Dungeon Prowler : One Man Army

Chapter 367: sage level: walkthrough

Instead of resting for the night, Yunan took the chance to meditate on his newly comprehended skills and enlightenment, sure he didn't need to, but there was nothing better than practice to consolidate any kind of gain, something drilled into him during his school years, hard work always paid off, no matter what, there is something to be gained from working hard enough.

By morning Yunan was exuding a stronger presence and gave off a feeling of control, every action he took was nearly perfect as if he was controlling every cell of his body to perform on such a level, when he met the old Apophis after leaving his room the old man gave him an extra glance and nodded his head, this young friend of his was so much better than those geniuses even though he has no particular latent talent, still luck itself was part of one's strength. Hence he chose to discuss the realm of the sages with Yunan along the way, just to see what will this kid lacking talent can achieve with a little push.

"little friend, do you know what lies in the realm of the sage? I know you have peaked through the door, tell me what you saw". Yunan immediately knew he was receiving yet another lesson to push him forward so he answered after careful consideration.

Looking inside him and feeling what his skills and experiences imprinted in his mind and soul, the answer came readily "control" Yunan answers "near absolute control, reaching out to the world around me and make flow according to my will, my reach going beyond just affecting my body, but using the world to complete and compliment my own power and acts, it feels like my body is no longer the limit that holds my mind, at the same time I feel that my mind can not handle the amount of power that it can output at the moment, it feels like I am shackled by something, something is needed, my instinct is calling for more, more of what, I have no idea at all!".

"You need more restraint, you wear your power on your sleeve, it is always in touch with the world, you need to control it so that it can not leak so freely, that is why sages are the step before divinity, knowledge and power are not sufficient, you need to keep your power in check unconsciously, otherwise the world would warp and change with you just existing, it is hard to rein in the powers you worked so hard to unleash all your life, so far, you have been pushing yourself to acquire endless amount of it, it is nice to see you can control it to this extent."

Apophis continued "alas it is not enough, from my point of view you are leaking like a broken dam, the immediate surrounding is completely flooded by your influence, to you, it might feel like you are only in touch of an inch outside of your body, but it is wasted power, your control is near perfect enough as it is, so what do you think the next step is?".

"Efficiency" Yunan blurted out "to lose all the flashiness and simplify everything, maintaining all actions to the absolute minimum, reduce all output to almost nothing, becoming nothing, losing oneself to the world", these were the teachings of Debauchery, although he has not succeeded in achieving them he was very close for someone in his age and at his current stage.

"Rein in your wild power" Apophis agreed with Yunan "using as little of your strength to overpower those stronger than you, keep your mana in your body, refine it if you must, think of yourself as a vessel if you can not fill it any more, then just boil the impurities away, refine and purify, an ounce of pure gold is worth more than a pound of unrefined gold ore, that is how you will find the way to gain absolute control over your own strength".

Apophis did not say more and just walked by Yunan's side as he thought about what to do next and how to do it, for Yunan, the issue of impure mana, unstable foundation and any bodily taint, those things are extremely minute, thanks to the cleansing baths, the spiritual fruits and endless benefits of the lava wine, not to mention the dragon and phoenix bloodlines, it is, therefore, harder for him to cleanse himself completely since it would be near impossible to detect such a small amount of impurities, even his endless supply of mana has been tempered by the endless use.

In other words, Yunan did not have tainted mana because he burned it either on fighting or it was absorbed by the private dimension, this endless cycle of regeneration ensured that his mana did not have the time to form impurities by contracting the mana of the outside world, as for the body, decades of cleansing and stress management, as well as extreme nutrition, did well for the body that was cleansed by both dragon fire and phoenix flames, the only way for Yunan to find and detect these impurities is by perfecting his control over his skills and movements, once a hitch was found, cleaning it would be easy afterwards.

Yunan did not regain his clarity of mind until it was time for the highlight of the second day, although he was sitting in the stands and watching the great show, he was so deep in thought that he forgot about those who sat around him, he even ended up missing lunch and dinner, while his family decidedly left him alone because Apophis required them to. Otherwise, they would have snapped him out of his own world much sooner, as soon as he woke to his surrounding he saw the violent Yeti tribe start their show, it could only be described as a military drill, one of those nightmares fueling drills from hell, both magic and body pushed beyond their limit, just to showcase how much of a warlike tribe they actually were.

After the Yeti ended their show the Jtunn and their king made a great mockery of the fighting drills by turning them into game and dance routines, coordinated by the magical show of the king, Yunan felt the admiration deeply because he suffered under the might of the Jtunn, he even decided to sneakily reward the performing Jtunn with some of his pearls, he was still smirking to himself for being unnoticed when he saw something that made his jaw drop halfway to the floor, he was pinched out of the surprise by different hands that shall remain anonymous; he looked around and saw both jealousy and murderous intent and only his little daughter looked worried about her daddy looking like he lost his mind.

The Yuki tribe who were ranked under both the Jtunn and the Yeti tribes in the dungeon were going to be the highlight of the show, they looked like proper human females at the moment, warm and beautiful, unlike the snowy look they had when he last met some of them, there were some who flashed him bright smiles as they walked to the arena in file, they whispered and nodded to each other as they took their places, then to the shock of the audience the beautiful and enchanting Yuki all knelt towards someone and showted in sync "king!"