Rowan merged perspectives with Vorn the moment he sat down. He would do so standing, but he really didn’t want to be any more injured right now in case something went wrong. Moving an arm at seventy-two times speed sounded cool until your muscles shredded themselves in the attempt. That, and the extra blood would hamper his concentration.

  Already, [Elenia’s Blessing] was beating down the door to his mind, and he was only at seventy-five percent of its max potency. Having to fend off the waves of attacks the skill sent at him while enduring however many hours with enhanced perception was a recipe for disaster.

  The moment Rowan became Voran, they were reminded why this was such an unpleasant memory. Everyone and everything around them was practically stock still. Even moving their eyes around, a normally instant process, was a nauseating blur as the flicker of their eyes slowed down enough to be noticeable.

  Still, this wasn’t forever, they knew that now. And, holy shit, did that make this process easier. The uncertainty of whether this change was permanent must have done a number on their concentration last time.

  Something must have changed since the last time they tried this. Instead of a vague visualization, their mind fully delved into their body. At once, Voran realized that it must have been Rowan’s practice manipulating Authority. Through that process, he became intimately familiar with imagining and following the energy through his body.

  It seemed that skill translated even here. The purple energy of their mind rushed through their brain at, what seemed to them, a languid pace. In reality, the energy, twisting and turning through the complex maze of grooves and synapses, was moving much too quickly. With greater control than before, they gently grabbed hold of the energy. Slowly, with every loop through their mind, they increased the resistance the energy would have to go through.

  This was an incredibly boring process, as the energy never felt like it was speeding up or slowing down. Mental energy was the Shard’s way of boosting your cognition, Voran realized.It bestowedAuthority to boost the body and Mental Energy to boost the mind.How it hijacked the brain's functions and enhanced them, they had no idea, though.

  Just how many functions did the Shard have, exactly? How did it manage such a complex blend of energy manipulation in literally every being with access to it? All great questions that Voran contemplated to prevent themself from going crazy while doing perhaps the most boring thing possible with actual otherworldly magical powers.

  It was kinda cool to see the barrier of Authority around their mind from the inside though. Especially as it rippled and fluctuated from the constant attacks from [Elenia’s Blessing].

  — — —

  They finally, finally finished slowing down their perception after what felt like hours. How long was it actually? Again, that was incredibly hard to tell in a desert with an unmoving sun. After turning off [Synchronized Mind], Vorn instantly wrinkled his nose and power washed themselves with a harsh blast of water. Human and Scorpion blood didn’t smell great mixed together.

  “Welcome back! Are you doing alright?” Ark asked.

  “Yeah, honestly. Knowing that it isn’t forever helps a lot with enhanced perception. It actually makes the whole idea significantly less scary.” Vorn explained, relief evident in his voice.

  “Oh? Does that mean you’ll be using it more?” Rexen asked this time, of course, after throwing a pebble at their forehead.

  Vorn looked around. The rocks of this cave were made of sandstone. That was a black stone pebble. Rexen must have packed those. Well, it was his bag…

  “I hope not. It’s incredibly useful, don’t get me wrong, but having to spend hours watching everything move at the speed of molasses isn’t exactly riveting. In fact, it’s easily the most boring thing I can imagine. Then Rowan and I are both taken out of commission for who knows how long. Just cause it’s not as scary doesn’t mean it sucks less.” Vorn explained.

  “Yeah… That’s fair. Now, I have to ask… How did you manage to cast all those spells at once? They were amazing!” Rexen shouted. Well, practically shouted. Okay, well, he was loud compared to normal… He was enthusiastic at least.

  “Well- Thank you. And I am quite proud of those spells, I think they were pretty clever. What looked like freezing rain was actually a Water Rune that was modified with Disperse and Diminish Runes. Around the Diminish Rune, I had a contextual script that specified that it was to diminish the water’s ability to absorb heat, leading to it rapidly freezing once it made contact with something solid to initiate a phase change.

  But the real shining star was the ‘Inversion’ Rune I ran at the end. The Water Rune became Fire, the Disperse Rune became Concentrate, and the Diminish Rune became Enhance, with the script enhancing the Fire’s ability to release heat. Honestly, I used most of my time just thinking of a quick way to kill or weaken the Scorpion in one strike, the casting was actually pretty easy in slowed time. It may have looked like I cast all the spells simultaneously, but I just cast them one after the other.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  I couldn’t even put a Trigger or Activation Rune on them because of the Inversion Rune. I had to rely on the Principles of Mana to activate the spells, and that is famously inconsistent. I’m honestly shocked that every spell triggered. That’s why I cast so many, I honestly didn’t think even half would go off.” Vorn explained, then began to look sheepish once he realized he had been rambling.

  “The Principles of Mana?” Rexen asked.

  “Oh yeah, you’re technically the only one here besides Rowan who’s not a caster!” Ark exclaimed, “I’ll explain! Basically, when given a task, the mana itself seems to choose whether or not to complete it or not. Spells and Enchantments have Trigger and Activation Runes because that forces mana to complete a set of instructions.

  Without them, for some reason, it seems to be a fifty-fifty on whether a spell will do anything or not. Sorceries, like what I use, don’t have that issue. I’ve heard some people speculate it’s because Sorcerers directly commune with Mana, and thus pay a higher price for a more direct and malleable connection. Others say that the reason the price is so high is that we’re basically overloading all our spells so they have to go off. I personally lean towards the former.

