The Power of a Team

Fei Lei and Eriks stood outside of June's barrier, swinging their blades and cutting through hoards of enemies at once.

Extending his telekinetic blade to ten feet, Fei Lei cut multiple magical beasts down at a time, and as the bodies dissipated into ash, perfect magic cores dropped to the ground.

Fei Lei suddenly stopped and said, "I'm doing this all wrong."

Fei Lei retracted the blade as he thought, "Keep the blade small, and when I reach the peak of my swing..."

Fei Lei's arm rippled as he pulled Clear Mist to his waste and performed an Iai-Jutsu strike without a sheath, all while continuing his train of thought, "Quickly magnify the size of my blade."

Suddenly the telekinetic blade increased to 20 feet and cut through dozens of enemies all at once.

Eriks suddenly equipped a suit of lightning armor, and as the power of his level 3 spell rippled from his body, Eriks shot out at an unimaginable speed and cut through dozens of enemies in a single second.

Yan Mei shot out a large arrow as she used her Level-2 spell, Scattershot.

The single arrow she fired suddenly exploded and split into dozens of arrows that struck their targets with incredible accuracy. Like small bombs going off, the scattershot spell engulfed several monsters at once in a haze of green flames.

Hina and Terry kept the hoard of enemies from getting close to the light barrier, while Hachi constantly killed anything that got between through their attack wave.

With a single snap of his fingers, Hatchi caused the monstered that dared to approach the barrier to explode before contact.

The Light Maiden suddenly raised her hand and said a few prayers before shouting, "Holy Circle!"

The dome of light suddenly glowed with a slightly green hue as the group felt their Mana slowly starting to recover.

Fei Lei and Eriks changed gears and started to pick up the pace as they cut and slashed through every opponent they could see.

The battle continued on for almost a full hour, and as Fei Lei killed his last beast, he stared at the ground littered with a few thousand Level-1 Magic Cores in perfect condition.

All the elements were accounted for as Udo picked a Mana Core of the ground and said, "This is why I love dungeons, even if you blow the creature up, the core doesn't drop until after it vanishes."

Fei Lei nodded his head before he said, "Neat. I guess that means as long as we don't willingly destroy the Mana Cores, they'll all be perfect."

"So do we split this evenly, or do we go by who contributed the most? Eriks asked with a grin on his face.

"I claim all light cores!" June shouted with an innocent smile on her face.

Fei Lei shook his head in disapproval before he said, "We'll split all cores equally, if you wish to exchange specific Cores with the others, then do it after we've divided them."

After some discussions, everyone agreed to do as he said and began collecting the cores.

Altogether they collected around 5,886 Mana Cores, they then split the cores into even elements with each of them earning a total of 654 Cores, give or take a few cut Mana Cores.

Altogether Fei Lei had 109 1-Star Cores of all 6 elements, many of them traded the Cores that they wanted or needed.

When June came up to Fei Lei and asked for his Light Cores, Fei Lei responded by storing all of them in his spatial ring and saying, "No, I have a use for them."

Yan Mei and Hina kept all there cores as well, making June frown, and say, "I don't see why you need them, after all, it's not like a Non-Elementalist can use them!"

Fei Lei laughed and thought, "Of course I can't use them, they're not for me, but the Mages that will join my city someday."

"You think you can build a Mage-Kingdom?! That's rather laughable," June responded with a funny grin on her face.

"Oh, and why's that?" Fei Lei questioned with an innocent look that made June blush a little.

"So curious for knowledge and I don't see a hint of anger in your eyes. Did you really not find my comment offensive?" June asked as she locked eyes with Fei Lei.

"Are you gonna tell me why or not?" Fei Lei replied with his original question.

"You need lots of money, and if you can't rank up, well...let's just say, you won't be able to afford, building an entire Kingdom.

Yan Mei growled a bit and said, "Unlike some Mages that use their money for everything, Fei Lei's could build his Kingdom by himself, his tec...."

