Chapter 29: Chapter 32 – Rigorous Training

“Make it stop! Make it stop!” Gemini thought. Despite his borderline obsessive personality with training, Theseus’s training made his look like child’s play. In the morning, they ran across the countryside, lifted weights, and pushed their bodies to their respective limits.

In the afternoon, Theseus made the trio enter a tempering pool, where rare herbs were absorbed into their bodies.

And then at night, Theseus gave the two trainees university level homework to study while he trained miscellaneous skills at their training ground.

One night, Gemini snuck out to watch Theseus.

In the mysterious, dark eternal night of the dungeon, Theseus moved through the training grounds like a phantom. Using dozens of lesser skills in succession, Theseus was mixing, matching, and merging skills into stronger skills with intricate skill combos. The energy rippled in the Ocean of Souls as Theseus flashed through the field with the snake dagger.

Theseus stopped after a few minutes.

“Come out Gemini.” Theseus said casually.

The hidden Gemini, who even used a stealth skill, nearly jumped out of his hiding spot in fright. How in the world did Theseus see him? He was hiding in the trees on the outskirts of the training ground, nearly a full football field away from Theseus. There was no way anyone could see him or feel his presence, even if they were at the Suzerain Lord level, or at least, that’s what Gemini thought.

“How did you know I was here?” Gemini came out of the shadows and asked.

“In the Ocean of Souls, we see with aura perception. It’s too dark to see with our eyes unless we set up lights, so the ghostly vessel actually ‘sees’ with the soul, not the body. I have skills that enhance my senses active, even now.” Theseus explained. He was referring to his new passive skill, Passive Perception.

“Are you going to punish me?” Gemini asked, scared out of his mind.

“You just wanted to watch right? I can’t be too mad at you for shirking your work. Tonight, spend all night in the runic pool.” Theseus smiled.

Gemini sighed and walked to the tempering pools. Theseus crafted pools for tempering with runes to keep the aura inside of it. As a decent researcher, Theseus had a fair knowledge utilizing beginner to intermediate runes, but he was by no means a true runic expert.

Gemini entered the runic tempering pool and felt a surge of pain.

“Argh,” grunted Gemini. Because Leo nor Theseus were there to help share the herbal burden, the pool felt even worse than usual.

Theseus spied on Gemini hours later.

“This kid could be stronger than me one day,” he thought to himself.

Sure, Gemini’s raw potential was average, but once you got past the Mortal Realm, skills and foundations mattered more than talent. With the knowledge imbued into Gemini as well as his monstrous work ethic, he was about to rocket into the sky. Theseus primarily relied on his new country to get stronger because of his skill, but Gemini would reach the Royalty Realm through his hard work alone. Even after working for about a month with his brutal training, Gemini already broke through to the low Sage Realm.

Cultivating a Royalty Realm expert was no easy feat in Hell, nor in the real world. Countries generally poured their resources into talented and preordained individuals, and they were just as rare on planet Ryko as it was in the Oceanic Realm. Theseus knew the projections he had told them were wishful thinking, but realistically, Theseus hoped Gemini could at least get to the peak Sage Realm after this training.

Gemini’s growth was a testament to Theseus’s actualized knowledge. Theseus would have been smart enough to even become the Headmaster of the famous Agate Academy if he were still alive with his newfound skill creation expertise. Teaching was a hidden skill Theseus held. This wasn’t a skill of aura but one of the personality.

The following morning, they resumed their brutal training. Leo panted as he sped ahead of the two fumbling ghosts. Leo’s physique as a leopard beast gave him a body that moved unnaturally fast compared to those of the same realm. Theseus used skills to keep up, and Leo tried to outpace his friend. Dragging behind, Gemini smiled inwardly.

He hoped they could train together forever. Theseus saved his family and freed their village from the Scourge Bandits, the Suzerain Lords, and was now preparing to defend them once again from the vicious Lord Darkin. Yelling, Gemini forced himself forward as to not let himself drag too far behind these monsters. Obviously, he was nearly a realm below these two, so his efforts were in vain.

Theseus also pushed their bodies this far in the morning, specifically so that they could absorb the aura in the tempering pools into their bodies easier. The stronger their vessels were, the more the tempering pools would help. Despite his ridiculous foundations, his vessel itself was a bit lacking compared to his soul and skill power. Even now, Theseus wanted to keep a balanced foundation and was working on his weakest area, which had once been his strongest in his previous life.

There were many aspects of aura that influenced foundation:

The vessel and its physique,

The kinds of skills used,

The soul and its stability,

The level of Artifacts one had in their possession, as well as

Theoretical and practical knowledge also played a role in true competency.

Theseus had ridiculous skills, decent equipment and soul power, but this training was specifically to enhance his vessel.

While they were in the pool together, Gemini had to ask,

“Is it almost finished?”

“What do you mean?” Theseus pretended not to know what he was talking about. Secretly, Theseus worked on various projects, and he wasn’t sure which one Gemini has stumbled upon.

You are reading story Dungeon Rulers at novel35.com

“The artifacts of course!” Gemini asking, wondering if Theseus had more secrets hidden.

“Ah, yes, the artifacts… of course.” Theseus laughed. During the nights where Gemini was too tired to stay awake, Theseus worked on his side projects, and one of them was his hobby of artifact creation. Like runes, artifacts weren’t his strong suit, but as a true researcher at heart, Theseus explored each Aura Path out of curiosity. Practically, he knew enough to create the snake equipment that he fashioned in the crevice, but he was taking it more seriously at the moment.

