Turns out there’s a lot more to Tiering up than just absorbing mana in a higher Tier environment. At least when its only one Tier above your own. Leon had been delving solo every night ever since his first solo delve. That was on top of his daily dives with team Terra. Upon arriving at the tenth floor, Leon would kill everything and then spend several hours actively meditating and pressing his mana into the area between Corey and his source. Holding a truly massive amount of mana in that area while causing his draw on ambient mana to increase dramatically. Leon had also vastly underestimated the amount of mana he could contain within his soul. At this point, if he or Corey were not pulling mana into the center of his core at all times, the cloud of mana now reached about halfway up his Tier 4 skills, Meditation+++ and Utility Pocket+++. Leon was actually unsure of he needed to push the amount of mana his soul contained until it filled everything up, or if there would be a point where all of the mana accumulated would stop growing inside his core. The mana density of the cloud within his core was now at roughly halfway to what Leon thought was the threshold of Tier 2. But his progress had stalled.

The Leon wasn’t really making any progress in drawing in more mana at this point. It was almost like his core had reached an equilibrium with the ambient mana. And no matter how much he was drawing in from outside he wasn’t increasing the amount of mana he had available. At this point he wasn’t sure what to do. It wasn’t really frustrating; it was more like running into a particularly difficult puzzle that you knew you could solve but just weren’t sure if you were making progress. Leon’s latest idea was something he hadn’t tried as of yet. Leon had definitely tapped the maximum potential of drawing in mana from the environment at this point for his current physique and skills. What he wasn’t tapping to the maximum was his Source.

The Source was a bit of a mystery to Leon. It was somehow always supplying mana to his body. Only it was exactly in the amount that his Trait required to operate all of its effects without outside help. With Corey and Leon actively moving mana around the Source it definitely caused there to be an increase in the Sources output. With Leon’s new senses that gave him spatial awareness the Source had revealed itself to be some sort of dimensional effect. Space itself was weirdly shifted and distorted around the basketball sized orb of light. But not in a way that led him to believe that he somehow had a portal to a mana dimension inside his soul. It was more like an organ that was actually causing space itself ripple like heat waves around it. Right now, Leon wanted to try something else. He was going to inject mana directly into the Source and see what happened.

Gathering up a small amount of mana Leon pushed it into the basketball sized glowing orb of light at the center of his core. Or at least that is what he tried to do. As soon as the mana got within a few millimeters of the Source Leon began encountering a resistance. That was something new. Leon began upping the force, pushing against the resistance with greater and greater intensity until he was fairly certain that he couldn’t press any harder if he wanted to. Leon maintained the pressure for several minutes until he felt a sudden shift. The mana he’d been pressing against his Source suddenly rocketing into the ball of light and leaving his ability to control it.

Leon hadn’t used a lot of mana to do this, but it was an interesting phenomenon that just occurred. He closely examined the source to see if there was any difference in it now. After intense and methodical observation Leon came up blank. He had no idea if that had had any effect other than pumping his mana away to somewhere he couldn’t reach. Shrugging his shoulders, Leon figured it wasn’t really a really a loss, as he regenerated mana at a fairly ridiculous pace. So, he gathered a lot more this time and tried again.

This time it was like the floodgates had been opened. Pushing mana into the Source barely even required him to push and the source drank in all he had to offer. Leon didn’t know if this was a good sign or if he had broken something he shouldn’t have but he trudged on. Dumping mana into his Source as fast as his body could absorb it from the outside. After nearly two hours of this Leon finally stopped. He would need to return to the surface soon. Daylight was fast approaching. And Leon’s trade for several different batches of elixirs should be coming through today. He shifted back and looked at his Source intently. Trying to discern if anything had changed with the deluge of mana he’d fed it. There was no size difference nor anything visually that had changed. But there was a change. The Source was now emitting a bit more mana than it needed to. It wasn’t a lot, but it was now emitting a small amount of free-floating mana. Leon wasn’t sure if this extra mana was all the mana that he had just dumped into it or if this was now its general state of being. He would give it a week to see if it returned to normal output levels. If it did then this was a bust. If this was its new normal… Leon would begin feeding it far more mana in the future.

