[So. Any questions you got for me?]

The shadow had no face, but it could speak and eat macarons without a problem. James thought for a moment, and then asked what confused him most at the moment.

“Why am I getting special treatment here?”

[Well, it’s because of the book you have and the person you’re carrying around on your head.]

“Oh.” Realization dawned on James. “Viann was the creator of this dungeon, right?”

[Well, the creator of this branch, not the entire dungeon. He’s created everything that you’ve seen so far, but as you probably have heard, there’s an entire different system that this branch is part of. This part is very small, actually, but it is quite important. Technically, his position is - was -  higher than mine. Thus, I have to give his successor some face, right?]

“Okay? Then what’s Ajartum’s position?”

Instead of the shadow, the man himself responded: “I pretty much watched over Viann’s shoulder as he drew magic circles for hours, but he registered me as his assistant while creating it so I could have more authority over it. I never had any responsibilities, though.”

Apparently, Ajartum was able to telepathically communicate to multiple people, since the shadow nodded.

James kind of understood, so he moved on to his next question.

“Who are you?”

[I’m not answering that.]

James wasn’t surprised, and continued:

“Alright. Then, can you explain to me the entire magic circle music situation a bit more carefully? You kind of breezed through it the first time. I didn’t really understand it. Plus, I’m not sure Leah, Mike, or Beck understood either.”

[Oh? I must admit I did rush the explanation. I was kind of excited to talk to you. An interesting specimen is quite a rare thing.]

A wave of mana swept across James’ body. It somehow made him feel violated.

“Stop that.”

Evidently, James wasn’t imagining it, because Ajartum felt some sort of interference and let out a wave of mana out of the beanie, resulting in a magical vibration. Every single one of James’ hairs stood on end.

[Oh? I can see why the captain treated you well when you were alive. Right now, there’s only a fragment of your intent, and you can still match me. Whatever. I’ve confirmed what I wanted to know. You don’t have a core. Or rather, you made one yourself.]

The shadow laughed, and the pressure in the room disappeared. At least, the oppressive force did, as the mere presence of the shadow put James on guard.

The shadow did not seem to have any hostile intentions. And, as usual, he was dealing with a party that could squish him like a bug.

The shadow stopped eating cookies and switched into explanation mode.

[So, I didn’t tell the truth about that magic circle. The full truth. It truly was an interference pattern, but it’s not that simple. First of all, your friends’ idea of interference patterns is skewed. 

They think that it is only a basic form of inscribed magical circuitry. That’s not true. They’re basic only in their basic form. In more complex forms, they are the most useful for gathering intelligence. They can also be used offensively.

This magic circle was actually both.]

“Both? It didn’t do anything harmful.”

[That's because you weren’t their target. Believe it or not, this world you live in, Earth, has strong defenses. There’s a reason why they used sneaky methods instead of blasting their way in. These “invaders,” if you want to call them that, were able to design a song that built the magic circle. However, the amount of magic power they could draw is practically negligible, since there is no magic on Earth.

So, the circle is designed to activate when there’s a live mana source nearby. It will use the target’s mana to disturb it and take even more mana. In theory, this cycle would continue until the source dries up. If it was a living thing, they would die. If the source isn’t living, it would suck up and store the mana.]

“It’s designed to kill?” James furrowed his brow, remembering the headache he’d had on the plane. He’d also fallen into the lake. Could his life have been in danger?

[Well, it’s designed to scare more than kill. I said that they were my organization’s enemies, right? Their power is comparable to ours, which means that you and your friends are like bugs to them. Maybe annoying, but their first priority will be cleaning us up. And none of us will be weak enough to succumb to such a cheap trick. That circle was designed to not activate unless someone of appropriate strength activated it.]

“Was I just weak enough to be affected? The 3 others weren’t really affected, right?” 

The shadow laughed.

[It has nothing to do with whether you’re weak or not. Again, to us, all of the explorers in this dungeon are gnats. Really, the reason why you were affected was because you have no core. The magic circle was designed to filter out subjects with weaker cores, in order to avoid being detected before collecting info on a stronger subject. Your friends bypassed this category. 

