Chapter 28: 27. Mana Sickness

A weird emotion bubbled in Victor's chest as over twenty dragons bowed their heads in a ring around his avatar. With many stat points to play with, Victor had resummoned his shadowy avatar that appeared as a tall man with indescribable features and a fancy top hat.

Alice was off to the side, floating in the air... 'Well, that is new. Since when could she float around like me?' Dense raven mana coated every inch of her pale skin like a latex suit of armour. Only her head was uncovered, with her black hair flowing freely down her rear like a cape. Alice's enchanting pink eyes didn't even acknowledge the epic scene. Instead, they were busy scrutinising the air in front of her face. Victor obviously couldn't see the screens, but he could summon the party screen to get some idea.

[Name: Alice]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 49] (level up! x8)

[STR: 67, DEX: 79, CON: 78, INT: 142, WIS: 134]

(Slave)

[Name: UNKNOWN]

[Race: UNKNOWN]

[Level: 307] (level up! x2)

[STR: 360000, DEX: 360000, CON: 360000, INT: 360000, WIS: 360000]

(Life Force Unstable - 100:00:00) (Slight Mana Sickness)

[Name: Terry]

[ERROR: CONNECTION LOST]

'She's still so weak...' Victor had become desensitised to the system's portrayal of stats. Perhaps the amount of STR or CON mattered to a fleshy body, but to him, stat points were merely a form of fuel to power his spells. 'Actually, looking at this party page has reminded me of something... Terry. I need to contact him again. But perhaps now is not the best time.' Victor knew he was delaying something vital. But he was far too vulnerable right now to waste hundreds of thousands of stat points on a cross-universe telephone call. He had questions, and he was itching for answers. But rather hilariously, his survival was more important right now. 'Darn dragons, although the thrill of a real threat is nice, now is not the best time...' 

Victor swore he almost died of boredom over the past few months exploring that endless forest, and now everything was happening at once. He was in a magical dungeon under the most powerful race's stronghold. He had broken into their prison, caused mass murder, slaughtered their unborn children, and raised them to serve him. All in a single day. 'Aint no rest for the wicked.' Victor hummed to himself as he thought about his next move.

He needed to go down. So far down until he found something. Victor wasn't sure what he desired. But either a resolution to his falling stats or monsters he could raise from the dead so powerful that even Hyveth Arcspace would have to think twice about attacking him. Did such a solution or monster exist? Probably not, but he was in too deep. Cracked eggs filled with bloody slime lay all around, and their guardians now served him in death. No amount of diplomacy could save this situation now.

"Right." Victor's avatar exclaimed, and everyone paid attention. Even Genus as he flew circles overhead. "Once again, we will be making a tactical retreat." A cane of pure shadows appeared in the avatar's hand and pointed at the smallest undead dragon, "You will be Alice's new mount. We must move fast, and horseback riding is a poor solution." The car-sized black lizard bowed its head and strode over to Alice's side. The girl seemed bewildered, and it took some convincing from the dragon for Alice to climb up its lowered wing and secure herself around the base of its neck.

"Good," Victor said, and the avatar spun around on its heel and pointed towards the dungeon's entrance with its cane. "I have lost connection with the two senior dragon zombies, so the rest of you will continue their jobs. Stop any dragon from reaching the second floor. That is your final order."

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The ground rumbled, and dust flew into the air as nineteen chrome dragons from various noble houses rose to serve their new overlord and took to the skies. 

Victor spread out his long shadowy arms and went all out with his [Shadow Magic] for the first time in a while. Stat points evaporated as if they were free. Victor first targeted the glowstone sun hanging overhead. A cone of dense shadows shot out and, within seconds, enveloped the titanic piece of glowstone. Darkness blanketed the land, with day suddenly shifting to night. But Victor wasn't done. He wasn't sure if all dragons feared the dark like Genus or if it was just because they had been underground. Still, anything to potentially slow down their pursuers and give an advantage to his zombie dragons was a risk worth taking.