Yan Mei's sentence was cut short by Fei Lei covering her lips with his hands.

"Sorry, Yan Mei, but you shouldn't be spilling those secrets," Fei Lei warned.

Yan Mei lowered her head in shame as she thought, "I almost gave away information about Fei Lei's technology."

"Tec...Technique? Does young Fei Lei here have a technique that can build a kingdom for cheap?" June questioned with sparkles in her eyes.

Fei Lei and Yan Mei looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief. Fei Lei then looked to Juna and said, "That's going to remain a mystery."

June huffed after realizing that Fei Lei's team wasn't willing to trade their Light Cores, the Light Mage then sighed and chose to deal with them at a later time.

After walking down the only visible tunnel, the group stood next to each other as they reached the way down to the next floor.

Staring down the stairway to the next level, Eriks said, "The next floor will have even stronger magic beasts, stay alert and watch out for item drops."

"Item Drops?" Fei Lei asked lifting a brow.

"Sometimes on the lower levels, the rare monsters that spawn have a very small chance of leaving a magic item drop," Eriks explained.

"Sometimes its a weapon, armor, accessory, or it could even end up being an unknown treasure. The lower the floor of the dungeon we reach, the stronger monsters we'll face, and the higher chance we'll have for an item to drop," Hina explained to the two first-timers.

Fei Lei and Yan Mei nodded their heads in appreciation.

"Sounds like one of those computer games Isaac used to play," Fei Lei thought to himself.

"Well then, let's go! I didn't see that Grey Mage's body anywhere, so he could be heading straight for the core," Eriks said as he took the first step down.

The group followed after, and as they approached the second floor they began to wonder where the Grey Mage was.

As it turns out the Grey Mage was already about to enter the lowest level of the dungeon.

The Gery Mage didn't pay attention to the monsters or any possible treasures as he walked down the last flight of stairs.

He ended up at a strangely built archway that looked like it was naturally grown, once he passed through it, the Grey Mage ended up in a large open area that covered around a 200-mile radius.

The last floor was a massive Bio-Dome full of grass, trees, shrubbery, and plenty of magical beasts.

The artificial sky shined with a pale-blue light while strange vines on the roof spewed out a constant fog-like cloud.

The walls that surrounded the entire terrain seemed to be made of an estranged material that was a cross between having a stone and metallic texture.

The Grey Mage walked up to the center of the Bio-Dome revealing an esoteric altar that had a powerful orb-shaped dungeon core shining myriads of colors, suspended above its surface.

The mysterious mage then placed his hand out to touch the core and frowned as an electric shock traveled across his fingers. He pulled off his hood and showed a pair of silted pupils that was a dominating genetic trait of the Demon Race.

"Odd, I thought I had enough power to now? This demon's body still isn't enough to absorb a Dungeon Core!" The Grey Mage's strange voice called out. It sounded like the blending of two different voices in one body.

The Grey Mage's eyes were suddenly filled with black and blue fog, he then stared upward and shouted at the ceiling, "How much longer can you keep my brethren imprisoned! I refuse to let such a low born species harvest our power."

A loud roar the barely sounded bird-like cried out in response to the noise he was making.

The echo of the creature's voice shook and rattled the space around the Grey Mage. The trees in the distance started to fall over as the sounds of something incredibly heavy stomping spread throughout the terrain.

"If I can't absorb the core with this body, I'll need to start my search all over again," The Grey Mage said as his eyes drifted to the approaching magical beast.

"Since you volunteered yourself, why not become my pet? Since I'm leaving, your job is to keep those disgusting sub-species filth away from the Dungeon Core."

Raising his hand, a large quantity of sinister energy flowed out from his body and into the forest.

After a few seconds passed, only a loud screeching noise was heard as several dozens of 3-Star Avian Magical Beasts flew away from the area in a panic.

While all this was going on, Fei Lei and the rest were completely unaware of what was transpiring below them.

