Prince recognized the fact that she was weaker than Kratia, and it seemed the conflict was somehow resolved... Unfortunately, the situation didn't progress so smoothly.

The joint operation... She hadn't even asked if Lee Shin-Woo's group would like to work with her, yet she insisted that, as heroes, they had to clear the training facility together.

"We're going to the next level,” Kratia said. “Train by yourself. I don't like you."

"The next level? Don't lie. You came here before me? You came to the Empire a lot later than me, so how!?"

"I can prove it to you."

"That's a seal of completion... It can’t be!"

Lee Shin-Woo let Kratia and Prince bicker and went on to explore the facility alone... Well, he and Jin moved secretly and explored with Rem. Two things about the facility surprised them. Firstly, it was huge, and secondly, it was filled to the brim with mana.

[It seems the techniques used for manufacturing Golems are applied here. While the facility cannot follow specific commands, a simple core was inserted to allow it to carry out simple repetitive tasks.]

"Looks that way… It seems the place can train knights, too."

There was a corner of the facility that reminded him of an amusement park. Starting from the entrance, he would follow a guide through the facility, visiting one training building after another.

What set it apart was that there was a specific order one had to go through. And...

"It seems like there's no safety equipment..."

"I'll get scared, so don't say stuff like that," Jin mumbled.

"But Kratia's right. It'll definitely hone one’s control over mana."

Lee Shin-Woo snuck a few glances back. Kratia and Prince seemed to still be arguing, so he left them behind and entered the first facility. He heard a mechanical sounding voice in his ear. It was similar to the announcement a Golem made when activating.

[Beginning first training exercise. Testing how quickly the user can gather mana.]

[Three participants in the training exercise. Beginning training exercise. Please gather enough mana to use intermediate magic at minimum.]

"Aha, so they do start with the fundamentals after all."

"Huh? I have to do this too?"

[Master, if you give me the order, I will destroy the facility's central hub. Probability of success: 80%.]

"For now, just do as it says."

[Understood.]

If it just wanted him to gather his mana, he could've done it when he was level 1, but by adding the minimum requirement of intermediate magic, the facility was meant to test how fast one could gather their mana, as well as one's maximum capacity. To be honest, it wasn't all that difficult, so he did it immediately.

[Passed. Beginning second training exercise. Testing ability to infuse mana, as well as how much is lost during the transfer.]

[Three participants in the training exercise. Beginning training exercise. Please infuse mana into the rock falling from above and stop it.]

"Huh?"

As soon as the message ended, a giant rock suddenly fell from above their heads! Jin was taken aback, but Lee Shin-Woo fired out the mana accumulated in his hand and pushed it into the rock. In addition, he used his connection with Jin to transfer the mana Jin had gathered as well.

Rem could control mana well with Mana Parasite, and was able to do the same without difficulty. The moment the three's mana was completely infused, the once falling rock stopped in place. It was set up so that if an adequate amount of mana was infused, the rock would stop falling.

"There's a limit to how inhospitable one can be; it’s trying to kill us!"

"Get a hold of yourself, Jin. You won't die if you get hit by a rock like this anymore."

"...Ah, you're right."

[Passed. Beginning third training exercise. Testing rapid concentration and multiple infusions of mana.]

[Three participants in the training exercise. Beginning training exercise. Please infuse a sufficient amount of mana into each and every rock that comes flying in every direction.]

The third training exercise was even more ridiculous. There were cannons that seemed to spring out from everywhere within the vast facility; they aimed for Lee Shin-Woo's party, shooting sharp rocks at them from every direction!

Moreover, their mission objective was not to destroy or evade the rocks, but to infuse an adequate amount of mana into them to stop them! Jin was astonished once more, but Lee Shin-Woo immediately progressed with the mission. To be honest, this was nothing compared to the complexity of making the Steelworker seal.

All I have to do is calculate how much mana I need to inject before the rocks will stop. Then it’s as simple as dividing my mana between them and infusing the rocks.

The amount of mana needed to stop each rock was identical. Before the rocks came close, he would have to sense them and shoot his mana out at a long range to infuse the rocks, which was a little complex. However, Lee Shin-Woo had been capable of this level of mana control when he was level 3, so he was able to do it easily.

But Jin was having difficulty.

