While swimming towards the ravine I couldn’t help but think back on my combat methods. I had been using solely magic for most of my battles, and there was nothing wrong with that, but my skill at close range combat was painful to think about. It made me wonder about getting a combat instructor to help me improve my deficiencies, I could definitely make good use of it with stealth and ambushes. Currently I could make up for my inexperience with my body augmentation, and maybe that was good enough, but there was just something about wielding a weapon expertly that just sounded awesome.

Reaching the edge of the ravine, I decided to rest and recover my mana before exploring further. Keeping portals open for long periods of time was definitely draining on my mana even if it was 100 times cheaper with my [Magical Physique].

While I was floating in the water waiting for my mana to recover, I couldn’t help but smile as I thought about all the things I’ve been able to collect from this expedition, if it were anyone else they would’ve ran out of space in their bags a long time ago, even if they had a spatial storage. Being able to find and practice this Internal World technique is nothing short of a miracle, without it I would have had to leave behind so much loot, and that would be a tragedy.

After resting for a while I recovered my missing mana and was ready to explore the ravine. Looking up towards the sky, I saw that the moon had barely moved from its original position, and even though it was nearing the time light would begin to shine in the outside world, there was no indication that such an event was even close to happening here. Maybe it’ll be night for my entire stay on this level? Awesome. I would’ve never been able to experience something like this back on Earth.

Swimming over to the ravine I studied it a little closer. The diagonal ravine was on average about 20 meters across from edge to edge at its thinnest, and it was like a slice into the inner workings of the cave system below; there were many different cave tunnels that intersected with the ravine, each with their own unique environments and life forms. Along the walls of the ravine were also many different shelves that would no doubt have the possibility of holding a treasure chest if I didn’t have the No System Loot Challenge active, the thought hurt me a little bit, but I just had to remind myself that random loot wasn’t anywhere near the value of the chosen loot I would get at the end of the Tribulation.

Some parts of the ravine glowed with neon colors, and other parts of the ravine were shaded in dark shadows leaving it up to the imagination what could be hidden within.

As I swam through the ravine, always under the stealth spell, I caught sight of a few different packs of the same serpentine monsters I had encountered before, there were also crabs with claws the size of my body, and clams that gave off an alluring mental persuasion making me want to take the shining pearl from within its open mouth. Of course this mental persuasion didn’t do much to me, but it made me wonder if mental magic and skills were more common among water based organisms than it was on land.

Normally very few non sentient animals would have mental magic or skills, after all it was much easier to kill things with sharp claws or fast projectiles, but underwater, movement was indeed harder than in the air, so mental magic’s range was definitely farther ranged than projectiles in this environment. Even a passive effect, like the one this clam employed, was probably just as long ranged as any other projectile would be able to reach before losing its killing power, though mental spells did cost quite a bit of mana on the downside.

Mental magic and skills are relatively common amongst Humans, though not nearly as common as it is among some of the other sapient races. I recall one race where every individual was able to use mental magic at birth, truly terrifying.

Thinking about mental magic got me wondering about what I wanted to do after I left the Dungeon of Tribulation. I once had a dream of attending an institute to get a higher level of education and increase my magical knowledge, especially mental magic with its major difficulty. But do I really need that anymore? I mean I have over 100 years of magical experience at this point, what would an institute even be able to teach me? Then again, most of what I know about magic is from my experimentation and extrapolation off of the level 1 information I was able to learn from The Ever Present Archives. Maybe if I were to go to an institution I would be able to increase my magical ability by many folds. I’ll have to look more into it once I leave here, knowledge is power after all, and I don’t know what I don’t know.

Farther ahead in the ravine I could hear it before I saw it. A low hum entered my ears, sounding like it was coming from all directions at once due to being underwater; ahead of me a swarm of silver metallic insects shot out of one of the cave tunnels at a fast speed. Each insect seemed to be moving through the water through some kind of propulsion shooting a jet of water behind them. After exiting the cave they all dispersed through the ravine, going to collect and eat from various plants.

