It was all Rafe could do to avoid the cold flames. They burned, but the one time he'd let one near enough to feel it he'd felt how he expected a frost bitten person did. That was to say not great.

Studying the energy, it did not look at all like any mana he knew. It was a completely different energy resource mined from essence. He did not know all it did, but perhaps demons had a special hidden stat that worked with this resource.

One thing he imagined it did was siphon off an opponent's energy. He could also see a kind of physical boost to the demon since he'd started using it. And that was all he could, and would get that day, he was sure.

In a reversal that clearly took Raedis by surprise, Rafe used his Dash skill to close the gap. Raedis was a very capable fighter. He had positively hammered Rafe these past few hours, ironing out his weaknesses and bad habits.

Rafe was a glass cannon kind of deal currently. He could attack better than most anyone, but defensively he was lacking. He had tried to get his specifications up to snuff, but with his slow leveling that was obviously going to be a drag. So why not do what he did for his attack power to be as high as it was? Why not try to develop a few defensive techniques?

He should have used his sword for this, but he wasn't supposed to use it too much for the foreseeable future. So he was trying to use his hands for a bit. He couldn't develop a technique there and then of course. He needed to train over a long time. Like he had done to develop his sword techniques.

He was just at the stage of getting a few fundamentals in order. Nothing fancy so far, but he'd fought a warrior better trained than Raedis by miles and miles. He had his memories of the six months with Liam to draw inspiration from.

Now that he was done being inept in order to train new techniques, he could go all out in attacking Raedis. With his coordination stat working to the max he could produce just then, he watched every movement of Raedis' body, cataloguing every single tick even as he mentally counted off possible answers.

He did not apply his Dodge or Parry skills to narrowly avoid Raedis' arms, or to shift an upper cut just a smidge to the left so that it missed him by bare micrometers. He felt the demon start to tense up. Rafe punched him on the elbow, causing the demon to grunt in pain and take one step back.

Rafe did not move to attack and so Raedis launched himself further back with one foot and lifted the other one and … Rafe was flabbergasted even as he dodged. The giant twirled like a damn ballerina, his leg picking up enough momentum to cut Rafe's body in half.

The sound of the leg cutting through the air scared Rafe back into his presystem senses. Stats were crazy. They didn't seem that crazy when he was doing things, but probably that was because Rafe had only a quarter the amount of stats Raedis did.

He moved in close again, bobbing and weaving and generally ignoring the flames though he kept an eye on the blue screen floating in front and to his left. His health was dropping even though his enemy wasn't landing any hits. It seemed just being close to this demon energy or whatever it was drained him.

Not that it mattered since he intended to beat Raedis before he was in the red.

Building a whole fighting technique in a few hours was impossible, and Rafe knew this was just the beginning. Still, his Skyholm's fighting proficiency gained two levels in the few minutes it took him to disassemble Raedis' fighting style.

He had made a new discovery in the end. Skills could improve with an increase in, say knowledge, understanding, insight. Perhaps even stats. He had improved a skill that normally took hours of grinding against several times stronger opponents to improve.

If Rafe remembered correctly, truths, concepts, insights. Those all affected skills, especially at the point of upgrading. Now he'd discovered techniques did too, but even before those major thresholds.

Just collecting knowledge and watching others could improve skills. So then how were techniques connected to truths? There in, Rafe thought, he would find his true path to power if he went into the multiverse.

With the special condition of his skills, and with how said skills were connected to stats, it wasn't a bad route at all.

Raedis finally stirred from his bent over panting form.

"You studied my form?" the big man asked.

Rafe was taken aback by the question, mostly because he'd forgotten he wasn't alone. But then he nodded at the demon. Remembering his presence had Rafe also remembering who else was here, possibly on a higher landing. He had seen no trace of Devila yet.

"Yes," he replied to Raedis. "Your form is quite basic compared to my master's."

The demon sighed. "I thought I had grown in strength. Only a few hours to deconstruct my style, huh?" He was not looking at Rafe when he asked.

Rafe wanted to say it hadn't taken him only a few hours, as he had trained with Raedis for two days when their teams worked together, and he'd studied his form every time the demon fought. Was it because he had been planning this since then? Not really, Rafe believed. He had studied everyone's fighting styles. Even the opponents who'd most times been weaker.

A thought hit him then. If his and Andragoth's team were perhaps some of the strongest, and all of Andragoth's team had been here, then only one person he knew was yet to appear. He looked up. It was time to ascend, to advance.

"It was a pleasure to meet you. I suppose I go up?" Raedis said.

Rafe started turning, intending to nod. Raedis was bowing at the waist when Rafe turned to him. When the demon rose, half his face was powder already, fading to nothing even as the demon tilted his half-head to the sky as if willing the heavens to come for him.

Rafe froze and watched on as little by little Raedis turned to mist. And the mist faded in front of his very eyes. He felt himself gasp involuntarily.

He turned and walked away. He really hated his thoughts, Rafael did. Whenever possible, he preferred not to think. He craved a bit of action just then.

And luckily, he was ascending a staircase of never ending fights.

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He had to stop a while when he was sure he was far enough from that cursed floor. He needed to wait for his resources to get full, and he also needed to make sure his status display skill would at least work without destroying his head on the next landing.

Still, being alone with his thoughts was not something he needed. He took the time by replaying the fights he'd had with Raedis in his mind. Trying to gather any new inspirations he could have missed in the moment.

When he was ready, Rafe moved on to the next floor.

'Ding' Side Quest received.

Objective: One against three. Fight to continue your ascension.

