Steven navigated through the teleportation menu to find the Noble’s Catacombs. He was unsure as to why that area supposedly works, but every other node would be redirected to the transportation platform for tithing. With the insane amount of mana he had after the floor with the ants, he definitely didn’t want to give most of it away, but was a little embarrassed to use the catacomb’s node after adamantly rebuffing to assist the Collective.

After using a huge chunk of his mana practicing with his new ability and magic, he still had close to 15,000 mana. He could probably flick a monster with his finger and absorb it with the damage absorption does.

When the teleportation to the catacombs was complete, he appeared next to the Red Eye in a small dusty room lit by torches along the wall. He noticed that there were more couches and armchairs spread around the walls underneath the torches. The decorations were lacking, just a singular mural between a couple of pillars to break the somber feeling the dusty mausoleum gave.

A lone hunstman stood guard nearby. The black clad guard made a notation in a booklet, before returning to a relaxed standing position.

“I feel like the furniture is a fire risk,” Steven told the hunstman as he tapped on the Red Eye and went through the teleportation list to find the guildhall waystation point.

Moments later he was standing in the lobby of the guildhall waystation and hesitated. He could try to get in contact with Garth and discuss the changes that have taken place over the past few floors, but also, that could wait until he had a full belly and a full sleep. Knowing what room he was in wasn’t the same as knowing how to leave a message for him. The weird technology magic mix seemed intuitive, but some common sense things ended up going over his head in the past.

He opened his room and immediately stripped off his clothes for a shower. His new armored pants seemed to have a repair function, but he would need to buy a new shirt when he got a chance. The shirt, now lying in a pile with the rest of his clothes on the floor, had a giant hole ripped in the chest from when the earth turtle's shots ripped through him.

The hot water from the shower was invigorating, but he was nearing a new threshold for endurance. He had to turn the hot completely on with only a minimal turn of the cold for his current setting. Tapping on his implant, he opened up his status page and noticed it fizzle a little bit as the water passed through the holographic interface.

Strength - 29

Dexterity - 28

Endurance - 41

Intelligence - 26

Wisdom - 16

For the first time in a long while, he also made note to check his timers. The floor timer said he’d been on his current floor for seventeen minutes. He wasn’t surprised to see it started counting when he finished the previous floor, from which he had come directly. What was surprising though, was the fact that it had been 372 hours since he had originally died and ended up in the dungeon.

He still had no idea how to finish it and get the boon, or even what the boon was. He’d been under the impression that he might be able to have another chance at life on Earth. Surely there’s no secret that the noble families have been keeping about how to complete the dungeon, but it was just another thing he could ask when he had the chance. Maybe the answer will surprise him.

Lost in his thoughts as the water ran over him, he noticed his fingers were getting pruney and got out of the shower. Putting on his clean underwear, he put his clothes in the shower to clean them off a bit and made his way over to the magical food elevator. He ordered a green curry with rice, wanting something a bit different than his usual, and enjoyed his meal wishing he had a magitab. Letting the food settle for half an hour, he went to bed while thinking of ways he could improve his ability to hold multiple patterns of thought simultaneously.

When he woke he had no epiphany or inspiration for his dilemma over the magic. He put on his clothes and had breakfast before he realized he could check the magic counter where he ordered food. As an inn or hotel type place, the waystation offered sundries through the same countertop. He had previously got a toothbrush, toothpaste, and toilet paper from the service, but he never thought to check and see if he could purchase clothes. After spending the next quarter hour looking through all the room service that was offered, he was disappointed to find that the waystation did offer cleaning and repair services.

Hoping it wouldn’t take very long, he once again removed his shirt and placed it on the magical elevator and activated the repair service. It would have been a lot better if he thought to check the countertop thoroughly previously when he was covered in blood.

The repair service was obviously magical and near instantaneous, as he stood up to go find something to do he heard the elevator come back up with his neatly folded shirt.

“What I wouldn’t do to take this magic back to Earth,” he said as he put on his shirt and collected the rest of his belongings, though he left the axe underneath the bed.

When he left his room, he placed the key in the second keyhole above the recess and paid for his services. Afterwards, he inspected the door. He could see no terminal or keypad to put in someone’s room number. There wasn’t even a handle for him to turn, the key itself acted as a doorknob. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, he realized that the restaurant and recreational area of the lobby was empty.

“Weird,” he said as he reached out and knocked on the door.

A small numerical keypad appeared, similar to his interface from the implant, on the door below the keyhole. He typed in 200,000 and a small window appeared on the keypad.

Occupied.

Notify of visitor? [Y/N]

Leave message? [Y/N]

He tapped Y to notify the occupants there was a visitor. It was a very sophisticated doorbell, though the dungeon had definitely been around before doorbells were a thing.

After a few moments the door opened and a disheveled Garth appeared.

“Are you okay man?” Steven asked.

“I guess,” said Garth, moving aside and gesturing for Steven to enter. “Come on in. What brings you by?”

Garth’s room looked exactly the same as Steven’s, aside from a few odds and ends that Garth had placed for a personal touch. His satchel was sitting on the desk, and his staff was leaning in the corner by the door. Steven wasn’t sure why he had expected the room to be any different. They shared the same door after all.

