Noah gathered all the corpses in his space-ring.

He had used only his body to fight them so he was in his peak form, only a few drops of "Breath" in the membrane around his heart were lost.

'The liquid "Breath" in my body should be refilled autonomously by my dantian over time, there is no need to stop just yet.'

He resumed his exploration toward the lower layers with his head full of thoughts about his recent fight.

'The Shadow steps spell is useless in battle now that my body is in the heroic ranks, it can help me only during my flight. Also, my running speed is now higher than my flying one, my blood companions are falling behind my improvements.'

Echo and Shadow were created from rank 3 magical beasts, their power was fixed, they could not overcome the limits of the human ranks no matter how much Noah's centers of power increased in power.

'Should I attempt creating a companion from a rank 4 creature? Can I even do that?'

Noah evaluated that idea but then he shook his head.

'I'm not even sure if I can kill one of them, let alone subduing it in my sea of consciousness. I should wait for my mental sphere to reach the third rank to be safe, one mistake in the taming process and I might end up like Ivor. If things really become too dangerous, Echo and Shadow should still provide some help while I'm in the Demonic form.'

When he reached the end of the passage that he was crossing, he found twenty Excavating worms waiting for him at the entrance of the layer.

'I guess I should see how much power of my martial art I can express now.'

Noah though, smiling coldly as two white sabers appeared in his hands and jumping straight in the center of the group of beasts.

Meanwhile, a luxurious carriage stopped right in front of the entrance of the Bare Dungeon.

It had a rank 2 Mountain bull tied to its reins and a series of inscriptions on all its sides.

The door of the carriage opened and four young men and a young woman calmly exited it and inspected the environment around them.

"This should be the place, it's quite hard to be mistaken with such a low density of "Breath" in the air."

One of the men spoke and then turned toward the man at the back of their group.

He was wearing a white robe adorned with golden inscriptions that seemed to have defensive proprieties.

He had short silver hair and a slight but warm smile on his face.

"Yes, Milo, this is definitely the place."

That man was Daniel who had just arrived at the Bare Dungeon with his party.

Milo lowered his head in sign of respect and hid a smile behind that gesture.

Daniel then continued to speak.

"I want to use this moment before we enter the mountain to thank you all again for joining my mission. I know that you are busy with your lives and that the task from the alchemy division was quite sudden so I want to be sure that you understand how much I appreciate your company. Thank you, friends."

Daniel's words were warm and well-spoken, it was clear that he was used to conversing with other nobles.

"We aren't worthy, my Lord. I chose to follow you the moment my eyes first saw your figure. I don't care if my family is against the Cause, once I become matriarch, I will offer you the full support of my family."

The woman spoke in a stern tone but she could not hide some traces of blushing from appearing on her face.

"I and the Udye family will never forget your vow, Phoebe."

Daniel answered her words and lightly caressed her face, making her blush even more.

"Phoebe is right, we are all with you. My Orgoo family and your Udye family has been allies for centuries, the Royals can't divide such long-lasting friendship."

If Noah was there, he would recognize the man that had just spoken.

He was Troy Orgoo, one of the youths that had passed the entrance test in Ebonrest city with him.

"Mh. Our force is not weak, three of us have a rank 4 body and we are all equipped with inscribed robes in the second rank. Even if we met with the rank 4 specimen, I have full confidence that we can escape. Who knows, we might even attempt to kill it!"

Daniel cheered everyone's morale with his words and moved toward the entrance of the dungeon, followed by the other four cultivators.

"Lord Daniel, ehm, what do you know about this place? Why is the "Breath" so scarce here?"

The man that had been silent till that moment was Manuel, the student that Noah had defeated to obtain his last accommodation in the academy.

"I requested some reports from my family. Apparently, this whole mountain will become a mine of Obsidian Credits one day so the Elbas family has emptied its contents to accelerate the creation of the mine. They come here every few decades to prevent the creation of a threatening pack of magical beasts though, so it's not completely abandoned."

Daniel explained in a plain tone but the others in his group shot dissatisfied gazes to Manuel.

They all knew what had happened in the academy.

He lost in a fight against someone without a noble background, making the nobles lose face in front of the other students and also injuring himself.

The injury slowed his cultivation speed and left a trauma on his personality, ultimately leading him to still have a rank 3 body.

It was obvious that his name was usually mocked among the circle of nobles due to that event.

"And, when was the last time that the Royals cleaned up this place?"

Manuel was unmoved by those stares and continued to ask questions.

"It should have been almost fifteen years ago, there should be a large number of rank 3 worms in there."

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