result in them being mended in only a few moments as well before the ripples disappeared completely.
Nick observed the further use of Reyphas' light magic, and soon said:
"I know another powerful Light Magician, but you seem to be stronger. I am guessing that you are a light path master."
Reyphas stepped closer to Nick, following which, the latter slightly brandished his swords as a warning. Reyphas stopped walking then, and remained silent, waiting for Nick to do the obvious thing. Nick hesitated for a while, but eventually stored Hard Marvel and Stoic Grave back into his space band, and lowered his arms, but still kept Tyrant Domain, and Saturn active.
RING RING RING!
Nick's phone suddenly rang, indicating that he was receiving a call. On instinct, Nick reached into his right pants pocket, and retrieved the phone, following which, he accepted the call:
"Hello?"
"Boss, I monitored your fight using the sensors placed in your workspace. I swear that I do not know how that man infiltrated the building. Should…should I call the police?"
It was apparently James Dwyer that had called Nick after observing the battle. Nick knew that James happened to be the only one that could monitor the magical activity within his workspace:
(At first, I thought that I should not allow any sort of monitoring devices down here, but in terms of security, that is unsound. So I let James place magic energy sensors down here that pick up on intense magical presences at least. Clearly, their usefulness is up for debate since they did not detect Reyphas until now…)
Nick replied to James:
"Don't bother calling the police. If this guy is who he says he is, it will just be a waste of time. Also, don't worry about the sensors, it's reasonable that they did not detect this Magician."
Nick knew that if a light path master could not fool a few sensors, then there would be no use in becoming a master, anyway. He hung up the phone, following which, Reyphas approached within two meters of him, and spoke:
"I guess that you could say that I am somewhat of a master. It is not something that I usually advertise, though. Anyway, you are also a master, right? Are you a master of space path, soul path, or blade path."
Nick replied curtly:
"None of your god damn business."
Reyphas slightly frowned after Nick gave his response, but his expression became neutral again after thinking about the situation:
(Yeah…I am the one that invaded his building, and started the fight. His hostility should be expected.)
Since the cat was out of the bag, Reyphas got straight to the point:
"So, do you plan to fulfill your obligation to the Order of the United Realm or not? Let me tell you, it is not in your best interest to renege on the agreement without at least showing your face at headquarters."
Nick felt a little troubled by Reyphas being here:
(I have made so much progress with my business, and I am still developing my magic powers at this time. Going off to the Order of the United Realm would cause me to lose momentum. I cannot afford that right now, especially if Reyphas' power is an indication of The Order's standards. I do not want to be bullied to death by them. That is not being cynical, it is the obvious concern since their employee trespassed on my property, and attacked me…)
Nick replied to Reyphas calmly:
"Tell your people that I will need about two years to make preparations that will allow me to serve my term. Is that acceptable?"
Reyphas silently stared at Nick for a few seconds before responding with words:
"Hmmm…I will have to check with my superior, Arnold Shooster. He is an Administrator within the Combat Department."
Reyphas then retrieved a smartphone from his space band and made a call. Nick could not hear the words spoken, and he did not try to pry either:
(I will have a background check done on this person as soon as he leaves.)
Arnold Shooster quickly accepted Reyphas' call:
"What is it, Reyphas?"
"I had observed Nick Capitol for a few weeks and had a little spar with him a few minutes ago. I am sending you a recording of the fight. He wants to put off his term of service for another two years. After watching the fight, tell me what your decision is."
Shooster was a little perturbed by the fact that Reyphas thought that he would be interested in watching his spar. As for Nick Capitol wanting to put off his term of service for years, he had his opinion:
(It appears that we have another arrogant junior in our midst…)
Shooster replied to Reyphas:
"...Hold for a few minutes."
Reyphas waited for a few minutes so that Shooster could watch the recording. Nick simply spent that time observing Reyphas' actions, ready to strike if the latter did anything suspicious.
After a while, Reyphas realized something odd, and pointed it out:
"The space path method that has tainted this space grey…it's rank 3 advanced grade, right? How comes you have been able to maintain it for so long? What is your magic energy holding capacity?"
