"So you beat Maya, and that helped her improve?"

"Yup."

"Why do you sound so proud, Nathaniel?"

"Tess, look, we improved her [Focus] by three levels. She's also more used to getting hit, so she's not twitching every time something touches her."

"Nat, she came to me, nearly crying, asking me to stop you."

"Wow, does she have no pride? She's like 5 years older than you." I shake my head.

"It's also terrifying that her skill went up by three levels. I know how much she hates it, so what did you do?" Tess asks.

"She is dumb, anyway, it wasn't that hard. I just sparred with her and had Kim shoot some small stones at her. It helped her get used to getting hit and I kept doing that until she didn't have any other option than to enter deeper [Focus] to… to escape."

"I know that you probably know best how [Focus] works, so I won't stop you." even saying that Tess shakes her head.

"Good! You know, it's actually more fun… it's more productive than I thought! I can observe her and the way she uses her skills. To be honest, I expected her to be much worse, but she's not that bad, and the way she uses her skills is quite interesting."

"Why don't you put her against someone more on her level and only give her advice? Maybe Lily?" Tess asks.

"Oh, no, no, no. Nope. Totally no. Lily would tear her apart."

"… really?"

"Yup, if you aren't careful, Lily might get to Beyond earlier than you. Did you know that that silly girl already reached level 75 and used her upgrade token on a difficulty change token? She said she knew what I used it on the moment she got the quest."

"That might complicate things. Do you think she can clear it?"

"You might laugh at me, but I think she will be able to do it when she is closer to level 140, maybe 150? Her [Disintegration] and [Rejuvenation] are super, and I mean really super good skills. Damn, if I had them, I would bulldoze through the floors."

"What level were you when you entered Beyond?" After a short pause, Tess asks.

Hoho, competitive, aren't you?

"114, but multiple skills over 30. Right now, I am 124." I give her a short moment to take it in and ask, "What level are you, Tess?"

"102," she says shortly, but I can see that she is still thinking.

At this point, I'm sure she will enter Beyond the moment she fulfills all the requirements, even though combining two skills might be the most difficult one, so she might have to wait a bit.

"How do you like the body upgrade?" I ask her.

"Oh? That? It's as you said. I need less food and water, and I also don't sleep as much. Other effects are less noticeable, but even that is pretty amazing."

"Fair enough, the javelin I gave you?"

To that, she turns around and looks at the javelin that constantly hovers near her, even as we talk. The tip is pointing at the sky, and the gray metal shines ominously as it quietly floats near her. Tess is constantly keeping control of the weapon and making it float and follow her anywhere she moves.

At this point, it doesn't even seem to take that much focus from her. As I did, she also got used to her skills to the point it's not much of a problem to keep some running constantly.

"It's extremely durable and works surprisingly well with my lightning," another javelin moves a bit closer. It's an uncommon one she found here on the third floor. Similarly to the rare one made out of endurium that I gave her, it floats near her.

Not gonna lie. Tess looks extremely capable and cool, having two javelins constantly floating near her and doing all the fighting, talking, and other stuff without showing any trouble keeping the weapons floating.

"Your dagger?"

To her question, I look at the obsidian dagger in my hand. The one I took from the goblin in Beyond's first trial.

"I like it. I already learned to strengthen its effect a bit by infusing my mana into it. There is a limit to how much mana I can infuse, but it flows through the dagger quite nicely, and the waste is lower than when I create a weapon from scratch."

I then move the dagger and cut my arm a bit while activating the dagger's effect, and I feel poison enter my body, immediately starting to limit my mana regeneration and making it harder for me to control my mana.

It's good training, if I have to say.

The goal is to strengthen myself against any disruptive bullshit as much as possible.

First, I will improve my hold over mana with Mana cycling Lissandra showed me. Then I will make it harder to do with the help of the dagger and by releasing some passives bit by bit until I'm fully capable of controlling my mana even without the help of the passives.

The next step is to practice [Resonance]. If my theory is right, I should be capable of changing the frequency of my mana into a frequency that would be different from a disruptive attack on my mana.

The theory behind it is difficult, and even Natssandra told me to put my mind to more useful stuff during one of our lessons, but hey, it's worth a try.

I stare down at the Alghoul that is held by four mana arms that reach out from behind my back and hold the monster in place two steps away from me. The monster continues to wiggle and try to get away while biting at me.

