Toya flinched. “He’s not using a potion, is he?”

  “No,” Soise whispered with a shiver. Sip was curled up into a ball, grabbing his head.

  “What is even happening anymore?!”

  “Oh pipe down,” Catania snorted. “Headmaster Xoiae thinks he’s strong, right? Of course he’s strong.”

  “But-but—” he pointed into the dungeon sky. “He’s flying on magic explosions! THIS IS RIDICULOUS!”

  “HEY!” I shouted down. “Mind getting me some help up here?!”

  Toya glanced at Soise. “Should we—”

  “No!” Master Jujud laughed from her little chair in the back. “He’s got this!”

  I swallowed hard, dropping beads of sweat. They glistened down, falling past my field of orbs, down for the better part of a mile to the abyss below my feet.

  Or above my feet, rather.

  Actually, wouldn’t everything be falling up?

  It was getting difficult to tell.

  I grunted, adjusting my stance to keep the Core pinned down, writhing beneath my shovel. It tore itself in half, snapping around my back. A dozen decently-sized orbs knocked it into the air, allowing me to pivot Crapshoveler between the metal plates around the Core’s stomach.

  {Two-Star : Gauntlet of Repulsion}

  The Core let out a scream, flipping gravity with a blast of nefarious mana.

  I spun, jumping off little green orbs in the air, switching their color into a specific mixture of purple and red, splitting into a curtain of little orbs that snagged the Crapshoveler, using their different positioning to fling him beneath my feet, acting as a surfboard in the sky.

  Sip pointed. “There! DID YOU SEE THAT?!”

  “We see it, Sip,” Catania grumbled. “He’s just showing off.”

  Explosive bursts of mana tore through the dungeon, snarling the pockets of Gravity. The abyss above me became the ceiling, and I hurtled downward, smacking into the Core like a sack of potatoes.

  He effortlessly tossed me into the sky, crossing between several conflicting gravitational fields, churning my poor stomach.

  Before I regained control, gravity had shifted again. I spun around in an arc, falling into the dungeon walls on the left, deflating falling rubble as the Core dropped into the direct center of his crumbling dungeon.

  He didn’t seem to be doing anything—

  The dungeon folded in half, shattering several abstract metal buildings.

  I created anti-green pockets on either side of myself, tossing the scattered remains of buildings back down, obscuring the monster’s vision while letting go of Crapshoveler. He spun back toward, clipping my heels even as I accelerated with manifestations.

  I started firing ten percent maximum blasts, circling around the core in a hurricane of mana.

  As long as I threw the orbs with the right strength and speed, they’d orbit the core basically for as long as I could keep them from exploding. When two connected, they changed momentum, directly targeting the core.

  Between their erratic movements and the falling debris, the core had no idea where he should focus, inevitably neglecting to focus on any point as well as he should’ve.

  Toya grunted, finishing his web in the center of the dungeon. “When did he learn to do that?”

  “Yesterday night,” Sip hissed.

  I ducked under a swipe, kicking upward, knocking the Core into Crapshoveler.

  At that moment, one hundred yellow orbs bolted at the core, completely ignoring his metal armor.

  The Core’s crystal cracked.

  {Two Star : Gauntlet of Repulsion: (-1) 1 Hp}

  Suddenly, the whole dungeon fell apart.

  Gravitational fields obliterated the floor, flinging me and the crystal into the sky.

  We crashed into the ceiling, connecting with a hidden second city, built upside down.

  The Core reared up, entering his final stage.

  “Drop some good loot for me, would you?” I asked. So far, I’d been using only half of the orbs my fields created, keeping them frozen in the sky like stars.

  No less than a thousand red orbs roared through the sky, switching green and purple a moment before impact.

  Weeping blue and mortal red, creating inverse expanse, or anti-green.

  The Core lunged.

  Air compressed into a solid sphere, crumpling the Core like a tin can. Within that Sphere, green orbs detonated, gouging holes through the ceiling, revealing the endless dungeon dimension sky beyond it. Torn metal fell from the ceiling like glitter, dusting my clothes.

  Only one of the core’s arms remained, snapped from the body by the sheer force of implosion.

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  {Two Star : Gauntlet of Repulsion: (-1) 0 Hp}

  The loot started falling. The Exp snaked toward me, crashing open on contact, while the massive stat orbs and gear fell close behind it, landing in Toya’s net.

  I landed a moment later, grinning like an idiot.

  {RANK UP!}

  [Progression to Iron : 100%]

  [Progression to Brass: 11%] (+12000 Exp)

  ~

  [(+2k) 100k Str]

  [(+1k) 100k Hp]

  [(+2k) 100k AtkSp]

  [(+500) 100k Mana]

  ~

  [EVOLUTION AVAILABLE!]

  [115 effected items]

  I landed behind them, frowning at Sip, who was staring with his mouth open.

  “There’s no way you learned that yesterday,” Toya grumbled.

  “Don’t underestimate practice.”

  After clearing five two-star dungeons in a row, the power was starting to become intuitive.

  I glanced at the rest of my team, holding up the ‘Evolution’ screen. “What’s this?”

