ISMUND

That must’ve done a number on her, watching that fight. Never thought I’d think of that as troublesome for anybody.

Snorting, I lift my fingers and count off her reactions to stress. Good to know that her being scared leads to projection, blaming, and assumptions.

I chuckle darkly to myself knowing that the best way to execute my revenge is to have a reliable companion, even if it hurts my pride I would rather have her here where it’s harder for her to damage my status.

She may be annoying and foolish, but she’s still human and I’m pretty much stuck with her for who knows how long. Hopefully, that’ll all resolve itself. Letting out a plume of steam from my sigh, I continue thinking.

What can I do so she is helpful but also not going to stab me in the back from being emotional again or accidentally kill herself somehow?

Scratching my chin in thought, I resolve:

She needs to learn to do her magic to keep herself farther from the front lines, she probably wants to do that anyway. Considering that she had a healing aspect and I look like somebody tried to kill me with a death of a thousand cuts she has material to practice on.

I wince at the thought of her messing up.

You always have to make a sacrifice for things that are worthwhile right?

I guess I can also get her at least on the field in a way she’s not in any actual danger and is being ‘helpful’ in her own eyes.

Nodding to myself I holler over to the Ms. emotional mess. “We're going back into the hallway to camp, the next one ahead that is.”

* * *

DRIFA

Hearing Ismund call me over, I internally cringe.

I guess I am hungry and he has all the food.

Groaning, I get up and slowly walk over to the hallway mentioned, and upon taking a closer look I can see that he’s far closer to the tunnel-esque hallway.

I guess he has a head start, he’ll probably need it given the injuries. Should I say sorry? I mean I wasn’t all the way wrong, I don’t want to give him the wrong impression…

As I walk over I mull it over it and decide to just leave it and say sorry if it’s brought up.

And hopefully it isn’t.

Upon arriving in the next hallway I find that it looks just the same as the last one, boring with stunted frozen bushes.

Looking around the corner I see Ismund with a tent set up.

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I guess we’ll be here for a while then, huh?

As soon as I’m in the hallway completely Ismund pokes his head out of the tent’s door flap.

“While I’m recovering you’ll work on practising you’re ‘magic’. Speed up my recovery if you can, otherwise, this dungeon might outlast our resources.” Ismund orders, and then slips back behind the tent flap.

Is this Ismund being grumpy, friendly, or just Ismund? Hmm…

Moving on I look at the description for my [Pure Magic].

Hopefully, this keeps me away from the front lines.

> [User can manipulate Snow and it’s aspects: frost, purity,healing, and wind. Pure energy magic is based directly on Soul tier and understanding. Increase in your understanding of Pure Magic to upgrade or soul tier. User Drifa has been given the ability to vaguely sense different energy sources upon contact.]

After re-reading the notification I look at my Status and find my soul tier slightly above average, that being [C-].

Ah, yeah so really just barely able to do any magic but I guess that makes sense since I don’t know anything about it yet and my soul tier is only like 3 points above [D] tier.

Adjusting my position to be more comfortable I snap a cold, brittle, stick off of a branch and try to ‘vaguely sense different energy sources upon contact.’

I mean like it’s cold I guess.

Frowning I ask the System for help.

> [Prior to you, no human could preform true or pure magic as it was previously restricted by the System. All tasks relating to this type of magic cannot be assisted by the System in any significant way unless already preformed by the user.]

Isn’t that kinda stupid though? Like, couldn’t you have just allowed everybody who was capable of using this magic access to it and just cleaned all of the energy quickly or something?

> [Negative. It was deemed unnecessary to give users of the System that much assistance, by the time the System had decided to start running calculations regarding the concept users had begun rebelling against the System and siding with the invaders. Once this had occurred the System couldn’t risk allowing this magic due to it’s connection with corrupted energy. If a user with this magic converted over to the invaders then they would have a massive head start in the corrupted magic than they would’ve if they didn’t participate in pure magic.]

At that, I just sigh.

Well, I guess I might as well figure it out then.

Because of the description of contact, I grab a stick off of a bush.

I mean like I think it’s cold I guess but I’m not getting anything meaningful from it. Wait. Why would the System even give me the ability to hear things well, it’s not like that’s related to snow I don’t think. HEY SYSTEM, WHY’D YOU DO IT?!

> [Some correlations to pure and corrupted energy and sound is indicated by some observations.]

So should you update how I ‘sense’ the magic or whatever?

> [Theory has not been proved.]

Face palming I think:

Of course not.

Sighing once again, I get to my feet and scoot closer to the tent.

“Hey, uhhh, Ismund,” I call over trying to get his attention.

“Mm?”

“I’m going to switch what I’m hearing, so I won’t hear you.”

A thumbs-up just pops out of the tent flap.

So is that how it’s going to be then huh? Wait one second, isn’t he supposed to be the grumpy one? He’s been almost cheerful since we’ve been down here comparatively. Maybe he’s in his element? He seems to dislike monsters.

…

That just means that I need to be cheerful again because I don’t want him to be the cheerful one, we’d have probably fallen on dark days if that was the case.

I pause and look around for a second.

Oh yeah, we already kind of are I guess. Well, I still want to not be the grumpy one.

Nodding in affirmation to myself I mess around with my bandana settings.

> [Removed target user Ismund from specialized hearing selection, new target, energy.]

Can I manipulate the energy yet?

> [Negative. User must understand the energy and it’s concepts to manipulate.]

Aw, man.

Finally beginning the process of sensing and understanding it or whatever I strain my ears. At first, I find nothing, and for the following few minutes, I hear what sounds like the gross noise radios make while going between channels just without the voices.

Cringing back I try to block it out and I’m once again met with silence.

That was weird.

> [System update! User can sense energy sources via sound. It is theorized that user Drifa will be able to sense a concept if it is related to snow.]

Hopefully, it’s more accurate this time. HEY SYSTEM! IS THE ENTIRE DUNGEON FILLED WITH CORRUPT ENERGY?!

> [Yelling is not necessary-]

Fine.

> [A dungeon is a intermediary point for invaders (filled with corrupt energy) and Earth. The dungeon is naturally fuelled by and made with corrupt energy. the only space in the dungeon which corrupt energy does not reside is the protection domes around user Ismund and Drifa as part of their contract.]

Ah.

Focusing on my hearing again I notice a constant hum of energy around me and outside of that sphere I notice the chaotic static noise. Wincing, I try to figure it out.

Seems like that’s probably the ‘corrupt energy’. Sounds horrible.

Wincing from the noise, I figure it’s good if I can find an intermediary section of transition between the two energies because I probably can’t just exclusively use the stuff in the dome. If I can figure out how to convert the corrupt energy then I should be able to make some pretty big spells.

I smile at the thought.

Straining my ears a little too much I feel something warm pool in my ear. Reaching up to it I bring my hand away I find that it’s red.

Oh, shoot.