The surprise of his sudden plummet suffocated all of Ray’s for a moment. Sheer panic coursed through his body like a parasite living in his veins. He was falling. He had been literally thrown off Cliff One. At this rate, he was going to die.

Then the benefits of his Intellect Tier breaks kicked in. The panicked screaming of his thoughts grew muted. It almost caused a whiplash with how suddenly he could think straight again, with how well he could focus, even in a situation like this. Ray had to survive. He was not dying like this.

The top of Cliff One was long gone. All Ray could do was look forward to hitting Cliff Two hard enough to splatter himself to bloody paste.

Not if he could help it.

He crafted the draconic maws on his arms and fired their lasering breaths far down below. It didn’t matter that the shattered cliff was falling just below him. It didn’t matter that the fiery beams unleashed by the draconic maws on his arms were striking the crushed rocks and debris from Cliff One.

They were elevating him, slowing down his descent. That was all that mattered.

Ray had a bit of difficulty controlling the direction of his draconic maws’ fire breaths. They ejected with such force that his arms were attempting to bend backwards, which would have been terrible. He needed them to be aimed at the rapidly approaching ground.

Thankfully, he was able to reorient his own body so that his feet were pointed downwards. This helped tremendously to ensure his arms hung down instead of swivelling up.

The remains of the cliff Ray had been on fell down far faster than him. They had reached close enough that the rocks had begun crashing down, their impacts resonating through the area like the tap-dancing footsteps of a gargantuan giant.

Ray’s idea worked though. Even if he had to sacrifice almost the entirety of his True Mana while firing the draconic maws, he was safe.

“Yeah,” he said, looking up with a scowl. “I’m still alive, Floor Lord. How do you like that?”

Ray was pretty sure she couldn’t hear him, which was part of what emboldened him to give vent to his growing anger. That Floor Lord had been something else. Fucking hell. He hadn’t realized the difference in their powers would be that great. Sure, she had been over level fifty, and he wasn’t even at level forty yet.

But the fact that he had failed to even get close to her during that battle had his whole body itching for a rematch. After he had gained more Essence, that was.

Ray landed among the debris, his footing unstable. One wrong move and the whole mound of broken rocks would collapse. He wasn’t paying much attention to it, though. What had caught his eye was the enormous opening in the cliff face about sixty feet ahead of him.

[Primordial Gauge—Dungeon]

Giants’ Cradle [Tier 15]

A home for those who grow beyond the sizes that the world can bear regularly. Enormity is a difficult burden to bear. There is only so much weight a single body can sustain. Cross through the halls carved out of ever-ceaseless growth, until you reach the resting place of what once could make anything grow.

A dungeon. Ray had fallen straight to the doorstep of a dungeon. He laughed, looking straight up again and sticking out his middle finger to the Floor Lord. She had just given him a huge blessing in disguise.

Without hesitation, Ray began climbing down to enter his latest challenge. A Tier 15 dungeon. Easily the strongest he had been in yet. No doubt, he was going to get a lot of Essence.

Those bastards on Cliff Two had neglected to mention there were more dungeons here. More places Ray could have explored and grown even further. All’s well that ends well, though. It was only the series of events he had experienced that had led him to this Giant’s Cradle.

Ray considered the description again as he went into the opening. Enormousness and growth. Did this place have something to do with Growth Mana?

It was huge, just as advertised. The tunnel he walked through remained big enough to accommodate a small ship. Sometimes, in previous dungeons, Ray had wondered how much worse would it have been of he had been susceptible to claustrophobia. Well, no way was anyone getting claustrophobic in this place.

Big though the dungeon was, it was also darker than his liking. Thankfully, he now had access to spells that could alleviate the gloom. Well, Soul Aspects, if he was being honest. But close enough.

Ray used Lifeblood Soulform to call up the Viledrake tail. Lava bloomed along its length, throwing ruddy-orange light all over the tunnels.

Since Primordial Guage wasn’t warning him about any monsters just yet, Ray opened his chat.

Ray: I met the Floor Lord. Hope you’re alright.

There was no reply from Kredevel. Not even after waiting for a few minutes. He was likely busy with the ongoing war matters. Ray would just have to—

Kredevel: Truly? That is incredible. Tell me everything, please.

Ray grinned. Then he proceeded to explain how he had been tricked by the Everstead cohort up on Cliff One. Although, he supposed he didn’t know if Caleb had truly been there or not. The Floor Lord could just have been using an actual, established meeting to take out Ray.

Kredevel: How? How could she have assumed such a form for such a long time?

Ray: I don’t know exactly, but I can guess the basics. You’ve faced it too.

Kredevel: You mean the Imitator Dungeon?

Ray: Yes. Mimic Mana. There’s no other possible explanation. I can bet my ass she has some sort of non-class-related ability that uses Mimic Mana to disguise her.

Kredevel: That does make a great deal of sense. But the timescale is still mid-boggling. A skill powerful enough to maintain a different appearance for weeks, perhaps months, on end—

Ray: What? Why’d you stop typing? Everything okay?

