Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Now not only was he able to control it somewhat, but he was also even able to give some basic direction as could be seen by the way his mana was flowing around the edge of his [A] tier sword.

Huff… Simon exhaled a deep breath of air and slowly opened his eyes, he extended his right hand which was holding the sword and he gently release his hold from it. According to common sense, the sword should drop on the ground with a clanging noise.

However, nothing as such happened and the sword even while not in his grasp was suspended in the air in front of him. It should be mentioned that Simon did not activate the [Dominator' Control] technique nor were there any runes on the sword or on his hand connecting him with it.

Simon was able to achieve what he was doing right now from the simple application of emitting his mana and controlling his sword through it. Even though he said control, he could just barely keep the sword suspended in the air even after a month of training.

If he tried to move the sword even a little or distance himself from it, his connection with the sword would break and it would fall to the ground. It was still a tall order for him to move things around given his current mastery of [Mana Flow].

It was because of this reason that Simon wasn't able to manifest it as his skill yet. It turned out that, he needed a much higher understanding and mastery over the skill to acquire. Nevertheless, Simon could distinctively feel that he was just on the verge of grasping something and if he kept at it, it wouldn't be too long before he manifested the skill.

The Crimson Sword suspended itself in front of Simon, every now and then his brows would twitch along with his extended hand following which the sword would tremble too. If one looked deeply at the sword and the outstretched hand of Simon, one would be able to notice that there was a thin line like a thread made of faint blue colour connecting Simon with the sword.

This faint blue thread that was also covering the sword in a layer, was none other than his mana which he was currently emitting out.

The shape of the thread would constantly distort, never able to stay in a fixed shape. But it was this thin thread that was currently able to make the sword stay afloat. With every twitch and turn of Simon, the quiver around the sword would increase.

This continued for a while, his hand gently moved and the sword which was unable to maintain its balance, wobbled before falling down on the ground with a clanging noise.

"Haaaa… it is far more difficult than I thought" Simon sighed a turbid breath of air. He was trying to see if he could move the sword but it seemed like his control of mana needs to be much more proficient to do something like that.

Although it sounded very easy, in actuality it wasn't that easy. The layering that was on the sword, was made of hundreds of tiny strand of mana that was being constantly channelled by him. That is to say, if he wanted to move, the sword, he would have to give a direction to these hundreds of stands of mana.

The level of concentration and attention needed to do that, could be imagined. In fact, Simon was only able to achieve what he was doing right only through the help of his [High Speed Thought Processing] Skill which sped his thought processing ability dozens of times.

"The [Dominator's Control] skill is much easier to use because of the many runes that make application of mana flow much easier" Simon muttered to himself. To learn the [Mana Flow and gain a deeper understanding of it, every single day for the past month, Simon had used the [Dominator' Control] skill for hours.

He kept on at it, thinking that he would be able to uncover some deeper secrets of this technique that was passed onto him. However, it appeared that he was much too naïve to think that he would be able to disassemble a legacy technique that was much harder than acquiring the [Mana Flow] skill itself.

Although he was unable to gain some profound understanding of this technique, he was at least able to tell that the runes that appeared when he activated the technique channelled his mana through an invisible route towards the sword using which he was able to control the sword as he wished without touching it physically.

Simon was unable to comprehend what the runes meant and how it all worked; however, he was at least able to understand that his mana was being channelled into that sword through those runes. They also worked like transmitters and receivers that transferred his commands and will back to the sword.

Apart from that, Simon could feel that the ruins had a much deeper secret to them other than just being a simple transmitter and receiver for a simple application of [Mana Flow].

Anyways, this train of thought brought Simon to where he was right now. Although he was now able to emit mana outside and have some control over it, it was still far from being the function of the transmitter and receiver he thought of establishing.

The mana that he could emit outside could follow a few simple commands and a base like the sword to work. If emitted his mana without a base it would just dissipate with the wind. From this, one could tell that Simon had much more way to go before he could lift a pebble as easily as Irene.

"It looks like I'm stuck at a bottleneck once again. Since that is the case, I better a take a break…" Simon picked up his sword and turned towards the table where a Valkyrie waiting for him.

Today it was Annette's turn to serve beside him, thus she stood by the side silently without trying to disturb him. when he came over, Annette passed him a towel and brought him towards the table that she set up and swiftly started preparing tea.

"How goes all of your training?" Simon initiated a small talk.

Although he was training, it did not mean that he was clueless about what was happening around his surroundings. With the way the Valkyries appeared in front of him with battle intent surging out of their bodies every single day, he could tell that they were doing their own training on the training floor.

He could sense from the way they conducted themselves, that they were improving every day.

"It's going very well, master has nothing to worry about. All of us sisters are working very hard so that we never make the same mistake as last time once again. Miss Irene is also helping us by giving us some directions and advice. We feel like we are improving every single day" Annette said, gently placing the teacup in front of him.

"That good…" Simon nodded his head. It appeared that the Valkyries were a little stuck up to that small mistake they had committed the last time.

It was not a bad thing since this mistake had become their motivation to improve so Simon did not say anything. On that note, the Bloodthorn demonic warhorse who loved training was also with them.

Simon discussed a few more topics with Annette as he enjoyed his tea when suddenly he felt a figure rush towards him from the distance. When the figure finally passed through the dense mist and appeared in front of them.

Simon noticed that it was none other than Coleus the leader of the [Helpers]. The latter wore a complicated look and approached him as fast as possible. Seeing that, Simon could tell that there was some trouble and narrowed his eyes.

"My lord" Coleus got on his knees and greeted his lord first. Only after seeing the latter nod in acknowledgement did he progress to give the report he came here to give.

"My lord… there seems to be a situation and we do not know how to proceed" Coleus reported.

Simon bunched his brows, he asked "What Situation?".

"There seem to be some adventurers who claim that they know you. They are going around the dungeon collecting every piece of information that they could find about the master of this dungeon. They are even going around shouting your name on every floor".

When Coleus spoke until here, he glanced at his lord who seemed to be deep in thought.

There weren't many people that knew his name, heck even the adventurers living in the tower town do not know the name of the demon that controlled the dungeon and dived regularly.

Simon was a cautious person, other than a few individuals he interacted with, he did not reveal his name to anyone, especially any adventurers. So when Coleus said they were shouting his name, Simon was quite surprised.

He tapped the table with his finger a couple of times before asking "How do they look like? Do you know what they are saying?".

Coleus dutifully nodded his head "They are a group of eight elite people, their leader seemed to be a woman. Unlike the other adventurers, the fighting style of this group is a little different in that it looks organised like an army".

"Even the way they dispose of the monsters is different. The other adventurers would harvest the materials from the monster they defeated. However, this group doesn't seem to be interested in that and is only trying to clear the floor. The words that they are shouting are targeted towards my lord, asking you to come out".