The guard and I remained confused; he must also have at least a basic knowledge of space magic because he noticed the subtle change between us. We were both ready to attack if necessary when, a second later, a person appeared.

  He was a dark-skinned man with long white hair reaching his shoulders, a beard of the same color, slightly unkempt, and a normal build. Although I initially thought he was an old man because of his hair and beard, his face looked relatively young, around forty or fifty years old.

  Who is this person? I doubt he is an enemy, because very few people are stupid enough to attack inside Skyblue City’s school. Even so, I subtly reinforce my body as a precaution. Some lunatic can always appear out of nowhere.

  The man looks at the guard for a moment, then turns his gaze to me, scanning me from head to toe. I can even feel him trying to subtly push his Imra forward; I raise my defenses and strike back at his attempts to pierce them. I can see the surprise on his face, followed by a wide smile forming beneath that beard.

  "Follow me." His deep voice sounds authoritative, yet clearly cheerful.

  "Why would I do that? Who are you?" I am sure the person in front of me is Diamond rank; no Ruby rank can generate that kind of pressure, and he is far from being as strong as the Obsidian ranks I have known.

  Under any other circumstances I would have answered more formally and less provocatively. A Diamond rank could finish me off in just a few seconds, but I am not alone and I am at the entrance of the school. If trouble breaks out, many people would come to help me, knowing that I am a professor.

  "Because I say so?" He releases his Imra directly toward me. Even though I try to protect myself, I feel an enormous weight on my shoulders, and the instinct to run floods my body. I resist as best as I can, reinforcing my entire body with all my abilities so as not to collapse onto the ground.

  Somehow I manage to endure it, remaining suspended in the air. The problem is that I cannot move even a single centimeter. Just keeping my head raised is torture. I feel my body and cube doing everything they can to withstand the pressure; if this continues, I will end up collapsing.

  Fortunately, I feel the guard take action, creating several metal constructs. "He is a professor and student of our academy. Withdraw your Imra immediately, or we will attack." Other guards have appeared behind him; three of them are Ruby rank.

  The white-haired man withdraws his Imra and whatever else had been pressing me, letting out a heavy sigh as he turns to look at the guards. "I know, I was just playing around a bit. Director Susan sent me to pick him up." The man takes out a ring, proving he was sent by Susan, and all the guards hesitate. He tosses the ring to the lead guard.

  After a few seconds of checking the ring, the guard returns it, looks him in the eyes, and makes a slight bow before leaving with the others.

  "What the hell was that? If Susan sent you to see me, why did you attack me?" I complain as soon as I can. This idiot put me through a horrible moment. I felt as if my body and cube could collapse at any second; the pressure was suffocating, truly overwhelming power.

  Is this what that pink-haired professor meant when she told me about the evolution of the Banner? Is this what is known as a Jurisdiction? Only Diamond and Obsidian ranks have one. This power is extremely dominant; I could have broken if he had kept applying pressure. I am sure he did not go all out; it was just a test.

  During these months at the school I have learned a bit about this, not because I am close to obtaining one, but because I wanted to find a way to fight against a Diamond rank if the situation ever arises.

  A Jurisdiction is when the Banner fuses with Laws and evolves, creating a space with you at the center, very similar to a domain yet different at the same time. That is the main reason why Ruby ranks are like flies compared to Diamond ranks; the difference in power is abysmal. It separates “ordinary” people from monsters.

  Without a Jurisdiction of your own, you cannot do anything. External mana becomes impossible to manipulate, and your own Imra runs out of control. This idiot in front of me has given me a harsh reality check; he immobilized me instantly, and I could do nothing inside his ability.

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  I need to evolve my Banner as soon as possible. My Banner is special, and now even more so because it has a unique synergy with my Dragon Law: gravity. I am still far from having a Jurisdiction, but there are many cases of Ruby ranks with powerful Banners who can slightly contend with Diamond ranks, all thanks to a strong Banner.

  "I just wasn’t sure it was you." The man keeps scanning me. "You’re taller than mentioned, and your hair is long, like you haven’t cut it in years. It doesn’t matter. Follow me, my master is very worried about you." Did he just call Susan his master? Is he another one of her students?

