Free Web NovelChapter 72: Going to a dungeon
The transit vessel hummed softly as it carried them back through the arterial waterways of Atlantis. Victor sat in silence, his mind already turning inward toward the spells waiting to be unraveled. Beside him, Diana’s eyes remained fixed on the passing towers, but her fingers moved in subtle patterns, running diagnostics on her combat protocols, no doubt.
The artificial sky had shifted again by the time they reached their residential sector. The prism gold of morning had deepened into a somber amber, the long Atlantian day cycle barely half complete. Their dwelling was modest by imperial standards, a compact two level unit in a mid tier habitation block, secured with standard biometric locks that Nova had long since subverted.
Victor stopped at the entrance, turning to face his companion.
"Three days," he said quietly. "Maybe four. I need absolute focus."
Diana inclined her head, her silver hair catching the corridor’s ambient light. "I will maintain surveillance on House Valerius and monitor Arbiter patrol patterns. Nova can route critical alerts to your implant if necessary."
"Don’t let anything distract you either," Victor added, his gaze sharpening. "Your own training is just as important. The battle is coming, Diana. When it arrives, I need you at full capacity."
A flicker of something, surprise or perhaps quiet appreciation, crossed her features before she smoothed it away. "Understood."
---
Victor’s room was bare except for a simple sleeping platform and a small desk integrated into the wall. He sat cross legged on the floor, the cool metal surface pressing against his skin, and closed his eyes.
He started comprehending the gravitational manipulation first.
Endless knowledge was entering his mind. freёwebnoѵel.com
Space magic was fundamentally different from the elemental disciplines Victor had studied on the surface. Fire, water, earth, air, those were forces that existed within the physical universe. They could be shaped, redirected, amplified, but they were ultimately bound by the laws of physics.
Space was different. Space was the law.
Victor’s consciousness expanded, reaching outward into the fabric of reality itself. He felt the room around him, not as walls and floor, but as distance. The three meters between his shoulder and the eastern wall. The two meters to the ceiling. The subtle curvature of space time caused by the planet’s massive core far below.
Gravitational manipulation was not about creating gravity from nothing. That was inefficient, almost primitive. True gravitational control was about bending what already existed. Redirecting the fundamental attraction between masses. Making the planet’s pull work in a different direction.
He reached out with his mana, threading it through the invisible lattice of space time. The first attempt failed. The second, partial. The third held for a breath before collapsing.
Hours passed. Then an entire rotation of the artificial sky outside his sealed window.
On the second day, something clicked.
Victor opened his eyes. The room looked the same, but he felt the difference. The weight of his own body against the floor. The subtle tug of the planet below. He reached out with his will and turned the gravity vector ninety degrees.
The desk tore from the wall and slammed into the adjacent partition. The sleeping platform followed, its metal frame groaning under the sudden lateral force. Victor remained seated, perfectly stationary, his personal gravity still oriented toward the floor while everything else tried to fall toward the eastern wall.
[Ding! You have comprehended Gravitational Manipulation.]
He released the spell. The desk and platform crashed back to their original positions.
Suddenly his implant pulsed. Incoming call.
He raised his wrist, and Corin Valerius’s face materialized in a flickering hologram. The noble’s expression was tight, his eyes carrying a dangerous gleam that had not been there two days ago. The gleam of a man who had seen hope for the first time in decades.
Victor smiled. The fish had taken the bite.
"So you are ready?" Victor asked, his voice calm.
"Yes. I am." Corin’s voice was resolute, lacking the trembling hesitation of their first meeting. "The genetic sequence is authentic. I had my family’s private bio alchemist verify it under sealed protocols. It is more pure than anything the High Council currently possesses."
"I know," Victor replied.
"What you are asking for, the disruption of the mana distribution grids, it will require cooperation from three of my sector supervisors. They are loyal to House Valerius, not to the Emperor. But if we are caught..."
