Shortly after, the staircase to the next floor appeared. We started climbing up to move on. After officially passing the halfway point, I wasn't sure what to expect from the next floors.

You've entered a rest area. Please recuperate for the trials ahead.

Just as the notification had said, the floor was devoid of monsters or a challenge condition. Instead, there was a table, chairs, benches, and even a bed. On the table itself, there were also baskets full of fresh produce that would be the envy of any vegetarian.

Naturally, I scoffed at the veggies while Vee didn't hesitate to start raiding the fruit basket immediately.

"So, are we going to rest up?" Vee asked while chowing down. "Thanks to all the magic fruit, I still have plenty of energy."

"I guess we can. I'm getting a bit of brain fog," I said and began to shift away from my draconic form and back to a regular slime blob.

I'd highly recommend taking a proper rest. I know it can be hard to tell the passage of time in a dungeon, but you've gone through the entire night and into the early hours of the next morning.

"Wait, we have?" Vee asked curiously. "Wow, those energy boosts were no joke!"

I opened my [Core Storage] and began mentally perusing it. I then let out a sad sigh.

"I lost my time device…"

"Oh, that sucks. Didn't you only recently buy it?" Vee replied.

I nodded, "I guess I'll have to go get a new one when we go visit Keld."

"Before or after our beach trip?"

"Either works for me; while it was convenient, I'm not exactly in a rush to replace it. I could also spend the point and grab the skill, but with [Companion Growth] now at level nine, it will likely be my first maxed-out skill. I'll need ten points if I want to uncap it."

"Assuming it can be uncapped," Vee pointed out. "Would it really be worth it, though?"

"Well, if max level gives us equal experience from kills… what if level eleven gives us bonus experience?"

"That definitely sounds like something they wouldn't allow. Especially considering how much we've already been exploiting the companion system. I'll bet normal companions don't have a maxed-out bond after even double the time we have."

"True… which kinda sucks. For the longest time, I thought [Dissection] would be my first maxed-out skill or [Mana Manipulation], so I guess it would be better to save the points for one of those."

"If you're complaining about spending one point on a clock upgrade, why are you going to spend ten on [Dissection] of all things?" Vee moaned.

"Hey, don't mock [Dissection]; it's been with me since the start. Plus, what if it unlocks a secret upgrade?"

"Such as?"

"Uh… what if it lets me apply [Dissection] to alive monsters?" I answered.

"Wouldn't that be called Dismembering rather than Dissection?"

I gave a slimy tendril shrug.

"Please, just rather buy your [Mana Manipulation] upgrade," Vee sighed.

"I mean, I was probably going to anyway. I bet I'd be able to make any custom spell at the drop of a hat. But, moving on, if we are going to take a rest here, then I'm going to sleep."

"Sure. I still have a surplus of energy, so I'll stay up knitting or something and keep watch."

"Sure, but make sure you rest too. We can trade watches when I wake up if that makes you feel better," I suggested.

"Do you think the dungeon would try anything?"

"I'm almost positive Gramps would smite them for doing anything. This is supposed to be a safe room, and they can't exactly attack us first since it seems they are under a strict order to only defend themselves based on the taunting we received earlier."

"Earlier, you mean yesterday," Vee chuckled.

"Right… time to blob out."

Using [Earth Magic], I began creating stone directly from Mana. The time and efficiency were atrocious, but I had more than enough of both to go around. I began crudely sculpting a stone bathtub that looked more like a bowl and promptly jumped in.

I immediately started to relax, feeling the incredible sensation of releasing any and all hold on any and all form and truly becoming one with the blob. As I felt myself dozing off, a rather absurd statement from Vee interrupted my slumber.

"Why didn't you just make a big rock block and then sculpt it with your acid slime?"

Shit. Why didn't I do that?

"I wanted to practice my [Earth Magic] control…" I fibbed.

"Huh, I guess that makes sense. Well, goodnight or good morning!" Vee said as I tried to fall into slumber again.

***

When I woke up, I began to solidify my form and lift myself out of the tub. I quickly spotted Vee, who had created another one of her web hammocks and was in such a deep slumber that she looked like a corpse.

I guess it was about time for her extra energy levels to crash.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I also noted that Vee had set up a massive perimeter of webs all around us and connected them to her hammock. In theory, if anything touched a web, she would feel it and wake up. I had to resist not testing that theory, as I didn't want to deal with a grumpy and tired spider.

Using [Blink], I exited safely from the trap, as there was no [Rift Thread] in it, and began stretching out my slime as I was now properly woken up.

Okay, let's spend this time adding a few extra layers to [Pocket Space].

So I got to work. Thanks to my [Sub-Cores] keeping my in-progress work saved, I could resume where we left off without any issues.

Time flew by as I kept tinkering with the spell, and already I could feel a few noticeable benefits thanks to my new level in [Mana Manipulation]. I kept positioning and merging the constructs, almost forcibly, while others seemed to magically snap into place before I even started adjusting.

I truly felt like I was in the zone, oblivious to the outside world, as I peacefully constructed my spell. My many unseen helpers assisted wordlessly with each additional step, and I could feel us swiftly reaching our goal. I'd pause on occasion to cast the new resulting spell, but it still remained in the "window" form.

Time continued to pass by, and suddenly, I was holding onto a spell that felt… complete. No matter how much I looked at it, I couldn't see any spaces where I could lay additional spells onto it. It seemed remarkably impressive, and I'd actually lost track of the final tally.

I cast the spell, and the space in front of me ripped open and expanded until it was roughly the size of a doorway. I gulped, pulled out one of the books from my [Core Storage], and tossed it through the doorway.

