Using up the rest of my available mana, I created a pale gold leash with one end cuffed to my right hand and the other around the waist of a beefy Enhanced named Silas. He reached down, grasping onto the band of pure mana, and his mana-enhanced muscles bulged as he attempted to break it. When the mana band held fast, he looked up with an impressed glint in his brown eyes and gave me a thumbs up.

“As long as you don’t dissolve the chain, then you’ll be good and stuck to me, youngin’,” Silas declared with a hearty laugh.

I glanced over at Dr. Montressor, who was watching with his usual impassive expression. I gave him a bright smile and raised my left wrist to show that the mana cuff was holding onto me firmly. His blue eyes stared at me, not revealing anything until he slowly turned away to level a faint frown at the large man next to me.

“I’ve taught Teagen the importance of keeping promises. She won’t remove the leash until she’s safely out of the dungeon. Isn’t that right, young lady?” he prompted me with a hard glint in his blue eyes.

Even after two years of living with Dr. Montressor, he still managed to intimidate me at times, but I returned his pointed stare with a confident nod. “I promise I won’t remove it or wander away from Mr. Silas’s side while I’m in the dungeon,” I reiterated for what must have been the 50th time.

Convincing Yesenia to let me go into a portal with Gail had been surprisingly easy. She knew how much I enjoyed my mana training, and after two years, she'd become good friends with Gail, so she trusted her to watch out for me. Dr. Montressor, on the other hand, was adamantly against the idea. Even when Yesenia called him a stick-in-the-mud, he didn’t relent.

When Gail promised to stay by my side the whole time, Dr. Montressor actually laughed (not a pleasant, happy laugh, though. It was more of a “You’re an idiot if you think I trust you” laugh). However, Gail’s offer seemed to spark an idea for him. Dr. Montressor said he would allow me to go into a dungeon ONLY if I agreed to remain glued to one of the crystal collection team members.

As gates that led to diverse dungeons filled with huge varieties of monsters became more frequent, the US Government began to regulate the process of dungeon subjugation. The group that entered a dungeon was a two-part team. The first was the clearing team, who were trained in killing monsters. The second was a team of enhanced that were either in training to join a clear team or didn’t have a large enough mana absorption rate to help out with the clearing team, but could protect themselves in a pinch. This team followed behind the clearing team and removed the mana crystals embedded in the slain monsters.

Because of my unique ability to absorb mana directly from the crystals, I wasn’t allowed to touch the mana crystals, but Dr. Montressor didn’t want me anywhere near the action of the clearing team. So I was tethered to the leader of the collection team under strict instructions to keep my hands to myself and simply absorb the mana from the air of the dungeon. I thought it was sweet that Dr. Montressor trusted me enough to let me cuff myself to Silas using my mana instead of relying on handcuffs or an actual dog leash that could potentially get in Silas’s way while he was working. But it was also a little humiliating to be tethered to a middle-aged man with a handlebar mustache and gigantic muscles like I was his pet.

“I’m trusting you to keep her safe, Mr. Orners,” Dr. Montressor stated gravely, having to look up to meet Silas’s 6’4” gaze.

Silas was one of the Enhanced whose mana affected him in a physical sense. Not only had his muscles swollen to the size of small watermelons, but he’d also grown several inches even though he’d stopped growing years ago. Although his strength increased, he was unable to coat his fists with mana, which made his attack much less effective on mana-enriched monsters. However, he was capable of ripping apart monsters if it came down to it, which made him an ideal leader for the collection team.

“Don’t you worry, Doctor. She’ll be safe and sound with me,” Silas assured him while tapping his huge fist against his chest.

Dr. Montressor nodded very slowly as if he was not at all reassured, but didn’t want Silas to know that. He turned away from the giant of a man and moved his gaze down to meet my hazel eyes. With a barely audible sigh, he reached out and rested his hand on my shoulder.

“Your safety should be your highest priority,” Dr. Montressor said firmly as he maintained eye contact. “If something goes wrong and Mr. Orners can’t look after you, then run to the portal immediately.”

