They went to clear dungeons while I headed to the city for something else. I needed to advance my earth element and had an idea just before falling asleep. Before improving your influence over something, you have to understand it, to really know it. And here I was, in an abandoned city built from all kinds of materials that came from the earth. What could be better?

    I found a relatively intact building, or at least as intact as anything could be in this abandoned city. It had once been a store, though time had taken its toll. Most of the structure still stood, if you ignored the missing back wall. The place was a single-story building, its front covered in large glass panes, surprisingly, most of which were still holding together despite the cracks webbing through them. Sunlight filtered through, casting jagged shadows across the interior.

    Inside, the air was thick with dust and the scent of dry rot. A few shelves clung stubbornly to the walls, their metal frames rusted and warped, while others had collapsed into a twisted mess on the floor. A massive heap of debris—splintered wood, crumbling plaster, and broken glass—covered most of the floor, making every step a careful negotiation.

    With a sweep of Telekinesis, I shoved all the debris into a corner, the pile scraping and shifting as it slid across the floor. Dust swirled in the air, catching the light before I cast Clean, stripping away years of grime in an instant. Once hidden under layers of dirt and decay, the floor beneath me now revealed cracked tiles and scuffed concrete. Satisfied, I sat down, exhaling slowly as I let my awareness sink into the structure around me.

    I made some interesting discoveries. They constructed the building in two layers. The inner layer had a metal grid embedded within the walls, acting as a framework for the first poured material, similar to concrete on Earth. The composition was familiar but not identical. I recognized gravel and sand mixed in, and another material I couldn’t quite identify. It was definitely earth-derived, though. I had encountered it before when I brought down the castle in Almadris. It had been one of the layers in the ground beneath the castle, a dense, sediment-like substance that felt just slightly off from anything I knew.

    Beyond those familiar elements, the poured material contained two additional components that didn’t come from the earth—and they felt wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but they had an unnatural quality that made my mana sense recoil ever so slightly. The strange part was that these two materials were actively breaking down. The walls looked fine in some pockets, where they remained mostly intact. However, in other areas, where the breakdown was more advanced, the walls had cracks, missing chunks, or areas where the wall had crumbled entirely.

    The second layer consisted of bricks covering the building’s exterior. These bricks were entirely earth-based, similar to ones I’d seen on Earth. Gravel, sand, that same unidentifiable material from Almadris, and another substance I suspected was lime, though I couldn’t be sure. They were relatively thin, less than ten centimeters thick, forming a sort of shell around the structure. Oddly enough, they didn’t seem to be held together by mortar or any adhesive. Instead, it looked like they had been slapped onto the inner walls while the poured substance was still wet, fusing into place without the use of bonding agents.

    After hours of examining the layers, I experimented. I placed my hands on the floor and channeled Final Reinforcement, expecting a uniform effect across the structure. Instead, the results were… surprising.

    The outer shell—the brick layer—strengthened almost instantly. The material tightened, and even the glass panes in the windows seemed to fortify, their cracks sealing as if absorbing the spell’s energy. But the inner walls were a completely different story.

    Rather than reinforcing them, the spell sped up the deterioration of the unidentified materials. Cracks spread like veins through the walls, deepening at an alarming rate. Before I could react, the ceiling gave out with a dry, crumbling groan. A moment later, the debris fell on me and buried me.

    It wasn’t painful, the whole thing disintegrated into small fragments and dust the moment it hit me, but it was inconvenient. Dust filled the air, making my eyes water as I sneezed and choked, waving a hand uselessly in front of my face. So much for structural integrity.

    Outside, I spent a few minutes wheezing, trying to clear the dust from my lungs. Each breath came with a cough, my throat dry and irritated. Dust clung to my face, clothes, and hair, turning me into a walking statue of powdered gray. With a sigh, I cast Clean, watching the grime vanish. Much better. At least now, I didn’t look like I had been excavated from the ruins.

    I stood there, scratching my head, and stared at the remains of the building. According to the Archive, structures containing advanced materials or industrial chemicals collapsed when the world was integrated. That lined up with what had just happened, and based on the wrongness I’d felt from the unidentified substances, I was pretty sure they had been some kind of industrial chemical.

