Chapter 34

Chapter 34

One water bullet and he would have been dead. One little squeeze, dead. One simple distortion bubble and his head would have popped like a melon. One brief activation of candle light and he would have burned up like a man made of straw.

Enumerating all the ways he could have killed Phillip did not help Michael's peace of mind. In fact, it only contributed towards making him more stressed, agitated and paranoid. Seeing how the weight of the situation had caught up with him all at once, with almost disastrous consequences, had been a wake-up call. One strong enough to keep him up all night instead of letting him sleep.

I'm burning myself out. I need to take things slower.

And instead, things seemed to be accelerating around him. Who knew what the rest of the world was doing? Even the little people he knew were all busy, plotting and scheming, trying to find ways to gain power for themselves in the changing paradigm. How many others knew? Was Carmela moving against them? What sort of threats could someone in the mob leverage against him?

Many thoughts kept him on edge. In novels, the protagonist usually had a stat or a skill to keep them sane and centered. Here, Michael had nothing.

At least I had the presence of mind to heal Phillip before I left, or I would have been in deep shit. He was almost sure he had crushed the man's windpipe a little. He had also healed himself from the strain of pushing his body to move so fast and release so much strength so quickly. At least, the silver lining was that it felt good to finally say what was on his mind to Phillip's face, and the look of utter fright and terror on the lawyer's face had been a good bonus.

So long as I don't turn into a sadistic monster. But Phillip, he had it coming.

Another one who would have it coming, had he been in range, would have been his dad. Perhaps, he mused, the reason Phillip pushed his buttons so much was because it reminded him of his father.

Fuck him, and fuck dad. Fuck mom too. But I do hope Maggie is alright. I should text her.

***

CEO Travis Tyrell did not spare any expense for his trip, it seemed. The helicopter kicked up dust in the empty field next to the temporary office building Old Dave had rented out, somewhere in the middle between his pawn shop and the dungeon. He picked Michael up, and before long they were flying.

Unfortunately, Michael was still shaken by yesterday's events and couldn't really enjoy the flight. Seeing the state from up above was something else, though, his first experience in the air. But before he could even try to relax, Travis turned to him.

"So, this hell place." He said, speaking through the microphone built into their protective gear. The helicopter was one of the closed-off ones, quite spacious, but it was still pretty loud in there. "What should I expect?"

"First off," Michael said, and did not even have to channel his inner dungeon persona, not today. "We were still developing a protocol for taking people into hell before you barged in. There are just too many unknowns. You would have been briefed, taught some basic skills crucial to make sure you could handle the threats, been given the right weapons and equipment. Instead, here we are."

Travis grinned. "I suppose I just couldn't wait."

His mannerism was friendly and outgoing, different from how he had behaved at Saint Hernest and different from how Dave had described him during their phone call. The man was a shapeshifter, able to adapt to situations to try and put people at ease. It didn't work on Michael, who was thinking about all the problems that might crop up.

"It's not just a casual stroll in a park with your toys and some guards. You'll regret being so hasty," he muttered, "but fine. What can you do?"

"I can fight. Been in more than one brawl in my teenage years. I also have weapons and armor, the best money can buy."

"I can see that." Michael studied the CEO and his gear. Practical and expensive, but it was not a snug fit. There was some tension in the man's shoulders, and his hands gripped his shotgun. "But do you know how to use them?"

"Well enough." The man shrugged.

"Alright."

He was about to speak again, but then decided not to. No use telling him the dungeon might split us up. We haven't had the time to test it, and it would only upset him. If it does, and he dies, too bad. That's why we made him sign all those papers and documents. If it does and he doesn't die, that might be a problem. Oh well.

The hike did not take long at all. The helicopter dumped them close enough that barely ten minutes of walking later they were staring at the gaping mouth of the cave. Michael thought he heard some rustling of leaves, despite there being no wind, but when he turned around all he could see was swirling mana and some fire element in the air. Not too strange a sight, considering what the dungeon was spewing out all the time. The density of magic in the air was quite high, and close to the entrance it rivalled the density of the first room.

