Songs in the Void

ICDS Universe, Earth, South Korea, Seoul.

After Tatsuo left the Dungeon, Kang Shin raided the Dark Ratman once more before he headed back to Earth, as well. Then, after taking a shower and getting ready to head to his university, he ran into his father, Kang Yungoong, in the living room of his house.

"Father." Shin said, greeting his father as he came down the stairs leading to the second floor.

"Oh, I guess you're going to school, huh?" Yungoong said, turning his attention from the news playing on the television. "So, how's your Dungeon climbing progress?"

"Still grinding the 15th Floor boss." Shin replied. "How about you?"

"I just reached the 14th Floor." Yungoong said, sounding proud of his achievement.

'He's really climbing fast ever since he Awakened.' Shin thought to himself.

Like Tatsuo, Shin's father, Yungoong, had also Awakened. And the ability he awakened was the power to manipulate shockwaves. On top of that, that awakened mana inside of him, allowing him to finally climb past the 5th Floor after being stuck there for over twenty years.

"So, Father, did you know there is a sixth Dungeon Explorer from Earth?" Shin asked as he approached the couch his father was sitting on.

"Yeah, I noticed it a while ago." Yungoong replied with a nod. "Why?"

"I think I met him." Shin replied. "I raided the Dark Ratman with him earlier today."

"Hmm… So, he's in the first Dungeon, too, huh?" Yungoong said with a contemplative expression on his face. Then, he looked up at his son with a somewhat excited expression on his face. "So, is he strong?"

Hearing that, Shin smiled awkwardly.

"I think so." Shin replied. "He beat me in terms of contribution in that raid."

Yungoong opened his eyes wide in surprise. He had spent a lot of time talking about their progress in the Dungeon with Shin. And in all those conversations, he had never heard Shin mention anything other than getting first place in the contribution rankings when he fought Floor Masters.

But Shin was not done surprising him with his words just yet.

"On top of that, he recognized me as soon as he saw me." Shin continued. "Even though I'm not the bulky, hulk of a guy I must have been when we met back then.'

"Oh? He recognized you?" Yungoong said in an interested tone.

"Yeah, he said we went to his dojo a few years ago and had a friendly spar there." Shin replied.

"Hmm… And what was his name?" Yungoong asked while stroking his chin.

"He said his full name was Soramoto Tatsuo." Shin said, answering his father's question.

"Ah! Yeah, I remember." Yungoong replied energetically. "The Soramoto dojo, it was located on the second highest floor of a high rise building in Tokyo. His father, Soramoto Jin was a master of Vale Tudo and double daggers. He was pretty strong. But not as strong as your father, though."

Hearing about the dojo located in a high rise building, Shin finally remembered the Soramoto dojo. However, he was still unable to recall his brief conversation with Tatsuo from back then.

"Anyway, the heir of that dojo should be about four years younger than you." Yungoong continued. "And if he was able to get a higher rank on the contribution list, he must be pretty good. He might even be able to make me break a sweat."

In response, Shin only rolled his eyes.

"He awakened a pretty good ability, too." Shin said.

"Oh, what is it?" Yungoong asked in an interested tone.

"Space manipulation." Shin replied. "he can teleport short distances. He's got a [Stealth] Skill, too."

With that, Tatsuo told Yungoong about the flow of events during the boss raid he did with Tatsuo.

"Anyway, I should get going." Shin said as he turned away from his father. "I don't wanna be late."

"Are you leaving already, Oppa?"

The sound of a sweet female voice made Shin stop in his tracks. Looking back at the top of the stairs, where the voice came from, he saw his younger sister, Kang Yua, a sixteen year old girl with long, straight black hair, a doll-like beautiful face and a figure that would make most models jealous. Though, she was fairly short, and although she was not flat chested, her breasts could not be called big by any stretch of the imagination.

"Yeah, I'll be on my way to school.' Shin replied with a bright, doting smile.

The, let's walk part of the way together, okay?" Yua asked with a sweet smile as she skipped down the stairs before stopping next to Shin and looking up at him with puppy-dog eyes.

"Sure." Shin replied with a big smile. "I'd never turn down walking with my beautiful Yua."

Hearing that, Yua smiled brightly, as well. Then, she wrapped her arms around Shin's left arm tightly as she turned and started dragging him towards the front door.

"Then, let's go." Yua said excitedly. "We don't wanna be late.'

*Crash!* *Splash!*

At that moment, the door leading to the kitchen opened. And through it walked a middle-aged, beautiful woman who shared quite a few facial features with the Kang Siblings. However, when she saw how intimately they were walking together, she dropped the watering can she was carrying, spilling the water inside all over the floor.

"Just what do the two of you think you're doing?" Shin's mother shouted in a panicked tone. {A/N: Shin's mother was unnamed for the whole ICDS novel. So, I'm going to leave her unnamed, too.} "You two are siblings! So, put a little more distance between you. And if you don't believe me, I can show you your birth certificates."

While Yua pouted at her mother's interference, she obediently let go of Shin's arm. Shin, on the other hand, looked at his mother with confusion all over his face while thinking: 'What's wrong with a brother and sister being intimate? It's just proof that we get along.'

ICDS Universe, Earth, Japan, Tokyo.

Meanwhile, Tatsuo, after taking a shower, was sitting in his bedroom while examining one of the mana stones he got from the flock of Giant Azure-Winged Magpie he fought at his high school. And he was trying to think of something he could do with them.

'I'm not registered with New Moon.' Tatsuo thought to himself. 'On top of that, I probably pissed off a lot of the people from Guardian and Freedom Wing by the way I acted… Especially Freedom Wing. So, I don't think I can sell these without them finding out a little bit about me. Which means, the real question is.. what should I do with them?'

