Sitting in a lit cave, the chaotic mana in the surroundings were gathering around a messy haired young man. His hair was down to his shoulders and a shaggy beard had grown.

A year living in the wild had passed in instants and many things changed in that short amount of time.

Despite going into the wild, Logan was far from disconnected. He needed money and resources so he would regularly hunt lightning weasels, crystalback lizards and more.

Storm was already over a meter in length and was getting stronger. Of course, he wasn’t normal.

Among the things he learned over the last year is that monsters can develop just like humans and open their channels. Of course they aren’t as intelligent but there are many things that can be done to improve their intelligence.

First off is teaching them how to develop their bodies. This learning curve was annoying until Logan happened upon an archive which contained the human body and animal equivalent mana channel and acupoint positioning.

Confirming this on Storm, he soon slowly taught him the development method and compression.

Now, Storm actively absorbed mana alongside Logan and grew smarter as a result allowing him to teach him verbally. This helped him start opening many channels and this accelerated his growth which is why he is as long as he is but still only a year and a half old.

He also started accepting lightning openingly. Logan doesn’t restrict him but he rarely leaves except to get some food and quickly returns and accompanies him. Only when he really is hungry and a storm is near, he goes alongside other lizards to feed on lightning. This naturally meant his strength was already F rank since he could handle that.

Half way through the year, Logan’s harsh race to catch up finally reached the end as he finished a full cycle of development through his entire body and all the blocks were opened.

Of course, opening them did not mean fully developed, they were still a bit smaller but his mana now naturally ran through all these channels and he started the next cycle right after and started the grinding against his mana pool but didn’t start on his body.

Instead he prepared the mana and channeled into Arashi right after. Inside, it began to move like the method and grind around the thickest channels.

He expanded her fully to not miss anything and carefully spent a month to develop the rise and return channels and spread to the secondary ones.

It would constantly ring and hum during the process but when he finally finished, he could feel that it had gotten a bit stronger and would be a bit easier to use.

He needed to develop himself though and they had already agreed that he would only develop her a cycle when he finished a cycle himself so after doing once he focused back on himself.

The second half of the year went into that second cycle and each opened channel still consumed at least 50% more mana but they opened to almost the equal size of the developed channels meaning it would take one more cycle to fully balance them with his body.

The second cycle finished about two month quicker and he had the last month of the year to work on Arashi.

What was surprising was that once he finished the second cycle, a strange wind blew over Arashi and he caught something against the light.

Turning her, so the light would flash on her blade, he began to see a very faint flame like pattern on her blade.

He smiled as he realized that she was actually developing with this.

He looked at his right hand and the seal appeared. As expected, the dull pattern had gained a yellow glow and at the center was a faint red that looked more like an orange due to the mix and it was unfocused.

“So developing the sword’s mana channel will result in development, great.” he laughed.

Arashi hummed to his laughter and as he calmed down, he looked at a clock, “It’s been a year already. I need just one more cycle and my body will be totally balanced which seems to be the best peak state of unranked.” he muttered and smiled.

Thinking a while, he decided that he needed to do this last cycle and reach F rank development so that he could purify mana and replace the impure mana he had been using.

His body didn’t have any blocks and the flow was much stronger and this naturally transmitted to his absorbing ability. Storm joined him to complete the third cycle with the same intensity as him.

The amount of mana needed by the opening channels was still much higher but he didn’t care and 3 months later they all finished and their bodies fully developed and stepped into F rank in development.

He decided that it was enough and he now could freely train the proper forms without bursting like a year prior.

He packed up everything and headed out. When he got out, he felt a gentle wind on his face among the chaotic mana.

He turned towards the east where the wind came from and smiled.

He smiled because 6 months into the first year of his training, the Eshen Government finally obtained the required Dungeon Cores.

Dungeon cores are the main bodies containing the souls of dungeons and obtaining them is hard. They obtained several because there were many areas in the nation that needed the cleansing.

The first was placed and is still under the protection of a party of A rank adventurers at the original thunder mountain after a big battle against the thunder dragons killing a large number of them before they planted the core.

The chaotic mana was like nectar to the dungeon and in less then a week it quickly finished the first floor and moved on and began to start channeling mana into the earth’s ley lines but it was superficial. Each added floor would expand the absorption rate and the depth they would push it.

