Since I couldn't dodge, I decided to fight the rock. My first thought was imbuing my sword with heavenly element, but I realized I didn't know how a rock would react, being inanimate. As such, I decided on electricity. I created an arc from Blackmail, aiming at the rock in front of me. It made a crater, and the remaining rock looked like it could be split.

It was too late. The remaining rock fell upon me, but I wasn't dead. I was severely injured but alive. My shield was gone, and so was part of the rock. My > seemed to have activated on my entire body at the last second, decomposing the rock and the ground below me.

I staggered the remaining distance to safety, ever wary of the remaining hobgoblin. After a day's rest, my HP was beginning to recover slowly. My shield was recreated, as well. Another 20 hours and my HP was almost full, at 46/50. My HP regeneration also went up a level, decreasing the time to regenerate one point to fifty minutes.

I got back to the room and noticed, throughout the past two days, there was only one hobgoblin spawned the past two days: an archer. Easily, I snuck up behind it, killing it with Blackmail.

Back on track, I could get to the hobgoblin. Towards the end of the room, I saw it. It looked just like the other hobgoblins, except it was slightly taller.

"I do not need to fight you. Please take me to your lord." I tried to reason with it in the goblin language.

"Why do you use the inferior creature's language?" he responded before beginning to speak unintelligible words.

Knowing the fight was now inevitable, I began with a > towards the waist, which it easily dodged. Swiftly recovering, I tried a > pierce. It only hit the chest plate, dealing no damage. He launched his first attack with his sword, attempting to slash my neck. I deftly > the maneuver and used my > to kick towards his stomach. The hobgoblin barely faltered from my kick, but it was enough time for my demon claw to swing low and take off the legs. With no feet to stand on, the hobgoblin fell. I used the opportunity to > its eye out. I got an MP recovery potion and swiftly proceeded through the door.

In front of me was a room where there was a lava-filled ravine. On either side were archers. As this was real, flowing lava, even the hobgoblins couldn't stand it. I also couldn't wade through it. Then, I remembered the rocks from the goblin's territory. They had illusions on them and allowed the goblins to travel underground. There must have been a way for them to get past this room underground. It would be too tedious to move with the archers.

I began looking for mana strings throughout the area near the door, being careful so the archers wouldn't notice me. Finally, I saw it. About a meter away, there was an archer in front of a stone which was giving off mana. Hiding, I threw my sword at the archer, and, along with >, it defeated it.

Suddenly, the remaining archers drew back on their bows and began to look around. When this happened, I went back to the previous room and waited for about thirty minutes before going back. The archers, now, were somewhat calmer. Using this opportunity, I shot luminescence at them while throwing Blackmail into another.

With my distraction, I was able to use my Arc Boots to walk to the area in front and > up the rest of the ravine. Arrows started coming at me right before I entered. Recalling my sword, I also received 40mL of MP recovery potion.

On the other side of the rock was a slick, black, winding staircase. I followed it down to a damp tunnel. It was very hot down here, as it must have been right near the lava outside. I slowly walked along the passage for a few hours. I encountered five lesser hobgoblins and got one EXP share and an MP recovery potion.

Finally, I arrived at a dead end. I walked right through the wall, as it was another illusion. When I passed through, I saw two vortexes of lava on each side. On the left, there was a suspended orb with purple flames reaching above the room through a crevice along the side. On the right was the same thing, except the orb was emitting blue flames.

"This is interesting," Seere proclaimed.

"What's so interesting about the lava?"

"It's that these are parts of the pure elemental fire raging through the dungeon."

"Pure elemental? Isn't that what Keith used?"

"Yes, he had found the complete source of pure elemental lightning; however, he was unable to take it for his own. That is how this dungeon operates. He needed a sacrifice in order to invoke its powers. He could have harmed you greatly if he had the source itself, but the dungeon doesn't allow a single person control over it. Otherwise, it would be unavailable."

"So, if I can somehow take this, I can use a spell stronger than Keith's?"

"In theory, that is correct; however, taking these is not simple. In the first place, there are only two parts of the source here: the purple and blue flames. You will first also need to find the orange, green, yellow, and, finally, white."

"So, how do I find these flames?"

"That I do not know. One of my comrades may be able to help you find them better; however, they are spaced throughout all of the floors of this dungeon."

"So, I find them and grab them? Then I can control the flames?"

"Not quite. Finding them all will only grant you the same power as Keith. And you need to first understand the laws of your world relating to fire."

"Laws?"

"There are three types of laws: natural, eternal or world, and divine. You already know the natural-level laws for ice, as you could perform absolute frost. The next level, which is much more difficult to comprehend, is the eternal or world law. That's what Keith knows. It is rarely gained from the dungeon and must have been passed through his family. Finally, there are the divine laws. These laws are outside the scope of the dungeon itself."