When Kredevel didn’t reply for over a minute, Ray started to get a little worried. Had they been surprise-attacked? Ambushed by the Everstead, maybe?

Kredevel: Apologies, someone needed some assistance. But yes, I think I understand how she managed it. Funnily enough, you know it too, if only because I mentioned it already.

Ray tried to remember what Kredevel had mentioned about it all. His brain couldn’t recall the relevant information. Thankfully, Kredevel didn’t keep him hanging for long.

Kredevel: Amplification Mana.

Ray: OH. The same thing she must have used to create those giant spires.

Kredevel: Yes, exactly. Amplifying the duration of whatever abilities she possesses would be no great a feet.

Ray shook his head. Unbelievable. Kredevel was unable to formulate just how she might have acquired Amplification Mana, but the fact was that she did possess it.

Kredevel: I cannot believe you survived a direct encounter with her. You are truly something else.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Something else, was it? The only one was something else here was the Floor Lord. Until Ray got the better of her, there was no way he would feel good about his meeting.

Ray: I wouldn’t call being thrown off a cliff surviving. Although, this makes me curious how long the Floor Lord herself is going to survive…

Kredevel: Her reappearance is sure to rouse the Everstead.

Ray: It’s what she does next that I’m really interested in, considering the Everstead might be after her if any of them saw the spectacle of our fight.

Kredevel: Killing you was worth letting the Everstead potentially rediscover her, it would seem.

Ray: Maybe. Or maybe, she’s confident enough in her mimicking abilities. She could get away and hide among the Everstead again, for all we know. It all depends on whether the Everstead themselves understand that they were tricked using Mimic Mana.

They cut off chatting for now. Kredevel promised that he would inform Gritty about it. Ray had to focus on actually getting through the dungeon.

He wasn’t sure how far he had travelled before the first monsters appeared. Primordial Gauge informed him of their approach long before they actually appeared, so Ray wasn’t surprised.

The monsters reminded him of centipedes but made of rocks and blown to the size of small buses. Ray was pretty sure the way their steely mandibles clicked was basically what people heard right before they were guillotined.

They were fast. Ray was faster, though. He jumped back, calling up his Soaring Wings to help him retreat.

At the same time, he crafted a draconic maw on his hand and fired off its laser breath. The monster tried to weave away from the chaotic beam. Its scuttling body was certainly sinuous enough. Ray was having none of it, however. He slashed his arm to the side, making sure the beam he had fired connected with its target.

A simple reason for using the draconic maw via Primal Spiritcraft was because of the monster’s consistency. Rocks and stones were unfortunately not going to be affected by the chaos.

As such, Ray had to rely on the sheer power behind the laser breath to take out his foes.

He was successful. The centipede like monster shattered apart under the pressure of his lasering breath. Its legs fell off, its rocky body cracked, and broke, and even its mandibles were torn off its head.

[Enemy Defeated—Stone Lice]

Tier 11 Monster: Stone Lice [Level 32] x1

Essence: +3,520

Knowledge: +3

True Mana Restored: +320

Essence to Level 40: 26,720/131,200

Knowledge to next Threshold: 1,974/2,000

They were called Stone Lice? What an odd name for a monster. Although… the dungeon description had mentioned giants. So was Ray fighting the lice that had lived on the giant’s heads? That was a little insane to think about.

He moved on. There were more of the monsters, though they didn’t attack him just yet. If they had, he could have taken them out with the draconic maw again.

But they were either wary of him after how easily he had taken down their brethren or they were waiting for something.

It was interesting that Ray hadn’t faced his first Dungeon Obstacle yet. Surely, it had to be close. He had travelled pretty far into the dungeon to not have faced one already. Unless there was something else going on. Like, for instance, he was only travelling around in circles and not actually heading wherever he was supposed to go.

That was when he spotted it. Far above, the roof was riddled with large holes. They were arranged periodically. Ray saw one every couple of minutes of walking.

He was starting to get the feeling that he was supposed to go through one of those. Reaching them would be a pain, considering his wings couldn’t take him that high and he didn’t want to waste True Mana and use up more of his True Mana shards. But maybe…

Ray called on his wings again and rose into the air His motion agitated the Stone Lice, who all began grinding their stony, scuttling legs on the roof.

Soaring Wings didn’t take him as far as he needed to go, but that was fine. As he reached the peak of his ascent, Ray used Soulstrike. Two True Mana arms shot out, rising high enough to plunge their grasping ends through the hole above and grab onto the ledge and pull him up. His assumption had been right. There was a flat area around the hole.

Not just a flat area, as Ray found out first-hand. A whole another floor had awaited him through the large aperture.

The Stone Lice moved with incredible pace. They surged through the same hole Ray had used, all of them crashing against each other in their haste to enter and get to their target.

Ray jolted, throwing himself back as fast and as far as he could. Good thing his wings were still active. As the Stone Lice hurtled towards him in an avalanche of rocky, oversized insects, he sent out a combination of spells he had been waiting to test.

