Floor sixteen was populated by relatively small white mambas. They were never more than a metre long, but they were fast and came in large groups. Unfortunately, just like the dart snakes of floor nine, they could sense Cluma's footsteps. In fact, they were worse, because when she jumped, they always seemed able to guess the direction.

Even if they knew where she was standing, they still couldn't see her, and they failed to dodge swings of her daggers. The snakes were small enough for her to bisect, killing them instantly as long as she didn't catch them too close to their tail end. But they could learn. At the start of each battle, the disconnect between Cluma's invisibility and detectable footsteps confused them, but as Cluma started attacking, they adapted. They started striking back, aiming randomly above her footfalls.

The small snakes had appropriately short fangs. They weren't able to pierce the toughened plates of our armour, but even if they could, their reach was insufficient to penetrate both the plate and bodysuit to strike our flesh beneath. Alas, the plates didn't provide perfect coverage, and with Cluma fighting up close, it was only a matter of time before one struck lucky.

I saw her dodge a strike that would have penetrated the back of a knee, doubtless warned by [Threat Perception], but another snake was already striking upward, and caught her on the inside of an elbow. "Ah," she gasped, as its fangs pierced her leather bodysuit, plunging through her skin and into her flesh, flooding her with venom. She stumbled, but didn't let it distract her for more than a second, cleaving her attacker in two. The dwindling group of monsters weren't able to capitalise on her distraction, and I bisected two more with [Far Reach] as she stabbed the final one, before grabbing the antidote from her waist and pouring the full vial down her throat.

"It burns!" she moaned, clutching her injured arm above the elbow.

"I can imagine," I replied, having been on the wrong end of the blade of a goblin assassin far too many times for comfort. "It should fade quickly, now that you've taken an antidote."

Not quickly enough, though. She leant against a tree, grimacing in pain, and I saw thin rivulets of blood running out of the pair of fang-holes in her armour. This poison was likely more unpleasant than the goblin's. What I'd been hit with only did stat and stamina damage, but Sara had warned us that from floor sixteen onwards, the venoms here directly damaged health. [Analysis] showed the loss of thirteen points, but it didn't seem to be dropping further, so the antidote must have purged it.

"I know you want to save soul points, but I suggest you take the pair of health pool skills," I advised.

"Will they really make much different at rank one?"

"You aren't going to be healing at a speed you can watch, but wounds will stop bleeding more quickly, and it'll help you get over the after-effects of venom like that more easily. Increasing the size of your health pool will make wounds like that less serious, too, and they'll hurt less."

"Hurting less sounds good," she muttered, and I saw her focus on nothing a short distance in front of her face, the telltale sign of System interaction. [Analysis] showed her health jump as she bought the pair of skills, and her face relaxed slightly.

"When you called delving a hobby, was this part something you thought about?" I asked. Traditional delvers always took great care not to step outside of their safe range. Ever since the safety net, those who played fast and loose had been cropping up, but from what I'd heard, they very quickly either ended up with [Failed Delver] or else had a few experiences like this and fell back a few floors. Actual thrill seekers, or those willing to take risks to speed their growth, were few and far between. If we were playing safe, we'd probably need to limit ourselves to floor twelve-ish.

"Mmm," she said. "The Dawnhold floor ten boss hurt me far worse than this. I've recovered now, anyway, so let's get going."

Even if the wound wasn't bothering her, [Analysis] showed that she'd only gained a single point of health. She was still down by twelve. I wouldn't call that recovered.

"Okay, but take a potion first. You're still..."

"Hmm?" asked Cluma, grabbing a potion from her waist. "I'm still what?"

I didn't answer, trying to place the odd sensation I was feeling that had interrupted my sentence. My finger was itching, but it felt distant, like it wasn't really here. Was someone doing something to one of my beacons? Which ones had I used part of a finger for?

I scanned each one with [Mana Sight], and the winner was the village. Darren was disrupting [Shelter] with his mana control. I'd have complained about him messing around with my magic again, but Mum was standing behind him. He was obviously doing it with permission. Mum wanted me urgently for something.

"Hold off on the potion. Mum is calling me."

Mum didn't look distressed at all, so deciding it wasn't get-there-this-instant levels of urgent, we spent the minute or two needed to extract the monster cores. I refrained from commenting when Cluma surreptitiously bit into one, as if I wouldn't be able to see her with my active [Mana Sight]. Interestingly, it raised her health by a few more points. She could heal herself by consuming mana? I suppose that made a kind of sense, given that her body was partially composed of the stuff.

"That's a handy way to heal yourself," I commented, causing her ears to droop. Apparently, she really did think I hadn't seen her. Did she think I wouldn't spot the missing core when I stored them?

I teleported her to the village and then followed.

"Peter! Thank goodness," exclaimed Mum the moment I arrived, Darren already having charged in to squeeze Cluma's legs. She'd trained him well, and he knew under what conditions hugs were expected of him. Admittedly, it wasn't that hard to learn; it boiled down to a simple 'all of them'.

"What's the rush?" I asked. "Is something wrong?"

"There's a dragon!" exclaimed Darren, causing both me and Cluma to do a double-take.

"A dragon?"

I looked around with [Mana Sight], and sure enough, there was a dragon lying in the road outside the cottage.

"Umm..." I said, hoping that mum was going to add some more detail to the situation.

"His name is Kranakellicium," she elaborated. "He said a lot of stuff I didn't understand about mana leaking out through holes in the world, and that he wanted to borrow Darren. I was hoping you could... I dunno, translate what he's saying to something I can understand."

Krana wanted to borrow Darren? That was all sorts of ridiculous, but then so was the entire idea of mana leaking out through holes in the world. And then I remembered Cluma's reactions to witnessing large drifts of mana... I'd theorised they could have been caused by removal of a large amount. Had I been correct?

