After clearing quite a few floors and not being attacked by another pack, I decided to ask, “Is it just me or is the dungeon getting easier as we go deeper? We haven’t faced anything as hard as the wolves since we left floor 10.”

Fina replied while she scouted the next corner for monsters, “Packs like that are uncommon on the upper floors. Normal D-ranked monsters shouldn’t be much of a challenge for you to defeat individually even at your current skill levels.”

I was growing more and more frustrated as we made our way into the depths of the dungeon. We were nearly at the 20th floor and we still had yet to grab a single treasure. Fina assured me, “The treasures you find on these floors are typically worthless.”

That didn’t stop me from wanting to loot every golden X that appeared on my map. If there was even a 1% chance that it could be rare, I wanted to check it out. On one occasion we passed within 10 feet of the marker.

“It’s right over there”, I bellowed, trying to pull away from the group to investigate a shadowy nook in the wall, “I can get it and be back in 5 seconds.”

Kiki rolled her eyes, “If only it were that simple. What if there’s a trap? Then what will you do? Also, sometimes the treasure turns out to be fake.”

I stuck my tongue out at my sister, “Not when it shows up on my map. The magic spots the fakes.”

Fina put her foot down and instructed us, “No treasures until floor 30. Trust me, I’ve cleared these floors many times. There is never anything worth the effort.”

Still tempted to go against the group and snag that treasure, I allowed Kalli to drag me along, chiding me. Don’t do it, Mel. I know you like to get in trouble.

What gives you that idea?

She snickered at me. I don’t know. How about the time you nearly killed me when you tried to summon a wizard?

That was one time.

Kalli pinched my arm. Ok. What about when you made us visible to monsters and we almost got eaten by a griffon?

We both lived, didn’t we?

The girl gave me a lopsided grin, clearly enjoying the interrogation. Ok, there was the last time you ran off looking for treasure under the ocean and I had to come rescue you.

You fell into the same trap that I did, and we found that treasure. Isn’t that a good reason to go find the treasure in this dungeon?

She stuck her tongue out at me. Wrong again. It means you should behave and treat this like a classroom. Fina will teach us how to safely treasure hunt. She knows what she’s doing.

We passed floor 20 without stopping at the safe room. It was still early after all. When we made our way to floor 21, Fina announced, “From here on, we face C-ranked monsters. Teamwork is important on these floors. I don’t want anyone to attack a monster without a partner. At this rank, they get both harder and smarter. Don’t let their levels lull you into a false sense of security. Monsters don’t level the same way that we do. They level up by rank, so a level 100 D-rank is weaker than a level 1 C-rank.”

“That explained why the level 5 griffon was so tough”, I replied, laughing a little and exchanging a look with Kalli.

Fina turned around and her eyes widened, “Are you saying that you fought one? Griffons are considered mystical monsters. Even the weakest one would be A-rank. We won’t see any of them in here for quite a while. Probably the 50th floor at the earliest.”

Kiki clamped a hand on my shoulder and asked, “How many people did it take to defeat the griffon?”

Kalli put her hands on her hips and grumbled, “It was just the two of us and we didn’t even defeat it. We barely survived.”

Run, who had been scouting ahead, turned and asked, “How did you survive? Did someone rescue you?”

The question made Kalliphae pause. She stammered, “I don’t know. I remember it slashing at me. Then the next thing I remember is, um, Melvin. Yes, Melvin looking down at me with that frown on his face.”

I sighed, hoping she wasn’t reliving it through my memory, “Something scared it off.”

Her eyes widened. My mind had betrayed me. You scared it off, didn’t you? How did you make that spell so big?

I was scared that you were going to die. I’m not sure how I did it.

Fina waved for silence as she crept ahead, peeking around the next corner next to Run. She held up two fingers and pointed around the corner.

I addressed the group.

This is why I wish she was in our group. Then she could tell us what she sees.

Joe replied suddenly. Keep the channel clear, please. We are in a fight of our own and need to focus.

