POV Change - Max

Slowly waking up and trying to get up as I rub my crust filled eyes so I can open them, I am meet with two pairs of eyes staring at me from across the room. Both of them looking at me like I am some kind of monster.

"What is happening right now?" I say with a yawn, still trying to remove that last bit of crust out of my eye.

"Did he forget already?" Emerald just shrugs her shoulders while looking very disappointed in me. "I think he did forget." Jason replies back to her shrug.

As I stretch out my arms and throw my feet over my bed and sit across from them, I try and remember what I am forgetting. I don't think I am forgetting anything important. Then it hits me like a ton of bricks.

"You guys wanting to go shopping today didn't you?" I say slowly, hoping that I didn't sleep in too late. Looking outside I don't see the sun shining right into my window. That means I slept through the morning.

"Yeah!" Both of them say in unison. "We did want to go in the morning, but it is already noon. Why the heck did you sleep in so late?!" Jason finishes off for Emerald who is not in the mood to talk to me right now.

"Fine, fine I will get ready really quick, just wait outside for a couple of minutes." I say as I stand up trying to push them out of the room so I can get changed without Emerald seeing certain parts of me.

Quickly getting changed I walk out of the room. Making sure that I grabbed the monthly allowance that we all get, we walk out of the orphanage. Walking for not even ten seconds Jason starts to run ahead, a light laughter can be heard as he starts to pick up more speed.

"Oh you little piece of..." I say under my breath before me and Emerald start to run towards him.

In only five or so minutes we reach the village center, the place where everyone sells the things that they want to sell. With this village being so small most of the things that people buy are things that they asked for days before. It isn't like a big town or city where there is so many people that you are bound to find something that you are looking for.

There really isn't much to buy here unless a big time merchant decides to drop by on their way to the larger towns.

There is mainly just pelts from the wolves and deer, plus some mana cores. A few cooper tools made from the local blacksmith and clothes personally sewed together by the people of the village.

Looking around I see a uncommon site in the village of New Haven. A stand from people that don't live in the village.

Around the stand there is quite a few people already looking at all of the goods on display. Despite it being quite late for being to be shopping, as most people get that stuff out of the way in the morning, there is still around ten people all crowding around the stand.

I even noticed that Jason and Emerald are actually among the crowd. I don't even know when they left my side to go run over there.

As I was about to walk over to the stand a hand grabbed onto my shoulder, stopping me with a surprising amount of strength. "Ah, Max. Just the man that I was looking for!" The person grabbing me says in a happy voice.

Turning my head I finally noticed that the unknown person turned out to be Lawson, the village leader. "I was just about to head to the orphanage. Come, let's go to my house, I need to talk to you about the dungeon."

Nodding my head to him, he starts to walk off towards his house. Moving my head back to the stand full of people, I notice Jason and Emerald aren't even looking my way. If I leave without them they are going to be mad at me later after I get back.

"Lawson." He turns around to see me just standing there. "Can I bring along my friends over there?" I point to Jason and Emerald.

"Sure. The more the merrier or so the saying goes, Haha! I was going to ask you to go grab them anyways. Come along then, I am sure that you are going to want to hear this.." Lawson just laughs, making me feel a lot better since I won’t be alone.

While I do know that Lawson isn’t a bad guy, he just gives off a weird aura that makes it seem that I will never be his equal. His constant happy laughing does help stop that weird feeling, but it is still there none the less.

Running back to get Jason and Emerald they both agree to come along with me. A couple minutes later we are all in Lawson's house, sitting in a super fancy couch in the biggest house in New Haven. Considering that it is only him and his wife, there is a crap ton of room left empty.

It is actually about a quarter the size of the orphanage and that building is meant to hold over twenty people.

"All of you are probably wondering why I wanted to talk to you all." He moved his head to Jason and Emerald. "Well at the very least Max, but I am sure that either of you guys will be able to help me, not that you are any less important, but Max might have the most impact for my plan. All I need from you guys is one simple request."