It had already been three months since Leon’s first solo delve. The Dungeon had yet to create any more floors other than the single room of the 11th floor. In those three months much had happened, however. Leon’s teammates had all progressed to Tier 2 for one. Alchemists and merchants had been sent samples of practically everything the dungeon had to offer and the baseline prices for everything had been worked out. unsurprisingly to Leon there was barely anything in the Dungeon that was of major interest to the Alchemists but there were two hot items that were definitely sought after by them. The Axolotl was one, and it was found in the caves of the second floor. The other was whale oils. Among the merchants there was a pretty high demand for any and all animal skins/furs/hides and meats. Though all of those sold for a lot less individually it fairly easy to acquire, especially with Leon’s Instant Harvest skill.

Suffice it to say that Leon was now incredibly wealthy. Especially since he had started his nightly solo delves. Not only did he rake in coin constantly. He had also found and completed the sets of the most commonly available Elixirs on the market. Strength, Endurance, Resilience, Mind, Soul, and Reflexes. Leon had downed all of them and proceeded to stockpile the rest that he found for sale on the markets. The set he was supposed to be getting today was the Elixir of enhanced Mana conductivity. It was by far one of the most expensive and rarest of the Tier 1 Elixirs. He’d been forced to trade a set of Strength and Endurance Elixirs along with five hundred gold for the set. But he’d gotten it and today was when the shipment would come through the Telepad.

Cynarina was another matter altogether. Leon’s ever-growing monster was now completely encircling the island out to a distance of 300 yards, dipping far into the deeper waters of the ocean around the island. The wall had been established already at 100 yards beyond the edge of the islands stone, rising a full fifty feet above the oceans surface at high tide. The wall was a full fifty yards thick as well. The entirety of the interior beyond the wall was now dry. Everything beyond the wall was under the water, expanding in a huge series of reef formations under the water. Leon had left only one area, the south side of the island clear of massive reef formations. There he had created a massive series of 100 piers that could serve as docks for sea fairing vessels. The Piers were still growing out farther into the ocean, but they were more than ready to dock vessels. On the wall surrounding the Island were seven pyramid shaped towers that were incomplete. Everything was growing at a steadily increasing rate at this point. Even without Leon’s input the entirety of everything he had envisioned would be finished growing in less than a year. The reef structures around the island were already attracting large populations of wildlife and Leon was pretty sure it would only keep growing. With how quickly the Monster Cynarina was growing Leon was now having to plan beyond the scope he’d previously envisioned. Now he was having to plan for an expansion methodology that would preserve his reefs and wildlife while also allowing for more living space as the monster grew.

Leon’s home had been renovated substantially. Cynthia, Daisy, Lamia, and Farthallahn had basically moved in with him. They’d purchased a massive bed, panes of glass for windows, paintings to hang on the walls, carpets, a bunch of different furniture. They were living like they’d all gotten married. Though Leon had been forced to grow out individual bedrooms for all of them as well as their own individual bathrooms. Figuring out how to make running water had been pretty easy just a tank built into the roof, Cynarina filtered water from the ocean into a drinkable state, the hard part had been figuring out plumbing all on his own. Leon wasn’t sure exactly why the girls had all wanted their own rooms because they all seemed to prefer sleeping in his room. It really felt like his house was more theirs than his at this point. Not that he was complaining. His sex life had never been as confusing as it was now though. Leon didn’t really know how to handle this whole polyamorous thing that was going on between all of them. So, he generally ignored that aspect of their lives until one of them started something.

The weirdest thing about it was that occasionally one of the girls brought along one of their friends from outside of the team. Leon felt like the sexual culture of the various species here on the island would have been considered highly hedonistic anywhere back on Earth. Sex here among these people was more like a stress therapy and fun pastime they’d engage in with anyone they found mildly attractive. Of course, that was simplifying things and making it seem more immoral than it actually was. It was more like casual sex was not only accepted, but culturally so normal that no one even really thought about it all that much in any terms regarding morals. If Leon had been someone else, he probably would be having the time of his life in that regard, but mostly he just found it confusing. At the very least with healing magic available no one had to worry about STI’s or anything like that. Maybe that was the reason that sex was viewed so casually? Or maybe it was the fact that it was incredibly easy to avert pregnancy. Potions for both males and females were to come by that simply prevented on from being fertile for months at a time without harming reproductive organs permanently. Leon had purchased one such potion that would prevent him from being able to impregnate a woman for the next five years on a single dose. It had cost 100 gold. But that was because it was such a long-term potion. Most of them cost coppers and lasted for a month or two at most.

