Exactly one hour later, late into the night, Zorat had finally concluded the refinement of his fourth divine authority fragment and integrated the subsequent ability he had extracted through that.

He then pulled up his status window to see how it now looked.

*****

[Name: Caleb Cole]

[LV: 18 ]

[HP: 305/305 ]

[MP: 62/62 ]

[STR: 17 ]

[DEF: 17 ]

[SPD: 16 ]

[Affinity: Space || Earth || Bow || Shadow || Strength ]

[Skills: Spatial Repertoire (Error) || Portal (Error) || Earth Manipulaion (Error) ]

[Special Skill: Space Manipulation (Error) || Void Domain (Error) || Existential Pierce (Error) || Limitless Might (Error) ]

****

Zorat took his time to observe the changes to his status.

Considering he gains affinities so obviously in tune with the runic code these heroes were imbued with.... 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

It makes perfect sense and puts into proper perspective why these divine skills are so special in the first place.

Now Zorat has four divine authority fragments on hand, and the rest were soon to come; he was just waiting on a particular someone to take the initiative to come over sometime within the remainder of less than five days they have before the Saintess is scheduled to be escorted back to the holy sea.

Zorat would gain as much as he could during this period of rest and would design the rest of his plan around their upcoming journey with the enigmatic saintess, who had so picked his interest alongside the faction backing her.

But first, Zorat had to keep to his self-designated appointment at the main palace.

He had some shopping to do after all, and where better to carry out said shopping than the location with the most luxurious of goods?

Aside from that, he was also quite interested in exploring further into the main palace this time, especially the royal wing, to dig deeper into an area he had ignored the first time.

Zorat made certain the ladies were fast asleep before casting his void domain spell and disappearing from existence.

He took the same path through the palace grounds until he reached the main palace area.

There, he went leisurely past all the royal guards on station until he reached the throne room again, and from there he phased straight through into the royal wing.

But as Zorat approached the royal treasury zone, he noticed some rather drastic changes to how things were.

For one, there were two veiled figures now standing at the entrance to the vault, and the efficiency of the mana-cancelling artifact had been brought up to the utmost peak level of the paragon realm, where it was formerly just around high level.

Hehehe...

Zorat’s grin widened at the extra boost in their security measures, as he simply walked right through the veiled figures at the entrance and directly inside the vault with none present any wiser of what had just occurred.

And when Zorat arrived inside the vault, he was met with yet another change that made his grin widen further into a wide smile.

Inside the white space of the vault, now devoid of all its shelves and ancestral treasures.

At its center now lay a small mountain of new treasures, artifacts, and imperial coins, Zorat deduced must be the seized wealth from the former executed ministers and the infamous fugitive, Victor.

But that wasn’t the amusing part to Zorat; it was the fact that in front of that small mountain of treasure was yet another veiled figure in a grey robe, seated on a comfortable chair, fully focused to thwart any threat.

Zorat was genuinely impressed by how much effort they had put into securing all that the kingdom had left....

But his smile soon contorted into a devious grin as he began a process of systematically rendering all their effort for naught.

Behind the oblivious enforcer, the small mountain of gathered treasures slowly began to sink into the white marble-like floors where a shimmering purple portal had, at some unknown time, materialized.

And soon, not even a single imperial coin or treasure was left remaining in that space.

Hmm...

I wonder how they’ll survive this one. Hehehe.

Zorat, with his hands crossed behind his back, leisurely phased through the vault once again, leaving the enforcer who was supposed to be securing the treasures to his fate.

He appeared outside the vault and walked past those positioned at the entrance as well.

But Zorat did not leave the royal wing just yet; instead, he went in a different direction.

He had come to shop for some furniture after all, and he would also take his time to explore the area he had ignored the last time, sending a somewhat familiar reading to his senses.

On Zorat’s previous visit to the royal wing, he had taken note of two unoccupied rooms that were just as luxuriously furnished as all the others.

He deduced they must be reserved for other high dignitaries on a visit. Guest rooms, just like the one the Saintess was currently staying in.

So with his target set, Zorat began his pillaging of both guest rooms, stripping them of all the furnishings, large mattresses, beautiful murals, rug carpets, everything disappeared into his spatial repertoire as he moved like a ghost through both rooms.

And when he was done, he took a hastened stroll in the direction that had attracted his senses deeper inside the royal wing.

Zorat had been using his mental strength to deploy his void domain for quite a while now, only because he was simultaneously triggering his new limitless might spell....

which has helped in almost doubling his mental fortitude, but he was starting to feel the strain on his mind, and he would have to call it soon....

Otherwise, he risks being exposed with the tight surveillance in the main palace and most especially the royal wing he was currently looting like a back alley marketplace.

It took Zorat almost an entire minute to arrive at a passageway that was lined with so many illusion artifacts, it was almost as many as what he had encountered on his way to reach the royal treasury the first time, but still....

They were all ineffective against Zorat’s senses.

Zorat followed the perceived path until he arrived at an entrance with stairs that led deeper down into what appeared to be an underground space.

Feeling his senses tingle with more powerful readings, he descended the dark space, following the stairs until he was suddenly met with a dark shimmering transparent barrier that prevented his entry.....

Which should be impossible because.

Zorat currently had his void domain spell active. And even though he couldn’t use his abilities at very high levels at the moment, he still shouldn’t be sensed at all since it was functioning based on raw runic spells....

Unless.....

Zorat came to a sudden realization. Only laws based on raw runes could affect rune-based magic....

Which means the barrier and whatever was inside was designed by an application of complex raw runic workings... Something that would require the degree of at least a god-level being to pull off, since their runic creation was even able to interfere with Zorat’s.

And as Zorat ran his finger through the dark, shimmering, transparent barrier, his mind went back to the dimensional being he theorized had a hand in the arrangement of this world...

And that theory was proving more solid at the moment.

But before he could delve deeper into this thought process, a familiar system message from the world system was projected in front of him.

****

[CHALLENGE SEALED DUNGEON ?! YES / NO ]

[RECOMMENDED LEVEL 61!]

*****

Ah.... I see.....

So that’s how they do it....

Hehehe...