Hydra appeared out of nowhere. So too did the other draconic spirit lords. August and Qora rushed into the room. I wasn’t sure about this, but I got the strangest feeling Hethekk the Scryer was looking at us through some mystical crystal ball. The white flame of Arcana appeared as well. Vena weaselled out of my staff.

Hydra broke down in tears first, saying that she didn’t feel my existence for a long time. The rest of what she said was marred by her incessant crying. After I hugged her and told her I was quite alright, I then turned my attention to Vena. She rubbed her neck guiltily. The most I could remember was having a conversation with her, then waking up in that room, so I was awaiting an explanation on what the hell happened.

She probably wouldn’t have said anything if Arcana didn’t say her name as if she was in trouble.

“Well, I let him merge with the void for a little bit…” Vena admitted.

“WHAT?!” Arcana exploded, her flame growing bigger and Vena’s stature growing smaller. All the other spirit lords didn’t dare stop her. In fact, it seemed like they shivered a bit too. “Vena,” Arcana’s voice sounded like it was from another dimension, as if multiple clones of her spoke simultaneously, “your recklessness has consequence.”

“Wait,” I sighed, “hold on a minute. I can’t remember exactly what happened, but I’m ninety-nine percent sure she did whatever she did because I wanted it. I’m not sure why you’re so angry, Arcana, but I’m fine now. So, maybe you can forgive Vena?”

Tumbleweed. If there was any, we’d probably be able to hear it rolling along outside. August sniggered, “I don’t know who you are, Arcana, but you should punish Eric instead. You know, just because…”

“I wonder what it feels like to clubber someone with a staff…” I thought out loud on purpose, so that he’d hear me.

“You’re so weak the recoil will probably hurt you more than your attack hurts this ‘someone’.”

Being a flame and all, I couldn’t tell where Arcana was looking, but the heavy presence resting on my shoulders made it obvious. Man, she could kill me by looking at me.

The room went silent again, whilst Arcana inspected me closely. “Are you really in good health? No being except Vena herself was meant to merge with the void. Can you tell who I am?” she inquired worriedly.

“I can tell perfectly fine. Light magic brought my mind back to what it should be, so don’t worry, alright?” I scratched the side of my face, then held my chest high. “One other thing. I’m probably going to need to ‘merge’ with the void again. So, what happens if the merge is complete?”

Vena almost completely removed herself from the conversation, an apologetic look about her. Arcana glared with a fine mishmash of disappointment and fury, expecting the culprit to answer. Instead, Qora did. “If you finish merging, you become unable to tell the void from the corporeal plane. You become the void, and in a way, stop existing.”

“Well that sounds scary. So, how long have I been out of it?” I questioned.

“Three weeks, sleeping beauty,” August said. “I wanted to kiss you awake but your breath was unbearable.”

“Gee, thanks for pointing that out, buddy.” Three weeks, huh? What would happen if I keep it up? “Hey, Vena. Let’s do it again.”

Kor’zha sighed, and returned to the spirit world. Tarit followed suit in a heartbeat. Their silence only reiterated my recklessness to me. Truthfully though, had I not been reckless with a lot of things, I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did.

Donna came out eventually, and gave Arcana and everyone else present the assurance that she’d pull my ass out of that mind-bending horrific experience should it look like I was succumbing to merging like last time. Things finally calmed down with that. Arcana left and Hethekk’s presence also faded.

Even though I’d just woken up, I couldn’t wait to delve back into the inexplicable world that was the void. It truly was dangerous no matter how I looked at it, but I just felt like there was a secret ripe for the picking that intended to nourish my knowledge and strength. It was a world I knew not of and that sparked a longing desire to cast away yet another bit of ignorance about life. But, admittedly, I wouldn’t just jump back into merging with the void so nonchalantly. I kept a clone on the outside and made sure Donna was in my mind. Vena, who could only concentrate on slowly spreading the void into me, and me into the void, would have to depend on Donna and my clone to send a cue to her to stop.

The last time, the forced manipulation training began going haywire when I became aware that my ability to form thoughts was deconstructing itself, but deep down I suspected that allowing the total destruction of thought was the key to mastering the void. No, I knew it was the key. However, stopping myself from panicking was another matter entirely.

Vena went into me, and my body began fading, the same effects repeating themselves from last time. I lasted a lot longer before my mind began breaking down and it felt like I couldn’t continue any further. This time though, I was pulled out before my mind and body suffered traumatic blows, so I didn’t pass out for weeks on end. In fact, I didn’t pass out at all. It simply felt like waking up from a dream. The mysteries of the void were unravelling before me.