Looking at the industrious workers made me think about something else.

Another thing I need to think about after I leave here. Money and business. I already have these two things in trust with Genesis, but I need to build up my own company instead of relying solely on Genesis’s endeavors. If I’m eventually going to be immortal I’ll want to get my wealth boulder rolling, the sooner the better; I’ve heard it said that not all immortals will be massively wealthy, but any immortal that focuses even a little bit on money will definitely be massively wealthy.

Always remember the first rule of warfare: Compound interest is the most effective weapon.

-Break-

I spent more than 4 days exploring the ravine and underwater caves, finding many rare materials and fascinating creatures during my adventures, and just like my previous deduction it had stayed night time, even until now. During this time I didn’t come across the Champion of this level, and it got me wondering what was going on. The difficulty of this level was only level 6 by my estimates, so I should have no difficulty taking on whatever Champion was within this level, but I hadn’t found any traces of it at all.

Where could it be? I’ve looked all over and still haven’t found it. The only place I can think of it being that I haven’t checked out is wherever the vortexes I’ve seen lead to. Well it’s nearing the end of my time on this level anyways, and I wanted to check out the vortexes anyways…

By this point I had been awake for more than 4 days straight, and my reasoning capabilities were maybe a bit dampened at the moment, but I couldn’t very well sleep when I had to keep a portal spell active at all times in order to breathe. Sure I might be able to keep a simple spell active while I was asleep through the use of my Adaptive Mind, but the portal spell was much too complex for that. So I had to resort to meditative exercises instead of sleep, and although they worked wonders they were starting to give diminishing returns.

I decided that if I was going to be taking on the Champion of this level I should try to do it now, before it was too late.

-Break-

On the swim back to the nearest vortex I tried to shut down my mind and meditate as much as possible, and I was able to recover to a certain extent by the time I reached the vortex. My concentration and mind are good for now, but it’ll probably only last for a few hours at most. Better make the most out of it.

Taking out the spear I looked at the slowly spinning vortex and swam forward allowing it to pull me in. It was a good thing that the vortex wasn’t very fast, it allowed me to avoid the many obstacles on my way through the winding tunnels. As I went along the tunnels many more vortexes joined together growing stronger like multiple streams coming together to form a raging river.

Soon after the vortex reached its peak, I emerged into a bright cylindrical cavern pulsing with multicolored light along its smooth outer walls.

Before I could start to really analyze anything I threw myself towards the walls of the cavern with some water magic, and I subsequently anchored myself to the walls with a spell I had already prepared.

With my position secured my next order of business was to analyze this room. Immediately, almost against my will, my eyes were drawn to the ginormous plant in the center of the room.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The plant was pulsing with colors that lit up the sides of the room. The colors were swirling around its large frills that spiraled in a corkscrew down the base of the plant.

The colors started at the top of the plant and spiraled outward and downward towards its base, and the currents of the water seemed to be pulled along by these colorful lights. This plant was obviously what led to the swirling vortex pulling water in from above. Near the bottom of the plant were multiple different exits in the rock that the water could leave from.

Analyzing the plant with my Skill I got a simple description (Vivid Vortex: Creates a vortex that pulls in other creatures. It collects these creatures to preserve them, feeding off of their mana.)

With this description of the plant I noticed that along the swirling frills of the plant were pink, long, wavy hairs that flowed along with the current, and from my observation, I knew that these pink hairs were likely meant to grab any passing prey and lead it towards the center of the plant where it would be preserved and used like a living mana battery.

It probably has to use all of that mana just to keep this vortex running all the time. If I could get my hands on its metaphysical organ I would be able to create something amazing with it. Something like a tank, a flying device, a laser gun, power armor, a wand, a stealth kit. So many things would be possible to make if I had this plant's metaphysical organ.

