"You almost died! I don't see what's so funny," complained Cluma.

"Sorry. That was just... It was just funny. Trust me."

"Why?"

"It just was!"

Yes, I wasn't making a great argument, especially since I suspected my shoulder was dislocated, but I was still right. It was funny.

There had been a ding at the end there. What rewards did I get?

Skill [Dislocation] advanced to level 16

Really? That was all? Somewhat appropriate, given my shoulder, but still...

In response to my complaint, a sickening crunch came from my shoulder as [Regeneration] snapped my bone back into position, treating me to a few seconds of blinding pain before things calmed back down to a dull ache.

ding

Skill [Regeneration] advanced to level 7

"Better," I muttered. Would have preferred a class level, though.

"What is?" asked Cluma.

"Oh. I was just thinking I deserved more than one skill level for that, and then I got another one."

"Deserved?! You almost got eaten! How does that deserve anything?"

"Almost! The 'almost' is important. Anyway, shouldn't you be happy?"

"What? Why would I be happy?"

"You wanted normal monsters to fight. I mean, that wasn't at all normal, but you more or less got what you wanted anyway. They could defend against lightning. They were fast learning, and quickly adapted to [Timeless World], and were even starting to come up with countermeasures for your [Non-detection]. We had no way of cheesing them. We had to fight seriously, and they were a good match for our ability."

Cluma opened her mouth to retort, sprouted a look of confusion, then shut her mouth again.

"See?"

Her eyes narrowed and her ears twitched in a way I recognised as her solving a problem. "Of course you could have cheesed them! It may not be [Detach], but they still used spatial affinity. You could easily have disrupted it!"

Now it was my turn for a retort to die unspoken on my lips. Instead, I just went, "Huh..."

There was another lone monster in the next room. I focused and blasted it with raw spatial affinity. The limbs dropped from the air, dead, their connection to the main body having been severed.

"Yes, apparently I can."

It didn't harm the lump of fat, of course, which raced blindly through the corridors trying to find its aggressor. It took the wrong route, though, speeding away from us.

I should have thought of that before, but the previous iterations of this monster hadn't been particularly susceptible, and the floating limbs weren't as obviously spatial magic as the ribbons' pocket dimensions.

"Okay. Rooms with one or two, we fight normally. Three or more, I delimb?"

"I don't think we should make our way straight to the exit. Let's clear the full floor first. We need the practice."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," I agreed. The floor was too big to clear in a single day, though, so after a few more hours of no unfortunate mishaps, we made our way back to the entrance stairs to teleport out.

We'd pretty much reached our limit in the dungeon. We could go further if I leaned more heavily on grenades and other single-use weapons and potions, but while I didn't mind using them on bosses or in dangerous situations, we couldn't keep using them on mobs. I would run out of money before we cleared the dungeon.

Still, it wasn't as if I had much right to complain. We'd reached floor thirty. The mobs were the same level as the ogres back at the emerald caverns. Back then, it had taken a hundred delvers to dispatch two of them. Now we could fight with even numbers.

I kinda wanted to fight an actual ogre, to see how I measured up against it now. I'd bet I could stab it through the eyes with [Far Reach], then the mouth if it tried to roar, then pierce its throat. And even if I couldn't, [Timeless World] would make dodging easy.

The next day, we discovered that leaving and re-entering on the same floor caused all the monsters to respawn, giving us a limitless training ground to play with. The floor thirty-one enemies weren't something we were in a hurry to face; immobile eyes sprouting from the walls, capable of inflicting damage simply by looking at their target. There was no way they could be fought by standard methods; Cluma would either need to lean on her invisibility or spam darkness magic at them. Either way, they wouldn't be a threat, and the monsters here on floor thirty were better training.

We spent a full week there before the annual tournament came around.

My very first match was against Cluma.

Until I looked through the groupings and saw her in my group, it hadn't really occurred to me that she'd be fighting in the same division as me this year. Realising we'd need to fight in the first part of the tournament had come as a shock to us both; I'd never made it through to the finals of the rank three division, so I hadn't been thinking that far ahead.

We took up our positions in the outdoor ring, larger than the indoor ones used by the rank two divisions, surrounded by spectators and other competitors. Without walls separating each training room, unlike the interior rooms, spectators were free to move between rings, and our bout had attracted more than the usual share.

"Let's see how well you do without your fancy weapons and accessories," grinned Cluma, standing opposite me with a bow and pair of daggers. I'd just gone for a staff; I had a universal weapon proficiency, and there was no point in 'bladed' weapons in this sort of duel, so reach was everything.

Honestly, I didn't fancy my chances. She'd vanish the moment the match started, and while I could track her with [Soul Perception], there was no way I could parry her daggers in that state. My best bet was to take her out before she had a chance to act.

"Begin," called the adjudicator, and Cluma vanished from everything except [Soul Perception].

I cast [Timeless World] and leapt forward, Cluma's movements slowing as I accelerated.

She vanished for a second time, my [Soul Perception] coming up... no, it wasn't blank. She was behind me! She'd used [Shadow Strike]!

I didn't stop; turning to face her would cost me my time dilation, and that wasn't something I could afford. I applied my buffs as I ran, Cluma still standing where she'd teleported to, arms outstretched. She must have thrust with a dagger.

No, her arms weren't in the right position for that. It was more like she was... drawing her bow! [Soul Perception] didn't have the acuity to see her fingers through her [Non-detection], but I still had time dilation on my side. I spun up the mana, hoping that an active scan would let me see the arrow in enough time to do something about it.