Once I went through a session of Vena’s void manipulation training, I would then focus on light magic. All this time, I remained in the void unless my clone told me to get my ass out. The only reason I’d get out the void was to fulfil my quota of dungeons for the day.

After everyone ranked up, we could begin farming S-rank dungeons. It was a pretty long time since I was grouped with the main group of people – August, Scadia, Scarlet, Phil, and Freya. This time around, the S-rank dungeon was set in the ruins of an old ancient city. It was desolate, empty, chilling. The evening sun didn’t cover us it its usual warmth.

“You’re progressing nicely,” a voice commented, sounding like it came from all directions. I looked around, my neck snapping to different directions to try and find the voice’s owner. It sounded familiar, that voice.

“E-Emily? Is that you?” I questioned out loud, my suspicions labelling her as the voice.

“No way! Really?!” August was near flabbergasted. The other party members were all helplessly lost.

A giggle resounded, “Cookie?” the voice asked. A hand holding out a cookie to me appeared from thin air. The rest of her slowly appeared, and the concrete evidence that was the moon-shaped birthmark below her left eye identified her immediately.

Emily… I embraced her. “I thought you were–”

“I am. Yunaris’ dungeons are a special place. Zanthia allowed me to visit you,” she pointed out, pushing the cookie into my mouth. “Now,” she smiled, “I know the person I granted quintessential energy to wouldn’t dare deny me a big fat hug!” Her statement was well within earshot of August. He walked up and gave her a big hug, lifting her off the ground.

“You make me feel guilty about waiting my turn,” August placed her down.

She chuckled again and circled him, a proud face about her. “August, you’ve peaked. To continue your advancing your strength, you must overcome this world’s Earth-Sky dungeon.” She then turned to me, “There’s a present for you as well at the end of the dungeon.” And unexpectedly, she peered at Freya. “What you seek, can certainly help you, but there are other alternatives right in front of you.” No one knew what she was talking about, as per usual. She looked back at me, then glared angrily, losing her patience. “Don’t make me drag you out, young lady.”

Donna poked her head out. Wait, she can do that?! A mischievous grin adorned her, “I thought you’d forgotten about me!” She formed fully, and embraced the witch. For a long time. For a really long time.

“So, you guys gonna strip and get it on or do I have to get alcohol involved?” I waited with bated breath at that point, expecting a show. Unfortunately, they released each other.

“You just had to ruin it, huh?” August kicked the dirt in disappointment. The group laughed and the mood lightened from the awkward tension.

Emily took a look at my mana-sucking staff, and nodded a couple times. “Donna, why doesn’t he wield the staff?”

Donna shrugged, “Well, I don’t know where it is, and the others are reluctant to disclose its location.” She chuckled, “They tried to bargain for it. If Eric taught them the things you didn’t, they would give the staff to him.”

Donna palmed her face after rolling her eyes. “Hmm, how arrogant of them. Remember the boulder I was on when we first met, Eric?” I nodded at her question. “It’s in there. Just take apart the boulder. Since you don’t see the importance of the staff as yet, I should probably make this clear…” she closed her eyes and cleared her throat. “Without the staff, Apollyon will kill you, no matter how strong you become. The human body is simply incapable of outputting the level of light magic required to control Apollyon.”

She sat me down. “Listen carefully. The staff will augment your light magic. Use it to train. Once you develop it far enough, you will gain a spell called Apotheosis. You’ll need both the staff and Apotheosis if you want to stand a chance against Apollyon. The creature is currently dormant, once it awakens, it will try to obtain the staff so that others may never stand in its way.”

Her warnings were appreciated, but man was I lost. “Okay so, get the staff. Train a lot. Learn Apotheosis. Gotcha!” I patted her shoulder.

“You sure seem easy-going. Guess I’ll see you in the afterlife soon enough,” she said, quite seriously. With a nod, her body dissipated.

Well, that’s not ominous at all, I thought, sighing.

Our group was more than confused, but they didn’t question what just happened after clearing dungeons with people such as August and I.

“I sense something!” Phil warned, unsheathing his weapon. Freya gripped her shield firmly, a bit distracted by what the witch told her. The dirt began kicking up, and an oversized ground lizard came sprinting at us. Freya jumped in the way of Scadia and the incoming lizard, bashing it with her shield and stabbing at it with her sword, only for the sword to be deflected and skate along the hardened scales of the monster. I placed Convergence beneath it, and made it so the lizard couldn’t even stand. Scarlet’s claymore sank properly into the monster, ending its life.

The hissing sounds we all heard in the distance after the witch left came to the foreground. This S-rank dungeon was finally beginning. Some climbed onto nearby houses and some hid carefully behind carts as they surrounded us. Because of our need to rank-up still, I couldn’t just go all out and take all the kills for myself. August and I were X-ranks. Scadia was a double-S rank. Freya and Scarlet were both S-ranks. Phil, at the second rank-up trial, became an A-rank; he couldn’t participate in Earth-Sky Tower until becoming an S-rank.

