I bring the small black crystal in my hand up to my lips. The words of the white-haired merchant repeat over and over in my mind.

"It's a mana output boosting drug that's used for wars and important missions... This Fragment must be pretty powerful..."

I gulp, looking down at the glistening stone. After learning what these gems can do, my body is aching to try it. On the other hand, my mind is telling me no. Ever since I left my mana-rich cell within the Titans Domain, the lack of MP in the air comes nowhere close to the richness of energy I felt before.

These stones must be some kind of residual link between our realm and the deteriorated pocket world of the fallen Void Creepers. The latent power stored up in one of these must be near limitless.

It probably feels incredible. Plus, this could be extra training for my mana control... right?

I open my telepathic link between myself and the Dragon flying away from me.

"Ember, I have one last task for you before I'm off."

"Of course, what will it be?"

"Watch me closely for a minute, I'm going to try something... stupid... If anything goes wrong, well, try and help me I guess."

"... Understood, Master."

The glossy black-scaled Dragon changes direction and drifts down toward me as I bring the shiny gem closer and closer to my mouth. It leaves my fingertips and rolls down my tongue, then I swallow it whole without a second thought.

My eyes dart back and forth as I look down at my empty palms. The dungeon falls deathly silent as I try to sense any changes taking place... I can hear myself swallow extra saliva to help the smooth crystal go down easier...

Nothing happens...

I hear Ember's voice echo in my mind as he comes within sight.

"I'm here. What is it that you'd like me to observe."

"Just... a moment..."

I can feel something tightening up in my chest. It's an odd warm sensation. Pins and needles start to prickle in my arms and legs, accompanied by a sudden head rush that feels both cool and hot at the same time. My eyes roll back into my head and my body goes almost comely limp.

I let out a distorted yell of pleasure mixed with pain as I struggle to stay conscious and stay on my feet.

Activating my All-Seeing Eye, the sensations taking over my body begin to make a lot more sense. The tiny stone I ingested moments ago is beginning to dissolve. It seems my theory wasn't too far off...

A miniature reverse black hole is forming in the center of my chest. As it grows, dense waves of mana are seeping out faster and faster. My body is attempting to absorb it even without my plundering ability. It's mana in its rawest form, similar to the liquid in an MP potion, just hundreds of times stronger.

I clench my jaw and take out both my blades, responding to my newest revelations while fighting the feeling of pure bliss taking over my mind. The tingling sensation in my limbs is growing worse and the sharp pressure in my chest is becoming harder to stand.

My vision is blurry, but I've been in worse situations before... I can handle this....

Letting out another yell, this one more full of agony than pleasure. I begin transferring the excess mana surging through my veins into my blades. They glow red and white, to surpassingly charge 15000MP in less than 10 seconds.

These levels of mana and charging speed are close to my peak within the Titan's domain, I haven't gotten near this in the outside world since...

With a powerful step forward I release 2 crescents of energy, high into the sky. They rip through the air and fly deep into the dungeon. Before I can even admire my increase in speed and mana capacity, I've already instinctively begun charging another attack.

It feels invisible knives are stabbing into my arms and legs now, along with the sensation of a heavy weight resting on my chest. My skin is lightly vibrating and my ability to channel mana is losing its precision every second that goes by.

Way too much mana is entering my body, and nowhere near enough is leaving it.

I charge up another near full-force attack without having to plunder a single point of MP. My vision begins to blur more and more as I release the second wave of wind and fire into the air.

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I burst into a ball of fire, letting out a murderous yell while charging up my third attack. The skin on my arms, legs, and even face feels like they're getting torn apart at a microscopic level. White hot streams of mana enter my body through the slowly growing black abyss in my chest.

Another dual shot of dense mana leaves my blades after 10 seconds of charging.

My eyes lose their sight, as my body threatens to tear itself in half. I burst into an even bigger ball of fire and attempt to charge up my blades for a fourth time.

Unfortunately, I black out completely before releasing another drop of mana...

All of my joints freeze up and my muscles contract uncontrollably. The hot sensation of energy rushing through my body and mind takes over as my consciousness escapes from reality.

I fall to the dungeon floor with a thud as the uncontrollable amount of mana continues to expand.

Everything after that is up to chance...

Luckily, there's a mana-plundering Dragon on standby.

After a few minutes pass, I slowly open my eyes, accompanied by a long groan. The sensation of sore muscles and frail bones leaves me regretting my decision to try out this flashy Strengthening Fragment. As I observe Ember's red veil of mana-absorbing light receding from my body, a few words escape my lips.

"Thanks... I.. Had a feeling it might end up like this..."

