"Nice, just gonna go ahead and seal that off." I saw a shimmer of white and green energy snap over the entrance. "And we can talk strategy!"

The entrance safe room was much the same as last time, covered in vines and oddly glowing. Though the vines looked more withered and the stone in the walls had more of what I realized was probably null-infused rock.

"Uh, did you just seal me in?" I asked, already starting to regret my decision.

"It's more about blocking others from entering but, as it stands, yup, you are sealed in. I can let you out at any point but I started deploying my senses shortly after I regained my wits and that Tiesa lady is going to destroy me if she gets a chance. Especially after she figures out what Jasna did." The voice was slowly speeding up.

"I like her! Good head on her shoulders! Plus, I need to get AAI access to her so I can read some of those books she mentioned! I only have what's been dropped in here! And it's mostly cultivation garbage, some awful romance books, or one guy really loved books about snakes. I can't even make them but I know so much about how the little critters work and live. They seem pretty cool but still, seventeen books about snakes? In your mundane backpack you take into a dungeon? No wonder I ate you bud."

"Let's go back to me being sealed in here," I said testily.

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #6: Set ground rules and keep everyone on task, especially when dealing with people – or entities – that clearly have both boundary issues and ADHD.

"My dude – ooh, I love that one – so, my dude, it is a need, not a want. If you don't do what I need, I get destroyed. I'm smart enough to know that. Or even if you do and you take me to Tiesa, I don't survive either. You truly are my only hope. What's a Leia?"

"One, focus. Two, stop jumping into my mind. It's creepy. Or if you do, don't let me know. No one will like that so even if you survive this, you will piss off people enough you might get killed anyway." I knew it was a testy reply but constantly being reminded of Earth after a long day of almost dying was no longer my idea of fun.

"Oh shit, got it. And yeah, couldn't jump into any of their heads, only yours. Weird huh? Same for why I could put stuff in your ring. Lots of room after you got rid of that wolf. If they weren't so null-heavy, I'd say leave the corpses here for me to eat!"

"You accessed my ring?"

"No shit Sherlock, how else do you think I gave you your reward? Wait, did you think I didn't give you one? And you still came in?" She started laughing. "You trusting dingus – oh, now that… whoops, sorry – but you really are a dingus. Why would you believe me?"

I shrugged. "Our souls felt linked. I hate the kindred spirits mumbo jumbo from Earth – yes, mumbo jumbo is another great one," I said as I heard her gasp of glee. "Anyway, I felt a spiritual connection like I was supposed to partner up with you. And no, not in the Jasna's book way," I quickly added.

"Yuck, you aren't my type anyway! Wait, do I have a type? Well, if I do, it's certainly not you!" I felt the image of someone sticking their tongue out at me.

"Uh, can we get to the point? Banter is fun and all but… the longer we delay, the greater the chance Tiesa first, discovers I'm in here and second, breaks in and destroys you."

"Yeah, good point, good point. Okay, you've seen the recordings of delves from before things went to hell in a handbasket, right? Well, that's basically what I'm going to do: release one enemy at a time but they are overloaded with null essence. I discovered towards the end there I could tweak the amount of essence in a monster and even the affinity of it. But I already had a set number of rooms for that delve from my not-so-sane state and could only adjust things so much. But that's why my last two rooms were so… ridiculous."

"Any reason you don't do that again and give me some fire capabilities?" I asked.

"Yeah, one is that it didn't purge the affinity that well. No idea why. And the second is that it isn't what you actually want, you want a challenge and to earn it. Nope, not doing the mind thing – though English is so much cooler than any language here – I just heard you talking about it. Those enchantments on the carriage are utter hot garbage by the way, you should give Katarina so much grief."

God, it's like dealing with a puppy. Or a four year old who just had a bunch of sugary snacks before they crash.

"Ugh, that's rude to think!" she said. "Oh yeah, it probably is ruder to invade your mind. We'll have to work on that for the future. Good point, I will need a name. Let's think of one when we're through this, no need to rush. And no, Glados is not an acceptable name… though maybe I can give you a cake as a reward… Nope, no sugar, eggs, flour, or an oven here…"

"FOCUS!" I finally shouted.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Okay, I'll be sending monster after monster at you but only one at a time. At least until you tell me to move it to more and more at once. I know you've trained for it and it's the next step in the challenge, no? Now, get that cool shield out of your storage to replace your lame and dented one!"

