The night before the descent, the air in Hephaestus’s private chambers was unusually still. The only sound was the rhythmic, soft ticking of the Mechanical Core in Nyt’s chest—a sound that had become the ambient noise of his existence. He sat on the stone bench, the cool air raising goosebumps on his skin, while the Goddess of Smithing stood behind him, her hands glowing with a soft, divine light.

  "You’re seeking the 'Great Feat,' aren't you?" Hephaestus asked, her voice carrying a weight of knowing. "Most adventurers wait months, even years, before they ask to check for the Level Up. You’ve been here for less than a month."

  "In my world, Goddess, if a processor is hitting 100% capacity and the thermal overhead is stable, you don't wait to upgrade. You overclock," Nyt replied. "I’ve cleared the 12th Floor solo. I’ve killed a mutated Infant Dragon. I’ve forged two 'Living' armaments. If the system requires a feat, I need to know if I’ve already achieved it or if I need to find something... bigger."

  Hephaestus sighed, her finger tracing the complex, scrolling script of his back. "Let’s see what the 'System' thinks of your logic."

  She applied the drop of divine ichor. The room didn't just vibrate this time; it shivered. The blue lines of Nyt’s Falna flared with an intensity that illuminated the dark corners of the forge.

  [Update Initiated...]

  [Analyzing Combat Logs: Infant Dragon Neutralized.]

  [Analyzing Crafting Logs: 'First Paradigm' & 'Hermes Module' successfully bound.]

  [Status Check: All Basic Abilities at D-Rank or higher. Magic at S-Rank.]

  Hephaestus’s breath hitched. She pulled back, the parchment in her hand glowing with a faint, golden hue.

  "Well?" Nyt asked, turning around.

  "You’ve met the numerical requirements," she said, her voice a mix of awe and concern. "Your Magic is capped at 999. Your other stats have skyrocketed. But the Falna... it’s not letting you through yet. The Infant Dragon was a 'Feat,' but for someone with your tools the world deems it 'Insufficiently Challenging.' It was a calculated victory, Nyt. To Level Up, you need a 'Heroic' victory. Something that defies your own calculations."

  Nyt looked at the parchment.

  [Status Update: Nyt]

  [Level: 1]

  [Strength: H-110 -> D-310]

  [Endurance: G-205 -> C-480]

  [Dexterity: B-795 -> A-890]

  [Agility:B-880 -> S-910]

  [Magic: A-912 -> S-999 (MAX)]

  [Development: ]

  [Magic: Void-Gate: Pocket Dimension, Event Horizon]

  [Skills: Omniscient Architect: Minerva, Aetheric Blueprint, The Mechanical Core: Deus Ex Machina]

  [Level Up: Potential Locked—Great Feat Required.]

  "Insufficiently challenging," Nyt repeated, a rare, sharp smile cutting across his face. "So, the world wants me to gamble. Fine. I was going to the 17th floor anyway. Let’s see if a Floor Boss is enough of a 'Variable' to satisfy the script."

  The 13th Floor was a labyrinth of jagged rock and steep drops, but Nyt wasn't walking. He was a flicker of blue light.

  [Hermes Module: Online.]

  [Spatial Buffer: 94%. Kinetic Storage: 12%.]

  "Minerva, initiate the 'Blink-Stride' calibration," Nyt commanded as he reached a wide, open cavern filled with obsidian pillars.

  “Acknowledged. Mapping the spatial coordinates of the pillars. Suggesting a multi-vector dash to test the Phase-Steel’s inertial dampening.”

  Nyt stepped forward. He didn't feel the ground beneath his feet. Instead, he felt the 'distance' in front of him fold like a pleated curtain. Snap. He was ten meters ahead. Snap. He was behind a pillar. Snap. He was five meters in the air, standing on a spatial distortion.

  "The G-force is being redirected into the Mechanical Core," Nyt noted, his voice perfectly calm even as he moved at speeds that should have liquified his internal organs. "The Phase-Steel is acting as a kinetic sink. Minerva, increase the folding frequency. I want to see the 'Motion Blur' threshold."

  “Warning: Increasing frequency will consume 15% more MP per second. However, the 'Kinetic Anchor' will begin to recycle the air resistance into stored energy.”

