The Path of Ascension

PoA: Minkalla Chronicles Floor 2

Minkalla Chronicles Floor 2

Cory cursed in half a dozen languages as his Genesis Energy ran low.

He was a hybrid fighter and was used to fighting alone, but this floor was testing him.

It pushed him to his limits with each encounter.

His normal fighting style was built around casting spells to empower his body and lance, but he just didnt have enough Genesis Energy in his spirit to mimic his mana pool. It certainly didnt help that he couldnt rely on his normal tactic of waiting for his mana to recharge, slowly pushing through rifts all on his own.

These tree monsters in particular were a problem for him to take on.

While he could beat them without getting hurt, he spent more Genesis Energy than he earned from the kills, even with their increased rewards.

Slowly but surely, he was running out of Genesis Energy, and once that happened, he would be a dead man.

Cory refused to give up hope though, and continually fought to find himself an exit to this place. As long as he found a different ruin where he earned Genesis Energy per kill, he could return to his normal pace. If anything, this floor would be extra fast for him, and not using his mana at all would set him up quite nicely for the third floor.

Activating [Dash] and [Mana Reinforcement], Cory braced himself and charged into the tree monster that had uprooted itself.

His lance stabbed deep into the wooden body of the monster, but it swung its branches right back, trying to both whip and entangle him.

Cory cast [Mana Shield] to block the attacks as he channeled Genesis Energy into [Fire Weapon]. In seconds, his lance was engulfed in flames that incinerated the tree monster.

Under normal circumstances, [Fire Weapon] was one of his favorite skills, as the channeled nature of the skill meant that he could always spend just the right amount of mana on it. But here, hed found the corresponding cost in Genesis Energy to be outright ruinous, even when trying to limit it as much as possible.

The spell did its job of burning the tree, but one strike wasnt enough on a monster that large, no matter how powerful and golden the Genesis Energy-empowered flames were. So, he was forced to keep the skill active as he cast [Rapid Thrust], and thrust his spear a few dozen times in rapid succession with help from the spell.

That left a dozen holes in the tree's body, and a rush of Genesis Energy flowed into him. Like before, it was still not enough to cover the cost of his spells.

He was cursing Minkalla for making such an annoying floor when he felt a flash of Genesis Energy in the distance. It only appeared for a second, but was like a firefly on a dark night.

Unmistakable.

Crouching down, he stalked through the woods like some kind of coward to see a group of two.

A man and a woman fought against one of the tree creatures, and Cory smiled.

If he was running out of Genesis Energy, why didnt he just take the walking delivery?

As their fight was nearing its end, Cory cast [Dash] and [Mana Reinforcement].

He took the man in the back and skewered him on his lance. He didnt immediately die, but as he cast [Whirlwind], he spun in place with his lance creating a barrier as he twisted.

Sadly, his human passenger was torn apart by the sudden speed change, and was sent flying in two halves.

The woman screamed and threw a dagger at Cory, but he used [Dash] once again to both dodge the attack and impale the woman as well.

After that, it only took seconds for him to finish off the tree monster they had already wounded.

As he felt the rush of Genesis Energy, he smiled.

For once, he earned more than he spent in a fight.

And looking at the two humans on the ground, his smile only grew larger.

There was more Genesis Energy to be harvested.

***

Krip dodged a thrown blade from the first wight, but cried out as a second and third came out of the ground and joined their brethren.

He was low on Genesis Energy, and thought he could get an easy kill if he fought the zombies in this ruin.

It had worked at first, but he had missed the wights that had been stalking him.

If it had only been one of the monsters, he was sure that he could have defeated them, but with three, he was forced to spend more and more Genesis Energy with each passing second.

He was near empty when he turned and ran, but the wights kept on his tail and didnt let up, forcing him away from retreating back the way he had come.

He slowed down as he ran out of Genesis Energy, and five razor sharp claws punched through his chest and squeezed his heart.

As he was dying, his final thought was if monsters collected Genesis Energy.

If it did, it almost seemed poetic.

