The room had now changed.  Gone were the spectral blankets and now the room was covered in a spectral paint.  It was possible to leave now, but Jude was unsure of the degree of protection that would give them.  So Jude’s focus right now was to Rank up his skills.

Ellie had tasked herself to cleaning up the room and organizing it.  There wasn’t much in the now purple/blue room, except for a bed, two chairs, and a table.  Some food and water were laid out as Jude wasn’t sure how long they would be here.  Ellie’s other task was to work on her crafting.  Using the weapons, they had gathered, she repaired them, dismantle them, then reforge them into smaller objects.  She didn’t have all the necessary equipment so she relied on skills and a massive amount of mana.  This, unfortunately, slowed the process down by a lot.

Ellie sat at the table, while Jude sat on the bed. 

Instead of directly trying to Rank Up skills he was experimenting with his Modicuit and how mana interacted with it.  This had been the key to ranking up skill so fast in the past, so if he could understand it further it would only be good for him.  At first, he thought that a point of mana was like an electron or a bit of data.  But this was clearly not the case as it took a lot more than a bit to activate a skill, while at the same time most of his skills only used a single mana point.  Every action he took, would break down the mana into individual points that would enter the Modicuit at different locations.  Each of these bits would then run along the lines of the Modicuit and interact with each other at different gates.  The result would then be stored in a register (processor memory) until he sounded out the name of the skill.  Once he sounded out the name the register would then output the final form and manifest it in reality.

What Jude was trying to figure out was the limitations of the system.  How much information was a single mana point?  Was it 8 bits(1byte)? Was it 8 or 16 bytes?  Perhaps it was a whole kilobyte.  However, once it got that big, it would be hard to enter the information into a skill.  He also wondered about the registers.  So far he was only interacting with one, but in most computer systems there are multiples. 

If one register could hold a byte, that means he was working on an 8-bit system.  But with the complexity of everything he had seen so far, especially the Digital Plane, made him doubt that it was limited to only 8-bits.  He was hoping for at least 4 registers, a 32-bit system would give him a wide range of possibilities.  But he had yet to access the other registers or knew where they were.  And all skills used the same register.

***

Jude spent the rest of the day exploring the Modicut.  Ellie had moved to the bed and was sound asleep.  A lot of scrap now filled the table, the scrap was pieces that no longer had value and skills could not alter.  Half the material they had brought still remained, but now in a different form.

His day of exploring the Modicut hadn’t provided all that he hoped, but it still was profitable.  He had mapped out a large chunk of and with this foundation, he would be able to launch a more comprehensive search in ranking up his skills.

It was already late according to the Local Time of Grimwar Caves.  Jude made himself as comfortable as he could on the floor and slept.

***

The next morning, both Jude and Ellie woke up early.  It wasn’t easy sleeping in a dungeon surrounded by skeletons.  Even more so for Jude since he didn’t know if his would turn off while he slept.  Not that he told Ellie that.  Staying up was not an option, his body was young and needed a lot of sleep.  Forcing himself to stay awake with no entertainment or caffeine would prove to be impossible.  Plus, it undermined what he was trying to accomplish.   However, it didn’t matter as the spectral paint seemed to last all night just fine.

As they ate breakfast Jude asked, “Is it just me, or is it strange that there is a tavern inside a dungeon?”

“Not really,” Ellie explained, “According to legend, Grimwar used to be the newbie town.  Apparently, the lord of Grimwar committed several taboos’ which ended up burying the whole town and turning everyone into the undead.  Since it is connected to the Allur Forest the whole thing got absorbed into the .  Now they are forever stuck here to be endlessly respawned.”

“Is this classified as a dungeon?”

“Yes.  This is Allur Forest’s only dungeon.”

“Only dungeon?  Then shouldn’t there be a lot of people here?”  Dungeons were typical places for fantasy games to level up.  They usually offered better EXP and items.

“Oh no, dungeons are very dangerous and this dungeon is the most dangerous for its level.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, it’s partly because of the skeletons, it’s hard to get a critical hit even if you aim for one.  Except this dungeon’s spawn rate is exceedingly high and a number of skeletons are high as well.”  Ellie was really knowledgeable, which was to be expected for someone who interacted with people often while repairing gear.

“If it’s that tough, there’s got to be some sort of demerit.  Or perhaps there is a greater reward?”

“I’m not sure about that, but I have heard that skeletons are a little weaker and slower than other creatures.  It’s just that this whole area is a level 10 zone.”  Ellie continued, “No one ever comes here and so there is very little known about it.”

The only other thing Jude could think of was related to his quest.  The were already pretty good reward considering his level at the time.  Perhaps if he could find the next stone here in the dungeon, he would get an even greater reward.  Now, however, was not the time to find it.  First, he had to find the exit and get Ellie out of here.  She was still level 3 and was in a lot more danger of dying than he was in.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

After they finish breakfast, the both went back to their tasks from yesterday.  Jude decided to focus on , while it wasn’t a direct combat skill, he hoped that it would develop into something like a mini map.  If he could know where the skeletons were, combined with spectral objects blocking their presence, they might be able to sneak out of here.

He spent an hour working on it but had very little luck.  Just when everything would come together it would fall apart again.  It was like there was a wall blocking him or perhaps he was just missing an important circuit.

