Most dragons had naturally higher emerald affinity. It functioned as the third highest or even the second highest for nearly 40% of the students. And so at this time of day, the emerald dungeon was pretty crowded.

  Several study groups of students of all years were gathered around, they planned, they gossiped, and they farmed. Because eating cores was a good way to get some SE… Not good enough for me or Ivaldie – the practice was highly addictive and lost its efficiency quickly. I saved that method for a darker day, or a day when I learned a proper technique for eating them.

  That day would probably come sooner than I expected.

  I’ve long since gotten used to the dangerous glances directed at the little old me. Nobody challenged me to a duel since Mitzi, something about ‘not giving the human more food to grow.’

  I didn’t care. The boss would respawn in two hours, and from there it would be a wild chase to defeat it first. The second-floor boss would appear an hour after that. I was grateful that the higher years didn’t bother with the first and second floors. I had to farm a lot of cores.

  Siege’s Pass summoned the portal to the dungeon. It drew sharp gazes to me; most people had one-time passes that were organized for study groups.

  I gave the dragons a grin that missed a tooth and flared my aura, including the fear aura. “The first floor is mine. Any objections?” Scouter revealed no one worthy among them. Not in standing emissions nor in bravery.

  “No…”

  “Have it your way.”

  “Damn human.”

  The first years have already gotten to shuffling. Compared to Steel, I looked like I was going trick-or-treating, and yet they listened.

  “That’s what I thought.” I took a deep breath and jumped in.

  The massive forest opened before me. With its towering trees, glowing grass, and occasional spike-like ferns. It had a heartbeat, one I could now faintly see. The starpower beneath the ground was pulsing, it gathered towards the bone mountain to manifest a new flesh sire.

  Before that, I had a lot of time to hunt the wildlife. The detection form revealed all the movement within the forest. Weacks prowled across the tree-trunks, predatory birds swooped down and ate the wriggling insects – the common geists inhabiting this place.

  I needed to get closer to the Bone Mountain to disassemble some valuable geists. With a force dash, I propelled myself through the forest. The grass crunched beneath my feet.

  The whistling of birds and the monotone fluttering of leaves no longer sounded so hostile, but they should have. I detected weacks falling from the leafy ceiling right into my trajectory.

  A careful application of force form stopped my momentum. The disfigured monkey geist landed with a bang, and then ten more dropped down all across the place. “We-ack, we-ack, we-ack, me-at!” They chanted the disturbing melody, circled around me, but those eyeless heads no longer elicited fear.

  “Boooring.”

  I flared my starpower fully. The geists gurgled in shock and reeled back. Their chanting stopped.

  Starpower rushed into my legs, compressed with the movement of my muscles , and the focus I was sending it. The energy reached the force forms in my feet, the intention behind the form zeroed in on the geists and exploded.

  With a boom, the geists were pinned to the ground. All 11 of them. They screeched, spat, and gurgled, struggling against the invisible force, but my control was too precise for them. I was beyond their level.

  “Listen up, servant.” I addressed the silent entity residing in my head. “This is what you get your power from.” I approached one of the struggling weacks. “The potential within these wretched things.”

  The monkey-parody gnashed its disgusting teeth and spat sludge all over the grass.

  “Usually, it’s enough to crush them into paste to cause the transition of potential into a core, but there is a better way. The physical body has potential, too, and it can be disassembled.”

  The little guy was only 10 SE, at least 1/8th of an adept trait. I pressed my hand on its back; its little arms couldn’t resist the weight, much less cause me any damage.

  “Now look closely. You can use forms, so I want you to really memorize this one. It’s pretty similar to the way you absorb traits.” I surged my starpower into the geist, it screamed even louder, as if it was painful, as if it could feel pain.

  I shivered and disregarded that thought. My energy intersected with its essence – all that a geist was, is a naturally occurring and assembling starpower construct. A really stable one. The way it was formed sent disgust down my spine; its sheer existence felt wrong even to my own starpower.

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  Following the rhythm of a nursery rhyme, I clenched my hand, ordering my starpower. Break it down. The barriers between the material and spiritual were soft within its body.

  The surge of my energy collapsed them – turned the possibility of existence into a distant dream. Geists were stable, but only to a point.

  The weack burst into light, its desperate cries became nothing more than an idea. Instead of this mockery of life, there was now a precious resource lying on the ground. Actualized potential of 19 SE. It was a possible solution to possession...

  “Did you memorize it? Hopefully you did, cause that’s what I’m doing to the rest of-” Something struck against my back – a weack did. The arm clanked against my barrier to no effect.

  It was an orange weack. A rare variant. Scouter told me it had the ability to suppress detection. “Thank you for coming to me.” I grinned. The monster screamed.

  It hit the floor with the same smack as all the others. “Trait, hello, I’m trying to put you to work here!”

  “These cores… pathetic.” The voice scoffed.

  “It makes sense you prefer traits, but you have to know how to use the form. It’ll help you learn how to absorb traits better.” I put my hand at the top of the orange weack, it started cackling.

  “You must learn, servant. Knowledge is power.”

  “Just for you~”

  It didn’t take that long to do it.

  Loot acquired!