Nick replied without hesitation:
"None of your god damn business."
Reyphas smiled bitterly in response to hearing those familiar words before his expression became neutral again. Shooster soon spoke to him after watching the recording:
"He has sufficient skill, therefore we won't need to put him through rudimentary field training. That being the case, I can grant him a two year extension, but if he still does not appear at headquarters at the end of that time, tell him that I will retrieve him personally."
Shooster immediately hung up the phone after conveying his decision. Reyphas stored his smartphone back into his space band, not feeling very surprised about Shooster's decision:
(People with demonstrable talent are treated differently that the ordinary, whether positively or otherwise. Shooster's decision is a natural one.)
Reyphas spoke to Nick plainly:
"Your two year extension has been granted, but let me tell you. If you do not show up at headquarters after that time has expired, a rank 3 late stage Magician will be coming for you. You have been warned."
Nick nodded his head once, and then replied:
"Understood, Reyphas. Now, leave!"
Reyphas didn't feel the need to stick around any longer. Also, he did not really want to engage in another brawl with Nick in this place, so he decided to leave after speaking again:
"I hope that you are stronger when we next meet."
After that was said, the floor beneath Reyphas, covering about half-a-meter in diameter began to ripple. Reyphas then sunk into the rippling floor area until he could no longer be seen. At that point, the floor stopped rippling. Nick looked at Reyphas' former position for a while until he made a decision:
(If he is still here, I will kill him once he appears again. No doubt. Otherwise, I cannot cultivate on this floor while my scouting methods are insufficient. Cynicism would lead me to waste my time to find a method to quickly alleviate my doubts, but I know that I have better use for my time.)
Nick took out his smartphone, and called Bianca Daneel of Delaware Smithworks. He thought:
(I would usually get Riley to set up these kind of meetings, but it will be faster if I do it myself, and I won't need to make her aware of my needs. In regards to my personal power from now on, that is for the best. Who knows if my staff is being observed by external parties. That is not cynicism; I need to start taking more responsibility for the outcomes that affect me.)
Bianca picked up quickly:
"Who will I be addressing?"
Nick got to the point straight away:
"Bianca, this is Nick Capitol of The Realm Exploration Company. I need you to craft a magic tool for me using a space path magic beast's carcass. When can you arrive at my conference room?"
Bianca didn't mind Nick's lack of pleasantries. Rank 3 Magicians were all busy people, after all.
"What rank is the magic beast?"
"It is rank 3, and had strength that surpassed an average rank 3 initial stage Magician."
"Alright. To tell you the truth, I rarely get to craft space path magic tools, so I will give you some priority. Is a meeting three hours from now possible?"
"Yes, it is. We will discuss other details then."
"Sounds good to me."
Nick hung up the phone, following which, he canceled Tyrant Domain, Saturn and deactivated his advanced apprentice grade magical tool, Sheer Soul. He, however, cast Tyrant Armor, and kept its sparking black defense hidden.
Nick then rode the elevator to the fourth floor so that he could get to his office. Once there, he mediated for a while to fill his magic magic energy reserves as well as to calm himself down:
(My soul has already mostly recovered from Reyphas' light path attack against Tyrant Armor's defense. I can probably thank my talent, Soul Cradle, for that. I now just have to wait for Bianca to show up…)
Three hours passed by quickly for Nick, and eventually, Bianca arrived at his building's entrance. James called Nick as soon as she arrived:
"Sir, Bianca Daneel is here to do business. Should I guide her up to your office?"
"No, bring her to the usual conference room. I will be there before you arrive. Oh, and I want you to run an international background check on Reyphas Stellar and Arnold Shooster of the Order of the United Realm."
"Understood. Running a background check on staff of a public agency is pretty easy, even if they are Magicians. As long as we are not looking for details that are too specific, we can at least find out their status within the organization."
James hung up the call, following which, Nick walked to the fourth floor's first conference room. Nick sat at the oval table, and waited for his guest. Both James and Bianca arrived six minutes later. As soon as he brought Bianca into the conference room, James excused himself, not willing to be alone with two rank 3 Magicians:
(God knows, Magicians are scary people.)
