Space twisted. Sensations disappeared. I spent some time in this vague non-existence. Then reality returned with a splash of mist.

  My feet found themselves on crooked ground covered with thick brown roots. Everything was covered in roots. Moisture clung to my VITA, and I squirmed. After a deep breath, I shone light from my forehead and broke through the mist.

  Roots entwined together into immense coiling ridges, which surrounded me. It was like a network of some kind, veins that sustained this floor. The noises were even worse – something cricketed constantly, and I couldn’t find the source; it was just an all-encompassing noise.

  Sometimes I heard loud exhales, sometimes tuts resounded through the misty dungeon. It felt overwhelming all over again.

  “Never falter, master~” The trait said.

  I flared my aura just a tiny bit and spread just enough strengthening to feel confident. Here, silence and stealth were key.

  Yet I had to break that rule.

  “Ivaldie!” I shouted.

  The clicks became faster, the exhales turned into whistling, and gurgles resounded from above. Heavy wind blew, and the mist parted ways.

  There flew a titanic geist. A gryphon-like monster with an insectoid head with compound eyes. Two massive wings blew the wind on the ground. It had a thick horse-like torso, but instead of legs, eight thick human-like hands with claws constantly wriggled as if trying to grab the mist.

  Swooper

  Species: Geist

  SE: 72

  Affinity: Emerald

  Description: A flying geist that resides above the mist. When something makes noises, it swoops down and rips them apart. Detects movement.

  I stayed still. This was a common monster on the second floor from the intel Kory gathered… I needed it to lose focus, and then I would strike.

  It clicked louder, the noises were deeper, gurgling. The translator worked. “Prey… No prey?” It slowly ascended.

  That was a distraction, just a way to make me commit a mistake. These adept geists used mimicry to lure their prey…

  “Nothing here…” It clicked.

  Wind exploded from the swooper – it charged at me. Even with my thoughts accelerated, it was fast, far faster than any of the geists I fought before.

  I was ready. Parasitic bullets manifested from my palms and shot into the geist. Seven pierced its flesh, but that didn’t stop its momentum. I dashed away, but it was too late, the swooper crashed into me.

  Its hands grabbed my body, and starpower flowed from them. The swooper pulled, trying to rip me apart. The barrier cracked, my muscles tore. And then it started flying up.

  I used the force form to prevent the geist from ripping me, but it wasn’t enough. I had to go on the offensive. I abandoned the notion of defense and fired more bullets. It was the conquest of who dies first.

  The winner was predetermined. The bullets dug into the oversized hands; they rotted the flesh and expanded. Then the wings stopped moving. It let go.

  I dashed out top of one of the root ridges and dropped down, gasping for breath. The swooper turned into light before the rot could turn it into dead mush.

  I telekinetically grabbed the core and put it into my bag. My muscles hurt, and I probably had a few bruises, but it was nothing deadly. Still, I swallowed a pill. The monsters were strong here, stronger than I expected, but if I followed the rules, nothing bad would happen and I would be free to hunt on my own volition.

  Standing on the root ridges, I could see further into the mist. These ridges were like a maze, twisting and turning on the ground, leading somewhere. Now if only I knew where Ivaldie was…

  Eclipsing all the unnatural sounds, an explosion rang out, and a brilliant white flare detonated above. So strong it was that it pierced the mist and blinded me.

  In that short moment, I could discern a familiar flow of starpower in the explosion. Strengthening covered my body, and my eyesight returned. My hands shook. Could she be in actual danger?

  I enveloped my body with a simple mental sound – the same one that the swoopers made. I knew they didn’t attack their own… hopefully.

  Again, light detonated, but this time not in the skies but on the horizon. I rushed there. The ridge was uneven, and the roots were a terrible surface. Detection couldn’t pierce far through the mist, but it could warn me of closer dangers.

  I ran. I ignored the weird geists, which clutched on to the sides of the ridges. Roots below the ridges, a different geist made out of roots – radix. A burst of parasitic flames disintegrated it, and I didn’t spend a second to collect the core.

  Another flash of light, but this one was weaker. I could see that her starpower was waning. I resisted the urge to curse.

  The mist cleared. An entire area where there was none of its bizarre smell – instead, there was smoke. The root ridges were cut apart, and they burned. Below was Ivaldie.

  Her hand was torn off, and she gripped her Truthpower sword with everything she had. Blood dripped from her ears and nose, her VITA was ripped, and she was covered in bruises.

