The trip to the central empire was not a calm one. Even up so high, going through airspace drew attention but we always had people on watch and as soon as something dangerous approached from the dungeons or nations, a white flag was instantly raised and they approached.

The dungeons were just cautious of spies and shockingly they asked if the golden lions wanted to remove the civilian population who were fearful from the area.

After some deliberating they accepted if they wanted to move and would remove anyone willing, this helped to refill the human population within the micro world.

Surprisingly, there actually weren’t that many. Old people rejected leaving their homelands but they all pushed the young adults and parents with many very young children to occupy a safe location so a lot of the people who moved were married couples in their 20s and their infant children.

This sort of delayed their travels by nearly a month but the human population swelled intensely giving a more even distribution as the human civilians mixed in with the peaceful monster populations, though a bit timidly.

When they finally reached the airspace of the empire, he examined the borders and moved only about 70 km into the airspace while descending towards a border town international airfield which, as you can expect, was abandoned. Only local travel airfields were in use and they waited for roughly an hour when five other military airships came and surrounded them.

“Unidentified ship! State your reason for intruding into the Empire’s airspace and issuing an illegal landing!” one of the captains shouted through a megaphone.

Logan gathered mana into his voice and projected his voice even better than the sound.

“My name is Logan Holt McEwans, Vice leader of the Golden Lions! We’ve come in peace and landed here to await permission to enter deeper into the nation. We seek access to the adventurer’s guild's only Dungeoneer Mage Tower.” Logan replied.

It took a moment before a reply came, “What do you seek the dungeoneers for?”

“The Empire has made sure no new dungeoneer guild is formed outside of its borders. The golden lion’s now occupy what was once Eshen and prior to the attack of the demons the nation gained control of 3 dungeons that were settled into the nation. We seek knowledge so that we can properly bind dungeons as well as access the unique rules of the dungeon to make sure it doesn’t grow too dangerous without limitations!” he replied.

It was indeed a fear that the golden lions had and he was sure to send a copy to them but his primary focus was to obtain the knowledge for himself.

It took a while before they replied, “Do not do anything suspicious, we are calling adventurer guild officials who will arrive soon from the town. They will board and scan all adventurer IDs of all passengers. Any irregularities will be met with harsh punishment!”

After that it went silent until a troop of guild officials soon arrived at the airfield and the door into the ship was opened.

All of the crew, basically all of the knights of the division who were official members who got their adventurer card, presented their IDs.

“Are there more?” He asked.

“No sir. We have only this small group for flight purposes, we came in order to obtain the knowledge we seeked.” Logan said.

“I see… I’ll be honest with you, the dungeoneers have basically abandoned the tower.” He said.

“Huh?” Logan muttered.

“They vanished some time ago. I think the higher ups know where they went but most of the top chain of command are gone and just took a copy of everything. My best guess is them leaving for another more stable continent or maybe hiding inside of a dungeon willing to accept them.” the head official said quietly.

“Have things been bad in the empire?” Logan asked.

“It’s definitely not as stable, after all not all the food we ate came from inside the borders. Intercontinental trade, international trade and much more has a big part in it so you can say the prices aren’t exactly cheap as before.” He explained.

Logan nodded, they have also felt the troubles. It was thanks to the micro worlds that they had excess food since the worlds were vibrant and filled with vitality that made crops grow faster as well as the reopened west which was already opening fields and ranches.

“What do we do about obtaining information?” Logan asked.

The head looked back at the closest ship out of the corner of his eye and quickly took a badge and put it into Logan’s hand under his adventurer ID. “We were given this to hand it to any one identified as a proper figure of leadership to the Golden Lions. If you infuse mana into that inside of an abandoned branch, especially the tower, an inbuilt magic formation will bring out one of a few hidden copies of a grimoire with the knowledge researched by the guild.” He whispered.

“All?” Logan muttered.

“Yes, originally the adventurers guild was supposed to be the eyes and ears of the golden lions. I was told that before the fall of the order, it funded and protected the guild while we worked behind the scenes to provide knowledge that would advance society in all aspects prepared by the hero. After the fall, the guild had to move to find other protectors and the empire is the latest. I would suggest for you to go through all the guilds and get a copy, the largest towers are here.” He said.

“Would they give it to me if I showed them this badge?” Logan asked.

“Yes. From there, guild members can transcribe book by book, eventually forming a new tower.” He said.

Logan nodded and put it away before it all ended and the manager contacted the captains of the ships and said all IDs are accounted for and official with no irregularities.

“If that is so then you have permission to enter. We will monitor your movement however so do not think we will not know if you really do only go to the dungeoneer tower or not.”