"Hey! Why aren't you stopping the ones coming at me! Hey!"

"You have to practice too. It may look like it doesn't apply to you, but once you are able to control mana in a multitude of ways, all of your abilities will get stronger."

Lee Shin-Woo said in a provocative tone as he shot mana everywhere and accurately hit the rocks.

After that, Jin was struck by quite a few more rocks—it didn't hurt much since he was covered in steel armor, but he felt quite bad. Grinding his teeth together, he tried his best to imitate Lee Shin-Woo. Of course, it wasn't that easy.

"No, that’s not how you do it. You have to control it a bit more thoroughly. It seems like they won't stop if you infuse too much mana."

"How is that even possible!?"

But after continuously getting hit by the rocks, Jin concentrated more on his mana control—even though he was doing it out of anger. After 7 minutes of having a barrage of rocks raining down on him, he finally succeeded in infusing the right amount of mana into a rock! At that very moment, the rocks that had once been flying at them vanished.

[Ending training exercise. Passed: 2, Failed: 1.]

[Would you like to kick out the participant who failed and continue with the next training exercise? Or would you like to repeat the training with the failure?]

"It’s doing this on purpose, isn't it!? It ended the test here on purpose, didn't it!?"

"Calm down. If you get too excited, you'll forget what it felt like!"

"I don't care. I'll just destroy it all!"

Right when Jin was about to destroy the facility with his mouth cannon, the training was suspended, and Kratia came up to them. Prince was with her, though it looked like she still didn't understand what was going on.

"Shin-Woo, we don't have time to waste on the basic training facility."

Prince muttered, "Yeah, if you want to assess this frustrating woman's ability, you have to go further in."

"So wait, you decided to work together?" asked Lee Shin-Woo.

"So long as they follow us and don't say anything."

"Keuk."

"Oh..."

It seemed that an individual who had previously passed the training exercises could skip those facilities, and their companions could go with them as well. Hearing that, Lee Shin-Woo gave it some thought and got down from Jin's back.

'You're going to follow them!?'

'I trust you, and you need this training. See you later.'

'Hey...!'

Jin was so surprised that he physically jumped, but Lee Shin-Woo just grinned and patted him. Once Prince entered, Rem went into stealth mode and hid itself. Lee Shin-Woo placed Rem atop Jin's back so that it wouldn't be noticed.

'Rem, just make sure this guy doesn't die.'

'I understand.'

Kratia, who had been watching their interaction, noticed that Rem had gone into stealth mode, but she didn't say anything. She realized Lee Shin-Woo was trying to hide the few facts about him that stemmed from him being a skeleton.

On an unrelated note, Kratia was slightly disappointed in Prince for not noticing Rem. To be honest, it was only possible because Lee Shin-Woo had applied both Assimilation and Disguise. If one couldn't grasp Rem's original mana, they would be fooled.

"A horse will get in the way of your training… But if you just leave it like that, won’t it go astray on its own?"

"He's extremely smart, so it'll be fine."

"Then again, it does seem quite impressive for a horse acquired in the Empire... It's just like what that elf has said."

"Let’s move on. Kratia, you lead."

Prince briefly admired the horse cladded in steel armor when she saw Jin, but other than that, she paid him no mind. Of course, Lee Shin-Woo had used his ability on Jin as well. He had succeeded in completely tearing her attention away from Jin and Rem.

"The further we go, the more complex it becomes,” Kratia explained. “There are also sections that require combat."

"Combat?"

"Since this is a dungeon. Monsters are controlled and restrained through magic."

"Ah, as expected."

Lee Shin-Woo understood the implications. Regardless of how amazing the Royal Mage Leader was, he wouldn't have been able to create this large subspace out of nothing; he had created this facility by using pre-existing dungeons.

"Though it is amazing that he tied together several dungeons into one."

"That's not something a human being should be able to do..."

While they talked, the group used Kratia's free pass to get through the various facilities.

Along the way, Lee Shin-Woo noticed the bloodied iron maces hidden here and there, the thorn floor, the spears set up in the ceiling threatening to fall, as well as areas that were completely destroyed and rebuilt into facilities with magic... He couldn't help but wonder if the Royal Mage Leader wanted to train mages or bury them.

