Chapter 183

Matt looked around the empty space he found himself in for the second-floor theme challenge.

Genesis Cultivation’s final test wasn’t considered a hard one, but it took more thought and creativity than most other challenges.

While Eternal Darkness’ challenge was a simple chase, Genesis Cultivation required them to create something. There were no rules or limitations, but they needed to give form to something on their own. The final test was to form their own genesis. The better their creation, the more efficient the conversion from essence to Genesis Energy would be. They wouldn’t remember most of their work, most of their trials, or the details of their final submission, nothing truly actionable. Just what they finally managed to get working, and maybe some foggy recollection of a few of their failures.

It wasn’t very difficult to get some level of reward from the challenge. Pretty much any creation would result in a ‘success’ as far as Minkalla was concerned, but to truly push the quality of reward they could receive, they’d need to put everything they had into their attempt. Curiously, non-crafters actually had it somewhat easier, as Minkalla cared less about how objectively good your creation was- though that never hurt- and more about how much of a personal challenge it was.

At least, that was the theory behind getting the minimum reward.

If you created something grand and pushed yourself to new heights, Minkalla would reward your ingenuity. And Matt needed that reward. Even with their compass leading them to prizes, they had just barely enough Genesis Energy to enter this challenge without having to delve sideways to kill more monsters. It was a chore they were glad to avoid, considering the overall difficulty of the second floor. If they were to leave now, on floor two, they wouldn’t be able to get the second-floor exit reward even if they wanted to.

Walking around in the nothingness, Matt started with forming a copy of his crafting station that he had in his house.

His tools and such appeared around him where he already knew they were.

The workshop was more organized than it was in reality, but he knew that this one would become messier as he went.

Pulling a metal slab out of a vague ‘supplies’ box, Matt started testing.

Minkalla would let him test anything he liked, as much as he liked, before he submitted his final design. That in and of itself made it a crafter's paradise, with the ability to endlessly test your creation with perfect real-world accuracy. In that sense, it was as much of a ‘reward’ as Folded Reflection’s mirrored lives were.

Time was accelerated in this test, so he didn’t have to worry about the usual wait times that crafting could entail, which was a weight off his shoulders.

Putting his carving pen to the metal, he started to create a circle, and once he finished, he hewed a second, then third one. Each one touched at the edge, but did not overlap.

Then, he added a fourth circle in the center that overlapped its predecessors, connecting them into a single whole.

Happy with his first test, Matt started to carve the runes that he believed were necessary.

His AI still ran off Genesis Energy, but he didn’t bother to try it. From his understanding, AI generally didn’t work in this test at all.

Letting an AI craft something for you would defeat the purpose, after all.

When he had the outer shape of the formation created, he started to fill in the circles with runes to direct mana. They would absorb and direct any mana siphoned to them towards the bottom of the rune. It was a simple rune that was seen on all formations and productions that were powered by ambient mana.

He repeated that rune over and over until he had directed all of the mana to condense at the center of the formation plate.

Testing the plate, he pulled mana from his mana pool and directed it not to a spell, but the air.

He couldn't see it directly, but he watched the runes light up as they absorbed his mana.

2,560 MPS drained from his body and was absorbed by the formation plate, all being drawn in at the edges, then sent through each smaller circle, eventually coalescing at the center of his design.

When they reached the center circle, the final rune pushed it up exactly five feet.

And kept going.

Cursing, Matt destroyed the plate of metal with his mind and started on a new one. This one stopped the mana at the designated distance and held it there, as he intended.

Watching as millions of mana poured into the formation, Matt smiled as he started to see visible mana condensing.

It started as mist, but slowly solidified until it looked like a liquid.

After what seemed like mere moments to him but was actually hours, a single, pinhead-sized drop of light blue mana was hovering in the air.

Seeing that his test was a success, Matt built a dozen more copies of the plates and a frame to hold them together in a rough sphere.

After inspecting and reworking his design to make sure that the mana was always condensed at the same spot with each formation plate, Matt moved on to creating talismans.

Hundreds, then thousands of talismans, all with a single purpose.

To hold as much mana as possible.

Talismans could hold massive amounts of mana. More so than a refillable mana stone of a similar Tier, but they couldn’t be drained in a controlled manner afterwards.

