Chapter 36: First stage of mana control

Another day passed.

It has been two days since Alex entered the dungeon, being locked on the Third floor after fighting with the boss of the floor he got heavily injured, so he was resting for the time being, but he had collected over 1,000 F to D rank bodies and cores, 100 C rank bodies and cores along with 250 B rank bodies and cores.

The Third Floor had C+ rank to B+ rank Beasts, the boss is the only one at B+ having a unique ability to read people's moves and slow down time in a 10-meter area. Which slowed down his movement causing more trouble than wanted. Overall he was highly injured from losing focus in the middle of the battle which could have led to him perishing. At the moment Alex had bandages covering his body as he solidified his cultivation.

[Arcane meridians - 3%]

[You are now able to cultivate 30 Arcane energy per day]

[Young soul foundation - 10%]

{Blemished}

{If you break through at this point without stabilizing your foundation your soul will be gravely injured which could lead to instability and lack of vitality which may even lead to death.}

'Why is it taking even longer.' he wondered but he knew the answer. The higher his cultivation becomes the longer his foundation will need to be solidified for that greater stage even with his Godly talent. "The item should be on the 4th or 5th floor." he had already taken Lillian outside of the dungeon to inform the old man and to ask him to pay for 5 more days in the inn where his friends were staying.

"I should find the ores and the artifact." He sighed and added, "I am taking too much time, here." He wondered about something that was located far away that would heal Stella and help him as well. He didn't worry much about Amber and the others because Ava was there. But still, he wanted to make sure by himself, so he needed to hurry but also didn't want to make a rushed decision.

"If I go to the 4th floor I should find it, but I think this time I should hide my presence and then find it," he said as he left the cave.

On the second floor 

Davain was still inside the tomb without completing the first task, he was holding a black rod at first glance people would say 'it's weightless'. But the true reality was it weighed more as every slash sent wind waves around the small space.

The black rod went down and up repeating the same movement over and over. "Huff Huff huff, I can do this," he told himself.

"997…...998…...999…..1,000" he shouted as he let the black rod on the ground, falling on his back. Breathing heavily his master had created a training method for him which will help him understand the manual. His master was the old spirit staring at his tired expression.

"You are going to need about 2 weeks just to understand the first form or even more," he answered stroking his beard. Davain sighed, with the old man continuing, "You need to learn quickly because I can only keep you in here for just a month."

"Then let's start." Davain stored some food in his storage ring. Why! because he expected that it would take some time for them to reach the 4th floor and they may be unable to hunt. It was just because Alex could tell where the boss was that's why they reached the second floor at such speed.

"Okay then Let's focus on bettering your control of mana with these three stages." he said and continued seeing that he was listening, "The first stage is to stop the leakage of energy." Davain was confused as he ate his meat which the old man explained.

"This happens without the individual awareness, typically resulting in mana slowly leaking away from the body constantly without exceedingly harmful consequences and stemming up and off the top of the head. This may lead to excessive use of mana than wanted so by stopping the leaking of mana you can save 50% of mana you would have used."

"Really." he wondered hearing the explanation.

"Now then." The space in the room started to twist before he felt that he couldn't move.

"What is this." he tried to move finding it difficult.

"I made the space around you to stop you from moving as long your mana is leaking out," he said.

"Listen up, you will need to focus and have a large amount of control over your mana to stop the leaking. If you can't finish your training, you won't eat anything." He said pointing at the meat in his hand.

Davain was stopped in that space unable to move for hours, it felt like time was moving at extreme speeds as he tried to focus, 'Am hungry.' he said to himself looking at the meat in his hand. 

6 hours had passed, and he was still in the space but suddenly he started moving a little. Because the space around him was 100 meters wide each step he took needed tremendous focus, after some fail and tries Davain was able to succeed.

Breathing heavily, he felt someone near him as he looked up, the old man smiled and said, " The first training is over now for the second one." he said. 

It happened again as the space twisted before he found it hard to move "You will be fighting me, till you can stop the leaking of your mana even in combat." he said.

On the 4th floor

He reached the 4th floor which was Ice cold to the point he felt his whole body freezing from the inside and out. "Shit it's cold, anyway." he looked around as his soul sense was spread to the maximin "Fuck they can sense my smell." he sighed and focused in another direction.

He smiled looking into the distance. "I found it."