System Notification: You have landed a killing blow on Luminite Crystal Fighter Spiderling (Level 4).
You have received 47 EXP
Experience Remaining Until Next Level: 114/549
The remaining spiders, one on the ground, one on the left wall, and one on the ceiling, were still rushing forward. Grace targeted the left wall spider, Tim aimed for the ground one, and Muffins kept its focus on the ceiling spider.
The wall spider lunged at Grace, its crystalline legs gleaming. Grace swung her blade at it, but the spider skittered sideways, narrowly avoiding the blow. The ground spider moved at the same time, leaping at Tim. Tim’s sword sliced through the air, but the spider jumped instantly, evading the attack and landing on top of his blade. Shaking it off, the spider managed to chip the tip of the blade before leaping off.
Meanwhile, the ceiling spider rapidly advanced, its movements quick. Muffins thrust its sword upward but miscalculated the angle, the blade grazing the creature’s crystal legs without landing a solid hit. The spider retaliated by leaping from the ceiling, aiming directly for Muffins. The two collided with a thud, the spider landing on Muffin's skull. Its fangs sank deep into the bone, the sound of cracking reverberating as it tried to sink its fangs deeper.
The spider on Muffins didn’t hesitate. It twisted its body, pushing deeper into the skull with every passing second. Muffins staggered back under the weight, its sword clattering to the ground as it tried to shake the spider off, but the creature’s hold was unyielding. The sound of bone cracking echoed again as a second blow landed on Muffins' exposed ribs from one of the spider’s legs.
“Get it off, Muffins!” Enya shouted, her voice sharp and urgent. “Guys, hurry up and kill them!”
Grace and Tim responded instinctively, closing in on their respective targets. Grace swung her sword at the left wall spider, aiming for its legs. She struck once, twice—each time the blade bounced off its crystal hide, producing an unsettling ringing sound. The spider skittered up and down the wall, dodging the strikes, staying just out of reach.
Meanwhile, Tim, undeterred by his earlier miss, closed in on the ground spider. With a fierce clattering of bones, he swung his sword in a horizontal arc. This time, the spider didn’t avoid the blow as it was too slow—it met the blade head-on. The sword struck its crystalline legs, shattering them with a screech. Tim followed up quickly, driving the sword into the spider's thorax, pinning it to the ground. The creature writhed beneath him, but its movements grew weaker with each ounce of pressure Tim exerted.
“Muffins, hold on!” Enya cried, her heart pounding as she watched the skeleton struggle.
There was no time to think. She immediately drew on the mana within her, pulling it into her palm as her hands began to glow. She focused, channeling the energy into another bone spear, her circuit shimmering with light.
"Bone spear!" she shouted, her voice echoing in the cave.
With a flash, the bone spear shot forward from the ground in front of Muffins, twisting through the air with deadly precision. It pierced the spider’s abdomen just as it tried to sink its fangs deeper into Muffins. The creature froze, twitching before collapsing lifeless onto the skeleton’s skull. Muffins staggered a few more steps before it finally crumpled to the ground, its head nearly torn in half. It grabbed the spider's carcass and threw it aside.
“Good job, Muffins,” Enya muttered, her voice strained but relieved. She turned her attention back to the remaining spiders.
The left wall spider was still moving swiftly, its legs clattering against the stone as it dodged Grace’s strikes. Its crystalline legs scraped along the wall as it zigzagged, its movements erratic and unpredictable. Grace’s strikes, though powerful, only seemed to meet air as the creature kept itself just out of reach.
Tim, having finished off the ground spider, quickly turned his attention to the fight. Now, both Grace and Tim were working together to take down the last spider. Muffins was incapacitated, its skull half-missing from the ceiling spider’s powerful fangs. Enya could feel the fading link with Muffins, her bond with the skeleton slowly dying out.
Dodging another swing, this time from Tim, the last spiderling jumped upward, latching itself onto the ceiling, its crystalline legs digging deep into the stone. Its mouth opened, and its fangs spread apart. With a loud screech, it shot forward a bundle of crystal cobwebs, directly heading for Enya, who stood at the far back.
Enya recognized the motion instantly and commanded her minions to intercept. Grace, who was a bit further back, moved immediately. She ran into the spider’s line of sight, leaping upward to shield Enya by using her own skeletal body as a shield. The cobwebs slashed straight into Grace's ribs, exploding with a loud gnashing sound as they tore through the bones.
Grace was knocked back in mid-air, her body tumbling until she landed with a harsh thud, kicking up dust. “Grace!” Enya shouted.
