The Arcane Emperor

Chapter 171: Informant

While his Avatar went off into the city, Rainer used his real body within the Dungeon to quickly gather some of his party. He explained what had happened with the Divinity and the conversation that followed. This was too big a decision for him to make on a whim. He planned to separately get Elelaria’s opinion on the matter while personally checking things in the Mana-filled world later on.

“What do you wish to do?” Art asked, before anyone else could comment.

“Agree obviously. Seems like an easy price to pay for access to the city and-”

“All their magic,” Kara finished with an exaggerated eye roll. Any warning signs were probably ignored the moment he figured out he could buy magic from the city.

“Humph,” Rainer responded, “Rainer will just hide all the Aura techniques he finds then.”

“Luna feels vaguely hurt by this imitation.”

Rainer took Luna into his arms and told her she was the best and that he loved her, causing the Fairy to not bother with the conversation anymore and just relax there.

“Any chance I could do the same and have you rescind your hoarding of Aura techniques?” Kara asked with batted eyelashes.

“Maybe.”

“If you three are done flirting?” Amer started, before offering his own thoughts on the situation. He was old enough to remember when the Abyssal Planes were decidedly more Divine-influenced. There were more than enough indirect interactions with Divinities and their goals alongside that.

“Disagreeing seems to come with a greater cost than agreeing. If you don’t provide him value, wouldn’t he rather extract that value from the information he has of you? So long as whatever you are is more valuable than that information, things are fine, but… Do not take his agreeableness or candor as a sign of humanity. He is Divine. The moment things don’t go his way, expect the wrath of a God to come down on you and those you care for. No matter their reputation.”

Rainer sank into thought, and no one seemed to disagree with Amer’s points. Rainer might have mentioned that his own threat carried some deterrence, but he doubted his threat was good for anything but revenge. A God would be unlikely to take him—-a mage not even in the 3rd Tier—-seriously, so all Rainer could do was show him the error of his ways after the fact. But at what cost? And even if he somehow destroyed the Divinity of Wealth’s entire powerbase, so what if all manner of Divinities knew of him and his secrets?

In the end, they decided that having such a Divinity as their enemy, with all he knew of Rainer, was far greater a risk than going along with the plan. It didn’t take a lot of thought to realize that he must be well connected to know as much as he did.

How far was he from spreading information of the Mana-Well, even if the Divinity himself knew nothing about the object in question? Of course, Rainer had no intention of letting the coins or anything relating to the Divinity near the Mana-Well. But the Divinity knew too much already. Spying any more through a possible connection, one that [Divine Detection] couldn’t sense, through the coin had little benefit.

And then there were the obvious gains for his side… Rainer had truly been given a deal he couldn’t refuse. The party was just glad the Divinity was smart enough not to blackmail him directly. Rainer would never stand for that and the result would be war.

Already they thought of ways to incorporate the new currency into their next auction. It would be a great way to use the gained resources of the Dungeon and let the people of this planet use them to bid on enchanted items. They merely had to have them appraised beforehand and judged with a certain number of coins of this Divinity.

Even offering some transportation to the city could prove beyond profitable. Given that the portals were semi-permanent, there was some thought that alone could be more valuable than anything else in the City of Wealth—if they could get in contact with the right people. Like, for example, the people of the [Nature’s Walkers]. And if Rainer’s form of world travel wasn’t affected by greater Souls...

With much decided, and a promise to consult others during any future negotiations, Rainer switched his focus back to his third Avatar.

Rainer flew slowly throughout the city, noticing the mixture of envious gazes and lusting ones among the crowd below him. At least what he thought was lusting given he couldn’t always read the facial expressions of far different races. His Charisma truly transcended reason.

It also seemed flight wasn’t a common privilege, or perhaps one that wasn’t exercised often precisely because of it’s uncommonness. What a way to draw attention to himself…

Rainer wasn’t sure exactly where to go. He had no money apart from the single coin of unknown value. And selling enchanted items would have be to be a careful and gradual process lest he devalue his own stock. Even Rainer understood that much. For a Divinity who treated him fairly rudely to bother complimenting his Avatar’s lackluster enchanted set, meant that it was a rarity of some sort.

A rarity to be fully exploited.

It was a few moments later that Rainer gave up looking around on his own and used [Arcane Revelation] to find and question the first person of notable Divinity-related status. He was never one for patience. And if this city could ever be determined as safe, exploring the place with a girl—or two—on his arm was a far better idea than on his own.