Leon shook his head as he rose from meditation and used his port-stone to return to the surface. First, he would check on the Telepad deliveries to pick up his Elixir purchase. Then he’d go home and wake up the girls.

Ameillia Crumbl

The journey to Dungeon City #12 was relatively short and sweet compared to the family’s journey to Cracked Stone Keep. They’d been able to get passage on an airship back to their old home city which was operating again but still dealing with the fallout of overflow. A good portion of the former home city had been reduced to rubble and the guild was working tirelessly to affect repairs and the like. Ameillia and Gerald had sold their old home back to the guild for a pittance of what it had been worth, but they were not really pressed for money, and they were about to move to Dungeon City #12. So, there was little that they needed to worry about. Part of the sale of their former home had included a Teleport to Dungeon City #12.

Arriving at Dungeon City #12 was like retuning to their home city. Only much more developed and with more magical transports moving about. Ameillia was slightly nervous about meeting the woman who was about become her sister wife. She’d always known it was bound to happen. Especially after having gotten past the issues that had plagued her in the past. She’d developed a bit of a possessive streak with Gerald in all of that time. She had been the one to push Gerald to accept. Mainly because her mother had been so insistent that she did. But also, because she knew that it was the way of her race, Gnomes in particular had trouble with generational developments. They were such a long-lived species and had such horrible male birth rates that their kind was almost always a bad century away from losing half of their population.

That being said. Ameillia was first wife. She would need to establish the dynamics and take on the role of a matriarch of their family. She wasn’t looking forward to all of the things that that would put on her plate. The gods knew how much her hands were full with just her children. Now she was going to have to get into the interfamily political games that she’d been happy to avoid all these years. There was a real possibility that she could screw things up and cause a blood feud if she didn’t play her role correctly. Today was the day where she would have her first test. And that test was meeting with not only Annise, but Annise’s mothers and her own mothers. They were all in the city for the marriage ceremony, it was going to be an eventful day regardless of what the outcomes were.

Leon Crumbl

What Leon discovered after a week of waiting was that his Source had a new permanent level of output that was a small improvement over what it had been before. So, with this new knowledge of how to increase the amount of mana he had in his system Leon began pouring his mana into the Source at all hours of the day when he wasn’t dungeon diving with his team. The mana that it was outputting slowly rising as he continually fed the hungry beast of a Source. Honestly it was outputting almost as much mana as he was absorbing from the environment after only a couple of days. And after a week had fully outstripped his ambient absorption. Its output actually seemed to be very rapidly pushing the maximum limit of mana within his core up. The cloud of mana that once only came up to the halfway mark of the Stalagmites and Stalactites that made up Leon’s skills, now completely enveloped everything. His entire core was filled completely with a cloud of mana that was only now starting to get slightly denser.

Three weeks after Leon had begun feeding mana into his Source, he seemed to reach a wall. It was no longer allowing in any more mana no matter how hard he pushed. His core was filled entirely now with a cloud of mana that was constantly in motion because of Corey. And even when Leon was not using mana the Source was constantly outputting mana brining the density of his mana steadily higher and higher. Leon had thought that the Source would simply continue putting out mana until the density rose to the next Tier, but it hit a point where the Source didn’t seem to be able to push against the pressure of his core anymore and there was an equilibrium struck. He was on the verge of passing into Tier 2, but the last push seemed to simply not be there. No matter what Leon tried he couldn’t make that final jump. He’d consulted the girls, all of them had crossed the threshold months ago. But they had no clue as to how they’d actually done it. For them it had simply happened during the Dungeon runs.

Speaking of the Girls, Daisy, Cynthia, Lamia, and Far were freaking strong now. Leon was very strong for a Tier 1 individual. But the second that the girls had surpassed him in Tier they’d suddenly gained a massive amount of strength and endurance that Leon would not have been able to match at all without all of his Titles. As it stood none of them were actually stronger than Leon in shear moving power, but it was like they had a new quality to their strength that simply made it better somehow. All of their skills, strength and endurance had gotten a qualitative and quantitative buff that seemed ridiculous. Thinking about the difference in Tiers was what gave Leon the idea to push farther. The problem he was having was the shear quantity of mana that his core could hold. It vastly increased the amount of pressure needed to push his mana up a Tier. What he needed to do was somehow increase the pressure inside his core now that it was absolutely full. The answer was obvious once he thought about it.