Hed killed them to empower himself, and now he was, in turn, empowering them.

***

Lucas cursed when he noticed that his mana didnt flow into his skills as they always had.

As a mage, this was the worst possible floor for him.

His husband, Roderick, laughed as he cut out with his sword, and a crescent of golden energy cut a nearby tree down.

The brute was enjoying himself while Lucas struggled.

He was a damage mage, and all of his spells were built around casting the biggest spells he could.

This floor was a curse to him.

Roderick smiled at him and winked. It's ok, you can just hide behind my shield for this floor. I can both protect you and cut down our enemies.

Lucas debated zapping the man with a [Jolt], but discarded the idea. Too wasteful.

Remember that we still have a mission, you rogue. Lucas pulled out the transmission spike and threw it into the ground before covering the hole with his boot.

The thing was beyond low tech, but it was also one of the Corporations greatest secrets.

Long range communication inside the floors of Minkalla for their carry teams.

Lucas and Roderick were highly trained by the Carnegie Corporation for this explicit mission. While the first floor's theme blocked even these contraptions, they were able to set it up going forward.

Then, the teams that came carrying influential offspring of the various boards of directors could ensure that they had both information and a safety net if anyone attacked them inside Minkalla.

It wasnt perfect, but it allowed the Carnegie Corporation to charge teracredits for other corporations to tap into the network.

Lucas had inspected the spikes, but he was pretty sure that it was a Talent driven item, as it seemed like a completely mundane spike of tin.

How someone got around Minkallas restrictions while being outside the planet's influence, he had no idea, but they were well-paid and trained for this expedition.

Their job was to get to the third floor at minimum, and if possible, the fourth floor with their cache of spikes. If they wanted to push deeper, they were more than able, but their contract only demanded that they reach the third floor of Minkalla.

The two of them spent decades training for this, but even for them, a first floor Eternal Darkness was rough. That wasn't a floor that paid well to prospective clients, after all.

But Genesis Cultivation. That paid well beyond the norm.

Every business magnate would want to send their children or proteges in at Tier 12 or possibly 11 for this floor alone.

While they would have higher Tier guards, which lowered the amount of Genesis Energy they earned per kill, it wouldn't change the rewards they were given if they could meet the cost of the floor theme.

As a Tier 13, Lucas could only imagine the advantages they would have, but he was content with his and Roderick's lot. They would still get some of their essence converted, and would be rewarded with a fraction of the proceeds from everyone who came in after them.

Roderick disappeared out of Lucas' sight, and an explosion came from his right side at almost the same moment.

He turned after checking their left and readied himself to cast a spell, but quickly saw that Roderick had cut down the bull with lightning arcing between its horns.

The larger man was laughing like a child at the power his physical reserve skills gave him, and Lucas could only look on in envy.

He was the one who usually protected the big oaf. Now that the shoe was on the other foot, he discovered that he didnt quite enjoy its fit.

Still, it was nice to see the larger man so alive. He hadnt handled Eternal Darkness well at all.

But they needed to get a move on. Only once they left Minkalla could they relax.

***

Vibia looked at the wall in front of her.

She was old and nearing the end of her life, and entering Minkalla had been a fools errand. A last ditch effort to stay alive.

She had been content with her passing until her son reached his own immortality and stopped delving long enough to settle down.

When she held her grandson in her arms, she realized that she would never be able to see him grow up if she allowed herself to succumb to old age.

She had been at the peak of Tier 14 for centuries, but without her Concept, she was unable to advance any further.

That had been ok. Her son had long since grown up, but now with a grandchild, she had a reason to live again.

So, she entered Minkalla.

Her son had begged her not to go, but she had insisted.

It was her only chance, and she refused to let it slip by.

But the wall in front of her was both literal and metaphorical.

She had tried to fly over it, but as soon as she neared it, the flying leaf she had been riding on sent her tumbling into the ground as it failed.

Climbing was also out of the question. The wall was slick as polished glass, and there wasn't a handhold to be found. She had attempted to use [Earth Manipulation] to create hand holes, or even create a pillar of earth to lift her into the air, but both applications of the skill had failed.

