While Ian was making his maze, he was also teaching the five goblins and one hobgoblin.

“There really isn’t much space in the core room with all the babies, slimes, and jellies,” muttered Ian, “I should make a training room then. Hmm, let’s have it be a teleport room like Mina’s and Izu’s room, rather than attached to the core room like the magma and water rooms.”

As such, Ian created a square, bare rock room with nothing in it. Anyone that entered the room would be hard pressed to relate it in any way to a cave, beyond the fact that it was made out of rock. The room was large enough to accommodate the three separate groups that Ian intended to teach.

While Ian was creating the room, Yervin had started to converse with the original five goblins. The five seemed to enjoy talking with Yervin, but Ian couldn’t tell what Yervin was thinking at all. After the transfer formation was created, the six and Ian’s mind entered the room.

The three groups, well one group and two individuals, were separated, and Ian began his lecture simultaneously.

“Yervin, your body is already suffuse with strength, light, and space mana, so hopefully you’ll be able to learn their magic equivalents much faster than normal.”

Yervin nodded in the direction that Ian’s voice seemed to be coming from.

Ian continued, “However, you’ll need to perceive and manipulate mana first. Feel the mana and start moving it.”

“That’s it?” asked Yervin with a confused look on his face.

“Yeah, that’s it. Go ahead.”

Yervin stared at the empty space where Ian’s voice was coming from for a few seconds, before he shrugged his shoulders, squinted his eyes, and began waving his hands in front of himself.

Ian could have slapped himself. He forgot at least half of the instructions.

“*cough* Um, Yervin, I may have….forgotten some instructions.”

Yervin returned his eyes to normal and stopped waving his hands in front of himself. He crossed his arms and looked at Ian with a blank face and raised eyebrows. An exasperated face if Ian had ever seen one.

Ian began, “When I said you needed to feel and move the mana, I meant your internal mana not external mana. You need to think inside yourself until you can feel the mana, and then you move it. The best way to do that is to eliminate all outside stimuli.”

“How am I supposed to eliminate all outside stimuli?” asked Yervin.

“It’s simple, you just ignore everything but what you want to focus on.”

Yervin sighed but sat down cross legged and closed his eyes.

Ian reduced his focus on Yervin to a bare minimum, but enough to know when Yervin returned his mind to the outside.

✦✦✦✦✦

Across the room, Ian had started teaching Izu.

“So, Izu. You asked me to teach you how to take care of monsters. I’m sure the slimes and jellies appreciate the help, but I also noticed you staring at the water elementals a lot. Are you sure it’s taking care of monsters that you want to learn?”

Izu was looking downward and fiddling with his hands for about a minute, before he raised his head and looked at the empty space that Ian’s voice was coming from.

“The way the water elementals play with and use water as if it was a part of themselves is amazing. Everytime I look at them, I feel an near irresistible urge to join them. I don’t dislike taking care of the babies, but it was just something I felt needed to be done,” answered Izu his eyes focused and determined, “Please, Ian. Teach me water magic!”

Ian pondered for a short while. Should he teach Izu water magic? Of course. However, there was something else that might fit him better.

Ian responded, “I’ll teach you water magic, but I think there’s another kind of magic that might fit you more.”

“What is it?” asked Izu.

“Summoning magic.”

Izu cocked his head to the side with a confused look, before his eyes opened wide, and his head spun in the direction of what he assumed was the water elemental room.

“Yep,” Ian answered the unspoken question, “You can summon and contract water elementals.”

“How?” asked Izu with excitement in his voice.

“Well, I usually just created a portal to Ascension, created the appropriate object, and activated the summoning magic. However, most summoners that I know of require expansive summoning formations, a lot of mana, a lot of time, and a lot of the appropriate sacrifice to establish the contract. Thus, most students of summoning magic have masters which provide for them the appropriate materials,” replied Ian.

Izu asked tentatively, “C-Can you provide me with those?”

“I should be able to as long as I have enough mana, but to form the contract and activate the summoning formation, you still need to be able to use summoning magic. As such, we should begin with the same basic magic training that I’m having Yervin do.”

Izu nodded his head up and down repeatedly in excitement. Eventually he stopped and started to rub his hands together while glancing in Ian’s direction.

After about a minute of this, Ian sighed to himself and asked, “Is there something you want to say Izu?”

He jumped a little and asked in a single breath, “Can you show me a summoning?”

“No.”