"Ready?" Michael asked as he studied the area around the entrance. Once again it had changed, but not enough to warrant immediate investigation.

"As ready as I can be."

"Good. Here," Michael handed Travis some lights.

"What's this?" the CEO asked.

"The only things allowing us a fighting chance, staving off certain death. When I called this place hell, I wasn't joking. Wear the headlight and throw the rubber coated lights across the room as soon as you arrive."

"Alright. Anything else I should know?" Travis asked.

"Yes. Don't panic, and let me handle the threats. Don't shoot the damn gun."

With that, they stepped in together.

There was no prompt asking Michael if he wanted to skip to the second floor, no safe room to choose what to do. Just like the first time, he was catapulted into the first floor without warning, the danger sudden and unpredictable. As soon as their headlights revealed the enemies, Michael scattered the rest of the lights, noticing that the CEO took quite some time before he did the same.

Then there was the boom of shotgun fire, the muzzle flash illuminating a goblin before it exploded.

"Travis!" Michael snapped. "Don't fucking shoot!"

He was already rushing at the assortment of goblins and skeletons that were crowding the much bigger than expected room. This is not what I thought I'd find in here. Not at all. But there wasn't time to think.

The CEO didn't seem to hear him, shooting blindly in the mob of shambling bodies. One shot was entirely too close to Michael for his tastes.

"Travis, god dammit!"

He reached the first enemy, [Distortion Field] coming up and snapping a bony arm before it struck him. Then Michael punched with his bare hands, reinforcing his body while his healing took care of the collateral damage. The skeleton exploded outwards from the site of impact.

"There's too many! We won't make it." Travis was almost shaking. He had switched to his gun and was unloading entire mags into the skeletons, doing not much at all.

"Stop!" [Voice of Command] and [Presence] flowed out of Michael like a river, stunning both his enemies and the CEO. "I told you! You aren't ready. Now be quiet and stop shooting."

Then Michael was back to being a whirlwind of death: snapping arms, piercing bodies with bare punches, waving flaming fists. Here and there, a bullet of brackish water shot out, intercepting any monster who had slipped past him before Travis could even react.

The CEO was stunned into silence. He stared at the battle, wide-eyed, clutching his shotgun as he fumbled to reload it. "How can I help?" he asked with a shaking voice as he cowered in the far side of the room, Michael the only thing between him and the monsters.

"You help by not shooting at me!" Michael grunted, flaming hands choking a goblin. "Let me handle this. Shoot only if a monster gets past me."

To his credit, Travis actually listened this time. Gradually he stopped shaking, instead studying the room and the battle with increasing interest and focus. When he finally understood that he was in no danger, he finally relaxed enough not to be a liability anymore.

Michael kept fighting. Arms broke. Foul blood stained his clothes, drenching him from head to toe. Skeletons exploded in splinters. Flesh rotted as corrupted water pierced goblins and turned skeletons to dust. Then it was over.

Someone has been here, a lot, while I skipped straight to the second floor. This difficulty increase is insane.

Travis' mouth hung open, the man shocked by the brutality of the fight even though he thought he was ready for anything.

"What did you expect?" Michael barked. "Told you this was hell. And it's only the first room of hell. Now, see that last goblin over there? Kill it with your bare hands."

"Uh… I have weapons, though?" Travis said with no little amount of uncertainty. The goblin was mostly intact, only flesh wounds marring its muscled body. It could fight.

"No weapons. The goblins and skeletons you killed with your shotgun amount to nothing."

The man looked unsure.

"In here, I'm the boss and you do as I say. Beat that goblin up with your hands until it's dead. Don't worry about injuries, I can heal you as long as you don't die in one hit."

Travis gingerly stepped forward, holding his hands up in a boxer stance. The fight was awkward, long and grueling. But, to his credit, the CEO didn't complain, nor give up. He kept beating the goblin to a pulp, getting beaten in return. Michael healed his wounds, allowing him to outlast his foe, and then it was dead.