While I was fantasizing about these things, I saw a small seal-like creature fall down through the vortex above. At first the creature was struggling against the current, but then it layed its eyes on the plant and seemed to be mesmerized by the pulsing colors. The creature stopped its struggle and was promptly ensnared by the plants pink hair, the seal-like creature was then handed down the plants pink hair and was carried down to the base of the plant before being fed into a ‘mouth’ at the base of the plant and disappearing.

A question popped into my head after I saw this, Why wasn’t the seal struggling at all? Was it too tired from struggling against the vortex before? Yeah that must be it.

I felt like I was missing something, like a tickling sensation in the back of my mind, but no matter how much I tried to think about it I couldn’t seem to put my finger on it. I’m sure it's nothing. In fact why am I even clinging to this wall? That plant looks so much more comfortable than this.

I felt that there was nothing wrong with this though, in fact it sounded better and better as I thought about it. Before I knew it I had released myself from the wall and swam towards the plant. It’s… So… Beautiful…

My mind slowed down as I admired the Vivid Vortex’s beauty and let my body follow along the current towards the plant. I stopped swimming as I just couldn’t focus on anything else but admiring the Vivid Vortex, and even its name fell out of my mind as I neared the plant. At this point the only thing I was able to focus on besides the plant was keeping the portal in my throat open, I couldn’t very well admire the plant’s beauty if I was unconscious from lack of air after all.

Having started at the edge of the room it took me longer than it normally would to reach the plant if I had come in from the top, so by the time I reached the plant I was close to the bottom of the spiral. I was a bit annoyed that I wouldn’t be able to admire the plant if I exited out the bottom, but fortunately my body brushed up against the plants pink hairs and was ensnared by them before I could exit the room.

As soon as my body was ensnared by the pink hair I felt a stinging sensation, but it barely registered to my foggy mind. Then I felt more and more stings assault my body, and even though I didn’t really register what was happening, my failsafe programs I had set up with (Mental Operator) did, and my (Mental Operator) fired into action.

All of my senses were abruptly shut off, my control over my body was shut down, and my Magical Physique was manually flipped on to resist all magic (except for spatial magic, because, again, breathing was kind of important). In the void of my own mind, without anything to distract me, my mind accelerated to top speed and (Mental Operator) threw all of the things I had been ignoring in my metaphorical face. As if my mind was thrown into cold water, everything became clear in that moment.

I was being mentally manipulated.

Even now with my Magical Physique blocking everything it could, I could still feel a slight tickling in the back of my mind that wants me to ignore everything and just focus on the Vivid Vortex.

I reacted violently to this revelation, and if not for my body being disconnected from my control I would’ve blasted out with all of the magic I could, to get back at this plant that had dared to manipulate me. After a moment of violent rejection, more of (Mental Operator)’s failsafes kicked in, and my mind became extremely calm and cold.

(Mental Operator)’s energy pool started to drain at a steady pace as it fought against my natural mental state, it wasn’t draining too rapidly though. It should last for at least an hour at this rate. Normally (Mental Operator) would try to keep its intrusion to a minimum, but my current situation called for drastic measures. My cold mind quickly analyzed everything and switched (Space-Time Sense) and (Physical Augmentation) to [Active Skills] along with (Mental Operator).

My [Magical Physique] resisted everything it could, but whatever those pink hairs had injected into me was acting on a more than magical level. So I augment my body with general enhancement magic to try and combat the venom inside of me while I take stock of my outside situation with (Space-Time Sense). My body is being moved towards the base of the plant where I saw the seal-like creature enter before, and it won’t be but a few seconds before I reach the same entrance.

In these tense few seconds before I reach my destination, my body has purged the venom’s effects and I get ready to take action as soon as its ‘mouth’ opens. I could rush away from the plant and escape, but my original goal when entering this place was to fight the Champion, and under the effects of (Mental Operator) I had done the calculations and determined that I could take this Vivid Vortex out as long as I could enter its insides.

