Chương 78: Exploration

Once all the Demonic Cores were collected from the Aerico corpses, Mage Fletcher stored them in his personal storage space and Damion noticed something he had overlooked previously. They had a spatial mage with them and the mages in this group, especially Manager Halsey, were some of the most powerful mages in Saung, but none of them had spatial artifacts and all of them carried their gear like Damion.

'Spatial artifacts must be rarer and more costly than I thought,' Damion said to himself.

'If even these folks don't have one, I guess it will be a long time before I get one.' What Damion did not realize was that several people in their party did in fact have a spatial artifact, but because such artifacts could only store a limited number of items, they kept most of their gear in packs. Only using their spatial artifacts for their most prized or essential items.

"Before we head down this passage," Halsey said to the group.

"Damion, I was wondering if you could show me the attack you used to clear out the Aerico before?"

"Sure, just anywhere or?"

"Down the passage, it is a fire attack from the glyph on your sword, correct?"

"Yes, sir." Damion answered and moved to the mouth of the passageway while everyone else moved aside. Damion channeled his mana into his sword and readied his fire attack glyph. Once he felt he had channeled sufficient mana, Damion launched his pillar of fire attack directly into the passageway. He only held the attack for a few seconds, but both Knight Heath and Knight Raiford were stunned to silence when they saw the intensity and scope of Damion's attack.

"Quite impressive," Mage Fletcher said to Damion after Damion ended his attack.

"Yes, quite impressive," Mage Glint said patting Damion's back.

"You might only be a E Rank knight, but that attack would give beginner C Rank knights and mages trouble.

"I think there is still a big gap between me and C Rank," Damion said remembering how a C Rank skeleton champion had sent him flying across a dungeon a just a few months ago.

"Perhaps not as much as you might think," Halsey said.

"Did Helga not teach you the power difference between each Rank?"

"F is 100, E is 500, but that all I know," Damion answered sheepishly.

"Leave it to that woman to make sure you can fight but leave out the details. Details are important, and she knows this. To reach D Rank you must have 1, 000 magic power. C Rank is 5, 000 and B Rank is 10, 000. From your magic exam I know you will probably break 1, 000 magic power soon, so you aren't that far from C Rank. But above that, it is much harder jump levels. B Rank requires 10, 000 magic power while A Rank 50, 000."

"Let me guess, S Rank is 100, 000?" Damion said as he thought he was beginning to see the trend in the evaluation of the levels. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"No, S Rank requires 1, 000, 000 magic power," Halsey said.

"We use the same power ranking system that the Breaches use," Fletcher explained to a shocked Damion.

"We know how much power a Breach has because we can measure their magic power. Why the jump from A Rank to S Rank is so high, we have no idea. The reason for this jump is one of the many mysteries of magic people like myself search to answer."

"I guess that jump explains why there are so few S Rank mages," Damion said. He always knew the pinnacle of power was beyond his current reach, but now that he knew how he ranked compared to the most elite people in the world, Damion had a whole new reason to grow stronger. As the group moved through the passageway, they encountered a few dead Aerico, killed by Damion's fire pillar earlier. These Aerico were promptly relieved of their Demonic Cores and the party moved deeper into the underground.

"There it is," Knight Heath said as he rounded a corner. The passageway opened up into a large chamber, which had a good number of Aerico wandering about. Apparently, the Aerico would just wander around the chamber until they happened to wander down the passageway that led to the pit and the cave mouth. It was pure happenstance that any Aerico reached the surface at all.

"I expected there to be more," Mage Hudson commented.

"Careful what you wish for," Mage Glint told her.

"The dungeon is in a state of breach. That means it will periodically send out a large number of Demonic Beasts. We could be swarmed by them at any moment."

"Luckily these creatures are passive. Imagine if this Breach contained aggressive creatures. This would not be an easy mission if that were the case." Mage Twan added.

"Mage Glint, while the rest of us deal with these stragglers, I want you to erect a stone barrier around the Breach. Five-meter radius with only one opening. If the Breach does push out another wave, I want to make sure we aren't surrounded." Halsey instructed as he sent a dozen small fireballs streaking across the room, hitting and killing a dozen Aerico in the process. Since they had their orders, Damion headed into the chamber and started slicing the heads off Aerico.

After each kill he kicked the head over to a growing pile of heads where they would later remove the Demonic Cores. A short 15 minutes later, the entire chamber had been purged of Aerico. Mage Glint used his magic to bury the corpses and once all the heads had their Demonic Cores removed, those were buried as well. Manager Halsey took a tablet out from his bag that had a wand attached to it by a short cable.

Halsey threw the wand into the dungeon portal and Damion heard a strange whirling noise as the cord was sucked out from the tablet. Damion did not quite understand what was happening, but he guessed Halsey was using this tablet to measure the Rank of the Dungeon. When the noise of the cable being pulled out stopped, Halsey pushed a button on the side of the tablet and the whirling started again, but this time it was pulling the cable back in.

"D Rank," Halsey announced.

"Just as we thought. Mage Glint, what are the chances of you being able to raise this chamber to the surface?"

"I can slowly move the dirt and stone from the ceiling to beneath the floor to raise us up. But I don't think I can take us all the way to the surface, not without creating an enormous crater somewhere else, or leaving the ground as a honeycomb, which would end up creating sinkholes later. Even just opening the ceiling and raising the floor as high as I can, will turn this chamber into a crater that will turn into a lake once it rains."

"I can live with a lake in this area of the forest. Once we clear the dungeon, it should help bring wildlife back. Raise the chamber as high as possible and open us to the sky. You can then make a stair leading down. We can have the teams camp on the lip of the hole and dungeon teams coming down just to go in for their runs,""Mage Fletcher will take charge as overseer from here on out. I'll head back with Mage Twan and Mage Hudson. Knight Heath and Knight Raiford.

Your Guilds will get priority runs after Damion's team gets the first one. Two runs for each of your Guilds as long as you include two D Rank or lower mages in each run."