Filoria was doubtful of his intentions. She had been more wary since his attempted escape.

Rafe thought his escape should have filled her with relief instead of this existential dread she seemed to be feeling. There was no love lost between the two of them, as far as he was concerned anyway. He did not know, nor care, what Filoria was thinking. And he told her so.

"Look, lady Filoria, I only agreed to come to the expedition to hunt monsters as it's been a while. I prefer to hunt alone, especially when the monsters are this weak," he said.

"That is not acceptable," Filoria, the expedition leader, said. "We are as yet not sure what is wrong with the dungeon. We have no idea when a boss might spawn or where. You cannot be allowed to go off on your own like that. The pairing system we have devis—"

"I can take care of an F grade dungeon boss no problem," Rafe interrupted.

"The problem isn't your capability," Filoria said, her frown deepening, her slight annoyance becoming slightly less slight. She sighed, trying to calm herself. "Listen, if you really need to, I'll hunt with you. I'll make sure you get all the experience too. Or all the experience you can get anyway. I'll just watch from the back. For backup. Just in case."

"That kills the whole spirit of the hunt," Rafe said, crossing his arms and glaring right back at her. "I told you already, it is a cultural thing."

"There cannot be a culture that lets young warriors wander around a dungeon unsupervised," Filoria argued again.

Rafe only shrugged. "I mean, I did beat you in a fight recently. I don't see the difference in taking you with me."

Filoria flinched. It took her a moment to get her facial expression back in control. "The difference is two are better than one," she asserted.

Rafe argued back and forth with her for almost half an hour, and in the end he frustrated her enough that she threw her hands up and told him to get lost. It seemed girls were the same on any planet. They were easy to repel. At least for him.

He did wonder why he thought Filoria's behavior reminded him of his friends who had clingy girlfriends. His old girlfriend was super unclingy. So unclingy it was like he repelled instead of attracted her. Her tongue had been clingy to that one kid's tongue though, Charlie Russel, on his last day on Earth.

Rafe ran for a long time, trying to lose his party, trying to lose any potential tails. He let the perceptive abilities of his aura skill run at full blast, as well as his racial ability, though only in manageable bursts. He killed beasts on his way, barely stopping his run even though the beasts were more than three to four times his level. They were all F grade anyway, so what did it matter? Even the ones with veils were easy to cut through by now, although in those cases he had to slow down and use more than one attack. Only slightly.

He pulled up his map ability to make sure he knew which way he'd have to return to after the day's hopefilled adventure.

He found a cave in a forested area. He hadn't been to this particular place, at least according to his map ability, but it reminded him of the cave he'd stayed in for two weeks while he waited for the system to take him back home. He settled down, sitting in a meditative pose as he waited for the event to start.

It was another hour. Of course he'd left his expeditionmates early. He needed that extra time to get as far from Filoria as he could, as fast as he could. The further the better.

For some reason, monsters did not disturb him for the one hour he waited. If the core of this dungeon was a friend to the strange ghost-like deities who'd been haunting him, that would explain the somewhat favourable treatment. Although he wondered if it and the gods knew he was planning his escape from their world.

Once the waiting time was over, a new system prompt informed him of the next step.

'Ding' You have been invited to an auction organised by the illuminati faction, for their utter abundance of tutorial contribution. Only one individual from planet Earth can potentially be credited with more tutorial points, though they are unable to organise the auction.

Rafe wondered what the system was talking about now, and why it had felt the need to talk about it. It would make the illuminati organisation, whoever they were, wary of some hidden powerhouse in their world. And his mother was an important person in this organisation.

"I wonder who this individual with potentially more tutorial points could be?"

'Ding' It is you, obviously. You are the one still in the middle of a whole tutorial quest chain, are you not?

Rafe only blinked at the notification. The system speaking directly to him was not exactly a new thing. He wasn't sure how he felt about it, especially since he blamed the system for his continued presence on Primus. There was probably a reason though. And he figured he should ask it while he had its attention.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Why the hell am I still stuck here though?"

There was nothing for a while.

Just as Rafe was about to give up, he heard the ding.

'Ding' Fate. Even we cannot intervene. We do, however, wish you could do something for us as well whilst on this planet. And on any other planets you go to where the heretics have these kinds of experiments.

So the system couldn't intervene, is what it was saying?

Rafe didn't understand what fate had to do with anything, or why it was strong enough to prevent the probably most powerful entity in the multiverse from intervening, or what even made it strong. He did find himself curious as to what kind of help the system might need though, from someone like him no less.

"What might I help you with then?" he asked. This time the reply was instantaneous.

'Ding' Fate gathers. You shall know of our predicament soon, younger brother. You will know it when you see it, the help we require. For now, enjoy the little peace we offer.

And that was how Rafe realised that perhaps this whole opportunity to see his family, or his mother at least, was something only possible through the system's intervention. The system was not maliciously trying to keep him here on Primus. Something else was.