Coughing, I turn to my side and use both fists to push myself back up to my feet. I guess those Fragments really are no joke.

I use self regeneration to repair my damaged skin and do the best I can to elevate the soreness, but it won't completely go away.

Ember responds.

"Of course. Your mana control is nowhere near fine-tuned enough to safely use that much MP in such a short amount of time. I recommend not doing that again, Master."

I let out a chuckle and scratch the back of my head

"It's... still just Jay. I agree. It's not a good idea to try that again any time soon..."

"So, would you like me to pause farming the Titans?"

I grin.

"No, continue. I'm sure I'll have a use for them in the future."

"Understood. See you soon."

The Dragon flies off and I pick up my two fallen blades, placing them into my item storage. I use Dungeon Walker to transport myself within a kilometer of my team and begin walking back to the meeting point.

My body and mind feel pretty drained, even though I plundered my MP back up to full. It's an odd empty feeling, I've felt a similar way after leaving the Titans Domain, but this feels worse. It hasn't been long at all, but I'm itching to feel power like that again.

Pushing these thoughts to the back of my mind as best I can, I continue walking forward over the rising and falling hills before me.

"Hey, hey! Look who made it!"

Tripp greets me, and I see the other 3 waiting patiently nearby. We exchange idle chatter for a little while, then set out to hunt again.

Everyone is pretty tired this second round, including me after my MP overdose. We take it pretty slow this time around only defeating 90 or so mutants altogether in the full 3-hour session.

I decide to plant another Strengthening Fragment into a mutant near the end of our session. Nearing the 3-hour mark, I round everyone up to make sure they witness what happens next as Abby waits for the loot from her last kill.

A small black crystal falls to the ground and the green-haired girl picks it up with a grin across her face.

"It was a long day guy, but it looks like everything paid off in the end. Look, we got another one!"

I smirk as the rest of the team crowd around her to goggle at the little black gem.

Soon after, we make our way back to Tripp and out of the labyrinth. He reacts a bit off at the mention of the fragment, but the response is much less extreme than last time.

The next few days of training go by in the blink of an eye.

Over the next 5 hunting sessions, I strategically plant Strengthening Fragments into mutant corpses every 100-200 kills just to make it seem realistic. Even after the one I consumed, there are still have 2 spare stones leftover in my storage.

I have a feeling Arie knows something is up, but he isn't the type to pry. Plus, it seems he's a bit shaken by our Titan run-in earlier this week. Ever since then he's itching to get stronger, he hunts solo in the C-Class dungeons after every one of our team training sessions. I am itching to get stronger too, but for a much different reason.

Every day that goes by, my urges for a good supply of high-purity mana and a good fight become stronger and stronger.

Every night, I've been leaving the Vanguard Heights to go dungeon diving for a few hours too. Instead of using the C-Class gate, I start entering through the D-Class platform and teleporting myself back to The Great Plains. My contract states that I'm allowed to farm as many D-Class resources for myself as I'd like, but C-Class dungeon loot is the property of the Association.

They haven't strictly enforced this rule at all yet, but it's better if I don't take any chances. It will look much better on my record if it looks like I've been solo-farming D-Class dungeons.

In reality, I farm mana crystals for hours every night and continue collecting the Strengthening Fragments that Ember accumulates.

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

I've grown 2 more levels bringing me to 408, this is thanks to the 47 Void Creepers my partner has managed to defeat. That also means I've received 47 more Fragments, bringing my total stash to 49. Hesitantly, I've been keeping them in my item storage, trying my best not to think about my incident with one of them just a few days ago...

Over 150k MP worth of crystals has been farmed, but I use most of it up on a few double-blade attacks to get a rush at the end of each farming session.

It may sound like a waste, but it's keeping my mana control sharp and my progression steady. I haven't been able to get anywhere near the speed and output that I reached while high on that Fragment, and my proficiency has dropped a little since I left the Titan's Domain as well.

I can manage a 10k MP attacks, charged in just under 20 seconds. I'm able to release one of these a day, while still profiting some MP. It's nothing to laugh at, and it satisfies my urges for the time being. I'll need a change of pace soon.

I need to get stronger....

Today is day 7 of training at the Association, we just finished up our hunt and we'll handing in our last Strengthening Fragment to finally receive our reward. Once we get our next week of tasks, I'll go and visit Ember. I think it's about time he leaves that Dungeon with me.

I wonder what the Director has in store for us next. The fact that we completed a near-impossible task with ease keeps nagging at the back of my mind. I wonder if he'll catch on to the fact that something out of the ordinary is going on here...