I was right. The way forward in the dungeon wasn’t going to open up anytime soon. I had caused a bit too much of a mess.

  As such, it was up to me to find a way through it.

  “Gather around,” I told the Scarthralls. “We’re going to keep going.”

  “How are you going to take care of the debris, Cultist?” Jalais asked.

  “Just you watch. I’m going to use my Ignition Charge.”

  The thing about having a lot of different abilities on hand was that I had options on how I could get through the mess. I had decided that Orbit was going to be my best bet, which was why I had all the Scarthralls ganging up right next to me.

  Mana burned through me as my core whizzed around faster and faster. Once again, I felt like a little engine was active within my chest, like I was turning into a living power plant. As I focused on Gravity and Ignition Charge, void-purple threads spun out from my body, latching onto all the debris around us in about a twenty-foot radius.

  [ Ignition Charge

  Ignition Charge empowers Aspect of Gravity. Charges remaining: 11

  Gravity: Orbit ]

  “Woah,” Vandre said, eyes wide as he took in how the debris separated and began spinning around us. “I know I’ve seen this magic before, but it never stops amazing me.”

  As we walked forward, I picked up more debris while letting the ones behind us fall back. This meant I was never carrying too much crap. I hadn’t yet tested the limits of just how much I could carry with Orbit. The problem wasn’t that I had to be careful of how much stuff I had orbiting me. Rather, space was at a premium within the passage, so I couldn’t just pick up everything.

  It wasn’t long before we made it to the other side, though.

  “Guess we’re going to have to go through all these vaults, huh?” Sigrouen was looking at them all warily.

  “Look on the bright side,” I said. “One of them has to have the real way forward, even if it’s through a huge horde of monsters. And if the hordes are too big, I’ll just cause another little mess again. If not, then you’re hopefully going to make decent progress towards your next ranks.”

  They still didn’t look particularly excited, and honestly, I felt that. For all the training that I had performed, it had never felt like mindless grinding to me. But repeatedly fighting the same monsters within a dungeon came awfully close to that.

  Sadly, there were no clues pointing us in the right direction. We really would need to brute-force our way through.

  On the one hand, that seemed odd. Dungeons made me think of puzzles that needed solving, different kinds of tests we’d need to overcome. To simply resort to bullish methods made me constantly second guess if I was missing something obvious.

  However, on the other hand, it really might just be an endurance test. This was the strongest dungeon beneath Zairgon. For someone to claim to have cleared it, they’d need to be strong enough to deal with gauntlet after gauntlet of unending monster hordes.

  Whatever the case, it took about a few more hours before we finished going through the monsters and locating the real way forward.

  All the while, I tried to focus on my mana the same way I had done to attain Threaded Reinforcement. Just instead of threads inside my body, I tried concentrating on simply pushing strands out of my body, adding just a tiny bit of Permanence to ensure they didn’t fade.

  It wasn’t that difficult. I couldn’t recall if I had ever consciously focused on pushing mana out of my body without focusing on my Aspects at the same time. But maybe all the practice with Threaded Reinforcement meant my body had already acclimatized to what it had to do to make the magical energy work as intended.

  The sensation of mana seeping out made me feel like I was growing hair, just at a heavily accelerated rate. It was very odd.

  I didn’t linger on that sensation for long, however. Instead, I focused on somehow trying to tie the external mana to my Vitality Attribute. It wasn’t going to happen on its own, of course. Instead, I needed to make the mana feel like it needed to protect me by taking damage in place of me. Essentially, it would sacrifice itself in return for my safety.

  To that end, as we were going forward, I drew tiny chunks of anything that was potentially harmful towards my body with precise applications of Field Manipulation.

  Bits of sharp debris, a chunk of flame with Massless Interaction, a drop of acidic blood from Vandre that he didn’t notice floating off. I drew all of them towards me, while focusing on the mana to absorb the damage in my stead.

  Especially to absorb it spiritually.

  I was so tempted to think of it like the external mana was forming some sort of shield to keep me safe or something along those lines. But that wasn’t how I was envisioning my new Augmentation. A plain old shield wasn’t going to cut it. No matter where my mana was, I needed it to connect to my state of being without needing a tangible anchor, then draw away the hurt.

  It was hard to tell if it was working, because everything kept hitting me without much pain. My Vitality itself was well into Gold. Of course minor things like that weren’t going to leave any mark.

  I supposed I had to be satisfied that I was making progress in a sense.

