Gaining power

The next day, Reed woke up at noon with a growling stomach. After quickly going about his morning affairs and having brunch, he walked to the dungeon while appraising himself.

He realized that he was filled with energy, both in the physical and mental senses, he felt like he had taken quite a bit of caffeine as his mind darted wildly over the possibility that it was due to the fact that he had completely exhausted himself while expanding his core.

That hypothesis was plausible, because in this world, what creatures use to control mana and other energies, is their spirit, the force that is mixture of their consciousness and their soul.

Simply put, the stronger your spirit, the more you can manipulate mana, and the spirit can be refreshed by mana as well, forming a feedback loop of spirit usage = spirit growth.

Meaning that the more he tires out his spirit, the faster his spirit will grow, provided he gets adequate rest as well, of course.

With this in mind, Reed entered the dungeon.

A few quick minutes later, Reed stood beside a dissipating corpse of a slime and suddenly a stray thought entered his mind.

'Is there a difference in mana concentration inside the dungeon?' It was possible, after all, the inside of a dungeon was an entire different space. 'If there is, is it more mana or less?'

If the concentration of mana particles was higher, he could just gather his mana here, it would be much faster, and more mana would be gathered. If it was lower, than there wouldn't be any reason to stay in the dungeon for longer.

He looked around for a good space to rest on, didn't find one, used magic to lift a section from the ground, smoothened it out, and placed himself on it, and began to gather mana.

A few seconds later, his eyes flew open. "Holy..." He whispered as got up and looked around himself, at the walls, the roof, the jutting rocks. "Huhuhuhu!" He made a sound of excitement, the amount of mana he had sensed made him feel a thrill in his chest.

He sat back down and concentrated for a few moments, before opening his eyes. "It's almost, 12 times more!" A grin split his face, and he exhaled loudly.

"Huuuu..." He clapped his hands together, then interlocked them and brought them to his lips as he looked at a pebble in front of him on the ground.

'Since this level is separated from the others, does that mean that the other levels have different quantities of mana as well? If so which one has the highest?' He thought for a total of seven seconds, before getting up and moving towards the arch.

'No way to tell except by visiting them all!'

The difference was small, but noticeable, unfortunately, Reed had to make multiple trips through the dungeon to confirm his readings, since it was a bit difficult to get it down to exact difference.

'The last level has almost 20% percent more than the first.' He thought, biting into a sandwich he purchased from a food vendor outside the dungeon. 'The boss room has an additional 10 percent on that.'

He looked through the dungeon panel. 'Is there a way I can increase mana concentration in here?'

Unfortunately, he didn't find anything that looked like it could change that.

'It's time.' He thought, and started to modify the dungeon.

He spent the next few minutes making a few major adjustments, adding a few more wolves, reducing the number of goblins, changing the paths, putting a few traps in some important places.

He wanted to know what he would gain from someone's death inside his dungeon.

He took another bite.

He had a game to win, and with so many who would kill him for their own victory, he couldn't afford to be kind, not in this situation.

He finished his meal, looked up at an orange cloud, and made his way back to the city, and walked to the library, ready to learn a few more spells.

The next morning he opened the dungeon panel, and saw that he had a notification. He opened it, and a message appeared in front of his eyes.

[Some power has been stored. Accept?]

 [Yes] [No]

He tapped on the 'No' button, and the message disappeared.

He made his way to the clearing where he had trained with Mordhal. He had set up a few items there, he had brought some weights and a few iron rods and made them into barbells for easier training, set up a pull-up bar of solid rock, and created a small area for himself to practise his movement, made of poles, slides, and walls, all made of rock.

A few meters into the forest, were wooden targets of all shapes and sizes, circular, rectangular, spiral, hoops, etc. Some of them hanging from the branches of the trees, some of hammered into the trunks of said trees, some just laying on the ground. All of them were damaged to some extent.

Around the targets, were various weapons made of wood and stone that Reed used for throwing practise. Hammers, axes, knives, javelins, shuriken, boomerangs, etc.

On the other side of the field, was a small puddle of water, in the middle of the puddle, was a thin pillar with a white ball the size of a fist on top of it.

'Still hasn't melted.' Reed looked at his little experiment. 'Size reduced by 80% in over 48 hours, so it'll melt before sundown.' He looked away, and started to warm up.

After warming up, he cam to the edge of the field and took a sprinting stance.

Then, he sprinted to the other side.

He took a mental note of the time it took him, than made his way to the barbells.

He piled multiple heavy weights on the biggest rod, and lifted it with great effort, putting a number to what he could currently lift, and how long he could lift it for.

He put the barbell down, and opened the dungeon panel, then clicked on the 'Yes' button on the message.

Immediately, he felt a warmth appear in his heart, which started to move throughout his entire body.

"Haaaaa..." 

It felt insanely comfortable, and Reed started to breath heavily as it moved into his muscles. He stared into the sky, his eyes unfocused, his mouth open, his palms facing the sky with his fingers splayed.

"Aaaaugh..." Reed closed his eyes and clenched his fists, changing the way his neck bent to face the ground.

He felt the warmth invade his bones, and then start to dissipate slowly.

The entire thing took a total of two minutes, from start till finish.

When the last bits of warmth disappeared, Reed opened his eyes.

'That...' He opened his hands and looked at his palms, twisting them around. '... was quite an experience.'

He felt fully relaxed, as if he had just been in a hot spring.

He wondered how many people had perished in the dungeon yesterday, and how much he gained from their deaths.

They were unknown to him, so he did not feel any guilt in indirectly ending their lives, but he did know something.

'I want to feel that amazing sensation again.'