「A mortal has to go through three stages before one can even become a mage.」

「The beginner mage apprentice.

One has to be able to perceive his own mana, as well as the mana of the environment before one can become anything.」

「The intermediate mage apprentice.

This is the phase where one begins focussing on basic mana controll」

「The master mage apprentice.

A master mage apprentice has completed the basic mana control training and can now summon a mana membrane everywhere on his body without any difficulty. 」

「Spells can only be learned after becoming a master mage apprentice. Also, after reaching that state, it's only a matter of time or rather mana purification before one becomes a beginner mage.」

「Mages are people who awoke their mana core and reached a certain level of mana control and mana purification.

This distinction was made in the early days of the military to sort people out who could be used at least as the lowest mage foot soldier possible. For example, someone who couldn't even cast like three fire spells can't be used as a mage.

By now, these "beginner mages wouldn't even be allowed as a mage foot soldier. Therefore it can nowadays be considered a relict of the past that still holds power.」

"Interesting," muttered Gab as he went through the memories he gained after choosing the awakening option of the dungeon.

"That sounds arduous, but that won't stop me from trying to reach a beginner mage as fast as possible, hehehe," he commented with a sigh.

'Anyway, let's continue going through these undiscovered memories. I still have to find the memories regarding methods to increase one's mage rank.

「Before one can even become a mage, one must be able to perceive and control mana to a certain degree. There are two methods to achieve mana perception and control.」

「The passive method is way easier than the second one since one doesn't have to do anything. Since your body circles mana through your body, it will only be a matter of time till you get familiar with it and till it feels like a part of you. The only drawback is that it takes way longer.」

「The second method is a more active approach and has more advantages than the first one. The benefits to that method are that one can become way faster familiar with mana.」

'Yeah, time is the last thing that is on my side here in the dungeon. Time to choose the second option since time isn't on my side.'

「The body of the mage can passively absorb mana without the knowledge of the host. The fastest way to sense mana from the environment would be to actively consume mana while passively absorbing it after that.」

'Yeah, but I don't know anything when it comes to absorbing mana. …'

「The best way to consume mana is to lead the mana inside you to the surface of one's skin and let it dissipate. You can combine this method with trying different parts of the body. That way, one can also increase their mana at the same time.」

"That should be all the information I need," muttered Gab to himself before trying the method.

After sitting there silently for half an hour, Gab still couldn't figure out how to guide his mana to the surface and opted out for a different method.

'Why won't that method work????!!' cursed Gab in his mind as he continued trying.

Fortunately for him, after experimenting for another hour, he finally dissipated his mana. It was such a small amount that Gab almost didn't notice it if it weren't for the weak breeze he felt on his palm.

'Omg. FINALLY. I'm a genius, hehehehe. Time to replicate it again.'

What Gab didn't know was that he lagged far behind his peers. An awakened human needs, on average, half an hour to dissipate his mana. But we don't want to discourage him from continuing, which is why we'll be keeping it a secret from him.

It took another twenty minutes for Gab to successfully dissipate mana again. With each successful dissipation, the time it took him to replicate that also got shorter, till it got to the point where he got the hang out of it. At that point, it felt almost natural to dissipate mana from his hand. But by now, another hour passed, and he used up all the mana his body held at that time.

Realizing that, Gab merely sighed: "Well, there is nothing I can do about it anyway. Time to watch over that damn sleeping girl."

After that sentence left his mouth, he only got even more tired and yawned as he wondered how soft the bed on which she's been sleeping must be. As he was entrenched in his thoughts, he didn't realize that his cat was standing like ten centimeters apart from him, and after hearing her loud meowing, he jumped up in fright. Realizing that it was his white cat that stared at him with her big dilated pupils while holding a bleeding goblin arm in her mouth that was still twitching from time to time.

"No, thank you," whispered Gab to her as he pressed his forehead against it.

"I'm not that hungry," he muttered with a chuckle as he slowly petted the backhead of his white cat, who seemed to enjoy it.

His black cat, who saw how he was treating his sister, immediately purred loudly before, rubbing its warm and soft fur against Gab's other arm.

"So cute!" he muttered before also giving his black cat some scratchings on his backhead.

"I always wanted a pet, but my parents never wanted one. But now I have not only one but two, hehehehe," he muttered to himself as he enjoyed the company of his two big cat's.

Unfortunally it didn't take much to ruin the happy mood he had seconds earlier since he realized one thing.

"Well, the pay for two cats was the death of my village and the ones of my siblings that may or may not have survived at all," laughed Gab as his pain could be clearly be heard.