    The whole thing was both confusing and intriguing.

    Why did mana break those materials down? Why did they feel so fundamentally wrong to my mana sense? How could mana even recognize something as unnatural? It wasn’t sentient. It didn’t have prejudices. It wasn’t making conscious decisions. So why?

    Many questions, no answers.

    Every mention of this phenomenon in the Archive treated it as a simple fact that just happened without any explanation. That was what really drove me crazy. There had to be a reason. Everything had a reason. But no matter how I turned it over in my head, I couldn’t figure out this one.

    Ugh! I hate it when things don’t make sense.

    Examining three more buildings, without breaking them down, didn’t yield any answers. The unidentified materials still felt wrong, so much so that my mana sense recoiled from them on instinct. But that was all. No further clues, no deeper understanding. Just the same nagging sense of unnaturalness.

    Frustrated but unwilling to let it go, I headed home. If the answers weren’t out here, maybe I could find them in my library.

    Well, I didn’t find any answers in my library either. None of the books I could read mentioned anything about mana’s reaction to different substances. I didn’t go through them cover to cover, but even skimming was enough to confirm that much.

    In a desperate attempt to widen my search, I even learned the language of ten more books, but still came up empty. After my last experience, I knew better than to push past ten. The pounding headache from overdoing it last time had been awful, and I had no interest in reliving that particular misery.

    The experiments and search took me four days, during which time the gang cleared eight dungeons. I didn’t even bother asking what they got. I just didn’t care. Hopefully, the dungeon runs would end soon, and we could finally move on.

    By my count, Mahya should have over 150 cores after this city. At least we were making progress. Every day brought her closer to her goal. That was something, at least.

    This world was just Ugh!

    I still wanted to advance in the earth element, so I took a different approach this time. Heading to the city''s outskirts, I found a few half-standing buildings and focused on refining a particular method—bringing them down by destabilizing their foundations. I''d no idea if I’d ever need this skill, but the training was valuable nonetheless.

    And it paid off.

    With each building I toppled, the process became smoother. Inspecting the ground beneath them, pinpointing structural weaknesses, and yanking at the right points to crumble them. It all started to feel more natural and intuitive. At some point, I even felt like I’d finally outgrown the in-training moniker I’d mentally assigned to my demolition attempts.

    If nothing else, this world was good for something. I doubted many other places would let me casually practice leveling buildings. Here? It just added to the ambiance.

    Amidst my earth experiments, I kept messing with the Smooshicorn’s horn. No matter what I did, it refused to react. Well, except when I channeled mana into it. The moment I did, the mana got absorbed. It vanished into the horn without dispersing, but nothing else happened. No glow, no hum, no change. It just kept swallowing it up, greedily drinking in every drop. I could almost hear it burp and thank me for the meal.

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    I wasn’t ready to give up. My instincts told me it had to do something eventually. Eventually just hadn’t arrived yet, no matter how much I poured into it. I even emptied my entire mana pool. Twice!

    They cleared another three dungeons, leaving only three more. The urge to move on pressed at me, growing heavier with each passing day, impatience simmering beneath the surface. I wanted to keep going now, so I made up my mind to join the effort. Besides, I still owed Rue one.

    During dinner, I set down my fork and said, “I’ll take one dungeon with Rue to help speed things up. If you finish before us, handle the last one. If we finish first, we’ll take care of it.”

    Mahya arched a brow. “Missed fighting?”

    “No,” I said, stabbing at my food. “Just want to move on.”

    Across the bond, a wave of pure happiness hit me like an excited tail wag to the chest. Rue. His whole body vibrated with barely contained excitement. Grinning, I reached over and scratched behind his ear. “Yeah, buddy. We’ll go fighting together.”

    Mahya popped the Map into view, swiping at the display until she pointed at an X. “Take this one. We’ll take that one. Whoever finishes first gets the last.”

    The rest of dinner passed in a surprisingly light mood. Mahya and Al seemed oddly pleased that I was finally joining in, though I had no idea why. What did it matter if I cleared a dungeon or not? Both of them claimed wizards are weird. They needed to take a long look in the mirror.