Each talisman needed to have its mana consumed through the use of a spell, and that spell needed to be cast all at once.

Matt intended to use that flaw to his advantage.

With his talismans created, he started to paste them all on the inside of his formation plates.

Activating a few of them, he watched as his spherical formation was encased in a ball of blue light.

The protective barrier wasn't to feed the formation, but rather to isolate it from the surroundings.

After confirming that his latest test worked, Matt started to drain his mana pool.

He fed the air until it became heavy with mana, and the formation plates began absorbing and condensing it.

Each plate created a drop of mana that merged with all the others.

As the mana started to escape the single drop, it began to activate the talismans he had created for this purpose, which in turn, acted as a barrier to prevent any mana from escaping.

Matt watched with growing glee as the drop of mana grew larger and larger.

When it was the size of a grain of rice, he started to notice instabilities, and rushed to reinforce his formation, but it was too late.

The entire sphere exploded under the pressure. Minkalla protected him from harm, but he did need to start over.

His next test got the mana to the size of a marble, but his formation and barrier talismans were again overwhelmed.

Test after test, failure after failure, Matt kept trying until he finally had a head sized orb of dark blue mana that swirled and twisted in the center of his apparatus.

This time, massive pillars of reinforced steel beams were anchored to the walls that he had created in his testing area.

His current iteration was condensing octillions of mana into a single point.

He had been blown up at this point in the test more than a thousand times, but he didn’t give up.

If this worked, he would have confirmed a truth of the realm.

Everyone knew the saying. Life makes mana. Mana makes essence. Essence creates rifts. Rifts convert all three.

He was trying to recreate that second step. Mana makes essence. An event that normally only happened inside the cores of the planet as mana was drawn in with their tremendous gravity to condense to a single point.

If the saying was true, he would be able to create essence after subjecting his mana to enough pressure, over enough time.

Matt smiled as the world started to rumble.

From the center of his formation sphere, the head-sized orb of mana started to shrink.

As it shrank, it darkened until it lost its color all at once and turned a nearly see-through white. The translucent, head-sized ball of liquid mana that took years to make condensed to a dust mote-sized speck of essence in an instant.

Matt laughed as he finally succeeded.

Pushing his awareness to Minkalla, he knew that he could submit this as his final test.

It would be given a passing grade by the planet, and he’d get his reward. His foundation of gathered essence would be inundated and replaced with Genesis Energy, and he would know if not the specifics of what he’d done, he’d know for a fact that he could, someday, make Essence out of pure mana.

But he hesitated.

Matt had used two of the disciplines he knew from enchanting. Enchanting formations and talismans. But he was ignoring one final thing he knew and used on a daily basis.

Aperology.

Matt had spent a significant portion of his life using his mana to make rifts and do exactly what he had done in this test.

Only in a more efficient form that took a million times less effort than the experiment he had just created.

As an idea came over Matt, he started designing a part two to his test.

An aura rift that would be pure mana.

He and Erwin had tried to make it years ago, but now Matt could do all of the testing without worrying about danger, cost, or time.

If it was possible, the idea was that they could create aura rifts that wouldn't limit people into a singular elemental affinity, and would allow the cultivator to choose their own path for their Concept to grow into.

If it was possible, everything about Bottled Concepts would be turned on its head.

He just needed to test its feasibility.

Genesis Cultivation was the perfect place to do so. No test was too dangerous. No test was too expensive. No test was a waste of time.

It was the perfect testing ground.

Endless sub-aspected mana converted into essence, which was endless by nature, used to create a rift that made pure Aura.

In theory, it was possible.

He just had to put in the work and see if theory and reality aligned.

And Matt was never afraid of hard work.

***

Aster looked at her ice cream sundae.

It was perfect.

Larger than she was, it was a balanced blend of sweet and sour. Crunchy and soft. Warm and cold.

It was perfect.

Still, she scrapped it. She loved ice cream, but it wasn’t what she wanted to make here.

Taking a nibble of her treat, she started pulling the surroundings into the proper form.

Aster was a winter fox. Once an ice fox.

But winter wasn't her goal.

Even aurora wasn't her end goal.

