I see. Hmm, interesting. Now it all makes sense. Now I understand everything.

"..."

AS IF!

What the heck, system? If you want to give me notifications, at least do not censor it just to not give me a notification. Dang it.

But it's fine. Not even the system being an asshole will ruin my mood! I did pretty well, didn't I? I did amazing. I was amazing. Someone praise me, I want to show off.

No one?

It's fine then. I'll be happy by myself. As for Bambi, screw you! Not this time! I won't let another monster keep bullying me the same way Cinderbear, screw that guy, did.

Get totally destroyed. Easy, not even close.

"..."

Okay, I really need to calm down. Slow breath in, hold it, breathe out. Much better.

As I observe my body, I notice that my mana is still not fully back, and this is surely the first time something like this happened, like ever? For the first time, I actually spent what feels like a good chunk of my mana. Maybe fifty, forty percent? It's hard to guess. More testing is needed.

I'm also really proud of myself. This time, I didn't wreck my body to do something. I'm learning, slowly but surely. My control over mana is better now, and I can also strengthen my body much more than ever before, allowing me to handle larger quantities of it. And that's good, really good.

As for the attack, to be honest, I did not expect the effect it had. Did the heat and shockwave come from the mana expanding after I stopped holding it in the shape of a javelin?

The explosion was seriously strong, the shockwave is something I did expect, and the heat is a bonus. But the clear winner of the day is the following implosion. Even standing as far as I was, I was able to feel the sucking force as the air came back to fill the vacuum left as the mana expanded, even sucking in the level 156 named monster.

Poor Bambi did not have a nice end, not at all. Yet, I'm sure the curse of Bambi will return to bother me on the next floor. In the same way, I'm sure that my left arm will get broken and explode a few more times. It's something I just need to get used to.

While investing my stat points into mana, I once again go through the fight, thinking about the places where I could improve or change my reactions, or even create a better plan. I know that I was able to take it down only thanks to taking advantage of my surroundings and distracting the monster.

The goal is to take on the next one in a fair fight. Well, it's not like I'm ashamed of what I did today, totally not. If I could, I would without hesitation cheese the deer. I just want to become strong enough to not have to do that.

As I enter the hideout, I spot Lily talking to Cipher and Goldie. Cipher is even smiling at her a bit, while Goldie just stares at the petite brunette. Then Lily notices me, and a big smile flowers on her face. She immediately ignores the duo and comes running to me.

I notice a short flash of annoyance on Cipher's face before it disappears as if it never existed. The man then waves at me and points at a few filled bottles near Tess, and I nod at him. Surprisingly, Goldie seems to be even more annoyed than him, and she is not hiding it that well. But Cipher just grabs her arm and pulls her away.

Should I beat them up?

"Look, look!" But Lily is already here, waving at me with her fully restored left arm. The color is still pale, the same as mine, but she doesn't seem to be angry about it and even confirms it. "In the middle of the restoring, I learned how to give it some color, but I decided to keep it pale." Her eyes keep glancing between her and my arm, and when I try to catch her gaze, she averts it.

She is really amazing, isn't she? I remember how I had to nearly force her on the first floor to scratch her arm to practice healing it, and now there she is, regrowing arms.

"I also thought about my skills," she makes sure I'm paying attention before continuing, "I think I might be able to make myself taller, change the size of my nose, how tanned I am, and such stuff."

Oh? What the heck? Doesn't that sound super cool?

She probably sees something on my face because she proudly lifts up her nose and smiles brightly, "I think I might be amazing, like really amazing! You know, while I was restoring my left arm, I learned how to influence a few things. I'm sure I made my bones a tiny bit stronger and my skin tougher. But then I did this..." Lily then shows me one of her fingers that is noticeably longer than the others, "I made this finger longer to test if I could, and it did work! Now I'm learning how to make it shorter without having to cut it off and regrow it again."

The petite brunette then pauses, and the silence hangs between us as she looks at me as if expecting something, her eyes big and scarily direct. Knowing what to do after spending days with Isabella, I can guess what she wants to hear.

"Lily, that's super cool. Are you maybe a genius?" To that, she giggles. Even though I didn't say it as enthusiastically as some people would, she seems to be happy, and I don't mind it that much.

While walking towards my usual place and leaving Lily to play with Isabella and poor Biscuit, once again snatched by the girl, I continue to inspect people around me. I'm especially checking for suspicious mana close to their brains, Sophie's mana.

I don't find any yet. Sophie feels my probing, and I'm sure she is realizing what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. Yet she doesn't say anything. There isn't even an angry look on her face as she stares at me.

I then again and especially carefully check Lily, Tess, Biscuit, Kim. Only Tess notices my probing, and I feel her mana moving away after she realizes it's me, letting me probe her without any resistance.

There is nothing.

"Nothing?" Tess asks as I sit down.

"Nothing," I confirm.

"Did you kill it?" she asks.

Huh? How did you know?

"I'm not dumb, Nat." Tess continues without me having to answer.

"It's dead," I decide not to hide it and tell her about the hunt, to which she nods.

"I also reached level 75 and got an upgrade token." Her eyes meet mine, and she asks, "Are you going to use it the way I think you will?"

Why are you so smart? Why do you know me so well? I'm trying to be mysterious here.

"I think you don't have to hesitate. I already used mine." A small smile flashes across her face, "I still didn't meet all the requirements, though, I'm missing three and I don't think you met them all either." Then she stands up and leaves, going for another hunt, I'm left alone in the corner of the hideout. Carefully sipping the water from one of the bottles, enjoying every drop, and then eating a small piece of sparrow that the natives hunted with their trap.

I check the tokens I have.

[Upgrade token: 1]

[Difficulty change token: 1]

I wanted to wait a bit longer to not be enticed the entire time, but now I think I can resist, or maybe it just won't work as I didn't meet the requirements.

I move my eyes over my stats. I'm sure I can upgrade my trait Mana Circuit. It would probably help a lot, but it's not what I want. I can also probably upgrade my class and my skills. Maybe even my constructs and passive skills are possible to upgrade.

Any of these options would give me a massive boost to my strength, but there is something even more alluring. My eyes move again and pause at one word: "Mana."

Yes, I think it is possible to upgrade my attribute, and just the thought of it sends shivers down my back. The boost would be immense, I can tell for sure. Yet, I still hesitate. I'm not totally sure if I will be able to upgrade my attribute, and I can't even try it as the system rarely offers a confirmation window. So if I decide to do it, the upgrade token will be gone.

But there is something else I saved it for. I wanted to use it even since the first floor, but then stuff happened. The petite brunette that was too nice to me for her own good. The brunette that I owe a lot and can't leave alone before paying it all back or at least making sure she will be as safe as possible.

So I kept saving the token, careful to not get lured by it, and used it in a moment of weakness. Still, I decide to trust Tess, "Use the upgrade token on the difficulty change token," I whisper softly, and the upgrade token disappears from my status.

New notifications appears.

Congratulations, you have fulfilled three out of four conditions required to use the %e^*nd D#ff!culty entrance token!