Unlike some of the more modern-looking buildings, by Earth’s standards in any case, the City of Wealth’s base for the Order of the Elements was something more old-school. Even if its height was impossible in normal cases. It was a five-layered, mostly white stone pyramid topped with a tower that he figured was only shorter than the Divinity's one by some sort of law.

Even if Rainer admitted, begrudgingly and after he got over his annoyance at him, that he quite liked the Divinity of Wealth, he didn’t think the Divinity to be above pompous displays. He was an immortal who considered himself a God after all. If pompous wasn’t his middle name, it was at least at a maiden name.

Pushing down the petty desire to one day blackmail the Divinity into letting his base here be the tallest building, Rainer stepped inside.

He knew he probably wasn’t the best person to meet a multi-plane organization they wanted to befriend, but he had a big advantage here. His Soul. He doubted they’d ever seen anything like it; even if the cutoff part wasn’t truly representative of the original, it still had a portion of Arcane, Void, and his normal Humanness. And they had a good reputation, based on what the [Priest] had told him, among others.

They had little choice but to have a good reputation. How many children of powerful 3rd Tiers or multi-plane or planet empires did they have in their care, raising them for Trials? If they screwed up even once and broke that trust, their source of income and rare resources would plummet. Not to mention the physical response. Even if reportedly the 2nd Tiers managing the Order could match even the strongest 3rd Tiers with their group spells bolstered by their changed Souls, that didn’t make them invincible.

And given the notes of the ‘Great Sage’ of the Goblins, his biggest regret was making his Soul only fire. Rather than what Rainer assumed was Arcane-Fire or perhaps just Arcane. If Rainer’s guess was true, then the Order of the Elements might have a similar issue. Offering them the Arcane Part of one of his cutoff Souls to look at, just how much could that get him?

And if all the rumors he had heard of them were true, he’d be happy to do so for free. Just to see what they’d gain from it.

Unlike the less modern outside, the inside seemed to be set up almost like a bank, with several different receptionists handling different types of business. They likely borrowed the format that the City of Wealth used in its main building. It took only a moment for him to enter the line regarding requests to meet with the Order itself. The rest seemed to deal with forms of trade or other requests. While this line seemed to deal with heading to the Order itself. He wasn’t entirely sure, however.

“Yes?” the person behind the desk asked disinterestedly, even after seeing the badge he eventually pinned on his robe. Whatever rank he was given seemed far too low for her to be impressed, even if it was ‘rare’. Or perhaps it was his own strength. After all, without [Appraisal], or knowledge of his classes, he didn’t have enough Mana to be impressive. And if they couldn’t sense his Arcane Power or Void Will, he would seem to be quite ordinary among 2nd Tiers.

“I’d like to pass on a message to the Order Masters,” Rainer started.

He was given a long look, one that seemed to border on laughter, before he finally got a response.

“You can leave a letter over there, and it will be sent,” she pointed to the large stack. He had feeling that wouldn’t be touched for years.

“I have something important to discuss, can’t a message be passed on directly?”

“If it is within your ability to visit the Order itself, I’m sure something can be arranged. Otherwise, you should be patient,” she practically growled, getting uncharacteristically annoyed for someone in her position. Surely she dealt with people dozens of times more annoying than him?

Rainer sighed, but before he could say anything else the woman in front of him got even more annoyed.

“What? Did the group behind you think sending some pretty boy would get you special privileges? I admit they really outdid themselves. But they could at least send a half-decent mage if they were going for that.”

Looking at the stunned expression on this half-baked mage’s face, Valerie let out a sigh of her own. Her grandfather had truly outdone himself. Working a job like this given her status was punishment so great she couldn’t even be mad at him.

Well, she did curse his name in several dozen unique ways whenever she had to deal with a pompous diplomat or lordling that thought they mattered. And had to keep a polite expression on her face all the while.

But she had been too tired after a long day, and seeing this blatant attempt at using eye-candy was too much. Did she seem so vapid as to forward a request to the heads of the Order just because of a pretty face? And really… how was it possible for a Human to look this good? She could think of perhaps a single Elf off the top of her head that matched him. And he didn’t count since she was related to him.

She was pleasantly surprised when he only ended up with a resigned look on his face. Perhaps he did have sense in him.

