When I finally finished my delicate work, I found that I was ravenous. “You’ve been in there for around a week,” Merownis told me, while proffering a paper bag within which I was surprised to find cold, but clearly recently cooked, meat. The temperature didn’t matter, though I did wonder if I could do something about it with mana. I was thoroughly spent in that regard, and I dove face first into the meal. The fact it was something which had been cooked was enough, and I practically inhaled the contents of the bag.

  Patting my stomach and thanking the Sundercat for being thoughtful, I was surprised when he chuckled. “It was the fairy’s idea actually,” he confessed, which in turn made Naea squawk and turn invisible. With interest, I followed her movements in the air. My eyes focused for the first time since breaking out of the poisonous cage. Naea darted from one side of me to the other, frustrated that I could follow her so well.

  My experience with the poison had been a lot like a sensory deprivation tank, if you filled one with boiling acid. It wasn’t something I would do again in a hurry but there were some silver linings. Mana Savant may have died, but in its place Mana Manipulation had been nearly as impressive. For one, I could now sense mana in the air much more clearly.

  “Thank you,” I said to the open air. “Both of you. I don’t know what happened while I was stuck in there, but I can feel it on the air. In the Spirit of the dungeon itself. You’ve been working hard.” With one of them furred and the other invisible, it was hard to tell if they blushed, but that was my intent. It was true. There was a peaceful, hopeful energy in the air. I had no doubt it was down to their efforts, even if they hadn’t told me. The food alone was proof of a startling amount of progress.

  “Are you better now?” Naea asked, her physical form reappearing with worry still etched into her features. I took a deep breath, revelling in the relative comfort of my body. For the first time in what felt like a very long time, the action was painless and free.

  “Mostly,” I lied, “the main damage is fixed.” The second part was the truth. I had fixed the worst issues with my mana channels to a point. However, the repair job had required looping in and combining the new mana channel I was forced to create. I had stopped the damage from getting worse but all I could do now was take some time to let the bulk of the damage heal.

  Heal.

  The thought created a spike in my throat. I tried to swallow it down along with the truth that I had survived, but I only succeeded in scraping my windpipe raw with the emotions that bubbled within me. Anger and relief were easy enough to deal with, but I grieved. Enduring the trials of Reysault’s poison was not without cost. My eyes began to burn and I turned away from my friends. I didn’t want them to see me cry. I didn’t want anyone to see the true cost of the torture.

  As the reality of my survival became tangible, I clenched my fists. My mana was still on hiatus, but it had been long enough for my muscles to wake up entirely. “I’ll be back. Sorry.” I couldn’t find more words to say, so I didn’t. With that simple apology, I set off. After a few light hops against the sand so I didn’t spray the others, and I exploded into motion. I aimed myself towards the deep desert because I didn’t have any plans to stop. The shadows I tried to escape right now were stubborn, clinging to me like oil. I wanted to run until they dispersed.

  So I did. The dune and sand before me were pushed aside like water under my incredible strength and I lost myself in the physicality of it. I eschewed the feeling of mana and gave into the muscles, sweat pouring off me in buckets before long. The heat and motion became a haze, the pounding of my feet against the sand and the shockwave of my impact as I launched forward. It became a metronome.

  I saw no monsters, but that was no surprise. There should be nearly nothing in the desert which could challenge me now, and even less which actually would. If the annexation of the forest zone was anything to go by, things in the desert could be peaceful. The desert itself greeted me like a friend. I suppose I was now, having claimed it from Reysault. My quest had even updated, now that I finally decided to check.

  Dungeon Quest - Aspiring Claims

  Due to the special nature of the Solo Dungeon, you are its Keystone. Until the first of the three Aspirants are defeated, entry to the dungeon from outside is locked. Only when all three Aspirants are defeated will the Keystone be free to leave, returning the Solo Dungeon to its initial state.

  Claimants defeated: 2 of 3

  It was time to open my System windows. I hadn’t wanted to look while I had been so close to death. I had been scared to check in case the knowledge had made me waver. It had been long enough now that I trusted myself not to slip the mortal coil by surprise, though, so I bit the bullet. I didn’t care where I stopped my desperate sprint, so I simply dropped to the sand without looking around and opened the window. I was pleased to see the expected results.

  I had been freshly level twenty six before the fight with the queen and her scorpion army. Creating the cuirass which Merownis still wore had been the last surge of experience before then. It wasn’t surprising that defeating the claimant had been enough to grant me another level. In fact, it was more like a level and a half, which was all the more impressive for how the requirements scaled. Considering Reysault had been a full Grade One monster, with the additional strength of a boss variant, it made sense.

  The level up message had been lost in the jumble somewhere, but I had felt it even before escaping my imprisonment. Fifteen free attribute points, four in Command and Regeneration, three in Strength and Recovery, two for Agility and Power and a final point in Resilience. At level one, I received five attribute points. For level twenty seven, I had gained thirty four. Considering how close things had felt, I was confident that the attributes gained from levelling up had saved my life. My journey to this point had allowed me to continue walking the path I found at my feet.

  With that in mind, there was still only one direction for my attributes right now if I wanted to complete my chosen level thirty array. It hadn’t been confirmed, but I expected level thirty was the threshold to reach Grade One for any creature, be it a monster or myself. It would either be hard or impossible to get more levels at that point. To that end, I placed my free points into Perception and gained another Specialist achievement.

