Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

She was an expert manipulator who liked having control over everything on the battlefield. Her personality would be more accurately described by the word Machiavelli. Though that was the case, it did not mean the crybaby front she showed on the outside was phoney, it was just how she was, timid when not on the battlefield.

Now that Simon thought about it, Emma was a user of strings. She uses it to manipulate her enemies while the other times just as simple trap. There were many applications for strings but the one she uses her powers the most for was manipulation.

The way her strings behaved like an animate object which moves and follows around the target almost as if it has a mind of its own has to be due to a certain skill. When he asked her that, Simon found his answer.

Although not entirely correct, Emma was indeed emitting mana to control her strings but the reason why they behaved like animate objects was due to a certain number of skills used in conjunction.

Simon was enlightened, it appeared that taking a break when he was stuck really did end up opening a way.

"It looks like you found an answer" Irene commented looking at Simon's eyes that was shining with a bright crimson light.

Simon smiled, a wicked look on his face, as if he was up to something. He hurriedly drank his tea and got back to his training. However, unlike the last time when he tried to achieve emission and control of mana all at the same time.

This time he called forth his sword and tried to emit just his mana around it. The reason why he was failing again and again without any progress to be seen, was because of he was trying to do everything at once.

There was no shortcut to strength, this was something Simon had early on, it was a mistake from the start to think that he who only had succeeded in controlling his mana within his body after he learned [mana lines] would be able to achieve the same effect outside of his body where he had no support of said skill.

Not to mention emitting mana outside of his body was already proving to be a difficult task. He was trying to master the [Mana Flow] skill all at once instead of understanding its essence. No wonder he failed to make any progress.

What was he in such a hurry of? It was not like there was a time limit to learning this skill.

Now that Simon had sorted out his thoughts, he started his training with a new objective in mind. He would first learn the emission of non-attributed mana and to do that, he used the support of his sword, the only other extension object that was like an extension of him thanks to him mastering [sword Mastery] skill.

Every skill that he had learned up until now, was aiding him to acquire another skill and helping him grow altogether. This methodological way of training from Irene was extremely effective where every acquisition of skill was thoroughly planned and in range of his ability.

What kind of understanding and attainment in strength did one have to reach to guide someone else like this?

Simon had Goosebumps appearing all over his body. Excitement like never before welled up from within him. The heights he would be able to reach in the future, the height that Irene was currently gazing at the world from.

There was so much to look forward for. Simon was convinced, this woman was even more powerful than any of the other people he had met in his journey up until now. Yes, it even included Adalinda and that mysterious angel like figure Yela that he had seen in the [Historia] of the forbidden trails.

Simon discarded the unnecessary thoughts and focused back on the task at hand. Although he had divided the work, it was still hard to emit mana out of his body without having any attribute attached to it.

Time passed by, and after an hour of continuously failing, when he tried for the umpteenth time, suddenly the mana which behaved like a floodwater whenever he cast a magic, flowed like a gentle stream of water and for the first time, he managed to emit mana out of his body without attaching any attribute to it.

Although it was only once and after numerous tries, Simon finally managed to do it. Simon suppressed the excitement and tried the process once again before he forgot the hang of it. It was infrequent maybe one out of every hundred times; nevertheless, he now had a vague idea about how to emit his mana.

He wasn't worried about the probability right now since it will increase once he becomes more proficient in handling mana. But yes, he was finally able to do it.

Simon was excited about his success but this energy didn't last long and was dampened when he realised that taking the next step was a hundred times more difficult than the first.

Now that he was able to emit mana amidst although very infrequently, controlling it was a totally different challenge. Perhaps it could be said that in the [Mana Flow] skill, the application of emitting mana was the easiest part.

The tricky portion lay in controlling it.

'No, it's still very soon for me to worry about that when I can't even emit mana properly without trying dozens of times' Simon mused closing his eyes. He cannot rush these things, he needed to progress one step at a time.

Controlling mana outside of his body might perhaps become an incredible challenge. However, he who hasn't even reached that stage yet, doesn't have to worry about that right now. All he has to do at this moment was to put all of his attention and concentration on the task at hand.

After he learned how to emit mana, then he could worry about controlling it.

Irene who suddenly saw Simon's state of falter, frowned her shapely crescent brows. She was about to open her mouth and say something when she noticed that Simon gained control of his emotions once again.

It was surprising to her sometimes by how calm headed he behaved. She did not even need to step in to remind him of anything. Irene calmly watched from the sidelines as Simon slowly but surely mastered the emission of mana.

Seeing that the latter was making steady progress and didn't need her help, she left his side, leaving Simon to train in peace. In any case, now that the dungeon master was busy, there has to be someone to take care of things around. And who better to assume these responsibilities than the guardians of the dungeon?

Guardians were the second highest position in Laplace after the dungeon master, the authority and the degree of control they had over the dungeon was far higher than any other position. The dungeon Laplace had three Guardians currently, Irene, Cecilia and the Null elemental named Wisp.

The Wisp was busy controlling the [workshop] and building golems while Cecilia… the little girl was just too young to assume such responsibilities. The only one who was left to monitor and run his dungeon was Irene.

Although she left his side to run his dungeon, she would nonetheless, visit him and check on his progress every now and then.

Simon who now understood the importance of a break and how crucial it was to rest his mind, took a pause to refresh his mind whenever he felt he was stuck at a bottleneck. The Valkyries who were similarly affected by the environment around him trained diligently too.

They would visit him in turns and cater to his needs. Days passed by swiftly like that and before Simon knew it, a month had passed.

Whoosh… a sound of wind rusting could be heard amidst the dense mist around the pond and the figure of Simon appeared from within it after the mist around him was slashed in half.

Currently, he had his eyes closed, the crimson blazing flame sword was on his right hand which was emitting some slight buzzing noise. If one looked carefully at the edges of the blade, one would be able to notice some faint blue energy like an aura covering it.

The aura wasn't stationary and was flowing around the sword in a fixed path like an outer layer. The aura was very thick, and very inconspicuous if one did not pay enough attention to it, one would miss it entirely.

Nevertheless, it was this layering that made the sword even more dangerous. Usually, If Simon did not utilise his powerful strength stat, he would be unable to cut the mist formed by the rich mystical energy, as effortlessly as he did right now when it was covered by the layer of aura.

It not only made the edge of the blade sharper, but it had also extended its range increasing its lethality even more. Simon felt like the sword in his hand had suddenly gone through an increase in refinement with how powerful it felt right now.

Though in actuality, I was just that layering of pale blue aura around the blade doing its work. The layering of blue aura was none other mana which he was continuously channeling.

After a month of progress, Simon was able to emit mana outside of his body as effortlessly as he would when casting any magic. Not only that, even his control over the mana has shown some positive results over the month.