The woman stood there in stunned silence. Just moments ago, she was on the bottom of the totem pole in the room with very little say in the happenings of the world, but now she was somehow in charge?
She was the new president? Would the leadership across the United States even take her seriously? Would they think it was a coup that she planned? She found it hard to keep herself calm, but eventually decided on a course of action.
Within hours the world was watching footage of a man dressed in black controlling a lightning bolt and killing all of the big shots in the United States save for one survivor.
As the audio was released as well, any of the other countries that had thoughts of launching missiles again immediately scrapped those plans and went back to warring with simple ground and air battles.
Kayn paid attention to the news for a few hours before deciding that things were probably going to settle down for a while again. So he went back about his business, taking in the rest of the inheritances.
Eleven months passed in the blink of an eye as Kayn lost track of the passage of time. The citizens that were not part of the war went back to their homes as they learned more and more temples were no longer safe and no country wanted to violate the no weapons of mass destruction rule which was shouted across the sky.
Kayn learned a good amount about the elements and even had significant increases to all of his elemental affinities, including a few deviant forms. He also learned some knowledge that was interesting, but went in one ear and out the other stored for later digestion, such as gaining power by the sacrifice of animals and people alike.
Unfortunately, he hadn't gained anything extreme such as the constitution from Takemikazuchi or the essence from Odin. Though, he figured that he could run a planet with his knowledge of how things worked, from an economic standpoint anyway.
He arrived at the first of the last three temples he needed to visit which was situated in Ghana. It had taken over 30 temples, including some major gods such as Thor, but his core was on the verge of finally regressing to a fresh 1st stage core and he was quite excited to see what would happen.
Just as he was about to enter into the intricately built wooden temple with carvings and paintings all around, he felt a sudden and incredibly sharp pain in his head, almost extreme enough to cause him to pass out.
Knowing what was about to happen, Kayn brought out the Wanderer's Villa before stepping inside and laying in a comfortable position on his bed. The next thing he knew, the pain exploded in his mind causing his thoughts to go blank as he fell unconscious.
…
As usual after this process, Kayn felt that his mind and thoughts were clear as a mountain stream. The next thing he noticed was that the air inside of the Villa seemed to be more saturated with mana than it was before.
Curious about what had changed, he made his way to the control room where he accessed the panel and was startled by what he found.
[Due to the qualitative transformation of the administrator's soul, the Wanderer's Villa can now host up to 15 individuals while stored inside of the administrator's soul.]
[The concentration of ambient mana inside of the Wanderer's Villa has increased in proportion to the administrator's soul and available mana both within the environment and within the administrator.]
[New formation options are available.]
[New array options are available.]
[While residing inside of the administrator's soul, the Wanderer's Villa will increase defense against attacks targeting the soul.]
[The library has been upgraded! Administrator is now able to materialize books containing knowledge and insights contained within their mind. Basic materials must be available in the treasury for the book to be taken outside of the Wanderer's Villa.]
[Updates will finalize when the administrator next brings the Wanderer's Villa into their soul. Current update completion progress: 0%]
Kayn couldn't believe what he was seeing. Not only had the Wanderer's Villa evolved into a Noumenon Artifact, it was also able to evolve even more as he grew stronger? But what did it mean his soul changed on a qualitative level?
From what he understood, the head pain was always related to the evolution of the Analyze ability which he thought had to do with his mind. Was Analyze actually connected to his soul?
He definitely felt stronger in a way that he wasn't able to fully describe, it was like his entire being had undergone a change that he didn't quite understand, but he liked the feeling.
Knowing that he might eventually get answers as time passed, he exited the control room and went to cook some food. He was awfully hungry, but at least he felt as if he had just awoken from a long nap. After eating, Kayn exited the Villa and pulled it back into his soul, simultaneously he heard a voice inside of his head.
"Wanderer's Villa will now undergo evolution and will be unavailable for use until the updates finish. Current progress: 0.5%. Administrator will be able to summon the Wanderer's Villa once more when the updates complete, thank you for your patience."
'My patience?' Then it struck him, the Virtue of Patience he gained had to be from the Wanderer's Villa somehow. Now he only needed to figure out exactly what was up with this artifact and why Yvaris Earthborn knew nothing about its special properties as he had once been bonded with it.
It made sense that the Villa may have been influencing the old dragon though. He was extremely patient with his actions against those that disturbed his rest, not to mention having to wait all of that time just for small increases in order to reach the absolute peak of the 6th stage.
Putting his thoughts to the side, Kayn entered into the last temple that was easily accessible to him, Owuo's, a god of death and destruction.
