Demons!

Two factors determined the speed of mana and mentality recovery for sorcerers. One was the grade of their totems. And two was the meditation technique they trained with.

Andrew possessed the lowest-tier book-type totem of the human grade. But he was training with the earth-grade soul abacus meditation technique, a relatively incredible method from the Robinson family.

His mana and mental strength recovery speeds were neither the fastest nor the slowest. They were probably at the low-middle-tier level. As such, he took two hours running the soul abacus meditation technique before recovering to his peak condition.

'I really need to upgrade my totem and increase my mana and mental strength recovery speed.'

Andrew sighed and got up from the cavern floor.

He quickly got busy and started stowing away the valuables in the cave, including the mana crystals, a pitch-black enchanted bow weapon, a few daggers, the ores, and the shattered orc statues. He cleared almost all the objects with magical properties from the cave and stored them in his ring before matching toward the mirror portal.

He could vaguely sense the sophistication behind the set-up of the mirror portal. He also recognized some of the spatial runes adorning its borders. But he couldn't understand where its power source was.

Was it on the other side? Or was it the magical array lining the cave that supplied the energy?

Shaking his head, Andrew took a deep breath and boldly stepped through the mirror portal. His consciousness blacked out as a familiar feeling of shuttling through space assaulted his psyche.

His perception recovered within seconds, and his eyes widened as he surveyed his surroundings. Even though he had vast experiences from his previous life, his jaw dropped as he took in the sights around him.

He was breathless, stunned by the vastness of the dimension he had arrived in. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. The sky was lit up with millions of stars, sparkling like diamonds against the black velvet background. The air was filled with the sweet scent of blooming flowers, and the gentle rustling of leaves in the nearby jungle created a calming melody that echoed in his ears.

But, amidst all this beauty, there was something that caught his eye - a colossal pagoda that stood tall above everything else. It was black as night and looked like it was crafted by the gods themselves. The intricate carvings etched into its surface seemed to come alive in the moonlight, and its presence was imposing yet intriguing.

Andrew couldn't help but feel drawn towards it as if it held some ancient and mysterious power that had been there since the beginning of time. He felt both reverence and fear towards this awe-inspiring structure.

'Who could have built such a structure and curved out such an enormous dimension? Could it really be those ancient sorcerers from more than 50,000 years ago?'

On seeing the enormous pagoda, he was immediately reminded of all the legends he had read about the powerful sorcerers that had roamed Edhen during ancient times.

The ancient sorcerers were the only ones who could build such a structure that towered over the clouds. They were also the only ones ever to possess the knowledge and power to establish the enormous pagoda within a space separate from the outside world.

Andrew was no stranger to separate dimensions and inheritance grounds. During his previous life, he had visited many such sites in his quest for power. But he had not seen a place exuding magnificence and powerful authority comparable to the pagoda before his eyes.

Not even the mysterious tomb where he obtained the Aeon's Blessing of Death Spell had given him such an immense feeling of grandeur like the dimension that he was in.

'Such an enormous dimension and its pagoda! I'm sure that not even transcendent sorcerers have the power to craft them. Maybe only the mythical and elusive celestial sorcerers would have a chance.'

In Edhen, the realms of sorcerers were as follows: Enlighted sorcerers referred to rank-one spell casters, grand sorcerers to rank twos, legend sorcerers to rank-threes, saint sorcerers to rank-fours, transcendents to rank-fives, and celestials were the mighty and elusive rank-sixes.

Andrew had once witnessed one of the heads of the hidden families, a transcendent rank-five sorcerer, taking action in the war against the demons. The man could smash mountains apart and overturn lakes with a single spell. But he still didn't give Andrew the feeling that he could easily carve apart a space and construct an enormous dimension.

Moreover, from what Andrew knew, the knowledge behind spatial dimensions was still a mystery to even the Sorcerer's Guild and the royal family of the Dartolonian Empire.

The most learned sorcerers from the two mighty organizations were most likely at a level comparable to the hidden families of Edhen in their research of spatial sorcery. They could manufacture uncomplicated spatial artifacts like space rings and bracelets. But they had never succeeded at constructing enormous dimensions.

As for the artificial dimensions, like that of the Robinsons, that the sorcerer families resided in, they had only inherited them from ancient sorcerer covens. They had chanced upon those subspaces and made them their foundations as they grew into the powerful hidden families of Edhen. But the fact remained that none of Edhen's powers had constructed the spaces themselves.

"This should really be an inheritance ground left by an ancient sorcerer coven," Andrew muttered.

Andrew's eyes were naturally drawn to the giant mirror portal, probably dozens of feet in radius, which seemed to be the only entry into the towering pitch-black pagoda. It exuded an air of ancientness while looking like the mouth of a giant beast waiting to devour anyone who neared it.

"I wonder why no one has discovered it yet!"

Andrew's eyes flickered with boundless expectations. But just as he prepared to walk toward the mirror portal and enter the pagoda, he felt three sinister but strangely familiar auras appear behind him.

'Demonic aura?'

His heart jumped, and he turned around to glance at the sources of the three auras.

They were three humanoid creatures, but definitely not humans from Edhen. One looked like an adorable Loli about twelve years old, with a cute face, purple eyes, long ears, and relatively darker skin. Her flower-patterned simple black dress made her seem harmless. She was even smiling amicably at Andrew.

Her counterparts, though, were two weird-looking brutes. Sure, they were humanoids donning hides similar to beast men from the southern continent. But their towering twelve-foot-tall frames, along with their square faces, menacing red eyes, long tails, thick demonic aura, and the small horns on their heads, told a different story.

'Indeed, demons in the flesh. One from the royal bloodlines and two demon warriors as her bodyguards!'

Lightning-fast thoughts coursed through Andrew's mind as he locked gazes with the three demons.

He was at a loss and unprepared after meeting the mortal foes from his past life. Moreover, more unease crept into his heart, especially after he felt their menacing auras.

The two brutes were most likely rank-four demon warriors with combat power equivalent to official primary-stage rank-one sorcerers. As for the Loli with the royal demon bloodline, she was likely a demon spell caster comparable to a secondary-stage rank one.

'Shit! What are they doing here? Isn't the war still a year away?'

Andrew was confused. He couldn't understand what the demons were scheming in Edhen a year before the commencement of the war. And more than anything, he couldn't comprehend how they had gotten into the inheritance ground.

"Who are you?" He asked, feigning ignorance about their identity.

"Us!" The demon girl, who disturbingly looked like a Loli, blinked her purple eyes cutely. "I'm Anabel, and these are my brothers - Goggon and Gothphis. We're from the mighty beast race of the southern continent. We came out to play and chanced upon this ancient inheritance ground."

'Anabel! Of course, she's no beast girl.'

'Could she be the famous demon princess from my previous life? Demon princess Anabel, master of thousands of fiends! The demoness who would grow into a terrifying being that would lead her army of fiends to leave rivers of blood all over the Dartolonian Empire!'

Andrew swallowed hard after thinking of the possibility. Feelings of chaos and trepidation ballooned in his mind. But he controlled his expression to remain composed.