  Catania started clapping. “Very impressive Grind. Few people move up two ranks in a single day.”

  Toya coughed “Two days.”

  “Shut up. The point is Grind’s going to be busy for a while.” She pointed to my screen. “Once you cross into Iron, you can start using enchanting on your abilities.”

  I blinked.

  “I can enchant. My abilities?”

  Catania nodded. “You’ll need to spend a few weeks to a few days for each one, naturally, and considering what you’ve got—” she squinted. “One hundred fifteen abilities…that’d take a year. Maybe more.”

  “He doesn’t have a hundred and fifteen abilities,” Soise said. “That’s impossible.”

  “Soise, Grind just beat a Two-star core as a Copper.” Sip rubbed his face. “And considering how stupidly powerful that one ability of his is, I’m not all that surprised.”

  “It was a legendary scroll,” I muttered, slipping Xoiae’s gauntlet over my hand. I stopped. “I can enchant this anywhere, right?”

  “I wouldn’t recommend it here,” Master Jujud smirked. “It’ll take a while.”

  I held up one of Xoiae’s magic crystals. “This would make it quick, right?”

  She hesitated. “...Yes.”

  The crystal dissolved in my hand, flickering through the silver gauntlet. I gave it a few quick snaps, made sure nothing weird was going on, and pressed my first manifestation ability.

  And then, the dungeon was gone.

  We sat in the desert, outside the portal. Behind us, the metal door had melted into a puddle.

  Everyone was quiet.

  Master Jujud finally let out a long, slow whistle. “Xoiae's mental force is stronger than I remember.”

  The rest of my party recovered pretty quickly. I couldn’t blame them.

  To a normal player, Headmaster Xoiae’s power would be nearly impossible to distinguish from anyone else’s. At most, my party felt only a slight chill, or a rush of wind. But I saw.

  The dungeon—the Core’s mana construct—had been ripped apart by the sheer mental backlash of the crystal. Thankfully, whatever enchantments on the gauntlet absorbed the impact, or I would’ve probably died on the spot.

  If I looked into the distance, the sparkling wave of mental energy was still visible, scattering feeble monsters in its wake.

  I realized something.

  If you had enough of it, mental energy could affect actual mana.

  Dungeons are made of mana.

  If I got strong enough, I could beat a dungeon just by thinking about it.

  Then I looked at the ability screen.

  Sip took a step toward me, wringing his hands. “Grind? What’d you get?”

  I spent the other three uses instantly, before I had any chance of dropping the tiny crystal. Dizzying mental energy warped the air around my body, igniting like fire.

  {Conjugate Metaphysical Abnormalities II}

  [Expending mana creates a [Complex] field. This field creates [Complex] manifestational forms, derived from irregular mental activity, such as fear, depression, anger, loneliness, or hostility. Complex forms detonate on impact or after [30] seconds, dealing [Mana] damage and a small percentage of [TRANCENDENT] damage. This is an aura based ability, weakening with weakened metal state, though still accessible.]

  I did it.

  I really did it.

  My fingers slipped from the fading crystal, pressing against the screen.

  Finally.

  I had a source of transcendent damage.

  Despite all this time, I still hadn’t been able to use the powers of all those stupid bonuses I got each time dena was killed.

  Master Jujud raised an eyebrow. “What? No smile?”

  Which means…

  I stood, moving the remaining crystals and gauntlet into my inventory.

  This means…

  114x {Radiant Echo}

  [You have achieved the title {Radiant Echo} for the manner and method in which you defeated a transcendent-level being. This gives each attack the [Transcedent Echo] attribute, causing it to deal additional [Transcendent] damage, unless the target is of transcendent rank]

  I had only a couple thousand mana.

  114x [Transcendent Echo multiplies Transcendent damage with every attack]

  I aimed into the distance.

  114x A portion of [Transcendent] damage becomes [True] damage]

  Finally.

  I was finally getting somewhere.

  Yellow and blue blossomed in a muli-colored orb, twisting in and out of itself, as if it knew just enough of the physical laws to get the right idea, only to miss several important bits about geometry.

  The blast floated forward.

  It trundled into the distance, gradually picking up speed.

  Sometime later, the orb came into contact with the ground.

  The morning desert shone like a star as the blast radius expanded, crackling with white hot energy. I had to cover my face to shield it from the blistering heat of impact. But the blast only expanded all the more as a hundred and fourteen percent of Transcendent damage turned into True damage.

  An acre of sand turned glass, followed by a shockwave that flattened dunes.

  Toya fainted.

  Soise stared.

  Catania struggled to keep on her feet.

  Sip started cackling, dying off as he got a better look at my face. “Hey. Grind? You good?”

  I wiped the tears from my eyes, letting out a laugh. “I’m done, Sip. I’m finally done.”

  After all this time, I’d reached the point I wanted.

  With that kind of power… that had to be enough to save my family, right? I didn’t need to worry anymore. We didn’t need to worry anymore.

  My studies were over.

  The academy was no longer necessary.

  It had never been the goal, only a step in the process.

  I could leave whenever I wanted.

  So why did that make me sad?

  // {Notice} //

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