Ember is already fast asleep, slowly draining the mana from the near-endless supply all around us.
I'm doing the same, on a much small scale....
With a grin across my face, I begin charging up my flaming sword. While doing so, I reach into my item storage to grab my dagger while whispering under my breath.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?"
Both weapons pulse red and white as I begin filling them with the dense mana surrounding us that I've missed so much...
I start right where I left off the last time I was in this place. The difference is, I have no worries about being trapped in here forever.
I have food supplies that'll last me for months, assurance that I'll leave in 10 days, and I have a concrete goal in mind.
During my last trial in the Titan's Domain, I used up about 10 million MP.
It's gotten me this far, but I need to make some major upgrades. The most important thing I need to work on is replicating those paper-thin slashes, but easily charging a full bar of MP into them.
I'm level 409. So just over 2000MP is nearly a full bar. I'd like to be able to charge one up in just a few seconds so I can actually battle these monsters without using cheap tricks and wearing myself out completely after one fight.
My final attack on that Berskerer took over 60 seconds to charge, and I only managed to let out 200MP at the proper hair-thin width. I'm setting out to improve over 10x in both speed and power.
I'm not quite sure yet how much MP I'll have to process in order to achieve this, but that's my goal. If I can even come close, this will be a success in my mind.
I decide to let loose for a bit, but overall take day 1 rather slow.
Glowing gold and red, enjoying the abundance of free mana in the air, I begin to let out attack after attack at the white walls all around me.
They tear open large holes, letting me peer out into the void for a few seconds at a time before they heal up completely.
My already sore body from the intense training outside allows for 10 10k strikes, this is 5k MP per blade. It's just a warm-up, and it gets me used to this mana-rich environment again.
End of Day 1: 100k MP consumed.
Total MP consumed: 100k MP
I take it easy and pull out my pillow, a few comics, and a blanket along with some fresh fruit.
Overusing mana makes me very tired. I drift off to sleep within a few hours.
This may be the beginning to one of my most intense training sessions, but I'd like to take it slow. In here, all I have is time after all.
The Titan's Domain has been a nightmare in the back of my mind ever since I left it. Maybe I can turn this place into a vacation spot instead.
I wake up the next morning and get to work.
I need to get my body used to using more MP every day, along with trying to fit more and more energy into a smaller strike. I won't aim for any specific parameters at first, I'll just go with how I feel.
In the outside world, my MP exhaustion limit is around a quarter million MP points. At that point, my body completely gives up on me. That's with self regeneration being taken into account.
In here, It's at least double that. With so much energy in the air, it makes healing and releasing attacks much easier on my tired muscles and bones.
End of Day 2: 500k MP
Total MP consumed: 600k MP
I manage to consume just about half a million MP stretched over 8 hours on day 2. Nearing the end, I begin to get that familiar tingling feeling in my limbs, and the overall fatigue begins to kick in. I call it there.
The next few days go by fast.
End of Day 3: 550k MP
End of Day 4: 575k MP
End of Day 5: 600k MP
End of Day 6: 200k MP
Total MP consumed: 2.525M MP
My MP output slowly rises for 3 days straight. This is from me pushing the limits during each session. I've only been releasing 5k MP per blade. Channeling more seems to exhaust my mind too quickly, and less tires out my body. Using 5k per blade seems to be the perfect medium.
I've been training in 8 hours blocks, basically to full exhaustion every night. Each day I've been getting more and more tired by the ed of it, just like the last time I was in here.
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I thought it was the lack of food and water that made me feel this way, but it seems mana exhaustion played a much bigger role than I thought it did.
Less than halfway through day 6 I decide to take a break and rest my sore body again.
End of Day 7: 725k MP
End of Day 8: 740k MP
End of Day 9: 745k MP
End of Day 10: 250k MP
Total MP consumed: 4.985M MP
After my day of rest, I come back even stronger. I start off with a huge spike in energy. The mana consumption over these next 3 days slowly rises and is comparable to my peak last time I trained here.
When I wake up on day 10, Ember begins to reach his final stage of collapsing this Titan's Domain. I grab all my supplies and throw them in my item storage.
This has been a good start. Very uneventful... but a good start. I'll be able to pick up right where I left off on our next Titan.
The red aura begins to expand and the white walls around us start to fade away to reveal the black abyss behind it.
I decide to only use my sword to perform a test. I'll be seeing how much progress I've made so far over the last 10 days of training.
Concentrating with my All-Seeing Eye, while plundering MP from my surroundings, I begin to replicate the attack that took out that final Berserker.
Creating a hair-thin blade of mana deep within my sword, while channeling as much MP as possible into the attack without disrupting its width.
After about 60 seconds of charging and immense concentration, I hit my limit and let the attack soar.
A thin 550MP flaming black sliver of energy flies through the open air in front of me, slicing through the void like butter, but not making a sound.
I increase my perception to watch it until the end. It slips through the outer wall of the Titan't domain with ease.
