I had a feeling she would say something like that, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. Not dwelling on it too much, I brought the Dagger and the Ring back to the house and I placed them down a lot more carefully than I did the first time I brought them home.

After that I met up with Richard and the others before proceeding to tackle another Dungeon with them. We were attacked on the way of course but this time instead of letting the others deal with it, I took care of it myself. I knew I was both far stronger, and faster now that I was 4th Cycle cultivator but actually testing it out in live battle felt different.

The type of damage I could cause was exponentially different than before. I didn’t bother testing it out, but I had a feeling I could now probably complete eviscerate the body of one of those big ones with a single punch.

Hm…maybe I will test it out later.

Anyway, after my testing we made it to the Dungeon and cleared it once again without issue.

After making it back home, we went our separate ways as usual and before I left again to tackle the Dungeon on my own, so that I can fight and practice with my flames, I tried to cultivate just to truly experience this wall or barrier I was dealing with.

For the first time since I’ve started cultivating, I felt pain. It wasn’t anything excruciating, but I knew if I tried to force it any further the pain would only worsen. Just like the Outpost Leader said, I needed to take my time with this.

Not that I doubted him.

I spent a few more moments mediating on the feeling before gathering my things again and leaving for the Dungeon. And not long after I was back home after another successful night of training and practice.

And just like that, days continued to pass without much of anything else happening.

I trained in the morning with the Outpost Leader, then I took Richard and whoever else he brought with him on a trip to and from the Dungeon. Then upon my return home, I would try to cultivate before going back to redo the Dungeon on my own.

It was now day 18 in this Tutorial, a few days away form Stage 4 and whatever that brought. While the past couple of days were pretty monotonous, a lot still happened. For one, the pain I felt when I tried to break through to the 5th Cycle had lessened significantly and I knew it wouldn’t be long before I managed it.

And after all the fighting at night in the Dungeon by myself using my flames in battle was a pretty seamless process now and I was extremely confident in that fact.

Of course I wasn’t the only one who was making improvements.

Almost 40 members of Richard’s group were now 1st Cycle cultivators and every single one of them were outfitted with proper armor and Rock Iron Weapons. They were quite the force to be reckoned with now.

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Actually, with how much time I’ve spent with them during this time, I should probably stop calling them Richard’s people. I knew a lot of them by name and had grown closer to a good portion of them. More so than I thought. They were not just Richard’s people, but they were my people, Richard included. I don’t know when the shift in how I saw them happened but at some point I began to see them all differently.

Speaking of Richard, he too had a breakthrough and was now a full fledged 2nd Cycle cultivator. Once he got used to his new strength, the Dungeon runs became far easier and I now had to do far less to protect them. With his newfound strength, the team could mostly clear the Dungeon on their own. The only issue was on the second to last floor where the 400 Goblins posed a bit of an issue. Though of course I was still there to help.

Of course, we talked about increasing the number of people who came along, but Richard mentioned with his new power and 9 other members, the pressure would lessen significantly, but so would the gains. With a small team, they were improving a lot faster through tough fights and he wanted to keep that intensity. I agreed with him.

Well to put it simply, the last couple of days have been very productive for the entire Outpost, which now brings me to the current moment.

“It’s back here.”

I followed the man in front of me to a part of the Forest I hadn’t been to before. He was one of the scouts that’s been diligently going out every day for hours to search for another Dungeon and he had finally found not one, but two, and they were rather close to each other.

After walking past a couple trees, we finally saw what looked to be the entrance of the Dungeon. A rather dilapidated wooden gate stood in between two trees. It looked like it had been there without maintenance for hundreds of years. Behind the gate was just more forest and we could walk around with no issue.

“To get the Dungeon prompt you have to touch it. Walking up to it won’t trigger anything.”

“Got it. I did as instructed and gently placed my hand on the gate, afraid I’d break it.”

Welcome to the Goblin Outpost

(E) Class Dungeon

Five 2nd Cycle Body Tempering Cultivators Recommended

Enter? Yes/No

Hm the only one we’ve been going into so far was only a F class Dungeon, and it had a minimum of 5 1st Cycle cultivators, this one had 5 2nd Cycle cultivators required. That was a big jump, and I’m expecting it to be similarly difficult. This would likely require a bigger team to tackle it based on the difficulty increase alone. The only way to know for sure would be to go in there and clear it myself.

I know it would be harder, but I should be able to enter it by myself I think. Now for the next one.

“And where’s the next one?”

“This way.”

I followed him past the gate and a bit further we found something similar. Another gate in between two trees, except this gate was made out of stone, and while it was clearly aged it was in far better condition. There was even a stone archway above the gate. And like the one before it, there was nothing except more forest behind it, and since it behaved just like the wooden one, I had to touch it to activate it.

Welcome to the Goblin Village

(D) Class Dungeon

Five 4th Cycle Body Tempering Cultivators Recommended

Enter? Yes/No

That was pretty significant jump in difficulty. I don’t think I can tackle this one on my own, and everyone else isn’t strong enough yet. The smart thing to do would be to wait, so I’ll do just that.

“Alright, thanks for bringing me here. I’ll be entering the first one.”

“Be safe, I’ll let Richard know.”

After he ran off, I walked back to the wooden gate, with my spear, a bag with potions and food pills and of course my flames waiting inside of me.

I didn’t waste any time and accepted the enter prompt.

Wow..

This…is a Dungeon?

The sky is so blue.