After another half year, the dungeon quickly reached 5 floors and the range of absorption was already 5 kilometers around it and stable mana had begun to leak out around the forest blending with the chaotic mana.

Other locations a dungeon was placed was near the strange demonic anomaly that had begun to get really chaotic as more powerful creatures had begun to appear.

Even space had begun to grow more fragile but when the dungeon was placed, the chaotic mana was sucked up and released more stable mana and it began to instantly feed into the fabric of space causing a massive wave of these demon creatures to attack.

Even now it was a war to allow the dungeon to strengthen the space around those demonic creatures that had brought strange pillars to melt the world around it with a strange liquid.

Several other important chaotic areas got dungeons to stabilize the situation and return it to normal.

The only dungeon that didn’t go to any of those places was placed in eastern Eshen to breed a dungeon to gather resources as well as develop the ley lines within eastern Eshen alongside the western.

To get so many wasn’t without it’s price however. Every core was a massive resource node and required huge international agreements for a number of years. The cores were children of other dungeons and they needed to get them and it was expensive just to get to the negotiation table much less actually acquiring it.

The estimated time for the dungeons to start stabilizing everything to the point that repopulation can be done in some border areas is around 5 years. The chaotic zones were likely to slowly shrink as the chaotic mana gathered towards the dungeons returning to the original environment.

It should be said that the captured territory of Odriacia also got dungeons to enrich that infertile land and clear the chaotic mana that Eshen had thrown there.

Stretching, Logan drew Arashi. “Alright, I haven’t stretched since fully opening my mana so let’s see how much I grew.” He said.

His mana entered Arashi and soon wind infused and a wind clad formed.

He aimed forward and around the sword he cast the wind slash but his mana was moving as he took a form and as he took a step forward his mana moved along his movements without missing a beat and when he released everything. Wind slash, boosted by wind clad and the proper flow of Maxwell’s sword art suddenly burst forward and a massive wind blade burst out but alongside it was a massive tempest wind left in the wake.

The slash instantly burst through nearly twenty trees in front of him lifting them and the tempest winds left behind it were all excess mana released as wind blades behind him shredding what had been cut and it stretched for nearly 50 meters forming a path of destruction that he never thought he would be able to do without being a higher rank.

Logan was clear that he was still not D rank but this power was a combination of the amplification of wind clad.

He did just the form and it released a powerful wave and for 10 meters, he actually released an invisible vacuum blade that hit some trees but couldn’t pierce and parts would stop while the rest continued until it dispersed.

Looking at the power of just his body, he knew he was still not completely caught up but now he had taken the first step to rescuing his family and wouldn’t be tied down if he was forced to use the limits of his power.

He looked at Storm and smiled, “Are you ready?” he asked.

Storm looked at him with intelligent eyes and nodded.

A number of glowing runes appeared on Storm and his body quickly shrank to the size it had when it was newborn but he had a crystal on his back and he climbed up into his back.

He had learned how to do this from the book of shrinking. He just needed to help him do it the first time and then leave the magic runes that he could activate on his own if it was done in the proper order.

It was a great method to sneak attack and distract for that vital second in combat.

He clad his body in lightning but it didn’t leave his body like before, it was contained and he continued to improve the output until it finally started to appear and found his body’s stable limit and stepping forward his body burst forward while his pupil shrank as he saw the world slow down to normal speeds but his true long distance speed had grown much more along with having more mana to support it.

***

On an Airship, Logan looked into the bathroom mirror and examined himself, he was far from ‘neat’ he had taken the first airship back to the harbor city and soon after found an opening for an international trip to the southwest to the final nation which contains the forest Iteno borders.

The ship was much bigger and had bathrooms and washrooms. The main reason being that the trip was for the night and through the morning because of the distance. As he looked at himself, he rubbed his rough beard and sighed. He knew the receptionist looked at him strangely because of his shabby appearance but that is what happens when you live in the wild to avoid expenses.

Naturally, no one judged because he isn’t the first and definitely not the last. His casual clothing was normal clothing but it was pretty dirty so he took them off and using some life magic, he cast wash. Water gathered and mana slowly made it magically soapy, slowly penetrating and removing dirt and grime for about a minute until it rose up and he took out the shirt that had gone from brown to dull yellow.

