In the deep darkness, Xander felt his consciousness wake up, a bit groggy, but realizing that he couldn't see anything, he knew immediately where he was: [The space between worlds].
This was a special term for those who were users of Life and Death elements; basically, this is a rift that separated living and the dead, as well as where time does not exist. This is where the life essence dolls from Dimension:LEO entered once the bonds that tethered them were shattered, snipped, or broken off.
He was supposed to be in a state of stasis, like other life essence dolls that pass through this area, and the only reason he could think at this moment was because of his own fusion with space-time elements, allowing him to finally experience what it meant to rewind space-time.
He instantly activated this capability of his, causing the area around him to shift and change, multi-colored rays of light surrounding his consciousness. He wasn't sure how long it had been since his death, but decided to rewind it up to 5 hours before his death.
The area of rewind? Well, let's make it the whole planet of Eteria and surrounding planets and stars. Immediately, a rippling and ripping sensation covered his entire consciousness, and the next moment, he was now back in his hotel room, changing his clothes in front of the mirror.
His eyes, blinking, and clarity returned immediately, with the knowledge and information that had just happened in the next 5 hours. Huh.
I died, Xander thought to himself, the experience felt awkward. it was like reloading the previous save file, but the experience he gained were carried to the that save file. If he could turn back time for a total of 180 days, how would the experience be, Xander thought.
At this moment, the entire world experienced a deja-vu, especially those beyond the Mythic stage. Their souls weren't 100% affected by the reversal, but the trace source of the deja-vu cannot be tracked back to Xander even with the powers and spells used by these magicians.
Even Divine magicians were helpless, as well as that mysterious person, Gol D. Roger. He knew something caused the feeling of deja-vu, but he didn't understand why it had happened. The situation had even escalated to the government officials and large and/or hidden clans, confirming the situation.
As the culprit, Xander was merely mulling over the situation.
Oh well, it seems I need to strike preemptively, he thought to himself, as he helped himself with the breakfast buffet of the hotel.
After eating breakfast, he returned to his room and immediately moved to the outskirts of Capsule city, a few hundred meters away from the ruins.
He immediately used the system to send an alert to the people in Eta government and military, as well as the government officials and military officials of other countries, as well as the patriarchs and leaders of clans and conglomerates in Eta, giving them his current location and information about the ruins.
The message was quite simple.
"Hey. The ruins you lot have discovered in the past few millennia are basically pocket spaces that act as bunkers, coming from an ancient civilization much more older than the Heavenly Sprite Tree.
Pocket spaces are well, small dimensions. Their structure was similar to space ships that you have been theorizing for the past thousands of years. Most likely, it was these bunkers that seeded life in this planet. Good news is that you can get lots of information about the ancient civilization and even revive their old technologies and raise the current level of technology! Pretty neat, huh?
Now, here's a bad news: If you think you have explored the ruins completely, you are wrong~ There's a hidden last floor in every ruin, so if you have discovered 99 floors, there's a hidden 100th floor, if you discovered 39 floors, there's a hidden 40th floor, etc. Do you know what's inside? Well, do you remember the outside invader I mentioned yesterday?
Well, it seems your ancient civilization forgot to mention that they were carrying them, and well, their powers are above a Demigod's strength, nearing the threshold of a Divine magician, in your standards. So good luck. Here's the complete map of Ruin Eta-64. How did I get it? Well, that's a secret. I'm going to go back inside. I'm going back not because I'm a masochist, but I needed to get data from this specific outside invader after all. Tata~
P.S. The placed limitation only occurs if you aren't able to do fine control of both the flow of your life essence and the elemental energy in your body. If you know how to disguise both of them, you can enter just fine, haha. After I'm done with this ruin, I'm going to disappear for a while~
P.P.S. From my initial scan of the data in the ruins, there are supposed to be around 2020 pocket spaces. So, there are around 2020 outside invaders existing in your planet right now. If in the next few centuries, you discover more than 2020, I have to say, you better be prepared. Those were definitely left by someone more recent."
