His mind focused, narrowing in even further as he tried to grasp the vague answer that seemed to be forming within his mind but with a popping sensation he was suddenly kicked out of that state and back into the fights of life and death. The change was drastic, the slash-cut into his chest as he stood still, his mind still tiring to comprehend the sudden shift. Even the confusion was overwhelmed by the pain as he felt his flesh being cut off, the knife getting stuck as it collided with his hip bone. He could feel everything slowing down and his hand moving, then the feeling of recoil as his knife forcefully penetrated the skull of the monster.

 

A haze was covering his mind, a mixture of pain from the wounds and high from the chemicals that had been pumped within his body. The state eluded him and he had no idea how to reenter it so he gave up on it, instead he focused upon the spell, trying to find that connection. Each time there was a window of a second, sometimes even less as he tried to unravel his connection with it.

 

The seconds added up along with the fights, as he fought with spells and then replenished his energy with the blue crystals as he physically fought the monsters. The cycle continued and he completed the floor and continued to the next.

 

It was quiet as he sat focusing upon the flame that stood upright without any swaying. Closing his eyes he connected to his reservoir. It was nearly full. Nearly. He tried finding where the missing part went but immediately faced a problem. There was no sign of the energy and even if there was he did not know how to identify it, rather he did not even know what he was searching for. 

 

The flame withered away as he dismissed it but the energy was still consumed. Again he cast the spell but this time slowed down the process as much as he could, focusing on trying to understand it. It happened in a blink and again the flame appeared on his palm. He stood not still, not discouraged, and burned the monster that was falling from the ceiling.

 

Again the cycle started. Slowly he trained himself, adjusting himself to run a marathon instead of a sprint, discarding and acquiring many things in the process. Even still, despite his improvements, the connection that he was searching for still eluded him. The reason felt simple as he tried to console himself, the time he spent fighting with his body was vastly greater than the time he used the spells. The spells needed the energy which took a long time to replenish and considering the aftereffects that started appearing when the energy was consumed, he had no choice but to limit how much he used.

 

He thought about how he should increase the usage of spells and in the end, slowly started to incorporate the spells within his physical fights. No longer did he fight with just his body or just with a spell. The usage was still bottlenecked by his reservoir but now he just started to bite on a crystal all the time, thus even between the fights, his reservoir was replenishing. Even still the rate of recovery was slow and despite his efforts, he could not speed it up.

 

Unable to feel the connection he changed his approach and instead tried to optimize the usage of each spell. The fights did not allow him to focus; now he just hoped that the repeated use would allow him to get a sense of how to improve it. He kept trying. One fight after another. Though he still could not get any results with the spell itself the way he used the spell slowly started being refined.

 

To get the most out of its destructive potential he created situations where multiple monsters were jumbled up, lobbing the fire in between them, lighting them all on fire. Stabbing up, the ricocheting monster threw itself into the knife. Using the momentum he spun and faced the monster attacking from behind, deflecting its attack he disarmed its weapon, grabbed it by the neck, and then ran towards the monsters that were rushing towards him.

 

Intently focused on the reservoir he sharpened his mind to the limits and the spell was cast. It was slight but he could feel it. After countless tries, he finally felt a pulse of connection. It was faint, gone almost immediately as though it was an illusion of his senses but he still could not control his happiness. Refocusing he started casting spells, slowly trying to tune in on the feeling but it eluded him, very rarely if ever resurfacing.

 

The fights continued and he started trying to make time during the fights. He tried to end them quickly and silently to not gather the attention of all the monsters in the area. As he tried to do this his usage of spells became even more skillful while his knife started flying in through the narrow corridor trying to take the lives of the monsters.

 

The cycle continued, becoming shorter after each fight as he fine-tuned his actions to become even stealthier when he killed the monsters. The fights again started changing as the focus went on the detection instead of fighting. The dim light made it difficult for him to see far away but he considered that same was the case for the monsters too.

 

The monsters above were much easier to detect, their bodies that stopped the light created massive shadows allowing the easiest detection. Then came those that crawled on the wall, their noise alerted him beforehand about their arrival. The problem was with those that walked in the hall. It was difficult to become alerted of their approach.

 

The fights started and ended quickly like a spark of fire, sudden brilliance, and then darkness. The time in between each fight he started using solely for sensing the connection with the flames. Even still it was difficult. The maze made it necessary that he kept his reservoir nearly full. Adding in the slow replenishing time, each time that he could use the spell solely for learning was as precious.

