“…and then I was back in the starting room,” Zavira said as she picked up her drink telekinetically. “My equipment was all torn up, but my body was fine.”

The Force Smith had an amazing amount of fine control over her mana before obtaining Force Magic Mastery, especially when it came to Telekinesis, but it had still taken effort. Now…

“You make that look so easy,” I said as I watched her return the drink to the table before feeding herself a bite-sized tart.

Zavira grinned and quickly swallowed her treat.

“It is! Force Magic Mastery makes little things like this simple! I’m surprised you don’t feel the same way with how similar aspects of Space are.”

“Sure, Telekinesis is easier now, but it isn’t effortless,” I replied. “You make that seem like nothing.”

“Maybe it’s one of the few perks of having a more limited affinity,” Zavira shrugged. “I can’t do as much with Force as you can with Space, but what I can do tends to be stronger at similar affinity ratings. At least, that’s how it was explained to me.”

“That makes sense, I guess,” I said.

And it did, in a lot of ways. An affinity that focused solely on Force and kinetics was going to do that better than an affinity that included aspects of Force and kinetics, but had other things involved as well.

To me, Space was more about distance and density than pressure and movement. I understood the latter’s application to the affinity, but they were definitely more of a secondary set of concepts.

“So, how did you get taken out?” Zavira asked as she leaned back in her chair. “You lasted a couple more days than I did, and you made it to the twentieth floor. That means you successfully completed nineteen paths. That’s four more than I managed.”

I nodded. “I got attacked by five Tier Seven necronychi. They cut right through my barriers, even with modifications to exclude Death mana. They were also able to track me whenever I teleported, which made it hard to avoid follow-on attacks.”

“Why didn’t you use Time magic to freeze them?”

I shook my head. “I tried against a couple of lone necronychus I encountered earlier in the maze, and they just brushed my spells off like they were nothing. If they didn’t out-tier me, that might have been different…”

“Yeah,” Zavira said slowly. “That was bound to happen once we started fighting creatures at high tiers. That’s when natural resistances start appearing. It’s going to make the next floor a lot harder for us.”

I’d already been warned about resistances to control effects by Lisa in her role as my inheritance tutor, so the concept wasn’t new.

Not every creature or person would develop the ability to resist some control spells and effects, but it would become more common, especially against lower-tier effects. Such spells were naturally going to be less effective against higher-tier individuals anyway.

“So, almost dying was certainly not a fun experience,” I added. “Neither was having my barriers cut through like they didn’t exist. Even my Tier Seven [Barrier] talismans broke after a single hit.”

Zavira smiled sympathetically, and her eyes darkened minutely.

“That was a pretty horrible reminder of our mortality,” she said before her expression lightened. “But at least it came with excellent rewards!”

As unsettling as another near-death experience was, I was glad that Zavira had reached her goal. Had she somehow fallen short, she would have been insufferable until we made it to the next Trial.

If the next floor had another restricted Trial, I wasn’t sure how she would have taken it.

Thankfully, that was no longer a concern.

“It did,” I agreed. “Now we just have to figure out what reward to pick next time since neither of us have another affinity to obtain mastery in.”

There had been a couple of new options on my list of potential rewards, neither of which appealed to me overmuch. One had been a growth accessory that I could probably have chosen the effect of, and the other was a set of tools for my tertiary profession.

I wasn’t sure what kind of growth tools a Merchant might need, but it really didn’t matter. I couldn’t see either option being of much value to me, especially with the option of obtaining another growth crafting material still on the list.

Unless I learned about an amazing new skill or spell that I just had to have, my current choice was between getting another growth crafting material or advancing my Enchanting skill.

Between the augments I’d gotten and the inheritance lessons, I was close to breaking into the Expert stage for the skill. If that happened, advancing it to Master and having the system essentially download everything I needed to know seemed like a smart choice.

It would undoubtedly save decades of effort.

My previous knowledge and experience had allowed me to rush through the Basic and Intermediate stages of the skill, but everything had basically ground to a halt once I reached the Advanced stage.

That might have been because I’d only just met the requirements for the stage increase when I sent my memories and a part of my soul back in time during the other timeline. Essentially, that meant that almost everything related to Advanced Enchanting had been new to me.