The last side quest had pitted him against two opponents. There was no holder of the eighth floor then? Rafe started to stretch, to get ready. That was when he noticed another familiar face. Face was kind of a stretch. The black blank mask was more it, if he was being honest.

And of course they'd never talked much, so they weren't that close or anything. The two supporting her were not people he was familiar with, so he stretched his racial ability to keep track of the one he was most wary of.

Name: Lowa Parson Nine

Class: Dark wielder (epic. lvl. 50)

Race: Enhanced human

Highest stat: Agility: 325

Strongest skill: Dark Dimension (Ancient lvl. 5) User can use any darkness around her including shadows to enter her own private world. Skill rarity grew after being combined with a part of a storage skill. Further upgradeable. Effects of growth unknown. (Upgradeable skill)

Rafe didn't know what to unpack first. An enhanced human? An ancient rarity skill? Well that one had been explained, luckily. It seemed the system didn't know what to do with it yet. It was a new skill, was all Rafe could think. At least it had been whenever Nine had been in the trial. And then there was her name. Yeah, Rafe didn't know what to do with that.

She was a curious case, no doubt, but Rafe couldn't muster the energy to be curious. Where the hell was Devila? Was she the pinnacle? Had she achieved her goal? And what was he supposed to do, dethrone her?

She would know that in the multiverse. She would also know about their relationship and she would know if he held back and he wasn't sure what to do. The fight was long and brutal, and once again Rafe used it to try and develop his new techniques.

These techniques, he had decided, wouldn't be focused on a single weapon for the time being, so he used his hammer in this fight. It had a defensive rating of zero, and so it was an apt handicap to give himself. He did not have mastery skills for his hammer and spear, and he did not intend to get any.

He might be forced to fight with them for the time being, but this was not a permanent situation. Getting skills he would not need long term seemed like a bad idea to Rafe, as he had a problem with his experience distribution already. Besides, having techniques and a few very general skills he could apply while fighting without a sword seemed like a good enough idea.

Nine, or whatever her name was, was apparently not dead in the multiverse. He saw her and both her helpers ascend successfully.

He didn't care much. He was getting numb. He rested again and prepared to climb further up.

The ninth floor had him breaking out of his funk. Such was the disbelief he felt upon seeing them. All of them.

'Ding' Side Quest received.

Objective: One against four. These four challengers have been judged as just a rank below the challengers on the next floor.

That meant there were at least a few people who'd made it to the tenth floor. Was Devila among them? Or had she gotten higher still? And was Devila really as strong as all these people combined? Without sparing a second to consider his own well being, Rafe activated his skill three full times. He ignored the mana deprivation headache, and the blood flowing down his left eye.

Name: Andragoth

Class: Arcane Awakening (epic lvl. 60)

Race: Dragonkin

Highest stat: Wisdom: 314

Strongest Skill: Magic Condenser (epic lvl. 32) Improve the magical abilities of an affected person, boosting their mana density and control.

Bloodline ability: Karmic Scent

Name: Aska Ralle

Class: The Force (rare lvl. 65)

Race: human

Highest stat: Wisdom (250)

Strongest skill: Telekinesis (epic. lvl 10) Move things with the power of your mind. (Upgradeable skill, optional).

Name: Quinsia

Class: Priestess of light (epic lvl. 57)

Subclass: Shadow explorer (rare. lvl 23)

Race: Human

Highest stat: Wisdom: 321

Strongest skill: Ranged heal (rare. lvl 53) Direct healing energy at anyone of your in a certain distance from you. Distance increases with increase in skill level.

"Your eye," Andragoth spoke first. "It gleams like the enchantress' did in that vision. Although it is a little duller and less permanent. Is that some sort of skill?"

Rafe forced out a smile. He tried to keep things jovial. Andragoth had claimed she was probably alive, but he only had her word to go on. After he beat them, and he was going to beat them, he would know for sure.

He thought nothing could bring him out of his fank except meeting Devila and…

Yeah, Rafe hadn't thought things through. And thought what through anyway? What was he going to do with Devila once he found her? She probably wouldn't remember their time in the previous trial, based on his meeting with Adrian and Raedis, and now Andragoth.

"Do we know each other?" Andragoth tilted her head in question. "I smell a kar… a faint connection between us."

Rafe wanted to make some kind of joke to lighten the mood. But then his forced smile froze on his face.

"No," he answered Andragoth's question calmly. "We hardly know each other."

"Are you sure?" the woman asked. "Because the scents almost never—"

"Hey, is your nose okay? You talk a lot about scents, and I think I noticed it twitching a bit," Rafe tried to change the subject.

"You did?" she asked in her motherly or older sisterly tone, which Rafe was starting to find condescending.

It irked him a little, the way Andragoth was talking down to him. It also made him smile a little internally. Then the smile wilted.

They did not remember him. It was time he accepted this fact.

****

"What do you think?" the Enchantress asked.

Noid stared at the others, meeting their eyes one by one. They had all agreed behind her back. It was time for an intervention, even if she didn't think she needed it.

"I did warn the boy about truths, but I didn't think ... .this is quite impressive though."

"Yes, it is. It does cut into my plans though," Sam complained. "I had hoped we could talk with him before he left."

Noid frowned at that. He was sure there was another reason the thief had preferred that option.

"It's lucky he has enough merit that we can tell him everything we need to even before he reaches the last floor," Liam said, meeting everyone's eyes except the Enchantress.

"Don't get ahead of yourselves though," the Enchantress spoke, never taking her focus off the boy. "Creating a technique after a few days of training is not so easy a thing."

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