The moment I completely pulled myself out of the searing pool of magma, the world exploded into colors I had never seen before. Not literally, but everything felt clear in a way it never had before. A certain clarity that felt familiar but also very alien.

  It felt strange, but it was not something to think about now. The adrenaline that rushed through me as I breached the surface was still coursing through me, drenching me in a rush of excitement. However, while I was very happy to have finally escaped the magma, I was still deep inside of the Great Labyrinth, the very same dungeon that dumbass goliath spider came from.

  I didn't doubt for even a second that I was way deeper than wherever instructor Carmelia pulled that thing from. Because the mace-like blow the spider hit me with during our mutual fall straight up knocked my lights out, I had no idea how long and deep I fell.

  However, if a goddamn pool of magma was any indication, it was probably very deep. The pool itself was gigantic as well, stretching way further than my eyes could realistically perceive. On top of that, it wasn't even the only pool of boiling hot magma I could see. They were everywhere! It was like I landed straight in hell. A hellscape straight out of a fairytale. Maybe I did die after all?

  Nah, all of this felt too real to be the afterlife. What would be the point of an afterlife if it was indistinguishably similar to the life before? It would be incredibly stupid if that were the case. I also still had my system interface, and I doubt that it would follow me even in death.

  Well, while I wasn't dead yet, my situation wasn't too promising. I had no food and no water, and anything I previously owned burned or melted away in the magma. While I was effectively naked now, there wasn't anyone to see here, and the presence of the red-hot molten rock automatically provided a quite comfortable air temperature.

  It was probably way too hot for any normal human being, but my passive skill turned that immense heat into a quiet comfort. While food and water were indeed a problem for the future, they weren't really problematic right now. Not here, at least.

  I didn't die of thirst inside of the magma pool, which basically implies that even that is somehow covered by [Photo-Thermic Synthesis]. They're really stretching the definition of synthesis here, aren't they? Not that I'm complaining, though. That skill is by far the best one I have. Curious that an uncommon grade class like mine can even get something so ridiculously overpowered. It seemed more like something that a [Hero] should have, but who cares.

  I did have a question about something, though. The skill worked, as described by [Identify], through absorbing light and heat. If so, would wrapping myself in [Candlelight] actually start healing me? I doubt that it would be anywhere close to enough to regenerate mana, though. That sounded an awful lot like it would break the first law of thermodynamics, the conservation of energy. After all, regenerating more mana than I spent would make me a walking perpetual motion machine.

  While I still wanted to try that, just in case, I think my suspicions regarding its potential successes were rightfully high. If it was that easy to generate mana, someone else would have done it beforehand and probably destroyed the world in one way or another.

  There was one thing I had been pushing back with idle thoughts, but it was time I gave it some attention. I had felt weird ever since I stepped out of the magma. While it could just be an artifact of jumping in levels so quickly or something along those lines, I didn't actually think so. There was something else here, something that my status would hopefully provide me some insight into.

  [Name: Hanah Mayflower

  Race: Human

  Level: 13

  Mana: 280/280

  Achievements: [Hero Candidate], [Predator I], [Molten Rebirth]

  Class: Firefly (Uncommon)

  Active Skills:

  [Candlelight Lv. 9]

  [Flash Lv. 2]

  [Minor Fireball Lv. 6]

  Passive Skills:

  [Photo-Thermic Synthesis Lv. 16]

  [Minor Fire Affinity]

  [Minor Light Affinity]

  General Skills:

  [Identify]

  [Heightened Senses Lv. 3]

  [Pain Resistance Lv. 12]

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  [Fire Resistance Lv. 6]

  [Mana Sense Lv. 1]]

  There were two things that jumped out at me immediately. A new achievement called [Molten Rebirth] and a new skill [Mana Sense]. Where had that come from? While I could make some guesses about the achievement, I was clueless about [Mana Sense]. I hadn't owned it just before I left the pool of magma, I checked it not too long ago.

  [Molten Rebirth] probably came from me surviving falling into the pool of magma. Something that definitely should have killed me, but somehow I survived.

  Instructor Wyn had told us some things about the achievements. There were two major distinctions to be made here. The first kind of achievements were general achievements, like [Hero Candidate] or [Predator I]. They could be earned by fulfilling certain criteria or doing predetermined actions, like the slaying of a higher-tiered creature.

  The other kind of achievement was personal. Personal achievements were always unique to the holder and always had a connection to the context they were created in. Any actions or circumstances that went beyond your level had a high chance of resulting in such a personal achievement. If you alone miraculously turned the tides of a whole war, getting such an achievement was basically guaranteed.

  My bet here was that [Molten Rebirth] was such a personal achievement. I highly doubted that there was a general achievement for surviving a fall into a pool of magma. That would be very strange.