"This facility also has a system that measures the visitor’s mana as well as if they could wield magic. It's not an ability inherent to the dungeon, so it's definitely an artifact’s doing. I was sure after I retraced the mana."

"R-Retraced?"

Prince's gaze shook. Yeah, Lee Shin-Woo had expected as much. She truly knew nothing.

"We came here to clear all of the training exercises and take the artifact,” Kratia said. “So don't touch it."

"But as a fellow hero, I should..."

"You agreed to follow us and not say anything."

"Keuk...!"

"If you want the artifact, you can compete with us. It would be a 2 on 1 fight, though."

Kratia hooked her arm around Lee Shin-Woo’s and laughed at Prince. After figuring out that Prince was a girl, Kratia's way of teasing her had changed. And her method seemed quite effective.

"I wouldn't need your help if Lloyd was here...!"

"Then you should've brought him."

"But I couldn't stand the sight of him enjoying having the elf sticking to him, so I... Hey, why am I telling you this!? It's fine, you can take it all! I’m only here to improve my magical abilities!"

Lee Shin-Woo watched as Prince got caught up in Kratia's simple trick and revealed her own secret. He couldn’t bear how cute she was. It felt like he was watching a couple of girls playing together.

However, the conversation soon came to an end. With Kratia's free pass, they passed through 70% of the facility and finally stopped in front of a large building.

"Starting here, the training became impossible for me to do alone. A lot of monsters would come, and I mean a lot. There are many traps as well, and you have to control your magic amid all the threats thrown your way. There's no time to even follow the commands. You just have to get through it."

Of course, the reason the Royal Mage Leader had created this facility was to give the trainee a specific task so that they would become better at controlling magic in the process, thus becoming a better mage overall.

But because the danger this facility posed was so high, anyone would be considered successful if they just got through the facility alive.

"Do I just need to take care of the monsters?" Prince asked.

"If you can."

"It should be fine if I just burn the entire facility."

"That could...work."

"Alright, let's start."

"Wait a sec."

Kratia stopped Prince before she could enter the facility. Her tone was a lot more serious than when she was teasing Prince.

"Since so much time has passed, the facility has developed in a completely different direction from the original creator's intention. We have to prepare as much as we can."

"So you want to use tricks instead of doing it fairly? I can't do that. My pride as a mage won't allow me to!"

"You got all the way here with a free pass, and yet..."

"All the more reason that I have to prove myself here! If you're scared, I'll go in first. You can follow behind me!"

Lee Shin-Woo knew this would happen eventually, but this was the worst time possible; Prince didn't heed Kratia's warning and charged in alone. Kratia clicked her tongue at her.

"Shouldn’t we follow her?" Lee Shin-Woo asked carefully.

"She'll come out soon. You get a chance to see her then."

Kratia ended up being right. Once she said that, Prince rushed out of the facility and shivered nonstop, looking like she would cry. She had been in there for only a moment, yet her clothes were in tatters, and beneath her ripped robes, he could see parts of her lingerie top.

"T-The monsters... the monsters...!"

"There, there. It’ll be fine."

She was so shocked that she temporarily reverted to a preschooler, and Lee Shin-Woo comforted her. The scariest part about the facility was its dead silence. There was no sound even at this very moment.

Lee Shin-Woo waited for Kratia to explain what the facility was to them. With a smile, she said, "Despite it being a subspace that was created by connecting several dungeons together, it wasn’t managed properly, and had been neglected for decades. As a result, a lot of monsters ended up smushed into that limited space. They're all at least level 6..."

"How many?"

"...I could only count about 50,000. It's frustrating because whenever you mess up, the monsters receive a buff."

"Hoh."

The moment he heard that, Lee Shin-Woo equipped his sword, the Breath of the Lightning God. One in each hand at that!

"That sounds interesting."

Lee Shin-Woo hadn't understood why he had to come to a facility designed to train mages, but now he did. Thanks for bringing me here, Kratia!

"Shall we go in when we're all ready?" Lee Shin-Woo asked.

Kratia snorted. "I really like that about you."

The mana that once flowed throughout his body was redirected into his pair of Breath of the Lightning Gods. As if responding to him, Kratia concentrated mana into her orb while taking out magical devices that he'd never even seen before one by one.

Prince, who was silently watching them from the side, spoke up.

"Can I go after I change my clothes?"