“The Arcane Order will visit the Order of the Elements directly then,” the man said before vanishing.

She was utterly stunned and the few people who saw this play out were just as much. With the defenses and guards of this place, there was no way he had magically stealthed himself in any manner.

Which meant… he had teleported within the presence of the Divinity of Wealth…

Valerie groaned as she slammed head on the table. How much longer would she be forced to work this job after news of this interaction reached her grandfather? Being rude to someone so capable...

Her hidden guard snickered inappropriately at likely the same thought, especially since he’d likely be the one to deliver it and see his reaction.

What a bastard, but knowing Gramps he’ll probably disintegrate the messenger too for not stopping me...

She thought, with as much schadenfreude as she could muster. Perhaps the guard’s lack of continued snickering meant he had a similar thought.

Even though Rainer made such a claim, he’d still have to go through the [Cosmic Map] and see if he could even figure out which location was the Order of the Elements, assuming he had such a location at all.

As Rainer switched to walking and then went to check out what was akin to a subway station with portals, he realized he was being followed. A combination of his own strength of Soul and his [Arcane Revelation] made Souls recognizable enough. He had been looking around in the first place for any of the 3rd Tier out of curiosity and had caught sight of these people a few times. That they were hidden, which was somehow legal within the rules of the city even if certain actions done while hidden were not—a good thing for him to know with [Void Suppression]—only furthered his suspicion.

Whether this was the taste of the Divinity in charge or a limit to his power, Rainer couldn’t be sure. Perhaps a mixture of both.

It was with much distaste he realized that along with magic, items, resources, and mercenaries, flesh was a trade of the City of Wealth. He should have expected it, even if he hoped otherwise. And it seemed his uniqueness, perhaps of Soul or Arcane, or maybe even Void, had attracted someone. He wasn’t so arrogant to think his ability to see Souls so clearly was unique across a vast universe. Even if the ability to read enchanted items and copy them might be.

He opted to go off world to deal with them. But in a way that could be followed. He needed an inside but impartial source for information on the City of Wealth. Handing off a slaver, or whoever was stalking him, to have his mind unraveled from the inside out suited him just fine. It would give information both light and dark of this new world he found himself in.

“What do you mean I can’t go there?” Rainer asked the [Priest] operating the portal in question.

“If the City of Wealth could be used as a hub for conquest and invasion, we wouldn’t exactly be a welcome presence, would we?”

“No, I suppose not,” Rainer added, thinking that was quite the smart move. Rather than being bringers of opportunity, they’d be harbingers of doom. Who would welcome such portals on their world?

“I am more than happy to guide you to the few portals that connect to planes too divided and too powerful, or too wild to be restricted to a certain group that came from them. Some are even opened as having no normal travelers coming from them but rather for the exploration of those from the City of Wealth.”

“Lead the way,” Rainer said, inwardly thankful for this badge that made the [Priest]s treat him so well. Or perhaps they all knew of him, given that they could see him and yet not sense him.

After entering the previously unknown and wasteland-like plane, Rainer flew away from the small gathering that was the hub around the portal and stopped once he reached a place far enough. He carefully avoided any dangerous monsters he noticed from far away. It wouldn’t be good to be interrupted. While pretending to gather a magical plant, he found below him...

A barrier of space snapping into place signaled just what he had been waiting for.

He turned towards the chasers, noting a group of seven, one of which was restricting space around him. He stood in the back with his hands clasped together, seemingly maintaining the spell. It almost seemed as if he was physically embodying a rune with the magic that swirled around him. Interesting.

Of course, as they were all in the 2nd Tier, it was nowhere near strong or wide-ranging enough to even warrant mention. [Void-walking] could ignore it outright, even if had still been a hapless teen from Earth.

“I always ask if they’ll come quietly, but no one ever seem to take me up on the offer,” a woman of a blue-skinned race started speaking, seemingly the leader of this little group. She seemed Human enough apart from the skin color, perhaps her far too sharp facial features, and the two extra arms. Her attempt at buying time for her team to get in position was obvious. But it hardly mattered.

“I can’t imagine most take well to being a slave,” Rainer flippantly responded, doing his best to just refrain from slapping them down. He needed at least one alive after all. He briefly wondered why the City of Wealth didn’t have precautions against this type of behavior. Then again, he had been pretty purposeful in actions that others might consider reckless. You didn’t just enter a plane like this alone, even if you knew you were being followed and were stronger than them.