So, she was stuck at this obstacle, and she could feel herself giving up. It would be so easy to just turn away from a challenge and find an easier path forward.

After all, it was what she had done for all her life.

Take the path of least resistance. The easy way.

It had served her well, giving her a long comfortable life where she was able to experience so many things. Multiple lifetimes of experiences that she had become numb to after a thousand years.

But with a grandson now in the picture, she refused to just give up.

This wall had turned into a representation of her old self and old life.

Minkalla had woken old instincts and shaken the rust off her joints, but she was still the same old woman.

Vibia refused to back down from this challenge. It might only be the second floor, but she knew this was a pivotal point in her life. If she surpassed this obstacle, she could reforge herself anew.

It took her a week, but she eventually built herself a ladder out of the trees from another nearby ruin.

Slow and steady, she created herself a path forward with the materials she had around her.

No wall was insurmountable as long as you had time, resources, and put in the effort.

When she reached the top of the wall, she discovered a pillar of crystal on the flat top of what she now could see was a mountain so tall, it touched the sky.

Touching it, she got a feel for the challenge.

It almost surprised her to feel the idea of balance, of waiting creep into her.

She had done her research, and knew of this challenge room, nicknamed Time is Money.

Anyone could enter the challenge room for any cost, but what was truly tested was their patience.

The longer they lasted, the more Genesis Energy they got out of the pillar. If someone lasted a year or two, they could come out with enough Genesis Energy to take the fourth floor exit reward, even on the first floor.

But because this was Minkalla, it wasnt that simple.

The time spent inside the pillar wasnt accelerated. Every minute inside was a minute outside, unlike most of its longer lasting challenges.

Vibia smiled at the reflection of herself in the pillar.

The old her would have taken this challenge as a surefire way to safely ensure that she had enough Genesis Energy to exit Minkalla, but the trials and tribulations she had faced in the last few months had reforged her.

She didnt need the easy way out.

As she turned away, she found herself back on the floor with the wall to her back.

She had already climbed that mountain, and there was no reason to look back at it.

She needed to find new mountains to climb.

***

Castor laughed as his blade came down on another scorpion.

With Genesis Energy fueling his skills, he was like a god on this floor.

Even the rest of his team, who were normally stronger than him with their reliance on spells, had been forced to acknowledge his prowess.

And it felt good.

Linsey, the stuck up mage, was now treating him with more respect than ever before.

She had even brought him a water canteen during their last break.

For the woman who only had time for practicing her spells to be reduced to that level of humbling herself it made him smile.

Once upon a time, the four of them had been friends, but Castor had seen how the others treated him as lesser because of his more simple fighting style.

But who had the last laugh now?

That simple fighting style that had earned him so much ridicule was now the only thing keeping the rest of them alive.

Castor liked his newfound power.

He looked at the others and smiled at them.

They were under his power, and showed him respect.

Turning back to the front, he missed the smiles turning into sneers.

If he had seen those looks, he might have anticipated the blade that cut his throat as he defeated the final boss of the third level.

***

Claude punched the stumbling bear and cast [Shocking Touch]. The contact spell did much more damage than the typical Tier 8 spell, but the range restriction both limited it and empowered it.

Still the Tier 14 bear only spasmed, so he punched it once more while also casting [Penetrating Fist]. The spell was a melee pugilist favorite, and allowed the force of a blow to be transferred beyond the initial strike, bypassing most armors and making it ideal for hitting weaker organs in armored foes.

It worked just as well on the bear, and his fist ruptured its heart.

Or at least, that was what Claude assumed as he received a stream of Genesis Energy from the creature.

He checked his reserves and frowned.

While he had made a profit from the last fight, he felt like he could do better.

The only reason the bear had been so easy to kill was the fact it was shocked from his first spell, allowing him to land a clean blow directly over its heart, but it meant using a second cast of his spell, which was ineffective.

