Legacy of the Dark Sage

The questions Kyran had asked were not heaven-defying. When he first entered the special place, he asked the same questions from the platform masters he had met. Asking questions was allowed. Although, it did not mean the Tower would allow the answers to be spoken. Just like Kyran\'s last question. Loar was about to answer, but he suddenly realized that he could not utter a word.

In his experience, he was able to ask the same question and got an answer, so he thought the question was okay. However, the Tower suddenly forbid it, which further piqued Loar\'s interest in Kyran. He was already interested in him because he effortlessly destroyed Ar-Lo. Then he realized Ar-Lo\'s energy core was undamaged, and the reason was his array had been altered to protect it without him noticing.

Who else could alter it if not Kyran? After all, the Tower would never meddle with a master\'s platform arrangements.

For the first time in a while, Loar had a challenger who actually piqued his interest. He initially thought that Kyran was only an Automasmith. But from how Kyran altered his array, Loar was convinced he was also an Array Master.

It was not uncommon to be an Automasmith and an Array Master. One could say that both go hand and hand. However, what made Kyran stand out from the rest was that he was not from Loar\'s plane but still managed to alter his array. Apart from that, he had very weird magic, a bane of Automatons.

Loar paused, \'Ah. He did say his magic is not Mist so... I guess it is not a bane or should I say, it is a new bane for all automatons?\'

On the other hand, Kyran was silent because he fell into contemplation.

From all the clues he had gathered, either openly or subtly, the tower\'s special place was designed to enhance participants\' battle capabilities, just as the overlapping voices had said.

Winning was not necessary, but the experience. For this reason, it was prohibited for a platform master to tell participants any information about the other masters. Data gathering was essential in battle, but Kyran\'s blatant questioning probably was not allowed. He probably had to gather intel differently.

Then there was the fact that Loar lost a few times but remained a platform master. This might be because he did not \'die\' on those occasions he lost to a challenger. This also meant winning would allow participants to move up, and losing might mean going down a platform. But this was only Kyran\'s conjecture. It was also possible that winning or losing did not matter for a participant and would allow the participants to move up a platform as long as they did not die.

As for challenging the special room\'s Champion, Kyran believed it was the ultimate goal. The reason participants could only challenge the Champion after winning the 100th floor was by then, they had already gained enough experience to challenge him or her.

[This doesn\'t make sense, Void Halfling.]

True Void suddenly spoke.

\'What\'s wrong?\' Kyran asked.

[During my master\'s experience in this place, he $%@*(#)!@&*$—Oi! This again?]

True Void complained.

Kyran\'s brow twitched mentally. It appeared the tower could also filter True Void\'s account of his master\'s experience even through telepathy. He only found it weird that the tower would only filter his predecessor\'s experience in this place and not with his other training experiences, like the knowledge training, for example.

\'Or maybe its because, this special place is inside the tower while the other trainings happened in a different place?\' Kyran wondered.

After thinking about it for a while, he thought it was possible.

Finally, Kyran said to True Void, whose complaints were starting to give him a headache, \'It\'s fine. I\'ll know the answers eventually. We\'ll proceed as planned. I\'ll move up and challenge the Champion.\'

True Void sighed.

[The champion, huh. Seriously, Void Halfling, if he or she is called a Champion, then he or she is definitely a powerful one. You have to be careful. Tsk. If only you have a child—.]

\'Okay, that\'s enough,\' Kyran cut him midsentence with black lines on his head. To think True Void was still spouting nonsense about a child at a time like this.

After sorting his thoughts, Kyran took a deep breath and looked at Loar.

"Thanks for answering my questions," he said while bowing a little toward Loar.

Frowning at Kyran\'s calm attitude, Loar said, "I feel like I wronged you for not giving proper answers."

Kyran raised his brows and shook his head at once, "No. It\'s fine. I just needed a confirmation that\'s all."

With that, he stood and looked above.

Loar followed his line of sight and saw he was looking at the next platform.

\'Ah. Such an impatient guy. He already wants to go up...\' he thought, feeling a little exhausted at the thought. Though they did not exactly fight vigorously, he would rather dally for a few hours before going up if it were him.

"There is no rush in going up," Loar told Kyran. Part of the reason he said this was that it had been a while since he had someone on his platform to talk to. Another was that he wanted to ask some questions of his own and wanted Kyran to stay to answer them.

Kyran lowered his head and looked back at Loar. He said, "I still had 99 platforms to go to and can\'t stay—."

It immediately made Loar frown.

"What?" He said in his monotonous voice, making it sound like he was angry when in truth, he was just surprised. "This is your first platform?"

Kyran nodded apprehensively. If Loar did not ask a question after his \'what\' comment, Kyran would think he was annoyed at what he said.

"Yeah," Kyran answered a little reluctantly. However, this made him realize something, and his mind began to race.

\'Don\'t tell me this is not the first platform?\'

Just as Kyran was thinking this, Loar already said, "That can\'t be right! I\'m on the 51st platform."

"What?" True Void, who had been staying quiet because he did not want to talk to the annoying Loar, exclaimed in surprise.

"What\'s with this preferential treatment again? The 51st? Impossible. Simply impossible!"

Loar\'s initial shock from Kyran\'s admittance that this was his 1st platform shifted to his magic item once again.

He was really fascinated by how Kyran created such a unique item. In his plane, countless Automasmiths tried to create an automaton that could change shape, but the closest they ever did was let it have transformation capability. Even that was limited to three transformations and must conform to the materials and shape of the automaton.

