My disciple is a weird little creature.

The young half-demon doesn't notice when I return, and I can see her shaking slightly, sweat on her brow. However, she still finishes the task I gave her, and when I move closer, she hands me a mana stone that contains a tiny bit of her mana. The amount is so small that it barely penetrates the surface.

Taking no note of that, she wipes sweat from her forehead, and I could swear for a moment a smug smile flashes on her face.

Wow, just wow.

In the end, her mood changes gradually, as if she comes back to the real world outside the fascinating qualities of mana, one that contains people as well. Her defenses shoot up, and her expression firms, an apparent attempt at hiding her feelings. It's not good to let a person you don’t trust know that you like something. It can be used against you.

As I examine the stone, she patiently waits, and I notice that she is still shaking. Was it too much for her? It could be that; I have no experience helping someone as young as her train.

“Good job,” I say simply, to her surprise.

The little half-demon doesn't seem to be used to compliments, and after a bit of hesitation, she nods, “Thanks, master,” she says carefully.

I hand the stone back to her, “You can keep it and train when you feel like it.”

The mana stone contains something like an extremely simple labyrinth. If she sends her mana through the right circuit and it reaches the end of the “labyrinth,” I will know.

I intend to improve her [Mana Manipulation] and to see if her [Concentration] will help her with it.

Of course, it could all be useless, as my only experience with learning is from being self-taught, and after becoming Lissandra's disciple for a short while, she just threw me down in the tunnels full of giant serpents and imps.

Good old times.

Damn, now I really want to return to those tunnels and beat up every single monster that's left.

“Master?” a soft voice sounds, and I return back to reality.

Two deep red eyes carefully observe me when I ask, “Yes?”

“Are you strong?” her question is timid somewhat but calculated.

I guess she already judged I’m not someone who would react by asking “How dare you ask me such a question”.

Still, I give it a bit of thought. Am I strong? Probably?

Out of people from group 4, I’m currently the strongest… of course, only after our future corgi Archmage. And perhaps Noodle. He is still small and weak, but our future animal overlords can’t be underestimated.

I did watch other members fighting and spent some time comparing myself to them, and even then, I can with confidence say that I would be capable of fighting and winning against any of them.

A fight 1v1 against the Fallen Hero might be possible as well, but it wouldn't be as “nice” as what they did, and I would need to put my life on the line.

I’m also stronger than Myrra, who bears the title of fake Champion candidate.

My level is 214, but I’m most likely closer to someone at 240-250.

Am I as strong as a Champion disciple? Probably if I fought against a weaker one, but so far, it looks like anyone who’s earned that title is extremely talented.

As for the Champion, nope, there is no way. From what I know, the Champion is someone over three question marks, so most likely over level 450, more likely even higher.

Then there are titles such as Absolute and the title of Ruler - the being from the Beyond trial mentioned it. Ruler. I don’t know, but it sounds like a title given to someone even stronger than Absolute. The main hint is that the Ruler of Greed is someone who has something to do with the tutorial that was even capable of replicating Absolutes.

There is also the possibility that the Absolutes are weakened in the tutorial in comparison to their real strength, but it's hard to confirm it with the information I have.

Instead of answering, I ask the question, “Who is the strongest being you know in the world?”

She answers without any hesitation, “The Hornless Demon for sure…” She then hesitates, “The Undying Dragon is strong too, and the humans have the Bloody Hero. I can't be sure, sorry.”

“That's fine, do you know their levels or titles? Champion? Absolute?”

She wipes sweat from her forehead again, and I notice that she is still shaking. Did she really overextend herself so much?

“I don’t know,” she shakes her head.

“I see, to answer your question, I’m strong and will become much stronger,” that’s something I’m sure of and have pride in.

She gulps and then asks, “Can I go and take a sip? My throat hurts a bit.”

“Go ahead,” I answer, and when she starts heading to the lake, I stop her, “Where are you going?”

“I can drink from the lake; master´s water is precious…” She stops when I lift my hand.

Jumping to my feet, I pass by her and examine the lake with my [Perception]. I repeat it multiple times, but I don’t notice anything.

Then I step closer and cup a bit of water in my hands and smell it, and it seems normal, “Did you drink from here?”

Something in my voice must scare her, because she only nods, her face becoming more blank. She is still shaking, and I notice that she is sweating more and more.

I take a little sip of the water and examine how it tastes.

It’s normal to me.

Yet the entire time we’ve been here, I haven’t noticed any animals, or insects, coming to drink from it. There are no fish either.

The lake is calm and beautiful, and the water looks extremely clear, but I’ve only seen animals far off in the distance.

“Put a finger in your mouth and vomit out as much water as you can,” I order her.

Hearing the urgency in my voice, she goes to the side and does just that.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - is the water poisonous?

I try to ask in the Community, but my message gets censored, so I make multiple attempts to circumvent it, but each message gets blocked.

Even that much is enough.

I made a mistake. Even though I've put most of my stats into mana, I have plenty of points in constitution, thanks to tempering, mainly. In comparison to a level 6, I’m much more resilient.

So, is the water poisoned? It's possible.

I open up the system shop to try and find some medicine, even though I hadn’t found anything like that before. There are no potions, no healing tattoos, nothing. When I delve deeper, I find out that even buying water and food is impossible at the moment. It looks like obtaining supplies on my own is part of the 5th floor.

Taking a few steps, I stop in front of the little half-demon.

After throwing up, she wipes her mouth and sweat, yet she is still shaking.

“I-I’ll be fine…” she mumbles weakly and tries to put some strength into her posture to look stronger, “Just a few minutes.”

Is this silly little girl that the system’s thrown at me worried that I will leave her alone if she causes trouble?

