In another room of the same dungeon, Haruka stood at the center.
When she turned, she saw a monstrosity herself.
"What in the hell is that?"
A beast, light blue in color fur, stood before her. Its size was that of a lion, with the physique of a cheetah. The front paws had claws sharp enough to pierce through any skin, and its legs stretched back in a way that made its agility obvious just from appearance alone. As much of a monster as it looked, it had a calm face with blue diamond eyes and a white muzzle that extended down to a thin, ribbon-like white tail. That tail split at the end, curving from both sides with a small gap to the body toward the face—almost making it look like a mustache, though it was just the tail shaped that way.
As friendly as it looked, the mana and hostility were obvious as the beast slowly became conscious.
The moment it locked eyes with Haruka, it completely proved itself to be hostile—a monster, not some calm, tamable creature.
Even after locking eyes, the beast didn't move.
Haruka stood still, fifty meters away, prepared to counter any attack it would unleash.
But the beast remained motionless for a full minute.
Then, Haruka noticed a subtle movement.
But something was… off.
The beast slowly began to feel like it wasn't the same anymore.
That's when Haruka realized what had happened.
It melted down in liquid—its body proved to be only water, flowed down like honey, it was a water clone.
Haruka gasped in sudden realization and immediately tried to turn around.
But it was too late.
Before she could react, she was struck in the back by a paw. She went flying and rolled across the floor. The claws had pierced about half a centimeter into her back, leaving a wound that stained her clothes and splattered several drops of blood across the floor as she rolled.
She kept rolling until she finally stopped herself, struggling with her hands and feet.
She had rolled all the way near the wall—that's how far the single hit had sent her.
The beast now stood where it originally had, but this time it didn't feel to be, or trying to make a clone. Haruka stood up, her face wincing in pain, her heart racing, and letting out the kind of sighs anyone would make after taking a wound like that.
"Ugh... Flame Sealing, seal my wound."
Haruka's powers were both fire and water—though she primarily relied on fire. One of her few specialized abilities was Flame Sealing. It allowed her to seal any matter by copying the properties of the surrounding material—in this case, her skin. It wasn't direct healing, but sealing. It soothed the pain almost completely, prevented further blood loss, and stopped the wound from becoming a permanent scar.
The wound slowly sealed, the skin spreading over it like a fungus—but faster. It didn't restore her lost cells or blood, but the pain was gone and so was the risk of having a permanent scar.
She sighed, seeing the beast still standing there. She backed herself against the wall, at least making sure it wouldn't get in her blind spot, ever.
"Haruka, think... how can you defeat something like this?"
The beast didn't move, simply observing her with those glowing blue diamond eyes—shining like stars.
Not long after she had sealed her wound, the beast roared—like a lion.
Haruka tensed as she saw what followed. To both sides of the beast, several water clones rose from the ground.
"One, two, three, four... twenty clones?"
The clones lined up at its sides—twenty on each side, making the total number forty-one including the real one. They looked identical in every way. Since the clones were formed from water, and the water itself was shaped by mana, each one emitted the same mana presence, making it impossible to distinguish the real one.
All of them—including the real one—suddenly started running in random patterns across the same area. They weaved close together, moving so fast that within a single second, Haruka had already lost track of the real one.
After about four or five seconds, they stopped and lined up once again.
The beast was aware that water clones wouldn't even be able to harm someone with mana flowing throughout their body—but that wasn't the point. It wanted to confuse her.
Haruka, however, wasn't worried in the slightest.
Though she was normally a scaredy cat, when her life was on the line, she was the complete opposite. Her calmness in life-or-death situations was unmatched.
"Ah… you think you're slick with the clones, but I've got some bad news for you," she muttered to herself.
The beast didn't know Haruka was different.
Ever since she was little, she had always been extremely sensitive to how mana reacted to anything. She could tell when someone was low on mana, and even how much mana someone originally had in their pool—even if they were running low. She could sense if someone was injured, exhausted, or perfectly healthy—so long as they had mana, she could sense it.
When the beast previously switched with a clone, it had just covered itself in water while hiding inside of it. It only needed less than a second to catch her off guard, purely due to its insane speed.
But now, Haruka could clearly distinguish which ones were clones, and where the real one was.
Being as clever as she was, she acted like she was confused—faking worry to fool the monster.
She understood something vital:
The monsters in this dungeon weren't mindless creatures that attacked without thought. They had coordination. They had tactics.
But even if these monsters were intelligent…
A monster was still a monster.
And no matter how smart it was—it couldn't match the intellect of a human.
In another part of the dungeon, Daiki stood in the middle of the mossy cobblestone room.
He looked behind, and what he saw was nothing short of terrifying—it almost gave him PTSD.
