Lucy winced as another adventurer rag-dolled after being punched by a beast goblin. This one was a bear-kin. The large teenager collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut after a single blow.

  "I did not realize the gap was this wide," Lucy admitted.

  "All I am seeing is wasted potential," Chloe sighed.

  "I am actually getting mana for all this," Matthias admitted.

  His fairies’ brows knitted as they looked at him.

  "What do you mean?" Lucy asked.

  "I get mana every time the goblins clobber a recruit. It is labeled as ‘delver defeated’ instead of slain," he informed them. "I suspect it is only about one tenth of what I would get if they died. So it is not all that much, but income is income. No need for the Fairy Internal Revenue Service to get involved," he teased.

  "I will have you know that the F.I.R.S. will be looking into this," Chloe quipped.

  Lucy nodded before adding, "Indeed. How many of these defeated adventurers would it take to equal one defeated turtle?"

  "About thirty," Matthias roughly estimated. "Not all give the same amount, so it is hard to give exact numbers."

  "And how many turtles did the Forbidden Garden cost?" Chloe asked.

  "About eight turtles," Matthias admitted.

  "It is a rather slow income stream," Lucy said. "He would need to defeat two hundred and forty newbs to recoup the cost of making our garden."

  "I already made all that back," he sighed.

  "You are not a member of F.I.R.S.," Chloe quipped. "You are under investigation, so anything you say can and will be used against you."

  Matthias was starting to regret telling them more about his old life.

  Lucy chuckled. "I think we can cut him some slack. He has been greatly cutting back on his spending. His core is growing nicely now."

  Both of his fairies patted his core. He was about thirty percent bigger than he had been when he talked to Alycia.

  [Mana capacity reached. Would you like to rank up? (Y/N)]

  "I just got the prompt," he warned his fairies. "There is no way that ranking up is as easy as this."

  "It is not easy," Chloe responded. "Once you agree, your core will be compressed back to its original size. The mana within you will be compressed, and that will be your new norm. It will completely change what everything costs you, as each unit of mana will be worth more."

  "But it is painful," Lucy warned. "You are literally being compressed."

  "Then should I not compress all the mana I can on my own?" he asked.

  "You could," Chloe admitted. "But the more compressed your mana is, the more painful it will be when you rank up. There is a reason most cores wait to reach the highest tier before attempting to compress their own mana."

  "No pain, no gain," Matthias quipped as he turned his focus inward.

  Over the last week, he had tried different ways to compress his mana. There were two methods that seemed to offer the best results. The first was folding. That method made his internal mana feel more like bricks. They were easier to segment into units at that point, but folding became harder the more he tried. The second method was rotational force. This produced threads of mana, like spinning wool into thread. This method made his mana feel more flexible and allowed a finer degree of control.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Bricks or thread," he mused aloud.

  "I am partial to the brick method," Lucy admitted. "It is thematic with building."

  "I prefer the thread method," Chloe noted. "It denotes tying things together—making something greater than the sum of its parts. Besides, there is one thing you both are forgetting. As above, so below."

  That struck Matthias hard.

  "Just because planets orbit a star does not mean it is the natural state of everything," Lucy sighed. "Sometimes the right answer is the simplest."

  As they continued to trade philosophies, Matthias drifted inward once more. As above, so below. That meant so much more to him than either realized. From atoms to black holes, from dust to planets, it was all connected. And it was not bricks that connected everything, but fields— invisible threads that held reality together. Even chemical compounds looked like strings. As Matthias bent his will to the thread method, something deep within him clicked.

  [Personal Truth established. As Above, so Below.]

  His core shuddered as he felt his mana and influence suddenly take on a swirling motion even without his input. In that moment, he felt his entire being bend toward a single function.

  [Reward for foundational truth: +2 passive points.]

  Matthias ignored the message as he felt he was on the cusp of something. He leaned into the changes within him and bent his will to the idea of function over form.

  [Complimentary truth added to foundational truth. Function over Form. Reward: +1 passive point.]

  Matthias felt connected to the realm in a way he could not describe—like he could finally see himself, not just the dungeon, but his actual being. He examined it with a fine-toothed comb and catalogued all of it. Knowledge is power, after all.

  [Augmenting truth detected. Knowledge is Power. Reward: +1 passive point and several passives based on accumulated knowledge.]

  Matthias could not describe how complete he felt in that moment. But it all came to a shuddering halt as he felt something tear through his mind and evaluate every bit of knowledge he possessed. It was painful, like someone taking a scalpel to his very soul. As the other changes took full effect, he suddenly felt bloated, as though there was more of him for that cutting sensation to parse through. He wanted to scream, but he had no lungs or mouth to cry out.

  After both an instant and an eternity, the sensations ended.

  "Matthias?" Lucy asked in a pleading voice. "Matthias, what is going on?"

  [Warning: mana capacity exceeded by 400%. Core compression beginning as a preemptive measure.]

  Before Matthias could say anything, he was swallowed by pain again. This time it was not something parsing his existence. It was as if reality itself had collapsed around him. Pressure from all sides assaulted both his mind and soul as he was compressed. He had no idea how long the pain continued. He could feel his mind slipping.

  Matthias gritted his mental teeth and dug even deeper. He did not know why all this was happening, but he was enjoying his new life too much to submit to mere pain. It was just in his mind. He had carried pain in his human life before. He steeled himself and pushed back. As they used to say back home: mind over matter.

  [Reinforcing truth detected. Mind over Matter. Reward: +1 passive point, +mental fortitude.]

  Matthias could barely focus on the message as the pressure redoubled. He bent his will not just to endure, but to push past the pain—to be more than a victim to it. Suddenly, the pressure stopped.

  [Rank up successful. Common dungeon core is now Uncommon dungeon core. Passive points doubled. Currently available passive points: 13.]

  [Presence of truths during rank up caused an increase in mana density by an additional 400%.]

  Matthias’ mind reeled. He felt spent in a way he could not describe. Everything around him felt massive. He could hear voices calling out as he struggled to focus.

  "Matthias!" his fairies cried.

  "Hi," he blurted intelligently.

  "Oh, thank the powers above," Lucy sighed.

  "I do not think they had much to do with what just happened," Chloe rebutted. "Matthias, what happened?"

  "How long?" he asked instead.

  "Seconds," Chloe replied bluntly. "You are once again the size of a ball bearing."

  His already exhausted mind reeled at that, but he managed to respond. "Got a Truth."

  Both fairies perked up. "Really? Already?" Lucy asked.

  "Four of them," Matthias slurred as he slowly came back to himself. "Foundational, complimentary, augmenting, and reinforcing."

  Both fairies stared down at him in shock.

  "You realize each truth doubles your mana density on its own," Lucy began.

  "Why did you trigger your rarity increase?" Chloe demanded.

  "No choice. It triggered as a safety feature when I hit four hundred percent mana capacity," Matthias groaned.

  "How many passive points do you have?" Lucy asked.

  "Thirteen out of sixteen unused," he replied automatically.

  "So he is now theoretically stronger than a core a full rarity ahead," Chloe mused.

  "And that lead will only grow with each rarity increase," Lucy added.

  "But I feel like I was just mugged by reality itself," Matthias complained. "Maybe give me some time to not feel like tenderized meat before planning to toss me back into that?"

  Both fairies gave him sympathetic looks and floated back, giving him space to rest and recover.