“Your baseline will reset in a few more minutes and allow your natural regeneration to begin again. In the meantime, check your achievements,” Cyrus suggested.

  That was always a good idea, and I needed the distraction. Also, when he reminded me to do it, that usually meant I had some good ones. My menus activated and my achievements started to scroll past.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! For saving Fulvia, then freaking her out so badly by knowing forbidden details of the Inner World that she gave you a Staff Only pass, you receive a platinum Frank Abagnale loot box.”

  “Who?”

  “The main character in Catch Me If You Can,” Cyrus explained.

  “Never watched that one.”

  “I’m deeply disappointed in you.”

  “Hey, I can’t watch every movie ever produced.”

  “I did.”

  “Must be nice.”

  “Oh, it was better than that.”

  “So when did I get a Staff Only pass?”

  “Did you think fairies just throw out random kisses to strangers?” Fulvia demanded.

  That was the pass? “Well, I had just saved you.”

  “And now we know how I ended up in that mess.” She glanced up. Cyrus chose not to respond, so I willed the glowing box open. It dropped 2 items. The first looked like an old-fashioned airline pilot’s cap.

  “Face of My Brother. Rare. Place this cap on your head to transform your face into an exact duplicate of any person you’ve met. Duplication is perfect and will withstand all scrutiny, even touch. It will resist most spells revealing truth.”

  That had a lot of promise, although since it didn’t change my entire body, a full illusion might work better in some situations. The second item made me laugh, then wince. It was a DVD jewel case.

  “Ten Thousand Movies Experience. Uncommon. Open the case to watch one of Cyrus’s favorite 10,000 Earth movies in unparalleled clarity. Experience the movie as if you are inside the action. Popcorn not included.”

  “Now you can watch the movies you’ve missed,” Cyrus said happily.

  “If I can find time to watch movies. Time still passes while I’m watching one, right?”

  For a second, Cyrus didn’t respond. Then he said, “Watch for an upgrade.”

  Now that would be some magic. I loved movies, but the past week had been a full-time, non-stop grind. I was expecting the next 3 weeks to be just as crazy. The next achievement popped up.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! You hit a lady! Not only did you intentionally hit a senior staff member, but you hit her with so much force you knocked a lock of her hair out of place. You have no idea how many people have secretly longed to do that. You receive a gold Rocky loot box.”

  It popped open to reveal a cheap wooden plaque with a brass plate, just like the ones that hung on every middle manager’s office walls. It had a garish thumb’s up fist painted on the front, with my name inscribed on the brass plate, along with, “Employee of the Month.”

  Identify didn’t trigger. “Um, what does this do?”

  “You hang it on your wall,” Fulvia said, mimicking the thumb’s up sign.

  I shrugged and tossed it into my inventory.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! You got your butt kicked by a lady! You suffered the worst beat-down of any still-living human on Arasha. Your reward is the memory preserved in full detail.”

  The message flashed and an image popped up in my mind. It was the fight, starting to replay in perfect detail. I sensed I could shift perspectives if I wanted to so I could watch myself get beat mostly to death from every angle.

  Scowling, I pushed the memory aside. “Thanks.”

  “You’re very welcome,” Cyrus said, ignoring the sarcasm.

  The next notification was a lot more interesting.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! For surviving the forcible reconfiguration of your mana channels, and being the first human to unlock higher levels of power, you gain the new ability: Mana Fusion.”

  “Mana Fusion. Ability. Rare. Level 5. No longer confined to basic or even attuned mana, you have taken a huge step forward in mastering mana. Your spells now utilize Convergence mana.”

  “With Mana Fusion, you can meld basic mana with all types of attuned mana to create the higher-level condensed mana known as Convergence mana. Convergence mana is crafted mana. It produces more power with less cost. Ideal for casting synergized spells.”

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  “Effect: Spells contain 20% more power, cost 15% less mana to cast, with a 20% reduction in cooldown between castings per level.”

  I tried to whistle, but my lips still hurt too much. “I thought you said you were helping me push through the first evolution of my mana manipulation, but that’s tuned mana, right?”

  “I beat you through two evolutions,” Fulvia said proudly. “You jumped right over attuned mana to convergence mana.”

  “What’s after that?”

  Cyrus laughed. “Nothing to worry about yet. You just jumped years of slow grinding. That’s traumatic, so you have to be careful.”

  “For 48 hours,” Fulvia reiterated. “Your new channel configurations are like freshly-poured concrete. If you go pouring mana through before they set, it’s like letting your pet galloping earth rooter loose over a wet sidewalk.”

  “That sounds bad.”

  “Worse than bad. You’ll know when your channels are set and ready. It usually takes the full 48 hours, but once your mana pool fills for the first time with convergence mana, you’re good to go.”

  “What if I have no choice but to use my spells to save my life?”

  Fulvia crossed her arms and scowled. Cyrus said, “Don’t. Best case, nothing happens and you don’t hurt anything.”

  “More likely you burn out at least some of your mana channels or accidentally reconfigure parts of your system,” Fulvia warned. “Stomping wet concrete, remember? It causes permanent mana damage. Only way to fix that is through rare and expensive mana restoration potions, which you don’t have access to.”