  Either way, it makes the fact that every spell of Vorn’s went off pretty gods damned shocking.” Ark finished explaining with a confident smirk.

  Vorn sent her an impressed look, “Wow, yeah, she’s exactly right. I’m surprised, I didn’t think you would bother with magic theory since you spend so much time studying diseases.”

  “I had hoped I might be able to make my sorceries stop being such fucking mana hogs, but it sadly didn’t help. And I wasted so much time studying nerd shit. The injustice!” Ark dramatically lamented.

  Vorn rolled his eyes, like studying bacteria was less nerdy.

  “Anyway, has there been any more monster activity since Rowan and I started meditating?” Vorn asked.

  “A little. There have been a few tremors, but none have felt very close. Still, since the Scorpion snuck up on us, I can’t be too sure.” Ark answered.

  “We will just have to be cautious then. There is a very real chance that there are more monsters waiting for us out there, considering the island sized meal we left out for them.” Rowan said.

  Ark and Rexen nodded and carefully gathered their things. Evidently, they hadn’t been idle while Voran was meditating. Rexen was quick to assure them that he was working on non-toxic potions due to the lack of ventilation.

  The party exited the cave to little fanfare, the rotting corpse of the huge arachnid not having moved an inch.

  Slowly, they walked away from the cave and around the large beast. It was in the direction of the exit, however far away that was.

  Unfortunately, before they could make it far, a familiar rumbling filled the air. Sand shifted and split to reveal not one, but three of the familiar arachnids, and evidently, the one they had just killed was a juvenile.

  Where it was seven feet tall at its head, these were more than fifteen feet tall and over eighty feet long. These beasts looked like they belonged in this accursed desert.

  Rowan didn’t even try to fight it, instead rushing at his companions and handling them like ragdolls as he threw them back into the cave. If they couldn’t get through the shell of the first beast, then there was no world in which they got through these behemoths.

  Ark and her elven friend landed roughly in the cave before they could realize what was happening. They quickly scrambled to their feet but found the ground crumbling and destabilizing beneath them.

  Incredibly useful and powerful Unique Classes they may have, but that didn’t make them immune to improper footing. Still, with even dead Agility and Dexterity, at their level, it just meant that they took longer to do the impossible than not being able to do it at all.

  So they semi-quickly rushed out of the collapsing cave only to be met by Rowan doing his absolute damndest to not be instantly murdered. He was doing pretty well all things considered, but that was only because Scorpions at their core were not pack animals. The presence of more of them was a shield against larger creatures, but against one small agile target, it was nothing but a nuisance.

  They were quick to realize this themselves, well, quick for overgrown bugs at least. The largest scorpion let out a harsh click and the rest stopped attacking at once. A few more clicks, and they had retreated away from the fight, allowing what was presumably the leader free reign.

  Its gargantuan form slowly walked forward on eight legs, seemingly trying to inspire fear. Little did it know, Rowan was entirely too reckless to feel such an emotion, so he rushed the beast like a madman.

  The leviathan did not have facial features, but it seemed to radiate an aura of surprise and indignance. As if it couldn’t believe such a small and insignificant creature would attack its glorious form. Like a spiteful king, it moved to slap the annoyance out of its way, but it was even more shocked that the small creature easily moved out of the way.

  It hissed and continued attacking, but nothing was landing.

  “Vorn, not to rush you, but do you have any ideas to get us out of this mess? Don’t get me wrong, I’m loving the exercise, but this thing is absolutely going to kill me if we don’t get going soon.”

  “I’m thinking! We can’t run away from it, we can’t beat it, and I certainly can’t out fly it, not with all of us. Considering they move in familial units, they probably have a way to track each other by smell. We may have washed off-” Rowan dodged another colossal pincher aimed for his… everything.

  “Okay, the why is not important, the point is they can most likely track us by scent. If we could travel through… I have an idea. It’ll probably kill us, but that’s better than definitely being murdered.”

  “You won’t hear an argument from me. How much time do you need?”

  “None, I already made the spell a few weeks ago. I just haven’t used it because of certain… Dangers. It’s the sand repellent.”

  Rowan didn’t bother responding, simply rushing towards his friends the moment he heard that the spell was ready.

  Vorn took over the moment they reached the mouth of the cave where Ark and Rexen stood.

  “No time to explain, grab my hands.” His tone brooked no argument, and they were quick to comply.

  Behind him, Vorn could hear sand being pushed violently out of the way as the giant beast made its way to them.

  With little fanfare, a spell circle appeared at their feet. For a moment nothing happened… Then the final Rune in the spell was set alight and they were falling. Sand was blasted away from them as they fell ever faster through the dungeon.

  Above them, sand started filling in the gap they were rapidly creating, slowly choking out the light that was illuminating their long fall. It was a blur of beige and sand-whipped whirls of air.

  “I’m going to start slowing us down soon! Be prepared to-” Vorn failed to finish his sentence as his world involuntarily went absolutely still. For a moment, he was confused before he noticed a particularly dark shadow beneath him.

  As sand continued to blow away from below them, a pitch-black plane was slowly revealed beneath them. Stopping was not an option, not at their current velocity, and slowing wouldn’t help, as they were already inches away from the entrance.

  They were about to enter a Secret Dungeon.

  Fuck.

  very excited, and I might start rushing and missing shit. Sorry if that happens, if you notice anything, please let me know in the comments! I'm probably going to working on the third draft of this story for months, so every bit helps!