He shakes his head. "It's getting rather late, I have regular office hours soon. And too much casting can be risky even if you're not actually tired. It would be better to practice Lightning Bolt and sign up for Astral Magic classes."

Eefina nods. "I will."

In fact, she goes straight to sign up for that new class right away, after the instructor dismisses her.

They can take an updated Skill reading from her and adjust her schedule, sure!

The elf who does the paperwork double-takes at what gets printed out.

"...You did sign up this week, right? This looks like some kind of mistake."

"That's right." Eefina peers at the print-out. "Oh wow, there's a bunch of new stuff there... But it all looks accurate."

"That's... Well, I think this is highly unusual. Implausible, even." She frowns at the paper. "That much growth in sorcery and wizardry, two notoriously difficult disciplines, in a few days? I think we'll need to double-check with a higher grade Skill reading to make sure you're not spoofing this somehow before we can make this official."

"I am implausibly smart," Eefina says with a bashful grin, "but that's fine. What does the higher-grade reading involve?"

"Well, it's done by a specialist, it gets much more detail including hidden skills and your progress towards skill and stat advancement, your species and race, information about resistances and vulnerabilities and ongoing or long-term effects. It takes two days to get full results, and it's more expensive. Not that you have to worry about that last part. You may of course decline to have a high-grade Skill reading done. Wanting to maintain your privacy for any number of possible reasons is not against the Academy's rules. I'd want to talk to the Dean about your class placement and advancement in that case, we could work something out. Maybe some kind of... Test, to verify your advancement?"

She wrinkles her nose. A test is clearly an alien concept to apply to a school around here. The word connotes as something more like 'puzzle' or 'interview'.

"I was thinking about spending the evening in the dungeon zapping things with lightning as much as possible to power-level my Astral Sorcery. You could send someone to watch?"

"-I don't think I can assign anyone to go into the dungeon. We have a procedure for higher-grade Skill readings, anything else is a special case that I'm not trained for and don't have the authority for. I could go ask my superior, Mr. Khan Grigori, about an alternate procedure if you'd like, maybe set up an appointment for you to meet them?"

"Okay. I guess it's not that important. We can just do the standard high-grade skill reading."

"Sorry for the inconvenience. I can get that set up for you now!"

Here is a bigger, heavier version of the blood-absorbing identity stones. She doesn't actually need to cut herself though, just hold it and affirm her consent to a detailed Skill check.

Eefina does so.

"We'll get this double-checked as soon as possible. In plenty of time for the weekly schedule adjustment deadline, for sure. Feel free to keep attending the classes you've signed up for or general admission classes in the meantime!"

"Okay. Thanks."

Eefina heads out.

Zapping a bunch of dungeon monsters still sounds like a good idea, and it's still a few hours before dark.

Eefina makes her way to the dungeon.

The Guild representatives at the beachside dungeon gate will let her in after a quick reminder of the 'no killing other adventurers' and 'pay your tithe' rules, but they mention, "It's getting a bit late, tin badge. Did you know the dungeon gets more dangerous at night?"

Eefina may have overheard that at some point?

"I don't plan to stay long. I'll be careful and won't push my luck."

"Good luck, then."

The dungeon: Exists. All its beach, sea creature, and bird themed monsters: Also exist.

Lightning! Also exists.

Now it exists in these monsters faces.

Plenty of these monsters are weak to lightning! She'll run out of the Wind that is discharged to fling it eventually, even recovering some as it disperses after a strike. It seems Azyr slowly seeps through the dungeon walls, and thinking about mathematical proofs or details of how the Winds of magic or dungeons work or any other intellectual topic can attract more, though.

Does she stay on the first level?

She will stop to rest and to replenish her reserve of azyr, first. Then she will head down to the second level, but no further than that.

On the second level, she conserves her azyr more carefully, finishing each monster off with one smaller lightning bolt after beating them up with Cupil. She finds a rhythm, and starts to lose track of time.

This adventurer has previously delved several levels below this, risking her life (giving the prospect of a massive payoff) and generating energy by facing down the strong monsters (feeding it a small trickle of energy). But staying here and trivially zapping its precious monsters for hours and hours... Isn't what adventurers are supposed to do.

She's using up all the magic. And she just walked past the boss door again. And she's staying active despite the late hour, interrupting the dungeon's rest period. If dungeons could think, that would be the point where it thought 'enough is enough'.

Azyr is constantly shifting and twisting with the changing possibilities. The latest shift doesn't look or feel any different.

The latest group of crystal-shelled crabs decide to break and run when she's crushed two of their number. Monsters do this sometimes if they're clearly outmatched. They scuttle rapidly through a hallway into another room.

Eefina follows them, caught up in the target-bash-zap cycle.

The door closes behind her.

The other doors into this room close, too.

The monster clinging to the ceiling and suddenly stabbing at her with lightning speed with an incredibly long limb is not one she recognizes!

It's like some unholy combination of a squid, giant spider, crab, and coral reef, with a mixture of bladed and tentacle limbs, an armored shell body encrusted with crystal and bits of coral, and ten glaring eyes.

Also, the two little crystal crabs are back to trying to attack her, just like the 8th level floor boss - the Hybrid Octo-Claw Reef King.

Whoa! (Cupil forms into a shield, braced against her body. She's still thrown back a fair distance by the force, but isn't hurt.)

Eefina doesn't remember what the second-floor boss looked like but she didn't think it looked like that! Also, she is going to be really embarrassed about blundering into the boss room because she wasn't paying attention. (Is all the doors shutting like that... normal?) But since she's here anyway... 

She shifts Cupil into a sword-spear and goes on the attack.

The doors shutting is not normal except for Boss rooms! And this doesn't look like a boss room. It's not any more ornate or larger than the other rooms.

The high-level Boss is more than a match for her, physically. It attacks with multiple limbs at once, with great strength and excellent coordination, and keeps its main body out of reach. Her new armor-enchanted shirt may have just saved her life as it turns a strike that would have pierced her ribcage at a shallow angle into a bruising hit that sends her spinning and leaves a tear in the outer armored layer.

It's not slowing down or giving her more than a bare moment to think. It not playing fair. It is seriously and unrelentingly trying to kill her as quickly as possible.