Why had they followed him, now that he thought of it. Perhaps the situation was so strange they didn’t know how to react. Perhaps whatever organization they were apart of only tracked people to later be followed with world-traveling means.

“I don’t suppose my badge will convince you otherwise?” Rainer said, showing off the small thing. Several of the group looked both worried and surprised but the leader only seemed a tad disappointed.

“Thanks for the info. We’ll sell you outside the city,” she said, confirming his slavery guess, as the rest of the group moved around him. If the Divinity of Wealth showed evidence of actually being able to track those badges, that would be a huge error on his part even if done in good faith. Which meant outside the city itself it meant nothing, besides a hint of someone’s background, even if it did have that capability.

Rainer paid them little mind as he thought over how best to capture one. Even if he felt threatened, he was an Avatar after all. If he wasn’t worried about something happening to his Soul, he’d even let them capture him so that he could see just how someone of his caliber would be enslaved.

“So much trouble for just me, not even caring about the force behind me. Might I ask the reason? Plus, how are you going to get me to a place to sell?” Rainer said, not even bothering to care about the preparations they were making. They wanted him to talk, so he might as well take advantage of it and ask questions.

“We’ll let whatever old pervert is interested in you handle the transportation costs,” the blue-skinned woman said with a grin, inching closer as the Aura in her moved in a strange manner.

Rainer’s jaw nearly dropped as he heard that. He, a top expert of the 2nd Tier, was being captured to sell for that reason? They were risking their lives for such a thing? He supposed the items on his body were worth a decent amount in any case...

He rubbed his nearly dropped jaw as he thought it over. Ignoring his added Charisma, that partial Void Elf transformation was enough to put him among the best looking Humans. Add on his Arcane and Void changes, further enhancing his features, that would likely put him outside the realm of Humans.

With the Charisma piled on after all that… and the fact that he was Human, making him somewhat unique…

And the encounter with that girl.... Then again, he thought darkly, what would some people on Earth be willing to pay for an Elf that transcended Human beauty? How irritating.

He mentally shrugged. He guessed he could see his value. But it still bothered him he was being captured for such a reason.

It was when he sighed again, something he felt he was doing a bit too often, he suddenly caught four daggers striking at him, the blue Aura user moving at a speed that may as well be teleportation. Her Aura moved her body in a strange way to accomplish that.

Just as her crossed hands were about to stab daggers into his eyes, and two more into his ears, she suddenly froze. A [Void Hold] was more than enough to stop her, especially when he used such a large part of his Void Will.

Eight Arcane-Weaved Circles appeared above Rainer as they bombarded the others around him. A second set finished any stragglers as Rainer stabbed forward with an [Arcane Blade]. Her Aura Cladding hardened and layered itself even as it changed into something resembling a transparent metal, but he stabbed through it just the same.

A hand over her heart, Arcane-Lighting coursed through his hand and into her body. She desperately tried to defend, forcing Rainer to put his Soul forth. He carefully mixed [Soul Presence] in the attack so as not to accidentally wipe his Avatar from existence.

Feeling the energy so directly, Rainer started to make changes. He shifted his power, focusing on making the element stronger at a lesser cost, making sure any energy wasn’t wasted. His control improved more and more as he poured his will into the violet lightning with [Soul Presence].

[Arcane-Lightning Manipulation has reached level 3]

[Experience Gained: XX]

[Arcane-Lightning Manipulation has reached level 4]

[Experience Gained: XX]

He briefly realized that rather than combat practice he should have been training his manipulation skills along with [Soul Presence].

[Arcane-Lightning Manipulation has reached level 5]

[Experience Gained: XX]

A thought for the future.

[Arcane-Lightning Manipulation has reached level 6]

[Experience Gained: XX]

In fact, he was quite sure this rapid gain had a lot to do with his attempts to knock a powerful Aura user unconscious, defeating her Aura defenses in the process and keeping her stunned, without killing her entirely. It was surprisingly difficult, avoiding a death scenario. His recent gains weren’t just for show.

[Arcane-Lightning Manipulation has reached level 7]

[Experience Gained: XX]

Not to mention how even if it remained level 9, he had made strides forward with [Arcane Energy Manipulation] and then [Arcane-Ice Manipulation] on top of that. His Arcane-altered lightning was just catching up.