Aster wanted to be a Space Ice fox.

To that end, she created a field of ice.

Basking in what she once was, she added wind, and the field of ice turned into a winter storm.

Now, she was at her current self.

With the easy part done, she started to add illusions and spatial energies. Slowly, the area converted to a field of ice and winter with aurora lights bathing its surface with energy.

Then, Aster followed that same energy past the planet's atmosphere and into space.

In the void, matter started to slow and eventually stop.

Everything grew cold.

So cold, even the atoms of the universe came to a halt.

Pulling at the strings of the world she created, she gathered all of its components and pulled them under her control.

From the dead universe, she gathered it up and started to shape it and mold it into her image.

From that death and stillness, Aster created life. Life of the cold and the end.

Life under her control.

Walking through the area she created, she explored where her bloodline would take her and smiled.

She saw the heat death of a universe under her control, breeding its own type of unique life.

Essence ensured that the end of a universe was an impossibility, as it started to fuel the reaction of stars with its endless energy, instead of the fusion of hydrogen into helium.

Essence ensured that she was an impossibility.

Through essence, Aster would create her own path to an end that was impossible.

***

Susanne wrote a letter with her best handwriting.

But instead of a pen or a quill, she was using her greatsword, and the canvas was the air around her.

As she danced, the lines of ink spread from the tip of her blade onto the air.

Everything was smooth here. Her Talent worked as she wished it did in this strange in-between space of non reality, allowing her to use anything as a quill. But that wasn't the purpose of Susanne’s dance.

She needed to create, so she did.

She wrote a letter to her past, detailing the hurt and pain her father had caused her family.

She wrote a letter to her mother, wishing she had pushed through a bit longer so she could see her daughter strong, and supporting herself and her brother.

She wrote a letter to her brother, who had been too young to really understand, but now worried for her.

She wrote a letter to herself for finding her own path in life. A path she hadn’t thought possible, but was enjoying more than she could have ever thought.

Susanne felt herself settle as she expressed herself.

Emotion flowed like ink and stained the world she was in like it was paper.

Susanne smiled as she felt Minkalla accept her offering, and her cores started to convert into something greater than essence.

Genesis Energy spread like ink in water as it reached deeper and deeper into her cores.

Power flooded her cores like she never felt before as her dance came to an end.

***

Liz cursed at the potion table.

Despite what she had promised Matt, she had tried to create a potion that could concentrate his mana down multiple times in a single tier, but after what felt like a decade, she couldn’t find an answer.

She knew it had been a long shot, but she had wanted to try. Even though much of what they did specifically would be lost, forgotten once she left this room, if she had succeeded her real self would still know that it was possible, and that something she had tried had worked.

Liz had moved on, though.

Her original idea had been to refine her blood alchemy into something greater, but the need for essence was still something she hadn’t been able to sidestep through any of her testing.

That wasn’t an issue in this testing room, as she could summon essence stones with a thought, but it would limit her in the future, and she wanted to create something greater.

Deciding to flip the script, Liz brought her arm around to clear her past attempts.

Pulling out a new set of ingredients, she stared at them in contemplation.

If her blood wasn’t enough to make items without essence, she just needed to change what her blood was.

She was blood, but blood… was a lot of things. Her blood was life… was rebirth… but the rebirth didn’t need to simply restore what was there before. It could turn into something different…

Something greater.

Something more.

***

Matt fell to the ground with the others right next to him. They were in the same formation they had been in when they had stepped through the third sub-level reward distortion of the second floor.

In the safe area, they discovered a number of other people.

Not a lot, but having anyone with them was more than they had seen in the first safe area.

Matt had his sword out but his skills off. [Cracked Phantom Armor] was a little too conspicuous for their current hidden appearances.

From their side, off a ways from the edge, an AI message came to them.

“Come over here. We have a safe area set out. Let’s exchange information.”

The message would have been inconspicuous, except for the fact the AI signature wasn’t an Empire identification but a Guild one.

Turning, he saw two people sitting off to the side in a portable defensive formation array.

It was good work, but Matt suspected it was a bought formation rather than one hand-made.

The runes and lines were too clean, too standard, for a personally made enchantment.

Walking over to what should be their only allies in the place, the four of them kept their guards up.