Before they moved on to the next floor, they discovered a resting area that seemed to recover their Mana and heal their wounds.

The area they discovered, was a large estate that had a waterfall running through it and a small lake that formed around it.

It was well lit, like the early morning skies, and had a large building resting against one of the cave walls.

The Party explored the area before deciding to take a break, Fei Lei seeing that although they weren't exhausted from fighting just 1-Star threats, his teammates still used a decent amount of their Mana.

"Let's rest up here." Fei Lei said as he started to head inside the house.

The rest of the party started to remove and perform various maintenances on their gear, while Fei Lei searched inside the western-style house.

During his look around, he saw that it had a kitchen with a wood-burning stove, several rooms, and outside of the house was a large lake that branched off from the waterfall.

"Set up base camp, the recovery zone will be how we survive this next level. If you get tired or run low on mana, you'll be ordered back here while the rest of us continue to battle on the floor below," Eriks called out to his Sky Wardens.

His three followers then started spreading out, collecting water, and claiming their rooms.

Fei Lei smiled appreciatively at how quickly Eriks got his team together and headed to the kitchen. He started to prepare a huge serving of meals cooked from the food he stored inside his ring.

Fei Lei brought several stocks magic beast meat that he had saved up over time, he even managed to get a few birds that produced rather large eggs.

To Fei Lei, the best part about storing his meat of the magical beasts he's hunted inside a spatial ring was the ability to keep any of all of his produce as fresh as the day he killed them, so he didn't have to worry about them rotting.

Before the party knew where Fei Lei went to, their nostrils were suddenly assaulted by a delectable scent. The aroma filled the cavern up with an irresistible and delectable fragrance that made them all salivate.

After a few minutes passed, Fei Lei walked outside the house carrying a bowl and an extra-large tray of assorted foods. On the silver tray, there was meat from 3-Star Magical Beasts, herbs, fruits, and vegetables, which was all gathered from Fei Lei's mountain range.

Including the large ceramic bowl in Fei Lei's other hand, it was filled to the brim with what appeared to be steamed blue-rice.

The orientation of the meal was decorated so that the articles of food had been spaced around the tray in a way that was pleasing to the eyes.

Everyone started to drool as Fei Lei approached them.

Using his telekinesis, Fei Lei pulled out the wooden table that was inside the house and placed the full course meal down in front of everyone. Next, Fei Lei set up 9 large stone carved plates and handed them out.

"Eat." Fei Lei said sitting down.

Yan Mei and Hina were the first to start digging in.

"Delicious!" The two called out, making the other competitors, slash, allies swallowed their saliva.

Seeing that it wasn't poisoned everyone started to dig in, they all let out cheers on how good it tasted as they filled up their plates.

Everyone but Fei Lei and Eriks had already started eating.

Eriks then looked to Fei Lei and asked, "Why aren't you grabbing your plate?"

Fei Lei laughed before replying, "I already have. I'm just letting you guys grab what you want first," Fei Lei said as he pointed to the tray with all the food on it.

Eriks lifted a brow and then questioned him with an expression of doubt, "Isn't that a bit too much for one guy to eat?"

Fei Lei smiled and tilted his head before saying, "Fill up your plate so I can eat, please."

Eriks looking bewildered shrugged his shoulders and went ahead filling his plate up before he started eating.

After tasting the food he quickly filled up his plate with some more food and started chowing down.

Fei Lei then sat at the end of the table and started to eat faster than everyone combined. All the Mages except for Yan Mei and Hina stopped eating their meals to stare in shock at Fei Lei.

Fei Lei was like a black hole, the pile of food began to shrink while he chowed down, and his stomach began to inflate.

When he activated his Human Transfiguration Sigil to disperse the matter into energy, Fei Lei's Sigil glowed over his head, making many people shocked.

He had managed to keep his Sigil a secrete throughout the whole tournament and kept people guessing, but know that he had to use his Sigil to its fullest ability in order to disseminate the food in his stomach, Fei Lei revealed his Human Transfiguration Sigil.

