Chapter 483

Maria's level rises by 71, bringing her to level 1065 in an instant.

By the way she's looking at her status, it's clear there is a rank-up notification in front of her waiting to be accepted.

However, she recalls my description of the others' rank-up process that I told her about on our way out here and decides not to press [YES] just yet. She picks up both the fragments of the dormant black obsidian golem's core, and places them into her item storage. Two of the larger chunks have item readings on them that grant over 300% Mental Strength Buffs along with fire resistance.

I speculate what kind of armor, pendant, or possibly even a weapon these materials could make. However, it's Maria's kill, so she'll be the one to decide what to do with these core fragments in the future.

Her ice magic deactivates while putting back up her consistent Qi barrier. Then, she Qi-steps up in the air to greet Luna and me watching from high above.

I'm the first to speak.

"That was very impressive. I could tell you were strong while sparring, but your combination of Qi and Mana brought your abilities to a whole new level. It almost looked like Soul Energy..."

I think to myself about how Maria would have stacked up against the 2nd ranked Dark Guard if she were to battle it alone. On pure physical strength, that silver creature would have had her beat, but just based on pure magic power they may have been close to even.

The only guards that remain are the 3rd, 4th, and 1st. Based on this performance, after she ranked up there is no doubt in my mind the two remaining lower guards will not be an issue for her.

The only real looming threat is the 1st ranked Dark Guard and the Dark One itself.

As my mind races, Maria speaks up again.

"Yeah, it's a neat trick I managed to learn near the end of my session in the pod. Once my Qi control reached a high enough level, I was able to begin incorporating Mana directly into the flow. It works the other way around too. Instead of launching them as separate attacks, the two are slowly becoming one energy source."

She flips her open status toward me to show the [Rank Up] screen.

"Once I get to a safe place to Rank-Up, I'm almost positive they will become even more natural to wield together as one."

We turn back toward the town after Luna does another scan of the desert, confirming there are no other strong beings within 300 km of us. There are a few rogue dungeons and 2 small villages with populations below 50 each, but no sign of the Dark One's army.

"Looks like he really came alone..."

We head back to the town at fairly quick speeds, making it to the bunker in under 2 hours.

Maria sits on the opposite side of the room in the lotus position and presses rank up, glowing white while the 5 machines hum in the background, slowly leaking Qi and Mana.

I turn to Luna, then point to the crates of B Grade weapons and equipment by the back wall.

"Pick out 12 items. Make sure they have spread-out buffs to equally boost all your stats, and choose a weapon you're comfortable learning how to wield. You were over level 250 before the powerleveling session, so I assume you have some monster hunting experience."

She nods and walks over to the crates, putting on a few rings, necklaces, a light armor set, some boots, and picks out a pair of daggers with high speed, agility, and mental strength enchants on them.

Then, we leave the bunker together and I point to the canyon of dungeons.

"This way, it's time for you and a few others to increase your mana control. Let's see if that 300 km range is your skills' hard cap or if there are ways to raise it. There are a few others in the dungeons that need the exact same training as you."

We make it to the canyon, and I open up my dungeon walker skill to scan every dungeon I have access to until I find my double in a C-Grade dungeon training the 37 recruits from the other day.

After putting up my flame emperor's disguise, Luna and I teleport there and I greet my body double with a stone bullet to the forehead, killing it instantly to receive the memories of the last 40 or so hours that I've been away.

The intricate details of the training this group has been through come rushing back to me. These are the people that volunteered to become the first soldiers in the Flame Emperor's army, and their commitment shows.

I've been giving them a constant supply of newly crafted Regeneration Potions which heals all of their injuries and drastically decreases their fatigue, allowing most of them to train pretty much nonstop since the start.

They have the best gear available to them, courtesy of the deceased Sector 2 Leader's warehouse stockpiles, and my A-Grade body double has been keeping a close eye on their every move; stepping in milliseconds before battles are going to end poorly, and giving pointers after every fight on how to better use their weapons and talents.

We progressively trained in harder and harder dungeons as everyone became more skilled.