  “You sure this is the way, Lujean?” Atholaine asked after a while. She didn’t sound anywhere near as ferociously eager as she had hours and hours ago when we had entered Rackshift dungeon.

  Lujean didn’t look back. Didn’t even look at me for confirmation. “I’m positive.”

  Honestly, I appreciated that. I wouldn’t be there to guide and assist them on every single dungeon run. They’d need to make decisions for themselves. That they were already starting was a good sign.

  Plus, I was pretty sure this was the right direction too.

  The growing intensity of the obstacles we were facing felt like solid proof of that. More and more half-automaton, half-monstrous creatures landed on and around us. Their shapes and sizes and kinds were fascinating. Some flew, some rushed in while slithering on the ground, some just seemed to assemble together out of nowhere.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  I spotted only one commonality among them—they were all big and powerful, every single one taking decent effort to defeat, even after we slowly discovered their weaknesses and exploited their tendencies. It was absolutely no surprise that the Scarthralls were growing tired.

  “I think we’re almost there,” I said encouragingly. “You guys have done tremendously well. Even I didn’t clear a dungeon this strong when I was at your level.”

  They took a little bit of heart at that. I had a feeling we were going to reach the dungeon’s end before long, so I had us redo the Rituals to regain the buffs we had lost. Then there were all the runes we needed to use along with Sacrifice.

  As I had suspected, we soon reached a chamber with powerful “boss room” vibes. It wasn’t just the Scarthralls gawking at the sheer breadth of the factory-like space. While the size was impressive, I was more amazed at just how modern the whole setup looked to me. Conveyor belts, metal platforms with railings high up, mechanical arms that looked suspiciously like manufacturing robots…

  If someone had told me that this dungeon had copied a factory on Earth somehow, I wouldn’t have been surprised in the slightest.

  Of course, there were some differences. The conveyor belts were lined with runes and made of metal that looked more like stone. The platforms above us had old-fashioned stone railings. Even the mechanical arms were familiar in the sense that they were the same kind of contraption as the Fleshtank monsters were using.

  “This place is huge,” Atholaine said.

  “Is this…” Sigrouen was frowning at all the machinery, gear, equipment, and general layout of the place. “Is this where those things were created?”

  I didn’t have an answer to that. Come to think of it, I had no clue how dungeon monsters were born. We certainly weren’t seeing any of the Fleshtanks actively being created in front of our eyes. I had a feeling the way some of the earlier monsters had assembled together didn’t count.

  “Stay sharp,” I said. “The final boss of the dungeon has to be nearby. Remember everything we discussed.”

  “I think I see it…”

  Vandre had wandered off a little ahead of us. I followed his gaze to spot a giant, cocoon-like metal structure far above us all. For a second, I wondered if we could “cheese” the whole thing by attacking and destroying the cocoon from where we stood.

  But then it stirred.

  “Vandre, you idiot,” Lujean yelled. “You woke it up!”

  The cocoon split apart with metallic grinding noises, slowly opening up to reveal the horror within that we’d have to face. It was somewhat spidery, just as the accounts had stated, its body constructed from several gleaming spheres all conjoined together. A dozen pointed, segmented legs wriggled this way and that.

  “It’s not coming down,” Vandre said.

  We already knew that, which was part of why the tension in the room hadn’t lessened. The other reason for that was the fact that the entire arena was coming alive.

  Every single conveyor belt was running, though none of them were actually conveying anything just then. Steam belched out from machineries here and there, robot arms ran their tools and whirled threateningly in our direction, and the whole arena shook and clanked.

  “Remember the process,” Lujean said for the benefit of the rest of the Scarthralls. “That thing can figure out our weaknesses. We’ll have to be careful but fast too!”

  One of the unique properties of the Fleshtank Titan far above us was that it had the capability of determining vulnerabilities of any foe. As the bright, glimmering body proved, it was already figuring out that Scarthralls couldn’t handle sunlight or anything similar. Lujean was right to warn them all to be cautious.

  “Get ready,” Lujean said as they all hefted their weapons.

  “Here they come!” Jalais said, looking around.

  I didn’t need to search for long. From high up the walls and ceiling, from all around us, the same kinds of monsters we had fought earlier were now flooding the chambers. The conveyor belts were finally performing their primary function—conveying monsters.

  While the others turned to face the threats rushing them down, I frowned up at the Fleshtank Titan. Information was scarce about how it would respond. In essence, there were no guarantees. Once it had figured out the main weaknesses of the party it faced, it would then act accordingly to bring about those vulnerabilities.

