Darren sent the ball wide, and if it kept going in a straight line, there was no way it would land in bounds. It wouldn't go straight though; Darren was far too good for that. No doubt it would curve just enough to land on the boundary line.

I used [Far Step] to get closer to it, using the full force of my [Expert Mana Control] to tear the ball from Darren's control and swing it in a wide arc, launching it back into his half of the court. Darren lacked my mobility, but he had no need for it. He ripped the ball from my control the second it crossed over the central net, despite me still being closer to it and doing my best to stop him. In fact, he hadn't taken a single step since the match started, standing calmly in the centre of his rear line.

The ball curved upwards, coming to a complete stop just above Darren's head. It hesitated for a moment, then accelerated straight towards me, gaining speed rapidly. By the time it reached the half-way line, it was going as fast as Cluma when she spotted a friend she hadn't seen in a week and wanted to deal with the backlog of owed hugs.

"Stuff that," I muttered, diving out of the way. A loud fwumph from behind me, followed by a distinctive orange glow and the series of clinks as the suddenly molten patch of ground cooled and solidified, convinced me I'd made the correct choice.

"Point, Darren!" shouted Cluma from the sidelines. "That makes it... fifty-something to none? Sorry, I lost count."

Darren was a natural. Quite literally; it was written into the name of his first trait. It was depressing how much I'd struggled to clear a beginner level dungeon when Darren could just walk in and set entire floors aflame, if he desired. Thankfully, my pride was maintained by the simple fact that he didn't want to. As one of his other traits suggested, he was far more interested in the crafts. Mostly he painted pictures of fire.

I was really glad he hadn't had this level of control back when he'd only just picked up the trait. These days I couldn't compete with him even with the rank three [Expert Mana Control], and back then I'd only had the rank two version. The only question was whether he'd have accidentally killed himself before or after burning down the entire village.

"Right, no more holding back," I muttered, standing up. "One more go!"

"I'll win," shouted Darren as he produced another football-sized sphere of magical flame above one hand.

I activated [Weft Walk], and took my position for our magical game of volleyball. Darren swung a hand casually, sending the ball into my half of the court. I took control of it and launched it back, at which he effortlessly reversed its direction. The back and fore continued for a bit, before he again launched it at full speed. This time I didn't dive, but activated [Minor Speed] and then turned my mana control to reinforcing Darren, accelerating the ball further.

I activated [Distortion]. Darren tried to disrupt it, but the portals were mere centimetres away from me. Even his prodigious natural abilities couldn't overpower my skill when I had that sort of distance advantage. The ball reversed direction, and I fought to curve it downwards so it would impact the court on Darren's side. Of course, he didn't let me. It was now going too fast for even him to stop it easily, so he deflected it upwards instead, sending it harmlessly into the air.

"Out. Point, Peter!" called Cluma.

"[Distortion] is unfair," complained Darren.

"I'm not sure that you get to call other peoples' magical abilities unfair," I replied, although that in itself wasn't completely fair. As he'd grown up, we'd realised what his trait really meant, and how much further it went than missing the mana line on his status; he was completely cut off from System magic. He couldn't unlock [Mana Sense] or [Enlarged Mana Pool], and a scan with [Eye of Judgement] had shown that [Apprentice Mage] wasn't unlocked. Even the [Meditation] description didn't mention mana when he read it.

It followed that he couldn't buy magic skills and had no access to System provided structured spells. We weren't even sure if mana consuming skills like [Stealth] would work. Yes, he could theoretically do far more on his own than the System would permit him to, but there weren't exactly textbooks around for how to do magic without the System. However good he was at controlling mana, that wasn't enough on its own to get complex spell effects. Whether he would be able to overcome that limitation in the future or not, I had no idea, but for now, despite having rank four equivalent mana control and perception, he couldn't replicate the effects of most rank one spells.

It was almost enough to make Kari regret moving out of the village. As it was, he was a very welcome visitor at the research institute, despite his young age.

It was early autumn. Darren was now a little over five and a half, Cluma was more than halfway through thirteen, and I was officially an adult. Oddly, the switch from child to adult hadn't actually changed much, despite how frustrating being stuck as a child had been. It had been so long since I was banned from the dungeons that I no longer felt the need to jump straight back in. What would be the point? I'd been interested in whether my mana control was now high enough to make mana reinforced steel, but other delvers had started producing the stuff over a year ago, so that battle was lost before it began.

Beyond that, I had a vague desire to try my luck at the tenth floor boss again, especially now that it wasn't the end of my life if I died, but I didn't feel the need to go and do it right this instant. My current plan was to wait for Cluma to come of age, and then officially join the guild with her together. We were planning to make a two person party.