Definitely not your run-of-the-mill CEO. If he wasn't such an asshole, I might even like him. But then again, if he wasn't like this, he wouldn't be a CEO.

"That was awful."

"The first time I found myself in here," Michael said as a reply, "I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had to use my phone as a torch as I beat a single goblin to death, like you just did. I didn't have the luxury to heal. I didn't have protection. I was fat and weak. Don't complain."

That seemed to shut the man up. Perhaps it came out a bit too harsh, but man… I need to sleep for a week.

Michael went to pick up the loot they got, coins and a common skill stone. None of which were earned by Travis, although he had no idea how he could be so sure about it. There were a lot of coins, though, which was nice. Even nicer, almost making him forget his current state of mind, was the skill stone. His sight told him it was an upgrade stone for a common skill. He tried to gleam more information from it before triggering the skill window.

"You fight like this all the time?" Travis asked, studying him.

"I have to. This place doesn't like lazy cheaters. If you want loot, you need to earn it."

The CEO hummed in thought. "And you do it every other day."

"Sometimes multiple times a day." Although it was rare now that he had the second floor to clear, which was much more difficult to handle than just a stroll through goblin infested rooms. Which reminds me, the goblin general on the second floor is nothing like these goblins. He looks different, and his power is on another league.

"You're insane." Muttered the CEO. "That fight? You were outright frightening. The magic you used is brutal. It's now what you think when someone says magic. It's… real, you know what I mean? The blood, the smell. The sounds of bones snapping. Your magic isn't flashy at all, except the flaming hands I guess, but it's effective."

Michael hummed.

"You were right this place is hell. The danger is brutal. And yet you just throw yourself at it, don't you?"

Michael hummed distractedly. "I once spent something like twelve hours getting my arms broken by a skeleton and then healing them back up, to train my healing."

Travis gaped. "Are you sure you are okay in the head?" he asked.

"That's what you gotta do if you want real power. What you are doing now, it's the tourist route. Yes, you might get some measure of power, but that's just what the places gives you to lure you to come again. Don't fall for it."

Travis said nothing for a while, letting Michael deal with the upgrade stone. For a common stone, the bonus was huge.

(Common) Mana Sense 4

Like whispers on the breeze, mana sings its silent song; with attuned senses, I hear its melody, tracing the currents of magic that course through the world.

· Mana is now a part of your world, something you can perceive, if not see directly. You gain a new sense, able to pick up concentrations of mana around you.

· Increased range and precision. You can now see through thin obstacles and weak auras.

· You can see elements more clearly, and even faint hints of Qi.

· You can see Qi more clearly.

Strange how the skill is still classified as a common one, despite being quite powerful. I have uncommon-grade skills that are actually much weaker. Not only that, but the skill was still called mana sense despite being able to see far more than mana.

Indeed, as soon as he had upgraded the skill a new color had populated the spectrum of his sight. With a gasp, he realized that Qi had always been around him, just that it was so tiny compared to mana that he could not see it before. If mana was like grains of sand, flowing like water, Qi was microscopic dust.

His healing, he realized after he activated the skill, did not create Qi out of nothing like he thought. It pulled it out of somewhere in his body, a place his mana sense could not yet see. A Dantian?

But what he could see was that just like mana was pulled to him to regenerate his pool, Qi also flowed towards him to replenish this… Dantian. Slowly, as there was barely any Qi in the air, but it happened.

The coins he already knew contained Qi, and now he could see how the Qi was absorbed into his body when he used them.

One less mystery. [Healing Aura] pulls from both my mana pool and from my dantian to heal me, which might explain why the mana cost is not always the same when I heal myself or others. When he thought he was being more efficient, perhaps it was simply due to him using more Qi than normal, reducing the need for mana.

It's just a speculation, for now.

"What now?" Travis asked after he was done. He had patiently waited for him to inspect his gains even though the CEO could not see what he was doing.

He finally got it. No questions, no bullshit. I like how quickly he adapts.

"Now we move onto the second room. Don't panic this time, alright? Same strategy as here."

It was not the second room that worried Michael. It was the boss room.