Rise Of The Infinite Sovereign-Chapter 428: Third Expedition

While on their way to Black Quartet, Ezra made sure to not say anything beyond greeting the elders as he could see that some of them were just itching to get at him.

Ezra is hardly concerned as from Zydrax’s explanation, he understood that their reactions came about because they felt their positions being threatened.

Or because Ezra refused to utilize the same dress code as all the other elders and instead wore, just as you’d think, a black outfit, with little to no protective gear.

Just another layer to further endear his claim that he wouldn’t be hunting for resources having just broken through not long ago.

In anycase, the first possibility was funny because Ezra had no intention of staying, not to mention holding a position in such a rundown clan.

Instead, he continues looking over the report gathered on the upcoming secret realm so as to recalibrate all the needed parts of his plan as a means of pastime.

Reaching Centra after a few hours of flight, Ezra alights the spaceship alongside the other elders.

For one, he notices that they had parked in a deeper part of Centra than when he came as a Transcendent.

Black Dragon guards greet them upon alighting the ship as they walk towards the places to be hosted.

Here, they find multiple other groups of nascents waiting

At least a 1000 nascents lay waiting, all split in groups

Each group is either double their number or slightly less.

If nothing else, the venue was packed with people and then their incessant murmuring.

As one would expect, his dress code made him stand out.

As nascents, all that squabbling that Transcendents engaged in was almost non-existent.

Instead, nascents interacted with each other with clean cut politeness and etiquette.

Though anyone really looking could see the layers of tension hidden between all parties.

Greeting a few people, Ezra introduces himself as Sylvester while simply claiming to have been raised by the red dragon clan.

Becoming annoyed, Ezra excuses himself and finds himself a place to sit while Kovar and Asadon are exchanging pleasantries.

He’d rather not have to smile towards people who’s bad intentions were as clear as day.

All he wanted was for the secret realm to open soon.

But that wouldn’t be for a while as in the meantime, more nascents arrived.

The most notable being a group of black dragon nascents armed in armour and weapons that approached from above, making sure everyone could see them.

Among them, Ezra spotted Avaken.

After that came a group of orcs, of which one of them just happens to be a familiar face.

Musaduval Sathar.

He is dressed in traditional armour from head to toe, with some leather looking black cloth underneath it all that stretched over his arms and legs.

With a large gleaming two sided axe resting on his shoulder, Musad walked in with a gait and gaze that signified that he meant business...that is until he saw Ezra.

Rushing over, Ezra takes notice of him as well.

"Sylvester! You’re here?!" His voice booms in excitement, attracting the attention of everyone else.

The two men shake hands, smiling towards one another.

"Musad. It’s good to see you in prime and proper shape"

"Well, of course" Musad replies, instantly drawing back his sleeves to flex his robust muscles. "I’ve been exercising"

In the face of such an act, even Ezra’s face couldn’t help but twitch, desperately wanting to facepalm right there.

Not only was he doing this with everyone watching, but his companions’ were standing right behind him, embarrassed beyond belief.

’He really has no concern for his surroundings. He just does whatever he wants’

As ignorant as it was, Ezra appreciated the earnest passion, though it was probably an obsession at this point.

"Musad" Ezra calls, while shaking his head in dismay. "You’re distracting the guests, cover your muscles"

"Tch" Musad clicks his tongue and stares right back every gaze pointed at him, before slowly pulling the sleeves back in place.

The nascents go back to exchanging words with one another after the small drama, with Musad sitting beside Ezra.

"So. How did you do it?" Musad inquires, with his eyes extra wide.

It didn’t take a genius to understand what he was asking.

"I was lucky enough to obtain a pill that assisted me in breaking through within the Alchemist Tomb as well as a good number of ordinary of pills"

Looking at him up and down, Musad simply nods, "So, any problems?"

Ezra nods. "Because I rushed through the breakthrough, my foundations is a bit shaky, but nothing else other than that"

"Would you like to accompany us then? Or do you have other plans"

Waving his hand, Ezra refuses.

"I intend to take things slowly, I only came for the experience so I wouldn’t want to hold you back"

Holding his chin, Musad nods. "Well, it is a shame, but I wish you the best luck can offer"

"Same here" Ezra responds as they do a parting handshake as Musad gets up and leaves.

