《Velteria: The Thief》


 Chapter 1

    The market street on the first floor was always quite bustling throughout the day, but the peak was for about an hour after the end of the workday. As it was, people were starting to show up in large numbers and the crowd would soon make it rather hard to stay attentive to someone, but never to the point of being hard to move into.


    It was the perfect moment and Liliei walked out of the small alley she was hiding in. She slipped into the crowd, walking intently toward one of the food stall selling skewers. She was rather small and could move very easily, and despite her clothes being more tattered than the average, she didn¡¯t draw any attention. There were two people waiting to buy something at the stand, and she timed her approach to get in range just as the vendor, a thin Human with a large smile plastered on his face, turned to the second.


    The moment she was in his blind spot, she made her move, her hands moving fast and precisely, getting hold of two of the product and immediately diving back into the crowd. She was rather pleased when she didn¡¯t hear the man react, as it was always difficult to stay unnoticed, but didn¡¯t stop moving.


    She started to eat the skewers as she moved toward her next target. She had to be fast and get as much as she could while there was enough people to prevent attention from getting on her. Her next target was another food stall, and she was able to get a small delicacy without getting seen by the Dwarf vendor. She ate the small cake while looking going back to her small alley ¨C there was too many people at the moment for her next goal.


    She waited in silence for the number of people to decrease to a point where she could properly follow someone and began looking for a mark. She didn¡¯t have to wait for long as she soon saw a man wearing clothes a notch higher than the others and moving faster. It was perfect, he would be too distracted to pay attention, and being a Human, he¡¯d be slower to react. She started moving immediately, setting her trajectory to cross his and the moment she was beside him, her hands sprung into action. In a swift motion, she cut the string of his purse with a small knife she kept in her sleeve and took her loot without modifying her speed.


    She had noted that keeping her general movements uniform tended to keep her from being seen, but it didn¡¯t seem to work this time, as the man immediately turned, his face filled with anger.


    ¨C ¡°Give that back you thief!¡±


    Immediately Liliei started running, She had the advantage in the crowd due to her size, but she had to get out of there as fast as she could. Fortunately people weren¡¯t reacting very fast, and she got out of the crowd at max speed before people understood what happened. As she got into an alley she looked behind and saw that the man was following her.


    ¨C ¡°Get back here you little pest!¡±


    She ignored him and just continued running. Now that she was out of the crowd, she needed to lose him fast, since he would start catching on her. She had looked around before and knew the perfect place to lose him. She dashed left into a smaller alley, and profited to take a look behind her. He was still far enough, her plan should work. Only a few meters further was an intersection and she took to the right. She immediately found what she wanted.


    There were two large crates that had been there since the morning and she dived between them. The moment she was hidden, she willed her Main Ability to come in effect. She felt a small amount of mana getting drained, as it made her harder to notice and detracted attention from her. It wouldn¡¯t work if she was already the center of attention, but if someone was to lose sight of her long enough and she had somewhere to hide¡­


    The man went forward past her small hideout and after a few seconds, she got out and ran in the opposite direction. The layout of this floor of the city was well suited to loose someone due to the rather disorganized fashion in which it had been built. It wasn¡¯t quite as terrible as the lower floor, the slums where she lived, but it could still get confusing real fast. The upper floors were way worse on this point, being all orderly and neat, without anywhere to hide, so she never went there. Plus her clothes weren¡¯t exactly in tatters, but while on this floor they still didn¡¯t get her much attention, on the higher floors, nothing was less sure.


    Her next destination was her ¡°house¡± on the lowest floor and to get there there was two main possibilities: she could either go to the transport pads, near the center of the city, or get to one of the six columns on the border. The transport pads were faster, near instantaneous really, but there were so many people... and the view was much better on the columns.


    It didn¡¯t take long to get there and the view was quite stunning. She was only on the first floor, but it still was high enough that she could see very far on the huge plains that extended from there onward. She could see as well two of the Great Dungeons, the Sveisst Forest and the Rarkrit Canyon that went outward until the border of the continent.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    There were two other Great Dungeons one was on the opposite side from where she stood, a Huge volcano chain, and the last laid just underneath the city, who benefited a lot from it.


    She just stood there looking for a minute before continuing right toward a large rectangle standing on the border of the platform that represented the first floor and the moment she went through, she found herself inside a large metallic tube with stairs going up and down. The Whole city had been created long ago by one of the most powerful mage that had walked the continent, and it was full of wonders. Each floor was a huge platform, and they were one over the others, yet you could see the sky from any point in the city, each floor invisible from the ones below. In the same way, the huge columns going along the border of the city were completely invisible from inside, allowing one to see outside the city without being bothered.


    There were quite a few other tricks, like the city was enchanted to pretty much repair and clean itself over time, and give access to water at every floor, and everything was fueled by the mana of the Dungeon that lay underneath. The only defect was the lowest floor where she was going. Some thirty turns before, during the Mana Wave that hit the continent, a huge flood of monsters had come out of the dungeon and, after the Adventurers finally beat them, they had wrecked the whole floor, and the enchantments had been overwhelmed and destroyed. As such, the place was now the slums of the city, half the houses destroyed or uninhabitable. She looked upward as she went out of the column and saw the huge floor above her head, blocking the sun and making the floor into a perpetual twilight.


    The house she was living in was situated near the center and it took her about ten minutes to get there. The place had been in the epicenter during the Mana Wave, and most of the building had been reduced to rumble, but a few had been built since. Admittedly, they weren¡¯t much more than shacks, but they did their jobs. Liliei herself was living in one of the surviving bits of a house. The thing was always giving the impression that it would come crashing on her head the next instant, but yet it still stood there, and she felt strangely secure in there.


    She went through the hole where a door had once stood and looked around. The whole first floor was a littered with the wreckage of the second floor that had crashed on it. She went under the hole where the stairs for the third floor had been and made a running jump to catch a protrusion from the wall, then without losing her momentum, propelled herself higher and caught hold of the rest of a small part of the floor. From there she used the hole from a destroyed window to climb and catch a metal bar that had been put in the wall and pushed herself to get to the hole.


    Contrary to the rest of the house, the third and final floor was in rather good shape. Most of the furniture had still been wrecked, but there was a small bed in the middle of the room, and a little dresser next to it. There were a few doors leading to the other rooms, but she hardly ever went in them.


    She had lived in this place ever since she could remember, with the one that had raised her, Teria. The woman had been caught by the guard ten month earlier and since then Liliei made do as she could. She had been getting better at not getting seen, and stealing enough to get by, but it still had been rough, even if getting her Ability two months ago had helped her quite a lot in her activities.


    Speaking of which¡­ she still hadn¡¯t looked at what her loot for the day was. She took the small pouch and opened it, hoping for some money but was soon disappointed. There was money, but most of it was copper coins with a few silver.


    Oh well, better than nothing, at this pace she my be able to buy something interesting in a few hundred turns. As she was taking out the coins, she suddenly found a small ring and perked up a bit: that was a lot more interesting. It looked rather plain, but it wasn¡¯t much of an indication.


    She then did the first thing to do when you encountered some items you didn¡¯t know:


    ¡±Appraisal¡±, she recited loudly


    Immediately the information appearing in her mind.


    [Silver Ring


    A plain silver ring with a lingering trace of mana]


    ¡±Well, that¡¯s it I guess.¡±


    Even if Appraisal wasn¡¯t sure source ¨C it could give some basic information but nothing more ¨C it didn¡¯t seem that this ring was anything special. Well it was still quite nice, and she put the thing on her finger. She was bringing her hand up to look at it when the ring suddenly lit up with a faint blue light and she felt all her rather meager mana pool getting sucked dry by it.


    She immediately tried to take it off, but her fingers just went through it and a sudden wave of exhaustion hit her. She felt herself falling, unable to move while a sudden pain went through her body. The pain everywhere was harsh but it was a hundred time worse in her fingers and her toes. She struggled, trying to see what was happening, and when she finally caught sight of her hand, a wave of despair hit her like never before. Her fingers were slowly disappearing, fading into nothingness, and the pain was going up her arms and legs.


    She tried to scream but even that was impossible, exhaustion and pain completely blocking any action. She could only watch herself slowly disappear, unable to do anything, until the pain got too high and everything turned black.

 Chapter 2

    Her head ached. Well, everything ached, but her head was even worse. Still, if she was hurting, she should at least be alive, right? She tried to open her eyes, but was somehow unable to do it. She tried again, concentrating as much as she could and finally, with an excruciating slowness, her eyes opened. She was still on the ground in her house from what she could see, and she tried to get up, but her muscles weren¡¯t responding. She tried to turn her head, that was strangely facing up, but nothing worked. Dammit what was happening? She then got an idea, she couldn¡¯t speak, but it wasn¡¯t actually necessary, so she enunciated in her mind.


    ¡±Status¡±


    After a very long second ¨C it was supposed to be instantaneous ¨C informations started flooding her mind.


    [Liliei Sil


    Race: Analysing


    Level: 3


    Abilities:


    -Main Ability:


    1) Tendency to be harder to notice. Ability to use mana to reinforce concealment and reduce the chance of being seen.


    -Secondary Ability:


    1) Burst of movement tends to be faster and more precise.


    Stats:


    -Agility: 6


    -Dexterity: 5


    -Perception: 2


    -Mana Pool: 1


    Skills: None]


    [A Class B change has been detected, access to second Main Ability has been advanced.


    Race has been modified.


    Old Stats have been modified to relevant ones.]


    [Liliei Sil


    Race: Mana Spirit


    Level: 3


    Abilities:


    -Main Ability 1:


    1) Tendency to be harder to notice. Ability to use mana to reinforce concealment and reduce the chance of being seen.


    -Secondary Ability 1:


    1) Burst of movement tends to be faster and more precise.


    -Main Ability 2:


    1) Increase efficiency at manipulating own mana, and allow faster reconstruction.


    -Secondary Ability 2:


    1) Increase perception of mana.


    Stats:


    Own Mana Manipulation:


    -Speed: 5


    -Precision: 4


    -Intent Potency: 1


    -Perception: 2


    -Mana Pool: 2


    Skills: None]


    The instant the second wave of information hit her and her Abilities and Stats updated, She felt her whole body and everything in it was wrong. Where she should have been flesh and bones, she was only a construct of mana. She tried to feel inside her head but, nope, nothing just an even amount of mana, and not even a large amount, no. Her honest impression was that she was so brittle even too much wind would disperse her. She tried to move her arms and surprisingly it worked better than before. It still was quite a lot of effort but at least she could now move.


    ¡±Heh.¡±, a small nervous laugh escaped her.


    Right she could move. And moving her only required twice the effort she needed before to sprint.


    ¡±Hehe.¡±


    Like that was any consolation to the fact she was made of freaking mana. Hell she wasn¡¯t sure if she was still considered alive. But it could have been worse right, it only took her two fucking minutes to sit. And she was in a state of physical and mental exhaustion like she had run for a few hours while shooting spells non-stop.


    ¡±Heheh¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    She was finally able to get up after resting five minutes. And slowly turned toward her bed. She idly noticed that although her clothes where strewn on the floor where she had been, she wasn¡¯t cold. Yay I won¡¯t be cold, it¡¯s like really great considering I¡¯m not even sure if I¡¯ll even be able to get out of my home. All she wanted now was to get to her bed ¨C only five minutes of struggling not to fall for one meter travelled ¨C and sleep. Could she even sleep? If not she was going to crash herself down the hole to go out, she could even gather enough courage to go move to there.


    She was only a step away from her bed when due to a wrong move her left arm hit her dresser and the world exploded into pain as her arm literally exploded into tiny little flocks of blue light. She barely stopped herself from crashing on the floor with a monstrous effort of will ¨C it seemed like a really bad idea with how her arm fared on such a slow collision ¨C and gritted her teeth waiting for it to pass. It took nearly fifteen minutes before the pain diminished enough to let her sit slowly, making her already slow movements painfully so due to her caution. And after another ten minutes she was finally laying in her bed, who barely bent when she applied her weight on it.


    Great only one hour to get to her bed, she needed a medal. She wanted to cry, but even that she was unable. She couldn¡¯t get a single tear out, and a wave of despair and exhaustion took her over as the world faded to black again.


    ***


    When she Liliei woke up, later, the world was a little brighter and she didn¡¯t feel as despaired as she had been. That was until she tried to get up, failing miserably, and her mood went back down a notch. Oh right there was that wasn¡¯t there. Sighing deeply ¨C and even that took a conscious effort from her, but she needed it ¨C she slowly got up, careful not to risk hitting anything with too fast a movement.


    After a few seconds she also noticed that her left arm ¨C the one that had literally exploded earlier ¨C was back with her like it never happened. Well, that was convenient, and she felt she was going to use it quite a lot in the near future.


    This time, she was a bit faster when moving and she got to the hole in the floor in only ten minutes. Which was great right?


    She definitely needed to become faster when moving, else living was going to be quite a pain. When she got to the hole, she looked down, and felt exhaustion wash over her again. Right, there was no way she was going down there any time soon. After another sigh, she went back to her bed ¨C slowly obviously ¨C and sat down for a few minutes to wallow in despair comfortably. It didn¡¯t make her feel better, but she really felt like she needed it.


    Then she decided to start practicing. First of all she needed to be able to move, not push her limbs until it worked. She started with her right fingers. She looked at them and willed them to move, pushing with all of her willpower. Slowly, ever so slowly, they moved, taking the position she had wanted. Well, it worked, but¡­ that was not going to work, unless she wanted to die of old age before getting to the edge of the city. And the stairs, oh the stairs to go up¡­ well, that was if she even could get out of her house without falling to her death which was, hmm, not going well at the moment.


    Then she needed to improve her movements. She started by willing her fingers to move again and this time concentrated on feeling what happened when she did. It was quite strange really, but after a few tries she started to get it. She hadn¡¯t ever given much attention to the way she moved her fingers before, but she guessed it was pretty much the same, except not exactly. It was rather like she suddenly had a new limb and had to learn to control it, except the limb in question was her whole body, but that was a detail, right?


    It took her the better of two hours before she started being able to move her fingers again without having to mobilize all of her attention and willpower over it. When her finger finally started moving instinctively she felt a wave of elation. Yes, she moved like someone who had lived fifty turns too much, had at least ten illness related to movement and was frozen to the bone, but that was a detail, yes? Then she looked down on herself, needing again all her willpower to do so ¨C and oh right she was still naked, she would have to do something about that when she could move, so considering how it went, in a few month, maybe a turn.


    Suddenly elation disappeared and was once again replaced by despair, but she pushed it aside, not allowing herself to wallow anymore, and got to work. After all if she wanted to move in a more or less correct way before the end of the turn, she couldn¡¯t just wait for it to happen.


    She continued training her fingers until she could move them approximately right then went down to the rest of her arm, and started again. The room was always more or less bright due to the light of the enchantments on the higher floor, but it was still possible to guess the time from the difference in luminosity, so when the light dimmed she went back to sleep, mentally exhausted.


    The next day as a whole was spent on getting her left arm right and starting the right arm. Overall, it took her six day to be able to move each of her limbs individually with relative ease. She was starting to practice moving her whole body in a coordinated fashion ¨C well, at the moment it was more of a mess of random movements but¡­ ¨C when she heard someone coming in the entrance of her house.


    ¡°Hey, you¡¯re here Lei?¡±, the voice was quite loud, and a little high-pitched, and she immediately recognized it.


    ¡°Hey Tren, yes I¡¯m here, you can¡­ in fact no, don¡¯t come just now.¡±


    Tren was one of the other people living on this floor. He lived with a small group that were settled quite close from her house and she often went to chat with them. She would normally have let him come but right now, she still hadn¡¯t put her clothes back. In her defense, she didn¡¯t feel cold at all and had other things to think about.


    Thus she immediately went in direction of her fallen clothes in a rather wobbling and quite slow gait, but it was still a lot better than a few days before. She then slowly bent over her old shirt, placed her hand in the collar, and pulled as she unbent. The thing was, the moment her arm was fully extended, instead of the shirt coming with her hand, it was her hand who stayed in the collar, the shock enough to separate it from her arm.


    Instantly, pain exploded in her arm, rushing to her whole body in less than a second as her hand slowly dissipated in the ambient mana. The pain was sudden and strong enough that she let out a yelp of pain, and immediately she heard Tren¡¯s worried voice.


    ¡°You¡¯re alright? Wait just a minute I¡¯m coming¡±


    Liliei fought through the pain for a few seconds before being able to get a reply out. Even if her voice was still laced with pain. It was in fact strange how her voice had still been instinctual and expressive when the rest of her body had been so hard to use. Her facial expressions as well had taken only a fraction of the time needed for her other limbs.


    ¡°No, don¡¯t come! I¡¯m fine¡­ Well, more or less, but you wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything. In fact, could you get Nalaine to come please?¡±


    Nalaine was the most competent one of the little group in the matters of magic. Well it still was not good, objectively, but she may be the one most capable of helping her. And she was a girl. Which was good considering her¡­ predicament.


    ¡°You sure?¡± asked Tren before correcting himself, ¡°In fact, no need to answer, I¡¯ll bring her here soon.¡±


    While she waited for Tren to come back with Nalaine, Liliei decided to watch how her hand reconstructed. The pain was still there but more as a dull ache. Her second secondary ability giving her and increase perception of mana had been quite useful for moving, and it proved its utility once more. She could feel a very slow flow of mana going through her body and slowly rebuilding her hand from the inside out. It was a very slow process, and would most likely take a few hours. She didn¡¯t know how long she had spent just observing the process when a sound coming from the lower floors distracted her.


    ¡°Hey, Lei, I¡¯m here!¡±


    ¡°Come right in.¡±


    The cheerful voice of Nalaine had brought a smile to her face and she had immediately replied. The young girl didn¡¯t lose time and Liliei could hear her climb up to the hole as soon as she had finished speaking. Nalaine wasn¡¯t bad at acrobatics and, if she wasn¡¯t as fast as Liliei was ¨C or had been ¨C it didn¡¯t take long before her head pointed out from the hole. Nalaine was a Demon but had only two of the four characteristics, being her two small midnight-blue horns atop of her head and the large patch of dark-sapphire blue scales running along her arms from the back of her hands. Her hairs, also blue but a shad lighter than her horns, were rather long, going down a bit past her shoulders. Her turquoise eyes were brought out by all the darker shades, and gave her rather round face a friendly look.


    ¡°So what happ¡­ why are you¡­ what happened to your hand?¡±


    The Demon girl seemed quite troubled ¨C near a full blown panic in fact ¨C as she changed her question while she took in more elements. As she asked the last question, she started rushing toward her, but Liliei ¨C who had sat while waiting ¨C brought her to a stop a just a meter from her.


    ¡°Stop! My hand¡¯s nothing grave, but it could be trouble if you touch me right now. As to why I¡¯m naked, well my hand got this way from trying to pick up my clothes,¡± said Liliei, her voice reflecting her tiredness.


    Nalaine shot her a strange look and then sat down in front of her.


    ¡°I think you would better explain from the start.¡±

 Chapter 3

    ¡°You know what¡¯s the worst in all this? I can¡¯t even hug you to console you.¡±, Nalaine had a disappointed expression on her face as she spoke


    ¡°I consider it more in the positive side of things, but the point is moot anyway.¡±


    Liliei had a small smile on her face as she retorted to Nalaine. The older girl¡¯s exuberant personality was quite appreciated as she always seemed to make everything look less terrible. She was also the one who had comforted her when Teria had been caught. After a few seconds, a thoughtful expression appeared on her face.


    ¡°You said you had an increased perception of mana, right? Can you look at your body and compare the density of the mana?¡±


    Immediately Liliei did as she said, turning her perception to herself. Her whole body was a large chunk of mana. Everything was rather homogeneous and uniform except for a few slowly moving patterns here and there. The main exceptions were the outermost layer ¨C which was to be expected since it somehow imitated her appearance ¨C the permanent flow that went through her body ¨C and was at the moment busy providing her nearly reconstructed hand ¨C and her head, whose density was quite higher than the rest of her body.


    ¡°Hmm, it¡¯s a bit higher in my head, but on a general level, it¡¯s very low.¡±


    As she spoke, Liliei realized something.


    ¡°You think it¡¯s the reason why I¡¯m having much less problems with my head than the rest?¡±


    ¡°Maybe, but there¡¯s another thing I would like to try. You said your Ability allow you to reduce attention by using mana. Could you try to use it and look from where the mana is coming from?¡±


    Liliei had never been much interested in how her Ability worked exactly, she just willed to use it and give the mana needed and it worked. This time she turned her perception inward again and started slowly turning on her Ability. At first she didn¡¯t sense anything, but after a few seconds, she felt a large influx of mana coming from her head. When she looked, it was quite strange as it seemed to be just appearing there.


    When Liliei reported her findings, Nalaine smiled triumphantly.


    ¡°I think I¡¯ve got something. You know the mana pool isn¡¯t inside the body, but in your soul right? As such, all the mana you¡¯re absorbing isn¡¯t reinforcing your body, but going straight to your mana pool. Which mean, you can maybe reinforce your body by adding more mana to it. And then the reason it¡¯s so brittle and hard to control is due to that.¡±


    Liliei thought about what Nalaine had said and only had one objection.