Kyran\'s magic item was different, though. From a small armor, it changed into a hexagonal shield, then now into a bracer. The shape and quantity of all three were all different. And it was not even an automaton since it did not have any energy core. Not to mention, it could speak!

"It spoke again. Does it have a name?" Loar asked, looking at Kyran.

"Don\'t call me it!" True Void immediately replied and added to Kyran, "Void Halfling, don\'t answer him!"

Kyran\'s eyes widened at how openly True Void had called him, and he exclaimed reprimandingly, \'True Void!\'

Loar\'s eyes constricted after hearing what the magic item had called Kyran. He immediately asked, "Did you just call him Void—?"

"He didn\'t!" Kyran denied at once.

True Void, however, had other ideas. He replied at the same time as Kyran, "Yes! So what? Piss your pants now? I\'m telling you to stop calling me it! If you don\'t stop, I\'ll change you into—."

"True Void!"

True Void gasped, "Oi!"

He glared at Kyran.

"You started it."

"You! You! That\'s not nice!"

Black lines appeared on Kyran\'s head hearing True Void\'s blatant imitation of Loar.

On the other hand, Loar blinked at the banter happening between the two. His gold eyes glinted in fascination after realizing Kyran\'s magic item answered like it had true intelligence.

It was not a simple magic item. While in Loar\'s plane, automatons needed energy cores; maybe in Kyran\'s plane, it was not necessary! And there was also how they addressed each other... Void Haf-what? And the item was called True Void!

"Nice. You\'re automaton has birth intelligence! And you two... have relations to the Void?"

Kyran and True Void fell silent. The former because he was surprised at Loar\'s carefree attitude, while the latter was unsure whether to be happy getting promoted from an item to an automaton.

Wait, both are still items!

Kyran cleared his throat and looked at Loar before saying, "Actually... its just how I created his array, and about the Void its just a title..."

His voice trailed off after hearing how absurd his excuse was.

Loar was not an idiot. He immediately noticed Kyran was reluctant to comment about the \'Void\' remark or even his automaton. But hearing the Void comment made Loar\'s blood boil. He already knew Kyran was interesting, but this discovery was a lot more.

Unbeknownst to Kyran, any information about the Void in Loar\'s plane was a mystery. They knew every Rune magic, and Automata knowledge came from the Void. This was why anyone who could find information about the Void and integrate it into their creation could become a true Deus ex Machina. That was the true goal of all Automasmiths.

Sensing Kyran\'s reluctance, Loar had a feeling that in his plane, having any relation to the Void might mean not a good thing.

Which was simply not nice.

"Listen, Kyran," Loar started, then paused, "I can call you that, right?"

Without waiting for Kyran\'s reply, he continued, "I don\'t know your circumstances, and I won\'t even ask. Rest assured, where I come from, anyone who knew anything or even is related to the Void is someone who will be highly regarded."

Kyran gaped at him. He kind of expected that probably the only plane that did not welcome Void magic was the Human plane—but hearing someone from another plane telling him that Void was highly regarded somehow made him happy.

"So you don\'t have to worry," Loar added, his monotonous voice somehow having warmth in it. "Anyway, since I did not give you proper answers to two of your questions, you can ask me anything again."

The sudden shift of subject caught Kyran off guard. Even True Void gaped at Loar as if he was looking at someone who had short-term memory.

"Err... that\'s okay. I think, I\'ll—."

"Come on. I have a few questions of my own, what do you say we chat a bit, huh? Don\'t worry. I won\'t ask too much about your circumstances. I only want to know why your automaton—."

"I\'m not an automaton!"

"—called you Void Haf-what was that?"

Kyran could not help but scratch his head. It seemed Loar indeed had been bored after not having any challenger for a while. Now, he could not wait to have someone to chat with.

\'Maybe I should not have proposed the three questions,\' Kyran sighed. On second thought, maybe befriending Loar would be beneficial to him. Who knew, Kyran might end up going to Loar\'s plane in another training, and learning about his plane might be a good idea.

"Halfling," Kyran replied with an amused smile.

"Hafling? What\'s that?"

"Half."

"Oh, halfling. That\'s a weird name."

[Oi, Void Halfling, are you really going to talk to him?]

\'Doesn\'t hurt really.\'

True Void snorted.

[If I did not know better, I\'d think you only feel grateful on what he said about the Void.]

\'That too,\' Kyran admitted.

With a sigh, True Void finally relented and said, [Fine. Just be careful on what you tell him. Don\'t slip too much!]

Kyran looked at him incredulously. He did not want to hear that statement from him.

"Come on, sit down. Let\'s chat," Loar insisted.

Kyran chuckled. He initially thought Loar would harbor bad feeling toward him for destroying Ar-Lo. Now, he found him a little interesting.

Finally, Kyran nodded and sat down again.

For the next couple of hours, the two chatted. Mostly, it was Loar asking questions and Kyran answering with a somewhat complicated expression. He was unused to being bombarded with questions. However, Kyran found Loar\'s carefree attitude, though his voice still sounded bored, refreshing. It was a different kind of devil-may-care attitude Nolan had.

Approximately two hours later, Loar was the one who cut their conversation because the time Kyran had to move up had finally arrived.

"Word of advice. Try to set your own terms when challenging the rest of the masters," Loar told Kyran.

Kyran nodded, "Thanks. I\'ll keep that in mind."

Soon, a beam of light descended on him and True Void, lifting them off the platform.

As the beam of light carried the two to the next platform, Loar\'s expression turned thoughtful.

"Interesting guy. Hopefully my original self, will meet him someday."