Chapter 114

The aura didn't flatten Michael to the floor, nor did it make walking impossible. Michael’s own power was more than enough to counter its effects—although not completely—but at least to the point where he felt like he was walking against a strong wind and not stuck in place by a force he could not overcome. He reached the door after several tense seconds, finding it closed and locked from the outside.

As expected from a race that claimed to have lost its values, the dwarves had betrayed him in the end.

There was no time to waste. Michael could feel the aura strengthening, which meant that the source—originally deep within the mountain—was drawing nearer. He didn't have enough data to calculate how much closer it had gotten, and while the AI in his pocket was powerful enough to run such calculations, Icarus simply couldn’t, since it didn't have the ability to sense magic, nor understand its effects on the world.

Despite the inaccuracy of his estimates, Michael knew Stephan didn’t have much time left. Half a minute at most before the aura reached him and squashed him like a bug. Roaring against the forces trying to keep him still—the hostile aura was getting stronger by the second—he pulled on the door handle.

He drew on his strength, activating the sundered [Crude Body Enhancement] skill by flooding it with mana. In his rage and hurry, he didn't use Fractal Unbound Casting, instead reinstating the skill as a proper fractal within his Skill Sanctum. The skill, which hadn't been upgraded since it was sundered, was suddenly flooded with absurd amounts of mana, Qi, and Intent. What's more, Michael had grown by leaps and bounds since the last time he used it as a skill, mostly in his ability to control and focus his energies.

His Skill Sanctum had also grown; he could feel it expanding with each step he took in the mastery of his aura, with each drop of extra magic added to his pool, and with each rank-up of his mana-related skills.

[Crude Body Enhancement] reaches level 4.

[Crude Body Enhancement] reaches level 5, reaching its first bottleneck.

[Crude Body Enhancement] reaches level 6.

[Crude Body Enhancement] reaches level 7.

[Crude Body Enhancement] reaches level 8.

[Crude Body Enhancement] reaches level 9.

[Crude Body Enhancement] reaches level 10, reaching its final bottleneck.

Michael had long outgrown the simple skill that boosted his body while also damaging his internal organs. His mastery was on another level now, and even in his emotionally altered state, he wasn't the same as he was when he had last used the skill. Therefore, it was only natural for the skill to break through its limits.

[Crude Body Enhancement] becomes the Common-rank skill [Body Enhancement], finally incorporating proper handling of magic within its structure. Its effects are increased, and its downsides eliminated.

[Body Enhancement] reaches level 2.

Had Michael not been preoccupied with other matters, he would have wondered why this evolution hadn't raised the skill's rarity. Instead, he pushed his strength to its limit, tearing the door off its hinges with a well-timed application of [Distortion Field]. The hostile Silver aura was drawing near, and it was getting difficult to maintain control of his environment. He could sense the dwarves’ auras, and they were mostly flattened around them by the sheer power of the hostile Silver, but the dwarves themselves were fine.

He looked around, trying to find the way out of the maze of caves and corridors that led to the heart of the forge. But as soon as his eyes found the right path, he cursed his lack of a movement skill. The dark corridor seemed impossibly far away. Instead, something else caught up.

“We finally meet," a voice rasped. "You are Johanne’s new master.”

The Silver user was here.

His voice was eerie and metallic, echoing as if it didn't come from a single point. As Michael turned to face the new threat, already rousing his mana and aura to counter the effects of the enemy’s own aura now bearing down on him from almost point-blank range, he studied the man’s form.

Calling him a man would be imprecise. What Michael saw was a set of loose, tattered robes fluttering in the wind, only loosely in the shape of a hooded man. Except, there was nothing inside. They were empty, and the harsh winds summoned by the clash of Silver auras made them sway and snap, some parts filling with air while others deflated to an impossible thinness.

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There wasn’t an invisible man inside the robes; they were empty. And yet, a voice seemed to emanate from the hood and everywhere else at once.

“You helped her escape," the voice inquired. "How?”

Michael found himself immobilized by the sheer weight of an aura several times as massive as his own. Not only that, but there was something else within the aura that sent a shiver down his spine. The robed shape reeked of Time element, Michael realized, and it was using it to still him, forcing him to be immobile. There was mana there as well, as expected, and Qi. What Michael didn't expect to find was Intent, and there was so much of it that his own Intent began to quiver in fear inside his Skill Sanctum. While normally it sparked and snapped like tiny thunderclouds, now his Intent was hiding in the very walls of the Sanctum itself.

There was something else. Something beyond Intent. Something even more profound.

Michael didn’t give his mind time to formulate any thoughts or speculations. Later, he would have time to wonder whether what he felt was the mysterious Platinum energy he suspected existed beyond Gold’s Intent.