The duo were also wearing blank masks like their own, which was nothing surprising.

They seemed to be Tier 12’s, but Matt couldn’t trust that. Their own cultivation would also seem Tier 12 to anyone casually inspecting them.

As they entered the formation, Matt was finally able to see that the two Guild delvers were injured.

Nothing seemed super serious, but blood covered their armor and showed holes where something had pierced their defenses.

Liz was the first to speak, relying on their AI to translate. “Are you guys in need of healing? We have spells and potions that we can offer.”

The man on the left shook his head. “Thank you, but no, we’re good. The two of us are just waiting for our healing cooldown to lessen a little before we leave to go deeper. If you came a few hours later, you would have missed us.”

Matt nodded to their armor. “Do you need a replacement? We found a few sets of armor that, while not unique, is in good condition.”

The second man paused at that offer, his masked mouth pausing open before asking. “What do you want for it?”

Susanne immediately answered with the most valuable thing in Minkalla. “What do you know about the others?”

The first Guild man shook his head. “We don't know much, but would have offered it up anyway. We got some good rewards that we can trade for the armor. We have other sets, but having an extra backup is always valuable. Information for information. Items for items.”

After a little internal chat, the four of them decided to make the exchange.

They had next to nothing to offer on the information department, having been so far ahead of the others. They had only seen one other person from the Sects on the first floor, but in return for that, they were let in on whatever information the duo had.

None of them exchanged true names or anything so identifying, but the duo told them everything they knew. Or at least, all that they said they knew.

“One of the other Chosen identified as Young Master Lunar Fang. I assume you know what that means?”

All four of them nodded. They had information about all the top enemy Pather equivalents, and Young Master Lunar Fang was a known monster. At Tier 12, he had a reputation for using his Talent for moonlight attacks to slay a well known Tier 16 after a dispute.

That would have been impressive even if he had assassinated the Tier 16, but their information suggested that Young Master Lunar Fang had told the Tier 16 exactly how he was going to kill him before doing so.

That had catapulted him from obscurity to fame in a single attack, earning him a place on the Great Powers' watch lists.

After they digested that bit of information, the second guilder continued, “We also personally encountered Silver Phoenix from your guys’ faction. He was fine last we saw him, but warned us about a group of ten people running around as a team. He said they're strong and coordinated, and told us to watch out if encountering them in the depths. They attacked him on sight.”

Under his mask, Matt furrowed his brows. Not at the news that Silver Phoenix was there or ahead of them, but the fact he had found a group of ten people in Minkalla.

Larger groups might have more safety, but they struggled to keep up with smaller groups with their increased Genesis Energy needs. Silver Phoenix himself was the third place contestant in the solo fights of the Tier 10 tournament before their own, and was said to have entered Minkalla at the peak of Tier 12.

Luna even spoke to them about him, and expected him to do well… as long as he wasn’t killed.

Silver Phoenix was named for his Talent, which gave him silver flames that he liked to shape into a bird form. Whether or not he had a bloodline was a matter of debate, but he was strong enough that a group of subpar fighters who needed to travel in a pack of ten shouldn't have given him an issue.

Which meant they were strong individually.

That thought just brought Matt to the question of why they were delving together.

After that bit of information, the duo started to inform them about the others who were in the room with them currently.

Gabby’s group was a Tier 12 team of three elites from the Clans. They weren't Knights, the Ascender equivalent of the Clans, but they were a team of their local nobility.

Matt took a few seconds to inspect the dwarf in person, but quickly realized that there was nothing to see. They just seemed like short and stocky humans, rather than anything else.

Still, he didn’t doubt the reports they had learned of from Luna and the information brokers. The team was strong, and despite being funded by their clans, were as formidable as any ascender team of equivalent Tier.

The only obvious beast in the area was a wounded Seven Light Panther who had a gash on his flank. Gareth was a known beast with a strong bloodline and power. He was an Alpha contestant from the Monster Collective, but not much was known of him beyond the fact that his Talent was illusion based which was normal for the species.

No one had seen him fight, or at least no one reported it to the media, and their spies had found nothing. The large cat had decided not to participate in the Monster Collective’s Tier 10 tournament equivalent, so hardly anything about his abilities was public or privileged knowledge.

