I watched Eric as he shuffled around the room with shoulders hunched. He was a strange creature indeed and I found it quite difficult to get a grip on his personality. It seemed to me as if he himself did not actually know who he was. Then again, he did have a Wisdom of six, so that might be accurate.

Putting my thoughts about Eric aside, I considered my unallocated Attributes with no small amount of frustration. If I had been able to choose freely without worries, branching Wisdom was the obvious choice. But even though it was just a single Attribute away, I did not believe that to be wise right now, the irony of which was not lost on me.

When I thought about how it had felt to sacrifice a single Attribute combined with the experiences around Zackary's banishment and becoming Aberration, I suspected that I did not want to experience going below twenty in Intelligence. While I was not sure I could lose a branch, I did not want to find out either. Sadly, it was likely that I would, considering the Experience involved. It appeared rather unlikely that I could gain another level before the Golem gained six. It was far more probable that the Golem would gain as many as eight levels before I achieved another.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. My reasoning right now was leading me to a false premise about the Golem, making me resent it. It was a substantial increase to my chances of survival. In many ways it was a more efficient fighter than I. It did lack skill and finesse, but one could make a good argument that so did I. But more than what it was right now; the Golem could increase in levels and gain power, even if at a cost.

I placed all my unallocated Attributes into Intelligence. By the time I gained another level, I should know if I was free to explore the Wisdom branch or not. If not, I would eventually complete my quest and do so then.

I turned my attention back to the remaining bronze disks I had. Hopefully my enchanting would be easier now that I had gained both an upgrade to my Skill and Ability. I picked up one of my eight remaining disks and began to Enchant yet another Ice Lance.

It quite quickly became apparent that however the Ability worked now, it was nothing like what it had been before, leaving me floundering. I sensed mostly emptiness from the disk I held, with motes of something whirling past at impossible speeds. But more than anything, I sensed a great vast nothingness. My inaction and confusion soon led to failure and the bronze disk unraveled, sending out a wave of Mana unlike anything I had ever sensed before, some of which flowed into me.

As the Mana kept whirling around me I began to feel a strange pressure building, a sensation which gradually increased, though thankfully never quite becoming painful, before suddenly abating.

As the Mana wave faded I watched in stunned surprise as I began to breathe out sparkling motes of Mana. It took a few moments before I properly gathered my wits, fascinated that I could actually see the Mana sparkle, something I had no good explanation for. Pure density should not cause that, surely? While this was a bit disconcerting, there did not seem to be anything wrong with me.

Mana.

Mana: 1341/680

I tried to wrap my head around what that might mean, I did not feel bad, injured, or even strained anymore. Could my normal maximum represent how much I could gather without aid?

Health.

Health: 298/320

I did truly appear to be unhurt, as my Health had stayed the same. I wondered how Eric had reacted to the Mana, and so I looked up to see how he was faring.

Eric had moved back to the opening in the wall at some point, and now he was spitting into the water below, from all appearances oblivious to what was going on with me.

I did not think he could have failed to notice the Mana if it had affected him, so I could only presume the concentration dispersed rapidly with distance. The Mana wave was curious: uncomfortable, but seemingly not harmful. I put it aside for now, as even the sparkles had dissipated.

Mana.

Mana: 1341/680

As there did not seem to be anything dangerous happening, I picked up another bronze disk and returned to enchanting.

I stared at the disk, grappling with indecision as I tried to come to terms with what I had sensed in my previous enchanting attempt. I knocked the disk against the stone floor, whilst feeling foolish for doing so. It was obviously solid. How could what I had experienced be real? How could a solid metal be so much nothingness? Was it a metaphor of some kind? Perhaps I was only sensing the Power the disk contained.

I focused, and began to Enchant Ice Lance once more, and as I sensed the vast emptiness I tried to follow one of the motes of Power and connect to it.

Another wave of Mana rocked me backwards as my head swam for a moment and my eyes stung. Whatever the tiny things were, they were much too fast for me to follow.

Mana.

Mana: 1342/680

There was not much of a change, and I had recovered much faster this time, without any sparkles. Curious. Perhaps there was an upper limit to what amount of Mana I could hold, different from how much I could regenerate. With a steadying breath, I attempted another enchantment. This time I tried to predict where one of the motes of Power would show up.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Sadly my attempt once more ended in failure. I could sense the strange motes, I could know where they had been, but I could not react quickly enough to actually interact with one. There had to be something else to it, but what?

It was possible that my Attributes were too low, perhaps I needed more Intelligence to make sense of this. Or perhaps my Willpower was insufficient, letting me be overwhelmed.

But waiting for more Attributes was not an option, it was now that I was in the Dungeon after all. I picked up one more bronze disk and closed my eyes, concentrating.

I recalled what Enchant had felt like before, how I had created a Bronze disk of Ice Lance with the previous tier of Ability. Ignoring the sensation of vast emptiness, I imagined the wave of Mana and the resonance. With a sense of elation I felt how the spell structure began to stabilize. Until it abruptly stopped and the disk disappeared.

