I wondered why we were still outside and not inside to move on, but I looked around and saw that we stood in a decent sized fenced in area and Sailhin walked over to the gate pressing on the banner there.

I quickly put it on and pressed the banner’s ‘yes’ button when it showed up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Teleportation commencing now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The small yard disappeared, and we were surrounded by darkness for a brief moment. Then a white stoned town center built around us. Even after it seemed to be completely built, the world was frozen in place. The people and even the water in the fountain were all mid movement. I looked up and was surprised to see a dark blue sky despite the fact that the light level made it feel like daytime.

I looked around for the source of light, but the ding of the floor banner took my attention.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome to floor 31: The City of Manaphie

Description: The city is of Manaphie is submerged within the great sea of Psyathin 6,000 leagues below the surface. It is under attack by the dwellers of the deep, the race of fish creatures that call the nearby Isayama trench their home. The city is protected from the outside pressure of the sea by a barrier spell that originates within the temple of protection, which is situated at the highest part of the city. The dwellers have infiltrated the ports in the east side of the city, and they aim to destroy the spell and submerge the city.

Completion Requirements:

Prevent the destruction of the city

Progression:

Deep Dweller Foot Men 0/320

Deep Dweller Mages 0/40

Deep Dweller Captains 0/3

Deep Dweller Siege Commander 0/1

City destruction rate 10%

Failure:

City destruction rate reaches 80%

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Alright the two of you better not run off this one actually needs some sort of thought process!” Sailhin said grabbing the back strap of my leather chest armor.

I looked next to me and saw she had grabbed Dodger as well.

“That’s a bit harsh, we’re clearly in a city I wouldn’t just run off.” Dodger complained.

“It isn’t just you. On the last floor Quartz was supposed to learn how to manage his strength but with how things went it didn’t really seem as if he managed to learn anything.”

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“I learned a bit,” I mumbled.

“Really? All you did was jump from mount to mount and kill them with the force of your jump. Often times missing the mount you were aiming for. Is that really someone who was in control?”

I hung my head, “well when you put it like that…”

She let me go and I lifted Fluffy off my shoulders putting him down. He started bouncing up and down, holding onto my hand.

“Look, we probably don’t have a lot of time before the challenge starts, we need to turn our focus to the floor.” Sailhin said, “There is probably a small party of enemies that are heading towards the temple and using the rest of the force as a distraction. If we kill their commander, that will probably make it easier to run the others off.”

“We could also just kill them all, that would work too.” Dodger shrugged.

Sailhin sighed, “yes, obviously, however the point is to not destroy the city. If you just go around killing them without concern for the city, then we’ll fail on a technicality. This will be the real test to see if Quartz can learn to manage his strength.”

“You said you wanted to get to the point, go a bit faster.” Paeris said.

There was a ding.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trial begins in 1:00

0:59

0:58

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Right, Dot, pass out your communicators.”

Dot pulled a pouch from her belt and passed around the same devices from earlier.

“Dot and Lefty, map the area and locate as many enemies as possible. If you can find the crew that’s probably sneaking around, that’s great too. Paeris and I will head to the temple. Hopefully it’s the tallest spot in the city so Paeris will be able to support. We’ll defend it. The three of you focus on killing any of these deep dwellers and not damaging the city as much as possible. Probably best to head in the direction opposite the city people are running. Now about Fluffy, where do you think he’ll want to be?”

“He’ll just stay with me probably,” I looked down at him and he grinned up at me.

I ruffled his hair.

“Alright, let’s get started and let me repeat myself, don’t you dare destroy the city too much. We’ve been doing pretty well by not failing but I don’t want to re do any floors.”

“We get it, don’t worry so much.”

There was a ding and the world started up. The sounds of an explosion and screams now filled the air.

People were rushing towards us, their footsteps echoing on the stone walls and roads. I put the earpiece in and tried to filter out the sounds around me to only hear them talking but accidentally shut it all out.

Just by opening my pathways I lost all my progress of control. I mean it wasn’t that much progress all things considered a lot of it was instinctual, especially with my ears. Maybe not even instinctual, it seemed to just do what I wanted without me needing to think about limiting the amount.

I sensed the aura around my ears and imagined small bits of it moving. The sound level rose slightly, and it was just enough to hear Paeris speak.

“Alright, once I send out my location, do your best to not be behind a building if you need something from me!”

I looked towards him, and he was getting dragged off by Sailhin who ran in the same direction as the fleeing towns folk.

“Alright, let’s go!” Dodger cheered and ran in the opposite direction.

Brick and I followed her. I looked back to see Dot and Lefty had already left as well. Mezu was keeping up with me, so I caught up to Dodger.

“So how do I learn to control this?”

“Well, it was a lot of try and fail for me. I’d try a bit and if it was too much, I’d try to put less the next time. But it’s also a lot of work to do it that way….”

I tried to feel the aura in my body. There were even more points than before, and the pressure I felt was now directed outward and not at the points. Like it was just waiting to escape from my body.

Having a lot of aura was probably a good thing, but having just another abnormal thing about me was more annoying. Well since she was the only other person I knew with aura, it wasn’t like we could actually say whether or not the amount I had was even abnormal in the first place.

And sure, her advice wasn’t that great, but it seemed like she learned on her own for the most part. I can’t really complain when she knows only slightly more than me and is still trying to help.

“For me, it was like I had to push it out. Like if you imagine something squishy with something liquid inside of it, and when you squeeze it, the liquid comes out…… no… maybe that’s not a good way to explain it.”

We reached a dead end, so we slowed to a stop.

“I would suggest we go up, but we can’t destroy things…. Right or left?”

The people were running from both directions, so I shrugged.

“I don’t think it really matters.”

“Okay, lets pick right!”

She started running first and I went to follow but Fluffy pulled on my shirt pointing in the other direction.

“Dodger!” I yelled after her.

She didn’t hear me.

“The device you idiot, now get going,” Alcoroth reminded me.

“Right.”