He could always throw his Talent at the monster, but that was less than ideal. His Talent wasnt foolproof, and over reliance on it would and could get him in trouble, so he preferred not to fall into the habit of using it directly on his opponents. He preferred to use it on insects and other animals that could neither resist his Talent nor make him overly reliant on their confusion.

Moving up to the next bear, he punched it with a few mundane blows, dodging and weaving its paw swipes, lunges, and bites, but wasnt able to figure out a reliable way to kill the beast in a single hit. At least, not quickly enough for his liking without casting too many spells.

Claude was pondering the situation when an idea came to him.

Backing up to a tree, he allowed the bear to charge him, and right before it hit him, he slipped around the tree while breaking line of sight.

With one flex of his legs, he jumped and grabbed a branch above the monster, using it to redirect his momentum.

The bear wasnt stupid, and was waiting with its maw open for him to fall, but Claude hardened the air with his Concept for a brief instant to change the timing of his decent, causing its bite to close on empty air.

His armored foot, on the other hand, landed directly on the monster's forehead, and he used it to cast [Massage]. The spell loosened the bear's muscles and it slumped as it fought against the relaxing effects.

Even that slight instant of paralysis was more than sufficient for Claude to slide down its head to land on its shoulders and drive a dagger into its eye.

Genesis Energy flowed into him and he smiled. One cheap spell and the bear was dead.

Now that was much more like it.

With an easy and cheap way to kill the monster of this ruin, Claude sauntered through the woods looking for more of them.

On this floor, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to farm Genesis Energy like this.

***

Torbjorn brought his claws down on the snake lunging at him, and the three blades of his modified [Mana Strike] effortlessly sliced through the creatures scales. In return, he received another rush of Genesis Energy to refill what pittance he had just expended.

This floor was fantastic for him.

Usually, he had to very carefully balance the amount of mana he had reserved in his skills and Talent with the mana he actually used to attack. But here, that was hardly an issue. He could use skills with impunity, and his Talent, seeing that not only was his mana pool full, but every last drop of it was reserved by his Tier 3 Talent in particular, empowered his already-strengthened skills to a truly unprecedented degree.

He reserved a lot of his new bounty of energy into his skills, and felt even more strength flow under his fur.

Another giant snake pounced at him, but a twist of his body crushed it underpaw. Eternal Darkness was one thing, he was supposed to be the ambush predator, not bats.

But here, on this floor This was his hunting ground.

***

Han De panted as he punched the blob of slime in front of him.

He didnt know what this floor was, but it tried to make him spend his precious Genesis Energy for casting spells, and that was unacceptable.

He had struggled for each and every mote of that energy. Nothing was going to take it away from him.

On the first floor, he had learned how to be brave, and refined his techniques through a trial of blood, and eventually came out victorious. The spiritual challenge he had been pulled into had only further tempered him.

Once inside it, he had been forced to join a grand army that was fighting back against a horde of monsters that the inhabitants had called demons. The red skinned and winged humanoids had been a struggle to fight at first, but the army sergeants had taken him under their wings and shown him how to fight.

Even as the days turned into weeks in the spiritual challenge, he became stronger.

There hadnt been proper techniques in the spiritual challenge, but the men and women of that land knew their way around martial combat, and he had absorbed all of their information like a sponge.

When they finally launched an assault against the demon king, it had been a final desperate measure to stem the tide of demons from crashing against the kingdom's weak commoners.

Han De hadnt cared about those useless people at first, but one of the new recruits who had joined the army with him had shown him something more.

While he didnt really understand it, Yi Zhelan had shown him something greater. Kindness had its powers as much as brute force.

He had known that she was just a part of the spiritual challenge, but he had fallen in love with her despite that fact.

She was both strong and kind to everyone around her.

He had even believed that if he defeated the demons, he could somehow manage to take her out with him, but that hope had been dashed as she took a claw strike meant to end his life in his stead.

Han De had been angry before, but he had never known such rage was possible as he watched Yi Zhelan become infected by the demon kings poisonous claws right in front of him.

Using her fallen blade, he cut the demon king's head off, but it had done nothing to stop the creeping blackness from overtaking Yi Zhelans body, despite all his pleas and begging.

