"The Vice City Labyrinth is probably the most convenient place to start."

I think over the logistics in my head.

At the level of monsters I'll be fighting on floor 30 and above, each mana crystal dropped holds almost 1000 MP, give or take a few hundred. At this rate, every 100 monsters I farm will drop 100k MP, and with enough body doubles working at full speed, I can most likely keep that steady rate of killing and collecting loot to 5 minutes per 100 monsters.

Maybe I could push it further, but for the sake of my estimates, that's just over 1 million MP per hour.

That's not nearly enough to power these machines to the capacity I'm aiming for, but it's enough to do some tests and kill 2 birds with one stone.

I'm still on a time crunch here, not knowing when the Dark One will catch onto the fact that I killed the 7th Ranked Dark Guard. It'd be best to listen to Ember's warning and take it very seriously. While I'm in the labyrinth, I'll try to make it to level 1000 as fast as possible.

This is a more achievable and guaranteed way to gain power quickly. Testing out these isolation pods is more of a long-term project.

As I come to this conclusion, Arie glows white off to my side about 10 meters away, creating another double as it seems one of his clones fell victim to the sparks again when pushing too hard on training.

He speaks up.

"Maybe taking a break and going into the labyrinth is a good idea. I think I'm plateauing here for some reason."

I raise an eyebrow.

"How so?"

"I've sped up my refinement and release speed like you instructed, and have been doing it repetitively with my doubles non-stop while you were working on that pod. However, I've come to a bit of a bottleneck. There's no way I'm able to form this energy into a concentrated slash like you did, it feels like it's just liquid flowing from my body at its own will. It doesn't matter how much Demonic Energy I saturate into my core, even a full 60 units doesn't change my excretion speed. Is there such a thing as Demonic Energy Control? Does it just take time and practice?"

I ponder his question and realize I never had this issue because I'm able to use the Demonic Energy Manipulation skill to expedite this process.

"Yeah, there may be, but I believe it goes hand in hand with increasing your mana control as well. The better you are at controlling and manipulating energy in general, the faster you'll be able to progress here."

My gaze turns back to the canyon filled with dungeons.

"Let's head off to phase 2 of your training. We'll raise your level up to what your skill actually reflects, and in the meantime, I'll show you another one of my skills that will help you improve your mana control at a very fast rate. That will probably get you past this plateau quickly. Otherwise, I think you'd have to stay here and channel Demonic Energy for a few weeks straight to improve your control naturally. Either way, you'll be getting a lot stronger."

On that note, I put the Isolation Pod into my storage, and we begin making our way back to the canyon.

As we reach the edge, I pinpoint my third double zipping from dungeon to dungeon, making the stone magic markings outside each stable portal with detailed notes of what level creatures are in each one and what items they drop.

I open my telepathy link and tell it to come here, stating there has been a change of plans.

Once it does, I kill it on the spot, letting all the memories of the past day of dungeon diving rush back to me.

Arie and I step into the nearest blue portal after this, and once I open up my dungeon walker skill, I feel a brand new sensation come over me.

It feels like I'm touching every part of this dungeon with a widespread perception skill, and am able to teleport to any position of it I choose in an instant even if I haven't been to those regions of the dungeon in the past.

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The more I let my mind wander, the more dungeons I feel. Even the dungeons from my body doubles past memories become clear to me, and I'm able to blip there at will if I please. This is a new sensation that wasn't available when using the special grade version of this skill.

I stand still in wonder for a moment, admiring the possibilities of the upgraded skill, then teleport both Arie and myself to the 30th Floor of the Vice City Labyrinth where Wyverns of varying levels up to 750 fly freely in the sky.

There are three sections just as I remembered, Water, Earth, and Fire; and in the center of the dungeon, the boss room portal spins slowly waiting for a challenger.

I left off near the volcanic region last time, bordering the large lake of water, hoping to find another one of those rare mutants fighting Wyverns at the time, so that's where I bring Arie to start his training.

I create another body double and order it to begin farming the other areas of the dungeon as fast as possible, collecting mana crystals and element stones without holding back.

