Beginning the act

After walking about a kilometer, they came upon a spacious cavern that looked as though it had been formed by an earthquake.

The entrance that constantly radiated the aura of the Spirit World was now right before Kronos.

But the item connected to the Phoenix still hadn't appeared, which confirmed that it was in the Spirit World. There really was nothing he could do. He didn't dare enter the Spirit World; if he went in, he would never get out.

With no other options, Kronos could only use his Eyes of Mystery Prying to stare fixedly at the accidentally formed entrance. The ability had a hidden function that made it easy to sense certain entities concealed behind things. Perhaps he could catch a glimpse of something.

Kronos had been staring for ages without seeing anything when, suddenly, a clear, ringing cry sounded-the Phoenix called again.

This time, not only Kronos but Gner heard it too. Gner finally understood why Kronos had been so excited earlier.

His spirituality wasn't sufficient to let him see the Phoenix's form in his mind, but that single cry was enough to leave him utterly awestruck.

As the cry rang out, the Eyes of Mystery Prying reacted.

Just beyond the entrance, a drop of blood floated quietly, pale flames burning across its surface.

This was the Phoenix-related item Kronos had been searching for: a drop of Phoenix blood.

Through his Eyes of Mystery Prying, Kronos could clearly see brilliant starlight occasionally flashing across that drop of blood.

That solved the mystery. The pale flames represented the authority of death. As for that brilliant starlight? It most likely represented the authority of the Door Pathway.

Not just among the Phoenixes, but throughout all of history, only one being had possessed both authorities: the Ancestor of the Phoenix, Gregrace.

The power contained in that single drop of blood was no weaker than that of a demigod, perhaps even a Sequence 3. Kronos wanted it desperately.

But with his current strength, all Kronos could do was stare longingly at it.

After less than a minute of hesitation, Kronos carefully took stock of his possessions and abilities, then decided it was time to retreat. Even risking his life wouldn't give him a chance.

"Let's go, Gner. It's in the Spirit World. There's nothing we can do about it." Then Kronos reluctantly led Gner away, looking back every few steps.

The only way out was to return the way they had come. With no other choice, they had to crawl back through the tunnel.

They crawled all the way to the fork halfway through the tunnel, where Kronos deliberately investigated the other branch. That was the one leading into the volcano; crawling just a little way down it had already made him feel unbearably hot.

An idea occurred to Kronos. Collecting this drop of Phoenix blood wasn't really the problem. If he couldn't do it at Sequence 6, he could try at Sequence 5. Failing that, becoming a demigod would surely be enough.

What worried him was that someone might snatch this opportunity away while he was working to improve his strength. Then he would truly have nowhere to turn.

So Kronos reached into his pouch again and scattered a handful of golden powder, casting Might Spell.

Because the tunnel was too narrow, Kronos didn't cast Might Spell on Gner. Instead, he did the work himself.

Kronos raised the Lucky One Cane and smashed it hard against the fork in the tunnel. It took several blows before he finally collapsed the passage leading to the Spirit World entrance.

Kronos had initially wanted to use an Elf Charm, but on further thought, what if the blast brought down the entire tunnel? Wouldn't that bury them alive? So he abandoned the idea.

After crawling for quite a while longer, they finally returned to the underground chamber hung with cured meat. By the time their ordeal was over, dawn was already breaking.

Kronos was about to leave when he noticed Gner staring at the cured meat hanging in the chamber and swallowing repeatedly.

Honestly, the meat smelled quite good. They hadn't eaten any meat the previous evening, and now that aroma was making their stomachs protest.

But Kronos had enough common sense to know they couldn't eat it even if they took it. He tugged at Gner. "This cured meat is raw, and none of what's hanging here has finished drying. You couldn't eat it even if you took it."

Gner understood that too, but the aroma was simply too tempting. Even enjoying the smell a little longer would be nice.

"Look at you. If you really want meat that badly, we can slaughter the horse when we get back. At worst, we'll find another way back afterward," Kronos urged.

If they didn't leave now, the villagers would come to check this place once it was fully light, and that would make things even more troublesome.

Hearing Kronos say that actually left Gner feeling rather embarrassed. Who ate their own horse while traveling?

As a soldier, Gner had simply been idle for too long. Years of heavy drinking had weakened his willpower as well, making him seem rather unreliable.

