By converting some BTP to cash in a quick trip to the dungeon, we had enough cash for our shopping. Our main shop was a clothing store. We decided to pick new clothes for Bella here. Near the outside of the store, I ran into Theresa. It made me remember my trauma from killing someone. As such, I went white.

"What's wrong?" Bella asked me.

Through our thought link, I responded, "I killed her boyfriend in self-defense. I still can't believe I killed another person. I'm worried about what she may think of me."

"It's okay. You had no other choice, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"It was either kill or be killed. I'd much gladder you're alive."

"Thanks. That helped a little," I said as she hugged me.

Theresa passed us silently. I was surprised that she didn't say even a single remark about me. I was worried she might be traumatized too much from the loss of her boyfriend. I don't quite know why I did, but I called out to her.

"Theresa, hey. What's up?" I asked.

"Do I know you?" she asked.

"Had she lost her memory?" I wondered.

"I'll check," Bella told me.

To keep up the conversation with Theresa, I responded to her, "I'm Roberto. You don't remember me? We met at school a couple years ago."

"No, I'm sorry. I don't remember. I usually remember people."

"What about Chris?"

"I know Chris. We're dating, you know."

"Husband, something's odd."

"What is it, Bella?" I asked over the thought link

"Her memories have little cracks in them. It's like someone altered the memories and then deleted the parts they altered out. There are many gaps, but I don't see you or Derick anywhere."

"You know what Derick looks like?"

"You do, and I know what you know when I want to. Was that not OK to do?" She looked worried.

"It's ok. As long as it's you."

Towards Theresa, I responded, "OK then, bye."

Bella and I continued into the store. We went looking through some of the clothes. We had a bunch in our cart and went to try them on.

"I'm not sure how to put this on," Bella said in the changing room. "Please help me."

Since we were married, I thought nothing of going in to help her. Another patron, though, thought I shouldn't have.

"Hey, buddy! What do you think you're doing going into the changing room with a girl?"

"What do you mean?" I responded indifferently.

"Listen. I don't know your relationship, but this isn't something you should be helping her with. Got it?" he got in my face.

I haven't used > in a while, especially after what happened with Derick. I decided this would be the perfect time to use it.

Immediately, he backed off.

"does this look good on me?" she asked, looking stunning in a cocktail dress.

"Of course it does," I responded.

It went similar to this for the rest of the day, as well as a few days after. I mostly liked what she picked out, but I was also honest when I needed to be. Every night, we slept together, and our bond grew while we talked into the night.

On August 25th, we finally went back into the dungeon under the guise of meeting friends. We spent the day fighting the respawned orcs and finally getting back to where we were before the issue with the spiritualization occurred. After resting to recover my MP and SF and her SF, we went to the next room. There, it looked like we were inside a large room. It reminded me of a castle, since there was a red carpet leading to a throne. There were eight tables lower than the throne. All over were goblin nobles, preparing to fight us.

"Halt!" said the goblin on the throne.

As he said this, the other ones stopped their advance but kept their swords ready.

"I've heard about you from the chieftain," he said. "If you defeat my chosen warrior, we will let you pass."

"Shouldn't be too hard," I responded, angering the noble.

"Then you'll fight me!"

He got off the throne, swinging his sword towards me. While dodging it, my evasion techniques leveled up, granting me group concealment.

Group concealment

Description: conceals a group selected by caster within a one-meter radius

It wasn't helpful now, as he swung at me again. Again, I > and he readied for his next attack. I didn't let him. Knowing I could easily defeat him using numerous techniques, I decided to have some fun. I jumped into the air to make it seem like I was flying. From there, I used > atop its head, defeating it easily. With the noble gone, the others backed up. For show, I used > at the same time. None of them got near us, and we proceeded to the door on the other side of this throne room. There, past the door, we saw a training field, not unlike the one behind my mansion.

The major difference, though, was that this field was filled with orcs!

"Bella, ready?" I asked.

"K," she responded.

There were five rows of six orcs, and the first line went out. I would be facing them while Bella fought the second line.

The six orcs all had their own clubs, but I didn't let them attack. In another attempt to stop the progression of my spiritual force, I used >. It had a chant, just like many other spells, but it seemed different at the same time.

"Spirits collaborate together facing indomitable power. Spirits see serenity severed by villains and fight to restore order. Together, we fight. By my authority as a spirit, I, Roberto, command the force that only we can. Power of the environment heed my call. I call upon the past, present, and future. Spirit Bombardment!"

It was hard to chant while avoiding the orcs, but, when the last word left my lip, 750 bright white lights lit up all around me in a spherical shape. I selected the orcs in front of me and their clubs as the targets. The orbs then rushed towards the orcs. Since each individual orb was weak, it took about one hundred to finish off the six orcs. I directed the remaining 650 to take away the clubs from the remaining orcs. Just the clubs only took about ten each, so, with thirty orcs minus the six we each defeated, 280 orbs were used against the clubs. Having fun, I sent the next three hundred at a line. Two lines were done with this, but the final line still had four standing.

I guess those in front must have protected them.

