"... We've stumbled into a gold mine, and we're not going to waste this opportunity for a minute."

We really have.

After witnessing Abby restore her exhaustion in a matter of seconds with her new legendary skill, I can't help but feel obligated to continue training as soon as possible.

This whole mission to the dark continent has been interesting so far, but I haven't made any real progress.

This ability to restore mana fatigue indefinitely sounds like a dream come true. My past training in the Titan's domain was very useful but takes a toll on my sanity, and wares my body out a lot. If I can do the same action quickly and efficiently outside the Dungeon, this could lead to a very intense power-up in the near future.

Not just for me, this is an opportunity for my entire team to get much stronger.

It's not definite just yet, we'll need to do more testing to confirm its limits. Either way, there's potential for all of us to become multiple times stronger than we already are in just a matter of hours.

Maria looks down at the glowing white shard in her hand as light blue energy seeps from it, then lifts her gaze to meet Abby's.

"I'll try it too. I can handle 50k MP, I'll just need a full restore immediately afterward."

Abby nods and grins.

"Let's do this."

I turn to Arie and we both shrug while jumping backward again, letting her give it a shot.

Maria nervously tosses the white gem into her mouth and swallows it whole in a quick and concise movement. Then, widens her stance and braces for the reaction to take place.

The four of us are silent for a full 2 seconds, staring at the blond-haired mage with her eyes shut. Finally, the bright white light from the shard appears in her chest just like before.

Just under 30 seconds go by as the light expands to cover her entire body. Then, the bright white mana disperses out into the open dungeon air.

Maria falls to the ground covered in sweat, with pale skin, and breathing heavily just like Abby did before.
She has a thin smile across her face as she catches herself from hitting the ground with an open palm.

The green-haired healer runs over, placing both hands on Maria's back and activating her restore skill.

Another flash of green and white light appears, fading quickly to reveal both of the girls standing upright and giggling to each other less than a second later.

Maria is completely healed.

After a sigh of relief, I whisper under my breath.

"Incredible...."

Abby stretches her arms and speaks directly to Maria.

"So how do you feel?"

Maria looks down at her hands, then back up at all of us before replying.

"It's like I've slept a full night after a good day of training. I'm... fully healed... and if anything feel even stronger."

I nod slowly, confirming to myself that the mana output of the shards does in fact move through the user's body adding to their overall mana control capabilities.

Arie speaks up.

"Alright. So what are we waiting for? We need to go farm as many of these beast's as possible. At this rate, we could get a year's worth of mana control training done in just a few hours!"

I nod in agreement.

"If we split up and head in opposite directions, we can cover more ground. Eventually, I'll be able to teleport us to each new target so we can spawn-kill these Ogres."

Abby replies, taking out her daggers and twirling them around her fingers.

"I say we forget about sleeping tonight, this whole mission is on a time crunch. We need to get to Solara in under 2 days, so we need to make every hour count."

Arie looks up at the light blue-tinted sky, thinking to himself for a moment.

"From here, the capital is still over 18 hours away if I remember correctly. We have time, we'll just need to take turns resting on the way over... It'll be close, but this will be worth i."

I smirk, taking my sword out and letting a small black flame flicker on the tip of it.

"Perfect, let's get to work."

Without wasting any more time, I activate my enemy detection skill and locate 6 Ogres between 900m, and 1300m away deeper into the canyon.

Turning to my left, I sense another 3 wandering up on a nearby portion of the mountain we passed earlier about 1500m away. Up the rocky ledge covered in streams of crystal clear water, I sense an opponent much different than the rest.

Actually, the more I search, the more peculiar readings pop up on my radar further into the dungeon.

I turn back to the canyon and point my sword down the wide stone trail.

"There are 6 more, at similar levels all within about a kilometer straight ahead. You take those out, and I'll take care of a few up on the mountain."

I turn to point at the towering white and green peak, then continue.

"I'll get it done quickly and meet down there once you've finished those monsters off. By then, I'll have some teleport points set up for my skill to make farming a lot faster."

It's the perfect plan.

Everyone agrees and we immediately part ways.

I activate my wind magic and start air-stepping into the sky towards the 3 Blue Ogres up on the mountaintop while my teammates turn to face their fights down below.

Less than 10 minutes pass as I fly through the light shrubbery and jagged rock walls to make my way up the mountainside.

Before I know it, a large natural pool of shallow water appears in my vision below as I float carefree through the cool dungeon air. There's a flat portion of a mountainside that opens up to a nature-dense clearing, including a crystal-clear pond.

Two 5-meter-tall Blue Ogres carrying heavy clubs just happen to be standing in the middle of this beautiful sight. Both of them stare at me with bright blue glowing eyes, ankle-deep in the still water.

Everything changes the moment I air-step into range.

Splashing water around them and grunting aggressively while keeping their eyes locked on me, the two monsters begin to mindlessly run toward me.

Dense mana shielding leaks off of both of them, swirling blue and white patterns of energy trail the beasts as one makes its way in front of the other.

I begin to make my ascent while charging my sword and inspecting them both.

[Lv. 442]

[Lv. 439]

With a 1500 MP strike at the ready, I release it just before landing on the ground with a thud. It glides forward in silence and hits the first Ogres at point-blank range in the chest.

The swirling shielding around it wavers and reacts, but there's nothing it can do.

The slightest buzz can be heard as the densest part of its defenses scrapes the outer layer of my energy blade, but does little to slow it down.

Without any clear visual resistance, the black blade of flames slices both Ogres in half in an instant.

Loud splashes and thuds follow as their bodies fall into the shallow pond, staining the water bright red.

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

I let out a sigh, then slowly walk over to the two dissolving bodies, igniting my lower body with flames to evaporate the water around my feet before every step.

"Well, that was easy..."

I find two identical white gems and use Appraisal before placing them in the item box around my waist.

__________________________

Blue Ogre's Essence [Shard]

Blue Ogre's Essence [Shard]

__________________________

They're both 50k MP shards, but these two base-level mobs aren't the reason for coming all the way up here in such a hurry.

I turn further up the rocky mountainside while activating my Inspect, Appraisal, and Enemy Detection Skills.

__________________________

[450m]

[Lv. 478]

Active Items:

Blue Ogre's Armor Set [+1800 Defense]

Blue Ogre's Axe [+1550 Strength]

Active Skills:

Body Hardening

Extreme Strength

__________________________

The mutant up ahead is what I came to see.