Ozy remained asleep and limp. While he rested a lot, he rarely went into a deep sleep like he had fallen into after eating the demon's monster core. I was keeping him in a cloth harness that went over one shoulder and rested on my hip.
It had been five days since the battle, and we had kept our distance from the passage to the surface. We had tried to follow the path of the demon to escape this part of the dungeon, but that had failed. I was going to head in the opposite direction and loop around to see where we ended up.
The melted ground from the battle should be obvious, and I was curious how the dungeon was looping us around. It probably wasn't useful information, but I would take what I could get.
I poked Ozy, and he didn't even move slightly. All I got from him was contentment and happiness. Whatever was in the demon core was stronger than a regular core. Perhaps the demon was trying to regenerate, and Ozy was constantly digesting them.
The core was the key component of the demon. Once someone pulled it out, they couldn't preserve the body for skill extraction. The Mana core was where the skills of a monster resided. I knew little about skill extraction, but I knew monster processing. Without an intact corpse with a Mana core, there was no chance of using it for skill extraction.
That truly was a horrible fate. It would be interesting to see how strong he became and if he gained any unique skills when he finally woke up. But this also meant that the combat effectiveness of our team had been reduced.
Ozy was great at support and my safety net. He also helped counter flying monsters. Still, we couldn't wait around forever. I wanted to check the passage and decide on our next move.
"We are going through the passage today."
"You think it will be safe?"
"Hopefully. It doesn't hurt to be extra careful. Hopefully, there are no demons or stronger monsters around."
"Well, I am fully charged. Are you taking the lead?"
"Yes."
"You want me to carry Ozy?"
"No. I appreciate the offer, but you need to worry about yourself and staying safe while using your wands effectively."
That was a good way to get both Ozy and him killed. Lanner was good, but not good enough to fight with an encumbrance.
We spent the rest of the day clearing chambers and making our way back to the passage. We didn't appear on the opposite side, but on a random one. It was the same passage as well.
There were no monsters, and there was a large portion of melted ground in the distance, across the large passage chamber. My Danger Sense wasn't picking up on anything, nor were my other sensory skills.
We made our way out into the large chamber slowly.
"Mind your footing; don't slide down the slope. If you fall into the passage opening, I won't be able to save you," I told Lanner.
"Got it," he replied.
The ground was bumpy and cracked, which provided better footing as I got close to the edge of the large hole in the middle of the chamber. I could make out two layers as it went down.
Looking up, I could see five floors above us. The gap was massive. It was twenty times my height just to the ceiling. A straight vertical hole. Nothing to climb up or down with. We were stuck in a pit.
I hadn't thought of this. With Ozy, he could have flown a rope up or something. But there was no easy way for us to ascend. I had rope I had packed away in my spatial storage along with other general use items.
Below, I could make out monsters on the two layers below me. So, this went down to the 8th layer, which meant that the bottom had regular monsters over level 100, if the scaling was anything like this layer.
I looked back up. There were probably monsters up there too. I couldn't help kicking myself. I had thought it was a simple choice, but in the end, there was no choice at all.
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"Um, so what are we doing?" Lanner asked nervously.
"Thinking. It looks like we can't do anything. No demons, or anything else. But we don't have any flying skills. Only Ozy does, and he is resting," I replied as I moved away from the passage.
Lanner followed me. "So that's it? We are trapped?"
"No, we aren't trapped. We could go down layers, but descending feels like a bad idea."
"So, we wait until Ozy wakes up and then try to ascend?"
"Yes. And until then, we can keep clearing monsters. No need to slow down. I need to replenish all the Mana cores I used up. Any luck creating a new skill using them?"
"No, not yet."
"Keep working at it. If you can use Mana cores and wands, then that would be the key skill to put you on the path to becoming a legend."
"Don't worry. I practice Mana Manipulation all the time we aren't in combat."
I just nodded. It was up to him to improve. I couldn't hold his hand over every skill and the skills he needed to create.
It wouldn't be simple, but he needed a way to recharge his wands rapidly that wasn't from his Mana reserves. While he had a wand recharging skill and other wand skills, he needed to move Mana from a monster core into a wand in less than a second.
