5] – [Golden Dungeon]

In a dark space, which seemed to be from a different dimension, was the seated figure of Alexander.

As he looked at a flying screen of light in front of him, containing the scenes unfolding inside his golden structure, he could not help but lament.

"It has already been forty years, I even went easy on them and made this trial into a classic dungeon from the Mana Grounds. So let alone the checkpoints inside, the difficulty is increasing steadily, yet just two people managed to get treasures…"

In the forty years that had passed since then, the news of a dungeon appearing inside the Golden Sky Kingdom's territory soon spread to the entire world. With such popularity, the dungeon turned into a touristic spot for adventurers.

Alexander also managed to get some information from the adventurers' conversations inside his dungeon.

He learned that this world was called Gaia, learning this, he immediately burst into laughter, hearing such a name that was already used by at least a couple millions worlds inside the Mana Grounds alone.

Inside the Universe, each and every tier of world had a specific name, for Tier-1 Worlds they were either called Infant Worlds or Burial Grounds, for Tier-2 Worlds the name given was Mana Grounds. As for Tier-3 Worlds they were named Lower Worlds.

After that he learned useful information to tweak his dungeon. He heard that this world had adventurer ranks as the most common form of evaluation, from F-Rank to A-Rank, then S-Rank as apparently the strongest ever seen.

In Gaia, the adventurers could reach F-Rank if they could use Aura or Mana. He could not help wondering what the difference was, when all there was in this place was Mana. He soon remembered however that most Tier-2 Worlds called Aura the use of Mana inside the body.

Comparing them, one could say that Mana users or magicians were the equivalent to Qi Cultivators while Aura users were the equivalent of Body Cultivators.

Of course saying that magicians were similar to Qi cultivators was quite the stretch. Let alone the difference in potential and quality of the energy, the way Mana was forced inside the user's heart to create circles was quite different from Qi cultivators, refining the Qi in the atmosphere within their meridians until it reached their Dantian, expanding it if necessary.

Using the heart which is material and engraving circles on it, even forgetting the dangers of stabbing yourself in the heart with Mana, this practice was also very limited. As for the Dantian, since it was half-immaterial and not considered the same as material organs, the same problems did not apply.

And this was not taking into account the biggest difference of such energies…

…potential!

With Mana, be it using it inside or outside the body, such an energy could, at best, make the user reach the pinnacle of strength inside the Mana Grounds as well as below. But with Qi, reaching the peak of the user's respective plane was but the start, ascending to higher planes more than a dream.

While there existed many different types of energies standing above basic Qi, all of them originated from it! Meaning that True Qi for example, which was a higher form of energy than Qi, was in itself still Qi, except that this same Qi had managed to evolve using its innate potential.

It did not take long for Alexander to guess the name of each level of power inside Gaia, since the Heavenly Way often just forced people to name these levels with predetermined and Universally used terms.

Just hearing that the weakest Aura users were called Aura Apprentice while also hearing some talk about the legendary Aura Emperor or Aura God, he could tell from just these two what laid in between. It was not his first time inside the Mana Grounds, so he was aware of their order.

Above Aura Apprentice was Aura User, then Aura Veteran, followed by Aura Expert, Aura Master, Aura Grandmaster, Aura King, Aura Emperor then finally Aura God.

For people inhabiting the Mana Grounds, legends such as Aura Gods were nothing more than fairy tales, but for Alexander, having killed a few dozens of them himself, not forgetting the hundreds if not thousands of them he also saw dying trying to ascend to Tier-3 Worlds, they were nothing much.

So while natives of the Mana Grounds thought Aura Gods and Mana Gods to be real geniuses that had reached the peak of life through hardships and talent, Alexander only saw them as fools that did not know their place.

'What would they think if they knew that all of these so called 'gods' end up crushed under the gravity and even the weight of the Qi within Tier-3 Worlds? Just the Qi itself inside those shitty Tier-3 Worlds is more than enough to turn them into cripples!'

Each energy belonged to different planes. Mana could only be found in Tier-1 to Tier-2 Worlds. And the most basic of Qi could only be found in Tier-3 Worlds and above. There were some stories about Qi being found inside some Burial Grounds, but many talked about these places formerly being above Tier-2.

The difference between energies was abysmal. Even if an Aura God or Mana God encountered a strand of Qi, they would most likely be powerless against it. This of course was valid for higher forms of Qi, where True Qi would be much more potent than Qi.

As Alexander was reminiscing the past, he noticed someone that had managed to get a treasure, this was the third.

'So what do we have here?'

Alexander watched the screen of light attentively, a man completely covered in black clothes, from head to toe in sight. Seeing this, he understood that this person had probably quite the story, needing to hide his identity like this.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Anyways, let's see, he is human… Seems like an Aura Master. Alright and you get..!"

Alexander quickly turned around and spun a small colorful wheel, after some time it finally stopped, its arrow pointing at…

"Low grade Mortal-Tier Red Sword!"

"Woah! That's some bad luck!"

The covered man situated in what appeared to be an small open space with a platform at the top of some stairs, witnessed, on top of an altar standing above the platform, some bright lights almost blinding him.

As the light started to fade, the man was getting more and more excited, only to see a sword with a red handle waiting for him. The sword was plain and did not emit any aura of sort, be it from majesty or Mana.

"…Is that it?" The man had a blank look on his face, feeling as if the dangers he had just went through were for naught…

Before he could grab the sword, he suddenly heard a voice.

