Dorian shook his head ruefully as he looked around the quaint bedroom, relaxing his tired body. The aches that pained him seemed to fade away as he was once more back in the civilized world.
As he expected, at this point, the all-female group of warrior and Wizards weren't attacked in their final brave charge towards the city of Excelsior.
That wasn't to say that nothing strange occurred. On the contrary, just as they reached about four thousand meters from the city, the earth had seemed to shake.
A huge spike of stone had jutted up from the World Bridge, piercing into the air near them.
In an almost comical fashion, all the women in the group had spun around, glaring at the spike tentatively.
Dorian didn't even bother to hear what they said as he shut his ears off, ignoring it completely.
Just like all the rest of the strange occurrences, nothing came of it. They moved forward, completely unperturbed. He didn't even try to glare at them, instead accepting his fate, and returning to pretending to be a limp sack of potatoes.
They treated these unnatural occurrences with unnerving normality.
Just like that, Dorian arrived upon the Lesser World of Paxital.
Paxital was, similar to Taprisha, a type of hub for World Bridges. Twenty separate World Bridges connected to the Lesser World, making it a popular location to travel through, despite its lesser stature.
The world itself was roughly the size of Earth.
Excelsior City was located on the continent of Orba, one of the three continents on the planet.
Dorian needed to cross Orba, and reach the continent of Pashal. From there he would take the World Bridge to Lansc, an Exotic World.
Finally, after crossing across Lansc, he would reach the World Bridge to Magmor.
He could finally bring this journey to save William to an end.
When they entered into Excelsior, Dorian learned a bit more about his rescuers.
"Madam Marian. Madam Sarah. Blessed Lady Anabella." The leader of the guard at the gate to Excelsior had been eminently respectful when he saw the trio.
Excelsior City was unlike many of the other cities Dorian had visited.
Instead of massive, hulking walls, Excelsior had silver-colored walls that were barely 4 meters high. There were guards patrolling it, but none of them seemed to be very intent in their duties.
From what Dorian could see in his limited perch, security seemed very lax for this area.
"Please, you are always welcome here in Excelsior." The Captain of the Guard, a human wearing a vest of white, plated armor, bowed and gestured for the all-female troop to walk forward.
When Dorian was planning his route to Magmor, he'd done as much research as he could in regards to the planets he would visit. Unfortunately, there wasn't much information about worlds that were more than one planet away, at least from what Dorian could find back on Taprisha.
All he knew was that Paxital was a Lesser World that was influenced by the Borel Autarchy, but not completely controlled by it, and that the world beyond this, Lansc, was an Exotic World famed for its floating islands.
The guards didn't question why the women were carrying him, nor did they stop and question any of the warriors. They were simply waved through.
In no time at all, Dorian found himself where he was now. In an old, wooden bedroom, set with sparse decorations.
He hadn't gotten a good look around as he was being carried, not wanting to bring attention to himself. In the city where there were doubtless hundreds of roving eyes staring at their group, he doubted he would be able to get away with much.
The room had a small wooden dresser to his right, a curtain that was drawn over, blocking out the afternoon light, and a single painting on the wall. Sparse, but neat.
'18 hours and 32 minutes remaining till your arm is fully restored.' Ausra's voice echoed in his mind, helpfully informative as he sent her a mental query.
'Alright.' He shrugged, and then shook out his body, standing up.
His injuries had largely healed over the past several hours. He'd used up the last of his Light Pills from his Storage Ring, but they, combined with the healing spell, had put him in near perfect condition.
–
Dorian – Soul Status
Soul Stage: Lord Class (Early)
Health: Good (Repairing)
Energy: 10,221/11,888
–
His status was close to fully restored. He smiled as he stretched, wrapping off much of the white gauze that had covered him.
"Oh my." Dorian stared at his left arm.
It was an arm… but it was smaller than his other arm. Like a slightly older baby arm. He flopped it around, staring at it in consternation.
"It's cold." He shivered, the sensations running through his still-forming arm odd and unsettling.
If he had to be honest… it was vaguely creepy to look at.
"Whatever." He rewrapped it in the white gauze it had been covered in. He took out a set of clothes he'd left in his Spatial Ring, putting on a simple pair of brown leather pants, and a grey vest. He took off most of the gauze that was covering him, his injuries mostly healed.
