Inside the Cathedral Courtyard – Tactical Shift
The first wave crashes toward James like a black tide.
Thousands.
But James doesn't charge blindly.
He switches modes.
Not brute force.
Calculation.
His 7,305 Intelligence begins running layered battlefield simulations while his 7,880 Mana compresses with microscopic precision.
Long-Range Constructed Techniques
James extends one hand.
Mana condenses into a narrow filament.
MANA BEAM
A concentrated linear discharge.
Diameter: 4 cm
Density: Extreme compression
Output: Piercing-type damage
Effective Range: 600+ meters
He fires.
A cobalt beam tears through fifty undead in a straight line, vaporizing torsos and shattering cores mid-body.
No wasted motion.
No wasted mana.
MANA SLASH
He rotates his wrist.
A crescent blade of hyper-compressed mana that forms an edge thinner than paper.
He flicks it outward.
It expands mid-flight.
A horizontal wave cuts through advancing bone knights, severing armor and limbs cleanly.
Mana efficiency: Optimized.
MANA EXPLOSION ORBS
James creates rotating spheres the size of baseballs.
Each one contains layered pressure shells.
He flickers Forward in a supersonic burst.
Drops one orb into the center of a horde.
Snaps his fingers.
The sphere implodes inward first…
Then detonates outward.
A 30-meter radius disintegration zone.
Mana cores scatter across broken marble.
Then he moves.
Not fast.
Not "very fast."
He vanishes.
Agility + Perception synergy.
To the undead, he becomes a blue distortion.
To the Revenant King
A blur barely trackable.
James weaves through the army:
Crushing skulls with precise palm strikes
Piercing cores with mana-thread fingers
Dropping micro-explosions mid-sprint
Collecting cores mid-motion
His storage counter begins ticking upward rapidly.
+1 Core
+3 Cores
+5 Cores
Efficiency mode activated.
He is farming.
And the Revenant King's mana pool fluctuates.
Because every undead death restores him
But James is killing them faster than the King predicted.
The monarch narrows his burning eyes.
POV Switch – Outside the dungeon
The sky above the dungeon fissure churns unnaturally.
Governments worldwide have detected the mana spike.
Elite awakened units have been deployed.
Most are Level 15–20.
Far weaker than James.
But far beyond normal humans.
UNITED STATES –
STRATEGIC MANA DIVISION
Name: Adrian Cole
Level: 20
Ability: Quantum Vector Manipulation
Personality: Calm, analytical, slightly sarcastic
He adjusts his glasses while hovering 10 meters above ground.
Ability allows:
Redirecting kinetic force
Altering projectile trajectory
Reducing incoming impact vectors
Bullets bend around him.
Missiles lose momentum mid-air.
He works directly under the Department of Defense.
"Mana spike just doubled… something's fighting down there."
CHINA – HEAVENLY ASCENSION BUREAU
Name: Lin Xue
Level: 18
Ability: Jade Spirit Constructs
Personality: Disciplined, patriotic, cold under pressure
She summons crystalline green spirit guardians shaped like ancient warriors.
Each construct fights independently.
Her control radius is massive.
She stands atop an armored convoy calmly issuing orders.
"No one enters the breach without authorization."
Russia – Obsidian Vanguard
Name: Viktor Malenkov
Level: 19
Ability: Gravitic Compression
Personality: Stoic, blunt, iron-willed
He increases localized gravity fields.
Tanks flatten.
Concrete craters under his step.
Currently reinforcing perimeter barricades.
"If it comes out… we crush it."
FRANCE – ARCANE INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE
Name: Camille Laurent
Level: 17
Ability: Neural Overclock
Personality: Curious, observant, slightly reckless
Her mind processes information at extreme speed.
She predicts enemy movement patterns seconds ahead.
Currently analyzing mana readings from afar.
"This fluctuation isn't natural… something inside is evolving."
SOUTH AFRICA – RIFT MONITORING AUTHORITY
Name: Thabo Ndlovu
Level: 16
Ability: Earthpulse Resonance
Personality: Grounded, steady, protective
He can sense subterranean vibrations and mana tremors through terrain.
Right now, his brow furrows deeply.
"The ground isn't just shaking…"
"It's synchronizing."
BACK INSIDE –
James stands atop a pile of shattered bone.
Hundreds down.
Thousands still remain.
His movements remain efficient.
Precise.
But then
The Revenant King raises one hand slightly.
The entire remaining horde suddenly shifts formation.
No longer mindless.
They move in coordinated phalanx lines.
Shield walls.
