“HA!” a group shouted together swinging a sword.

PA! PA! PA!

In seconds, a series of smacks sounded, “Fix your postures! Get ready!” Logan shouted as he walked along the lines. Every so often there would be a crisp slap and a yelp and the target would be in pain and forced to fix the pose.

“First form, swing!” he shouted.

“HA!”

“Second!”

“HA!”

It continued and as it reached the eight, suddenly several slaps came down on several.

“You are all pathetic! If you want to get the capacity to develop strong mana you need a strong body to support it!” He roared.

Among those sweating were Jade and Storm who were sweating the most. Under Maxwell’s suggestion, those who trained only their common skills and other skills besides mana, they lacked a lot of actual training itself.

What did training do? Flexibility, body control, self control and improved reflexes.

For Jade, this was extra important.

“A field medic can’t be weak, they are the ones that need to be quickest on the battlefield and the ones most capable of escaping attacks because the healer is the first target of every enemy because you save the enemy. Back field medics are different because they have many lines of defense in front as well as proper equipment but field medics are soldiers who know how to stop grave injuries and have the strength to bring back a rescued person.” Maxwell had said when he made her start training so her body would not be so squishy.

It had a lot of effect on her because it caused her body to burn mana most intensely when hit but grow stronger as she regained mana. Her body was slowly gaining a larger and larger capacity to hold more mana meaning her body's capacity grew which means the balance translates to her own capacity itself.

This was the most direct show of growth towards a monster's growth, those who have solid bodies actually faced harder time doing the same. Between Storm and Jade, she was growing much faster compared to Storm who was not used to fighting in his humanoid form.

The training continued until they could no longer stand. Maxwell was not in the place but he checked every few days. The train had already left the port city for three days and had made two stops already. The internal space of the caravan dungeon was amazing. When in what they call the bazaar mode, when the train extends out and forms a large building, the internal space returns closer to normal. When the train started out, all the space would reduce fully to the natural size but as it got bigger, it became less true. The seemingly single floor train carts were three to five floors big and in their extended size, they still retained those floors but it is more split up as the carts extended.

There were thousands of passengers and each of them paid a tax to the train daily.

Even a child would naturally produce 5 gold coins daily. Logan already made piles of coins and it was already in a pile of 10 gold bars. The number of coins formed in the pouch translated to the amount of mana moving through it within a certain time. During normal day to day usage of mana the body absorbs mana and at E rank, it would generate naturally about 100 gold coins, or one plate, but when he actively absorbs it this shoots up to 500 if he was a normal person.

Because of the micro world, the amount he produces is 2,000 gold every 3 hours which is the duration of his training since he had to train the kids and monsters.

He was honestly happy because gold coins were extremely useful but he was curious about the evolution power of the train however Maxwell shot him down.

“Don’t do stupid shit, using the dungeon system to evolve a monster means they become a monster of the system. Not a single dungeon master like Hyron uses their own system to elevate their power from young dragon to adult, their power over the dungeon will get overridden instantly.” Maxwell explained.

To use them, it would require not only the evolution price but the price to break the contract instantly as it tries to form.

The breaking cost is 10 times the evolution price so unlike a dungeon goblin that can use between 100 to 1,000 coins to evolve into hobgoblins with F rank strength, his goblins had to pay ten times that so that the dungeon does not forcefully make them it’s servant.

This was the price for power, the power of money was expressed very firmly in this dungeon even more intensely than tower dungeons. Everything is paid in gold coins, there is no option for using Tip but there is an option to cash gold into tip.

For Logan this is great because it was a huge store of mana that could be stuffed into the micro world.

Logan sighed as he saw the exhausted children and monsters. He had suffered this over and over and he lost count of how much exhaustion he faced, even when Maxwell didn’t train him actively, what he always ended up doing on the side was all the sword type forms until they were perfect.

He let them go rest and meditate while just flowing mana through the flow of the unranked level technique.

He built a few fires and began to make all the food for nearly 40 mouths but his eyes were on all of them as they sat healing and regaining their own strength.

He marveled at monster’s adaptability and knew why humans kept the secrets of mana development from monsters. If they had complete access to both high mana zones and mana development, it was easy for huge numbers of high powered and dangerous breeds to bloom all over the world.

Even now there were a lot of danger zones because of existing monsters that humans cannot fight.

While they absorb mana, the monsters would actually flash quickly as he could instantly pick up on minor changes to their bodies around the wounds. That said, what is surprising is that as he examined the six children, their mana ran in similar manners but the effect wasn’t visible.