    ¡°If the problem with moving is due to the amount of mana, how come I was able to improve by repeating the movements?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure, most of what I know of mana is all from my personal experience and my Ability, but from what I found, repeatedly casting a spell and understanding it better tend to improve the efficiency and ease of casting.¡±


    Having no more questions, Liliei began trying to add mana to her body, which revealed itself to be quite difficult. Every time she tried the mana wouldn¡¯t stay in her body and just came back to her head. After her tenth try she wanted to scream in frustration. When she had tried to move her body, it was slow, painfully so, but it had effects. She could see it working and her becoming more agile. But now it just wasn¡¯t working.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t work, I can¡¯t make it stay in my body.¡±


    ¡°Mhh, you must not be doing it the right way, but I¡¯m honestly at a loss on this subject.¡±


    Nalaine seemed frustrated as well not to be able to help, but didn¡¯t seem to have more ideas. While she thought about how to do, Liliei idly checked her hand that was now nearing complete reconstruction, the flow of mana still turning in her body but now only leaving a small trickle in her hand.


    And suddenly it hit her. Hell she was dumb. She tried again, but this time, instead of just willing the mana to go to her body, she pushed it in the stream that went through it. The thing was quite slow, but after only a moment, she could feel a difference. It was nothing grand, barely a change even, but it was progress and a large smile sprung on her face.


    ¡°I did it! But really it¡¯s very slow, so I don¡¯t think the effects are going to be there soon.¡± Liliei exclaimed triumphantly.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°Great!¡±


    When she hear that, Nalaine made a large smile and moved as if to hug Liliei, only to stop after a second and make a face. When seeing that, Liliei couldn¡¯t help it and started laughing earning a pout from the girl.


    ¡°You bully, you¡¯ll see when you¡¯re back in shape who¡¯s gonna laugh.¡±


    The two girls spent the rest of the day idly bantering, Nalaine having decided to stay for the night. When the light started dimming, Nalaine took the mattress from Teria¡¯s room ¨C she wasn¡¯t using it at the moment ¨C and placed it just beside Liliei¡¯s bed and they then went to sleep. The whole time, Liliei was giving more mana to the slow stream in her body, slowly improving it.


    The next day, Liliei immediately noticed the changes in her body. During the day before, she had been awake the whole time and as such the slow pace made it quite hard to estimate how effective it was. Now however, after a whole night of improvement, it had become quite easier to see the effective changes. First of all, her body as a whole had become much denser, nearly twice as much as before. She could also validate the idea from Nalaine, as moving correctly was a much easier task right now. She was still a little clunky, and clearly not used to move around in this body. But her limbs responded rather well.


    She smiled ¨C today was starting well ¨C and sat on her bed. She instantly noticed that her bed moved under her at her movement, even if just a little. Nalaine was sleeping on the mattress beside her bed, and Liliei slowly got up, taking care not to wake her up. She moved her limbs, getting a feel of how they felt, then went to her clothes that Nalaine had picked up and placed on the dresser beside the empty pouch of coins where the ring had been. She still moved rather slowly, but it was a far cry from the day before, and was now due just as much from caution than from inability.


    Finally, she was there, her clothes in front of her. She once again put her hand in the collar of her shirt and this time slowly started lifting it. She was able to get it halfway lifted before the weight was too great and she had to drop her grip on it. Damn the thing was heavy. Well at least now she didn¡¯t lose an arm or anything else, which was a pretty good thing. Well now she just had to continue adding mana to her body and she would¡­


    Well, maybe not. It seemed that her mana density had reached the highest point it would get to, as the mana deposited by the stream while passing through her body didn¡¯t stay and either left her body, dissipating in the air, or getting sucked back by the stream. How come it didn¡¯t work. Maybe Nalaine would have an idea.


    Liliei turned to the still sleeping girl and decided to wait for her to wake up on her own. So she practiced her movement¡¯s precision and coordination while waiting. She didn¡¯t have to wait too long for the Demon to start stirring, and a few minuted later she woke up and looked around until her gaze fell on Liliei.


    ¡°Hey there, slept well.¡±


    ¡°Rather, yes. And you?¡±


    ¡°Well, yes. So, you want something to eat?¡±


    She did and Liliei had some food stocked in one of the rooms for the days she couldn¡¯t go steal something. Admittedly it wasn¡¯t anything great but they were used to it and the two girls chattered happily while Nalaine was eating. Finally, when she had finished eating, the Demon turned serious.


    ¡°So, how¡¯s it going?¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m quite a lot stronger and more solid,¡± she said while picking the coin pouch on the dresser, ¡°but I¡¯m still not even able to pick up my shirt, not to say anything about wearing it, and it doesn¡¯t seem that I¡¯m able to increase my density anymore, it just doesn¡¯t stay.¡±


    Nalaine had a pondering look on her face for a moment before she started speaking.


    ¡°You know that to use a spell you need two things, mana and Intent, right? Mana is the energy that¡¯s all around us and that you use to power the spell, and Intent is more or less the ¡®force of will¡¯ that you use to tell mana how to act. The reason one can¡¯t use as much mana as one want in a spell is that you need to infuse it with your intent before you can control it, and the maximum amount you can keep infused at a given time is known as the ¡®mana pool¡¯.


    ¡°That is to say, I think your problem is that your body is sort of an extension of your mana pool and your intent is only strong enough to keep that much mana under your control. So there¡¯s three way I can think of to increase that: you gain some Levels, you gain an Ability Level that helps you, or you train it.¡±


    ¡°And how am I supposed to train something like Intent?¡± Liliei had a dubious expression plastered on her face as she spoke.


    ¡°Have you tried manipulating your body?¡± Started Nalaine, which earned her another dubious look from the girl before she continued ¡°your body is made of mana, you should be able to modify it, which you could also use to solve your clothes problems, and the only way I have found of training my Intent is by using it to manipulate mana.¡±


    The next three or so hours were spent by Liliei trying to change the shape of her body. She quickly discovered she could, up to an extent. She was able to get a little taller or smaller change a little the general shape of her body, but if she tried something too extreme, like completely changing her arm into a sword, it wouldn¡¯t work, or change back immediately. Even with the small changes, her body seemed to want to always get back to her original form.


    The next thing she tried was to create something of mana separated from her ¨C ultimately the goal was clothes but she started with something simpler like a small cube ¨C but this was incredibly difficult. She was able to get the mana in the shape she wanted, but the instant she stopped focusing on it it would dissipate back into the air


    Trying to Level now wasn¡¯t a realistic option: she could neither go out to kill monsters nor try to stay stealthy in a crowd, and she didn¡¯t know what action related to her second ability would increase her level. As such the last thing she could to get a boost to her mana pool was to increase her Ability. Doing so in general was rather straightforward: practice what it gives you until the World decide your mastery of it is good enough and grants you the next Ability Level. Since Abilities Levels in the same Ability were usually related, the second one was much more likely to give her what she wanted.


    She waited until Nalaine left her. The Demon had to get back to the rest of the group to reassure them, and to get some money ¨C she earned it by going with new adventurers on the first floor of the Dungeon, as a guide and a mage. She was after all one of the largest income of the small community. She promised to come back the next day to see how Liliei had progressed, before leaving. Nalaine continued training with the damned mana cube ¨C she was now rather good at creating it, but still couldn¡¯t get it to stay that way, and Nalaine hadn¡¯t been able to help on how to do it either ¨C before she could get the resolution to do it.


    Training all day had helped, and her body was a bit denser than before but it was way too slow. As such she neared the wall of her house, she needed to increase her proficiency with her Ability and she saw only one way to do so. She was soon in front of the wall, there she clenched her teeth in preparation, put all the force she could in the movement, and slammed her fist into the wall.

 Chapter 4

    When Nalaine came the next day, Liliei had discovered that no matter how many times she did it, destroying her limbs was always just as painful. She had went at it nearly without stop and had lost count of how many times she had done it. When she had found herself proficient enough at getting her hand back, she had started working on the rest of her body: first her arms, then her legs.


    But when the Demon got inside the room, she found Liliei with a huge smile on her face.


    There was quite a lot of pride in her voice as she spoke. ¡°I did it! I got my second Ability Level.¡±


    [Liliei Sil


    Race: Mana Spirit


    Level: 4


    Abilities:


    -Main Ability 1:


    1) Tendency to be harder to notice. Ability to use mana to reinforce concealment and reduce the chance of being seen.


    -Secondary Ability 1:


    1) Burst of movement tends to be faster and more precise.


    -Main Ability 2:


    1) Increase efficiency at manipulating own mana, and allow faster reconstruction.


    2) Increase ability at external mana manipulation, and allow creation of external constructs.


    -Secondary Ability 2:


    1) Increase perception of mana.


    2) Increase the size of the mana pool.


    Stats:


    Own Mana Manipulation:


    -Speed: 7


    -Precision: 5


    -Intent Potency: 2


    -Perception: 2


    -Mana Pool: 3


    Skills: None]


    She had also gotten a Level as she trained ¨C her second ability seemingly gave her Experience from manipulating mana ¨C which had also helped with the added Stats, but the thing that had most impact was her new Ability Level.


    Ability were given by the World depending on a few things, but the most important ones had been found to be what you were good at ¨C it reinforced your strength a lot more than it covered your weakness ¨C and what you wanted and needed ¨C no matter how gifted one was in swordsmanship, if he wanted to be a farmer, he would get something related to farming, on something he was talented at. As such, she was nearly guaranteed to get something that would suit her ¨C there was hardly anyone that was really dissatisfied with their Ability ¨C but the one she had gotten was just perfectly what she needed.


    Due to that, she had been able to reinforce her body a lot more, as she proved to the stupefied Demon by giving her a long hug. The girl had a huge smile on her face as well as she returned it, and they stayed this way for a minute before Nalaine spoke and Liliei felt a little blush get to her face.


    ¡°So, when are you getting some clothes, and decency while we are at it?¡±


    ¡°Hmm, well,¡± Liliei was clearly embarrassed as she spoke, ¡°you see, I tried putting them on, but even if it is now possible, it is quite uncomfortable, so I thought I¡¯d work on my second Ability Level and try making some myself.¡±


    The young Demon couldn¡¯t help but smile seeing Liliei flustered like that. It seemed she hadn¡¯t been bothered by it as long as she couldn¡¯t do anything for it, but now that it was a choice, and that she had brought it up, she did get uncomfortable about it. Anyway she was happy that the young girl had been able to get her Ability¡­


    ¡°Wait, how did you get your ability so fast? I know it¡¯s the first Level, but still¡­¡± As she spoke, Nalaine saw Liliei getting embarrassed and knew she was right.


    She gave a chop on the girl¡¯s head ¨C lightly, she still wasn¡¯t sure how much force she could bear ¨C as she admonished her.


    ¡°You bullhead, you really went and broke your body to be able to repair it didn¡¯t you?¡± Her worry was plain in her voice, and the young thief was getting even more embarrassed.


    ¡°Well, it was the faste...¡± She stopped speaking as Nalaine took her in a bear hug, and let herself loosen a bit.


    They stayed like that for a minute before Liliei tried to take a step back and found herself blocked by Nalaine.


    ¡°I told you I would get back on you when you were more solid.¡±


    Liliei had to wait for another few minutes before Nalaine deigned let her go. The Demon had huge smile plastered on her face.


    ¡°So what are you going to do? Still thieving or are you going for something safer?¡± Nalaine had often tried to convince Liliei to go in the Dungeon with her, or find an occupation where she wouldn¡¯t risk getting caught by the guards ¨C or risk anything really, she was a bit overprotective sometimes.


    ¡°You¡¯re kidding, right? I mean, if I play it well, I¡¯m sure I could use my new capacities to get even better at it. But I may eventually try to find something else to do with my time.¡± She had added the last sentence to pacify Nalaine a bit when she had seen the look the girl had given her.


    The two spoke for a moment still before Nalaine had to go back, but only after she got the young thief to promise her that she would pass by to announce her recovery to the group. Nalaine hadn¡¯t told them exactly what had happened, just that Liliei was ill at the moment, deciding that the girl would tell them what she wanted to be known.


    When she was alone again, Liliei started trying to get a solid item of mana. She now had an Ability to help her and she immediately understood she had went about it all wrong. She had tried to use her Intent to push and force the mana how she wanted, when she should pull and weave then connect it and¡­ there it was a¡­ cube? More or less, with more less and less more. If asked honestly she wouldn¡¯t be able to tell what it was since the form was too distorted. Obviously getting an Ability helped but it didn¡¯t do everything.


    ¡°Well, back to work it seems,¡± she said with a light sigh.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    It took three days before she could get something that could be accepted as clothing, if you didn¡¯t look at it from too close, really. Nalaine had visited once to see how she was doing, but nothing else had happened. She allowed herself another day to get something just higher than barely passable. The method of getting the constructs not to look like mana but like real clothes had had fortunately been provided to her by her Ability, else she would never have had the idea to twist the mana and press it like that. Anyway she was now wearing perfectly plain, if a little rough, shirt and pants that more or less looked like simple gray cloth. Her shoes were just as plain, if not even more, basically a harder part with a fabric-like part in a way that kept it more or less from slipping off.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m far from the beautiful clothes that I want, but I¡¯ll do with what I have for now. For now, I can finally go out.¡±


    As she started moving toward the hole in the ground, she made herself the reflexion that speaking alone was also a proof that she had been there far too long. And as such, she didn¡¯t hesitate as she got to the hole, and jumped straight toward the small part of the second floor that was still there. She was pretty confident that her body could handle the shock at the moment, and it didn¡¯t betray her. She landed ¨C rather clumsily since she wasn¡¯t used doing acrobatics with her current body ¨C and stayed there a second, first to get her balance back and second to allow herself a small triumphant smile before getting further down to the first floor.


    She looked up to the hole and thought that with her current clumsiness going up was going to be a pain. But for now, she admonished herself, she was down, and glad to be there. So first thing first, going to say hello to the Nalaine and the group, before the Demon got the idea to drag her there.


    The small community was living in the remnant of a house that hadn¡¯t been too destroyed. They had cleared the place of the rubble and built some shacks with wood they had gotten who knew where. The whole structure had been solidified with the help of the oldest of the group, who was at the time the closest they had to a mage.


    The result was surprisingly quite solid, and had resisted pretty well since it had been built a few turns before. She walked calmly in direction of the building, attentive to her surrounding. ¡®Anytime now¡¯ she thought and effectively, a second later she heard the cheerful voice.


    ¡°Lei! You¡¯re back!¡±


    Accompanying the sound was the appearance of Kshirn, a 5 turns old</a> Beastkin. She was one of the youngest of the group and as such was practically always there. The child liked Liliei quite a lot and she reciprocated it. She was only two turns older, but the girl had seemingly made her something of a goal ¨C which she wasn¡¯t sure was a good life choice, but there was still time for her to find a better suited path.


    The child got near Liliei and jumped at her, which she reacted to by taking a small step on the side and catching her in the air, changing the frontal collision ¨C which she was pretty sure she would have gotten through, but precautions¡­ ¨C into a rotating movement she dissipated in two turns. She had barely been able not to fall while doing so, which would have been quite embarrassing.


    ¡°How are you doing, you little punk? Still trying to learn magic with Nalaine?¡±


    The girl had been awestruck when she had seen a high Leveled mage one turn before and absolutely wanted to learn magic, which was a bit unfortunate since Beastkin were reputed for their low ability at magic. Still Nalaine hadn¡¯t been able to say no when faced with the combo of the reddish wolf ears, large round eyes, with the tail slowly wagging behind, and thus had tried to teach magic to the girl, without much success.


    ¡°Yes!¡± She exclaimed full of energy, before deflating a little, ¡°But it¡¯s still not working.¡±


    Liliei could hear the disappointment in her voice and she ruffled Kshirn¡¯s hairs ¨C the small air of contentment that passed on her face was really cute ¨C before comforting her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much, it¡¯s not really easy, but you should be able to do it.¡±


    They both started moving toward the central part of the building, that had been created inside the old house. A door had been added ¨C well, a piece of cloth that hung over the hole, but it did its job ¨C and Liliei entered the place with Kshirn just behind her. The inside was quite spacious all considered, the part of the stone house that had been destroyed originally had been replaced with wood or left like that in the case of the interior walls. There were two large couches that Liliei had always wondered where the group had gotten, and on one of them three people were seated.


    First was Tren, he was a half Dwarf-half Beastkin ¨C the Beast characteristics weren¡¯t much visible but let guessing at some feline race. He was rather short and well built, even if a bit thinner than he should, and had short black hair. He was younger than her by half a turn but was already quite responsible.


    Asleep beside Tren was another of the younger ones, Ilim an Elf that was roughly the same age as Kshirn. He was slim even for his race, and had shoulder-length white-blond hair. He had pale blue eyes that weren¡¯t visible now.


    Finally, on the left was Mirane a Human a little older and taller than Liliei. She had short brown hair and green eyes, and had a perpetual frown on her face.


    ¡°Hey, how¡¯s it going?¡± asked Liliei after a second.


    ¡°Nothing interesting happened, except for you getting ill. By the way, what did you catch to make you unable to move for that long?¡±


    It was Tren that had spoken, with a slightly worried tone, and Liliei thought for a bit. She trusted them but there was an irrational fear that they would reject her. She however only hesitated for a few seconds before telling what had happened. The reactions were varied but positive. Khsirn was awed and seemed to find it incredibly great, Tren was a bit worried how it would affect her in her job. Mirane was relieved that she was alright, and Ilim was still asleep. They talked for a moment before Liliei decided that she would try to see how her condition affected her directly on the job.


    She left them with a promise she would come back in the evening when everyone was there. She passed by her house, taking a small pouch with a few coins with her. Her goal was to see how she fared with her new body when stealing, but let¡¯s start slow, and then ramp up. She went to the outer border of the city and found herself sighing loudly when she got to the bottom of the stairs. Right the stairs, this was so going to be great.


    Five minutes later she was up on the first floor, surprised how well it had gone. She only had one moment where she nearly tripped, which was quite good considering she was still adapting, but more than that, she didn¡¯t feel tired. Usually she would have to rest for a minute or two when she got there, but now she didn¡¯t feel any exhaustion, except maybe a little twinge of mental fatigue that hadn¡¯t been there when she had started. This change, she liked. Before one of her weakness was her endurance: she could run pretty fast but not for very long.


    Well ideally she shouldn¡¯t have to run at all, but she wasn¡¯t quite to that point right now, so she used what she could. Her destination was the same point she had last went to, since the food stalls were the thing she had most ease taking from ¨C the vendors were often distracted, speaking with their clients.


    Still she was quite early, it was only ten o¡¯clock so she had four hours until the noon rush, so she diverted her course. Another point of interest for her on the first floor was near the center of the city. It was another market, but with less food stalls, and more items that could be used by adventurers. Most sold nothing of great quality, but for the new ones that hadn¡¯t enough money to get something from the specialized shops, they could be quite useful.


    When she got there, the place was pretty much empty, which was usual since most of the Dungeon divers going early would already have gone in, and the later wave was still not here. She profited to browse the shops, looking for something interesting. The shopkeepers didn¡¯t give her much attention, but she knew that, were she to try anything, that would change, so she just looked at the wares.


    All the ones selling weapons didn¡¯t interest her ¨C her current knife was enough for her uses ¨C but most of the others were appealing to her. She quickly passed over the ones that sold rings ¨C she had had enough rings for quite some time ¨C and looked at the rest. There was one that sold enchanted necklaces. They were obviously pretty small enchants, probably made by an apprentice with a low Ability, but she still spent some time looking, appraising them when they seemed interesting.


    [Enchanted iron necklace


    A simple necklace that has been lightly enchanted.


    If worn:


    ¨C Slight speed increase]


    It wasn¡¯t anything grand, but would still be of help for low leveled adventurers that hadn¡¯t enough to buy better. However for her it wouldn¡¯t be of much use. She continued to browse everything slowly, not really wanting to buy anything and more passing time. One of the shop was selling small mana stones ¨C congregated mana that solidified and was sometimes found inside some of the monsters. She didn¡¯t really knew what use they had, but had heard the biggest could sell for quite a sum however those were too small.


    She had looked at nearly half the stalls when something caught her eyes.


    [Enchanted Chorin wristband.


    A small wristband that has been enchanted.


    If worn:


    ¨C Increase lightly the control of mana.]


    It seemed the enchantment was quite acceptable, so it was surprising that it would be here, but when she looked at it, she understood.


    ¡°How much for this?¡± She asked the Shopkeeper, a black haired Dwarf that seemingly had never heard that he was supposed to smile to his customers as he had been glowering at her.


    The moment she asked, his expression became just a little less unfriendly.


    ¡°That¡¯s five silver, the idiot that made this didn¡¯t think that one had to wear it.¡±


    It was very cheap for such a good enchanted item, but like he said, the thing was way too small. It would be able to fit around her wrist, if barely, but there would be no way of getting it there. However, for her¡­ She took out five silvers from her pouch and gave it to the Dwarf, taking the bracelet.


    ¡°Thanks mister!¡± Liliei smiled at him before going away. It would soon be noon so she started going in the direction of the other market. While she was walking in one of the small alley, she stopped and took out the wristband. It was too small for her hand to be able to fit in, so she concentrated a moment, modifying her hand to thin and elongate until she could get it to pass, and then left her body take back its original shape.


    Now that the item was on her, she could feel the enchantment slowly take effect, and knew that after something like ten minutes, she would feel it taking effect.


    She was about to start moving again when she felt a hand on her shoulder, with an iron grip. And from behind her she heard someone speak in a stern.


    ¡°I think we should have a little talk, young girl.¡±

 Chapter 5

    Liliei felt herself freeze in fear. She slowly looked behind her to see who had spoken, and the moment she saw the person, she felt a wave of relief wash over her.