"What plan and what is the request?" I ask, having no idea what he is talking about.

"I was getting to that now, wasn't I? Haha!" He laughs loudly, calming my heart somewhat. The aura that Lawson gives off makes it hard to stay completely calm, I always feel that I need to get far away from him or else risk my own safety.

"So all of you should remember that about one month ago I told you that no one is allowed to go near the dungeon that you guys found?" Lawson says sitting back into his own chair. A chair that is no less fancy then the couch that we are sitting on.

"Of course." We all say at the same time. Or at least pretty close to at the same time.

"And none of you have gone to the dungeon or its surrounding area since then, right?" All of just nod our head silently. "Good, then I would like to ask you guys if you want to go back into the dungeon?"

None of us answer, the only difference is our faces having weird looks on them. Then Emerald is the first one to speak up. "Yeah I want to go to the dungeon! Being able to fight monsters and explore dungeons has always been my dream. After we leave the orphanage we are going to be adventurers that will travel the world!"

Her words sound like something Jason would say, but that just shows how happy she is about the subject.

"Why do you want us to go into the dungeon now even after you asked us not to go near it?" Jason asks, doubting the words of Lawson as telling us the whole truth. He has always been the kind of person to ask whatever is on his mind in these kind of situations, I just tend to listen and not ask too many questions.

"Haha. I see that this might sound weird and all, with me not wanting you to go near it, then me just randomly asking you guys to go into the dungeon. Haha." More laughing from Lawson. He is always looking at the brighter side of things, at least I assume he is based on all the laughing.

"Well the true reason why I want you guys to enter the dungeon now is to talk to the dungeon crystal without it feeling scared." Lawson just casually drops a important secret onto us. Cause how would someone talk to a dungeon crystal if it is just a crystal?

"What do you mean by talk to the dungeon crystal?" Jason asks again, beating me to asking him myself.

"You guys should be smart enough to realize that dungeons are really special compared to regular monster dens like the wolf or deer dens close to New Haven." I nod my head, still not one hundred percent getting what he is talking about.

Normal monster dens are places where monsters will spawn at a regular time every week, month or even day depending on the den, each monster spawn time is different for each den. This is where most monsters come from and pretty much all monster dens in the human kingdom are regularly cleared out so there is little monster issues that happen at least around here.

Our village has quite a few hunters that have enough strength to clear out the dens regularly, but I am sure that not every village is in such a situation. So I guess we can count ourselves lucky.

Dungeons are different though, the amount of monsters in them is crazy if you compare it to regular monster dens. They also spawn monsters a lot faster compared to monster dens, pretty much every couple of hours based on what I heard. Making them great places to make money off of the mana cores.

"Like you probably guessed dungeons are not like monster dens, they are actually places made by the dungeon crystal. A very real being that is made entirely out of mana." Wow. Pretty much that is the only thing that I can think of when recalling what Lawson just said.

"This topic of the dungeon crystals being actual living beings that have enough power to make powerful monsters isn't actually common knowledge to people below a rank C adventurer because of the adventurer's guild not wanting this information to spread too widely." What would the adventurer's guild have to do with us not knowing about dungeon crystals?

I always just thought that they were just monster dens that worked differently.

Lawson adjusts himself in his seat before he talks again. "Before you guys start to ask any more questions I will answer the main ones first. No, I don't know how dungeons got the power to make monsters. And the reason for the adventurer's guild doing what they did is to keep the peace lovers from hating the guild even more then what they do already."

He then does a big sigh. "Out here in this small village you guys don't have to deal with certain groups of people, but in the big cities there is a fairly large group of people that don't like adventurers to kill monsters that don't attack others outright. The deer are a good example of this. It is a pretty big issue for the adventurers in the bigger cities. And so to stop them from not wanting adventurers to enter dungeons the adventurers guild spread the information that the dungeons are just a variant on the regular monster dens."

