"Master! Look, look!" a silly half-demon with four undeserved trait slots rushes towards me, her red eyes mirroring her smile.

She holds up a rare dagger, coated in a nearly invisible layer of pale blue mana. It flickers and would likely disappear if it struck anything stronger than air. Yet, she is still smiling happily.

"My [Mana Manipulation] leveled up too!" she adds.

I pull my attention away from examining the effects of compressed mana on my skills, and turn to her, "Are you sure you didn't cheat?" I ask.

That scares her for a moment, but as she looks at me, she quickly regains her smug expression. "Is Master trying to tease me?"

"Maybe," I reach out and pull on one of her horns, shaking her head as I do.

Her small hands try to push me away, but even though my body is probably the weakest out of group 4, I won’t lose against a level 13.

In the past few days, she has become so comfortable around me that it’s scary, and she constantly fights for my attention, always rushing to me whenever she has a breakthrough in her training. At first, I thought she was just being naive and even teased her about it. Only to be looked down on by a 6-year-old girl. I swear she looked down at me like I was stupid!

I mean, what the heck!

She responded, telling me: It's fine because I'm her master.

The only way to get confirmation, Is to have her interact with more people, so I will use Darren and visit their camp. I can't let her be too naive and trusting.

I would also like her to acquire her primary class before the end of our three weeks together. I got mine after we entered the second floor and back then I was a bit over level 20, and I hope it will be the same for her.

"What are you working on, master?" the girl asks, as she plops down next to me.

"I'm testing how much I can compress my mana and how much this compressed mana changes my skills when I use it to power them."

She nods, totally not understanding, yet looking up at me and listening.

"At first, I thought I would be able to compress my mana more, but at the moment it seems to be around 20% at most, and that’s using the full power of my improved heart."

"I see!" she nods.

She is totally lost.

"Some of my skills react to compressed mana better, and others don’t react much at all. My theory is that higher-tiered skills don't benefit all that much from a 20% rate of compression. But it could have more to do with the type of skill. For example, concentration-type skills like your [Concentration] and my [Focus] might not get that much of a boost. Maybe there’s still some threshold that I need to cross before I can make it work. Maybe 20% just isn’t enough. If so, how much is my black mana compressed? Is it equal to the 1st stage of Potency? Second stage? Or am I totally wrong? Is there something else in play? Is [Focus] just compression, or is it doing something else as well? The last king recognized the black mana, so what was that? Did he misunderstand, is black mana really all that unusual? Do you get black mana when you reach a certain level? Are there other ways to create it? Is…”

"Master?" She asks interrupting my train of thought.

"Yes?"

"Are you bullying me because half-demons can have 4 traits while humans only get 3?"

The mana stone I was holding falls from my hand.

The little half-demon is not smiling, her face is mostly blank, but something in the way her eyebrow moves and her eyes have narrowed tells me she is having a lot of fun.

Cheeky little thing, when did you get SO comfortable?

I lean closer and look deep into her eyes, but even that doesn't seem to scare her. So, I just sigh and lay on the grass, looking towards the sky.

I have been defeated.

We are currently on a rooftop that has been overgrown with grass, flowers, and even a few small trees, the cracked material of the building peeking out from gaps in the greenery.

“My minion, why do you trust me so much? Answer honestly.”

“It's disciple, master. Not minion,” she complains.

“Sure, minion.”

For a moment, she pouts and then lies on the ground next to me, also looking towards the sky.

“Master is the same as me.”

“What does that mean?”

“I'm little and dumb and I can't explain. So I will find the words as I grow smarter.”

“Minions do not become smarter, they become dumber.”

“That's not true!” she complains and I listen to her chirping for a minute longer before sending her off to practice as I do the same.

---

I have finally decided to sell the items I looted from the old capital. In the end, they might be good things to trade with natives of this floor, but I think the shards will be more valuable.

In the worst case, I can buy some back at a loss and trade, if I need to. I don't think they use currency here as this world seems to be firmly post-apocalypse.

I receive quite a tidy sum of shards in exchange - 5,260, to be exact, leaving me with a total of 13,542. Enough for an epic passive if I really wanted or a few weaker epic items or one stronger.

For now, I decide to keep them. I'm still seriously thinking of buying a rare passive to examine, then selling it and buying another. Sure, I would barely get any effect from such low-grade passives and I would spend some shards, but I think the knowledge I stand to gain would be worth it. It's something I’ll have to add to my ever-growing list of things to try.

My current priority is to fully explore my new construct and the effects mana has on my body. Another is continued experimentation with black mana. This time I would like to use much less, I’ll probably try [Focus] again.

Maybe I could use it to run some kind of strengthening skill. Would that counteract the pressure it puts on my body? Would that mean I could strengthen my body with black mana and then generate more and use another skill?

Who the hell knows, more testing is required!

I'm also getting closer to decrypting the mana stone that was lodged in the corpse of the Champion’s disciple. The stone used to contain a personality imprint of said disciple, I believe he was called… called… Bob, I think.

Arcane archer Bob, we fought him in the ancient mine, where he guarded the array leading to the heart of the Colony. That guy. I still have the stone and haven't given up. Maybe there will be a piece of information or two. In the worst case, I will ruin the inscriptions and turn it into a mana battery.

Whispering Echo Stone (epic): The Whispering Echo Stone is a rare, iridescent mana stone that serves as a powerful mana battery and harbors an imperfect personality imprint. There is something encrypted inside.

There is also a new token I found in the system stop. I could swear that it wasn't there before as I keep checking the stop anytime I have some free time. I already bought three of these tokens.

