The storage room was dark, and the capsules that looked like coffins only added to the ominous vibes I was getting from the place.

With a quick search of the other coffins around me, I could tell that there were no live mana signatures in them. I was on my own.

The key words research, specimens, kept ringing through my brain.

So, how is this supposed to work, I thought to Samantha, as I approached the only exit of the storage room. Can you open the door?

Samantha sighed.

I clicked on the alpha symbol, and saw a timer that had just reached 1 minute. The Atropos Schema kindly explained what it meant.

When the timer reaches 0, your allies will take down the building’s Mana Shield. Use the mini-map provided to locate the necessary Information Crystal.

Once I read the notification, a small map appeared in the bottom corner of my vision. It was a three-dimensional rendering of the building I was in. A white dot showed my location, and a green dot showing the location of the Information Crystal I was looking for.

Samantha tsked.

A second later, dozens of red and yellow dots appeared on the mini-map.

What level are the red dots?

I couldn’t help but gulp.

The timer reached zero. I hadn’t known what to expect—a massive shudder, an earthquake, or a loud crash.

The only sign that something had happened was that the mana in the walls around me dimmed.

Samantha said.

I followed her combat shadow, stabbing the door’s lock with the pointy end of my spider’s leg.

The leg shattered the lock mechanism completely, and I found myself in a dimly lit empty corridor. I raced through the corridor, with half my floating points in Agility, the other half in Luck.

I could hear a loud, blaring siren as I rushed through the hallway.

I ignored the doors on my left and right as I ran, until I was stopped by a door at the end of this hallway. I stabbed the lock once with my spider leg sword, and then I climbed the flight of stairs just passed the door.

All my attention was on following the combat shadow. I drew my sword, pointing it ahead of me as I ran up the stairs.

Samantha said, suddenly.

The stairs were built like an Old World stairwell, with many blind, sharp turns. As I turned one of the corners, I saw a man running down the stairs impale themselves on my blade.

The force of the collision stopped both of us in our tracks.

Even though I had pierced the man through the chest, he still seemed fine. He cried out, revealing filed fangs that implied he was a vampire. Then he swung a razor-sharp scalpel at my eyes.

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I withdrew my blade, stepping back out of range of his scalpel, and then chopped off the man’s head, trying to ignore the massive pool of blood on the floor.

Decapitating the vampire killed him, so the next step was to search the body. Just as I had hoped, I found an E-rank Interdimensional Pouch. The vampire had several information crystals in the pouch as well, and some high-end laboratory appliances and equipment that was unlikely to be meant for combat.

I immediately equipped the man’s pouch, along with a pair of D-rank surgical knives.

I also replaced my magician’s robes with the man’s white robe, which granted increased Dexterity.

Then, to my surprise, Samantha had me wait in the stairwell.

As I waited, I dismantled the laboratory equipment. Several tools were using attuned Mana Shards, granting me two water-attuned Mana Shards and one air-attuned Mana Shard.

Every Mana Shard I gained would provide me more ammunition against the Metans. Most likely, each Mana Shard would be able to seriously injure or kill one guard—unless the guard specialized in Physical Defense.

I watched the buzz of activity on the mini-map. Almost every doorway in the building, I saw, was defended by two red dots. Likely a hundred red dots in all, in a building that had seven floors, most of them buried deep in the ground.

Just a half-flight of stairs below me, I saw a pair of red dots guarding the exit to the stairwell that I was in.

I waited, and watched as a yellow dot approached the two guards guarding the outside of the exit to the stairwell below me.

The yellow dot entered the stairwell below me. I could hear the door swing open, his light, hurried steps up the stairs, and then the door closed.

The moment the man turned the corner towards me, I swung my serrated spider’s leg like a sword, directly decapitating the man in a single blow.

I collected a second Interdimensional Pouch, along with two fire-attuned Mana Shards.

Then, to my surprise, Samantha had me return down the stairwell, towards a basement floor that I had already passed, walking as quietly as I could.

Samantha’s sense of timing was perfect.

A few seconds after I reached the door that I was going to travel through, it opened, revealing a startled woman and two Metan guards.

One of the guards looked half-human, and half bear. He was a giant man, well over seven feet tall and one of the stockiest men I had ever seen.

The other looked feline, with a smaller frame, whiskers, and ears that were flicking left and right incredibly quickly.

I already had my left arm raised when the door opened. I held the fire-attuned Mana Shard in my left hand, each finger gripping a different part of the shard tightly, letting the runes on my fingertips trigger and destabilize the fire-attuned mana in my palm.

Fire.

With the mental command, a narrow beam of fire shot out of the Mana Shard, directly into the face of the bear-like human, which the Schema called an Ursal.

After far too long, I was finally able to test out the weapon that Samantha had built into my body.

I didn’t pause to survey the results of my attack. At the same time as I fired the mana cannon, I decapitated the scientist in front of me with an easy strike.

Unfortunately, this left the Werecat to his own devices. The Werecat fled down the corridor, shouting for help.

To make matters worse, the Ursal rose from the ground and charged me, the smell of burnt flesh heavy on my nose.

I positioned my spider leg so that the man pierced his own heart on my blade, but by the time I looked up, the Werecat had already turned the corner in the hallway and disappeared.

If they didn’t know where I was earlier, they knew now.

This scientist, to my disappointment, did not have an Interdimensional Pouch on her.

The guard dropped an E-rank axe when he died. I added it to my Interdimensional Pouch, but I decided against using it.

I rushed along the corridor, in the same direction the Werecat had run off to.

This floor certainly seemed larger than the basement storage floor where I had been kept in a capsule. Thanks to the floor plan I had in my mini-map, I could tell that the doors to my left and right were actually more hallways, making this floor somewhat of a maze.

Samantha had me break down a nearby door on the left side of the hallway. It was almost laughable. As I stabbed through the door, I could see two humanoid figures standing behind the walls, with their arms raised, as if they were going to surprise me.

The door slammed open, making the two figures jump, and then with my increased Agility, I killed the two easily.

I found myself in a room cluttered with miscellaneous contraptions. I had no idea what the purpose of any of these things were.

But at least I could anticipate my purpose.

I flipped open a panel on one of the larger and fancier machines, which was inscribed with rune patterns so tiny and delicate it gave me a headache just looking at it.

And then, I removed a Fire-attuned Compressed Mana Crystal from the machine. Then I went to a second machine, opening a panel and removing a Void-attuned Compressed Mana Crystal.

Then, as quickly as I had entered, I left the room.

Where are we going? I asked, as I ran through the hallway. With the number of Metans in the building, I knew it was only a question of time before they trapped me.

To make matters worse, we weren’t headed for the Information Crystal, or for an exit.

Samantha said, playfully.