Maze of Mirrors and Metamorphosis

Continuing down the dungeon floors, I reached a room comprised entirely of sizeable floor-to-ceiling ice panels forming mirrors on the sixth floor. I wonder what will pop out of the one... 

A high-pitched scream drew my attention to my right. It's behind a shard. I can't tell what made that noise. Almost immediately after I looked over, a black cloak over a formless body jumped out of the ice mirror and disappeared. Spectres... Low A-class mana beasts. Dammit. According to the encyclopedia, spectres have a number of hard-to-deal-with attacks. That scream must have been a Spectre's Shriek, and the disappearance must have been Mirror Blink... The Spectre reappeared from a mirror above me and descended, another shriek to my right. This one didn't make the noise. There must be two, perhaps more. conjuring a shield of light, I blocked the spectre's slash, and it shrieked at me. The noise attacked my ears and bounced around inside my head, stunning me. The second wraith jumped from a mirror, slashing my back open, three shallow claw marks marking my back. "Aargh!" Damn, that hurts! I formed a sword of incandescent flames in both of my hands and spun around hoping to cut them both, but the two of them blinked into a nearby ice shard. Spinning around 360 degrees, I checked the mirrors surrounding me. The Spectres must have backed off. They must be planning something... I dashed through the maze of mirrors looking for the Spectres. A shriek to my left caught my attention and a Spectre jumped from a mirror to my right. It raised its hand - not that I could actually see it, only the cloak moving - and prepared to slice me. I spun on my heels and cut back with my flaming sword. As the edge of my blade was just millimetres away, the Spectre blinked into an unknown mirror. How the hell am I supposed to fight something that might as well not exist? And two of them at that!? 

Both of the Spectres shrieked at the same time, the noise reverberating around the cave and landing in my ears. I fell to one knee clutching my head. Both Spectres jumped from their mirrors and attacked me from both sides. The Spectre on my right grabbed my arm and cut down the right side of my face with its other hand in a clean line, missing my eye by millimetres. The second on my left dived straight for me. Oh sh*t... That'll kill me! My eyes widened in fear. I'm gonna die! As the Spectre was almost right next to me I began to panic even more. I need to do something or this thing with kill me!  I let out a ghastly scream, white-hot flames bursting from every orifice of my body, setting the two on fire.  That's it! Creatures like Zombies, Skeletons and Spectres have a massive weakness against the Sun. The Flame of the Sun would naturally be super effective! The odds had evened out. The Spectres vanished into a close mirror, the flames still burning them and melting the ice. They both let out another mind-numbing shriek, attempting to prevent me from using my flames. I conjured two longswords, one in each hand, and span around rapidly, burning the nearby ice mirrors and revealing the position of one of the Spectres. Out of room to run, it charged straight for my back. I rapidly changed the form of my flaming sword, reversing its position in my palm and the Spectre impaled itself on my blade. The flames raced up its cloak and revealed its figure before burning it to dust, leaving nothing but ash from the cloak. I lit balls of white fire in my palms and threw them in every direction, burning the ice mirrors into nothingness. The Spectre, now visible with nowhere to blink to, was met with 5 flaming spears flying straight for it. Caught by surprise, the Spectre had no time to react and was hit by two of the spears and burned to a crisp, leaving behind nothing more than fading embers. My eyes scanned the room. All that remained was the cave's charred walls, and two beautifully iridescent, almost clear, beast cores.

Letting out a heavy sigh of relief, I thanked my Holy Flame and picked up the cores before moving further down into the dungeon.

On the 7th floor, I met some friendly mana creatures, Ocean Songsters, bathing in a shallow, wide pond. Ocean Songsters, C-class mana beasts famous for their Sound mana, often sing lullabies to put unsuspecting adventurers to sleep. These ones, however, seemed to place more priority on cleaning my clothes and making sure I was clean. They're surprisingly nice. Their lullaby is sweet too. Am I being tricked?  My doubt was unfounded, as they really did just bathe me, clean my clothes, and let me pass.

After clearing a further two floors, I reached floor 10. The final floor.

"The boss's room should be just up ahead," I muttered under my breath as if scared the boss could hear me. 

I approached the large door to the boss's room. Pushing open the door many times my size, I was greeted with a vast, expansive arena. The arena, enclosed by fog, expanded as far as the eye could see. In the middle of the fog stood a majestic manor. The manor was made of light oak with gold accents on the balconies and window shutters shone in the fake moonlight. I approached the manor but was stopped by a large, fat monster dropping from seemingly nowhere. Is this the boss?  The beast charged me instantly and swung its great hammer down at me. Dammit, I'm too weak to fight right now. I'm losing blood - not to mention the pain - and blood is clouding my vision in my right eye. "I'll have to make this quick." I summoned countless butterflies of golden-yellow light and sent them straight at the fat beast's belly while rolling - or rather falling - out of the way of its hammer. "Agh! Damn, my back hurts." The force of its hammer cracked the ground and sent earth shards in every direction, one piercing through my leg. The pain was unbearable and greatly hindered my movement. Sh*t, I'm way outclassed. This thing doesn't seem all that strong, easier to fight than those annoying Spectres, but I'm so injured already. Should I use That?

