"Hey! Hey!" Rn'd shouted at Yolen. "Yolen, whatever your name is, let us out of these things!" Helena internally cringed, Rn'd was proud and had no idea how much of a one sided match it would be between those two.
"One sec." Yolen said to the halfling before turning to Rn'd. "Hey Rn'd, is that how you say it?"
How did he know his name?
"Wha- how do you know my name?"
"Rn'd, I think it's better for everyone if you didn't threaten a random registration building with Helena and Brim. Am I right?"
'How does he know who we are?'
"Er, we are here on business from the king, that witch was refusing us." Rn'd stammered.
"It's not very nice to call a lady a witch, Rn'd." Yolen smiled, his golden eyes gleaming and his stark white hair shining in the sunlight, it was a peculiar appearance for a human. As Yolen smiled, Rn'd's bubble that was keeping him on the ground disappeared.
"Finally." Rn'd said, standing and brushing off his armour. "Now, come with us to the king."
"No can do." Yolen waved his hand dismissively, Helena and Brim's prisons disappeared. "I'm heading to a dungeon with my buddy over there." He gestured towards the halfling. Rn'd's face didn't show the same joviality that Yolen's did.
"Then we have no choice but to try and detain you." Rn'd leapt towards Yolen, drawing his sword.
Then, suddenly, a burst of energy roared out from where Yolen stood. Rn'd stopped dead in his tracks, a vision of pure terror on his face as he looked towards where Yolen was standing. In his place stood a being made of a deep black and purple smoke that seemed to glow, parts of the smoke drifted out like arcs, becoming more blue as they thinned out. All high level adventurers recognized that blue energy, it was mana. But that blue was the thinned out version of what this being was made of. It was clear that whatever was standing in front of them was made of pure mana, so much of it that it became like the night sky. The apparition then spoke, in a voice like stars colliding, it inspired awe and fear in those that heard it.
"I will make my own way there when I choose to Rn'd, until then, if you wish to take me in forcefully then you best bring an army." The apparition was Yolen apparently, Helena was awestruck at the power this man possessed. "You have permission to look at my appraisal." He then reverted back into his regular form, that of a muscular yet lean man with an incredibly handsome face, golden eyes and white hair. He then turned to Fulcrum "Please wait a second, mate. I've got to go do my reappraisal. You are welcome to watch." That last sentence was directed at Helena and her party members.
--
Krystin gasped as she finished the appraisal.
"Not eight hours ago you were level 136 and now you are 165?!" She asked, amazed at Yolen's advancement.
Helena too was astounded, she had suspected him how being an ascended ever since he had turned into that being of pure mana, but to be this high of a level? He was almost double her level and she was considered to be one of the best adventurers in the kingdom.
"Yup, that's what going through a dungeon with two party members will do to you." Yolen said smugly.
"You and Fulcrum?" She looked towards the halfling who was standing, gawking at Yolen's level as well.
"Yup, you may as well do his reappraisal while these guys read my sheet." Yolen handed his sheets over to Rn'd, ushering Fulcrum forwards.
"Sounds good to me." Fulcrum held his hands forwards confidently for Krystin to hold. As she did so, the three adventurers turned together to read his sheet.
"He's a fallen?" Brim whispered, looking over his shoulder at Yolen who was celebrating his friend's climb to diamond rank with him.
"As interesting as that is, have you seen his individual skill. Ominous name." Helena whispered while pointing to a description on the sheet.
"He can create and destroy anything as long as he's in contact with it?" Rn'd asked. "That must've been what we saw on those demons."
"And his glowing state while fighting Lord Maou, that must be his arcane form?" Brim said.
"No," Helena knew it was different. "That form is something many magnitudes more powerful than his other form we saw, did you not feel the power coming from him?" She looked to her companions, they both nodded.
"So it's his mana absorption skill then. He must've not been able to control the look of it before he maxed it out." Brim said.
"Yes, also have a look at his MP and HP values." Rn'd said, handing Helena and Brim the sheet he was examining.
"They're enormous." Helena said.
"We were way out of our depth trying to take this guy on." Rn'd admitted.
The three of them turned to look at the ancient being with power that would sweep away the likes of them.
--
Yolen Arcanum
"Congrats on Diamond rank, man" I said again as I slapped Fulcrum on his back.
"Thank you, I'm ready to ascend though." Fulcrum placed his chain about his neck and we walked from the building. The three adventurers had left earlier, taking a copy of my stats with them, they intended to warn their king of my strength I presumed.
"You will get to in a sec man, just got to use this thing I made first." I brought out a map that I had enchanted. It displayed the location, name and rank of dungeons, as well as telling me if they're defeated or not. Currently on the map there were about 200 dots that signified dungeons in this country. The kingdom was exceedingly large so there was more than enough space between each dungeon.
"Which rank do you want to do?" I asked Fulcrum.
"Which did we just do?" He asked.
I checked the map, the one we had just gone to was the Mountain of flame. It was a silver rank dungeon, meaning it usually needed a party of at least fifteen silver rank adventurers with one or two gold ranks to clear it.
"Silver."
"Then we'll do another." He said.
"Don't want to aim for a harder one?"
"Nope, I just want to become ascended, don't want to maybe die." He said, studying his dagger.
"Alright then." I searched the map for another silver rank dungeon. "You want Nest of the Krine or Forge of Giants?" I asked.
"Err, give me a sec." He looked about. We were walking through the middle of the street, examining the map. "Could you bring us to a safe place for me to try a new summon?"
I put away the map. "Sure." I smiled, placing my hand on his shoulder and using incandescent travel to appear in the main hall of my sky fort.
"Woah." He breathed, looking about the chamber. There was a high amount of scorch marks and cracks going across the marble floor and walls. "This should be good for it." He said.
"Cool." I stood back as I noticed the mana moving around Fulcrum.
He began his chant, he still had all five summon slots open, he could summon the ones he had done already which would be a quicker re-summon, or he could summon a new magical beast. However, if he summoned two more, he would then have to get rid of one of his previous contracts with one of his other summons. Effectively getting rid of that particular summon from his speed dial. As it was now, he still had two slots open.
He finished his chant, the mana drifting from him to the air in front of him. It expanded to a massive size, almost to the roof of the building. It then faded and in its place was a massive figure of pure gold. A giant golem in the shape of a soldier, similar to art of the colossus of Rhodes.
"Nicely done, Fulcrum." I whistled at the giant beast.
"Thanks, could you give it a whack for me?" He asked. The beast turned to him, raising an eyebrow.
"Sure." I didn't have any mana affecting me at the moment so it was all just natural strength, even that strength was immense though.
I stepped up to the massive golem, then flew level with its chest and struck. Its chest crumpled like a piece of paper and it flew backwards into one of the marble pillars of the room. It stayed there in a slumped posture.
"Thanks." Fulcrum said. "You can get up." Turning to the golem. It nodded and slowly stood back up.