As I step down from the platform, I don't feel anything different in my surroundings. My ability's range is still reduced, and at a glance nothing has changed. "I can't really see much to check if something has changed…" I can't continue investigating because I'm forced to move out of my position by an attack from five different directions—the surprising part is that one came straight for my head.

"What the hell was that?" I regret opening my mouth so wide to speak, because I just swallowed some dirt. I try to recall what happened while dodging four more attacks from beneath my feet. I felt something like a bird plummeting down only to suddenly change direction towards my head at the last second.

That bird-like monster had relocated to the exact spot where I had moved after dodging the worm monsters. That added a new layer of difficulty. From then on, every wave of attacks turned into a constant exercise of double dodging. It didn't take long to get used to this new format—once the patterns became familiar, they actually started to feel somewhat repetitive.

I had struggled more with adapting my domain in the previous floor. Now, at this point, I had progressed as far as this stage allowed. To block the birds I could rely on my swords, which I handled better than my legs. Barely an hour passed before I was already capable of both defending and dodging from both fronts with relative ease.

I decided it was time to bring this to an end and start hunting down whatever monsters I could. The worms were the first to fall. I managed to kill at least one for every two or three attack rounds. Since their assaults were continuous, I quickly wiped them out. By the time I had slain twenty, I felt something like a bottleneck. "Do I have to kill those bird-type monsters now?"

I waited patiently for the right chance to strike the first aerial attacker. But just when my sword was about to cut into its body, something strange happened. The flying monster abruptly changed its path mid-air, and my blade missed by only a few centimeters. I hadn't expected such a sharp maneuver in the air; it escaped my strike at the very last instant.

Several more waves of attacks were necessary for me to read this new pattern. Thanks to the flexibility of my wrists and my ability to detect subtle shifts in their wings, I eventually managed to anticipate which direction they would swerve. Once I felt confident, I cut down the first one, and then the rest fell one by one until all eleven were dead.

"Congratulations challenger! Sixth floor cleared. The calculations for the following floors have been improved." The omnipresent voice announced the end of the sixth floor. "You will be teleported to the next floor in one hour, or you may ascend immediately if you shout 'next' on the platform." I returned to the platform to rest for a few minutes. I didn't feel the need to use the full hour since I wasn't particularly tired and hadn't spent much mana.

"This floor felt like the easiest one so far." Glia's voice made me pause. Was it really that easy? I didn't think so.

"No, that's not it. I've just been lucky to be skilled with the sword. On all the previous floors I couldn't fully show my swordsmanship. The dungeon calculated my abilities based on those floors, without knowing my true limit when using blades." That was why this floor felt so easy. "If it had known my limit from the beginning, this floor would have been far more difficult." It wasn't an impossible trial, though. Many with talent and decent skills could surpass it—it was just a matter of adaptation.

"You're right… I hadn't thought of it that way. There are things the dungeon simply can't calculate if you don't reveal them, like the abilities you didn't have recorded at the start." Glia was right. My mental ability had been on the verge of transforming and finally did. My prison, woven from Imra and gravitational mana, hadn't been recorded in my cube either.

The dungeon couldn't possibly know about those, since they weren't listed in my cube. It had been adjusting itself on the fly as best as it could, and every trial had been a challenge—never impossible, but always demanding enough to push me into thinking, adapting, and growing in order to overcome them. Now I understood the difference between this dungeon and others.

Before, I never truly grasped why these dungeons served as the foundation for entire territories. Experiencing it firsthand now, I understood just how vital they were. I didn't know how long it would take for this dungeon to recharge and open again, but if someone talented enough entered, they would achieve massive progress and earn two appropriate rewards by the end.

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Lost in thought, I discussed my theories and conclusions with Glia until my vision suddenly went black—that meant I was being teleported to the next floor.

"Welcome to the seventh floor. Survive the invasion for the next thirty minutes." The platform vanished, leaving me in the middle of an open field. In every direction but one, I saw enormous mountains covered in snow and ice. The terrain was vast: a massive circular space at the base of those mountains, with me standing at its very center. Ahead of me stretched an endless forest, blocking my view.

