An hour flew by while I talked with Glia; she can feel the excitement welling up inside me and she caught it. "It sucks not being able to fight…" She wants to join; she's gained a lot of size and strength in the last months—she's at about a mid-grade-3 level and could help me. The problem is we don't know if her presence would change the dungeon; better not risk it.

"You'll have opportunities. You can go out as much as you want in our territory." If a new, low-level dungeon appears, she could clear it on her own—I'd only need to ask my parents or my grandmother for permission. Knowing them, they'd be grateful if there aren't many people available.

Standing on the platform, I feel the space-type affinity wrap around me and transport me elsewhere: the second floor. "Now I can sense space mana a little better." I can't decipher or fully understand its mechanisms, I can only feel it better when it acts. I look at the bracelets—this item has allowed me to improve a lot in a short time.

"Welcome to Floor 2." The same emotionless voice echoes in my mind. "Defeat the four gorillas to pass this floor." Four now? That increases the difficulty a lot—one of them left my arm in pieces with a finishing blow; if there are four like that, I need to be very careful.

If the first floor could be considered a plain, this one is a jungle: giant trees, thick vegetation, and heavy humidity in the air. Luckily there's a "path" I can follow, very similar to the path on the first floor.

Are they following me? I think so when I sense two gorillas watching me about seventy meters away; they swing through the trees naturally without losing sight of me and are very quiet. I reach the base of a massive tree—at least fifty meters tall—and finally find the other two gorillas waiting hidden behind the thick trunks, one on each side.

They're very similar to the first gorilla, just a bit smaller, though still enormous. One has a red chest like the first-floor gorilla and the other a gray chest; the only deduction from the chest color is their affinity type—I can't find another explanation. Sure enough, in a second each gorilla's arms change: one's arms blaze with living red fire and the other's are covered in rock.

The other two gorillas have also activated their affinities. It's a shame I can't distinguish colors or affinities with my Personal World. I follow their example and activate all my abilities except Crushing Zone—my ace up the sleeve.

I hadn't noticed in my excitement: these gorillas are using some kind of enhancement and, together with explosive movements, they also use movement skills; their Imra is wrapped in other abilities too. They're interesting monsters. The fire gorilla bursts its legs and rushes at me—I decide to block as I did on the first floor, and immediately I realize something: this gorilla is a bit weaker.

My arms are still numb, but the damage I've taken is smaller. So this floor reduced their damage a little but increased their number. "It doesn't matter much— they're still physically stronger than me…" Even reduced, one well-placed hit could put me in a delicate condition.

I use my best battle control to dodge each strike at the last instant and land counters. So far I haven't been able to because the gray gorilla attacks me as I dodge, forcing me to keep evading in turns. I charge a Furious Electrifying River to the max; when I dodge the next blow of the gray gorilla I release the full charge at the red gorilla and my ability paralyzes it long enough to cut down the gray gorilla.

My strike carries all possible force: multiple Laws, a powerful, intricately woven mana containing my charged Imra. The cut hits the gorilla's chest dead-on, pushing it back several steps—I'm surprised I didn't send it farther. Could it be its rock affinity? Maybe that explains its better defense and attack, though it's a bit slower.

A smile forms across my face. No matter how much defense you have, my Death affinity will drain and consume everything until you expel it. The gorilla screams in pain and tries to concentrate on removing the death mana from itself; I take that chance to press on the red gorilla. The first cuts are defended; I make it lose balance, and when it's against the ropes the other two gorillas decide to appear.

One has a pale blue chest and arms reinforced with ice; the other's chest is green and its arms expel gusts of wind. I analyze the situation: fighting two is already complicated; fighting four multiplies the difficulty many times. With no other option, I activate Crushing Zone—the gorillas flinch under the pressure.

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"Second round begins." Without waiting for a response I launch myself at them; my sense for combat is often better, the problem is their number and the environment. These monsters swing on trees or thick lianas to move and try to attack my back—one always stays alert to intervene if things get complicated; we're at a stalemate.