Detachment Token: Used to remove upgrades from a skill, reverting it to its base form.

The description is short, and the price is a thousand shards for one. So, with these 3,000 of my shards are gone, and I don’t regret a thing.

Symbiotic Transference, Advanced Mana Manipulation, and Dual Focus Consolidation. All of these upgrades are gone, kaput, reduced to atoms. Yet I can still use my skills in the same way as before. All of these upgrades were months and months old, and my mastery over the skill had already transcended them.

There won't be any upgrade helping me to master my skills, no, it will all be on me and me only. I could do it later when three thousand shards would be worth much less to me, but I think it's good to start as soon as possible.

And with this, a new plan came. Maybe I can use the next skill upgrade token, observe it, learn what I want, and then remove the upgrade. It should work, right? The price would probably be around 6,000 shards to do so. That’s 5,000 lost by not selling the upgrade token and 1,000 more for the detachment token.

With a total budget of 10,000 shards, it's quite a price to pay, but I don’t believe that epic is the highest rarity of item there is, no. There should be a rarity somewhere in the ballpark of 10 to 20, times more expensive than epic. When I am finally capable of collecting those sums on a later floor, which I logically should be, 6,000 shards will be nothing.

For now, I will buy a new rare passive instead, as they are much cheaper, and learn from it, yup. The system refuses to teach properly, so it's obvious I will use whatever I can to teach myself.

“Master, you have a creepy expression,” I hear somewhere in the background.

Ignoring the voice of the silver-spoon, 4-trait half-demon girl, I continue disrupting her mana, as she tries to fight against it. This has already gone on for hours, and she’s not using much mana in her attempts, she can still keep up.

Still, even now, she is unable to fight against it, no matter how many times she’s leveled her skill in the process.

I freeze as I open my mouth to answer her. One of the mana threads I set in the streets tore, and a signal comes to me through a thread thinner than a hair. Nearly impossible to perceive without looking for it.

But, even so, the monster down on the street stops its movement, waves of mana radiating from it, trying to detect the thing that interrupted it.

I stare over the edge of the rooftop and gesture for my disciple to remain quiet.

[Veil Guardian - lvl ??]

The monster keeps sniffing and looking around, and when its head starts slowly turning towards our building, I use [Tether] and activate one of the anchors I left in the buildings around us.

At the other end, a mana orb bursts open, releasing mana and feeding the inscriptions I’ve painted on the floor in mana-conductive paint. The inscriptions imitate a barrier-type skill to confuse the monster and to not be a simple pulse of mana.

Down on the street, the Veil Guardian screeches and rushes towards the burst orb. Every single step it takes cracks the road, and its movement is fluid and quick, the blades shining in the morning light.

“We are leaving,” I tell my disciple.

As we planned and practiced before, she quickly rushes to grab her things, and I do the same. Within a few seconds, we are packed, and I awkwardly lift her up into my arms; it's a bit more weird now that she is awake.

I leave a tiny black mana orb where I stand and start jumping from rooftop to rooftop to put distance in between us and the monster.

After landing, I create a projectile that I tie an anchor to and shoot really far away. I fire off another behind that to make the possible tracking much more difficult or straight-up impossible and jump again.

Then we move down the street, and I continue running for another thirty minutes while reducing our mana footprint as much as possible.

“What is your level?” I ask.

From my side, she lifts her head, her red eyes meeting mine, “Fourteen. Master, are you not scared of that monster?”

“Not really,” I grab her for a moment and jump over a crater in the street caused by an explosion long ago.

As I put her back on the ground, she asks again, “Why didn't you kill it?”

“You would probably die if we fought. Also, I don’t think I can kill it at the moment.”

“Is that monster stronger than you master?”

“Probably.”

“And you aren’t scared?” she continues to ask.

So, I pause and lower my head to her level, “Silly disciple, listen carefully,” I pull her horn to make sure she gives me full attention, and when I let go, she covers it with her hands to defend it.

After finding the right words, I continue, “There will always be someone stronger than you. Someone more talented. Someone with a higher level. But, minion, there is no need to be bothered by that.”

“Disciple, not minion,” a quiet voice sounds.

“If you meet such a person, use whatever you can. Befriend them, act submissive, or use tricks. Spit, bite, kick at the crotch. Prepare to hunt them, cheat. In the end, it doesn’t matter how strong they are, the winner is the one that is alive in the end.”

“But isn’t that… dirty?”

“Disciple, are you the strongest person on your planet?”

“N-no?”

“So why do you care? Powerful people can be honorable, and it’s better when they are, they’re easier to trick or deal with. Remember, you can only act honorably if you have the strength to back it up.”

Instead of answering, she just nods.

“Disciple, if you die, you won’t be able to see all that is there to see. If you die, you won’t be able to learn what you’re capable of, and you won’t eat more sweet fruit,” I poke her nose.

Her red eyes are attentive, and in the morning dawn, their color is beautifully vibrant.

“You can worry about that stuff when you’re much stronger. You can find friends you can trust. You can fall in love. You can be honorable if that’s something you want. But to get there, you need to use everything you have to stay alive."

I scan the area around us and when it feels safe I continue, "But there are some rules to follow so you don’t become a savage. If someone shows you pure and unconditional kindness, try to not betray it, even if it means you get hurt. Don´t be cruel without reason and always set your priorities. And never hurt kids."

I let the silence linger, "Of course, it's your life, so live it the way you want." Before she answers I stand up, "Let's continue."

After a few steps, my silly disciple rushes to join me as we continue down the street.