Back to home sweet home, for now.

Damaskinos landed on the entrance to his lair, and walked in now certain he was the same size as before. He walked in while taking stock of the wooden stacks of somewhat crude stone bottles full of potions and ingredients to the right and made his way to the stone bathtub he had carved into the floor of his lair after many months of work. He opened the water channel allowing the ground water to flow inside the tub, and then extended his hand over the water.

"Fire Lance"

"Fire Lance"

Vapor started to fill the cavern and he entered the now warm water, relaxing as he felt the tension leave him together with the smell of burned boar. He melted against the tub wall and used mage hand to take and open a bottle of specially made bath soap which he then mixed with the water for his favorite fragrance. He couldn't conjure anything yet but Melanoche had recited to him all the knowledge from when Carnachias went through a beauty product making phase. He extended his Kaleidoscopic hand, blowing bubbles by making a circle with his fingers. He was not in pain and life was great. But he needed to figure out his next move.

According to his core, he was now immune from being detected by any spells, but that still needed to be tested. System descriptions are not all powerful, even with his infusion he knew Citrinas could bypass his fire immunities and burn him to ashes, while his Light infusion did nothing in front of the Mistress of the Heavenly Choirs. Just because it said spells couldn't detect him didn't mean he should take it for granted, not to mention a Ranger or another class with tracking skills not reliant on magic or divinity could find him without any worries. The world was vast and he was small.

But his stay in the valley had also been complicated. He opened his stats and looked at the exp he got from the Adult Mountain Boar, a fraction of what he used to gain before. The System was fair, there were no bonuses for defeating beings in the same rank as you, and most of the Magical Beast population in this valley was rank 1 since this was an extremely poor region in ambient mana. It was the whole reason he was here after all, no one cared about this place because there was nothing of value here except the grasslands in the valley bellow. But it also meant that beyond the increased EXP cost from leveling up as a Rank-2 Job and Species holder, he would be held back by a lack of prey. It might be years for him to reach max level again, possibly more considering he needed to balance his hunting with not being noticed by the Ranchers bellow.

He started to air bullet the bubbles. He didn't want to stay in the valley, it was boring and there was nothing to do except grind and train. But he was continents away from friendly territory, and knew deep in his heart how close to the bottom he still was. This was not a game and fucking around is something he left behind on his first youth after it left him stranded on an Ventilator and pain meds for the rest of his then life. If he was going to do this he was going to do it right, he needed a plan and more knowledge than he had right now, it was time to call his boss and charter their next move.

With a thought he reached for his core, and felt the familiar loving darkness fill him, stronger than ever before.