"Tell me exactly how a dungeon works," I said, feeling curious about its working principles now that I wasn't afraid of stepping into one. Losing my ability to use Destruction Mana had its drawbacks, but finally having access to dungeons was worth it.

And, with everything going on, exploring the nature of the dungeons hadn't been a priority. That changed after the breach was gone and the outpost wasn't enough to supply sufficient Experience for me, leaving the dungeon as the best source.

"Do you want the short version, or the long version?" Zolast asked.

"How about a medium one, and stick to the working principles," I said.

"Good choice," Zolast said. "Of course, if you asked me before I had been cursed, I would have given you a protracted, meandering explanation about how gods gifted us the art of building dungeons as a holy trial ground so we can grow and progress without wasting our lives in the wilderness."

"Without all that nonsense?"

"Well, I have been researching that since the curse, and recently, I have made substantial headway."

"I'm guessing tripling the stats has been helpful in your research."

"Like you wouldn't believe. For the first time, I was able to detect some kind of energy that comes from the planet itself along with the mana. Before, I had always thought that it was mana that was powering the raging beasts that filled the world, but it's clear that there's a mixture of mana and that mysterious energy. It's even behind the abundance and aggression of the monsters."

"Interesting," I said. "And what happens to that energy?" I asked. "Does it get devoured by the System, or does it empower the creatures?"

"That part, I still don't know. The way it interacts with the beasts is too subtle for me to really understand. But I suspect the System is somehow intervening with the process."

"Interesting. And, how does that relate to the dungeon? Dungeons were supposed to be filled with mana constructs."

"I thought so as well, but my recent experiments show a different picture. What's happening in the dungeon is similar to the growth of the monsters, with two major differences. First, in a dungeon, there are only mana-based creatures. And, as a result, they are considerably weaker compared to a monster that gives a similar amount of experience … well, at least the ordinary ones."

"The Lord Beast equivalents are different," I guessed.

"Exactly," Zolast confirmed. "Their mana bodies are a weakness at first, a strong blow is enough to destabilize them, but once the density reaches a certain point, that disadvantage disappears. And, since they don't have a survival instinct, they are even more dangerous than ordinary Lord Beasts."

"What's the second difference?" I asked.

"The way it harnesses mana and the mysterious energy. In nature, that energy radiates off the planet slowly and infuses the beast, while slowly continuing to grow, which seems to be the reason the Lord Beasts had to be grown slowly to harvest their abilities rather than just overcharged with Vitality by a farmer or rancher."

"The dungeon taps into that flow more directly," I suggested

"Exactly," Zolast answered. "That's why, under normal circumstances, building a dungeon is an arduous affair. Not only is the discovery of an appropriate mana vein required, tapping into it takes a lot of effort as well."

"Just digging down is not enough?"

"No, though, that helps somewhat. The real challenge is to crack the magical defenses of the mana vein, which is difficult, dangerous, and delicate. It's why breaches are so valuable. It means the trickiest part of establishing a new dungeon is complete. After that, any competent mage could establish a rudimentary dungeon by tapping into the free mana."

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"Interesting. And, how does a dungeon work? You described it like a huge windowless room covered with mist, but where exactly is it located?"

"That part is complicated, especially since it relates to information that the strongest churches and the kingdoms keep to themselves. The easiest explanation, it's a stabilized room in a parallel dimension, the same one that the flying castles use to teleport."

"Is it the Astral realm that we go to during the Promotions?"

"No," Zolast said. "At least, I don't think so, but then again, that's not something I truly know."

"Do I want to ask what would happen if an accident happened to the dungeon when we are inside?" I asked. We had already talked about it being deadly, but not the exact method.

"Let's just say you would be jealous of minced meat," he answered with a shrug.

While we discussed, we arrived at the secret dungeon entrance, but Zolast led me to a new room.

"I have made some changes to the dungeon," he explained. "Currently, there are five floors, two accessible for the public, one ideal for leveling between forty to sixty, one between sixty and eighty," he explained.

"And our two secret floors work the same way," I said.

"Exactly, though they are substantially smaller," Zolast countered.

"It makes sense," I said. "With the recent changes, our publicly available quota must have increased, limiting our need for the secret floors."

Zolast nodded. "Yes. We will be still using it to level up our female blacksmiths, maybe some extra rounds for Limenta, but that's it. Of course, I would have to make it bigger."

"But we have hit the limit of the mana that we can get from the breach."

"Exactly. Technically, it's possible to expand the breach, but it would require months to pull off successfully."

"Not exactly a timeline that would work for us," I said. "Now, what's the fifth floor for?"

"That's going to be your private playground," Zolast said.

"From your smug expression, I'm guessing that there's a trick to it," I said.

"Of course. Like I explained, for us mere mortals, letting the dungeon monsters get stronger is not a good idea for their continued survival," he explained. I couldn't help but chuckle as he counted himself on the other side. After his latest improvements, he was even stronger than me … well, at least until I could catch up with him on levels.

"What's the difference?"

"A lack of limiters," Zolast said. "For normal floors, there's a lot of wards to make sure the mana density didn't pass a certain point, and creatures wouldn't go over a certain number and strength. So unless a floor had been left abandoned for days, a Lord Beast equivalent wouldn't form."

"And there's no such limiter for my private floor."

"Yes, and I also reinforced its borders so that it would continue absorbing mana more and more. That way, you don't have to stay in for the whole day. Just visiting for an hour every day should be enough. You might even want to let it gather for a week or two if you really want a challenge."

"Is there any advantage to it? Better skills and such?"

"Only for stat stones, I'm afraid. The skill drop rate and quality are not affected, but there's a much higher chance of dropping a stat stone. And, rarely, it can even drop bigger stat stones."

"What's the difference?" I asked. Since I had learned that stat stones increased the risk of triggering a failure during the Promotion process, I had been keeping away from them, and even for the youngsters, I allowed their usage only sparingly.

The more I interacted with the System, the more I was convinced that it directly affected our souls … and my personal observation that Promotion was some kind of enhancement and transformation of the soul.

A subconscious realization that I had made thanks to the enhanced thinking speed that came from Intelligence … which had been proving particularly useless in most of the daily challenges I had been facing.

Though, it made me a better accountant … so there was that.

"The difference is that bigger stat stones might give multiple stat points, which leads to a lower risk of failure during promotion."

"A decent benefit, but let's use them sparingly," I suggested.

"Of course," Zolast confirmed, clearly sharing the same concerns.

"Do you think Authority will have any effect on the dungeon?" I asked.

"That, I do not know," Zolast admitted. "Authority is linked to the System, and so is the Dungeon, but it's hard to know whether it's possible without experimenting. Also, the fact that whatever Authority is supposed to do is blocked by the gods doesn't make predicting it any easier."

I shrugged. "We have to see when we go through the run, then?"

"We?" Zolast said. "I have a meeting with the young duke in five minutes about our mobilization. Unless you're willing to wait for half a day, you're going in alone."

I thought about the risks versus the importance of time and decided that a solo trip was more than acceptable as a risk. "Alright, just show me how to activate the gate to enter"

After a quick tutorial, Zolast left … and I walked toward the entrance, finally about to take on my first dungeon run.