After that the ships moved away and Logan could only force a smile.

“The dark empire sure has everyone on edge.” Logan said.

“Tell me about it, they have already taken their initial neighbors and properly gained the size of a proper empire.” the manager said and gave Logan the location to the towers in the dungeon before he took his followers back off the ship. Soon it turned on and lifted off.

They went straight to the tower instead of waiting, it was close to the capital even and the specific town was a dungeon town which was now overloaded with sentient monsters who left the dungeon but did not go into the wild.

Landing and walking through the city with Jade, Storm stayed on the ship to make sure no one tried anything, they saw the mess and Jade was not happy.

“This is just like Eshen back when we first got there.” She said.

“I know, this isn’t something that can be fixed in this chaotic time of war.” He said and they went directly to the tower. Just as they were told, there was not a soul in sight after entering even after calling several times. Cobwebs were all over and books were all gone. Clearly the empire had cleared out the extra books and made sure to not tell those seeking that knowledge. It was likely now in a section of its own in the royal library.

With a frown, Logan took out the badge and infused his mana.

It began to shine until it turned into a sun and shockingly the reception began to change. The desks lowered and the floorboards opened up before a round stone platform rose up. On this platform were several pedestals with the same thing, two books each pedestal. One book was clearly a magic tome with the basics and the other was the grimoire.

Logan quickly counted about 20 pedestals and he didn’t wait as he took one grimoire and bonded with it before storing another and the books that accompany it.

“There, we can send this to Olivia on our way back but now we need an excuse to go to the other towers. The capital has a large number of class guilds but I feel it isn’t useful.” He said.

“This city does have an actual mage tower.” Jade said.

“I know but it feels like we are still being watched.” He said.

“Well… they do know we are looking for knowledge and taking a trip to one tower and not going to another one feels strange.” She said.

Logan thought a bit and nodded. They decided to risk it and headed to the other mage tower. It was actually bigger since it messed with all the other elements.

At the reception, the woman looked a bit tired and was just reading her own book. The place was kind of abandoned but when he entered she put the book to the side and made a professional smile.

“How may I help you sir?” She asked.

“I’m not sure who I should talk to.” He said and barely pulled the badge out from his pocket.

The woman’s eyes widened and nodded before calling for someone to temporarily take her place.

She led them both up to the top floor where the guild master was.

The badge was laid out on the table and the guild master sighed, “So it’s finally time huh.” He said.

“Time for what?” Logan said.

“The person who gave you this should have said we were once like the hands and eyes of the order. Each benefited from the work of the other, we gained protection, you gained information. The full return of the golden lions means this badge would begin getting used. How many copies do you need?” He asked.

Logan looked at him confused, “Two… I called myself vice leader but in truth, I am a branch leader while my sister is the full leader of the official branch.” He said.

“Considering the state of the world I will help summon two grimoires of all the guilds. Do you possess a Micro world? You needn’t worry about prying ears, this room is isolated with magic.” He said.

“I do and we also have another two in Eshen.” He said.

“Alright, you should have guild members in your micro world right?” He asked.

“Yes sir, they help formalize a lot of things like ID and identification of ranking and such and other similar services. I honestly just came for dungeoneer magic, I didn't expect this.” He said.

“Oh… you are interested in dungeon magic? Ah! That’s right, Eshen had gained dungeons prior to the attack to stabilize their western territory’s mana after the war.” He said.

“Yes, that is one thing but for another thing. Sir, do you know the specifics of how earth dragons make their caravan dungeons besides a non sentient dungeon core?” He asked.

The man looked shocked, “You wish to make a mobile dungeon home for your branch?” He asked.

“Yes… from what I’ve read, sentient dungeons are completely unable to be off the ground but I’ve heard of some immature dungeon cores ripped from their walls before sentience that have given birth to weird ones such as the ghostly sea of fog that hides the eternal ghost fleet.” He said.

“Indeed, what earth dragons do is maintain their dungeons from achieving sentience so they are always in control. Although there have been attempts, we do not know. I think there might be more success in other continents due to their higher magical creature population. Elves and dwarves in particular have a large store of knowledge. Although there are adventurer guilds on all continents, sadly we are not united and this includes between nationalities. They make sure to hoard their knowledge very well.” He explained.

“And the other orders never achieved this since they should have the same relationship as our two orders do?” He asked.

“They ‘should’ have the knowledge but they never used it or they do use it but very poorly. Not many continents are as technologically advanced as Nuntip. Even those with vast dwarven empires are not as advanced.” The guild master said before walking around the table and asking Logan to infuse mana into the badge.

