Chapter 83 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

POV Carl

So much had happened since I started my research: so many quests, so many challenges. If I could have just focused on this, I would have probably been done a while ago, but finally, it was time. I was incredibly nervous, but even more nervous was the healer, Anna, with whom I had become quite good friends.

Of course, Tristan helped me, but only with the theory. Anna was the one I found who could actually help me with the practical side. She was incredibly unwilling after she learned that I actually wanted to use this method of tattooing magic runes onto my own body to strengthen myself.

She had every right to be worried, if it turned out wrong, it could be quite devastating or even kill me, and if done too much, could result in an even worse outcome of making me lose my mind.

We had learned a lot about this type of enhancement, and it did have a steep cost for anyone who was not as lucky as me. With the theory and the small tests we had done, the cost for this kind of power is a permanent part of your maximum magical power.

Everybody has a different amount of mana that they can hold and use; I have a particularly large pool. Normally, I wouldn’t want to give this up, even a little bit, except if I have read and understood correctly, this simple magical rune that we will be using will help strengthen my body overall.

It even enhances my defensive capabilities, even without armor, like some of my skills, but actually takes less mana. Tristan called the effect similar to passive skills, which I hadn’t even heard of before.

It seems that there is a lot for me to learn, as it seems the regular education most get unfortunately wasn't available to me and other members of the orphanage. Thinking about that briefly brought a flash of anger to the surface, but I quickly pushed it down.

I looked towards Anna, who was currently preparing the tattoo ingredients. I admired her long golden hair. She was incredibly beautiful, and I couldn’t believe that someone like her would be down in this dungeon. But she had a past like every one of us, and I hoped someday I would get to know her even better.

When she turned to me with her green eyes, it was hard not to look away, but I managed. She wasn't enjoying what was happening because she had continuously been against doing this so soon. But when we learned that you could actually get rid of the runes with a little bit of skinning and then using magic to regrow the skin.

Of course, there was a need for a few other ingredients to actually loosen the bonds of the magic runes. But we were all excited when we figured out we could safely remove them.

"Carl, please. We can do this later. We can gather more data. We could even get someone else to try this," her voice was so lovely that I almost cracked, but no. Every time you went into a new room, you might die, and every advantage should be explored and, if found helpful, used. "Okay," she said, even without me having to say anything. I guess she could see the determination in my face.

When we actually started the tattooing process, it was actually pleasant, which I hadn’t expected. It seems that the ingredients we used dulled the pain. I was wrong; the pain didn't start until about the halfway mark. It seems that in the beginning, the magic rune was just being tattooed into your physical body, but when it started to interact with your magic, it was a whole other territory.

I bore the pain without making a noise, but Anna seemed to still notice it. I was grateful that she didn’t say anything, and after the 8-hour process, the last line was connected. I felt a tremble deep inside me. As soon as it settled down, I could feel power starting to course through me.

It felt amazing, yet memories reminded me of how easy it is to get lost in the feeling of power. This helped me wake up and remember the real world. You should never chase power just for power's sake.

It worked like advertised, boosting me constantly, but I was surprised that I was able to channel more magic into the rune to boost myself even further. My skills still worked in boosting me, but they just added to the boost I was getting from the magic rune. There had been a hope that it was multiplicative, but only a small one; otherwise, we should not have been able to kill any of the orcs at our current ranks.

Tristan, Anna, and I tested everything for quite a while, but one thing was clear: most adventurers couldn't use the magic runes, as most would need to sacrifice 1/3 of their magic pool. For me, it was only about 1/10.

Overall, I could see that my combat ability had been boosted by quite a lot, and while my maximum output sustainability lowered by about 10%, I could now fight weaker monsters without having to actually use up my mana pool.

When we discovered this, Tristan was no longer so sure that other adventurers wouldn't want to use this, especially if they had hit a wall in their advancement. If they used one of the runes, they'd probably survive a lot easier and could keep farming dungeons for longer. It was also quite clear that anyone under the silver rank wouldn't be able to survive the process of getting a magic rune tattooed onto them.

What we didn’t, however, know was what we should do with this knowledge. We had all focused our time and spent countless hours making this work, but none of us had actually thought about what would come if we succeeded. I suggested we just give the knowledge away, but the other two looked at me like I was an idiot, which I kind of was.

They weren’t completely against the idea, but they still wanted to get recognition and rewards for this discovery. Another unknown was that Tristan couldn’t find any information about this sort of enhancement ever being used. We all wondered if this was truly the first time something like that had come to be and how the dungeon could have possibly known it.

POV Master Harmon

The wine today tasted particularly good, and I did enjoy my new estate, especially my office, as it looked out high above the ground level, giving me an excellent view of the city. Ace, the current ruler of this land, but who knows for how long, was quite decent with his dealings, and he seemed to be upholding his part of the deal as the creature market has really been picking up.

"Master Harmon, the guests have arrived and will shortly be escorted to the study," I gave a firm nod to my servant and then left my office. This study was richly decorated the way I liked it, with different parts of dangerous creatures and paintings of glorious battles between magical creatures and adventurers I had been able to acquire.

I sat on the Rigback leather chair, one of the most deadly earth-type monsters on the eastern continent. The other two masters joined me not long after, and after the customary 30 minutes of greetings and pleasantries, we all sat and looked at each other with serious faces.

"What are your conclusions?" I asked the other masters. All of us were deeply interested in magical creatures, including dungeon ones. "Up until this point, the dungeon has not been reaching our expectations. It's still continuing to just strengthen the regular creatures it has been getting without starting to combine them."

Master Almond was correct, and it had also disappointed me quite a lot until I realized a crucial point. "But the creatures have evolved; they are not just strengthened, if I am correct?" Master Almond nodded to my words. "This is indeed quite curious, but for now, how it's doing it has eluded us. The dungeon also approaches the gold rank, yet the best idea of its trait we have gotten is that it has a lot of rooms."

That was correct, non of us had any real idea of its trait. "I spoke to our friend, the Guild Master. He has his own reservations about the dungeon, and I am inclined to agree with my old friend's opinions. This dungeon has a lot more life in it than the rooms indicate."

To my last words, both of my guests' backs stiffened. "You cannot be serious?" they both said in unison. I gave them a slow nod as I wasn’t completely certain, but I had a feeling. If I was correct, all of us could eventually push forward.

"Ace seems to be our best solution to be able to keep an eye on the dungeon and help it grow, but the coming war will complicate things, especially if a council is put in charge. I hate councils; they only want to talk, talk, talk," Master Ventress said in her dark tone.

"On that front, Ace seems to be not taking things lying down. I success we use our connections, but not openly, to push the war back as long as possible." After I spoke my idea, it only took the other two masters about 5 seconds to nod their heads in agreement.