But right now, he had to fight the urge to panic. His immense Resilience was working overtime, not only stabilizing his mind but breaking his body and magic free of the other mage’s hold. Suddenly, it managed to overcome some sort of block, and Michael found himself able to move.

He immediately rushed the robed mage, activating the sundered [Fast Reflexes 4] skill to give himself a boost. The world around him blurred, points becoming lines as Michael’s speed became so great his mind struggled to process what his eyes were seeing. He readied himself for an attack, feeling his clothes rip and shred around him, unable to take the immense strain.

It was a mistake. The robes—for there was no actual mage inside—moved so fast that even Michael’s enhanced reflexes couldn’t react. He didn’t even realize his stride had ended and he was flying. One moment he was zeroing in on the robes like an inevitable machine of pain and strength, the next he was watching the world recede away from him.

Then he felt the impact and understood.

He had been backhanded and sent into a wall like a ragdoll, with a movement so quick he had not even seen the blur. His body shattered the stone, went through it, and rolled on the ground before sliding to a stop on the sharp ice.

Michael didn’t have to look down to know he was missing most of his body. Summoning every ounce of magic and willpower, he activated his healing skill. It was a titanic effort, with the Silver aura pressing down on him with Gold and Platinum energies aiding it, but he did it.

[Healing Aura] reaches level 8. Self-healing is now passive.

The robes floated toward him, moving so slowly as to almost look lazy. Yet, Michael wasn’t fooled. He had just been shown just how fast they could move and that they could deliver power like he had never seen. As his body regenerated, the robes simply observed him with their lack of eyes, bobbing up and down, unaffected by a clash of auras that was no longer there.

“Impressive,” the tinny voice commented. “You barely even flinched as your body was destroyed. Yet I can sense the pain your mind is being subjected to. Not many can claim to have mastered their pain so thoroughly.”

There was a pause.

“It won’t save you," the voice continued. "You see, I now realize that trapping her had been a mistake. One I won’t repeat. Starting with you, I—”

Michael grinned. He had been taking his time healing, purposefully slowing down the process after he had stabilized his condition. He had also stopped fighting the robes’ Silver aura, but not because he had given up.

He never gives up.

Instead, he had been searching for a weakness. A snaking tendril of his aura managed to slip through the robes’ Silver aura undetected, following a hunch that the robes were just a remotely controlled construct that lacked the skill and senses of its controller. The tendril found the dwarves, who had been spared from the effects of the robes’ aura.

Why had they been spared? Here was Michael’s gamble. He suspected that the enemy mage knew what would happen should the dwarves die: a floor reset. And he didn't want that to happen, for some reason. Therefore, it only made sense for Michael to try and force it. The robes’ aura was spread thin, and the controller’s attention was divided between sparing the dwarves and keeping Michael immobilized and suppressed.

It simply couldn’t deal with the tendril fast enough. In mere moments, the dwarves dropped dead. Copper auras that were only elemental in nature were snuffed out by Michael’s Silver aura, rich in Intent, like tiny candles in a storm.

The robes’ aura flared, Time element flooding the area so thick Michael thought he could taste it. It tried to keep everything from falling apart, to prevent the floor from resetting. For a moment, it succeeded. Reality itself was stuck in limbo around Michael, and for the first time, he saw something through his Truth facet that he had never seen before.

He couldn’t make sense of it, not yet. But one thing he understood: the dungeon and its floors are real. As real as the world outside. But reality itself is flimsy, and what lies beyond…

Then the dungeon’s Gaze made an entrance. Like a solar flare from above, it bore down on them with enough power to vaporize the few shreds of reality stubbornly clinging to existence through the robed mage’s efforts.

Yet another first for Michael occurred: he felt the Gaze for what it was. It wasn’t focused on him, but even the edges of its effect were enough to give him goosebumps. At the same time, however, it felt…

A grin appeared on his face as he struggled to get up on half-mangled legs. The Truth facet was singing, no longer blaring at him, as he beheld the mighty Gaze of the dungeon smite the intruder. The edges of it caressed him like a warm light, damaging him not because it was evil or hostile, but simply because it was too powerful for him to handle.

Even then, it empowered his own healing, allowing him to stand in its presence. He stared triumphantly at the dissolving robes.

“I have the dungeon itself on my side," he declared. "Get the fuck out.”

Suddenly, he was back with Stephan at the beginning of the floor. In the distance, he felt a silver aura flare and then be extinguished.

Then a message window appeared. Not a message from his half-broken system, but a full-fledged window.

I could only see him because he showed himself.

Michael paused. Was this the dungeon communicating with him?

He will be back. Find him and stop him.

Was it giving him a quest?

Beware, what you felt in his aura was Renegade Energy, of a tier above Intent. You must grow powerful before you can stop him.

Should you succeed, I will reward you. Handsomely. Personally.