    The person was a rather tall Human-like woman with short green hair. She was pretty thin but as Liliei could feel, it hid an incredible strength. However the two telltale signs of who she was were her pure blue eyes, with no white or pupil, and her clothes. She wore a simple black tunic and blue pants, with the symbol of the Adventurer Guild, a sword crossed with a wand, drawn in bright blue near her shoulder.


    The girl was a Receptionist, which meant that Liliei was in no danger. The Receptionist felt when she relaxed, and released her shoulder, giving her a small apologetic smile.


    ¡°Sorry for the scare, but I didn¡¯t want you to start running if you were called.¡± she said as she started walking, Liliei following obediently.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I probably would have reacted like that, miss¡­ How should I call you?¡±


    At her question, the woman turned to her and answered with a smile. ¡°Just call me Reig.¡±


    ¡°So, miss Reig, why do you want to talk to me?¡±


    Lilian was intrigued, if a Receptionist had left the Guild Hall to talk to her, it had to be something important. After all, the Adventurer Guild wasn¡¯t just any organization, It was created by the World Itself. Any city or village that became large enough to warrant it would someday find a Guild Hall placed somewhere near the center of the settlement. The building was indestructible and the only way it would disappear was that the place became small enough that it wasn¡¯t useful anymore.


    Going with it were the Receptionists. They were constructs made by the World to manage the Halls, appearing at the same time as the building and immortal as long as it stood. They always were two at least, but more could come if it became necessary. There were currently four in the Hall in Selqkir, the city where Liliei was living, and it was the most on the continent. The thing was that each of them had powers rivaling the greatest adventurers, even if they never made use of it. They stood neutral in every conflict and she had heard that the only moment they left their Halls was when they received direct order to do so from the World.


    Which meant that the World had an interest in her, which could be good, or bad.


    ¡°We¡¯ll be better to talk about that when inside,¡± said Reig while opening the door to the Hall.


    Liliei looked around her, they were in the center of the city, just in front of the Guild Hall, while they hadn¡¯t walked more than a few seconds. Right, absurdly powerful, she thought with a smirk while going through the door. The Halls were also quite peculiar. From outside they were like a simple house with a sign hanging in front which wasn¡¯t too impressive, even with the sign enchanted so that it would always be visible from anywhere if you were searching it, even while looking in the opposite direction.


    However the insides were quite different. The flooring was made of a polished black and violet stone. The walls were in a strange gray-white stone with long lines of blue that pulsed slowly. It was a lot larger than the outside would have left to guess. On her left, Liliei saw a line of tables, most with a few adventurers around, talking. On the right was a large counter made in a mix of the stone from the floor and the walls. Behind it were two other Receptionists, one a Demon-like woman whose colors tended toward orange, and the other a rather handsome Beastkin-like man ¨C probably some feline race going by the grace in his movements. The last one was an Elf-like woman and was serving some drinks and talking with a group of adventurers.


    The Guild Halls also doubled as inns of sorts, even if there were limits to prevent being oppressive for the normal inns. However one of the sticking points was that they were perfectly safe havens where everyone could enter ¨C even if the Receptionist could ban you from entering in some cases, as long as you didn¡¯t do something horrible, they wouldn¡¯t. For example, they were popular for Demons adventurers when going in human land, as they weren¡¯t exactly welcomed in the other inns ¨C there was an old feud between them that devolved into war rather often, one actually being under way since two turns ago.


    However, Reig ignored them all and went straight through to a small door near the counter which closed behind as soon as they were through. The room they were now in was pretty small in comparison to the hall, but was much more comfortable. There were two armchairs placed face to face in front of a hearth, and tapestries covered the walls. There was a small table with two glasses on it placed beside the armchairs. The Receptionist sat on one chair and waved her to the second, on which Liliei obediently sat.


    She hesitated for a second if she should ask again, but then saw the woman close her eyes a second, taking a deep breath. When she opened her eyes eyes again, a frown was on her face. She then started speaking animatedly


    ¡°I don¡¯t think you have any idea how lucky you have been young girl. That ring you stole,¡± Liliei was going to deny but a glare silenced her,¡± That ring you stole was an old artifact that was lost in the Dungeon for something like a thousand turns, and whose magic had been eroded by that of the Dungeon. I don¡¯t know what the hell went through your head when you decided to put it on but it was nothing short of the dumbest decision you had ever made.¡±


    Liliei was too stunned to do anything else than trying to shrink into her seat. She had heard that the Receptionists were always composed, but the one in front of her radiated anger and exasperation. And she hadn¡¯t finished speaking yet.


    ¡°And it was quite likely to be the last as well, if it wasn¡¯t for pure dumb luck. I mean do you know what happens when an enchantment as powerful as that is eroded?¡± asked Reig, before continuing without leaving Liliei time to answer ¡°Literally anything, it exploding and taking the whole city with it was more probable than you surviving. And the effect that activated, something akin to an extreme converter from matter to mana should have killed you and a rather large part of the city. But no, because you had an incredibly rare talent that was pretty much useless except for this case and that kept you alive long enough for the World to bolster it with an Ability. And it was still dumb luck since you didn¡¯t even do it consciously.¡±


    By the end of the woman¡¯s tirade, Liliei was feeling a bit nauseous. It couldn¡¯t have been that bad could it? Well, judging by the glare the woman was sending her, it was. At least she seemed to have calmed down a little. And after closing her eyes and taking a large breath, she looked again at Liliei.


    ¡°Sorry for the outburst, but that had to come out.¡± Her voice was now a lot calmer, if still seeping with exasperation.


    ¡°Well, if what you say is true, not that I doubt it is or anything,¡± she had added the second part in precipitation when she saw the glare she got,¡± I did kind of deserve it¡±


    ¡°Still it was unprofessional, but try to imagine knowing that a brat just got in possession of a thing that could very well kill you and your whole city and start playing with it, with you knowing but unable to act. It¡¯s quite the frustrating experience.¡±Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    After a slight pause, she continued talking, with her tone now perfectly composed.


    ¡°Well, I didn¡¯t take you here just to shout on you. The real reason is that we could use your help and you will need our help. You may not feel it right know, but your body isn¡¯t totally stable. It will hold for a long time, but in the end it is going to slowly degrade and in something like ten turns it will collapse.¡±


    Reig had said that in such a casual tone that it took Liliei a few seconds to process them. Then Liliei felt her heart sink. Did that woman just told her she was going to die in ten turns? She wanted to think the Receptionist had lied, but that was just escaping reality. But, there must be something, right? There had to be something she could do, right? She sat straight and looked at the woman in front of her.


    ¡°What do you mean, can¡¯t I do something about it. There must be something I can do to prevent it right? Right?¡±, her voice sounded just a little hysterical, but she didn¡¯t care.


    ¡°Yes there is. Do you know what a Personal Quest is?¡± At the look the girl sent her, Reig continued, ¡°A Quest is usually a request from one person to another, or from the World to a person, a Personal Quest is from a person to the World. They are usually asked by High Leveled Adventurers that get to a bottleneck with their Ability, and ask the World to give them help to go further. The World will then create a Quest that will help them, and once their initial objective is done, they must pay an offering to the World.¡±


    Liliei was listening intently, she didn¡¯t know how it was related to her problem and could barely prevent herself from lashing out at the Receptionist, but she didn¡¯t want to miss an important detail. Meanwhile the woman continued her explanation.


    ¡°However, it is less known but you can ask for quite a lot of thing, such as a method to prevent your death. It has the advantage that, even if the World stand neutral on any conflict, the Rules are just a tiny bit lighter on Personal Quests, allowing us to give you information we couldn¡¯t usually. ¡±


    While the solution proposed to her seemed appealing, Liliei had a doubt.


    ¡°Is there any other way to save myself?¡±


    ¡°Yes, there are also three other ways. First you can try to find a soul mage to help you fix yourself, however there is only one alive at the moment and far less powerful than you¡¯ll need. Second you can try to increase your Ability and Level enough that you¡¯ll be able to fix yourself, but you¡¯ll have to get at least to an Ability Level of 25 to be able to do that. The problem comes from the moment your soul passed from your old body to the new one while creating it. It did it instinctively and made a tiny error, which completely garbled your soul and your core. Undoing that while creating a new body and core and transferring will be pretty much impossible for you.


    Finally you could try to find the information that the World would give you by yourself, but these are quite secret, and it would take a lot of time to get them, Possibly more than you have.¡±


    Liliei thought about it. It was an important decision, but wasn¡¯t the right path already traced? If what she just heard was true, her only chance at survival was to take a Personal Quest, and from what she knew, the Receptionists never lied. Ability Level 25 was a huge joke ¨C the highest she ever heard of was Level 17 and it was a legend ¨C, a soul mage was simply not possible, and looking by herself would take too long since she had no idea where to start from.


    ¡°Then I would like to take a Personal Quest.¡±


    At her words a large smile bloomed on the face of the woman and she got on her feet in barely a second.


    ¡°Alright, first you will need a Guild Card,¡± she said and with a small movement of her hand a blue rectangle appeared between her fingers, and Liliei stood to catch it. She gingerly took it and immediately a large part of her status appeared on the card.


    ¡°Congratulation, you are now a member of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. You can hide anything on your Card at will, but cannot make it say something wrong. If you don¡¯t need it at the moment just think so and it will disappear, only to come back when you need it again. Now onto the serious things. Answer honestly because it may affect what is given to you.


    Sync.¡±


    The moment the last word left her mouth, The Receptionist¡¯s eye became luminous, and small distortions started appearing on her body. When she spoke, her voice was mechanical, empty, making Liliei shiver.


    ¡°Do you want to demand a Personal Quest?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡±


    ¡°What is your objective?¡±


    At that she thought for a few second before talking, using the same terms that had been told her before.


    ¡°Finding a way to prevent my body from collapsing.¡±


    ¡°Are you willing to pay the tribute?¡±


    This question brought her pause, but after a small reflexion she reminded herself she was dealing with the World. No matter what it asked, if would be fair in relation to what she would get.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Analysis¡­Done¡±


    Instantly a flood of information filled her brain. To do that she would need an old artifact that would allow her to repair herself correctly. The artifact was also the tribute ¨C it was stated with a strange wording but it was rather obvious ¨C but it was alright since she would only need it once. Finally and most importantly, the thing was located¡­


    ¡°I give up.¡±


    ¡°What! Why?¡±, Reig, that had the control of her body back was flabbergasted at Liliei¡¯s reaction.


    ¡°There¡¯s no way I can obtain this! It¡¯s in the Elerilen Family¡¯s Vault. They are the closest equivalent to a Royal Family for the Elves. The will never trade something from their treasure, and stealing it is a hundred times over my capability. I¡¯ll make better use of my time than running after an impossible task.¡±, Liliei spat her words as she turned to leave.


    ¡°Wait!¡±


    Liliei, who had been about to storm out of the room, stopped in her tracks. Not because she wanted, but because a strong force opposed her movements. It took only half a second for the Receptionist to notice she had used her power and cancel it, but it was enough.


    ¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t...¡±


    ¡°Bye!¡± Liliei snarled at Reig, not even looking back as she stormed out.


    She didn¡¯t have to go through the hall as the door opened directly on the street. She immediately went for a small alley and left the crowd behind. She wandered the streets for a moment, hesitating on what to do. It was strange, she should feel sad, devastated or even angry, but there was nothing, just a sort of emotional void. She erred in the streets until finally she decided to go back to her house. Once there she just laid down on her bed for a moment before sleep took her.

 Chapter 6

    ¡°So you¡¯re just going to lay down and wait? You won¡¯t even try something?¡±


    Liliei felt a tinge of guilt at the accusing tone of Nalaine, but she squashed it.


    ¡°And what am I supposed to do? It not like I don¡¯t want to, there¡¯s just nothing I can do!¡±


    This morning, the first thing she had seen when waking up had been Nalaine, sitting on the groung beside the bed and looking at her with a stern look. It seemed Reig had told the Demon to check on the young thief, without explaining everything, and Liliei had just finished recounting what had happened. And if yesterday she had only felt an emotional void ¨C probably the realization taking time to sink in ¨C now she was in full despair, unable to get any energy other than short bursts of anger, which quickly dissipated back to hopelessness.


    ¡°As you said the Ability Level and the soul mage are just not possible. But you¡¯re a thief aren¡¯t you? What¡¯s stopping you from trying to get this thing the World told you about?¡±


    ¡°I told you, it impossible! When it crammed all the things I had to know for the quest inside my head, the World told me more or less everything about where that damn thing is. It¡¯s in something like the most secure place on the whole continent, the vault of on of the most important Elven family. There¡¯s just no way a puny thief like me can steal anything from there.¡±


    Even to herself she sounded whiny, but she couldn¡¯t help it. She wasn¡¯t even good enough to steal a simple pouch without being noticed, how could she even dream to steal something from a place that would certainly be one of the most secure there was.


    ¡°Then become more than a ¡®puny thief¡¯! You are still low Leveled, haven¡¯t trained much, and have hardly any Ability Levels, but you have ten turns, it¡¯s all things you can improve. But if you stay there wallowing in your despair, then yes, you¡¯ll never be able to do it.¡±


    Nalaine¡¯s voice was full of reproach as she harangued Liliei, but she couldn¡¯t muster the will to try. The wall there just seemed too high, and the time too short, yes ten turns was long, but to get to the level of skill a stunt like that would take? Forget ten, thirty wouldn¡¯t be enough. She would get it easier when she Leveled, but even that would take too much time to do her much good.


    While she continued to let herself sink in despair, Nalaine was beside her muttering to herself. After a moment she sprung up, shouted something about coming back soon, and left, Liliei barely registering it. At some time she turned herself, laying on her back and started fiddling with a small mana construct, making it take different forms, but quickly giving up when she didn¡¯t get one right. After all, what was the point?


    It must have been night when Nalaine came back. She sighed when she looked at the girl lying on her bed, before taking a deep breath, muttering something, before setting herself in front of Liliei as much as she could.


    ¡°I know what the problem is. Your goal is too high in one step, we¡¯ve got to make it more gradual, so forget everything about getting that thing in ten turns, for now we¡¯ll set the objective as stealing something from one of the big houses on the tenth floor of the city.¡±


    The city was fifteen floor high, and growing richer as you went higher. The tenth floor was where the people who could be called rich started appearing. This was the point where the real anti-theft measures were first being put in place. There were some on the lower floor, but never something too impressive. As such it was a perfectly good first goal if she planned to go higher. However...


    ¡°Forgetting about it, won¡¯t make it go away though.¡±


    Liliei could see the logic in what Nalaine was saying, but it wasn¡¯t as if logic could make her forget that huge wall in front of her that she would hit way too soon. All the logic in the world couldn¡¯t do a thing against the waves of negativity that kept washing over her as soon as she thought back to the impossibility in front of her. Seeing the lack of reaction from Liliei, the Demon in front of her sighed again, deeper than before.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°Well then, I guess that¡¯s that.¡± as she talked, she took a small necklace from her pants¡¯ pocket, getting it closer to her head as she continued. ¡°Guess I¡¯ll have to go about it the hard way.¡±


    The moment the Demon let down the ornament around her neck, light filled the room as the amulet shined in a bright turquoise light. Liliei finally reacted looking at Nalaine with large eyes, but she could do nothing other than watch as the girl started groaning in pain from the enchantment¡¯s effect. A slight smile stayed on her lips until she tensed up with a grunt and was unable to keep it anymore. All the while Liliei was watching distressed at what to do, but a little relieved when Nalaine didn¡¯t start disappearing ¨C it seemed it wasn¡¯t the same thing that had happened to herself. Finally after a few excruciating minutes, Nalaine seemed to relax as the light slowly faded.


    Immediately, Liliei stood and got to Nalaine¡¯s side, grabbing her to not let her fall. Just in time, as she felt the girl¡¯s whole weight push on her.


    ¡°Hell it hurts.¡± The Demon¡¯s voice was faint, and raspy, barely audible in fact.


    ¡°What the hell was that?¡± Liliei was angry at the girl, but couldn¡¯t exactly do anything right now.


    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you in a moment, just ¡­ let me sleep ¡­ for a bit.¡± The end of the sentence was more than half guessed by Liliei as the Demon fainted, her head lolling forward.


    She slowly and carefully laid the older girl on her bed, before going outside the house, all her bad thoughts replaced with concern for the girl. She went straight to the house of the group, before meeting Joln, one of the older boy of the group, a Dwarf with a round face and dark-gray hair, who gave her a happy look when he recognized her.


    ¡°Ley! How¡¯s it going, I heard you were sick.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m better, but I don¡¯t have much time right now, Nalaine went and did something dumb again, so she¡¯ll be sleeping at my house today. Now I¡¯ve got to go back check on her.¡±


    Joln shot her a knowing glance at her declaration ¨C it wasn¡¯t the first time the demon acted impulsively, and it had sometimes not gone too well. She then turned back and ran again to her house, glad that her body didn¡¯t feel physical tiredness, even if by the time she got back to her home, running all along, a bit of mental fatigue was taking hold. She just powered through it, ignoring it as she went up and sat beside the bed, waiting for Nalaine to wake up.


    <hr>


    Nalaine woke up the next day around noon, Liliei immediately letting go of the mana construct in her hands to check up on her. When she saw her, a large smile spread on the Demon¡¯s face.


    ¡°Glad to see you moving again.¡±, her voice was still a little feeble and raspy, but clearly audible now.


    ¡°So, I¡¯m ready, do tell what you¡¯ve done, even if I¡¯ve got a feeling I won¡¯t like it.¡±, There was a certain resignation in the girl¡¯s voice as she spoke, obviously nearly sure of what her friend had done.


    ¡°Well, you seemed unable to get enough motivation to save yourself, so I increased the stakes. It¡¯s a bit funny how your problem is incredibly hard to solve, but so easily replicated. And it worked didn¡¯t it? You¡¯re going to do your best to get this thing, aren¡¯t you?¡± She finished with a chuckle.


    ¡°And you dared call me bullheaded!¡± exclaimed Liliei, falsely outraged. ¡°You¡¯re worse than me!¡±


    Nalaine looked abashed, but Liliei knew she did so just to make her feel better.


    ¡°Well, then I guess there¡¯s no choice huh? We¡¯ll have to do it. Just so you know, it still doesn¡¯t seems any less impossible to me.¡±


    There was still this huge wall right in front of her, seemingly impossible to pass, but now she wasn¡¯t the only one that would be affected if she were to give up, she couldn¡¯t allow herself not to try at least. And the moment she agreed to do something a huge evil grin spread on the Demon¡¯s face as she started speaking at a fast pace.


    ¡°Right, so then we better start as soon as possible. Since you¡¯ve already got your guild card we¡¯ll just have to create a party at the guild before going in the Dungeon. We¡¯ll also need to up your Abilities, so you¡¯ll have to train them as often as you can. Training to get inside a secured house and out without getting caught will have to wait a little until you¡¯ve improved the rest at least a minimum. Finally, since gaining Levels will give you Stats, you¡¯ll also need to work on your base to use them efficiently.


    ¡°So when you¡¯re doing anything that allows you some free thoughts, try to see how you can improve your body, putting more mana in there was the right move, but you should try to see if you can, I don¡¯t know, arrange it somehow? Like, a normal person has muscles, bones, and everything, but from what you said you¡¯re just a uniform block of mana, right? There¡¯s definitely something to do there. And that¡¯s all I could think of for now.¡±


    Nalaine took a deep breath as she finished her tirade, having said the whole thing nearly without breathing. Liliei had taken a step back and looked a bit stunned. After a second, she sat on the edge of the bed before tuning to Nalaine with a serious expression.


    ¡°In fact, your list just gave me the need to lay down for a few turns. So wake me up then ok?¡± As she finished her sentence she laid beside Nalaine, face planted on the bed. A grin just as huge as Nalaine¡¯s was on her face.

 Chapter 7

    The next morning, Liliei woke up early, stretched for a second before remembering it hadn¡¯t any effect, and started dressing. She made new clothes, having let the others dissipate before sleeping, and tried to make them smoother than the last, without much success. She had tried different things to make her construct better but she had to be missing something, since she couldn¡¯t get them to take more difficult properties. She could make them solid or flexible, up to a certain point, give them the shape she wanted, but that was about all she could manage.


    After a moment passed vainly trying to improve, she gave up. Nalaine was supposed to come soon, so she placed herself in the middle of the room and activated her first Ability. She looked at herself while doing so, trying to get a better grasp of how it worked. Her mana first covered her whole body with a very thin layer, before starting to pulse, sending nearly invisible waves in the ambient mana. The movement had a slightly hypnotic quality to it and Liliei spent the rest of the time waiting for Nalaine looking at it.


    When the Demon girl arrived, she didn¡¯t announce herself and just went in, before stopping when she was inside the room. Her gaze first fell on Liliei¡¯s bed that was empty, then started searching the room, passing right over the girl in front of her. She frowned for a second before a slight smile spread on her face and she started looking over the room, more slowly. This time, when her gaze fell on Liliei, she paused.


    ¡°Lei! Nice trick, but it¡¯s detectable if you really pay attention. Do you have any idea how to improve it?¡±


    It was the first time she had activated her first Ability since gaining her increased mana perception and now that she had observed it, she had a hunch on what to do.