The reaction caused a magic circle to form in the room and the guild master took out a very special looking book. It was very old and he began to chant in a very old language.

The magic circle began to glow brightly and soon, grimoires began to appear in great abundance from all the other guilds, each of them containing a magic tome on basics and another being the full thing.

It took a while but eventually all the books took shape and lowered to the ground.

Logan went and picked up each and carefully stored them in his inventory box.

“Inventory box? You have a Legend sword.” He said.

“Naturally.” Logan said and showed him Arashi.

“Amazing, I rarely see yellow colored sword legends. Honestly, I rarely see Legend swords in general. Even after the order of smiths said they would gather countless people to make such weapons, I’ve yet to see an increase in their numbers.” The guild master said.

“I’m sure you might not see it for quite a few years since these swords are most effective when given to children to grow up alongside.” Logan said.

The guild master nodded slightly. “Do you have plans?” He asked.

“Get these back to my sister and then continue to look for a way to properly use non sentient dungeon cores. If I can't find one then I can't do anything about it and will just use regular dungeoneer magic to make a dungeon city we will base ourselves around.” He said.

“I see… there is probably only one other option. Ask a dungeon you are very familiar with to give you the knowledge.” He said.

“Huh?” Logan muttered.

“Well, new dungeon cores are traditionally the children of others. Dungeons can make their own or gather power with another dungeon and generate an already sentient dungeon. Those made alone are non sentient. Very old ones might even have more magic knowledge than dragons since they are exposed to so many monsters using magic differently.” He said.

“Going by the fact that humans have none of this knowledge means it has been a failure until now.” He said.

The guild master shrugged, “It was another option.” he said.

Logan sighed and nodded, “Thank you for telling me that.” Logan said but before he took a step he paused in thought, “Sir, by chance does any of the guilds have a magic tome with the common language of the other three continents.” Logan asked.

“Oh, yes. Are you planning on going that way with the situation it is now?” He asked.

“My branch is small and I’m developing it so that I can obtain resources and money without half of it getting siphoned to the main branch. It's related to this.” He said and showed his shield.

“A divine crest? Religion?” He asked.

“My companion is a Knightly Priestess lord and she bonded with gods of knighthood which eventually led me to making a division based around it compared to the other which isn’t religious.” He said.

“Ah! I see. It would interfere in the growth since not everyone would be open to joining compared to a division devoted to it.” He nodded. “I think we have some magic tomes for that… but unlike the grimoire…”

“Don’t worry, I came prepared to purchase grimoires with magic knowledge so I have plenty of funds.” He said and thought about the numbers. “How many do you think you can get quickly?” He asked.

“Let me check.” He said and went to the door and ordered a few people to check.

After about ten minutes someone came in.

“Guild master, we’ve done a quick count and have confirmed 250 books for each continent’s common language.” He said.

“I’ll buy them all.” Logan said.

“Alright.” the guild master said and the books were prepared in bulk and Logan paid upfront and stored it all.

“That should be plenty for my current members and a few extra.” Logan said.

“That few?” the guild master said.

“At the moment I barely have human followers. Most of them are monsters who did not want to leave. The rest of the humans were Eshen soldiers so naturally they stayed with the main branch.” Logan explained.

As soon as he explained, it made total sense why he had so few official knights. Logan went from over 1500 back to barely 300 monsters. Of course, a lot of monsters training to be knights did rejoin. Even the lion beastman he had made the agreement when he was at E rank had joined his division.

He was among the official knights at the moment.

“Alright, I got everything I could possibly get. I can’t say how long it will take for the old format of the two organizations to be fully retaken, after all, we aren’t a continent wide order anymore.” He said.

“We can wait, it is clearly the start and it is our job to set up the foundation. Best of luck on your journey.”

Logan shook his hand and they were guided back down and they headed back to their ship.

“What do you think, master?” Jade asked.

“I doubt they are lying, how loyal they are with the empire, I can't say however.” Logan whispered.

When they were back, Logan set their target back north towards Eshen and so the ship rose and quickly began to rise until they were at international travel heights and safer.

That said Logan was in deep thought about what the guild master said. They assumed dungeons had the capacity that earth dragons had discovered, naturally he would not think it was a lie, barely any other creature is more magically intune like dungeon cores, especially such a long lived one that had over 120 floors like Helix.

That said, he didn’t know how to contact and confirm it. He laid down on the deck and saw the grid of lights that had formed in the night sky channeling the world network and thought of something.

“Help system, is it possible to communicate with people through system help or does it require the communicator?” He asked.

Help system

It is possible as the world network has incorporated the prior magic network which contained the capacity to connect to the communication application.

