I couldn't use water magic well here, so I would have to deal with it creatively. Wind magic, though not my best, would be the next choice. I drew in the moisture from the air, adding a spark of lightning magic and amplifying the wind. I condensed and shot a hurricane toward the monster.
The cave was damp enough to support the hurricane. The torrential rain calmed the fire, allowing me to get close to melee. I charged toward the leader, dodging the magical fire barrage.
I covered myself in a thin film of water-covered wind to protect against the heat and fire. The wind supplied me with oxygen and temperature flow while the water cooled the air. I slid under the pig as it dealt with the mini-hurricane. As I slid, I raised my sword, cutting open its stomach as its fat and intestines fell out.
The pig would heal, but the damage would restrict it. Standing behind the furious monster, I summoned a lightning bolt to strike it from behind. While stuck battling my spell, it focused the attention on me, causing my ace to strike unnoticed.
A steel harpoon bolt stabbed into the side of the leader, and once again, I struck it with a lightning bolt. Only this time, the lightning arced with the bolt, heating and exploding it, all inside the monster.
I'd been preparing the harpoon for a while since the start. Because of the dungeon's dense walls, it took more time and effort to get the materials together.
I'd also filled the harpoon with sulfur. With the lightning heating it, all the sulfur exploded under pressure. The sudden expansion broke the rod, peppering the inside of the pig with hot steel. The leader held on for a few more seconds before I ultimately decapitated it.
I expected a bigger fight, but under my torrential magic, not only was it stuck. It was also unable to put up a fight. The harpoon was also an absurdly effective attack. I hadn't expected it to work half as well.
As the fight's aftereffects settled down, I began searching around. The rest of the monsters scattered, leaving me in peace. I searched where the leader slept, all the pigs' bodies, and anywhere else I hadn't covered before. I searched for the rest of the day before heading back. I found nothing, not even a disturbance in the mana.
Over the next week, I continued to fight the rest of the big monster packs. I killed any sixth-ranked beast I encountered. Leaving them would only be a future danger to me. After clearing a spot for myself, I moved to the second floor. With the increased mana density, I would cultivate faster here.
The third floor would be too dangerous to touch without a higher rank. The first thing I had to do was rank up my body. Throughout the course of being in this dungeon, I had been flooding my body with more and more mana.
It helped increase my tempering level. My mana capacity, magic circuits, and mana channels were further refined. My body could store as much as a sienna core now. My magic circuits were more refined, allowing for more effortless casting. My mana channels also widened, increasing mana throughput.
Tempering is an arduous process of physical exercise while enhancing one's body with mana. The process speeds up muscle gain and imbues one's muscles with mana. The increased energy then equates to strength and durability.
Directly flooding your mana was very dangerous. If done improperly, it could ruin your mana channels and magic circuits. I could do it without risk because of destroyed my mana core. While it was gone, my circuits and channels had nowhere to connect and were free-floating.
The openness allowed the mana I filled in my body to travel unimpeded by my core. Even after I recovered my core, my body had become used to the mana load. Magicians would typically have their magic circuits free of mana. To circulate and release magic, they needed to watch the flow carefully.
When I filled my body with mana, I was filling up and pushing those circuits. My circuits would be full of mana after my body got used to that. I don't have to fill up the specific circuits I need. I would circulate mana inside the circuit. That dramatically reduced my casting time.
This allowed me to cast my magic faster. Regular magicians couldn't do this as their cores and bodies couldn't take the strain. My body adapted to the strain, and my core was different, literally.
Magic circuits are all over the body, delivering mana to different body parts. They are like a second circulatory system. On the other hand, mana channels are five channels that run from the extremities to the core. Mana channels are the veins bringing in mana from the outside.
Unlike the circulatory system, magic circuits and mana channels aren't closed circuits. Magicians bring mana from the channels to replenish the core—the circuits output magic.
My body always brings in and circulates mana, so my channels, core, and circuits are always full. This strain causes them to strengthen and widen, improving my cultivation. The increased space brings in more mana, so it's like an infinite feedback loop.
But, I still need to cultivate to break through the ranks. I have to undergo a physical process to increase my body's tempering rank. First, I need to place my body under significant physical stress. I do that while circulating mana around as fast as possible.
After enough time, the body breaks through. It accepts more mana, increasing strength and durability. My nanomachines also work with me, reducing the typical time of days to 18 hours.
After a week of exploring the second floor, I was now at tempering rank six. I had broken through between one of my fights. My core was Lime still, but my magic rank was six. I wasn't a rank seven yet, but I would be if my body or magic broke through.
I needed to continue this cultivation and training until I reached the seventh rank. The monsters on the third floor ranged from the sixth to eighth ranks. I needed to be stronger to have a chance of scouting them out.
-Two years later-
I have long gone to the third floor to increase my cultivation speed. Currently, I am at the eighth rank. A year ago, I broke into the seventh rank and scouted out the third floor. Finding nothing special, I moved down into a quiet corner of the floor to cultivate in peace.
There was still no exit, but I could tell I was getting close. If nothing else, I was now almost on par with the Hydra, the dungeon boss, and defeating it had to lead to something. If it didn't, I legitimately might lose my mind.
I had a few close encounters with death, running into eighth rank as a seventh rank. Now, my body was 75% nanomachines. Every time I got injured, more nanomachines would multiply. I didn't mind it, because they were better.
They didn't need oxygen, were faster, stronger, and accepted mana better. Without realizing it, some time ago, my nanomachines had changed. The ordinary steel and metal out of had turned into manasteel.
Mana Steel was much more robust and accepted magic effortlessly. It even allowed me to make some adjustments. I inscribed parts of my body with spells such as healing and boosts that activated passively. Considering how well the nanomachines worked, I was making.
I didn't because I didn't know if there would be any side effects or if I could even do it. It was hard. One little mistake in making a nanomachine brain could permanently alter me. My body doesn't need oxygen or food, so I felt it was far enough.
I could function off mana and electricity alone. I was also developing ways of alchemy. I wanted to alchemize energy directly from matter. E=mc^2 is a thing; if I succeeded, I would never need energy again.
All the innovations did come with a cost. Every day I changed my body, the further from humanity I felt like I was. I was ripping away at myself and replacing it with something that performed just a little better.
Besides my body being at the seventh tempering level, my mana core was Emerald, and I was in the eighth circle. I had unknowingly surpassed my parents. My mother and father were seventh-ranked warriors, but I was an eighth-ranked warrior.
I had already defeated the bosses on the third floor. I was the only eighth-ranked being on the first three floors. The final floor below me contained only the HHydraand a few eighth-ranked mini-bosses. The skeleton knight I'd seen before was part of that group.
Today was the day I would go down there. The passageway from the fourth to the third floor I had before used was no longer there. The tunnel I would use this time is opposite the Hydra's cave systems.
The cave systems became more elaborate and extensive from the first to the third floor. But. for whatever reason, the fourth floor was the smallest. It contained the big Hydra cave, and a few smaller connecting caves held the seven mini-bosses. It was still less than a fourth the size of the first level.
The third level was miles long and hundreds of feet high, while the cave system below was less than half a mile wide.
I used my most potent concealment magic. I bent all the light around me, completely hiding my visual aspect. It was a powerful magic, but also one that used a lot of magic, so I had to be careful.
As I looked down the steep tunnel, I felt a sense of impending doom. Then, I dropped into what might be the most dangerous place on the planet.
'in the planet?'