    ¡°Okay, look somewhere else, I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll work if you¡¯re already looking at me.¡±


    Once Nalaine had gone in another room, Liliei moved to place herself somewhere else and concentrated on the pulses sent by her Ability. They were sent around two every second, and were very weak. Thus she tried to accelerate a little the rate and strength of the pulses. It wasn¡¯t easy since it was initially done by her Ability, and it took her a few minutes to get it. She had to change it by acting on the small stream of mana that powered her ability, by applying a vibration to it and increasing the size of the flow.


    Nalaine would come in the room at frequent intervals, telling her how it worked. While doing so, Liliei discovered that if she didn¡¯t send enough mana while increasing the vibration, it would tear apart the membrane created around her, and that sending too much mana would make the waves noticeable, or even ineffective. The problem was that the larger the flow she sent, the harder it was to keep it vibrating, and getting it to the point where Nalaine wouldn¡¯t see her at all, even if she moved required so much concentration that she effectively couldn¡¯t move.


    The other thing was that using mana actively required Intent, which meant that to activate it with a high output, she had to free a part of her Intent, so reduce the density ¨C and control ¨C of her body. And even when she deactivated it, she would need a moment to bring her body back to its previous state. The good news of the exercise was that she found her capacity of taking in mana and infusing it with Intent was high enough that she could effectively keep her first Ability active at all time without running out, with the previous defect of weakening her. The best moment, however, was when a message appeared in her mind.


    [Mastery of Ability 1 has been judged sufficient, Level 2 granted]


    [Liliei Sil


    Race: Mana Spirit


    Level: 4


    Abilities:


    -Main Ability 1:


    1) Tendency to be harder to notice. Ability to use mana to reinforce concealment and reduce the chance of being seen.


    2) Reduce the chance of being noticed when moving. Ability to use mana to hide a movement done for a short time.


    -Secondary Ability 1:


    1) Burst of movement tends to be faster and more precise.


    2) Increase smoothness and flow of movements.


    -Main Ability 2:


    1) Increase efficiency at manipulating own mana, and allow faster reconstruction.


    2) Increase ability at external mana manipulation, and allow creation of external constructs.


    -Secondary Ability 2:


    1) Increase perception of mana.


    2) Increase the size of the mana pool.


    Stats:


    Own Mana Manipulation:


    -Speed: 7


    -Precision: 5


    -Intent Potency: 2


    -Perception: 2


    -Mana Pool: 3


    Skills: None]Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    It was surprising that it had taken that much time for her to get her second Level in this Ability, since usually the first Level could be obtained just by repeating the action enough time, but the usefulness of the new Ability Level was great, even if the passive part wasn¡¯t enough to make moving while completely hidden realistic. Her Secondary Ability did make her movements more efficient and more graceful, but it wasn¡¯t that useful, however she guessed it would have it¡¯s importance when she was going to move faster.


    The true sticking point of this new Ability was its active part. It seemed to allow her to hide her movements for a short time when making them. It would probably have a strong synergy with her first Secondary Ability if used correctly. She demonstrated it to Nalaine by taking her in a surprise hug as a revenge for when she had got her first second Ability Level. The Demon girl was unable to react due to the first part of the movement being totally overlooked, giving the impression that Liliei had suddenly teleported on a few centimeters. The lapse of time she could hide was quite short, barely a split second, but it would still give her a nice advantage if she was seen and had to escape.


    Finally, she tried to see see how it was done, but no matter how hard she concentrated on it, she couldn¡¯t grasp the specifics. It seemed to send a small wave, like her first Ability, but in one burst, and with something different that she couldn¡¯t understand.


    In the end, they had spent a large part of the morning working on her Abilities and it was nearly noon when they finally set off to the Guild.


    They slowly walked to the transport pads in the center of the city ¨C they had already used quite a lot of time and decided that the faster way was better.


    ¡°It never interested me that much before, so what do we have to do to go Dungeon diving?¡±


    There were loads of stories about high Leveled Adventurers that became rich by going in the Dungeons, but the fact was that if you were not very determined, it was just not worth it. Going to the first few floors would allow you to gain some Levels, but no money as the costs would get around as high as the gains. It would only be around the fifth floor that the you could obtain interesting things, and by then the monsters would get quite dangerous already. As such she had never considered Dungeon diving too much.


    ¡°It¡¯s quite easy, you just have to be registered at the Guild. Then the rest is all about preparation, but since we¡¯ll only go to the first floor, we don¡¯t need much. What we¡¯re doing now is just going to the Guild to get acknowledged as a Party. It will make it so that we can both get a part of the Experience when we kill a monster. Oh and since it¡¯s your first time in a dungeon, I¡¯ve got to make you ¡®The Speech¡¯.¡± Nalaine had said the last sentence like an afterthought, and took a large breath before speaking in a teaching voice.


    ¡°Today is the first day you go into a Dungeon, as such we will not go deeper than the first floor. However there is a set of rules that you must never ever forget, even on the first floor. First, you do not separate from your Party. Going alone is the best way to die an unmemorable death in the darkest corners of the floor, and the first objective after getting separated is to regroup. Second, you stay attentive at anytime. Danger is everywhere and anywhere and inattention is the second highest cause of mortality, the first being stupid recklessness. If you are an Adventurer, the first is a given so at least do not fall to the second. Third, trust your Party and make sure your Party can trust you. There is enough danger everywhere not to add anymore. Fourth, and final, communicate with your Party. If you get a bad feeling do tell. If something is amiss, same. If you are not okay with a decision, say it.


    And listen to the guide. I¡¯ve been at it more than you, so on the first three floors, I am right.¡±


    Liliei had listened to the whole speech with a serious expression, but the last rule brought her a smile to her face.


    ¡°That¡¯s your standardized speech for every party you take into the Dungeon?¡± asked Liliei, before continuing when Nalaine nodded. ¡°Well, it¡¯s quite nice, but I¡¯ve got a hunch that your final ¡®and¡¯ is often forgotten isn¡¯t it?¡±


    When she answered, Nalaine¡¯s voice was filled with resignation.


    ¡°You have no idea. And it¡¯s always my fault then when they complain the nearly got wiped out after jumping right in the middle of a trap that I had called out. Still, I manage, usually.¡±


    The two girls stopped walking in front of the transport pads. The things were twenty huge circles, placed around the column that went up the center of the city. Each circle was identical, a large magic formation that was created out of Temenium, a very resistant golden metal that could hold a large amount and store it very fast, but couldn¡¯t store it long as it would quickly start dispersing in the air. It was one of the only magical implement that still worked on the floor, due to it not being tied to the rest of the enchantments, and the metal being solid enough not to break during the Mana Wave.


    They walked in the center of one of the circle, and it soon started glowing ¨C the sign the metal was charged with mana. Nalaine then went and pressed with her foot on one of the symbol on the outer ridge of the circle starting the transport. The world around the two girls seemed to distort, before snapping back, but on a different place. They were now on the first floor, just between two of the circles. They immediately left the place to allow the next people to transport there, and went to the Guild Hall.


    The building was really close to the center, only one street from where they appeared, and they got there quickly. The inside was the same a before, except the larger amount of Adventurers at the tables, and Reig being behind the counter.


    Liliei immediately went in front of the human-like Receptionist, who gave her a relieved look.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry Reig, about two days ago, I overreacted.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry too, I shouldn¡¯t have been this blunt about it, nor should I have used my abilities on you. Still I¡¯m glad to see that you seem decided to do your best.¡±


    Liliei could see that the girl seemed genuinely happy. Which surprised her ¨C she hadn¡¯t had that much interactions with Reig ¨C but still made her smile.


    ¡°So, what can I do for you?¡±


    The professional tone brought out another smile on Liliei¡¯s face as she explained she wanted to create a Party with Nalaine. The process was extremely simple, the Receptionist simply checked with the Demon if she agreed, and asked both Guild Card, taking them for a second before giving them back, a new line written at the bottom specifying that they were in a Party with each other. Finally, she wished them good luck for their dive as they left the counter.


    The two went back to the pads, Liliei asking a few other questions about the Party. It had a few other effects, but they wouldn¡¯t impact them much as they were mainly about preventing them from getting separated when going against Bosses ¨C none appearing until the fifth floor ¨C and what the generated items would be after beating it.


    Finally after a little wait, the two got on one of the circle, and this time Nalain touched another of the symbols. When the world snapped back this time, they were in the middle of a large cave which was illuminated despite no source being visible for the light Twenty-one circles were on the ground, the pads and a large circle laying in the middle. It was five times a large as the others, and made of a completely different material ¨C a red metal that Liliei had never seen.


    ¡°This is the main teleportation array of the Dungeon.¡± Said Nalaine as she indicated the red circle. ¡°There¡¯s a similar one on every floor and you can use them to navigate to floors you have already gone to. They¡¯re one of the things that make deep diving possible. The monsters should never come close to them, so they¡¯re as safe as can be in the Dungeon. Where we go however is there.¡±


    Nalaine was this time pointing to a large fissure in the wall of the cavern, a blue membrane covering the entrance. As they started walking toward the entrance, a group appeared in the large circle, half of the adventurers laying down and the other half panting heavily, and by the time they got to the fissure, two other groups had appeared, both in better shape than the first one.


    Finally, they were in front of the entrance, and Liliei felt some excitement and anticipation, with a twinge of anxiety bubble up in her. The two girl sent each other a glance and, without a word, both went through the membrane, getting into the Dungeon.

 Chapter 8

    Liliei had already heard Nalaine talking about it, but seeing it by oneself clearly wasn¡¯t the same. They were standing on top of a rather large hill in the middle of a huge meadow that extended in every direction, tall grass covering everything until the horizon. There were some trees and even small forests sprouting in some places. And the bright blue sky with the suns hanging in the air¡­ Wait, why was there two suns in the sky? Probably just Dungeon things. Still it was strange to go from a cave to a meadow like this with just one step.


    ¡°Whoa, it¡¯s quite nice there isn¡¯t it.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it? But we¡¯re not here for the view, so let¡¯s go.¡±


    Nalaine had stayed just behind her as Liliei had done into the dungeon to let her appreciate the sight but now the Demon passed beside her walking down the slope in direction of a small patch of trees not too far in the distance. Liliei looked around again, noticing that there were no entrance behind her, but a small circle of red metal below. She then started following her friend, quickly catching up.


    ¡°So what are the dangers in here. It doesn¡¯t seem that dangerous in all honesty.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not wrong, it¡¯s the first floor, so the monsters are quite easily killed and there are no traps worth mentioning, but still it¡¯s good to stay careful, just a question of habit. Just for the record, I¡¯ve hear that the tenth floor looks exactly like this one, with nearly identical monsters, but that once you start to fight you realize that the small slime you thought inoffensive is just wrecking you whole team. And that¡¯s if you went through the traps.¡±


    ¡°Okay, so never trust the Dungeon, right?¡±


    ¡°Pretty much that, yes. But for now we¡¯ll stay on the first floor, so there isn¡¯t much risks.¡±


    The two continued in silence, Liliei following Nalaine and thinking about how one could lay traps in a place like this. The walk was quite nice, a small breeze keeping the heat from the suns in check while they walked. There was no path and they just waded through the grass that went up to their waist. The patch of trees had seemed rather close to them from the hill, but they still had to walk for about ten minutes before getting in front of it. The explication for the discrepancy was simple: the trees were huge.


    ¡°Are trees supposed to be this large? I thought they were supposed to be something like ten meters tall, not sixty? Seventy?¡±


    ¡°Nope, it¡¯s a peculiarity of this place, and there¡¯s only one place on the floor where they¡¯re this big. It¡¯s kind of a landmark for this floor, and the place where we¡¯re going is in the middle of this grove. Only two minutes more to there.¡±


    As the two resumed walking into the trees Liliei continued asking questions.


    ¡°Right, I wanted to ask, how big is this floor? From the hill where we appeared I couldn¡¯t see the end, and how do you do not to get lost, I mean, if there¡¯s just one place to go to the next floor and you went in a bad direction, you could just wander in there for quite a long time, couldn¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Honestly, no one knows how big is this floor. There are a few Parties that tried to see ho far they could go and walked straight for days without ever getting back to where they started. It even seems that if you go long enough, you can find some stronger monsters. What I think is that this place is as big as it need, so as long as you go to explore, you¡¯ll always find something further.


    For your second question the answer is that no matter where you are on this floor, you can attain the exit in maximum thirty minutes.¡± As Liliei shot her a confused glance, she explained ¡°What I mean is that no matter the place, if you decide you want to go to the exit and start walking, you¡¯ll get there if you walk for thirty minutes.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s convenient.¡±


    Right, she reminded herself, this was constructed by the World so she shouldn¡¯t be surprised that there was such a simple answer to the first floor. It was supposed to be easy.


    ¡°So where are we going?¡±


    ¡°The one place we¡¯ll be able to get you some Levels without too much difficulty.¡± Announced Nalaine as she stopped, turning to Liliei while a large ruin appeared between the trees in front of them. ¡°It¡¯s the one place on this floor that is easily accessible and that has a large amount of monsters. Every open floor in a Dungeon has a few places like this and most of those places are extremely dangerous, but can yield great rewards.¡±


    She turned back in direction of the ruins and continued walking.


    ¡°But since we¡¯re on the first floor, neither the danger nor the rewards are that large, still it¡¯s a good place to train.¡±


    Liliei followed behind looking at the ruins. They looked like the remnants of a large building, maybe a temple or a crypt. Moss covered everything except for the central part where a large circular area remained untouched, leaving the white stone exposed. In the middle was a large stairway that went down into the darkness. The setup was intimidating, probably intentionally, now that Liliei thought about it.


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Nalaine didn¡¯t stop, going straight to the stairs and, as Liliei was about to ask how they were going to see down there, the Demon clapped her hands, a small ball of light appearing just behind and above her head. After turning to flash her a smile, Nalaine continued straight down. Shaking her head, Liliei followed just behind.


    ¡°So what¡¯s living in there to make it a dangerous area?¡±


    ¡°Slimes. Loads of slimes. But they are the weak sort that need a core to support themselves, so even without using any spells, you can kill them by destroying the core. If anything happens, I am pretty much their worst enemy, so you really don¡¯t risk much, but stay attentive, we never know.¡±


    Slimes were easily some of the easiest and some of the hardest monsters to kill there were. The ¡®weak sort¡¯ needed a core to keep them whole, making it rather easy to kill them since you just had to break the core or push it outside their body. Except that even then, if the slime became big enough or if its liquid had special properties, it could become tricky to do. Then there was the ¡®strong sort¡¯ that could hold themselves without core.


    Those were a true danger, since more often than not their bodies would have some effects ¨C being acidic, poisonous, or paralyzing for example ¨C and they were completely immune to any type of physical attack on them. Plus they sometimes were able to divide themselves, meaning that you had to care about a group of perfectly synchronized enemies, that could regenerate even if only one was left. The only way to destroy them was by shooting spells at them, since they still had the innate weakness of slime to magical attacks.


    The two slowly descended the stairs until they got to a large room that was barely illuminated by Nalaine¡¯s light. They could see three opening in the wall farther from them, and Nalaine went to the left one. The corridor was simple, no decorations anywhere, just bare stones, extending in the dark. Finaly after a few minutes walking, Nalaine turned and talked softly, keeping her voice down.


    ¡°Okay, we¡¯re where I want. A bit further down there¡¯s another room that will have some lights, and the first slimes. There usually are only two or three, so what we¡¯ll do is that you¡¯ll go first, staying in stealth, and try to kill them. I¡¯ll be just a bit behind in case there¡¯s a problem.¡±


    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll do my best.¡±


    Liliei turned and activated her first Ability, tuning it to be strong enough that she could move without being noticeable too easily. Then she slowly walked to the room. It took her quite long considering that if she moved fast her concealment would be useless, and that same concealment demanded her that she sacrifice a part of her body density, which made moving more difficult. Still, she eventually got to the room. This time, there was more to see than bare walls. In the middle of the room was a large purple globe that shone softly. There were four entrance in the room, one on each wall. Each of them was framed by a sculpture of a large monster looking down at those that went through, giving off an imposing feeling.


    The light also revealed three slimes moving slowly on the ground, blobs of purple liquid with a crystal floating in the middle. They were quite small, about thirty centimeters in diameter and twenty in height. Two of them were near one of the corner and the last was on the opposite side, so she went for the two. It took her a moment again to get to them, but the monsters fortunately moved quite slowly and Liliei soon was near them.


    She was then faced with a problem: how to kill them. She would need to hit their core with enough force to push it out of them or smash it to pieces. Thus she would need a weapon, the problem being she hadn¡¯t taken one with her. He solution came soon enough and she started creating a large mana construct in the shape of a mace, reducing her first Ability to keep her undetected without taking as much mana since she wasn¡¯t moving. Creating the mace took her two minutes, but then she finally was ready. The slimes had moved a bit but were both still in range, so she prepared her strike, and using her second Level of the Ability to hide her movement, she hit the monster with all her strength.


    The mace went down at a fast speed, helped by her Secondary Ability, and when her stealth broke the strike was already about to hit the first slime. It didn¡¯t get any time to react, the blow exploding it and expelling the crystal across the room. The second had a little more time but was still way too slow and, if the force had been dampened by the first one, the second was still hit hard enough to get the crystal out, where it quickly dissipated in the air. The third slime started sliding in her direction before getting a frozen spike right on the crystal, shattering it.


    ¡°Good job, but hell that was slow. We¡¯ll clearly need to work on that.¡±


    Nalaine was standing in the entrance, her hand still pointed to the last slime. A slight look of annoyance on her face ¨C which was completely understandable as it took nearly ten minutes to do what could have been done in one. She went into the room, coming closer to Liliei who was letting the mace dissipate as she turned to the Demon.¡±


    ¡°Well, I can¡¯t argue about that, I¡¯ll clearly need to work on my mana pool, since it would help me for everything else. I¡¯ll also need to get faster at creating constructs, taking that long for a miserable mace was quite terrible.¡±


    She wasn¡¯t satisfied at all with her performance, it was too slow, too sloppy. She needed to be able to walk normally while hidden, and create constructs at a speed that was usable in a fight, or at least shortly before. At least the constructs didn¡¯t put any strain on her Intent once created since she could sort of tie the end to prevent it from deconstructing. She just kept a sliver of control one the ¡®knot¡¯ to be able to dismiss them easily.


    ¡°Now I want to show you something. Come.¡±


    With a devious smile, Nalaine went into the path in front of where they had come from, her small light still floating behind her. Liliei followed her carefully ¨C she had the expression of when she was going to laugh at someone else¡¯s expense. They walked only thirty meters before the Demon stopped her.


    ¡°Now, you know what I told you about the Dungeon. That you have to always stay attentive and that it was really dangerous. I¡¯m guessing you thought that it wasn¡¯t that important here on the first floor, right?¡±


    Liliei didn¡¯t outright say it, but she had thought it wasn¡¯t really applicable here since the first floor wasn¡¯t really dangerous. Nalaine probably saw it in her expression because she continued talking.


    ¡°Here¡¯s something that I show to every group that I take through the first floors, sometimes by making them go into it for the most arrogant of them.¡±


    As she spoke, she slowly created a ball of fire in her hand, before shooting it further into the corridor. The ball flew for five meters before suddenly the ground exploded underneath it, a huge mass of slime shooting from the floor, extinguishing the fire before falling back into a large pit. Liliei felt herself shudder at the sight. If someone was caught by that¡­


    ¡°And you let people go into that?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s impressive but it¡¯s quite low leveled so it doesn¡¯t do much damages at all, and I¡¯m just behind to prevent it from doing any real harm. But if you¡¯re caught by that alone, it could still mean death. As such it¡¯s a pretty good way to impress on the new Adventurers that the Dungeons are dangerous, and should not be treated lightly. Plus it¡¯s very cathartic when they are a bunch of stuck up asses that think they know better.¡±


    The evil grin on the Demon¡¯s face didn¡¯t escape Liliei, who felt a slight shiver. Then she turned to Liliei, her face back to a gentle smile, but still with a bit of evilness in her gaze.


    ¡°Now, let¡¯s work on improving your capacities, shall we?¡±


    The shiver this time was accompanied by the urge to run.

 Chapter 9

    When Liliei woke up, she felt something was amiss. Her bed was too hard and felt strange. Then she opened her eyes and saw the grass. Right, she wasn¡¯t in her room. She had been taking a nap literally in the middle of a Dungeon, which wasn¡¯t admittedly the best idea ever, but she hadn¡¯t had a choice.


    Nalaine had kept pushing her around, making her fight slimes again and again, trying to make her improve her ability to move while in stealth, crate constructs faster and tune her first Ability without it taking her whole concentration. The small feeling of mental tiredness that she had noticed had grown into exhaustion until suddenly her body simply refused to move anymore, a large part of her controlled mana also came back to her soul, leaving her body quite fragile.


    Nalaine had immediately brought her back outside the ruins. Carrying her while blasting any slime appearing with small fireballs. Once she was laying in a safe place, Liliei had immediately drifted to sleep, unable to stay awake any longer. Now that she had woken up, she looked around, seeing Nalaine sitting beside her in the middle of the tall grass. The Demon wasn¡¯t looking at her, but when she moved to sit, Nalaine immediately turned.


    ¡°Slept well?¡± Nalaine seemed relaxed, but she had a small look of concern in her eyes.


    ¡°Yeah, thanks. But the bed is a little hard, they could have made it more comfortable.¡±


    The Demon relaxed a little seeing her joking around, before taking a serious look.