As its mouth opened to let me in, I broke free of the last thin pink hairs that held me and rushed into the opening. Once I entered I got a much clearer view now that my (Space-Time Sense) wasn’t blocked by anything, and I did not like what I saw. A multitude of tentacles as thick as my arms were moving towards me, moving as fast as they could, but these tentacles didn’t seem to be designed for speed and were sluggish at best, so my cold mind analyzed everything and determined that they were no threat.

However, breaking past my (Mental Operator)’s failsafes was just one thought. Tentacles… FOR THE LOVE OF JILLY, WHY IN TH-…! This threatened to shatter the calm that (Mental Operator) was enforcing due to it compounding with me being mentally manipulated, (Mental Operator) wasn’t that weak though, and my cold mind continued to carry out the tasks it needed to. But the rate at which (Mental Operator)’s power reserves were being drained increased exponentially. At this rate (Mental Operator) won’t last another 5 minutes. I need to deal with this quickly.

My enhanced muscles pumped my legs and pushed me through the water towards what my (Mana Sense) saw as a pulsing reactor of power, even in its current place in Inactive Skills. Focusing my senses in that direction I see the outline of a spherical mass attached to the base of the plant by a stalk larger than my torso, with many different threads extending out from its spherical surface. Whatever this thing is, it’s filled to the brim with mana. If I can get rid of it then the plant is sure to shut down.

I create a long blade of water and use it to sever the sphere from its stalk along with many of the threads as well. The whole plant seemed to shudder at this, but the sphere didn’t fall from the stalk. The plant's connection to this sphere is obviously more than just physical.

So I don’t hesitate and start swinging my water blade and severing all of the other threads leaving nothing but the sphere and the stalk. At this point Vitality was the only thing holding the sphere in place and keeping the plant supplied with mana.

Letting my water blade disperse I swim underneath the sphere and use my strength to separate the sphere from its stalk. I could feel the pull its Vitality had increasing the farther the sphere separated from the stalk, but I only needed it to be separated just enough for me to fire off one of my spell crystals. A teleportation spell crystal with enough power to overcome the plant’s natural defenses was instantly drained of power, sending the sphere into my Internal World and severing its connection to the plant.

Without its supply of mana all of the magical functions the plant had been supporting abruptly shut off. Apparently it was supporting its very life with the mana from that sphere, because all of the tentacles that had almost made their way to me flopped to the ground motionless, and all movement stopped. The slight mental influence I could feel from the plant went away as well.

(Mental Operator) was down to about 10% at this point, and seeing that everything was taken care of it released its hold and went back to normal operations.

My senses returned to me just as abruptly as they had left, and immediately I felt my heart start racing, my whole body started to shake, everything tensed up, including my lungs, making it difficult to breathe, and I started to feel dizzy as my mind spiraled out of control. I closed my eyes and laid on the floor in a fetal position. This- I can’t- Nope, just no…

All of the things that (Mental Operator) had been holding back had taken over and I just couldn’t handle it all at once. (Mental Operator) tried to soften the blow, but with it running on such low reserves there was only so much it could do.

This was the first time in a long time that I had had a panic attack.

With (Mental Operator) I had managed to get through all of my trauma and loneliness I had suffered for all of those years, but this Vivid Vortex just had to strike me right where it hurt, plus tentacles. Just why, why did it have to have tentacles?

I couldn’t even move or observe my surroundings, and I just laid there on the floor for what felt like forever. Eventually (Mental Operator)’s power reserves recovered to a point where I could dull everything enough for me to move around. Just focus on your tasks. One thing at a time.

I numbly went around and collected everything worth collecting from the Vivid Vortex, but it all went by in a blur. When I exited the plant from where I entered I only had one thing on my mind. Sleep. At this point I just wanted some sweet oblivion to distract me from my problems. I was sure that everything would be so much better after I got a good sleep, I just needed to figure out how I was going to do that…