"I can't return to the cavern."

She punched one tiny fist into her other open palm. "I can make you."

No way I wanted another beat-down from the miniature brawler. I held my hands up in a sign of peace, which also conveniently helped me prepare to block. "Wait. Don't hit me. Can't you take me to another exit?"

She hesitated, and Cyrus added, "Want to upgrade your next bonus?"

"Done. Come on. I can get you to an exit, but it won't be on stage 3. I don't have access to pass through that area."

"As long as it's not on stage 4, that's fine."

She zipped out of the room, and Nigel and I gave chase. The guards stood just outside and I waved as we passed. "It's been fun, guys. Keep up the good work."

Nigel hissed at them, so they ignored me while growling at the cat. I sped up before they got into a fight. Fulvia led us down new corridors, and my mini map filled everything in as we moved. Next time I snuck down there, I'd be way better prepared.

We saw no one on our long, rather convoluted journey. We passed no other huge rooms, although the edges of my mini maps suggested large spaces behind some closed doors we passed. Fulvia seemed intent on avoiding everyone and anything interesting.

"So, what do you do as a Flux Weaver anyway?" I asked after several minutes of silent jogging.

"I told you before, I manage mana conversions."

"That's still pretty vague."

"You're not authorized to know more about our operations."

When Cyrus didn't butt in to force her to reveal more, I scowled. Fine, I'd figure it out next time I snuck down there. No way this was all I was supposed to figure out on this trip.

After about an hour, Fulvia stopped at a softly glowing silver door set into the wall at an intersection of 3 tunnels. The sign above the door read 'Recycling hub 152'.

The beautiful little fairy said, "This is as far as I can go. Good luck, Lucas."

"Thanks for your help."

She flitted closer and said, "Watch yourself. The game's getting tricky, and you're under a lot more scrutiny than before. Don't sneak back down here. It's not safe."

I smiled and held up a fist, which she bumped. Then she sped off down the corridor. I reached for the door, but the silver sheen flared and I got another little shock.

"Any way you can unlock this for me?"

Cyrus said, "Why would I do something for you, when you carry the power with you to do it yourself?"

I bit down a sarcastic reply. He could have turned that moment into a quote from several movies, so why not do so? The wording seemed intentional. When I scanned my inventory, it was available again.

My first instinct was to use a spell, but I resisted the urge. Cyrus seemed to want me to learn something here, and it might prove valuable. If I could learn to open locked doors, it would make my next trip into the inner world a lot easier.

I carried the power to open the door? I scanned my inventory again. Maybe I could smash my way through with the Maul, or try blowing it with one of my emoji trap stickers, but I doubted that was what he intended. Causing damage would no doubt trigger an alarm that would call more Vault Keepers, and I didn't want to get my stun club punch card punched again.

Then I got an idea and pulled out the single nexus crystal I'd picked up in my vault. As soon as it touched my hand, another jolt of pure power rippled through me, temporarily boosting my health and mana by 300% and all of my physical stats by 100%.

I couldn't risk holding a nexus crystal for long, so I pressed it against the softly glowing door. Figured it might overload the door circuit with another rush of pure power. Instead, the door's magical glow winked out as its power was sucked into the crystal. I dumped it back into my inventory, then checked its status.

"Nexus Crystal. Quantity: 1. Charge: 101%."

"Congratulations, Lucas! For being the first human to not only handle a fully-charged nexus crystal and survive, but also for using it to disable a security door, you receive a platinum Zeus loot box."

The large, softly-glowing box appeared in the air next to me. Before willing it open, I asked, "How does a nexus crystal affect the door? Don't people like Fulvia use nexus crystals to create mana and stuff?"

"They are used in some parts of the inner-world complex, but not in most areas. Since we are inside the core of the world, the entire complex is attuned to pure nexus energy. Nexus crystals are exactly the right tool to temporarily disable most barriers, or to reinforce them."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"So why don't people like Fulvia use them to go through doors they're not usually authorized to pass?" Seemed like a huge security weakness.

"Who would take the risk? Any unexpected fluctuation, like the one you just triggered, will be automatically recorded. Someone could easily review the footage and discover who was responsible. Losing their job would be the least punishment they might suffer, depending on the severity of the breach."

"So someone might be watching me right now?" Crap! Even down there, I'd be under constant supervision.

"Unlikely. It is possible, but minor fluctuations like a temporary loss of power at an unimportant internal access portal are usually ignored unless it happens often, or secondary breaches occur."

Did no one else see the inconsistency there? They kept doors locked and had high-leveled security patrols, but didn't monitor any door breaches? Then again, I bet Cyrus noticed. If he didn't bring it to anyone's attention, would anyone else be actively monitoring every piece of the system? For that matter, Cyrus could just as easily block their instruments from noticing the breach.

So if I did sneak back in later, I might be able to escape detection through lazy monitoring, or through a bit of intervention from Cyrus? Nice to know Earth wasn't the only world where security could be compromised by lax monitoring or insider hacking.

