After spending time with my family, I returned home to Kayafe.

“Thank you” I bow to Kayafe with gratitude for giving me the push I needed.

“It’s the least I could do for freeing and helping me,” Kayafe gives me a warm smile.“First, before we get into anything serious, I want you to get an idea of just what you are capable of now.”

I slowly nod, wondering what Kayafe wants me to do.

“First, with your skill, reach out as far as you can. Use your skill to encompass as much area as possible, then seize control of all the mana you can. Pacify it. Make it calm, as if to deny the casting of any spells.”

I do as Kayafe instructed, understanding that she wants me to learn my limits in a relatively safe environment. 

I reach out and out and out, further than I ever could have before, with ease. I bring in an extra Mind to help with the task.  The further I reach out, the more focus it requires to keep everything in my grasp. My area of control extends out well beyond the edge of the Nexus. In a way, it’s just like expanding my [Sense Magic] perceptive field to its maximum size.

Once I start to strain my mind trying to reach mere millimeters further, I command all mana to bleed it’s intensity. I command it to become calm, making any kind of mana activity impossible. In a way, it’s an anti-spell field. I have always been able to do things like this on a smaller scale; however, due to my fighting style, I’ve always been too far to use it.

“Do you fully understand what this means, Alysara? What would happen if you turn all the mana flowing through the Nexus into spell mana and you were to use it to attack or defend?”

Kayafe motions to the area around her, implicating the entire Nexus.

“Unless they are legendary beings themselves, no enemy will be able to use spells in our presence. We can refuel our mana reserves with all of this mana, effectively giving us infinite mana to use. Then there’s crafting, which has far greater potential. This is what the Mana Arc is capable of and why it’s so valuable. The more you learn of your new abilities, the more you realize the potential of the Mana Arc outside of being a tool to funnel mana into the dungeon.”

A chill went down my spine. No wonder Kayafe said not to let this get to my head. Klaman is already overconfident in his abilities, and he’s legendary tier. With me not even legendary tier – even if I am of equivalent power now, with my title – I need to understand my strength relative to other beings. I can’t just go off tiers alone anymore; my title has thrown the equation off.

“But don’t forget, you still lack the support skills to actually cast powerful spells quickly and efficiently. Against a competent caster, as long as they can resist your anti-spell area, they can  overwhelm you with more spells.” Kayafe warns me. “I will also teach you more about how to use your skill in crafting and various different applications. But first, let's give you a taste of what is possible by making a useful tool in case we get injured.”

Kayafe usurps the control of mana in her immediate vicinity and quickly makes a super-solid bottle made of vitality, healing, and life essence before enchanting it. The next thing she does surprises me as magic envelops the bottle.

“Remember that [Manipulate Magic] can only apply pseudo magic effects to only mana, nothing else. This magic will fade in time, but how long that it lasts depends on how high your skill level is. As for this bottle, any water poured into it will become healing water, effectively turning it into a healing potion.”

“Isn’t this the same as controlling magic?” I ask, tilting my head slightly. “I thought you couldn’t do that.”

“In a way, it is… but I’m not sure what’s going on. From how you describe magic frameworks, I would guess that the skill itself is using divinity to… coerce magic in a way, but I am unsure.”

I’m not convinced that is the answer, but I can’t see divinity, so I can’t rule that possibility out. However, it would make sense if it’s magic controlling magic. The skill is at least half magic, so that magic of the skill is under my control, and that in turn can be used to… well… manipulate other magic.

I explain that to Kayafe as I make my own bottle, watching my skill light up as I apply the magical effects. 

Ting! Manipulate Magic has met the requirements for a breakthrough and will continue leveling past level 1100!

55th Breakthrough: You have managed to manipulated magic; this will help you make and cast spells and items of unparalleled quality!

“That makes a lot more sense,” Kayafe admits with a shrug as the message rings in my mind. “It’s [Manipulate Magic], not [Manipulate Divinity]. Plus, it explains why it only works with mana, as the base form of the skill is [Manipulate Mana].”

“I got the breakthrough for manipulating magic!" I celebrate. "But it's either that or it requires a breakthrough to apply it to mundane matter; we’ll find out eventually,” I say and Kayafe congratulates me as we fly to the Temple. She promises to teach me more about the breakthrough later once I am stronger. We walk inside to begin our journey together in the Dungeon.

Appearing on the other side of the portal, the Dungeon village comes into view, having expanded since the last time I was here. Most notably, there is a parking lot for five land-based airships for transporting monster slayers to their locations.

“This place sure has changed,” Kayafe comments. “But I didn’t think you’d build a town inside the Dungeon.”

“Why not?” I ask.

“Anything harvested from the dungeon is poisonous. I’m not sure if that’s intentional, but that is the case for every Dungeon I visited. In order to support a Dungeon village, they require a lot of imported food.”

“We have a racial skill that makes it so we can supplement our food needs with Mana. We can go several days without eating,” I say. Plus, we produce our own food, but I don’t mention that.

