Thirty minutes later, I was outside the dungeon, watching Eleanor and Maria disappear into the horizon. Eleanor was running, using the Floating Stride while also carrying a huge crate of equipment, while Maria sat on top of the crate, both wearing thick cloaks to hide their identity.
Maria could have flown, but it would have made it difficult for them to hide.
"I just hope they stay safe," I muttered as I glanced out, watching the way the flame monsters spread. Only twenty minutes had passed since the devastating battle against a full team of ascended, and the flame lizards had already spread enough to cover half of the horizon.
Looking out, I wasn't sure whether their presence was a curse or a blessing. Yes, they would make the immediate surroundings extremely dangerous, but also it should make any scouting attempt far more dangerous.
Especially since there was a considerable number of flying lizards at a distance, each larger than the boss monsters I had dealt with, making an aerial approach just as big of a challenge. I could see why they expected that dungeon to significantly hamper our development.
Of course, my assassination had thrown everything out of whack.
"All that remains is to understand whether eleven ascended warriors represent a significant force for our enemies, or just a small assignment," I muttered.
Technically, there were two options. Either they represented a significant investment for the force I had managed to anger, preventing them from replicating a similar attack; or it was their attempt at gunboat diplomacy, and they still had a full fleet to take revenge for their inconsequential loss.
I feared that the second was the case, mostly due to the combat potential they had displayed. Yes, they were ascended, with both their Health and their other stats functioning far better than I had expected, but from the way they fought, it was obvious that they had some of the most common fighting classes, and their skills weren't particularly impressive.
Likely there was a reason for it. My research results regarding natural skill upgrades had already shown that there was a hidden variable that I had yet to identify when it came to natural skill upgrades, and it wasn't a stretch to assume that a similar — or the same — variable affected ascension, allowing weaker classes to ascend with a lower material cost, if not directly.
Of course, it was nothing more than another wild theory among hundreds that needed validation at this moment.
I walked forward, curious if there were any effects to me getting farther away from the dungeon gate.
There was. I could feel my connection with the dungeon strain. It wasn't much, more similar to the strain of picking a half-empty water bottle more than anything, a strain that slowly got stronger as I walked further away.
Surprisingly, the possibility of not leaving the dungeon didn't annoy me that much. With the most recent enemy I had created for myself, leaving the dungeon to travel wasn't on the plans for me anytime soon. Not when I had no idea about what magical methods they might have to follow me.
I turned back, feeling the exhaustion.
I was so glad that Eleanor visited the upper floors to explain the situation to them, meaning I didn't have to go and talk with them, leaving me free to work in solitude and understand what my newfound connection with the dungeon meant.
I stepped through the gate, once again finding myself on the fifth floor. A wave of my hand, and two gates appeared. Another wave and it went back to the first floor. Surprisingly, that didn't exhaust me. Maybe it was like the difference between pushing a boulder up a hill and rolling it down.
I closed my eyes, focusing on the changes as it went back.
The first change I caught was a flow. Something from outside entered the dungeon from the first floor. It wasn't the tainted energy, at least, not in the form that I interacted with it. It was the raw material the dungeon used to create the tainted energy, breaking it through the concept of corrosion to create the dungeon mist … but it felt like it mixed with another energy in the process.
Dungeon mist turned into monsters, which then provided mana and tainted energy.
I wondered if that raw form of energy would be more during the day. Based on the behavior of every other monster, I guessed that it would.
"It's like photosynthesis, with products we need to kill to work properly," I muttered. I tried to understand the process. Of course, once again, my understanding was limited. Connection was like skills in that way, giving me the outcome, with no real information about the process behind it.
I had a feeling that killing was not a necessary part of the process, but an arbitrary step that was included due to the warped nature of the System itself.
I might be a bit biased on that.
For once, I was too tired to feel enthusiastic about revealing the mysteries behind it. Instead, I went back slowly without bothering to gather the metal bulwark, killing a lot of insects on the way — a process that resulted in several new skill stones.
To my surprise, Forge and Repair only went up until Common even when I piled the monsters together, while Meditation went up to Rare, though both were limited to ordinary variants.
"Finally," I muttered once I returned to the fourth floor. While the corrosion started to feel far more comfortable since I had received my skill, it did nothing to make wading through a deep dead swamp while being sieged by monsters any easier. Once I went back to my fourth-floor base, I sat down. Not to explore the dungeon. Not to plan.
I closed my eyes and crossed my legs, trying to calm down. It was hard. It was hard to believe that merely a full day had passed since we had received the warning from Rosie. The fight had been dangerous, but at this point, it was getting too common.
Even the battle against ascended, though dangerous in theory, hadn't felt emotionally impactful, especially since I was confident that they wouldn't be sending more soon — and if they did, it wouldn't be weak enough for us to beat them, which was why I didn't argue with Maria to convince them to stay.
None of them impacted me as much as the unintentional skill upgrade I had gone through. The pain alone was horrible, one that left surprisingly little impact. Having a meditation skill that could potentially absorb tainted energy alongside mana was beneficial, but I was afraid of the implications.
It didn't feel like it was stronger than the other, more generic skills.
I could feel the faint connection to the dungeon pulsing at the edge of my awareness as I breathed in and out. At this point, I didn't need to focus to feel it. The opposite, actually. I had to focus to ignore its presence.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm down and focus … only to find myself focusing on the more immediate problems.
"I wonder what kind of class I would receive once I level up," I wondered. I stood up and started walking around the base, hoping that the movement would help me to calm down slightly.
I sighed, and changed my direction toward the forge. Since it didn't look like I could calm down, why not experiment on forging. However, as I stood in front of the forge, my fingers around the hammer trembled.
I was afraid of pain.
"Come on, Devon. Take your medicine," I muttered as I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the moment. I was afraid of the consequences, but there was nothing I could gain by avoiding it. I needed to see if I could still use Forge.
Not to mention, with the dungeon suddenly dropping copies of my class skills, there was even more of an urgency to improve them.
Too many lives depended on it.
As much as I was afraid of experiencing the same extreme pain, I tightened the grip on my hammer.