Spiritscourge Chain went out first. A spike of black-red energy crashed into the nearest monster, exploding into an aura of the same chaotic energy that fell upon its fellows.

Ray immediately followed it up with two punches using his True Mana arms. They were both aimed at the same monster. It survived the first hit from his True Mana arm, but the second one managed to crush half its body, especially after Ray turned the Soulstrike into a bludgeoning end.

Spiritscourge Chain worked fantastically. As the first Stone Lice fell, several of its neighbours afflicted with the black-red aura all staggered and halted as they fell over.

Ray smiled at the effect. While the transferred damage hadn’t been great enough to kill the Stone Lice, their falls impeded the rest of the monsters behind them. This basically halted the entire charge.

Giving Ray the perfect opening to unleash all his other spells.

Spiritscourge Chain took True Mana efficiency to a whole new level. Ray cast it a couple more times, making sure he had affected the whole group with the black-red aura of chaotic damage transfer. Then, with his True Mana arms still active, he began pummelling the life out of the Stone Lice.

The monsters weren’t about to take it lying down, though. Several managed to get up and charge him. Even worse, they came from different directions, forcing him to split his attention.

They lunged at him. Ray caught one using his True Mana arm, slamming it into the other monster that was rushing him. Yet another Stone Lice shot at him with surprising speed, considering its bulk, but Ray leaped over it with the aid of his wings, lashing it with his tail.

He flew back, activating Mottling Spiritguard. That ought to do it. A little bit of Origin Mana to use Origin Resonance made the orbs turn burning orange as they filled with lava.

They took care of the onrushing monsters with ease. The little diversion from the rushing monsters had allowed the ones Ray had been beating down to get back, but he reached them before they could become a nuisance. They were damaged and cracked, clearly suffering, but they weren’t dead yet.

But just as Ray took down his second Stone Lice in the group, the rest all began crumbling apart. Spiritscourge Chain had transferred enough damage to finally end them.

He grinned. Without his new spell, that would have taken quite a bit more Mana and effort.

All that was left was mopping up the stragglers that had survived. Ray converted his Spiritguard orbs to offensive stance. The last of the Stone Lice fell in quick succession.

[Enemy Defeated—Stone Lice]

Tier 11 Monster: Stone Lice [Level 32] x17

Essence: +59,840

Knowledge: +51

True Mana Restored: +5,440

Essence to Level 40: 86,560/131,200

[Reputation Threshold Crossed]

For reaching the 2,000-point threshold, your Knowledge has raised your Intellect by 125.

Knowledge to next Threshold: 2,025/2,500

With all that done, Ray headed forward. He had arrived at a different tunnel through the hole. One that was smaller than the “ground floor” tunnels, but still pretty huge.

Travelling along it was peaceful. There were no more monsters, as indicated by Primordial Gauge. But that only made Ray tense up because he felt as though the dungeon was building up to something.

He was proven right when he encountered his first Dungeon Obstacle.

[Primordial Gauge—Dungeon Obstacle]

Overburdened Shower

Things can only grow so far until their own weight forces them to collapse. You now stand witness to one such incident, where the growth of the world causes it to collapse. Wade through the resulting destruction to forge onwards to your destination.

Ray blinked. The dungeon wanted him to get through a literal meteor shower.

The room the tunnel had opened up to was enormous. It reminded him of the huge space where the Viledrake had lain hidden and waiting. But the difference was that this room was supremely unstable.

Chunks of the couple-hundred-feet high ceiling were constantly fracturing apart and crashing down to the floor below. The endless series of crashing rocks formed a cacophony that surged into Ray’s mind and attempted to scramble his thoughts. That noise alone was so bad, it became way too difficult to just think. Insane.

More importantly, how in the world was he going to get through this mess?

It took him dome time to figure out how to go about the Dungeon Obstacle. Thankfully, he wasn’t being harried by more of the Stone Lice, so he could take his time gathering is runaway thoughts.

Ray cast a series of four different spells. Soulstrike twice to craft the True Mana arms, a couple of casts of Mottling Spiritguard to have about thirty orbs sticking close to him, Primal Spiritcraft to call up his Soaring Wings, and Lifeblood Soulform to conjure Impervious Shell.

For the last one, Ray used his Mana-Infuser Ring to raise Lifeblood Soulform’s Tier to Tier 8. That made sure the Impervious Shell he called up was much larger and thicker than normal. He would need it against those crashing rocks.

But the first step forward Ray took had him halting to a stop. There was a set of new sounds among the detonating impacts of the falling rocks. Sounds he hadn’t been able to make out before because everything else had drowned them. Sounds he would have failed to notice if Primordial Gauge hadn’t warned him.

There were monsters within that mess of falling rocks. Hundreds upon hundreds of monsters.

Ray took a deep breath. Alright, this was going to need a slightly different approach. Good thing he knew just what he had to do. All he had to see was whether it would work.