- Familiar Face, Familiar Situation

Zex was completely shocked that he could not sense the person's presence even after developing his senses to a high level.

"I had a feeling you were still alive." Zex forced a smile as he faced the visitor.

Edge left the shadows and wore a serious expression.

"I wasn't planning to show myself to you but I need your help."

Zex was finding it strange how Edge was acting so calm right now but his next words explained everything and his expression proved otherwise.

"Dhana disappeared." Edge continued to say as he clenched his fists, brimming with death energy and a hint of something familiar to Zex, mixed in along with it.

This reminded Zex of his promise back then. 'Was he watching over Dhana in the shadows this whole time? But how could she disappear without him noticing?'

5 days have passed since Zex entered seclusion. It was the same amount of time that he last saw Dhana.

"Where?" Zex knew that it was no time for explanations. If Edge asked for his help, then it meant he could not solve this problem on his own. That says a lot since it is clear that the seal on his death energy was broken.

"The Aberrant Fields... there is a barrier I can't pass through. It is on the level of Arissef's magic." Edge's explanation confirmed Zex's hypothesis as he looked at Avegar. "I need your help to destroy the barrier."

Zex's face turned serious as the fields were a faraway place from Grimley. 'Didn't this mean that Edge traveled back here just to ask for my help?'

"I'll get the fastest horses, meet me in the front." Zex took a coat and stowed Avegar in his spatial storage. As he noticed Edge's gaze, he quickly turned to say: "I gained Arissef's abilities... Errr, let's talk on the way."

...

Aberrant Fields, Southwestern Fortress ruins, underground chamber...

"Damn it! Who was that guy who killed our men?" A middle-aged man with gray hair gnashed his teeth as he slammed the table with his fists.

"Unfortunately, we could not confirm his identity. The girl, the woman, and the old man did not have any idea who it was." A man wearing a mage's robes answered with a calm face.

"Well, look into it! We can't have anyone messing up our operation. Grimley will fall soon and we need to leave before that happens. If we can kill him, the Eishel Kingdom will welcome us and justice will finally be served!" The gray-haired man responded with a serious tone as he clenched his fists.

"Understood." The man in robes replied stoically as he walked away, passing through the dungeon hall where muffled noises of moaning, whimpering, grunting, and laughter could be heard echoing from the cells.

...

The night of the first day on the way to the Aberrant Fields, Zex and Edge were camping outside to let the horses rest for a while, or else, they would either lose speed or die miles before they could reach their destination. Edge estimated that If they left just before dawn the following day, they will arrive at night.

Edge could not sleep due to the worry in his heart. If only continuing onward without resting would not slow them down, he would have done so.

In contrast, Zex was sitting cross-legged on top of a boulder and meditating.

Edge told Zex about what happened after his 'death' in the cave.

He did not know for sure if he would be revived once the seal was broken but he woke up in Castle Nalva after a certain demon lord reattached his head to his body. As he needed blood, the demon transfused some demon blood into him and essentially turned him into a half-demon which surprised Zex.

'What is master planning?' He thought to himself, unable to understand the logic in his master's actions.

The demon lord filled Edge up on the battle between Zex and the heroes, as well as Zex taking over Drago's body. At first, Edge was surprised about the turn of events but since it was already over, he eventually accepted it. He had not the luxury to mourn and grieve.

Because Edge already had the god of death as his master, the demon lord decided not to form a soul contract with him but left a soul imprint instead, allowing him to sense Edge's location most of the time. With no say in the matter, Edge had no choice but to go along with it. After all, when he saw Alzeius's familiar face, he realized that the demon they killed years ago was a fake. Someone who could conjure such a being was not someone he could face alone.

Another surprise was that the demon lord simply let him go. In the following days, Edge took to the shadows and went back to Grimley, assessing the situation. He was already proclaimed dead and the king already terminated the soul contract with him. Regaining his freedom, he spent his days and nights gathering information and watching over Dhana.