I checked my ring and could sense many new things: seven healing potions, three universal antidotes, two potion belts, and a shield. I took out the belts first and slung them in a crisscross on my hips, all to the dungeon's subtle booing at not starting with the shield.

Expecting it to be something like the Captain America shield, I was maybe a quarter right. It was more rounded than I expected but had what looked like missing pieces all around the edge.

From what Risto told me, these were used for snagging opponent weapons or the limbs of beasts – they were a slightly different coloring and I guessed they were a different metal since they would be the most fragile parts of the shield and could use some reinforcement.

Since the snagging could easily go both ways, getting your shield ripped from your hands, they were enchanted to only deploy on command. I pushed a bit of mana into the shield and the gaps filled in instantly.

Remembering I had a spiritual sense to check it out further, I felt for more enchantments. Since I was so new to the process, I had no idea what the enchantments I discovered did but the dungeon helpfully chimed in with hardness, self-repair, toughness, and minor enhanced bleed enchantments.

That last one is a little sinister for a shield.

There were no embellishments which I thought was a shame.

"Yeah, I actually removed the previous picture. It was of a scantily clad woman and that felt weird as hell," the dungeon helpfully mentioned.

"Just who did you kill?" I couldn't help but wonder out loud.

"Eh, that one has been with me for over a decade apparently so I can't remember him. Not even sure they were a guy but would a woman walk around with a naked lady shield?"

It was extremely light and covered a significant part of my body. I wondered if it would be good to throw and tried once in the starting room.

"Yeah, no," both the dungeon and I said simultaneously.

"Okay, I'm ready, bring on the parade of enemies," I said and pounded on the shield with my morningstar, slightly dulling a spike on the weapon. "No one saw that," I muttered to giggling from the dungeon.

"Oh, I won't be able to talk with you outside of this room. If you need to rest or chat, come back here. I can hear you but can only send you feelings when you're in the dungeon proper. Now, go clear out some null for me! And take off that bracelet, there's no use since you're the only one here."

I did as she said and opened the door, seeing a large mantis about 60 feet (20m) from the opening and an impossibly long hallway after with a true horde of monsters, all seemingly waiting their turn.

"Let's do this!" I yelled and charged forward, only tripping slightly.

***

I was in a good rhythm, alternating between the large mantis creatures, ants, and spiders one after the other. I took a break in the safe room every five minutes or six kills, whichever was sooner.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The mantises were excellent for training my timing and using my shield for deflecting blows. Their arm swings were fast but mostly predictable so I was able to get my shield in the way and quickly follow up with a morningstar to the chest or on the arm I had just redirected.

The one time I went for a quick killing blow to the head, I almost got cut and my tunic over my chain shirt had a huge slash through it. I wasn't sure if my armor would have fully stopped the blow if I hadn't leapt backwards in a last second dodge.

Still, my pattern for the mantises were essentially a deflect and jab wear-down strategy, exactly how I said I wanted to fight. Feeling in control of the process was incredibly rewarding and I got faster and faster with dispatching them even if my fatigue was starting to increase.

The ants were great for training my footing as the heavy monsters tried to use brute strength and weight. Letting them tire themselves out as well as focusing on leverage and quick reversals was somewhat boring but let me gain a lot of experience in waiting for the perfect time to counter.

If my shield got a bit too much of their acid on it, I let it self-repair for a minute or so while channeling my otherwise useless mana into it but it never felt like it was in danger of taking any real lasting damage.

The spiders were pure chaos and the most fun. They loved to jump around and shoot webs at odd angles. One time, one managed to get its webbing to the ceiling above and I got a fair bit of practice with my throwing knives. Five were actually stuck to the webbing holding it above me before I got one to fully cut through.

The mass 'yarp' of six knives coming into range of my throwing knife vest at once almost threw me off my rhythm as I swung upwards while it plummeted, impaling it on my morningstar.