Minutes after, Ezra suddenly turns his head in the direction where he’d felt a burning gaze, and meets two familiar faces staring at him as though trying to pierce through his visage.

One is Ivesa, the Ent Ezra had won against.

Her eyes lay pooped out as her expression constantly morphed to convey different layers of bewilderment and confusion.

It was clear to see that she couldn’t believe her eyes.

The second person who lay beside Ivesa is the green dragon Caverra, her best friend, who is also staring at Ezra with a stoic expression while her eyes convey incredulousness.

In response, Ezra’s laughs in silence and blinks at them, forcing them to avert their gaze.

’You must be shocked’

Those two seemed to have formed a grudge against him ever since that sparring session.

Seeing the person they must have thought could easily be squashed in this setting must be unsettling.

Ezra was actually surprised, he expected that they would come to challenge right on the spot in due of their grudge.

He figured the Ent probably wanted to do that, but the green dragon held her back.

It only looked funny in his eyes.

Well, now on the same level, Ezra welcomed a battle from them anytime.

At the time for expedition neared, a single black dragon joined the congregation.

He turned out to be the leader of black dragon nascents.

Making small pleasantries, the group leader turned to address everyone.

"I will keep my words short as we all know why we’re here. I simply implore all groups to please maintain civility once inside the secret realm. That it all"

With that, parts of the buildings began to shift, opening up a wide cavern that ran into the ground like a tunnel.

A long tunnel.

Instantly, the nascents fall into the opened space in droves, heading towards the portal with haste.

Ezra on the other hand, simply watches as they make their way down in droves.

Only after everyone has gone down did Ezra make his way towards the portal as well.

Heading down with both leisure and haste, Ezra uses almost five minutes before reaching a massive pink portal, almost six times Ezra’s size, endlessly shimmering.

Without further ado, he walks in.

Appearing on the other side with little delay, Magnus finds himself in another place of picturesque variety.

"This is...amazing" Ezra remarked, folding his hands to get a good view.

Contrasting the two secret realms he had been in, this secret realm’s main stage took place in the background of space.

Its layout was of an unknown number of big and small islands sprawled across an expanse of space, floating yet still like a boat anchored to the shore.

The platform he was currently standing on is also floating.

The scenery couldn’t help but be beautiful because the space was dotted with stars, at least twinkling and sparkling dots of lights.

The name of this secret realm now made perfect sense.

The Starbound Sanctuary.

Though Ezra though starbound archipelago would’ve probably fit better.

But within this picturesque space lay creatures powerful, angry and ready to tear all things apart.

Ezra’s third expedition officially began.

First things first, Ezra places a <Gatemark> right in front of the entrance as insurance for future visits.

After that, he tests <Mind Cloud>, trying to get through to Sidal but it fails.

"Okay" Ezra nods. "This secret realm is separate from the outside world"

"I can work with that"

Ezra rises to...higher ground? Into space?

Regardless, he uses the vintage point to view the location of the groups that were already inside.

Calmly stalki-*cough*- surveilling, each group doing there own thing, Ezra does quick calculations and decides his next best move in response.

Done with reconnaissance, Ezra conceals himself and heads in the direction with the least amount of people.

Each Island was categorized by a different element, ice, metal, fire, light, darkness and others.

The element determined what kind of things to expect from each Island.

Yet one could never be too cautious as the islands trials never worked the same.

So if scourged an ice island and complete it’s trials, heading to another ice island didn’t make your chances of passing the trials higher.

Instead, letting down your guard would have you killed faster as the trials you’re faced with could be completely different than the one before.

For the duration of this expedition, Ezra intends to test his abilities against this nascent realm and hopefully gain better understanding on how they affect reality.

As for his destination...

[Head to an island of darkness, fire, or light. Water, metal and ice are usually easier to deal with in comparison, so there’ll be little chance that you’ll be disturbed]

"Alright" Ezra nods, heeding Zydrax’s advice.

After all, the primary difference between an expert and beginner of any same subject, is caused by the differing understanding of details.