Somewhere in the mass of thousands of kill notifications from his time in the arena, Velik had reached level 49. The enemies hadn’t been particularly strong, barring the champion at the end, so he’d failed to make much progress to 50, but he was still one level closer to unlocking a new skill slot. Another welcome surprise was that [Aspect of the Wind Tamer] had gone up to rank 6 as well.

At least I saw some gains from this whole debacle, he thought to himself as he picked up his Traveler’s Bracelet and fastened it to his wrist. He was drained, and several of the enchantments on his gear were just as empty. A solid hour or two of just existing would do wonders for his reserves, but he was still trapped in the middle of a spatially disparate dungeon that could rain new monsters down on his head at any moment.

It wasn’t until he went to review his status and spend his free points that he saw the empty skill slot and realized he’d missed the most important message of all in the clutter.

[Name: Velik]

[Race: Human (Duskbound)]

[Class: The Black Fang]

[Level: 49]

[Physical: 150(+46)]

[Mental: 87(+22)]

[Mystic: 73(+70)]

[Free Points: 2]

[Decarma: 51782]

[Skills:]

[Apex Hunter (Rank 9)]

[Dread Lance (Rank 6)]

[Judgment of Penance (Rank 1)]

[True Form (Rank 4)]

[Empty]

[Gear:]

[Harbinger of Dusk (+15Ph, +5My)]

[The Sixth Plague (+10My)]

[Fangs of the Wind Dragon (+10Ph, +5Me)]

[Night Striders (+6 Ph, +2 Me]

[Invoker’s Pendant (+20My)]

[Earcuff of Unbreakable Will]

[Cloak of Whispers (+10Me, +10My]

[Traveler’s Bracelet]

[Life Giver’s Ring (+20 My)]

[Heart of the Inferno (+10 Ph)]

[Silversilk Shirt (+10Ph, +10My)]

[Nightstalker’s Pants (+5Ph, +5Me, +5My)]

Yes! Finally!

Velik took a moment to review the skill, which was mostly what he expected it to be. It still included all his various skills related to using his spear, but now in addition to ramping up his own speed as he attacked, it slowed down any enemy he struck, though the effect was significantly weaker. He probably couldn’t lock a monster into immobility anymore, but the tradeoff was worth it for the versatility he’d gained.

The slow effect appeared to have some sort of cumulative effect that he wasn’t quite sure he understood, a way to inflict penance once an unspecified threshold was met. What exactly that meant was something he’d have to experiment with, but Velik hoped it would serve as a vehicle to advance the skill in the future.

For right now, he needed to fill the now-empty skill slot the merger had left behind. That was an easy decision to make, though he took a minute to quickly skim through his class skills just in case anything new had appeared that might have been more useful than the general skill he’d picked out ahead of time. When nothing presented itself as immediately necessary, he made his decision.

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[You have gained the skill: Mana Sight.]

There’d been a few options to tie the ability to discern mana to different senses, and he’d considered a mana smelling ability simply for the synergy with [True Form], but in the end, humans were vision-oriented creatures and he felt [Mana Sight] would easily fold into [Apex Hunter] in the near future, opening the skill slot back up again. Maybe he’d take another mana sensing skill then, just to see if they synergized well.

His eyes tingled, then felt gritty, then started to sting like he’d looked at the sun for too long back when his physical stat was low enough that it could still blind him. New colors started to wash across his vision, drifting through the air like ribbons. He blinked and reached for the skill to turn it off, or at least tone it down.

There was nothing like that. However [Mana Sight] worked, he’d have to figure it out himself. That was a bit of an unpleasant surprise, as active skills always needed his conscious decision to trigger, and passive skills always had a way to disable their effects. What’s up with this skill? Nothing in the description warned about this.

If it wasn’t as easy as flicking a mental switch in his status, there still had to be some way to control it. The intensity wasn’t exactly blinding, but the colored streamers were extremely distracting. No one he’d spoken to had ever mentioned this effect, so it was probably easy to deal with. He just needed to fumble through to a solution.

