6 months later
Within the subspace, Damien could be seen facing Zara, who was charging a beam of ice. Unlike usual, Damien right now was a mess, with parts of his body frozen and in the process of thawing.
"Okay, this is the one. Shoot it, Zara." Damien said as he put his arm out. On his cue, Zara released the beam of concentrated ice energy at Damien, but he didn't move. He stood with his arm out and closed his eyes.
The beam moved at extremely fast speeds and in the blink of an eye was already in front of him. Suddenly, the beam took a sharp turn to the right and crashed into the wall.
"Hahaha! I finally did it!" Damien exclaimed as he ran over and hugged Zara. She, who knew how hard he'd been working these past 6 months, was equally as happy for him
In these months, neither of the two had left the confines of the subspace and spent all their time training. At the beginning of their stay, Damien had spoken to Zara about many things, and after observing her with his All-Seeing Eyes, he noticed that she had an untapped affinity for both shadow and ice.
It turns out that Zara had never had time to focus on her affinities due to constantly living in hiding, so she had never developed them. Now that she had time and a sparring partner, she made immense improvements.
Unlike Damien, who was the type to charge headfirst into battle and use brute strength to win, Zara was specialized in concealment. In these past 6 months, she had exponentially increased her combat ability and attack techniques through the use of her ice element, while she mainly used her shadow element for stealth and utility.
If she was placed in the same situation Damien had found her in once more, she would easily be able to kill most of the beasts in the tide and escape before the wyvern even had a chance to show itself.
What's more, her concealment prowess was top tier. Damien mused that even peak 2nd class beings would be unable to sense her in her concealed state. The only reason he could do so was because of their link.
Zara's favorite skill, however, was one she developed based on the pact she formed with Damien. It was a simple ability that allowed her to live within his shadow.
Although Damien didn't understand why, Zara felt the most comfortable within his shadow, and tended to spend most of the time when they weren't relaxing or training there.
Her ability to fight together with Damien as a team also improved immensely. Now, all she needed was combat experience using her new affinities, which she can easily gain in their descent to the 50th floor.
Damien wasn't sitting idly these 6 months either. Damien had begun training with his black lightning, attempting to understand its properties.
This came much more naturally than he expected, and he effectively raised its level to the point where its infusion into its body gave a 5x multiplier in speed, and its power, when infused into his blade, was immense.
His swordsmanship had also seen steady improvement. 6 months didn't seem to be enough time to create his unique sword art, but he had taken steps in the right direction. With the rough outline already in place, all Damien needed to do was continue practicing and perfecting it until it was complete.
His greatest improvement, however, was his spatial affinity. After reading up on Kurt's insights into spatial element, Damien was enlightened on which path he wanted to take with his ability.
First, he practiced his control over singular points in space as a prerequisite and then, after 3 months, finally had the understanding towards the element to create his own subspace. Although it wasn't as complex as Kurt's and couldn't store living beings, he had essentially created himself an inventory.
It took all his mana to cast, but didn't require mana to be maintained, furthermore, as long as he leveled up and increased his mana capacity, he'd be able to enlarge the space within it.
After this, Damien further refined his understanding of the concept of 'a single point in space' and worked towards gaining absolute control over that single point.
And finally, at the end of their 6-month training session, he had grasped the ability to control vectors using points in space as a medium.
[You have obtained a glimpse into your path to 2nd class. Due to your enlightenment, your legends have been enhanced.]
Seeing this system message, Damien finally remembered to check his status. 'Come to think of it, I haven't checked my status since the 20th floor. I wonder what kind of changes there are.'
After having a long break, Damien had realized why he had forgotten about his status. Perhaps it was a subconscious decision, but Damien didn't want to know how much time had passed.
He remembered recently that his status had a section that showed his age, and that would obviously designate the time.
However, he was already this far and already so close to leaving the dungeon, so he had decided that he would check his status. No matter what happened, he still had the same goal. Resolving himself for what was to come, Damien summoned his status.
'Status'
[Status]
[Damien Void]
Half-Human/Half-Beast
Male - Age 19
Level 49 - [Spatial Mage]
Experience value: 40,300/49,000
Title(s): [•••••••, Bearer of the Void Physique, Evolver]
Affinities: Space, Lightning
Physique: Void Physique
Magic Power: 2500
STR: 250
AGI: 275
DEF: 245
INT: 230
DEX: 265
Skills: [Warp Level 3], [Spatial Control Level 4], [High-Level Regeneration Level 2], [Sword Mastery Level Max], [Mana Sense Level 5], [Devour Level 5], [Spatial Magic Level 5], [Lightning Magic Level 5], [Inventory]
Trait(s): [Shock Absorption], [All-Seeing Eyes Level 2]
Damien exhaled a long breath as he tried to calm himself down.
'2 years. It's been 2 years of constant fighting, killing, and growing stronger. I have no idea what's going on with Earth right now or even if my mother is still fine, but I can't let these things weigh me down. All I need to focus on is returning.'
Luckily, Damien had already prepared himself for much worse scenarios than this one, so he had a relatively easy time calming down, however, it was still a bit hard for him to accept reality.
Sensing Damien's complicated emotions, Zara walked over and nuzzled up to him. These past months, Damien and Zara had grown extremely close to each other. They were alone in this world without anyone else, so it was natural for them to become each other's support system.
And indeed, petting Zara's silky smooth and fluffy fur was a great way for Damien to get a grip on himself. Laying down using Zara as his pillow, Damien began planning his next steps.
'First comes the obvious. Kill the wyvern and whatever boss is on the 50th floor and escape the dungeon. After that, it seems the adventurers guild is my best option. I have no desire to be tied down to some empire in a foreign world.' Damien continued this thought process.
'I can't plan ahead of this without knowing the current situation on the surface, after all, who knows how long it's been since that Kurt guy built this place. Even the treasures he left were mostly for strengthening the body, so I gave them all to Zara.'
The only real benefit Damien got from this subspace was information and a safe environment. But Damien wasn't complaining. Information was what he needed most right now, and the environment had helped him consolidate his current power to its peak.
All that was left for him was to kill the wyvern and acquire his second class.
'That's right. Everything else comes after. Let's take things one step at a time.'
Damien suddenly grinned. His change in attitude surprised Zara, but she didn't think too much of it until he suddenly stood up.
"Alright, come on Zara. It's time to go dragon hunting."