After Cory had passed on my message, I decided to give Anne the time to sort through the villagers I had taken in. It wasn’t like I would just toss them out if they were pointed out as a potential threat, but I wouldn’t allow them into any further runs of the dungeon room.

I had brought everyone through for the first run to use up the overflow of mana. In addition to the fact that their lower levels helped us control the enemies we faced, it was too perfect a situations to skip out on. There shouldn’t be too many problematic people, so one or two of them gaining a level wouldn’t hurt me in the long run.

So I continued with my work. The ant queen had dropped a lot of materials which were tagged with the Transmutation bonus, so it would take me at least a day to get through them. The mana being thrown at the dungeon entrance had slowed, but after we made the entry react and move in relation to the attacks, it sped up once more.

Whilst Clive was a moron, he was still useful in some regards.

But the overall amount of mana had yet to reach the level required for another large spawn wave. At the current rate it would take at least a few hours to build up enough, and after that, the dungeon could store at least three times as much on top before it was filled to the brim.

Normal dungeons didn’t even accept external mana sources, but thanks to Cory’s prior works this one was different. I admired his dedication in spite of what he had gone through, which helped spur me on in my own work. If he could change himself this much, then how could I complain about having to focus on a piece of ant armour for a few minutes.

After I had finished off the smaller pieces that were scattered at my feet, Rose appeared again beside me with a slight smile. I half expected her to throw out a sarcastic quip, but what she said was quite the opposite.

“Cory’s right, you are different. The other marked ones I helped in the past could never focus this much.”

“Well, I do have a good reason to focus.” I grinned as I laid my hands on one of the larger chunks. This piece was too big for me to pick up, so I had been forced into an awkward crouch beside it complete the process.

“So did the others, but they were easily distracted. Pretty girls or guys, the promise of treasure, a princess to rescue from a dragon.” Rose’s tone was especially cold for the last of her list before she sighed as she settled down on a chunk of armour and stared at me. “I guess that’s part of the reason I never bonded with them.”

“Wait, I’m the first person you linked to?” I stopped my Transmutation and glanced up at the ghost girl perched beside me. “How did you help them, then?”

“I stayed with the book. They carried me around and called out if they needed help.” Rose shrugged a single shoulder before she continued. “The book never reacted to them, and neither did I.”

“Ah.” I glanced down for a moment in guilt. The book in question had been one of the things I lost during Ray’s attempt to turn me into a human torch. Whilst most of the items in my bag survived, the book had burned to a crisp.

“Whilst I do admire your focus, I think you need to let yourself relax.” Rose spoke again before I could apologise for the loss of her precious item. “I know you have a heavy weight on your shoulders, but you need some human contact. You can’t keep thinking of other people like they are unrelated to you.”

“I get your point.” I took a deep breath and looked back up at her. “I can promise that I’ll try, but every time I trust someone they end up…”

“Claire didn’t. I didn’t.” Rose waved off my pessimism with a smile.

“Neither did I.” Cory piped up from behind, as though he was afraid that he was missing out on the conversation.

“I know, and I appreciate it, but you aren’t human. Claire is… was… I don’t know.” I rubbed my eyes and settled onto the ground. “I’ll give it a go, that’s all I can say.”

“Thank you.” Rose pushed herself up and stepped next to me. “First on the agenda, food. I don’t know how long you’re planning to keep these people in the dungeon, but it's not like we can just summon up a feast for them.”

“Well, we can’t now.” I grinned at her as I pushed myself to my feet.

“Wait, you really planned that far ahead?” Cory darted in front of me. “I always thought you’d… uh…”

“What, keep them for myself?” I raised an eyebrow at the crystal, who hovered in awkward silence. “Even if I don’t trust them, it's not like I’d let them starve.”

“You’re going to feed them the ant legs from your first battle in the dungeon?” Rose titled her head to one side. “Well, I guess they can’t complain. Food is food. What about you?”

“Well, I still have enough rations to last a few days. After that, I am hoping to be out of this place.” I moved back to my self-appointed task with a sigh. “They won’t starve before I’m done with this. If they do have issues, Cory can tell me and I’ll send some stuff out. Right?”

“…Yes.” Cory mumbled before he hovered back over to the wall instead. Though he was acting like a puppy who had just been shouted at for no reason, I ignored his antics and set back to work.

