Chapter 417

I take a step forward at her request, doing a full analysis of the curved wall of shimmering mana in front of me.

My perception skills and buffs are activated out of instinct at a constant rate just like they were when I was training in the titan's domain for 6 months straight. With this, and my absurdly high level of natural mana control, I'm able to see through the barrier and still make eye contact with Bri standing inside through what looks to be a semi-transparent mirror made of water.

However, my goal here isn't to overpower her new ranked-up buff, I'd like to see what an opponent at similar or lower mana control would experience if they walked into this [Domain of Total Illusion].

So, I deactivate my buffs and limit my mana control to not add any extra power to my senses. Instead, it just acts as a dense defensive layer. My perception of the flowing mana in the dungeon around me drastically drops and to my surprise, even the shimmering sphere of mana around Bri's body disappears too.

I reply to her request for me to step inside.

"Sure, show me what you can do."

Then step forward, plunging headfirst into the space where moments ago I perceived a wall of mana.

The moment my face enters her domain, I feel a cold gust of wind blow my hair to the side. As I take another step closer, the flat ground beneath my feet becomes rocky, then a cold sensation creeps up my shins.

I take in a deep breath of air and look around as frozen air enters my lungs and the view from the peak of an icy mountain materializes all around me.

I look down at my feet, and I'm stood on a small rocky surface with no more than a meter of room on either side to walk. There's a cliff-like dropoff and a huge mountain range covered in light snowy powder in all directions for as far as my eyes can see.

I turn my head back and forth, then bring my hands up in the air to look at them both in front of my face to see how real it all feels...

Then, with no warning at all, reality around me begins to shift. The sky changes from the light blue coloring to a shade of green and leaves and branches start to materialize above me. The mountains down below in the snow-covered valley rise up to make flat ground and morph into dense trees and lush greenery as the snow melts away.

The air becomes hot and humid as the jungle clearing we just left on the 25th floor feels as if it's real and right in front of me.

Birds chirp and insects even buzz as my eyes wander around the lively lush greenery for a few seconds.

Just as I'm getting used to it, the ground beneath my feet disappears and the sensation of falling takes over my senses. My feet hit a hard wooden floor, and Bri's dimly lit 3rd-floor office comes into full view.

The walls have random rare trinkets and items, and even her desk is covered in papers and gems. I hear footsteps approach from in front of me, then out of nowhere, Bri materializes in the middle of the room less than 2 meters away. She smiles and brings a finger up in the air, swiping it like she would on a tablet or screen.

The world around me shifts every time she does, switching from grassland dungeons, to mountainous regions, to soaring high through the sunset clouds, to dry hot deserts, on the edge of a volcano, and even in front of a roaring ocean wave about to crash down on us.

She finally speaks up as she shifts the world again, right before the sea's heavy water crushes us, and we sit back in the image of her office room.

"It's pretty interesting, isn't it?"

I nod with a spark of awe in my eyes.

"Yeah, fascinating... This is quite the ranked-up buff."

The thought of all its possibilities runs through my mind. Not only is it an excellent skill mid-battle to completely confuse an opponent, it could be excellent to use for business too. Bri has really only showed me the nice and sunny side of things here, but it could surely be used as a negotiating tactic or way to interrogate enemies without doing them any real physical harm. It would only be psychological.

I chuckle to myself as I think of a few less productive use cases for this buff too. It could make any place you wanted become a bed or relaxing beach.

Interrupting my train of thought Bri replies again.

"Try to break out of it, I'm curious how strong my illusions really are."

I let out a sigh and nod.

"Sure, I was curious too when It started."

I activate my buffs and skills very slowly, letting my mana control work its way up to full capacity.

The moment they begin to amp up, the office room around me starts to distort. The walls look like they're bending and the floor beneath my feet is getting more textured. I look up at Bri again and my buffs and mana control hit about a third of their total capacity and the shape of a sphere becomes visible around both of us.

I can see the projected image of Bri's study on the curved mana-imbued walls, but can also see the red-tinted dungeon behind it.

By the time I'm back to using half of my control, the illusion I'm standing in looks like no more than a mirage of a see-through hologram. I can tell it's here, and attempting to cover my senses, but it doesn't distort my reality any more than a light breeze would push me back while running in a straight line.

I smile and nod, not seeing any reason to up the ante on my perception abilities any further and step backward right outside the sphere.

Bri sees that her illusion has been cracked and deactivates it. I speak up again.

"Not bad. I did some recent unorthodox mana control training, so it figures I'd be able to get out with ease. However, as you already tested, it could easily trick any normal ranked-up monster. Even up to level 650 or so I'd say you could take them on. I'm not sure what the baseline for mana control above this level is though, I'm only level 645 myself."

Bri replies with a satisfied look.

"Yeah, it takes a lot of MP to keep it active for that long. I burned through almost half of my bar to show you that."

She reaches into a small black item box on her waist behind one of her daggers and drinks an MP potion before continuing.

"I have plenty more mana to work with though, so it shouldn't be a problem."

I reply as she regenerates her MP.

"Might as well take advantage of the labyrinth now while we're still in it to level up more. You're severely underleveled for your strength."

Right on cue, the presence of two speed monsters comes into my radar and both Bri and I turn our heads to face them. She replies, taking out her blades and charging them to full while running toward the two flashes of blue light coming our way in the distance.

"You're right, time to get to work."

In the blink of an eye, Bri takes on two monsters over 100 levels above her at once.

With her domain of illusion surrounding her body every time one of the monsters gets near, they don't even stand a chance at hitting her. I can't help but laugh at some of the movements the creatures make while swinging their longswords in the complete opposite direction of where Bri is standing.

Less than 15 seconds pass before both of the monsters are left bleeding out on the dungeon floor, dissolving at Bri's feet.

I walk over again as she bends down to collect the mana crystals but finds a shimmering red speed fragment fall from one of the monster corpses. While picking it up she examines the gem and activates her crafting skill to get a better idea of what it is and how it could be used.

She looks up to me once I'm close enough.

"So this is where you farmed these gems. There must be all kinds of rare drops here. No one from the Association farms this high in the Labyrinth... Anyone strong enough to farm these is just shipped off to the Apex region anyway..."

"These floors are gold mines..."

She pauses then asks another question.

"Are there any floors that drop element stones nearby?"

I chuckle and nod, as I'm not sure I've ever seen Bri this excited about anything. Especially after mercilessly killing two level 630 opponents in a matter of seconds, the change of tone is amusing.

"One floor below and you'll find ice stones, one floor above and you'll find wind stones. I haven't gone any further up yet, so I'm not too sure if there are any more."

As Bri's eyes open even wider, I see calculations running through her mind on items she wants to craft in the future. Every time I visit her, she's always waiting on the availability of more rare items.

What felt like a normal day-to-day farming drop to me may be a huge step up in her potential of crafts in the future.

I respond.

"That reminds me, I have a few questions about crafting I'd like to ask, and one thing I'd like to show you. I have an interesting ranked up buff too, It may help you craft some unique items every time I'm around."

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