    ¡°So why did you just suddenly quit on me like that? One moment you were running around and the next you just fell down on the ground in a heap.¡±


    ¡°Overexertion I think, it seems moving this untiring body around is quite taxing on my mind in the long run, so it shut down when I got too tired.¡±


    Nalaine shot her a pensive glance, before frowning slightly.


    ¡°Then¡­¡± a large smile appeared on her face and Liliei prepared for the worse, ¡°we¡¯ll have to train that as well, we can¡¯t have you falling down like that in a bad moment. Still you¡¯ve got a gain from today¡¯s fights right?¡±


    With a small sigh at the added workload, Liliei opened her status, smiling slightly at the increase in her Stats.


    [Liliei Sil


    Race: Mana Spirit


    Level: 6


    Abilities:


    -Main Ability 1:


    1) Tendency to be harder to notice. Ability to use mana to reinforce concealment and reduce the chance of being seen.


    2) Reduce the chance of being noticed when moving. Ability to use mana to hide a movement done for a short time.


    -Secondary Ability 1:


    1) Burst of movement tends to be faster and more precise.


    2) Increase smoothness and flow of movements.


    -Main Ability 2:


    1) Increase efficiency at manipulating own mana, and allow faster reconstruction.


    2) Increase ability at external mana manipulation, and allow creation of external constructs.


    -Secondary Ability 2:


    1) Increase perception of mana.


    2) Increase the size of the mana pool.


    Stats:


    Own Mana Manipulation:


    -Speed: 12


    -Precision: 8


    -Intent Potency: 4


    -Perception: 3


    -Mana Pool: 5


    -Mental Strength: 2


    Skills: None]


    She had gained two Levels which was great. The main incentive for Leveling were the Stats. They were sort of a reward given by the World that would improve a certain characteristic of the one to receive them. Their usefulness was however proportional to the base on which they were applied. As such it was important to continue to train even if you got a lot of them.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    The other thing Level gave was a very small all around increase. It was pretty much unnoticeable on one or two Levels, but the higher Leveled Adventurers made it clear enough since even those without strength Stats would be stronger than they should.


    What Stats one would gain tended to be linked with what Abilities one got, and obtaining one¡¯s second Ability or more Ability Level would sometimes make more Stats appear when Leveling. This made it so that those who only worked on their Levels without improving their Abilities would be at a disadvantage later on, and that Liliei who already got her second Ability had a small advantage.


    ¡°Yes, I got two Levels and quite a few Stats, which will be useful.¡±


    She slowly got up as she spoke, feeling her body lighter than before, and more responsive. She happily noticed her maximum density had also increased a little, which meant she would also be a bit stronger and more solid. It was also a proof of the hard work she had done that she hadn¡¯t got the Levels sooner, as the World wouldn¡¯t give you a Level while you were busy, since the body wouldn¡¯t be used to the new specifics and it could cause problems. It was however possible to force the Level up to occur if one wished so and thought the benefits would outweigh the problems.


    ¡°So what time is it?¡±, asked Liliei.


    She usually was able to tell the time, but her little nap had pretty much scrambled her internal clock, and there wasn¡¯t a real sun to readjust.


    ¡°It should be around 12 o¡¯clock pm, so I think we should go back and continue tomorrow.¡±


    Nalaine stood up as well, before stretching a bit. Then the two started walking through the grass in the direction of the exit ¨C they had effectively picked a random direction and started walking. After only ten minutes wandering, they suddenly stumbled on a huge stone platform with a large circle of red metal engraved inside. They walked on it and found themselves in the cavern that served as an entrance to the Dungeon. From there it only took a few more minutes until they were back to the home where Nalaine lived with the group.


    This time, Liliei stayed, there talking with them for a moment, explaining everyone what had happened. She then had to comfort Kshirn for a few minutes moment before the Beastkin consented to let go of her. Before going back to her house, she talked with Evlem the oldest of the group at twelve turns old. He was an Elf and was also the second best in magic of the community and its de facto leader ¨C as much as one could be, it mainly meant that the other listened to him. He was also the one that managed everything that had to do with the earnings of the small group, and thus knew the shops on the first floor of the city a lot better than her. As such, she asked him to look if he could find some books about the workings of the body.


    Finally it was nearly midnight when she got back to her house. She wasn¡¯t tired at all however, having already slept in the Dungeon. As such she decided to try to improve her Abilities as much as she could. The thing with Abilities was the difficulty to get them to Level. The first one was always rather easy, but then the difficulty increased explosively. The reason was twofold. Firstly each new Level¡¯s Ability became harder to master due to sheer increase in complexity. This was good in a way because it was a direct consequence of the increase in power of the Ability across the Levels. The second part was that to get the third Level to unlock, you would not only need to increase your mastery of the second Level, but also the first.


    It meant that the higher you went, the more you had to push each Level before a new one would be given by the World. And since the synergies were also accounted for in the requirements, the more you had the more complicated it became to properly get it to increase. As such, most people wouldn¡¯t get much higher than the fifth Level, and only the most dedicated, or talented, could get higher.


    The fifth Level was also special in that that it usually gave access to the second Ability, allowing one to still increase their capacities without having to fulfill absurd requirements. It was also said that if one could get his two Abilities to the tenth Level, a third one would be granted, but this was so absurd that no one even took it seriously.


    The highest Ability Level obtained was rumored to be seventeen, obtained by the oldest Voildren ¨C a mysterious and powerful Race that had an infinite lifespan ¨C Which meant that even if this was the truth, it should have taken him longer than what Liliei could even imagine.


    Well, anyway, for now she had to improve her Abilities. Her first was hard without someone to tell her how it was affected by the changes she made, and she really didn¡¯t want to go back to smashing part of herself for the first Level of the second. As such she was back to building mana constructs. It wasn¡¯t easy to do and required quite a lot of concentration from her part. She first had to liberate a part of her Intent, reducing her body. Then she infused mana with it and began working.


    She started with something simple, a solid cube. But even that was unnecessarily complicated. She first began by taking a small amount of mana and pulled it making it take physical form in front of her. There was now a small blob of mana floating just there and she started working on it. She first pulled on it, stretching it until the blob deconstructed into thin strands that she had to weave into the shape she wanted. As she constructed the shape, she also had to fuse the strands together to make the form solid.


    Then when she got to the point where she had nearly exhausted the mana put into the shape, she started inputting more mana, letting go of the control over the part she had already fused back. Fortunately, she didn¡¯t have to control each strand individually and could control them as a group, else the amount of concentration and precision it would take would be completely out of her league. It took her about one minute to finish the cube as she had been careful to do it as well as she could.


    Finally she manipulated every part to fuse at the endpoint after sort of tying them together, before pushing on the fused extremity, making it lose its physical form, and keeping a thin part of her Intent on the place everything had fused, so that she could break it easily just by dissociating this point.


    She then looked at the pale blue cube floating falling in her outstretched hand. As soon as every physical part was free of her intent, the shape would act like a normal item, losing response to her will. She looked at the small cube, pressing on it, and hitting it against the ground. It was fairly solid, and only broke when she hit the floor with a good part of her strength. It was surprising however that it wouldn¡¯t dissipate as long as she kept the fusion point tied.


    She needed to improve these constructs, but hadn¡¯t many idea. She first tried to make the strands thinner before creating the shape. The result was a more solid cube, but also quite smaller and took more Intent to keep it solid. She also wanted to test a few things on cloth-like materials. She knew that to make something like cloth she needed to only half fuse the strands together, then the resulting material would be more easily bent, without loosing too much of its resistance.


    She tried making a cloth-like sheet but with very small threads. The result was a thin square piece of a material that seemed like cloth but that took a lot of effort to cut. However, it was also not flexible enough to be used as clothing. What was more, it took her a lot of Intent to keep it from dissipating, and she just let it fall apart.


    There was one last thing that she wanted to try: make her constructs lasting and independent. As it was now, she could hold them as long as she wanted, but if she let one get too far from her, it would need more and more Intent to keep it from breaking. What she wanted was to find a way to cut them from her without them immediately dissolving.


    She created a simple cube, and tried fusing the end point to the rest, but the moment she touched the resulting item, it broke. It was the same problem she had first faced: if the end point was in physical form, a simple touch on it was enough to make the construct disappear. She then tried to push a random part of the construct before fusing, but then the construct didn¡¯t even need a touch to start dissipating.


    There was one last thing she could try. She constructed the shape, but this time she pushed the starting point of the shape before beginning the molding. Then, when she got to the end, she fused the two extremities together before cutting off her Intent. She was satisfied seeing the cube stay in one piece ¡­ until she tried to move it and it broke apart again, the fusion point not following the rest and placing a strain enough to break it.


    She was close, but she didn¡¯t know how to solve that last problem. After all, making it take physical form would just make the cube brittle, and letting it in its normal state made it impossible to move. The usual constructs didn¡¯t have this problem as they were anchored to her and her Intent. She would need to anchor it while not making it physical.


    Suddenly an idea popped in her mind, she made a cube again, but this time when she finished fusing the extremities, she half pulled it letting it in a sort of intermediate state. The difficulty to do so however was quite astonishing, as it always tried to get to one or the other state. Finally, it took her nearly half an hour before she let go of the thing and it fell to the ground, staying there undamaged.


    ¡°Gotcha!¡± exclaimed Liliei before starting to wobble as a wave of exhaustion fell on her.


    She could only barely get to her bed, half laying half falling on it, before sleep took her. The small cube stood on the ground in pristine shape, proof of her efforts.

 Chapter 10

    ¡°Wake up!¡±, Liliei heard a faint voice, but she was so tired.


    ¡°Hnnn, le¡¯ ¡®e slee¡¯.¡±


    She was pretty sure what she had said ¨C mumbled, really ¨C was completely unintelligible, but she considered the message passed and turned in her bed, trying to go back to sleep. She was just about to succeed when a large amount of cold water splashed onto her, waking her up properly and driving any remnant of sleep away.


    She sat and turned to face the one disturbing her sleep, only to find Nalaine a huge smile on her face, one hand extended in front of her, pointing just above Liliei¡¯s head. She slowly looked above her, a large ball of water floating there.


    ¡°An objection?¡± The Demon asked, the grin on her face only growing bigger.


    ¡°You¡­¡±, started Liliei before shaking her head. ¡°Anyway, I could have used another hour of sleep, but¡­ oh well, whatever. So what are we doing today?¡±


    ¡°What a question, more training obviously! We¡¯ll go to the second floor of the Dungeon. The things there are a bit more dangerous than slimes, but it¡¯s still completely manageable. I see you¡¯ve trained your constructs,¡± she pointed to the small cube still on the floor where it had fallen, ¡°but did you manage to do anything interesting?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡±she announced proudly, pointing at the cube, ¡°this cube is completely independent, it doesn¡¯t take me anything to keep it there and it won¡¯t dissipate after getting too far from me. But it¡¯s just too tiring to make. I mean, this cube is the simplest thing I can make and I was barely able to make it stay. And I was too tired to try something else after that.¡±


    ¡°Well that¡¯s still great, if you can make complicated construct to stay like this, it could allow you to keep them without them constantly draining you. Your goal is to improve as fast as possible, so anything is useful. I¡¯ve also thought about one way to gain a quick boost in power. It¡¯s a bit risky but if we could get to the fifth floor and beat a Boss, we would be able to obtain some items that could help.¡±


    This sent Liliei into thinking. Bosses were reputed being hard to kill, but often being worth the pain, as the World would create an item designed for you specifically. From what she knew, Nalaine was Level 15 with her Ability Level 3 that was oriented mainly on offensive magic ability. She had already once went to the fifth floor, but stayed usually on the first three, which explained why she was only Level 15 despite often going to the Dungeon: the returns decreased quite fast past a certain point. If Liliei was able to get her Level higher and train her Ability, beating a Boss may be possible, but¡­


    ¡°Not for now at least, I¡¯ll need to get quite a bit better at it before trying something this dangerous. However, it¡¯s not a bad idea, once we¡¯re able to do it.¡±


    ¡°Right? But for now, we¡¯re going to the second floor.¡±, declared the Demon, turning to the exit.


    The walk to the transport pads was fast and they were soon in the cave, where there now were quite a lot of Adventurers. Most were in group of three or four, but there were the odd ones that went alone and even one group of twelve. The huge majority were clearly still beginners, with their simple equipments that were clearly just normal clothes or simple armor. There was however one group of three that seemed more interesting.


    One of them wore a full-plate armor made of red and black metal. He had a long sword strapped to his back and another at his waist.


    The second was clearly a mage as he wore only very light armor and held a long metallic staff in his hand. It was made of gray metal with a tint of green, and had a small blue crystal at the top.


    The last person of the group was also quite lightly armored but wore a strange cloak that seemed to take the appearance of what was behind, and had a hood that was currently down. She also wore a bow that appeared to be as simple as could be.


    The group went to the large circle and disappeared a few second later. When Liliei turned to Nalaine, she was already starting talking.


    ¡°They¡¯re one of the high Leveled group living here. I think they¡¯re going to the fifteenth floor and up, but last I heard they had problems getting past a Boss. Well, then let¡¯s go.¡±


    They immediately went to the circle which brought them to the second floor. The moment they appeared, Liliei stayed speechless. They were in the middle of what could only be described as a tundra. Snow was covering everything except for the ice chunk on which they had appeared and everything that wasn¡¯t snow seemed to be ice. They were in the middle of a valley between huge mountains made of ice that seemed to climb forever as their peaks were hidden in the clouds. The sky was dark-blue making it clear it was supposed to be night, but two huge moons were shining with a pale blue light giving the scene a ghastly feeling. Right between the two moons was a third, a lot smaller and with a more purple tint than the others.


    In front of the two girls was a large swaying path that went between the mountains before disappearing from view after a turn.


    Nalaine looked from the side, letting Liliei slowly take in the sight while she created a small cover of hot air around herself. Then she waited for the girl to get out of her astonishment and turn to her.


    ¡°Whoa, are all floors like this? I mean the incredible landscapes and all, not the frozen world.¡±


    Nalaine chuckled at Liliei¡¯s reaction, before answering.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    ¡°Not all, but most of them are quite impressive, from what I¡¯ve heard. It seems that in the very high floors there are some landscapes that are quite interesting. But for now you may want me to place a heating charm on you, if you don¡¯t want to freeze.¡±


    This time it was the thief¡¯s turn to smile, ¡°No need, I don¡¯t feel cold.¡±, and to laugh at the Demon¡¯s astounded expression.


    After a second, however, a worried look passed on her face.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it a problem if you don¡¯t feel the temperature around you?¡±


    ¡°Nope, I feel everything, it just doesn¡¯t affect me at all, I could probably jump in the snow and roll around without being cold at all. In fact the cold is pretty comfortable.¡±


    Now Nalaine¡¯s expression was nearly offended, and a bit envious.


    ¡°That¡¯s cheating! I mean half the difficulty on the early Levels is getting used to the environment conditions and you just skipped straight past it.¡±


    ¡°Keep your cool Nalaine.¡±, said the girl in a calming voice with a large grin.


    The Demon now had a clearly offended expression as she started ¡°You...¡± before shaking her head and turning back to the tundra. She however hadn¡¯t been able to suppress the smile on her face, removing a large part of the credibility in her being really upset.


    ¡°On this floor, the exit is still very easy to find,¡± she announced while turning and pointing behind Liliei, who followed the movement, only to find a pillar of light going into the sky, ¡°you just have to follow that light and you¡¯ll get there. In the later floors, the exit become harder to find, but there is always a circle where you appear in case you want to leave. It won¡¯t make it possible to go to the next floor however.¡±


    Liliei checked and there was a circle of red metal inside the ice chunk they were on. She then turned to Nalaine again.


    ¡°What happens if you try to go with someone that went to a higher floor than you?¡±


    ¡°The circle won¡¯t activate as long as everyone on it hasn¡¯t access to the floor you try to go. But usually if you know how it isn¡¯t too long or difficult to go through the floor you already passed. Anyway, for now we aren¡¯t going for the exit. There¡¯s a great place in this direction for us.¡±


    She pointed in the exact opposite of the light as she talked, and then began to walk, jumping into the snow. She went right through up until her waist, her heat charm melting the snow and warming the resulting water so she didn¡¯t freeze, but still got quite wet. She then started walking, rising slowly to the surface of the snow, at which point Liliei saw that she had created small air cushions under her feet that prevented her from sinking in the snow.


    The thief then quickly made two round constructs that she strapped to her feet before following Nalaine. The Demon had taken some advance but Liliei quickly caught up. She was a lot lighter and didn¡¯t tire, which made walking in the snow quite easier for her. They were going down the slope and after a moment, they got to a large ice path that wasn¡¯t covered in snow. From there, they followed it, their pace increasing quite a lot.


    After walking for around twenty minutes, they got to what appeared to be a large frozen lake. There Nalaine stopped, looking around for a moment before, apparently satisfied, she turned to Liliei.


    ¡°Okay, we¡¯ll do it like this. I¡¯ll make the monsters come and you sneak behind them to kill them okay? You should construct a cutting weapon before we start.¡±


    Liliei did as she was told, making a sword-like construct. It wasn¡¯t the most sharp sword around, nor the most solid, but it would do. She then activated her Ability, becoming hard to notice. She didn¡¯t stop looking around, trying to see monsters but couldn¡¯t see anything. Then Nalaine started.


    A fireball flew straight in the snow on the opposite shore of the frozen lake, and suddenly the monsters were there. Two strange things that looked like balls of white fur seemed to appear of nowhere as the ran out from the snow. A third monster was also present, a chunk of ice that suddenly unfolded to a sort of humanoid figure.


    Liliei waited for the one of the furball to pass by before suddenly moving, stabbing her sword into the monster. Immediately the attention of the two remaining monsters turned to her. The furball was closest to her so she turned to it. It was already close to her and she tried to hit it with the sword but it just jumped aside before jumping to her face. It was about to get to her when a fireball caught it mid flight, quickly burning it into ashes. The last one was the ice golem, but it was quite slow and she easily killed it just by hitting repeatedly.


    She was about to turn to Nalaine when another fireball shot into the snow. She immediately activated her Ability and turned to the monsters that were appearing, heaving a small sigh ¨C she knew she was gone for a few hours of nonstop training.


    They stayed there killing monsters for nearly five hour, only taking a few brief pauses. Then Nalaine declared a longer pause to for her to eat something ¨C it was around noon and they had been fighting for nearly the whole time. Her sword had broken thrice and was about to break once again when they had stopped. When she had finished eating, Nalaine turned to Liliei with a serious expression.


    ¡°I¡¯ve looked how you were fighting, and I¡¯ve come to a conclusion.¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡±, Liliei wasn¡¯t sure what to expect.


    ¡°Drop the sword and never take it again, you¡¯re not going to do anything good with it. You should stick to a dagger and try to outmaneuver your opponent with your speed.¡±


    She then stood up and after stretching a bit turned back to Liliei that had already went back on the lake¡¯s surface ¨C they had gone to the shore for the pause.


    ¡°Ready for part two?¡±


    Liliei was turning to answer when she felt the ground shake a bit nearly making her fall. She was about to finish turning when a large ball of air hit her in the torso, propelling her back in the direction of the shore. Just in time as the ice where she had been standing shattered, as a large monster looking like a blue shark with legs got on the frozen surface. It turned to her, growling, and was going to charge her. She was still on the ground and wouldn¡¯t have enough time to get up, but it wasn¡¯t needed. Before the beast could move, Liliei heard a single word resonate in the air.


    ¡°LightningFlame¡±


    A huge arc of flame-like lightning cut through the air traversing the monster before it could move and burning it in an instant, the rest of the lightning getting lost in the waters. Nalaine then rushed to Liliei, grabbed her hand and pulled her upright.


    ¡°We should go back, if things like this one are going to appear here it¡¯s a bad sign. And sorry for the rough handling but it was the fastest way to put you out of the way.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m pretty resilient.¡±


    The two started walking in direction of the light pillar illuminating the sky, leaving behind the corpse of the monster still fuming from the discharge.

 Chapter 11

    ¡°So what was that?¡±


    They were walking for five minutes, following the frozen river but staying just on the side, when Liliei decided to ask. She had been making a dagger until then and had just finished it.


    ¡°They¡¯re monsters that appear in some of the second floor danger area, but there were none near where we were, so either it was a stray one and there¡¯s no problem or one of the danger area spilled and we¡¯ll have more problems before getting to the exit. It¡¯s probably the first, but we¡¯ll try to avoid going in the middle of the frozen water if possible. And when we can¡¯t, if you feel a tremor, immediately jump aside in direction of the nearest shore and run to it.¡±


    They walked a moment again in silence before Liliei broke it with another question.


    ¡°How did you make that strange lightning? It¡¯s the first time I¡¯ve heard of something like this.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s my third Ability Level that allows me to merge multiple element into one spell, but it¡¯s quite hard, and I¡¯ve only been able to get two at once, and even then only if their compatible. Still it packs quite a punch so it¡¯s good if I know I have enough time to regenerate my mana afterward, or I need to hit fast and hard.¡±


    Liliei wished she could do the same, but when Nalaine had tried to teach her, they had quickly found out that she was unable to convert mana. She could manipulate it perfectly fine but was completely unable to transform it into the energy needed to power spells. This meant she would never be able to use spells like a mage. However, as she had recently found, she could make mana take a material form, and as proven by her first ability, she could still create interesting effects without converting mana. But she had no idea how to do it and no one that could teach her so for the moment it was useless.


