I also didn’t expect for it to die damn near instantly.

  I wasn’t the only one who followed the trajectory of the giant pillar-turned-arrow. Folly looked at it, then screamed. Not a “oh no, I’m going to die” scream. It was just a scream.

  It ripped the thing apart like it was nothing.

  Then he starts coughing up blood as we run, and I quickly fall back to heal him. Whatever he just did, it cost him more than just mana. I couldn’t get specifics with Arcane Regulation feeding him my regeneration, but I could sort-of tell what was wrong.

  And he had a lot wrong in his lungs and throat.

  As we run, dozens of the little statues charge us from every direction, and I start to worry. They’re still far, far away, but my hands shake with nerves, resisting my efforts to relax.

  Folly gives me a concerned look, but I ignore it. Thankfully it doesn't take long to patch him up.

  Even with the 95% reduction from Arcane Regulations use on others, I’m giving him nearly 1,800 extra health regen. As a Mage, he likely doesn't have a very high Constitution stat, so for him, 1,800 is a significant amount of healing.

  It only takes about five seconds before he gives me a nod, and I move back to the front to help out with clearing our path. This time, I keep an eye out for any ranged attackers.

  I’m just a little terrified of the idea of a building sized pillar pasting us before we can even do anything. And... maybe my history with this place is making things worse. I can still fight though, so I do my best to push through.

  “I see a red crystal!” calls Orin's bow-wielding Ranger.

  We all turn to him and follow his gaze to where he’s pointing. It's a bit off to the right, but even so, it's a miracle that I could even get us this close. All I had to go off of was the direction The Strikers party went when we first entered the place. And loose guesswork on where I was thrown.

  Of course, I don’t see a thing from this far away, or through the strange darkness, but Kiki’s Ranger calls out a confirmation. Our entire party shifts, all but sprinting through small statues. Soon enough we’ve made it to the stone.

  It looks exactly like I remember.

  So I didn’t imagine it then...

  It took us maybe two minutes to get here at our rushed pace, and in that time the entire place had come to life. At a glance, I can see three giant statues in the gloom brandishing weapons outlined only by the dim blue glow of the runes. No bows, thank the Gods, but still not good news.

  There is an ever-present blue glow of runework spread as far as the eye can see. Everywhere I look, there are little hints of red from the statues emerging from the inky blackness, as if appearing from nowhere. They sprint along the ground and crawl all over the pillars, all heading right for us.

  It’s the expedition all over again, except we’re the only targets.

  Folly is there, jostling me by my shoulders.

  “Emilia. Emilia! You’re panicking. You need to calm down,” he says.

  That’s when I realize I’m spiraling. Shakes wrack my body, and my breaths come far too fast. In a safer environment, I might try to overcome this. But this isn’t safe.

  So instead, I enable Mental Suppression's emotional controls.

  Instantly, it’s all gone. The fear, the panic, the dread. Then I finally see the System notice.

  Quest Updated

  The core is shielded.

  Objectives:

  1. Deplete the dungeon core shields.

  2. Destroy the dungeon core.

  Well, that’s not good.

  When I look back to Folly, I find him watching me with even more concern than before.

  “I’m fine. Now, can you remove the shields on the core?” I ask, taking a second to look back at the small red stone.

  Unsurprisingly, I can see a sheen of mana covering it. Not only that, but the mana itself seems to take the shape of countless runes, somehow even more intricate than the ones on the ground.

  He gives me a skeptical look, as do several other members of our group, but I ignore it all.

  “No, I can’t. Neither can Orin, we tried,” he responds.

  I nod, then move towards the small stone. We still have a few moments before the first swarm of statues reach us, and I take it to test whether I can destroy the stone. My fist slams into the thing, fully empowered with both Arcane Strike and Bloodmist Fist.

  Nothing.

  The mana seems unaffected. Then I try to use my control over mana, but I can only use my Intelligence milestone and Race’s natural affinity with mana because the shield is definitely not ambient mana.

  With my Racial, Class, and Skill benefits, at 552 Intelligence, I could have power equivalent to someone with 1,000 or higher, but there’s no way for me to know without trying things like this.

  Still, no good. It feels like my mental grasp on the mana just slides right off the shields before I can even try to find purchase. Weird, but not unexpected.

  Then I remember I have Mana Surge. I look at the skill again, having nearly forgotten about it entirely.

  Mana Surge

  Active, Body

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  A bounty of mana is part of your ever growing repertoire of tools.

  Expel a surge of excess mana all around you, temporarily disrupting spells and enchantments.

  Costs 10% of maximum Mana per use.

  Wait, can I use this to kill the statues?

  Feeling incredibly foolish for forgetting about it, I use the skill. Mana drains from my tail in a rush, and then there’s a silent explosion. Only instead of being able to direct it to somewhere nearby, it comes directly from me and expands in a large sphere.

  A wave of bright blue mana races through the air, and… nothing. The core shields are unaffected. However, the skill does work. The runes on the ground dim, if only slightly, and the darkness above me seems to be erased from existence.

  I had hoped that would work, but of course it couldn't be that easy. The darkness slowly fills in the space I just cleared, and before I can think of anything else to try, I’m out of time.

  The statues are close, and closing fast. Thankfully, none of the pillars are anywhere near us, each one positioned like the four corners of a truly enormous square around us.

  ...aren't they positioned a bit too perfectly around the core?

  While I can’t make sense of the runes on the ground, it does seem like they spread from the core and into the pillars through the floor.

  But does that mean anything? Worth testing, I suppose.

  Still moving back into position to protect the group, I speak. “Folly, can you break one of those pillars from here?” I ask, indicating one of the four rune-covered pillars.