But you have no core. So, when the song was played close to you, the circle activated its mana  gathering process. Had it activated its interference function, you definitely would have died.]

So far, James’ lack of a mana core had only been a nuisance, causing him to expend more effort to learn magic, and even causing him to suffer from Mo’s music. However, both Viann and Ajartum assured him that this was going to help him a lot in the future.

“Then, who are the invaders in the first place?”

[You don’t need to worry about that. Not yet.]

Welp. He tried, but he failed. Nothing he could do.

[So, if there’s nothing else, then I’ll send you to my boss, who also has something to tell you.]

Lights began to flash around him.

[Oh, and, before you go, let me tell you one thing about this threat that your planet is facing. You got more intel than your friends, and that’s not for no reason. Your friends are probably not going to be strong enough to deal with the problem. You’ll be doing the heavy lifting here.]

James didn’t have time to reply before he was teleported out of the room. He didn’t even get to eat a macaron.

He was teleported to a different place 6 feet in the air and fell to the ground.

If James was a normal person, he probably would’ve broken his ankles. Instead, he merely banged his head against the wall after an unsteady landing.

“He couldn’t have moved me onto the ground?” James complained as he rubbed his forehead.

[Hello, James. It’s been a while.]

Another voice came from the dungeon’s system. However, this time was different.

Announcer woman was back! This was the real thing, not the recorded playback James had heard ceaselessly.

“So, what’s up?”

[Hm. How much have you heard from Onyx? He must have told you about the magic circle, at the very least.]

‘So that shadow guy was called Onyx? He called you his boss. Interesting.’ James thought for a second before responding.

“Uh, I know that some people are trying to disturb Earth which apparently had good defences. He wouldn’t tell me who it was. But the circle is supposed to be sneaky, and we need to find the rat that allowed them to build it in the first place.”

[Eh, that’s enough for now. Really, what I wanted to tell you is that you’re going to get busy from now on. Your growth rate is astounding. With another month or two of work, you will be the strongest person in this world. Except for maybe the traitor, who will have gained powers from the other side. So, you will have to deal with this problem.]

“Why can’t you guys just hop in and deal with it yourselves? The shadow - Onyx - made it perfectly clear that we were “like bugs” to him and the rest of the dungeon administration.”

[That sounds like him. Unfortunately, we can’t. Our entrance would accelerate the saturation of this world. We’ve kept this world away from mana for 40 thousand years, and we’d like to keep it for some more time.]

“???”

Unfortunately for James, his confusion was overlooked and he once again received no explanation.

[One thing I need to tell you: don’t collect orbs anymore. In the first place, stats aren’t a good measurement of strength, especially in your case. But, you’re also approaching the limit. This dungeon wasn’t made to give out so much strength.]

“What? Isn’t it designed to to increase my strength? And now it just doesn’t work?”

[You know that you’ve collected more orbs than anybody else.]

James knew that, but he wondered how much more he was getting compared to the others. He was a bit sad that his steroid campaign was coming to an end, but he still had lots of other ways to grow stronger.

[Ajartum.] Announcer woman paused before adding [Sir. You have barely taught him anything regarding your combat style.]

The Godblade responded wearily, as if he’d had this conversation many times. “I made an agreement to not mess around with the state of things after my death. Plus, it’s not like he’s not learning anything. He’s speeding up his magic.”

[In other words, he likes Viann better than you.]

“...this is why I don’t like you guys.” Ajartum seemed resigned. “Fine. Is that why you brought him here? To get his ass handed to him?”

[I wouldn’t call it that, but he does need harder opponents. He hasn’t been in a life or death battle before...actually, he has. But he needs training either way.]

Upon hearing this exchange, James finally took a moment to recognize his surroundings after being teleported. It was the dungeon. However, unlike the normal dungeon floors, he could already see the doors leading to the boss room.

[Yes, this is the 10th floor.]

“What? I was preparing for it! I’m not ready for it yet!”

[That’s the point.]