Chapter 130

  Michael gave one last, long look at the floating Heart of the Forge. He would be here again in the future, to study the magic of the room, but this would be farewell for now. The thing that had coalesced out of the clashing of Forgefire and Black Ice was a strange floating cube suspended in a storm of antithetical energies. There was an order to the chaos of its making, a stability to the destructiveness of the two Elements.

  With a nod, aimed not at the room nor at the floating Heart but rather at the author of the congratulatory message he had just received, Michael left the room.

  The dwarves also congratulated him, bestowing praise and admiration upon their savior, but it felt flat, rehearsed and scripted, and the sense of adventure Michael had managed to gain while with Stephan had once again become dull repetition. He was done with this floor and its strange denizens, he thought.

  A brief sense of loss overcame his senses. Looking around, feeling the weight of Truth tingle in his mind, it took him a moment to realize that the pervasive veil of Time energy suffusing the floor had lifted. The protection of a time loop granted to the dwarves by the dungeon in exchange for their freedom was gone, and now they would be free to progress their civilization again—within the confines of the gigantic yet limited floor.

  They gave Michael a little box, the source of the strange new magic he was sensing even through the thick anti-magic material of the container. It was something a step beyond Intent, but not entirely alien. In fact, Michael had sensed this very energy when he had confronted the Renegade, mixed with the Silver of the robes’ aura.

  Renegade Energy. The elusive signature of the Platinum rank, revealed to him in the form of a little, knotted wooden rod hidden inside a plain-looking anti-magic box. Of course, to even begin to consider interacting with this energy Michael would have to stabilize his foundation a great lot, for even a simple probe with his senses and Aura sent shivers down his spine.

  For now, he would use the little item as it was, without tinkering with it. If only he could figure out what it did…

  ***

  “This is the one?” Trevor asked, wiping the sweat from his brow.

  “Yeah, we need to get rid of it.”

  “Alright,” he nodded.

  With a gesture of his hands, he selected the area around the gigantic pile of gravel from all the digging operations in the mountains around Site 00. A box appeared around the selected area, holographic blue with green corners, and below the selection he ticked a little checkbox that said “do not include air in the selection.”

  The Ghost Market had grown by leaps and bounds thanks to his daily use of the skill, even increasing in rarity in the process, which only made his busy days even busier. A new dialogue box appeared, asking him at what price he wanted to sell the rough mix of grey gravel, brown pebbles and the occasional shard of reddish stone. Yet another new feature of the skill, which now even told him that the operation was going to cost him several silver units of mana to do.

  He set the selling price at ten times the market value, which was also shown in a handy tooltip, and watched the mana cost soar. If someone bought the stuff despite the absurd price, then Unity would reap some nice profits, otherwise the gravel would remain in storage inside the skill until Trevor decided to remove it, making the skill double as a sort of expensive storage magic.

  He grinned. The best thing that had come out of the skill’s rarity evolution had been the ability to remove things from the market at will. Before, they had to buy their own stuff that was put on sale, and since the skill was magically foolproof and untraceable, there was no way to avoid the automatic notice to the IRS about the transaction. Effectively, they were paying taxes on profits as if they were selling to someone else even though they were actually buying their own stuff.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Now, instead, pulling stuff from the market was free, if one didn’t mind paying an exuberant cost in mana. He could decide where to deposit the materials in a certain range around him, and even how much of each of them even though, like usual, each increase in complexity made the cost increase.

  It wouldn’t be a problem as long as he was inside an Area of Influence where regeneration was passively working all the time, and he was given plenty of Coins for his away missions.

  The sound of voices caught his attention. Michael had come out of the dungeon and was walking towards the main construction area with Travis in tow. They nodded at him, and he joined them as they made their way towards the cafeteria.

  “What you having?” Michael asked him.

  “Fae steak,” he replied. There was nothing quite like it on Earth. It was the same with most other Fae foods, “there’s just something about it, you know?”

  “I know exactly what you are talking about,” Travis grinned, showing him his own plate filled with slabs of meat. “There’s something primal about it. Powerful.”