"Right, let's go talk to him. This should be interesting."

The four of us walked outside, where Krana was indeed curled up in the middle of the street, slightly shrunk from his full size, but not by much. Certainly nowhere near to the extent that Cluma could mistake him for a plushy again, much to my disappointment.

ding

Skill [Basic Etiquette] advanced to level 5

Without thinking, I started to do what my etiquette skill insisted was appropriate when confronted with something that could almost eat me in one bite. Thankfully, I caught myself before the bowing and scraping and pleading for my life got too obvious. That skill was a menace.

"Peter," he rumbled. "I see. The researchers at the institute did say you were responsible for this child's condition. You are related, then?"

"Brothers," I answered. "What's going on?"

Krana growled unhappily. "That is what I wish to discover. Once every seventy-point-four-nine hours, accurate down to a handful of minutes, anomalies appear at a seemingly random location around the world. They remain for approximately nine minutes, sucking up mana in the area like a sponge, and then vanish as if they were never there, leaving nothing but a sparsity of mana behind. No System skill we have tried has succeeded in divining their nature. Not even Tilyana's [Nature's Voice] or Bruleggiamlixanax's [Hecate's Power]. Discussing the situation with the research institute of Dawnhold, we hit upon the idea of investigating an anomaly without the aid of the System."

While I'd heard most of that, I'd stopped processing at the seventy-point-four-nine hours. That was, as far as I'd been able to work out, one Earth week. No way in hell was that a coincidence.

"The latest of these anomalies was two days ago?" I asked, my suspicions rising.

Krana treated me to a slow blink as he considered my question. "Yes, in the morning. You are already aware of them, then?"

"No, but Cluma noticed a drift in the mana. Something sucking up the mana in an area could certainly cause it."

The dragon turned to look at Cluma, still clad in her black leather and looking somewhat more professional than I felt her personality warranted. "You have a rank four mana perception skill?" he asked.

"Nu-uh, only rank one. But I have a trait that makes me sensitive to mana flows."

Krana did another of his slow blinks. "Interesting, but we do not lack a means of detecting the anomalies. It is the matter of their nature that eludes us."

"I believe I can help you with that one," I replied. "Portals to my home-world. To Earth."

That didn't get me a blink, but rather Krana's head spun so fast that it must have taken System assistance to not get whiplash. "Explain!" he demanded.

"The time periods you mentioned. A day on Earth is slightly longer than one here, while an Earth week is shorter, at seven days instead of ten. It sounds like the time between each anomaly is exactly one Earth week. And a minute here is slightly longer than an Earth minute, so your approximately nine could become a nice round ten. I'll admit, I'm not certain about the differences between our time units, but it's close enough to be seriously suspicious."

"You imply that these anomalies are caused by actors on Earth?"

I paused to think. How much did I know, and what was speculation? I knew my immediate family had reincarnated here. I didn't know the reason for that. Now there were these mana-sucking anomalies occurring, with timing that appeared suspiciously Earth-like, and it was tempting to jump to conclusions and decide they must be related to me. I had no evidence for that, though. Interdimensional travel certainly wasn't a topic of open research in my past life, nor was the existence of a soul. It was tough to imagine someone had deliberately sent me here as part of an experiment. If it was technology that was developed since, it couldn't explain my reincarnation, and besides, technology like that couldn't have come from nowhere.

The timing wasn't the only piece of evidence; I'd also had a foreign soul notification. Had the reason for the missing coordinates been that the System was detecting them through the anomaly? But that just proved there was a foreign soul somewhere, not that it was on Earth. There was also the matter of our lost names.

"How long ago did these anomalies start?"

"One season. There have been fifteen instances so far."

Hmm... Not a perfect match-up with me noticing my lost name, and why had I only had a foreign soul notification on the latest one? Unless... "Are these anomalies growing each time? Lasting longer?"

"No—their size and duration remain static. They are, however, growing more stable."

More stable... Someone was tunnelling here from Earth, and they were getting better at it with each attempt? Did that explain the names? And now they were stable enough for the System to reach into them? Had the notification I'd received been about someone physically on Earth? That would certainly explain the failure to display coordinates.

Alas, it was nothing but speculation. Highly worrisome speculation; I didn't want to think what would happen to this world if its mana was bled dry, or to Earth if the System got its hooks in.

"The timing is extremely suspicious, and I've noticed other effects that could be related, but I have no direct proof," I answered.

"It is an interesting theory to consider, certainly, but I do not believe it affects our desired course of action. The next anomaly is expected five days hence. We wish to carry Darren to it, and hope he can offer some aid. Your mother wished me to ask your permission, believing you to have a greater understanding of what I am requesting."

"Really?" I asked, peering at Mum. "You do know what my record is like on experimental safety, right? I carried the [Self-Destructive] title for half my life, for goodness' sake."

Kranakellicium, Dragon, targeted you with [Athena's Insight]

ding

Skill [Secrecy] advanced to level 11

"All this talk of mana is beyond me," she said. "Kranakellicium has already assured me Darren will be safe, but I'd still feel better if you went with him. I don't want him getting overeager and jumping into the anomaly."

"Mummy! I'm not a baby!" complained Darren, pouting as only a small child could.

"Sure, I don't mind. You too, Cluma? If we're trying to gather people with unusual sensory abilities, you might be able to help out too."

"Yup. Sounds interesting!"

"Then I shall return in five days' time at second bell. The anomaly is due around third. I will carry the group to Synklisi, where we shall take the portal network as close as possible, and attempt to reach the anomaly before it closes."

Five days... And then perhaps I'd get my first clue to how I'd ended up in this world.