"Bella, I have seventy of these remaining. I'll be able to take down three, so can you do the last?"

"K."

I used the remaining orbs, and she defeated the final orc. From the thirty orcs, there were ten EXP shards and eight clubs remaining. Bella gave me two of her shards. I tried to refuse, but she cutely insisted that I did more of the work, so I should get a larger reward.

At this point, I checked my SF to make sure it went down appropriately. When I did, I saw it was still at 500/1250!

"Bella, do you know what happened? I somehow still have a lot of spiritual power remaining."

"Easy. You used the help of the environment, so you didn't need to expend all of that yourself."

Her reply made sense, especially with the words of the chant. As such, I didn't think about it any further. After the training field, we passed through the rest of the training field. At the end, there was an archway leading to a stone corridor.

"Let me check on how my friends are doing. K?"

"K," I responded.

She proceeded to push in a small stone, leading to a small flight of stairs. At the bottom, there was a golden alter.

"What's that?" I inquired.

"It's one of mom's inventions. I can check on any of the fairies using spiritual fire here. If adventurers light the mantle, they will receive a new spell. That's the main reason it's here, but a bunch of us come here to see what missions everyone is taking when we are out on missions ourselves."

"Why don't you just use those screens?"

"It's more fun this way, and we leave secret messages when we check."

"You leave messages?"

"Not me personally. I'd be too embarrassed! I do read others' messages here, though."

She removed the dust from the floor, and I saw spiritual writing.

"Jacklyn here. What's up? I got a floor eighteen yesterday. Monsters fighting each other—nothin' new. Soon as I arrived, a skeleton attacked me. I coerced the queen to slow their spawning rate to fifty percent. At least it broke up the monotony. Michael made me a cake. See if you can steal it."

"Just like Jacklyn. Finds a way to do something sneaky. She probably made the skeleton attack her. Now, everyone's going to be going after the cake. Michael's cakes are amazing!"

"So, how do you check on other fairies?"

"I didn't care about that. It was just an excuse to read the messages. This place is hidden from many of those who work in the dungeon, so it's one of the few places we can leave them. If you really want to know," she said, backing up a few steps. "Spiritual fire!"

It was like a fireball, but it was sparking.

"It takes both MP and SF to deal real damage, so it doesn't do too much when I use it. I wonder if Husband can use it better."

While she was speaking, a screen like the ones in the forest showed up. I saw many names and floors and descriptions. They were all over the dungeon! I guess the fairies must always be busy. Towards the bottom, I saw a message that surprised me.

"Floor: 24. Coordinates: 0088348,00495868,58,3585. Fairy: Jubilee (backup: Squad 969), notes: Rosemonster48691 is attempting to trap monsters and have others kill them. Tell leaders to keep away from him, send over corps."

"What's the over corps?" I asked after seeing the message.

"Many floors have monsters too powerful. To keep the balance of the dungeon, they aren't allowed to attack, normally. Why? Do you see a request for them?"

"Yeah. There's this guy who tried to kill me, and I'm afraid he'll try again. His name's Prince Keith. His explorer ID is mentioned here, Rosemonster48691."

"Don't worry," Bella said as she started writing in the air.

Soon, the screen changed to show a list of IDs in red and black.

"Sometimes, the fairies have to secretly help adventurers due to various reasons, such as being trapped in a hole and not dying or other small things. This is our blacklist, meaning that the adventurers here have done something terrible and we shouldn't help them."

"Is it OK to add his ID there?"

"Of course. Anything for husband," she said, kissing me.

"Thanks. How do you do that spiritual fire?" I asked, hugging her and kissing her.

"It's easy," she responded." Just add spiritual force and mana together for your fireball spell. It takes me three mana just to do this, which takes a while to recover."

Accepting her suggestion, I chanted the normal chant for fireball. As I was attempting this, I also attempted to will my spiritual force to move into the fireball I was soon to create. Soon after, I finished the chant. My fireball looked just like Bella's! It was a success, so I through it towards the altar as she had done.

"See? I told you it wasn't that difficult," she said triumphantly.

Looking at my SF, I saw it went down by three. Even though there was no system message, I also noticed I gained the spiritual fire technique. Looking at the screen I created, it showed almost the same thing.

The difference, though, was that my name was in the top right.

"We have the same authority, husband! I'm so excited!" Bella exclaimed.

I tried asking her about it, but it seems like, being the queen's daughter, she had access to a lot of the dungeon's inner workings. I, too, had this access to read it. I could only read it for the floors I've been on though. Navigating through, I could see the entire map, current monsters, spawn rates, and all types of monsters who should spawn on each of the three levels. I could request certain changes, slightly modify the drop rate of certain items, and see all of the explorers on each floor.

There were at least thousands of explorers on each floor! Their ID's showed all different planets, which was even more surprising than the sheer number. They were all over the floors, but certain areas like the goblin chieftain's and our current area were barren.

As I was looking at this data, I saw a message pop up. It looked like some sort of chat message.

From: Fairy Queen

To: Roberto

Subject: Gift

"As you’re an explorer, I'll still reward you a gift."