"Congratulation, you were awarded a low grade Mortal-Tier Sword, called the Red Sword! This weapon is made from black iron, a tough material, and has been modified as to avoid the sword from being too heavy for you!"

Of course since the Mana Grounds were only Tier-2, something made from a material originating from a Tier-3 World such as black iron would be impossible to wield by a Mana Grounds' native, therefore it had received some adjustments from Alexander himself.

The covered man was slightly confused, since he did not know what black iron was, he could therefore not help but want to test the sword himself and assess its sharpness.

And so he did, taking the sword in his right hand, the man started walking deeper inside the dungeon, soon finding a puppet. Its intimidating aura indicated its strength equivalent to his own, an Aura Master!

"Alright then, let's try this out! You better not let me down!"

As the man roared, he kicked the ground with his body fully covered in Mana, slashing downward at the puppet the next instant. Expecting it to be a tough fight, the man prepared himself to bounce back from his opponent and give himself breathing room.

However much to his surprise, all that he could do was stare blankly at his sword, as he then turned his head toward what remained of the now destroyed puppet.

A simple slash was enough to cut the powerful puppet in half, when before it would have taken him more than twenty exchanges to obtain similar results.

"A-Amazing!"

As the man was having the time of his life slaughtering puppet after puppet, Alexander was still looking at him.

"He is so happy for some sharp metal stick, even the two before him weren't so unlucky, the Guild Master or something got a high grade Mortal-Tier Black Sword while the princess got a middle grade Mortal-Tier Green Sword."

"Well anyway, it's getting boring, I haven't even found a single mage, only aura users…"

"Cowards!"

How could Alexander not be surprised by such inconsistency? The only ones trying his dungeon were aura users, ranging from Aura Apprentices to Aura Masters.

After taking into account their equivalents, finding some Mage Apprentices, Mage Candidates, Mages, Great Mages, or even a few Grand Mages and a couple of Court Mages would be normal, yet Alexander did not find any of them. While he had not expected to see higher ones like a Kingdom Mage, Mana King, Mana Emperor or the 'legendary' Mana God, he still expected at least one of each below Grand Mage.

"Alright it's annoying, let's wrap this up! After that… I guess I'll go explore some more Tier-2 Worlds, trying to fish for some Gods and Goddesses!" Chuckling from his future entertainment, Alexander was ready to move.

As people were fighting against puppets and monsters inside the dungeon, they heard a booming voice.

"This dungeon will end soon, if you want to leave go ahead, if you want to stay, then let me tell you, running away is all you will be able to do henceforth! I will increase the difficulty, if any of you can manage to reach the end of the corridor, the rewards will blow your worldview into pieces!"

As soon as his words ended, the challengers' vision turned blurry, soon being teleported inside a golden room. Its width spanning twenty meters, its height thirty meters. At one end of the room, two small doors exiting to the outside, and on the opposite side, a giant corridor, as if the room expanded multiple times.

The corridor was of course the same dimensions the room currently had for both width and height, the corridor in itself however seemed to end hundreds of meters into the distance.

As if nothing was more obvious than this, the majority started to leave through the doors. As for the few dozens of people either staying with conviction or simply hesitating, they soon heard a rumble before the doors started to disappear.

Shock painted their faces as they understood that there was no going back now.

"No!"

"What do I do?!"

"What is this?! Please let me leave, I changed my mind!"

Cries of regrets and fear filled the room as people started to run toward the now simple wall that used to possess two doors.

Before they could complain anymore, Alexander's voice reverberated.

"You either die or reach the end! In the middle of the corridor are some very slow and almost crippled beasts! As well as some broken puppets!"

"Now it may seem easy but they are not Aura Apprentice or whatever you call their power level, they will all have a first stage Qi Sensing Realm cultivation base with the last one being at the first stage of the Qi refining Realm!"

As the voice faded into the distance, people started to cry out in confusion one after the other.

"Qi what?! What does it mean?!?"

"I don't know! He said 'Qi Sensing' something, and since the last one is… what was it again?"

As everyone was arguing a woman with curly blonde hair and sky blue eyes shouted

"Silence!"

"I am the first princess of the Golden Sky Kingdom, Marie Sky-Crown! From what the voice said, we can guess these puppets to be stronger than anything we have faced in here before! And the last one will be even stronger! I propose we form groups!"

"You're the first princess?! How are you still alive?! I heard it has been three hundred and fifty years since you discovered this place!"

As a voice in the crowd said this, more and more people started to discuss between themselves, completely ignoring the princess.

"What?!"

"Wait! I heard that the Golden Sky Kingdom had discovered a magical artifact capable of increasing someone's lifespan! Rumors has it that it can increase it by at least a thousand years!"

"I heard it was ten thousands years!"

"The cousin of my step-sister's father told me that because of it, five hundred years ago, the King of the Golden Sky Kingdom managed to reach the eighth Circle, becoming a Mana King!"

The princess could not help narrowing her eyes as she saw everybody ignore her.

"Tsk! I'll go myself then!"

—–

Looking at the screen of light, Alexander could not help but sigh. The corridor had only been there for around three days, and yet, he just saw the last person standing, the princess, getting sliced into countless pieces by a puppet.

"Why was she fighting it? I said to outrun it, dumbass…"

A few moments later Alexander destroyed the dungeon making it crumble on itself before teleporting into space.

"Alright, time to go look for some rats, after that, I think I'll either go with taking a few disciples or just do some world building!"