  Three swoopers surrounded her; they fired blasts of wind, which the girl cut down. Four radixes entwined their roots over her, barely managing to hold her back.

  Numerous geists that had six hands instead of feet grappled on the ridges, hexaps. They ripped out chunks of roots and threw them at her at bullet-like speed. They stalked Ivaldie with their snail-like eyes.

  Yet she blocked them all, marched forward, swinging her sword with valor. There was not a shred of despair on her face.

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  I fired a barrage. Numerous bullets hit the swoopers. They whimpered in their clicks, murmuring about lacking prey. Their wind techniques ceased. I kept on firing.

  Roots burst from the ground, and a radix appeared, trying to stop me. I dashed away before it captured me. Hexaps threw chunks of wood at me, and I dodged them, preventing swift demise.

  Swoopers were rotting fast. They tried to fly away, but the crystals of poison in their bodies grew, and so did the rot. Ivaldie swiped her sword, and an explosion of light vaporized all the roots clutching her and singed the hexaps. I managed to close my eyes just in time.

  Her eyes were stone-cold. I dodged another barrage of chunks. Ivaldie looked at me and nodded. I did the same.

  I switched from bullets to plasma. Ivaldie’s sword started growing to massive proportions. We fought like hell. Ivaldie annihilated the hexaps with quick strikes, blinking all around the field.

  I burned the radixes into rotten wood, shot the swooping down swoopers, not giving them a chance to attack. Ivaldie slashed the flying monsters in half.

  There was a rhythm to the madness. I got cut and bruised by the attacks. Ivaldie didn’t, no longer. All attacks missed her; she parried all the blows, all the wind projectiles, and avoided all the roots. I had time to predict the trajectories of attacks, but she didn’t need that.

  It was a massacre. Cores littered the ground; the unending waves of geists kept on attacking us.

  This floor was meant to teach caution, to make you learn how to hunt your targets without becoming one yourself. Unless you were a supreme wizard or a true dragon. Explosions attracted more hexaps and radixes, more swoopers. Some sort of beetles crawled from the ground, shooting spikes from their carapaces. They sprouted ridiculously large, muscular hands from the sides – the beetles were not ready for a brawl.

  They were putrefied by flames or annihilated by lightning. All of them.

  I lost track of time. Injuries became just side notes. Ivaldie was breathing heavily, struggling with overheating, she couldn’t sweat like humans. Her endurance was lower.

  I covered her weakness by creating barriers. I shaped the terrain to create kill-boxes, and the mindless geists chose to follow my design and get slaughtered.

  Only we were left breathing. The ridges burned down. The ground became a field of ash and glinting gems. The artificial sky and its pathetic star were eclipsed by the endless smoke.

  All the students probably ran away. I certainly would’ve if I weren’t the supreme wizard.

  I let out a breath of relief. Ivaldie did too. We shivered in the silence of the dead dungeon.

  “Are you okay?” I foolishly asked and threw a panacea to her.

  She caught it. “Yes…” Her words came out shaken. “This was fun.” She ate the pill.

  I did so too. “It certainly was.” I looked over the barriers; they absorbed too much force and became ridiculously thick. “We’re rich.” I swiped my hand over the black ash. Just that let me fish out five tiny cores.

  “I don’t need the cores.” She wiggled her stump. “I’d rather go to the healer.”

  “There is still the boss…” I looked at her and frowned. Panacea could heal terrible wounds, but it couldn’t restore limbs. That was a job for someone at knight level.

  Ivaldie nodded and grabbed her sword. She raised it high and then channeled a stupid amount of starpower. An explosion of light erupted.

  “Again? You know that won’t call the boss, right?”

  “How do you call the boss?”

  “Gimme a second, my eyes hurt.”

  My limbs hurt so much, not from pain, but from exhaustion. Flaring without stopping and rotting everything to ashes certainly took its toll.

  Your SE has increased by 4. From 67 to 71. Effective SE – 68

  “First, rest. I need to gather all these cores, and you need to stabilize your aura.”

  Ivaldie didn’t reply and sat down with closed eyes. Meditation. She was probably scouting herself…

  My techniques were coming closer to baron, too. Force and solidification needed only 10 more percent. I disregarded my aching muscles and got to gathering. There was a lot to gather.

  Loot acquired!