After going over the other few people in the room, Matt set up a formation to block people’s spiritual sense and sight while he brought out a number of the armor sets they had taken from the fishmen armory.

The Guild duo, after seeing the armor, decided to buy two full sets apiece, and after some negotiating, traded Liz a number of rare herbs that they had found. Susanne also scored a bracelet that increased the efficiency of weapon manifestations.

As the pair were about to leave, a new face appeared.

A lone young man stood in an open area.

That would have been unremarkable, save for the fact he was nude and Tier 12.

He didn’t even seem to have a spatial ring.

As if nothing was wrong, he sauntered over to the pillar in the center of the wall while whistling a jaunty tune.

After the naked man vanished, Matt called out to the guild duo and asked, “Did you recognize him? I don't.”

They shook their heads, and the two of them walked over to the pillar and descended to the next level of Minkalla, leaving the four of them to their own devices.

Setting up a better formation for privacy was a matter of removing then empowering the formations Matt had prepared before they entered Minkalla.

They didn’t want to take out their house in front of so many people unnecessarily.

After setting all of that up, Matt withdrew the mirror that the cornucopia had empowered to check on Gareth. It let them see through illusions, and had proven useful in the second floor.

Matt nodded to the others as he saw that the Seven Light Panther was neither wounded, nor where he pretended to be. The healthy cat was sitting next to the dwarven team, spying on their conversation.

Aster chortled softly through their AI. “Silly kitty. Illusions are for foxes.”

Matt finally took the time to inspect his cultivation cores. Or rather, core.

His mana core was as small as it always was.

But his physical core was a different story. Where once had been a small sphere of white essence now resided a coating of golden Genesis Energy.

The top three layers of his essence had been converted, which he suspected was the maximum the reward on the second floor could give.

Through their AI, Liz asked. “How did you all do? I got two and a half Tiers converted in each of my cores.”

Aster yipped back. “Same! I feel really strong. The Genesis Energy I got from [Heart of Power] even stacked a bit more with the conversion, and it feels like a larger peak.”

Susanne agreed with Liz and Aster. “About two Tiers but more in my physical side, personally. The power is noticeable. Sadly we are just keeping up with the rest of the best here, though. Once we leave, it will have a noticeable impact though and set us apart.”

Matt finally spoke. “I guess my Talent helped me here. I got a full three Tiers converted to Genesis Energy in my physical core.”

Aster headbutted his leg. “Ugh! That feels like cheating.”

While she said that, he could feel her happiness for him.

“Oh that's great. I hadn’t even thought of that. If we—”

Liz was interrupted by Susanne. “We have a kitty coming over.”

That shut them all up. While they were in a protected formation and Liz was speaking over AI, it was still better to not risk it. Gareth might have some way to overhear their conversation with a special Talent or skill.

Gathering their things, they got up and left through the central pillar.

***

As the world settled, Matt felt himself fall to the ground. His armor was so heavy, he could barely move.

Pulling it into his spatial ring, he gasped for breath.

They didn’t need to test anything to see that their third floor was Back to Basics.

As a floor, it wasn't a bad one, but it was a fantastic floor to get after Genesis Cultivation.

Genesis Cultivation converted essence inside someone's cores to Genesis Energy, but that reward was on the outermost layers unless you had it as one of the bottom floors. But Back to Basics removed your essence altogether.

It reset you to a fresh Tier 1, and made you work all the way back to your previous peak.

Getting Back to Basics after Genesis Cultivation pulled the Genesis Energy in your cores to the lowest Tiers, giving the cultivators who encountered these two floors the best scaling possible from the unique power.

Activating his spells, Matt smiled.

Back to Basics only removed his essence to lower his Tier, but seemed to have no power over his Talent. He had a full 2,560 mana in his mana pool to use.

Standing back up, Matt saw his blade sitting on the ground and couldn’t even budge it. He tested it by activating [Mage’s Retreat]. Sadly, the skill did nothing, as he had no essence in his cores for it to multiply as a new Tier 1.

Putting his blade into his spatial ring, he was grateful that his spirit remained as strong as a peak Tier 11’s. It at least allowed him to continue to use his advanced spatial items.