I stared down at my empty hands, frowning. That had not been an enchanting failure, I knew what those felt like by now. This was something else. But of more interest: I had noticed that the resonance I had almost achieved had nothing to do with the motes that sped by. There was something else here, a multitude of them, spread out in the emptiness. This might be a problem of scale and perspective on my part. It appeared as if I had focused so hard on the motes, that I never looked for anything else.

But the failure was still strange. Had the Order kept me from enchanting the way I had with a lower tier Ability? Why? Because I did not have that Ability any more? But if so, why would the Order even care?

I tried to Enchant again and again, failing with each, but I gradually improved my understanding. My initial perspective did indeed seem wrong, the motes of Power, and there were many of them, seemed to move in a way as to create a boundary or a shield of fast moving swirls in layers around another something. Those boundaries then interacted with each other, in a strange push and pull.

If this was a true representation of reality, then many things that seemed so obvious about the world, were in fact anything but obvious.

I had understood what happened with the wave of Mana at least; when an enchantment failed, the things at the very center of the barriers fell apart into even smaller objects, many of which shot apart in separate directions at mind boggling speeds. But as they encountered the Mana of the forming enchantment, they exploded into tiny clouds of massively condensed Mana.

I was quite curious what would happen if those small objects interacted with each other, or perhaps another center of a barrier, mayhap that was needed for a successful enchantment.

Quest!

Do not let unbound particles interact with anything other than Mana!

Reward: Survival.

I considered the quest, as I mused on why it would be given. If the particles created Mana when interacting with Mana, what would happen if they hit another particle? An infusion of other particles?

I absolutely itched to find out. But either it would kill me, or the Order would. I was not quite willing to die for my curiosity.

I sighed in frustration at not managing to Enchant any of my remaining disks. But I had a lot to think about concerning enchantments, and it was fascinating.

I looked around in the room for anything I could Enchant, anything at all. But other than me, the Golem, and Eric, there was truly nothing.

I looked considering at Eric for a moment as he sat sleeping against a wall. But he was quite a bit more useful as he was, rather than as a consumable spell. I was likely to fail the enchantment anyway, especially considering what a nuisance acorns had been.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I would not experiment with my food, clothes, or coin. That would just be a waste, I only had seven coins left now and two of them were gold!

With any luck, I would find something on this floor to use. Elated at the prospect I got to my feet.

But Eric was sleeping. Sighing, I admitted to myself that there was no reason to hurry. I should take the opportunity to rest when I had it, and deal with other necessities as well.

**

When Eric woke with a loud gasp, I was laying on my back staring at the ceiling, lost in thoughts about levels. As Eric fished something out of his satchel and began to eat, I returned to my musings. The Sentience Trait my Golem had received had changed how I thought about Traits, and the Order. Now I kept wondering exactly what the Order was, and why was the Order? And perhaps the more dangerous thought, would I have been better off without the Order.

As Eric finished eating I shook myself out of my probably unhealthy questioning and got to my feet. "Do you have any water to spare?" I shuddered at Eric's wide and toothy grin, which was anything but endearing. But I fished out one of the water skins and tossed it to him, thirst would quickly make him useless after all and I still had quite a bit of water.

Once Eric had finished I moved over to the door and opened it, the Golem at my shoulder. Beyond the door lay a corridor of damp stone, the previously smooth floor of the safe room giving way to rough and uneven ground. On the far end of the corridor lay an open space, most of which was lost to darkness.

I could hear a repeating splashing sound, but I could not see the source of it. But by the way the sound changed, it was clear that whatever was making the noise, it was moving. A water elemental perhaps? Elementals were generally quite powerful though, to be able to create a semi-physical form on their own. Surely the increase in difficulty from one floor to the next would not be that steep.

As the creature in question, a blue jellylike substance, oozed around the corner, it lay my worries to rest. A slime was not nearly as bad as an elemental, though we were perhaps not the best equipped to deal with it.

My Golem was already rushing forward, as I had not yet instructed it differently. I was curious to see how well the Golem would manage against something requiring as much finesse as a slime.

As the Golem stomped and kicked at the monster, further staining its coat, it became abundantly clear the answer was: badly. Neither the slime nor the Golem seemed to be capable of hurting each other. I would eventually have to make an attempt at teaching the Golem what to do, but for now I wanted to make sure that what I thought I knew about this kind of creature was correct.

I tried to convey that I wanted the Golem to move aside and to my surprise it did so immediately. The Golem kept kicking at the slime, but doing so from the side, giving me a clear view.

As my Mana was more than full right now, instead of using a precious enchantment, I began to cast Ice Lance.

The shard of ice sped across the distance and cut through the gelatinous exterior of the monster. Seemingly the shard only grazed the creature's core, but it was enough. The slime shuddered, before dissolving into a viscous fluid.

You have contributed to a Dungeon Encounter victory! You gain 18 Experience!

Your Golem has contributed to a Dungeon Encounter victory! Your Golem gain 31 Experience! You gain 9 Experience!

Well, that was curious.