Alaric promptly reviewed the notification that popped up the moment he and his friends arrived at the Azure Caverns.

Welcome to The Azure Caverns.

Group delving detected! The challenges, difficulty levels, and rewards of this zone have been adjusted.

It seemed like all of them received the same notification. Alaric surveyed the surroundings. To his senses, nothing appeared different. The dark underground caves remained illuminated by bioluminescent crystals that radiated a bright blue glow.

They approached an opening in the distance, and a new challenge popped up as soon as they set foot inside the area.

Challenge 1 - Defeat the Azure Golem Spawnlings

The whole cavern trembled, and many of the embedded crystals began extricating themselves and reshaping into humanoid forms. Alaric burst into motion, forming a spiked mana gauntlet to pummel the azure golems. Just as a golem finished fully forming, Alaric smashed its head into tiny crystals.

“Let’s see who can destroy the most golems here,” Alaric smirked.

“I’m down for the challenge,” Rowan grinned. He brandished a sharp, crystallized sword made of mana that effortlessly cleaved through the golems.

Looks like he has a similar skill akin to mana solidification. Alaric considered wielding a sword made of mana someday once he leveled up his skills and abilities to a sufficient level.

Unlike last time, Alaric was channeling his [Vital Mana Flow] skill in conjunction with the [Mana Solidification] skill while engaging the golems. Thus, although he sustained damage, he was being healed continuously.

To minimize the damage to his fists, he exclusively targeted the heads of the golems since they were the weakest parts of their bodies.

Gareth and George were collaborating as an effective team. George shielded Gareth’s blind spots with a shimmering mana barrier while Gareth stomped the golems with a luminous surge of mana enveloping his kicks.

Alaric dashed from golem to golem, obliterating their heads like a reaper of death. However, the damage he absorbed was taking a toll on his arms. His healing skill wasn’t advanced enough yet.

Besides, it had only been a few hours since he repaired his arms using heart chakra energy. He didn’t want to harm himself too gravely at this stage and waste that precious energy once again.

“Is that the best you’ve got?” Rowan called out ahead of him, a smile etched on his face. He was darting through the Azure golem spawnlings, severing their limbs left and right, and dismantling them.

Alaric grinned. “Not even close.” He redoubled his efforts, caving in the head of another golem.

“Guys, leave some monsters for us,” Gareth shouted from behind.

“Yeah, let us get some practice,” George cried, deflecting falling rocks with his shield.

It only took about ten minutes for them to clear the area. All of them were panting.

“I destroyed 11 golems,” declared Rowan, a proud smile etched on his face.

“I only managed 9, but I’ll surpass you next time once I enhance my skills,” replied Alaric.

“Hah…keep dreaming” replied Rowan.

Suddenly, the whole cavern quaked again.

Elite Event Triggered - Defeat the Azure Golem Elite. Reward - Extra experience points

“Guys, aren’t elite events supposed to trigger at higher rift zones?” commented Gareth.

“Why are you so worried?” said Alaric. “There are four of us and one puny golem”. The Azure Golem elite wrenched itself from the ground and completed forming - a collection of blue azure crystals that towered over 8 ft tall. A mish-mash of sharp, pink crystals lined its spine.

“Is that your definition of puny?” questioned George.

The elite golem thrust forward its arm and launched a rain of crystal spikes at their position. They all dodged together and George covered their backs with a large shimmering mana shield.

As the collection of crystal spikes struck the barriers, a spiderweb of cracks spread across its surface. “It’s too strong,” shouted George. “Be cautious.”

Alaric couldn’t reach its head. But he devised a plan. He darted toward the golem and began hammering it in the leg. His whole arm vibrated. The body of this elite golem was far tougher than the regular golem spawnlings.

The golem elite roared and attempted to grab Alaric. Fortunately, even the elite was too slow for Alaric. Using that opportunity, Rowan neared its feet and delivered a criss-cross of sword strikes with a roar. His sword began chipping at the edges but so did the leg of the golem.

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All four of them worked in tandem to defeat the golem together. Gareth and Alaric worked to distract it, Rowan hacked away at its legs, while George shielded them from exploding rock fragments and near misses.

The strategy seemed to be working. One of its legs was almost hollowed out. Just a little more and it should collapse.

Alaric had expended almost 50 percent of his mana by this stage. Running two skills simultaneously for so long drained his mana substantially. He presumed his friends were likely low on mana as well.

The golem groaned in pain as one of its legs splintered and it collapsed to the ground. Rowan rushed in an attempt to behead it. Alaric's danger sense flared up.

“Rowan, be careful!” He shouted. Luckily Rowan heeded Alaric and stopped mid-motion. Gareth formed a mana barrier in front of Rowan.

The pink crystals along the spines of the golem flashed bright and immediately, a trail of sharp crystals erupted from the ground and raced toward them. Rowan leaped aside just as these crystals smashed into the mana barrier and shattered it.

Alaric and his friends barely evaded the massive mana spikes. Tiny crystals of mana began sprouting around where its leg had splintered.

“Don’t let it regenerate,” shouted Alaric. He sprang forward and scaled the golem's back, poised to deliver a decisive strike. The golem elite reached for him but he dodged its colossal hand and slammed it in the back of the neck, forming a thin crack.