  - Actualized Potential High Adept 70-80 SE x5

  - Actualized Potential Adept 50-69 SE x11

  - Actualized Potential High Initiate 25-49 SE x34

  - Actualized Potential Initiate 1-24 SE x91

  It was a stupid amount. I could’ve never gotten that alone, no – I would’ve never tried to do whatever the hell Ivaldie did. It was reckless, stupid, and it… It raised SE better and got me more cores. I was playing it too safe.

  “Ivaldie. Are you ready?”

  She opened her eyes. “Always.”

  “Then let’s go.” While I was gathering the cores, I used detection and some math Kory provided to chart the location of the boss. “I want to disassemble the boss if possible.”

  “It is possible.”

  We ran for some time until the mist and the root ridges returned. We jumped on the root ridge and explored the rest of the dungeon. The mist gave an even worse atmosphere. This eerie silence was worse than the constant chittering. After running for ten minutes, I detected the necessary signature. I gestured to Ivaldie to stay silent.

  She nodded. I jumped from the ridge, making the fall silent with the force form. There it was, in the mist. The great and mighty boss of the second floor.

  98 SE, it was a three-meter-tall beast. Specifically, a furry gorilla with thirteen compound eyes on its head, powerful arms that were covered with roots, and a massive jaw with teeth that were identical to those of a human.

  An uncanny bastard. An uncanny bastard that huddled in the corner. It let out low hooting sounds and shook in fear, its eyes darting between me and Ivaldie. A plea not to take its life.

  “It doesn’t look aggressive,” Ivaldie said, lowering her sword.

  “That’s a fa?ade.” I aimed my palm at the geist. “It might look afraid, but were we weaker, it would’ve eaten our bodies whole and dissolved our souls to fulfill the eternal hunger of geists.”

  The dragon girl tilted her head.

  “All its actions are vestigial instincts; it doesn’t need to eat, doesn’t need to hide, it doesn’t even feel pain. All it wants to do is consume souls.” I smiled. “Isn’t that right, gentle morgog?”

  The ground shook. Root spikes shot out, but I saw that coming. I twisted out of their way. Morgog roared and charged. Most of the root spikes lashed at Ivaldie, but the girl parried and dodged them all.

  I shot absorbing bullets at the boss. I had to capture it, not rot it from the inside. It raised a root wall, grabbed it, and launched into the air, hooting crazily.

  Ivaldie’s sword shone. She sliced the air and launched a crescent at the morgog. The energy cut off its arm. The beast screamed, imitating pain. It leaned to slam me with its remaining arm.

  I stopped it. Invisible weight pressed on me, as I held it in the air with the force form. It wriggled and struggled, but without direct contact with the roots, it couldn’t manipulate them.

  It was trapped.

  “G-good job, Ivaldie.”

  She nodded, staring at the struggling geist.

  “Do you know any restraining techniques?”

  “No.” She said softly.

  “Hard way it is…” I curled my wrists and directed the force to morgog’s hand. It cracked and twisted backwards. I pulled more, the geist didn’t scream, it didn’t try to feign pain.

  Instead, all of its soulless eyes stared at me, at Ivaldie in pure apathy. It no longer cared.

  With a squelch, the hand ripped out. Geists couldn’t bleed. It was already growing back the other hand.

  I breathed out and pushed the monster down. It smashed into the roots without making a sound. I made the solidification form and conjured chains around it.

  “This doesn’t seem necessary…”

  “Better safe than sorry.” It didn’t even struggle. That could be just another trick to give me a false sense of security. “Come with me, if it does something unexpected, kill it.”

  I pushed the morgog’s head into the ground. Without its arms, it couldn’t properly walk. With a touch, I started the geist disassembly process. It took five minutes to fill the monster the monster with energy. It took a second for it to turn into light.

  A giant, perfectly spherical emerald. 166 SE… Incredible.

  “Disassembly is too easy, master~”

  Your mastery of Geist Disassembly has reached Knight

  I stashed the gem and waited. Ivaldie looked somberly into the sky. “You will make me more new food.” She sounded unsure.

  “As much as you want. It doesn’t have to be lonely at the top.”

  “Thank you.” A faint smile stretched on her face,

  A portal appeared near us – the exit. “Let’s go before the roots grow into the stairway to the next floor.”

  “Yes.” She put her hand into the portal and vanished inside.

  I followed after her.

  The surroundings of the dungeon delving floor came into focus. No longer were there any groups waiting around. Yet, one thing was different. My rival wasn’t there.

  “Ivaldie? Where are you?”

  No one replied. No one around saw her. I waited.

  She didn’t come.