Before the door could reset, or anything, I pushed it open and slipped through, with Nigel on my heels. We entered another huge, vaulted space. Unlike the giant maintenance warehouse, this one was shadowed, with only dim lights.

The floor and ceiling were made of stone. Good sign. Might mean we were close to the surface. The room stretched over 100 feet across, with plain, steel walls. Huge vats made out of some kind of plastic-like resin ran the length of the room in long rows with narrow passages between them. They each glowed with different colors of soft light, while thick cables snaked down from the ceiling to each tank.

"What is this place?" I asked. On a hunch, I triggered Spellseer's Gaze.

The entire room lit up, every long tank blazing with lights, and I realized what I was looking at. Mana. Every tank was filled with dense amounts of different attuned mana. Incredibly, I felt none of it through my mana senses. The shielding around those tanks must be at least tier-1.

"Recycling," Cyrus said. "Most worlds have stable mana flows, but game words are brand new, so the world core is still fluctuating. Besides, unlike most worlds with an assigned tier and consistent mana densities, different areas on Arasha are designated different mana densities, or even different tiers entirely."

"So you can grow all the treasures that the factions sponsoring the bosses want to come and harvest?"

"Among other things, yes. As such, the mana of Arasha must be actively managed. Locations like this recycling center siphon mana from areas with too much and redistribute it to those that need additional resources."

Huh. That seemed a bit complicated. Just glimpsing so much mana flowing through those vats was awe-inspiring, though.

"Hey, is it possible to condense all of this mana into mana crystals?"

Cyrus chuckled. "Of course, but the equipment to do so is housed elsewhere. It's far more efficient to simply funnel the active mana to other areas rather than go through all the effort to create mana crystals, only to later dissolve them to release the mana again."

How many mana crystals could I get if I could condense just 1 second's worth of mana flow through that room? I was super wealthy compared to most people, but I bet my entire fortune represented only a fraction of the power flowing through the room every second.

Scanning the room, I spotted a locked cabinet attached to the wall not far from the door. Next to it hung a series of actual hard hats, although when I examined one, I blinked in surprise.

"Mana tank diver helmet. Common. Used by maintenance and recycling personnel to enter active mana tanks to fine-tune mana flow, repair damaged sectors, or adjust attunement of mana without being affected. Shields wearer from all external ambient mana and magnifies control functions."

I whistled softly. "Would these protect against spells?"

"Not really."

I took one anyway. Who knew when it might come in handy. Cyrus didn't object, so I moved over to the locked cabinet. It glowed faintly silver like the door had, so I repeated my stunt with the nexus crystal. The jolt of extra energy I received from it pushed my health and mana and physical stats so high, I received a notification.

"Warning. Direct exposure to nexus energy in the next hour will result in massive internal damage. You don't want to boil your brain or sever your mana channels, do you?"

Yikes. Even though I could touch nexus crystals, they still represented a very real deadly threat. The glow around the cabinet snuffed out and the door popped open.

Inside was a clipboard with maintenance records of various vats, along with a schedule for cleaning nearby toilets. Weird, and surprisingly mundane. There was one interesting thing inside, though. Looked like a pair of regular leather work gloves.

"Recycling supervisor gloves. Uncommon. These simple gloves are imbued with tier-3 powers to manipulate, mold, and control nexus energy, nexus crystals, and all derived mana. Note: active tier auto-adjusts to current environment."

"Whoa, is this what I think it is?"

"If you're thinking those gloves allow you to safely handle nexus crystals, then yes."

"So, can these gloves catch spells cast at me, or manipulate things like that barrier in the cavern by the Atlantis dungeon where Marisara trapped me?"

"Catching a spell is easier said than done."

"But is it possible?"

"Probably. I don't think anyone has tried, since these are controlled items, and recycling supervisors aren't known for engaging in combat."

"Could I use them to manipulate the energy on security doors so I could pass without triggering an alarm?"

"Excellent question. Indeed, they most definitely would work for something like that."

"Perfect." I grinned.

These had to be what Cyrus wanted me to acquire. The entire trip through the inner world had been interesting, but these gloves were the real prize. They quite literally could unlock the doors to further snooping.

"Shift change is happening," Cyrus warned. "That's one of the reasons you saw no one when you came in here. Best skeedaddle before the supervisor gets back and finds her gloves missing."

"Skeedaddle?"

"I've been re-watching westerns." His voice changed to imitate John Wayne's. "Now, get a move on, you filthy animal."

Nigel and I raced to the far side of the room. Sure enough, another door, this one unlocked, led to a long, stone tunnel. We ran down it for over a quarter of a mile before it emptied into a room with golden, glowing walls packed with silver doors.

"All of the doors lead to other maintenance areas, except for that one," Cyrus said, and the door in question flared.

So I scooped up Nigel and grabbed the door. It flashed, and the familiar invisible fist punched me in the kidneys again, teleporting us away.

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