Clamping my hand over my mouth, I watched anxiously waiting for instructions. After a few moments, Fina made her way back to us and whispered, “There are a pair of goblins around the corner. They like explosives and are quite intelligent.”

Kiki winked at our teacher, “This sounds fun. What’s the plan?”

Fina gathered us all into a huddle and explained, “We’re going to do this by the book. I want Run and Kiki to take the lead as our physical fighters. Kalliphae, I know that you’ve been practicing your martial arts but I’d like to see your fire magic, so focus on that. The same goes for you Melvin, use your wind magic. No more offering yourself up as a snack to hungry monsters. Your pets can go in to fight, but only after the monsters are engaged. I will play backup.”

One look inside of myself told me that something was different. My core was changing. My attention was drawn to it when I began the process of adding a wind filter. The mana swirling through my channels felt denser than usual.

The fighting began around me but I was mesmerized by the sight of my mana. The purification filter I had started back at Masamune’s forge had continued its work and had made a noticeable difference in my core.

By that time Kiki had made first contact with the goblins, delivering a flurry of blows to the goblin in the lead. Run was right there with her, his leg flashing out in a series of kicks that my eyes could barely keep up with.

While the blows were connecting, the goblins were holding their own. An explosion blossomed down the hall as Kiki deflected a bomb thrown by the goblin she was fighting. When the dust settled, I could see a gaping hole in the wall ahead of us.

Fina rushed in toward the goblins and shouted, "They aren't supposed to have anything this powerful. We need to retreat."

“Bvoomzt”

Nobody was paying Fina any attention. The fireball unleashed by Kalliphae was larger than any I had seen her produce before. She also had significantly more control over it. Kiki and Run dodged to the side when they sensed the fireball drawing close.

The first goblin saw it coming and managed to dive out of the way. The second was not so lucky. It was in the process of lighting its bomb when Kalli’s fireball struck. With an explosion way too big for such a tiny bomb, the goblin was incinerated. The bomb had caused a chain reaction with something in the goblins satchel.

When the smoke began to clear up, I found Run flat on his back next to Kalliphae. Kiki was choking on the dust next to the collapsed wall.

“Wait. Stop”, Fina cried as I pumped my mana into my heart and sprinted toward the remaining goblin.

Kalli and Fina attempted to follow me but I was too fast. The goblin was preparing another bomb when I arrived. Kiki tackled me through the hole in the wall just as I prepared a spell.

Pushing mana through my lungs and throat I decided to activate a spell to make sure I had sufficient control in the tight quarters.

“Sviszt”

While the wind magic was effective in preventing the goblin from lighting its bomb, the force of the gust blew both the goblin and its bomb back into the far wall.

Stars danced in my field of vision as the flash from the explosion temporarily blinded me. The heat from the blast seared away at my skin as I toppled back onto Kiki. She groaned loudly as the weight of my body crushed her into the rocky ground.

Kalli’s terrified voice made my ears ring. Melvin!

She was sharing the pain that I felt. Keeping my eyes clenched shut because I didn’t want to see the condition my body was in, I willed my mana into the damaged areas. I focused on soothing and healing the cells in the skin, speeding up the repair process.

I’m alive, Kalli. Please don’t worry.

She was on the other side of the wall. The tunnel collapsed and we can’t get to you. Is Kiki okay?

I felt her squirming underneath my body. She wasn’t moving much but at least she was alive. I groaned in pain when I rolled off of her, rubbing wounds I didn’t know I still had on the uneven floor.

As I continued to work on my wounds, Kalli managed to sob out some updates in my mind. Fina is working on getting through the debris. That combination of the two goblin’s explosions did a lot of damage to the dungeon.

Yeah, they did a lot of damage to me too.

Fortunately, the mana was doing its job. After a few minutes, I opened my eyes and sat up, coughing up dust from the explosion. Kiki groaned again beside me and turned on her side, also choking on the dust in the room.

I leaned over my sister and asked, “Ki, are you okay? Talk to me.”

She wheezed in reply, “Did you get the license plate number of that dump truck that just hit us?”

Laughing, I decided if she was healthy enough to joke, then she must not be too critical.