He saw none other than a Manaless Manipulator, also known as a Cloaked Manipulator, the same kind as the Black Cloaked Manipulator he had fought before.
But Daiki wasn't as worried this time—because this Cloaked Manipulator hadn't reached phase two yet.
It was completely black in phase one, but this one was all white on the outside, marking it as a Phase One complete and hadn't begun phase 2.
"I've had some bad experiences with Cloaked Manipulators, but this time, I guess I'm far more prepared than last time... considering how much I trained after fighting and losing miserably to the Black Cloaked Manipulator," Daiki sighed.
Daiki had bad memories tied to this creature. But today? He might just do the opposite as last time—because now, he had experience.
At the very least, he knew not to charge in recklessly like before.
Daiki pointed his fingers at the floating cloak.
"This time, I'm going to win."
He prepared himself. This time, he was different.
Instead of using pistols like before, Daiki had learned to create something completely on another level using his Creation.
He had learned to create the Barrett XM109—the most powerful sniper rifle known to mankind.
Not only had he created the weapon itself, but he had also practiced using it properly.
But little did Daiki know, the dungeon wasn't designed to simply throw strong enemies at people.
It analyzed a person's entire life the moment they entered—and gave the one enemy they were most likely to struggle against.
It didn't matter how strong Daiki had become. That strength only meant something outside the dungeon.
In simpler terms—he wasn't getting out easy, no matter how much stronger he was now.
Daiki took the offensive first. He fired a shot from his sniper, aiming it directly at the enemy.
The enemy didn't move. It floated, nonchalant and fearless.
But the moment the bullet got within a meter of the Cloaked Manipulator, something—or someone—appeared in front of it.
The bullet was reflected.
Daiki couldn't see what had stopped it in time, but he knew that if he didn't dodge—he was dead.
He immediately leapt to the right. The jump was rough—extremely rough—and the bullet flew past his ear, taking out a strand of his air as it passed.
"Damn it."
His leg hurt from the impact of a sudden, unprepared jump.
It was then that he saw what had reflected his bullet.
"A freaking sword?"
A pitch-black katana—made entirely of Black Diamond. Its surface radiated heavy mana pressure, and its build looked unbreakable.
The sword floated mid-air with no wielder, yet it moved like a fighter of its own.
Daiki stood up, shocked.
A sword had just deflected a bullet moving faster than the gun that fired it.
"What in the world am I witnessing?"
Daiki gave a small chuckle.
Oddly enough, it wasn't terror—it was humor.
Anyone else in his situation would've been panicking, especially with Daiki's own history with Cloaked Manipulators.
But for some reason… he found it funny.
The floating sword hovered as if controlled, and then suddenly—out of thin air—another identical sword appeared in front of the Cloaked Manipulator.
It didn't move. It simply hovered.
Daiki assumed the second sword was for defense, and the first for offense.
It looked like telekinesis was controlling them.
And it seemed the swords were the only weapons the enemy had.
The offensive sword shot toward Daiki, point-first, like a high-speed missile.
But Daiki's teleportation was faster.
He instantly moved to the far left corner of the room—putting serious distance between him and the enemy.
More than dodging, he had a plan.
"That's a nice weapon you've got. Mind if I take it?"
Daiki's Creation ability had a known flaw—or maybe, an advantage depending on how you saw it.
His creations were inferior to the real thing unless he had seen the object with his own eyes.
That's why back during his spar with Kuroto, when he created a Diamond Shield, it turned out far weaker than the real deal—because he had never seen one in reality, obviously.
But this time?
He had seen it.
That was the reason he gave a chuckle when he saw a freaking sword.
A real, combat-tier Black Diamond sword.
That meant now he could create the same exact thing.
Daiki extended his hand, as the sword missed, it took a turn when seeing where Daiki had gone.
It hadn't noticed him immediately—or maybe it was the Cloaked Manipulator controling it, and he hadn't noticed Daiki's movement that time.
It took Daiki a few seconds to complete the sword.
The moment it finished materializing—it was heavy. So heavy he almost dropped it.
Daiki focused on his hand's strength to grip the heavy sword easily.
He got into his stance—just as the enemy sword flew toward him once again.
This time?
He was ready.
As the enemy sword arrived, Daiki clashed swords with it directly.
The impact sounded sharp, metallic—like two expert swordsmen striking each other mid-flash.
The enemy sword shifted from a stabbing motion into a dueling stance mid-air, as if being held by an actual swordsman.
The two swords collided again.
And again.
And again—each strike faster than the last.
They moved at speeds no normal human could even hope to match.
It was then that Daiki had a realization, the sword wasn't manipulated with telekinesis but was an alive being… he felt it.