Points: 90

Purchase:

Skills
Elixirs

Skills:

Spark
Cost: 45

Elixirs:

Elixir of Body
Cost: 150
Elixir of Soul
Cost: 150

All that hell just for these 90 points? He felt exhausted but when he saw the Skill listed as a purchase he became excited and quickly bought it. With his points halved his eyes moved downwards at the Elixirs. A curse stopped just at his throat as he saw their price but a thought suddenly appeared within his mind, if the elixir had the same effect as the floor completion restoration then maybe it was worth it. There was no use thinking about it though as he was penniless for now instead his thoughts moved elsewhere. How would he cast this Spark?

A flame suddenly appeared hovering above his palm, the same instance the thought appeared. In a panic, he violently swung his arms trying to put out the flame only realizing after a few seconds that he could not feel the slightest of the temperature. The flame itself was small and fragile as though it would collapse at the slightest touch. He moved his hand again, this time slowly, and watched with fascination as the flame moved along with it as though it was glued to it. He thought about firing it and the flame quickly sped towards the hologram, passing through it, and continued on to strike the wall.

As soon as the collision happened the flame broke apart into sparks that scattered. Bursts of flames erupted out as those beautiful sparks collided against the wall trying to burn it. The flame slowly died away unable to cause any damage to the structure.

Another flame appeared and this time he felt something else. His mind felt slightly sluggish, slightly exhausted as the small flame again came into being. As he focused on the feeling he felt a connection to something new. A reservoir of sorts that he could sense was somewhat used. It still contained enough that he felt it could be used to cast around another two dozen more spells before it would be completely used up.

He played with the flame for a while when a memory crossed his mind. When he had held the crystal he had felt a relaxing sensation so he quickly brought it out. As soon as he touched the crystal he could feel the sluggishness slowly starting to fade away. He waited and waited but only after a while was the crystal completely used up. He connected to the reservoir, it had filled up but there was still some space remaining. He repeated the process and only then did he feel the sensation completely fade away.

After fully replenishing his reservoir he laid down and closed his eyes, sleeping for a long time.

***

He felt refreshed. His mind was sharper than he had ever felt before. After performing some stretches and light exercises he turned towards the door that he did not remember seeing before. On it was written the number of the next floor, “6”.

Again he found himself inside the maze. It appeared the same as before. The light came down from above illuminating the tight corridor. He moved around but his hands kept colliding with the walls as he suddenly was here, inside the tight walls instead of that spacious room. It took a few moments for him to readjust to the environment.

It was after a few intersections did he come across the first monster. It rushed at him and he noticed it had grown in size and when the collision occurred he confirmed that its strength had been enhanced. Stepping back, evading the hit he stabbed with lightning speed, squeezed his shoulders, and spun. Jumping back he avoided collision with the ricocheting monster but instead of a knife attack a flame collided with its face. His hairs shriveled as the monster's face quickly burnt to charcoal and the body started disintegrating away.

A child-like excitement came to him. He had acquired a love for fire and explosions. It had started due to a necessity but slowly that had changed into intrigue. It was the reason he had started tinkering with the bombs even though he could have left that job with the bomb disposal units. Instead, he himself had learned how to disarm them and then how to make them.

Deflecting the attack he pinned it against the wall, his head snapping upwards. A flame rushed at the monster falling down. It kicked the wall changing the direction but the tight space constricted its movements. The flame collided against its shoulder exploding into a swarm of beautiful red sparks. A few exploded upon its face while the rest burnt its left side. He felt the sluggishness deepen. The monster sensing stabbed its claws into his arms. Instinctively his body moved back to the wall stopping him. It kicked the wall, its needle-like teeth targeting his face. He squatted and then stood up. His head crashed against its chin, his hand grabbing onto its ear throwing it down, and then the knife ended it.

Despite his desire, he limited the use of the spell. It exhausted him mentally and each time the reservoir that powered the spell was used he felt uncomfortable. It made the fights became even more dangerous than they already had become. Before at least he was not at a disadvantge, strength-wise, even when he was ganged up. Now though he could feel himself being pushed back.

