Chapter 218: Chapter 218

Chapter 181: Dangerous Everything

Despite the inopportune time, a new hand had successfully been created. All while I tried to avoid the very earth from swallowing me whole.

I quickly flexed my new hand to make sure my control over it was correct as I continued to run forward through this deathtrap.

“Guess I can’t give anyone a helping hand anymore. I need to keep my remaining one.”

(“ Still joking at a time , has the fear grabbed a hold of you? ”)

“Better question, why would I stop now?” I laughed, but losing that hand certainly stung.

“Sure, sure.” I rolled my eyes.

Being underground was surely an extremely disadvantageous position for me. It was a space that Espr had full control over, but was also the place I needed to be if I wanted to reach the true core. It was kind of funny. I heard many times of people debating to try to conquer a fully developed dungeon planet. Even though such actions were rightly banned. It was a miracle that humanity conquered a 98% completed dungeon planet once, and that was a nightmarish tale, but the gap between an incomplete Dungeon Planet and the complete one was immense.

One was still jailed by the laws of Existence; the other was completely free to create its own rules.

I could safely say that it was impossible for humanity to breach a proper, fully formed Dungeon Planet. The only reason I was having any remote semblance of success was that I was on the same tier of being as Espr and had the restrictions on my power removed. Still, it was only a remote chance of success, and I knew that for Espr to win, it needed to capture me.

(“ In the end, this will be your doom ”)

“Sure, sure.”  My energy within me roared and screamed as I could hear the cracks within my form. Heat was being generated as a byproduct of my body going into full star mode. Still, though, the ground around me was resistant to melting, but I could feel it bubbling even when I wasn’t putting excess heat into it.

I’m near that spot… Looks like I need to risk grabbing the boost at this rate or I’ll never reach Espr.

My advantage of seeing everything light touches was greatly reduced by being in this environment, but I utilised every trick I could with it to keep my body safe. Losing my hand so easily was a damning reality of this situation. Potentially with more energy, I could have done something, but resting on that was not worth it when staying was a permanent sentence to my attack.

However, with the light emitted from my body touching and reflecting across every surface, the moment the walls and floor shifted in any way that could be threatening, I was alerted. It was helping keep me safe, but Espr was growing clever in their attack patterns. My dodging of the simple attacks made Espr rethink its method of attack, and now stones were coming from more painful angles, the pacing between volleys, and how the ground moved up or down for attacking or simply to deteriorate me; purposes were increasing.

My opponent was getting stronger by having likely the first opponent in such a position. If Espr got into any other conflict, I could only assume it was more similar to how our fight started with the command of the monsters.

Sigh, I’m making my own situation worse. How wonderful.

“But why is this place so dark? Would it have killed you to lighten this place up?” I continued my small talk as I tried to disguise my destination.

(“ It is a cave, or more correctly, simply an underground crack that was pushed open by your conflicting aura ”)

“I know it is a cave, but some crystal lights for style points would be a creative decision. Also what? I didn’t know I was doing that.”

(“ I would’ve completely incase you in rock if there was nothing in the way ”)

“Fair, fair!” Fire spiralled from my arm and melted the rocks that pleated into my side, but still their edges dug into my skin.

I moved towards my target. I could feel the pulse of the mana thanks to the traces of Espr energy within my soul.

Roaring with energy, heat flared up as I broke through more rock, as each layer was harder than the last to smash through, and each attempt meant more damage to my body.

I was close enough, so I turned up my weakening energy as I dug through the final layers of rock I needed to.

Espr seemed to realise what I was planning, and so the walls cracked apart as numerous shards of that disgustingly hard stone came flying towards me.

Rocks lodged into my body, and each one radiated an energy that hurt my body. The only thing I could do was increase my heat to melt the rocks and use the Starlight within my body to push them out of my body.

Still, I had found my target.

There is the mana core.

These mana cores were numerous and were something Espr created to handle the flow of energy throughout its body more easily. But importantly for me, each one was also a big source of energy. I had to use all my knowledge from my first encounter with one of these mana cores, the time Espr first spoke with me, and then used my new knowledge of a Spiritual Being and experience.

Strings of energy grabbed a hold of the mana core as I felt a tug from Espr's end.

(“ Are you doing something this foolish again? ”)

“What can I say? I love to repeat my successes and mistakes.” I ripped the mana core from Espr’s control; they hadn’t expected I would do such an act, but perhaps they should have. It’s hard to say it was lucky that my former connection with Espr and my natural mana-disrupting abilities together were what enabled me to do this in the first place, since I wouldn’t be here without the steps that got me there.

“Plus, you ate my hand. I say this is pretty even.” I consumed the mana core and felt my energy finally gain a massive boost. Espr really kept an absurd amount of energy in these, just like how I remembered.

Life sure is strange. Isn’t that right, Espr? I kept those thoughts to myself. I was going to shatter this twisted relationship between us. One way or another.