  “Cheers,” said Michael, lifting up a glass of amber liquid.

  Trevor looked at him down the whiskey with a barely suppressed frown. He studied the young man’s expression, seeing the slight change in how the tension was distributed across his facial muscles. Not lessened, but it was as if he was changing gears.

  Halfway through their meal, Michael produced a small wooden box and set it on the table. The moment he opened it, a wave of magic rolled out, making heads turn. He didn’t react in the slightest, instead staring at the item within the box as if it disgusted him, letting the lid of the box clatter noisily to the ground.

  “What is it?” asked Travis. His reaction had been the opposite, eyes immediately drawn to the item.

  Of the three, Trevor had been the most composed. It didn’t surprise him. He didn’t have the hot-blooded attitude of youth, nor the roaring fire of endless ambition. He liked to think of himself as a gentle, placid river. Slow but powerful, capable of grinding down mountains, but taking the time he needs to do what needs to be done.

  “A divining rod. Utter trash to me, but I thought you might find a use for it.”

  Travis’ eyes narrowed. “How does it work? What does it do?”

  “You put some mana into it, point at something and mentally release the trigger,” his voice was bored. “Then the rod will transmit some information back telepathically. Nothing I can’t already do myself better and quicker. I would think Renegade Energy could do more than this, but alas.”

  There was a lot to unpack there, and Trevor knew that it wasn’t lost on Travis because the man immediately asked: “Renegade energy?”

  Michael waved the rod around, its crystal tip making the air sparkle and distort. There was a sizzle as mana built up inside of the wooden handle, then the wave of energy traveled to the crystal where it became something three full tiers stronger. Then there was a release of energy powerful enough to make space ripple, or perhaps to dizzy the senses enough to make it look like it had.

  Michael shrugged. “It just told me that that tree over there,” he pointed at the window with the rod. There was a big oak outside, “has been grown with magic by a powerful female user at True Silver tier.” He shook his head, “it didn’t even mention that the spell was governed by mandalas and used only mana. Here, try it.”

  Travis took the proffered thing. He did the same activation sequence Michael did, which didn’t look all that hard, but then suddenly doubled over in pain. He struggled for several seconds, as if trying to prevent the steak from escaping his stomach alongside the rest of its contents.

  “Fuck! You made it look so easy. What’s with all this jumbled information?”

  Michael refilled his glass. “Did it work, though?”

  “Yes,” Travis said through gritted teeth, “can I keep it? It will help Candle Light immensely. Once I figure out how to use it without disabling myself.”

  “Sure, keep it. I’ll take it back now and again to study it, but not right now.”

  “You completed the floor, then.” Trevor interjected.

  There had been a vacant look in Michael’s eyes which vanished as soon as he heard the words. “Yes! Finally I’m done with that place. I managed to create Forgefire and Black Ice, but now I need to go back to the Valley to figure out what to do with my ability to make Ice V. The two paths are parallel, but they don’t interact with each other yet. I need to evolve it again.”

  Trevor shook his head, putting his empty plate in his [Ghost Market] alongside Michael’s and some others. When he was here, he also doubled as a janitor, but he didn’t mind. His ego wasn’t so fragile that he thought he was stooping too low for his station. If he could help, he would.

  “Thanks,” muttered Michael. Travis only nodded at him, clearly not agreeing with him on principle.

  “I can’t begin to understand what you were talking about with the Elements and such,” Trevor said. “I am only now beginning to study the Elements to prepare for my transition to Silver. But you look stressed, Michael. Are we really in such a hurry that you need to do everything now?”

  “I take my rests in the Valley.”

  “Clearly it’s not enough.” Trevor countered.

  Travis flinched, as if expecting the young man to explode. Instead, Michael took a deep breath and smiled.

  “Well, if everyone keeps telling me the same thing, then it must be at least somewhat true. It just so happens that my friends from Uni have finally found the time to reply to my earlier messages in the group chat. I might take a week off as soon as we manage to hammer out the details.”