That was all it said. I figured I didn't need to use the reply feature. Looking through the list of names, I saw Isabella up first. Viewing more information, I saw her age, that she's a fairy, and that we are married. When I finished with this, the bottom of the alter opened, revealing two scrolls.

The first scroll wasn't a spell book, but it was wrapped in spiritual power. Opening it up, I saw it was written with spirit writing. It seemed different, though. Bella even asked why I was looking at a blank scroll. Unlike the other spirit writing I've seen, this one was blood red. I used > just to make sure, and it really was the queen.

"This is the best way for the dungeon to not find out about this spell. This spell is very dangerous. The system can't even display it, but your demons should be able to assist you. I am the only one who knows this spell. As such, it is to be kept top secret. Even Bella can't know. Just knowing can bring terrible consequences. I know your power and love for her, so I will trust you with this. I hope we can be freed.

I have included a skill and a spell in the book as subterfuge. They are the demonic blood writing technique, which is what I used to make this and spiritual serpent. Reaching behind, you will see a drop of violet liquid. Drink this.

--your mother-in-law"

As the message said, I first secretly drank the violet liquid. Next, I learned the skill and spell.

Demonic blood writing

Requirements: blood, void affinity, paper imbued with demonic aura

Description: Using your blood, write a message. This message will only be visible to whomever you choose. If used with spiritual writing, the message will disappear soon after

Spiritual serpent

Rank: S+

SF use: from 1000 upwards, depending on power of serpent

Description: using spiritual water, create a spiritual water serpent that deals damage in its wake. Can follow simple commands

The second spell was a good one, and I also had gained spiritual water, which was the same as fire.

"Seere, how does paper get imbued with demonic aura?"

"Interesting question. I didn't expect you to be so well versed in our secret techniques."

"I saw a friend using it," I replied.

"Enough with why. Let's teach him," Amon interjected. "Think of your void fog coming out of your body onto another object."

"the fog of the void is demonic aura?"

"Interesting. It seems you don't know what it really is. We'll keep it a secret."

"Seere, don't interrupt," Amon said.

"Now, once it's on the object, pour in darkness. Once they mix, the first stage will be done. Next, for you, will be the use of this ring. Normally, this stage requires a demon to contact whatever the object is, but your ring is enough. Finally, draw the severance-linkage-flux rune."

"The what rune?"

I saw an image in my mind.

"I'll help you just a little. I can't do more than this, though."

[Skill: elementary runic techniques level up! Level six!]

The two new skills were draw runes and activate runes. The former was for correctly drawing elementary runes, and the latter provided the knowledge to actually activate it. I tried imbuing demonic aura onto a random stone on the ground, drawing my first rune as I did so.

"You are successful," was all Amon said.

My first rune! I'm now closer to Keith! I know a few different runes, thanks to my runic line knowledge. They were the create opening, sealing, open lock, runic lock, unsealing, temporal flux, mana interruption, create small light, and blink runes. While most are self-explanatory, I did not know what temporal flux was. The final rune was one that momentarily hid an object optically.

Using my >, I appraised the skill from the violet liquid without the demons knowing.

Originally, it was a bunch of question marks.

???

Level: ???

Rank: ???

Mana use: ???

Requirements: ???

Description: ???

With my eyes, it changed into a skill, absolute dominion, and a spell, annihilate.

Absolute dominion

Level: 400/1000

Rank: breaker

Requirements: void affinity

Description: creates a space where the caster is the absolute ruler and can control anything and everything within the space, including other individuals. Range of dominion is proportional to level. Levels 1-49 increases area by one meter, 50-74 by one kilometer, 75-99 ten kilometers, 100-199 one hundred kilometers, 200-399 one thousand kilometers, 400-499 ten thousand kilometers, 500-699 one hundred thousand kilometers, 700-899 one million kilometers, 900-1000 unknown

Since it came at level four hundred, I could control a radius of approximately 220,000 kilometers! I knew, like Typhon, this couldn’t be used for now. The spell was even scarier!

Annihilate

Level: 1000/1000

Rank: breaker

Requirements: be a fairy, void affinity

SF use: 0.0001/victim

Description: Annihilate everyone and anyone, including body and soul, from an entire range. Maximum targets: one trillion, increases by one trillion for each level caster gains above lv 10

That's a very powerful spell! I don't even want to use it, with that kind of power. I'm glad I can't since, for one hundred thousand SF, I could kill a billion people!

I checked my status page though the system, but these didn't show up on it. Coming back from the room, Bella asked me what spell I got.

"I got the spell spiritual serpent."

"It's a cool spell that only certain fairies can manage. I have it too. The serpent is not really alive, but it can at least go towards a target with its water ranging around, obtaining victory. It's one of my favorites."

"Thanks for your explanation," I said, holding her hand as we walked through the tunnel area and into another field-type room.

There were surprisingly no enemies when we began our journey through the room, but, after walking about a quarter of the way through, about three quarters from the entrance, a fissure opened in the ground! Where we were, we felt a giant earthquake, violently shaking.

Quickly, we escaped into the sky, but we heard a loud roar coming from the hole! It looked like we were going to have a difficult battle ahead.