Chapter 88

After spending the morning with his sister, Michael returned to the Valley. The road was finally completed, and going to and from the dungeon was finally smooth enough to make it even pleasant. There were trees and moss covering the sides of the road, where concrete had been poured to stabilize the gravel, making the sight much less aggravating than expected. The poles and railings looked like they had been swallowed by the forest as well, a sign that Johanne had been busy.

He parked at a small shed by the entrance, nodding to the guards. He could spot three operators and two security guards, but knew that there were many more hidden around, making sure nothing funny happened around here.

I can vaguely feel their presence with my aura sense. That’s new.

All his sense told him was that they were Iron-rank humans, with no magical devices on them. Still, it was nice to know that Travis and Jennifer had set up such an effective system, even though it was clear that it wouldn’t fool a Silver-ranked aura user.

The guards nodded back. There was a hint of excitement in their body language, one that Michael soon connected to the imminent expedition into the dungeon. Today was the day they sent actual people in there, to see what would happen. They had plans, of course, plans that required his presence.

Before that, though, it was back to training. The meeting with Dr. Kavanaugh of Occult Affairs was tomorrow, and he couldn’t afford to go there unprepared. He wasn’t feeling too anxious about it, to be honest. His reunion with his family had been much worse in his mind, but he knew that he couldn’t take things lightly. The OA was, according to Travis, as bad an agency as any of the three lettered. Perhaps more, considering the lack of information about it. Something the former CEO was already working on rectifying, supposedly with the help of a new intelligence tool Johanne was developing alongside a team of programmers who had recently started working for Unity. All remote workers, like most programmers, but all of them—according to Johanne—autistic enough that the privilege of working on such a project is already assurance enough of their silence. Of course, that had not been enough for Travis, who had added more and more layers of security through incentives, bonuses, and threats. Positive reinforcement and punishment of bad behavior. The man knew his stuff.

Johanne was already in the Valley by the time Michael arrived. The time shenanigans were weird in the dungeon for everyone, but in her case they were even weirder, since one of her spells allowed her to somewhat interfere with the time dilation effect. There was no telling how long she had been waiting for him.

“Alright, let’s take stock,” Michael muttered.

Around him, magic began to swell. He started going through his normal skills, switching from one skill to the other. Then he moved onto Fractal Unbound Casting, chaining the body enhancement and increased reflexes with his normal skills. At the same time, while he was doing that, he also levitated some stones around him like orbiting satellites and tried to summon a flame over one palm and a block of ice over the other. All of this without using any skill other than [Magic Manipulation].

“Impressive. Your aura can perform telekinesis better than some spells I know.” said Johanne. “But I would like you to explore other effects of your aura as well, my lord.”

Michael nodded. “I know, but this is all I can do for now.”

He still wasn’t yet at the point where he could feel much more than the inner reaches of his aura, but he had gotten to the point that he could influence the space around him rather easily. He turned off [Magic Manipulation]. The flame winked out of existence while the block of ice fell to the ground, no longer fed by its elemental source. The rest of the orbiting material remained, however, and as Michael’s face became strained, even the fallen block of ice soon joined the ring of material. It was melting, no longer fueled by elemental Ice itself, but the water droplets simply joined the ring.

Then everything fell to the ground. Michael slumped, forming a seat out of ice with his remaining elemental energies. He would have to go back to the Ice King’s room to replenish his stock before leaving the dungeon.

“That’s all I can manage for now.”

Johanne hummed. “Not bad at all. Your aura control has grown yet again. Not in power, but in finesse. You should know, however, that there is more to aura than just moving things around. It can warp the very world, disrupt magic itself. It is much more potent than your Unbound Casting will ever be, at least close to the source of your soul.”

“I see. So the soul is the source of the aura?”

“It is more complicated than this. What I talked about was the source of your soul, although it is not too wrong to assume that the soul is also the source of your aura. At least at the lower levels, that is. But it is better if you see it for yourself, rather then me telling you. You have the talent for it, even though you will need to train more.”

