After walking for a few minutes, Dante found himself back under the tree. There, he saw Ruby's eyes moving like crazy, analyzing every point of the corridor, including the far ceiling.

"Before we start…" Ruby said as she noticed Dante: "Do you want everything as we discussed? No changes at all?"

"There is a small change." Dante admitted: "I want you to check the shadow formation inside the walls and see if we can modify and reuse it."

"Ho? That's a great idea!" Ruby turned around and winked: "But it won't be free, you know."

Dante rolled his eyes under the blindfold: "I know."

They quickly went to the end of the corridor, using the shadow wolf to help Ruby to go there faster.

Ruby borrowed the runic shadow formations book for a moment as she read a few pages. Suddenly, she opened her mouth and cast a spell.

To Dante's surprise, a lot of red vines emerged from her red fingernails and rushed into the wall, extending to reach every corner inside the walls.

"A small trick to examine the entire formation without breaking the walls." Ruby explained before Dante could answer, then she smiled and closed her eyes: "It might take a few hours, please be patient with me."

"I understand." With nothing to do, Dante opened the mana runic formations book and started reading it.

His eyes sparkled after he read a few pages. The book contained a lot of useful information that might help him in the future. He might need to create some traps or enchant a few things.

'And I have the Rank 3 swords and spears from the ancient ruins. I have to enchant them someday, especially for the day I'd get rid of that centipede.'

Dante was already considering a future without the Sin of Greed. He didn't want anything more than to kill him before the four-year period, but Greed was technically dead.

'Hmm? The book explains how to know if a specific material is capable of handling specific enchantments?'

Dante's eyes shone for a moment, that would truly help him. He couldn't just draw any runes on any surface. Just like what Storm of Shadows did with the boots, some materials couldn't handle specific runes.

After approximately an hour, Ruby started retrieving her vines carefully, ensuring that they wouldn't harm the formation.

Unlike Dante's Shadow Aspect and the pure energy spells, some aspects didn't need continuous support of mana for what they created to last.

The shadows were supposed to be simply some areas with low light, the Shadow Aspect was the concept of shadow itself, therefore maintaining a shadow needed continuous support of mana. If Dante mimicked Ruby's vines, he'd need only to cut the mana support to dismiss all the vines.

But if someone cast a stone arrow, that arrow would stay forever without a continuous support of mana. The same logic applied to Ruby's vines, therefore she had to go into the long process of retrieving the vines.

After another hour, all the vines were in front of Ruby, which she simply turned into dust by casting another spell that affected only the vines.

"I have good news!" Ruby jumped happily: "The formation was made by a Rank 2 mana ink and it will last for a few more years, it can be used again and we won't have to use a lot of mana ink. We only have to modify, cut, and add a few sections according to our needs."

"That's good, less money to spend." Dante grinned at how he wouldn't have to spend more money.

The mana ink was the material used to draw the lasting runes, which was used in creating the arrays and formations, and sometimes the enchantments.

Only the experienced alchemists could create the mana ink by using beasts' blood. It was a long process and carried some dangers, which caused the prices of even the lowest rank of mana ink to be expensive.

"But I'll need your help to do that." Ruby added: "I don't have the Shadow Aspect to make the required modifications, only you can do that. And we have to discuss the changes we have to make as well."

Dante hesitated: "But I barely know anything about arrays and formations—"

"Who cares!" Ruby cut him off: "You only have to follow my instructions and everything will be okay. It's only some Rank 1 arrays, nothing complex."

The mana ink, as suggested by its name, was mainly used to make only mana formations and arrays. In order to give it the power of a specific aspect—like the Shadow Aspect—one of the methods used was infusing the ink with spiritual energy.

"Fine, but don't blame me if I ruin anything. Or you know what, you'll have to pay for anything that I ruin!"

"What?!"

Dante accepted eventually and they started discussing the modifications they needed to do.

The defensive formation covered the entire place in shadows, working as a barrier that allowed only the people with shadow souls or spirits to enter. After the entrance, the remaining effect was only blindness.

It was useless as a true defensive formation, as it blocked only the entrance, and it couldn't be controlled, which didn't satisfy Dante and Ruby.

