Before leaving for the tournament, Rio thought it would be wise to inspect his state more, especially his newly unlocked consciousness, Rio sat in a lotus position and closed his eyes, focusing all his attention on his mind trying to enter his consciousness.
Rio closed his eyes causing him to see nothing but darkness, however, a strange suction started pulling him, but there was no change apart than Rio felt light, Rio looked down and saw his body, and when he saw this he figured he already entered his consciousness
However, everywhere was still black as if his eyes were still closed, he looked around and saw a dim light, which he instinctively wanted to go towards, in this consciousness of his, Rio felt more liberated
As if any baggage was left in his outside body. Rio floated to the dim light and as he got closer, the surrounding became both hotter and brighter.
Soon enough, Rio reached where the dim flame was, but now it was more like a bunch of fireflies bunched together, as Rio was approaching the light, he made guesses of what it may be, and the one he thought the most probable was his fire element or something of the sort
'Doesn't this seem a bit too gentle to represent fire?' Rio doubted and thought it might represent something else
However, as Rio looked around, he realized something strange that he didn't seem to catch as he was attracted by the light, his so-called consciousness seemed to be separated into two parts, one side pure darkness and the other was a kind of orange vibrant scene.
The two sides seemed to be strictly separated as there was some sort of border that refused to merge, however, didn't know if this was good or bad, since people tend not to talk about their consciousness in books and he didn't have anyone to take a reference from since anyone he knew hadn't reached the peak of the mage master realm, he didn't feel anything wrong with it so he just ignored it, in the future he'll keep an eye out and see if anything is abnormal
Rio then went around and tried multiple things such as casting spells, recalling memories, and using his divine sense to sense the entirety of his consciousness.
After unlocking the psyche meridian, he could use the divine sense to a certain distance in his real body, however, where he could use it to search every single corner of his consciousness, after confirming that spells in here have an even stronger effect and he could even review memories of when he was a baby in here, he noticed something odd when he used his divine sense
It didn't seem like anything but his instinct slightly kicked in but then disappeared, that hasn't happened before, he didn't know if he should brush it off as an accident or be safe and probe around, but Rio was always a cautious character, at least ever since he came to this world, where killing was practically unpunishable if you're strong enough
For the next hour, Rio used both his divine sense and instinct to locate the thing that was giving his a strange feeling until he froze and his instinct was ringing saying it was near where he was, so he brought his divine sense and condensed it to only a few meters radius, making the divine sense more capable, Eventually, he noticed a tiny rune, blended within the darkness
Rio furrowed his brows as he inspected the rune that managed to camouflage into his consciousness
'system'
[Ding!]
Name: Hidden Tracking Rune
Skill Level: Level 10 - Diamond, Earth Level
Description: A tracking spell hidden deep within the consciousness which sends the coordinates of the target back to the caster
Rio was about to dispel the rune from his consciousness, before he furrowed his brows and thought 'I don't know who cast this, but if I dispel the tracking spell, they would know my current location since it would be the last co-ordinate they know, so it's best I wipe it out when I go to the tournament
Wiping the rune would be easy since Rio had full control over his consciousness, however, the reason it went unnoticed was that Rio hadn't unlocked his consciousness until recently, making him unaware.
'Who could it be? A person from the Auction house, or someone connected to Xander, what is their purpose?' Questions swirled in Rio's mind since the tracking could be malicious or it could be someone who was trying to investigate
'It could be someone who wants to know who the artificer or alchemist is, or it could be someone who wants me gone and is waiting for a perfect chance to act, whoever it is unnerving since it was a level 10 spell, the person was probably the same level as me or higher, but higher is unlikely since it would be a magus…'
As Rio thought this a chill went through his imaginary body, if it was indeed a magus targeting him, could he escape? Even with all his tricks, the realm was way too vast from peak mage master to early-stage magus.
After concluding he would dispel it at a later date, Rio left his consciousness and started preparing for his departure a week from now, beforehand he was going to just take some artificed equipments to go but now he realized that him having peace in this place has made him lower his guard
Rio decided over the week he would focus on his alchemy and produce some replenishing potions and some deadly poisons that could even inflict a peak mage master, and artifice some types of equipment meant for a quick escape.
However, before he could even start, he sensed someone at the gate, so he looked outside and noticed a familiar face he hadn't seen in a while, however, it was impossible to not recognize no matter how long it had been, this particular person had long golden blonde hair and deep azure eyes, However now her body became more developed and exuded a charm of maturity, This was naturally the daughter of the academy leader, Elise Zathis
Rio noticed whenever Elise came over it was usually crucial, so he didn't feel annoyed at her presence, he allowed her access and went downstairs to open the door to let her in
Naturally, she came with her two bodyguards, Luke and Dimitri, Luke seemed to have broken through and finally reached the 1st Rank Mage Master and Dimitri also seemed to have made an improvement and managed to get to the 2nd Rank Mage Master, however, this situation was different from last time.
Rio felt threatened by Dimitri since he had higher cultivation, However, Rio felt relaxed now as he knew it would take less than 5 seconds to wipe away his existence, so he didn't put up the polite behavior he did last time and spoke casually.