  How did she know about wet concrete? Was that just my Linguasight utility spell converting her words into an image I could picture? Why not translate galloping earth rooter into big labrador?

  “This will help?”

  “More than you realize,” Fulvia said. “The description of the ability does not do justice to how big a step this is.” She glanced up and said, “I’d better get a big payout for this.”

  “I always take care of those who deliver,” Cyrus said.

  “Speaking of rewards, shouldn’t I have gotten another title for being the first human to push through two entire mana evolutions?” Maybe I was pushing my luck, but ask not, get not.

  “Not this time,” Cyrus said. “You don't want to draw too much attention to this one. Some watchers have access to a player's stats, and titles always draw a lot of attention.”

  Again with the vague warning of watchers and hints that what he was doing with me was deviating way off the books. He should just stop teasing me with facts he wasn’t going to share. It was annoying.

  The whole forced upgrade still worried me. Cyrus was kicking me down a path he wanted me to follow, but he alone understood the goal. If the mana upgrade proved as powerful as Fulvia promised, I’d happily accept the pain to progress, but what would the final payment back to Cyrus entail?

  It was too much like the David Copperfield title that upgraded me to tier-1. It came with the promise of a huge power boost, but the short-term price was steep. Did my new mana channels include some undisclosed limiter like the low Efficiency on my stats that Cyrus had conveniently forgotten to explain before I accepted the tier-1 evolution?

  Thankfully, another notification popped into view to distract me from worries I could not find solutions to yet.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! With great power comes great power. Major upgrades bring great advancements. You have earned 2 levels and reached level 15. Stat points allocated, plus 2 free points.”

  “Plus 5 levels to Mana Sense.”

  “Plus 5 levels to Mana Manipulation.”

  “Plus 3 levels to Wolf Blood.”

  “Two levels!”

  “You didn’t think you’d make fundamental progress without that translating into meaningful progression, did you?” Cyrus asked.

  The new stats washed away my lingering soreness and my health points shot up to full. My mana pool stayed empty, though, and deep inside, something still felt a bit squishy. Kind of like that queasy feeling on a rocking boat that suggests if you don’t get off soon, you’re going to get sick.

  I applied the 2 free points to Dexterity, which was still lagging my other primary stats. I’d gotten ripped open by monsters many times and not gotten any levels out of it. Getting beaten to a pulp by the diminutive Fulvia was turning out to be a fantastic use of my time. And with Wolf Blood also upgrading, my natural regeneration was now a lot faster.

  “Time marches on,” Fulvia said abruptly. “I’ve got to get back to work. It was fun meeting you, Lucas. Stay out of trouble, and don’t mess with those mana channels.”

  “Bye. Glad you had so much fun.” I couldn’t say it had been a pleasure getting whupped to a literal percentage point of dying. I’d gotten more out of the exchange than I’d expected. I just hoped the mana upgrade proved as good as she promised.

  She flitted over to the door marked “Processing”. It didn’t open, but flashed with bright silver light and the little fairy disappeared.

  The same ornate door I’d stepped through to get into the room appeared in the air beside me. I was tempted to try one of the other doors to explore deeper into the complex, but maybe next time, after my mana finished recharging.

  Cyrus said nothing, so I stepped through the door and returned to the Gloom Spider cave. Instantly, a new message appeared. Cyrus read this one instead of Eva.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! For being the first human to survive full mana channel reconfiguration within 10 days of integration and jumping two mana evolution levels in one painful go, you receive an emerald Death Wish loot box.”

  “Thanks.” I hadn’t expected anything else.

  “Don’t mention it. Ever. And good luck.”

  The huge emerald popped into view hovering in the air in front of me and I willed it open. It left one item behind.

  “Temporary spell scroll.”

  “Upper Cut. Spell. Uncommon. Double the physical damage of an uppercut punch and unleash 4 ethereal claws from the back of your hand. Due to your class bonus, you start this spell with 6 uses remaining.”

  “Note: This spell has the same synergy as Sapper Charge.”

  “Nice.” A second spell I could use in the next 48 hours by using captured magic I got hit with or by sacrificing a mana potion was very welcome.

  As I scanned my stats to make sure Cyrus hadn’t messed with anything else, I noticed something interesting. Both spells he’d left me to use during the next 2 days were up close and personal hand-to-hand fighting spells.

  I’d also been losing one weapon after another. Sure, I’d been in a lot of fights, and I hadn’t thought about it at the time, but now? Was he setting me up so I had to focus more on my hand to hand fighting? Why? Was it another stupid plan to entertain the mysterious watchers?

  I had no choice, as usual. Not in the short term, anyway. Until I got my mana pool back and got my hands on some more blades, I’d have to use what I had.

  As I headed for the exit from the spider cave, I checked the loot I’d gotten from the Gloom Spider and laughed. In addition to some basic, low-tiered stuff, I got one noteworthy item.

  “Air-popping Popcorn. Uncommon. This self-refilling bag of popcorn is perfect for getting the party really hopping. Or charge it with an elemental potion or spell. When handfuls are tossed into the air, it’s attracted to the nearest target and detonates into an elemental storm.”

  I had the movies and the popcorn. All I needed was a big-screen TV in my castle, a few trays of donuts, and my team sitting around me.