Victor

Lakeshore

"Do it." Victor sent the message and sighed.

It was now or never. The crystal mine was at an all-time low in the number of defenders, and Victor didn't think another chance would come like this. They were supposedly having a grand Festival, and many were miles away, drinking into the night.

Too bad they never thought they would be attacked. Too arrogant or too blind, it didn't matter which. Victor would take advantage of the chance.

Plus, by all reports, the man still hadn't evolved, unlike Victor. The boost of Rank wouldn't end the fight outright, but it would give him an edge. The evolution bonus, along with the few levels he'd gained since, had netted him a generous amount of stat points. Not to mention the Skill that came with his new Class.

"Bold of you to do it on the eve of Winter." Maeve teased, "It gives the barbarian strength from what I've heard."

Victor scoffed, "Winter or no winter, it matters little. We've reinforced the Walls, made preparations, and are ready for anything he could throw at us. If he marches on us, he'll learn that Fire always beats Ice."

A dark flame materialized and danced around his fingers to illustrate his point. The intense flames he could conjure were a major factor in his decision. Especially the special flame he kept sealed away. While he hadn't been confident in beating the man when he first began planning, it was different now.

He'd spent months preparing against a specific foe while they had spent it relaxing.

"For your sake, I hope it's enough," Maeve whispered. "I'll be gone for a few days, but rest assured, I'll be back for the show."

Off to go tell her master.

"You're so confident there'll be a show?" Victor asked. They were only planning to hit the mine and take what was there. In the grand scale of things, it wasn't that high of a provocation.

Maeve smiled sinisterly, "Oh yes, there will be a show. I'm certain of that much. When he said one warning, I believe he meant it."

Victor brushed it off and focused on something else. "If you're off to see him, I have things for you to take."

It physically pained him, but Victor had to give them up. It was nearly all of his wealth, but if things worked out, he'd come out the other side with more than he could ask for. It would be worth it more than twice over.

A hefty sack of coins clattered as he set them down, and they didn't have the dull sound of copper on copper. It was a bag full of silver. There were also a few other valuable gems and trinkets he'd gotten from the Dungeon.

Maeve tested the bag's weight and peered inside, "And what, pray tell, are you asking for in return. He won't send forces up here to aid you. Your city isn't worth the exposure."

Victor knew that already. He wasn't going to get any help in the manpower department, but that didn't mean material help was out of the question.

"Ink." Victor stated, "Demon Blood ink. I'm out of it, and I cannot make new contracts without it."

It was the main ingredient stopping his army from growing. There was no way he was going to trust anyone without an iron-clad agreement, and what better way than to seal it with Demonic Blood itself.

Whoever found out the unique properties of the Blood is either the ultimate sadist or a genius. How else would you figure out that contracts signed in demon blood had such effects?

Probably both, if Victor was honest, but he didn't like to think too deeply on the matter. It didn't much concern him, and he'd learned even Before, sometimes it was best not to ask questions.

Did he feel bad that he was effectively chaining men and women in the same curse that held him? No. No, he didn't. That was life.

To reach higher, sometimes stepping on others was a requirement.

"It shall be done." Maeve took the bag, "You know the price you'll have to pay, and I don't mean this." She waved the coins.

"I know. The Summoning will take place after I get what I'm due." Victor said sharply.

Consorting with Demons weren't something he took pride in, but it was what needed to be done. As much as he didn't care for it, his conscience wouldn't stop him from doing it. What was one summoning on a planet of billions?

He'd already done it a few times, and the world hadn't ended yet.

"I know you will..." Maeve left the rest unsaid. His own contract would demand it of him, and there was no hope in fighting it. Victor had already tried many times.

His deal with the devil finished, Maeve vanished in a theatrical puff of shadow, and Victor was left alone.

Let's hope things go smoothly. The team he sent was the best he had, and they had trained for operations such as the one they were on.

We shall see.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Chris

Frostheim

My hammer crashed into the earth with a resounding thud. The top layer of soil exploded outward, but the impact was otherwise tame. Comparatively. I hadn't used any skills nor were any boosts active, but my full strength was still something to be proud of.

"4.46 meters of deformation. Depth of 2.98 meters." Lucille read off the measurements as she scrambled to take them. Time wasn't a factor, but the woman was insistent that they needed to be done right away.

"And how does this help in Curating the Dungeon?" I asked.

My grand hopes of Gabriel becoming a Curator had been dashed. He loved enchanting too much to give it up and refused to swap his Profession. No one else in the family cared to take it up in his stead, leaving me in a right pickle.

Luckily, Elliot pointed out the crazed woman now in front of me as the solution to our problems.

"It helps everything!" Lucille exclaimed, still inside the small crater I had made. "We need to record and track the changes of the ever-increasing mana density and its effects on the environment."

That wasn't at all a direct answer to my question, but I nodded along. Lucille had a sort of mad scientist vibe when she got excited about things. One that was better to nod and go along with than to fight.

"We've been doing this testing for weeks, and the area and depth of the deformation have consistently and uniformly decreased!" the woman said, "This proves my theory that the planet is becoming increasingly resistant to change!"

"That's hardly true," I said, "The construction teams still work at the same pace. They dig the same amount in the same timeframe."