As previously mentioned, new Moon is the organization who registers the Awakened, ranking their abilities from F to SS-rank as of now. Not only that, but they also buy monster bodies and mana stones for high prices. However, since Tatsuo had no intention of staying in this world for too long, he was not too concerned about getting registered or having his ability evaluated.

'Even so, I wanna know how I'm evaluated, though.' Tatsuo muttered internally. 'My pride won't let me be any lower rated than the main character of this world.'

Little did Tatsuo know, the pride he was feeling was thanks to his heritage as the offspring of a dragon. Still, the pride was his, and he wanted to satisfy it.

'Still, that doesn't change the fact that I have no idea what to do with all these mana stones I collected.' Tatsuo continued to think.

Like that, almost half an hour passed in silence. Then, as if he had an epiphany, Tatsuo's eyes lit up as he clenched his hand around the mana stone he was holding.

"Why didn't I think of this before?" Tatsuo said aloud in an excited tone. "I'll just take an idea from another book by the same author of this world. I'll try my hand at [Mana Crafting]."

In another book by the author of ICDS, the main character used the magic stones of defeated monsters to add additional effects, or options as they were called in that book, to items he created. And although he was not sure the same principles applied in this world, Tatsuo had enough magic stones to experiment a bit.

"And if [Mana Crafting] works, then I should have no issue doing the same in reverse, too, right?" Tatsuo said excitedly as a plan formed in his mind at high-speed.

In the next instant, Tatsuo pulled out the blacksmithing tools he bought from Loretta, as well as the bladed knuckle dusters he brought with him from his own world. Then, he started melting them down to reforge them.

An hour and a half later, he had reforged his old knuckle dusters. And they were of even better quality than they were before.

"Man, these tools Loretta-San sold me are amazing." Tatsuo muttered while staring at the portable furnace he used to reforge his bladed knuckle dusters. "Despite how high the temperature got in there, my room wasn't damaged in the slightest."

After that, he took the mana stone he had left next to the furnace so that it would synchronize with the items he was making, and ground it into powder before applying it to every surface of the two bladed knuckle dusters.

Next, he took another mana stone out of his [Inventory] and held it in his left hand while holding the two bladed knuckle dusters in his right. Then, while leading the mana from the mana stone in his left hand through his body and into the bladed knuckle dusters in his right, he used his will to direct in which way the knuckle dusters would improve.

'Sharper… Sharper… Sharper…' Tatsuo thought repeatedly with his eyes closed.

Meanwhile, as Tatsuo was guiding the direction of his weapons' growth, the mana stone in his left hand began to glow. And as time went by, the glow grew in intensity. At the same time, the mana stone was slowly disintegrating into dust.

Finally, by the time the glow died down, the mana stone in Tatsuo's hand was no more. On top of that, a [System Notification] rang from his smartphone while the description of the weapons in his hand popped up in his field of vision, as well.

{[Keen-Edged Knuckle Dusters – D]

-Reforged by an up and coming blacksmith and finished with his first attempt at Mana Crafting. The blades of these weapons are exceptionally sharp when considering the materials used in their creation.

Options

+10% Damage from slashing and stabbing attacks.}

"Hell yeah! It worked.!" Tatsuo shouted excitedly as he held the reforged bladed knuckle dusters.

Then, Tatsuo equipped them and began going through his weapon forms. And he could tell immediately that they cut through the air much easier than before.

After a few minutes of that, Tatsuo then remembered that he had received an alert on his smartphone. So, he put away the [Keen-Edged Knuckle Dusters] and picked up his smartphone to check the [Notification].

{[Notification]

You have learned the [Skill], [enchanting – D-].

[Skill], [Enchanting] has increased in rank from D- to D].}

Seeing those [Notifications], Tatsuo's excitement increased even further. And although he wanted to experiment even more with [Mana Crafting], which his system called [Enchanting], he knew he neither had the time nor materials for such an endeavor at the moment.

"*Sigh* Sumire-San will be here before too long." Tatsuo muttered to himself as he forcefully calmed himself down. "And if she were to see any of this, it would ruin the surprise when the Dungeon Explorer Communication Channel opens."

With that, Tatsuo started cleaning up the tools and materials he used. On top of that, he had to sweep up the completely inert mana stone dust left behind when the [Enchanting] process succeeded.

At the same time, in the higher dimension, the Void Empress was watching Tatsuo with a small smile on her face. However, she was not alone in her throne room. Standing next to the Void Empress' throne was a tall, extremely handsome man looking to be in his mid-twenties with black hair and golden eyes with slitted pupils like those of a dragon.

"It looks like your son has talents similar to my father, Your Majesty." The man said with a charming smile.

"I actually thought your father would be here to see this, Mir." The Void Empress said with a grin. "Or is he still salty that the draconic bloodline he worked so hard to get immediately made him subordinate to me once he broke the confines of your universe and reached this dimension."

"No, I think he got over that a few centuries ago, Your Majesty." The man, Yu Mir, said with a smile. "Today, he's actually celebrating his anniversary with Liera-Noona. And well… You know how that goes."

"Yes, I understand." The Void Empress replied in an exasperated tone. "That woman is possibly the most dragon-like person I've ever met. She's just so true to her desires."

In response, Mir let out a hollow chuckle.

"Anyway, please let your father know that when the time comes I would like him to become Tatsuo's master in crafting." The Void Empress continued. "Naturally, the reward will be worth his time."

"Of course." Mir said with a polite bow. "I'll make sure to pass on your words. And I'm sure my father will make time to fulfill your request. It's not like he has much to do these days, anyway."

With that, Mir politely bid the Void Empress goodbye before returning to his home universe, leaving the Void Empress to watch her son's growth for a while longer.