Michael agreed with her. “I don’t think it will grow in power unless I grow my mana pool considerably.”

“You magic manipulation shall more than suffice for now. After that… You will need to rush to the threshold.”

The threshold was the point where his low-Silver aura became mid-Silver. Their theory was that it coincided with his mana pool reaching the thirties. Considering he still had a long way before he reached even 2 full units of Silver of mana, it was a long road getting there. Until then, changes and improvements would be incremental, but minor.

“Although,” Johanne added, “I do not have much experience with anomalous auras such as yours.”

They chatted a bit more. Michael asked her what her plans were for her own development. She was unsure, but her preference would be a more standard way of rising through the ranks compared to the experimental, yet dangerous, way Michael did it. He was surprised to hear that from Johanne, who he thought would have jumped at the opportunity, but she claimed that the risk of crippling her advancement was too high.

“Not everyone is a natural like you are, my lord.”

Michael didn’t think he was a natural at this, just someone who put in the effort. Johanne disagreed, and they agreed to disagree. She claimed she would be able to take the step into Silver territory soon enough, possibly before they started sending Operators into the dungeon in the afternoon, real world time.

“That should also serve as a stimulus for Mister Travis. He’s grown complacent, or rather I should say that he has been using work as an excuse not to challenge the dungeon anymore. It is a valid concern, however the more he procrastinates while still living in the valley for many days every real world day, the more the dungeon’s influence will infiltrate his mind, making it hard for him to advance.”

It wasn’t the first time Michael heard of this strange effect the dungeon had. It was a theory many people, Theobond and the Fae included, had about the dungeon, but not something he had ever felt himself. Sure, the place was dangerous and unpredictable, but all his fears and reservations about it had been based in logic. Logic could be warped to serve the more emotional side of the brain, though.

“It is not it,” said Johanne. “In your case, your enormous Resilience stat is protecting your mind.”

It didn’t explain why he had never suffered such consequences before unlocking the stat. Michael’s theory was that his stat had already been anomalously high before gaining the Unity skill, but there was no way to know for sure. Perhaps it had been his life ethic: working hard for every scrap of power and taking nothing for free, that had helped him.

Despite the interesting conversation, soon the time for chatting was over.

“Moment of truth.”

Michael summoned the skill description for his new aura masking skill. He had not yet used it since he had gotten it yesterday, wanting to rest and practice his actual aura abilities a bit more. Unlike other skills, this one was something he would need to keep up for a long period of time, and he needed to be as rested as possible.

(Rare) Aura Masking 2

There are ways to see the unseen, and just as many ways to conceal the visible. With a though, I all but vanish in the vast noise of the world.

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· You can mask your aura, making it appear weaker than it actually is.

· Currently, you can make your aura appear as anything between Low Silver and Low Copper.

· The effect lasts for as long as you have the mental fortitude for it or until canceled.

Activating the skill, which had already reached level two after some experimentation, Michael felt the world grow distant. It was as if someone had simultaneously blindfolded him and submerged his body in water, all the while covering his ears. Not only that, but there was a sensation of powerlessness that came with the masking, as if his connection to the world and to his magic itself was muted.

He dropped the skill, and everything returned to normal. Many more tests followed, until with a grunt, Johanne handed him a tablet.

Aura Masking, preliminary analysis. To be forwarded to Travis Tyrell when ready. Level-1 and above eyes only.

* Aura appears to be Low Copper when observed passively

* Active observation does not reveal incongruities.

* Anomalous properties of the aura are still detectable even when the skill is in use.

* Passive defenses are 50% weaker while the skill is active, but still within Silver capabilities.

* Suppression of Copper-tier magic deemed hostile by the user is 50% weaker, but still within Silver ranges.

* Active control of the environment is 50% weaker and has 50% less range while the skill is active, but still within Silver capabilities.