The mana refused to budge. I pulled with all the force that [Expert Mana Control] could muster, but it barely moved.

Was Cluma resisting me? She shouldn't be able to with only [Mana Control]. No, obviously, it was the time dilation! The ambient mana was outside [Timeless World], with the effect I was trying to spin it at hurricane speeds! That was a pretty glaring weakness in the skill, and I was glad I'd discovered it in this friendly setting rather than in a dungeon.

Cluma's arm had moved. It was subtle, but it was there. In a panic, I activated [Dislocation] and trusted to blind luck. At its high level, I could make decent sized portals. If Cluma had aimed anywhere near my centre of mass, I could block it.

I heard the whistle of an arrow behind me, invisible to [Mana Sight] even after it left the aegis of Cluma's [Non-detection]. I had a split second of panic, my enhanced hearing enough to tell me it was headed for my torso, but not accurate enough to know if my portal would catch it. Luck was on my side, though, and I heard the Doppler shift as it abruptly reversed direction, flying back the way it came.

I reached the edge of the arena, needing to curve, which in turn reduced my time dilation. And Cluma was suddenly there again, [Shadow Strike] moving her directly to me and out of the way of her returning arrow. I spun with my staff, not aiming for anything in particular, and trusting in raw speed to win the day.

Cluma vanished, popping back out on the opposite side of the open arena, an impressively sized demon in the audience casting a shadow large enough for her to use. My staff passed through her previous position, and then she was back.

I ran through my options. Thanks to my spin, my time dilation would decay rapidly. I could strike with raw affinity, but that would be a fatal attack. Dammit; I should have used [Concealment] to get rid of my shadow! Too late for that now. What else could I do?

No, it wasn't too late.

I used [Far Reach], redirecting what remained of my swing back into Cluma's path, simultaneously activating [Concealment].

I had no idea if I'd caught Cluma by surprise with [Far Reach]; I'd never displayed its decreased activation time like that, but I couldn't see her face. [Soul Perception] showed the branch of her System shard that I'd associated with [Shadow Strike] light up, just as [Concealment] kicked in and the shadow beneath her feet vanished.

[Concealment] broke immediately—I couldn't maintain it while moving—but the split second was enough. The [Shadow Strike] use failed.

Cluma rotated. Not by much, but by enough that my [Far Reach] powered strike hit wood before it hit her. Presumably she'd slung her bow over a shoulder. It wasn't enough to block my momentum, though, and it sent her flying across the arena.

She dragged her dagger across my stomach as she went, and my activation of [Shelter] wasn't quite in time.

ding

Skill [Concealment] advanced to level 12

Skill [Weapon Proficiency: Universal] advanced to level 18

Class [Temporal Mage] advanced to level 2

Time returned to normal as I let my spells expire. The audience hadn't even reacted, with only a few seconds having passed from their perspective since the match began. All they would have seen was Cluma vanishing, me charging forward at silly speeds before swinging my staff at nothing.

For that matter, that was all the judge saw. Cluma and I had to give her a blow by blow account before she could declare which of us won.

The bugger awarded the match to Cluma. I blatantly struck first, but she considered the stunt with the bow a successful parry. In what way had that been successful?! I'd cry favouritism, if not for the fact the Law guaranteed our adjudicator was completely impartial.

Now Cluma would be smug and insufferable all day.

We watched the rest of the matches. Like usual, I expected we'd both struggle with some of the competitors with wide-area attacks. With the speed boost from [Timeless World] I had a better chance, though; some of their artes had long preparation times. Heck, with my improved [Far Step] and [Far Reach], it was likely I could just use them to win in a single blow. It would depend on their esoteric senses, and if they had good mana or threat detection.

I also spent some time debating whether to buy [Advanced Glasswork]. I had the soul points for it now. I would be buying it purely in the hopes of [Versatile Crafter 2]. Was that worth three points? What were the chances of getting the title? I had no clue as to the requirements, or if it even existed. But if I was going to try, now, while I had my bracelet of crafting skill off was the best time, not to mention how it would get worse as the gap between my high and low level crafting skills grew. I imagined getting the title now would be bad enough. Getting it after [Advanced Runecrafting] hit level eighteen if my other crafting skills were still low level would be awful.

Might as well, but if this didn't work, I wasn't going to buy any further crafting skills unless I had a very good use case.

ding

New skill acquired: [Advanced Glasswork]

Title [Versatile Crafter] evolved to [Versatile Crafter 2]

Skill [Basic Crafting] consumed by superior skill [Advanced Crafting]

I staggered as a massive inrush of information flooded my mind, but I managed to keep quiet, and everyone's attention was on the stage, which an elven [Wood Mage] had turned into a forest. A forest that was on fire, given that his opponent was a fairy [Fire High Mage].

I was starting to feel a little sorry for the judge.

As expected, I'd gained [Advanced Crafting] at level nine, matching [Advanced Runecrafting]. It had eaten [Basic Crafting], but hadn't gained extra levels from it, which was logical; it should have been boosted to level four, but it was already way beyond that. It had eaten my other advanced crafting skills, too, despite the lack of messages to that effect.

[Eye of Judgement] showed my available crafting classes had all vanished, replaced by [Superior Artisan]. Nice, but still not the class Grover was looking for, so I didn't have much reason to take it.

"Hey, are you okay? You're looking a little pale," said Cluma, finally noticing that I wasn't looking quite right.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But my [Advanced Cooking] just effectively gained six levels, so look forward to steak tonight."

The smug expression vanished from Cluma's face as a thin strand of drool ran down her chin.