Hello everyone this is a lot later than normal, had to sleep early to get up early today for work related thing so I put it off posting it until I got up so my editors could have time with it. Enjoy!

They rested at the entrance room to the 3rd floor, everyone besides Sigrid and Alice were very excited. Discovering a new floor was a big deal for rookies like them as the rewards for new discoveries were alway good. While they happily chatted among themselves Sigrid looked into the dungeon while going over the plan in her head. Soon everyone was rested and Sigrid walked up to them, “I know you are all very excited about the discovery of a new floor but this is also very dangerous. Everything in this floor is completely unknown so I’ll take the lead and gauge the enemy’s strength. Only fight when I say it’s ok and we should be safe. Ok?”

“Ok!”

Sigrid sent a dazzling smile as she turned around and headed into the tunnels of the 3rd floor.

*Sage’s Chamber*

Alice came back the night before to inform Sage of the sudden change which required them to adjust their plans accordingly. However the party was unwilling to enter the boss room. However, this was easily solved with a simple change to the boss room’s appearance. Sage was at first worried that the change would draw unnecessary attention because the adventurers had a map of the second floor already. But Alice reassured him that it wouldn’t be an issue. She told him that since the dungeon was so young, having the floors change was a pretty normal thing.

After the new plans were made Alice quickly returned to Sigrid while Sage began his experiments. He had reached a limit with the goblin shamans for now as it seemed, the Mana Ale being the only thing they could produce with the given resources. As for the training of the monsters they were going as planned, but with how simple the cultivation techniques were there wasn’t anything left for Sage to teach them. Now they only needed time to gain experience through the trials rooms. As for the dungeon floor expansion, since his soul had recovered a little, a piece of him could continue the expansion without him having to worry about it anymore.

Now that he had done all he could for now to increases his defenses, he began to try and understand the world more. The first thing he was going to work on was this mana, an energy source very similar to Qi yet so different at the same time. He noticed the difference right away when he arrived in this world but due to the given situation at the time and all the events that followed, he never really had the time to deal with it and just used it like how he used Qi. This worked fine in terms of absorbing it but he had a lot of difficulty controlling it. At first he thought it was due to his injured soul which had been causing him many other issues. Now, that he had recovered to the level of an Elementary rank 10 cultivator, his control over mana was only as good as an Elementary rank 1’s control on Qi. This made him realize that, while similar, he had to learn how this new energy source worked, if he wished to increase his chances of survival.

Through his observation of the monsters and all the adventurers so far the one thing he noticed was that mana was used very differently. The first thing every cultivator did, was to use the Qi to nourish and enhance the body. This was the stage Sigrid was currently at, where the Qi cycled through her body and built a better foundation. Once the foundation was set, a new foundation was laid on top and this process repeated itself 10 times throughout the foundation building stage to make sure the cultivator’s body was ready for more power. After that a core was formed and this became the key source of Qi for a cultivator. Before forming their core, cultivators would rely heavily on the Qi in their surroundings but once the core was formed they could generate their own Qi. Once you have formed a core you can be considered a real cultivator.

However mana was used very differently, instead of using the mana to nourish and enhance the body, creatures here seemed to cover themselves in a protective aura subconsciously. The more mana in their body the more powerful their body becomes, allowing them to break the physical limitation that held them back. After this past month of observation, Sage had also concluded that the difference between the so called fighters and mages in this world was simply people that excelled at different types of mana control. Fighters lacked fine control but they could move mana through their body extremely well, so they excelled at using it to reinforce their own body to fight. Mages had much finer control of mana allowing them to use it for ranged attacks but their speed at moving the mana was lacking, making their defense a lot weaker. However there are people that seemed to excel at both but still stick to these archetypes which confused Sage greatly.

But the key difference he noticed was that none of the adventurers or creatures he met generated any mana, they all absorbed it from their surrounding. In theory if they were to run out of mana in place with no mana then even the strongest fighter in this world would just be a normal person.

“If only I can create a void zone but for mana then maybe....”

Just at that moment Sage noticed a group of people entering the dungeon. He quickly put his thoughts on hold and checked the entrance. Just as he guessed it was Sigrid’s party that had arrived. Sage quickly double checked the dungeon layout again to make sure everything was as planned before focusing back on Sigrid’s party.

He watched them slowly progress through the first floor and carefully observed their encounters. Sage had been working hard on making each dungeon floor with the idea of a training location in mind, where the adventurer would always feel threatened but also left a way out. Of course he wasn’t going soft, if the adventurer failed to make the right decision, they would die. However he did want to let the adventurers get the most out of his dungeon so they could spread his fame.

“Hmmm, maybe this place could use another patrol. The escape point for this fight was far too obvious and easy.”

“It seems I have to weaken this group a bit so if they happen to run into two squads at once they will try to fight.”

“Oh, this movement pattern for the elite mobs needs to be fixed here. There shouldn’t be two of them grouped up against rank G adventurers.”

Sage followed along Sigrid’s group and used this chance to study the adventurer’s use of mana as well as how to improve his dungeon. For him it is very good to observe the weak adventurers as their lack of mana control made everything they do extremely obvious and easy to pick up. However one of the adventurers, a young and elegant man, seemed to have much higher control of his mana than the rest of the rank G’s. While he still showed some mana leak, it felt a bit odd. But since Sage was still learning he didn’t find it too weird.

After more than 4 hours they finally made it to the 3rd floor and it seemed Sigrid successfully lured them into the third floor. While they were taking a break before heading deeper into the third floor Sage ordered one of the Elementary White Tigers into position so that it is the first monster they encountered. He also placed a gourd of Mana Ale so Sigrid would get it, this way Sage can keep supplying her with more without raising too much suspicion.