Her eyes narrowed on the spider now perched upside-down on the ceiling. With the last of her mana reserves, she created another bone spear circuit, prepping it to strike right from the ceiling where the spider stood.
Tim held his sword steady, then leaped, aiming the blade straight up in an attempt to impale the creature. With a quick motion, the spiderling dodged to the right, but the blade nicked its left legs, severing them with a sharp crack. It faltered slightly, and Enya seized the opportunity. Her spell exploded, and the ceiling rumbled immediately after, before a bone spear extended itself out of the stone.
The spider’s footing was lost as the cave’s stone ceiling crumbled, sending it plummeting. Enya’s bone spear shot forward, piercing straight through its body as debris cascaded down around it.
The spider screeched as the bone spear pierced through its body, its legs flailing wildly in a desperate attempt to cling to anything solid. Its final, agonizing cry echoed throughout the cave, reverberating off the walls. The bone spear drove deeper, splintering its crystalline exoskeleton, until the spider collapsed onto the stone floor in a heap of jagged limbs and shards.
Dust and debris rained down from the ceiling, the echoes of the battle still lingering in the air. Enya stood panting, her heart racing in her chest. The world seemed to slow for a moment, the aftermath of the fight taking its toll. Her bones ached from the exertion of casting so much magic in such a short span, and the energy from her connection with her skeletons felt strained, stretched thin.
Tim stood over the fallen spider, his sword still raised, watching the lifeless body for any sign of movement. Grace, having taken the brunt of a crystallized cobweb, managed to stand, though many of her ribs had been completely sliced through, the remains scattered on the ground.
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Muffins, however, fared worse. Enya could sense it without the need for a notification ping. Muffins had valiantly perished in battle. She sighed, relieved to have won the fight, though only one skeleton had been lost. Looking at Muffins’ skull, there was no longer any sign of undeath. She could probably repair its body, but she would need to recast the spell in its entirety to revive it.
“Good job, kid,” Pell said. “Though, with how much you struggled against these spiders, I’m not quite sure how you’ll fare in the tournament.”
Enya’s face soured. Pell had a point. From what she had seen of Berry and Manny’s attacks, there was no way she could hold up in a fight against them. They were in the advanced division for kids older than her, but still, they were the only ones she had seen. There was no frame of reference for what the other people in the youngling division could do. She had only received a B-rating after all her prep work; if someone else had gotten an A or even S-rank, the chances of her winning seemed slim.
These spiders had given her quite a bit of trouble, and they weren’t even that high-level. Surely, the other kids her age signing up for the tournament might have had an easier time. Her confidence dwindled as she thought about it.
She swiped her status screen up, looking at the pile of notifications.
System Notification: You have landed a killing blow on the following creatures:
Luminite Crystal Fighter Spiderling (Level 5).
Luminite Crystal Fighter Spiderling (Level 7).
Luminite Crystal Fighter Spiderling (Level 4).
Luminite Crystal Fighter Spiderling (Level 7).
You have received 242 EXP.
Experience Remaining Until Next Level: 356/549
Enya frowned. She turned to Pell. “Hey Pell… the spiders’ levels are around 5 to 7. I thought you said this was an F-rank dungeon, like an easy one. How come the monster levels are higher than the ones back in Sable’s dungeon?”
Pell sent a sideways glance at Josier. Moving forward, Pell spoke only to Enya, in case Josier heard about their special in-layer dungeon. “Dungeons like these have existed for a very long time, meaning the monsters within them will generally be stronger too. Fresher dungeons won’t have that many powerful creatures, compared to more ancient dungeons. That in-layer dungeon is a special case, and probably hadn’t existed for too long.” Pell stood straight, retracting himself now that the topic had shifted to broader terms. “Also, that dungeon with the damn demon rat—that thing was feasting on most of the higher-level skeletons and zombies. That’s probably why you only ever saw the lower-level ones. Floor 5 at the very least should’ve had a lot more level 7 to 10 monsters.”
Enya nodded. That explanation made sense. Most of the enemies she fought in Sable’s dungeon had been under level 5. Very rarely did she find one that was level 7 or higher. But it made sense if the rattle rat, who was level 11, had killed most of the higher-level creatures that were weaker than it. The dungeon boss itself was high-level and formidable, not matching the difficulty of the other undead monsters inside the dungeon she saw. So, this seemed reasonable enough.
“You going to collect what you need from them?” Josier asked.
Realization dawned on Enya as she realized she almost forgot to extract their soul energy. “Yeah. Thanks for reminding me,” she said.
Walking over to the closest carcass, the one that had demolished Muffins’ head, she knelt, summoning her bonecarver’s quill and stabbed it deep.