“Hmm… could the golden lion technique possess some kind of hidden magical ability to slowly change humans as well as monsters? When Storm used it before and didn’t train he didn’t flash like this and I’ve never heard of it.” Logan muttered.

He examined Storm and Jade and they were equally flashing in certain parts.

After fixing the fire he secretly activated identification magic and watched them all and was surprised that muscle flexibility in areas he hit were improving as mana flowed making it easier.

He began to think and it suddenly struck him. Even the human children, the forms they train and get struck over time would always improve rapidly, errors and all would constantly improve.

“Maybe… maybe because they are learning the weapon forms of the golden lion, it is picking up on the training form and improving their bodies to handle it.” Logan muttered to himself.

After some thought he decided to check with Maxwell and turned to the food.

When it was done, he simply whistled. They finished and like a pack of dogs ran over starved for food.

After that they headed to bed. A completely new home was built for everyone and was more of a dormitory divided in male and female sides.

At this time he left and went to Maxwell’s room and told him about what he witnessed.

“I did notice that a while back, I can’t really help figure that out. The techniques were gone too long and what we modified over the years trying to eventually create a new A rank eventually led to the loss of the original technique and all the effects it came with. The capacity to train the bodies of those training the technique to properly perform the corresponding weapon technique could very well be a magical effect of the mana.” Maxwell said. “What are your plans?” he asked.

“I want them all to learn every form perfectly before becoming F ranks because they will have the ability to fight after this. The kids are still catching up to their age development at this point while the three groups of monsters are growing naturally.” he said.

“You want them to achieve F rank body strength first.” Max said.

Logan nodded.

He smiled and nodded, “Good, this is the proper mentality. Even if we are desperate to rebuild an army that can properly fight on equal terms with the demon forces, we first need proper quality soldiers who can train their inferiors but obey their superiors. Letting them get mana like your battle beasts do is going to cause problems. Your spirit can join in, he uses dual hammers and his own fists and naturally there are forms for that.” Max said.

“Right.” Logan said. “I wonder how they would evolve.” Logan said.

“Likely not something really special, goblin warriors, kobold and orcs upon reaching F rank. What is important is their proper growth after that when their race changes. Hobgoblin, Lizardmen are among the possibilities while orcs would divide between beast and demi human breeds.” he explained.

“Genetics.” Logan said.

“Yes, there is no telling if any of them have human DNA mixed in as a cruel result of torture towards females. Keep training them as you are, they need every weapon form to properly achieve the strength of a strong soldier. From there we can find their best talent from their evolution as they help divide it up quite easily.” He said with a laugh.

“How many are required for an army?” Logan asked.

“Enough to equal at least part of a kingdom’s army.” Maxwell said.

“Wouldn’t most people at this point outright make kingdoms if they had this much military might?” Logan asked.

“Probably, to a degree, in the past, Golden Lion did have what could be regarded as a nation, it was their ancient HQ which was a system of forts and cities near the center of the continent where is now the Great Empire.” Max said.

“Are they all occupied?” Logan asked.

“Nope, they are all destroyed, records in the Microworld from that time say that when they confirmed the disappearance of the 4th grandmaster, they completely destroyed all their facilities because they knew they couldn’t hold any of it with only B rank. The young leader at the time had the order disbanded and gathered the most loyal followers within their ranking and vanished. Some time later the first generation mercenary group was formed.” He explained.

They both sighed at the fate handed to the Golden Lions but they truly did preserve until their return.

“I’ve been wondering how you will get a castle, most if not all the territory in the entire continent is occupied except Mortis Desert and even here there are city states in the large enough cities.” Logan said.

“Yeah, to some degree, as a private army there are naturally a huge number of restrictions. We are still going to hide this fact, with 52 divisions, counting Olivia, we need at least 1,000 members each division to be called a proper army.” Max said.

“Is it too hard to get microworlds for every division leader? I mean moving around 1,000 humans and monsters is not easy at all.” Logan said.

“Yeah, and I’ve basically emptied the entire material storage gathered over the last few centuries just to make magic weapons. You also should pick out a sword for every element though they are going to lack Junpin types. Hyron only made a single Nodachi for me, basically copying what Hydra had been and I’m still developing the mana channels.” He said.

“The power of the sword rises with each new weapon right?” Logan asked.

Max nodded, “The concentration of specific elements increases and it improves the ability to generate elemental forces. In return, you can access countless types of different weapons.” He explained.

Logan nodded and drew Arashi. He sighed and formed a massive battleaxe.

“Oh, I didn't know you had something like that.” He said.

