"So, your first floor was to survive in the forest for one month, but there was no deadly rain, no nights without the sun, and in the end, you only had to fight against groups of strong monsters or continue to run away from them."

"Yes, that's it."

Damn it, isn't it more like easy difficulty?

"And the second floor?"

"A mana-infused kingdom and the floor quest was to witness the destruction of the capital. It was really terrifying. They called him Paragon, and he totally destroyed it in a few minutes, a city with probably millions of people" this time it's Goldie who says it, a young woman with blonde hair.

Oh? So they even nerfed paragons? And what the heck? They call this Hard?

Then one option hits me. Is it possible that people in our difficulty were nerfed as well? Did they weaken Lissandra, the Champions, Paragons, and the emperor?

That… is a scary thought.

Taking a moment, I send perceiving mana as far as I can and when I don't detect anything other than vermin, I decide to stay here a bit longer and hunt.

My way of going about leveling Cipher and his skill is to force him to use it and to fight the monsters on his own while I help only when really needed to not take experience from him. Yes, that also makes him unable to create water for us as he continues to spend his mana but if he levels up the skill, it should be worth it.

An interesting thing is the way the trio of Natives looks at him as he uses water to fight the monsters. Their eyes are big and excitement is clearly visible in their sporadic movement and their voices as they talk between themselves. Cipher noticed it as well and there is a shine in his eyes as the man surely puts his worth even higher.

Another thing is that Goldie and the icy guy wanted to join more direct power-leveling but I quickly refused and they have to look for monsters and hunt on their own. I help them only if it's really dangerous, a small request from Cipher.

He sure is a greedy one, isn't he? He really knows the worth of his skill. I push the annoying feeling to the back of my mind with the help of [Focus]. Again.

I sense Isabella moving closer and soon she pulls my sleeve and when I turn to her she hesitates for a second and in the end, only shakes her head and leaves.

Okay?

Now then, what should I do to the Alghoul that is moving closer to our position?

After saying a few words of warning, I jump on the roofs with a small help of boost of kinetic energy and then send a bit more mana into my kinetic mana heart, collecting the kinetic energy it generates. I move towards the monster until it senses me and looks up at me on the roofs.

[Alghoul - lvl 86]

Soon enough green flames start glowing around the monster, flames able to corrode mana and regenerate its decaying body parts.

I jump down on the street and the monster instantly dashes at me, its flames illuminating the street in sickly green light and the cobblestones under its feet cracking under the pressure. My heart thumps, generating even more energy and I step towards the monster, releasing it all in a thin cone that goes right through its middle, separating its upper and lower body.

Unsurprisingly, the monster doesn't even slow down and the upper body continues to move towards me, using only its hands, while the lower body twitches with its legs, trying to move closer.

Two more heartbeats and I release a cone of dark yellow flame that hits the monster's head. I continue to generate more energy, turning it into thermal energy, and then powering the flame that continuously roars and slowly starts melting the monster as its green flame slowly loses some of its power.

I continue to shoot them for over a minute, slowly improving them, reducing the cone slightly, and speeding up the process of transferring the energy. I reduce the waste and notification rings and I use [Mana Surge] to boost the mana going into my kinetic heart.

[Mana Surge - lvl 12 > Mana Surge - lvl 13]

Finally, the monster dies and even its legs stop moving, leaving only charred small pieces behind.

[You have defeated an Alghoul - lvl 86]

[Lvl 82 > Lvl 83]

Huh? Not a named one? That's interesting? Is it because we are getting closer to the center of the city?

I cut off the flames, not fully satisfied with the result. I tried to boost thermal energy with [Mana Surge] but I wasn't able to, so I boosted mana going into my heart - something I could do with my Mana Regulator, yes, not so quickly, but I could get a similar result.

Thermal and Kinetic energy is somehow different from mana even though they are using some mana to activate them. So either it's impossible to boost the results with surge or it only means that I'm unable to do so at the moment.

When I get back, Isabella comes running with a big smile on her face.

"I did catch 2 invisible ones! I was finally able to feel their heat and burned them!"

Am I, not the greatest one? I should start charging for my advice, for my mentorship. I am carrying this group so hard that my back hurts.

Isabella is still looking at me as if expecting something. What does she want? Why is she looking at me so impatiently? Say something.

She doesn't say anything and then it hits me, oh I see.

"Good job," I say and even these two simple words make her face light up and she nods, her hair flying around as she does it so wildly.

Her black hair somehow reminds me of my sister. Isabella looks so happy and innocent it somehow makes me want to bully her, to make her shout at me in her small voice. A voice that is more cute than angry, reminding me of a screaming little kitten.

Victoria, my dear sister, you were never so cute when you were younger and I was the teased one, having to get revenge by being super petty when the chance offered.

Sparrow me… sparrows. Hehe. I hate them. These little assholes are slightly bigger than a sparrow you would see on Earth, maybe around the size of a big pigeon.

That's all good, finally some meat you would think, right?

Little assholes disappear the moment the tiniest whiff of my perceiving mana touches them. They fly away so quickly I'm barely able to track them.

The second sparrow we find disappears even without it. We just watch it from a distance, hidden inside one of the houses, not even using mana. The sparrow then turns to us and disappears quickly, as if feeling us looking at it.

Like what the heck is this even?

Oliver tells us that they usually catch them by using traps that are tens of years old, maybe hundreds, and with difficult enchantings on them that no one from their group knew how to decipher or replicate.

Well, not on my watch! Traps? Pfft, I'll catch it easily and finally, after a few days, I'll eat a decent amount of food. Others can look, it will make the food taste even better.

Oh, I could also use thermal energy to try to cook it. A lot of practice is a good amount of practice!

So prepare, I create a small mana orb, carefully not to leak a lot of mana, and I make it dense and firm. When we, after a few hours and a few more fights, spot another sparrow, I'm ready.

The orb flies at the bird at a speed that is comparable to it. Creating a beautiful line of blurred blue mana behind it as it pierces through the air, missing a few houses, and accurately aiming at the sparrow.

And it misses.

Huh?

The sparrow lazily shakes its wings and its head turns towards me. It's too far for me to hear but it opens its beak and lets out some noise. Then it gets ready to fly away.

Are you making fun of me?

I stop hiding and 5 more orbs spin around me and then fly at the bird, boosted by [Mana Surge] and [Redistribution].

All of them miss.

“...”

The sparrow then lifts up and flies a bit closer, its tiny black eyes looking right towards me from the distance of a few football stadium fields.

You.

I release more of my mana and the bird doesn't move at all, even after feeling it all, I only get confused looks from people with me. The orb I create now is as big as a smaller watermelon and it spins around me, already letting out a whistling noise as it pierces the air, continuously boosted by my skills to higher and higher speed.

[Armanent - lvl 23 > Armanent - lvl 24]

[Mana Surge - lvl 13 > Mana Surge - lvl 14]

The orb is perfectly round and barely visible to the naked eye, instead of it looking like a blue hoop around my waist. With one last push, I release it, swinging it straight towards the animal.

The orb obliterates a few broken walls in its way and in a split second reaches the sparrow, missing it by the length of my palm while the sparrow doesn't move at all.

Okay.

Okay!

This is getting personal.

Under the influence of my emotions I feel my [Focus] weaken and I change the setting of my Mana Regulator to give my Kinetic Mana Heart 30% of my mana. Then I quickly transform all the energy into propulsion, propelling myself towards where the bird is.