Leon needed to either get a bunch more skills. Or he needed to Advance some of his current Skills, or all of them, to Tier 2. And he was pretty sure he knew how to make the leap when it came to skills. Actively compressing small amounts of mana within his core to the second-Tier limit and pushing the densest possible mana through his skills when he used them should theoretically cause the skills to undergo the transition to Tier 2 and in doing so increase the size of the Stalagmites and Stalactites that represented them thereby compressing the mana in his core further. Everyone else with their smaller souls and cores naturally caused this to happen by just leveling their skills as they went. They hadn’t had to struggle to increase the amount of mana within their cores to fill it completely. Theirs were always completely full from the beginning. So, their natural progression in skill levels caused the jump when they reached a certain point.

Because of all that Leon found himself again on the 11th floor of the Dungeon after having completed another solo run through it. He was unsure as to why the Dungeon hadn’t begun creating the actual floors yet. He’d already fed it several thousand more animals from prehistoric Earth at this point. Surely enough to have made a few more floors. But that wasn’t why he was here. He was here focusing on compressing his mana and pushing the compressed mana through his skills before it could return to normal density. He’d done it over and over focusing on a few specific skills for right now. Perception Filter and Stealth mainly.

After several hours of trying Leon finally got the message that he’d been looking for and the confirmation within his core.

Congratulations

Through hard work and dedication to using your skills, Perception Filter has passed the threshold and become Perception Filter+ lvl 1

Looking inside his core Leon found the Stalactite that was the Perception Filter skill and found that it was now much larger, and the mana in his core had been compressed by the new occupation of real estate. Not enough to push the overall density to Tier two. But damn close.

Excited by this development Leon began again with a new skill. Stealth+ was the next one he got. Then Muffle+, Invasive Strike+, Double Strike+, Power Strike+, Reinforce+, Telekinesis+, Quantum Blink+, Horrific Missile+, and Knull Armor+. It didn’t take all that long, maybe five minutes per skill to push them into the next Tier. The second that he succeeded with Lay On Hands the world changed for Leon.

There was a strange sensation in Leon’s chest for a short moment when Lay On Hands became Lay On Hands+. A sense of vertigo rushed through him as his body tingled and itched, his nose picked up smells that he hadn’t noticed before, his eyes picking out new details in his surroundings that he’d never noticed, his sphere of perception from all his deferent sensory skills expanded by nearly 75% in radius. Everything became sharper and more poignant. The world came into focus like never before. It was like he’d never actually seen anything before with how different everything became. Yet his mind was easily able to keep up with all of the new information and feelings rushing through him. Then a new notification popped up into his vision.

Congratulations

In your quest to better yourself, see the universes and experience all that life has to offer, you have taken the first step. You have grown beyond the Tier you were born into and stepped into Tier 2. Each Tier you climb through will have a myriad of effects.

Effects of reaching Tier 2: Base Lifespan is doubled. Body composition upgraded to Tier 2 materials, all damage that originates from Tier 1 materials or mana is mitigated by 75%. Your overall base mind, body and soul are enhanced by 200% before all other modifiers. All Titles, Traits, and Racial abilities have their effects enhanced by 1%. Your Race has been upgraded to Tier 2 Paragon of Earth.

[Note: This information is only available for those who have undergone Emergency Integration Protocols.]

Error… Title [Paragon Earth Variant] is in conflict with Race.

Solution. Updating Title. [The Paragon of Earth] Title awarded. Effects: You are the Paragon of your variant race and will grow into what your variants ideal human is. You are much Smarter, Faster, Stronger, Better Looking, and Longer Lived. The perfect human. Gain the Skill [Create Flora lvl N/A].

“Now that’s what I’m talkin bout!” Leon shouted in English as he fist pumped and gave a little jump.

That was what he had intended to do, but he hadn’t realized how much stronger he’d just become. What had been intended to be a little hop turned into Leon rocketing up into the ceiling fifteen feet above his head and almost giving himself a concussion. “This is going to take some getting use to. And I got another one of them skills! Maybe I’ll be able to make all of earths plant life now? Gonna have to test it all out.” Leon muttered to himself as he turned and headed back up the stairs to the 10th floor of the Dungeon. He’d made it Tier 2. Now he needed to consolidate his gains.