    My assigned dungeon led us to a vast open grass field, about the size of a football stadium. The only notable feature was a massive mound of earth sitting right in the middle. It had a huge opening—big enough even for Rue. I gave my Luck a mental pat on the back. I’d been experimenting with earth, and now I had an entire mound to play with. Luck or no Luck? Definitely luck.

    Rue darted around the perimeter, his paws kicking up bits of grass and dirt. When he circled back, his ears flicked forward. "Rue no see monsters."

    I scanned the field, then eyed the mound. "I think they’re in there. They’ll probably attack the moment we get too close."

    Rue squared his shoulders. "Rue go first."

    I patted his side. "No need, buddy. I have an idea. You stay out here and fight anything that comes out."

    I lifted off the ground and landed right on top of the mound. The instant my feet touched down, a high-pitched squeal erupted from below. The earth trembled beneath me, and something big came out.

    Shit! Ants!

    I really, really hoped they weren’t LSD ants.

    The ant that came out was the size of a dog. Not Rue size—just a regular dog. About as big as a golden retriever. Its chitinous body gleamed under the light, mandibles clicking as it scuttled forward.

    Rue didn’t wait. He lunged, jaws snapping shut with a sickening crunch as he tore its head clean off. The lifeless body twitched before collapsing in a heap.

    "Yuck!" Rue gagged, spitting out bits of ant with a disgusted shake of his head.

    That put me at ease. Rue could handle anything that crawled out, taste notwithstanding.

    I spread my mana sense into the mound, feeling for its composition. It was earth—but not regular earth. The sheer density of mana packed into it made the label feel almost wrong. A more accurate description would be mana masquerading as earth.

    But it was close enough.

    There were just enough similarities to the actual element that I could connect to it. My training in demolition paid off. I latched onto the structure in less than a second, then nudged it, encouraging the earth to compress.

    It responded instantly. Much faster than normal earth, which was usually as stubborn as a rock. Pun not intended. This stuff? It practically jumped to obey. The mound shrank at a visible speed, growing denser and more compact by the second.

    Squeals erupted from inside, growing louder and more frantic. Something scuttled and scraped against the compressed walls, struggling to escape. But only four managed to claw their way out. In time to disgust my poor dog with their awful taste.

    When the earth couldn’t compress any further, I stood in the middle of a deep crater, about twenty meters down. The walls curved smoothly around me, shaping the pit like a massive bowl. I hovered for a moment, taking it in before flying out to get a better look.

    Nothing else remained. No more movement or signs of life. That meant the mound contained the boss, and the core lay buried inside.

    Unfortunately, by the time I made it out, the monsters Rue had taken care of had already mostly dissipated, leaving us with a grand total of five tiny crystals. Not exactly a jackpot.

    The upside? We cleared the dungeon in less than half an hour.

    Go us!

    I set my core down and gave it a pat. “Bon appétit.”

    As always, the dungeon dissolved into a swirling cascade of colors, like acrylic paint poured in slow motion, flowing straight into my core. I watched the process like a hawk, every fiber of my attention locked onto it. Sear?h the N??elFirё.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    The moment I felt the first stirrings of hunger from my core, I didn’t waste a second. I shoved it into my Storage, took out a shovel, and started digging manually. No way was I going to face Mahya and say, “I’m sorry, but my core ate your core.”

    She would have killed me.

    Slowly.

    It took me ten minutes to dig out the core, which was a disappointment. Only about five centimeters in diameter, and the reward? A measly fifty silver. Bad core.

    Oh, well.

    I let my core out to finish absorbing the last of the dungeon’s mana, and we left.

    On our way to the next dungeon, Rue suddenly stepped before me, blocking my path with his body. His purple eyes locked onto mine with absolute seriousness.

    "John no finish dungeon so fast!"

    I blinked. "Why not?"

    Rue puffed out his chest. "Rue want to show John how much Rue improve in fighting monsters."

    I scratched his ear. “Okay, buddy.”

    We walked in silence for another minute before Rue tilted his head, reconsidering. "John can finish dungeon fast if monsters are yuck."

