Dungeon Prowler : One Man Army

Chapter 388: sage

Leaving home behind again was hard on Yunan, however, his mission to protect this family and make sure they lived happily, strongly pushed him forward and soon he was fighting the guardian of the 79th floor, he took his time battling the boss, it was his time to prove that he has succeeded in entering the sage realm of mastery over his own power, not by chance, or brute force, but through comprehension and enlightenment, understanding and effort, and the guardian of the 79th floor was the opponent he needed to beat in order to prove himself.

As Yunan was fighting in automated battle mode while deep meditation, he understood more about the will of the smith, Hephaestus, and his genius, he could see the path to greatness paved in the dungeon, how each floor and each environment challenged the adventurer, it allowed weaklings to get stronger using numbers, and at the same time, allowed those who were true geniuses, to grow alone or in a group.

Generalization, specialisation, affinity, teamwork, battle sense and many more abilities were given the chance to grow in each adventurer, this was a path that if adhered to, it would lead one to ascend to godhood, this dungeon was not only healing the world and making the lives of the population better, it was also making greater beings, beings who would be able to defend the planet and the universe when the time of the culling came.

The will imprinted on the path made sure that it was functional, even though the power of the smith was not that good and his insight was still lacking, in the earlier floors, his will to lead every adventurer to greatness still worked. Adventurers were gaining strength even if it was minimal, even if 90% of the adventurers never passed the 20th floor, those who could pass it, had it in them to reach the level of gods.

Looking back at how he learned brute force until passing the 20th floor, how he learned to strategize afterwards and each time he went past a zone, he learned more, he learned to explore in the 30s, to endure and persevere in the 40s, in the 50s he learned to look beyond what he could see, in the 60 he learned to investigate, and in the 70s he learned to grow.

This whole journey was a lesson from Hephaestus, it was his own way of nurturing capable protectors for his planet, even if he was chosen as an avatar after finishing Tartarus, one could see that Tartarus was meant to raise protectors, and it succeeded, so far there has been no god that actively tried to cause havoc and harm to the planet, except for a small number of people who could not pass the 89th guardian, most who passed that hurdle had truly acted in the best interest of the world.

Yunan was thinking about all the fighting styles he adopted so far, he has been fighting for so long, each style had become part of him, each time he changed his style he had unknowingly stopped using the previous one, becoming specialised in a different way, now he was trying to actively merge all those styles, from shield and dagger to spell and sword, he integrated them slowly into his automated battle mode, bit by bit, move after move, each time he added a new variable, the number of moves he could perform had grown exponentially.

The guardian; too; was growing with Yunan, but it was not capable of reaching someone who could literally play a party by himself if he used a cloning spell. As those fighting styles merged and fused, Yunan found himself staring at a new world, unlimited possibilities, using his supreme senses, he could even predict the actions of his opponent and react to them before they were executed, creating a world where he was nearly invincible, a world under his control.

As the battle stretched more and more, Yunan did not dare to exit this world, a place where enlightenment was constant, his mind no longer restricted with his mental power, he was truly a sage now, everything in the world provoked something to be comprehended, every action and every reaction, slowly revealing the laws of the world to Yunan.

As a sage, Yunan had no need to use mental strength to gain insight and process it, because he was one with the world, the world itself unravelled for him, the world was peeling its layers for him, sight and hearing were no longer restricted to his eyes and ears, feeling was no longer limited to skin, and Yunan just let himself dive in this world.

His battle with the guardian was a great catalyst, he was suffering from the lack of both understanding, power and stats when he first arrived at the floor and started fighting the guardian, with each defeat he grew more and more, and that is why he would never let this chance to perceive the world go to waste, his automated battle mode was set to keep him alive, he opened his mind and devoured everything the world had to show him.

Yunan has always learned under duress, the more pressure, the more he had to gain, he was taught that to be enlightened was a chance to be grasp onto no matter where or when. There was no need to fear the guardian currently, what was to be feared was that if he cut his meditation, he may never find a second chance to comprehend the current knowledge sprawled before him.

When Yunan woke up, he found that he had been meditating for close to a year, during that time he had killed a number of guardians, there was even a line of parties that decided to let him be, no one liked to be wrenched out of meditation, especially one that was as profound as Yunan's. The man had been fighting with guardians until the guardians died out of fatigue and accumulated stress and injuries. As thanks for those who chose to wait, Yunan left enough items to arm each party to the teeth, he would not give them something that would topple the guardian, but they did not need to fear for their lives if they messed up.

After taking his loot, Yunan descended and stepped back into the 80th floor after more than 10 years, now, he could prance around this floor at will, unlike back when he was in the 50s. After he arrived at the safe zone, he made his way to the trading post, it did not look like much, but the number of people coming and going brought a smile to his face.