The improvements slowed down there and a few seconds later, he had a Half-Human, Half-Zel-Naga lying unconscious before him.

Art and his mother had already left the Dungeon to prepare to safely imprison her. Memory searching could be left for later.

With his remaining Void Will, he used a [Blade of the Void] and left the plane. He had done enough in the city for now. It was time to make proper use of the remaining time in the Dungeon. He could head back to the City of Wealth afterwards.

After a few hours of Dungeon exploration, going to sleep with Sentient Avatars was a new experience. But heading into [Sleep Learning] normalized it well enough, since he was technically still aware, even if not awake.

Rainer had a feeling long-time use of this was the same as staying awake so he sent his Avatars to autopilot, no longer bothering to control them directly. But with the upgrade of [Avatar Control] even the autopilot was now closer to a normal person than previously. Not to mention his own enhancement to the usability of the Avatar with the extra manipulation skills relating to the body.

The recent threat of the Divinity brought Rainer to another conclusion. That the Souls weren’t as separate as they appeared, especially given that when he entered [Sleep Learning] he had his full Soul available. At least until he created Avatars in this virtual space. This meant that in some way, they all entered or connected to here.

With his other ‘selves’ off to do other things, Rainer focused his primary will on learning a spell. The group-like spell that had been ‘given’ to him so long ago by the [Nature’s Walkers] during their first meeting.

His goal had been to use it as a way to get a better handle on both the Arcanium and the Void. To experiment with a smaller part. The spell cut off a small area from the greater of those two places, so it was the perfect tool for such a thing. In the worst case scenario, it might help in leveling [Arcanium Descent] and its counterpart or give him a greater control over the two realms within his [Sleep Learning] space.

He went through the spell, first noting that while it let a group cast it, it wasn’t necessarily a requirement. As explained to him, they would all learn the spell. Then, each would cast the spell fully, but would focus on an individual section. It split up the burden while multiplying the power of it.

The multiplication effect wasn’t as great as the Mage Guilds of the North, and in fact after the Dungeon he was starting to believe their group spells were quite unique even on a cosmic scale, but it was still useful. And because it wasn’t as great, it meant the spell still had its power for a single caster.

An hour of practice later, however, and Rainer found himself completely unable to cast the spell. He wouldn’t call learning a tier 6 spell easy, but he should have at least found some success given his unsafe and quick testing. But it merely did nothing. Given that he had received this spell twice, once from the [Nature’s Walkers] and once again in the bulk gift by Locklar, he doubted it was fake. Not to mention [Mana Reading] had been used at one point or another when he asked if all the spells were legitimate as inoffensively as he could.

He had even brought over two of his Avatars to try and use it as a group spell, leaving the third to continue testing with Art. While that seemed to produce something, it still wasn’t that much closer. It was a multiplied failure. Prettier, and perhaps a bit deadlier to himself, but that was it.

Deciding to question them about it later, Rainer went off to train his Soul. And level his manipulation skills while he was at. Perhaps getting all the Arcane related ones to level 9 might give him a hint to reaching 10.

With only a few days remaining in the Dungeon, Rainer went full out. The only exception being that he reserved some power in case anyone needed help. And as the time wound down for the Dungeon’s availability, and lives were lost, those requests became more frequent.

He was briefly distracted from his constant [Void-Traveling] by someone contacting his second Avatar with the [Nature’s Walker]s. It looked like they finally decided on something.

Over a frozen tundra in Alvra, Ling Yun hovered in the air, clicking his tongue audibly at the Demon Princes currently in battle. But even with his complaints, he knew the Ling Dynasty had truly won out with this planet.

But he couldn’t understand it. These Demon Princes had Aura beyond anything someone in the 2nd Tier should have, their transformations and the bloodline that gave them strength was beyond anything he’d ever seen, and yet they fell to those of far lesser talent and Aura.

Their use of Aura... simply throwing the weight of their strength around with absolutely no finesse. He would call it childish. Would, being the operative word, as he had no interest in insulting his descendents to such a degree.

Even the Soul-stealing Demon Prince, by far the best among them, only lasted so long purely on the abilities of his Souls. Even in that he lacked any real ability, barely scratching the surface of a ridiculous ability. He couldn’t claim their Dynasty had much knowledge in regard to such a thing, but they did fight against it before enough times to know it was poorly used.