Thinking of dungeons, Erryn would be two by now. Had she started talking? I kinda wanted to visit, but my interest would be tough to explain. I'd have to go check in with the overly named slime now that I was allowed to enter dungeons. As far as I knew, she was still there, continuing to act as the floor six boss.

The previous two years had been blissfully uneventful. After the disaster of the Emerald Caverns, I would be quite happy to not suffer any further eventfulness for the rest of my life. The only long-distance journey I'd made was another visit to the ark, only to find the door closed and locked. Given the way it had unlocked on its own on my first visit, Erryn must have set up some preprogrammed rules. Perhaps there were circumstances that would unlock it again, but for now, I hadn't been able to gain access. I should have looked around more on my first visit, but there had been more important things to worry about at the time.

I'd joined the annual delvers' tournament the previous two years, but on both occasions I'd been utterly massacred. With the possible exception of [Superimpose], which I couldn't use very well given my inability to instantly regrow severed limbs, none of my rank three skills greatly aided my offence. On the other hand, many of the rank three delvers had wide area combat artes that could hit the whole arena at once, and I had no defence against them. [Shelter] was far from being able to hide my whole body. Now I knew how Kari's opponents felt in the year that she'd entered, with the difference that instead of just one, it was half of my opponents...

Still, despite that beat-down, I had made some progress on my status over the past couple of years. Playing games like magical volleyball with Darren had done wonders for my mana control, given my doomed efforts to keep up with him. Sparring with Cluma, going on hunting trips with her or even just practising in the Delvers guild's archery range had helped too. Still, the result was a far cry from the speeds I'd managed while delving. The downside of uneventful years was that I lost a lot of the bonuses for meaningful skill uses, not to mention the extra soul points from [Researcher]. It had kicked in once from considering the results of the Emerald Caverns event, and again from researching Darren, but I'd not had any bonus points since then.

And to think most people were happy with one or two levels a year...

Name: Peter
Species: Human
Class: Eldritch Mage (Level 11/73)
Class History: [Commoner 10] [Apprentice Mage 10] [Body Mage 20] [Spatial Mage 15] [Apprentice Fighter 7]
Soul Points: 7
Health: 120/120
Stamina: 480.00/480.00
Mana: 579.10/620.00
Strength: 32(+12)
Dexterity: 34(+12)
Endurance: 33(+12)
Intelligence: 45(+12)
Wisdom: 30(+12)
Charisma: 31(+12)
Rank 1 Artes: [Backstab 4] [Armour Break 5] [Mighty Swing 7] [Swift Strike 9] [Shattering Strike 1] [Rapid Shot 6] [Piercing Shot 5]
Rank 1 Spells: [Minor Strength 15] [Far Step 15] [Minor Speed 15] [Minor Dexterity 15] [Minor Endurance 15] [Minor Intelligence 15] [Minor Wisdom 15] [Minor Charisma 15] [Far Reach 15] [Minor Slow 15]
Rank 2 Spells: [Strength 15] [Dexterity 15] [Endurance 15] [Weft Walk 15] [Item Box 15] [Distortion 15]
Rank 3 Spells: [Detach 5] [Redistribute 4] [Shelter 4] [Superimpose 2]
Rank 1 Skills: [Inspection 15] [Meditation 15] [Concealment 11] [Foraging 15] [Hunting 10] [Musician 12] [Weapon Proficiency: Universal 15] [Basic Crafting 15] [Clock 15] [Enlarged Health Pool 2] [Accelerated Healing 5] [Stamina Finesse 5] [Danger Sense 6]
Rank 2 Skills: [Appraisal 15] [Enhanced Mana Recovery 15] [Mana Perception 15] [Weapon Style: Flowing Mist 15] [Extended Mana Pool 15] [Engineering 5] [Secrecy 7] [Enhanced Stamina Recovery 14] [Extended Stamina Pool 14] [Soul Perception 13]
Rank 3 Skills: [Analysis 11] [Expert Mana Control 9] [Expert Mana Finesse 6]
Traits: [Unbound Soul] [Determined Progressor] [Researcher] [Xenophilia]
Titles: [Jack of All Trades 2] [Victorious Underdog 3] [Skilled 2] [Survivor 2] [Flexible Combatant] [Versatile Crafter] [Self-Destructive] [Magician] [Athlete] [Novice Delver] [Durable]
Quests: None

It was enough, I suppose. If I kept up a rate of three levels a year, I'd be able to hit the mythical rank five. Or not so mythical now that I'd met one, but that was a dragon. I wasn't sure he counted. But the old standard of one level a year was, well, old. With the kick I'd given the world, people were doing a little better now. By the time I got there, rank five would probably not be quite so legendary.