The Party didn't know how to respond, they never figured Fei Lei would hold what they believed to be the weakest of Non-Elemental Sigils.

Fei Lei continued to eat while they watched as the small mountain full of meat, fruit, rice, and vegetables, vanished into his stomach. Fei Lei then stood up and excused himself as he went to his room to practice his Breathing technique.

As he walked away, Eriks looked to his back when Udo said, "Hey, Boss? Does he look like he got a bit larger since we started this whole ordeal?"

Eriks frowned and nodded his head, "He's been slowly gaining muscle mass every moment he's been in combat."

Fei Lei smiled as he heard them say this behind closed doors. Continuing to his room Fei Lei thought, "What an observant fellow."

Fei Lei was indeed using this opportunity to build his new muscles up. Before, when he was working up muscles gained through training, it occurred to Fei Lei that gaining muscles in combat would be better suited to making a stronger frame, rather than just building them up through his usual training.

He decided to use his next compression to create Combat Muscles as his new muscle format.

Fei Lei went to his room, sat down, and starting his breathing technique. With the Beath of the Nature God, he continued to temper his body relentlessly, slowly gaining a minuscule amount of physical strengthing.

The gains were smaller than small, but it added up over time, and as long as Fei Lei continued to train with his breathing technique, it could allow him to expand the limits of his strength without gaining any mass.

Hina joined in after her meal, while Yan Mei continued to observe them and tried her hardest to learn their breathing technique.

The students of Tetra weren't allowed to teach the Breath, but no one said, that others couldn't learn it themselves.

The effects for Hina were far more apparent than Fei Lei's the amount her body was beginning to strengthen was staggering.

Since her body was the same as any other Human, Hina's growth rate was much quicker, and since Fei Lei's body was Super Human, the growth rate was slowed because of how advanced his physique was.

After eight hours or so, the group was ready to head out once again.

When they all reached the second floor, once again monsters started spawning from the walls, floors, and ceiling. Only this time, their appearance was much more abrupt.

The used a similar set up to how they fought this far and continued to cut through hoards of these shadowy figures.

Fei Lei started to release the natural muscle building steroid he mixed out of his own organic chemicals, Myotine+. A hyped-up version of Myotein with a constant supply of lactic acids.

Little by little Fei Lei's body started to grow more muscular, he constantly dosed his body with his muscle growth formula and discovered that it was taking much longer to build up his body compared to before.

As he swung down his hand he felt his power growing, the 2-Star monsters were no threat to him, it was only their sheer number that was the issue.

Gunshots and explosions echoed throughout the cavern as Eriks shot his Elemental Burst Pistol while swinging his Jet Sword around like it was made of a sheet of paper.

Yan Mei continued to hail down arrows in massive numbers.

Hina's whip was like a deadly serpent that cut, slashed, pierced, and exploded in the faces of her enemies.

June continued to be the defensive wall for the party, and any time someone got hurt, she healed them with a Level-1 Recovery Spell.

Hatchi and Terry worked together to build up tons of explosions that kept the monsters from charging June's barrier.

Lastly, Udo and Momo provided support. Udo called out where they would spawn, while Momo used her support magic to increase Eriks's combat abilities.

Support, long-range, middle-range, and short-ranged combat, all combined together in a massive and chaotic battle.

A large explosion went off at the corner of his eye, he turned back to see Yan Mei smiling at him with her flaming bow in hand.

Fei Lei smiled back as he dodged the attack a 2-Star monster attacking from his blindside and crushed its face in with his bare fist.

A large boulder was thrown at his head when suddenly, a barrier of water appeared before him and blocked it, Hina shouted, "You're welcome!"

Fei Lei lowered the hand he was going to use in order to block the projectile and took a look around him.

As he saw everyone fighting alongside him, Fei Lei smiled while he thought, "It sure is nice to have allies watching your back."