One of five

After dinner had ended, Kai politely excused himself and made his way back to his room, not wanting to stay there for a second longer.

Anastasia had fed him for the better half of 10 minutes while he was there, meanwhile Kai was unable to say no.

Kai sighed as he turned the corner, shaking his head softly at the same time as he fell deep into thought.

He wasn't sure who had it worse, him with Anastasia or Petunia with Castillian.

Well, both of them had it pretty bad, no doubt about that. However, it still could have been much worse. Getting spoon-fed by an attractive woman was obviously a much more appealing option compared to ending up as a slave.

Walking through the hall, Kai sighed as he stopped in front of one of the many windows. They were still completetly covered by that strange black substance, making him even more curious about what was outside.

More importantly, if there was a sun out there, but that didn't really seem plausible considering that it was an eternal blizzard and all.

Still, it had to be brighter than the shade of the trees in the Dome, right?

But to Kai's surprise, he ended up meeting someone else before he got back to his room.

The third Queen was walking blankly through the hall, not a care in the world.

Her feet and robe both dragged behind her, while her eyes were so dull Kai could have mistaken her for a corpse. She didn't even register that Kai was in front of her, it was like she couldn't even see him.

"Oh, hey again."

The third Queen didn't answer, she just continued walking through the hallway. Kai wasn't sure if she was ignoring him on purpose, but she had spoken to him earlier, so why not now?

When she got closer, Kai noticed her lips moving ever so slightly, as if she was mumbling to herself, but Kai couldn't catch a word of anything she said.

Just as she was about to pass, Kai reached out and softly touched her shoulder, asking:

"You good?"

The third Queen jumped in shock, some colour returning to her eyes. Kai felt her whole body tremble as she slowly turned her head. He noticed her eyes widen when she saw him, only making him even more confused.

She had a look in her eyes as if something that had been lost for millions of years had finally been returned to her, an indescribable mix of astonishment and fear.

Both Kai and the third Queen were silent in the following moments. Kai because he wasn't exactly sure what to do, and the third Queen because she seemed to be petrified.

After a couple more seconds, the third Queen's brain seemed to finally register that she had to answer so she managed to stutter out:

"Y-yeah, yeah, I'm... Good."

Embarrassed, Kai took his hand off her shoulder and glanced away. He was only trying to be polite, making sure she was alright and all that, so how did the situation end up being so awkward?

"Um, okay then."

It was then that Kai realised that he had never actually gotten her name and had always been mentally referring to her as third Queen.

"By the way, what's your name?"

A panicked expression made its way onto the third Queen's face as she paled at the same time.

"I-I'm sorry, I really have to go!"

Kai's eyes widened as the third Queen basically run away from him, completely avoiding the question.

He could only watch in disbelief as she practically drifted around the corner, leaving him alone in the hallway.

Curiously, Kai lifted an arm and sniffed himself. No, he didn't smell, he had a bath a couple of hours ago after all, so that wasn't it.

He then looked down at his still outstretched hand before lifting it up and poking himself softly in his face with a finger.

"Am I really that repulsive?"

Sighing, Kai lowered his hand and continued his way back to his bedroom so he could just get back to reading, perhaps the only normal action he could do in this damn castle.

Once he made it back, he done a quick scan with Soul Sense to make sure no one was spying on him before finally relaxing.

Enduring Anastasia's relentless teasing had made Kai extremely tired. Of course it did, this was the first time a woman had actually shown any interest in him after all.

Even though that woman was a couple millenia old married woman.

However, before he got back to reading the book about Mana, Kai had another quick bath to make sure that wasn't the problem.

Once he was out and had dried himself enough, Kai got back onto his bed and grabbed the book.

Umbra had crawled out of his shadow and was lying at the bottom of the bed, fast asleep. Kai smiled softly at the sight, this must have been the first time she had ever been on something so comfy.

Kai also summon Esurient and rested them on his pillow, but they were also passed out as they were still digesting all their gains from the weapon upgrade.

He then immersed himself into the book once more, finding all the random facts and tips interesting.

Turns out, the rank of ones Soul Core indirectly affected the power of their spells. Like, if someone with an A-Rank Soul Core used a spell like Fireball it would be much more powerful than the Fireball of someone with an E-Rank Soul Core.

Kai did know this already though, considering that Soul Flame jumped rarities when his Soul Core ranked up. However, the way that skill worked was different to the average skill.

Soul Flame was tied to his soul, hence why its rarity went up when his soul evolved. However, the average skills rarity wouldn't increase along with their users Soul Core, it's just that the skills power would increase.

Still, it's not like Kai knew that, considering that his main spell was just Soul Flame.

Actually, now that Kai thought about it, he never really got to test the new function of his flames, how he could throw them. If the skill was based on his soul, and his bloodline also empowered his flames, then surely they had to he stronger than a Rare ranked Fireball, right?

But to Kai's surprise, the book wasn't only about Mana. Since the author had made it abundantly clear that this book was only for beginners, they gave examples of where people could go to train or gain more information.

They listed various academy's in many different Subdimensions, each specialising in their own type of Mana or magic.

But there was one academy that was more prestigious than all of them, one that everyone sought to get into as it was a school resigned for only the best of the best.

It was now when Kai found out what one of the five Main Dimensions was.

Alabastor Academy was the highest ranking, had the highest potential of all their students, had the best staff, best facilities, and their principal was even a god.

If one got into that academy, they were nearly guaranteed to he successful. According to the author, only a handful ended up not reaching the A-Rank that nearly all of their students reached.

Which also left Kai a little stumped as he still didn't know what the highest rarity of the ranking system was.

He had started in E, and he knew that it at least went to SS from the description of the Honey Pot item he had been offered in the tutorial shop, but was SS the end?

Normally, there was SSS to top it all off, but did one just become a god after that or was there a few steps between SSS rank and Godhood?

However, that's not what Kai was mainly focused on, no, he was much more interested in the Main Dimension that academy resided in.

Genesis.

That was the name of one of the five Main Dimensions. This Main Dimension could be said to be the hub for nearly all humanoid beings in existence. As long as they were humanoid enough they were allowed to join, and even if you weren't you were allowed to get special passes as long as you provided enough.

According to the author at the time of writing, this Main Dimension had 179 Subdimensions in it and was ranked third out of the five Main Dimensions.

Still, Kai had no idea when this book was written and had no idea whether they were still third place or not, but it's not like it really mattered.

Still, he was a little curious about that academy. Anyone who got into it was nearly guaranteed to get into A-Rank? What sort of training did they even have. The average being got into A-Rank at level 250. While Kai might be able to get into it a little earlier considering that he had a C-Rank Soul Core at level 31, there was still a lot between level 31 and level 250.

Sadly, even though it mentioned Genesis, there was no mention of any of the other Main Dimensions, leaving Kai a little disappointed.

Still, Kai had gotten tired after reading for so long. Dinner had been a couple of hours ago so it was only natural that he felt a little weary.

So after returning Esurient to his soul and watching Umbra return to his shadow, Kai curled up under his bedsheets and smiled softly as he began to fall asleep.

... All while unaware that there was absolutely no way that he would be able to fall asleep tomorrow night.