LONE: The Journey Beyond

"…these dungeons are nothing but the remains of destroyed worlds.

And they are connected to many other thriving worlds because of the Spatio-temporal effects caused due to destruction of worlds into smaller pieces of lands.

Now most worlds call them Forfeited lands as they lose their innate ability to produce World Energy."

The kobold, whose name Kobi said as he looked at Reven, who nodded with a thoughtful expression and asked "So what you guys do is clear these lands to make sure that the monsters which breeds here do not enter your worlds."

"In one word- Yes!

But there is more to it. Since these dungeons acts as the way to discover more isolated worlds." Kobi replied.

"I see. Can you tell me why all this is happening?"

"No idea. But apparently some major changes are happening in the starry sky (galaxy) and the universe.

And while I have no idea what is happening in the universe. I can pretty much say that something is definitely not right seeing the increasing number of dungeons nowadays.

It is as if all the planets in the starry sky are trying to link themselves together."

'This starry sky is most likely the galaxy. And they are trying to link up together but why? Most likely someone in the universe screwed up big time and caused this shit. And I have no idea if we are safe or not.'

"Let me ask you what is this Ardor? You have mentioned World Energy but not Ardor."

"The only sentient force in existence!" The kobold replied.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Literally, Ardor has sentience which makes it special than anything or any kind of energy like mana or qi, which will act according to you as long as you have a proper intent behind your use.

But manipulating Ardor is like using an energy which will only act if you can have a control and insight into the process for your intent which makes it harder and uncanny to use.

The thing is, Ardor vanished after the primordial age which makes any Ardor user rare and this dungeon has it. Which will make it a pie in anyone's eyes!"

'Shit! Why does have to be found on Earth then? And I take that back, we are definitely not safe.

We humans will also be pulled into it and soon.' Reven was practically crying in his mind.

Sure he would have been happy if he were a shounen protagonist but someone who had seen the real world, he knew without power to hold on to Ardor they will most likely be screwed up badly by those otherworldly forces which will soon come to Earth.

"So is there a downside to Ardor or not?"

"It has only a single downside –Its limit-. Ardor can never raise a guy beyond a certain level of power without external support.

You can consider it as somewhat of a [Foundation Builder].

It will only grow if you cultivate some other system after reaching the apex of Ardor system. But it will make sure that you become extremely strong in that system.

Plus, the system to cultivate Ardor is lost so it is even more hard to cultivate now."

'Now I am sure we are 100% screwed.' Reven started crying in his mind.

It might sound like Ardor system was not powerful but Reven as someone who witnessed it first-hand knew that it was maybe the strongest of all of them.

Why you ask?!

Simple, say you cultivate any other system after reaching the peak of Ardor system. The thing is you will not lose Ardor system but the other system will become the path to continue Ardor system through other energies.

It would increase the power levels of someone who had reached the peak of Ardor system. And not only that but there will be difference between two apex Ardor users depending on their cultivations in other systems.

"Can you tell me how to cultivate mana, aura, faith or qi or something else?"

"Well, I can't since you will need the type of energy to be present in the environment to cultivate any other path."

'I guess cultivating anything else is out of the way for now then.' With that Reven removed this thought out of his mind.

= = = = =

[Dungean Analysis Status]

[Progress- 25%]

= = = = =

A prompt from 'Empress' was heard in his mind at the same time.

He had learned a lot from his talk with Kobi and now was not the time to mull over it because he was too weak to think about it for now.

"So how do we get out of here?"

"Defeat the boss monster here. Or use sacrifice to open up a teleportation formation."

"I see. And most likely there are many that want to use the sacrifice method to get out ain't it."

"The boss monster is just that strong." Kobi nodded and explained.

Reven sat crossed legged as he closed his eyes ignoring the kobold.

'Empress share the information about the sacrifice to the others.'

[On it.]

Many things became clear to him now. He understood that the boss monster here was going to be too hard to defeat and so the others here want us to become their sacrifice.

'I will make plans for that later but for now lemme breakthrough. Without it I may not even be able to make a stand much less fight.'

Reven concentrated his body and calmed his mind. And started to circulate [Harmonic Ardor Regulation Art: Phase 1- Harmonic Foundation Phase] with full force.

He had already completed his insights into Ardor required to breakthrough into next realm. He perfected his [Vector Expansion] completely with it.

Plus, his Ardor pool had also reached the maximum amount just before they dived into the dungeon. So he was fully ready to break the barriers and reach the next realm.

About 45 minutes passed.

Reven was fully immersed in himself as the surrounding Ardor started to excite. And soon all the cells of his body also started to excite as if they were going to get a new life altogether.

Boom-! Boom-!

Reven's Ardor started to break through the barrier of [Physical Body Sheath Realm].

And soon…

Crack-!

As if a dam broke apart, all the Ardor in the air started to enter his body with extremely high speed.

His cells were greedily devouring the Ardor. This sensation was different from breaking into a new stage. It was simply euphoric, to the point that Reven's body lost itself in it.

At the same time, his consciousness started to contact with Ardor and greedily increased its insights into Ardor corresponding to the next stage.

The quality of his Ardor started to increase even more. His mind and his body were in total symphony.

On the outside, his body was covered in mist to the point Kobi couldn't even see him anymore. Actually it was better to say that his body itself got restructured by the mist after literally broken down into individual cells.

This was also the reason why Reven was feeling euphoric. The silver Ardor made the already bright room shine with extreme glory which blinded the kobold and gave him shock to no end.

This continued for about 108 minutes.

Buzz-! Buzzz-!

CLICK-!

Finally, with a loud click inside his mind and with a loud buzz in his body he broke through into a new realm!

The [Life-Force Body Sheath Realm]!

Reven also opened his eyes with a silvery glow coming out of his two eyeballs.

He showed a satisfied smile on his face as he thought about the second mystery that he was going to form from the insight he got into Ardor.

'If I get the desired result then…'

Just thinking about it gave him chills and filled him with excitement at the same time.

He then looked at Kobi and started to explain his plan of infiltration.

"So what you need to do is…"

…..