"You will not be caught," Victor interrupted. "I have already mapped the audit frequencies for the logistics network. There is a seventy two minute window every eighth cycle where the central oversight is blind. Your people will act then."
Corin swallowed. "And the blame on House Merova? Is that truly possible?"
"A fabricated data trail is already prepared. Their house sigil, their encryption protocols, even the linguistic patterns of their internal communications. When the Arbiters investigate, they will find exactly what we want them to find."
The noble was silent for a long moment. Then he nodded, a sharp, decisive motion. "Then House Valerius is with you. Whatever you are planning against the Emperor, we will not stand in your way. But I want your word. When the dust settles, my family’s bloodline restoration is guaranteed."
"You have my word," Victor said. "Now wait for my order. I will contact you when needed."
He cut the call before Corin could respond.
---
Victor did not rest. He closed his eyes again, diving back into the space element. The next spell was Storage.
Storage was subtler than gravitational manipulation. It did not bend or redirect. It created. A pocket dimension, a fold in space time where matter could be held outside the normal flow of reality. The mana cost was fixed regardless of what was stored, but the initial creation required immense precision.
One day. That was all it took. The comprehension came faster now, as if Victor’s mind was adapting to the alien logic of dimensional magic.
[Ding! You have comprehended Storage spell.]
He opened a small fold beside his hand, reached into nothing, and pulled out a nutrient bar from the preparation station three rooms away. He smiled, then dismissed the pocket.
---
Now came the true challenge. Time.
Victor looked at the grimoire floating beside him, its pages shimmering with the accumulated knowledge of the First Civilization. He swallowed hard. Anticipation gripped his heart.
Two spells had appeared in the time section, replacing the previous single option.
One: Time Stop: Freeze the flow of time in a localized area. Cost, fifteen days of lifespan per second of frozen time.
Two: Time Acceleration:Accelerate time for the caster by a factor of ten relative to the outside world.
Cost, six months of lifespan per second of accelerated time. Useful for training or escaping danger, but prohibitively expensive.
Victor chose Time Stop first. It was his ultimate card against powerful enemies.
Three days later, Nova’s voice chimed through his consciousness.
[Ding! You have comprehended the intermediate level of Time Stop.]
"It was a known spell, yet it took three days," Victor muttered, rubbing his temples. The mental fatigue was accumulating. "How much will the new one need?"
He closed his eyes again.
---
Five days.
Five days of unraveling the most complex spell matrix he had ever encountered. Time Forward did not simply accelerate perception; it forced the caster’s entire existence into a faster vibrational state relative to the universal baseline. Mana consumption was exponential. The lifespan cost was a constant drain.
But when Victor finally opened his eyes on the fifth morning, he understood it.
[Ding! You have comprehended the intermediate level of Time Forward.]
"Finally." He stood, his joints protesting after nearly two weeks of near immobility. "It is time to use all the spells and break through to the adept realm."
He stretched, then stepped out of his room.
Diana was already in the common area, her posture alert. She had changed during their separation. Her movements were smoother, more economical. The pressure she exuded had intensified. She had not been idle.
"Done?" she asked.
"Done. I need a dungeon. A D rank mid level dungeon, preferably a water environment. I need to test these spells against living targets."
Diana tilted her head. "The Abyssal Trench. Sector Seven’s outer perimeter. It is a submerged cave system populated by aquatic monsters. The imperial surveyors rated it D plus, but they have not updated the classification in three years. It may be harder now."
"Perfect. The harder, the better. Those Atlantian bastards rely on their water combat advantages. If I can master fighting in their element, their home ground becomes my hunting ground."
Diana nodded. "I will accompany you to the perimeter. Someone needs to watch your back while you are busy burning through your lifespan."
Victor almost smiled. "Let us go."
They left the dwelling together, two shadows moving through the perpetual twilight of the lower tiers, heading toward the edge of the city where the lights grew dim and the water grew dark.
Victor would breakthrough to Adept rank after this.