    They had approximately done half of the distance to the exit when something else happened. The ground shook once again and the two girls immediately rushed to the solid ground. The monster didn¡¯t come out from where they had been ¨C probably too close to the side with not enough depth for it to pass ¨C but after it jumped out, a second one came out from the hole in the ice. Liliei had immediately activated her First Ability, hiding herself from the monsters that just appeared.


    She powered her Ability enough to move slowly and started walking around to get to the side of the monsters that were focused on Nalaine. The Demon girl was clearly preparing a spell, and this kept the monsters from rushing straight at her. These were clearly more intelligent than the rest of the rabble on this floor that they had fought at the lake. The two side were looking at each other warily, and this gave Liliei the opportunity she needed. She wasn¡¯t moving very fast but the monster still were rather close and she got to them before one of them broke the stalemate.


    She went to the side of the rightmost one and prepared herself. The beast looked even more dangerous from this close and its skin looked quite resistant. She took her dagger in her hand, and thought for a bit. She had weakened her body to hide, so if the beast monster¡¯s skin was as tough as it seemed, she wouldn¡¯t be able to pierce it ¨C her dagger also probably wasn¡¯t that sharp ¨C so she would need to find a way to hit it hard. She had thought about that problem already but hadn¡¯t tested her idea.


    She slowly reduced the mana in the rest of her body to put more of it in the part that she would use for the hit, reinforcing them as much as she could ¨C mainly her arm and her back ¨C then she used her Ability¡¯s second Level, and hit as fast as she could. The speed and strength of the hit took even her by surprise and the monster didn¡¯t get any time to react when it finally sensed the incoming blow. The dagger took it straight in the head, piercing the skin and the bone beneath it and completely crushing it.


    At the same time, the blow completely destroyed her own arm, and, taken by surprise at the pain, she fell down and couldn¡¯t dodge the monster falling. She just had the time to see a flash of light as Nalaine released her spell on the second monster before the one she had killed fell on her legs that were just too fragile to bear the weight and she fainted under the pain.


    <hr>


    When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw were the two huge moons circling the smaller one. Then she felt the pain and she flinched. She had already had her arm destroyed multiple times ¨C by herself but still ¨C but it wasn¡¯t half as bad as that. It wasn¡¯t as bad as when it just happened but the remaining pain was nothing to scoff at. Her legs and arm were starting to repair but it was slow so she concentrated on it. She sent more mana into the stream that went through her body, forcing it to stick to the part that were broken and rebuild them. It still wasn¡¯t that fast but considering that she was effectively rebuilding a limb from nothing a few minutes really weren¡¯t long either.


    She had been completely focused on it as it helped her ignore the pain and so it was only when she had finished that she heard the sounds of fighting. She looked around and discovered she had been laid down on the side of the river in an area cleared of snow, just a few meters from there Nalaine was shooting fireballs at more of the strange sharks, keeping them at bay. Her bracelet placed just beside her and she put it on. The thief then jumped to her feet, and from the feeling of lightness of her body, she deduced she had earned some Levels. She didn¡¯t check and went instead to Nalaine¡¯s side.


    ¡°Okay I¡¯m back in shape. What¡¯s happening?¡±


    The mage raised a large ice wall between her and the monsters before turning to Liliei.


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    ¡°Great, it seems it was one of the danger area spilling and we¡¯re probably near the center, so we¡¯ve got to go to the exit. I¡¯ve been able to defend but I¡¯m starting to get low on mana, so it¡¯s best if we avoid them. I¡¯ll put a charm on you to help you walk on the snow. And then we run to the light.¡±


    The Demon placed her hand on Liliei shoulder and she suddenly felt herself lighter, then they turned to the side and started running. The spell was effective and they could just walk over the snow without sinking at all or getting hampered by it. Nalaine ran in direction of the light, following the river at a small distance. After a moment running without anything happening, they slowed down and walked. Liliei profited of it to ask a question that had come to her mind.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t we go back on the side like this from the beginning, we wouldn¡¯t have been attacked no?¡±


    ¡°Well, these sharks wouldn¡¯t have attacked us no, but as long as I didn¡¯t know if it had been just one or more, the river was still the safer solution. There are other things in the snow that are more troublesome than the them, but they won¡¯t go out for now with the sharks already there. Okay we¡¯re nearly there.¡±


    The base of the light pillar was now only hidden from sight by a large hill which they were currently going around. Finally after another minute walking the place came in sight and Liliei felt her heart sink. They were on the border of a large valley surrounded by huge mountains. Right in the middle was a large red circle that was the exit of the floor, and around it was a huge frozen lake.


    ¡°So, how are we going across that?¡± she asked her friend.


    ¡°No problem, we join them and it¡¯ll go fine.¡±


    The Demon was pointing to a small group that Liliei hadn¡¯t noticed. There were four people standing near the edge of the lake and apparently arguing. The two girls walked up to them and the group stopped disputing as soon as they caught sight of them. Nalaine happily walked up to the group, a smile on her face.


    ¡°Hey there, how¡¯s it going?¡±


    The group was made up of two Humans, each holding a shield and a sword, one Beastkin ¨C probably from some bird descent as he had feathers instead of hair ¨C that held a bow and a Demon ¨C with a color scheme in the reds ¨C that was most likely their mage. The two humans were mens, probably around fourteen, but the Beaskin and the Demon were girls, and a bit younger than the Humans. They were all wearing winter clothes, which was understandable.


    ¡°Hey Nalaine, good to see you, it seems there¡¯s an Elite ice shark going around and we were considering how to go to the exit.¡±


    ¡°Just our luck, an Elite. Well, It should be feasible but first, the introductions, everyone this is Liliei, a friend of my mine, and Liliei, these are Dren, Belc, Slift and Rivsin. They¡¯re a group I showed around not too long ago.¡±


    She had had presented them by pointing while calling their name, first the two Humans then the Beaskin and finally the Demon, each making a sign as they were called, after which they started organizing. Slift had been running out of arrows, so Liliei made her twenty arrows with mana constructs as well as a dagger for herself, while the others were discussing how to fight the monster. It seemed an Elite was a sort of mini Boss, but less troublesome. It made the other monsters agitated but didn¡¯t organize them, so they probably would have to fight only a few of the things in addition to it instead of the large group some Bosses could bring.


    Finally they were ready and they started. Dren went on the frozen lake and after a few second he dived to the side as a huge shark burst out from below. It was twice as big as the others and it turned its glare to the Human that was standing on his feet again, his shield brought up. The monster didn¡¯t have much time to do something before an arrow flew out targeting his eye, but it shifted and it bounced harmlessly on the tough skin. It then charged at Dren who barely was able to dodge.


    Liliei activated her first Ability and started moving, she was supposed to wait for some of the smaller monsters to come and prevent them from disturbing the others. Meanwhile Nalaine was preparing a spell that looked like an electric fireball and Belc stayed with the rest. Another arrow flew as the Elite was turning to face the Human again, but this time it flew quite a bit faster, helped along by Rivsin¡¯s magic and went straight into the monster¡¯s flank. Which made it turn to the archer in fury.


    The fight seemed to have finally attracted some of the smaller shark as two of the jumped from below the ice, on near Dren and the other not too far from Liliei who made her way to it slowly. She got to it before it could start charging someone and, reinforcing her arm but a lot less than before before stabbing it in the head. It was apparently sufficient because the thing fell dead and she didn¡¯t lose her arm. She then turned to see how the others were doing. The Elite had seemingly charged the group only to get blocked by Belc¡¯s shield and, judging from her position like she was pressing something, Rivsin¡¯s magic too. It also had a large part of his back on fire and emitting sparks which was a bit odd.


    Another arrow flew and got stuck on its forehead, but not deep enough to kill it. It however seemed to enrage it as it roared before turning ¨C fast ¨C and sending Belc flying with a hit from its tail. This however presented its flank to Nalaine who shot it with a ball of ¨C was that molten rock? ¨C in the flank which made it shriek. It turned and tried to jump forward to bite the offender, only to be blocked by Dren¡¯s shield ¨C where had he come from, Liliei didn¡¯t know.


    Liliei saw that a small shark was trying to sneak to the others and went to kill it while staying attentive to the fight. The Elite had tried doing the same trick as before but this time around Dren jumped over the tail ¨C possibly helped by Rivsin or an Ability, she didn¡¯t think it should be possible to jump like that normally ¨C and stabbed his blade in the beast flank just beside the place where the molten rock had now cooled and clung to the skin.


    Liliei focused on the small shark to kill it, and then turned to the fight that was coming to a close. The Elite was trying to get back to the hole it had created in the ice to flee but Belc had come back and bashed it in the head with its shield before an arrow took it right in the junction of its leg with its body, causing it to fall before Belc finished it by stabbing his sword in its head.


    ¡°Whew, got it!¡± exclaimed the Adventurer, pulling his sword from the monster, before plunging his hand in the thing¡¯s head which made Liliei look somewhere else in disgust.


    When she looked back he hand removed his hand and was holding a large mana stone ¨C half the size of a fist ¨C in his hand. They stayed there a few minutes more, talking and taking what had some value on the Elite ¨C not much it seemed except its teeth and its fin ¨C before they parted way. The group would stay there and hunt more of the smaller sharks while before they calmed while Nalaine and Liliei decided to go back. They would receive their part of the sale by way of the Guild when it was done, but for now all that interested Liliei was going back and sleeping.

 Chapter 12

    ¡°Why can¡¯t it work!¡±


    The construct flew through the room before crashing into the wall and shattering and a sigh escaped Liliei. It had been two weeks already since the fight with the Elite and she hadn¡¯t progressed much. They had gone back to the Dungeon ¨C still the second floor at the moment ¨C but from the moment she had hit Level ten her progress on this front had stalled and she hadn¡¯t gained another.


    [Liliei Sil


    Race: Mana Spirit


    Level: 10


    Abilities:


    -Main Ability 1:


    1) Tendency to be harder to notice. Ability to use mana to reinforce concealment and reduce the chance of being seen.


    2) Reduce the chance of being noticed when moving. Ability to use mana to hide a movement done for a short time.


    -Secondary Ability 1:


    1) Burst of movement tends to be faster and more precise.


    2) Increase smoothness and flow of movements.


    -Main Ability 2:


    1) Increase efficiency at manipulating own mana, and allow faster reconstruction.


    2) Increase ability at external mana manipulation, and allow creation of external constructs.


    -Secondary Ability 2:


    1) Increase perception of mana.


    2) Increase the size of the mana pool.


    Stats:


    Own Mana Manipulation:


    -Speed: 22


    -Precision: 14


    -Intent Potency: 8


    -Perception: 5


    -Mana Pool: 8


    -Mental Strength: 4


    Skills: None]


    Since she didn¡¯t seem to progress much on her Levels she had decided to increase her Abilities, but even that was at a standstill. She didn¡¯t understand why her first Ability worked, so she couldn¡¯t work on it that much, and, for her second Ability, she didn¡¯t have the slightest idea what she was supposed to do. She had tried to make more of the permanent constructs but had quickly discovered that the more complicated it was the more it took of her to get it in its permanent state.


    And the increase wasn¡¯t small either, just trying to have a cube even one half bigger than original was already too much. She didn¡¯t even dare thinking what it would take for a more resistant version, or some of the ones that drained her even normally. It was all in getting the extremities to stay in the sort of intermediate state, but she couldn¡¯t find any way of getting it there more easily.


    She had at least got a little better at giving different properties to the constructs. It seemed that the thinner the strands, the more resistant the product would be, and that the less she fused them the more flexible it became. She however hadn¡¯t found how to change its texture and all the construct felt rough to the touch, which wasn¡¯t that comfortable for clothes, but still more than normal ones.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    She hadn¡¯t tried to touch much on their appearance for now, she could get a color and something like a texture which was enough as long as one didn¡¯t look too close.


    The final thing she had been trying was to improve her body. Evlem had directed her to a library where she had gotten two books on anatomy and she had been trying to understand how it worked to improve her own body but without much success, first because the explications were either too complicated or not complete enough, and while Teria had taught her to read, there were lots of words she didn¡¯t understand. And second because her body seemed to refuse the changes or just revert back every time she tried something.


    Hence she decided that she needed a break, and went out. There was still around half an hour before noon and she would get to the first floor of the city before the affluence. As such, she decided to go by the columns around the city instead of the pads. When she got to the first floor, she looked behind at the large plains, and thought that while the view was quite good, it couldn¡¯t really compare to the Dungeon¡¯s scenery. After a few more minutes looking, she shook herself and went to the market street.


    There, the people were starting to arrive, and she decided to try something. She activated her first Ability and started walking amongst the crowd and looked how people reacted to it. Her first observation was that people acted as if she was here, dodging her when walking, but seemed not to notice her. It was quite strange but it allowed her to move in the middle of the people without problem which was good, but it still didn¡¯t help her much for improving the Ability. Furthermore, she had already been usually unnoticed without using it and had less problem moving about without it, since she couldn¡¯t move fast without revealing herself.


    She decided to go back out of the crowd, and started cutting through until she got to one of the alleys. She still had a moment before the crowd would reduce so she decided to try how her skills had suffered from the time without use. She made herself a small dagger and a heavier construct in a spherical shape and after choosing a mark she went back into the crowd. Her target was a Beastkin that was currently buying food from one of the stalls. She placed herself in further in the direction he had been going and started walking through the crowd.


    After he bought his food, he put his pouch back in the pocket of his coat and continued walking in the same direction as before. Liliei adjusted her path a little to pass just beside him, and when they were just side by side she made her move. Activating her second Level Ability and reinforcing her arms a little, she slipped her hand in his pocket, taking the pouch and placing the sphere construct in its place. The two hadn¡¯t exactly the same weight but it seemed to do the trick as the Beastkin continued on his path without noticing anything.


    Liliei could barely contain her excitement as she went back to the alleys. She had done it! She let the construct disperse as it was starting to cost her to keep it, and she was too far for the Beastkin to find her. She looked into the pouch but there wasn¡¯t much, only one silver and some coppers. Still she hadn¡¯t been detected at all and it was a good sign. It was a proof for herself that she had gotten used to her new body.


    Satisfied, she suddenly got the idea to go check how were the houses on the tenth floor. She had never gone there and wanted to see with her own eyes the place she would have to go into. She started going to the transport pads before realizing that she would be quite noticeable with her clothes on a higher floor where the richer people lived, and decided to go by the columns. Thus she could use her Ability to stay unnoticeable.


    The climb was quite long but thanks to her current body she didn¡¯t tire, and only had to rest for a moment when she got to the floor to keep her mental tiredness in check. Then she went onto the floor and got dumbfounded. She had thought that the tenth floor were richer but still basic, however what she was was quite different from what she had envisioned. Each house was situated in the middle of a large property, usually with a garden, and the houses were huge. If she was to go in there looking for some precise thing, it would take quite a while to explore.


    And, on a hunch, she tried to see what she could detect with her increased perception by focusing it on one of the houses. There was the constant ¡®noise¡¯ of all the enchantments that covered the city, but just like that she could detect three large protective enchantments on the house she had looked at. If it was the same inside, it would be quite hard for her to do anything even if she got there in the first place.


    And that was just a mansion on the tenth floor in this city, while her goal was the home of one of the most important elven family ¨C and the Elves¡¯ magic was know to revolve around an excessive use of huge rituals and large scale magics. She started going back down as she thought about what to do.


    For the first time she really thought what it would take to get in someplace protected like this. And what she thought wasn¡¯t good: no matter how she saw it, there was no way Nalaine and her would be able to go through with something like this, it was just too complex, too enormous for them, even if they Leveled a lot ¨C high Leveled individuals would probably be taken in account when creating the protections. Thus they needed to find other people to help. But how could they find someone? The couldn¡¯t exactly just go ask around until they found someone. In fact they couldn¡¯t ask at all, how would it go ¨C ¡®Hey we would like to steal something from the Elves¡¯ equivalent of royalty, wanna to help?¡¯. If they didn¡¯t think of the as fools, they would report them.


    Plus they were in need of pretty specific things. First someone that knew their way around enchantments, preferably security ones, but that would be quite hard. Good enchanters were probably all recruited by either Adventurers or crafters since they were very useful.


    The second thing they would need was someone to plan everything. Nalaine was good at thinking things on the moment, and reacting, but she didn¡¯t make large plans and was a bit too impulsive for that as well. They would need someone to decide how to get in, how to find what they were searching for and how to get out, as well as gather the information now that she thought about it. She would look quite dumb were she to prepare everything just to find that there was a large reception at the house and going in would be impossible.


    She went back to her house, training her Abilities ¨C without much success ¨C while thinking about where to find people that could correspond to her need. Finally, she was having another failure at improving her ability to make construct independent when she got an idea. She immediately went out, going straight for the pads and to the first floor. Then she went to the Guild and after getting Reig¡¯s attention and going to the small separated room, she asked the Receptionist if she knew someone that would fit.


    The woman thought about it for a while before a smile appeared on her face.


    ¡°I think I know exactly the one you need.¡±

 Chapter 13

    ¡°So, you wanted to speak with me?¡±


    The man in front of Liliei and Nalaine had a somewhat haughty air about him and in his voice she could hear a faint tinge of disdain. He was a Human around 12 turns old and was maybe a bit smaller than average but still a head taller than the girls. He had a rather angular face that, with his cold blue eyes, went well with his haughtiness. This was completed with neatly arranged brown hair and a very serious outfit.


    Liliei hesitated a bit and Nalaine immediately took over.


    ¡°Yes, we would like to ask for your assistance on a long term project. we¡¯ve heard that you were a very good planner and we¡¯ll need the best for what we want.¡±


    Liliei had asked the Receptionist the day before and she had immediately arranged the meeting. When she had then talked to Nalaine, the Demon had agreed that it was a good idea and Liliei had seen that she was embarrassed not to have thought about it. Then they had come here today and the Receptionist had introduced the man as Lenc.


    He looked thoughtful for a second before responding.


    ¡°I may be interested. What is this about?¡±


    Nalaine took an apologetic air as she looked at him.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry but before I tell you of our objective I would like you to take an oath not to reveal it.¡±


    A frown appeared on the man¡¯s face and he stayed silent a few seconds before talking again.


    ¡°I must say that I¡¯m a little intrigued as to what some young girls could want to do that need an oath so,¡± then, turning to Reig ¡°I swear that I will not talk of their project to anyone, and ask to be punished in consequence if I were to break my promise.¡±


    The Receptionist¡¯s eyes shined brighter for a second before she nodded and he turned to Nalaine with a questioning air. There was still a bit of haughtiness in his posture, but that was quickly lost when Nalaine explained.


    ¡°We need to steal an artifact from the Elerilen Family.¡±


    The man¡¯s face turned blank for an instant before he realized what she had said.


    ¡°You what! You¡¯re completely insane! Do you have any idea how much protection there is around them? This simple idea is the dumbest thing I¡¯ve ever heard!¡± He then took a large breath that could barely conceal his predatory smile. ¡°Count me in!¡±


    This time it was the girls who were dumbfounded. They weren¡¯t prepared for this reaction.


    ¡°What? But didn¡¯t you just say...¡±


    ¡°It¡¯ll just make it more impressive when we do it, right? It¡¯s not often there are people foolish enough to try something like that so I can¡¯t let such an occasion just pass by, it would be even dumber. And no need to pay, if I get into something like this it¡¯s not for the money.¡±


    All trace of haughtiness had disappeared and he was now speaking in a less formal way, excitement leaking in his voice. When he saw that the two were looking strangely at him, he laughed for a second.


    ¡°Oh yes sorry for the stiff way of talking before, but I¡¯ve found I can cash in more from the people if they have the impression I look down on them. But it would be quite awkward if we¡¯re to really work together ain¡¯t it?¡±


    It was quite strange how his face had seemingly transformed with just minute changes and his previously haughty face now seemed quite sympathetic and friendly.


    ¡°So who else is involved? You must be quite a large group with such an objective.¡±


    The two girls exchanged a glance, each mentally nudging the other to tell, before Liliei sighed slightly and started talking uncomfortably, fidgeting a little.


    ¡°Umm¡­ that¡¯s¡­ you see¡­¡±


    She was spared the need to go further when Lenc¡¯s began laughing uncontrollably. They could hear him saying something about them, but it was unintelligible due to his laughter.


    Finally after a few minutes he calmed enough to talk properly even if the corner of his mouth was still twitching a little.


    ¡°If not for the Receptionist, I would dismiss everything as a joke, but you¡¯re seriously going to try it right?¡± The girls¡¯ expression was enough answer and he continued ¡°Then, we should let the Receptionist go back to her work and go somewhere else before we look at what we¡¯ll have to do.¡±


    Lenc wasn¡¯t surprised to learn that Liliei and Nalaine were living on the lowest floor, and they decided to go to Liliei¡¯s house before to plan everything. The man found pretty fun the complicated way of getting in inside the house, even if it took him twice the time Nalaine had needed to climb. Once they had all sat down and Nalaine created some water to drink ¨C Liliei had some cups that were in pretty good shape ¨C they started talking what they would need for the theft. The first thing was to know exactly what they could all do. Lenc demonstrated how to do by taking out his Guild Card and making his status appear on it before showing them.


    [Lenc Rewklan


    Race: HumanThe narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Level: 23


    Abilities:


    -Main Ability:


    1) Increase thinking speed. Ability to keep multiple thoughts at the same time.


    2) Reduce strain to keep multiple thoughts. Ability to use mana to increase thinking speed further.