Even so, I’d been stuck at Advanced for more than a decade and a half, and that was a long time. Being able to skip the Expert stage altogether sounded like an amazing boon.

It would certainly boost my professional experience gains.

But before I could do something like that, I needed to break through my current limits and become an Expert Enchanter.

“I’ll probably push myself to advance as much as possible with Smithing and take the skill upgrade,” Zavira said, her plans mirroring my thoughts.

I nodded. “I’m considering the same thing with Enchanting if I can push it into Expert before we challenge the next Trial.”

“Even if you don’t, the upgrade would almost certainly be worth it,” Zavira commented. “Crafting skills are notoriously hard to advance beyond the Intermediate stage. That’s why most people don’t consider someone a true crafter until their main skill reaches Advanced.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I wasn’t in the mood to defend my decision, so I made a noncommittal sound and let the conversation shift to other topics.

Since Zavira had exited the Trial a couple of days before me, she’d had more time to relax and practice her new skill. After a bit of discussion, we decided to take another week off before heading back out to grind the last two levels we needed to leave the floor.

In truth, I only had a little more than a level left to earn since I’d been ahead of Zavira in experience even before completing four additional paths.

While the experience gains from defeating higher-tier creatures wasn’t a huge windfall, it was significant enough to push me a little farther ahead of my companion.

I didn’t mind since it wasn’t like I’d be forced to tier up as soon as I earned enough experience to do so.

I wasn’t sure how that worked with ascending to a higher realm, given how Sir Eri’Non had started glowing. Maybe crossing realms was different from increasing tiers within the same realm.

I’d find out eventually.

----------------------------------------

Zavira and I crept silently through the mountain pass, shuffling from shadow to shadow to limit the drain on our [Stealth] talismans.

I’d designed them to allow us to see and hear each other, which was important for working with others but made the enchantment much more complicated to craft.

The Sound-attuned materials I’d gathered in the Trial had allowed me to improve my [Invisibility] talisman, and Zavira and I were testing the new design for the first time.

I was saving most of the higher-tier materials for the next floor, but I’d grabbed a few things from my stash to work with early. The items would likely downgrade before we managed to leave the floor, but they’d regain their tier quickly enough once they were surrounded by the higher mana density.

The weapons I’d crafted for the Trial had already started to show signs of degrading when I removed them from [Stasis], so I was limiting how often I used them, even in the peak-tier areas of the floor.

The difference between peak-Tier Six and low-Tier Seven wasn’t just a quantitative thing. There was a qualitative difference in the ambient mana, which made a huge difference in how mana-infused materials performed.

Besides, it wasn’t like I needed overpowered weapons against the peak-Tier Six creatures we were fighting. Even the low-Tier Seven bosses weren’t much of a problem for the two of us after fighting so many higher-level creatures in the Trial alone.

They weren’t easy by any means, but they also weren’t nearly as difficult as the bosses in the Trial had been.

I messaged Zavira to warn her about the creatures up ahead. I was sure she had already noticed them through her perception skills, but it was better to make sure.

She nodded and took the lead.

Normally, I would have just Teleported us wherever we needed to go, but one of our goals for the day was testing the new talisman, which required sneaking up on unsuspecting creatures.

Zavira and I walked right past a pair of dozing Ice creatures that looked similar to porcupines. Their spikes were interlaced almost cutely, and I had my interface capture the image.

We didn’t attack since that wasn’t the purpose of the test.

The two of us encountered similar scenes as we snuck across the peak-tier mountain, giving me several opportunities to capture images of uncommonly docile dungeon creatures. Years before, I’d crafted a device that worked almost like a photo printer, and I was eager to manifest copies of the images and share them.

I was sure Ava would appreciate a few cute animal pictures, even if none of them depicted adorable kittens.

After testing the items against several peak-Tier Six creatures, I Teleported us just outside the closest boss lair.

The boss of the Winter Zone was a yeti, which was basically a thickly furred white gorilla that lived in very cold climates, just like the ones from Himalayan folklore on Earth.

We’d challenged and killed the creature several times leading up to the Trial, but this would be the first time we encountered it since then.