Gner also realized that this wasn't the time for such foolish behavior, so he hurried after Kronos.

Before leaving, they arranged the man guarding the chamber into a suitable position, and Kronos cast a Healing Spell on him.

Otherwise, the pain in the back of his neck would be far too suspicious when he woke up. Now, he would merely assume he'd fallen asleep from exhaustion and wouldn't raise a fuss.

They soon returned to the carriage, and Kronos asked, "Well? Shall we slaughter the horse?"

"Forget it, forget it," Gner said sheepishly. "I've let myself go for too long. I'll have to train properly when we get back. I nearly held things up."

Kronos smiled, then said, "I lacked experience too. I only brought some water and bread, thinking we could buy whatever we needed along the way. I forgot that you can't buy things everywhere."

In fact, Kronos had already added plenty of things to the "memo" in his head during this journey-things he absolutely had to remember to bring next time, such as a tent, sleeping bags, and toiletries. Now he quietly added another: cooked cured meat.

Seeing that it was still early, they leaned back inside the carriage and dozed for a while longer. More than two hours later, when they reckoned the villagers would have gotten up to work, they climbed out.

They had left their toiletries aboard the ship and forgotten to bring them, so they washed their faces with drinking water and decided to set off.

"Gner, don't stay with me. Show up a little later, disguised as a merchant buying cured meat. When we leave, we'll buy up all the cured meat in this village. There isn't much anyway. Whether we feed it to the sailors aboard the ship or take it to another island to sell, it won't go to waste."

Gner listened to Kronos and nodded. Pretending not to know each other would also let them provide cover for one another.

Rather than take the carriage, Kronos walked down the mountain alone, found a secluded spot, and changed into a set of Warlock robes.

He had had these custom-made in Backlund. Since this world had no standard specifying what a Warlock should wear, Kronos had been forced to design everything himself.

Kronos had done his best to recall what the wizards in "Harry Potter" wore, but in the end, he had only managed to produce a set of black robes.

Kronos disliked pointed hats. Besides, he had heard that their original meaning was that one's power came from demons. He didn't know whether that belief existed in this world, but anything involving demons was best avoided.

So Kronos had designed a triangular hood for the black robes, which left just his face exposed when he put it on.

After changing his appearance with the Vampire Mask, Kronos left the Vampire's Heart and Mystic Pouch visible on the outside. Finally, he pinned a badge to his chest depicting a pair of cold, indifferent, lashless eyes filled with countless brilliant stars.

Then, leaning on his cane, he slowly walked to the village entrance, took a handful of silver dust from his pouch, and cast Levitation Spell, floating slowly into the village.

It was just before eight in the morning. Most of the villagers had finished breakfast. Some were carrying farming tools, ready to work in the fields, while others were preparing to visit the underground chambers in the mountain to check on their cured meat.

This was therefore the time when the most people were outdoors, and all of them watched as a hooded figure in robes floated into the village through the air.

In an instant, the entire village erupted with excitement. Some people even dropped straight to their knees, believing a deity had descended.

Once the whole village was in an uproar, Kronos felt his potion begin to digest. The pace wasn't slow, either, and the digestion continued steadily.

As mentioned before, the Argel Family had summarized three acting principles: learning knowledge, dressing as a Warlock, and creating spells.

Because Kronos already knew an immense amount of spell-related knowledge, his potion had actually been digesting over the past few days as he gradually absorbed that knowledge.

But as Kronos began the second step, dressing as a Warlock, the rate of digestion increased further.

By Kronos's estimate, if he could maintain this pace, even a conservative estimate would put complete digestion of the potion within a month.

But that was clearly wishful thinking. In a few more days, he would be fully familiar with all his spell knowledge, and dressing as a Warlock was only temporary. Once he left this village, that digestion would stop too.

According to his predecessors' experience, fully mastering the spell knowledge would digest roughly thirty percent of the potion, acting as a Warlock would account for about fifty percent, and creating spells would cover the remaining twenty percent.

Now that he had found a way forward with the first two, creating spells remained Kronos's greatest concern.

He had hoped to use the power of time to get ahead, but reality had dealt him a harsh blow.

He had tested Concealment of Time countless times at the manor and kept the Eye of Time activated aboard the ship, all in the hope of finding some way forward.

Unfortunately, he had made no progress whatsoever.