Charles stepped on the concrete path, walked past many ornamental and strange plants, and soon arrived in front of a wooden door.
'Hmm, no forewarnings are appearing in my mind... But I can't bet my life on this skill.' He thought inwardly and ordered the Holem's Crown to get ready to cast the 'Traveler's Leap' spell at any moment.
Then, he raised his hand, sent out a few invisible strings, unlocked the door, and opened it.
A mixture of herbal, alcoholic, and mixed fruits fragrance entered his nose as he stepped in.
At that moment, he also noticed that the surrounding walls were inscribed in strange symbols.
'Runal words? No... These look similar yet different.' He glanced around the walls for a moment and tried to release his wisdom power but failed.
'I have no choice but to search on my own, huh.' He resumed his walking, went towards the study, then towards the kitchen, and finally checked the bedroom.
Unfortunately, he saw no presence of Stephen in the hall and got confused.
'Is there any underground basement in this house?' He used his [Arcane Eyes] skill and started searching for any secret passage.
After a few minutes of search, Charles soon found a secret passage in the storeroom and arrived in front of the wall.
Unlike normal noble's secret house, the walls were inscribed in strange engravings and appeared mysterious.
Charles soon noticed that the secret door was already unlocked and pushed it open completely.
After that, he walked on the gloomy staircase and entered the underground basement, illuminated by multiple lamps and fire torches.
He saw tens of test tubes, alembics, retorts, and few candles placed on the wooden tables.
Charles also saw a few rare plant leaves, flowers, vials with different colored liquids, human organs, and even strange powders in the nearby racks and frowned.
Then, his gaze swept past the wooden tables with different glass items and soon zeroed on the figure in his white coat.
'Stephen.' Charles's eyes flickered.
Currently, he showed his back towards Charles, covered his head with a strange cloth, and seemed to be in the middle of concocting a potion.
But what made Charles furrow his brows was that he sensed no movements from him at all!
He was standing there motionlessly as if he was in deep thoughts.
Charles took a few steps forward, arrived near him, and soon widened his eyes in surprise.
Because what he saw was not a human but a rocky statue!
'He turned into a statue while concocting a potion?' Charles arrived next to the statue, checked the potion recipe, and frowned.
At that moment, he also used his wisdom power to check the statue and found no consciousness appeared inside at all.
'He was concocting a normal strength potion recipe... Someone entered his room without alerting him and turned him into a statue?' A thought appeared in his mind.
'Mr. Runeth, use the 'Elapsed Time' skill.' He spoke.
Meanwhile, the Holem's Crown let out a dim light and released an invisible ripple to the surroundings.
A moment later, the whole surroundings began to distort and soon replaced with a scene of Stephen concocting a potion.
Stephen was a man in his forties, had wide-set emerald eyes, short brown hair, and a large knife scar below his left eye.
In the vision, he held a test tube, added a few drops of special water into it, and then started shaking it for some time.
He also constantly checked the timer, took out a small magic burner, and lit it.
Then, he moved the test tube towards the bluish fire, placed it on the flame for a few seconds, and added a crystal-like stone into it.
After that, he waited for some time, took out a vial filled with ash, and put everything into it.
He added multiple things into the test tube for the next few minutes and finally sighed as he saw the whole liquid color change to black.
"Another failure. I added the 'Arctic Leaf' 0.35 seconds earlier." He muttered solemnly and placed the test tube on a different desk.
At that moment, he suddenly stopped his movement, narrowed his eyes, and looked around in curiosity.
"Did some ant sneak into the laboratory?" He asked out loud and shook his head before taking another test tube.
Like before, he started doing another round of concocting and was about to put a drop of bluish liquid, but suddenly froze.
No, his body seemed to have gone into a paralyzed state at that moment.
Within the next two seconds, his whole body changed into dark color and turned into a stone!
Even Charles and the Holem's Crown saw no enemy appearing in the past vision!
It was as if he turned into a statue on his own!
The next instant, the surroundings shimmered for a moment and returned to the present time.
'Something is not right about his death.' Charles muttered.
'But there is no enemy appeared in the past vision.' The Holem's Crown said solemnly and soon sighed.
'Let's leave.'
Charles also nodded his head in approval and turned his gaze towards the statue.
He then silently took his space ring, erased Stephen's broken soul imprint, and started checking the content.
'Many types of potion recipes, his personal diaries, a few potions, and potion materials... But there is no sunset potion.' He was disappointed a little.
After searching for a while, he stealthily walked out of the underground basement, moved towards the reception hall, and opened the wooden gate to walk out.
'Hmm? There is no trap at all... I thought at least a bunch of Rank-3 mages would show and order me to surrender.' A smirk appeared on his feminine-looking face.
After looking around for a moment, Charles moved towards the fence gate, opened it, and went towards the main street.
While walking, he suddenly thought of those weird engravings and asked.
'What language is that, Mr. Runeth? It appears similar to Runal Language, right?'
'That's the engraving of Eternal Sins... It's the ancient language used in the Elder Plane. It's one of the ten Supreme Planes.' The Holem's Crown said in a solemn tone.
'Supreme Planes? I heard you once said that Dream World is a Supreme Plane, right? What are others? Can you elaborate more about these planes?' Charles asked as he moved towards Highlander Street.
'Hmm, there are four different types of planes in this universe. The first one is Low plane. The fire-elemental plane should come under this section. Although there is a large number of creatures and civilized humanoids that appeared in that plane, it isn't powerful enough to give birth to any Divine Beast. Ah, the Divine Beasts are more like natural protectors of these planes and they are powerful enough to battle any Demi-God level and above existences.'
'The second one is Mid Plane. These planes are slightly larger than the fire elemental plane and must have given birth to one or two Divine Beasts. The third one is the High Plane. This Edhen World and Easica World would come under this section. Comparing to Mid Planes, these planes are two to three times larger in size and must have 5 to 10 Divine Beasts. Among those, there might be a Low-God Rank Divine Beast.'
'Then, there comes the Supreme Plane. Currently, there are 10 Supreme Planes known to us and each of them is countless times larger and stronger than High Planes. But the universe is still hasn't completely explored by us. There might be other Supreme Planes out there.' The Holem's Crown paused for a moment and continued to speak.
'These 10 Supreme Planes are Abyss Plane, Hell Plane, Dream World, Underworld, Elder Plane, Astral Plane, and four Primary Elemental Planes. If you want to explore these Worlds on your own, you must reach the realm of Demi-God. There are many Rank-8, Rank-9 and Rank-10 Experts staying there and are searching for a way to enter the realm of Sovereigns.'
'Realm of Sovereigns?' Charles was stunned by the Holem's Crown's words and asked in a surprise.
'Hmm? It's your main goal.' The Holem's Crown said mysteriously.
At that moment, a single word appeared in his mind.
'Omnipotence... The realm of Omnipotence! Has anyone reached that realm?' He asked in excitement.
