Eternuim ~ 49!

I looked at my internal self as I fell the last few feet, inspecting myself as only a dungeon could. Or a being with the mind of a dungeon, I guess. I was bleeding out from various locations, but with a directed burst of Mana I healed those areas. Of course, the overabundance of Mana was the issue in the first place. Healing the vital areas disrupted smaller patches, which started to bleed as the flesh was shredded. I had to ignore that for now, there was only so much I could do when healing did an equal amount of damage.

I was approaching the bottom… here we go! I dropped the last dozen feet with nothing around me, splashing into an ornamental pond by one of the villas. The water scattered as I landed, but the water that rushed to cover me hissed and popped. In moments I had a huge cloud of steam forming around me, and I was actually feeling relief. Maybe what I needed was a coolant system to be in place around me? I checked over my cells, and decided not to bother. Though I felt a slight respite, the damage to critical systems was slowed an insignificant amount.

I got out of the water and started jogging toward the next floor. I was regretting not setting easy paths down, and… I paused and turned, altering my course to bring me to the dungeon portal system. Not having a keygem shouldn’t be an issue for me! I held up my hand and let a lasso of Mana settle onto the portal, then wrangled the controls to bring me to the deepest portal: the Elemental pit. I stepped through, then looked at the trial that awaited me. I cursed my past self as I looked over the edge of the pit. 

This area wasn’t spawning monsters anymore, but there were still elementals populating the ramps. They didn’t listen to me when I was in control of the area, and I didn’t expect much as a human. Then there was the massive gravity spikes, where the only way to deactivate the Runes was to be at the base of the pit. I had built that protection into the system to prevent exactly what I needed to do, never expecting that the only person who needed it - or even could do it - was me. Oh, paranoia…  you really messed me up here.

I needed to make it through my own traps, and I was… concerned about my ability to do so. It had to happen. I took my first step onto the ramp and began descending, on the lookout for my traps. Most of them were triggered traps, but a few were on timers or could be set off by the Mobs in this area. The first really dangerous portion was the first curve. This armed all the moving traps, and there was simply no way to avoid setting them off unless I could survive jumping across the open area. Frankly, I had made this. I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

That meant that the floor tinged a light red as I strolled across it, and I stopped a hairsbreadth before the end of the section. An instant later I had a block of stone brush my nose as it passed. Woo. Never realized my nose was so large. Or did I lean forward as I walked? Hmm. The block retracted, and I dashed forward. Again the arrangement moved, and I took a single step back. The benefits of knowing the design couldn’t be overlooked, and I grinned as the space I had been in had an explosive Elemental pop out of the wall. The blocks shifted, and I booted the elemental hard. It flew through the suddenly open space and down the ramp, exploding between the wall and another elemental that was then knocked over the edge. 

I ran, and the blocks started moving faster in response to my own speed. Gah! Why was I so amazing at trap design? A wall appeared on either side of me, and I pushed off the ground to hold my palms against the wall and my feet on the one behind me just as the floor dropped away. Whew! Almost got myself there! Luckily I had been working with the Moon Elves to perfect my bodily motions for so long, and this was nearly second nature. The walls retracted, and I rolled forward and pushed up, fighting gravity to get me over the ledge. I passed the scorch mark on the wall where the elemental had exploded, and pressed myself against the floor.

There was a whining, grinding noise, and a blade of force whizzed along a long section of the wall at waist height. It was designed to knock people into the pit, as most of the traps were, but it would severely damage my body if I allowed it to touch me. Couldn’t have that! In fact, since I needed to wait a full two seconds, I reinforced an artery that was getting close to rupturing and replaced some muscle that I had just torn with my acrobatics. 

I had a moment of ‘why didn’t I just make a new Core and use it’, but I had to shake that thought off. I knew that the Core below was a perfect replica of myself before my Core was demolished. Anything that I made on the fly would simply be subpar and likely to be destroyed by the forces I would need to bring to bear on it. I couldn't trust my shaky hands and human frailty to design a container for my mind and soul. Too dangerous, and I really wasn't trying to disparage myself.

The Core that I had in my body was good for when I was just a human, but it couldn’t contain the massive surge in energy that I was bringing upon it. Already the Core was flaking, losing pieces that I needed it to have. I didn’t want to need to remake myself, because that went back to the prior issue of ‘I can’t maintain the power and focus as a human’.

I pulled myself forward, sliding down the ramp and using my momentum to get to my feet at a running pace. I was past the first layer of traps, and now just needed to get past the A-ranked creatures in my path. Fun! The only thing I could think to do was use their natural tendency of territorial war to distract them. I started focusing on the Mana that was pouring off of me, and began guiding it into a ball in front of my hands. I couldn’t stop losing Mana, but this would work for now. My experience with my Shaman and my own ability at directing power in the air really came into play here.

Now, I had no idea what monster I would find first. They changed positions far too frequently. What I did have was really pure Mana that could be used for nearly any purpose. As I moved forward, I found a corrupted mudman. It was a lump of mud that had tinges of infernal Mana throughout, and it really didn’t like celestial fire. Guess what, buddy? Scorching flames burst forward from the ball of Mana, and I left it in the air as the mudman focused on it. When I was past the elemental, I pulled the ball of Mana to me along a tether. The fire continued to rage for a long moment, but ran out of power quickly when the power source was removed. 

I was on to the next one, and I repeated my actions each time. I could - possibly - defeat these things, but avoidance was a much better plan for my deteriorating body. My plan worked a few times, but then it suddenly didn’t. I was tempting an elemental, and it seemed to be hooked, but as I skirted around it… the water-based Mob changed directions and lunged for me. In a panic, I converted the ball of Mana into a shaped explosion, and blasted my attacker away and over the edge.

“Drat, I must have gotten to the point where their intelligence is reaching apex predators.” I muttered aloud as I took a few extra breaths. “Okay, they are trying to set traps for me now, gotta be ready for that.”

I looked over the edge, and nodded approvingly. “Halfway… go me!”

I continued onward, working hard to keep my cool and counter every Elemental that I came across. On the plus side, since no more were spawning, all  I needed to fight were the elementals that had won in their individual territory disputes. Normally this place was crawling with the Mobs. The next time I took a break was after I had to convert my Mana into Aqua Regalia, the most potent acid I could make. I had set the liquid spinning, surrounded it with a thin coat of ice, and used that to penetrate the outer layer and dissolve the meaty area around a elemental’s Core.

That had taken a lot of focus to pull off, and I was suffering for it. My control of Mana was beyond what a human could dream of achieving, but that single spell had nearly cost me the use of my arm. My flesh was blistered and bleeding, also slightly smoking. Time was running out. 

I moved deeper along the ramp, and soon I was staring down at the golden-aura-infernal-spider. It seemed slightly damaged, how did that happen? I really doubted I could sneak past, but I would give this my best shot. I turned invisible, condensed my Mana around me, removed all scents, and took a single step onto the floor.

The eyes of the elemental boss snapped open.