“Damn, the dirt ingrained into the shirt. Without proper cleaning products it won’t come off.” he said and used the drying spell.

The pants were no different and he hung them on the side before looking at his face and grabbed Arashi in her Tanto form.

She hummed and he clearly felt her discontent because she knew what he was going to do. He only smiled weakly but dunked his head into the water and washed his face and made sure the beard was nice and wet before he took the legend sword and used it as a razor to shave the beard.

Others could only dream of having one of these but Logan casually used it as a razor. He was careful because she was very sharp but this helped cleanly shave but the hard part is getting the final stubbles.

This time he got a few scratches and he could feel she had done it on purpose. He just left it and continued until his face was baby smooth and then cast some first aid magic to heal it before using the wash spell on his face and on Arashi. This helped moisten the area that felt very dry and irritated now as well as clean it.

After that he finished up proper aftershave.

"I didn’t expect the beard to be so annoying but now that it is gone, I feel quite a bit of relief.” he muttered.

Finally he gets in the shower and uses proper shampoo and watched as brown dirty bubbles slid down while his hair started to relax. He took five washings to get the long hair fully clean. The grime was gone, the oil was gone and it fully relaxed.

He dried it naturally with a towel as magic had damaging effects on the scalp and hair.

After that he spent time using simple wash magic to control the water to remove the dead skin from top to bottom dropping his skin tone by a light tone.

When he was done, his clean up was like a miracle makeover which would definitely confuse many people if they saw him before and after.

As for the haircut, he knew better than to do something he wasn’t skilled in doing. Even Maxwell and Olivia weren’t good and went to those trained for that job.

He just left it loose as it has always been and put away his old rags before taking out his clean Ironhide thread clothing. He only used it when he hunted for food the entire last year so it was in good condition much less the bone armor.

Feeling good about being clean, he walked out with Arashi at his belt to relax for the first time since he started training.

When he got to the deck, he saw the sun was already setting and took a seat and began to absorb mana. His mana pool was filled with compressed mana and the last bit was to continue filling, this time he wasn’t going to simply absorb, he needed F rank mana.

Unlike a simple spin, several spinning vortices formed in the mana pool and despite the pain, it could handle this pressure as it was slow.

They formed one by one and slowly grew as the mana moved to the flow.

When nine finished forming, he drew them close until all nine impacted and there was instant friction.

The two connection points of the spinning vortex of mana were colliding and this generated a lot of heat and stress instantly but it was exactly this that was needed.

Mana ground against each other and was pushed into a tighter space. Slowly nodes of pure blue mana appeared while all around different colors of mana was scattered. Pure mana slowly floated down like a denser energy until the nine vortex connected at the center and broke and formed just one.

The single spinning vortex began to pull on all the mana and gathered element and pure mana and blended it all once more while compressing it a bit before stopping and repeating the process. At the same time, mana from the outside slowly drew in. Being high in the air meant thinner mana however.

When they reformed, the process continued for nearly 3 hours until he stopped as the mana had decreased by half but the amount of pure mana had increased greatly. The chaotic elemental mana he had was far from perfect and now he needed to perfectly process all the elements into pure mana to achieve compression and purity of F rank and develop his mana pool.

The capacity would definitely increase greatly as a result of this for sure. He had purchased many books on magic theory and development, this complemented his actual studies and he understood what actually happened now. In truth, without these books he might not have even been able to finish the first step much less doing the 2nd one he was stepping into.

He released a breath and relaxed before returning to his room to sleep.

The next morning, he was refreshed and found they were in a much denser area of mana now. The ship was much lower to the ground suggesting they had already entered into the nation. Different from all the smaller nations in the northeast coast where Eshen was, this nation was much bigger. In fact, if you take all the territory of the Eshen and it’s four neighbors, it barely achieves the same territory size. It still requires quite a bit more to the south to fully match territory size.

He continued until noon when the captain announced their approach and that they should prepare their bags.

He finished the grinding and was happy that it was mostly done now. If he could find a good place with high mana then it would be perfect.

What was shocking though is that this place came to him and when they disembarked near the capital, a striking structure caught his attention. “What is that?” Logan unintentionally said.

