Chapter 128

  After dealing with Travis, Michael went straight back to the dungeon for a quick delve. Without the Renegade’s projection on the fourth floor, things were much different. It was as if an oppressive presence had vanished, changing the whole floor’s atmosphere. He vanquished the monster at the lake again, prompting the reset of the whole floor a couple of times until he felt calm and collected.

  Then, now centered, he made his way to the frozen dwarven halls. There he found the dwarves already inside, as if the dungeon was adapting the floor on the fly to accommodate his diverging behavior. They spoke of the raven's call, the cold, and the hope to reignite the forge. Michael thought that perhaps this time he would succeed and allowed the dwarves to lead him to the frozen heart of the forges.

  However, even though no overbearing aura threatened his life anymore, he still failed. The ice was strong in the room, and when he tried to add his own fire to counteract the freezing element, the whole room shook and exploded violently enough to momentarily dent Michael’s passive aura defenses.

  The most damage to him was due to his powerful and not yet tamed senses. He had gotten better at managing his heightened sensitivity in the last few days, but having a magical explosion assault both his arcane and his normal senses simultaneously with overwhelming power brought back his old headache with a vengeance.

  The floor reset itself soon after, and Michael left. He was no longer in the mood to finish it.

  The next day, he picked Travis up at the entrance to the dungeon, and the two made their way through the first floor in silence. Travis had slotted his sole remaining silver card in his hand again, making him low-silver tier compared to the mid-silver he was before discarding his other cards.

  While Michael’s tier wasn't connected to his skills but to his magical energy pools, it was clear that for Travis, things were different. False Silvers, it seemed, lacked the internal stability necessary to support a strong magic system without strong cards, skills, or other means to act as a crutch. Michael explained as much to Travis, making sure the benefits of being carried to True Silver were spelled out clearly.

  “Thank you,” Travis stated.

  “For what?” Michael inquired.

  “For forgiving me,” Travis admitted. “I’ve been acting like a fool. You could have just tossed me away. Instead, you’re giving me more power.”

  “Well, as you say, I am giving it to you. You know you couldn’t get it yourself,” Michael pointed out.

  The man shrugged. “Power is power. Besides, what you’re giving me is true power now, the kind that can’t be taken away, right?”

  It was Michael’s turn to shrug. “Kinda. I could always cripple your whole astral soul. I think I could do it.”

  Travis blinked, as if not expecting Michael to consider such acts as casually as deciding what to eat for lunch.

  “I understand,” he conceded after a while. “I’ll behave. Don’t worry.”

  After that, Michael had Travis meditate under the effect of the Candle Light skill. Unlike with Old Dave, Michael didn’t let Travis choose his own element, instead forcing the man to learn to integrate fire into his aura. Thanks to [Candle Light], which reached level four and gained the ability—according to the system—to mesmerize people, whatever it meant, Travis had no issues concentrating for months at a time. Michael also used this time to get his senses under control, although he didn’t dare advance his cultivation for fear of undoing all his efforts.

  He wouldn’t cultivate until he understood Qi better.

  Finally, Travis snapped out of his trance. His left hand glowed momentarily, and the outline of a new card appeared, its border shiny silver. The smug expression on his face faded as soon as he saw Michael make a “give me” gesture. With a frown, Travis pulled the card out of his hand and offered it to Michael, who, in turn, ignored the man’s grunts of pain.

  “Good,” Michael commented. “So, you can form cards like I can form new skills. Good to know. Silver-ranked perception card that works on mana and the elements. Now integrate fire into your aura.”

  “How?” Travis questioned.

  Michael considered his response. “Trial and error. You can’t hurt yourself with me here.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  The man simply nodded and sat back on the ground. Michael started providing the element for him, and Travis tried to integrate it with his aura. Not telling him how to do it had both benefits and drawbacks and, for the most part, was Michael’s way of getting back at him for irritating him. Without guidance, Travis would develop his own way of dealing with elemental Fire, which would in turn give him greater control and understanding, but simultaneously, the fact that Travis didn’t possess Michael’s talent almost guaranteed an inferior outcome.

  Indeed, that’s exactly what happened. Travis learned fire but did not master it. A swirl of magic followed, and his aura changed in quality. Since he was already at Silver, just False Silver, the process was rather quick.

  “Welcome to True Silver,” Michael declared, turning around to leave.

  Travis coughed to get his attention as he hurried to catch up. “How long are you going to keep up this attitude?”

  “Huh?” Michael responded, then, “Oh, this is nothing. I was just thinking about stuff. Consider yourself off the hook.”

