Return of the last survivor

Returning to his room, he called on Foveros and Mecha, while Phillip was already present throughout the base, but had also sent his main body over to this room.

What Merlin found intriguing was the fact that Phillip was unique. Unlike Cortana, who only existed as data and runes, held together with some unknown force, Phillip also has an additional 'Core' as Merlin called it, which consisted of an unimaginable number of mana crystals, not mana stones, interlaces with innumerable and uncountable runes.

Phillip could exist both as data, or in his core, while Cortana existed only in the form of data and runes.

Soon enough, Foveros, clad in the black gooey armour known as Mecha entered the room.

This was Merlin's private laboratory in the basement of his first base, the Colossus.

"Alright. I am going to be going to another plane. However, I do not know how dangerous it is, so all of you, except Mecha, and Cortana will remain in this plane. This way, I will be able to maintain contact with this side."

"But-" before Foveros could grow any more jealous of Mecha, Merlin coldly.

"This is an order." The effects of Unique Skill: Control immediately trying to fight off the effects of Master Skill Envy within Foveros, making his willpower have the ability to contradict the rest of the master skill's power.

"Phillip, maintain contact with Cortana at all times and keep extracting as soon as you can. Also maintain contact with Foveros. In the case I am in trouble, he may be the only one with the ability to come to save me."

"Yes Master Merlin!"

"Also, Cortana, enter into Mecha's systems and wait there. Mecha, become my armour for now."

"YES!" said Mecha gleefully as it leapt towards Merlin's body and wrapped around it.

However, Merlin heard something he didn't expect. Mecha's voice had become slightly female.

But he simply decided to ignore it. The gender of his armour didn't matter much, and all he did was shoo away Foveros and Phillip as he closed the doors behind them with mana.

Next, Merlin sat in the centre, closing his eyes.

The first step to travelling to another plane without spending an incredible amount of higher mana crystals, only found in Intermediate planes and above, was to use a method known as fishing.

To do this, one had to first clear their mind of all thoughts. This was a simple process for Merlin to do, by simple meditating on his elemental law set.

Next, he had to extend his mana out of his body, before using it to penetrate and pull out an extremely tiny part of Merlin's soul. This was different from the extraction of Phillip, in the form that this part of his soul was incredibly small, and did not contain any possibility of life.

Comparing this to Phillip's extraction was life comparing a shattered shard of glass, to a red-hot ember, like comparing something that cannot change, and simply exist, to something that can grow into another lifeform.

This piece of his soul was only small enough for him to locate it, but not enough for him to affect it.

With this piece of soul outside him body, Merlin put his full focus on the mana around it, causing it to collapse in on itself, forming a temporary break in the space-time of Earth's plane, lasting one-billionth of an instant, just enough for the soul fragment to enter the void between planes, also known as the planer void.

Now, Merlin was done.

This is the most basic form of fishing, which could even be performed by those at Tier 2, and currently the only thing Merlin could do.

Now all he had to do was wait for this soul fragment to come across a plane and attach itself to it. This was a game of luck and chance. If his soul fragment came across anything above Lesser planes, it would be completely obliterated. Yet such planes had the strongest force of attraction towards things in the planer void, while having the strongest defences against anything in the planer void as well.

It would be extremely hard to find a lesser plane or planer fragment, and according to some of the books, people had spent their entire lives trying to find a single plane.

If Merlin was going to depend on luck, he would rather increase his odds a hundred fold.

The process of drilling out a fragment of soul was both painful as draining on mana. However, Merlin had learned that his soul stat allowed his soul to re-generate over the course of a few hours.

He soon began a repetitive process of fishing, and then meditating the elemental law set while reading through his archive library, only to return to fishing once his soul and mana recovered.