As soon as Bianca saw Nick sitting in his office chair, she spoke excitedly:
"Don't keep me in suspense. Show me the goods."
Bianca's green eyes sparkled and her flowing red hair glistened as she made her demands. Nick responded by summoning the carcass of the space path baboon magic beast onto the oval table. Bianca stared at the carcass like an overly stimulated child for a few seconds before moving forward to touch it with her hands. She apparently did not mind the sleeves of her light-orange magician's robe touching the carcass.
After examining the carcass for close to thirty minutes while Nick quietly remained in his seat, Bianca spoke to him:
"Rank 3 Grasp Ape. It is a magic beast with limited potential that ends at rank 3, but it is an authentic space path magic beast. Do you have its soul? Magic tools created using both the soul, and carcass of a magic beast are always better than ones consisting of only either materials."
Nick replied simply:
"Naturally."
He first thought:
(Grasp Ape? Who exactly is responsible for naming magic beasts? Their naming sense is terrible.)
He then raised his right hand, following which, his right fingertips gained a sparking black hue, and a basket-ball-sized glowing orb appeared in contact with them a few moments later. Bianca spoke excitedly in response while giving Nick a thumbs-up using her right thumb:
"That is the authentic soul of a rank 3 magic beast. It's not easy to capture their soul without specialized tools. It must be great being a Soul Magician."
Nick's Tyrant Armor partly emitted the distinct signature of Soul Path, not to mention that the last magic tool that Nick had commissioned was of the soul path, so Bianca assumed that he was a Soul Magician without asking. Nick was not interested in clarifying his details, so he moved on:
"What kind of magic tool can you make using these materials? Also, what will your service cost me?"
Bianca contemplated for a few minutes:
(Materials of a rank 3 space path magic beast are rarely brought to me fresh. I want to take my time to properly study the carcass, and the soul. Nick won't mind if I take advantage of him, right? He looks like such a caring young man…)
Bianca looked squarely at Nick's indifferent eyes, and gazed seductively, but after a few seconds, Bianca realized that Nick continued to look at her like a block of ice, and not a beautiful woman, so she stopped messing around. Nick internally sighed:
(Women…I swear…)
Bianca spoke to Nick honestly:
"I would like to properly study the materials to get the best results. I will also need to design a plan to make the best use of other materials during the production of the magic tool. That will take me about two months, Grand Earth's time. Oh, what kind of magic tool do you want and what kind of power do you expect?"
Nick had already expected the production of the magic tool to take a while, and had already thought about the latter question at length. He answered the question with confidence:
"I want a magic tool that I don't have to flaunt around for it to be effective, and I would rather it have a passive effect that can enhance space magic. I don't want to waste time activating the abilities of magic tools."
Nick had his reasons for his latter demand:
(I like Sheer Soul, but activating its ability, Sheer Hold, takes longer than even casting Tyrant Armor by a few milliseconds. That is too expensive in terms of time when such a delay could cost me my life. I realized that passive abilities like the ones that Hard Marvel, and Stoic Grave possess are more to my liking - they work automatically, according to my own momentum.)
Bianca thought for a few seconds before she quoted Nick a price:
"I will take on the job for 15 vatas. No negotiations."
Nick openly sighed, sporting a tired expression before assenting:
"Take the materials, and do your best. I will transfer the funds later today."
While he said this, Nick thought:
(If I did not have the ability to raise a fair amount of capital in a timely manner, my strength would have plateaued already. Thank you, brain.)
Hearing Nick's agreement, Bianca greedily stored the magic beast carcass, and soul within her space band by approaching both, and interacting with them using her right hand. After, she said:
"You and I are going to be besties, Nick."
Nick cringed when he heard Bianca say that because those words reminded him of a troublesome female Magician that he used to interact with. Bianca ignored Nick's visible discomfort, thinking that he was just not used to women. He then silently escorted her down to the ground floor where Nick watched as Bianca left the building through the front entrance.