He was crafting to artifacts using prime materials from Oceanus and enchanting the artifacts with runes. These two artifacts were a glass eye and a mechanical arm. These two artifacts when finished would be S Rank Sage Artifacts, stronger than the snake equipment, and would repair the disabilities Leo and Theseus struggled with for years.

After the horrors of the Phaunus Forest took Leo’s right eye and Theseus’s right arm, they both learned to live with their disabilities, but Theseus thought it was a proper time to fix their previously permanent injuries. Reminded of his time in Phaunus Forest, Theseus sighed.

Back then, he mistook the native fish leopard, Leo, for a spirit beast. It was hard to tell the difference between living beasts and undead spirit beasts, but it also made it easier for Theseus to create the glass eye Artifact. Theseus also realized that when he entered Hell, his eyes turned from green to grey due to his soul adapting to his ghostly body while he was enhancing his soul with Spirit Cultivation. Even Theseus’s once blonde hair had turned white from the spiritual energy.

Sometimes, Theseus continued to use Spirit Cultivation, but its ability to enhance his soul was slow and minimal at this point.

Times changed their appearances slightly, but Leo and Theseus were still friends. Time sure flew by.

“Yes, they’re actually about done; we could probably use them now.” Theseus grinned. Gemini was curious if these homemade artifacts would work well. He was a curious young man even before meeting Theseus.

After their tempering session, Theseus led Leo and Gemini into the experiment shed, built behind the main cabin. Slowly, this vacation home was gaining more buildings, Theseus realized.

Putting on the metallic arm, Theseus attached it to where his right arm had once been. With the runes, it could be used like his normal arm, but it couldn’t feel like a real arm. It was still a hollow shell of what it once was, but there were practical benefits. The second rune stacked on top of the practical connection to his body was a combat ability.

A common rune, named Last Defense, was inscribed onto the arm, making the artifact gain a tier two runic inscription. Theseus stared at the arm and flexed its metallic muscle. Perhaps if he were a runic path follower, he could use fluently create runes like he fluently created skills.

Theseus was enlightened. Maybe aura was like talking, and the seven paths were different languages that people used to speak in different dialects.

“Wow, that’s pretty good Theseus!” Gemini exclaimed. Leo watched from afar.

“Are you ready Leo?” Theseus ignored the compliment and showed Leo the glass eye. Like Theseus said earlier, their eyes weren’t as important as their aura perception, so Theseus made the eye to have different runes that weren’t really about seeing.

“What will it do for me? Is this present really for me?” Leo asked. He had never been given a real present before.

“It’ll give look like a normal eye from afar, and it’ll give you some cool abilities.”

“Show me! Show me!” Leo said, jumping up and down. At times, he acted like a kid, and Theseus thought Leo’s maturity was really just surface level at times. After all, a beast’s intelligence was different from a human’s intelligence.

Theseus put the glass eye in Leo’s eye socket and explained what a tier two runic inscription was to both Leo and Gemini.

“At the Sage Realm, you can intricately stack two runes on top of each other with your aura. These two runes are, Enhanced Perception and Enhanced Insight. The first rune enhances your perception whereas the insight rune enhances your insight of others.” Theseus explained. It was inspired by his curiosity with the Royalty Realm skills, Passive Insight and Passive Perception. However, the runic equivalents were much weaker since they needed to be recharged and weren’t Royalty Realm skills.

“Remember you two, for the tier two runic inscriptions I set up, they will have to be recharged with exterior aura after prolonged use, but the inscriptions themselves don’t have to be reinscribed.”

Leo and Gemini nodded their heads, and Gemini wrote down the knowledge. He had books full of relevant skills and knowledge from Theseus on the Seven Paths at this point. Theseus was truly knowledgeable.

On the Natural Path, Theseus had expert level knowledge of body tempering that could reach the peak of the Sage Realm.

On the Runic Path, Theseus had intermediate knowledge and could use a plethora of tier two inscriptions, equivalent to the low to mid Sage Realm.

On the Shade Path, Theseus knew how to conduct a Shade Ritual as well as a Reverse Shade Ritual because of Aries, making his knowledge at the high Mortal Realm.

On the Spirit Path, Theseus could conduct a Spirit Ritual but had never done one before.

On the Scientific Path, Theseus could create intermediate level equipment that could be used in combat.

On the Summoner Path, Theseus created a skill that was considered overpowered by both Leo and Gemini.

And finally, the Authority Path.

Since Theseus was in the intermediate zone with a few of the other paths as an all-rounder and researcher in the past. His broad knowledge of the other paths laid a firm foundation of general knowledge that allowed him to be skilled at many things, but he was a master of none. Most normal people couldn’t craft intermediate artifacts with intermediate runes, nor did they also have the tempering knowledge he had.

Normal people specialized in one area. They pushed their runic knowledge to the limit and learned tier three runes and above, or they dedicated their lives to crafting advanced artifacts. This high surface level expertise laid the perfect foundation for the Authority Path. Taking everything in at once, Theseus could create new and innovative skills based on the practical implications based on other skills’ inner workings.

“How do we look?” Theseus asked Gemini. Nodding speechlessly, Gemini was awestruck.

Leo and Theseus stood side by side with their new Artifacts permanently equipped. No longer handicapped, the two were ready to take on the world together.

You can find story with these keywords: Dungeon Rulers, Read Dungeon Rulers, Dungeon Rulers novel, Dungeon Rulers book, Dungeon Rulers story, Dungeon Rulers full, Dungeon Rulers Latest Chapter