    I laughed, shaking my head. “Whatever you say.”

    The next dungeon was in the next quarter, and it took us a while to get there. We could have flown, but neither of us was in a hurry. It was nice just to walk, stretch our legs, and chat.

    Rue told me about some dungeons they had cleared, his tail wagging every time he got to a part where he did something cool. In return, I told him about my experiments with the earth, my demolition advancement, and how the mana-rich soil reacted differently. He listened with the same focus he had when hunting, his ears twitching occasionally, like he was trying to feel what I was describing.

    For a minute, I worried he might get ideas about experimenting with demolition too. Knowing Rue, that could get interesting. But then I waved the thought away. If he did decide to try, this was the perfect place for it.

    Besides, he needed to learn the earth element now that I had mastered it.

    Or... partially mastered it.

    The next dungeon led into a series of underground tunnels. The air was thick with a musky scent, carrying a faint rotten undertone. Not exactly pleasant, but tolerable.

    Rue sniffed the air, his ears twitching. His tail gave a single flick before turning to me, his expression serious. "John no interfere."

    I raised an eyebrow. "That so?"

    He nodded with a puffed-up chest.

    Before I could argue or set conditions, the sound of scrabbling claws filled the tunnel. Then came ahorde of rodents, each the size of a large cat. Their beady eyes gleamed in the dim light, and their long, yellowed teeth clicked together as they poured out of the darkness, swarming toward us.

    I glanced at Rue, ready to step in if needed, but he was already in motion.

    His paw lashed out in a blur, whap! The first rodent sailed through the air and splattered against the wall with a wet crunch. Whack! Another one went flying. Then another. And another.

    I turned each one into a crystal and collected them with Telekinesis, but didn’t interfere beyond that.

    The horde kept coming, rushing in from all sides. Rue’s tail flicked in annoyance. His chest expanded as he inhaled deeply and exhaled.

    A powerful gust of wind exploded from his mouth, howling through the tunnel like a miniature storm. The gust of wind launched the rodents backward, tumbling them end over end into the darkness, causing them to shriek.

    Before they could recover, Rue’s eyes narrowed. His mana surged. With a sharp movement, he slashed the air with one massive paw. A Wind Blade screamed down the tunnel, slicing through the airborne rodents before they even hit the ground.

    For a moment, silence. Then, the next wave scuttled forward. Rue’s ears flattened. He let them get close, and his paw lashed out again, sending another batch of unfortunate rodents splattering against the walls.

    I leaned against the tunnel entrance, arms crossed, watching Rue systematically bat every rodent into oblivion.

    I had to admit—he had improved.

    And I definitely needed to figure out that storm-exhale.

    When no more rodents came, we moved deeper into the tunnels until we reached a cave entrance. The space beyond was dimly lit by patches of glowing moss, casting eerie green shadows on the jagged walls.

    Peeking around the corner, I spotted a huge rodent, bigger than a horse. Its matted fur twitched, and its massive yellow teeth gleamed as it sniffed the air, searching for intruders.

    Rue turned to me, his expression serious. "Now John can do something too."

    I laughed. "Oh really? Thank you, kind sir."

    Rue narrowed his eyes, ears flattening. A wave of pure disgust rolled through our bond. "Rue no sir. Rue is dog. Dog no sir."

    I patted him. “Whatever you say, buddy.”

    Then, I walked into the cave and channeled lightning. Sparks crackled along my arms before arcing toward the massive rodent. It barely had time to let out a screech before it dropped, twitching once before going still.

    Rue shook his head, ears flicking. "Rue need learn lightning magic."

    “Yeah, and I need to learn that wind exhale you do. It’s awesome.”

    Rue perked up and stuck his nose in the air. "Yes. Rue is smart and good fighter."

    I chuckled and patted his side. “You definitely are.”

    The reward was a disappointment, as always. Ten gold. At least the core was bigger this time—almost seven centimeters.

    After feeding the dungeon’s mana to my core, it spit us out, right in front of Mahya and Al.

    Mahya jumped, eyes wide as she took us in. “You’re done with two dungeons already?”

    Rue puffed up, tail wagging. "Rue and John are bestest team."