* Active control of the Elements is 25% weaker and has 25% less range while the skill is active.

* …

“Thanks, Johanne. At least I’m stronger than I look from the outside. That should help in case things go south.”

“Of course, my lord. If I may ask…”

“Go ahead,” Michael said.

“You mentioned you also leveled up your Unity skill?”

“I did,” he said, pulling up his status and updating his sheet on her tablet. She would undoubtedly forward the information to Travis to be entered into the Candle Light database.

At least, he thought, it's my own company getting the information. Besides, it's so redacted nobody except for me, Travis, Old Dave and Johanne can see it. In Travis’ terms, only level 1 and above could access Michael's file.

Status: Michael Lexington

Level: 9/10

Base Statistics

Advanced Statistics - Soulfire Silverweb Aura

Strength

269 -> 281

Mana Capacity (Silver)

1.44 -> 1.86

Dexterity

217 -> 229

Elemental energy Capacity

144 -> 186

Stamina

310 -> 322

Qi Capacity

14.4 -> 18.6

Reflexes

260 -> 271

Intent Capacity

1.44 -> 1.86

Intelligence

193 -> 204

Resilience

520 -> 550

Memory

205 -> 218

“Solid growth,” Michael said.

“It is. However, I am beginning to worry about what strange environmental factor might be pushing your Resilience so much.”

“Can’t it be all the stress?”

“It could be,” she said, “however, your last level up was after you killed Carnela.” Michael winced, but she didn’t seem to notice. “And that even happened after most of the stressors you have encountered as of late. Unless you were depressed, and hiding that fact from everyone else, I would venture the possibility that something else is prompting your stat growth. Something like Skill sundering.”

“Might be. Or perhaps it’s the dungeon? You mentioned how everyone seems to hate being here. Well, everyone but you and Travis. Even Trevor hates it, it seems.”

“Travis only likes it in here when he has work to do,” she corrected him. “I will ponder over it and run some experiments.”

Michael nodded distractedly. He had never thought the week of training would be so bad for the others, and the fact that they had kept it hidden from him to spare him the pain just made it worse. He only got to know that because he was playing with his spirit guardians and managed to catch the tail end of a conversation.

“Perhaps…” Johanne mused. “The reason why I am unaffected is that I am accustomed to the place, after being sealed in here for eons. It would be compatible with the data we have. You, on the other hand, are stacking resilience to counteract its influence.”

Michael shook his head. “I never felt any influence.”

“Hmm,” she paused. “Don’t you feel like you’re being watched? Like your life is in someone else’s hands?”

“Yeah?”

“Those are the effects. They are enough to drive someone insane, after some time. However, if such was the case, then Travis would be the exception. He has no stats to withstand the mental assault, and unlike me he didn’t get exposed to it for so long that he built tolerance.”

“He did mention he was crazy more than once.”

“Perhaps. I shall talk to him. I need more data.”

Resilience aside, Michael was rather proud of his status.

You know what? I am proud of all of my status, resilience included. So what if I’m a freak? I just have to own it and make it my strength.

He had sacrificed a lot to get here, but he had come out of the process stronger than he was before. He had gotten what he wanted, a new rare-ranked skill, and thanks to [Magic Manipulation] he would also be able to retain the sacrificed common skills. Not only that, but he would also be able to learn any common skill by simply memorizing its fractal. A thing that, he soon discovered as he experimented, was much harder than he thought.

It turned out that it was easy for him to replicate his sundered skills because it was as if they were still there, in his Sanctum, in the form of scars. Learning a whole new skill without undergoing the same process could not leverage the scar, only relying on memory. And memorizing a fractal was almost impossible. Michael tried, but all he could make were wonky shapes that barely had any structure in his mind’s eye, and as a consequence barely did anything to the world around him. Sometimes their effects were totally nonsensical as well as weak, and not at all what he was trying to replicate.