“....Why not?”

“I don’t want to.”

“But, it should be easy for you right? You said you did it different-”

“I said ‘No’, Izu!”

Izu jumped about a foot in the air and started to shake uncontrollably.

Ian sighed, “I’m sorry for yelling at you, but a ‘No’s a ‘No’.”

Izu nodded his head, and his shaking lessened a little. Ian gave Izu the same directions he gave to Yervin, and reduced his focus as Izu closed his eyes while standing. Ian thought to tell him sitting down would make it easier to ignore the surroundings, but didn’t want to interrupt him and was sure the goblin would figure that out soon enough.

Before he moved most of his focus to the other four goblins, Ian contemplated what Izu had asked him. He knew he needed to get over it, depths Estella had slapped him a couple times for being an obstinate ass, but he didn’t want that reminder. No matter how many times he tried summoning him, Qingteng wasn’t coming back.

✦✦✦✦✦

Mina and the other three goblins waited for Ian to start lecturing about proper swordsmanship. Ian was thinking about how he was supposed to lecture them about swordsmanship without the ability to show them forms, and hoped they would ask him questions instead.

Eventually Ian’s hopes were realized as Mina asked a question, “Lord, should we not have weapons to train with?”

Well he was an idiot. Of course they needed weapons. In fact, Ian took a quick glance around the room, a room with actual training materials instead of a completely bare room would be good. For now, however, Ian produced four crappy balsa wood swords.

The four goblins picked up one sword each. The male and one of the female goblins picked them up by the wrong end. The other female goblin picked it up by the hilt, but was holding it like a Rogue would hold a combat knife. Mina picked hers up like normal and started to swing it amateurly.

Mina’s swinging had given him an idea. All goblins he’d encountered only had the generic swordsmanship skill, even high rank ones like the Goblin King. Not even hobgoblins or high goblins had specialized sword skills. There were different schools of swordsmanship throughout Soris that had gained system skills specifically oriented towards their art. With Mina’s increased intelligence compared to most goblins he’d encountered, could she create a goblin specific sword skill? However, Ian had already said he would teach her. He supposed he could teach her the basics, correct mistakes she make in developing her art, and teach her how to become a mana artist.

“Mina, I have a proposal for you.”

Mina saluted using the Soris Kingdom’s knightly salute, “I will agree to anything, my lord!”

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Ian was stunned for a few seconds but quickly recovered, “Why did you do that salute?”

“It felt natural to do so, my lord.”

“How did you learn to do that salute?”

“I just knew how to, my lord.”

“You don’t feel weird about knowing something that you didn’t seem to know just a while ago?”

Mina tilted her head in confusion, “Of course not. I feel like I’m more accurately able to convey my respect for you, my lord.”

This was a little different than knowing innately what a book was, that Yervin mentioned before. She knew the correct salute for knights in the Soris Kingdom. His home nation. He wasn’t sure what he thought about the implications this presented. Could anything in his dungeon be themselves or would they constantly be pushed onto a path oriented towards himself? As Ian glanced back at Mina, a few of his worries washed away. This little goblin was devoted to him, and who was he to question if she was herself. Depths, if she wasn’t created in his dungeon, she might have never existed in the first place.

The silence was getting to Mina and she asked quietly, “My lord, what was it that you were going to propose to me?”

Ian shook his thoughts away and replied, “Right. Sorry about that. I was thinking on things. What I wanted to propose to you was how about you make your own sword style.”

“D-Does that mean you won’t be teaching me, my lord?”

The sorrow in her voice made Ian quickly answer, “No, no, I’ll still teach you. However, I thought instead of teaching you the sword styles I know, I’ll teach you the basics, correct mistakes you make while creating your own style, and teach you about body refinement.”

Mina’s voice echoed throughout the room jolting Izu and Yervin out of their introspection, “I immensely agree to your proposal, my lord!”

“I-I’m glad you’re enthused, Mina, but keep it down a little, you interrupted Izu and Yervin.”

With a little red blooming on her green face, Mina rushed over to the other two and apologized to them face to face.

As Mina was apologizing, Ian was wondering what to do with the other three gobins that seemed to have no idea what to do with the weapons in their hands. Although not having any idea what to do with something they’ve never seen before was normal, Mina’s immediate pickup of how to swing a sword made him wonder. So far, all the goblins had been fighting with their claws, so Mina shouldn’t have been able to immediately know how to swing a sword even amateurly. Mina knew how to swing a sword and how to salute, Yervin knew what a book was, and Ian supposed Izu knew how to take care of babies without any training.