I couldn’t help but smile at Dr. Montressor’s unusual brand of kindness. Looking at his face, people would assume that he was lecturing me when, in reality, he was telling me to abandon everything and run for my life if I was in danger. I held back a chuckle and nodded up at him.

“Everything will be fine,” I promised reassuringly.

He nodded again, his face still grave, but he removed his hand from my shoulder. Without another word, he walked back to mingle with the group of researchers and citizens waiting to go on a dungeon excursion once the dungeon was deemed safe.

It didn’t take long before the teams were ready to enter the gate. The clearing team, led by Gail, went in first. After five minutes, Silas gave the tether of mana connecting us one final tug test before he flashed me a grin and led the way.

As I stepped through the gate, the light of early morning dimmed, and I blinked my eyes as I tried to adjust to the eerie glow of the cave I found myself in. My senses were soon overpowered, thoug,h when a wonderful tingling sensation registered across my whole body.

For the past two years, I’d only been able to absorb mana from low-grade mana crystals. Although each time my body was filled with a gentle energy  of mana, it was then quickly used up. But now it felt like my entire body was buzzing. It was like I was a sponge sucking in the invisible mana permeating the air so rapidly that I lost focus on my surroundings. I was amazed at how incredible I felt. Breathing had never felt so rewarding. It was like every gulp of mana-rich air was soothing my body, filling it with a substance many times more satisfying than oxygen.

I could have spent hours just standing there and breathing in the mana, but a tug on my wrist pulled me out of my reverie. Silas, who hadn’t noticed me getting lost in the sensation of being surrounded by mana, was walking forward purposefully with a flashlight in his hand. All the other members of the clearing team also had either flashlights or headlamps. I also had a small backpack with emergency provision,s but with everyone else lighting the way, I didn’t feel the need to pull out my flashlight.

I followed along quietly, soaking in the mana like a dried lakebed. It didn’t take long before Silas spotted signs of monster carcasses. As we got closer, I flinched and wrinkled my nose in disgust at the many legs of spiders that were probably as tall as my shoulder when they were alive and moving around.

Silas didn’t seem to mind the grotesque monster spiders. He walked right up to the closest one and removed a knife with a sharp tip, about two inches of a straight blade, then a jagged edge at the bottom of the blade. He wasted no time as he stabbed into the dead monster's abdomen. A foul stench that had already permeated the air became worse as the spider's guts slid out while Silas merrily scrounged through its innards. When he finally found the mana crystal, he instructed his team on where to cut to remove them easily, and then the whole team got to work on their dissection duties.

I did not envy them the smelly task. Luckily, I was not allowed to help, so I just hovered behind Silas as he went about his work. Faint sounds of battle further into the cave echoed back to us, but the crystal collection team stayed far back and away from the actual fighting.

My eyes had long since adjusted to the dim lighting of the cave when a familiar tingle began to slowly climb up my spine. I glanced around warily, wondering what was setting off my danger warning. All of the carcasses the team was dissecting were obviously dead; there wasn’t even any death-thro twitching from the bodies. However, my spine-tingle was steadily getting worse, and I frowned while turning in a full 360-degree circle. When nothing stood out, I grimaced and slowly looked up. The ceiling of the cave was much darker than the floor, and I peered into the inky blackness, trying to search for any movement.

A small shower of dust drifted down to my left, prompting the Enhanced underneath it to casually brush off the top of his head. Narrowing my eyes, I walked in that direction, looking up where the dust had fallen. My progress was halted when the tether attached to Silas went taut, and I scowled, not taking my eyes off the ceiling. The carcasses of the spiders were all mottled brown and black, which served as camouflage of sorts and made looking for a live one quite annoying.

I was debating whether Dr. Montressor would be upset if I lengthened my tether when I finally caught the movement I’d been searching for. As soon as I identified one spindly leg, I could make out the whole body of the spider and realized it was poised only a few feet above its unsuspecting victim.