After the group acknowledges our goal, and me as their leader in this moment, I get the option to add Fisher, Lydia, and Monk to my Rising Emperor's Domain system. I do so without notifying them of this change and now see their status screens and geopoints light up in my mind's eye.
Then, I give instructions to my body double and Ember to go back to charging up the isolation pod while I train with my team.
Arie tags along with them, and I give permission to use one of the saturated stones on the pod that hasn't been charged up yet. Aerie needs a rest after training, and using the fully charged pod would be a waste to use now. I need that supercharged pod exclusively saved to use for Qi control training for myself and my teammates.
I don't mind a few billion mp being used up to bring the other pod up to 8x dilation for future use though. According to the old crafter's note, not much energy will be lost from anything under 10x. So, using 1 stone to make a pod where 1 hour of rest will equal over a full night's sleep will be perfect for the session we're about to have.
Once he's rested up, my double will find us in the Labyrinth.
The three of them go off into the canyon, and I turn to the remainder of my team.
"By foot, the journey out here from Sector 1 may take days or even weeks. By sky, it would take hours, maybe a day at most. My guess is they will travel by flight again, so an enemy attack could come at any time... However, your escape from capture and run-in with the 5th Ranked Dark Guard means the Dark One's forces are not all on their way just yet."
I pause and walk to the edge of the canyon, making another body double to max out all 3 copy slots of this skill. I order it to watch over the town and survey the skies to alert me if anything unusual approaches.
As it flies away, I turn to my teammates again.
"This means there may be an attack coming soon... any moment actually... but we also know there is still time to prepare. We'll need to get you all in fighting shape by sunrise."
I jump down into the canyon onto the nearest pathway that leads to a blue glowing portal.
"Come on, it's time for all of you to receive some major strength upgrades."
I dungeon walk all of them back down to the 30th floor and share my absorption skill with each of them to allow my MCP absorption perk to make its full use.
Staying within 100 meters of each of them, we circle around the outer ring of Wyverns and slowly make our way into the center of the dungeon.
With the use of temporary skills gained from my absorption skill, Monk is able to fly in the sky with us using water and earth magic from a few of the first wyverns killed.
Fisher and Lydia let loose and reap the benefits of gaining millions of MCP after every kill, using their Red Hydra's buffs to speed up the training time and having Abby heal them every few minutes once they deactivate the soul energy perk and face the consequences of the debuffs.
Whenever nearby flocks of monsters are killed, I dungeon walk everyone to more dense portions of dungeon where respawns take place to expedite the process. I find enemies and they constantly fight them, absorbing their energy and moving onto the next.
Many thousands of MP in mana crystals are left behind after monsters dissolve without us nearby, but I always make it a point to retrieve element stones if they drop.
Maria and Abby easily make it to the center of the dungeon without using any Soul energy or Qi. Monk also easily takes out his opponents.
It takes nearly an hour to clear this floor and bring everyone up to level 750, but everyone has gained over a hundred million MCP each and they're all revving to fight more.
As we beat the 30th floor boss and wait to move onto the next floor, Monk and I have a long-awaited conversation.
He reaches into his item box to pull out a large silver briefcase.
"I thank you for your note of warning before we left Valor City, I managed to bring over a large portion of our remaining Qi pill supplies with us. I'm still looking forward to hearing the method you used to gather so much Qi in such a short period of time. If just over 150 pills brought you this far, we will all have enough to reach a whole new level."
He clicks open the case and I see hundreds of white pills inside, possibly over a thousand. Monk grabs a few out and hands some to Abby, Maria, and myself, then eats one himself before clasping the case shut and placing it back in his inventory.
I nod and eat one of the pills as well, looking forward to filling my Qi stores up to their max for the first time after ranking up again.
As the hot energy fills my body, I respond to his earlier question.
"Of course. Ember and my body double are working on getting the preparations for my expedited cultivation method as we speak. Once you've all made it to a considerable strength by morning, you'll be ready. I want to add at least 500 million extra MCP to all of your base mana controls before you attempt my method."
"Understood."
The corner of Monk's lip turns up, and the rush of Qi from the pill he just consumed fills his body too.
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We're transported to the 31st floor, and my teammates begin farming levels and mana control again.
The sensation of Qi rushing into my body hits me too, but I don't feel quite as satiated as I usually do after a pill. Not even a drop of overflow comes out of my pores either.
While my teammates zip across the dungeon, I decide to take another pill.
After this one, my core finally hits its saturation point and the excess Qi leaks out like usual.
"How interesting... I've grown enough to the point where 1 pill isn't enough to fill my core. I didn't know that was even possible."
I consider that it must be a result of the natural energy control upgrade that occurred after my rank up. My capacity is now roughly 1.5 Qi Pills.
Halfway through farming this floor, a flash of light and the teleportation of Arie and my double arrive nearby.
The archer looks fully rested and ready to train as well.
He floats in the air next to me and I fill him in on our goals here to train our way to the highest floor possible together.
It is true I could just powerlevel them myself by repeatedly sharing experience points with them by bringing my full team to a high-level boss room and clearing it myself. That wouldn't be great in the long term though; they need the combat training as well as the MCP that comes with killing mobs yourself using my absorption perk.