Archer wraiths lifting bone bows.
Cavalry-type skeletal beasts forming outer rings.
The King speaks again.
"Enough harvesting."
"Now endure."
The undead charge in structured waves.
James' perception flares.
This just evolved from farming
To siege warfare.
And outside the barrier, the Revenant King finally takes one step forward.
The true battle had began as the hordes swarm James, as began slaughtering every enemy sent his way...
The swarm of enemies had James hyper focused..
Time loses meaning inside the barrier.
There is no sunrise.
No sunset.
Only bone.
And battle.
The first three days are chaos.
Wave after wave.
Shield formations. Archer volleys. Suicide rushes.
James adapts.
He stops using flashy attacks.
Stops wasting mana on overkill.
He shifts to precision combat.
One strike per core.
One slash per cluster.
Minimal explosions.
Controlled beam bursts.
His Endurance (7,522+) keeps his muscles from tearing under constant supersonic bursts and he can keep fighting for weeks without the need for sleep.
His Mana (7,880+) regenerates steadily, stabilized by Riftborn efficiency.
His Perception (7,210+) keeps him from taking lethal hits.
He gets cut.
Pierced.
Bruised.
But never critically wounded.
At the far end of the courtyard, atop a throne built from fused femurs and skulls, the Revenant King sits.
He does not intervene.
He studies.
Every undead death sends a stream of mana upward..
And into him.
His Mana stat increases steadily.
Not dramatically.
But consistently.
The monarch is pleased.
"Yes… Riftborn…"
"Refine yourself so I can add you to my collection ."
He is farming too.
James just doesn't know it.
Week Two...
James' movements become frighteningly efficient.
He no longer breathes heavily.
His body has adapted.
His mind is quiet.
Every motion is calculated.
He has been using his Rift Pull ability continuously.
When a core drops 100 meters away—
Space distorts slightly.
It vanishes.
And appears in his palm mid-sprint.
Stored instantly.
No backtracking.
No wasted time.
The courtyard is now layered in bone dust.
Mountains of corpses form barricades.
And the horde shrinks.
10,000 becomes 7,000.
7,000 becomes 5,000.
By the end of Week Two
Only 2,000 undead remain.
And they are the strongest ones.
Elite bone knights.
Mutated stitched abominations.
Mana-fused skeletal beasts.
All remaining undead on Floor 2 are here.
There are no reinforcements left.
Only three true threats remain:
1. The remaining 2,000 elite undead
2. The Giant Necrotic Tentacle Beast beneath the black sludge sea
3. The Revenant King himself
The monarch leans forward slightly on his throne.
His mana pressure has grown heavier.
Denser.
More oppressive.
He is stronger than he was two weeks ago.
And James has no idea why.
And speaking of James...
XP has flowed nonstop.
Constant kills.
Constant scaling.
Level Progression
Starting Level at Siege Beginning: 35
Current Level: 48
Total Levels Gained: +13
Each level auto-boosted his stats.
Current Stats
(Before Any New Core Allocation)
Base After Previous Allocation (All ~7,000)
After +13 levels of scaling:
Stat Current Value
STRENGTH : 8,970
AGILITY : 8,910
ENDURANCE :8,995
INTELLIGENCE : 8,640
MANA : 9,780
PERCEPTION : 8,520
He is nearing Level 50 territory.
His movements now crack the air casually.
Mana control is near surgical perfection.
Mana Cores Collected During 2-Week Siege
The numbers are staggering.
From killing thousands:
Minor Cores × 1,320
Greater Cores × 610
Elite Cores × 142
Total New Cores: 2,072
Each worth 500+ stat points.
2,072 × 500 = 1,036,000 Stored Stat Points
Plus previous 0 (since he allocated earlier).
Total Stored Stat Points Now:
1,036,000 (Unallocated)
He hasn't touched them.
He's waiting.
Adapting first.
Growing naturally.
2,000 undead remain.
They form a defensive perimeter around the throne.
The ground beneath the cathedral trembles.
Deep below
The necrotic ocean churns.
Something massive shifts.
The Giant Tentacle Beast senses the thinning army.
It is almost time for it to surface.
James stands alone in the center of a bone desert.
His clothes torn.
His body marked with scars.
But his eyes are steady.
Mana coils around him in controlled spirals.
He raises one hand slowly.
2,000 enemies stare back.
At the far end
The Revenant King finally rises from his throne.
Mana explodes outward like a black sun.
The true endgame approaches.
And James still doesn't realize…
The King's mana stat has been climbing this entire time.