Being surrounded like this and having to limit ourselves, August and I only helped with defending the lizards’ attacks from time to time. I used Summon Golem, an earth spirit I hadn’t much use for, but in a situation like this would be quite helpful. It was only second to Kor’zha in the earth faction of the spirit world and wielded a sword and shield like Freya. Unlike the leviathan, it was only around eight feet tall, a little lanky, but quite agile.

Despite these features, its sturdiness and offensive power didn’t suffer at all. The golem and Freya were our tanks and negated most of the monsters’ attacks by drawing their attention and blocking with the shields. Phil with his dual swords and Scarlet with her claymore ensured any lizards that came too close would lose their heads. The ones far off were roasted or electrocuted by Scadia. Occasionally, I’d set convergence to offset the rate at which the lizards approached us.

August sat down after a while and simply relaxed. He summoned the wolf we tamed some months back. Yes, apparently dungeoneers could have pets, but because everyone saw monsters as enemies, no one actually attempted to tame or befriend one before. The giant black wolf, the same height as August when standing normally, snarled aggressively at the enemies surrounding us, but August calmed it down.

Having a pet gave him the ability to use it in battle and it also offered some miscellaneous benefits. Using it as a mount was possible. Seeing August roughhouse with the canine made me feel to get one myself. But what kind of monster would be a nice pet for me? I pondered, casting another Convergence and sucking the mana out of the reptilian cadavers surrounding us.

Suddenly, a spell became available to me. It was so abrupt that I didn’t actually know what the hell it was. Was I using some sort of manipulation?

“Dude, you can see mana! Hydra’s scaly ass! I don’t even… How did… This is ridiculous!” Donna, complained? I wasn’t sure if I could call it complaining.

Ain’t you exaggerating a bit?

“You little bitch, remember my mana reading? Being able to literally see mana is way more advanced and has many more uses. Try doing it already!” And so, I tried. I gawked at August, and a soft blue began forming within his body. It took the form of major blood vessels. His heart had the most mana. I inspected the others in the group and Donna hypothesised that mana resided in the blood.

Hmm, so if I lost blood, I’d lose mana? It was an interesting thing, but there was one person whom I was interested in seeing whether or not their flows of mana would differ – myself. A clone would act as my model to peek at, and I cast Mana Perception. Yes, I know, I was lazy with the naming, but it was easily memorable because I already knew Life Perception. They basically did the same thing for different types of energy.

My eyes bulged. Hell, if they weren’t attached to my brain, they’d literally pop out. The navy-blue essence that was mana was ridiculously embedded into my body. What the fuck am I?! I asked myself. The usual large amounts of mana would be seen wherever a lot of my blood gathered, but what surprised me this time was that there was mana embedded into my muscle tissue and my bones. No one else shared this similarity with me.

“The powerups,” Donna concluded. “It’s definitely the mana powerups!” So, increasing my mana power basically meant allowing different parts of my body to hold mana. Right now, it was blood, muscle, and bones. As for the region above the neck, well, it certainly intrigued us. I let the clone cast a simple Candlelight without using Division and mana came out of my body. Doing it with Division proved that the mana used was actually the consciousness of the clone I created for Division. It all originated from the clone’s consciousness, but we knew that already.

My next observation would be something I couldn’t observe at all. So, I made the clone look at me using Mana Perception to see what Donna’s mana would look like. It then transferred its memories to me and I saw. In my head alone, there were three consciousness: Donna, my clone, and I. There were two sets of mana, which was Donna and my clone.

This was getting more and more interesting, but the dungeon boss was about to appear. A ginormous horned-snake wormed its way to us, towering over our group. The thickest part of its body was about one metre in diameter. Its length looked almost unending. Its faded and unnatural colour posed as proof that it certainly was no normal dungeon monster, but indeed the boss. Its slithering made me want to puke, so I immediately did away with it by using Wind Cutter and offing its head. The body wiggled after the fact and a chill ran up my spine.

We repeated the dungeon a few more times until it was time to move onto another S-rank dungeon. The other dungeon was a forest, drenched in fog, making the one-off calls of the exotic birds and animals a haunting stage of sound.

Hmm, I paid attention to our group, they don’t do good without sight. When they realised the place was smothered in thick fog, they reeled and lost some composure. Admittedly, I certainly lost some as well, but Life Perception and Mana Perception dug me out of that hole. However, those were my spells; the rest of the group had no way to know that we were surrounded by more than fifty monsters.