“How do I contact someone whom I know the name and title of but do not have the exact contact of? Also, what happens if there is no communicator in his vicinity.” He asked.

Help system

If a lack of communicator is found, a magical signal will transmit through the system itself containing your voice, this can reduce the quality of voice transmitted however.

“That’s fine… he is the only dungeon I know anyway and the dragons won’t reveal their knowledge for sure.” He muttered. “Help me contact the Great Dungeon Helix.” He said.

The communicator on his body instantly started up and rapidly went through the apps and opened the communication application but it was reacting differently until it found the signal. A robotic voice spoke through the phone, “No communicator found on or around him. Magic signature found, connecting to Helix. Distance will cause only a very minor drop in voice quality.”

Moments later a screen saying “Connected” appeared.

“What is this…” A voice from the communicator said.

“Hello, Helix.” Logan said.

“Who is this? What is this?”

“This is an application of the new world network which allows communication over long distances… it connected directly to you. It’s Logan, remember you gave me the golden lion techniques.” He said.

“Ah yes. Hold on a moment.” he said.

“A communicator has entered the vicinity of the user, connecting.” the system voice said.

“Is this working?” he said, the voice quality drastically improved and the communciators finally opened up the visual feed to show the dungeon.

“Yes sir. Sorry for the abrupt call.” He said.

“What business do you have?” Helix asked.

“It’s…” Logan scratched his head and began to explain the situation he found himself in with the pantheon and forming a branch and then his desire.

“You want to somehow mimic the earth dragons but with an airship! That is mad!” He said.

“I know, I half expect it to fail as it is but I was wondering if you know what the earth dragons know?” He asked.

Helix frowned and he moved around on his side until he seemed to sit down and made the communicator levitate a bit away showing his throne, “I do know how to achieve this… any dungeon over 80 floors will instinctively unlock this knowledge but we rarely sell this knowledge much less just give it out. This is especially because it is very advanced dungeoneer magic even though it doesn’t require an immense source of mana. Even an F rank dragon infant can achieve it if they possess the knowledge but it would cause dungeons to become a tool to be manipulated and forever be unable to give true birth.” he said.

“Would it not be more in your favor if such dungeons existed to be exploited while you protected dungeons you desired to breed sentience. The long standing conflict of interests between humans and dungeons on this subject would also be resolved.” He said.

“I’m sure it might be but why should we subject ourselves to making buds that would be exploited, it is like you humans breeding other humans to be slaves except ours would be making fetus without a soul to be exploited without ever getting to grow up.” He said.

Logan could not reply but Helix could clearly see the expression and sighed, “Also, it is unlikely to work with an airship since the very function of dungeons is to infuse mana into the world tree and reduce the surface mana. Without a place to vent the mana it would be utterly useless and would require an extremely violent method to convert mana into material.” He said.

“I see… that’s a shame.” Logan said and sighed deeply, “I was hoping it would have been usable so that we can make a floating city in a dungeon so that we can move and react to major dangers as well as be able to recruit members for the pantheon.” He complained.

“Pantheon? Did the god of sun make a religion with other gods?” Helix asked.

“No.” Logan said and told him about the religion but the man sat up in his seat, “They gave you a divine combat artifact, didn't they?!” He said

Logan tried his best to hide it but Helix stood up. “I see… no wonder you made a division based on your religion instead of remaining with the main branch. It's not based around the golden lion statue but the new artifact as well as the actual gods themselves.” He said and grinned as he looked at Logan, “I get what you want to do now. You want to make a Holy city floating through the sky. It’s the same as the divine train the first caravan dungeon became.” He said, grinning at the boy.

After a bit, Helix began to laugh loudly, “Interesting, it’s such a stupid idea that the world network is likely to not have a predesigned form for this unlike the desert trains that existed at the time of the first desert trains. The god of dungeons would have never even thought of making dungeons disconnected from the ground. Interesting, very interesting. I actually want to see how screwed up you make this monstrosity that is likely to hold the blessing of a pantheon.” He said, laughing as if he had heard the funniest thing.

Logan said nothing as the ancient dungeon laughed as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world and only when he sat back down with the communicator did he calm down. “Come to my castle with that airship of yours. I will bind a non sentient dungeon to you and then plant it in your ship's engine, much like the caravan dungeons. I’ll even pass knowledge of manipulating non sentient dungeons just so I can watch you laugh and struggle as you try to fix the structure.” He laughed.

Logan frowned when he heard because he clearly wanted to see him fail very hard but for Logan it was a massive opportunity.

“Alright. Even if we fail we will only lose an airship.” Logan said.