The moment he sent the message through the system, he was already in front of the scanner he was in before. He scanned his smartwatch again, and after the initial scan, he entered the ruins again.
First, he forcefully transferred every item existing in the first 99 floors, into his spatial storage. afterwards, he forcefully transported every living being from the 1st to the 99th floor outside of the dungeon, except the puppets which he immediately disabled by removing the elemental crystals and surrounding them with space magic, and then dumping them into the spatial storage.
He teleported to the 100th floor, and saw the scaly dragon once again, with the squirming runic writings. Before it could even react or move, Xander raised both his arms and purposefully distorted the space on the 100th floor, as well as the space surrounding the dragon, while at the same time, spatially locking it in place. Using the system and his mind, as well as time acceleration, he began to record each and every runic formation and transformation occurring on the dragon's body in a matter of seconds.
This time, he didn't activate [Spatial View] because it seemed that it could attack that way.
Immediately he began to cast [Void Rejection] in the area where the dragon is, before casting a space crush, on the area surrounding the area where the spell and the dragon was located. Not only that, he applied elements of chaos to ensure that the dragon's flow of energy, as well as the runic writings wriggling and moving around would not be able to function properly. He couldn't use [Frenzied Sunset] since it wasn't past noon yet.
Taking advantage, he continued to accelerate [Space Crush], while at the same time, attempting to break the dots, lines and shapes that made up the dragon and the runic writing without going into [Spatial View] mode. After all, even without that vision mode, he could still instinctively detect the spatial structures and destroy the entire thing. At the same time, didn't he die while [Spatial View] was activated? It was enough time for Xander to glean information concerning the runic structure and the dragon's.
However, most of his attacks were ineffective; his [Space Crush] didn't work, the manipulation of Chaos elements were not enough to disrupt the flow of elemental energy and spatial stability of the runic writings and the dragon. Even his attempt to break the dots, lines, and shapes that constituted the runic writings and the dragon ended up only shaking them up, but not collapsing them at all. Seeing that his attacks had no effect, Xander couldn't help but sigh. There was another method, but that involves destroying the ruin. Oh well.
Distracting the dragon for a bit, he tried teleporting to the first floor of the ruins; it was slower due to the space being destabilized, but it still worked. afterwards, he overrode the rules of the pocket space, instructing it to seal the very last section of the pocket space.
afterwards, he exited the ruins, and did a small gesture, with both his hands; he wanted to ensure that nothing will be left unaccounted for.
Immediately, the ruins began to collapse on itself, and barely audible, Xander could hear the unwilling roar of the dragon still stuck in the ruins. Anyways, it won't have any chance to escape. This process lasted for a few seconds, forming a pyramid-like item in the end, rather than a spherical structure.
Around him, the area had devolved into chaos due to the number of magic beasts that appeared in the vicinity.
Xander used this opportunity to leave the vicinity and appear in the outskirts of Verdant city. Entering the gates, he headed towards the Missions building of MCGD.
It didn't take a long time to reach it; just a couple of minutes.
He immediately headed to the C+ floor and talked to Aria to submit his findings. He only sold the full 100-floor map of the ruins, while the rest of the things he found, he kept them.
Aria, who looked quite surprised at Xander's appearance, gawked at the information that he just gave to her.
"T-t-the complete map schematic of Ruin Eta-64 has been submitted, as well as the additional information for each floor."
"Ehem, the payment for the discovery of the remaining 80 floors totals to 16,000,000 Etas, the payment for discovering the hidden compartments per floor, a total of 5 per floor, totals to 10,000,000 Etas, making the total amount to be 26,000,000 Etas. Because this isn't a mission entrusted to MCGD, no fees will be deducted from your reward."
Aria scanned the portable terminal to Xander's smartwatch, and immediately the bank transfer was done.
"Successfully transferred 26,000,000 Etas. Thank you for doing a service for the country!" Aria bowed at Xander, who just nodded in response while saying inwardly, they wouldn't thank me once they realize the ruin is already gone.
Xander headed back to his hotel, with his disguise on. He was going to debate whether he should cut his trip short or complete the remaining 4 days.