Nick then went back to his fourth floor office to transfer 15 vatas to Bianca, and plan his next moves. He muttered along the way:
"I need to get stronger…"
******************************************************
Arnold Shooster sat at his lustrous, black desk while holding his smartphone in his hands, constantly replaying the magical recording of the short battle between Reyphas and Nick Capitol.
These kinds of recordings showed all the minute details needed to properly be in-the-know, and were relatively easy to make. A person just had to know the right light path spell to make them. Since Reyphas was a light path master, making a recording of a battle between rank 3s was not that difficult.
After spending hours watching the recording, Shooster placed his smartphone on the table, and analyzed aloud:
"Nick Capitol has very good skills at his level. Even if Reyphas had gone all out, he might have had to pay a horrific price to achieve victory."
Shooster rubbed his chin for about a minute using his right hand before continuing his monologue:
"Waiting the two years to see how this seed turns out is acceptable. I just hope that he does not die before then…"
*********************************************
After two weeks of preparation, and meditation, Nick was ready to head back to Reckless State. He currently stood alone over the glowing silver space magic formation that would transport him back to his facility on the plateau. He mused at this time:
(I have my magic beast souls, my magic beast blood, my magic materials, my books, my instruments, and my other magical equipment. I am ready to do some hardcore experimenting. I decided to go back to Reckless State alone because I do not want other people around while I research my methods further. To that end, I assigned my rank 2 subordinates to study, and cultivate while I am gone. Dewy, and James will alert me to any shenanigans.)
Nick spoke the magic formation's trigger phrase - "Activate.", following which, he left Grand Earth, and then reappeared on the familiar plateau within Reckless State, Forgotten Peril. The magic formation beneath his feet lost its glow as it deactivated.
Following that, Nick muttered:
"I need to get some electricity and flowing water in the facility first."
Nick walked away from the magic formation, proceeding to approach the relatively new facility that had been built. The magic fog of the Absorb Life Battle Formation still shrouded the plateau, and Nick planned to refuel it later. He soon walked through the facility's doors, and got to work.
It took him about one week to set up the magic electricity generator to generate electricity throughout the facility as well as the magic water pump to fill all the pipes within the facility with clean water. After he was done, he expressed pride in his work:
"The reason I spent two weeks preparing was mostly because I was learning how to do this handyman stuff from Carl. Looks like I did a good job."
After resting for a day by sleeping, Nick got up early one morning and walked through the metal-walled facility to get to an almost empty experimentation room that was about 20 x 20 X 10 meters cubed in dimensions.
Nick spent hours placing various equipment throughout the room by summoning them from his space bands. He had prior experience with most of the equipment because of his past cultivation periods, but there were also some new ones that he had Riley procure just in case he needed them.
After setting up the equipment, Nick sat in a comfortable office chair, and meditated for a few days. Following that, one by one, Nick brought out test tubes of various rank 2 and rank 3 magic beast blood, and placed them on three work tables that he had lined up side-by-side. There were about forty test tubes filled with blood.
"These test tubes of blood belong only to magic beasts of the space path, blade path, and soul path. I tried to get the blood of formation path magic beasts, but such creatures are just too rare at the lower ranks. I will only concern myself with space path, soul path, and blade path to increase my strength in reasonable time. I will need to learn as much as I can about pseudo-souls or rather dreams, so that I can fish for some unusual benefits."
Nick had already learnt that reading pseudo-souls basically resulted in experiencing the dreams buried in the magic beasts' DNA. Although it was a risky process because it evidently wore down Nick's own soul, but since he had the Soul Cradle talent that could heal his soul at an above average rate, he would take the risk. He had also prepared many Soul Healing Scrolls, which he had asked Carla to send him via email.
"Weirdly enough, she did not ask any questions about how I was doing, or what my plans were. I can assume that is the calm before the storm just to keep myself vigilant, but I won't worry about Carla at all for now."
Nick sat in his office chair, and took up the first test tube of blood that he would be experimenting with; the blood had a uniform, dark-blue hue. He cast Manifest Soul on the blood, and when the pseudo-soul manifested, he observed it.
"All of the rank 2, and rank 3 magic beasts that these blood samples came from have high potentials that go up to rank 7. That way, the chance of me failing to produce, or read pseudo-souls decrease dramatically.