  Achievement Unlocked - Specialist (Perception)

  Effect: +1 Perception per level, +1 free attribute points per level

  Dexterity aside, my other attributes would reach the threshold for the achievement simply by levelling up. Recovery and Resilience at twenty nine, then Agility and Strength at thirty. Taking a look at the numbers one more time, I felt like I had missed something earlier. I would receive one more point next level…

  “Ahh!” I shouted, clearing my mind of distractions with a yell. The Meditation skill had been lost in the fallout of my struggles, forming the foundation for Mind Palace, but I remembered how it felt. Forcing myself to find some level of calm, I stayed sitting in the sand. I once more lost track of time. I did not delve into my inner world, nor did I allow myself to think about anything. With my mind descending into oblivion, I finally relaxed.

  When I finally opened my eyes once more, the sun had set. It hadn’t been early morning when I started running but still… I must have been going for over a dozen hours. My body felt it, but in a good way. The Recovery attribute was already working hard to return me to top shape. I flopped from my seated position and lay back in the sand and beheld the world around me. Despite all my abilities and Perception attributes, I had been blind to everything for a while there.

  I looked up at the stars, feeling a connection to them which I had never sensed before. After using their likeness to form the basis for my skill repairs, there was a kind of kinship there now. Even knowing that I was trapped in a dungeon, and that the sky above me was not the one I was used to, I enjoyed the moment. Within my inner world, the cosmos hummed calmly. Though there were fewer stars there now than before, those that remained burned brighter and larger. Perhaps it was specifically because I was trapped that I felt the gnawing emotion so keenly. My deepest wish was to destroy the dungeon which had branded itself into my soul and psyche. Figuring out what came next could wait until I truly survived.

  That was the core of it all. I wouldn’t let this dungeon, the monsters within it or the System outside be the end of me. I simply wouldn’t. It might be hubris, the thought might only have been created by the draconic aspect melded to my soul but I would survive this. Looking up at the stars blanketing the sky, I knew my place was amongst them. My new skills would help. As my final task before hopefully moving past this ordeal, I pulled up my updated skill page.

  Starting with the simplest recovery I managed to pull off, in a constellation along with Mind Palace, Mana Barrier and Catalyst was a skill I had wanted for a little while. The innards of both Manasight and Mana Bolt were used alongside some lessons from Mana Manipulation to create a skill I was very excited for. Merownis had described being able to feel magic in the air, and it was with envy and pride that I created the relatively simple skill.

  King’s Training had been damaged like the rest of my skills, but like all of the epic or stronger skills, it was made of sturdier stuff than the lesser rarities. I had tried to add more complexity to the skill but found it impossible. It rejected any change, instead taking some of the energy from other skills to repair itself completely. The ability was a prideful one and I understood that quite well.

  So instead, I guided whatever was left over from the pillaged Heavy Blow and Serious Swing towards a usable form. Using some of the knowledge from the epic King’s Training skill, I fused the foundations whilst infusing the process with Spirit. I encouraged the skill to draw upon the varying ideas of heaviness I had experienced. Not just the physical, but magical and emotional too.

  The Jingu Bang’s weight changing properties. The pressure from my own goals along with the challenges of the dungeon. Teachings from King’s Training and more. The way it felt to be hit by powerful enemies. The final collision with Reysault which had shaken the dungeon. The squeezing force of expectations since a young age. Leaning heavily on those thoughts, trying to recreate in part the shape of Mana Manipulation, I created Weight Manipulation.

  Or that was the plan, anyway.

  Skill - Perfected Strike (Rare)

  Be it a counter, a guard break or a devastating finishing blow, the best fighters do not limit themselves to a single action. The perfect strike differs from moment to moment.

  Sitting together in the sky of my inner world King’s Training, Battle Bond and my other new skill, Perfected Strike was a surprisingly simple straight upgrade down the Heavy Blow, Serious Swing pipeline. For Perfected Strike, I no longer had to sweep the attack to use the skill. I could jab, swing, whip or otherwise attack the enemy and the ability could still activate. It hadn’t felt like much of a limitation before, but I could feel the potential inside me even now.

  Skill - Infusion (Rare)

  An action without intent is no more than an accident. An action without mana will never change the world. May your footfalls carry you to your purpose with power and resolve.

  In a similar way, Infusion was not much different to Haste. The movement skill was important to me, and during its creation I had been almost entirely focused on regaining the same general ability. I would need to use it to truly know, but the idea was only to make it more wide reaching. Instead of increasing only my speed, Infusion could improve any of my attributes, at the cost of mana. Infusion was the combination of Haste, Stealth, Tracking and any other dregs I could gather, but I had turned it into a gem.

  None of this would have been possible without the skills I had at my disposal initially. It was a hard truth to accept but I had been incredibly lucky. Without Mana Shield to turn into Mana Barrier, I might have still been trapped. Without Mana Manipulation, or its precursor at least, I wouldn’t have had the chance to alter the skill. Heck, without getting Catalyst when I did, that situation couldn’t have occurred at all. Though, that last one I didn’t count because I could just as easily have received something which made me resistant to the poison instead.

  Killing two birds with one stone by fixing my skills had been a net positive in the end, but it wasn’t something I would wish on my worst enemy. I refused to continue dwelling on the damage now that I was healing, though. With a final, long breath, I smiled at the stars and stood up. I jumped atop the nearest dune and nearly choked up a lung when I saw the nearest landmark.

  I really must have circled the whole dungeon. The fact I had missed this giant black and gold eyesore was a marvel, but I had been a little lost in my own world. I shook my head and started walking slowly over to the still massive form of the Jingu Bang which was lying in wait for me. It was still resting atop the body of the Scorpion Queen, which reminded me…

  Loot!