Which wasn't a great idea as it didn't immediately die and I was in range of its legs, which it tried to use to pass me to its mouth. I leapt back, summoned my warhammer, and summarily smashed the beast but learned a valuable lesson about trading an eventually fatal blow and leaving myself open.

With every kill, I felt the essence flow into me, as pure as I could ever hope for. The monsters looked far scarier being so null heavy, much like the wolves with starkly white carapaces and flesh but crazed purple-tinted dark eyes. Even the blood was odd, a sluggish black that seemed to absorb the light itself.

After I spent two whole hours mostly clearing the first room, I took a 30 minute rest in the safe room.

"What was that at the end? I felt you saying things to me randomly while I was fighting."

"You needed more of a challenge and were too much of a small cat. Wait no a—"

"I got it, I got it. You wanted me to take on more at a time. Anyway, my spirit is feeling pretty full… I already Tiered-up to 1.1 last time but I feel… metaphorically stuffed?"

"Yeah, from the 15 different cultivation manuals I've got here, it looks like you just need to spend a bit of effort to direct it towards your kind of general 'core area' through your essence channels and then you can choose which core once it lands. Though most recommend mainly physical cultivation for Tier 1 with a bit to magical and with no real specialization in either of the two cores."

"Can you read one to me? Whichever you think is the best one based on comparing and contrasting." I was really curious as Stannis seemed to think my manual was so garbage I didn't even look at it after leaving Zalano.

God, that feels like a year ago but it was barely a week.

As the dungeon walked me through a manual, I felt my ring trying to siphon some of the essence.

"Anything in there about allocating essence to items?" I asked hopefully.

"Other than 'don't'? I guess there is one that is a researcher-focused one. Seems like that is from more recently, about the time I started to gain sentience. Here, let me walk you through what it says."

We spent the next twenty minutes going over it and I slowly fed small amounts of the essence I was cycling into my cores to the ring as well.

"Ooh, that ring is growing, that's so cool! It can store more things than when it came in! That's awesome! Wait, is that normal?" The dungeon seemed to be back to excited about anything other than the delve.

"I don't think so – at least that's what I've been told – and my guess is barely better than yours. Like it's not unheard of for weapons and armor but it sounded like it was odd for items to get much benefit from essence."

"Cool beans. Oh wow, that is a dorky phrase. I am totally using that one again! Did you want me to read to you from one of the romance books someone left while you wait?"

Without waiting for an answer, she started reading the most raunchy parts she could find so I quickly made my way back out and started taking on multiple enemies at once.

***

The wasp made a beeline for me, which almost caught me in making a joke to myself. My slip-up earlier in the day that nearly killed me and/or Pavel was still fresh enough for me to stay alert.

I feinted to the right, rolled to the left, and brought my morningstar in for a sweeping strike counterclockwise to smash the shooter and bring my shield up in time to catch the pincer with the grabbing nooks in my shield – I need to ask someone what those are called – and quickly broke the stinger off the giant beast.

It went berserk, trying desperately to bite at me while I tried to get enough leverage for a good strike while imposing my shield.

The second room had been mostly stark white plants but they were relatively easy to take down, especially with some of the torches in my ring and my throwing knives.

The third was similar to what we had done earlier in the day with spotlights that expanded until they overlapped, giving free movement for any beast that had been trapped in the spotlight to move much further.

However, there was a mechanism at the back of the room that reset the spotlights and dropped in new monsters. It had started normally but the shooters added in a new element as they could still shoot across spotlights, making positioning far more important.

With a shield bash and a quick overhead swing, I managed to break one of the wasp's mandibles, meaning its bite was far less dangerous. Taking a calculated risk, I let it get around the side of my shield, bringing my shield and morningstar together, essentially squishing as best I could.

It landed a few feeble strikes with its legs but all they did was further cut up my clothing.

"Okay, looks like that is round three of fifteen. Time to go again," I said to myself and hit the reset, jogging back to the start.

A giant caterpillar landed in the first spotlight, two shooters in the second, a mantis in the third, two more shooters in the fourth, and I couldn't see well enough past that.

"I didn't even get to call it! That's BS and you know it dungeon!" I yelled while laughing, immediately running at the caterpillar.