“I almost died several times to this when I reached Helix’s 40th floor. I got this weapon and a pair of dual dark mana daggers.” Logan said.

“It sure is a powerful earth element battle axe.” Max said.

“It is similar to this.” Logan said and brought out the earth sword and channeled mana making the rock blade split and expand. “It has closed mana channels and is in the process of opening and getting more stable as it goes but most of the weapons I have are still pretty unusable because they aren’t developed as Arashi. Her internal elemental energies are opening them all but the lack of those forces makes the development slow.” Logan said, showing the thunder spear, “This is already opened because of the sheer amount of lightning mana she has though.”

“So they also develop passively. That is good so that it does not distract you but remember, you need to constantly train with the weapons you use. Each weapon develops unique abilities and has different powers.” he said.

Logan nodded. “Is the saint easy to talk to?” Logan asked.

“You probably might not meet the man. Though you might get lucky if he is outside the temple he lives in. His holy artifact isn’t really something he can carry around, but he constantly trains in its presence. It is in the shape of a fountain and it naturally overflows with holy water if placed in a body of water.” Max said.

“Overflows? Wouldn’t it sink?” Logan asked.

“No, it was from the god of Water himself so it remains on top of it and it absorbs water from below and releases it back with a blessing. Thanks to the long period of time he has had it, he has created a protected underground reserve of holy water and the holy water is used for countless things like blessing the land and healing wounds. That is why this is one of the places with greatest ease to obtain holy water.” Max said.

“How long until we get there?” Logan asked.

“It will probably be some days since the train has its own route. There are also certain places in the desert this train is unable to travel through because of the dangers.” Max explained.

“Then i guess we can only relax and train as much as possible. How much is the travel fee?” Long asked.

“50 gold bars for me and 70 gold plates for you.” he said.

“How much do you make a day?” Logan asked.

“About 5,000 coins per training session.” he said.

Logan nodded and understood the capacity of a truly powerful person. When they were done the talk he returned to his room, that said when he arrived, the 40 were up.

“Is something wrong?” He asked.

“We were hoping to ask, how long will we stay unranked instead of F rank?” one of the boys asked for all of them.

“Oh, you were worried about that?” Logan said and everyone nodded. “The current requirements to officially obtain the F rank is to know all of the weapon forms to perfection. You all should not worry about the amount of time. You are all progressing extremely fast, even faster than what I did. You might not have noticed but the weapon form and the mana development compliment your bodies. As you rest, your bodies are always healing and growing strong and you all do the forms better each time after that training. From what I know, everyone should have good mastery of the longsword forms within two weeks. We will then change to different swords before switching to different weapons. Do not expect to reach F rank this year, you are all disciples and the first thing you need to learn is patience, dedication and perseverance. I’ve learned all these forms as well and as you master it, I will join you since I will not have to guide you all. Now go to sleep, it was a hard day.” Logan shouted.

The next day, Jin was added among the trainees and the poor lion cub spirit whined as it was shown the proper forms each time without being hit just like the children and monsters but soon after, the poor cub was struck down over and over.

Everyone else, however, actually saw the many problems it had and the complaining expression it had before even that was beaten out of him.

For the kids, they did all the forms and the number of hits everyone got drastically reduced for the forms they were failing the previous day but the later forms that built off the earlier ones were still getting hit extensively and it was clear progression went very linear.

In this fashion, they just went along their training until they were approaching the city of water at the middle of the driest place in the continent.

Maxwell called Logan to his room and he was shocked by the number of weapons stacked all over. Spears, maces, warhammers, swords, even staves. Among the spears there were several different polearms like halberg and some strange ones that had long axe heads instead.

Arashi instantly trembled in excitement while Max was smiling at him.

“Well, this is quite the good collection, yes?” He asked.

“Yeah, it is quite amazing to say the least. I’ve never seen so many weapons at once much less magic weapons.” Logan said.

“I’m sure, I’ve already separated everything from weapon types to element types and there is at least several of every weapon in every element. Go on, pick them out. If you feel Arashi tremble, it means she is excited by a particular one which resonates with her. Those are likely to be extremely compatible and have much greater effect on her growth.” Max said.

He thought for a while and took her out and in her Tanto form, since it was convenient, he began to slowly walk around passing her close to all the weapons. She was excited but she quieted down when they started and as they passed near the spears, three from different elements instantly trembled alongside her.

He looked at the three in particular and took them out. The polearm was strange because the blade was curved and long like the Junpin weapons.

“I knew i couldn’t hide it from her!” Max said and laughed.