Once used to the routine, none of them fear getting hurt at all anymore, and start improving at an exponential rate.

All 37 of them have made it to level 330-340.

The only limitation they're facing now is the lack of time spent honing their mana control; their actual combat skill has been refined. Luna has a similar problem. Her level has been artificially boosted, but her mana control is lagging far behind.

I use my enemy detection skill mixed with my rising Emperor's Domain [Find My Friend] perk to find everyone's geopoints through the dungeon, they're all pretty close by in groups being led by their leaders. Then, fly over to each of the groups and gather them together in a single spot.

They all look happy to be here. Some sweating, others breathing heavy, but most have smiles on their faces and are enjoying the grind.

I speak up once I have their attention while sharing my skill [All Seeing Eye] with everyone.

"Open your status screens and look at the new options that are now available by activating the skill I have shared with you."

Many of their eyes widen and they scroll through their status screens, clicking the [i] next to their skills and gear to read more information about them, and many see where I'm leading them next before I even speak up.

"There should be a section labeled PP, or proficiency points. You gain one of these every time you level up. To upgrade a skill from basic grade to special grade, it takes 50 points. To upgrade from special to legendary grade, it takes 250. If you are an element user, it takes 100 points to upgrade to an advanced version of your skill. I want you to all use these points and grow stronger. We will be starting your next stage of training very soon."

Looking down at my own status, I see [PP: 638] and do some math.

I still need 362 more points to hit 1000 to have enough to upgrade my absorption skill to [Mythic Grade]. Although I have enough to upgrade some of my basic grade skills to legendary, or my advanced grade elemental skills to extreme, it isn't worth doing when I weigh the perks that a mythic grade version of my absorption skill will grant.

After this, I close my status and look down at everyone in my new army.

It's full of legendary swordsmen and tanks, advanced elemental users, and support types with team buffs that exceed 50-70%.

Next, I switch the skill that I'll be sharing with them from [All Seeing Eye] to [Legendary Grade][Absorption].

After this, I use my Rising Emperor's domain perk to share 10% of my mana control, distributed equally between all 37 of them, and Luna, making it 38. Instead of sharing this with all 140 of the people in my list like last time, this power is now going to less than ⅓ of them. Meaning, their boost in strength is over 3 times greater than the last time this buff was used.

Meaning, I'm granting them tens of millions worth of mana control more than before.

Everyone is hit with another wave of euphoria, and their strength is increased to an absurd degree.

They all group together and I dungeon walk us to the 19th floor of the Vice City Labyrinth. Simultaneously, I place a body double on guard by the dungeon's entrance to make sure no hunters come up to disturb us.

Training at this low of a level is a lot different than the upper floors past 30. Below floor 20 is where the Association tends to actually farm and train. I sense a good amount of hunters on floor 10-13, and a few teams on floor 15 and 16, but it seems that no one is nearby so we have floor 19 all to ourselves.

A monster's screech fills the air as everyone stands on a black surface and a green-eyed, sword-wielding, mana-shielded berserker giant comes charging at the group of new recruits.

I don't instantly kill the monster, but let it run closer and closer, allowing everyone here to use their new mana senses and feel the actual strength of the disgusting creature approaching. Many activate their skills, ready their weapons, and wait for my commands.

I float above them all, not saying a word as it speeds up and eyes the crowd of humans that has come into its territory.

A level 405 berserker giant jumps in the air toward the 38 hunters and I create a large dome of mana shielding between them and the beast just 10 meters away from our group. The battle crazed sword wielder collides with it in mid-air.

Its blade shatters against the dense shielding and its body disintegrates and breaks apart, killing the monster on the spot for all of them to see.

I didn't even lift a finger, but the monster was defeated instantly.

"I've granted you a portion of my power for this stage of training. It's called mana control, the cumulative experience gained by processing mana through your body over time increases this power. We'll be working on a skill called mana shielding, and farming these creatures here with that skill I granted you earlier to increase your own base of mana control. By the time we're done here, you'll be able to do what I just did without using my shared power."

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Author's Note:

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