Ten minutes later, he was still sitting there, trying to get control of the skill. He hadn’t managed to lower the intensity or—even better—turn it off, but he at least was starting to see how the shape of the mana corresponded with the physical world it overlayed.

[Mana Sight has advanced to rank 2.]

That fast? That’s… weird.

The colors became sharper, more strongly defined against the background. He hadn’t even realized how fuzzy they were until the rank up, but now that he saw the difference, it was impossible not to realize how blurry everything had been. More than that, he started to notice a weird pattern. The mana was caught on a current, flowing through the arena to a central point, where it blurred into nothingness.

He didn’t know what that was supposed to represent, but it was the only unusual thing he could see, so with any luck, it was a way out. Velik climbed to his feet and followed the mana current to the spot where it all jumbled together. He reached out a hand, but it simply passed through.

Well, duh. It’s not called [Mana Feel]. It just lets me see it, not control it. So, what can I do here?

Velik was not a subtle man. He didn’t consider that to be a character flaw. Direct action was what solved problems, and he wasn’t inclined to spend his time considering the long-term ramifications of his actions. As far as he was concerned, he was trapped in the arena and his options were to try to break through the wall directly or to do something with this weird knot of mana.

Technically, there was the third option to stay put. He could certainly use the break, but letting the dungeon dictate where he was or what he was allowed to do was probably a bad idea. Besides, Torwin was out there somewhere and might need help.

When he framed it that way, it was easy to decide what to do.

* * *

The core wanted to spit the man with the spear into another room, to send more monsters to crush and tear. The thing growing on the core recognized the futility there. They’d already taken their best swing and it hadn’t been enough. Trapping the man in the arena was for the best. Humans needed food and water, or they’d die. Eventually, he’d just lay down and that would be that, as long as the core didn’t give him a way out.

Convincing it not to do that was taking everything it had. When the man randomly stood up and walked over to the connection node holding the arena to the rest of the dungeon, the thing began to think that maybe this idea wasn’t so good, after all. It wasn’t too worried. The man had displayed no ability to control the dungeon, but he shouldn’t have been able to find the node, either.

Just to be safe though, it would be better if the core jettisoned the arena. Cut it, the thing urged. Remove the intruder from the dungeon.

That wasn’t going to fly, not with the dungeon core. The idea of losing growth was anathema to it. It existed to expand, and that was what it was going to do. Maybe if it had a few more months to work at the idea, it could have changed the core, but it didn’t have a few months. It barely had a few seconds.

Mana started surging through the man as it built up into another one of those destructive bursts of energy he’d unleashed on the champion he’d killed.

* * *

Torwin cursed every god and demon that had led him into this place. He hated dimensional dungeons. Everyone did. Technically, there was a limit to the amount of space it contained, but with it being able to rearrange it however it wanted, Torwin could spend the rest of his life walking in a circle of ever-changing landscape and get nowhere.

It wouldn’t play out that way, of course. He’d had to find a way to stress the dungeon and run it out of mana so that things would settle down, which was easier said than done. He hadn’t even seen a monster in the last fifteen minutes, and that was honestly worrisome on its own.

Brilliant white light burst out of nothing. “Wha—” Torwin started to say before cutting himself short. He leaped backwards, heedless of the wall he slapped up against. An explosion of scouring mana detonated in the middle of the hallway, revealing a tear in the fabric of space.

Mana flapped loosely around it like a set of jagged curtains that had been slashed up by a mad tailor with a pair of crooked, rusty scissors. Out of that hole in reality stepped Velik, who was squinting for the first time that Torwin had ever seen.

What happened to his eyes?

“Oh, there you are,” Velik said, like he hadn’t just defied physics.

“How did you do that?” Torwin asked. “Actually, that can wait. What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing? I’m fine.”

“Your eyes.”

“Oh, that. I may have made a mistake. Do you know how to turn down the intensity of [Mana Sight]?”

Torwin gawked for a second. “You took a new skill related to seeing mana inside an active dungeon?”

“Ah. I think I get it. It’s not normally this overwhelming, then?”

Torwin just stared at the young hunter.