“What are these?” Logan asked.

“They’re called naginata, they are by no means perfect examples of their true Junpin counterparts forged by their masters but the Elder dwarf was vaguely familiar with the art from Junpin enough to make what can be considered a forgery of their style of weapon. I had him make only a few of these and mixed them in to see if Arashi could pick them up.” He said.

Logan looked at the weapon and checked their element. He just channeled mana and felt the change. The first was covered in his mana before it quickly grew red and suddenly was clad in flames. The other froze as it made an edge of ice and the last seemed to turn gold.

“What is this third one?” Logan asked.

“Metal element. As with gold coins, when metal mana is concentrated they produce gold like auras. The weapon enhances the durability by double and sharpness by at least 50% making them among the sharpest blades. Of course, in return their magical abilities are much simpler compared to others.” Max explained.

Logan nodded as he understood. He looked more carefully and soon pulled out nine similar weapons which were hidden skillfully, the others with a hint of magic. When they broke, Arashi instantly resonated with them all. He ended up taking them to complete the entire collection and would have to train with them all later to get a feeling for all the weapons.

One by one he would go through the available types and take any weapon Arashi resonated before picking out others and when he finished, at least one of every type was already absorbed.

Logan sat down in the middle and closed his eyes and appeared in Arashi’s internal world. The weapons were floating thanks to Arashi as she made it easier to organize and after some searching, he found the spots for it.

That said, one thing to note is that Arashi had a max limit, for instance, polearms were divided into long blade, axe blade and spear tip types. The Naginata completely occupied all the long blade polearms. The different spears filled up while only a few axe heads types were picked out.

Swords of all elements from great swords of different types to long swords and short swords all filled up and each one would be covered in their elemental force until the very last one was put on and he sighed.

His armory filled up greatly and Arashi was extremely happy when he left.

That said, as he came out, he saw her shining along with the sheath and he could feel a lot of power swirling through her.

“This is good, the feedback is quite good. The advancement of the armory is likely to produce a huge feedback to her legend which is the legend of the Order but your own legend will improve as you show off your might.” Max said.

“So all the power from the legend is basically how much you show off.” Logan said.

“To a degree, I’ve no sword and can’t say. That is just my thought, everyone powerful has a story behind them, if not, why would some legend swords be remembered as the bane of certain races?” Max said. “Spend some time on the train with her, the feedback is gathering into her but it can only be absorbed when you both are in union and it feeds back to you. After we reach the city, you are going to have to fight.” Max said.

“Fight? Who?” Logan asked.

“Hyron wants to see the true strength of a Golden Lion knight. I’ve been sparring with him for the last few days since we got on the train but my new sword cannot support the flow of A rank mana using the complete sword art. He wants to see what the power of an E rank Golden Lion Knight with a matching magic weapon and the full skill looks like. Don’t think of this as a simple spar, it is the first test to fully awaken the legend of the Golden Lions. It affects not only you but Olivia and the entire Order.” Max said, completely serious.

Logan looked down and nodded. The red burn was already growing stronger and it was likely to fully finish forming when the feedback was fully absorbed. He had not had a true fight and the monsters in this dungeon all use mana development meaning it was not as simple as Helix’s dungeon monsters.

“Will I fight alone?” Logan asked.

“Yes, Hyron wants to see the pure strength and power of only a Golden Lion, not his battle beasts alongside him. I’ve told him that with your party, you killed a D rank Minotaur so he is going to have you fight a D rank Lesser Lord trained in the way of the sword. Remember Logan, you are not limited to your sword. You already have weapons that are developed to handle your power.” Max said.

Logan nodded and stood up and went to his room.

He breathed and held the handle with both hands, it was like Arashi was not the extension of one arm but both and it felt balanced to him. He just flowed mana naturally along the flow he knew but not grinding, just flow.

When it reached Arashi, he felt the intense elemental feedback. This was all the isolated powers all stored up from every weapon as it reacted. It flowed out of her and into him and he felt like he was in a thunder forest again because no elements were blending and he finally understood what the process of absorbing the feedback was.

He waited until it flowed through his entire body and filled him before he finally started gathering and grinding all that power. It flowed and eventually returned to Arashi and it constantly entered and left their bodies and the amount of elemental forces only grew and he began to train until something clicked and his mind went black but the amount of mana being drawn in erupted by both of them.