  Nyt became a ghost. He wasn't just fast; he was non-linear. He encountered a group of Hard-Armored Beetles, the same ones that had troubled Bell. Nyt didn't even slow down. He 'Blinked' through their formation, the Phase-Steel talons on his boots vibrating at high frequency. He didn't strike them; he simply passed through the 'space' they occupied.

  A second later, all six beetles fell apart in clean, geometric slices.

  "Efficiency: 100%," Nyt muttered. "But it’s too quiet. I’m not hitting the 'Heroic' threshold yet."

  As Nyt descended toward the 15th Floor, the environment opened up into the "Labyrinth of Large Trees." The air was cooler here, but the mana-density was suffocating. His HUD suddenly flared with multiple high-level warnings.

  [ALERT: Massive mana-signatures detected ahead. Signature profiles match the 'Loki Familia' Expedition Team. Warning: High-intensity combat in progress.]

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Nyt came to a halt on a high branch of a gargantuan tree, his Hermes Module hissing as it bled off excess heat. Below him, in a wide clearing, the scene was one of organized carnage.

  The Loki Familia was mid-expedition. He saw the 'Braver' Finn Deimne issuing orders, his spear a blur of silver. He saw the 'High Elf' Riveria Ljos Alf chanting behind a wall of shields, her blue hair billowing as mana gathered around her.

  And in the center of the storm was the 'Sword Princess.'

  Ais Wallenstein was a whirlwind of wind and steel. She was fighting a swarm of Large Orcs and Silverbacks that had been lured out by the expedition’s presence. Her movements were beautiful, pure, unadulterated Agility. But as Nyt watched, his analytical mind began to pick her apart.

  "She’s fighting the air," Nyt whispered. "Her 'Ariel' magic is powerful, but she’s wasting 20% of her mana on turbulence. She’s using the wind to push herself, rather than removing the resistance of the air entirely."

  Suddenly, the ground shook. From a hidden tunnel in the cavern wall, a Great Troll, a Floor Boss-tier monster that usually stayed on the 17th floor roared as it entered the fray. It had been attracted by Riveria’s high-tier magic.

  The Troll swung a massive stone club toward the rear guard where the lower-level supporters were huddled. The Loki Familia elites were too far away, tied down by the sheer volume of the swarm.

  "Ais!" Finn shouted, but even the Sword Princess was mid-air, committed to a strike against an Orc.

  "Minerva," Nyt said, his eyes narrowing. "Calculate the intercept vector. Use 40% of the Kinetic Storage."

  “Calculated. Administrator, this will expose our capabilities to the Loki Familia Elites. Probability of being 'Monitored' by the Guild increases to 85%.”

  "Do it. I need the data on the Troll’s hide anyway."

  To the members of the Loki Familia, it happened in a heartbeat.

  One moment, the Great Troll’s club was inches away from crushing a terrified supporter. The next, a violent crack of thunder, the sound of air being displaced echoed through the clearing.

  A streak of blue light intercepted the club.

  Nyt appeared in mid-air, his Hermes Module glowing a fierce, electric blue. He didn't block the club with strength; he used the First Paradigm.

  "Event Horizon: Kinetic Inversion!"

  Nyt caught the massive stone club with his gauntlet. Instead of the impact crushing his arm, the space between the gauntlet and the club 'folded.' The massive kinetic energy of the Troll’s swing was sucked into the Mechanical Core and instantly redirected.

  The club didn't just stop; it shattered from the inside out.

  Nyt landed softly on the ground, his boots venting steam. Before the Troll could recover, he 'Blinked.'

  Snap. Snap. Snap.

  Nyt appeared at four different points around the Troll’s head. In each position, he left a 'Spatial Anchor'—a small, glowing blue point of light.

  "Collapse," Nyt commanded.

  The four anchors pulled toward each other with the force of a collapsing star. The Great Troll’s head was caught in the center of a localized gravitational vacuum. It didn't even have time to scream before its skull was crushed by the pressure of the space around it.

  The massive body toppled over, dissolving into ash.

  Nyt stood in the center of the clearing, his lab coat fluttering in the fading wind of Ais’s magic. He didn't look at the cheering supporters. He didn't look at Finn or Riveria.

  He turned his head and looked directly at Ais Wallenstein, who was standing ten feet away, her rapier lowered, her golden eyes wide with shock.

