With every single point already spent, I confirmed the layout of the stronghold and exited the system tool. While the time was diluted inside it, it was still flowing, forcing me to make sure that the healing spells were still effective.

Upon coming back to life, I was graced with insane sight. As if guided by the invisible hand, the magic was gathering in lumps, before condensing and forming what looked like stone bricks. In just a few moments, the general outline of the entire tower was ready!

While I would love to observe the process to potentially copy the mechanism behind it for my own use, I was really pressed for time. Disregarding all the possibilities stemming from learning new kind of magic, I swiftly raised to my feet, grabbed Eve's body like a princess and carried her inside.

Unable to run with how fragile her body was, I trodded to the second floor and pushed against the fake wall that hid the entrance to the lift leading all the way down to the hibernation chamber.

This mechanism alone cost me damn four points!

Even if I could double my investment in defences by making the entrance more straightforward, there was no way I would risk anything in this matter!

Not hesitating ever for a second, I stepped into the void, allowing myself to free fall. About halfway through the entire tunnel, a powerful gust of wind started slowing my descent, all the way to the point where the soles of my feet touched the ground as if I only lightly jumped.

The hibernation chamber was true to its name. Except for a simple altar-like bed in the very middle of it and countless runes sprawling on the floor, it was completely empty. Back when I was projecting the entire thing, I realised that I was unable to even place a simple staircase leading to the core unit in here, forcing me to create yet another tunnel - this time just a simple hole - on the other side of the second floor.

Without a moment of wait, I approached the stone slab in the middle fo the room and delicately placed Eve's body on top.

The second my arms retracted from under her body, the entire room got basked in light.

After a moment of fighting the blindness that had to happen to me when this dark room suddenly turned all bright, I realised it was the runes lighting the room!

Looking at the floor, I realised that the runes weren't stationary at all!

At first, I thought that they were all moving in circles, slowly tightening their radius around the altar, only to realise a bit later I couldn't be further from the truth!

Instead of circles, they were all moving in complicated patterns, that didn't bring any comparison to my mind. The only constant thing that I was sure of, was that they were all slowly coming together, towards the middle point of the room.

At the point where the outmost runes passed under my feet, I realised that I wasn't able to approach Eve anymore. With an invisible barrier separating everything inside from everything outside, I could only watch as all her clothes disappeared and her body started covering in frost.

What the hell?

Even I knew that freezing one's body for the sake of hibernation has no way of working! It was proven long ago that doing so would make the water inside human body swell up while turning into the ice, rupturing literally every organ, from the skin, through veins all the way to the intestines!

But there was nothing I could do at this point anymore. Unless I was willing to make sure that Eve would die by forcefully breaking the barrier and continuing to heal her despite my abilities slowly losing their effectiveness, I could only hope for the best!

As my fingernails cut through the skin of my palm with how hard I was tightening my fist, something new happened.

The moment the last set of runes entered the base of the altar, a small, black orb appeared over Eve's head.

In this very moment, I realised that the time inside the barrier stopped.

No, I don't have the ability to gauge the flow of time in a separated space with just my eyes! That would be way too overpowered in the stages where spacetime turns into a common tool for cultivators!

But what could be any other reason for a big shard of ice to cease its movements midair?

Even if my analytic and improved brain could figure out some ways to replicate such effect, none of them could work indefinitely, not to speak about the insane amount of energy required in constant supply to maintain any of the options I could think off!

Ring.

Announcing with a small sound that the process was now complete, all the runes that turned this room into the brightest place in the world, suddenly blanked out.

Finding myself back in the complete darkness, I held back my tears and retraced my steps back to the lift.

Crash.

As I was slowly riding the wind to reach the second floor, the entire tower shook in its foundations!

With the upward force suddenly disappearing, I reached for my storage rings to pull out my swords and use them as support, only to realise that I couldn't access any of them!

Desperately reaching with my hand to the side, I managed to grab some protruding part before falling down to my demise.

Freed from the burden of constantly healing Eve, I was able to focus my spells back at myself, swiftly regenerating my body to just a fragile state. But I was still far too weak to survive a drop from over ten meters!

Looking at my hand that was the only thing that saved me from descending, I realise that my storage rings were nowhere to be seen!

Another shaking of the tower forced me to drop the idle thoughts and focus on lifting my body over and over again to reach the entrance of the tunnel.

After a long while of a hard fight against my own powerlessness, I finally managed to climb back to the second level of the building. Rushing to the window, I didn't forget to push the fake wall back in its place.

So that's what Bonger meant by the hell mode.

Seeing the situation outside of the tower, that was the only thought that came to my mind.

With the forest already crumbled down to just a layer of dust on top of the earth, I could only see a thin line of green far off in the distance, with a clear view of the coast in the opposite direction.

And the entirety of this area was filled with magical beasts!