"I know three potential ways you could get strong enough to venture further into the abyss. Would you like to hear them?"
Arie listens and nods.
"Of course. What do you know?"
I do a quick inspect on Arie to see he's level 586. It's a high number, but far below his actual power level that he showed me with his bow right here.
"Well, the first way is obvious. I could take you back to the Vice City Labyrinth and we could climb the floors to level up. I'm sure the stronger you grow your body, levels, and mana control; the better your unique skill will work against Demonic Monsters."
He responds.
"Sure, that's obvious. But it'll be a slow process, and just raising my mana control and level does not guarantee the increase in effectiveness against these so-called Demonic Creatures."
I nod.
"Yes, you're right. That leads us to the second option. I could awaken the power that Maria and Abby have been training with the last few weeks. It's called Qi, and I have reasons to believe after hearing your story, this is the energy your old village leader used to awaken your unique skills special traits. Similar to the Red Hydra's Buff, it is rooted in a different power source than just mana-based attacks. It would not react with Demonic Energy like mana does."
Arie perks up at this.
"You can just awaken me? And I'll be able to wield it immediately...?"
I sigh and shake my head.
"No, it would take quite a while to learn... and to be honest, the only source for more energy to get stronger is back in Valor City. I can awaken you if we meet up with my main body, but it will still take weeks or months, maybe even years to get to the point where it'll actually do significant damage on a creature of the Demonic Worms' stature. Though, I'm very confident Qi would be enough to kill it."
Arie gives me a curious look, then speaks up again.
"Okay, what's the last option. You've given me the fast and inefficient route with mana training, the slow and guaranteed route with this Qi proposition; so what's the third option? A risky yet guaranteed method, or what?"
"Exactly."
I smile, looking Arie in the eyes for a moment, then turning my head to the Abyss while activating my Demonic Energy manipulation and gathering all 30 or so Units of Unrefined Demonic Energy that has dispersed from the Wolves killed by Arie's prior attacks.
A swirling of black energy comes flowing out of the Abyss, then into my hand, and flowing into my body to rest in my Demon's Core.
I create a slashing movement with my hand, letting a few units of energy flow out into a small crescent of energy. My Midnight Dagger is in the item storage of my main body, I would have used it now to show off if items like that could replicate into body doubles.
Still, the refined demonic energy flows from my finger and pierces through the dark veil of the Abyss.
I let the remaining refined energy drip from my fingers and lock away the 27 units of unused energy into my core for later use. Then, respond.
"The third option is using the power of the Demonic Monsters against them. I believe I can teach you how to wield Demonic Energy."
Arie's eyes open wide. He watched the whole attack and didn't let his gaze leave the crescent of darkness for a moment. I continue to speak in his moment of silence.
"I'm positive it'll kill these creatures. I managed to crack the tooth of one of those worms with this power when I was much weaker than both of us are now. From what I've learned so far, Demonic Energy is the most effective and safe offensive move against Demonic Creatures. It only took me a few days to get the hang of it, and as you can see, we have a pretty abundant supply of energy to do training."
I point at the abyss, and Arie finally replies.
"I think the answer is pretty clear then."
I smile.
"The only tricky part is, to prepare for training, you're going to have to permanently give up an item slot. And... we're going to have to clear a labyrinth."
Arie's eyes open even more, but while he thinks to himself I do another deep All-Seeing eye scan of the Canyon nearby. If my guess is right, at least one of the two strongest portal readings is a labyrinth. Fisher mentioned he saw one in our briefing back in Valor City too, but I still need to see it for myself.
I speak up.
"Before I get your hopes up, I want to go check out the canyon for myself and see if there is even a labyrinth for us to farm. If there is, I'll be telling you the secret of a Labyrinth's hidden reward for completely clearing it."
Arie shared his past with me, and in return, I'll gladly explain the secret intricacies of what the actual purpose of labyrinths are. He responds, clearly still very deep in thought.
"Sure. Let's go see. You're right, we better see if there really is one first. If there is, I'd like you to teach me Demonic Energy. I pick option 3."
"Gladly."
We head back in the direction of the many dungeons and begin air-stepping and spirit-walking down into its depths of the canyon.