As Mina ran back, Ian asked the three goblins a question, “Hey, three goblins that haven’t decided on their names yet. Do you have any interests?”

The female with lighter green skin responded first, “Punching.”

The single male was next, “I like the plants.”

The remaining female yawned, “Sleeping.”

Mina returned with hands on her hips and a glare for the female that said sleeping.

Ian asked the three another question, “Do you three even want to do this training?”

The male and the tired female shook their heads ‘No’, while the lighter green female shook her head tentatively ‘Yes’.

“The two who said ‘no’ can go back and do what you want. I might be able to help later with the plants, but sleeping is not my forte. In fact, you might say I actively dislike it,” ordered Ian.

The two left the training room with Mina glaring at them, while the remaining female seemed slightly confused and was scratching her head.

“You gave a ‘yes’ response, but you seemed tentative about it. Why?” questioned Ian.

She shrugged her shoulders and tilted her back and forth in a wishy washy manner before answering, “I want to train, but not with whatever this piece of wood is.”

“It’s a sword,” interrupted Mina.

The other goblin ignored her and continued, “I’m not sure I even need anything besides my fists and my claws.”

Before Ian even responded, something appeared in front of the female goblin.

“You put your fingers through those holes, and they go around your knuckles. As such, they are a weapon called knuckles,” explained Ian.

The female goblin leaned down, picked the knuckles up, and put them on. She threw a few quick punches before hitting the wall with her knuckles.

“I like them, but they do restrict the usage of my claws,” said the goblin.

“Use them for now to train your punching because I can’t help you with claw techniques. After I’ve taught you the basics, you can decide if you want to continue using them,” Ian responded, “Now, before I have to split you up to teach you different techniques, I’ll teach you both how to become Mana Artists.

“The beginning process for being a mana artist is the same as what I’m having Izu and Yervin do: feeling for your internal mana.”

Mina and the lighter green goblin, Ian should really give her a name, looked at one another before sitting down and closing their eyes. By now Izu had also sat down, but not before glaring at the empty space where Ian’s voice had come from.

✦✦✦✦✦

A few days went by. Ian was surprised by the fact that none of them needed sleep. Although based on that other female goblin’s answer, they could still go to sleep. When Ian asked them why they didn’t need to sleep, the answer he got was they just didn’t feel the need to sleep. He knew they slept before, but the only answer they gave him was that they felt the need to sleep then. Ian doubted he get many answers out of the original five goblins, but hoped when Yervin actually went to sleep he’d have some guesses.

However, even with four days of thirty hours each, none of them had made any progress whatsoever. Ian gathered them together after their failures, since they were learning the same thing. Yervin and Izu had grumpy looks on their faces while looking in the direction of Ian’s voice, Mina looked incredibly dejected as her back slumped forward, and the lighter green goblin simply looked confused.

Ian was confused, why couldn’t they feel anything? It was really simple for him. What had he tried when asked by Seth to teach his adventurers? Oh right, Seth had told him that if he couldn’t explain it properly, then he should just show them. But, how was he to do that? He didn’t have a humanoid body, and his usage of mana as a dungeon core was far more streamlined. If he had his avatar, then it wouldn’t be a problem, but he didn’t have the time or mana to make a hundred floors.

As Ian was contemplating what to do, an idea struck him. He giggled and created a blink hobgoblin, but before it gained a consciousness, he inserted a segmented part of his mind into it. Ian’s vision split and now he was inside of the blink hobgoblin.

Ian spun around and pointed at the four, “Now, I shall be able to properly teach you!”

The three goblins had slack jaws, while Yervin simply rolled his eyes.

“Now,” Ian began, “I’ll show you a light spell.”

He pointed to the wall, gathered his mana, formed his image, and casted magic. Before any magic was formed, the blink hobgoblin Ian inhabited exploded. The three goblins and one hobgoblin were covered in blood and guts. Izu immediately puked, Ian wondered how he did that as he lived only on mana. Mina and the other female goblins wiped themselves off as best they could, but had looks of disgust on their faces. Yervin simply gave Ian one of the most condescending looks he’d ever seen.

“Well, I may have overestimated the blink hobgoblin’s abilities, it seems they aren’t nearly as good as I thought,” snarked Ian with most of the snark directed towards Yervin.