“Well, I suppose that will make a Dungeon town viable” Kayafe shrugs and swishes her tail.

If we are going to explore, especially in the more dangerous areas that I can now contend with, then I should probably pick up a Dungeon Waystone Key.

“I have someone I need to see before we go anywhere,” I say as I locate Esofy, who is the de-facto elder for the monster-slaying business. In order to get a waystone key, one needs permission as they are very rare, although I can see that they managed to get two more.

Each key, when found, also comes with its own waystone, but I don’t see any of those around, so I wonder where they put them.

We walk to Esofy’s office, where she is sorting through some papers, and knock on the door.

“Alysara! Come in!” Esofy cheerfully says, seeing me with her perception skill.

I open the door and walk in with Kayafe, who introduces herself.

“I’m honored to meet you.” Esofy bows and introduces herself too.

“We’ll be exploring some of the more dangerous areas,” I say after the two greet each other. “So we’ll want a waystone key to attune to any waystones we find.”

“Of course” Esofy takes out a normal key and unlocks a drawer revealing several small stones, each with a numbered ribbon around them. “To prevent people from going into areas they are not ready for, some keys are not attuned to all of the waystones. Unfortunately, we only implemented this after a group decided to go into a high-level den and all died. This has also made it hard to get enough waystones for higher leveled dens, and we had to prioritize distance more.”

“In every society, rules are often only made because some people have a lapse in judgment. This won’t be the first time, nor is it exclusive to Runalymo,” Kayafe says, probably in an effort to reassure Esofy that she did nothing wrong. “The best advice I can give is to make it easy to do things safe and right, and hard to do things wrong and dangerous. Think of how one might use something to harm others or themselves and try to prevent those foreseeable situations.”

“I hate to just assume others are dumb, but if that’s what it takes to keep people safe, then it’s for the best. Thank you for your advice, Kayafe” Esofy bows her head. “Oh! And before you leave, Alysara, we’d like you to overview the blueprints of a new type of airship and make the necessary components for them.”

“What kind of Airship?” I ask.

“One that doesn’t transport people but instead materials.” Esofy takes out several blueprints and shows them to me.

The planned ship has a superstructure in the middle for the pilots and cargo holds on the front and back. I can understand the idea is to balance out the weight, but it’s not actually a great design.

“You can move the superstructure to the back,” I give my advice. “The weight balance is only in relation to the center of lift. Doing it this way, you will have to pay a lot more attention to what goes where, whereas with my way, you only need to counterbalance the superstructure and put the heaviest things in the middle.” 

With the lift sails stretched horizontally above the airship, the airships have more in common with blimps than planes, except it doesn’t need a giant balloon ten times the size or more of the ship.

But does the airship even need the lift sail anymore? Can I make an airship sailless with [Manipulate Magic]? I want to try, but a ship like that can’t be widespread because I’ll have to reapply the magic every so often. I’ll make a test model with my other clone real quick before I move too far away to reach the Nexus with my Skill.

“So what are those waystones you guys kept talking about?” Kayafe asks as we leave.

“The waystones are places that we can teleport to with a waystone key, but we must attune a key to the waystone first to form a link.”

“Wait! Do you mean to say the Key and stone aren't made with a link?! How is that possible?!” Kayafe says with surprise.

“I haven’t been able to figure out the exact mechanisms, but it’s something about sharing its unique mana with the stone to form a link,” I answer. “I had been trying to replicate the teleportation mechanisms at one point a while ago, but I haven’t made much progress; the project kinda left my mind after the cursed being incident.”

“I see. Those waystones sound really useful; can I see it?” Kayafe asks. I give her the key to [Analyze]. “They are also magic items, which explains a lot, so you can’t just copy them. The Dungeon Core is a magical being which means they can use magic however they like without any of the difficulties we have with it, so they can make things like this very easily.” 

“What’s the Dungeon Core like?” I ask.

“Hmm,” Kayafe puts a hand on her chin. “It might be better to meet it yourself, but I don’t think you are powerful enough right now.”

Is it that indescribable? Or maybe it’s unbelievable?

“So, where should we go?” I ask, changing the subject. “The one area I haven’t really explored, aside from the really far areas, is the mountains over there since they often have really powerful monsters with levels in the thousands. I don’t think I am ready to fight those, but in most cases, they can’t hurt me either because of my clones. So, maybe it’s worth a try?”

“As long as they can’t fight back, your win is guaranteed. Let's go there,” Kayafe says.

If anything, killing those will be well worth it for the evolution of my Classes. Speaking of, my first class is almost ready for one. As it stands right now, though, I think it is more worth it to hold off for a while since it pales in comparison to [Manipulate Magic]. Getting better achievements will be far better in the long run.

With Kayafe’s endorsement, I teleport us to the closest waystone and conjure wings for us, flying in the direction of the Dungeon Mountains.