Being summoned was an exciting experience, especially when you could sense the changes around you. The weird magic that only existed in the endlessly empty space that existed between your origin and your destination.

It was a feeling that I was not convinced everyone would experience. In fact, I thought the System would either hide it or transform it into some other form. I believed that was wrong—that there was untapped power waiting for someone to take it for themselves.

As much as I enjoyed that, watching someone be summoned was boring. The interface to make the process start was overengineered and far from intuitive. Life at Earth had taught me that user experience was important, and Fixun lacked severely in that department.

The act itself was also quite plain. A few beeps as the machines started buzzing aloud, some intermittent sound, a beam of light in the middle of the room, and enough energy to saturate my senses.

Everything here acted as a catalyst, accumulating enough energy to make the transfer smooth and harmless for the person being teleported. It was interesting, but there was nothing for me to learn there.

Claudia appeared after some minutes of annoying sounds. She looked disoriented, but she was otherwise safe and healthy. Yasmin had been worried that the Order had mobilized people to take her sister, but it didn’t look like it. Both of them had always kept an open and active communication, and nothing suggested that was happening.

“So it really happened?” Those were her first words. “You raided the city and installed a summoning site inside a dungeon. Your dungeon.”

“Yes. And I assume you know why you are here, right?”

“I do, and I will help you. You saved my sister when you didn’t have to, and that’s a debt I won’t be able to repay.”

“Good, then I’ll leave you and Yasmin have a chat. I’ll be waiting for you outside.”

It was urgent to learn more about corruption, but not so much that they couldn’t even exchange a few words. I was not sure how long it had been since they last met, but Yasmin must have been worried and missed her sister.

Outside was still a wild environment, a dungeon where corrupted animals tried to make their own home. It was a good training environment for those who chose to stay, but not for me anymore. The levels I could gain here would be meager compared to more dangerous places.

I observed as a small rat was on its last straws. Corruption had almost eaten it entirely, and it was on the verge of becoming a monster or turning into dust. I could, in theory, accelerate the process and add more corruption on top.

Or I could, according to my class description, purify corruption. But that wouldn’t lead me to power. Cleansing it would give me a name in this broken society. It would help me climb the echelons of the Sanctum. My class would probably level up, but it wouldn’t make me stronger.

The only reason I would ever do so, and the reason I had to learn about it, was to ensure our equipment stayed functional. I would have to periodically check that we could still use everything, summoning site included. The stop-gap solution would be moving things in and out of the dungeon as necessary, and that was not going to scale.

My mind was set; I would spread corruption wherever I went. Those who chose to follow me would do so as corrupted individuals. Our nation would antagonize the entire multiverse, and I was fine with it.

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I lost track of time watching how most things succumbed to corruption. Slowly, the bugs ate the magic that supported the system, and when they did, they left huge holes.

“Darian, I am ready.” I had sensed her coming, but I waited for Claudia to speak first.

“I suppose you already know I’m corrupted, probably even before you summoned me.” She nodded. “This makes it easier to explain. In Velmar Six my class, [Corrupted Divinator] at the time, underwent some changes. It is now my class, and I can use it to see corruption, spread it, or clear it.”

She hummed with interest, not at all surprised about the revelations. Probably, Yasmin had already spoiled the fun and told her about it all.

“I can see the line between something being corrupted and destroyed, but I don’t quite comprehend how it happens. I can see some bug-like entities that eat magic from things, and I can see when they’ve eaten too much and everything goes south. But I can’t understand how it happens.”

I explained to her everything I had tried so far. My experiments with the tubes and how I could cause things to become corrupted just by willing it. The limits of what worked and what became dust. And how I could corrupt my own energy and attacks.

“I want to spread corruption, both to terrain and to people. How do I do that?”

“You are asking something,” she slowly said, “that only a few have achieved. They are under constant threat, their lives are always on the line. Both a human and monster depending on who you ask. It’s considered a secret worth killing for. And you are asking for it?”

“Yes, I know where I'm getting into. And if they want to come for me, so be it. I'll annihilate all of them.”

She took a moment to scan me, trying to discern if I was serious or not. Eventually, she sighed and shook her head.

“So be it. In that case, the answer you are seeking is an easy one. You’ve seen those bugs act. They eat slowly at their target, and they corrode it bit by bit. That's enough to create monsters, and it would always work if they stopped. However, they don't know when to stop; it's pure magic, and it cannot reason. Only a strong desire to live can overwhelm them.”

My mind went back to my first day in this world. For a moment, I almost surrendered to the warmth of an eternal sleep, but I decided that I didn't want to die. And I awoke.

“Most creatures fail here. Objects can't even try. What you were doing was blasting things with a sudden discharge of magic that utterly consumed any will or essence in them. Small changes, one at a time, always controlled and precise. That's how you do it.“

I felt stupid. The answer had been right in front of my eyes this whole time, and I had failed to grasp it. I was sending a single pulse with lots of energy and focusing it on the final result.

The only time it worked was because my request was trivial. I didn't want any fundamental change for the tube, just to work with what it had and turn it slightly more resistant, so I had sent a minimal amount of energy.

I quickly thanked Claudia and immediately set to action. I had to try and refine my technique, and it couldn't be done inside the dungeon. It technically could, but I preferred to work in a clean environment instead of an already corrupted one.

The perfect candidate appeared shortly after exiting. A lone bird stood on top of a small tree. If Claudia's theory was right, making it work on living beings should be easier because they would naturally try to stay alive.

I sent one small pulse after another. The first one just took away a bit of the System control, just the tiniest of the bird’s ability to use mana—one that it didn’t even know it had. Pulse by pulse, I completely corrupted his ability to sense and use that adulterated version of magic.

The bird felt something changing. I could see how it debated between giving off to the easy exit and trying to adapt to the adjustments. If I sent yet another pulse, if I tried to push for more right in this moment, I would kill it.

So I stopped. I waited while the bird underwent a deeper level of change. I kept monitoring its status, until finally a pulse sent me back the result I was waiting for.

[Corrupted bird]

It was a good start, one that showed me I was capable of doing that and much more. It was, nonetheless, only a start. How could I make sure the bird could use the native magic of the world as I did? Or how could I give it a class and abilities? How, with humans, could I keep their existing class?