Magical Engineering [Progression Fantasy, LitRPG] (Book 3 Complete)

Interestingly, of the previous Arena fights, I could only select the first floor. Did that mean I needed to clear it here as well before I could select further? That made some sense as I'd now be fighting it alone. I also had access to all the Orc fights I had had on Earth since our return. Hell, there were even the training fights Mel had put us through. The evolved skill was impressive.

I started with the first floor of the Arena, and put no modifiers on. I wanted to get a base-level idea of what this was like alone. I was also curious what would happen if I searched out the same prizes we had found the first time. If I grabbed them again, would I get the same bonus experience? Would I get more if I found more?

I smiled as I pondered the thoughts. Some mindless fun of smashing my way through a simulator while I leveled up had an oddly nostalgic, relaxing appeal to it. I ignored what that meant in how I saw my life now, and instead started on the floor.

The room I began in the first time came into view, as the System's voice announced the start just as it had the first time. Unlike that time, I didn't have the benefit of Rabyn's food to buff up any of my abilities, nor did I have the rest of the party to help. On the other hand, I now had my own collection of bonded dungeon cores ready to fight.

"Alright, guys, I probably should have asked you beforehand if you were interested in this, but here we are. Ready to crush some Arena floors in the simulator?" I asked as I released the tools from my simulated System storage.

Something I still had no clue how it worked was bringing the cores into simulations. Was it just because of their bond to me that they were allowed in? I assumed they didn't physically exist here, but what did that mean for their forms outside the simulation? That was something to explore eventually.

"Gamma, I think Dave just said we get to go test our powers!" Beta yelled as the knife whizzed back and forth across the room.

"Yes, I believe he did, too!" Gamma replied as they joined Beta in their celebrations.

"I did. I want the three of you to spread out and take down every enemy you see as quickly as you can. If you encounter anything beyond your abilities, note the location and report back to me immediately. I think between the three of us, we can destroy this floor, though," I said with some cheer in my voice. This really had become that relaxing.

The tools all smashed through the window and vanished into the air as explosions and singing started sounding throughout the fabricated city. Was there a simulated Glorp and Connie out there somewhere? I decided not to mention to either of them if I ended up killing their doubles in here.

As I debated my own course, Corey's form manifested next to me. "Last time we were here, I had Alpha's place, it is fascinating to do this again now, bonded entirely with you. Where shall we head first? The previous time, we did not explore the entire building before we left for the street," they said.

"Good idea, let's head for the roof," I replied. We both left the room together, their form staying slightly behind me as I found a flight of stairs and started climbing. No noise or movement suggested anyone else near us, but one day I'd need to map all of this out for potential treasure, if that still worked. There was likely to be some large experience bonuses to be gained from it.

After a few flights of stairs, I opened a door to a bright sunny sky overhead. Fake or not, it felt as real as the lava did in the other dungeons. Overhead, I spotted something I hadn't seen during our first fight. There were several groups of fliers battling across the skies.

That was also something I hadn't considered in redoing this floor. The people were still fighting each other, and not me. That meant I wouldn't get as much experience as I could. With the new maximum level on my simulator skill, was it possible that one of the modifiers would allow me to get them all to target me?

A message window popped up as I was debating how best to take down the fliers.

Spells were a pretty good idea, now that I thought about it. I quickly launched several fireballs at the people in the sky as I practiced my long-range aim. Then it occurred to me that I had some other mana orbs I hadn't really used yet. Why not see just what air was capable of?

I focused my thoughts on some sort of lightning or tornado, and within seconds, I felt my mouth open in a way I hadn't in months. "Lightning rend the skies!" I called as arcs of lightning erupted from my fingers. Five in total flew from my hands, each arc homing in on one of the dots in the sky.

All five of them hit their mark, but only four of them dropped from the air. It seemed the fifth was a bit stronger than the rest. The dot rapidly grew larger as it decided I was its new opponent. I blasted fireball after fireball at it as it rapidly closed the gap. A massive human-looking form crashed into the roof next to me, my attempts to stop it seemingly having done nothing.

"What the hell?" I asked as I spotted the lasers coming from the man's eyes, too late to dodge them. I felt my shield take most of the hit, but it was draining my mana far more than I would have expected. I didn't think I was gaining anything back from his attack. Who the hell was this?

I pelted the man with several fireballs that did far more damage to the building we were standing on than they did him. Just before it could collapse entirely, I reversed the gravity in a way to launch myself directly at him as hard as I could. For a split second, I thought the shield was going to collapse under the pressure of hitting the man, but finally, he flew backward as the force propelled me away from him.

The look of surprise in his eyes told me I hadn't even hurt him, only that he hadn't expected me to be able to do anything against him. Again, who the hell was this guy? I was glad we hadn't run into him on the floor last time. I pulled up a chat window and called the cores back to help. I wasn't even sure if that would be enough.

The fact that I didn't see him get close to me before I felt the fist impact my shield, crashing through it into my face, was proof of the threat the man posed. At the same time, as I felt two teeth come loose in my mouth, I saw Alpha slam into my opponent's skull.

"Oh, interesting. Finally, someone worth fighting here!" the man yelled happily as he grabbed Alpha's handle and swung the mallet hard at me.

I did not have time to get a new shield in place, as I felt all my ribs break from the impact. I triggered regeneration, but it was too late, as I saw the world go red seconds before the message that I had last lost the simulation popped into my view.

Coughing slightly, I ran my tongue across the backside of my teeth, making sure they were all there. It had been a while since I had managed to lose one of these fights. While I knew logically I shouldn't be surprised, there were far stronger Arena challengers than I had fought in the first level, I still just hadn't been expecting anyone quite like him. How much experience would he give me once I actually managed to take him down?

"That was fun, can we do it again?" Beta asked, the knife having appeared near me.

"We can. Well, assuming Corey is feeling up to it? Wanna give it a few more shots?" I asked.

"I do not feel drained," Corey's manifested form answered.

"Alright, back to the simulator then," I replied.

Karlinovo was glad to be alive. That was true. The time he had spent as the strange soul creature, not knowing who he was, was an unpleasant memory he tried not to fully focus on as he went over his past. So mana beast or not, this human form was something he was glad to be in.

Sure, he wished the mana flow of this world was stronger, but at the same time, the level of experiments he could do with such a weak flow was interesting as well. More confusing to him was the odd friendship he felt for Dave. He wasn't used to the idea of peers, but Dave, even as little as he knew about the Spiral so far, kept asking the right questions towards finding answers. That was something Karlinovo could deeply respect.

He pulled back out his pad of paper, and for the hundredth time, started to compose a new letter to Henjen. Every time so far, he had given up, not sure how to tell his old teacher he was alive. It wasn't a question of trust, no, the man wouldn't betray them, unlike his own student. It was a matter of how to do this in a way that didn't cause him to drop everything and make it damn obvious something was going on. Henjen just wasn't great at subtlety.

There is a common misconception that primal mana beasts are always animals, and that is just not the case. All life can awaken. From bacteria to plants, each possesses the chance to hear the call of the mana flow of life. On a world long since lost to the darkness of chaotic space, there exist records of a strawberry who was the first to gain awareness on their world. Little is known about her reign, but she was believed to still hold the crown when the planet was lost.

Primals, Large and Small, Fungi to Fun Guy by Sven VII