 

The cycles continued and he kept bettering himself and as the fights went on the results started showing.

 

The frequency of feeling that connection became greater even though it was still a rare occurrence. Now on the 10th floor, the fights started again. Remembering what happened on the 5th floor he was even more cautious as he fought. His strikes were even more precise as killed the monster one after another.

 

He kept fighting and fighting but the monsters never ended and neither did the connection to the next floor snap into his mind. Pain flared from his fingers as he stabbed the knife into the ear, piercing into the brain. He retrieved the knife with trembling hands. Panting, he slowly started walking with a haze covering his mind. A luminous light came out from his mouth as he took in deep breaths through his mouth, the nose unable to supply the oxygen he needed.

 

Time passed and he became more and more exhausted. His head felt like splitting as he did not know how many times he had recovered his energy reservoir. Even though he never really let the energy levels go below a certain limit, the repeated use still made him want to vomit. Whenever he could he took a break, taking a nap, half awake. His body had long since entered its survival mode and now he was running on fumes waiting for the chemicals to be pumped into his blood vessels. Even in this hazy state, he kept trying to understand the connection with the flames that the spell ‘Spark’ conjured.

 

A bulb lit up in his mind as he controlled his excitement as he again cast the spell ‘Spark’. He ignored the reservoir, the flame, instead, he shifted his focus upon the spell itself.

 

The process of casting was so intuitive, just like moving his limbs that he had forgotten how it actually became possible to use the flame. It was only possible due to the spell he had bought. The energy allowed his will to change the reality but the method through which that change occurred was the spells.

 

He looked within himself. Some of the connections, like the one with the reservoir or the one that allowed him to jump to the next floor, were bright to his senses but he ignored them this time. He cast the spell and he could feel it. It was subtle but he instantly closed in on the connection and connected with it. Suddenly everything became alien. His senses felt overloaded as he tried to make out what was around him.

 

Despite being exhausted to the core he kept on trying and trying and as he fought a group of monsters suddenly his hard work came to fruition. The sparks scattered but this time each headed for the head of a monster and all of their heads burned as the sparks collided with them. He was stunned at the success.

 

It felt like an eternity had passed since he had been trying to accomplish this and now that it had occurred he could not process it.

 

As he stood there a monster ricocheted from the walls, increasing its speed, and slammed into his back, its knife stabbed pierced his flesh, and struck his rib. As it was retrieving the knife, a punch slammed into its face throwing it against the wall and then a knife penetrated its skull cutting into the brain inside.

 

He wanted to scream for joy which he could not do so he leaped toward the burning monsters and started killing them with a renewed vigor.

 

The cycle continued. He became more and more exhausted. His body was broken and his mind spent when he came across it. His body froze while his mind sped up as its sluggishness disappeared. He suddenly shivered despite sweating. The intuition that had been refined while disarming bombs warned him, a warning he never ignored, a warning that allowed him to stand here alive with all his body parts intact.

 

Sweat formed on his body while the few remaining hairs on his arms stood up. The monster was green like its brethren but huge. Even bigger than himself. Its body felt unnatural to look at. Long limbs on an unnaturally slim body that appeared unfit compared with its height.

 

His body long since stopped breathing, unwilling to attract its attention. It became difficult as the time crossed one minute and then he could no longer hold it. Reflexively, his body took in-breath and though he forcefully controlled the intake to reduce the sound the monster turned its head and his hair stood up as he threw himself into another intersection.

 

A massive sound sounded out but he ran without looking back. For the first time he thanked God for the intersecting maze that he was trapped in. constantly changing the intersection his thoughts spun as he tried to find out how he would face it.

 

Though his body was running so wildly due to fear it was not going to last. He needed to be prepared before that and prepared in a manner that would not require physical prowess of any sort from him.

 

The clacking sound started coming closer and closer and then he felt the air being blasted apart behind him. Again he tried himself to another intersection but this time a massive force slammed into him. The power sent him crashing along the wall. He collided face first, his nose breaking from the impact while all the teeth in his mouth loosed from the impact. The ribs cracked while his arms that had tried to reduce the impact snapped. He tried to gather himself but to no avail. His already exhausted body had suddenly snapped, the strength that had been barely puppeteering it suddenly vanished. The monster quickly ricocheted across the wall. A sword in its hand pointed straight at him.