Others who weren’t used to the country nodded and others smiled, “That is the Tower dungeon Helix, one of the few high ranking dungeons in Nuntip. He boasts a staggering 150 floors. Because of his shape, he extends high up and gathers a lot more mana compared to underground ones but he has trouble pushing it down. This forced him to build special structures that also help to support the height which he uses to channel mana into the ground but it isn’t as efficient.” a native said.

“Isn’t that counter productive?” Logan asked.

“Nope, he produces a lot of resources in return by converting mana into matter. That is why the capital city is around it. There is less danger of high ranking monsters attacking because it is a central point that draws adventurers to hunt and in doing so, they bring out materialized mana. Gold coins, the previous main money of the world, produced by dungeons, are pulled out in sacks each time. This isn’t even mentioning rare items and weapons made of special materials and processed by unique monsters.”

Logan looked at it curious. He never had a chance to truly test his full potential and most dungeons might go wild with high ranking monsters on the first floor if it isn’t properly managed.

“Is the mana inside pure and possible to absorb?” he asked.

“Oh, are you trying to train your mana? The mana in the dungeon is quite pure and rich. That said, you need to be able to reach the 20th floor to reach the first safe level called Checkpoint city. It is a city the dungeon built itself where sentient humanoid monsters live and provide many special services that are not available outside.” the native said.

“That sounds interesting.” Logan said, “Is it expensive to stay there?” He asked.

“No, the space of the tower is distorted, the outside diameter is only 150 meters from one side to the other but the interior can have entire labyrinths extended kilometers and even isolated worlds produced by mana Helix gathered. If you don’t want to pay, you can go into the wilds but like any place, the cities are safer.” he said.

He nodded and understood, adventurers were never totally friendly and neither were sentient monsters.

Logan was not in a hurry to rush into thrill seeking. The first thing he needed was at least one cycle of F rank mana. The mana outside might be said to be low but compared to many places, it was still very good for a low ranking adventurer.

After having all of his things examined, he was allowed in and chartering a ride he headed for the capital. He pulled out a search tool and looked for a barber and got his haircut to a normal size and familiar style.

After that he began to look for an inn. There were a huge number of them but many big ones were filled and he didn’t think he could afford possibly a month there he slowly got more towards lower end inns and finally found a comfortable one with good food.

The rent of the rooms was low so estimating the time he rented a room for two months enough time to finish making his mana pure and then doing a cycle alongside Storm. He did have to start teaching him that though.

He didn’t waste time and took a deep breath, which contained pure gentle mana, he began to absorb. The effect was even better than in the chaotic areas because the mana fell into his control quickly.

Feeling the pressure rise, he smiled and began to grind the mana with a continuous flow of mana coming and sustaining for much longer.

Soon night came and he stopped and ordered some food for himself and Storm and after eating he began to teach the lizard how to grind the mana while absorbing.

He guided it slowly and with a bit of his mana inside him, he showed how it was done to grind in a very minor way. He watched through the feeling and soon he got it right and Storm slowly increased the amount of mana until it finally started to grind.

His scales stood on ends when it started but he was far stronger than general lizards. From the green lightning Arashi fed him to the mana development, he clearly had at least had up to D rank development. If the mana purity could push his potential then it might be possible that it could eventually match a thunder dragon and that would be an amazing sight to see.

The crystal on his back also began to glow and mana gathered through the crystal while releasing sparks.

Leaving him be, he kept up his training and they took it through the night. The abundant mana that wasn’t stressful to absorb made it easy to maintain the constant pace, stopping only a few times to gather up and blend the element and pure mana to continue grinding until the sun rose with pure F rank mana pool.

Taking a deep breath of satisfaction, he wasn’t even tired because as he let the mana naturally flow, he felt extremely comfortable but the mana in his body was reacting to it which was a good sign.

Going down with Storm in lizard size, he ordered breakfast and sat down.

Soon the daughter of the owner appeared and carried the food over.

“Here you go sir.” She said.

A large plate of meat next to a plate of more normal breakfast was on the tray alongside some juice.

He thanked her and put the plate to the side which Storm jumped into and started to devour the meat.

His habits are vastly different from common ones and he loved meat compared to his bug eater kind.

While slowly eating he took out the device to receive news and slowly updated to get information from the nation's channels and began to learn about the local specialities, monsters and famous points and places.