Taking a few minutes for all of this information to settle into my mind so I can really start to understand what he is talking about, it finally clicks in and my face turns even weirder. The main point that I got from all of this is the fact that I don't want to go to big cities anymore. They seem to complex for me.

I will have to make sure to avoid them in the future once I start to travel the world being a adventurer.

"Now that you know that, I should tell you more about my plan." Lawson adjusts his position in his chair again. He just can't find a spot to sit still on. "You might think that dungeons aren't that smart, but they can be even smarter than humans. The only thing that they need is time to grow before they can reach that point."

"In this month of waiting without anyone going near the dungeon, it should have grown at least somewhat. I only have the most basic of guesses as to how fast a dungeon should grow, so no quoting me on this. Instead of just one floor there should be a max of three floors. Maybe even four, I really have no knowledge on this topic." Lawson says as he scratches his head.

"While I do want to know how large the dungeon is now so I can make a report to the adventurer's guild, I am going to need you guys to help me talk to the dungeon." I actually almost forgot about him wanting us to talk to the dungeon for some reason.

"How exactly are we going to be of any help to you talking to the dungeon?" I ask to Lawson.

"Well when the dungeon was first born the most obvious thing for it to see outside its depths would be you guys considering how much you hung out above it. So with the dungeon being the closest with Max, as you are the only one besides the goblins to enter the dungeon. Things will go smoother with you guys there." That makes some sense if you get past the point of how the dungeon crystal was able to see us without us knowing about it.

I will chalk it up to the fact of it having more than just the ability to make monsters.

Lawson stands up. "So all of you be prepared to head out to the dungeon in a couple of days. I will come to the orphanage to pick you guys up before we set out." He stretches his hands out. Each of us take turns shaking his hand.

Then as we were about to open the door to head out we hear Lawson shout at us. "Oh right! I forgot to mention to you guys that I noticed that each of your mana cores feel like they are at that one point. All of you I am guessing are most likely having trouble increasing your mana right?"

All of us just stop dead in our tracks. How does he know that we are all having trouble increasing our mana?

Up until a few weeks ago everything was completely fine. Then suddenly my mana just doesn't want to increase any farther. I talked to Jason and Emerald about it, but they never noticed anything like me until a few days later when it also happened to them.

This topic has been bugging us this entire time.

"Do you know how we can get our mana to increase again?!" Emerald shouts back at him with a very happy voice. She has been the one to take the biggest hit from not being able to increase her mana based on what I heard from her.

For some reason she is just having trouble getting past the fact that she is doing something wrong. Don't get me wrong though, I don't like it either, but so far I just keep trying until I feel something change. So far that hasn't happened yet.

"Yes, all you guys have to do is absorb a large amount of mana and the problem will fix itself. It is better to get that stage out of the way though, so. What you guys need is to get some mana cores. Roughly about twenty to twenty two mana cores for the each of you if you get them all from the local market." Lawson says out the crazy amount of mana cores so causally and without any change in his face.

Well besides his smile growing bigger. It can be said to be a full on grin at this point.

Before I could get through the thought of trying to figure out how long it would take for me to save up that much money he runs into his bedroom for a second and throws each of us a single mana core. All of the mana cores being the size of a fist compared to the much smaller mana cores that we usually see. Catching it without realizing it, I can instantly feel how much mana is stored in this mana core compared to the few mana cores that I have held before.

I swear I can feel the air become humid as more and more water mana emits from the mana core in my hand. Yet at the same time I also feel the temperate rising to my right as Jason's mana core emits fire mana in the air around it.

"Now all of you use those mana cores to break through the half way point of your mana once you get back to the orphanage and remember to be ready to explore the dungeon with me in three more days." I just keep staring at the mana core in front of me, feeling the amount of mana in it is just incredible.

"LAWSON HURRY UP ALREADY!!!" I hear a women yell from the bedroom that Lawson grabbed the mana cores from.