Nothing had been enough.

Yi Zhelan died, and the spiritual challenge had ended.

Han De didnt remember the rest of the first floor; he was in such a daze from his loss.

He had only started thinking clearly again once his techniques stopped working.

It was then that he learned that he needed to use his precious Genesis Energy to cast techniques.

That problem was only compounded by the fact that the monsters were a variant of slime that seemed immune to physical combat.

No matter how he cut or crushed them, they always reformed.

Eventually, he had discovered it was possible to kill them without spending Genesis Energy, but he was loath to do it.

The spiritual challenge hadnt been all cruel.

When he came out of his fuge, he realized that he had Yi Zhelans blade.

It had seemingly bound to him, and was able to channel his fear and cowardice into tangible power.

With it, he was able to dispatch the slimes, but he refused out of principle.

Yi Zhelans blade was not some common tool to be used and abused. She had cherished it, and so would he.

So he used the monsters as a way to train.

Refining his martial training with his much stronger body took some time, but eventually, he was even able to dodge the grasping tentacles of the slimes and avoid being enveloped.

He might not be able to do any damage to them, but they were unable to injure him either.

As he fought, he worked through his loss.

Yi Zhelan might be gone, but he would do his best to live up to her ideals.

Power could be used to do more than lord over others.

Power could be used to help others who were too weak to help themselves.

At first, he thought they were heretical thoughts, but the more he dwelled on it, the more he realized that wasn't true.

After all, didn't the Great Sects offer guidance and resources to those weaker than them?

It seemed like a pointless thought, but he also realized something deeper.

The Great Sects were only able to do so because they were the strongest entities in the realm.

Those with power could do as they wish for good or ill, but those without power were nothing.

They couldnt change anything because they were weak.

That was why the Sect Master was so hard on them.

She knew the truth.

The weak were only able to be trampled on by the strong.

And if Han De wanted to do more than avoid being trampled on, he needed to grow strong.

So day after day, he fought the slimes.

Nothing changed after a week.

Nor after a month.

But something finally changed after the fifth month of eroding the wall that was the slimes.

Han De was fighting four of the monsters at the same time, and he felt something inside him click into place.

It wasnt his first revelation. That was like a blanket settling over his body as it flooded him with its power.

This was something different.

As his boot kicked out, a slime exploded, but unlike before, it didnt reform.

The sudden change surprised Han De so much, he was nearly tackled by one of the other slimes before he lashed out again.

He didnt expect the slime to also die in a single hit, but once again, it happened.

Two more kicks ended the threat, and suddenly, he was alone in the cave.

For months he had been fighting these same slimes, but now they were dead, and had given him a wealth of Genesis Energy.

One of the slimes even dropped a pair of trousers that looked only slightly too big for him.

As he mechanically picked up the items, he checked his body and spirit to see what had happened.

It took a while, but he eventually discovered that there was a new technique inside his spirit.

What it did or how he got it, he didn't know, but it was there.

Undeniable proof that he had created a technique.

He couldn't believe it.

Even the greatest of Young Masters were said to not even attempt making their own technique until after they reached their immortality, but he had done it.

Little, cowardly Han De had created a technique.

It just seemed too unbelievable.

He wasnt worthy of such an honor, and he hadnt even been trying to do so.

Still in shock, he returned to his little camp in a high nook that the slimes couldn't get to. He sat down and cried as he hugged Yi Zhelans blade.

She would have been so proud of him, and would have celebrated this great accomplishment alongside him.

Yi Zhelan was full of life and happiness.

But she was dead.

He cried even harder at the thought.

He might have been able to create a technique, he might have been able to overcome the first floor of Minaklla in the dark, and he might have even been able to defeat the demon king. But deep down, Han De knew the truth He was a weak coward.

As he finally got himself under control, Han De wiped his face before clearing his throat.

He was shaming himself, his Sect, and Yi Zhelan by acting weak.

Han De needed to test what his new technique did, and then he needed to fight his way through this floor.

