59 Trouble down, Below.

The moon shone upon the imperial palace, it was the main palace out of a hundred other palaces that existed within the Empire.

It also is the same in design as the others in its annex, but one thing that differentiates them is simple.

A girl dressed in regal clothing walked down the halls, she looked around confirming no other gazes lurked around in every corner. She then held out her hand to the left and waved.

The surrounding space bent and started opening a walkway not previously present in the location. Upon entering she was met with a large room filled with scrying crystals and alchemical equipment.

She sat down on one of the stools and grabbed a potion lying about on the dustless tables and drank every last drop. The girl gave a satisfied sigh as she looked at the scrying crystal.

"Now… Leo what happened to you…"

She spoke in a worrying tone, the room illuminated by lights connected to a battery, it seems the whole place is makeshift on its own.

Her blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders, and her platinum blonde hair was well-lit even in this environment, eventually when she stopped using her scrying crystal and went to her alchemy tools.

She wasn't ready to go out yet, but when she is, she'll make sure she's strong, strong enough to stand by him.

***

"WHY!? WHY A GIANT SPIDER?!"

"Fear keeps everyone alive."

"I KNOW THAT!"

"Frankly, when you faced the trolls quadruple your size you just laughed."

"IT WAS A COPING MECHANISM!"

"Us as a race have developed natural emotional sensitivity, I know when you're coping or not."

The argument lasted as Leonard tried to fend off a giant black widow, it wasn't a pleasant experience. The mana around him tried to hinder him as much as physically possible.

He had to use his mana to circulate the tar-like mana around him to be converted, converting ambient mana to your mana is harder than it sounds, especially in the dungeon.

"Get moving Leonard."

"Ziquir Zhar'kerut I swear you're doing this just to get a reaction!"

Leonard parried a lunge, the Xyn just raised its mandibles, which Leonard learned is equivalent to a smile or in this instance, a smirk.

"Leonard, focus on your given task."

"Argh!"

Leonard avoided the lunges of the spider, once it got a hold of him his body would be covered in webs that he will not be able to escape from and as his enemy is a spider, it would liquefy his insides, which is not something he wanted to experience.

The spider launched itself again, trying to catch Leonard, Leonard who had already gotten used to its attacking pattern and lowered his body, therefore the attack of the spider didn't land on anything.

Leonard took this chance, and with his blade, in hand, he stabbed the spider in the exposed abdomen. Only to find out that this spider is a monster in the lowest part of the dungeon.

He could not penetrate it.

"Infuse it with arcane mana."

"I'm trying!"

The spider is weakened by the Xyn, the training would be useless if it could kill the trainee. Although it is weakened enough for its attacks to be blocked, Leonard still has to actually kill it.

Leonard struggled as he diverts his focus on two things, infusing his sword with arcane mana, arcane mana is still new to Leonard, so the idea of brute forcing this on his body is very hard.

Nuclear Mana Heart Technique isn't just working anymore with his current Arsenal. Nue mana, Mid-mana(aka normal mana), and Pure mana are the only key elements to make up this Technique.

Layering Mana Technique, Vacuum Mana Technique, and the latest Nascent Soul Purity technique are what make the Nuclear Mana Heart. Thanks to the addition of Arcane mana, which has no place in his body his Mana heart will be put in cardiac arrest if it continues.

So whilst fighting the spider, he decided to add something within the Technique, the Heart Rings. The function is simple, since his body was not made for arcane it would only rotate around his mana heart.

Making it accessible whenever he deems it so. The problem is he wouldn't be able to hide it.

"Argh!"

The spider finally got pierced through its abdomen, Leonard didn't let go of this chance, pulling ambient mana and turning it to arcane as much as he could.

Once his sword was imbued with arcane he pushed it in and started sawing with the sword, wishing the spider to die. The moment it collapsed so did Leonard. Exhausted by this endeavour.

Zhar'kerut looked down at Leonard, and he nodded with approval.

"This is good enough."

"What about the previous ones?" Leonard asked with a huff

"I arrived at the conclusion that you are more confident in defeating humanoid creatures than unpredictable ones."

"Right…" Leonard then slowly stood up, all the fatigue hitting him all at once as he pulled out the sword. "Can I rest now?"

"Do so."

The Xyn turned around and started walking back to their city. One thing that Leonard had learned while living here for 3 months is that the Xyn are bureaucrats, and the idea of a family doesn't exist here. Friendship does but not family.

The Xyn have multiple Queens, each with a brooder along with them. The Queen would lay eggs at the same time, shuffle the eggs and place them in brooding spaces treated by a brood.

After they hatched, a caretaker would care for them till they mature at 3 years old. The caretaker is more like a supervisor of a workplace, they tend not to make any familial relationship. As their society.

They have a caste system when it comes to working for their society, they undergo an 'Ascension' in which their whole body gets enveloped by a cocoon, and their body melts and reforms like a butterfly.

Depending on the caste chosen the Xyn will morph differently. The Ziquir is a title, they're mages, Leonard hardly learned that because they all almost look alike.

'Does the Xyn say that all humans look the same as well?'

Leonard just shrugged, taking his head out of his thoughts and instead went ahead to focus on his meal, Xyn Society eats bugs as their meal, Leonard's favourite is the beetle larvae. When cooked they taste like cod, just ignore that it's a worm and you'll be fine.

Leonard looked around the marketplace, he was already accepted after a week of living here. Sometimes he'll have some stares that he had no understanding of what it meant but it's no big deal.

He could buy things he wanted here thanks to his supervisor. Every time they train he at least gives Leonard some money equivalent to the job he has done, today, he received 22 silver coins. Or 220 copper.

Leonard was having fun, 'Now this is fantasy!' he laughed inwardly.

As he was taking his time he noticed that the frequency of warriors coming in and out was worrying. They would come into the city wounded or sometimes outright missing a limb.

Leonard is made aware that this is the lowest floor of the dungeon, so whatever those warriors are fighting is worrying.

"That ain't bad isn't it?" Leonard asked the vendor.

"Hopefully." The xyn vendor replied.

The reason why Leonard could speak with the vendor is thanks to the necklace he had, it's because the Ziquir couldn't be bothered chanting all the time just for Leonard so he imbued a necklace with a translation glyph.

"What's making them this active anyway?"

"The Jakari is being active on our borders, I just hope that we don't get entangled in a full-blown war."

"Yikes, hopefully." Leonard prayed

The Jakari are sentient trolls, or rather a more intelligent cousin of trolls. Thanks to their regenerative ability and their leathery rock skin it's hard to take one let alone an army.

After some small talk(gossip) with the vendor and him finishing his meal, he went back to the Ziquir's tent, willing to get another set of instructions.