  - Actualized Potential 25 SE x1

  - Actualized Potential 22 SE x2

  - Actualized Potential 19 SE x7

  - Actualized Potential 18 SE x1

  “I understand, master. Keep talking~”

  “Finally, someone said that to me! All these cores, and the merge won’t even give us an adept rank one. Do you understand how much it took me to make all those traits for you? And you just gulped them!”

  I jogged through the forest with ridiculous speed, occasionally catching particularly strong weacks.

  “Mhm… I want more.”

  “I want more too! Get in line, servant.” I chuckled. I missed having a conversation partner… and I missed talking to Kory.

  “You don’t need her, you have me~”

  “Yes, I fucking need to save her, I made a promise… Wait, do you hear that?”

  The voice remained silent. I accelerated my mind and focused on the noises. There was something different – a rhythmic snapping, like that of a whip, but louder.

  “I didn’t know there were monsters like that here,” I whispered. The detection form spread a field of perception outwards. I tried to keep my starpower to the lowest possible flare.

  I sneaked towards the direction of the sound. Only now did I notice that there were no geists here, none at all. No three-eyed birds and not even a little bug. Was there a secret boss on this floor?

  With each step, the cracking grew louder until finally the perception field intersected with a familiar signature. The orderly shape, which I never could give a proper name to. The aura was suppressed and kept to the lowest possible level.

  It was a secret boss – a true dragon. “Ivaldie!” I shouted and dashed forward.

  Amidst the falling leaves stood the young dragon. Her VITA, a white and orderly armor, in her hands, she held a metal sword. Her eyes were closed. Ivaldie’s hand twitched, and a loud crack resounded – she slashed with the sword, cutting the leaf perfectly in half.

  “Ivaldie,” I said again. “Why the hell are you training in this dungeon?” She ignored my words.

  I scouted her. She reached 71 SE… Her training regimen was the same. Scouter told me she was under 10 times gravity amplification. She swung her sword with no starpower used at all.

  “Really? Is it that fun to ignore me? You refuse my spars, barely speak to me, and now you won’t even look at me.” I clicked my tongue. “Afraid of losing again?” My smirk brought no reaction.

  Her sword crackled through the air again, and she cut another leaf. It looked cool.

  I sighed. Starpower coursed through my hand, and I condensed it into a force form. Then I shoved Ivaldie.

  The girl yelped and slipped. With cartoonish speed and a loud thunk, she crashed into the ground. Her eyes opened wide.

  “Hello again. Nice to meet you.” I rolled my eyes.

  “Magnus? What are you doing here?” The gravity amplification disappeared. She didn’t even bat an eye at me pushing her. With an elegant jump, she stood up.

  “I’m farming cores.”

  “Farming? Cores do not grow on trees.”

  “You know what I’m talking about, I used the term at least… Wait.” The corners of her lips were slightly lifted. “You’re messing with me? I guess it’s better than ignoring.”

  Ivaldie shook her head. “I was meditating.”

  “Yes, I know you’re very Zen and all.” With each word, I took a step towards her. I was not going to let the matter go, not when there was an opportunity.

  “Why do you refuse my spars? I thought you called us friends.”

  Her fists clenched. “I-i… It’s complicated.”

  “Are you scared?”

  “No!”

  She answered far too fast. “She is not scared,” said the voice.

  “So what’s the deal then? We’re on the same side here; you don’t have to hide things from me.”

  The silence stretched on. Leaves fell to the ground, and Ivaldie’s gaze remained distant. “You look different.”

  She was not going to talk. I was. Because I wasn’t a coward. “You’re talking about my VITA? I finally made my dream trait. In the long run, it will make me much stronger than you.” I grinned, ignoring the happy giggles of that same trait in the back of my mind.

  A tiny smile appeared on her face. “Really?”

  “By the end of our education, I’ll be light-years ahead.” I grinned too. Ivaldie was not taking me seriously.

  “Good. That’s good.” She thrust the sword into the ground. “You aren’t ‘farming’ cores to absorb them.” Her certainty was astonishing, but since she could discern lies from truth… “Who are you making a trait for?”

  “It’s scary how fast you figured it out.” I didn’t feel fear; I was amused. “For Steel – I want to make a growth acceleration growth trait.”

  Her sharp eyebrows lifted slightly. “Interesting. I haven’t encountered that term.”

  “It’s because I made it up.” I conjured a chair beneath me and plopped down. “I want it to be at least mid-baron, and that needs me to kill the first and the second floor boss… Today.”

  Ivaldie nodded. “Good luck.”

  “Do you want to team up?”

  She opened her mouth. No words came out. In the field of leaf halves, she thought. For someone whose mind was constantly accelerated, she sure needed a lot of time.

  “What do you say? Team up? It’s going to be fun, I promise.”

  Her aura flared. Behind her eyes, I saw a spark of something. “It will be fun.” She grabbed the sword and infused starpower into the handle. The artifact folded into itself and turned into a tiny band.

  “That means yes?”

  She turned in the direction of the starpower flow. “Keep up, Magnus.” Lighting flashed through her legs. She disappeared.

  “I sure as hell will.” Force dash propelled me fast; holding back was not an option when it came to her. “We will keep up~” Sang the voice cheerfully. It sounded higher-pitched than usual.

  I ran after the true dragon.