“I just wanted to talk for a bit. Got some questions that I hoped you would be able to answer,” said Steven, sitting down on the chair in front of the desk. “You look like you’ve had a rough time.”

“Yea, I’ve been progressing my floors, and when I came back for a break Reena caught me. Mari has woken up.” Garth said, looking glum.

“This is good news,” said Steven, sitting forward a little. “So why do you seem down about it? How is she?” Concern tinted his voice.

“Oh she’s fine. She’s surprisingly resilient, it seems. Over a decade of death and suffering leaves her in a coma, and she wakes up after a couple of days. It’s miraculous really, what the human mind can overcome.”

Steven sat silent, waiting for the but.

“But,” continued Garth when Steven nodded, “She left the family.”

“Is that a bad thing? How does that work anyway?” He asked. That didn’t seem bad at all. He didn’t know the girl, woman now he guessed, but he heard of family members disowning each other on Earth all the time.

“Well, it's not bad really. She can do what she wants. She’s been told everything, and is more upset by the rest of the Sarenton family’s response to my previous,” Garth paused to sit down on the edge of his bed and cleared his throat. “Affliction. She said it was their fault for not helping me help her, if that makes any sense. And Mari’s right. It is their fault that she wasn’t saved earlier, but that had nothing to do with my depression at the time. Anyway, I’m not in any trouble, I’ve just recently got back. What did you need help with?”

“Watch this!” Steven said. His excitement was palpable, and his grin evidently contagious as Garth started to smile as well. He focused on the image of the shoulder cannon in his mind and cast Mimic Growth: Magic Cannon.

Garth jumped a bit as the cloud of red dust exploded around Steven’s head. When the dust settled Garth openly stared at the cannon protruding from Steven’s shoulder.

“It’s my magic!” Steven exclaimed, gesturing wildly at his shoulder. He even swiveled the cannon around a bit to prove to Garth it was intentional.

“Uh, yes. I know. But what does it do?”

“No really, the cannon acts as a catalyst. I can cast magic through it.”

“Oh. Oh! Did you learn any spells?” Garth asked, getting a bit excited. He could see the implications of Steven’s style now incorporating spells and ranged attacks.

“That’s the problem,” said Steven, “I don’t have any spells. I have elements. I’ve learned that I have to visualize what I want to come out of the cannon, and then mentally push it into the cannon for it to cast. I have to do that, while moving around, and aiming the cannon itself.”

“Oh. That’s a lot to process in a fight. Fighting should be instinctual. Even here in the dungeon where we have different abilities and spells, it can still feel rather natural after a bit of practice. And that’s for us normal classes.” Garth said, stroking his chin with his thumb and forefinger. “How does it work with your transformations?” He asked finally.

“The rat claw is just like my hand. The tail was a little different cause there was a much higher range of movement. It has muscles that us humans naturally don’t, but it was a quick adjustment. I’ve a couple of new mimicries, and they seem just as natural to use. But, this is technically a weapon. My mimic page calls them growths. I can feel a mental connection to it. Moving the cannon around is easy, it's like it's a second head.”

Garth nodded along to Steven’s explanation, like he somewhat expected to hear what Steven was saying.

“I see. Well, there’s a solution to your problem, but it’s going to take time and practice. Hand me my bag please.” Garth said.

Steven turned around and got the satchel, handing it to Garth who rummaged around in it and after a moment pulled out a piece of paper and pencil. He stood up and walked to the side of the desk next to where Steven sat.

“If you were coming over here anyway, why didn’t you just come get your bag?” Steven asked, a little annoyed but still conveying a joking manner. He didn’t want to truly upset Garth, who was presumably about to give him some death-altering advice.

“Obedience,” said Garth as he chuckled a bit. “You’re the student. I’m the tutor. We aren’t equals right now. Watch and listen closely. This is an early exercise that is taught to elementary aged dungeon-born children.”

Steven watched as Garth said the alphabet out loud.

“Amazing!” Steven stood and gave Garth a standing ovation.

Garth smiled and shook his head, “Look at the paper, you idiot.”

Steven looked and saw that Garth had written the alphabet backwards from Z. While he was watching the paper, Garth did it again. Every time he said a letter, he wrote the next letter going backwards.

“The key is to write the proper letter while saying a different letter. You don’t just say A then write Z. You say A and write Z. Say B and write Y. Sounds simple, yes, but it's harder than you think. The point is to make it easy.” Garth explained, handing Steven the pencil. “I’m going to shower and have something to eat. You practice. When I’m done, let's go to a floor and show me what you can do. And I assume you have more questions, yes?”

“Yeah,” Steven said, starting to focus on the paper. He perked up a bit, “hey, you want some mana? Not really easy, but kinda easy. It’ll make sense when we get there. Also, I want to make a stop before. But go get your shower.”

He didn’t try the alphabet exercise until he heard the water turn on in the shower and discovered it was way more difficult than Garth let on. He grinned at the thought of retaliation by letting the man drown in ants.

“Maybe next time I’ll let it happen,” he said, shaking his head.

“What was that?” Garth’s voice called from the bathroom.

“Nothing, just failing miserably,” Steven replied, and continued to attempt the exercise.