"Coming dear! Just one second please." Then he looks at the three of us, his face showing not the happiest smile in the world. "So yeah. When I remembered that I wanted to talk to you guys I was kind of busy, yet I really didn't want to forget about it, so I kind of just left my wife half way through the thing that we were doing."

"So if I sounded like I am rushing things a little too fast for you guys, just come back tomorrow or something like that and I will explain everything again." He says as he pushes us all out the door.

Behind us in the house the muffled screams of his wife through the door can be heard. Looking at Jason and Emerald I am glad that I don't have to deal with stuff like that.

And like that we all start walking to the orphanage.

After a minute or two of walking a sudden idea comes to me. And I can't help but giggle to myself.

Sending mana towards my legs to increase my speed I quickly grab Jason's mana core before I start to run as fast as I can. "You snooze, you lose!" Shouting back to Jason as he starts to run after me.

Not even having the time to laugh at Jason as I am fully focused on running as fast as I can. With Jason's internal fire mana being the best for strong, short bursts, the start of a race is the most important for me.

Roughly an hour later...

Stepping into the small clearing that used to be where our old, destroyed tree fort was, I look around one last time to make sure no one followed us here. We even took a really long path to get here just in case. None of us wanted Hunter and them to spot us with the mana cores that Lawson gave us.

These mana cores are way too valuable to let Hunter and them take it.

Each of us take a spot apart from each other in the clearing to sit down. Making sure to keep our distance from one another just in case. Pure mana that isn't a mix of elements starts to mix is never a good thing when you are trying to absorb that mana.

Pre-mixed mana like the mana in the air around us is alright, but something about the mixing process of pure mana is not good for you.

Taking out the bright blue, slightly glowing mana core out of my pocket, I just hold it in my hands for a couple of seconds. Just staring at it like it is my most prized possession.

Realizing that it is actually my most prized possession, a small laugh escapes my lips.

Sending some of my own mana into the mana core, I wrap it around the core's mana and start to bring it into my own body.

I repeat this step over and over again with nothing happening like what usually happens ever since I came to this point. Eventually though I start to take more and more mana into my body, all of which keeps getting sent into my mana core.

As I take more and more mana into my mana core, the still mana inside starts to have a reaction for the first time. While the reaction is small, I am able to notice it as I am paying super close attention to it.

Getting really happy that something is finally happening, I send even more mana into my mana core! Taking as much as I can handle at once, the almost never ending flood of mana goes into my mana core as the mana inside starts to get smaller and smaller.

Yet while I would normally get scared at this new development, I am instead super happy because I can tell that the amount of mana is getting smaller, but at the same time the mana is getting purer. Making it a lot stronger compared to normal.

As more time passes and the flood of mana coming from the mana core keeps coming into my own mana core my mana starts to finally grow back to the size it was at before.

Finally the flood of mana stops as the mana in the mana core runs out. But that doesn't matter now since I can already feel that I am past the point I was stuck at before.

Taking out my water crystal from my pocket I send a small amount of mana into it. With me normally sending in this amount of mana just so I can play around with the water around my hands, I am surprised to see the amount of water that has appeared from the crystal.

Compared to usual amount of water, the amount in front of me is roughly double what comes out!

Moving the water around me I noticed that it is actually super easy to move around. It is just really easy compared to before. I don't even need to think about it at all for it to move where I want it to.

Before I needed to think at least somewhat to get it to move. Now though it feels like a third arm that moves even better then my actual arms! Is this what Jason and Emerald feel like when they control their own elements?!

Man I am so jealous of them.

Then a thought hits me, if my external water magic got better, what about my internal water magic?

Sending mana into my arms, I can just feel them pulsing with tons of power.

Moving my arms around just to move them around, I can just feel how much better my internal water magic is right now. Again I feel like I have doubled my control over my own mana, just like what happened with my external water magic.

Without me knowing, I have increased my mana rank to rank one! Not that I will hear about this term for a long time.