  “Alright,” Travis replied, unconvinced. “What’s the plan now?”

  “You keep doing you. You were doing good work, actually. Just stop trying to manipulate me. If there’s something you want to do, tell me to my face. If you think I’m being dumb, again, better to tell me than try to manipulate me. Don’t do what you did with the mimic chest operation ever again. If you know something is about to go to shit, stop it. Lives are more important than teaching a lesson.”

  Travis felt like the fire in his aura had suddenly turned to ice. Even though he had witnessed Michael’s rage, he’d never thought Michael would have seen through that specific ploy.

  “Listen, sending me on a murder spree was fun and all,” Michael continued. “And I admit, now that it’s all over, I understand several things better. But I can’t say that all that came out of that little stunt of yours is good. You changed me, or rather, you forced me to change ahead of time. Was it for the greater good? Perhaps. Do I have to like it? No. Hence the attitude. It will take me a while to get over it, and no, months spent casting [Candle Light] on you in the Misty Valley don’t really count.”

  “I see,” Travis murmured.

  After that, they each went to do their own thing. Travis went back to the surface to deal with work—spending many months in the valley meant at least a full day’s worth of catching up. Michael went down to the fourth floor instead, feeling like he wanted to bulldoze through the whole thing at once. He killed the scorpion monster at the lake again just to warm up, which brought him to level 16, and he felt ready to tackle the challenge.

  However, while fighting the monster, he thought he’d seen something interesting: a gem, glittering under the creature’s obsidian skin. When he fought the monster again, this time trying not to kill it so he could study the embedded gemstone, a curious thing happened.

  The dwarves arrived.

  “Lad!” their leader bellowed. “I have a favor to ask of ye.”

  Michael was still battling the monster as the dwarf and his whole caravan streamed into the cave, keeping a good distance from the lake’s shore.

  “What is it?” Michael asked between punches, wondering what made the dwarves deviate from the script so much.

  “We ask of you, in the name of us all, if you could perhaps incapacitate the monster without slaying it,” the dwarf requested. “There be a stone within. One we have been searching for a long time.”

  The battle lasted a few minutes longer, mostly because Michael didn’t want to accidentally kill the monster and have to repeat the process. By his estimation, the dwarves had arrived about twenty minutes after the fight began, and Michael was getting antsy.

  Finally, the monster toppled over and was dragged out of the water and onto the shore.

  “Thank ye, lad. This was the piece we were missing,” the dwarf exclaimed.

  The dwarf took out a large tool and cut through the obsidian as if it were butter. Michael studied it. The tool was an amalgamation of mechanical parts, hissing steam tubes, arcing blue mana, and glass. Johanne would probably love to get her hands on one, he thought, but before he could ask questions, the dwarf finally extracted the gem from the monster’s body.

  Without the isolating properties of the obsidian skin, Michael could finally feel the raw energy within the gem. It gave him pause, though: the gem was pure Ice element, of a purity he’d never come close to achieving, not even after months of training in the Valley. Just by looking at it, he felt his understanding of the element increase.

  With a backhand, he sent the dwarf flying and snatched the elemental stone. He would complete the floor later; the dwarves were traitorous assholes anyway. But when he tried to leave the monster arena to study the gemstone, it dissolved into raw Ice element, triggering a floor reset.

  Michael wanted to scream in frustration.

  He didn’t. Instead, he went through the motions again, this time not daring to touch the stone until he’d beaten the floor. In the grand scheme of things, he’d rather advance deeper into the dungeon than be stuck at such a shallow floor for who knew how many more cycles, even if it meant giving up on the stone and the understanding it promised.

  He followed the dwarves to their ancestral home, battled outside the great gates, poured fire into the tavern’s fireplace to give the dwarves hope and make them believe he could help them, and finally, he was shown the heart of the forges. This time, the lead dwarf gave him the Ice stone to carry, claiming it could help balance the elements.

  Why the fuck didn’t he tell me last time? Michael wondered before realizing that perhaps the Renegade’s influence had made the dwarf conveniently forget to mention balancing the elements.

  With a nod to the dwarves, Michael finally entered the giant frozen room. As soon as the Ice stone crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut behind him. This time, however, it hadn't been the dwarves. The energies in the room went wild, winds of ice buffeting his face, seeking the stone.

  The stone itself began shaking, and cracks formed on its surface as an eerie light pulsed from within. If the buildup of energies was any indication, the gem was about to explode. If it did, Michael would probably survive, but the floor would reset yet again.

  Not something Michael was looking forward to.