Using Mana cores for runic circles was possible, so it should be the same for a wand. I knew the war mech ran off them but did not know how it all worked on a more technical level. They had kept all of that classified, and I wasn't very interested.
It reminded me of the skill book and instructions the gnomes had given me for Mana Metal Creation. I had placed it with the other skill books and instructions for countless skills in my spatial storage.
If I could learn them all, that would be great, but I already had way too many skills. I needed to focus on the soul skills. I couldn't help but shake my head at the issue.
My thoughts revolved around the soul skill group's next needed skills. I had Soul Strike, Soul Vision, and Soul Shield. All were leveling slowly; I could tell that without looking at my status.
There were four more skills in the book. Two tier 4 skills and two tier 5 skills. Skill Crush and Stat Crush were the two tier 4 skills. Stabilize Soul and Soul Lock were the two tier 5 skills. The first two were skills used by soul mages.
One would use their own soul to damage another being's skill or stat. The problem was that if you could touch someone to use the skill, then you could deal with them in another way. Soul Shield would block the damage to a certain extent.
However, that's why soul mages were so despised back then. Killing them was a massive risk. One misstep could cripple you for life. Also, they weren't useful for battling monsters. Monsters usually had powerful souls. The rule the book laid out was that if you weren't over the target by at least 10 levels, it was better not to risk using such skills.
Stabilize Soul helped counter damage and other effects. I had a lot of experience with that skill growing up from Healer Castelle.
Soul Lock was another touch-based skill that prevented a weaker target from using skills. A powerful skill, but if you were stronger, then why would you need this skill except to capture a target? It wasn't good for fighting monsters.
Skill Crush could work on curse skills. But it didn't remove a skill; it just damaged it. That wasn't an option because the curse skill was linked to my soul. Xanatos would get less experience from me, but I would also take a serious injury.
But it would allow me to get better at differentiating specific skills. Then, it would serve as a basis to check how a skill was linked to another. I had two other skills I could check as well. Soul Link and Gnomish Silence were two other skills linked to other beings.
Having a name in mind for the skill and what you wanted to accomplish were both important factors in creating a new skill. Soul Search sounded decent, but I knew I could do better. It was too close to Soul Sense. Soul Scan could be the skill name. I needed a skill to check where a skill was linked to.
Once I had that skill, I could navigate my way out of this section of the dungeon easily. Some might think I would just go in circles like I had been, but ultimately a tracking skill should lead the way through the dungeon that the Mana was flowing.
I say should, since this part of the dungeon was completely messed up. The problem was that soul skills were tier 4 and tier 5. They would take forever to get and improve.
But I couldn't come up with anything better. While I wanted to say I could solve the issue in a decade, I didn't have enough food for that much time. Five years was the goal I had set myself for getting out of this part of the dungeon. I had already lost a chunk of that time.
Perhaps lost was the wrong way to think about it, but I would get nowhere close on the tier 4 and tier 5 skills in that timeframe. And getting a tier 5 skill came with issues and risks of its own.
I hadn't forgotten the warnings of Healer Melon.
I needed to learn the other skills to under better how my Mana was moving for each of these skills. Once I had that understanding, then I could work to create a skill.
While a person could have a breakthrough in creating a higher tier skill if they had enough of a foundation and determination, it was inconsistent. That would require mastering the related skills and then trying to do something new.
I had options, but none were good. At least I cleared the passage chamber, and the demon I had fought before died. An excellent outcome, but my situation was still the same.
Time was running out. While I had years, there was a sense of growing urgency. Being stuck in this single passage of the dungeon would affect my leveling speed.
Thinking of Ozy, I had an idea. The one thing the dungeon couldn't do was break space itself. It could move itself about, but it couldn't break space itself. I didn't need all the soul skills. The answer was in front of me the entire time.
I wanted to kick myself. It was a risky idea, but it was the only one. Ozy would remain at the passage while I moved away. The dungeon couldn't create a loop that made no sense. Ozy's presence and connection to me would anchor the passage while I moved away. Truly, pets were incredibly useful, and if this worked, I would never hear another word of complaint about Ozy.