Too Stubborn to Die

As the challenge started, Aaron appeared in a realm of darkness, hovering above a void rift.

“This energy… thick, suffocating," Aaron held out his hands as he felt the familiar feeling. It was the void, but controlled somehow. Like the System had tamed it for the sake of the challenge.

“What is this?”

Aaron looked up. He and the starfish helmet guy were behind floating bars. Like prison cells, but with no floor, just a rippling, angry void rift beneath them, pulling at the energy around it, trying to drag everything in.

“Void,” Aaron said. “I’ve had a few run-ins with it.”

“Void? Is that what it is? Disgusting. It feels like it’s trying to change me.”

The starfish helmet man was dressed in white, silky robes, and partial metal armor like a gladiator. His name was Vardus Clark, and he had an impressive aura. And impressively large bat-wings had spawned from his back, and were busy flapping away to keep him from being dragged into the rift below.

“Yeah. You do not want it getting its claws into you, either.”

“Shut up!” Vardus suddenly barked. “We’re enemies, remember? I don’t care what you have to say. Keep it to yourself.”

“Okay,” Aaron raised his hands. “Suit yourself.”

In truth, Aaron had far more pressing matters to worry about himself. The rift was no joke, and it was doing its damnedest to drag him into it. He had instinctively started to fly with his mana anchors the moment he felt nothing beneath his feet.

But this was more than flying. It was resisting the pull of the rift, which itself was a terrifying thought. What awful place would a rift within the void itself take the unfortunate souls that got caught by it?

However, the System had brought them here and seemed to have some control over the place. Hopefully, falling victim to it would just kick them from the dungeon, but Aaron knew he didn’t want to test it.

This is… not good.

Using his mana anchors to fly was not efficient at all. Luckily, Aaron had plenty of mana and a true core to power his regeneration, not to mention his belly and adipose reserves. But still, was that enough to overcome a proper flight Skill?

Oh shit. Of course, it was going to catch up with me sooner or later.

He was a little annoyed. It felt unfair, but then again, this was one of the final floors of a dungeon designed for the greatest talents of the universe. It was likely expected that one would have figured flight out by now.

Aaron glanced across at his opponent, their wings flapping through the void to keep them from the rift.

“Struggling already?” Vardus asked with a cruel grin. “You’re meant to be one of your sector’s top talents, aren’t you? Surely you’ve got more in you than this?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine,” Aaron said, though he knew he wasn’t.

He wasn’t struggling yet, but he knew he couldn’t keep wasting mana as quickly as he was. It was draining out of him, and he was already substituting it with some reserves, while cycling his core.

I just have to keep fueling it. It’s not any worse than the crystal.

It wasn’t any harder than powering the crystal. That was true. But they weren’t on equal footing. Just by looking at Vardus, Aaron was certain the other man was only using a fraction of the mana he was.

But he had to focus on himself. He went inward, closing his eyes, and cycling as he tried to maximize the efficiency of his mana usage. He also started eating. He wasn’t close to running out just yet, but he wanted to get into a nice, steady rhythm. A good pace he could keep for a while.

But just as he felt himself settling in, the rift let out a roaring sound. It grew larger, the energy around it rippling more violently, and a moment later, its powerful pull grew thicker and stronger.

“Haha. feel that?” Vardus said with a smirk as he looked down at the rift. “Getting stronger, huh? Looks like you’re struggling. Thinking of giving up already, are you?”

“Yeah, nah. Not a chance, mate. I’m fine. Just finding my rhythm.”

“Baha. Good luck. I can sense your energy waste from here. You clearly don’t understand the first thing about energy usage. Pathetic. You don’t stand a chance against a talent of my calibre. Give up now, and save yourself the effort.”

“Whatever. Yap all you want. It ain’t going to change a thing,” Aaron said, closing his eyes.

“Bah!” Vardus snorted. “Fine. Be stubborn. It’ll end the same.”

Aaron didn’t care if his chance of winning was one in a million. He wasn’t giving up. He had stockpiled enough food on the fourth Floor to last him a very long time. Besides, if he lost, he’d be out of the Dungeon, and his food reserves hardly mattered then. Heck, Treg and the other goblins had probably already built up a stockpile waiting for him.

Aaron casually ate, calming himself as he cycled, trying to minimize his mana wastage.

“Come on. Give up. You know you want to. You pathetic sector doesn’t stand a chance against the Helios Sector!”

“Whatever.”

Aaron began to hum to himself, drowning out the annoying man. He needed to meditate. He needed to focus. To cycle. To become one with his mana.

He focused on his core, the way it converted and created mana. He pulled on ambient aether, converting it to mana and parsing it out through his anchors.

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As his mana flowed, he constricted it, reducing the flow without hampering the power. But it wasn’t just the raw efficiency of his mana that he was working on. It was also how he converted it into flight. How it fought against the pull of the rift.

There was pure efficiency. How much mana was used to perform a task? But there was also efficiency in how a task was performed. Did he use large bursts of mana, or smaller ones more frequently?

Aaron syphoned through the different techniques, feeling for what worked best, and channeling in on it. Meanwhile, he delved into his anchors, how they worked, and the truths that gave them power.

His mind flashed, as if expanded, as he came to a realization. Greater than the efficiency of his mana usage, or the raw pull of the rift, was the strange atmosphere of the void. It was sapping at him. Making everything harder and more costly.

In fact, the void was doing far more to weaken him against the rift than the rift’s own pull, he quickly realized.

That’s it. The true power we’re fighting against.

This was an equalizer. Vardus could put on a brave face, but he realized that he, too, could feel the suffocating nature of the void, and it was precisely the reason he wanted Aaron to give up.

