The first floor thus far has failed to present any greater danger than the lurkers.

Sure, the gravity here is much stronger than it was on any of the floors in Hell difficulty, requiring the constant expenditure of kinetic energy from me. Higher physical stats could probably deal with it easily enough, but that would mean less mana.

We can't have that.

I’ve also noticed a sensation that I recognize from the surface, there is also a pull on my mana, trying to drain it away and send it into the ground below me. So far, my Mantle’s dealt with that quite easily, though it still makes any external use of mana more difficult. It isn’t all bad either, if only because it keeps me focused and drives me to improve.

Shayna and I are currently holed up in what appears to be an old cathedral, hiding our mana signatures, and working to maintain the barrier around us.

Three lurkers detected us a while back and immediately started heading our way.

Shayna said the more lurkers we kill, the more the others can sense us. It’s odd too because I can’t figure out how it works, meaning it’s likely directly set by the system, leaving me with no way to deal with it. The second option is that the lurkers and everything about them are just the side effects of the settings on this floor.

It makes me curious and excited to explore the options it presents me with. With a good group, this place could become an amazing spot for farming items. Every one of the lurkers is a Beyonder, meaning they have items fitting their status and with a bit of luck, some of them may even be damaged arcane.

Could I go out on my own and do it?

Not currently; I’m just not strong enough. Well, maybe it’s not that I’m not strong, but that the lurkers are powerful in their own right, and the more you kill, the easier you are to find, and more hunt you, which adds an element of difficulty to the process.

Both the warrior and mage from before were powerful. Not as much as me, but as the winner of our round’s tournament, I should be above average. But with Tess and Lily, we would bulldoze through groups with more than three members.

That is also where the problem lies - bigger groups. The deeper we delve and the closer we get to the safe zone, the more lurkers... well... lurk around.

Currently, it’s limited to groups of 2-5 members, but according to Shayna, there are groups of 10, and as much as I hate having to accept that, it would be too much even for me. I’m not even sure I could handle a group of 5.

I always look at it from the angle of whether or not I would be able to defeat specific Beyonders. Gareth? Tess? Savant? Lily? For sure. Tacita? Probably yes, but I have a lot of respect for her as my archenemy, plus, after her loss against Savant, there is no way she doesn’t go full training arc and power up like crazy.

So, could I defeat Lily and Tess attacking me at once? Probably. Savant and Tess? There, I’m not so sure.

Even though our Beyonders seem to be above average, a group of 3 of them would probably be enough for the fight to become dangerous. The difference between success and failure would be my chances of pulling off some sneaky attack.

That’s why my crown is active, why I’m not trying to hide my abilities, and why Shayna’s not asking about it.

“In a few more minutes I’m going to send out a probe,” she whispers.

“Let’s give it five minutes to be sure,” I reply.

She nods. This time her hair is blue, and her eyes are as well. And there’s a bit of white mixed in. Meanwhile, I can sense her heart beating wildly through my use of kinetic energy.

Is this a normal reaction? Sure, we are close to a group of 3 lurkers, and killing them would make the process of survival more difficult given our position hours away from the safe zone.

Yet, even though I feel the same kind of fear, it’s not as bad as hers. It makes me feel lightheaded, and my arms and legs are cold, sweat runs down my back. With some curiosity, I lift my hand and look at it.

It’s trembling, and my fingers are twitching. As I close it into a fist, I take note of the chill and take a deep breath.

My mind feels so sharp, and my body is tensed for the attack, ready to respond to the slightest of movements. I even catch myself subconsciously running mana through my body.

I love it. I love the feeling of tension and fear washing over my mind.

“Careful with your mana,” Shayna whispers.

I check it, and she turns out to be right; there’s a bit of leakage, my excitement is getting the better of me. I quickly pull it back under my control and force it into my body and check the barrier around it.

As I make these changes, I turn up the power on [Resonance], disrupting any excess mana that leaves our bodies. The skill disperses it into tiny particles that should be more difficult to notice in any scans for mana.

I’m also using thermal energy and [Redistribution] in an attempt to hide the heat of our bodies.

Shayna is lowering the presence of our minds and maintaining a field that nullifies the sound of our movements, and heartbeats.

There are so many ways to detect someone. Heat, mana, movement, sound, emotions, sheer presence; there are even monsters that can feel the weight of your gaze.

Hell, at higher levels, you start being able to hear people breathing, through walls and across great distances. Sometimes the mere presence of one’s mind can give them away.

As much power as lurkers lose when they die, they do come fairly close to the genuine articles. I would say they operate at anywhere from 90-95% power, at least from what I heard. They’re generally pretty good with their abilities too. So that’s why we are hiding, I don’t even find the prospect insulting. I just know that sooner or later I will come back here, and on that day, explosions will thunder through the floor, and dozens of lurkers will die, condemned to respawn in a year.

“Sending probe,” Shayna announces.

She then uses her mental skill, trait, or whatever it is. I can’t sense much about it given that that’s not where my talent lies, but she waits tensely nonetheless.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

We wait a few more seconds, and she breathes out, a small smile appearing on her face.

“Fuck,” is the only word she says.

Immediately I extend my domain and place an anchor, grabbing her hand, and she lets me as I teleport us both away.

Appearing high in the air, I watch as the building we were hiding in gets bombarded by attacks, crumbling the stone into dust.