    3) Reduce chance of overlooking things. Ability to use mana to allow a short increase in processing ability.


    -Secondary Ability:


    1) Increase memory.


    2) Increase propensity to notice details.


    3) Increase mental processing capacity.


    Stats:


    -Mental Processing: 46


    -Memory: 31


    -Mental Fatigue Recovery Speed: 19


    -Inference: 14


    -Mana Reinforcement Precision: 7


    -Complete Perception: 4


    Skills: None]


    Liliei understood why the Receptionist had recommended him, not only was he enough of a fool to accept their objective just for the sake of it, he was also good at thinking and probably making plans, which was exactly what the girls had needed.


    ¡°So you¡¯re the thinking type. I had already seen a few that had Abilities to improve their thinking speed, but not to this extent.¡±


    Nalaine had a satisfied air as she spoke, and she soon took out her Guild Card, before displaying her status in the same way as Lenc.


    [Nalaine Vleisst


    Race: Demon


    Level: 15


    Abilities:


    -Main Ability:


    1)Increase ability at elemental spells. Allow the use of multiple elemental spells at the same time.


    2)Increase elemental magic speed. Allow mental deconstruction of spells cast.


    3)Increase precision of elemental magic. Allow the use of multiple elements in one spell.


    -Secondary Ability:


    1)Increase efficiency at mana conversion.


    2)Increase understanding speed.


    3)Increase Intent infusion speed.


    Stats:


    -Mana Elemental Conversion: 30


    -Mental processing: 20


    -Mana Pool: 13


    -Mana Purity:10


    -Intent Infusion Speed: 5


    -Elemental Attunement: 3


    Skills: None]


    It wasn¡¯t the first time Liliei had heard what Nalaine¡¯s Abilities were, but she hadn¡¯t shown them this way before. Her status was that of a purely offensive mage and as Liliei had seen it was scarily effective when she started slinging magic around in the Dungeon. Lenc seemingly wasn¡¯t too surprised at her status.


    ¡°How many elements can you fuse into one spell as of now?¡±


    ¡°Two if they don¡¯t conflict, I¡¯ve still not been able to increase it at all.¡±


    ¡°Too bad, I would love to see what happens when you fuse everything together. But we¡¯ve got time.¡±


    Lenc was clearly sad not to be able to see a large elemental fusion, but he turned to Liliei, silently urging her to show her status to him.


    She willed her Card to appear and it was there in her hand, a small blue card. Only her name and the fact she was in a Party with Nalaine were written on it, so she guessed that displaying something on it went the same way as making it appear and she willed her status to be visible on the Card. Immediately the thing changed and the same information she could get from the World appeared on it.


    This time when he looked at the Card, Lenc was clearly surprised. He read it a few times before turning to her.


    ¡°What the hell is this status. I mean, I can guess at what a Mana Spirit is but how come I¡¯ve never heard of it if it¡¯s a Race recognized by the World. And how did you get that second Ability while not even at the third Ability Level?¡±


    Liliei only hesitated for an instant before starting to explain what had happened. He seemed quite interested in the ring and its effects until Liliei told him what Reig had told her the first time: it had been pure luck she had survived and would have been quite disastrous if she hadn¡¯t had her talent for mana manipulation.


    ¡°I wonder what¡¯s gonna happens when you grow older.¡± At the questioning look Liliei sent him, he continued. ¡°I mean, your body is made of mana, isn¡¯t it? Then there¡¯s no reason it would age. So you¡¯re possibly going to live forever.¡±


    Liliei wasn¡¯t sure how to react to that declaration. It was too sudden for her, she hadn¡¯t thought about it at all even if what he said made sense, it was strange to get told you wouldn¡¯t ever die of old age. But then she still had a limit time in ten turns, so it wasn¡¯t applicable for now, right? She would think about the implications then.


    ¡°For that we¡¯ll first have to succeed before ten turns, so the point is moot for now anyway.¡±, declared Nalaine who had probably guessed what Liliei had been thinking.


    ¡°Right, so on that point,¡± Lenc started seriously, ¡°if you¡¯re going to be the one to do the theft, Liliei, you¡¯ll need to improve quite a lot. Your Abilities are pretty good for the task, but you¡¯ll need to get them higher than this, and same for your Level, so we¡¯ll have to go in the Dungeon. We¡¯ll probably also need more people, but it¡¯s not a priority for now. I¡¯ll need to see your Abilities in action before I can really plan with them, so we should make a Party tomorrow and go on the first or second floor to test them.¡±


    ¡°Fine for me. Let¡¯s meet at the Guild tomorrow at nine, OK?¡±


    It was fine for everyone and Lenc left ¨C he had a few things to prepare and people to contact ¨C A few minutes later Liliei started talking.


    ¡°So your opinion?¡±


    ¡°He seems genuine, if a little foolish. And if he¡¯s good at using his Abilities, he¡¯s going to be one hell of a planner.¡±


    They stayed silent for a few more minutes before the Demon got up.


    ¡°So what are you going to do until tomorrow?¡±


    ¡°Probably try to make my construct better, but I¡¯ve still got no idea how.¡±


    ¡°You should ask him, he may have some good ideas, with his Abilities. In fact it would be more surprising if he didn¡¯t have any idea.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right, I¡¯ll ask him tomorrow. Until then, I¡¯m just going to try by myself.¡±


    ¡°Then good luck.¡±


    Nalaine left the house, leaving Liliei alone and after a few second the thief sighed. She would try but didn''t have much hopes.

 Chapter 14

    ¡°Alright. Here will be perfect.¡±


    Liliei sighed, they had come on the first floor and had been walking for nearly one hour before Lenc had stopped. They were in the middle of a large plain filled with grass smaller than on the rest of the floor. The two suns were low on the horizon, each on one side, opposite of the other. It seemed that the cycle day-night on this floor was decided by how far from your apparition point you were and not just the eternal day she had thought.


    ¡°So why are we here exactly?¡±


    ¡°I want to test your Abilities, and try to see how to improve them.¡± He had turned to Nalaine to answer and then turned to Liliei. ¡°So first, can you try to use your first Ability on me?¡±


    ¡°I doesn¡¯t work if you already now that I¡¯m here.¡±


    ¡°Just try it anyway, if it really doesn¡¯t work, we¡¯ll try something else.¡±


    Shrugging, Liliei activated her Ability, powering it about halfway to the maximum she could. The vibrating mana covered her and went out in thin waves of mana. Lenc was looking at her from the moment she activated it and after a few seconds a frown appeared of his face and she perceived him using his Ability to increase his thinking. She just kept using her Ability, waiting for him to say something.


    It took five minutes before he shook his head and told her to stop. Nalaine, who had gotten bored after a few minutes and was sitting while controlling a small fireball, turned her head as well.


    ¡°You¡¯ve found how it works?¡±


    The Demon had been frustrated to be unable to help Liliei with this Ability as she didn¡¯t understand how it worked.


    ¡°Yes, I think I know,¡± his voice had a slight hesitation to it as he spoke, ¡°but just to be sure, I¡¯ll close my eyes, move a bit and use your Ability again.¡±


    She did as she was told, placing herself a few meters to his left and using her Ability. He opened his eyes after one minute, turning his gaze all around and keeping it on Liliei as soon as he passed on her, a grin appearing on his face.


    ¡°Okay, I know. Your Ability sends waves of mana right?¡±


    ¡°Ye, it does, how do you know it?¡±, she hadn¡¯t explained him how it worked yet.


    ¡°In fact what your Ability does is more complicated than that. It does sends waves of mana, but just doing that wouldn¡¯t usually do anything. How it works is that it charge every wave with information that gets transmitted to the ones that are touched by the wave. Its effect is also extremely subtle, which means that it doesn¡¯t get detected easily, but that once you are seen it doesn¡¯t have much effect because then the information it gives is quickly dismissed by the brain since it knows that it¡¯s false.¡±


    This made Liliei think, if it was sending information, then maybe she could choose what to send. Then increasing the number of waves sent probably worked because it kept the information fresh and prevented the other sources from being considered.


    ¡°What information did it send?¡±


    ¡°Something akin to ¡®there¡¯s nothing interesting here¡¯. It works pretty well, but I¡¯m sure if you can find a way to adapt it to the situation, since if you know what you¡¯re looking for, you can detect the difference.¡±


    Lenc then turned to Nalaine who had been looking with an interested expression and they started talking while Liliei tried to improve her Ability. Now that she knew what to look for, it didn¡¯t take long to find how to do it. She still had to act on the stream of mana that powered the Ability, but now she had to use her Intent to imprint what she wanted to transmit into the mana, before letting it go further. It really wasn¡¯t hard and she was sure she had gotten the trick after a few tries.


    She then turned to the two that were talking a few meters further. Nalaine was showing her Ability¡¯s first Level and had some twenty spells of all sorts floating around her. A lot were fireballs but there were some ice shards, prepared lightning bolt, a distortion indicated an air blade and some rocks were also there. Each spell was probably quite weak for her to keep them all but it was still pretty impressive. Then Liliei had an idea, if she could change the information she sent, then maybe if she chose right.


    Suddenly Nalaine turned around and every single spell she had prepared shot to a place a few meters behind her. She had fallen into a stance for fighting but after a second she relaxed and her expression turned to one of confusion.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    ¡°What? I¡­¡±


    Then Liliei was unable to stop herself anymore and started laughing. Nalaine turned to her with an incredulous expression.


    ¡°You did that?¡±


    ¡°Yes, why?¡±


    ¡°How did you do that, I mean, I suddenly felt like I would die if I didn¡¯t shoot everything I had behind me.¡±


    ¡°That much? I used my Ability to send the idea of a danger being behind you, but I didn¡¯t think it would be that much.¡±


    If it was that effective, it could be quite useful, but she would have to find a way to exclude some people from the effects. However she also had to try improving her second Level, and she still didn¡¯t understand how it worked. She asked Lenc if he could try to find like he did for the first Level, but he couldn¡¯t get how it worked either, so she just tried to use it.


    The Ability was acting a little like the other, creating a layer of mana all around her and sending it, but it worked in only one burst, and the amount of mana that was used was quite a bit higher. She tried looking at what exactly happened, but it was extremely fast and she couldn¡¯t get it correctly. It seemed to be created in three layers and from what they had tested, as soon as the wave passed over someone, the effect stopped. But how¡­


    ¡°I know!¡±


    The sudden shout from Lenc made he jump, startled, and she turned to him as he continued.


    ¡°Liliei, your Ability corrupt the information. The wave you send doesn¡¯t act on the persons but on the information that go through. It probably change it so that it looks like what you want to show instead of what really happened.¡±, he then hesitated a second before finishing. ¡°Let¡¯s try something, use your second ability, but instead of just moving, try making a loud sound.¡±


    Liliei did so, activating her Ability before immediately clapping her hands. And from the smile on Lenc¡¯s face as the wave passed through him, he had found something.


    ¡°I think the things you should try to improve on this one is to slow the wave, and make it take more types of information in account. Because at the moment, it seems to only act on the sight, and sounds are ignored which means that other information is probably ignored too.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll try that, and how¡¯s it going with Nalaine?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t help her much, since her Ability isn¡¯t something I understand at all. I have no idea how it works, so for now she has to improve by herself.¡±


    The Demon was sitting in the grass and visibly concentrating, a spell slowly appearing in front of her, before it suddenly disappeared in a flash and Nalaine made a disappointed expression.


    They stayed there another two hours before deciding to do something else. Nalaine hadn¡¯t been able to improve much ¨C there was probably a trick to it that she hadn¡¯t found yet. Liliei hadn¡¯t had much progress either after the few things in the beginning. She hadn¡¯t been able to modify the wave to make it act on anything else, and hadn¡¯t been able to slow it down either ¨C it seemed that it needed the speed to maintain its cohesion and fell apart if she slowed it. They ate something before going to the exit of the floor and instead of going back, they dived deeper, to the third floor.


    This floor was the complete opposite of the previous one. It was a huge desert that extended without limit in every direction. It was completely flat, with the exception of one mountain far from where they had appeared. In the sky three suns, one red one yellow and one orange were turning slowly and created an incredible heat on the whole floor. As soon as they arrived, Nalaine used a spell to keep herself and Lenc protected from the heat ¨C Liliei wasn¡¯t bothered by it. Then they started walking in direction of the mountain.


    Walking in the sand was quite tiring and they paused every twenty minutes for Nalaine and Lenc to recover. Liliei¡¯s untiring body was quite an advantage in the dungeon, since most of the difficult environment didn¡¯t affect her. They were around halfway to the mountain when Nalaine stopped them. The sand in front of the changed slightly, becoming a more orange tint than the yellow-white they had walked on until there.


    ¡°So, from here onward we¡¯ll have to be more careful since monsters are going to appear. They¡¯re mostly sandworms that hide under the sand and jump when you walk over, like this.¡±


    She demonstrated by creating a fireball in her hand and launching it further. Just before hitting the ground, the spell exploded and all around it huge worms shot out of the sands before diving back down under the sand. They wouldn¡¯t be large enough to eat one person whole but if you walked over one you would probably loose your leg, if you weren¡¯t dragged under the sand with it. That wouldn¡¯t be a pleasant way to go, and Liliei shivered just thinking about it. And that was only the third floor, just what would be further?


    ¡°If you look well you can see where they are since the sand make little depressions in the sand, but stay careful.¡±


    The advice was more addressed to Liliei than Lenc since he had already passed this floor once and probably knew it. The girl looked around and she could effectively see the small holes in the sand as she followed just behind Nalaine.


    They got to the mountain without incident and then began the climb. The circle was placed at the top and so they had to get there. The mountain was made of black rock and made the ascension even harder due to the heat it created. Liliei even began to feel it have an effect on her and Nalaine included her in the cooling spell. There was a small path that went from the bottom to the top and they followed it slowly. Sometimes a cave was present on the side of the path and they stopped for a moment without going further inside.


    When Liliei asked, Nalaine explained that the caves were one of the danger area of the floor and that it was better not to go too far inside. It took nearly two hours to get to the top and the three were only too happy to exit that floor, directly going to the next one.


    The place the three appeared was inside a huge hall. The place looked like what Liliei would have expected from the interior of a castle, everything was made of polished white and blue stone, with statues standing around the entrances and large tapestries hanging down on the walls. A large double stairway was giving access to a large balcony one floor higher with more entrances. On the walls large windows made of tinted glass let the light enter.


    Liliei looked around with an astonished expression, she hadn¡¯t expected that one of the floor would be inside instead of an open landscape like the first three. Beside her Nalaine had a wry smile as she announced.


    ¡°You have now passed the status of newbie Adventurer, and entered the first dangerous floor of the Dungeon, the Haunted Castle."

 Chapter 15

    ¡°So where¡¯s the exit on this floor?¡±


    ¡°Somewhere, probably.¡±


    Liliei glared at Nalaine, whose answer was quite unsatisfying, to say the least. To which the Demon¡¯s response was a large innocent smile, before explaining.


    ¡°Jokes aside, I really don¡¯t know where the exit of the floor is, first because I don¡¯t know exactly where on the floor we are, and second because it isn¡¯t constant anyway. The only way is to wander in the halls until you find it.¡±


    ¡°And why is this floor considered the first dangerous one?¡±


    ¡°The main reason is the presence of traps, but the monsters on this floor are also quite a bit more troublesome than before. You see the armors everywhere, no matter where you are on this floor, they¡¯re posted all around the entrances and some of them are monsters that will attack you when you pass beside them. However I don¡¯t know this floor that well, so Lenc do you know how to detect them?¡±


    ¡°Yes, the most common way is just to hit them from a distance, but I¡¯ve heard that they emit a small amount of mana that¡¯s detectable, lightning magic will stop them but the best was to inflict damage is blunt force. Liliei try to detect them with your increased mana perception and we will test them before passing until we have confirmation it works or not. For the fights, Nalaine should stun them with lightning and Liliei finish them with a hit on the helmet. We¡¯re missing a front line but it should work for now. Liliei you should construct a mace.


    ¡°Finally for the traps Liliei will go in front, you¡¯re the fastest and the one most likely to dodge. On this floor they¡¯re still pretty simple and never directly lethal so it shouldn¡¯t be a problem, and it will be a good training for later. Is that okay for you?¡±


    They didn¡¯t have any problems, even if Liliei wasn¡¯t too enthusiastic about getting the traps, but he was right in that she was the one that was the most suited for that ¨C and that she would probably need the habits when she went into some of the most protected places.


    The three thus started wandering inside the halls, Liliei going first and picking a random direction in each room and testing the statues with little constructs she made. The rooms seemed all pretty much the same, only ones had more entrances, or two stairways, one even had a second balcony higher than the first one. The corridors created a sort of distortion, making it impossible to see the room at the other end until you had walked through it past midway, until then you¡¯d only see the corridor extending into infinity, even if they weren¡¯t really that long ¨C maybe twenty meters.


    It took nearly twenty rooms before something happened. The group was walking in one of the corridor that linked the rooms when she suddenly felt a slight resistance as she brought her leg forward. It didn¡¯t immediately occur to her what it was, and she didn¡¯t react in time to dodge the arrow that shot from the wall to her left, embedding itself in her shoulder and just barely not ripping her arm. She fell down with a short scream at the sudden pain and Nalaine was immediately by her side.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡±


    Liliei took a few breath ¨C funny how pain could get her out of breath while exertion couldn¡¯t, well not really funny but¡­ ¨C and placing her hand on the shaft of the arrow, she yanked it out before reconstructing her shoulder.


    ¡°Shit that hurt! Didn¡¯t know that was a trap, I¡¯ll be more careful.¡±


    They waited a few minuted before continuing despite Liliei telling she was fine ¨C which she was, her body made of mana really was useful in the Dungeon. But they didn¡¯t go very far since as soon as they got to the room, Liliei informed them that her perception could in fact detect the armors that were monsters and they took position.


    Nalaine prepared a lightning spell and when Liliei told she was ready, the Demon unleashed her spell. A huge lightning arc shot out and bounced from one of the armor to the other. Immediately, the two monsters started moving. Both were large full plate armors with their helmet covering everything, except for a small gap where the eyes should have been that lit up with a sickly green light. The left one was holding a large two handed sword and the right one a smaller sword and a shield.


    They took a few steps forward, the lightning still going, until they stopped moving, the green glow still present however ¨C but just a little dimmer ¨C, and Lenc called out to Liliei. The thief shot forward as the lightning ceased and, hit the right one on the head as hard as she could. The armor took a step back but it wasn¡¯t enough to kill it and it turned to her. The glow in of its eyes had dimmed however, and when she went for the second hit it was too slow to stop it and the mace send the helmet flying, the rest of the armor falling inanimate on the ground.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    She the turned to the second one but an ice shard tore through it head, taking half of it in passing and extinguishing the glow, the armor also falling to the ground. Nalaine then went to the helmets and took out a little mana stone from one, the other had nothing inside. After a small rest, and deciding to continue in the same way for the fights, they started walking again.


    From this moment, there were a lot more action as they went through the rooms. About one third of the rooms had living armors inside, always in group of two around the entrances. It seemed that even if the one around the other ways were monsters, they wouldn¡¯t move so long as you didn¡¯t attack them or try to pass. There were also more traps in the corridors, but those were fortunately pretty simple. Every single trap had a way of showing that it had been activated, be it a small part of the floor moving underfoot, a resistance as you crossed the detector or a small sound before it went off. Liliei, being more attentive, was able to dodge nearly every single one of them, the few she didn¡¯t just grazing her.


    It also helped that they weren¡¯t too dangerous. It would be something like the first one, an arrow shooting at shoulder, or hip height or a pitfall ¨C not too deep, but that would be quite hard getting out alone without equipment and you could break your leg if you had a bad fall. They would still be quite problematic for a normal person, since a shoulder wound would be quite handicapping in a fight.


    They had just rested after killing two other armors when a change made Liliei stop. The room in front of them had a complete change in color scheme, passing from white and blue to red and black. The distortion in the corridor made so that the others didn¡¯t see it yet. After a small hesitation, she turned to the them.


    ¡°So, is that normal?¡±


    ¡°Is what norma¡­ seriously, how unlucky can we get! This, Liliei, is one of the danger area of this floor.¡±


    From Nalaine¡¯s voice when she spoke, it seemed that was a big problem, but¡­


    ¡°Then we just have to go back right?¡±


    At that the Demon shot her a dry smile, with an air of ¡®oh so naive¡¯.


    ¡°You¡¯ve seen the way the corridors distort the vision right? It¡¯s a spacial distortion, which mean that the room you end up in is chosen while you walk inside. So going back to the other room now won¡¯t allow us to leave the danger area, that would be too simple. We¡¯ll have to go through it. And we¡¯ll probably have to take another strategy for the fights.¡±


    Nalaine turned to Lenc as she finished talking, waiting for him to talk ¨C he had more experience than her on this floor.


    ¡°It¡¯s red and black, so it could have been worse, but we¡¯ll still have to be a lot more cautious. First of all, Liliei, the traps are going to be a lot more dangerous and less predictable, so be extremely attentive. At the slightest indication that something is happening don¡¯t hesitate and dodge. Second thing, the armors in this place will be more resistant and affected only by water or ice magic plus they¡¯re a lot faster, so be extremely careful and don¡¯t worry about using more power for your spells Nalaine even if it means we¡¯ll have to rest longer.


