“Absolute hateful bullshit,” I cursed for the hundredth time in as many minutes. After the completion of the tower’s quest, there had been little fanfare and I had received my reward. I couldn’t even bring myself to open my inventory and look at the thing, it made me so mad to think about. The poor unsuspecting elementals of floor eleven faced an entirely different Grant than most of the dungeon had seen up to that point. Unadulterated wrath rolled off of me at the injustice of it all.

  Quest Complete!

  Dungeon Quest - Trial Tower Takedown

  Those who enter the Tower of Alonyx are either invited or unwelcome, and you find yourself among the latter. Created with an intent to challenge their station, the craftsmanship of the tower begets further Creation. Powerful elementals call this place their home, and they protect it valiantly.

  Only once the five elemental generals have been defeated will the seal to Alonyx’s Spire be broken.

  Generals Remaining - 0

  Reward: Aspect of Water (Common)

  Although I didn’t want to see the thing physically just yet, I couldn’t stop myself from bringing up the completed quest window and reigniting my anger. The reward had said random Aspect but I hadn’t really believed it. Somewhere in my heart, I had begun to believe that I was special, or chosen or something stupid like that. For a brief moment, I had become dejected but a quiet and defiant roar from within had encouraged me towards a different path.

  Disproportionally overwhelming aggression.

  —————————————————

  As a magical construct, Tag was especially receptive to the sensations within the inner world. He was a perfect copy and assistant for Grant, and his magical existence made the examination of mana much easier. However, they weren’t the same person. Due to the magic of his creation, Tag was something of a spectator. He felt all of Grant’s emotions and thoughts, but Tag himself had little he could do to interact in the opposite direction. Sometimes he could talk, but as upset as Grant was right now the connection was locked down.

  He could literally feel Grant’s rising fury through the mana which gave form to the space as the ground beneath his feet shook violently. The clouds above the Mind Palace rumbled ominously as sparks of outrage shot across them. Objectively, Tag was at least able to appreciate their growing level of capability at manipulating mana. Grant was unconsciously drawing on concepts of the storm mana they had devoured in his anger.

  If he wasn’t careful, he would cause some irreparable changes. It wasn’t like Tag didn’t get it. The words floating in the air were an outright act of aggression and an insult all in one. The System had been on thin ice, with their opinion flipping moment to moment, but this was the last straw. Someone or something was going to pay for this insolence.

  A cascade of falling lightning peppered the world and Tag felt each one as the release they were. Where the electrical anger landed, it dissipated with a sigh instead of a crash. All over the world of the dragon, arcs of lightning fell with all the softness of snow. Tag watched it in wonder. As a replica of Grant, he was also able to appreciate the beauty of the world they had created. It would be a shame if they broke it after so recently fixing it.

  Their body was currently smashing its way through the eleventh floor as a release of anger but it was creating a new problem. Magic was not just powerful, it was intoxicating. Grant was currently tearing through elementals which didn’t compare to the final mini-boss in the slightest. The issue lay in the experience they were gaining from the elementals they defeated.

  Massive pools of pure experience had collected in the gaps and valleys of the world of the dragon. Glistening and ethereal, Tag found that they were intangible to every effort he could muster against them. They burned at the ground around them like acid and even Tag could feel the burn of it against the soul at the centre of their being.

  Naea had warned of this issue before. The System held people back instinctively from overlevelling for this exact reason. It shouldn’t have actually been a problem at level thirty. It wouldn’t have been a problem if they weren’t so greedy. With the defeat of the Space Elemental, it had released the Spirit-like experience energy. Instead of letting it slip away, Grant had used it to fertilise the world of the dragon in some way. It had felt like the right thing to do at the time. Tag didn’t regret their choice to take what was theirs but if they had just let the experience slide away like it wanted to, there would have been no trouble. Instead, their inner world was starting to flood.

  Even as Tag wondered what they were going to do about that, a quake split the crust of the planet. Tag froze in terror. Vivid memories of enduring soul-shredding pain caused his breath to catch, but when he exhaled, it was a sigh of relief. He didn’t know exactly what was happening but it wasn’t like when Reysault’s poison had nearly shattered them. This action was covered in the telltale signs of the Dragon’s magic.

  Little more than a passenger, Tag watched with rapt interest at whatever the Dragon’s next move was.

  ————————————————

  In the middle of my mindless assault on the eleventh floor of the tower, a voice I had not heard much of rang in my ears. Distracted as I had been, I actually missed what the Aspect whispered to me. Making some distance between myself and the elementals on this floor wasn’t hard. They actually seemed relieved when I retreated slightly. “Say that again?” I asked, not actually expecting a reply.

  Use it.

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  I scoffed at the Aspect, knowing exactly what “it” referred to. My entire being had refused to consider binding with a common Aspect as soon as it became an option and I wasn’t about to change that. Half of that opinion came from the Aspect of the Dragon itself, so the demand was a strange one. Before I could think more, the elementals converged on me.

  As expected, floor eleven was an endurance floor full of constantly spawning elementals. I didn’t even mind the seemingly endless flow of dangerous enemies as it gave me a good way to vent the embarrassed anger I felt at my quest reward. If the choice truly was random, it was more likely for me to receive a common Aspect than anything else. It still stung.