I form a dense barrier around us and infuse kinetic energy throughout the surface, just in time for a dozen metal projectiles to crash into it, the kinetic energy and [Redistribution] absorbing most of the impact.

Someone tries to put a mark on us, and Shayna disrupts it while sending a counterattack in its wake.

Boosting us with kinetic energy, I fly at full speed, constantly adding to it.

Shayna uses the weird field created by her wings, and it becomes easier.

Much further away, I land, and a mana javelin appears over my shoulder. I start adding more and more mana to it until it grows much denser and heavier, and then I start channeling kinetic energy. Shayna does some preparation of her own.

“Stun one of them. Just a second should be enough,” I say, staring off in the direction we came from.

“One of them is protecting their minds; I won’t be able to.”

“Which one?”

“Lynthari woman; the human in the blue shirt is using [Metal Manipulation] and a feylith man is using some kind of wide range bombardment skill.”

The feylith man turns out to be the same race as Shayna, meaning they’re called feyliths. Nice find.

“I will disrupt the lynthari’s mana for a moment; try to stun her then,” I respond.

As I speak I create another javelin, thinner this time, and infuse it with the disrupting effect of [Resonance]. I do not save my mana, more interested in making sure it has the intended effect. Then I add some more.

[Infusion - lvl 33 > Infusion - lvl 34]

It’s manageable despite being more difficult to keep both of them at once, mainly because of how much I’m packing into them.

They don’t give me any more time, two figures reach us, a feylith and a human with a blue shirt.

The blue shirt has pieces of metal following him - an iron door, an anvil, an old sword, and more besides. These pieces are bending and changing their shape as if they were made out of clay. He quickly launches these projectiles at us, adding to my workload, as I use [Redistribution] to absorb their kinetic energy, adding it to the mass waiting to launch my compressed javelin.

The feylith flies into the air, shining orbs of blinding light forming around him. Meanwhile, the lynthari is hiding.

Shayna grabs my arm and points.

Extending my domain, I place an anchor and teleport, repeating the process two more times until they succeed in disrupting my anchor; before flying the remaining distance.

“She’s in the house with the red roof.”

A mental attack crashes against us, only to be blocked by Shayna, as I launch the disrupting javelin. It pierces into the house, and a strong wave of disrupting mana floods the area. It can be felt even up here though it’s much weaker.

Shayna reaches down, and the lynthari, caught in the process of her escape, freezes in place, and I release my other javelin. It disappears with a loud boom, leaving no trail behind and no explosion as it hits. It just burrows deep into the ground, piercing through everything in its way.

The lynthari happens to be one of these things, the sheer impact nearly evaporating the entirety of her chest.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 269]

I grab Shayna’s arm and boost us to the side, dodging a barrage of metal projectiles and the slower feylith bombardier, bringing me into reach of the blue-shirt human.

“We should run; killing more will only attract others,” I hear.

Why worry so much? Such useless thoughts. I’ll just kill them all. I haven’t even gotten warmed up yet. Bombardment? I’ll show you a bombardment. And that human with [Metal Manipulation]? Let’s see how well he deals with my [Mana Manipulation].

As much as this has strained my mind, it’s far from enough. I will…

Then I feel a presence. The single beat of a heart far, far away. Followed by another, and I feel the presence reaching for me, seeking my strongly beating heart and the kinetic energy within.

Then the presence disappears.

“Yeah, let’s go.” I agree, blocking another barrage of projectiles before shooting off a few of my own to keep the flying feylith busy before flying in the opposite direction.

“Wrong direction, you should…”

“Trust me, we don’t want to go there.”

The presence appears again with another powerful heartbeat, this time much closer.

I change direction and head for the traitorous group that brought us out on this expedition, and I give it everything I’ve got, not caring about leaving tracks in our way.

“What are you doing, we should…” Shayna keeps talking, but I ignore her.

She doesn’t seem to be feeling that presence at the moment, but soon she will, and then she’ll understand.

Once we’re far enough away from the duo, I land on the ground and stop using kinetic energy, going so far as to stop my heart from generating it. Instead, I change it to thermal and manually bolster my Mantle. Not skipping a beat, I boost my body this time with mana, and though I haven’t done so in weeks I quickly get back into the rhythm.

Shayna runs by my side as quickly as, and probably even faster than me, passing under the trees, across a huge broken bridge and a destroyed city that must have been glorious once, left as a stone-cold reminder of older times.

“Are there any powerful named ones with kinetic energy?” I ask as we run. I don’t know how far away the presence is anymore, and it’s probably having a more difficult time tracking me right now.

“Two or three, but none that should be so close to this area; they tend to be a lot further in.”

“So?”

“Metal Bitch, Owl, and Whitey, those are the three I know of.”

“Which ones do we want to avoid?”

“Fucking all of them. Any one of them could kill us both and another 10 like us with ease.”

“Which one do we really, really want to avoid?”

“Is it," she pauses, the gears in her head spinning, "… fuck. Please don’t tell me...”

“Probably.”

“Damn it…,” she jumps nimbly over a crater and onto the roof of a nearby house which cracks under the force of her feet as she runs.

I increase my speed as well, sensing she is using her abilities to find the group as well. She might not be as good as Rat, but she’s probably decent over small distances.

“If it’s a male demon with long white hair, then we need to start hoping we, by some miracle, meet a freakishly powerful C rank or rogue B rank who’s decided to visit this goddamned place.”

I have nothing to say in response to her blatant jinx and check the timer instead.

18 hours remaining.