My mana was draining far faster than I was used to as I layered the enchantments on the thin blade. Working with a weak affinity was completely different from using one at the other end of the spectrum.

Even so, gaining access to my own personal reserve of Arcane mana was worth the small inconvenience of needing to take breaks while crafting growth items.

It still amazed me that I was capable of crafting such items. I’d been crafting like a mad-woman since returning from the Trial, though I’d likely have done that anyway had I chosen the skill upgrade.

Most of the items I’d crafted would serve as gifts for friends and family once I left the dungeon – a benchmark that I was growing ever closer to reaching.

I was still a little bummed that I wasn’t already a Master Enchanter, but I told myself that I could always boost the skill during the next Trial. It was true, after all.

Maybe I’d get lucky and the dungeon wouldn’t have additional restrictions on the next one. It would be great if I could accomplish such an important feat before taking my decade-long break from the dungeon.

As the enchantment fully manifested and anchored to the weapon, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

‘Zavira is already at the restaurant,’ Lisa informed me, saving me the trouble of needing to read the last couple of messages that had been blinking incessantly for the last few minutes.

“Thanks,” I said aloud.

I stored my newest creation and took a moment to clean myself up before teleporting just outside of the restaurant Zavira had selected for dinner.

I was only a little surprised that neither of us had been attacked since the Trial, though we’d provided ample opportunities for greedy challengers to make a move.

Between the natural deterrence that came from killing everyone who tried and our continued progression, it was only a matter of time before the stubbornly greedy were taken care of.

Adding my new status as a tri-affinity mage into the mix… I doubted anyone would bother us further.

Even native dungeoneers appeared to have a weird sort of reverence for tri-affinity mages. It seemed that reverence even extended to someone they knew hadn’t awoken as such.

“You’re late,” Zavira chided as I sat down. Her mauve sect robes had been augmented with a thin belt of dark silver cloth that she must have obtained through the kiosk. “I already ordered a couple of appetizers. They should be out any minute.”

“Thanks,” I said sincerely before reaching for the glass of water in front of me. “Sorry about the delay. I still haven’t gotten used to using my own Arcane mana instead of a core. It takes so much more mana to do anything. I have no idea how people with weak affinities get anything accomplished.”

“They usually don’t become crafters,” Zavira said with an amused grin. “If they do, they use mana cores almost exclusively. As you know, the results are never quite as good, so not a lot of people go that route.”

I inclined my head toward my friend. Her comments made sense from a certain perspective. I had no doubt some low-tier crafters could be quite successful using nothing but mana cores, but it wouldn’t be sustainable beyond a certain level.

“How is your new Metal affinity working out for you?” I asked, shifting the focus of the conversation to my companion.

Zavira and I had both decided to spend a few months focused on training with our new affinities before re-entering the labyrinth – not that either of us necessarily needed to wait on the other. However, we both felt the desire to test our new affinities, not just via crafting, but also with a bit of spell casting.

Years ago, I’d given Zavira a copy of the booklet that I’d made out of the game guide I’d created for Earthborn to help with the transition, so she already had access to a decent number of basic Metal spellforms without needing to purchase them through the system.

I used the same resource to learn several Arcane spells – with Lisa’s help, of course. I also did a fair bit of Spell Modification to adapt some of the other elemental spellforms into something that worked with Arcane mana.

They took more mana to use, but that was a fair exchange for the massive increase in flexibility.

Further, I found that adding a bit of Arcane mana to my regular spells made them significantly more effective. It was a similar principle to mixing Time and Space mana to get greater effects, except that when adding Arcane mana, the original spell effects were multiplied instead of merely enhanced with a second element.

“It’s good,” Zavira said. “I’ve spent a lot of time Meditating on the element, and I feel like that has improved my connection quite a bit. It never made much of a difference when I did so before, but now that I have the affinity…” Zavira trailed off as a low-tier waiter brought out the appetizers and took our meal orders.

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As he walked away, I wondered if conveniences like restaurants with people working in service-type jobs would exist on higher floors. Aside from a single challenger claiming to have been born on the ninth floor – a claim I’d only heard secondhand – I hadn’t heard of anyone growing up on a higher floor.

Dungeon challengers almost never worked regular jobs or performed roles that didn’t contribute to their progression, so unless there was a community of non-challengers, I couldn’t see such amenities being available.

There might be people with crafting skills or lifestyle professions, but without support personnel, their efforts wouldn’t become available to others.

Unless everything was handled through the kiosk. I wasn’t sure how that would work for something like Cooking, though.

It would certainly make obtaining certain types of alternate experience more difficult.

“I should probably do the same thing,” I commented after quickly scanning both dishes with my MealMaker. Because we hadn’t taken advantage of the limited restaurants on the floor like we had on previous floors, there were still several dishes I hadn’t obtained the blueprint for.

Reading into my comment, Zavira asked, “You haven’t Mediated on your new affinity yet?”