Since it was an invasion, I waited. It didn't take long before monsters emerged from the trees. At first they looked small, but they grew larger the closer they came. They halted in neat formation just outside the range of my domain. One stepped forward, positioned itself in front of me, and began to shout words I couldn't understand. "That one must be the leader…"

I recognized the species—Denosis. I couldn't clearly identify the orb in its chest to determine its main mana, but based on my knowledge, the options were limited to plant, snow, or ice, considering the frozen environment around us.

The leader roared, and all the others answered with a deafening battle cry. I activated all my abilities, though I still held back my gravity because of its heavy mana cost. This seemed like a battle of endurance, and it was better to conserve mana, Imra, and stamina for the full thirty minutes.

The Denosis charged forward without fear. As they entered the reach of my domain, they began creating constructs to cover their bodies or forge crude weapons. "I was right."

They had a strong affinity for snow and ice—I could already see the frost-like constructs forming around each one. Some stopped to attack from afar, while others came at me up close.

I didn't stand still to become an easy target for the ranged ones. I rushed toward the nearest group without hesitation. Their casters would need precise aim to hit me without harming their allies. This fight was going to be fast-paced and chaotic. "Not good…" There weren't many mages—just a few forming lines—but almost all of them were close-combat fighters.

My blades could slice through their natural defenses and protective skills fairly easily, but the reverse was also true. I took a cut near my leg that shattered my ice armor and left a gash where the blood froze, worsening the wound. I broke their ice with my own and healed it instantly—I couldn't afford to fight with such a crippling injury.

My body and mind couldn't rest for a single moment. If I wasn't clashing blades with one, I was dodging, weaving spells, or using Joyeuse and spheres to hold back their casters. Their strikes were slower but powerful—taking even one could shatter my defenses and get me surrounded within seconds.

All my abilities worked in harmony, each one giving me an edge in this fight where I should have fallen quickly. My domain kept me aware of their positions and allowed me to reposition. War Architecture reinforced my constructs and armor; they could break through it, but it absorbed most of the damage. Deadly Arcane Construction allowed me to shape powerful spells for both defense and offense.

Death's Acuity was my main weapon—without it I wouldn't be able to wound monsters stronger than myself. Thundersnow shone brightest, keeping my mind cold, numbing pain, and accelerating every part of me. Charged Steps helped me escape tight spots—it was still the weakest of my arsenal, but crucial nonetheless. Vital Synthesis was indispensable—I'd be dead long ago without it.

Finally, there were Raging Electrifying River and Crushing Zone. The first I used constantly to paralyze or slow down large groups, buying seconds to reposition or reassess. The second had a similar function, but consumed more mana and gave me a more aggressive advantage through surprise.

I dodged massive ice constructs, avoided being skewered by their frost-hardened weapons, and clashed my blades against their shields. I lost track of how long I'd been fighting, but it was over twenty minutes. I was close to surviving the set time, having already killed hundreds of Denosis—I stopped counting after one hundred.

It was impossible to come out unscathed. I had been healing myself constantly to stay in fighting shape. There had been too many of them at once. My body and mind hadn't stopped moving at their maximum pace, and now my arms and legs felt heavy. I'd spent almost seventy percent of all my mana.

"Just a little more…" And sure enough, less than a minute after I muttered those words, I heard one of the Denosis shout. It seemed the leader was calling them back. Then, the omnipresent voice returned.

"Congratulations challenger! Seventh floor cleared. The calculations for the following floors have been improved." I didn't know how to feel at hearing it. I had a bad feeling. I hadn't fought the leader yet, and the way he glared at me with pure hatred was not a good sign. "The eighth floor begins immediately. Kill the Denosis leader."

"Damn it…" I muttered. I had more than enough mana left to face one monster, and my Imra was still stable, though strained. The greater problem was my physical state. My body was weary and my limbs felt like lead. I decided to burn a bit of mana to recover stamina and erase some of the fatigue through Vital Synthesis.

It worked reasonably well. My mind cleared, and my body no longer felt like it was dragging a mountain. "Come on! You're the only thing standing between me and my rewards, and finishing this dungeon." I signaled at the monster, calling him forward with the crook of my finger.

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