“Show me.” I said, frowning.

  What she was doing was impossible. The Sword Art’s manipulation of qi was specifically designed to channel it along an exterior surface. What she was doing would melt the flesh of a mortal.

  It took her a while to refill her core enough to try again. Then she continued, punching the pillar over and over until the technique faltered. Each punch carved away more and more from it, but it wasn’t enough to cut it half.

  I had to take a closer look.

  I freed my sword and cut apart one of the pillars dividing us. The black edge of my blade, enhanced by the World Severing Sword Art, cut through the pillar without a sound.

  A world shattering crack echoed after, caused by the removal of the space warping effect of the pillar.

  Poppy immediately scrambled back, but I sheathed the sword, putting a hand on my chin.

  “Are you using a different set of meridians for this?”

  Poppy kept distance between us. It took her a moment to reply.

  “Yes. I think. The System is helping. But…” Poppy released the fist she was clenching slowly.

  When the Severing Art disappeared from the sword, it did it in an instant, the black vanishing in a flash. The black covering Poppy’s fist seemed to slowly burn away like a fire. She winced. A burn mark covered the back of her hand.

  “Fascinating…” I said, staring down. “You said you combined a [Skill?]”

  Poppy nodded.

  “I’m close to evolving the skill. I can feel it. I just have to do it a little differently…” Poppy eyed the exit behind me. “I’m not ready to leave yet. I almost have this mastered.”

  I nodded. I was curious to see what she could do. The limits of the System were entirely new to me — but more familiar to Poppy.

  After some time for her hands to recover, she struck again. This time, instead of a small impression, her fist punched through the pillar.

  With a crack, it disappeared, replaced by an open door into the halls.

  I frowned at it.

  The door on my side had opened into the private, clean section of the Legacy; a section opened to me presumably because of the higher Authority Grade I carried.

  Poppy’s own gateway returned into the dimly lit halls outside.

  “Yes!” She said, paying those details no mind as she visibly read over a prompt in her system.

  [Scenario complete!]

  [Generating rewards…]

  [Damaged Spirit Repair Progress: 16%]

  [Legacy Authority Two Progress: 10%]

  My eyes reread the text multiple times in disbelief. I achieved progress for Poppy completing the room. Did that mean I could double the rewards of every chamber?

  Poppy was still excitedly reading her own prompts.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  She looked at me nervously, then back out of the hallway.

  “It’s considered rude to ask someone about their [Skills.]” She said.

  “I see. Apologies. You completed the Scenario, yes?”

  “Yes and — I had a striking technique — [Vascaran Might] — but it evolved. It’s the first skill evolution I’ve had on this continent. The new skill is called [Void Shattering Fist.]” Poppy said.

  “You mean the System recognizes it as a [Skill?]” I asked. The System counted my own cultivation towards my stats, but it listed the full cultivation as one item — not individually itemizing separate techniques that compiled together into one larger technique.

  Whatever Poppy had accomplished was different.

  “Yes.” Poppy said. She looked toward the open door, then back to me. “Feng Sai. Help me rescue my friends and escape this place with us. Once we leave, we can cut off these rings and be done with this place.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “No.” I said.

  “My friends need help.” Poppy said. “You’re — you’re one of these cultivators. You’re strong. I can tell. You can help us. We just need to grab them and escape.”

  “There is no way we can escape without fighting our way out. You’re deluding yourself to believe otherwise. And even if we could leave — I need what is at the center of this labyrinth.” I said. Then I paused. I also needed information. What just happened with Poppy’s skill was beyond me, and a reminder that there were countless questions I didn’t have the answer to. I had no idea what a [Skill] evolution was, nor how to acquire skills.

  And as for Poppy? She had a skill with her own last name in it.

  She would be valuable to keep around. That went without mentioning the fact that she would be potentially doubling my rewards, the information she had on the foes we had to fight — and the fact that she appeared to be, by every measure, a prodigy potentially on par only with myself.

  “However, I have an alternate proposal.” I said. “Come with me. Rip the power from this legacy piece by piece.”

  Poppy stepped back.

  “I have to go help my friends. Even if its hopeless.”

  “Are you strong enough to save them?” I asked. “Solder is strong, yes? Stronger than either of us. But he doesn’t have to be. If we continue to exploit this legacy, you can grow strong enough to challenge him.”

  “I never told you Solder’s name. Where did you hear it?” Poppy squinted at me, suspicion visible on her face. She scanned me, her posture guarded.

  I shrugged. I wasn’t going to tell her that a crazy ghost living in the labyrinth’s imaginary worlds was telling me secrets about the outside.