However, days ago, several men subtly circled the flower shop and quickly subdued the two bodyguards Drago assigned to protect Dhana.

Edge also took action but there was a powerful mage with strange magic who pinned him down before escaping through a portal.

'Gently' interrogating the men he managed to knock down, he was able to trace the location to the Aberrant Fields but was not able to pass through a barrier that was set up even after trying many different methods and attacks he knew.

Desperate, he asked Zex for help despite being responsible for his friends' death. He had no choice, Dhana was his only family left, and with the promise that Zex made before, the chances of him agreeing were higher than anyone's.

After Edge was done with his explanation, Zex followed with his own as he recounted the events from his perspective and explained his thought processes throughout the battles, including the memories he gained from [Blood Reincarnation] and his plan of conquering Grimley. Of course, Zex did not tell him about his system or that he was from another world. He believed that these were secrets he should keep to himself.

Finally, Zex asked about the death energy and why he could not harness it the way Edge was able to.

After a thorough discussion, Zex concluded that it was because the god of death did not bestow him such an ability. He may have gained the [Agent of Death] class, but the way he acquired it was not a proper one. In other words, he was a fake.

[A/N: Behave yourself!]

Zex did not know how this will affect his growth in the class but the inability to manipulate death energy was a huge opportunity loss for him. This reminded him of when he found out that the [Soul Dabbler] subclass he possessed was not even the actual subclass.

Since Zex did not need to sleep, he spent his time studying and researching the blueprints of the [Demonic Reconstruction] and the anatomy of a pure-blood demon. When he memorized the blueprints, he then began to study the underlying principles as to why the configuration was like that.

He also scoured his memories regarding stories in his previous life about reconstructing the body to achieve one of higher efficiency.

The notable fictional references he found were: the Mana Body in the novel, Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God; and the configuration of the otherworldly demons in the novel, Library of Heaven's Path. While there were a lot of stories tackling the subject, their explanations were neither clear nor memorable enough for him to even consider using.

Cross-referencing the blueprints with the principles of the above configurations as well as pouring in his understanding of the numerous powers in fiction, he started drawing new blueprints in his mind-space, refining them over and over with every insight he gained. It also helped that he had experience in the designing of machines and the line processes of various factories thanks to his career as a Mechanical Engineer.

Technically, his goal was to optimize the influx, storage, circulation, and outflux of all three major power systems.

However, while it may all seem easy if you consider only those processes, the actual designing process of the configuration isn't.

Think of it this way: You want a faucet to dispense a drink that has three different ingredients mixed in it.

You can design 3 tubes that connect the faucet with the source containers of the ingredients or the simpler way would be to mix all three ingredients in a container beforehand and then dispense it when the mixture is chosen.

Seems easy, right?

What if you want to control how much of each ingredient is mixed in the drink?

You can set regulators or sensor switches along each tube or again, you can mix the drink beforehand and set multiple buttons or faucets to fit every combination.

Now imagine if each unique spell needs a specific amount of specific elemental mana or a specific combination of elemental mana at a specific flow over a specific amount of time...

Mages can accomplish these with magic scrolls, runes, sigils, totems, etc. However, they have limited uses. If they want to cast a spell on the spot, they need to regulate everything accordingly.

When Arissef used the [Envoy of Lightning] technique, he applied such principles to his body but the result was that his nerves were overloaded with lightning element mana because his body's configuration was not in line with the technique.

Think about it, this was only talking about the mana aspect. There is still the life energy, Qi, and the life essence, blood to consider.

One can only imagine how complex it is to construct an optimal configuration that incorporates the three major systems of power without having adverse side effects.

This was why Zex did not believe he could come close to a working prototype anytime soon. However, he knew it was possible. He believed that the configuration of a dragon's body has achieved it or is close to achieving it.

For his body to undergo a purification of his dragon blood, he needed it to be capable of doing so. Unfortunately, his current body could not.

Before he knew it, the night passed smoothly and Edge told him it was time to leave.