Looks good so far. Let's cancel this one and cast it again to see if I discover the spell!

Canceling the spell caused the door to seal up. The top corner of the rift began to pinch together, and then it ran downwards like a zipper and sealed the tear in space entirely. I quickly began casting the spell again, and when I got a notification, I nearly screamed in delight!

Spell [Rift Door] discovered.

Proficiency gained. [Dimension Magic LV 3] improved to [Dimension Magic LV 4].

[Dimension Magic LV 4] spell [Expansion] learned.

Information flooded my core for the discovered spell as well as my new spell. It was glorious, and I once again felt that addictive, tingly sensation that I'd grown so fond of in the past.

I did it! I finally did it! And the discovery bonus was enough to bump me straight to level four!

I glanced at Vee as I wanted to celebrate this occasion, but she was still fast asleep and contorted into an even more absurd situation in her webs.

I guess it will be a surprise for her later.

I began examining the information provided for [Rift Door] and was flabbergasted to find that the notes had severely undersold the spell. My previous theory was proven correct: The coordinates automatically assigned by default were linked to my [Pocket Space], and if I changed them, I could create and place down a displaced spatial area. I immediately drew similarities to how the storage enchantment worked and pulled up an image of the whole inscription, all but confirming my feeling as I could now "read" it.

I wonder if the information was redacted when the Riftmancer left the branch. Still, this is a game-changer!

If that wasn't enough already, I could feel a sense of kinship to the floating space and not just because it was linked to my personal [Pocket Space]. I felt instinctively drawn to it, and I stepped through, as I felt not even a shred of doubt that it would harm me.

The space was like a white void, empty except for the few random items I had thrown into it from our previous experiments. I even found the book I had thrown in moments ago lying on the "floor." I felt safe, secure, and strangely more powerful as if this was my home turf.

I activated [Spatial Sense] and deciphered more information from the spell. Combining the two with what I was personally experiencing, I achieved a strange enlightenment about the true purpose of this area: the dimensional space inside the [Rift Door] was the personal "domain" of a Riftmancer, and one could exert control over coordinates much more freely inside.

To test that feeling out, I began messing with the coordinates of the various pieces of furniture strewn about and teleporting them around the room. Using [Positioning] had never felt as natural as this before, and it made me want to perform all my [Dimension Magic] tests inside this space.

It's like a personalized training zone! If I had discovered this right from the start, I probably would have jumped ahead by leaps and bounds! I bet if I work towards creating my debuff here, I'll have it finished in no time at all.

I was excited; I wanted to tell Vee everything. I poked my head out of the floating doorway, but she was still asleep. I restrained my urge to wake her up and went back inside. After all, I still had my level four spell to look over!

Please be usable right from the start!

To my relief, it was—sort of. The spell allowed me to make a dimensional space larger by controlling eight sets of coordinates that created something vaguely resembling a cube. I say vaguely because if I changed the coordinates, it could be a rectangle instead or some other strange six-sided shape.

Also, instead of casting it by selecting eight vertices, another option was to cast it directly at my entire dimensional space inside my [Rift Door]. This was what I did, and under the watchful eye of [Spatial Sense], I saw the area grow in real time.

Interesting… Could I somehow use this to make the space between me and an enemy larger? Like if I wanted to keep them away from me?

It was a strange thought, and I was confused by how it would behave in the outside world. Attempting to change coordinates outside of my special space would undoubtedly be highly contested.

I was testing out the spell by creating multiple small areas of enlarged space and observing the result with [Spatial Sense]. I threw a book through one of the areas, and despite visually looking like it should've reached the other end, it had to travel through the entire "stretched space" before it could travel normally.

Very interesting!

But I wasn't going to stop there as I had a sudden thought.

Can't I reverse this to make the space smaller?

Whether it was due to being inside my personal dimensional space, leftovers from my earlier epiphany, or because "reversing" the spell was an intended conclusion, I found success remarkably fast.

Effectively, I just inverted the spell, and to my surprise, it didn't collapse on me. I double-checked it a few times, but it felt right, so I cast it on a small open area. I dared not risk destroying my personal space, especially with me still inside it, by casting an untested spell.

The spell went off without a hitch, and I [Spatial Sense] told me that the space was reduced. I threw the book through it again and watched as it "skipped" through the area as if it had suddenly teleported.

Yes! Screw [Expansion], this is the real spell! What if I could make the space smaller before casting a projectile and have it "teleport" into enemies! No longer will I be annoyed by those damn agile bastards dodging everything I throw at them!

I cast the spell again and was relieved when I got the familiar notification and accompanying warm mind fuzzies.

Spell [Reduction] discovered.

I guess I should be thankful it's not called increase and decrease. And now that I have the full spell unlocked and understood, I can also use it to decrease the size of my rift space.

I cast it and started shrinking the area. Initially, I wasn't sure why I would ever do that, but I quickly realized that a smaller space was far more efficient.

If I'm going to use my plan to hide in this space while I evolve, I should make it as small as possible so it can be self-sufficient.

I continued playing around with the two spells when another unexpected notification caught my attention.

Skill [??? LV 0] has become [Triangulate LV 1].

What!? Since when? I know I've been ignoring my complete profile for some time, but this is entirely unexpected! This day just keeps getting better and better!

My excitement was bubbling over. It had been so long since so many good things had overlapped like this, and I was growing highly addicted to it. It felt as if all the walls obstructing my progress, after endlessly banging my head against them, had finally been broken through.

Screw waiting; I'm waking up that damn lazy spider right now!

I rushed to the door, shifting into my elven form. As I did so, I shouted out loud the second I emerged.

"Vee! You've got to see this!"