I attempted to hold out as long as I could, unsure of what would happen if I activated the illusory rune in my Radiant Heart's flames, but I was too overwhelmed. I was barely able to dodge the swings of its hammer and the earth shards from the ground sent my way were even harder to avoid with my hindered movement. Falling to one knee, I reached for the rune in the flames in an act of pure inspiration. The fat beast's hammer closed in on me from above. Please work!  I prayed. Sending mana into the rune, I felt a wave of warmth overcome me. A confidence came from an unknown source and I stood up and stuck my hand above my head. My body shifted states of matter into pure golden light, the ends of my hair getting set ablaze by white fire. My body, formed of light, grew taller and formed two pairs of translucent wings on my back, the wound closing. A ring of orange light formed from my trapezoids and connected above my head like the Sun itself was projected behind me. A yellow lance formed in my off-hand, its pointed edge burning with iridescent flames.

[Dawn

Paladin]

I caught the impending great hammer with one hand and hovered slightly off the ground, meeting the monster eye-to-eye. I stabbed through its chest with my blazing lance like a sword through butter. The encounter was over in seconds. My lance emerged from its back with an ugly brown core on its point. "Praise the Sun," I said in a low voice. A ring of light shone above its head and purified the ugly beast, turning it to ashen embers.

I cancelled my transformation and suppressed the rune. I'm so tired... I fell over in exhaustion as my body returned to its original size and shape. I plummeted face-first into the moor and fell asleep.

.....

"Hah, hah, hah," After I woke up, I checked the state of my body. The cut over my eye had healed but left a clean-line scar, and the claw marks on my body had closed up and left three nasty claw-like scars. I'm almost completely out of mana... I'm surprised I'm still breathing, albeit with great difficulty. 

I lay down for a few more minutes before getting up and approaching the manor. Is this a good idea? What if there's something even scarier in there? I attempted to get closer to the manor but was stopped by an invisible barrier. "An invisible wall... Some kind of barrier art?" I said to myself sceptically. 

 I can't get through this barrier. I guess that's good because considering how much mana I have right now, I don't have enough to combat whatever the barrier is keeping inside. 

I turned back the way I came, not forgetting to say goodbye to the peaceful Songsters on the 7th floor, and left the dungeon hours later. I exited to a bright and shining Sun lighting up the Beast Glades. Ah, the Sun always makes me feel so warm. I'm so tired..." I lay down face first into the grass outside of the dungeon entrance and refuelled my mana with the Sun's warming rays drifting off to sleep.

...

A deep-green bird landed on a large rock, watching a slumbering blonde child.

"Hmm, that little brat's gotten stronger again... How interesting. He's changed physically too." The bird mused. "I wonder if those people will consider our suggestion.

Whatever, I'd better return to Cynthia and tell her the news of his improvement." 

The bird flew over the boy and dropped a brown scroll held together by a red string which landed next to him and continued soaring past his body into the Sun.

.....

"*Yawn*" Man, that was a good sleep. I looked up to the sky, the Sun still sitting proudly above the clouds. It's still daytime, probably around 3:00 p.m. I should return to the outpost, sell my cores and rent a room. 

I made the long walk back the the outpost, the Sun now setting behind a tall mountain. I approached the front desk, the same man whom I sold my cores to last time present. 

"Hello again. I'd like to sell another two cores. I think they should be low A-class." I greeted him politely and placed the cores on the counter.

"Not bad, young man. 4 cores in less than three days. Whoever is getting these cores must be pretty strong. Heh." He replied jokingly. Does he still not believe I'm the one getting the cores or is he just messing with me for the fun of it?  "Looks like you've changed too."

"Thanks, and you're right I am pretty strong." Changed? 

"Hahaha! I like your spirit kid. Wait here I'll be right back." He returned to the back room again and I took off my cloak before sitting down. It's a shame it's ripped. For a cloak presumably worn by an Asura, it sure is weak. It wasn't even enchanted! I should really buy a new one.  browed the catalogue for a new cloak but found none I liked.

"Here ya go. Anything else I can get ya?" He gave me my gold - 90 to be exact. 

"Can I get a room? The nicest one, please." 

"Sure, go down the hall, it'll be the second to last door on your right. That'll be 9 gold." He pointed to a corridor on the left of the counter and I gave him the gold, walking to my new room. 

The room was nice for an inn. A double bed sat in the far corner, a door to the bathroom on the left and a small wardrobe, desk and mirror on the right. I walked up to the desk and picked up the small mirror, examining my face. My eyes had turned a darker shade of orange with yellow rings around them, and my hair had grown quite long and turned a brighter, more solid shade of yellow. It appears I've also grown a bit in terms of height. I'm probably a little under 165cm now. The most obvious change, however, lay on my neck. A tattoo had appeared over my Adams-apple and took up most of my neck. The tattoo was an orange and yellow Sun spiralling around the front of my neck. On the back of my right hand was a rune, identical to the one in the flames around my heart. I searched for the rune around my heart, but it was gone. Has it been moved to my hand for ease of use? How strange. On both of my palms lay a basic orange circle, the one on my right palm shaded in, the one on my left unshaded.