It would barely take a few seconds for her to ascend—they all had plenty of ascension stones at hand to do it. But the second-ranker trials were not simple ones, especially for those with prestigious jobs. She had never explicitly stated that she held such a position, but the skills she used were simply impossible to acquire from ordinary jobs. The mental strain alone could leave her exhausted after a week-long—or even longer—ascension trial.
They were resting inside the Dreamlight, discussing their next steps in midair. Sariel and Evante had both surpassed level 75 and needed to complete trials to select their third jobs as first-rankers. Elias had also reached level 50 and would have to do the same for his second job.
“There won’t be any shade on this level. It’s all desert,” Damian said. “I did see a huge stone structure near the keypoint, but I didn’t enter it. That was the only thing.”
The armored scorpion he had killed had been guarding the ancient, half-broken structure, but he had been pressed for time and hadn’t gone exploring.
“The heat is unbearable here too,” Lumi added.
Elias and Lumi were the most affected by the high temperature because of their lower levels. The others could also tell that fighting in the desert under such extreme heat wouldn’t be easy.
“Let’s have them all do their trials together so they can take a day to recover,” Maelor suggested.
“And we stop for the day? Again?” Einar asked.
“Reize, can you kill monsters with Dreamlight?” Damian asked. “We’ve got enough iron that I can make a lot of one-time use attack sheets. Each one will last a few hours if I use a smaller laser spell.”
Reize nodded. “Sure. Everyone can stay here to rest after their trials while those who want to fight can continue. I’ll fly right above.”
Damian looked at Elias and Lumi. “You two stay here with her and help her reload. Use the cooling system. From here on, it’s too much for you to handle.”
Elias wanted to argue, but Damian just gestured for him to drop it. They had both gained enough levels to rival any fifth-year student in the academy. Without refining their skills, having so much strength would only make them arrogant. They had leveled up enough.
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“I was just shy of five levels..” Lumi muttered, sighing.
“Gain them when we go back,” Reize said, putting a hand on Lumi’s shoulder to reassure her. Lumi just nodded and wrapped an arm around her in affection.
Leaving the others in the Dreamlight to do their trials whenever they felt ready, Damian and the rest continued grinding after he quickly made enough attack sheets to last for few days. The heat was unbearable, so Damian installed a medium-sized cooling device on the hoverboard dragging behind them. If anyone got too hot, they could stand near it for a while to cool their bodies. It generated enough wind to reach them even during combat, but the scorching air made it too weak to spread farther than a few meters.
Still, even a slight temperature drop provided relief. In addition, he set up some simple fans next to it and shifted all mana containers to the ship above, generating ice in front of the fans to cool the air. He had to create ice regularly, though. It was worth it.
Above them, a thin layer of earth floated. He used the same spell Grace had used in the entrance exam to reach a good height while stepping on, but this version was massive, covering both them and the monsters they fought along the way in its shade. Sam kept destroying it with his lightning, forcing Damian to repair it constantly. The earth layer had custom wind runes that allowed it to hover above them, untouched.
The monsters had totally changed according to the region here as well. Sandscale Raptors—swift, pack-hunting lizards that blended into the dunes. Burrowing Ambushers—giant centipedes that erupted from underground. Flame Serpents—burning snakes that slithered through the dunes of sand. Giant Scorpions—magma-dripping creatures with deadly venom. And even Blistering Djinn—unstable air elementals that exploded when provoked. Damian had to sense them early and kill them, throwing his spear before they could get too close.
Other than the heat, nothing was particularly troublesome to him. Damian emptied his mind, along with the others, and mechanically kept killing more and more monsters. Those who ran out of mana or were too exhausted from the heat rested in the Dreamlight while the rest continued fighting.
It didn’t matter how many people they had—Damian could always use his massive spells to cull the monster numbers when necessary. And it was necessary, even with most of them revealing their full abilities. This was, after all, a hundred-person dungeon. They were lucky and capable to have come this far. Most of the credit went to Damian’s mana generator, though. Without it, they wouldn’t have made it past level twenty.
This level, too, was cleared in a couple of days. After ascending and becoming a second-ranker, Lucian was experimenting with her newfound strength. Her mana signature had changed slightly, becoming denser. For a second-ranker, it was a solid start—her mana levels were impressive, though not the best. But as a spellsword, mana wasn’t her primary focus. Even so, she was still far above the average second-rankers at the starting levels.
Before heading to the keypoint at the center of the ancient, broken structure, Damian wanted full copies of all the murals drawn on the walls of the structure. Lumi was sketching them, and so were he and Reize. They had landed the Dreamlight for the night and secured the area with a barrier. Their plan was to tackle level twenty-four the next day.
Damian had only gained one level after clearing two dungeon floors. This slow leveling was seriously messing with him. And these were still two-digit levels—what would happen when he reached the hundreds?
Ignoring the future issue, Damian focused on the murals. At last, he had an answer for why the heat in this dungeon was so unbearable. The Sun God had been punishing his people for failing to pray to him, for forgetting him over time.
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