In his mind, he only felt serene and Arashi no longer felt like an extension but a part of him. Arashi became like a whale as she pulled in mana like crazy and his body slowly developed until it reached his hands and extended into her going up then down before returning the rest of his body slowly followed until a full cycle was complete but starting at the very tip, mana leaked from the mana channels and this slowly went down all the way to the tang but the effect stopped at Arashi. She tried to push this effect onto Logan but it was like an immense barrier existed preventing this connection.

Arashi actually became irritated until she seemed to think of something and as if Logan was thinking of this he raised his left hand and lightly ran it along her finger. She suddenly exerted mana and shot it from the outside through his body and pierced the thinnest mana channels.

She felt extremely smart but to her shock, mana quickly gathered up and began to heal that wound sealing the mana channel in moments while the traces leaked out of his body.

This time she noticed that something was strange with her master because it felt so natural for mana to fill her entire body and like Logan sensed her flow, she sensed his own but he wasn’t releasing mana even when he had so much. This felt unnatural to her, who was growing intelligent but was starting to understand instincts she felt as natural.

Eventually her perception landed upon the location of the mana pool. The mana pool is like an invisible organ located next to the heart but monsters had a solid core that would become magic but before that process happened, most would have mana infused into their bodies. Suddenly something seemed to click as she transformed into a tanto and lightly controlled his body and put her tip against the point where an acupoint representing both the mana pool and the controlling acupoint of his heart.

Mana slowly gathered and touched the skin and suddenly transmitted through that point an immense force. That point was the physical representation of the mana pool and touching it, Arashi felt the system connecting it to the heart but she noticed some vessels unused that entered the blood and mentally exclaimed in happiness as she forced her mana to run along the mana development through all the hidden vessels.

Logan was still having an epiphany due to this state but he was conscious of his entire body because of the same process. He felt no pain of this process and the vessels were slowly opened and it ran until it connected to a very thin blood vessel. Every last one of them. These were blood vessels of the heart itself and upon connecting, a magical effect happened.

The overflowing mana seemed to form a mind of its own as if finding an exit like new mana channels formed, the mana began to leak and entered those tiny channels, then into the veins which eventually reached into the heart where it finally entered his blood.

His body began to have a huge reaction and all the excess energy was slowly drained into his blood before it began to spread through his entire body and start to fill every corner of his body.

It was a magical effect that few humans would achieve in their lifetime because the vessel was immensely hard to find.

Max felt the huge surge of mana in the other room and walked into it and entered to find him covered in the feedback glow and he watched but when he saw Arashi touch against his heart, he used his golden eye to watch the process. It had grown even stronger and he could use it even better. What happened caused his jaw to drop, the thing humans most desired, mana infusing into their bodies, happened before his very eyes. The link that humans could never find and was written only in the ancient hero’s texts as he had naturally discovered it. Even the reborn hero after the demon lord’s death replicated this but it was close to impossible for others to do this.

Now, Maxwell saw it, Logan’s excessive mana was entering his blood and it was spreading as more and more leaked slowly balancing a third of his mana.

Arashi vibrated in happiness as she pulled back and returned to her natural form and joined Logan in the feeling as they were back in unison.

Maxwell just watched and touched his heart. He looked down at the glowing part that seemed like a sun but he changed the view beyond mana to his body's natural acupoint flow and looked at Logan. He saw ten tiny veins from the heart acupoint surrounding the heart before leaking. He left the room and returned to his own as he began to focus more and more until his head was hurting before he could find actual vessels.

It was a joy he could never explain and he carefully sent a strand of mana into it to develop each of them but the pain was no different from any monster who ate ogre horns and formed their own. It forced mana actively to the bursting point until it leaked.

His body trembled in pain but he had done much more for power but what really hurt was that it was directly causing immense pain to his heart and felt like it would stop at any second.

It was truly painful but with his A rank mana and willpower, he preserved until he finally opened the connection and felt a nearly spiritual sense of comfort as he felt his mana move out of his mana pool and enter those veins and infuse into his blood. From there, an intense burning sensation started.

It was at this point that something humans never showed happened as both Logan and Maxwell began to shine like the monsters who were adapting to the growth.

It started slowly at the heart and spread through the veins until in one large wave it went from inside all the way to their skin and they were, for a moment in time, completely in the state of mana before it stabilized. Their skin evolved and possessed a film of mana that all monsters possessed and their bodies had formed a containment method and they both completely relaxed in this state as their bodies and mana pool perfectly stabilized with one another each having 50% of the mana compared to monsters who had ⅓ in the body and the horns.

Humans did not have that capacity to grow horns but their incredibly stable bodies had much higher capacity to contain mana allowing them to split it 50/50.

They both breathed calmly and rested until the train reached the City of Water.