Moments after, a wide slit opens up in the abyss of blackness surrounding me, and the process of a realm collapse from the inside out begins again.
Ember's aura gets brighter and the Domain gets smaller as we begin to fall through the darkness back into reality.
Both Ember and I hit the grassy floor of the Great Plains Dungeon with a loud thud.
I grin as my black-scaled companion wakes from his slumber.
"The collapse was a success, Master."
I grin, replying while searching around in my mind's eye using enemy detection to locate another Titan.
"It seems it was."
I pick up a small black gem off the ground and place it in my item storage with a smirk across my face. Next, I put my hand on Ember's smooth glossy scales, instantly teleporting us into the vicinity of the nearest Titan.
Other than the Void Creeper that team of 2 is facing, I can sense 3 more deep within the dungeon. There's 2 that are in range and one that'll take a couple-kilometer trek to get to. It's outside of my Dungeon Walker skill's range, so we'll have to either walk or fly over when the time comes.
I'll save that one for last.
As we blip back into existence, I hop on Ember's back, and we begin diving deep into the abyss of another Titan.
After a familiar series of events, the darkness fades and we're back in a solid white box once again.
Ember curls up and begins absorbing the Domain.
I take it easy for the rest of the day, then get back to work the next morning. I to do a similar cycle of 3 days on, and 1 day off while making a mental note of my daily mana consumption.
End of Day 11: 775k MP
End of Day 12: 780k MP
End of Day 13: 785k MP
End of Day 14: 200k MP
End of Day 15: 815k MP
End of Day 16: 815k MP
End of Day 17: 820k MP
End of Day 18: 200k MP
End of Day 19: 855k MP
End of Day 20: 100k MP
Total MP consumed: 10.315M MP
Once the final day of this training cycle hits, I'm pretty tired out. I had an off day not too long ago, but my rapid increase in daily consumption is starting to slow.
Although the total amount I can manage to consume each day isn't rising as quickly, I'm still progressing at an alarming rate. I have to go through extensive self regeneration sessions every night before I go to sleep, eating excess food and sleeping longer throughout the night to mend my tingling hands and feet along with the headache that comes with overusing my perception skill.
As Ember begins to collapse this domain, I charge up another attack to test my progress.
I power up a single attack for about 60 seconds and manage 900MP into the paper-thin slash. It's a much darker blade now, and hardly gives off and flickering red residue.
Just like before, It flies through the open Abyss as the walls fade away, slipping through the outer edge of the void to make a tear.
It's almost disappointing to see. The Domain's reaction to this slash looks identical to the last one. It slips through and cuts it open in an instant. The Berserker's mana shielding is on a whole different level than these Void Creepers.
It's hard to get a solid idea of how string these new attacks really are... I'm itching to try this out on a tough opponent, but I still need to get stronger.
After picking up the small Strengthening Fragment from the ground and doing a quick scan of my surroundings. I lock onto our next target.
Ember and I dive deep into another Titan's Domain.
End of Day 21: 855k MP
End of Day 22: 850k MP
End of Day 23: 855k MP
End of Day 24: 200k MP
End of Day 25: 855k MP
End of Day 26: 860k MP
End of Day 27: 850k MP
End of Day 28: 200k MP
End of Day 29: 860k MP
End of Day 30: 860k MP
Total MP consumed: 16.765M MP
My days are filled with charging swords and slashing walls...
It seems my progression has peaked around 850-860k MP. Whenever I reach this point, all systems in my body basically shift off and I need to sleep to recover. Even after using self regeneration after every 50k MP consumed or so used, this is still my limit.
I even drank a spare HP potion to see if it'd do a full recovery, but my mana exhaustion was not healed at all... It was just a waste of a perfectly good potion.
I have a feeling this isn't something that can be brute-force trained any further, I may have to increase my level to be able to handle more MP.
At the end of the final day, I test out my full power after consuming another 10 days' worth of unlimited free MP.
After a 60-second charge, I'm able to power up 1550MP into a slash at the exact paper-thin metric needed to make it through a Berserker's shielding.
Again, it's overkill for this Domain, but good practice....
I've almost made it to my goal of a 2000MP slash.
After the inventible tearing and collapse of the 3rd Void Creeper's pocket realm, we fall back into the Great Plains.
Letting out a sigh, I breathe in the fresh air of the wide-open dungeon and take in the view while Ember wakes from his mana-plundering sleep.
Once he does, the Dragon's calm voice enters my head through our link.
"Another successful collapse, Master."
I nod.
"Indeed."
While picking up the small Strengthening Fragment from this session, I activate enemy detection and prepare to teleport.
As I look out deep into the depths of the Great Plains, my heart skips a beat.
Only a single reading pops up in my search for another Titan. The last time I checked, that hunter duo was facing one and there was another far off in a part of the dungeon I haven't been to yet.
The one I was saving for last is gone...
I whisper under my breath.
"Why... is there only one left...?"