"No, not that kind of change, I mean sudden and intense change of high amplitudes." Lucille explained, "It used to be that your very steps used to break the ground when you accelerated at full power, now nothing of the sort happens. You can push off without breaking the ground under you."

That was true... It honestly wasn't something I put much thought towards. The last time I caused such damage to the terrain was back in the tutorial. Ever since our return, things had been somewhat contained unless I pulled out the big skills and had fought a while.

But like Lucille said, my effect on the terrain was diminishing.

"My Strength is the same." I stated, "My hammer is the same, my swing is the same–"

"Right!" She interrupted with a downright scary smile, "All else is constant, so only one thing makes sense! I'm still not sure of the specifics on the how, but I can now confidently claim that it is happening. Whether we record it or not."

"An increased inertia that only kicks in with a sudden force? A metaphysical effect because of mana? That makes more sense since this change is related to increased ambient mana density." She mumbled aloud.

"Do you think the Planet Grades mean more than purely mana density?" I asked. "If they function anything like Ranks, there will be unseen effects from one Grade to the next."

Evolving to the next rank didn't explicitly state all that had changed in notifications or on a status screen. The only thing we got from the System was a notification that we had evolved, and an associated stat boost for doing so, nothing else.

But that didn't describe all that happened. There was a complete overhaul of the entire body and mana system that was difficult to put into words. Going from F-rank to E-rank felt like night and day, even though my stats hadn't changed by much.

A subtle strength, an increased endurance, and toughness. Mana flowed smoother and reacted faster.

If what happened to our bodies happened to planetary bodies, the changes started to make sense.

"An increase in Grade..." Lucille whispered and stared off, "It fits. All readings say our Planet is still D-grade, but we know it's still increasing. This could be a side effect of that Grade change."

I slammed my hammer down a few more times to get a better feel for the change. The diminished effect from my blows wasn't something I had cared to look into, but now that it was pointed out, I noticed the difference.

"It's as if the ground itself is firmer." I muttered, "No. Like reality is firmer, if that makes any sense." It was like the freezing temperature of water all over again. Various mana levels played jump rope with what used to be firm Laws of Physics.

"A strengthening of reality itself? I'll need to run so many tests," the woman had caught my mutterings.

This wasn't even close to why I came to her, and I had to shake away from continuing down that road.

"Lucille, I came here to ask about the Dungeons." I steered us back, "How are they, their growth statistics, how fast can you estimate another floor to appear?"

"Ah, yes, sorry about that. It's so easy to get carried away."

Abigail's evolution came with a few nifty changes. Her ties to the pylon, being the one who ran the entire city, made her evolution uniquely beneficial to it. Like the increased shop range for Jonathan, but in a more overarching way.

One such change being Lucille's appointment. A new slot had opened up to formally Claim Dungeons through the City Pylon and monitor them through the Faction Dungeon Curator position.

We could now, with a look at the pylon interface, tell how many floors both our claimed dungeons had and how close they were to breaking. Not that they were ever close.

The finer details, like monster count, mana level, and current progress towards the next floor, were all something Lucille could see, and it was nice to be updated on those things. Abigail had made it a weekly report.

"The Metal Dungeon is a few days away from the Thirteenth floor. The other one is still a few weeks behind, but it should reach that level before Spring comes at the latest if we continue feeding it the same amount of mana crystals." Lucille described.

"Any idea of the monsters the new floor will hold?"

"Other than their level being 120-130, no. I won't know the type, affinity, or species until the floor is finished."

I knew it was unlikely, but I had to ask anyway. It would temper my expectations when I got down there to run it.

"What was it you put in the last report?" I asked, "There was something about a new skill you were hoping to acquire."

Lucille brightened up and smiled, "Oh, that! You won't believe the sheer breadth of what's available to the Curator Profession. At first, I thought I would only be able to monitor and subtly influence the dungeon's growth, but my Profession can do so much more than that. I still can't design dungeon Floors directly, but I just know I'll be able to eventually!"

"Yes, but I'm more interested in these 'gates' you talked about," I said.

"Oh, [Dungeon Floor Gates]! It allows me to create a Gate on every floor so that you don't have to walk through the entire dungeon anymore. That way, say if you want to reach the tenth floor, all you have to do is walk through the gate and bam, you're there! No more trudging through all Nine Floors just to reach the Tenth."

"Yes, that!" I said, "Is that something you can do?"

Lucille sighed wistfully, "Not yet, sadly. The fancy elf gave me a book about it. He made me pay 25 silver for it, but it was well worth it!"

All the excitement that built at her explanation drained from me. I had thought it was a Skill she had already picked up, not one she was looking forward to picking up.

Being capped as I was, I hadn't run the dungeons in a while, but that didn't mean I would never go back to them. The opportunity to skip all the useless upper floors would save so much time!

Anything less than level 50 gave practically nothing in terms of essence. It wasn't worth the time to kill them.

At that moment, I felt a disturbance. [Aura Detection] was almost always active, and through it, I felt someone running toward me. That in itself wasn't the issue. It was who was rushing toward me.

Ashley, our resident Healer, was running at me with what appeared to be her full speed.

A running Doctor was never a good sign.

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