  "Are you Lucio?" If he is Susan’s disciple and has dark skin, I can only think of one person.

  "It seems you know me. Now follow me, buddy." His attitude now is more like what Susan described: a serious-looking man with a completely opposite personality, always looking for interesting and fun things, capable of traveling the world simply because he is bored.

  We both fly straight to the massive building where Susan’s office is located. We are forced to descend to enter through the door and use a mechanism similar to an elevator. This building has multiple layers filled with runes; it is impossible to enter through a window or destroy it, though perhaps Lucio could if he really tried.

  When we arrive at Susan’s office, the dark-skinned man opens the door without asking and we enter. Susan is sitting in the small room, drinking tea, with some pastries on the table. She stands up, walks straight toward me, and gives me a tight hug.

  "I was very worried about you. When I was notified about the end of your trial in the Hero’s dungeon, we went to receive you and you never appeared. The dungeon returned to its usual charging state and there were no signs of your return. We were all desperate." She tightens her hug even more; for a moment I feel my bones creak and fear being crushed.

  Susan finally releases me after only cracking a few ribs, which I heal automatically. She keeps talking. "Where were you? Why do you look like a vagabond who hasn’t cut his hair in years? Are you hurt? Explain everything to me. If you leave out a single detail, I will hit you." She looks very serious; honestly, I am afraid of being hit by her.

  "Before I start, I want to answer your last question: I’m fine, I’m not hurt." She lets out a sigh. Lucio has already sat down without paying us any attention, eating cookies as if it were none of his business.

  I sit down with them, and for a moment I glance at Lucio before speaking. Susan does not seem uncomfortable with her other disciple hearing the story, but I do feel a bit uneasy. After hesitating for a moment, I speak; she must have her reasons and will surely explain them to me later. I trust Susan.

  I did not tell them about my rewards after finishing the dungeon. I only told them how I appeared in a strange place, like an island. I told them about the letter in question and how I could not take it. I tried to store it in my pants or magical bracelet, but I couldn’t; somehow it kept reappearing on the table, surely due to some enchantment.

  After a detailed summary of how I spent all that time training, I tell them about what happened in the neighboring kingdom. Both of them frown after hearing about the attack by that fire mage; they also hate that criminal gang. At some point Lucio begins to pay attention to me—something in the story must have caught his interest.

  "C.H? That person must be very powerful and intelligent. Creating a prison-type dungeon like that, altering time and space in different ways, is extremely complicated." To my surprise, the dark-skinned man is the first to speak.

  "Yes. Can you replicate something like that? Or do you have any way to track him?" Susan touches her lips thoughtfully as she questions her disciple.

  "No… I’m still very far from being able to do that. Even with my mastery over space and time affinities, I can’t do anything like it. At the very least, that person must be Obsidian rank and have spent several decades studying hundreds or thousands of dungeons." Lucio taps his forehead rhythmically with two fingers as he tries to think.

  Does this person really have strong mastery over space and time magic? I remember hearing something like that from Susan in one of our many meetings. She must have read my mind, because she speaks immediately. "If you had taken one more day, we would have gone out to look for you. Lucio can follow your trail thanks to his abilities. Although it’s not completely precise, we could have narrowed down where you were." I nod softly; so that is the reason for his presence.

  "I’m quite capable, boy. My mastery over those two supreme affinities surpasses many Diamond mages and even several Obsidian ones." The man in front of me grins from ear to ear, puffing out his chest with pride.

  "I’m very happy to see you safe and sound, Maki. I was very worried about you. At least those bad experiences didn’t put your life on the brink of death, and despite everything, you were able to make good use of the time. I wouldn’t have been able to face your family if you had died." She looks genuinely distressed by my situation.

  "Yeah… the situation was awful the entire time. I even had a hard fight against that fire mage, but in the end the danger stayed at an acceptable level." If I had encountered several Ruby ranks at that moment, everything would have been different.

  "We can keep talking tonight. I’ll prepare a big dinner at my house to welcome you back." Susan smiles softly. "I don’t want to take up any more of your time. Go greet the little princess; she even called her father to ask for help. I’ll be waiting for both of you tonight." Susan looks at Lucio, and before I can say goodbye, the man teleports me outside the building without letting me say a word.