Within the Dungeon, Helix, on the 20th floor city where humans and sentient monsters gather in a safe but massive expanse of magical land created in a distorted space by the dungeon. Within a humble inn, Logan has been stuck for the last 3 months, a time which crossed his birthday where he turned 20, and in that time he had been working intensely and two things happened.

The first, he obtained earlier and the work was harder. It is a creature known as a Spirit Animal wisp and developing this needed very high control of mana.

A lot of effort was put into it until finally he created the basic framework of the ten mana channels that stretch through the five extremities.

When he finally achieved this, a magical effect happened as mana gathered and a newborn spirit animal took form. That said, the form shrank from nearly a meter of length that the mana channels extended to barely over 30 cm long as a tiny lion cub with navy blue fur and a strange floating yellow metal ring took form. The metal was connected to it like a part of its body but it was strange and he didn’t understand it but the spirit animal finally took form with the first cycle complete.

The next step now that it was stable was to start the 2nd cycle which would further develop the mana channels and extend the secondary channels developing them as well.

However he didn’t start that, instead he focused on the most recent addition and the last of the three battle beasts that a human can possess if he was not a tamer or monster trainer who had special magic to control more.

It was a strange goblin who had been tortured using holy water, something rare and hard to come by and had cleansed a great deal of monstrous features. Despite monsters having no gender, because of this treatment, it had firmly developed into a female somehow. That said, the process or likely something else done to her, had basically destroyed her entire system of mana channels and Logan had to rebuild it no differently from the spirit animal.

He had taken it slow because he wanted to finish the spirit animal. He had only developed her using his mana and when she had mana from food.

This slowed it down well.

The goblin, over the last months slowly opened up, it was no longer fearful of Logan and Storm only. Any other creatures would send her running and she would hide anywhere she could find on his body.

Because of how weak she was, it made it hard for him to explore the dungeon and train his sword skills but he still did as he would leave Storm to protect her while they were exploring.

Finally, the last fragment was grinding and as the link formed against the proto mana pool that he had made to develop her, her tiny 30 cm body began to shine brightly.

With the complete basic flow, her body reestablished a means for her body to channel mana and instantly the stability of her magical body rapidly improved.

Mana started to draw in very fast and her body started to grow. The only thing he could see through the glow was the lines of her mana which were expanding.

Her mana pool grew alongside the tiny monster core. The most important change was that the remaining mana veins that were compensating for the mana flow in her body shined and connected to the new mana channels. Many areas with voids filled in with thin branches as her body naturally grew to fill them up. The most important change was that her body's stability grew and this induced the appearance of organs to enhance her body functions.

She had just been a body of mana before but now organs like the brain, lungs and heart along with each of their respective systems formed but it was still heavily incomplete. Her stomach didn’t grow and was still a sack that broke down matter into mana.

Her body was still skinny as a result but it doubled in size and regained a more solid shape as the glow vanished.

When it was finally all done, her body obtained a stable flow of mana and the fear and dead despair in her eyes showed hope and happiness. With mana freely flowing through her body, her insatiable hunger was finally gone. She could now actively control her mana compared to before but she was a long way from reaching the condition to train herself.

The next step for her and the spirit animal is the second cycle with the secondary channels being developed which would likely induce more restoration of her body and finally the last cycle to perfectly strengthen even the thinnest channels.

However, it was not as easy. Because she could not actively compress and purify mana due to lacking many vital flowing channels required, Logan himself had to achieve the purity required for training them and he had been holding back so that he could complete the first basic step of building their magical bodies.

“Finally i don’t need to hold back.” He said and sighed happily.

“It is good, master, now we possess a full team to grow.” Storm said while sitting on the ground in his human form.

Stumbling around, the little lion cub sniffed all around exploring the world. It truly was a newborn.

“Alright, now Jade, let’s see how much your body recovered. Can you understand my words?” he asked.

She turned bright eyed towards him and nodded.

“One or two, Do you actually understand one or are you nodding because you understood the feeling from our bond?” he asked.

She raised one finger.

“Can you talk?” he asked.