A burst of buffs, high mana control, intimidation, and it blipping away with a flaming sword held tight lets me know it's off to farm. I turn to Arie and give him the rundown on this dungeon while sharing my absorption skill and explaining how it works to increase one's mana control.

Before I finish, a level 685 fire-wielding wyvern comes dive-bombing toward us, but I watch Arie summon his bow, charge up a shot, and let it fly with confidence and accuracy. It curves through the air and makes a heavy direct hit on the monster's tough hide, but surprisingly, the Wyvern survives the blow and lets out a screech.

Arie is quick enough on his feet to release another full-powered arrow and spirit-step to the side, killing the Wyvern before it has a chance to release an attack of its own and letting it fall to the dungeon floor.

His eyes light up when he sees the text boxes above the defeated monster and turns to me after absorbing the millions of MCP and igniting his hand with flames.

I smile and reply.

"Don't get your hopes up too much. That fire magic will not stay on your status. Once Absorption leaves, the skills gained will too. However, it's impossible to take away the experience gained from processing mana, so as far as I know, the MCP gained will stay indefinitely. It did for Abby and Maria at least."

Arie nods to himself, pulling back his bow, aiming at another Wyvern coming from another direction, and covering the arrow in flames before releasing it into the air at long range.

Once it hits the next incoming red Wyvern, it explodes into a wall of fire, but just like the other, Arie needs to land another direct hit to kill it completely. As its corpse falls to the floor, and Arie absorbs its MCP, I speak up again, pointing to the center of the dungeon.

"The closer we get to the middle, the stronger the monsters will get. I know you're able to one-shot all of these, even the max leveled ones with your Red Hydra's buff, but that isn't the goal. We'll be working on your base level stats, raising your mana control, and taking advantage of my skill while you have the chance."

He nods as I go on.

"So, we'll work our way to the center of this dungeon, but after that, I'll be leaving you behind with my body double to climb higher. I might have really pissed off the Dark One while you were training in the labyrinth, so I need to get a lot stronger, and fast."

Arie's eyes widen.

"The Dark One? You mean the Sector 1 leader Lith has contracted us all to kill? What'd you do,,,? How strong—"

"It's a long story, and I have no idea of its actual strength, but I do know you wouldn't even stand a chance against any of its guards in your current form. Honestly, neither would I. If I knew what was coming, trust me, I'd explain. The only thing we can do right now is train and wait for a response from Valor City. I already sent a double out there to retrieve our teammates."

I assumed Arie would ask more questions, or be more concerned, but his response is both surprising and exactly what I was hoping for at the same time.

"Well, looks like you've got it all handled. All we can do now is train, right? No point in wasting any more time."

I nod, air-stepping upward, and turning my direction toward the Center of the dungeon.

Arie follows, and the Wyvern hunt begins.

We occasionally cross paths with my dungeon walking body double as it blips around killing everything in its path. Sometimes, I even feel it leaving this dungeon to farm lower floors while it waits for more monsters to respawn.

Meanwhile, I watch Arie kill Wyvern after Wyvern with his arrows, only having to use 2 MP potions after over 40 solid kills.

It takes just over an hour, but we make it to the center of the dungeon and Arie reaches level 741.

It takes him 3 to 4 shots to kill most of the peak level monsters on this floor, but none of them have managed to land a scratch on him just yet.

When 2 or 3 team up together, Arie has to go all out, and a few times I've seen the glint of the Red Hydra's Buff start to flare in his eyes, but he has pulled through and managed to win every battle without using it, and not once have I had to step in.

Arie does look a bit tired, but I'm sure he has a few hours of work left in him.

So, as we stop in front of the large grey swirling boss room portal, Wyverns of many different elements at the highest of levels continuously swarm down and attack. My body double comes back to stand by us too, and I turn to the portal.

"You still have a few more levels to gain before you hit your limit. Farming with my Absorption perk would be more beneficial of course, but I've used up enough valuable time already and need to leave. My double will stay with you and farm in this dungeon until you hit your max. Jump up to the next floor if you think you're ready."

He nods and I walk through the portal to face the 30th-floor boss.