A dense fog of shadow spread out and enveloped most of the dome. Even if someone summoned a light spell, it would fail to pierce more than a few meters. Roars sounded from afar. Victor's zombies had encountered some resistance.

"Time to move," Victor said, and he directed Alice's dragon mount towards the apparent entrance to the tower. Genus carefully landed on the ground and gracefully accepted Victor's avatar's guidance as he struggled to pierce the darkness. 

The inside of the tower was far more impressive than Victor expected. A stairwell of mystical crystal spiralled down into the abyss. Victor almost believed the stairwell led to the void, but dense mana suggested otherwise. His memories of his first moments in this world were a little blurred, but he definitely remembered the lack of mana in the air. 'So where does this lead? The second floor, perhaps? How many floors are there?' Victor had many questions, so he decided to ask his new dragon friend.

"Genus, tell me about the dungeon." Victor's avatar that stood weightlessly on his back strolled along the dragon's spine, "How many floors are there? What can we expect?"

Genus grumbled as he slowly descended the stairs. "Well, there's no flying allowed in the stairwell. Or rather, I am incapable of doing so." Genus plodded down a few more steps, his claws scraping against the blue crystal surface, leaving no marks. "The dungeon has many odd rules like that."

"Does this stairwell lead to the last floor?" Alice asked from atop her black dragon mount.

"No," Genus replied. "We don't even know how many floors this dungeon has, although we suspect it's around the hundred range. Each floor has a tower that leads to the next floor. Therefore to get to the expected final floor, we must go down a hundred different towers."

"Why have you never reached the final floor?" Victor was very curious about this. The dragons had controlled this land for centuries, yet they had never ventured to the lowest floors?

"Various reasons..." The noble dragon signed. "Politics is a big one, but a more practical reason is nobody wants to. As biological creatures, we require food to survive, and only food acquired from the dungeon is edible. Same with materials. The dense mana will eventually melt away any clothing or weapons not made of dungeon materials. Many floors in a row consisting of nothing but undead, and the deeper we go, the more mana sickness we experience."

"Mana sickness?" Victor summoned his status page, and sure enough, the (Mana Sickness) debuff was still there. He could feel the abient mana gnawing away at his existence. "But dragons are magical creatures. Don't they relish in mana-rich environments?" Victor said, his voice echoing.

"Too much of anything is harmful. We slowly absorb the mana around us while we sleep. And passively direct the mana to improve our bodies and widen our mana pools." Genus explained. "However, too much mana flowing through us is detrimental to our cultivation and can become toxic." Genus peeked at Alice, who proudly sat on her dragon mount and continued. "I may be wrong, but the system allows humans to do something similar?"

Alice nodded with a grin. Then, as if to demonstrate her point, she moved her finger in the air and tapped a few times. Everyone witnessed as mana condensed around Alice's form, flooded her body, and dissipated. Within seconds Alice's skin had visually improved, and her body had fattened out slightly with toned muscles.

Genus growled in his throat, his rainbow eyes shifting with various colours. "See, the system must protect them from mana sickness. The sheer amount of mana she just absorbed is how much I process in a week... not to mention the changes that occurred would take me months. No wonder system users have made it to the lower floors before."

Victor frowned as the group continued down the endless stairs. 'I have the system, but it doesn't protect me from mana sickness. But Genus raises some good points. Although I should be able to endlessly advance down the dungeon floors, will Alice and Genus be able to follow? They are both living creatures, so a lack of food, water and safe places to sleep could cause issues...' Victor thought back to Earth. How did humans survive in hostile locations? 'Supply lines. During the world wars, train lines were constructed to the front line, and supplies were brought in. Perhaps I can do something similar with my undead?'

Victor mulled over various solutions. The fact that the dragons were apprehensive of delving deeper into the dungeon gave him peace of mind, but it raised many new problems. First, he needed to keep Genus alive. But, wait, how was he supposed to take over the dragons after slaughtering so many? 'Ugh, so many problems. Not to mention Terry potentially being on Earth and the bizarre nature around my reincarnation.' Victor shook his head and pressed on. Those were worries for the future. For now, he just needed to keep going down.