She shook her head and opened her lips, “Gah gru gah gah!” she said, making almost grunting sounds common for goblins. Her gesture was obvious, her intelligence had shot up immensely and she understood the concept of body structures and she pointed out her vocal cords were not formed or partially only.

“Alright, can you do this?” he asked and raised his finger where a tiny orb of mana formed.

She looked excited and raised her hand as orbs of mana appeared slowly and gathered in a single orb but she clearly didn’t have great control as she had to use the center of her palm where the new mana channel had formed.

“Can you read or write with human letters?” he asked and she shook her head as the orb of mana dispersed, “Can you read magic letters?” he asked and she shook her head.

“Hmm, so I am going to need to fill that knowledge gap first.” he said.

He continued for a while asking different questions and learning what he could but she didn’t know much.

Among the things he asked, he asked her if she was a new born but this confused her so he asked if her soul had gone through many lives or if she had only appeared recently.

It was the second option, she was a new goblin. She had a hard time explaining but it seems she was an upper floor goblin before and had killed a priest and taken his holy water. Upon drinking it, her body began to change and her mind cleared up. When she had come too, she felt danger from her kin and ran to the city for safety as this was the instinct the dungeon implanted in her. That said, she seemed to have attracted attention of something and underwent immense torture and broke her spirit. Her body was broken and repaired, constantly undergoing tortuous dunking into holy water tanks as her power was sapped from her body until she became a puppet only.

The later recounts were hard for her to recall as her intelligence broke down as her brain could not maintain stability.

She could only transmit these intents through the bond and it was what he understood. He would need to restore her body more if he wanted her to be able to talk.

“Alright, although your mana channels are new, you can probably use some very basic magic and it is great practice material. I need to start training myself so that I can restore you and develop Jin.” he said.

She nodded and he put her down. Her small rag dress was now tight and barely covered her entire upper body when she stood up.

He smiled wryly and decided that first he needed to get her something to wear.

He recalled Jin who returned to his mana pool and holding Jade like a small child, he walked out and looked for a tailor. He took the chance to get some undergarments for her to not remain exposed below and picked out a simple dress.

Finally he headed to the mage tower. Like for himself and Storm, he basically got all the basics of magic for her while he added in a book on the common Nuntip language. For Eshen specific language he will need to go back and get it there or teach her himself.

She still had trouble because her brain was only just stabilizing so she felt a lot of pain. He then purchased a few basic support spells but these were books to learn from instead of magic tomes. It would be a long while before Logan achieved the complete second cycle for his own development which would improve his mana quality so he thought it was a good time for her to start learning magic.

“So how do wands and staves actually work?” Logan asked.

“Many magical conjuring tools possess magic amplification techniques and materials. For instance, a wand or staff of a fire magius could be the bone of a fire dragon or a wand with the tail feather of a phoenix embedded into the core. Normal casting releases mana from the hands so holding a wand will add an extra filter which rapidly enhances the power of the spell and releases at the upper tip.” the receptionist explained.

“I see, then I won't need to worry about a staff for a while.” he said.

“Are you training this little one as a healer?” she asked.

“Yeah, me and this little guy are frontline fighters and I have a third who is as new as her feels like an attack mage so I decided to raise her as my support.” He said.

“I see, a solo adventurer, it isn’t everyday someone actually forms a party by filling in vital roles with monsters.” she said.

“It kinda just happened.” he said.

She smiled and understood that not everything is planned for.

He stored the books and headed back to the inn to get some lunch before deciding to go fight and train his swordsmanship.

***

“HYA!” a loud shout came as a beautiful young woman jumped.

The roar of a monster came right before it was silenced as the faintly glowing blade cleaved through it. From head down to the middle of the torso, the body had been split and the monster collapsed completely dead.

She was huffing from the fight.

This person wore light but powerful armor made from high quality materials to block damage but even then it was dented.

This person was Olivia Tran McEwen, Logan’s adoptive sister. In the two years since they split, of which they have been adventurers for nearly 3 years, her strength has risen greatly. Unlike Logan, her mana was already well developed and after being forged alongside Hydra, her mana quickly elevated to E rank.