"How do I learn?"

"Another of my comrades will teach you. Eternal law cannot be grasped by a spell. When enough of us are gathered, we can take the entire fire source from this dungeon and gift it to you. Your apocalypse-type spell will exceed SSS/UU rank!"

"I guess I still have a while to go."

"Yes, you do. You haven't even found the rest of them."

I continued walking past the two orbs when they began to shine.

"What's happening?"

"They are recognizing you as having found them. This is all that is required for a spell such as Keith's, once you find all the parts."

I continued on, finding a small indent. It looked like there was a tree behind the indent. Touching the tree, I found myself in the last room of the third floor.

[Would you like to go to floor 25? Fire source of green can be found on this floor. Yes/no]

"NO!" I thought. Of course I did not want to go so far in the dungeon. This floor is trouble enough.

After rejecting the question, the dungeon told me I could go to floor twenty-five any time.

[Authority for floor 25 has been set to allowed.]

Not caring, I finally arrived at the Hobgoblin Lord's room. There he was, behind a dark red alter.

He spoke to me in a language I didn't understand, so I spoke to him in the goblin's language, which he responded to.

"Welcome, human who speaks the inferior race's language. Most would be unable to find this place. The Lava river leads to the next floor, keeping this room secret."

Now he tells me! I could have entirely avoided this fight.

"Since you speak their language, I guess that you must know of some goblins. They shouldn't know the way here, though."

He stared at me, his blood-red eyes piercing through my mind.

"I see, the flame sources on this floor have acknowledged you. When you are ready, I invite you back to this room. This room holds the final source, the white flame."

While speaking, a white flame arose from the altar in front of him.

"It protects me and will not acknowledge anyone who has not been acknowledged by the other sources."

"Then I will be seeing you later."

"Not so fast. I know the goblins sent you here to harm me. You can't just ignore them. Even as I may be worried about your power, giving that you found me here, I still must fight you."

"If you insist." I readied Blackmail.

"Oh! I haven't had this much fun in a long time. I'll take out my special sword to fight you. Watch closely; this is an honor to see."

I saw the void open up, and a long sword came through. It was smooth black, except for a streak of red running through its center. When he drew the sword, he bathed it in the white fire.

[Skill: hobgoblin language obtained. Due to synergy with goblin language, Level up! Level 5!]

[due to acquisition of multiple language skills, they will now be listed separately on status page]

I could now understand the chant.

"…Heat this sword! Pure elemental fire, by my authority as the hobgoblin lord, I command thee. In accordance with the will of the natural laws, bathe this sword in thy fire and vanquish those who wish to conquer thee. Pure elemental baptism!"

His sword suddenly became completely white, radiating flames in every direction.

[unknown interference. Error: level insufficient. Ancient sword techniques locked. Unable to learn baptism. Error: sword level to low. Unable to use baptism.]

If Blackmail can't use it yet, this must be a really powerful technique.

"Here, these are for you."

The hobgoblin lord threw ten MP recovery potions my way.

"your level is so low, so I want to make this a little fairer. Your maximum MP, even as a mage, shouldn't be above 400. Here, use these and entertain me."

He began laughing. I caught the potions and put them away for later. Little did he know my actual MP was over one hundred points higher!

If he was going to use natural laws in combat, then why wouldn't I retaliate with my own natural law? It's only natural, right?

"By the laws of the world, I ask the element of pure ice. By my authority, I, Roberto, command you, in tune with the elements, I request the power of ice!"

Different than before, the chant surprised me.

"This command shall be through the pure element itself, to pacify the pure fire's rage, to annul the eternal enemy of this world! I call forth the Absolute Frost! Apocalyptic Eclipse!"

Confused and surprised, I was lucky my ring could enlighten me.

"Very interesting. Seeing you fight against the pure elemental fire, the pure elemental ice has granted you a part of its authority . You can now control ice on Keith's level, not including the runes, but your MP is insufficient. You will soon faint."

"What? So many new things at once! Ice on Keith's level? Authority over a pure element?"

I asked. I wasn't given too much time to muse about what I learned, as, at that point, I had given up my consciousness.

An unknown time later, I woke up, coughing blood.

"What time is it?" I asked the system

From its response, I learned I had been unconscious for a whole week! Looking at my status, I saw that my HP was at two and my MP was at zero. My spell's level increased to five and my ice affinity to 95%.

"What happened?" I groggily asked no one in particular.

