Mesmerized by the power of his new sword style, Hadrian stood their stunned for a while. Getting a hold of himself, he places his great sword into his Inventory and starts to survey the surrounding area.

Deep and shallow cuts scar the ground, they curve around where he was standing, creating an imperfect dome of cuts.

“Damn and this is just the floor, imagine if I was surrounded by walls. I wouldn’t be surprised if every inch was scared”, Hadrian was immensely impressed by the power of this style and it was only at level 3, he couldn’t help but wonder how powerful it could become in the future.

“It’s a shame I haven’t got a sword suited to practice battojutsu with, the information I gained from the skill it seems like it could grow into something special with the right style, it’s cool the Path could give me skills, I wonder if it’s just Summoned Ones or any who follow the Path that can get skills this way”

Not wanting his lucky streak to end, he goes back over to the fountain and starts reading through the MANA book, hoping to finally be able to awaken his core and gain magic abilities.

The first few pages are a basic introduction to MANA, explaining the existence of both outer and inner MANA and how they differ, how the two groups of MANA users split from each other both specializing in one type of MANA, the pro's and con's of each style, how they can effect each affinity individually and the different types of MANA affinity’s.

As he read deeper through the book he realized how in depth it was, explaining basic concepts of MANA but at the same time going deep into all the intricacies of said concepts. This book was made to create MANA users with a deep and stable foundation, allowing them to climb smoothly on the path of magic.

Towards the end of the book Hadrian finally found what he was looking for, the ritual to awaken one's MANA core.

“There are two ways to awaken your MANA core, the first and relatively easier option is to clear Dungeon Floor and gain the MANA core of the Floor Boss using its vast power to awaken your core, the two main downsides to this method are getting your hands on a Floor Boss core in the first place without MANA as Floor Bosses are normally undefeatable without the challenger using MANA”

“The second problem is when using a foreign MANA core to awaken yours is it creates a vast amount of impurities within it, making it harder to strengthen your core without using a purification spell or ritual to cleanse those impurities”

“Well I’m definitely going to be doing option two, I don’t want to even know how strong those Black Knights are never mind whatever commands them, fuck that”

He continues reading through the book, hoping the second option is least slightly more realistically achievable.

“While the second way to unlock your MANA core is both more and less easy than the first, easier in the sense of not needing to obtain any foreign items or the core of the Floor Boss

“Well that’s good, ..... I’m going to regret saying that aren’t I ?”

Continuing with his reading, Hadrian find outs the second way to unlock your MANA core is through meditation. A better explanation would be using meditation to draw outer MANA aligned with your affinity into your body to awaken your core, the challenge is that no one is aware of what their affinity is before awakening their core, so trying to find a place with a high amount of MANA with said affinity in the environment is incredibly difficult.

“Huh, that works out weirdly well for me then, it seems that me dying was kind of a boon to me in the end. I would have never known my affinity normally but luckily I was stupid enough to run at a stone door and get my affinity changed”

“Well lucky is probably not the right word, I get the sense a Life MANA affinity would have been pretty useful against undead”

“But then saying that it’s not like a Dungeon Floor full of undead is going to have a ton of Life MANA anyway, so who can say”

Hadrian takes his time to read the meditation technique making sure to memorize it fully, after he sure it’s firmly in his mind, he begins to try and use it inside the safe zone hoping that it would hold some Death MANA in it.

Hadrian begins meditating, hoping to at least sense the MANA in the air, so he can have a basic understanding of the technique before having to try it in the Dungeon.

After a good hour or so Hadrian stops, “So I can vaguely sense something in the air now, hopefully it’s MANA and I’ll be able to find some Death MANA but I doubt I’ll even know what Death MANA would feel like.

My only real option is to hope the Dungeon is flooded with the stuff because of the undead and my blessing will kick in and help.

Wanting to finish his pile of books before he goes and try’s it out, Hadrian starts reading the last three books, the first book is about Dungeons giving him a basic understanding of Dungeons history, when they first appeared and other useful information about Dungeons, one fact though stood out to him, it was that Dungeons actually had a system similar to day and nights and also Floor Bosses gain a control over all Monster on their floor.

“Well fuck, I definitely need to find out when the night cycle starts”

The second book he picks up was the Compendium of Dungeon Monsters, showing a large variety of Monsters and important details about them, from goblins and their ability to birth in massive numbers, the Oni and the unique magic's each member of their race has, even sirens and their hypnotic abilities.

Reading through more and more Monster entries he started to realize the massive scope of Dungeons and the Monsters that they hold.

He finally arrives at the entry he wanted, skeleton’s.

Reading through he learns a lot of things, that any damage to their skulls is fatal, that they are incredibly weak to fire, holy, light, life affinities and any of their sub-magic's, even that in most Dungeons floors they’re in the Floor Boss is a Lich, Death Knight or A undead commander.

“Please don’t be a Lich or Death Knight, please for the love of all that is holy in this and any other world”

Hoping that the First Floor Boss was an Undead Commander he really didn’t want to have to fight a Lich.