"Ahhh." His eyes flashed. With his strength restored, even in his Human Form, he would still be a force to be reckoned with. In physical strength, he was probably at the Grandmaster Class, but his Abilities would still have the force of a Lord Class beast.
"18 hours and 32-, oh, 31 now. 31 minutes that I am stuck like this. Alright. I'll wait to finish growing my Solar Rock Lizard bloodline and test out combinations around then." He looked around,
"Let's explore." He nodded his head,
"First, though.. My memories."
Dorian took a mental account of all the new memories that had formed in his head. They felt like a natural part of him, despite the previous jarring unfamiliarity of the strange memories.
From them, Dorian had gained a large amount of knowledge and experience, specifically in regards to martial arts. A huge amount of battle experience.
While all of this came naturally to Dorian, it didn't make him into a godly genius and fighter all at once.
If the man that held these memories had been fighting that Grakon King, Dorian had no doubt that Yukeli could've defeated the undead King handily, without a single injury. The raw skill and fury the man possessed was incredible.
Dorian had managed to win, but only by relying on the techniques that were present in these memories, and a bit of trickery he thought up himself by using his Abilities. Despite that, he was still badly injured and almost lost.
"Let's play it safer next time." He muttered, rubbing his chin with his non-baby hand.
"Shifting Waves, Raging Fires, Rumbling Earth, Thundering Winds. These are the Four Great Elemental Arts." Dorian spoke aloud as he reviewed the memories, setting them into place.
"They were created mainly by Yukeli, but were tested to perfection with a friend of his? A… monkey? How would you test something to perfection that way? And why a monkey?" The memories were a bit unclear in that regard. Dorian couldn't remember any specific names, but he got a vague image of a spry monkey that wielded a staff and practiced the same Four Great Elemental Arts that Yukeli created.
"And he also incorporated advice he got from another one of his friends. She seems to be a dragon?" Again the memories were vague and torn in this area.
"Well, good job, Yukeli!" Dorian gave a thumbs up to his head.
"Though, considering you have the same name as the Godking that sent me here and are probably the reason I'm here instead of wherever a dead earthling is supposed to go…" He gave his head a thumbs down as well, this time with the gauze-wrapped baby-hand.
"Then there are several other martial techniques, like the Hira-Gira Self Defense techniques, the Blokkel Fighting Art, the Poko Mental Manual." He nodded his head. The list went on and on.
"But those four are the big ones, huh?" He nodded. The other techniques saw a lot of use in his memories, especially the Hira-Gira Self Defense techniques, but the Great Four, as the memories referred to the techniques, were the ones used the most.
In his memories, Dorian could see the man use the power of Law. But he couldn't actually sense the emanations or process of it, not like he could feel the man guiding the energy in his soul for the Great Four.
What he could remember, however, was the process leading up to Yukeli obtaining enlightenment in the Law of the Absolute.
It was a long, drawn-out process of meditation, focusing one's mind on a concept or idea. For Yukeli, his focus was on a single thing.
Obtaining Absolute Perfection.
His unwavering determination and refusal to bend led to him discovering a Law that had never been studied or used before.
'If I want to start studying a law, I need to pick out a concept like that, huh?' Dorian came to the conclusion. With Yukeli's memories to refer to, it looked increasingly possible that he would be able to truly step into the Lord Class.
'But what Law? Should I go for the Law of the Absolute? Or some other Law?' He frowned. Obtaining enlightenment in the same Law that Yukeli studied seemed rather daunting. It wasn't a law just anyone could find, even if he had the memories of the man grafted onto him.
At his core, he was still Dorian.
"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it." He grunted, shrugging.
For now… he would explore where he was, and start preparing to head to Lansc. There was no reason to dally in Paxital.
His room exited out into a long, wooden hallway, one that was rather cramped at only a meter and a half taller than Dorian. He looked up and down it, not seeing anyone. Several more doors could be seen, evenly dispersed.
He walked over to a few, peeking in them. They all contained rooms similar to Dorian's, sparsely decorated. All of them were empty of any inhabitants.
'Is this some type of servants wing? A barracks? A medical wing?' He had no answers.
He walked down the hall and eventually found a larger doorway that connected this wing to a main hall of sorts. It was much grander than the hall he had just left.