I start defensively; I need to conserve as much energy as possible. Having fought with Gase and adapted my style to hers has been a huge benefit to my stamina; they gradually get more desperate. They attack faster and leave many more openings. I take advantage of a lapse when two are in front of me, one waiting and another farther back watching to attack me from behind.

When their blows begin to descend, I use my prison on them; I catch them by surprise and they freeze. I take the opportunity to deliver huge slashes to each of their chests. It will take a few more seconds for them to free themselves, and the other two gorillas are moving—but they won't arrive in time. With a fluid motion of my swords I carve an X into their chests.

I move to a spot evading the nearest gorilla, leaving no space for it to attack from a few meters away. The imprisoned gorillas keep struggling to free themselves; this prison has been strengthening day by day from practice with the girls—my Imra is suffocating and my gravity mana makes movement really difficult.

I can hold back monsters and humans under certain conditions; the problem is the struggle of wills and countering their attempts to use mana to escape. If I can stop them, they're in a position where escape is impossible and they're easy targets. Unfortunately, I still haven't reached that level of control; I need much more practice or perhaps to gain another ability.

I stop holding back my mana—time to press harder if I want to finish this. If this drags on I'll lose a lot of stamina. Not only do I intensify the prison on those two, I increase the pressure with Crushing Zone focused solely on them. The rock and wind gorillas, seeing this, try to distract me by attacking nonstop.

I construct several Joyeuse to distract them—twelve swords fired at maximum power. They must dodge or be hurt; they shouldn't escape unscathed. True enough, the two dodge but each still takes a hit and scream in pain; they haven't noticed my plan. Two swords impale the chests of the imprisoned pair; I use Movement Steps to get close and drive my ice swords into the heads of the remaining two to finish them.

"Two down." I ease the pressure a bit—just making those Joyeuse cost me a good amount of mana; they were charged to the limit. I recently discovered I can overload my spells—making them far stronger and more dangerous; the problem is if I lose control the spell will explode and I'll be hurt. I already lost an arm and had a shard of ice stab my stomach on the first try.

I build four spheres in their most powerful version without overloading them, two new swords appear in my hands, and I throw myself into combat against the last two gorillas. Realizing their disadvantage, they stop being cautious and go totally savage, trying to kill me with any blow.

I sense the green-chested gorilla charging an attack—the mana feeling is similar to the suicide attack of the first-floor gorilla. Its affinity concentrates in its left arm; I've got experience with that attack and I stay alert. I'm surprised by the speed of the blow—its fist rockets toward my face. I manage to dodge it by a centimeter; the speed was much greater than expected.

That blow leaves it totally exposed; its arm nearly detached from the shoulder and it's in an awkward position. By dodging I end up beneath its chest; I gather all my strength and drive both swords into its breast—the strike makes it scream in pain. I move away and the gray gorilla is already in front of me, swinging its arms at my position. A simple movement is enough to avoid its blow.

Two new Joyeuse appear on my arms and one over the wind gorilla's back; the sword pierces its defenses and thick flesh until it's almost fully impaled—ending its life.

Seeing that, the gray gorilla roars in rage—its three companions are already dead and it's not in good shape. Its best attempts to wound or kill me did nothing; I read its movements and countered easily. I use my prison when its stamina is nearly depleted, approach, and drive my sword through its throat.

Finally I defeat the last gorilla. The difficulty certainly increased; it wasn't easy. I had to devise plans on the fly and show almost all my cards against these monsters; the dungeon scanned my power precisely. I feel I've improved my control of some abilities over these two floors and I've already received some notifications—I'll check them at the end of the dungeon.

"Congratulations, challenger! Floor two cleared." The hollow voice rings again in my head. "Calculations have been improved for the next floors. You will be teleported to the next floor in one hour, or you can ascend immediately if you shout 'Next' on the platform."

I receive the same message in my head; the only difference is the floor number. I decide to take the hour to recover some mana and breath; I'll also talk with Glia and let this gluttonous thing devour the gorillas' cores—she already did the same on the first floor and it was a feast for her. The next floor is all about speed! My Movement Steps are the weakest part of my arsenal; I hope to get some clue to adapt them to space mana.

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