  In this case, it would clearly try to use light against the Scarthralls. The question remained on how it was going to go about doing so.

  The battle had already started. For all that they had appeared tired and worn out earlier, the Scarthralls were tackling the monsters with no less ferocity than before. If anything, the constant fighting inside the dungeon had turned them into an even more cohesive unit, their teamwork now a display of ferocity in and of itself.

  I didn’t jump in to assist, even though I knew they’d probably appreciate it now. The Scarthralls had to be sick of fighting the same monsters over and over. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had stopped gaining ranks too.

  My eyes were fixed on the titan above us. On the monster glowing brighter and brighter. What was it planning? Was it…

  It wasn’t just the monster growing brighter. Somehow, it seemed to be manifesting light particles all around us, turning the air itself into sizzling pockets of radiance. My eyes widened a bit. I understood that it might be something like my Manifestation Augmentation. Combining that with the ability to determine weaknesses made that monster a force to be reckoned with.

  “Stay back!” I quickly warned the Scarthralls. “That thing can attack from pretty much anywhere.”

  They didn’t really need my warning. Before going in, we had already discussed the potential pitfalls of facing a monster that knew just how to take us out.

  So, as the burning light manifested around us, Lujean and the rest of the Scarthralls were already skipping away. The retreat was neither practiced nor easy. They had to disengage from the enemy, which was significantly easier said than done. But they managed. None of the light reached them.

  Especially because I decided to step in.

  The Fleshtank Titan was high-Gold, if not low-Opal, and defeating it and its capabilities was absolutely beyond a bunch of Silver-ranked Scarthralls. So, I Manifested my own light via Illumination, imbuing every bit with Reflection.

  The final dungeon battle turned into lightshow. I felt like I was in a rave with the monsters dancing in their attempt to reach and cleave through the Scarthralls, who themselves were trying not to be too blinded or get too close to any of the light either. And even then, I heard the telltale hissing of flesh sizzling, Jalais and a few others crying out as they burned.

  I growled. I needed to stop this. I needed—

  My breath shuddered in my chest. Vitality. My new Augmentation. That was what I needed here. It wasn’t just me I could use to draw damage away from. My allies, my friends, what was stopping me from taking damage away from them with my powers?

  At this point, even I had to shade my eyes against the sheer intensity of the light washing everything in its monstrous fury. I growled up at the Titan. It was staying safe way up on the ceiling.

  “Watch out!” one of the Scarthralls screamed.

  I didn’t need the warning. The Fleshtank coming at me shrieked as it fell, slamming to the metal floor as it tried to reach me. Gravity was already active, Infusion and Field Manipulation creating a widening field, threads of purple power flooding the area in an increasing radius.

  With how much I had grown since I had first gained Field Manipulation, I was able to push the field wider and wider until it was covering over a third of the arena. Dozens of the smaller Fleshtanks were trapped now, doing their best to force themselves up, while the Scarthralls had thankfully remained aware enough to stay beyond my field’s bounds.

  But more than that, I was trying to send out individual strands of Gravity to all the light surrounding us. With Massless Interaction, I could control strands of even energy almost as easily as I could control anything with actual mass.

  So it was that using another Ignition Charge had the light gathering all around me in a huge, spinning halo.

  [ Ignition Charge

  Ignition Charge empowers Aspect of Gravity. Charges remaining: 10

  Gravity: Orbit ]

  Far above us, the Titan screamed. Field Manipulation had finally reached it, and now, the ceiling groaned as the oversized monster’s many legs wriggled desperately as it tried to stick to its safe spot. Not on my watch. With a piercing cry, as Infusion’s intensity went up by another notch while my mana core whirred even faster, the Titan was finally torn free from the ceiling.

  It crashed to the ground, shaking everything around us, though the heightened Gravity had an interesting vibration-damping effect I hadn’t thought about before.

  For all that the fall had been hard, the monster recovered pretty quickly. Up close, its body made of blistering orbs of light was even brighter. I was forced to squint once more, though I tried to use Imbuement and Reflection on my eyeballs to not let too much light infiltrate in.

  As its full attention landed on me, I wondered if it was going to discover a weakness for me. There was nothing as obvious as light for the Scarthralls. Maybe—

  With a metallic screech, it gathered up all its light like it was about to fire a laser.

  I grinned, gathered my mana close, and got ready. Looks like I could use this thing as a practice dummy to get my new Vitality Augmentation.