Rose watched over me throughout the process. Each of the larger chunks took over half an hour each before they showed noticeable wear. The Transmutation process was efficient, but a certain amount of the material would be lost with each use. It seemed like the laws of physics I had learned in the past were in effect here, magic or not.

I only had one large piece left by the time the voice rang out. Overall the process had taken six hours. Whilst that was a long time, it was an insignificant price to pay for the gains I had received.

**Congratulations! Transmutation has reached (master) proficiency. Additional details and effects will be listed in the ability window.**

**Conditions passed, please select a new utility skill.**

I glanced at my guild card with a grin as I sat on the last piece of ant queen armour. The utility section once again had a drop-down menu with several options. I saw Infusion and Perception, but another skill had been listed that caught my eye.

Full Support.

Maybe it was due to the fact I had pushed my Transmutation skill to the master rank, but I now had a full description of the effects for each skill. My assumptions about Infusion had been correct, but the usage of Perception and Full Support gave me pause for thought.

Infusion (basic) - User can merge and meld items to create higher rank creations. Effects limited by skill rank. Skill can also affect other skills, limited by the mastery level of Infusion and the targeted skills.

Perception (basic) - User gains enhanced vision and tracking for ranged targets. Can be manually activated for assisted aiming. Higher ranks lower the minimum range for the skill to be activated.

Full Support (basic) - User can activate to become the epitome of a Supporter. All buffs no longer affect user, but are increased when used on allies. Buffs still require casting on user for this effect to be used.

I dismissed the last option after less than a second. Whilst it did seem powerful, leaving myself vulnerable at this point was an idiotic move. Maybe in the future if I had a team I could rely on it would be worthwhile, but for the time being it would be a wasted skill.

Perception was similar. There were some ranged attacks for Supporters, but their effects were limited and at a minimum I would have to pass my another advancement test to receive one, so it would be a long-term investment without a confirmed payout at the end.

That left Infusion. Now that the full skill details had been listed, its effects looked more cheat-like that I had imagined. A few situations popped into my mind as I looked it over. Though the other two options had some combat uses, Infusion would help me in a multitude of ways.

The Infusion skill popped up under the utility section as soon as I selected it. The other two greyed out again, but I knew I would be able to receive them at a later point. I would just have to push my Transmutation or Infusion to a high enough rank to receive them.

But that was if my next plan didn’t work out.

It was risky, but the benefits would be worth it if the skill worked as I expected. I focused my mind inward as I activated the new skill I had been provided with. My external senses shut down as I dug deeper into my brain for the target of my Infusion experiment.

**Do you wish to merge Infusion and Transmutation. Skill rank will be lowered to match the difference between the skills. Effects of each skill will remain unchanged.**

The voice confirmed exactly what I wanted to hear. If the merge would have lowered them both to the basic level, there would have been no point in trying it at all.

“Yes.”

**Infusion activating on Infusion and Transmutation… Completed. Do you wish to name the new skill?**

“Uh…” I paused for a moment. It wanted me to name the newly created skill? It hadn’t mentioned that before…

**Do you wish to name the new skill “Uh”?**

Though the voice never changed its tone, I still felt an undercurrent of sarcasm as it asked for my confirmation. After a moment of thought, I decided to go with my gut feeling.

“Please name the new skill to Transmutation.”

The voice accepted my command and the skills in my utility section shrunk down to one yet again. Though this skill was still named the same, the effects it listed far outmatched the old variant.

Transmutation (advanced) - User is able to change the state of non-sentient material. Results vary depending on level of ability rank and mana usage. User can merge and meld items to create higher rank creations. Effects limited by skill rank. Skill can also affect other skills, limited by the mastery level of Infusion and the targeted skills.

The organic tag had been replaced with sentient. Though I had been able to use the skill on monster drops, this change now increased the options for its usage. If the tag had been removed entirely I would have been able to just reach inside a person's brain and give it a sharp pinch.

Obviously those who watched over the world wouldn’t give me such a cheat, but the combined usage of the skill was close to that level even with the specification. It had changed when Transmutation had ranked up to master, but the fact it had remained when the skill was pulled down to advanced was a shock.

There would be time to test it later. After spending so long crouched down beside pieces of dull, prickly monster drops, I needed something else to do for a while. I was about to call out for another spawn of monsters before a specific line of the skill description pulled at my brain.

“A skill that can affect other skills? Wait… don’t tell me…” A shiver ran through my soul as I realised the power of my new skill. “This is perfect!”