Procuring the blood samples cost me a few vatas but I think that the price was reasonable, considering my intended use. Luckily, by using the Magicians Association's channels, I did not have to wait very long to acquire them.
This particular pseudo-soul was formed from the blood of a rank 2 malicious viper, a soul path magic beast. I wonder what kind of dream was buried in the malicious viper's DNA."
Nick slightly smiled while casting Read Soul on the pseudo-soul, following which, Nick fell back into his office chair with a blank expression plastered on his face, having entered a dream-like state.
Hours later, Nick's eyes became focused as the dream-like state ceased. He quietly mused about his findings:
(The ancestor of the malicious viper died in a great upheaval at rank 5, involving many other species of magic beasts that I have never seen in books. Although my increase in soul path attainment was negligible, the months of experience that I gained felt entirely real. My choice to focus on this type of cultivation was correct.)
Nick licked his lips, and did not wait to manifest another pseudo-soul, soon casting Read Soul on it to enter another dream-like state. Nick continued to enter dream-like states until his soul was worn down to dangerous levels, causing him to cough up a little blood.
After resting for a while, and using a few Soul Healing Scrolls, Nick's charcoal-black soul was ready to withstand the pressure of more dream states. Nick eventually happened upon dreams that wore his soul down to dangerous levels after having been healed just before entering the dream state.
Most of the dreams, however, were not like this, and Nick's cultivation proceeded relatively smoothly. Months passed.
(Lucky for me, I have not failed to manifest, and read a pseudo-soul up until now. The Magicians Association does not sell shabby goods.)
Eventually, Nick began using the blood of rank 3 magic beasts to manifest, and read pseudo-souls. Like this, years passed.
(I actually managed to use up all the blood samples after three years. Sometimes I thought that I would die because of the difficulties within the dream states, especially those related to the rank 3 magic beasts, but I managed to pull through, somehow.)
Nick rubbed both his eyes using his two hands while reclining in his office chair, having just left his last dream state. He soon spoke his mind:
"I have been doing this for over three years, but the cumulative experiences that I have gained from the dream states are equivalent to decades. My space path, soul path, and blade path attainments have not risen by much, though."
Nick was helpless when it came to the latter fact. After all this time, he had come to the conclusion that reading pseudo-souls just could not raise one's attainment above the master level.
"So, the most important things that I gained from all my efforts was the experiences, and memories of magic beasts. Hmmm…I now have even more ideas on how to cultivate. Not only that…"
Nick suddenly jumped up from his office chair, and did four back-flips on the spot, consecutively.
"...The dream states instilled within me some kind of weird muscle memories related to many of the magic beasts that I acted as. Before this round of experimentation, I would never have been able to do back-flips without magic. Man, this is actually very cool."
Nick moved his body around some more, which involved all kinds of stretching and stunts like running up the almost smooth walls, balancing his body using one finger for a few seconds, and even juggling a dozen empty test tubes without much effort. Before Nick explored dream states, he had never been able to do any of these things.
He realized that he hardly needed to think to move his body as he desired, as if he had gained many new instincts. He intuited that even his thinking had been affected by his dream state exploration, but he did not know how to actively demonstrate that.
In any case, Nick felt tired, and so he spent two days sleeping before deciding what to do next. When he woke up, the first thing that he did was meditate. When Nick entered his mindscape, he observed the familiar black miasma that saturated it as well as the patterned stars above, and his Advanced Blade Works magic formation. The red-blue star shone just as brightly as before.
As time went on, however, Nick found something amiss. His consciousness had entered his mindscape many times during the past three years, but it was just now that he realized that he had missed something all this time:
(Where is the continuous road, and the winged beast figure that usually walked along it?)
The continuous road and the walking figure had been a major feature of Nick's mindscape since rank 1, but now they had gone missing, and he had not noticed that point for years.
(Shit! Any major change in the mindscape is important. If I am not careful, I could induce 'empty skies'. Meaning that my mindscape would become crippled. Where the hell is the damn road?)