After some time of discussion, they settled on a few configurations.

"First, the formation has to allow only you to pass through the entrance and let you see inside. To do that, we have to add your mana signature to the formation." Ruby explained seriously.

According to Ruby and the formations book, every person had a unique mana signature that was made from their Core of Existence. If they made the formation recognize Dante's mana signature using a Rank 1 array, he'd be able to become the true owner of the formation.

"We can also use this to make you control it." Ruby rubbed her chin: "Maybe we can add a controlling array that reacts to your mana signature, allowing you to activate and disable the formation at will and even let specific people pass. We might need some observation arrays to let you do this."

Ruby's suggestion would require decreasing the duration of the formation. When Storm of Shadows made the formation, his goal was keeping it active as long as possible. But Dante wasn't planning to keep the formation active for years.

If they decided not to reduce the duration of each activation, Dante would be wasting a lot of energy with every activation.

Dante frowned: "After that, how will I activate the entire formation? Will I have to use my mana every single time?"

Dante's mana pool was truly big, but that didn't mean he was willing to use it every single time.

If he wanted to activate the formation to heal from a fight, he wouldn't have enough mana to activate it.

"It's simple." Ruby crossed her arms: "We'll make a small section to add mana crystals for emergencies. This will allow you to directly use mana crystals in activating the formation."

Dante nodded as they continued discussing a few other things.

The treasure room would be where they'd place the activation marks and a place to store mana crystals.

As for the formation itself, it'd create a solid shadow layer to cover the edges of the entire treehouse upon activation. If someone happened and passed through the solid shadow layer, the inside of the treehouse would face them with blindness shadows.

Of course, if someone was truly able to pass through the solid shadow layer, that would mean they were strong enough to defeat Dante and the blindness might not work. Thus, Dante and Ruby decided to create an array for emergency escape.

They also decided to add some arrays that would allow Dante to see everything inside the treehouse whenever he activated the formation. That would allow him to use another group of arrays, which would allow him to leave some people unaffected by the formation.

"Okay, let's start with the treasure room!" Ruby rushed to the treasure room and opened it. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she saw the items inside.

"Are those…" Ruby narrowed her eyes.

"Yes, a few things that I prepared for you." Dante nodded: "You said you'll buy anything that I don't want, right?"

Ruby nodded excitedly as she examined the items. There were a lot of weapons—which Dante got from Beatrice and some bandits—some old clothes, some random herbs, and many other random stuff.

Dante had retrieved them from his ring before her arrival. He also wanted to sell beast corpses, but he couldn't just put them here and wait for them to rot.

After finishing all this, he'd lead her to a "secret" location and retrieve all the corpses without her noticing.

"Anyway, let's ignore them for now." Ruby opened one of her toolboxes, grabbing a brush and a bottle that contained blue mana ink.

Ruby examined the room for a moment before finding a perfect spot: "Stand beside me, this spot is the best. I'll link the runes to the formation from the inside after you finish it."

"Wait…" Dante's eyes widened: "You won't go away?"

Ruby sighed: "We have no other choice, right? I have to observe you while drawing every line. But you don't have to worry, I'm sure a few hours won't be a problem."

Dante hesitated, remembering how a few seconds were enough to cause the death of two children. But he eventually accepted.

'I can't even try to do that quickly, any mistake would make us stay close for more time.'

Dante quickly stood before her and grabbed the brush. As Ruby opened the bottle for him, he couldn't help but observe his misfortune.

As expected, the tendrils began to move toward her Wheel of Luck, just like the last time.

But as Dante was about to dip the brush into the bottle, he noticed something that shocked his entire being.

"Why did you freeze suddenly? Is something wrong?" Noticing his strange behaviour, Ruby re-examined the ink bottle, thinking that it was the problem.

But no.

Dante was focusing solely on the tendrils.

'How is this possible?'

Unlike his expectations, the tendrils didn't pour misfortune into her Wheel of Luck.

No.

It just "tried" to reach it, but apparently, there was a hidden barrier stopping them.

"Ruby." Dante called, already hearing the fucking centipede laughing.

"Hmm?" Ruby tilted her head.

Dante took a deep breath, then another breath.

"I… I think you're immune to my misfortune."

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