Arganthes: The Capital Of Dungeons

Before I knew it I arrived at the place within my soul.

The ocean well. I could see in the darkness,

Which is why I knew the place was different...

Instead of being engulfed by darkness, now the entire area was dimly lit enveloping the area with warm small flames. The well cleared of heat was now easy to access. Standing at the edge something drew me closer almost as if it was asking me to sit down and chat.

Doing so allowed me to calm down and take in the gentle weaving of the water. I concentrated at the center making the water rise as it expanded its sheer size. But this time... I was not afraid...

this time... It was almost like I was welcomed with open arms.

The water now reaching my feet didn"t feel cold,

Instead, it was unexpectedly warm and gentle.

Something else happened when the water reached me. Coming into contact with it only made it expand more. The container was unable to hold as it slowly began to crack.

I had to do something about it,

even if it was done ever so slightly.

The pure essence began pressuring the container.

Trying to find a way to contain the expanding essence, my gut told me there was only one way.

I had to open expand the container by matching and synchronizing with my expanding essence.

I slightly opened my soul well allowing the essence to seep out, while immediately expanding my container.

This allowed me to maintain the expansion of my essence. I awakened as a stronger man.

Geo walked it to witness this phenomenon.

Essence bursting out of every fiber of my being, quickly subsiding into a calm yet stronger aura around me.

I opened my eyes to a surprised Geo in front of me.

"I see you have broken through the first stage of cultivation.

And just in time too! It seems the guild master has sent me to come and get you.

It appears our training will begin shortly. Come on, follow me to the central training grounds."

Following Geo, to the training grounds, I noticed everyone stared at us.

"Geo, why is everyone staring at us? It"s making me uncomfortable…"

"Ah, my friend! That"s because everyone saw what transpired at the tournament.

Seeing us here must have made them all envious, not to mention everyone saw what happened to you too! They must be keeping their guard up by staying at a fixed distance.

But not me! No matter what everyone thinks or says about you I know you were the one who saved us during that time. I know we own our lives to you, that much is certain."

Not knowing what to say I looked away and bashfully smiled,

scratching the back of my head not knowing what to expect I kept following Geo.

After a short while, we arrived at a large gate at the and of the corridor.

"we"re here."

Geo said as the door slowly began to open with heavy creaking sounds.

*Creeeeeaaakk* *Klang* *click* *Thud*

Fully opened I looked at what was waiting for us at the other side of the large gate.

I couldn"t believe it, the sheer size of the area was captivating.

All around people were training. Alone, together and even in large groups.

It made me think of the training grounds of the Martial Novices.

Looking around everyone was heated up as they gave it their all just so they could gain the acc.u.mulated experience, like what we too were planning to do.

I followed Geo towards the large open area in the center of the training grounds.

Here a large group was being thought about what seemed like cultivation on a large scale.

Two people were watching over them silently. Arriving by their side Geo introduced us both.

Being as he is, he tried to approach the teachers silently. Even trying his hardest this wasn"t possible as Geo was born with a naturally loud voice. Which meant he would be perfect for broadcasting, instead… here stealth was of the essence making it extremely difficult for him to do silent observation.

"We have arrived, guild master! Let me introduce you to the one who saved us all during the tournament. Michael Shadowfang!"

The guild master turned to us and bowed down to greet us in a j.a.panese fashion.

Before the guild master could answer one of the pupils stood up and snarled at Geo.

"Can"t you see we are trying to cultivate in peace here? None of us disturbed your cultivation didn"t they?!"

The guild master held his pupil back wanting to prevent the ruckus to escalate.

"Now now… young one… Please calm down, these two are new and will be training with us all shortly. They weren"t aware of the rules yet so I"ll let it slide this one time."

"Whoops, sorry about that. You see I was born with this manly loud voice…

I can"t do much about it, but I"ll promise to try and keep it in check."

Oh… it must be hard for you… sorry for lashing out like that… I"m Rika by the way. Since we all be training together from now on we better get to know each other, right? I"d better get back to my cultivation."

The guild master and pupil quickly turning to us with a smile as the pupil bowed down and took her to leave.

"Don"t mind her, she has always had a bit of a hotheaded personality.

I must say, she is kind of similar to you two, knowing she came to train in the recommendation of the martial novices guild master. But… let"s not get sidetracked. If you would follow me, please.

We will be going to a smaller room, this way I can take my time getting to know your soul essence and maybe even find out what kind of elemental affinities you two have. Interested?"

We both reacted in unison with a resounding "YES!"

"Then follow me, lads. I Alexandra Buckleclaw will personally see to it that your preparation has been taken care of. But before I do, let me take one of my priced pupils with me.

Alexandra signaled a few of her students who quickly made their way towards us.

It was all familiar faces as they too had partic.i.p.ated in the tournament, remembering correctly I even defeated her together with Ragnee haha, that was a heated battle if I may say so.

"I don"t think you lot have met before, right? Then I would like to introduce to you my three priced pupils here at the Rogues a.s.sociation. Sheila Ragnee, previously known as the star pupil of the Martial Novices, Blair Darkfire, the star pupil of the Mages Ember and June Serpentine who started training here from the beginning."