Or maybe I was overestimating my effect; calling the average one level per year was a gross simplification. Lower-level people had always advanced faster, simply because at high levels it became harder to find appropriate challenges. It wasn't until rank four that people tended to grind to a halt.

After hitting rank three, I'd quickly replaced my enchanted ring set with rank three versions. I'd have liked to donate my old set to someone who could make use of them, but in order to keep the count down, I hadn't bothered with comfort enchantments.

My rapidly increasing intelligence, combined with [Victorious Underdog 3] and my maxed out [Enhanced Mana Recovery], gave me a regeneration rate of almost three and a half per minute. It sounded high, but still wasn't enough to keep even a single rank one buff permanently active. Thankfully, I could just use my [Expert Mana Control] to recharge myself, in which case mana became a more or less limitless resource, even at surface ambient mana densities. Darren wasn't the only one who could cheat with magic.

Actually, why had I kept that particular discovery to myself? Most of my stuff I'd shared with the institute or delvers guild, but the secret of increasing your mana regeneration was something I'd never spoken about. It had just seemed too blatant a cheat. Should I spread that titbit of knowledge, too?

I'd taken [Expert Mana Finesse] as my next rank three skill, but that wasn't anything to do with the spell cost reduction, and more to try and have any chance of keeping up with Darren. One more soul point and I could grab [Mana Sight] too, after which... I wasn't sure. Either [Soul Sight] or [Eye of Judgement]. I had no particular desire for the pool skills right now; I had more than enough mana and stamina already.

With Cluma's fourteenth birthday, and hence the restart of my delving activities, rapidly approaching, I needed to think about my equipment. With puberty finally behind me, my body's growth may have slowed, but it was still a bit premature to be thinking about armour. My staff, on the other hand, was something I could think about now. It had remained completely untouched since I'd acquired it, and was now far too short for me. My original plan had been to weld a blade of some description to the end to turn it into a polearm. Something I could slice with as well as pierce or bash. Maybe a bardiche? I was half tempted to go for a scythe, just for the badass look, but I wasn't completely convinced of the practicality of wielding a scythe in narrow dungeon corridors.

The availability of mana reinforced steel had made me reconsider. Rather than just gluing a blade on, I'd rather upgrade the whole staff. I'd hoped I could do so simply by forcing mana into my existing weapon, but a consultation with Grover had informed me that would almost certainly break the enchantments, even though they were engraved into the mythril core, and since the core wasn't accessible, he couldn't enchant it afterward. It would need to be remade from scratch.

And, if I was remaking it from scratch, perhaps there were other materials I could use. I suspected there was another rank above mana reinforced steel, but that wasn't all. Since steel and silver could transform with the addition of mana, what about other dungeon metals?

With the royalties that were pouring in from my institute work, mostly from bikes and, oddly, pocket-watches, I now had a couple of platinum coins to my name. It was more than enough to collect a few ingots of gold. I'd wanted platinum too, but that came from the fifty-fifth floor boss chest, and even my generous budget didn't stretch that far.

I hadn't needed the dense mana of a dungeon to probe the materials, and the surface mana was sufficient to tell that while copper was a no-go, gold behaved very much like silver. It greedily sucked up the mana I fed it, but quickly leaked it back out. I could also tell that it would be much harder to saturate than silver. Floor ten of the Dawnhold dungeon wouldn't be enough. Even floor ten with maxed out [Expert Mana Control] and [Expert Mana Finesse] wouldn't be. But I had a backup plan. I did, after all, have a secret weapon in my arsenal: I had a Darren.

Tomorrow, we had an appointment at the research institute. We'd previously made use of a null-mana room they'd built, when we'd needed to cut Darren off from the ambient mana, but they also had a room that was the opposite. It was layered with enchantments that boosted the ambient mana inside, supposedly to dungeon floor twenty levels. That still wouldn't be enough for me to saturate gold, although it would likely be enough for me to produce mana reinforced steel, but what could Darren do with so much mana?

Imagining the results made me so eager for tomorrow to come that concentrating on the game was difficult. Or at least, that was my excuse for why I was losing so badly, and I intended to stick to it. In fact, it was distracting enough that I very nearly missed the System dinging at me.

ding

Another level of [Expert Mana Control], perhaps? That would leave it at level ten. I intended to find out if there was another rank to [Skilled] before changing class again, so boosting my rank three skills to fifteen was something of a priority, although it was my spells that were falling behind this time. No point in guessing, anyway. I just needed to look at my messages.

Administrative notification: Foreign soul detected at coordinates 1.464, -12.112
Administrative notification: Foreign soul detected at coordinates 1.464, -12.112

...What?