The Infinity Dungeon [LitRPG]

The remains of the first dinosaur were slowly evaporating into motes of mana and magic. The little particles of magic were like small fireflies that flew up towards the imaginary sky of the dungeon's fifth floor, only to disappear in the water mist that shrouded the illusion of a blue sky. The milky whiteness saw Michael turn around to meet the second threat that had popped up after he had killed the ambushing monster: another dinosaur, much bigger than the first, with blood-red scales that shimmered faintly in the diffuse light of the overcast day.

There was a hint of magic covering those scales, Michael noticed. With a shrug, he called upon a different facet of his own power: the level 8 uncommon-rank skill Distortion Field manifested not as the usual ball of force, but as a sword of swirling darkness that grew from Michael's hand like a living thing. It was weightless, a collection of strange forces of dubious clarity.

Michael swung. The dinosaur's head exploded. The shower of gore and brain matter did not touch him, instead making small portions of his personal shield light up for a brief instant as the impacts were absorbed and redirected. The sticky mass of gore slid off the shield in a matter of seconds, the magical surface offering no purchase for the filth to stick to it.

Michael nodded to himself, satisfied. Before, he would have had to use his Aura to achieve the same effect, but now it was seamless and automatic, with much less expenditure of both mental energy and magic. There was more, he thought as he looked at the dark sword still in his hand. Its hilt was normal, as was the guard, but the blade was rather uncanny, extending for several yards into the air, long and thin and yet capable not of cutting but of transmitting force powerful enough to explode even a reinforced magical dinosaur skull.

Really looking at the sword, Michael thought he could see something interesting. He unraveled the magic, curling it into a ball of force and restoring the original look of the Distortion Field skill. It really was different to his eyes now, even though the skill had not changed.

"It seems like developing the Shield skill also gave me insights into Distortion Field," Michael said. Icarus dutifully recorded the data, "perhaps Travis was right to say I should try fusing the skills together. I just wonder how…"

Unfortunately, even though he knew from logic that the skill had to be using Force and perhaps even Space elements or at least some higher energy achieving the same effect, he could feel nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary, just Uncommon-rank energies of Mana and Qi.

Just like he could not feel the Foul Water element of the eponymous skill until he sundered it.

He let the magic dissipate. Not being able to sense the exotic energies didn't mean that he was coming out of this empty handed. He would need some time to digest the findings, but now that he had the ability to see more of the underlying truth of Distortion Field, he was confident that some insight was behind the corner.

"Icarus, take notes: even though I can see more truth of the skill, neither the Truth facet of Unity nor my Magic Sense manifested any evident change. This looks like it was something I have been able to sense all along, but until the Shield skill it was like my brain couldn't understand it."

The AI dutifully took notes.

Michael bent over to grab the Silver coins left over from the two monster bodies dissipating into mana. As he slipped them into his pocket, his fingers brushed against the dantian resonance pill. He wondered just how many insights were hidden behind glass doors, available to him even now if only he knew how to truly see them. Or if he took the time to explore all the open paths in front of him. The pill, with its ability to awaken and integrate his dantian cores…

Not yet. He wanted to unlock and level up the dantian cores himself before using the pill. He might have changed his mind about a great lot of things lately, regarding his foundation and the need to progress, but this was taking it too far.

A rustle of leaves. Something shot out of a bush behind him. It was so fast, even to his senses it looked like a blur.

Even faster than whatever was rushing at him, a dark bubble appeared between him and it. Before the creature could even touch the shield that always protected Michael from ambushes such as this, it was torn to shreds by a much older skill.

Unity level up!

Michael hummed, the edges of his mouth curling up, "It's been a long time since I've seen Distortion Field activate on its own."

He looked at the distortion bubble. He felt some sort of sensation come from it, alien yet very familiar. "What, did you get all jealous of my shield?"

He shook his head, "I have to admit, it's been a long time since I really used you. Good to see that the instinctual activation still works, though. How many years have passed, with the time dilation and all, since I last fought monsters like this? And yet, I guess it's become a part of me. The fight, the adrenaline."

They weren't going to ever go away, he realized. He might as well enjoy himself. But first, "status."

The status appeared, fortunately, as he feared it would not appear with the system so bugged. Icarus was still analyzing it, though, and there was no need to fret over it.

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"I really should check my status more often."