The hallway was made out of stone and stretching several meters taller than the wooden one, lit by clumps of glowing yellow rock. Dorian could vaguely hear voices down the right side of the corridor.
He slowly crept down it, keeping his movements calm and controlled. Soon he found himself standing outside a large wooden door that was covered in ornate engravings.
"…and there wasn't much else to report." A familiar voice echoed out, the young, cheerful voice of the girl that led the group of women that had rescued him.
"Did I hear all of that right, Bella?" An aged, unsteady voice responded.
"The rate of Lucky Chances increased greatly?"
"Yes, father. After we picked up the Golden Leaf, we were returning back home when we ran into another Lucky Chance. This one appeared in the form of a badly injured man and a flash of red light. I had my women keep him alive and brought here. On the way back, however, we encountered almost 35 separate Lucky Chances, most of them Bad or Neutral Luck as usual."
Silence dominated the room for a brief moment.
"That is interesting indeed." The aged voice echoed out, full of wavering excitement,
"When I heard reports of the Blacktooth Knives being sent out after you, my heart nearly collapsed. About a week and a half ago, however, we heard a report that the entire squadron had been killed, brutally cut into pieces with some type of fierce, unstoppable Fire Magic or weapon. Subsequent investigations were made impossible due to a rampaging Grakon King."
"Your Luck has truly turned for the better, my daughter! With it like this, restoring me to my prime may be unnecessary after all!"
"It seems the injured man you picked up has some type of accelerating effect on your Lucky State. That, or the flash of light you described carried with it other effects that affected your Lucky State."
"This is fantastic! With this, your chances of evolving your Lucky State to the next level, and growing your Soul Spell Matrix to the peak of Lord Class, or even King Class, will greatly increase!"
"Quick! We will begin our plans immediately! We must take full advantage of this, and head to the Ascension Ruins once again!"
The voices faded away, footsteps echoing out as they left in the opposite direction.
'Huh.' He thought, processing what he had heard.
'Well, it was convenient of them to wait for me to arrive before saying all that.' He nodded politely in their direction. He wondered if his soul twisting Fate was responsible. Most likely. Coincidences like this didn't happen randomly, after all.
'So that explains all those weird incidents we saw while traveling, and why none of those girls cared. She has some type of 'Lucky State?' And the team that was sent after her was murdered by an unstoppable fiery weapon? That sounds like Arial.' His eyes flashed darkly,
'Especially with the rampaging Grakon King. But that all happened a week and a half ago? How long was I in that Red Portal?' He rubbed his head.
THUMP
Dorian spun around as a noise crossed his ears, startling him.
On the opposite side of the hallway, a doorway opened up into a small library. Dorian had glanced at it as he was walking to the doorway where he heard voices, but mostly ignored it. He didn't have time to read.
A dozen or so wooden shelves lined the walls of the small room, full of old books. The room was lit by a pair of glowing yellow rocks, the same kind that lit the stone corridor.
On the ground in the center of the room was a book that had just fallen. Dorian grew a little lightheaded as he saw it, the darkness in his soul twisting slightly. Faint reverberations in Fate spread out, unbeknownst to him.
He walked up and picked up the book, staring at it. He read aloud the title.
"The History of the Third Great Demon War: The Yale Demon Invasion."
As the book had fallen to the ground, it had opened to a page towards the front of the book.
"The Five Great Heroes. The greatest warriors and allies on the forces of good. These five heroes fought side by side, standing against the overwhelming Demonic forces, saving the 30,000 Worlds from the chaos of destruction." He read the first paragraph,
"They were named thus: Yukeli Shorn, the Great Lord of the Absolute. Arthur Telmon, the Godly Wizard. Kaladin Break, the Thunder Saint. Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. Ausra Willow, the Wise Lady."
"Together, these Great Heroes slew the Emperor of Demons on a secret quest, and saved the 30,000 Worlds from destruction."
Dorian's eyes opened wide as he read this.
"Ausra?"
The darkness in his soul shuddered.
Before he could say anything else, however, a voice jarred him from his thoughts,
"Hey! You're awake!"
Dorian spun around, coming face to face with the leader of the female troop that had saved him.
"Uh, hey." He waved at her lamely with his wrapped up baby-hand.
She stared at him.
He stared back.
.