The strength that was utilized to kill each of them had increased, forcing him to create a rotation system. He would physically slit their throats until he started feeling exhaustion creeping in and then he would shift to burning them. As he kept on going his aim kept improving. What he had learned when using the firearms, he tried applying here. He did not need to do this, the tight space did not require the most amazing of the aim to hit but he still kept trying. Firearms were one thing and this spell another. Each operated in a different way but it gave him a starting structure to follow. With each use, he kept adding and subtracting to the aiming process. There was no noticeable progress at the start but like with everything, after a few sprinkles of time and the results started showing.

His arm was pointing towards the monster as it jumped from above, another he could hear coming from behind. Anticipating the distance he fired the flamed and it grazed past its leg, lighting it on fire but its howl assured him that even that was enough. He spun, the other monster was quickly closing in as it crawled along the walls.

He ran, a knife in both hands and just a few feet before the collision he threw his knife and squatted. Turning back he jumped on it, his knife slicing its neck apart and then he faced the burning monster as he started falling down while even more gathered up from all sides to gang upon him.

The fights were brutal. The monsters never retreated, always fighting until they died. Instead, he started running away when the fights started becoming too difficult but even that created a disaster of its own. Not a single one of them gave up on chasing him and as he kept running more and more of them kept grouping up.

He ran, lobbing the flame behind his back. At the intersection, he quickly turned and as the flame exploded he tried controlling the sparks as they scattered but in the split second between the collision he did not have any time to implement the sudden thought. Again he turned, throwing back a spell. Whenever there was distance between the monster and him he kept trying to control them but each and every time he was met with failure.

The sprint very quickly came to the end, a burning sensation forcing him to stop as his lungs were unable to bear it any longer. Having to stop he moved into the intersection that looked empty, scanned it, and quickly turned, his knives ready to cut into their flesh as he panted. As they came closer anxiety quickly built up inside him and he wondered how many more he had to kill before he could escape.

Like a wave they came. Though he could still only see those in front the voices echoed from all around as they approached from all sides. He jumped in, stabbing with the knives, blasting the spells while he was slowly surrounded from the front, back and top. He quickly lost his knives, stealing directly from the monsters. In a blink of an eye, he was sliced from top to bottom only the flames allowing him the leeway to take some rest but even that at a cost.

As he used the spell at the close range the heat burnt him. His skin darkened, slowly drying causing it to tear apart. Still, he kept fighting now used to the pain, unafraid and uncaring even, as his body would be completely fine once he completed the floor.

Despite him not caring about the pain, the damage that was inflicted slowly started affecting him. The movements became restricted, slow and in the midst of a rapidly deteriorating situation, the odds were stacked against him. Slowly his arms turned dead meat, the only thing he could use was the spell while his hands became unable to even grab onto the knife. Using his hands as shields he protected his face and legs. Kicking, running, while lobbing fire wherever he could.

He kept trying to control the sparks with no success until the exploding sparks killed another monster and a connection snapped in his mind. He quickly unraveled it, moving to the next floor.

He sat there, controlling his breathing and not moving as the flame appeared above his palm. He looked at it and then revisited all the things he had experienced since he came in here. It was unexpectedly much easier than he had thought. He was not confident in his memories but when he tried thinking about them, the details were much easier to remember so started analyzing them.

He had thought it would take multiple floors worth of time to get going anywhere but he quickly found some results. Everything that he had experienced here, from the holograms to the storage, to the floor jumping, everything was possible in one way. Through a connection within his mind. All those things he performed required focusing upon the connection that was present in his mind so he tried searching for the connection with the flames.

He was going to close his eyes but the crawling sound took his attention. Heaving a sigh he stood up and took out two knives from his storage, starting the vicious cycle again.

The monsters had become stronger, no longer allowing him the leeway to overpower them, forcing him to evolve his own processes. How he fought, how he used his stamina, his strength, his will, his mind. He tried to find how he could run a marathon instead of a short sprint, how he could complete these floors with some strength still remaining within him.

This undertaking exhausted his mind and body. Along with increasing his physical abilities he gave time to sense the connection with the flame. Due to the mayhem that surrounded him most of the time, it was difficult to give his full attention to the task but despite obtaining no results he kept ongoing. With each battle he calibrated himself, allowing himself to fight the monster a bit better each time, cutting away the time he took to kill.

The cycle kept on repeating one after another. The constant fights had now become a meditative state for him. He saw he heard, he smelled but his body acted on its own. Stabbing, punching, kicking, moving, jumping, and burning. Somehow in those tight spaces, he started becoming comfortable and his mind started wandering and a question appeared in his mind. How did he control the target when firing the spell?