System Notification: You have absorbed 36 points of soul-energy.
Soul-Energy: 124/100
Maximum Soul-Energy Capacity has been reached.
Please check The Grim Pullet for ways to manage the overflow.
Enya’s eyes widened upon seeing the notification. Sure enough, she had gone over the limit of her capacity.
Without missing a beat, Enya summoned The Grim Pullet in front of her. The pages flipped open automatically, without her prompting. As they turned, several pages filled with text caught her eye, until they finally stopped, landing on something that might fix the situation.
Increasing Soul-Energy Capacity - Internal Method - Tier 1
Process: This method involves strengthening your soul to hold more soul energy. To strengthen your core, you need to allocate 100% of the current capacity of your Soul-Energy into your own soul. You may temporarily go over 50% of your current capacity, but any more may leave permanent internal damage. The recommended method is to gather up to 150% Soul-Energy capacity, and then use 100% of it to empower your soul, so you have 50% remaining to use until you can repeat this process again.
Warning: The first time expanding your soul-capacity, may be painful. Afterwards, expansion will be seamless.
This wasn’t a recipe or blueprint for making an item, but rather, a guide. It described a way to increase her storage capacity, and didn’t require materials or anything else to craft. There was also a warning about it being painful, but it didn’t describe how painful. There were still two other pages that had appeared. She checked them next.
Increasing Soul-Energy Capacity - External Method - Tier 1
Process: This method requires a mana-conductive container. The catalyst must be empty before use. By fusing your soul-energy into the item, you will slowly change the polarity of the container from holding mana to Soul-Energy. Once this process is complete, imbue a drop of blood onto the item to bind it to yourself. Your Soul-Energy capacity will now be expanded, and it can be externally stored in this item, similar to a phylactery.
By using some type of external item—possibly a crystal or something she imagined—she could use it as an extra source to store soul-energy. From the way it was described, it seemed possible to remotely store it, without needing to manually refill it. Turning the page, Enya looked at the last method.
Soul-Energy Pill (Bronze Tier)
Description: A small circular pill made of condensed soul-energy. Taking this pill will restore a user’s soul-energy by the amount used to form it. If consumed by another creature that does not have soul-energy capacity, the pill will grant a burst of vitality and energy.
Materials:
- Empty Pill Capsule
- Minimum 100 points of Soul-Energy, up to 1,000,000 points
So there was an item she could make to store excess soul-energy. This seemed similar to a mana potion in a way where she could simply just take it later to refill her reserves.
With the three methods shown, there was only one Enya could use right now—the internal method. She’d been hurt before, so the pain couldn’t possibly be that bad, right? Soul-energy was already in her body, so what more could it do?
She was still in absolute focus, her concentration peaked to its maximum. She shut her eyes and turned her attention inward, zeroing in on the Soul-Energy within her.
It was difficult to describe, but she knew her mana and soul-energy were located in different parts of her body’s center. Her soul, however, she had a vague sense of where it was. It was the spot she had felt change and morph when she first ascended to a necrosmith. She could feel it shifting, changing, as it conformed to the enormous transformation in her being.
Pell’s and Josier’s voices drifted to her ears, but they sounded faint, muted, drowned out by her tight focus.
Her soul-energy swirled inside her, pulling out a hundred points, circulating them deep around her core. The sensation she had felt in the dungeon returned, like a tight pressure coiling around her, squeezing her being into a small, rigid shell. As the pressure built, it soon turned into fierce strain—pain, a relentless force pushing against her.
Her body shook, muscles trembling under the strain. A faint, white aura surrounded her, glowing softly, mist-like in nature. Her breath hitched and stopped, as if frozen in time. Her heart followed suit, its beating halting as her body fell into a kind of comatose stasis.
More and more soul-energy flowed into her soul. The pressure continued to grow, something inside her growing stronger, while something else grew weaker. By now, fifty of the hundred Soul-Energy points had entered, and still, half remained. Her hands instinctively pressed against her chest, clutching at the growing turmoil within. Her mind fought against the strain, thoughts fading as only the warping of her soul-energy filled her consciousness.
Enya collapsed to the ground, lurching forward under the unbearable pain. She tried to speak, but her lungs were empty, no breath to expel. Ninety points of soul-energy entered her being, and the final stretch of ten remained.
Please...
The word echoed, blaring in her mind like a loud, frantic cry for help. She just wanted the torment to stop. The pressure. The noise. It grew louder, more deafening, until it seemed unbearable. Then, suddenly, the sound staggered—muted, distant. Peace crept in.
Until there was nothing left but the void of silence.