  “We all have secrets.” I said. “You’ll just have to trust me that I mean you no harm.”

  “You intend to use me as a stepping stone to clear the scenarios and live.” Poppy said.

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it.

  “If anything, you’ll mostly be slowing me down. I understand now why so many of your — ” your kind, I didn’t say “ — so many of the bandits accompanying you failed to survive the scenarios, as you said. Without any talent for cultivation, and without the Legacy’s Authority, they would have simply starved to death or failed to exercise their power. Make no mistake; the dangers are real. But reward and power are always paired with danger.”

  Poppy was looking into the exit door behind me; the one she had opened. It was dark, opening like an empty mouth into a broken hallway. The sound of water rushing outside was loud, and the smell of mud and decay poured through the door. She turned to her right. In my side of the chamber, light poured into the room.

  “I could leave after any scenario. I don’t have to go all the way in, necessarily.” Poppy said.

  “A cultivator should be greedy.” I replied. “Obtaining some power or some treasure is not enough. You must fight for every scrap you can get if you want to reach the heights of power.”

  Poppy still hesitated. She squinted at me.

  “Our family has a similar saying.”

  “Then they are wise.”

  “Very well. Even if you are just using me to help you loot this place…”

  “We both win.” I said.

  Poppy took a step toward the exit before her; the one that opened in the dark, ravaged chambers of the legacy, filled with bandits and goblins. I raised a hand to stop her.

  “Come with me.” I said, turning around. It took only a moment of hesitation before I heard her footsteps following mine. I smiled, hands behind my back. “After completing previous scenarios, I was granted Authority in the labyrinth.”

  “I received authority progress as an reward…” Poppy said.

  I nodded. That made sense. But it didn’t concert me. Even if Poppy started receiving doubled rewards as I did, she wouldn’t catch up to the authority I already had.

  “This section of the labyrinth has yet to be defiled by unworthy hands.” I said, continuing through the open door way. I felt myself pass through a barrier, a membrane in the world where the air suddenly grew thick and viscous. I frowned. The projected Dantian I had was gone, replaced once more with my own sad, broken core. Step by step, it was being repaired. There was a little more of me left.

  When I turned back around, the wall of rolling black was still there. The reality distorting dripped off of me or dissolved harmlessly into gas. Poppy stepped through a moment later, and then the door slammed shut.

  She stared around bewildered.

  “Where is this place? Its untouched. The Bleeding Crown couldn’t have missed any doorways. Is the dungeon this big?” Poppy looked around frowning. She then looked toward me. I had taken a step into the room and walked immediately left.

  The hallway kept going.

  There was a small problem with that; one that Poppy seemed to recognize as well. Because of the configuration of the room behind us, going left should have brought us into the broken and destroyed hallway. It didn’t. The hall stretched on and on, wrapping in a curved turn until it disappeared.

  “I think the Legacy is built onto some kind of natural formation distorting space.” I said. “Or maybe it is one huge formation.”

  I walked down the hall, [Appraising] the doors as they opened one at a time. For the first ten feet, Poppy flinched at each of the opening doors.

  “In the… other region… none of these doors opened. Its unnerving to see each and every one opening before us.” Poppy said.

  “I suspect it has to do with the Authority granted by the scenarios.” I said. “A prospective cultivator trying to master this Legacy would likely have limited opportunities to gain enough authority to continue deeper. It would keep the unworthy away.”

  “Sorry… what do you mean by a Legacy? Is this place not a dungeon?”

  I looked back at her, thinking over my reply before continuing to scan for a suitable door. I stopped at another [Level 5] Scenario.

  “A Legacy is a way for a cultivator to pass on their techniques beyond their death or after they travel far from their homeland. Though… I’ve never heard of one as complex as this one. Normally the challenges are much more mundane. I once cultivated within a sealed chamber for an entire day and night; the formation inside created a storm around me. Every time I failed to control the storm qi around me, it would erupt in electrical discharges.”

  I touched my arm where the lightning created by it had burned me. The scar was gone, now. My improved physique meant I had no more scars.

  It was a very motivating way to learn to master my own qi.

  Even while I slept.

  “And you call that mundane?” Poppy asked.

  “I’ll admit that powering that chamber was unlikely to be cheap.”

  Poppy followed my gaze into the boiling black of the next room.

  “What’s this one?”

  “The two level 5 chambers so far have both been basic training.” I replied.

  “Basic training took us an entire day and night last time.”

  “You’ll just have to learn faster.” I said. “It gets easier.”

  Not for most. But Poppy was already a prodigy even by my standards. I stepped into the next chamber.