After I woke up, I had already returned to the Arena. I had obtained the <Limitless core champion> class and immediately noticed it.

A large amount of information about mana circulations had, at some point, appeared in my mind. I now also knew of quite a few mana paths that I, or others, could use.  

I could much more easily absorb and manipulate the mana in and around me and could even feel traces of other energies. Although there was much less of those.

Also, when I circulated mana around my body, the mana would strengthen it by much more than it did before, even though I still used the same mana path.

 

I spent some time to get used to these changes and, when the Pit opened, I and the others went in.

Although I had previously noticed that the amount of environmental mana in the pit was much greater than in the Arena, I now noticed that this wasn’t all.

The mana that could be absorbed in the Arena would always be of the lowest grade, and you would have to absorb a lot of it to create a single strand of mana in your core and make it your own.

The mana that you could absorb in the pit, however, didn’t have this problem; the mana that you absorbed would somehow ‘match’ your own mana, and you would have to absorb way less to be able to then use it.

 

Using this higher grade and abundant amount of mana, I spent some time breaking down my previous mana path and rebuilding it into one of a higher grade. With this improved mana path, I could strengthen my body much more easily and I could expel mana from my body much more efficiently, so spells or mana techniques that required me to move mana outside of my body became much simpler to do. 

Apart from that, the other energies that I couldn’t notice before were also much more abundant in the Pit. I tried absorbing some of it, but it was much harder to control and that, that I did manage to absorb, ran wild in my body and I was eventually forced to expel it.

 

What happened in the pit itself, wasn’t that interesting to me and, since I preferred to focus on cultivating, I left it completely to Mike; I’d already decided that I would leave leading everyone in the future anyway.

Although he wanted to pick someone knowledgeable about either agriculture or hunting since we couldn’t quite get enough food for everyone already, he eventually settled on saving some doctor from going through the pit.

In the end, there were eight people, including the doctor, who survived this Pit.

The two who dealt the final strike to were quite interesting: 

The first, Alex, had a great talent for magic; Even Though he hadn’t yet condensed a mana core, he managed to create a fireball in the Pit and used it to blind the boss monster, a cyclops.

The other, Luke, seemed quite adept at using the spear; He said he’d never used one before and Yeong-Gi, after hearing that, immediately started on training him. He used to be a martial arts instructor, after all, and was excited to find someone so talented.

 

The duo also gathered a bunch of items that people brought when they entered the pit and, as such, we now had more tools and even a set of walkie-talkies.

With the addition of manpower, the constructions that had been planned could finally get started.

First, a bunch of caves were blocked off with sturdy barricades so that monsters would no longer wander in from there. 

Then, the caves were made more suitable for living in; wooden floors were constructed and doors were created to section off the rooms and hallways.

When the next Pit started, it had begun to look like a proper place to live.

 

In the meantime, Yeong-Gi took charge of training everyone and everyone’s strength increased greatly. 

Luke, in particular, had a lot of growth; after only learning the basics of spearmanship, he could already defeat Mike, who had been here a month longer than him and, as such, had much higher stats.

In the evenings, after dinner, I, together with the elf Hestri, assisted everyone with magic practice and, now, everyone was able to use it at some level.

Alex was particularly skilled with magic; He had already surpassed Tia, who had originally been the best at magic, and was able to use quite powerful spells. If someone could keep it distracted until he prepared the spell, then he would be able to take out a dire bear with a single attack.

 

After another Pit passed, Alex and Luke got started on mapping out the area.

We already had a bit of the cave system mapped but, since there was a lizardmen village quite closeby, this was left for later; It was much more important to know who, and what, lived near us.

I lent them the ‘Map of the explorer’ that I had obtained when I left my own Pit. It wasn’t of much use to me as it only showed the surrounding two kilometres from a birds-eye view, but for mapping out the area, it was invaluable.

 

When a few more months, and thus also Pits, passed, I had finally reached the fourth mortal core. I was able to use another attribute and, with the attribute I obtained when I reached the third mortal core, I was now able to use fire, space, lightning and ice.

In these months, a large fence had been built around what we were now calling ‘The colony’ and several small huts were constructed.

The number of people had also increased and a few small farms were created.

They hadn’t yet produced anything, but the first harvest should be ready before winter comes.

To improve trade with the Lizardmen, a ferry was constructed to easily transport things over the river and a few people were tasked with learning their language. 

 

The population of the Colony was increasing sharply. Although, on average, only ten people survived each pit, and there were pits were nobody survived, there weren’t even a hundred people yet, so an additional ten people were noticeable every time.

Although most Pits were similar, there were occasionally unique Pits that seemed to follow some kind of theme. 

The people in the sixth Pit, for example, were some of the richest and most powerful individuals of earth; The leaders of basically every country were there, along with their entourage, and many famously rich people such as CEOs of massive corporations. Unfortunately, no-one of that pit survived. Even the person I saved from the Pit died a few days afterwards.

Another unique one was the fourth Pit; Instead of fighting monsters, the people summoned had to fight each other until there were only ten left; That was quite a gruesome Pit. 

 

Around the time that our population increased to eighty people, I noticed that there were several factions forming.

The first, and most obvious, was the faction led by Mike. They were the most passionate in improving and expanding the Colony.

Then there was Alex and Luke’s faction. They were more focused on exploring the surroundings and the cave system, which was dubbed ‘The Hive’ since the Lizardmen also called it as such.

Yeong-Gi had also formed a faction and it was just like a military; Everyone in it had a rank and the stronger you were, the higher your rank.

Although members from his faction were often found quarrelling with those of other factions -especially with members of Jules’ faction, someone who had joined a few Pits ago-, nothing major had happened yet.

More factions were likely to appear in the future, and, as such, I decided to gather the leaders of these factions and formed a council in charge of The Colony.

They would vote on things they disagreed on and, although I had the final say, effectively ruled the Colony.

 

“Leaders! There is a problem!” As I was discussing what we were going to do in the winter for food with the council, someone from Yeong-Gi’s faction burst into the room. He was one of the new faces; he’d only arrived last Pit.

“Private, what’s going on?” As he was one of Yeong-Gi’s soldiers, it was him who questioned the man.

“The barriers! The monsters are breaking through!” The barriers the man was referencing were the ones that had been constructed to keep monsters from deeper in the Hive out.

I frowned; The barriers were broken through occasionally, as they were only constructed to prevent monsters from wandering in, they could do little to prevent monsters that were determined to get through.

Yeong-Gi was of the same mind and spoke as such; “Calm down! This isn’t anything special. Let the moon party know and send some construction workers to repair it.”

Although everyone in the colony was able to defend themselves, the moon party were the ones who dealt with these kinds of things; They were currently one of the strongest forces in the Colony and could take care of a few invading monsters.

“They’re already on their way, sir.”, The soldier reported, after which Yeong-Gi responded; “Then what is the problem?”

The soldier was silent for a second, seemingly feeling intimidated to have all the leaders of the Colony staring at him, and then answered:

“They’re attacking all of them, sir…. All 89 barriers are under attack.”

 

Nine months after I arrived in the Arena, when winter was just around the corner, the first major problem finally arose.