I didn’t use Time magic against the creature, opting to let Zavira take the lead in locking down the boss’s movements with her newly enhanced Force magic.

Enhanced Mana Sight allowed me to watch as the mauve mana swirled around the boss, alerting it to our presence.

Unfortunately for the boss, its body had already been locked in place.

With enough effort, the creature might be able to break through the Force Restraints encircling the creature’s body in thick bands, but we didn’t plan on giving it that chance.

Encapsulating it would block our attacks from getting through, so Zavira had created a prison of connected bands to lock the creature in place instead.

The yeti roared in fury, though the restriction across its chest cut its cry short.

I could tell the creature still had no idea where we were, which was a definite win as far as I was concerned.

After signaling Zavira to let her know my testing was over – for now – we canceled the effects and attacked the creature in earnest.

Though we passed the peak-Tier Six creatures without attacking, the boss was different. There was no reason not to earn a little extra experience and collect more valuable resources since we were there.

Besides, Zavira still needed to test her new control over Force magic.

The yeti’s thick white fur was resilient, but even with the tier advantage, it couldn’t stand against our concentrated effort. Space magic was particularly effective, especially if I used some of the nastier tricks Stella had taught me.

For example, moving a Portal over a creature’s head and then collapsing it was an excellent way to counter a tier-advantage. But spells like that took time and concentration to manifest. That was why they were best used on opponents that were restrained.

But I didn’t use that particular executioner skill this time since it took a lot of mana to move a manifested Portal and the goal really was to let Zavira test the changes in her magic against a higher-tier opponent.

I still cycled through the Tier Six weapons I had on hand to see how effective each one was against a Tier Seven Ice boss while Zavira did her testing.

We moved quickly since neither of us wanted to draw out the creature’s suffering, even if it was just a dungeon-spawn. We also had to be mindful of Zavira’s Force Restraints, which wouldn’t last indefinitely against such a strong creature.

Zavira smiled widely when the yeti fell.

“Did you figure your technique out?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said with a smile. “It was a mix of compression and movement – not quite vibration since that’s more of Sound’s domain, but also not dissimilar.”

I nodded in understanding. There was a lot of overlap in ‘elements,’ or rather, affinities. Some people even called the Sound affinity Vibration since sound was just particles vibrating, though those people were a minority.

I believed that calling the affinity Vibration was more accurate since creatures with a Sound affinity often had non-acoustic abilities. But that was ultimately a matter of semantics, even with a common shared language.

“Congratulations on figuring it out!” I said jovially. “I’m sure having such a powerful technique will be really helpful when we face stronger foes.”

Zavira nodded happily. “Yes. I’m probably going to need it on the next floor.”

My shoulders dropped slightly at the comment.

We’d both done what little research we could into the next floor, and Zavira had personally seen the layout before entering. While we couldn’t be sure it was still the same after so many years, the seventh floor was supposed to be one of the harder floors to complete.

Part of that was because the whole floor – minus the ‘safe zone’ in the middle – was a massive labyrinth that forced parties to split up when they entered. There were safe zones between zones, but you had to get through part of the labyrinth to get to them.

I wondered if the design of the Sixth Floor Trial was meant as a warning or training ground for the people planning to ascend to the next floor. The fact that it was an individual challenge and each ‘path’ after the first was a maze seemed to imply as much.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” I said reassuringly. “We’ll be able to communicate, and there are supposed to be mini-safe zones spread throughout the floor.”

“If that information is still accurate,” Zavira added. “We both know the floor has likely shifted since I entered the dungeon.”

“True, but that’s not something we can control. I still think my idea of Marking you will let me bypass the dungeon’s separation. As long as it doesn’t have some kind of weird [Spatial Lock] in place, I should be able to reconnect to you pretty quickly.”

“We can hope,” Zavira said, though her expression indicated that she didn’t have much faith in my plan.

I understood her worry. If the dungeon really wanted parties to be separated, it probably had ways to limit my ability to get to Zavira without completely locking down the floor.

It wasn’t like I was the first Space Mage to challenge the dungeon, after all.

Regardless, I looked forward to discovering what the seventh floor had in store. It might take a couple more years to get there, but that wasn’t very long in the grand scheme of things.