The dungeon grinned and nodded, “Good to see your optimism hasn’t waned. Where are you?” He asked.

“Leaving the central empire. I purchased dungeoneering magic to get a basis in case I had to do as the earth dragons did and go through many races of sentient beings gathering magical knowledge.” He said.

“Seem’s you planned ahead and probably thought of me due to an offhand comment I assume. Interesting, let's see if the gods truly favor you then.” He said and cut the connection.

Channel has been closed

Logan just dismissed the message but now he was worried and took out the basics of dungeoneering and infused mana into it. He needed to know at least the basics until he arrived.

Shockingly, the knowledge from all the elemental magic he has been learning until now began to connect and not in just one or two pieces but a very very general sense and it started from the very start all the way to the intermediate limit.

When it finally ended he sighed, “Dungeoneering is so complex. No wonder only older wizards are dungeoneer, power is needed to get so much knowledge of everything.” He said but thankfully it was only like an itch but then he took out the grimoire and took a deep breath. “Storm, set our destination for Helix. Above his castle, on his orders.” He said.

“Huh? Did you need something from him?” Storm asked.

“Yeah… we might be getting what we set out to get but how well we can handle it will be on us.” Logan said and sat down and infused mana and the grimoire instantly shot its massive store of knowledge and Logan instantly collapsed holding his head no different from Storm.

Even Storm had yet to absorb the information from his Grimoire but Logan needed this to be prepared for everything. Compared to Storm’s half a day requirement for the last books on the basics of dragon magic, this book was all advanced magic and the only bit he had of advanced magic was the identification.

You can probably guess how much pain he felt and he could barely think as his brain was filled with knowledge that went into advanced magic of all elements. It wasn’t a quick absorption either because it took him a full five days for the grimoire to finally infuse the last bit of knowledge and return into his mana pool while he fainted for two days.

Storm and Jade had to deal with any troubles from people coming to see their purpose until they entered the previous union empire airspace and began a slow descent while waiting for Logan to wake up and he thankfully did before that.

When he woke up he received a surprising wall of text.

You have absorbed the knowledge from the Grimoire of Dungeoneering and have obtained all the knowledge of dungeoneering magic presently known within.

You have gained the skill, Dungeoneering Magic

Your Magic Mastery skill has gone up to level 60

Dungeoneering Magic

Rank: S

Level 1

The magic of Dungeoneers. These are men and women who have studied for half their lives the secrets of magic in all fields to finally be able to start comprehending the laws of magic hidden within a dungeon. This brand of magic allows one to connect and manipulate the dungeon rules and is most powerful in dungeons. It also allows them to generate a small field containing the rules of dungeons around themselves allowing them a minor access to dungeon systems outside of the world. This brand of magic is required if someone desires to actively remove a dungeon safely from its natural birth place and plant them in a new area.

As a result of the World network connecting the dungeon system to the external world, this magic can be used with much greater ease in the outside world.

Improves Dungeon rule manipulation by 1%

His mind was a buzz because even with all that knowledge, there were a lot of gaps that needed advanced magic to fill. His head still hurt as well but he was thankful that he still had a few days before reaching Helix when he woke up.

He did nothing except meditate and sleep and slowly the dizziness and confusion went away as he went through the dungeoneering magic section of his magic knowledge.

Level 60 was honestly an amazing amount of knowledge. He didn’t know how far he would get if he had all the gaps of magic knowledge filled up though but he doubted it was going to be 100 or max level because that would mean he had learned everything there was to know about magic and eventually such things would enter the field of divine and demonic.

Furthermore, there were still many fields of magic that were totally unknown. An example is the completely taboo necromancy, aka one branch of advanced dark magic.

He also had no thoughts of delving down that path because it would require for him to find the lair of an elder lich and destroy such a monstrosity and take his grimoire containing all his life and unlife’s knowledge. He had no plans for such a thing.

Eventually they arrived close to Helix when he got a contact from the dungeon. “Just fly in and stop over at my castle. I already informed all my monsters to allow you in and I can see you already and am waiting with great anticipation for this tomfoolery. I hope you are ready with the limit of Nuntip’s dungeoneering magic.” He said with a laugh.

Jade and Storm frowned while Jin appeared growling towards the dungeon.

“I know Jin but we aren’t his opponent. Helix is already SS rank and has such creatures protecting him as his strongest bosses. This joke to him is serious for us and we can take it as it should be.” He said.

Jin nodded and returned into his mana pool. Out of the three beasts, Jin was growing the most since he was under the constant exposure of Logan’s mana.

Logan and the others prepared for this harsh challenge ahead.