The deception she had with her father made her work harder. She did not want to remember the look Logan had made. She knew he was going to overwork himself to catch up and even try to surpass her because his goals depended on that. She wasn’t going to see herself be so easily beat. Like she said to Maxwell, she could handle being surpassed and would fight to surpass Logan as well. She did not need his pity methods to maintain her pride.

She left and hadn’t returned since then but neither had Logan.

She traveled out of Eshen soon after and began gathering materials and building her fame. She learned different kinds of magic and was slowly trying to make sword attacks and these were greatly enhanced but the boost from her sword and the sword forms.

Cheering from behind came as a few people came over. She had joined an adventurers party. They weren't really strong but they were good supports. Adventuring couldn’t be done alone, one person knowing everything can’t be the master of it all. The fact that despite having all the books Logan gave her, she wasn’t very good with someone teaching so in a sort of trade, her party greatly benefited from all the support skills in Logan’s books and in return, they taught her what was in there in a practical sense.

In return, her ability to hunt E rank monsters allowed the party of F ranks to get combat experience that was valuable and made F rank monsters much easier to hunt.

That said, she could clearly see they weren’t even using mana development and she pointed that out.

They could only smile at this and say that the poor couldn’t do much about it. She had a powerful and rich father who had his own technique but they had common trainers to reach their skill level but never a magic trainer.

She knew it was unlikely that they would continue following her if she moved up another rank. The power gap can’t be made up with simple experience.

Most of the money earned from missions were generally put into repairing armor and supplies. It was amazing how much went into a single expedition to complete a few missions.

“Maybe we should go explore some dungeons.” She finally said as the parties porter sat down.

“Why?” one of them asked.

“Why not? We waste so much money just to reach these far off places for so little pay in return. If you head to tower dungeons or Ruin dungeons then you can make a great deal of money since they produce so much gold.” she said.

“Are you thinking about mana development again?” the only archer in the party said.

“I already told you guys that D rank is the limit of natural growth and mana development helps your body grow faster. I mean, even magic skills become stronger and you guys already have it.” She said.

They all sighed and shook their heads. “Dungeons at the same level are much harder compared to the wilderness where you have places to hide.” he said.

She sighed at their strange defiance to train before getting up and sheathing Hydra. “Let’s set up camp.” She said.

They finish getting the last item of the request list and the next morning awkwardly heads back.

Two days of trekking they eventually got back to civilization and reached the city they got the mission from and turned it in before splitting the gold.

“With this we can relax for a few weeks!” One of them said.

“So what will we do after this?” the porter asked.

“I’m going to a dungeon.” Olivia said.

“Didn’t we already say we weren’t going?” the archer said.

Olivia nodded.

“So why say it again?” He asked.

“Because ‘I’ am going.” she said. “You can come if you want. I’m going regardless.” She said.

They frowned, it meant that she would break off. Even if they knew it was coming they didn’t think it would be so sudden.

“Isn’t that too selfish to put it so suddenly like that?” the archer said.

“This is the third time I suggested it, you should have been aware that I would go.” She said.

The party was silent and after a while she turned and left.

The party looked at one another but when they looked at her, a strange glint passed over their eyes.

Olivia rented a single bed room for herself and examined the maps. She wasn’t in the Union Empire but Helix was tempting. He was one of the biggest dungeons and one of the popular ones. The other is in the central empire and it was even bigger. The Great Tower Felix. The greatest dungeon on Nuntip and one of the 10 largest dungeons with 210 floors. It divided danger in the same way Helix did meaning it went beyond S tiers. That said, above the 7th city, the dungeons open worlds close up into massie labyrinths. Every monster there is sentient and a faithful follower of Felix. Each and every one of them learned human techniques for mana development and had mana purity to match their immense rank. It is suggested that even the demon lord of the past would not easily reach the dungeon core.

In the morning, she left for the city with an international airport.

However, she didn’t charter an airship, she decided to walk. Logan wasn’t the only sharp one.