"I don't know how you survived that! You were out for a long time, and I didn't think you would ever wake up! After exhausting your power, the spell kept taking more. I could barely interfere with the spell. We need to get you trained more so that you can utilize the outside mana to fuel yourself. You now have one of the four parts of pure ice: white ice. For pure elemental ice, you need the blue ice and gray ice. Finally, you need to combine it with the clear ice."

"So, where am I?" I asked. My surroundings looked nothing like before. The floor was covered in ice—nothing else remained.

"You didn't move. This is the result of your spell. Just don't use it again, or it may kill you."

"Noted."

I tried to get up but, just sitting up sent pain throughout my body. Even with my high pain resistance, I still felt it. Finally sitting up, I blacked out again.

I came to a day and a half later. My HP was recovered to forty-four, and my MP was fully recovered. I could finally stand and move around. I immediately went around the area and couldn't find the door. Even the door was frozen over! Slowly, I used fireball to create a small but very hot 60MP fireball. It took two to finally get through the ice. I crawled through the narrow opening and found myself back in front of the two sources. Now, however, there was a third: the white fire source.

It scanned me, apparently accepting me and allowing me to have its power before I get the remaining parts. When it was finished, it disappeared into the wall. A golden door formed, with the white fire source at the top. On the other side was a black staircase, but there was no orb. I started walking, but, soon after, I was engulfed by such complete darkness that not even > could penetrate it. Finally, I arrived at a light. There, I saw a small landing. The stairs I was on led to the landing, with more stairs and another door at right angles. The other door was chained closed.

Once I was in front of the orb, the system spoke up.

[Floor two complete. Authority is granted. Current options: floor one, floor two, floor three, floor twenty-five]

[Achievement: first time second floor conquered by Earth explorer. Reward calculated. Reward: dimensional coordinate book]

[Earth coordinates recorded in coordinate book]

Just like the tunnel, I could not appraise the coordinate book.

The silver ring turned back into its six-pointed star form. A second later, a bright white light came up from the ring and engulfed the orb.

[Unknown interference detected. Crystal orb error. Dispatching new orb to floor two. Please stand by.]

I was waiting for that. Let's see who joins in now.

"I cordially thank you for freeing me from such constraints. I am number seven, Marquis Amon. Pleased to make your acquaintance, master."

"Nice to meet you, Amon. I presume you know of Seere."

I tried to be formal, like his manner of speech.

"Yes. Hello, Seere."

"Hello, Amon."

They were now talking to each other in my mind.

"Thank you, Seere. I now understand everything."

"What happened?" I asked

"Nothing much. I just told Amon everything in your memories regarding the dungeon."

"I guess that's fine."

[Skill: advanced demonic techniques level up! Level 2!]

"That should help you a little, master," Amon said.

Looking at my status, I saw freeze eyes, paralysis eyes, and poison eyes disappeared. As such, I appraised the new skill quickly.

Demonic Eyes

Mana use: varies

Void use: 1/second

Description: multiple uses. Use one: By using one mana point, can freeze, burn, paralyze, or inflict with poisons

Use two: passive. Extends vision as needed, perfect night vision, can see true souls

Use three: Using ten mana points, petrifies target

Use four: using 100 void and 10,000 mana, destroy soul of target that can be seen

There were so many more features. It incorporated the three now-missing eye magics and made the mana cost much less. It also added burn to the list. It can even destroy souls! The passive skills weren’t too bad either—night vision, extended vision, and soul vision. Like my demon claw, I immediately activated it. I could tell my eyes became slightly redder red, and my pupils became black slits. As soon as I activated the eyes, I looked up.

The stairs above me were still just as black, but I could see further up the black stairs now.

"Thank you. Now I'm becoming part demon!" I said to my two servants in the ring, half-jokingly.

"You aren't that far yet. You must be trained further before you can complete the transformation," Amon said back.

"We'll help you however we can," Seere responded.

"One more thing, take this coat. Our old master used it. "

When Amon said such, changing the topic, a dark maroon trench coat fell in front of me. Appraisal showed

??? (Armor)

Durability: infinite

Description: ??? to ???

"Try using your eyes. They can help you see what the system can't," Seere mentioned.

I tried again, looking at it through my eyes instead of using appraisal.

God's trench coat (broken/growth) (soul bound/unnamed) (Armor)

Durability: infinite

Description: Provides 50% nullification against all magic and 50% nullification against all physical attacks. Increases all elemental affinity by 10%, up to 100%. allows summoning of a single elemental spirit and use of spirit force.

How to fix: increasing use will fix and allow more functions to be unlocked.

When I saw soul bound, I knew it had to be named, like Blackmail. Its effects were already amazing. If it grows enough, I wonder if it would provide 100% nullification. Then I would be invincible, except for ones that break through all defenses! I decided to name it Symbolize. It sounded cool, and I didn't have much time.