Relying on their Red Hydra's Buff for training now is a loophole I'd rather not have them get used to, because it will be used up in the future. Half of mine is gone and Maria's is completely used up.
The permanent buff that was on her status before is no more... I witnessed it disappear myself.
However, it's the fastest way to farm mana control and levels, so it has to be done.
As Arie joins the team, red flashes of light fill the air and we begin clearing more and more floors.
Once everyone makes it within 5 levels of the floor boss each time, we move up to the next floor. It takes 3 more hours to clear the next 7 floors bringing everyone near level 900 and adding close to 400 million additional MCP to their mana controls.
If we were to go back down and farm these monsters again, the MCP gained would be much lower. The main reason for such a high gain is that they're consistently beating monsters at higher levels than their own, giving a higher percentage of mana control gained than weak mobs.
The overwhelming power of the Red Hydra's Soul energy has cut through everything in its way so far, but finally comes to a roadblock where its strength is not enough.
On the 38th floor, my teammates face off against the giant armored worms that even gave my mana control trouble when I was training up here before ranking up.
The crimson covered energy blades don't do as much damage as I imagined they would. Fisher and Lydia meet their match, and only crack the outer shell of these beasts. No matter how many attacks they throw in solo fights, the rapid regeneration of the worms continues to keep the monsters alive.
The two of them are easily able to get away; they're just not powerful enough to quickly take the monster out alone for training purposes.
Together, they're able to take a single beast down in a few minutes and a brutal all-out battle, but it's clear we're making it to a crucial point in training where power leveling any further may not be possible in the short time constraints we have left. They alternate final blows to share the MCP and EXP gains.
Arie, on the other hand, is able to use Red Hydra imbued Spirit Arrows to pierce the flesh of the worms. His Spirit Energy has unique properties, and with the recent boost in mana control from the previous 8 floors, he's able to take the worms out alone in just a few hits when timed right.
It makes me wonder how strong his Demonic Energy attacks would fare against these creatures, but it's understandable that he doesn't want to bring that volatile energy into a life and death battle like this just yet.
Abby, Maria, and Monk waste no time on this floor after seeing the struggles of their teammates. This is the first battle where Qi imbued blades are necessary to take opponents out.
Abby imbues her Daggers with Qi and slices through the Worms' flesh and armor with ease. Maria's sword, hot with Qi, can carve up these monsters like butter, and Monk uses a technique of fists imbued with energy that sends waves of Qi through the worms' bodies and slowly cooks its insides, killing it in under 10 punches.
I watch them train for another half hour until every worm in this dungeon is killed, and decide to move onto the next floor instead of waiting for the respawn.
Once we make it to the 39th floor and take on the Minotaurs, I explain that this is the final floor they'll be able to train on, recounting some of my experiences on the 40th and 41st floor.
Less than 10 monsters spawn up on this 39th floor every 30 minutes, so we take turns testing our skills just like the worms.
Fisher and Lydia give it their all, sending red waves of water and ice at their level 966 opponent, ruthlessly stabbing and pounding the monster to the dungeon floor. They're pushed to their limits and I can feel the massive amounts of Red Hydra's Soul Energy being used up in every attack to the point where I hypothesize they are also draining its power away like Maria did, but to a much slower degree.
It takes over 10 minutes, but in a combined effort, they defeat the Elite Minotaur. Even after Abby heals them up, it's clear they've hit their limit and are very tired.
"Great job today. You two have gained over half a billion mana control each, improved just about 300 levels, and have defeated the strongest base level monster in the Labyrinth we'll be able to fight today. You may rest."
They give satisfied smiles and are happy with their progress. I look forward to teaching them Qi in the future, but there's no time to bring them through the full training process now.
I turn to the others.
"Now it's up to the rest of you to show off how far you've come."
Arie manages to use his new and improved crimson spirit arrows to take out the Minotaur in just 3 direct hits to the head.
Abby and Maria use Qi to slice their opponents' heads off before the battle even starts, and Monk does his signature attack pattern, punching the minotaur from every angle and defeating it in 17 blows.
I think about bringing them to face the lone mutant, but my double takes care of it before I get the chance to try.
"It's probably better that way..."
I bring all of my teammates to the boss room, and let them take on the level 997 Minotaur boss together.
With Qi infused weapons and Red Hydra's Soul Energy filling the boss room, the Massive Minotaur doesn't even get a chance to fight back.
Abby, Maria, and Arie are the only ones who continue to fight. Fisher and Lydia rest while Monk and I watch with our arms crossed.
Everyone in the boss room shares EXP from a boss kill, so whoever would like to fight has the option to.
Curiously, we're all transported right back to outside the boss room once the transport magic activates. There's still a 30-day cooldown ticking down in the 40th Floor, so no other challengers are welcome. The 41st is out of the question, even for me.
I point back at the grey spinning boss room portal.
"Well, you've all made it this far. It's almost morning, so our first portion of training here has almost come to an end. You may feel like you're strong now, but I assure you the gap between these Minotaurs' power and a Dark Guard is unimaginable."
We all step through the boss room portal to fight another Minotaur at level 995.
"This is a great start, but we have a long way to go. We'll take on this boss a few more times to max out all of your levels. Then, for a few of us, the next stage of training will begin."