Its flames continuously try to corrode and melt my mana. An interesting ability Alghouls have, yet my mana is way too much for the poor guy that is barely level 100.

Yet, I continue to observe the green flames that continue to try to attack my mana arms.

At some point, I weaken one of the arms and watch the flames bite into it in an effect that is similar to [Disruption]. If I had to say, it feels like flames that are combined with [Disruption].

I quite like that, I like that a lot.

What if I cover my flames with a similar effect? Any dumbass fighting against me would get his face melted off by the flames that he thought his mana barrier and skills would stop.

Heheh.

Sounds good!

It's not something life-changing, obviously. For me, it's not a problem to disrupt opponents' mana and then use flames, but the constant pressure the flames could offer is nice, meanwhile, I use [Resonance] mostly in short bursts.

One of my mana arms moves and tears off the Alghoul's arms, the left one, obviously. If I have to suffer with my cursed constantly broken and injured left arm, so will this monster!

As mana flows, the flames change the way they move, and their effect changes too as they start flickering around the place where I tore the arm off and start restoring it.

To that, I take a step closer and continue to observe the entire process while ignoring the monster that constantly tries to bite me, its teeth snapping close to my face.

This skill is too different from Lily's, so I hoped that I would be able to observe something, but even after a few days of bullying… of observing the guy, I didn't find anything. It feels as if there is something I'm missing, and it's starting to annoy me.

No matter how much I have Lily to help me, or how much I observe Hadwin's weaker healing skill or the monsters around, I'm unable to replicate it.

It feels like there is something else at play, something that I'm unaware of.

Whatever!

A notification sounds as four mana arms tear apart and kill the monster, and with a strong pulse of [Resonance], I stop it from restoring.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - I will owe whatever to whoever helps me learn a healing or regenerating skill.

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Look who's talking! Just pick a healing trait or passive skill, lol.

Oh boy, do not remind me of missing out on them because of… unexpected occurrences, yup.

Lootenant (Hell, WhiteWing) - You have Grumpy, don't you?

Grumpy (Hell, group 4) - Yes, he has (,,> ᴗ <,,)

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Wow, Noname really wants to dump the poor girl! Grumpy, never ever teach him how to heal. He won't need you then and will leave you behind!

Grumpy (Hell, group 4) - He wouldn't do that!

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Probably, but don't you want to be absolutely sure? No one knows what this mana maniac is thinking about.

Grumpy (Hell, group 4) - Oh… that's…

Noname (Hell, group 4) - Oi, do you want to get beaten, Brainiac?

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - I'm not scared of you! At this point, I'm sure the community tournament will never start, and it's not like I will meet you anywhere else.

Lootenant (Hell, WhiteWing) - You will end up begging him to forgive you the moment the system announces the tournament.

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Yup!

What a jerk.

FoodFood (Hell, group 4) - Food!

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Oh look, Biscuit came here! Who's a good boy!

FoodFood (Hell, group 4) - FOOD!

Brainiac (Hell, WhiteWing) - Yes, yes, you are!

I close the community at that moment.

Okay, the healing would be nice to have, but currently, my constructs and passives, especially the reinforcement construct and Mana-Fortified Resilience, take a huge chunk of my mana and transfer it to body strengthening. It's at the point it almost isn't funny.

I'm sure my body is most likely more durable than Hadwin's when he activates his [Strengthening]. And then when I use Symbiotic Transference, the upgrade of [Redistribution], and use [Mana Infusion], as well, my body becomes strong to a terrifying degree.

Yup, with all of these things considered, I'm sure I could take on someone a few levels higher than me and focused on a melee build. That offers me multiple options, yet this one is secondary.

I delve deep into myself and observe my mana which is now, after an attribute upgrade, higher than ever. I reach out towards it, and it reacts to my thought and starts moving and circling the way I want. It strengthens my body, fuels my skills, exits my body, and changes shape as I want it to. Even with my passive and construct eating up so much of it, there is still plenty of it left.

So, it's time for another construct. Just one more before we gather some supplies and move beyond the blue wall and finally finish this floor.

The construct I will create will be something that increases control over my mana in case someone tries to disrupt it or take it. Something that will help me to keep it and won't allow any interference I won't agree with.

And to do that, I will combine my experience with disrupting mana and my newest skill - [Resonance].

I already have the structure in mind.