“I have,” I replied. “But it wasn’t the same as connecting to Time or Space for the first time.”

I remembered the experience distinctly, even though it had been a lifetime ago. The first time I’d Meditated after the system had activated – back in the first timeline – I’d gained a whole new understanding of my affinities by tapping into the ethereal streams that represented the two mana types.

At the time, only Space and Time were accessible, with faint sparks of colors in the background being all that represented my non-affinities.

Now, in addition to the shimmering Time stream and the deep purple Space stream that I’d grown accustomed to, there was a dark black strand of mana that seemed to almost absorb hints of every other mana type.

The strand was so faint that I had difficulty connecting to it, which made insights into the new magic type nearly impossible. I hoped that, with time, that would change.

“I understand that,” Zavira said between bites of the small appetizers. “My Force affinity is so much more robust than Metal, but I’ve still made progress with it. It probably helps that I’ve been working with Metal practically my whole life.”

The meal was delivered a few minutes later, and we continued to chat about our experiences with our new affinities as the food slowly disappeared.

Neither of us worried about being overheard by nearby diners. By this point, almost everyone knew about our gains from the Trial, so there was little reason not to discuss the topic.

“Oh, I meant to tell you,” Zavira said before we left the restaurant. “I ran into Niall earlier today. I think he’s hoping to reconnect with you on the next floor. I told him you were close to moving on, but you’d be taking a break. He mentioned catching up and perhaps working together. I reminded him that I likely wouldn’t return for the foreseeable future, but I don’t think he cared. He seemed more interested in accompanying you, anyway.”

I’d maintained a friendly relationship with the Kastet in the years since he’d left our party, and we still honored our original agreement about exchanging Void mana for an updated E3 talisman, but I really hadn’t gotten the impression that he was interested in rejoining us.

Part of that might have been circumstantial, but with my expected break, it was entirely possible that he would not only catch up, but bypass us.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said neutrally. “He was a very reliable teammate while we were together.”

“His fighting style isn’t really compatible with the ‘blast everything’ method you’ve shifted to,” Zavira said jokingly.

“I don’t always fight that way,” I rebutted. “I’ve had to get used to fighting more conservatively in the labyrinths. I can do more than just throw manatech spell effects or freeze opponents!”

Zavira chuckled. “I know. But you have to admit, anytime you’re faced with more than a few opponents, you tend to lean toward high-impact ranged attacks or putting everyone in time-out. For all your training, melee fighting still isn’t your strong suit.”

She wasn’t wrong – not that she was much better. With our joint efforts in crafting, we’d both gotten spoiled as far as manatech weaponry went.

“I’m probably going to make a push for the eighth floor soon,” I said a few minutes later. “As long as you don’t take too long, I’ll wait for you before leaving the dungeon. Hell, I might end up staying a little after that, depending on the timing.”

Zavira’s expression slipped. “I’m not sure how long I want to stay once I reach the next floor,” she replied with a frown. “I wouldn’t mind doing another Trial and getting Metal Magic Mastery, but if it isn’t something available right away, I probably won’t stay very long. This floor has been… rough. If it wasn’t for the potential benefits of reaching the next floor, I would probably leave now.”

I understood her perspective. The isolation involved with being forced to go solo in the labyrinth was no joke. For someone as social as Zavira, it had to be torture.

Adding that to the strain of being constantly on guard around the other challengers… I could see why she’d be eager to leave the dungeon.

In fact, I figured there was a good chance she’d never come back once she left, even if she did make it to the eighth floor.

“It’s fine,” I assured her. “You don’t have to stay with me. If you don’t think you’ll come back, you shouldn’t force yourself to stay for my sake. I’m trying to time things where I meet up with my family on Hadier just before Amie’s fifteenth birthday. Since they normally do awakening ceremonies during the fifteenth year, I don’t want to risk missing it.”

“I’ll admit, not having you on the same floor is going to make it so much worse,” Zavira said with a sad smile, “I’ll try to see it as motivation to progress faster instead of letting myself give up. I’ve never been a quitter.”

Communicating between floors was a lot like communicating with people outside of the dungeon – message exchanges only occurred once a month, and everything was censored. I wasn’t looking forward to losing my sole conversation partner.

“Well, that’s still a couple of years away, even with my new power-up,” I said soothingly. “With my ability to teleport being nerfed, it’ll still take time to make my way through the labyrinth.”

That was only partially true since I could still teleport within range of Spatial Sense. While the dungeon heavily restricted both abilities, it didn’t completely negate them.

Seeing through my falsehood, Zavira scoffed lightly and straightened her back. “Right. Well, I’ll be sure to make it to the next floor before you leave. I can’t have you showing me up too much. I’d never hear the end of it.”

The last part was said with a smile, but having discussed our respective Patriarch’s friendship before, I didn’t doubt there was a kernel of truth to the comment.