I looked at the three of them, recognizing two, I had fought June and Ragnee previously in the tournament. They must have told the guild master about how our fight went. Does that mean they played a huge roll in getting me into the Rogues a.s.sociation? And the third…

I don"t recognize her… She also… looks rather different. Dark Skin, white hair, and… pointy ears?

"Michael!! Long time so see!"

June walked towards me slapping me flat on the back.

*cough* "Yes, not since our battle in the tournament! It has been a while." *cough*

"And Ragnee, I think this is why you couldn"t show me around? Well… hope we can train together again hehe."

Michael winked and put up his thumb as to say everything will be okay.

Ragnee held her hands against her face as she slowly began turning red.

"has he finally recognized me? If not, I have to take this chance to get closer to him as much as I can. What if he gave in to me? Haha, no Ragnee… you can"t, not right now hihi."

"Girls! I would like the three of you to follow me, we are going to show these young men what it is to cultivate using the principle of shadows from our guild. Not only that, but I also want the lot of you to think of three others to join us later as we will be preparing a little game of tag for them when they have a rough understanding of the principle."

We followed the guild master and the girls towards a rather small room.

I recognized the layout as this looked similar to the room I was in when I evaluated my strengths back when I registered myself at the main guildhall.

The room was dimly lit with glowing crystals around the room. In the middle, we could see a large crystal with other smaller crystals scattered around it. Alexandra a.s.signed each of us a place to sit on the ground before guiding us through the process.

"Before we begin with the core principle we have to see what kind of affinities you boys have.

The thing we will be doing must seem familiar to the both of you as this is the same sequence you had to go through back at the main guildhall, but there will be a fundamental difference.

Back then you"re essence got tested on corruption and compatibility with talent.

Today we will be focusing on the latter getting a better understanding of one"s affinity will help them understand the path which they have to take."

The girls each took a seat right behind the boys. Ragnee embraced her arms around Michael, her legs also tightly closed around him. The same happened with June and Geo.

"W-what, What the h.e.l.l is this?!"

Michael asked in a panic. Ragnee quickly responded with a wishper in his ear.

"Oh shush Michael, I know it"s rather embarra.s.sing, but don"t all men like this? There is nothing to worry about. For you see, this is exactly the reason why I was asked to help out.

We are one of the few who can enhance the magical essence of the ones we hold against us.

You could say that our body heat helps to strengthen the reading."

Embarra.s.sed as I was couldn"t bring in much against them deciding it was better to leave it as it is and move on. Geo, on the other hand, couldn"t get enough, it looked like June and Ragnee were enjoying themselves a bit too much, to be honest, but if it worked, who am I to make things more difficult, right?

"Now… Geo, you might already have an idea of what your affinity might be, seeing as the empty magic crystals used in the tournament finals were mainly there to catch a glimpse of what kind of magic one is destined to use in the future. Now… with that out of the way,

if you can please lay your hands on the crystal and insert your raw essence."

Geo fl.u.s.tered by what June was doing didn"t want this moment of blissfulness to and as he ended up not listening to Alexandra. June noticed this and decided to motivate and help him a bit more. June grabbed Geo"s arm arms and guided them towards the crystal.

Geo wanted more out of this experience and decided to not give her what she wanted.

pushing back just a little, June in turn needed to push harder making her rub against his back, exactly what Geo wanted. Being in what felt like eternal bliss Geo let down his guard and ended up with both his hands on the crystal. The crystal then began to glow revealing what seemed like roots sprouting out of the ground. The others continued to watch as the roots quickly grew into a large tree.

"This can"t be… Might it be the tree of life"s essence?"

Alexandra mumbled to herself.

Around the tree, rocks broke out of the ground when slowly orbs of energy began falling from the tree making moss and gra.s.s grow on top of the rocks.

June let go of Geo"s hands allowing him to relax.

It became clear Geo had not one but two elemental affinities.

"Thank you, Geo, it seems you have the Earth and Nature affinities. Quite rare to see someone with not one but two affinities. While not unheard of, most people tend to only have one elemental affinity. You can be proud of yourself, it might seem you might not be suited for the ways in our rogues" a.s.sociation. Instead, you might be better off in our Archers subdivision instead of the Rogues division."

Alexandra turned towards me wanting to know what my elemental affinity was.

Looking back at the tournament I got a small glimpse of the elements I could use,

mainly being, fire and darkness. Looking even further back I also used lighting to fight off those wolves, I"m curious what might be shown here in the crystal.

"If you please young Shadowfang. Let us look into your affinity."

Nervous because of Ragnee"s embrace, my curiosity took the better of me.

Slowly letting my hands on to the crystal the room suddenly turned dark, there was no light to be found when suddenly a bright purple flame rose from the depths of the crystal. Thunder surged down cracking the ground around the flame allowing it to grow even bigger.

"This… this must be the result of the essence within. Never before have I seen these results.

Breaking down the entirety of the visualization this must mean…"

Shocked Alexandra looked at me, quickly grabbing my and.

She felt lighting gently surge through veins. Making it clear what the visualization represented.

"Your elemental affinity is that of the Cracking Lightning Flash, you must be confused.

Let me explain in more detail when we have the room to ourselves."