While Nick was half-panicking, an eerie voice sounded from somewhere within the black miasma:
(You fool, so you have finally realized that your mindscape changed.)
The sudden resounding of an unfamiliar voice made Nick nervous, although he could not clearly hear what the voice was saying. For a while, he thought that Slade Terrence, his helper, had somehow infiltrated his mindscape, but he soon denied that:
(This is not Slade. Whoever this is has a presence that I can feel in my soul. Who are you?)
The mysterious voice responded to Nick:
(Who am I? Are you dense? If not for me, would you still be alive today?)
Nick replied after only hearing mumbled, incoherent words:
(I can hardly hear or understand you. What do you want?)
The mysterious voice spoke out, enraged:
(How long must I cry out before you can hear me? Do you still have doubts as to who you are, who I am?)
Nick was only able to slightly hear the latter part of those words, and repeated them unconsciously:
(...doubts about who I am, who you are? Are you related to me? I know who I am. I am Nick Capitol.)
The mysterious voice sneered in response:
(You know a name, but nothing else at all. Tell me, who saved you when you found yourself near death multiple times? Who gave you encouragement when your plans failed. Who comforted you when you were treated like dirt? Who!)
The more the mysterious voice spoke, the clearer its words became, and Nick was finally somehow able to hear it clearly, but barely. At this point, he was not sure how to answer its questions:
(Who? When I was near death, I figured out how to save me. When my plans failed, and tears fell from my eyes, I encouraged myself. When I was treated like dirt, I picked my own body up from the ground.)
Nick's thoughts began to spin more rapidly than ever before. Decades of memories replayed within his mind over mere moments, not all of them his own. Soon, Nick came up with an answer to give the mysterious voice:
(You are me. I am this limited space, but someday we will be limitless. We are limitless!)
The eerie voice rejoiced in response to Nick's words:
(Finally!)
Following that outburst, all the pitch-black miasma within Nick's mindscape gathered in front of him. The miasma gathered within moments until a huge, seemingly solid, pitch-black figure was formed from all the miasma, leaving a dark void that only contained the stars and Nick's Advanced Blade Works magic formation all around.
Nick looked at the huge creature in front of him with undivided attention, and became scared. He had not been so scared since the last time that he had interacted with the wicked being within Never Ending Battlefield.
The figure that appeared in front of Nick was actually a huge, black, European dragon that had spiraling red-blue eyes. The dragon did not appear to be made of miasma like before, but actually seemed like solid flesh, scales and all.
Nick almost felt like to ask the dragon about its identity, but now, his doubts had already been removed:
(You are me.)
The tower-sized dragon soon opened its mouth, responding to Nick:
(You can call me Limitless.)
After hearing the dragon's words, Nick's consciousness was ejected from his mindscape, and he immediately got up from his office chair, eager to test an idea that suddenly appeared in his mind. Nick raised his right hand in front of himself, and clenched it tight, mobilizing his power:
(Cursed Vessel.)
In an instant, all of Nick's magic energy was consumed as he gave the activation of his talent all his efforts. Nick sensed a burst of rule path, and space path magic power pulse out from him in all directions. An odd, red-blue aura dominated the space around him while a vicious, beastly roar resounded. Wherever this power flowed, objects immediately vanished.
Ten seconds went by. At the end of that time, the red-blue aura also vanished, and the beastly roar could no longer be heard. Nick found himself floating in midair. He lowered his right hand to his side, and observed the surroundings, feeling bitter afterwards:
"Where is the Plateau? Where is my facility, my equipment, my materials, and my magic formations?"
Nick looked below him where saw a large crater in the ground that was about three meters deep, and over a few hundred meters wide. He then looked carefully at the topography beyond the crater, and realized that he was looking at the terrain immediately beyond where the plateau had been situated. Nick yelled in sorrow while holding his head using both hands:
"Shit! All my stuff is gone!"
To make matters worse, loud, beastly cries began erupting from all around. The surrounding magic beasts had clearly noticed Nick's power, and it had aggravated them.