In fact, the only thing good about this Soul-stealing Demon Prince was that it was a part of his bloodline. This man would likely be worth more as a captive than ownership of this entire planet. He almost pitied him, but the rest of this Demon race would likely share his fate, apart from the few strong enough to be worth the effort to groom as fighters and their families. But what information he gathered signaled that this Soul-Stealer was the last of his kind. A shame for him.

Really, the Demon race was far too short-sighted. Kill off their powerful, yes, if there really was a need to, but they should have kept the bloodline alive to be bred and used.

And then there was the multi-Souled serpent-like Demon Prince. Why hadn’t he diverted his aging to one of his ‘self’s and multiplied his lifespan?

All of it angered him deeply. But just as it angered him, it let him understand just what the potential of this world was. When they had learned of a planet with vast cursed lands, they had finally used their spies within the Imperial Magiocracy of Zan to steal the planet’s location. And yet it seemed their original overestimation of the planet was still too lesser of the truth.

Their spies would have to retreat of course—the Ling Dynasty’s presence on this planet had an obvious answer after all—but it was worth it, even if just for the cursed lands and the rarities such places often contained. But the wonders of the world didn’t stop there...

The Bear-formed Demon Prince fell as Ling Yun was lost in thought. He was captured easily enough. As if they’d waste such powerful bloodlines. While he had doubt races with such bloodline-related classes could enter dungeons, that didn’t matter much to their Dynasty.

The Tier 3s were the backbone of their forces, and once one reached such a point, Dungeons may as well not exist. Even with the caveat of them requiring either a party of 5 or 10—with difficulty to match—Dungeons of Rank 7 and above were far too strong to be used with any regularity. After all, based on past experience, their difficulty matched a five man party that had three 3rd Tier classes each. All below level 10 of course. Gathering such a party, even within an alliance of several planetary Empires, wasn’t exactly easy.

Of course, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t try and see if enough breeding could create a Dungeon-capable version. The rewards of a Rank 6 Dungeon were hard to ignore.

But even the Ling Dynasty, despite their more unique form of world travel, couldn’t escape the issue of it being more difficult to transport those above the 2nd Tier. A grossly powerful 2nd Tier that might have a chance of fighting against the 3rd in terms of fair combat… such a thing was too good to pass up. A portion of the Demon Race had this potential in his eyes.

Unlike the Zan or others that used a spell-based form of travel, their more raw method of magical world travel didn’t require resources to be used up, but rather defensive items of a wide variety, both armor and ingested. Such things would often be wasted or destroyed in the process. There were a few freaks strong enough to endure the process on their own, but they were few and far between. And none of them could endure it in the 3rd Tier.

Which meant preparing for world travel was a quicker process for them. And he fully planned on using it to his advantage.

Dodging a roar of flame, Ling Yun went downwards, leaving his perch in the air. Demon Prince Fang was the only one conscious and not yet captured. After the sudden attack the man seemed to try and flee but whatever teleportation based Soul he called upon was useless. Ling Yun’s disrupting wave of Aura was more than enough to prevent such a thing.

He dashed forward, removing his sword from his sheath. He wondered just how long this man would last.

Dravar of the Black Hounds stared at the wide ocean before him, sensing the deadly curse and 3rd Tier strength monsters living within this place further south. Truly strange for a planet. The deadly Souls floating around decently north of here were even a bigger surprise. Not even the best from his land would approach such things casually. In truth, he feared whoever killed those Dragons far more. Even if the myths of this land said it was truly a long time ago. Monsters had far longer lifespans and would never consider such things ancient history.

They had traded their spies for this planet’s location. They all had to retreat from Zan, but it was worth it. And they had no doubt others had done the same.

A location with true forbidden and cursed lands was far too valuable to overlook. Especially one on a relatively safe place like a planet. Even just a single hair from a Unicorn that likely resided in such a place would be worth a planet of this size. At least to their people.

He sighed lightly, before retreating to a place called Neutral City. It would take some time to truly send their experts here from the Land of Evolvement, and he alone wasn’t enough to venture to such dangerous places. Even if they had taken humanoid form and gained advantages from it, Monsters still fell behind their peers in world traveling. Learning of this world’s people ahead of time would be helpful. And the mountain of such a great madness nearby interested him deeply.