It gets darker the further down we go, but Arie illuminates the area around us with a white glow. My advanced eyesight is good enough in the dark that I don't really care either way, but the light does make traveling a little easier.
A few red dungeon breaks pass by, and dozens of blue portals fill my vision as well, but once we finally get about 3km down past winding paths, huge rock formations, and small flowing streams of underground water sources, the first anomaly reading on my radar comes into view.
It's an enormous portal, but unfortunately, its tint is blue.
Based on its mana output, this is a middle or high ranked B grade dungeon. Possibly the strongest one I've ever felt. It gives off more energy than the Red Ogre dungeon back in Valor City. However, it's not worth checking out right now. My other body double that is checking out the dungeons in here will get to it eventually.
This dungeon has the same level of mana output readings the other oddity gives off. However, the depth of its power feels much different and the energy flowing away from it is in a far more constant and steady rate. I believe these are the readings of a very stable labyrinth, but don't have much data to test my theory. As we dip into another cave system following the flowing streams, we make our way to the last oddity.
The air gets thinner, the humidity increases, and the temperature around us gets hotter the further down we travel. But once we're nearly 6km beneath the surface, and pass a few more scattered dungeons, a faint green glow hits my vision and I begin to get excited.
"There it is."
I can see a grin forming on Arie's face too, and sweat drips from both our foreheads as we touch down on the wet rocky floor in front of a large green glowing labyrinth portal.
"So, training can begin?"
I nod.
"Yes, it can. Let's clear this Labyrinth. You have much to learn."
We both jump through onto the first floor without hesitating at all, eager to see what's inside.
Not to waste any time, we both race through the bottom floors without targeting any monsters. I make it a habit to kill one per unique floor just in case there are some new skills, but most of these dungeons are duplicates that I've faced many times before.
At our top speeds, it doesn't take more than 10 to 15 minutes to zip through some floors high above the sky.
While we venture further upward, I explain the basics of dungeon physics and dungeon mass regeneration, as well as the presence of a labyrinth master at the top floor. I mention the fact that they're Demons that make soul bonds with powerful creatures like dragons, and if defeated, the Demons drop their cores and can be wielded by humans.
I reveal the fact that I have two cores. One from the C-Class exams, and another from the Solaran Labyrinth. Explaining that this is most likely the reason the Association screwed us over, but I still don't have any evidence of it.
I tell him about what happened when we were captured, and how I escaped using Demonic energy and my Demon's core for the first time.
I even reveal the events of my time in the Demonic Rift, fighting three waves of Demonic Minotaurs to Arie, then relate all this information to the fact that there is probably some kind of Demonic entity deep inside the Dark Continent causing the abyss to expand.
This possibly gives validity to Chester's theory of their being a massive Labyrinth deep within the Dark Continent.
Of course, I give no mention of Ember or the Void Creepers; they seem pretty unnecessary to this conversation and it's a secret I'm still not ready to share.
About 4 hours pass and we beat the 20th floor's special boss room of this labyrinth, Arie is completely caught up to speed and understands the risks and rewards of accepting a Demon's core. We decide that from here on out, he'll be doing all the fighting because he needs the level gains and combat experience more than me. However, we have also agreed that I get the final strike on this Demon at the top no matter what because it may have unique skills I can absorb.
Once we pass the 25th floor, things start to get interesting because the creatures on these floors are nearing Arie's level.
By the time we hit the 26th floor, a large mountainous region with earth wielding bug creatures with strong exoskeletons that are able to dig holes and spin their bodies very quickly to both attack and retreat, Arie starts to level up.
Once I see he's still able to pierce their vital points with a single arrow, I step back and let him train solo for a bit.
The 27th and 28th floor go similarly, as Arie uses this opportunity to make it to level 632.
Once the tan-skinned archer easily defeats the flaming serpent boss of the 28th floor with two white arrows through the forehead, we're both transported into a narrow stone hallway that feels very familiar.
I turn to Arie and speak as he illuminates the short pathway to show a slow spinning portal at the other end.
"This is it. The Labyrinth is 29 floors. Next up, you'll be fighting a Demon."
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