Chapter Twenty One

Color returned to Jason's world as he once again returned from the dungeon world. He moved to the bathroom where he washed his face.

It had been half a day since they had entered the time compression, and he hadn't yet taken Selena's advice. Instead, he took her words as a challenge. He went back to the level one through five dungeon and fought the brute three more times, bringing him close to level seven. It seemed as soon as he reached six thousand experience, the counter wouldn't go higher.

After three rounds against the brute, he had maxed the benefits of the dungeon as well. Jason smiled as he looked at the three stats that had gone up in his fights. His strength, agility and defense were raised to thirty, which nearly doubled the rest of his stats. He knew that the beast was only good for brute force stats, and he'd get nothing of the others. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure he could raise wisdom or intelligence in any other way aside from stat increases via leveling.

After washing himself for the fourth time that day, he decided that now was the time. Taking his phone out, he went to the dungeon page.

'You are about to enter a level 6 to level 10 Dungeon. Continue?'

[Yes] [No]

Jason tapped 'yes' and waited for the inevitable vertigo.

When his vision went back to normal, he was no longer standing in the forest he had grown so used to. Instead, he found himself standing in a dark cave. He shivered as he could feel the temperature change from his comfortable seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit to what could only be below freezing. "She had to have been through this herself, the least she could have done was tell me to bring a jacket." He said through chattering teeth to no one in particular.

Jason squeezed his fists and opened them, trying to circulate blood flow. His mind bringing thoughts of warmth and fire of their own accord. He thought of the desert, of bonfires or forest fires. Anything he could think of to take his mind off of the aching cold.

Slowly at first, a sensation of warmth crept into his body. He thought he was just imagining it, almost like a one legged man might feel his lost leg years after losing it. But then the sensation became stronger and he began to glow a dull orange.

"HA!" Jason roared. "I can use fire assholes!" He shouted at no one in particular. As soon as he did, he lost control of the sensation, and the feeling of warmth was leached from his body. "No no no no!" He pleaded as he searched for the feeling again. He smiled as the warm sensation settled over him again.

"Okay, so I have something like a layer of fire over my skin." He said, going over his gains. "So, how can I condense this into an attack?" He raised the palm of his hand and imagined the layer flowing into it. As he did, the magic followed his command and made a small candle flame cradled in the center of his hand. He kept it up for only a few seconds before it failed him and he was once again cast into the frozen darkness.

A headache formed before the flame went out, and Jason knew he overexerted himself. He waited a few seconds for the headache to go away, then felt for the warmth again.

He experimented with the heat for a few hours, grasping a small understanding of it. If he was right, he was taking the heat from his own body and casting it outside to create a protective barrier between himself and the cold environment. "I'll just call it flame skin." He decided.

Jason then activated his mana saber while having his flame skin on. The drain of his mana was twice as fast as usual. If he kept both on, he might only last a minute before he ran out.

He decided to cancel both skills in order to replenish his mana stores. It only took two minutes due to his low level, yet the time felt like an eternity as he stood in the frozen darkness. Heaving a sigh of relief, Jason activated flame skin again. When he could feel his limbs, he decided to explore a little.

He walked for ten minutes, having to recast flame skin once since leaving the entrance. It was both impressive and a little annoying that he had gone as far as he had without seeing a single creature. He thought he would have had to sneak around more than he was, but instead he was beginning to think the true enemy in this dungeon was the cold.

As his understanding of the flame skin increased, the temperature in the cave began to decrease even more. He began to feel a cool breeze through his warm aura as he continued through. A few minutes longer, and he was shivering like he had before he learned the new ability.

Jason concentrated on the flame skin, willing the intensity of the ability to increase gradually until it matched that of the cold. He could feel the drain on his mana become even worse. "This would be a great area to increase a wisdom stat." He said to himself as he continued forward. When he felt that his ability was about to expire, he backtracked to the less cold area in the cave to wait for his mana to replenish.

It was like this that he spent the next several hours, sneaking forward in the dungeon only by feet at a time before having to go back to where the cold was manageable. When finally he reached the end of the long passage, he came across a double door the size of a three story house. Instead of entering, Jason turned to leave once more to the beginning of the cavern.

When he arrived, Jason sat in the lotus position and waited for his mana to replenish. When he was full once again, he activated his flame skin. When he did, he froze for a moment. He Observed what he was feeling within on his phone and was shocked!

Instead of his mana gradually decreasing from the strain of the ability, it had stayed at full, even after he spent the mana to activate it. That meant that the mana from casting flame skin had already replenished from when he cast it.

He looked from his mana to his stats below and noticed that his wisdom had increased to twenty three, which meant that his overall wisdom had increased by six since he entered the dungeon! He gave a small victory dace at the discovery before he decided to test a theory.

With his ability now active once again, Jason made his way down the cavern, but this time he kept his senses inward. As soon as he began feeling a draw on his mana, he stopped and sat, allowing the cavern to sap his energy while he maintained the warmth of the spell.

When he began feeling the telltale signs of a headache, he moved back behind the imaginary line in the cavern, and his mana began to climb once again. He smiled to himself after realizing that this was an endurance zone of the dungeon. If he wanted to make it through the whole thing, he would have to master this area to the point that his wisdom would no longer increase.

It was this realization that kept him on the cusp of mana depletion for longer than he had spent in the dungeon, only slowly moving the imaginary line further. He had no inclination of time when he finally made his way back to the double doors, but when he looked at his wisdom stat again, it was already thirty five, leaving his physical stats in the dust.

Instead of opening the door, Jason sat at the entrance and willed his flame skin into a candle in the palm of his hand. It was like a balancing act, keeping the candle lit while also keeping his body warm. It was like an inward tug of war on his own mana supply, and the cold was winning.

Before his flame skin could go out, he allowed the candle flame to sputter out and he jumped back from his imaginary line. He knew that if his ability were to cancel out, he'd end up dead from hypothermia faster than his mana could regenerate.

Jason felt the telltale signs of a mana headache dissipate as he sat back in his safe zone. "Now I need to master this area before I can open the door." He looked up at the double doors with challenge in his eyes. "It'll take a while, but I'm sure I can make you my bitch."