Chapter 171

The stone-made warrior was the full size of a human, and he also wielded a curved sword rather than a straight one like most Pagna warriors would often use. In the carvings of the stone warrior, there was also old scale-like armor on their body. They weren't exactly dressed the way a Pagna warrior would today, who often wore light clothing. There were only a few like Gunther who wore a full set of armor. It seemed to be more common with those that were higher ranked since the weight of the armor would affect them less as their strength increased. Not that Raze had seen many middle-staged warriors in the first place. Since the stone warrior was an item that belonged to Raze and had inflicted the last hit, a dark essence was lifting from the three heads at once. It hadn't occurred when one of the snake heads had been defeated but only when all three were. Just as Raze had thought, there was a good chance that all three of the heads were connected to a single body. As the dark essence rose, it went all towards Raze. This was something that only he could see, and the others around him were unable to witness. Finally, as he absorbed it all, his rings lit up, giving him more information about his strength. [Dark attribute: 34 >>> 40] [Wind attribute: 20 >>> 24] Since the start of his fighting, going against all the other beasts, he had been using his wind magic constantly, allowing it to majorly increase in strength, and it was the same for his Dark magic as well, as he absorbed essence after essence. The statue warrior had soon jumped from its position, covering around twenty meters in distance, and landed right in front of Raze. It made the others startled as they felt the powerful Qi coming off from its footsteps. Holding out his hand, the dark magic started to escape the statue, and as it entered back into Raze, it had turned small in shape again. Picking it up, he had placed it away. "That's quite the handy thing you got there," Dame said, approaching the others along with Gunther by his side. "I guess you really do keep the best things for yourself. Just how strong is that statue?" "You control that thing?" Gunther said with a smile that was nearly stretching up to his ears. "What I want to know is, why does it know the Erupting Fist Clan's techniques?" It was the first time Raze had used the statue himself, and he was quite surprised by its strength. He thought that it might just be as strong as Ricktor, but judging from the one attack, its power was even stronger, which was just making him regret not using the blood of those like Dame as well. 'Could it be possible that it combined the power of all five of the disciples?' Raze thought. 'Then would it be maybe around the strength of a fourth-stage warrior? That's quite the strong ally to have.' At that moment, Raze also thought about a few other uses he could use it for. It was more than just a tool that would help fight by his side, but he could also use it to train as well. "It learns from the blood of others," Raze answered and already turned away from the other two. "Seriously, just, how… how can you have things that are so strong?" Gunther asked. For this, Raze had only one answer for him. "Items… strong items that can only be made or obtained by a certain someone." Rather than being shocked by the fact that Gunther was here with the others for some reason, Raze instead was extremely focused on other things. While the others were thanking their lucky stars that they had just survived a fight with the dimension boss, Raze had gone ahead and was trying to look for the crystal instead. A level 4 power stone would do wonders, and he was wondering just what type of attribute it would hold since the snake heads were able to produce all sorts of attacks. Searching the other two heads, Raze was unable to find the crystal. That was until he dug a bit deeper into the head of the Ice Snake. A large blue glowing crystal, slightly clearer compared to the others, was held in his hand. "I was a bit disappointed, I thought it might have three of these things or have a different attribute, but it's just ice after all," Raze said, returning to the others with the crystal in his hand. Now he had an even bigger decision to make. Was it best to try and enchant an item? If he did, it would be a waste since he was unable to perform high-tier enchantments as a 2-star mage. Unless he gambled with the Dark Magic enchantment, but that didn't always produce the best results. So the best thing to do was to use the crystal to increase the strength of his magic core, and he was sure that it would allow him to become a three-star mage. "Wait a second!" Liam shouted, pointing toward Raze. "You're not thinking that crystal belongs solely to you, right? We all played our part; you can't just use it how you wish! We need to get some of it as well, and hey, we know your secret now! We know why you're so freakishly strong because you use these weird spells and items or whatever!" Simyon gave a big stare toward Liam, as if he was trying to kill them with his eyes. However, he was doing this for his part. He remembered at one point and time; he had also tried to blackmail Raze, but Safa had warned him not to.