Aster whined as she freed herself from the divot she found herself in. “This sucks! I barely even remember being a Tier 1. At least it didn’t lower my intelligence with the loss of power.”

Liz wiped the dust off herself and helped Susanne up. “Matt, can you drop the house so we can get the Tier 1 items we prepared?”

Doing so, they entered and got the sets of Tier 1 items they had prepared in case they got this floor.

Matt frowned at the replica of his blade.

It was made to the same shape as his growth blade, but it just felt wrong.

But considering he couldn't use his Tier 14 growth weapon as a Tier 1, he was forced to use this one. His sword was far too heavy for him at his current power.

Before they set off, he said, “Minkalla wasn’t able to restrict my Talent, so we can blast past this floor relying on me.”

Liz and Aster nodded. It was the same for them. While their limited mana pools would normally be a problem Matt’s Concept made that a non issue.

Susanne laughed lightly as she swung her Concept manifestation. “I'm weaker, but this doesn't change my fighting style, really. Useless Talent coming in handy here. Sadly I can’t cheat with spells, though.”

They set off through the forest they found themselves in, and Matt kept his eyes, and spiritual perception spread out as far as possible.

Not that it was far, but it was further than it had been when he was a proper Tier 1. He just wasn't sure if that was from their Eternal Darkness reward, Minkalla not being able to truly remove Tiers from them, or simple practice from the intervening decades. Even a dozen feet was better than nothing, so he didn’t look the gift horse in the mouth.

They had only traveled a small distance when they heard rustling in the underbrush.

Aster slinked off to the side behind Liz while Matt and Susanne took a forward position.

They waited and found a pair of goblins walking down the forest trail in a lazy scouting formation.

The one on the right was giving the grime under its nails more attention than the surroundings, which made their ambush easy.

Stepping out of the foliage, Matt swung his blade and cleaved the closest goblin in two. Or at least, he tried to. He killed the monster, but his blade got caught on the ribs and failed to properly bisect the creature.

Susanne had none of his issues with a weapon manifestation, and her goblin fell in twain.

A wash of energy that felt like a facsimile of essence flowed into Matt and unlocked his previously allocated and compressed essence.

Except, instead of the white of essence, it was the golden color of Genesis Energy.

Following the trail, they continued to encounter goblin patrols, but as they killed and increased their own cultivation, they found the goblins provided less and less advancement in return.

As they were nearing the middle of Tier 1, they discovered the goblin camp.

At least a hundred goblins milled around the large camp in sloppy formations and with awful gear.

Matt felt almost nostalgic, seeing the goblins as he had at Tier 1. But not enough to let the goblins live.

Flexing his untouched mana pool, Matt cast a full power [Hail].

The spell more than covered the goblin camp and stretched beyond its bounds.

Even in his outer spirit, at 2,560 MPS the spell was nearly a solid wall of ice, and the weak bodies of the Tier 1 goblins were crushed under the weight.

All of them instantly shot up to early Tier 2 from the kills.

Matt laughed. Minkalla had screwed him on the last floor theme, but now he got to break its test with his Talent.

The others' mana pools were linked to their mana cores, but this was completely contained by his Talent. Even cultivation restricting items didn’t work on him, and it seemed Minkalla wasn’t able to close that loophole.

Matt did take the time and redirect some of his Genesis Energy to different spots in his core.

Before, he had changed his allocation a few times in his cultivation, but he had learned in recent years what he really needed. A mostly even spread between everything, but with peaks built in Senses, Mind, and Strength.

Senses and Mind were in many ways the most important to him, as the faster he could notice what he needed, and thus react to his needs, the better. Strength wasn’t quite as important, and so it didn’t get quite as much extra as his mental faculties. But the more he had, the better his old friend [Mage’s Retreat] would work, so it was built up as well.

Having more essence, or rather Genesis Energy, in that portion of his core only made the spell stronger.

It allowed him to hit harder, move faster. Everything Matt needed to fight above his Tier with his blade mage combat style.

Bringing his blade up to his shoulder, Matt proclaimed, “The Matt transport leaves immediately. All aboard for a speedrun of this floor.”

Aster jumped up onto his shoulder and yipped, “Woohoo!”