  The clearing went silent. The battle with the remaining Orcs was being mopped up, but the eyes of the Loki Familia were on the intruder.

  "You," Ais whispered. Her voice was thin, carry a trace of the same confusion she’d felt at the tavern. "The boy from the Hostess... and Lord Hephaestus."

  Nyt adjusted his monocle, which was currently scrolling through the data he’d just gathered from the Troll’s death. "Ais Wallenstein. Your 'Ariel' is inefficient. You’re fighting the fluid dynamics of the atmosphere. If you adjusted your mana-spiral to a 15-degree tighter arc, you’d reduce your drag by 18%."

  Ais blinked. "Drag?"

  "Efficiency," Nyt clarified.

  "Who are you?" Finn Deimne stepped forward, his spear held in a non-threatening but ready position. His 'Braver's Instinct' was screaming at him that the boy in front of him was an impossibility. "That wasn't magic. There was no chant. And that gear... it’s not just Hephaestus' work."

  "I am Nyt. Artificer of the Hephaestus Familia," Nyt said, his Hermes Module clicking as it entered its standby cycle. "I was merely conducting a field test of my mobility module. The Troll provided an adequate stress-test variable."

  "You killed a Great Troll in three seconds," Tiona Hiryute shouted, leaping over a dead Orc with an excited grin. "That was so cool! Snap-fwoosh! How did you do that?! Are you a Level 4? A Level 5?!"

  "I am Level 1," Nyt said.

  The silence that followed was even deeper than before.

  "Level 1?" Riveria Ljos Alf walked forward, her eyes scanning Nyt with a mage’s intensity. "Impossible. Your mana-output during that spatial collapse was equivalent to a High-Mage. And those items... they are breathing, aren't they?"

  "They are 'Living' gear," Nyt replied. He looked back at Ais. She was still staring at him, her golden eyes searching his. For a second, the same 'connection' from the tavern sparked the bridge between the Sword and the Science.

  Nyt saw the 'Air' around her. It was agitated, hungry.

  "You're chasing something, aren't you?" Nyt asked her. "A speed that the wind can't give you."

  Ais stepped closer, her rapier’s tip dipping toward the dirt. "How did you... move like that? Without the wind?"

  "I don't move through the world, Ais Wallenstein," Nyt said, his Mechanical Core giving a final, satisfied thrum. "I move the world around me. Logic doesn't require a breeze."

  "Finn!" a scout called out from the edge of the clearing. "More monsters incoming! We need to move!"

  Finn looked at Nyt, a complicated expression on his face. "Nyt the Artificer... I suspect the Loki Familia will be hearing a lot about you soon. Thank you for the assist. But if you’re Level 1 and you’re down here alone... you’re either a god in disguise or the bravest fool in Orario."

  "I'm just a scientist," Nyt said, his boots glowing blue. "And I have an appointment with a Goliath on the 17th. I don't have time to be a fool."

  With a final Snap, Nyt vanished.

  Ais Wallenstein stood in the empty space where he had been, the scent of ozone and cold iron lingering in the air. She looked at her hand, feeling the wind swirling around her fingers.

  "Efficiency..." she whispered to herself.

  Nyt appeared five floors down, near the entrance to the 17th Floor. He leaned against the damp cave wall, his breath coming in short, sharp bursts.

  "Minerva... report."

  “Administrator, the 'Great Feat' status has been updated. The neutralization of a Floor Boss-tier monster in the presence of High-Level witnesses has satisfied the 'Heroic' requirement. The Falna is ready to transition to Level 2.”

  Nyt looked at his trembling hands. The Overclock had pushed him to the edge, but the look on Ais Wallenstein’s face and the raw energy of the Troll’s collapse was worth it.

  "Not yet, Minerva," Nyt said, looking at the massive, shadowed gate of the 17th Floor. "We don't go back to the surface to Level Up. We Level Up after we finish the mission. The Goliath is the final exam."

  “Administrator, your mana is at 22%. Your physical integrity is at 68%. Attacking the Goliath now is... illogical.”

  Nyt pushed off the wall, his boots clicking on the stone. "Maybe. But I just told a Level 5 that she was 'inefficient.' I’d look like a real failure of a scientist if I didn't prove that my own 'Logic' is superior to the Dungeon’s 'Chaos'."

  "Let's go, Minerva. Let's see if we can't debug a Giant."