  Well, while I could continue throwing out wild speculations, I hoped that [Identify] would shed a bit more light on it all. That said, I quickly identified my newest achievement.

  [Molten Rebirth:

  Betrayed by the [Hero] whose hatred for you runs as deep as the Abyssal Descent, you were pushed to the brink of death. But trapped in a pool of the planet's fiery lifeblood, you didn't despair. It couldn't defeat you. You just wouldn't let it. Now, bear witness to the birth of a new star.

  Awarded for the successful escape and survival. Let this be a testament to your bravery as you faced the unending tide of liquid fire.

  Increased Affinity with and

  Awarded the general skill [Mana Sense]

  x1.25 Experience gained]

  Huh? What? Betrayed by the [Hero]? When? Why? Was Blake responsible for me being down here? How even? Did he somehow cause that spider to trip as it ran at me?

  Question marks filled my mind, as I couldn't quite comprehend what was clearly written there. It seemed like I was right about it being a personal achievement. Its description was way longer than that of any other thing I had ever identified before.

  On top of that, this achievement granted me [Mana Sense] as one of the rewards. While I was very happy to finally have that goddamned skill, I didn't know how to feel about it just getting handed to me on a silver platter. Very convenient but also spooky. Did the system, the Will of the World, or whatever know that I had wanted that skill? Were my own desires capable of influencing the rewards of achievements like this?

  Much to think about, but not something for right now. Maybe later, when I am more deeply involved in this whole system thingy. The increased affinity with and was also interesting but nothing groundbreaking. I didn't even know what to do with a affinity, I didn't have any abilities that would use it. It also didn't say by how much it increased it, which was a bit frustrating, but I'd have to deal with it. I should have gotten used to the vagueness of [Identify] by now, the flavorful description of the achievement was probably not something I could expect on the regular.

  Talking about vagueness, there was another thing I had been wondering about. By now, I had three different multipliers to experience gain. I got x1.5 from [Hero Candidate], x1.25 from [Molten Rebirth], and a situational x1.5 from [Predator I]. But how much would I actually get when slaying something like that tier two spider again? Was it an additive multiplier, so x1.5 + x1.25 + x1.5 = x2.25 in total, or a multiplicative multiplier like x1.5 * x1.25 * x1.5, which was somewhere around x2.8?

  My personal guess on this was additive. Otherwise, having a couple of those modifiers could quickly spiral out of control.

  Well, all this aside, it didn't really matter. Experience gain was entirely on the system side and not something graspable for us. There was no number gained by killing a monster or a number indicating how much was left until the next level. All I could do here was speculate on things I had no expertise in.

  While I didn't want to think about this anymore, the so-called betrayal of the [Hero] didn't want to leave my mind. Did he really hate me that much? I knew he hated me, always had for that matter, but so far that he would actually attempt to kill me? If my skill set had been even slightly different, I would have almost certainly died. My survival was an incredible coincidence, only possible because I was uniquely equipped to handle this exact situation. Anyone else in our class would have died here, burned to ashes in the planet's fiery lifeblood, just as [Identify] had gracefully chosen to call the magma. I liked that term, it sounded more magical than simply 'magma' or 'lava' would.

  Finally escaping my daydreaming, I turned back to the real world. I was actually a bit clueless on what I was supposed to do now. I could survive here almost indefinitely, provided that there weren't any high-level monsters here that wanted me for breakfast. But I also wanted to pay back that asshole Blake for his attempt at murder. For that I'd need to find a way back to the surface.

  But even if I did somehow manage to get out of here in one piece, there was no way that our relationship wouldn't be openly hostile as soon as we met again. If I wanted to face him right then, I couldn't do that with my uncommon tier one class. I had seen how he fought against the giant spider. As it was right now, I stood no chance.

  I didn't even know how much time had passed since my fall. I did get quite a bit of experience from the spider, but if I was unlucky, months could have already passed on the surface. For all I know, he may have achieved tier two or even tier three already. If I confronted him the way I am right now, I'd inevitably die for good. Which was actually far from good for me.

  No, before I could try to make my way back to the surface, I needed to get stronger. Higher level, higher tier, better grade, and more achievements. All these were imperative for my continued survival.

  All of these required experience, though. And experience was hard to get at my depth. From the horror stories we were told, the deeper you were, the stronger the monsters you'd face. However, strong monsters were a death sentence for me. I was still very weak after all, with just a measly level of 13.

  Well, I didn't have much of a choice. Try or die trying, I guess. I will have to go explore around a bit more. Maybe there are still some tier one monsters at this depth? Or maybe I could find something that was weak to fire and even challenge a suitably weak tier two monster.

  While it seemed unlikely to find anything that had a weakness to that close to a hellscape filled with pools of boiling magma, one could still hope, right?