Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
During those two weeks, Arthur's daily life had been exceptionally peaceful.
Teach Hogwarts students during the day.
Play games with Hermione, Ranni, and Melina afterward.
Or occasionally head to the Black Lake for some fishing.
Truthfully, Arthur hadn't even visited the Lands Between in quite a while.
It wasn't because he didn't want to go.
Rather…
Something unusual was happening to his body.
Fortunately, it wasn't a bad development.
Quite the opposite.
Ever since using Golden Absorption on Thanatos' corpse, Arthur had vaguely sensed that his body was undergoing a profound transformation.
As the process deepened, most of the powers within his body gradually fell into dormancy.
And while dormant—
Those powers were slowly beginning to merge together.
This shocked even Arthur himself.
After all, the powers he possessed were largely unique and fundamentally unrelated.
Time.
Death.
Scarlet Rot.
And countless others.
These weren't merely incompatible—
They practically had nothing to do with one another at all.
Yet somehow, under this strange transformation, they were fusing together naturally.
At the same time, Arthur's physical body was strengthening at a terrifying rate.
His already overwhelming Empyrean physique was advancing rapidly toward the next stage of existence.
Above an Empyrean…
Naturally came a true god.
Yes.
Even though Arthur and Ranni had already succeeded in killing a deity together—
Arthur himself still technically remained at the Empyrean level.
A divine body was fundamentally different from an Empyrean body.
It possessed true immortality.
Just like Thanatos.
Even after losing his soul imprint—
Even after losing his soul entirely—
His divine body still refused to decay.
Given enough time, it could even generate a brand-new soul imprint and give birth to another god entirely.
And now—
Arthur's body was evolving in exactly that direction.
That was why he believed this transformation to be entirely beneficial.
Eventually, all the powers inside his body—including his magic itself—entered a sleeping state.
If Arthur hadn't still been able to sense their existence, he might genuinely have believed all his power had been converted directly into physical enhancement.
Thankfully, he still possessed the Infinite Origin Stone Necklace.
Otherwise, he probably wouldn't even have been able to cast spells while teaching Hogwarts students.
The dormancy of his internal powers was also the main reason Arthur stopped returning to the Lands Between.
After all—
His journey there had essentially reached its final stage.
The only thing left was entering the Erdtree itself.
And once inside…
He would inevitably fight the Elden Beast.
The problem was obvious.
Arthur currently wasn't at full strength.
Entering the final battle in this weakened state would just be asking to get beaten senseless.
So for the time being, he decided to postpone it.
And honestly?
This timing worked out perfectly.
It gave him an excuse to spend more time with Hermione and Ranni.
Arthur firmly believed he wasn't the type of scumbag who disappeared immediately after winning someone's heart.
At the moment, his relationships with the two girls were basically in the honeymoon phase.
Naturally, he wanted to stay by their side more often.
Of course…
Part of this also had to do with the fact that his rapidly evolving body left him overflowing with energy every single day.
Although somewhat exhausting, both girls were extremely satisfied with Arthur's company.
As for Melina—
This little block of wood had gradually begun changing as well.
Perhaps because she was interacting with more people now, her expressions had started becoming noticeably richer.
Even the way she expressed emotions felt far more natural than before.
Arthur was extremely pleased by this progress.
Bringing her to Hogwarts had clearly been the right decision.
Since he couldn't currently visit the Lands Between and challenge the Elden Beast to real-life Mortal Kombat…
Arthur naturally shifted his focus toward gaming instead.
And honestly—
The System-modified version of RAFT was ridiculously addictive.
Arthur and the three girls had already spent over half a month playing it together.
Yet even now, they had only just managed to locate the very first major story island using a handmade radar.
At times, Arthur genuinely suspected the System had perfectly recreated what Earth would look like if every glacier completely melted.
The ocean was simply too vast.
Too endless.
And before their technology advanced sufficiently, they possessed nothing more than a tiny raft drifting helplessly across the sea.
Not to mention the sudden attacks from giant sharks and other marine creatures.
Arthur and the girls repeatedly found themselves amazed by how realistic the survival gameplay felt.
Fortunately, Arthur's team progressed steadily.
Hermione, Ranni, and Melina were all intelligent girls.
Combined with Arthur himself—a highly experienced gamer—their survival journey advanced smoothly and efficiently.
Meanwhile…
Harry and Ron's side was suffering miserably.
Not only did they only have two players—
Ron himself was the type of "genius" who needed significant time just to figure out how to play Plants vs. Zombies properly.
After half a month, the two of them had already died over a hundred times in-game.
Starvation.
Dehydration.
Getting bitten by sharks.
Getting mauled by wild boars.
At this point, they had practically discovered every possible method of death available.
And honestly?
If they didn't still need to attend classes and complete homework in real life, their combined death count would probably already exceed a thousand.
Through this experience, Harry once again deeply understood the true horror of what Arthur called a "pig teammate."
Eventually, Harry finally couldn't endure it anymore and sent Draco a request for help.
Technically, Fred and George also possessed iPads.
However—
The twins openly declared that they had no interest in gaming alongside their hopelessly terrible younger brother.
Partly because they were busy preparing for their seventh-year N.E.W.T. examinations.
Their schedules rarely lined up with Harry and Ron's anyway.
But more importantly—
Fred and George unanimously believed that Harry and Ron joining their game would only lower efficiency while increasing overall difficulty.
Although the twins constantly bickered with one another, their teamwork was honestly absurd.
Half the time, George only needed to say the first half of a sentence before Fred automatically finished the second half.
Thanks to their synchronization, the two of them managed to achieve nearly the same efficiency as a four-player team.
Their game progress was rapidly approaching Arthur's group.
So naturally—
They rejected Harry and Ron's invitation without hesitation.
Oh, and one more thing—
Many of the technological devices inside RAFT gave Fred and George tremendous inspiration.
The twins had already started attempting to recreate certain concepts as magical alchemical products.
It seemed extremely likely that once Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes officially opened next year…
The shop would contain many brand-new and extremely interesting inventions.
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