Kayn immediately felt a deathly aura permeating the air around him, even trying to enter into his body, but it was blocked without him even having to do anything. He definitely hadn't had this same feeling of superiority to any inheritance he entered before, so this must have something to do with the change his soul went through.
Once Kayn found the formation core and began circulating the Void Star technique, he quickly entered into the usual meditative state. Only this time, the meditation lasted for less than a day before Kayn realized he was done and he had barely gained anything from this place.
His core progression, or rather regression, didn't change much and all he gained was a better understanding of how to kill people and an increase in his desire to destroy the people who had brought harm to he and his family.
Sighing, Kayn thought about how to get to the second to last destination which was supposed to be located at the center of the Earth. He hoped that he would actually be able to make progress with this temple as it was supposed to be much stronger than the others, plus it was also extremely difficult to get to.
He was able to withstand heat and pressure pretty well separately, but the center of the Earth was supposed to be as hot as the surface of the Sun. If his mana couldn't hold back the extreme heat and pressure, he would die very quickly.
Over the last few years, Kayn was able to learn how to manipulate any element similarly to how he could fire and lightning, but his control of those two elements was still superior. Though, he thought that with training and the insights he gained through more than 50 temples, he would soon be at similar levels to his previous mastery of fire and lightning, but with the other elements.
Kayn had no idea who this temple in the middle of the Earth belonged to, but he could figure that out after he arrived. Soon, Kayn was digging his way down through the ground as he manipulated the earth out of his way. The process was far more mana intensive than Kayn expected the deeper that he went and he guessed that at his current rate, he may run out of mana before he actually reached the center.
Changing his tactic, he started to use a hole digging spell, sending it as far down into the earth below him as possible. He had been simply manipulating a ball of space around him as he moved down, but now that he gave up on that method, a massive hole into the ground would be left behind for him to exit from.
Why he didn't do this in the first place, he could only attribute to wanting to test his mastery of the earth element.
Hours passed by as the further Kayn went into the Earth, the more mana he would have to expend on his spell and eventually he made it through Earth's mantle and into the outer molten core.
As he didn't want to risk destroying the Garments of the Shadow Phoenix in the lava, he took his clothing off and surrounded himself with pure mana and several different elemental shields such as fire, water, and earth.
He tried touching the lava with his finger at first to see if his body could withstand it, but his finger practically instantly burned to ash. He decided to leave his hand without a finger as would need to dedicate all of his mana from here on out towards getting to the center. Healing his finger was something that could be dealt with later when he had mana to spare.
Kayn swam through the molten layer but found it more and more difficult as the lava was becoming thicker the deeper that he went. Once he reached the inner core, instead of using more mana to dig his way in, he simply used brute force as he dug his way through the solid metal of the inner core.
His mana was reaching dangerously low levels when he finally spotted a small brightly shining ball of molten metal floating in an empty space. It was exuding a rather potent amount of mana which kept the metal from coming any closer.
Knowing this was what he was looking for, he excitedly approached it with caution. If he wasn't careful about this, he would be crushed the second he finished taking the mana from it. Taking the proper precautions with several spells at the ready, he reached out and touched the floating orb.
The next thing he knew, he was on the top of a volcano on a large island that was lush with plant life. Simply put, it was a tropical paradise aside from the flowing lava river.
Kayn extended his Mana Sense to the surroundings. The entire place was filled to the brim with mana so he wasn't using his own mana to take a look around for the first time in a long while. He found it quite astounding but the entire island seemed to be the area of the inheritance.
The mana seemed to be the strongest coming from the center of the volcano, and knowing he was going to have to once again enter the lava, he firmed his resolve. He was now surrounded by mana, so he didn't think he would run out before he could finish absorbing the inheritance.
Unfortunately for him the lava instantly torched every barrier layer he had activated. As the lava touched his skin, he noticed it didn't burn through him like the molten metal of the outer core layer of Earth.
It hurt and was definitely burning away his tissue, but nothing that he couldn't handle with a sane mind. Activating Wrath at its full capacity was far more painful as that felt like his entire body was being torn apart piece by piece.
Thinking for a few seconds, Kayn decided to experiment. If he couldn't use external mana to enter into the bubbling rock, what about internal mana? He then flooded his hand with light elemental mana and submerged it into the lava.
Kayn could feel the lava burning away at his skin and the muscle underneath, but the light elemental mana was healing his hand just as fast. His mastery of the light element was extremely high at this point, especially when used for healing.
Knowing that this method would work while he entered into the lava, he took his hand back out and flew out of the crater towards the edge of the island where he set out a mat on top of the sand before the waves.
Taking a seat on the mat, he closed his eyes as he began to circulate the Void Star technique to both replenish his mana and get a feel for the surrounding mana so that he could prepare himself for when he started absorbing it from the formation core.