Minkalla had been reshaping him step by step, but he had overcome this challenge.

If he wanted to continue to grow, he needed to move on and find the next encounter.

Looking off to the side, where more caverns of slimes jiggled around, he changed his mind slightly.

First, he needed to clear out those pests.

Genesis Energy was Genesis Energy after all.

Waste not want not. And Han De was tired of wanting.

***

Aubrey coughed out a mouth full of blood as the tusk of the oversized pig gored her.

She had been so careful on this floor with her limited Genesis Energy reserves, but one mistake had cost her a chunk of flesh.

How a pig that came up to her waist had been able to sneak up on her, she didnt know, but the damn thing had taken two [Fire Bolt]s to the head without even flinching.

As she rolled out of the way of a charging rush by the monster, she cast [Jolt] at its underbelly.

That finally earned her a response as the lightning shocked the monster, sending its muscles into convulsing spasms.

Julian cut out at the monster, but even his blade was ineffective against the monster's thick flesh, doing little more than shaving some hair.

From her position on the ground, she was able to land another [Fire Bolt] on the thinner skinned underside of the pig, and this time, the smell of fried pork was apparent.

Smiling with the knowledge that they could beat this beast, Aubrey was caught off guard as she was readying another cast of [Jolt]. She saw Julian turn and run.

It was such a shocking thing that she was frozen in place mid cast.

She was jolted out of her shock when she heard it.

Dozens of hooves striking the ground at once.

As the waist-high beast chased after Jullian, she watched as its litter of children came through the grass, charging right at her.

Cursing Jullian for his cowardice and herself for her awful luck, she cast [Jolt] once again.

It struck and took down the first piglet, but the second and third got closer and closer as she cast spell after spell as fast as she could.

On the eighth piglet, she was too slow, and it drove its smaller tusks into her chest and started shaking.

***

Hailey cursed as Nikolaj took a hit in the side from the chomping abomination; a mix of naked mole rats and nightmare horrors.

The second level of the second floor had dumped them into this nightmare, and they were taking all kinds of damage damage.

Without her usual AI scans of her teammate's bodies, it was harder to know exactly how badly he was hurt. Still, it didnt look like an immediately dangerous wound, so she ignored it. It wasnt nice, but she needed to save her limited Genesis Energy reserves. This damn floor theme was a horror on a caster like her.

Even poor Jeremiah was next to useless now that he had run out of Genesis Energy. Their resident mage had used everything he had in reserves to take down the shark boss they had encountered. Sadly, that left him little better than a weak melee fighter hastily armed with a sword.

Still, he stayed by her side and protected her the best he could, even though he wasnt the melee fighter that Nikolaj, Modwen, and Zoey were.

Modwen fell back with her arm only half connected by a strand of muscle, and Hailey cursed.

She was a proper healer, and could both reattach and regrow the limb, but that would take time, and it was Modwens off hand.

The large woman really didnt need it that badly, and she needed her Genesis Energy to cast her buffing skills like [Transferred Might] on Nikolaj and [Transferred Proprioception] on Zoey.

The damn mole rats were ambush attackers, which demanded the front liners be fast and strong. And the two of them were respectively weaker and slower than where they had to be to effectively fight the monsters, so she had to prioritize boosting their powers up. Countering specialization was what a support did, after all.

Still, Modwens nearly missing arm was a problem, just not an immediate one, so Hailey cut it off and slapped a [Bandage] talisman on the wound while dousing the stump with part of a healing potion.

It would both stop the bleeding and numb the pain, but it would make it that much harder for Hailey to reattach the limb later.

Thankfully, the limb was no longer a living entity, so she chucked it into her spatial bag and moved on.

The team struggled as they moved through the tunnels, but they learned how the mole rat horrors fought and attacked, and were able to counter them accordingly.

At first, they seemed to come from nowhere, but they learned that their theory wasnt exactly true. Or rather, not completely true. The mole rats came out of the ground, yes, but they couldn't do it everywhere.