Alaric’s whole arm shuddered and the spiked mana gauntlet fractured. He gritted his teeth and reconstructed the mana gauntlet as swiftly as possible. As the golem attempted to seize him, Rowan deflected it with a powerful sword strike.

“Alaric, hurry up with whatever you’re doing,” said Rowan as he kept the golem occupied. George and Gareth were doing their best to harass the golem as well.

Alaric commanded his mana core to spin faster and release mana more efficiently. The mana around his arms encased them quicker than ever, but he didn’t stop there.

He attempted to envelop his arm up to the elbow with multiple layers of mana to reinforce them. Once it solidified, Alaric clamped onto the golem’s face from behind, planted a foot at the base of its spine, and used all his strength to wrench.

The golem elite thrashed violently, and its back flared pink once again. The spikes on its back elongated and punctured Alaric’s body in several places before a barrier materialized around him. He roared but endured the pain. It was working, almost.

The golem’s back arched at an unnatural angle, and Alaric was almost on the verge of ripping its head off his spine. Rowan lunged forward and cleaved its neckline.

That did the trick, and Alaric almost stumbled to the floor with the golem’s head in his palms. The next moment, its body blazed pink and crumbled to the ground.

Congratulations! You have completed the Elite challenge.

A series of dings rang in his mind and Alaric sprawled on the floor. As did all of his friends.

“That was intense,” Alaric grinned as he swallowed mouthfuls of breath. He exhausted a drop of his heart chakra to accelerate the healing process. It was a waste but couldn’t be avoided at this stage until he evolved his skill into something better.

All of his friends wore a stunned expression.

“Alaric, you’re bleeding from every part of your body,” cried Rowan. It warmed him to see all his friends care so much. Little did they know this was nothing. Alaric had faced the brink of death too many times to count in his previous life.

“This is nothing,” he said as he rose and cracked his neck. Then, he turned his back toward his friends and approached the remains of the golem elite. He was drenched in his own blood and enduring excruciating pain.

However, he refused to reveal any weakness to his friends. That would only discourage them from pressing onward, and he couldn’t allow that. Unlike the Tutorial Rift, real enemies wouldn’t let them escape. They had to keep moving forward.

“Alaric, we should return and get you patched up,” George pleaded. “We didn’t bring any healing potions -”

“No,” Alaric growled. He turned to face George. “I’m having too much fun to back down now.”

“But you’re bleeding,” said Gareth.

“Nothing an hour of rest can’t fix. I have a healing skill.” When his friends tried to argue, he raised a hand to silence them.

“If I don’t feel better in an hour, we’ll head back.” He flashed a warm smile. “Use this break to heal yourself and recover your mana as well.”

As Alaric healed his body, he plunged into his Cultivation Sanctuary to replenish his mana more efficiently. On that note, he had already confirmed that the time dilation ratio was identical inside the Tutorial Rift as in the real world.

***

Alaric didn’t notice how an hour slipped by in the blink of an eye, but he was feeling much better now. His friends were stretching their limbs after completing their own meditation sessions as well.

He checked the system notifications.

Ding! Your skill [Mana Solidification] has leveled up. [Mana Solidification lvl 4 -> Mana Solidification lvl 5]

Ding! Your skill [Vital Mana Flow] has leveled up. [Vital Mana Flow lvl 3 -> Vital Mana Flow lvl 4]

Ding! Your ability [Mana Manipulation] has leveled up. [Mana Manipulation lvl 3 -> Mana Manipulation lvl 4]

He checked the experience points earned from defeating the Azure golem spawnlings and the elite golem.

Remaining experience points - 9719

Alaric allocated his experience points evenly across all his attributes and confirmed the distribution.

Stats:

Strength - 22 -> 26

Agility - 22 ->26

Vitality - 19 ->23

Mind - 24 ->26

Soul - 30 ->32

He was satisfied. Yes, this is good progress for now. He glanced at the unused experience points.

Unused Experience Points: 0

Alaric chuckled. The system was incredibly complicated. In his world, all he needed to grow stronger was to cultivate and train. There was no system monitoring and facilitating his growth.

So, he hadn’t noticed at first that every time he used his experience points to level up his stats, the unused experience points always dropped to zero. It was peculiar. No matter how he calculated, he couldn’t decipher a mathematical formula that precisely distributed it evenly.

When he asked Rowan about it, he explained it to him.

Apparently, every young cultivator had the same question. There wasn’t any known formula for how the system converted experience points into stats. It was only observed that the higher your stat, the more experience points were required to level it up.

However, once a cultivator chose to utilize their experience points, the system consumed all of it. Any supposed remainder was allocated to some attribute, but the system didn’t display stat attributes in decimal values — it rounded them off.

In fact, Alaric could intuitively sense that even though his strength, agility, and mind attributes were currently 26, it would require fewer experience points to level up his strength stat compared to the other two, as some experience points were already attributed to it. The status simply didn’t display it.

Of course, experience points were just the tip of the iceberg and only one method to level up one’s stats.

As cultivators progressed through the tiers, their stats naturally advanced as well. And there were other ways to enhance one’s stats.

Alaric shook his head. Now wasn’t the time to dwell on all these details. He stood up and shouted, “I’m fine now. Who’s ready to go for a swim?”