He could learn new skills, though. As long as they were common skills, and he had some room in his Sanctum, he could absorb them, wait until they were permanently bonded with him, and then sunder them. After that they would join his ‘grimoire’ of replicated skills he could summon with magic manipulation.

There were limits to this. For one, the skills could not grow. Whatever process changed the fractals while on the Sanctum’s wall did not work on scars or mental images. That was the reason, for example, why he had chosen not to sunder [Okinawan Mastery]. He still hoped he could level it up and perhaps even upgrade its rarity, even though he had been neglecting it lately—in perceived time, that was. Real time, barely a couple days had passed since he last trained with his sensei.

In any case, if Michael wanted to improve a skill he had sundered, he would have to heal it first, charge it up until it leveled up and then sunder it again. Tedious, but doable and totally better than nothing.

Then there was the issue of Qi. After gaining the aura masking skill, Michael was once again back to square one, with a Skill Sanctum that was full to the brim. And unless he found his damned Dantian, his manipulation ability wasn’t going to let him manifest Qi for the purposes of unbound casting. Which meant no sundering Uncommon skills.

He tried to make up for this deficiency by simply… forgoing the whole fractal method. The results were less than encouraging.

He could replicate the same feats without using a fractal, by simply brute forcing mana upon the world in a true Formless Unbound Casting fashion. But, taking [Crude Body Enhancement] as an example, he discovered that in its fractal form it cost around 10 Copper per second to increase his strength by 100%. In formless unbound casting form? It cost a full Silver per second to brute force the world into making him barely 10% stronger. Ten times as costly for a tenth of the gain.

It was worse with [Fast Reflexes]. Formless Unbound Casting depended on the mental image, much like Fractal Unbound Casting, but the mental image it required was different. It was like learning to read another language. The same went for learning mandalas from Johanne. Another mental image, another whole language to learn. Worse still, mandalas were complex and not easy to learn at all. And there were no crutches in the form of Sanctum wall scars.

Formless casting was still promising. It would be useful in some situations and it would grow to be even more useful when Michael had more mana available to brute force things. It stacked well with his aura manipulation skills. Thanks to his Silver aura and his new skills at leveraging its potential, Formless Unbound Casting was much more powerful close to Michael’s body.

Even with all those bonuses, however, Michael’s best attempt at Formless magic was a spell to keep insects away. It had been the spell Johanne was using which had prompted the whole Formless magic discussion back in the beginning.

In its current state, however, it barely kept insects away. And it only did so because Michael really wanted them away from his body. Even then, to make it work he had to imagine a radial field of one-Newton forces all pushing outwards from him, somehow only targeting insects. How did it know what was an insect and what wasn’t? Magic.

It worked, but Michael’s boosted mana regeneration while in the Valley was barely enough to break even in terms of mana expenditure, making it useless outside.

Good exercise to increase mana capacity, though. And the more he used it, the better the mental image became, and the cheaper it became to repel insects using formless unbound casting. It also increased the Resilience stat, as it required total focus to keep up and such a headache-inducing effort quickly became enough to count as proper Resilience training.

It even reached a point where whatever system governed Michael’s magic tried to award him an actual skill for it, but he refused immediately. It was common-ranked, since it only used mana, and not worth it. Sure, he could learn the fractal and then sunder it, but the process would take days. Horrible pain-filled days, since his Sanctum was full.

“My lord, you of course do realize that Formless Unbound Casting is not entirely useless to you right now, don’t you?”

Michael hummed. This was new. “Pretend I don’t.”

“Alright. I will walk you through my reasoning, please tell me if it makes sense. For starters, as you said yourself, you can stack your aura bonuses and Formless Casting together, bolstering their power significantly. You have near absolute control in your dominion, inside your aura. You must use this. But that is not all. There is another thing we are disregarding which is already under your control, and under the control of your manipulation skill: the Elements.”