The group quickly encountered the Elementary White Tiger and Sage saw the rest of the group immediately back away. Sigrid stepped up and “fought” with the tiger. She purposely let the tiger “use” all its attacks before defeating it. That way she could turn in a detailed report and her party wouldn’t question it. And as planned the Mana Ale dropped and was given to her. Then the group explored around 10% of the third floor before heading back out. Overall everything went as planned and Sage was even able to use this chance to test out his dungeon floor design. One thing he did notice was how well Sigrid was able to lead and teach that group of adventurers.

“This should help Sigrid move closer to rank D but if she does reach rank D then she won’t be able to enter this dungeon until I grow more. I guess we’ll have to take this one slowly...” Sage suddenly paused and after a long time he shouted “That’s it! That’s what has been bugging me about mana. All the creatures here seem to have a really hard time nourishing and enhancing their body with mana.”

Sage suddenly recalled Sigrid when he was teaching her, while she gathered mana into her body at an amazing rate the rate at which it integrated was extremely slow. This was why even though Sigrid should have broken through to foundation establishment she was still stuck at Elementary rank 10. The experience she had at the Adventurers Guild should have been her breakthrough yet she only managed to lay about 10% of the first layer of foundation.

This was indeed a very big issue if Sage wished to use his knowledge to train a powerful enough fighting force to protect himself. He quickly summoned a few of his elite troops he had been training and order them to cycle the mana through their body and integrate it. This was going to be a slow and painful process but it was something he must figure out as soon as possible.

*Adventurers’ Guild”

“Wow just the first day and you guys have already discovered the 3rd floor!” Penny almost hit her head on the ceiling when she jumped out of her chair from hearing the news, “And you guys even found a new monster as well? This is pretty amazing for the first dungeon run.”

George shook his head and let out a wry smile, “No, it was all lucky really. The dungeon happened to have changed so we didn’t even realize we walked into the boss room and found the stairs leading down. After we reached the third floor we were basically useless, if Sigrid hadn't been there we probably would have all died on the third floor.”

“I only helped where it was needed, they did a great job clearing through floor 1 and 2 by themselves. As the rank E adventurer in charge I have to take the lead when going into unknown territory to ensure the party’s safety. It is my job.” Sigrid shook her head with a smile.

“Still you have been a great leader and teacher to us all. We felt like we improved so much from just one dive into the dungeon. I know we are very weak compared to you but I hope that you would party with us again in the future.” George let out a bright smile and reached out his hand.

Sigrid felt embarrassed at the praise but also didn’t know how to respond. She felt they had a lot of potential and she really enjoyed teaching them but this was not something she could easily agree upon. However just as she was hesitating Alice suddenly popped out, “Are you guys trying to take advantage of her kindness? Do you guys know how many people would want to party with her?”

Suddenly George’s party became very embarrassed and didn’t know what to say but just as he was about to talk, Alice cut him off, “But you guys did show potential so when she is free she will consider teaching you guys again.” Sigrid was as startled as everyone else and looked toward Alice only to see Alice nodding back to her.

Sigrid immediately recovered and smiled, “Yes, I’ll be happy to teach you guys in the future. Train hard and you might even become stronger than me one day.”

George’s party all thanked Sigrid again before leaving. “Wow you are really a natural born leader Sigrid.” Penny was back with Sigrid’s reward, “This is the first time I seen a group of rookie adventurers respect a higher ranked rookie adventurer this much. Most of them think that the higher ranked rookies are just lucky and that they are just as good. It’s hard to make them admit you are better you know.”

“Is that so? But those guys seemed like they are smart so I guess they didn’t care about something like this.” Sigrid couldn’t really think of why they wanted her to teach them.

Penny smiled and handed the reward over, “Well we could always use someone with leadership skills like yours. If you ever wish to do this again please tell me.”

Sigrid accepted the reward, “Thank you but I think I’ll take a few days break for now.”

With that they left the Adventurers’ Guild and returned to the Treasure Inn. Once they ordered dinner to their room and once they returned Sigrid immediately turned to Alice, “What was that Alice? Why did you agree for me?”

Alice looked at Sigrid calmly, “Don’t worry about it, I have discussed this with Sage before. Since we need to blend in with the adventurers you will need a team. Instead of joining an existing team and running into the risk the truth leaking out, me and Sage decided it was best to form the team ourselves. That way we can hand pick talented rookies and train them ourselves to ensure maximum loyalty. While the others aren’t much but that George guy is very talented so he would make a good candidate.”

Sigrid relaxed a lot more after hearing that, “Sorry for doubting you Alice.”

Alice shook her head, “No it was my bad for not telling you about this sooner, just didn’t seem important at the time. Ok, I need to head back to Sage to update him and see what he wishes to do next.” With that she flew out the window.

Sigrid looked out the window as Alice disappeared into the distance, wishing that she too could fly.

*Somewhere hidden in the Dungeon Town*

“Good job everyone this dungeon run was success. We were able to approach the target and even manage to get a promise for future parties.”

“Thank you sir!”

“Now what are the reports from the other teams?”

“Sir! The others have all formed their own team and have signed up for dungeon times so things are moving as planned sir!”

“You guys sure are having a party here.”

“Who is that?!”

“Quiet you fools! So you’re finally here, didn’t think I would be getting back up but seem like this job is going to be a piece of cake.”

“Hmph, you’re lucky I happen to be around to help you. Try not to screw this up. Here is the thing you wanted”

….

“Damn it! That person always ticks me off acting all high and mighty like that but just wait until I complete this mission for Demon Lord Zoar! See how mighty you will act once I gain his blessing and become second in command! Muahaha!”

Edited by: Nova and The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space!