  Use it, the Dragon repeated as I fended off three separate beams of icy mana at once. Even if I wasn’t busy, I would have refused. The Jingu Bang spun weightlessly in my hand as it collected the frosted energy. Catalyst burned constantly, autonomously transforming the aggressive mana into a form I could use. Most of the stolen power went to Mana Barrier while my own energy fed the Jingu Bang and fueled its relentless destruction of elementals in my hands.

  The weapon had changed description when it was revealed as an artefact. If provided with a consistent source of mana, the Jingu Bang can become more attuned to its wielder. As far as consistent sources went, the tower of Alonyx was about as reliable a wellspring of mana as it could have hoped for.

  The implacable staff was a perfect partner for my aspirations. I wanted to learn all I could about magic and see where it took me, the staff wanted to eat as much mana as it could. A match made in heaven.

  Unfortunately, the dust eventually cleared on floor eleven and the enemies stopped appearing. The temperature of the room started to rise as the mostly ice-based elementals were no longer infusing the air with their magic. My routine when safety arrived took over and I descended quickly into meditation. Activating Mind Palace and delving into my inner world, the first thing I noticed was the pain.

  More like heartburn than anything, a caustic burning in my chest caused me to cough as I entered the inner world. Smoke rose from the world of the dragon and choked my lungs, burning my eyes. I cast a discerning eye across the planet and found it ruptured. The origin of the acrid smog was on the far side of the world from the Mind Palace where the tectonic shifts had forced a volcano into being. From within, dark fumes rose.

  It was new, but not actually the first volcano gracing the land. Volcanic imagery had been helpful when forging the Battle Bond with Merownis. In that case, the fissure was created when using Dragonburn on my own mana to give it enough strength to bridge the gap between us. In the current instance, the Aspect was doing something similar. Adjacent but not identical.

  “Use it,” the voice of the dragon shook the planet I stood on. I sighed. In the back of my head, now I was paying attention, I could feel Tag’s encouragement to acquiesce. There wasn’t any reason to argue, especially once it became two on one. We were all the same being, Tag, the Aspect and I. Three true individuals, crafted from the same soul and bound to it. While I might be the pilot, there was no separating us and no reason for me to argue other than pride.

  I simply didn’t like the idea of having a common Aspect. It was as snobby a thought as I had ever had, but I wanted more special magic than that. Still, it wasn’t only my decision and the council had made their decision. Feeling more than a little strange at the idea I was listening to the voices in my head, I removed the Aspect from my inventory. I couldn’t draw most items from my inventory into the inner world, but an Aspect was different. They were pure magic to start with, so they could be represented in my magical world easily.

  As much as I held a personal disdain for the thing, there was no point pretending it wasn’t stunning. In the corporeal world of the dungeon, the Aspect was constrained by things like physics and reality. Brought into my inner world, it wasn’t held back like that. As I stared in wonder at the pulsing orb of magic before me, I couldn’t help wondering how much more beautiful the Aspect of the Dragon would have looked.

  Item - Aspect of Water (Common)

  Aspects are formed when ambient mana in an area becomes charged with a specific type of energy. If you have unbound Aspect slots, you may permanently bind an Aspect to an unbound attribute.

  Would you like to use the Aspect of Water to bind an unbound Aspect slot?

  I didn’t let myself think and accepted the prompt immediately. As the magical connections from the Aspect of Water attempted to attach themselves to my soul, I could immediately tell something was wrong. The links slipped as they tried to find purchase and met unexpected resistance. I hadn’t expected it, at least. After a moment’s inspection I started cackling with laughter. “Of course!”

  Aspect of Water binding unsuccessful.

  I had been arrogant, and rarely had I been so happy to be shown such. Of course I wasn’t the only one disappointed. The Dragon and its influence were at least partially to blame for my own opinion on the matter, the Aspect’s impact on my psyche turning me prideful. It stood to reason then that the draconic mind at the core of the legendary Aspect was more upset at the development than anyone.

  I should have known it had a plan.

  The very essence of water hovered in the air before me, no larger than a beach ball. Just to mundane vision it was a work of immaculate perfection. The sphere of deepest blues, seafoam and perfect crystalline translucence bubbled unhappily as its attempts to bind continued to fail. The sounds of waves crashing against rock and burbling rivers tinkled off its undulating surface. I almost felt bad doing what I knew was the next step.

  Releasing the Aspect, I pushed it towards the Aspect’s waiting volcano. The smoke intensified as I felt a crescendo gathering underneath the surface of the world. The beach ball floated towards the heat but stayed the same size in my perspective as it did. When the Aspect finally sat above the burning spout, it had the bulk of a moon. The smoke engulfed the Aspect of Water regardless.

  Warning! Aspect binding failed! Aspect-

  Warning! Aspect transmutation failed! Aspect will be-

  The volcano erupted but even the cataclysmic sound of its explosion was nothing compared to the indignant bellow from the dragon within. Feeling a pull on my Spirit Well, I grinned and allowed the powerful energy to join the stalled process. “Take as much as you need,” I told the Dragon, to which it happily obliged. I could no longer see the Aspect of Water through the thick smoke which was choking it but something was changing.

  A flash of amethyst light shot from the lava of the volcano, the illuminated silhouette of something massive. The purple shadow raced up through the smoke where it collided with the Aspect of Water. Heat met the cool liquid and with an ungodly burst of noise and steam, a shockwave was released. I flinched as it reached me. I was thrown from the inner world with a gasp. The undertaking wasn’t over, whatever it was the Dragon was doing, but it was no longer privy to me. I was grateful for that.

  Because as I opened my eyes, I saw that I had company.