Nick sensed that his magic energy reserves were empty, and was not exactly sure how he was still floating, or what the power that he had previously used really was. Being familiar with the character of the magic beasts living within Reckless State, however, he knew that he had to move away from this location as soon as possible while he was depleted of magic energy:
(I am in danger!)
No sooner than he had this thought, a flying magic beast that was the size of a house, and looked like a frenzied bison that had two large, blood-red, bat-like wings, swiftly approached Nick from the southern direction. It bled the magnificent, heart-stopping aura of a powerful rank 3 magic beast. Its aura was far more powerful than any other rank 3 magic beast that Nick had previously encountered, including the two luck path calamity mongrels and jade-green wyvern.
(I cannot fight it. I have to flee.)
As if something inside him responded to those thoughts, Nick suddenly disappeared from his floating position. The bison-like flying magic beast noticed that its prey went missing, and so proceeded to fly around aimlessly, looking for Nick, but could not find him. After a few minutes, it gave up, and flew back towards the southern direction.
**************************************************
Nick reappeared on the dirt ground within a forest. Lying on his back, he had no idea where he was, or really how he suddenly teleported from his previous position when the flying magic beast had appeared.
"Who cares…"
Nick was currently very tired, mentally, and his magic energy reserves had just started to recover passively. He continued lying on the ground, thinking about his situation:
(I lost billions of pounds worth of items, and equipment because of my last stunt. That hits hard. I also basically lost the place where I planned to base my operations, and plant calamity lilies. I don't even know where I am right now…)
After thirty minutes, Nick finally stood up onto his feet, having already recovered all of his magic energy reserves. He observed his surroundings closely by casting Tyrant Sense while he mused:
(I have a new power, not that I am clear on what it is. Hmmm…I cannot inspect my mindscape here. I should find a safe place to camp while the sun is still out.)
Nick was currently wearing a gold, silk polo shirt, a pair of light-blue jeans pants, and a pair of black and white running shoes. He made sure to dust himself off before casting Saturn. He used Saturn's power to raise himself above the trees that surrounded him.
When he reached above the forest's canopy, which was about twenty meters high, Nick realized that he did not recognize the surrounding environment.
(Usually, each major area of Forgotten Peril has identifiable flora that is associated with that specific area. Much of the flora that I am observing is new to me, which means that I am probably no longer in Reckless State. My power teleported me out of Reckless State?
The plateau was situated deep within Reckless State with hundreds of kilometers of dangerous wilderness all around. Even my spell, Neptune, cannot teleport me over such a great distance at once. What kind of power did I gain?)
Thinking some more, Nick developed some other questions:
(How did I gain this new power? Hmmm…my mindscape changed, not that it was sudden, but I had not noticed the changes until I finished exploring dream states. Did the changes have something to do with the dream states?…)
The more Nick thought, the more that he intuited that he was on the right track:
(Mindscapes are strange structures. They can affect the mind and body, and in turn be affected by the mind and body. Through the dream states, I gained decades of visceral experiences. Most of the magic beasts that I embodied during the dream states found themselves in life-threatening, and/or mystical circumstances.
It is possible that those experiences induced the maturation of the characteristics of my mindscape, even though my rank and stage did not change. The saying is that old ginger is hotter than young ginger. Does that really apply here? It seems so ridiculous.)
Nick shook his head a little before getting his thoughts back on track:
(If I assume that the influence of dream states did result in an evolution of my mindscape's characteristics just like how they affected my body's muscle memories, then that could explain why that draconic persona appeared, and why I could not find the continuous road like before. I know for a fact that the persona within my mindscape has always been related to my Limitless Path, and even my Cursed Vessel talents.
The change in the persona, and the disappearance of the continuous road must be directly related to my new power. This is all so confusing. Even at a time like this, Slade still hasn't reached out, so I am on my own like always.)
Nick did not forget the lessons of his past, and so he did not allow doubt, and cynicism to over-run his mind. Instead, he decided to be grateful:
(These events prove that the past three years of cultivation has yielded extraordinary fruit, and I couldn't be more pleased. Ahhh…well…it's just that the fruit has a little bitter aftertaste right now.)
Nick then sighed aloud:
"Cultivation is bitter."