Seeing that she is still shaking, I start converting kinetic energy to thermal and radiating it from my body. I even create a thermal orb that I place next to her and then grab a blanket from the pile of things I bought with me.

Understanding me, she wraps the blanket around herself, and even in this situation, she curiously observes the thermal orb. She even wants to ask me about it, but then changes her mind.

Such a dumbass, she reminds me of someone.

“Hand,” I tell her, and she pushes her small hand from under the blanket.

I take her hand and send my senses through her body, examining it and looking for something. The best case would be if it's being caused by mana; in that situation, I would be capable of getting rid of it.

Another option is to try to somehow apply my passive to her and heal her. But I don’t even know if that’s possible, and even if it is, I could end up hurting her badly. Thermal energy isn’t exactly easy to handle.

In the worst case, I could buy an item to give her some sort of healing like the Ethercrystal sword. The rarity of items with that kind of effect is usually epic at least, but I can sacrifice around 4 thousand shards to not fail the quest.

After examining her, I find nothing and conclude that it’s whatever is in the water is biological and not mana-based.

Not knowing what else to do, I just tell her to lay down, and I sit next to her, keeping a watch and observing her state.

Truly a nice start, damn it. I'm used to people having a higher level, she is so fragile and so weak like this.

While waiting, I also check my notifications.

 

The ability to pass your teachings and experience is an important skill, and the relationship between disciple and master is to be taken seriously.

Train and protect your disciple for three weeks. After that, they will return to their world, relying on the knowledge they’ve gained from you to survive in its harsh conditions.

Remember, the better you do, the higher the reward will be.

Good luck!

 

So, three weeks. So far, it looks like this floor will be on the shorter side.

I check on my disciple, and she is still shaking, only her head poking out from under the blanket. Once in a while, she opens her eyes to check on me and to look around. It's like a wild animal watching for danger.

Pretending I do not see it, I let her do so and continue to go through the system messages.

 

Side quest: Find out what happened to this world.

Reward: 5000 shards.

 

Side quest: Locate the Mirror.

Reward: ???

 

Side quest: Locate the survivors.

Reward: Food and water supplies.

 

Side quest: Avoid the sleeping Calamity.

Reward: Survival.

 

That's unusual; the system doesn’t give this many side quests that often. What interests me the most are the rewards for the mirror quest and the last one about Calamity.

I wonder, what are the rewards if I kill it? And more importantly, should I even try? The system rarely gives these warnings, and the entire quest seems like a joke.

After checking the quests, I spend my time working solely on the preparations for upgrading my kinetic mana heart.

Checking on my disciple a few dozen times, I can tell that she is slowly getting better. She is still shaking, and her small body seems even more petite, but she is at least sleeping. She instinctively moved closer to me, in her sleep, as if she was seeking protection.

Poor little thing. Remembering how careful she was, it's not something she would usually do, and that shows how big a toll it has taken on her.

As always, the cheeky system needs to throw some bullshit into the mix to make the floor more difficult.

Just in case, I activate my domain and place traps all around us. Thin threads of mana that will cut anything that runs into them, thinner threads that will warn me when they break, and dozens of mana orbs frozen nearby that I can instantly seize control of for attack and defense.

I even set some triggers that would make another set of mana projectiles shoot towards any trigger that happens to be activated, this one inspired by an assassin from the second floor. Obviously, all made by me, in an extremely janky way.

The assassin would be proud.

Then I also tie anchors to a few projectiles that I shoot as far as I can. In the worst case, I will grab my silly disciple and just teleport us away.

It feels like an overreaction, but it doesn't cost me much, so it is fine.

After that, I take a few deep breaths until my heartbeat slows down, and [Focus] filters out useless emotions as I delve into the upgrade of my mana heart.

Domain encompasses me, [Mana Manipulation] grabs control of my mana which I channel throughout my body, etching and improving on the pathways I made before, and “scratching out” the less efficient ones in exchange for plenty of pain. But that much is fine.

[Infusion] activates as well, working along with [Resonance] to allow me to change my body.

[Infusion - lvl 20 > Infusion - lvl 21]

The process is much smoother than it was on the second floor, and I connect the new pathways to my Mana Regulator right away, improving on that as well.

As I’ve done many times before, I delve deep into my mind and body and the outside factors lose their meaning and become even more distant. And here I am. Tinkering and changing things that will make me stronger. Working with my own power to make it happen. A feeling of satisfaction permeates me.

I try hard, I get rewarded.

Unlike the real world where you can try extremely hard, do everything right, and still get screwed over, the world of the system feels fairer.

Yes, even here there is a difference between talents; otherwise, there wouldn't be 5 difficulties, but a lot of it comes from how much you are willing to put in. How much are you willing to bleed and hurt just to make things happen?

I know that I'm not the most talented person ever. My talent lies with mana, but it's far from the kind of thing to be seen once in a millennium. Even Lissandra confirmed it, and she reached a place near the top.

But who cares? Who are they and the system to tell me how far I will go?

No, I will try hard as I always did, and climb higher than anyone else, and then it will be me looking down at all these so-called geniuses.

It becomes easier and slowly I sense that I'm coming to the end. Everything falls into place, and the last checks confirm that my creation is as good as I can currently make it.

I send mana through the improved web of pathways I’ve tied around my heart and a new notification sounds.

 

Congratulations, you have upgraded your second Construct. The name will be changed, and the construct will be shown in the status under active skills and over passive skills.

Well done!

 

Thermokinetic Mana Heart:

Alongside its ability to compress mana, the heart works as medium for converting the rhythmic motions of the heart and mana into two Primordial energies, Kinetic and Thermal. The Thermokinetic Mana Heart is a harmonious blend of these forces, offering a reliable and steady source of power.