    ¡°There¡¯s also another type of monsters that we¡¯ll have to be careful of. They¡¯re intangible ghosts that are completely impervious to any physical damages, so Nalaine will have to deal with those. They¡¯re quite slow, but we can¡¯t let one of them touch us, they won¡¯t outright kill you but they can pretty well paralyze you which will be just as deadly in a fight. And last thing, we¡¯ll go back to testing every armor until we¡¯re sure you can detect those too Liliei.¡±


    They started walking slowly through the corridor. As they got closer the room came fully into view. It looked a lot like the previous rooms, while being completely different at the same time. Where the armors before were like knights protecting the way, these looked like beasts ready to pounce on anything. Everything gave a more aggressive feeling, the archway over each entrance being more angular, the tapestries showing strange distorted scenes that gave made Liliei shiver.


    She concentrated but didn¡¯t detect anything from the armors, and after Nalaine shot two small rocks and they didn¡¯t budge, they continued taking the passage directly in front of them. They continued slowly, wary of their surrounding, Liliei a few steps in front of the others and ready to jump back in case she activated a trap. She had, however, underestimated the changes in this area, and didn¡¯t take notice of the very faint click she heard until she felt something pass very fast just to her right.


    It took her half a second to realize something had happened and look at her arm that was slowly dissipating on the ground before the pain hit. She grit her teeth through the wave of pain, only letting a low grunt pass, as Nalaine rushed to her side, supporting her and making her sit down.


    ¡°Liliei!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright,¡± the thief spoke slowly ¨C no matter how many times it happened it wasn¡¯t something you could get used to, especially when you didn¡¯t expect it ¨C ¡°what the hell was that trap?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, I felt a feint wind on my face and then your was arm suddenly falling.¡± She then turned to Lenc ¡°do you know what this was?¡±


    ¡°I only got a glimpse, but it looked like a giant nearly invisible blade that swung from the ceiling. But it was fast, and you would probably only have been able to dodge by getting on the floor. You¡¯ll have to be very careful Liliei.¡±


    The girl was currently concentrating to regenerate her missing arm while internally scolding herself. She had heard the small sound but hadn¡¯t reacted, not thinking it was the warning of a trap. She would have to be ready to react at anything, the slightest sound, movement should have send her jumping backward, and from what Lenc told, getting down would also be a good idea.


    Once her arm was back in shape, she stood and after a nod, she went back to walking. The path to the room hadn¡¯t any other trap and she waited on the two behind her before getting inside. Then she took a single step into the room and discovered two things. First she could still detect the monsters from the normal armors, which was a good point. The bad point was that it seemed they would no longer wait for them to start the fight, if the six armors that turned their head to her were any indication.


    This floor was getting quite tiring.

 Chapter 16

    Liliei gripped her mace tightly as Nalaine came just behind her, preparing her spells. There were two armors just in front of them, guarding the opposite entrance, and the four others were currently on the balcony. All of them had red glow that came from their helmets as they started moving. She heard Lenc behind her as he started telling them what to do.


    ¡°Liliei, do you think you could hold them off if you only dodge and don¡¯t attack?¡±


    The thief looked at the armors that were still starting to move. They didn¡¯t have sword and shield but their fingers were elongated like claws and she didn¡¯t really want to be on the receiving end ¨C they looked sharp ¨C but if she concentrated only on dodging, then¡­


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure, but it should be possible.¡±


    ¡°Then do that. Nalaine I¡¯ll need you to¡­¡±


    Liliei stopped listening on Lenc as she went forward. The sooner she was on the armor, the further they would be from Nalaine and Lenc, which was good if she wanted to stay as their target. By the time she had done half the distance, the armors seemed to be fully awoken, the glow having even intensified, and after a look at her, they dashed forward and nearly hit Liliei who could only barely dodge backward. Damn the things were fast. She had her mace but she let it dissipate ¨C they were too fast for her to try to retaliate so it would be useless ¨C and concentrated on not being hit.


    The one thing that made it possible for her was that the armors had no strategy. In the previous rooms they were slow but well organized however, here they acted like mindless beasts, dashing and hitting wildly, sometimes encumbering one another. This only barely allowed Liliei not to get hit as she continued to dodge. After a few minutes dodging ¨C or was it a few seconds, she couldn¡¯t really tell ¨C the armors stopped attacking and without knowing how, she felt they were grinning.


    ¡°Dive left!¡±


    When she heard Lenc, she reacted immediately, diving to her left just in time as she heard two loud thuds just behind her and two others a bit further. It took her only one second to realize they were the armors that were on the balcony before who had jumped down ¨C which meant it had only been a few seconds, and that her situation just got worse. She jumped back to her feet and turned to look, just in time to duck under a claw strike. She then jumped backward to take some distance but this time there was an other armor already dashing for her and she was too slow to dodge the strike, getting a large gash on her right arm.


    ¡°I could use some help here!¡± she shouted as she barely dodged another strike.


    ¡°Coming soon just a few more seconds.¡±


    Dodging had been manageable when there was only two, but now that the armors were six, it was downright impossible. They still had no coordination but the sheer number of attacks to be conscious of was overwhelming. She quickly got hit another time on her shoulder, then her torso, her legs cam next and she was glad that it didn¡¯t hamper her movements like it would normally ¨C after all she had no muscles that could be torn by the slashes. Finally, the call came from behind.


    ¡°Okay run here!¡±


    She didn¡¯t hesitate even one second as she turned and ran with all she could toward Nalaine and Lenc. Nalaine was holding a large pure white sphere between her hands and her brows were scrunched in concentration as Liliei got nearer, followed by the armors. Then the instant she was out of the area of effect of the spell, Nalaine pushed her hands forward while releasing her hold on the magic as she spoke.


    ¡°Cone of Frost¡±


    The effect was immediate. The energy contained between her hand shot forward, instantly trapping everything in front of her in a huge cone of ice. The six armors were frozen inside and they could see through the perfectly clear ice that the red glow in their eyes had completely disappeared indicating their death. A few seconds later, Nalaine sat down, soon followed Liliei who immediately set herself to healing her wounds.


    ¡°Good job holding them. That must not have been pleasant.¡±, Nalaine was looking at Liliei¡¯s wounds as she spoke.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    The thief shrugged, ¡°It isn¡¯t, but honestly, it doesn¡¯t compare with losing an arm, so...¡±, she trailed off. It wasn¡¯t only to reassure her friend either that she said that, as the pain hadn¡¯t really bothered her much, even more since she been prepared for it. She pointed at the large ice block: ¡°anyway, nice spell. You don¡¯t think you could prepare it before going into the room, could you?¡±


    Nalaine laughed a bit before answering.


    ¡°No, sadly, this require way too much concentration and precision for me to move while casting it. We need to find another way, also because this pretty much emptied my mana pool and it¡¯s quite taxing.¡±


    Now that she thought about it, Liliei too was starting to feel the tiredness settling in. It was still quite faint, but if she was to do more rooms in the same way, it would quickly become a problem. So, what they needed now was a way to deal with these armors more easily.


    The two girls turned in perfect sync, looking at Lenc behind them with a ¡®so what do we do?¡¯ look on their face. The man was lost in his thoughts and took a few seconds to realize the look on their face. And responded with a small grin.


    ¡°I think I know how we¡¯ll do.¡±


    The next corridor was free of trap, which made Liliei quite happy. They had rested for nearly half an hour for Nalaine to refill her mana pool before continuing. This time however they stopped just before going into the room, letting Nalaine cast a few spells on Liliei.


    The Demon wasn¡¯t too proficient at buffing spells ¨C she was more about shooting down the monsters ¨C but she was still able to cast a few and Liliei felt herself suddenly getting swifter and lighter. Then after another few seconds, an area of cold started to spread from the thief, and she went into the room. This time, the room had a major difference from all those they had walked through until now: there was only one other exit, placed right in front of where they came from, but there were still quite a few armors in the room. They were placed around small alcoves where the exits would have been.


    The moment Liliei got inside, eight of the armors started moving, turning to look at her. She hadn¡¯t used her Ability since it would require her to degrade her agility, which would be detrimental on the long run. This time there were four armors already on her height and four on the balcony. The ones on the ground rushed at her and she ran toward the ones on her right.


    As she approached the armors, the last spell Nalaine had laid on her started to affect them, the initially cold wind beginning to turn into a glacial storm as it was alimented in mana by the Demon. Liliei rushed straight between the two armors, the speed buffs combined with the storm slowing the monsters making them too slow to catch her as she got behind and stabbed one of them with a dagger construct ¨C not to much effects but her goal wasn¡¯t really to do damages.


    She was getting close to just under two of the armors that were on the balcony and just before getting there she dashed to her left, two loud thuds behind her as she ran around the two she had just passed a few seconds earlier.


    She saw that the last two had also jumped down, making it eight armors on the ground and now rushing at her, four in front, two on her left and two behind. They were slightly faster than her, but as soon as they got in range of the storm, the cold slowed them and prevented them from catching her. Now she just had to wait. She started running around the armors, dashing between them when they let enough space to do so, dodging as best as she could ¨C with a lot more success than the previous room thanks to the monster being slowed by Nalaine¡¯s spell. It didn¡¯t take too long before all eight were near her, trying to hit her, and a few seconds later, a blue shard flew through the room, embedding itself into one of the armor, which crumbled to the ground.


    Liliei allowed herself a small grin as she continued to dodge, letting the armors slowed by the storm hamper the one that weren¡¯t as, slowly, one by one, the armors got shot by large ice spikes. At one time, she saw a spike fly two meters over her and heard a shrill scream above her that made her shiver, but she continued until all eight armor had been downed.


    The instant the final one fell to the ground, she felt the storm disappear around her ¨C Nalaine no longer feeding it ¨C and she sat down in the middle of the rests of the monsters.


    ¡°So, your verdict?¡± asked Lenc as he and Nalaine got close.


    ¡°Perfect, the buffs make it a lot less complicated to dodge, even if¡­¡± she trailed off, looking at a large dent in her waist where a claw had caught her as she tried to dodge another. ¡°Well, I¡¯ve still got room to improve. How¡¯s your mana pool?¡± She turned to Nalaine while she slowly reconstructed the wound.


    ¡°Still around half full, the storm did cost quite a bit, but it was still quite manageable. But you really did well Lei, even with everything that was still eight on one and you only got hit once.¡±


    The three stayed there talking a few minutes before they continued, taking the only exit to the room other than going back ¨C even if, with the Dungeon, it probably wouldn¡¯t be the same room they had left. Liliei once again taking the lead to find if there was a trap. This time the indication was the stone on which she had walked very slightly sinking. She immediately jumped back, barely in time to dodge the three spear shooting out of the left wall at leg height ¨C getting hit by that would be quite dangerous, not directly lethal, but you would be immobilized and bleeding out quite quickly unless you had a way to heal.


    They continued after the spears retracted, and only a few meters further, the found themselves in front of an intersection. There were two ways they could go and they could see the interior of both rooms. To their right was a large room, at least five times the size of the previous ones. It seemed to be round and they could see a large chest on the opposite side of the room. However, all along the walls were armors, standing guard, and two very large ones ¨C one and half times the others¡¯ height ¨C were in front of the chest. To their left was a room seemingly like the others they had gone through, but with a large circle made of red metal on the ground.


    The three looked at each other and took to the left, only too happy to get out of this floor.

 Chapter 17

    It had been four days since they had gone to the fourth floor of the Dungeon and decided to take a few days before going back. Liliei had gained two Levels and Nalaine one during their trip so it had proved productive but they were all of the opinion that they would need a front line before going to the next floors, or even going back to the fourth. As such, Liliei had decided to continue training her Abilities, but that had been an endless source of frustration these past few days. She had absolutely no idea how to modify her first Ability¡¯s second Level or her second Ability¡¯s first Level which made it so that she couldn¡¯t improve them at all, and the others were also more or less at a standstill.


    The thing she was doing now was trying to improve her fine control when making constructs, making them smaller with more details, more precision. She was making a small ring composed of three smaller rings intertwined, and on each of the smaller rings she had made a small pattern in relief that turned around the ring, each having a different angle. She had been forced to make it with small threads to achieve this much details which meant that it took her a lot of Intent to keep it from dissipating and she had to reduce a little the density of her body. She then finished the ring by making each smaller ring a different color, one white, one black and one gray.


    She still hadn¡¯t found how to make the construct take different properties, so it didn¡¯t have the shine of a metallic item and didn¡¯t feel like it either when touched, but she was still quite satisfied of the item. She wouldn¡¯t be able to make it permanent ¨C it took so much just to keep it normal, there was no way she could ¨C but she put it at her finger and prepared to make another item when she heard someone at the entrance of her house.


    ¡°Hello Liliei, can I come?¡±


    She recognized Lenc¡¯s voice and agreed without much hesitation. It didn¡¯t take long before Lenc had climbed up, he was getting better at it. He then turned to Liliei.


    ¡°So how is it going? Are you making progress?¡±


    ¡°No, and it¡¯s extremely frustrating. You¡¯ve had an idea?¡±


    At Liliei¡¯s answer Lenc looked pensive for a second before answering.


    ¡°I have looked at a few things, hmm, if I remember correctly you have already tried modifying your body, but every time you tried it just went back to normal, right?¡±, after a small nod from Liliei he continued, ¡°How much did you modify at a time?¡±


    ¡°Not much, I tried reproducing the structure of a normal body, but it was quite complicated and slow so I didn¡¯t push too much when I saw it was just getting back to normal.¡±


    Lenc thought for a bit before continuing. He had an idea that could work.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s try something. don¡¯t go for something complicated, your body is just a mass of mana at the moment right? So go for something simple just to try to improve on this, then try to act on your whole body without letting go. You should also reduce the density of your body to the minimum, so there is less mana to affect. If it doesn¡¯t work we¡¯ll try something else.¡±


    ¡°Hmm,¡± the idea seemed good, it was a possibility that her modifications didn¡¯t stay because they weren¡¯t complete so, ¡°Yes I¡¯ll try¡±


    She sat on her bed and, following what Lenc had said, she reduced the density of her body as much as she could while still staying in one piece, then started to work on her arm. She felt how it was at the moment, a uniform mass of mana, that held a small amount of her Intent which allowed her to move it. She concentrated on it and started to act, willing it to change, to take a different form. But then she hesitated, what to do with it?


    She had already tried to make it like a real body, but that was too complicated, then maybe a very simplified version of a body? But she didn¡¯t remember very well from the book, and also what to keep and what to let out? No she needed to go simpler. So why not give the mana a direction, make it ¡®go¡¯ from the base of her arm to the tips of her fingers.


    She began doing that, starting from the fingers, but found herself stuck on how to give it a direction. She thought for a moment before finally deciding on organizing the mana into threads, like her constructs, but instead of weaving it or doing anything, she just pushed the mana into this form then let it be.


    She worked slowly, going to each finger one after the other, having to change the mana from its previous state, that she quickly came to liken it to a sort of liquid state, with its tendency to flow back when she tried to push it into a shape, to a more solid state where it would keep its form, but that she had to be careful not to let go back into the liquid. Even then, she felt it was different from when she made constructs, she had a more abstract feel about what she was doing compared to the constructs, like she wasn¡¯t really affecting the mana in a physical way, but she decided not to preoccupy herself with it now.


    After working for a moment, she realized that it was slower than when she had tried before without reducing the density of her body, but dismissed trying that as not sustainable. While she had more to do now to get the mana in the shape she wanted, she then only had to work to keep it from going back to liquid ¨C the same idea for every part ¨C where before she had to maintain each part individually in the form she wanted. And she also felt like it was easier to keep it there now. Still it was slow. She made her fingers and was converting her hand when she felt her first Ability start supporting her and accelerate the process a lot. She slowly continued from her hand to her arm then hesitated a second, before starting on her other arm.


    She was halfway on her second leg when she began feeling a problem. She had needed to use a part of her intent on everything she modified to keep it from reverting, but she started to feel her Intent running low. She started to discard everything that took a toll on it, one by one as she continued to modify her leg, and then the rest of her body. It wasn¡¯t enough however and she started slowing. As if it wasn¡¯t enough she started to feel the exhaustion settle as she used her Intent, slowing her even more.


    She continued to focus, slowly pushing the changes further up her body, up to her neck then started going down from her hair, ever slower, until she couldn¡¯t push anymore. Her mind was exhausted, she had not a speck of intent left and had already cut every single outward thing that cost her Intent to keep, but she was still missing a large sphere in the middle of her head. Just the upped half of her head had already taken her half as long as the rest combined due to the increasing slowness and she felt like she would faint from exhaustion, but she continued pushing further.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    It was slow, so slow she felt it wasn¡¯t even advancing at all, but she continued, slowly transforming more and more, taking a tiny bit of intent from everywhere that was already transformed and keeping it from reverting by pushing the Intent already present further. Slowly, the change crept closer to the center of her head where her link to her soul was situated and finally, she connected the threads to this point.


    The instant she finished, she felt something ¡®click¡¯ into placed and the pressure that was exerted onto her Intent relented. She also felt like something was trying to appear in her mind, but exhaustion caught up and she fainted.


    When Liliei woke up she was greeted by a terrible headache which elicited a small grunt. A split second later she heard Nalaine¡¯s voice which made the pain peak.


    ¡°Liliei! Are you all right? What happened?¡±


    She took two second to let the pain fall before, slowly, groaning something that should have sounded like ¡®too loud¡¯. Then waited another few seconds before turning, carefully, and slowly opening her eyes such as not to provoke the headache. In front of her was Nalaine that looked at her with her head slightly tilted as if to say ¡®what is she doing?¡¯. Liliei then slowly sat upright, taking note in passing that she was stark naked, before finally speaking a bit more clearly, if still very feebly to keep the headache at bay.


    ¡°Ugh, I feel like my head¡¯s splitting open. So what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Nalaine looked surprised that she could have a headache but quickly recovered and answered.


    ¡°Well, from what I understood, Lenc gave you and idea for modifying your body, then you went still for a few hours and you suddenly started stripping, at which point he decided to come search for me. Then you stay immobile for two days straight, barely breathing and no other movements, and then you fall and I barely stop you from crashing to the ground, and you sleep for a day straight. So I repeat, what happened?¡±


    Liliei started explaining what she had done while checking her body. Her modification hadn¡¯t reverted ¨C she would have been quite angry if it had ¨C but she couldn¡¯t feel the difference as of now since she had just the bare minimum of mana inside her body. Then as she got to the end of her explanation, she decided to make herself some clothes again.


    ¡°You¡¯ve overexerted your mind, which explains the headache, so for now you...¡± Nalaine stopped long enough to shake her head as Liliei reeled from the pain as she was trying to exert her Intent, ¡°¡­ Should not use your mana, else¡­ well, that.¡±


    After the twenty seconds it took her to recuperate from the pain, she looked at Nalaine who had a wry smile.


    ¡°Thanks for the info, even if a tiny bit late. I¡¯ll keep it in mind. Then for the moment I will¡­¡± She tried to move her arms a bit faster, but it was too fast and she winced from the pain, ¡°Okay, I¡¯ve got my cue, I¡¯ll sleep again until I can move a bit without getting my head to split into little bits every time.¡± The defeat was clear in her voice as she slowly lowered herself in her bed before closing her eyes ¨C the darkness immediately providing a measure of relief from the pain.


    Nalaine¡¯s voice seemed to come from far away as she drifted back into sleep.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go back then, I¡¯ll pass by tomorrow to see if you¡¯re better.¡±


    When she woke up this time, Liliei was mostly free from the headache ¨C she could still feel it looming in the background but she was confident she could move without much problem. Thus she sat up and began thinking. For now she needed to get some clothes, and reinforce her body again to prevent her from breaking at the slightest shock. She felt for the stream of mana that went through her body and found it quickly. It had adapted to the changes and was now following the threads throughout her body. She began to pour some mana into the stream and discovered with satisfaction that it spread faster than before, increasing the density of mana in her body up to where it was before in maybe half the time she would have needed, and then continued further.


    She continued pouring more mana until it would stay and found herself with half again what she had before. Then she started moving and felt the difference. Her body was more responsive, faster, more precise, more efficient. Moving felt more natural than before, simpler. A large grin appeared on her face as started moving throughout the house testing her body. It was also a bit more flexible which she appreciated quite a bit.


    Her next task was making clothes for herself and here as well she felt a difference. It wasn¡¯t as pronounced as for her body, but it was maybe a fifth faster and a fifth less costly in Intent for the upkeep. Which, now that she thought about it didn¡¯t make any sense. Unless¡­


    She opened her status and her grin spread further.


    [Liliei Sil


    Race: Mana Spirit


    Level: 12


    Abilities:


    -Main Ability 1:


    1) Tendency to be harder to notice. Ability to use mana to reinforce concealment and reduce the chance of being seen.


    2) Reduce the chance of being noticed when moving. Ability to use mana to hide a movement done for a short time.


    -Secondary Ability 1:


    1) Burst of movement tends to be faster and more precise.


    2) Increase smoothness and flow of movements.


    -Main Ability 2:


    1) Increase efficiency at manipulating own mana, and allow faster reconstruction.


    2) Increase ability at external mana manipulation, and allow creation of external constructs.


    3) Increase efficiency of Intent, and allow Intent infusion on own physically manifested mana.


    -Secondary Ability 2:


    1) Increase perception of mana.


    2) Increase the size of the mana pool.


    3) Increase ease of understanding on mana.


    Stats:


    Own Mana Manipulation:


    -Speed: 27


    -Precision: 17


    -Intent Potency: 9


    -Perception: 6


    -Mana Pool: 9


    -Mental Strength: 4


    Skills: None]