Kiki is okay too. We’re a bit banged up but I think we’ll live.

Once I managed to top off my health pool, I turned to the girl. She had fewer wounds than I had, probably because I shielded her from the blast when I landed on her. However, I could sense that I might have fractured some of her bones. One of the unfortunate things about my body was that it was unnaturally heavy.

While the girl seemed to be healing just as quickly as me, I still wanted to help, so I asked, “Do you want me to try to fix your bones?”

She raised an eyebrow and asked, “How do you propose to do that?”

I grinned at the girl and explained, “With mana, of course. I found out how to use my mana to heal with Kalli the other day. Also, I just used it on myself right now.”

Kiki grunted and raised herself to a seated position against a wall, saying, “Go for it, baby bro. Work your magic. I want to see this.”

The first thing I noticed was that Kiki was not using her mana channels. I asked her about it, “Ki, how do you use your mana? Do you know about your mana channels?”

A sigh of pleasure escaped her lips as my mana ran over her body where I felt the damage to her ribs. She answered, “I know about them but it’s never been a priority for me to utilize them. Most of what my class does is vocal skills and it just requires mana in my vocal cords. Do you think it’s important to use them?”

I nodded in silence while I worked my mana under her skin. She grunted when my mana enhanced her bones causing them to make snapping sounds as they fell back into place.

Satisfied that I had done what I could, I explained, “From what I’ve seen so far, using the passages in the body that were made for mana, you can send it where it needs to go. For example, you could channel into your fist to hit harder.”

I didn’t want to talk about my latest mana refinement skill because it was still new to me. Kiki offered me a strange smile that confused me and whispered, “I do like punching things. Do it to me.”

Taking her hands in mine, I whispered back, “Are you sure?”

When she nodded I offered my mana to her through the shared contact of our hands which she accepted.She drew the mana into herself as though she were sucking on a straw.

I felt the mana surge through the negotiator’s channel until it rapidly approached a shining white core that almost mirrored my own. The only difference was that hers appeared to be humming. I was unsure how I could hear it from within her but the feeling was definitely there.

The moment my mana touched her core, it exploded in a flash of light the filled the room, flinging the two of us back into separate walls.

NEW SKILL ACQUIRED: COMMAND ATTENTION

“This feeling of raw power is incredible”, Kiki roared while rising to her feet, “I also should warn you that I picked up one of your skills.”

Grinning back at her and climbing to my feet as well, I explained, “So did I. I got one of your skills too. Which one did you get?”

My sister laughed. It felt kind of like we were playing a game with each other and swapping toys, “I got Controlling Voice. What does that do?”

The coincidence caused me to laugh, explaining, “I got Command Attention. Imagine using those two skills together. My skill is kind of like a more powerful word-of-power skill. You said you already had something for that though. High-grade intimidation was what you called it.”

Kiki snickered at me and replied, “Command attention does just what it says, if you put mana into it, you can force everyone who hears you to listen to you and only you. It comes in handy when you have multiple people trying to talk at once.”

We were mostly healed when Kalli contacted me again. Mel, we can’t get through the wall. The hole you two went through led outside the dungeon, and the dungeon resealed itself. Fina contacted the guild and they are sending a team down to extract the two of you. She told me to tell you two not to move. It is unclear where you two are but there are other dungeons in the area. Higher-level dungeons.

Sounds good to me. Did she say how long it was going to take?

Kalliphae paused for a moment to ask Fina. She isn’t sure. It could take some time as they sort out a way to get down to you two. We’re pretty deep after all. She also told me to ask you not to use group chat. She doesn’t want to alarm the other team if possible.

I pulled up my map to see if I could get a better idea of where we were. Once again the map was clouded outside of the tiny room that we found ourselves in. To my surprise, a golden X marked a treasure nearby and it was close.

With a glance at Kiki, I started to make my way down the passage in the general direction of the treasure. The girl stepped into my path and shook her head. Frustration kicked in when I realized she wasn’t going to let me go on a treasure hunt, but Kiki surprised me when she said, “Before you go exploring, we need to talk about some stuff.”