Noname (Hell, Group 4) - I'm fine.

Sset (Hell, Group 4) - Same here.

StrongestOne (Hell, Group 4) - I'm trying to level up as much as I can.

Grumpy (Hell, Group 4) - Noname, I yoinked some gold for you! It was easier than I thought.

I don't have the heart to tell Lily that I probably won't be needing it anymore, and just praise her for the good job.

While reading other messages and hoping for some useful information, I think about Sophie. Up until now, I haven't seen her in the forum, not even the twins or her sister.

Are they all unable to do so, or they just don't want to and continue to watch what others write? The second option is something I think is more probable.

I close the forum and look at the five orbs orbiting me. They are now bigger, almost like a golf balls, and their shade of blue is darker than before as they spin around me.

Every orb has its own orbit, and some of them spin clockwise, and some counterclockwise.

Sometimes, I focus on one of them and absorb its kinetic energy, which I then use to boost the spinning of other orbs that are anchored to me and orbiting around me.

What should I do with Sophie in case both of us survive the second floor? Will I even meet her on this floor or have to wait until the third one? If yes, what then?

Should I take revenge right there? I could; I can put her sister to sleep and then do it so the little girl doesn't have to watch it. Sure, she would hate me then and stay nearly alone, relying on herself and the unreliable help of some strangers. It would make me feel sour, but I can do it if I decide to.

Another option is keeping her alive because of her questionable usefulness, but in that case, it's something that could continue to be used as an excuse until the end of my life. I just think that her skills are just that useful and she is worth keeping alive.

Can I forgive her?

I think so. As always, strong feelings slowly dissipate with time, especially now that I haven't seen her for so long. And from the start, it wasn't that she actively wanted me dead, she just put herself and her sister first and proceeded accordingly.

That's something I can understand.

So, it is risky to keep her alive? Absolutely.

On this floor, the emperor of Solaris Empire is a Mind Mage, manipulating people who are strong enough to be compared to an atomic bomb back on Earth, hell, they might even be much stronger.

A single man able to manipulate the masses and control such powerful people. It's extremely dangerous.

I can't trust her; because in a way, she is similar to me. Her life and her sister's are the most important to her, and that's why she didn't have trouble manipulating others. I would do the same, and maybe even in more cruel ways.

So, what now? I like how we solved things with Hadwin. We will work together for some time and then it will be forgiven. His cooperation was used as payment for trying to take my life.

Sure, it's not like we totally trust each other, but the man knows that I will become unreasonable the moment he goes back on our deal. At the moment I am stronger than him and just need to keep it that way. I could do something similar with Sophie, maybe by threatening to hurt her sister?

I need to talk with her, I need to hear her honest thoughts. Seeing how she acted up until now, she wouldn't mind joining forces, but the moment things go sideways I would have to watch my back. Plus, I am not sure if she would be okay with that instead of trying to again create her own team. But there might be an easy solution for that.

I need Tess back. I need Lily and I will somehow deal with Kim. I have Hadwin. Maya will be handled by Tess. I know that the two girls were taken together, and knowing Tess, I'm sure she will become good friends with Maya. She is just that scary and smart.

So that leaves out the twins who are who knows where. For them, I will have Hadwin to take them in.

At that moment, everyone from our tutorial group would be under my influence, leaving Sophie no choice. In the worst-case scenario, I could use some force, but I would prefer not to. Then I would have people to watch her even more carefully. Tess, Hadwin, either of them is good and most likely able to control her if she didn't become too strong.

Sounds good!

The orbs stop spinning around me, and I let them and the mana arm dissipate and stand up, turning my Reinforcement construct off.

Unlike others, my strength and dexterity aren't that high so I don't have trouble moving inside the rooms and using things such as doors. But after getting passively boosted by my construct, I destroyed a few pieces of furniture, not having learned to control my power, so I am getting slowly used to it.

And hey, turning it off allows me to train my mana handling a bit more, even though it's not that difficult with my new passive skill.

As I enter the kitchen, I see Biscuit moving his mana arms around, trying to grab some food from the table, and once again I am surprised how good he is at it. Heck, dogs don't even have arms and hands, so how is he using them so skillfully? There was one day when he even stopped using his legs to walk and used four mana arms as a replacement for his legs. It was too creepy, so I instantly used [Disruption].

At this point, I am worried that soon he will learn to counter my disruptive skill, so I don't use it that much.

The era of animal archmages is drawing closer and closer.

The arm made of mana forms from my shoulder, and I use it to move the chair and sit on it, opposite Ruby who is reading something. Her eyes look at me, "What?"

"I want to hunt something."

"Master ordered me to keep you all here."

Yes, I know, I know. It's annoying, "Teach me magic, train with me."

"No and no. I'm terrible at holding back and really hate teaching. Sorry," she says, and there is a real hint of apology.

The young woman and I have come to talk a bit more lately. She isn't even acting so fakely extroverted anymore and her real personality is cheeky and smiley, but much less than she showed the first time. I also have a feeling that I did something she appreciated, so she is toning it down while dealing with me.

I sigh, yet I am slowly getting bored. Yes, I am getting better at using my skills but every time I grew and improved, it was in life or death situations. Sure, I could also improve in safety while learning from a teacher, but that's not something I have.

In the end, I exit the cottage and look around.

We are in the middle of nowhere and as far as I can see there is only a flat grassy plain. No trees, no mountains, no hills, nothing. Just a grassy plain for miles away. It feels somehow unreal, fake.

I stand there and [Kinetic Redistribution] fires up, and I use it to absorb all the energy from the swaying grass around me and the gentle wind. I slowly increase the area and absorb more and more, being able to do it thanks to my now activated Reinforcement construct and my new passive skill.

A massive area around me becomes motionless and quiet, then I use all of this energy to propel myself high in the air.

While floating up there, I absorb more from the wind around me and push against the air under me, it's terribly inefficient in comparison to pushing against something firm, but I still propel myself higher and higher.

Soon, I reach the height of the tip of a skyscraper and look around.

From this height, everything looks different. The grassy plain below is a flat, wide expanse of uniform green, like a huge outdoor carpet. The sunlight reflects off it, giving it a soft, muted glow. The horizon seems to curve subtly, a reminder of the planet's roundness.

Yet I see no movement, nothing but the flat green stretching out in every direction. It's quiet up here, away from the world. The sky above is a deep, clear blue, unmarred by clouds.

I'm alone in this vast space, the silence only broken by the soft rustle of the wind against my clothes.

Despite the simplicity, or perhaps because of it, there's an undeniable beauty to the view. It's a stark, raw kind of beauty, the kind that makes you feel small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. It's humbling and awe-inspiring in a way that's difficult to put into words. I just float there, taking it all in.

Then I start falling down and absorb more to keep myself high up and feel myself calming down even without my skill activated.

The view is something I would never ever be able to see if it wasn't for mana, and I love it.

I start falling down again and this time I don't fight against it. The air continues to hit my clothes and body and I can hear it next to my ears, and I am falling down faster and faster.

When I am not that far away from the ground, I absorb my own kinetic energy and immediately start slowing down until I gently land on the ground, the remaining energy I shoot towards the sky and breathe out.

Everything looks so normal again.

I get ready to do it again when I feel massive mana from inside of the cottage, the mana of Ruby's master.

I start moving there and inside the cottage, I find four people.

An old, grey-haired but immensely powerful woman, two twin boys, and Kim.