Missing a circuit?

That’s when he remembered!  When he made the leap forward in he had created a new circuit outside of his Modicuit.  One that ran from his Modicuit to the sword.  Not that it made much sense from a circuitry standpoint, but there is definitely a difference between the circuitry of his old home compared to the ones that made up this new universe.

Perhaps the necessary requirement for a skill to go from Rank III to Rank IV and above is to have this special circuit to be created in the body.  In a strange way, it would make sense.  Having part of the Modicuit leave the brain and enter the body could only make the skills created from the Modicuit stronger.  It was like having direct access!

Rank IV created a circuit to his sword, so would need to create a circuit to his eyes.  But should he do it?  His eyes were very important if something went wrong could he lose his sight?

It had to be worth it.

If not, how would they escape?

He had to take the chance.

Summoning his courage, Jude focused on his Modicuit and then his eyes.   The exploration of his Modicuit from the day before let him with a more intimate feeling for the Modicuit and the strange circuitry of this universe.  Now he tried to bridge the gap between his eyes and Modicuit using that same sensation.  At the same time, he began to cast .

Using practiced care, he activated the skill slowly.  Making sure there were no mistakes.  Ensuring that all his inputs were in perfect harmony and absolutely timed.

“.”

Then he felt a searing pain and a massive headache.  He had his eyes closed for the entire process, monitoring both his Modicuit and is visualization of his eyes connecting to it.  As the pain subsided he opened them.

The world now looked very different.  Before, the spectral paint he had on the walls were see-through and only produced a very small light.  Now, they were bright and very solid looking.  They no longer looked misty and changed colors from blue to purple, but now shown in a vibrant indigo.

When he looked at the bed, chairs, and table they looked like what had in the past.  They were hazy and smoke like with hard outlines.  Their color was that of all sorts of grays. 

Ellie was different too, though her overall coloration was red and the smoky inlays were more organized.  There were two fires inside her.  One was her heart; it was like a raging flame.  The other was her mind, like hot coals.

He didn’t keep it on long, he remembered last time it drained all his mana to make a new connection.  Right now he had to keep up his spectral paint or the undead would soon find him.

At least now he had a better understanding of and how it hid him from the undead.

He checked his notifications.

Spectral Eye

Rank IV

Creates an eye for scouting and spying.  The eye floats and moves according to its masters will up to 200 meters.  Variant: Grants spectral vision.

Spectral Magic

Rank V

A magic of pure ether and mana.  Using nothing but the power of your mana you can create objects and manipulate them to your will.  Special Magic allows you to manipulate the ether.  Calling forth your power from Spectral to Reality.

Spectral Magic is now 50% more powerful.

Skill's Unlocked:

* Spectral Weapons

* Spectral Objects

* Spectral Eye

* Spectral Shield

* Spectral Foundation

Spectral Foundation

Create spectral foundations that exist in reality.  These foundations are used to anchor and effects permanently.

seems interesting, but I will have to look at it more after we get out of here. 

More importantly, breaking through the Rank III barrier on a skill will increase the category ranking.   Meaning, if I can break through to Rank IV on I will get to Rank VI!  And each time I break through all my becomes 10% more powerful!

Before he could do anything, he needed mana.  So after about hour of , he was full on again.  Plus, he had an extra bonus!  Meditation Ranked Up as well!

Meditation

Rank II

Gather mana quicker by sitting down and meditating.  20% Mana regeneration while active.

This was a nice bonus!  From 0 to full it takes an hour to regain his mana.  The first 10% made it a little less than an hour, but now with 20%, it would shave off a whole 10 minutes!

Jude then began working on Ranking Up again and found all the barriers he was having before were no longer there.  They weren’t all successful, but it was only a matter of time before he would get his bird's eye view and hopefully something like a mini map!

***

Another hour went by and by this point, Jude was thoroughly exhausted.  But he was finally successful.  However, it took him all the way to Rank VI to get it.

Spectral Eye

Rank VI

Creates an eye for scouting and spying.  The eye floats and moves according to its masters will up to 5 miles.  Variant: Grants spectral vision. Variant: Unmovable Monitoring Eye.  Variant: Ghost Commander’s Eye.

The Unmovable Monitoring Eye was the second variant that he had unlocked.  It was basically a monitoring system and allowed him to have quite a number of eyes active at one time.  Inside his head was like a classic guard station with a wall of monitors.  At the moment this skill wasn’t useful, what was more useful was the Ghost Commander’s Eye.

Ghost Commander’s Eye variant of allowed him to view an area about the size of the tavern they were in.  It also combined the spectral vision, making everything look ghostly, but he, Ellie and the undead were all bright and clear.  Jude was pretty sure he could get the range to expand. But at the moment he was too tired.

“After a little break,” Jude told Ellie, “I will start doing some tests.  If it works out, we may be able to get out of here.”

Ellie looked up at him excited, “That’s great!  What will the test be?”

“I will go out cloaked in a spectral blanket.  If they don’t see me, we can probably leave.  If they do see me, I will have to see how close we can get before they attack.  Then plan a way out around all of them.”

He wanted to stay in the room longer and continue to rank up skills, but the pressure of the place was wearing on him.  He also didn’t know how long it would take to get out of here and they only had so much food.

After a short break, then he would have some answers.