Suddenly, a new orb appeared.

[Notice: new crystal orb was successfully dispatched. If you encounter any issues, tell the orb.]

"Let me help," boasted Amon.

[New skill acquired: basic soul techniques.]

I immediately appraised it and saw many skills were already unlocked.

soul slash: using a weapon imbued with heavenly or void element, damage the soul itself

soul manipulation: manipulate what others see when they look at your soul or when they look at another's soul

soul block: block attacks that directly target your soul

soul battle: causes a direct confrontation between two souls to occur

soul strength: increases the strength of the soul proportional to level

Soul tethering: tether a soul to a body when it wants to escape

Soul capture: capture a wondering soul

Soul defense: increases the defense of the soul proportional to level

Soul repair: basic repair of a damaged soul

Soul projection: projects soul outwards

Soul ignition: ignites another's soul, causing it to eternally burn unless stopped

With my new techniques, I was ready to ascend to the third floor; however, before I could, Amon stopped me.

"First, strengthen your shield. Then, prepare your mana. You are too weak right now."

"Weak? How am I weak? I am at least three times an average human in all of my stats."

"Average human? How about a whale? A dragon? A golem, even?"

"I don't know compared to them."

"Then, we practice. Now, take me to your practice field."

I went to the usual field behind my mansion to begin this practice regimen. My practice began with congealing my second shield. Under the strict tutelage of Amon, it took two weeks to succeed. This also increased mana shield to level 2. According to Amon, the third, sixth, and tenth levels are the most complicated.

The combined effects of training both the shield and my spiritual power lasted until the beginning of August.

My spirit force, or spiritual power, is what allows me to interact with spirits. It also allows me to use specific types of magics. Normally, people from Earth can't learn how to manipulate this force for magic use, but I can. As such, I was able to gain a new spell: spirit drain. This spell allowed me to take in spiritual energy from the environment around me and turn it into my own mana without needing to select an element. In addition, I gained a new regeneration: spirit force (minor).

Once I finally leveled up the spell to level four, Amon informed me I was ready to select my element. Because I now had experience in taking from the environment and making it my own, through spirit drain, I was ready for this step. He also taught me a few new spells using spiritual force. The first was spirit cannon spell, which, instead of MP, uses 100 SF (spiritual force) to fire a ball of energy towards the enemy.

The second was spirit eruption, a rank A spiritual spell that uses 250SF to cause a tangible, solid eruption of spirit power to form where ever I could see. Combined with spirit drain, I could easily recover the energy from my opponents. I could use up to eight times the SF to increase its power.

Finally, I learned spirit sight, which was integrated into my demon eyes. It allowed me to see spirits around myself.

To begin with integrating an element into myself, I first had to choose which one. It was best to choose the one with the highest affinity. This will allow a maximum affinity of 200%, but that would only be because my body could handle twice as much. My status page will initially show a lower affinity, since my body has so much more room.

Looking through my affinities, I saw that heavenly was my highest; however, heavenly was special. I could not get it from the environment, and it was already integrated into my soul. My current soul still had room for one more element, which was rare at my level. Sometimes, at higher levels, the soul allows more elements. Ice affinity was next highest, so I chose that.

For this part of my training, I went to the real world. With Amon and Seere's assistance, we transferred to Antarctica. Surprisingly, it was not cold at all to me! My affinity made me immune to this level of cold, but the dungeon would have much colder areas.

I began to meditate here, alone. I pictured myself taking in the ice particles in the air. I pictured them circulating around me, forming a portion of my very soul.

It did not work out as expected. I noticed the fog and the blackness of the void begin to overtake me. As soon as I did, I tried to escape. It was too late—the void permeated my entire body.

"That surprised me. What happened?" I asked aloud

"Interesting. It seems like another affinity has taken over," Seere said.

"You now have a very special element: void. With this element, you can take in any element's mana and easily convert it into your own. In dire situations, you can even draw from the void! Be careful, though, as the void can overtake you." Amon gave a more detailed explanation.

Looking at my stats page, I saw my mana increased by 250 and my spirit power by 150.

I continued to work on drawing in the ambient mana, which was difficult at first. I took a break for a day on August second, before I was ready to challenge the next floor.

On floor one, I fought mainly goblins. Floor two had slimes and hobgoblins. I wondered what monsters and mysteries this new floor might hold. Would I be able to win with my overcoat, shield, and blackmail? Will I meet monsters like the hobgoblin lord or the goblin chieftain? Only time will reveal the answers to the questions I had about the next floor… and about the dungeon in general. Hopefully, soon, I will be able to win against that annoying prince and his parents!