The filth that covered the four of them instantly disappeared as he cast a souped up version of the clean spell. Ian created another blink hobgoblin and inserted his mind again.

“Alright, let’s start simple this time. I’ll just circulate my mana, and the four of you will observe me while I do so,” ordered Ian.

Ian sat down in a meditative pose, and began to circulate the strength, space, and light mana inside him. It was unusual for him to circulate non-attributeless mana, but he quickly got used to the pattern and flow of the mana.

Two hours went by when suddenly, Ian’s mind was ejected from the blink hobgoblin’s body, which in turn slumped over and disappeared. The three goblins started freaking out, while Yervin’s eyes simply went wide. Ian quickly calmed them down telling them he was fine.

Yervin asked the question that was on everyone’s mind, “Why did the hobgoblin body you inhabited suddenly disappear? Did you make another mistake?”

“I won’t discount the possibility, Yervin, but I maintained the same flow for nearly two hours, and felt no discomfort in the body. I personally wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some sort of limit on me being able to inhabit bodies that aren’t my own. I’ll eventually get something called an avatar which will act as a body of some sort. If I was able to inhabit the body of one of my dungeon creatures without any repercussions, the avatar I gain at level one hundred wouldn’t have much use. At least that’s my thought process,” answered Ian, “So, did you guys see anything?”

There was a group ‘No’, which caused Ian to sigh. If Ian had a chin, he’d be stroking it right now. He supposed the adventurers he taught back then already had an understanding of magic and the ability to perceive it, so simply showing them worked out in the end. Although, only one understood even the simplest thing he showed. If they couldn’t perceive mana yet, then he had to forcibly make them perceive mana. ….What if he forcibly manipulated their internal mana? That might work, but Ian didn’t want to repeat the process of the original blink hobgoblin he created with his sapient monsters.

Ian recalled the Respawn Room upgrade and purchased it. He created one, connected it to the training room, and registered the four trainees. He thought he might be able to make it so anyone that entered the training room would be auto registered into the respawn room or rooms, but that was for another time. Ian didn’t want to waste more mana on disposable blink hobgoblins, so he created a regular goblin for him to inhabit. It took him three tries before he understood how much the goblin body was able to withstand. The goblin body died every ten minutes, but it was still a lot cheaper than the blink hobgoblin.

“Okay, I’ve come up with an idea that should let you four quickly learn how to perceive mana. Also, you don’t have to worry as I’ve already registered all of you into the respawn room. That fact also means I’ll be doing Yervin last, since I don’t want to test out what happens when I don’t have enough mana,” said Ian.

Izu was shaking as he asked, “W-Why d-do we n-n-need to be r-regist-tered in the r-resp-spawn r-room?”

“Well, I might accidently explode you like I did with the previous goblins,” Ian said with straight face.

All three goblins and one hobgoblin froze in place. Before they could do anything, Ian grabbed Izu’s hand and manipulated his mana. Izu’s attribute was neutral like other goblins, but Ian quickly converted it to water mana and became flowing the mana in rivers, eddies, whirlpools, and torrents throughout Izu’s body. The period of his goblin inhabitation went by while Izu was convulsing on the ground with water seeping out of his pores. Ian was pleased as Izu now had the mana perception skill along with the mana manipulation skill. Sadly, his attribute was still neutral and hadn’t been converted to water.

Ian had used healing magic to reduce the pain during the process, helped the regeneration process afterwards, and helped the process of breaking down the body and building it back up. The last part couldn’t be done with instant heal spells and was a meticulous process. However, Ian was a professional and it only took him a couple of minutes.

“There, Izu is all healed up, so you three can get rid of those looks of horror,” Ian assured them, “He felt no pain as I reduced it, but I couldn’t heal him fully until the process was completed. As such, even though there was no pain it still most likely felt extremely odd. Right, Izu?”

Izu sat up looking dazed, but gave a mumbled ‘Yes’.

“All right. On to the rest of you.”

They froze up again, but made no move to run away.

Ian repeated the same process he did with Izu but didn’t change their attributes. At the end they all learned the mana perception and mana manipulation skills.

Afterwards, Ian began his attempts to teach them proper magic and body refinement with mixed results. His actual teaching methods sucked, but whenever he showed one of his own techniques, it motivated them to continue practicing. This basic learning experience continued while Ian made floors beyond the maze floor, although they would technically be before the maze floor.