The gains were solid. Huge, even. A bit less so when he realized that a lot of subjective time had passed since he last checked his status.

With that done, and feeling like using more of his skills after Distortion Field, Michael summoned a Spirit Guardian from the ether. He studied the tiny portal, and the summoning call that was sent to the other side. It looked completely different than before, much like Distortion Field had. Michael's new insights, increased stats and ability to see and understand magic made him understand the skill and how it worked to a much deeper level than ever before.

The skill immediately gained a level, reaching level 3. Instinctually, Michael tried to pull up its description only to realize that it was gone. It wasn't just new skills, then. The system was degrading quickly, even losing bits and pieces of itself around skills that had been there for a long time.

From the tiny portal of the Spirit Guardian skill, a small spirit emerged. It was a shy little thing, flying through the air like a fish in water. Michael tasked the spirit with giving him an aerial view of the area, and the fish took off into the air at great speed.

Right when Michael was about to link senses with it to see the strange primordial valley from above, a shadow suddenly streaked across the milky sky and snatched the spirit from where it was. It gobbled it up, speeding away at an angle.

The skill deactivated–the spirit was dead. Michael cursed, and summoned another spirit. This time, he told the skill to search for a spirit capable of stealth, for he didn't want to watch another creature die because of his actions. He wasn't sure if the spirit was really dead or just sent back to wherever it had come from, but the idea of losing a spirit like this didn't sit right with him.

The stealth spirit was much more transparent than the first, and even its mana signature was much fainter. Unless Michael really focused on it, it was like a cloud of dispersed magic, its actual location rather hard to pinpoint.

This time, Michael didn't lose sight of the creature. He followed it with his eyesight and magic sight, sure that–

Another streak. Michael cursed, readying a spear made of Hycean Ice and throwing it with all his might. The spear flew true, but it missed its mark and kept flying until its shape was lost in the distance, beyond even Michael's connection to the Element it was made of.

The spirit was gone.

"You fucker," he snapped. He dismissed the shield dulling his senses and extended his aura outwards, searching for the culprit but finding nothing.

He made a mental toll of his skills and summoned another Spirit Guardian.

"I swear if I lose the third one…" he muttered as the little thing flew up.

This one seemed to move much more cautiously, as if it knew what fate its two predecessors had met. Michael watched it go, bending his Mind Dantian and mental stats to the task and not realizing that even though he had dropped his shield, he was not suffering a headache. The blur appeared again, this time from head-on.

"There!" Michael grit his teeth, aiming for a throw. There was nothing in his hands, though.

The streak grew closer to the spirit, seeking another mark.

Michael took aim, waiting patiently.

The streak grew larger. It had appeared out of nothing, even though now it was a dot that was quickly growing larger. Judging by its trajectory, it seemed to come from the volcano at the other end of the primordial valley, even though the other two times it had come at an angle. Perhaps it could also hide, and detect hidden things.

Right as the strange streak was about to gobble up the third spirit, Michael deactivated the skill. The ethereal manifestation vanished in an instant, sent back to its dimension by the skill's deactivation sequence, leaving the predator alone in the sky.

Michael made use of the moment of confusion, where the strange black streak didn't seem to know what to do now that its prey was gone. He swung his arm like he had when he had thrown the Hycean Ice spear, and in his empty fist a globe of mana, Qi, Intent and Aura appeared in an instant. It shot forward like a laser, its trajectory unbothered by gravity, its speed greater than the streak could react.

The impact was so light that for a moment Michael thought he had missed. Then, spooked, the predator realized it was now the prey and shot away in great haste, disappearing behind the curtain of humidity in the air.

Michael grinned. "I marked you, bitch. Let's see where you're hiding."

He set off, a streak in the landscape himself, moving at full speed. He barreled through monsters and vegetation alike, the shield once again protecting him from the rest of the world and allowing him to use his body like a battering ram. Trees exploded, boulders were pulverized into fine dust, and monsters turned into mincemeat with barely a draw on his magic regeneration.

Deep in the fifth floor of the dungeon, where the air was rich in magic, Michael's level-12 Magic Manipulation–trained to the point where it passively drew mana from any free source it could find–allowed him to become an unstoppable death machine.

He was going to vent a good deal of his pent up stress and frustrations on some unsuspecting natural predator, he decided.

A new, much deadlier predator had arrived. Floor Five was never going to be the same afterwards.