  He looks between me, the core, and the pillar, tracing the runes on the ground that seem to loosely create a pathway from one to the other. While hard to make out due to their intricacy... it's there. Then he grins.

  “Good idea. I can reach it, but if it’s as tough as the cores shields… well, I’ll try. I need time to cast the spell. Keep them off me,” he says.

  Everyone nods seriously. We spread out around him and the core, with Kiki, the blade Ranger, and me taking point furthest from the group. It’s a formation we devised before even leaving camp, as it would give us the most coverage to protect our ranged fighters and also give them space to work.

  Frankly, we don’t have enough front liners, but it would have to do.

  Kiki is the first to engage, the statues reaching her side first. She cleaves them apart with her twin swords, sometimes even cleaving through the statues’ weapons as if they weren’t even there.

  Then the Ranger and I have statues of our own to fight, and every shred of my focus is set to keeping them away from our backline.

  For a bit, I’m fast enough to keep them at bay. Then one slips past, and it’s obliterated by a beam of fire from Orin. But there are already too many of them for me to deal with entirely alone.

  So I start testing things. First, I use Mana Surge. Another wave of mana explodes around me. Suddenly, everything within ten paces of me drops dead, the runes winding through the small statues’ flesh winking out .

  Much better.

  “The shield is weakening a little with every kill!” Orin shouts, excited.

  That I can work with. With Mana Surge consuming 10% of my mana, I only have enough for thirty casts total, thanks to my tail storing twice what my mana pool can hold.

  Well, twenty-eight-ish casts, now.

  My natural regeneration is enough to take care of the scratches and scrapes, so I don’t have to shunt any more of my mana regeneration into Arcane Regulation. At least, not yet.

  Even with Enhance Body active, my mana regen is pushing 18,000. That’s enough for five surges a minute without actually dipping into my mana.

  So I do just that. The statues never stop coming, and in no time I’m walking across their corpses to intercept them. While it slows me down slightly, it slows them down just as much.

  So I consider it a fair trade.

  It also acts as a barrier, protecting the rest of the party. It obstructs the ranged members of our expedition, but they don’t really need to see anyways. They can blindly fire over the mound and hit something that needs hitting without aiming, at this point.

  Then the first of the medium-sized statues reaches me, and it takes two Mana Surges for each one. While most of the statues are already taller than me, these things easily triple my height. My Mana Surge doesn’t engulf its entire body... but it does take out its legs.

  The magic that keeps its legs moving is just erased from existence, and it topples forward unceremoniously. It still crawls with its hands, but by then it only takes one more Mana Surge to blanket the head and torso, snuffing its mana out entirely.

  Two more are right behind it. Then there’s six behind them, and I’m finally starting to lose mana with each cast. Looking further out into the horde, I see dozens interspersed between the little guys.

  The larger ones and the giants aren’t far behind.

  I can't help but feel that Mana Surge won’t work so well against those massive things.

  “Ah!” someone screams in pain behind me, and I spare them a glance. One of the medium sized statues got through the Ranger's side, but it was dealt with quickly enough. Kiki’s Mage has a nasty cut on their arm, but nothing fatal.

  Another two small statues get through the Ranger's side, and I frown.

  While Kiki and I have only had a few small ones slip through our line, we are perfectly suited to countering these things. The Ranger isn’t. At the same time, even Kiki and I are being slowly but surely overwhelmed.

  I spare another glance back, this time focusing on the dungeon core. The dense weave of runes seem to have weakened, but only barely. It’s only been a minute or so, and we’ve killed hundreds of the things. If the shields had a supply of 100 mana before, we’d only dropped it to 99.

  My frown deepens.

  This isn’t going to last.

  A giant closes the distance enough to thrust a spear my way, and I’m reminded of how I got here in the first place. A spear just like this, closing in so fast that I hadn’t had the ability to even react.

  But it’s different, now.

  I rotate in place so the spear is lined up with my side and tilt back with a kick, pushing the spear straight into the air as I practically do a standing split.

  Everything is different now.

  Dexterity keeps me perfectly balanced on the corpses of what once made me panic. I reach back from my stretched out stance without looking, catching one of the small statues by the throat and tearing through it with my claws. It drops dead thanks to Arcane Strike's mana invading its body.

  I’m not strong yet…

  I keep moving, my body shifting on instinct to protect the people behind me. Using Bloodmist Fist, I enhance my feet with each step, kicking off the ground with the Skill to move just a bit faster.

  But I’m not weak anymore, either.

  The moment I think that, I feel it. A sense of calm and certainty. Of readiness. It washes through my body like a wave, erasing my concerns with a burst of realization.

  I’m ready to evolve. The barrier that was holding me back, that nobody could or would talk about, is just... gone.

  With the realization, the world stutters to a halt. I try to move, to keep fighting, but can’t. Everyone and everything around me is frozen in place, as if time itself has stopped.

  Congratulations!

  You have evolved.

  Instead of faltering, you have taken a step onto the path of divinity.

  Now you need only keep walking.

  The pantheon awaits you, aspirant.

  Rewards:

  Your Race gains one evolution point.

  All Classes gain one evolution point.

  +100 to all stats.

  +100 free stat points.

  Notice

  Your Racial evolution point has already been applied with your prior evolution.

  Notice

  Your Classes do not qualify for a rarity evolution.

  WARNING!

  The purpose of evolution is not to be shared under any circumstances, as doing so may alter the paths of those made aware.

  To prevent this, you are now System bound until your evolution is complete.

  The path to godhood is not for all.

  Notice

  Please select a class and choose which skills you would like to evolve.

  Bloodwind Mystic

  Dungeoneer

  First Arcanist

  I stare at the notices for a moment. But then, I get to work. I’d learned about evolving to Tier One and what boons I might expect, and I wasn’t going to waste the chance to turn the tides in our favor.