When she was 14 and Logan 13, Maxwell spent a full year training them in a special manner. A full year they had their sense of sight taken as he prepared a magical blindfold which would not come off for 1 year.

They had to live like blind people and worst of all, Maxwell would attack them out of nowhere.

The first months they hit things unable to adjust without sight and forget even dodging. Naturally Maxwell didn’t attack beyond their dodging speed and he didn’t hide his presence. This was especially to train their unique sense to feel killing intent.

Killing intent is a force that people have little control over without expert training. When a person catches someone by surprise to attack, their body excludes a great deal of killing intent. Their desire to kill the person is excluded through their very aura and this can be picked up by the body.

The ‘chill in your spine’ when someone is glaring at you coldly is a perfect example. For a full year he trained them like that. They even discovered a way to tell their location through sound similar to echolocation that bats use.

As such, Olivia couldn’t help sigh at the people she partied with as they excluded killing intent.

The amount is not normal and she knew they lied about their skill. To tell the truth, she had felt it for a long time already. She knew why as well, they wanted her sword. They were petty bandits who assumed all her power came from her weapon. They did not believe that she was this powerful because of years of blood, sweat and tears.

She wanted to deal with this properly and as she reached a bend, she felt a lot more.

“I see… they are scouters for prey.” She said and stopped.

She pulled out Hydra and took a step near the trees making them tense. “Wow, I didn't expect to find high quality healing herb so close to town.” She said.

She took a step inside the woods and under the shade.

With the vision of her foes blocked from her back she bent over blocking the vision of those in front before the shadows around her covered her body and invited her into the shadows.

The weapon skills known by the Golden Lion group and her father were definitely lost but not everything was gone. This skill was a spell that survived, Shadow walk. It used dark magic to enter into the shadows and hide you completely. This technique, it had a skill to accompany it.

“AHHH!” a blade of darkness pierced from the shadows into the foot of a bandit.

It crossed the leather boot and the man screamed in pain as he tried to take it out but as he bent in, the blade glowed and suddenly expanded quickly and cleaved through his neck.

The black blade was Dark slash, a dagger a cut of compressed dark mana.

This is a branch made exclusively for assassination. It might seem strange that a righteous organization have assassination techniques but sometimes, the best method to break an enemy organization is to cut the head first and let the tower break apart before appearing to deliver the final blow.

It is not graceful but in war, the winner gets to tell the final tale.

As the bandit falls, the others near them shout before compressed blades suddenly start to come from everywhere.

“Something is wrong!” The archer said as he jumped down from the tree he was in but in doing so, he saw a cold pair of eyes appear from the shadow under him and a sword appeared.

He fell right at her and she used the sword form for Rising sun.

She knew he was stronger than he let on but that didn’t matter, and her blade was not only for show with cold intent for acting as bait for bandits, hydra connected from between his legs and cleaved through completely.

Everyone watched in horror as Olivia walked out of the shadows themselves and glared at them. “So it was only for the money and bandits…” She said.

Everyone turned pale because just like they held back, she did as well.

The true bandits roared and burst out of the trees towards her as she took one step and the shadows under the trees covered her.

“She is in the shadows! Clear out!” A roar came but the next moment a whisper sounded in all their ears.

“Shadow’s embrace.” everyone’s legs were grabbed and the shadows under them and all around grew ink black as they moved.

Many people roared in fear and attacked it but shadow and darkness had no form. They gripped their weapons before gripping their arms and slowly pulled people down.

They showed intense fear and cried but the shadows covered them all.

Olivia slowly walked out of the shadows and snorted. “The items weren’t really worth it. They don't even have bounties to reclaim.” She cursed and left their corpses forever lost in the shadows.

This dark spell, unlike the golden lion techniques, is not original. It was developed after the loss of the complete weapon skills. Shadow walk is the closest thing to their old spells and it is a dark element rendition of Lion’s Step as for the last ability, it was a skill she happened upon in a secret cave with a skeleton of a mage. It was a terrifying ability but it left no traces after a day when all magic spell traces were gone.

She went to the corpses and had the shadows swallow them and the blood before returning to the town and getting upon an air ship to head to a dungeon.