Thankfully though, with the crystal in his hand, Raze seemed to be in a happy mood. "You're correct, all of you did your part in this, and you are all keeping a great secret of mine, so I shall reward each of you," Raze said. "I promise that I will give each of you something that won't disappoint you in the future; in turn, I will be taking this crystal myself," Raze stated. Liam wanted to shout some more, but Simyon had quickly gotten behind him and placed his hand over his mouth. "Just take it," Simyon whispered. "And besides, you saw how strong these items he has, right? You know my strong, heavy body, and me reflecting that attack before, that was because of Raze's items as well so it's not a bad deal." The cat was out of the bag, and Raze's magic powers had been revealed to all, but since there were only two more that knew about him compared to before, the secret could still be kept to the minimum. The important thing was for Alter not to find out just what was going on, and he wanted to keep his other identity of Dark Magus an even bigger secret to the rest. "So what happens now?" Simyon asked. "Since the Dimension Boss is defeated doesn't that mean that the portal has disappeared?" "The portal will still be present, at least the one we had entered from in this dimension," Gunther answered. "The one on the other side will have completely disappeared. Once we exit, there will be no way to return." "So… should we head back?" Liam asked, having calmed down. He was actually looking forward to what item he could get from Raze. Maybe he too could shoot strange lasers from his hand or have a giant bear companion or something like that. He was smirking just thinking about it. "No," Dame replied. "This is the perfect chance. With the Dimension boss gone, this is the opportunity for us to explore this world freely. This is the best time to get your hands on items, maybe even techniques that aren't even in the world of Pagna, and I know just the place to look." Dame was eyeing up the cave the Dimension boss had come out from. Its body was still blocking the way, but he was sure that there would be something there. There had to be, Dimension Bosses often were protecting something, and he wanted to find out what. "You guys can go on and explore; let me know what you find," Raze said as he started to find a spot that was clear of blood and markings in the snow. "What… are you going to do?" Simyon asked. "I need to use this power stone in my way," Raze replied. "It will take some time. Since the Dimension Boss is defeated, you won't have to worry about running into anything, and besides, I'm sure Dame is stronger than anything you guys will meet." "Dame!" Simyon said, turning his head. "Ah, are you quite surprised that my name isn't as ridiculous as Pink? You can blame that one on your friend, after all." The group started to head towards the cave. Dame seemed to be quite excited as he walked off, but Safa had turned around, looking at her brother, and that's when Gunther stopped. "Don't worry, I will stay and look after your brother. You should explore with the other man. I am sure that you will learn some interesting things about dimensions; it will be beneficial for both of you." Safa trusted Gunther quite a bit. Unlike the two boys, she had understood how big of a secret he was keeping and how much he was risking his position by doing everything he had done for them already. Nodding, she then gave a few hand signals which Gunther didn't understand but just nodded anyway. When Gunther walked back to Raze, he could see he was drawing a magic circle. In order for Raze to become a 3-star mage, he needed to absorb the crystal, but if he did and made a breakthrough, he was worried, worried that he would then open up another portal. So the best thing to do was to absorb the crystals that he needed to right here. Raze had noticed Gunther standing by his side. He gave him a quick side glance but continued on with what he was doing. If this person was going to do something, he would have done it long ago. Raze also knew that the assessor had done too much for him compared to a regular teacher at the academy, but he just had no clue why either. Once the magic circle was complete, Raze was in the center and sat down, along with the crystal, ready to make a breakthrough, but just moments before, Gunther opened his mouth. "I want to ask you an important question," Gunther licked his lips. "Do you know anything about the Dark Magus?" Gunther asked. Almost immediately, the Dark Magic started to spill out from Raze's body. It covered both of his arms and spiraled behind him. When he turned to look at Gunther, his eyes were filled with Darkness as well. "How… do you know that name?" Raze asked.