Aaron felt the void. The way it corrupted his mana, and instead of fighting against it, he tried to go with the flow. Tried to align his mana with the void, to flow downstream, instead of up.

And he could feel it working. His mana was becoming closer to the void, and he felt the weight pulling against him lessen. It was getting easier.

There, that’s it. I’m on the right path.

“Come on! Don’t keep this up any longer,” Vardus said, starting to huff and strain. “Give up already. There’s no way you can keep this up any longer!”

Aaron ignored him, instead focusing on his mana. He embraced the chaotic, transformative energy around him. Trying to mimic it with his mana. Trying to use it to his advantage.

It was a combination of everything he had learned so far. Efficiency. Power when necessary. Alignment. Conversion. And all of it flowing into the void.

The very frequency of his mana was changing. It was aligning itself with the energy around him, and the difference was undeniable. He had gone from feeling like he was suffocating to feeling like he was floating.

You have gained insight into a possible upgrade path for Mana Anchors. Current discovered upgrade paths:

Streamlined Mana Anchors (10%)

Partitioned Mana Anchors (15%)

Reverse Mana Anchors (5%)

Elemental Shift (Void) (10%)

“Void mana?” Aaron raised a brow as he sleepily opened his eyes. He had not expected to see that.

It was an interesting discovery, that was for sure. He surmised that elemental shift was a mana pathway for those specializing looking to specialize in a specific element. By familiarising their mana with the element they used, the synergy would no doubt make them far stronger.

But that wasn’t Aaron. Nor was the void. It wasn’t a path that interested him long-term. But he wasn’t complaining. If channeling his mana with the void helped him pass the challenge, then he would welcome the breakthrough. Besides, there was no doubt it would help him better understand mana and grow stronger in the long term, even if he followed a different path.

“You’re still not done? How? How dammit!?”

Vardus was sweating profusely now. He looked absolutely exhausted. Like he was barely hanging on. The wings were flapping laboriously, unwilling to give up. But the signs of fatigue were written all over him.

“You’re insane. Fucking insane, I tell you. Why? Why?!”

“You’re looking tired,” Aaron said, opening one eye.

“OF COURSE I AM! For fucks sake! You’re truly going to drive me mad! We've been in here for an entire month! Just fucking give up already! I cannot stand this anymore!”

“A month? Wait, seriously?” Aaron’s eyes sprang wide.

“Yes! I’ve been shouting at you the entire time! What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Wait, an entire month?

Feeling his chest sink, Aaron checked his scabbard. There was almost nothing left. He’d been eating during his meditation. Like sleep eating. All that food he had cooked. Those countless corpses served up to him while he charged the crystal.

Almost all of it was gone.

Aaron truly had drifted off in his meditation. That said, by the end of it, he had found such a perfect equilibrium. He had been perfectly cycling through his mana, passing it through his core and into his anchors. He might have eaten a lot while meditating, but right now, he didn’t feel his hunger at all, even though the rift was still pulling at him. Although that was more thanks to his improvements in mana anchor pathways than his meditation.

That’s not ideal… then again, the gains were decent. To say the least.

He had improved, streamlined anchors, partitioned, and elemental. It was insane, really. And those improvements had increased his control over the mana pouring out of his anchors to such a degree that he could relax. Although relaxing the strain of the void had by far done the most.

“Ah, sorry. I guess I got a little carried away.”

“Sorry? I don’t want your apologies, you fucking madman! I want—”

Vardus was interrupted, a reverberating thud echoed out from the rift, and he swayed as it pulled him.

“Aarrgk! What was that?”

The rift pulsed again, and again, and the pull intensified. Growing stronger, and the void air around them, thicker.

Round limit reached.

Sudden death activated!

“Shit!” Vardus grunted as he strained against the increasingly powerful pull. “How? You can’t even fly properly!”

“It’s getting there, isn’t it?” Aaron said, increasing his mana throughput, and throwing a piece of meat into his mouth. “Quite a strong pull, huh?”

“Getting there? How are you withstanding this?”

Vardus’ entire body was shaking. A line of blood dripped from the man’s nose, and his wings were flapping so fast he looked like a hummingbird.

“This?” Aaron looked around. “Yeah, not gonna lie, it’s pretty strong. I dunno, though. Reckon I got more in me though.”

“MORE? You’re insane! A fucking mad monster!”

“Eh. Once you find your rhythm, it’s not so bad.”

“RAAAGHA!”

Vardus roared as if trying to pull extra strength from somewhere, but instead, he fell several meters toward the rift, barely managing to stop himself before it was too late.

“Impossible! Impossible! You should have failed weeks ago! This can’t actually be happening! I’m the second strongest of the Helios Sector! A god in training!”

“Well, maybe if you tried feeling the void–”

“Oh, you shut up! I’ve had just about enough of your–”

Vardus gasped, waving fists around as he struggled like he was drowning. He flailed back and forth, a few last pulses of desperate energy coming out of him as he tried to correct for the pull.

“Stupid rift!” He roared again, and that was it. He fell the last few meters and was pulled into it.

A moment later, Aaron reappeared on the chessboard, feeling like he had a nice workout.

“Not bad,” he said as he rotated his shoulders. “That feels good, actually. That certainly woke me up.”

“Took your time,” Talia said. “We’ve been waiting around for almost an hour!”

“Ha, you have no idea.”

There was no sign of Vardus. Which was to be expected. He was out of the dungeon. But Aaron had to admit, he hoped he hadn’t really been sucked into the void rift.

He wouldn’t wish that future on anyone.

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