Barbara Kingsley welcomes all her gracious guests. She might not be able to greet you all personally, but you should all be able to see her. And with that, this virtual system auction shall begin.

Rafe found himself in an imaginary world. He knew it was imaginary because he had a racial ability that could see types of mana and this place was built on a foundation of illusion mana. There was also the fact that he wasn't really here. Not his body or his soul. Just a mental projection. This was something he was used to from his time in the Skyholm legacy trial.

"So you chose to hide your identity," a voice he'd only occasionally heard on the phone in his later years on Earth said. He could never forget that voice. "Mr. RKW, huh? You're a mysterious one," his own mother said proddingly.

It reminded him of the first time Helare talked to him. Calculating, watching, assessment.

Rafe smiled, but he wasn't sure what his mother was seeing. To him she looked exactly like she always had in his memories. The way she didn't react, she probably didn't see his smile. What was she seeing, he wondered?

"Yes, uh," Rafe started after he saw some kind of wariness slip onto his mother's face. "Yes. I am…. Mysterious, that is."

Her eyes widened and she seemed to be struggling for what to say. But she was a politician now.

"Ha ha," she said, but her eyebrows were raised in his direction. "That's great…I guess?"

"Mrs Kingsley, the Beijing guild's representative has arrived," another familiar voice interrupted their conversation.

Rafe felt his eyes bug out as he looked at his cousin who'd been with him for a few years after his father and sister left. She was still a very tall woman, physically imposing. And the garments they'd chosen for her, the red vest that hugged her upper body tightly and exposed her feminine wiles alongside other, obviously not inborn characteristics; the tight pants with the militaristic designs, the weapons everywhere, her muscled upper arms which were exposed by vambraces that only reached halfway up her biceps.

But what Rafe found himself thinking in that moment was a question. Had his cousin left him to go after his mother? His aunt as well? He remembered finding that the house they raised him in belonged to his mother, so obviously they kept in touch even when she disappeared.

But those thoughts were for another time. In that mental space that existed and yet did not, Rafe watched his mother interact with other people. He was happy she was alive, and his cousin too.

There were a lot of people who had received enough tutorial points to attend the auction, and as warned not everyone would get to meet Barbara Kingsley. In fact, Rafe realised he was the only person who'd come alone who'd been greeted by his mother. All other individual attendees were ignored in favour of those who came in large groups. The budding factions of Earth, Rafe guessed.

Obviously his mother's faction was the strongest. He wondered what that meant. Had his mother left to create this faction? If so, had she known the system was coming before it did? It was a curious situation.

Rafe wasn't the only one who entered the mental space in disguise, although Rafe hadn't meant to be in disguise, and wasn't even aware what his disguise looked like. There was a guy who appeared as a giant chicken man, and one appeared like a giant pillar of sand and one was metallic.

The metallic man was standing next to his mother. He was probably a member of the illuminati organization, but why was he in disguise at a function being organised by his own faction? That was never a good sign.

Rafe didn't buy anything at the auction. He didn't need to. All he needed to do was see his mother and his cousin. At some point, his sister had shown up and sang a new song he had never heard. He knew she had been a singer even before the integration, but now her skills were being enhanced by the Essence, and yeah, she was very good. He wasn't as happy to see his sister as he'd been to see his mother and Thea.

He understood why. Before they'd left him, his father and sister, Rafe and Reyna's relationship was beyond strained. And Rafe was a little biased, but he was pretty sure it wasn't his fault. After all, what kind of nine year old wouldn't cry for their mom when they missed her, even though it hurt their father whenever they mentioned their mom.

Rafe had been too young to understand, but Reyna hadn't cared. Perhaps she'd also been dealing with the abandonment, and had taken her anger out on her younger brother. Nothing physically violent. It was more mental. Rafe hadn't missed her when she'd gone, and he didn't rejoice when he saw her now.

Seeing them happy in between auctioning off items, Rafe had this sinking feeling. The integration had come and gone. Obviously there had been a little shift in government and stuff of the sort, but it seemed like not a lot had changed. Even technology was functioning, or the humans had already adapted to Essence technology.

So then, wasn't the fact that he was missing, possibly even dead, known to them? How could they behave so freely, so happily? Did he mean so little to them? It was all a little hurting, so Rafe tried to keep it out of his mind.

The more he thought about it though, the more it didn't make any sense. Did they not know? But his mother was the top dog of one of the strongest factions on Earth. How could she not know? Unless she hadn't cared to check.

And they were smiling and laughing, and his mother hugged Reyna as she finished her latest performance, and people clapped, and his sister bowed, and she laughed with the most gentle voice.

And he tried to be happy for them. He tried. He forced a smile on his disguised face, but his heart ached.

Maybe it was a good thing he hadn't yet gone back to Earth.

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