The patches of oddly colored darkness werent just odd colorations of the tunnels that Minkalla created, but rather indications that the mole rats were about to break through. With that realization, their team was able to anticipate the mole rats and their mouths filled with needle sharp teeth, ready to take a chunk out of her friends.

Once they learned that little trick, Nikolaj and Zoey were able to pin one of the little terrors down so Jeremiah could stick it with his sword.

That earned them all some breathing room. Jeremiah had been rated top of their class for a reason. He was a fantastic mage who excelled at all four of the basic elemental aspects, Earth, Fire, Water, Air. He could control and manipulate all of them at his whim. Using [Earth Sense] he was able to track the enemies around them, which lessened the danger tremendously.

He still needed to be fed Genesis Energy from their kills every few encounters, but they were able to use his extended senses to find and exit the ruin in short order.

It was like a weight had been lifted off all of their shoulders as they entered a clearing with both sunlight and water readily available.

They werent dumb enough to rest without checking the clearing, but they found nothing wrong with the place, so they decided to settle down.

For the rest of them, it was a break, but for Hailey, it meant she needed to get to work.

Genesis Energy, as they learned, was both a substitute for mana and so much more. It empowered skills cast with it at least twofold, but didnt adjust the price of spells, which made for an interesting cost-benefit analysis. If you had a weaker spell that you normally had to cast twice to kill something, using Genesis Energy to cast it was perfect, as it saved you a cast and therefore time. But if you only had a strong skill that cost more mana, but did enough damage to kill the enemy in one hit, you were now vastly overspending a very limited resource.

Sadly, healing fell into that second category.

You needed the same amount of Genesis Energy for the initial cast of the spell as you did mana, and while 100 mana for a directed healing spell wasnt much, that was only a fraction of the actual cost of undirected healing. A healer then needed to feed more mana into an undirected healing spell, which ballooned the cost into the thousands normally.

But they had no option other than to pay the price.

The problem was that Hailey didnt have enough Genesis Energy to completely reattach Modwens arm. There was no escaping that issue.

She had what she estimated to be a thousand Genesis Energy, when she would need at least four thousand to perform the operation.

Thankfully, she was able to get the rest of the team back into tip top shape.

Now, they just needed to go back into the tunnel of horrors and allow her to farm enough Genesis Energy to restore their friend's body.

Slow and steady might not win them any races, but it would keep them all alive, and that was what really mattered.

***

Natalie looked at the dreamscape before her and cracked her knuckles. Minkalla hadnt been easy, not by any stretch of the imagination. But the challenge rooms, and even the first floors floor reward had been trivial, and she expected this to be no different. It wasnt that she was supernaturally gifted in every area, but her Talent set her up uniquely well to profit off of Minkalla and its restrictions.

She could make any test on her return any result she wanted. It was a bit of an odd, niche Talent, but it made her an absolutely stellar undercover operative. And while anything with a spirit could resist it, whatever vague intelligence governed Minkalla clearly didnt count. Though it did correctly recognize her as a true Tier 13, rather than completely unawakened.

Ah well, I cant have everything.

Her time in the infamous forge had consisted largely of darting from challenge room to challenge room, then informing Minkalla that she had done absolutely stellar in each instance.

It didnt matter that her attempts at herding sheep were better never spoken of again. As far as Minkalla was concerned, shed killed every predator within the simulation, then personally picked up and moved every sheep to its destination, while also training them to follow her every command, and shed done it all in half a second.

The Genesis Energy shed earned from that had allowed her to pay for her skills through the rest of the floor, and while her actual infiltration of a fortress was top-notch in the next challenge room, Minkalla saw her as being impossibly good.

Now, she was at the theme challenge, and she took a few seconds to scribble out a crude drawing of a dog. It was barely recognizable as an animal, but she handed it to Minkalla along with the idea that it was the most incredible thing Minkalla had ever seen throughout its entire existence. She convinced the planet that it was an invention so utterly phenomenal, it would revolutionize life in every realm, and was deeply personal to her, while being intensely beautiful and elegant.

The whiteness took her, and she smiled.