It struck out with it front four sets of legs, an overwhelming attack straight at my center mass.

Instead of trying to weather the blow, I jumped slightly, deflecting the strikes downward.

As it awkwardly was forced towards the ground, I swung in an arc, crippling the top set of legs. Before it could react, I dove over its grounded back and paused for a quarter second before diving to the right and advancing towards the second light.

The caterpillar screamed as two hardened stingers embedded along its flank but I was focused on taking out one shooter before either could reload.

Sprinting forward, I tried a sweeping strike low at the two creatures that were essentially large crickets with a cannon on top. My goal was to take out a leg on each, making it far harder to aim.

These shooters were quite a bit more intelligent than the last batch as both lifted the legs I had aimed for – the forward leg that was nearly touching the other shooter.

Knowing this was a possibility, I enacted 'Mission Topple Two, Create Bug Goo', slipping my shield under the legs that were in the air and jumping as high as I could, knocking both shooters briefly onto their side.

The shooters from spotlight four both fired at me in the air but the momentum was mostly spent and each pinged off my shield as I looked for a place to land.

I considered a morningstar swing with my added weight from my enhanced leap but knew it would leave my back too exposed.

Instead, I did my best Jean Claude van Dam impression and spread my legs wide to come down in a stomp on each of the toppled shooters.

Neither blow was devastating but both accomplished my goal: hampering their mobility and damaging the shooting mechanism enough to leave them behind safely.

I quickly made my way past the single mantis, bringing up my shield to block a telegraphed blow. It was powerful and sent me sprawling sideways but it was still enough to get by. I paused to let the shooters from spotlight four get a bead on me before moving again. Unfortunately, they didn't hit the mantis but that was acceptable.

I have this down. By the end of this, I'll be able to take on a full set like we did today.

I tried again for a swinging low sweep at the shooters but kept my morningstar slightly higher, still trying to catch the legs. It worked, toppling both shooters. I roared in triumph.

Then shrieked in surprise

Both cannons were far more ambulatory than I thought as they aimed at me from the ground.

I brought my shield up and dove to the right, blocking one while the other grazed my calf. Limping slightly, I smashed the one closer to me in one angry blow, sending legs and viscera flying everywhere and pressed my shield on the other, sweeping its legs out and pressing it to the ground while it weakly shot another round into my shield. I rolled off and angrily smashed it two times with my weapon in sharp overhead strikes.

I don't have time for the potion, moving beyond the second spotlight caused the other spotlights to expand faster.

"Anything you can do to help would be great!" I yelled as I ran back towards the mantis. The last three spotlights were two ants, two spiders, and two mantises respectively, something I could easily handle but not if they overlapped.

I used a fast shield bash and hooked the mantis under the chin, swinging over quickly and braining it. It managed to slash out as I turned back towards the last three spotlights but I jumped out of the way and it fell still.

The last three battles were frenetic as I prepared to have the caterpillar from the first spotlight arrive at any time. They weren't that fast but it was still an ever-present danger.

Just as all the spotlights overlapped, I finished off the last mantis and sprinted to meet the caterpillar rather than let it charge me down, coming to a stop where the third spotlight had been with a dead mantis acting as a barrier.

I began with a fake of the move I'd used to get past it, letting it drive down towards me with multiple legs before jumping. Unfortunately, I didn't have the same momentum.

My jump on a slightly injured leg wasn't high enough.

The large beast crashed into my shield and knocked me over. I managed to bop it lightly on the head with my morningstar, drawing a slight amount of blood.

We entered a war of attrition, me slowly taking down its twenty legs, one by one, while it continued to hammer on my shield.

As I was tiring, I baited the furry monstrosity into a fatal mistake, showing it my side for it to dive at while I dropped my shield and morningstar and rolled underneath.

With a dagger in each hand, I slashed in a giant X, spilling the putrid guts and colorless viscera of four abdominal sections all over my face and chest.

It let out a piteous moan and I had to kick up with all my might, driving the daggers deeper with my boots.

I swung around and grabbed my shield and morningstar in case it countered but it wasn't needed. I brought my morningstar down on its head and roared my victory.

THUNK

THUNK

My roar was cut short by a spray of red from my mouth.

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