Chapter 16: Levels

   The trio escaped the mirror with lingering fear, they felt like they were close to death after what they experienced. Lucian closed his eyes trying to remember the feeling of controlling the cloak but it remained elusive.

Aaron clapped looking pleased when he saw that apart from the fears from this experience, they had no other problems.

  “The sun path is geared towards burning, Lucian did well using this ability at the nick of time. If Adam had been the one to do it, you would have ended up in even bigger pain.

You unconsciously created a tunnel in the mirror when you used the door pattern ability, the void and the mirror could only give way in the face of your powerful flames.

You can’t grasp the feeling of what happened there, without the method to advance to rank 4, your consciousness will not have the qualitative change needed to understand it.”

Reina was silent throughout Aaron’s speech, a crescent shaped moon slowly outlined in her spirit body but it was very faint and looked on the verge of collapsing.

The loss to Zaria had influenced her into this, she wanted to develop herself into a powerhouse. She did not let go of the faint outline, she tried meditating, while it made the moon stable, it did not show any sign of completely showing itself.

Adam asked, “what about what happened to us!? The illusion and Lucian’s partial split.”

Aaron looked at Lucian with a complicated expression, “I am also surprised that happened but it also opens the possibility of Lucian taking control of this artifact in the future… of course, I doubt it will happen if he does not advance to rank 4.

The other selves you saw was an illusion, the sun path has a high level control over what you can see especially when you are so low ranked.”

Lucian was surprised when he heard this, he clenched his fists secretly.

“Strength, strength… I need strength to wield an artifact of this level. The sun path is really versatile, they can easily create illusions at high levels.”

Aaron knew Reina most likely grasped something when she used her skills, he didn’t want to disturb her, he motioned to the rest to be quiet before he said, “you will stop training in the maze for now, this test you did is very taxing to your consciousness. Try all your best to advance to rank 8 by the end of the month.

….

  Kumar’s father a rank 2 sun dragon stood respectfully behind a female dragon, another dragon with closed eyes also lied down without a world.

This two dragons in front of him were both rank 1, only rank 1 creatures like them could make him a rank 2 sun dragon respectful. The report Kumar brought back from the desert was reported to the high level members of the dragon clan and now he was given permission to listen to the decision that will be made later.

The plane they lived in can only be described as extremely large, the dragons despite boasting of two rank 0s can not claim to be the top power of the plane, they shared this position with the behemoths who also had two rank 0 among them. The humans in this plane had no rank 0 but they had rank 1 overseeing major human cities.

The influence extraordinary creatures have on their environment become too intense when they advance to rank 2, other humanoid creatures are not spared from this change.

Rank 2 to rank 0 powerhouses apart from keeping their consciousness in check, they also resided in the void filling up everywhere with their paths symbols.

In a secluded area of the dragon clan main ground, a mountain floated on a small lake. The blue water flowed around the mountain forming a loop. This mountain in front of this high level dragons was anything but small, runes, patterns, symbols of water, diamonds and crystals of different colours adorned the void.

They could feel the existence that stood at the top of the world looking at them from an unknown distance even though his body was right with them.

Rank 0 planet path dragon Longwei was in charge of this plane, he not only serve as protector for the dragon clan here, he also needed to ward off the influence of the abyss. Among the high level figures of this major planet, internal fighting was strictly forbidden. Of course when the benefit is big enough a war is unavoidable.

 Even if there was going to be a fight, the rank 0 leaders avoided it after all the planet they occupied was the closest to the abyss and they needed to keep the abyss away.

This dragon that had lived for more than 40,000 years chose this peculiar name after learning spirit reading. The plane he lived in was formed from part of his body, and looking from a high point, you could see a giant round world orbiting a sun.

 Behind this sun, darkness churned like a living creature. Huge cracks filled with dark fog lined the void but this blinding sun prevented it from entering the planet.

  Longwei shifted his full attention towards the dragons waiting for him, he could already feel that the others were close.

A small dot of light travelled at high speed into the Longwei plane before expanding and outlining a young man with a golden beard wearing a hooded cloak filled with golden patterns, he nodded at the dragons in front of him before bowing to the dragon lord.

“Lord Longwei, the lady conveys her greetings… she hopes this cooperation will be fruitful.”

Behind the young man, a speckle arrived at a high speed instantly outlining an indistinct creature that seemed to be a fusion of a rat and rabbit.

Each hair on the rat were lined with stars giving the feeling of standing before a cosmos.

This star rat known as Mercury was born was known for his exploits in searching for old world relics, he could easily escape the influence of the abyss despite being a rank 1 star path. Mercury was born as a rank 2 star path creature making his advancement to rank 1 smooth, his parents died before he could mature but the bone of mischief and curiosity for knowledge has already been implanted in him.

He ranked in the top three of those wanted by abyssal creatures due to his constant escape whenever a trap was set for him. Rank 0 abyssal creatures could have gotten to this high level star rat to corrupt him but he had the protection of another higher level creature… the dragon lord Longwei. Mercury also sometimes acted as a messenger for the dragon lord.

Longwei figure became a little clearer after this rat appeared.

The next second, a behemoth outlined itself out of a moon vortex, he bowed to all present before sitting in preparation for the dragon lord.

Longwei figure appeared in the void, the dragon had scales on his body, each scale had patterns that told different stories, he smiled as he squinted at the behemoth.

 “The abyss underestimate me too much, I have read so much about protagonists that I had to make up multiple layers of defence to defend against the authors plot armour. You send a rank 1 disguised as a rank 2 to get my guard down but I have never lost my vigilance even once.”

 “We are all gathered here because of the latest report sent by a member of my dragon clan, this information is of utmost importance. We lost an important artifact to the abyss due to our carelessness and I don’t want such to repeat itself.

This desert has been right under our noses but we forgot about it, an abyssal dragon was tracked by the border force but vanished when it entered through a ruin connecting to the planet. The abyssal dragon vanished after emerging, all attempts to search for this dragon including the use of astrology and divination ended without results.

Certain information about this operation will be withheld… an agreement from all parties. Longwei said glancing at the behemoth.

Mercury will track that dragon even if he has to go near the abyss, son of the sun will be in charge of destroying that desert that managed to fool me for so long.

Mercury only needs to track down the dragon, we dragons know how to solve our own problems. Besides, you need to be fast so you won’t be caught by those you offended around the abyss clusters.

The humanoid behemoth who was not offended at not getting any information- after all, it was only an observer… suddenly curved his lips. The behemoth tried to look at the dragon true form through the abyss ability- source corruption.

Behind it, a magnificent aura suddenly descended.