Prince Altania quickly changed her clothes where Lee Shin-Woo couldn’t see her. It seemed that heroes carried around a few sets of additional equipment in case of an emergency. When she emerged freshly changed, she glared at Lee Shin-Woo and said, "Forget what you saw."

"Of course, I didn't see anything."

"Don't ever tell anyone."

"I understand."

"If you do, I'll kill you for real! I'll stake my mana on it!"

"I already told you that I wouldn't."

Lee Shin-Woo gave her a disarming smile. Prince blushed and pulled at the hem of her shirt. If Jin were here, he would've probably been astonished at the way Lee Shin-Woo handled her and given him an unwarranted kick.

After going into the training facility alone, Prince had returned in defeat with her robe torn to shreds, thus revealing her secret to both Lee Shin-Woo and Kratia. Of course, they had found out prior that she was a woman, but Prince had no way of knowing that.

"Damn it, I guess there's no helping it since I've been caught... Hoo."

Prince took off her necklace, and at that moment, her hair, which had been decently long before, lengthened to reach her waist, her adam's apple sunk in, the shape of her eyes softened a bit, and her overall stature became more feminine. Lee Shin-Woo had a feeling that she would be good-looking from her appearance as a man, but she truly was incredibly beautiful.

And her lack of curves under disguise…unfortunately persisted. Noticing Lee Shin-Woo’s gaze, Prince raised her eyebrows and glared at him.

"What? What is it?"

Her real voice was obviously that of a young woman. Lee Shin-Woo simply shrugged at her fierce reaction. He couldn't tell her what he was actually thinking, so he had no choice but to distract her with other facts he’d figured out.

"It seems your mana reserve has increased significantly, Senior. Do you always use part of it to maintain your disguise?"

"...It's complicated."

"I suppose it must be."

A mistake could be fatal in the Empire, and yet she had tied down some of her mana to maintain the disguise, which meant she was willing to take the risks of doing so.

"In any case, it's a relief that you're going to help us."

"Kuu."

Lee Shin-Woo decided not to push further. Humans possessed beliefs they wanted to realize, no matter how naive or foolish. It was fine with him so long as she didn't drag him into that stupidity.

"Shin-Woo, are you ready?"

"I'm good."

Kratia turned to Prince. "How about you?"

"Don't look down on me. Now that I've dropped my disguise, I won't lose to..."

"Let's go."

"Ugh...!"

Kratia used her orb to absorb as much of the ambient mana as possible and turned it into ice to enclose her body. The power she displayed could rival members of the twelve generals!

As if she refused to admit defeat, Prince concentrated mana into her staff, but it was clearly weaker than Kratia's.

"Damn it, why is this newbie a level 7..."

"You'll become level 7 soon, Senior. Then you won't lose to her."

"Yeah, you really aren’t so bad, Lee Shin-Woo!"

"...Shin-Woo, you're acting like a nanny."

They finished with their preparations and took a deep breath. After that, they entered the training facility without further delay. Immediately, Lee Shin-Woo was able to understand how Prince felt.

[Welcome to the nineteenth training exercise.]

There was another world inside.

"Hey, this is..."

"The true nature of subspace magic remains a mystery. The best a human being could achieve at the time was to imitate the mystery applied to dungeons and utilize it. However, the Royal Mage Leader, Feotane Von Seldin, brashly tied several dungeons together and treated it like a single subspace..."

Kratia calmly explained that, as a result of decades of neglect and being allowed to develop unchecked, the tiny training facility ended up growing to the size of a small city.

It was exactly as she said. Lee Shin-Woo couldn't find any traces of the original training facility, and half of it was made up of jungles and caverns; it looked like a wilderness that had been expanded several times. Above all, there were hidden magic traps everywhere, and...

[Gureureureukuaaaaaaah!]

[Kiuoooooh!]

There was such an overwhelming amount of monsters that the ground beneath them was barely visible. Like Kratia had said, they were all level 6 wild beasts!

[The training exercise will begin soon. You must stop the activation of the 297 magic traps in time, and you must annihilate the 666 monsters. A few of the magic traps will activate as soon as the training exercise begins, so please figure out where they are beforehand.]

"Hey, no matter how I look at it, there are more than 666 monsters!"

"We can't get to the next stage until we pass this training exercise, so we have no choice but to break the entire facility!"

"They're coming. They're coming right now!"

[Beginning training exercise.]

[Kuwaaaaaaaaah!]

Once the faint voice of the guide vanished, the monsters were released from their confinement. At the same time, a variety of different magic traps activated!

As if waiting for this very moment, Kratia released the frost around her, freezing everything in the vicinity, be it the ground, the air, or anything between! Amid this dreamlike landscape where time seemed to have come to a halt, Kratia yelled, "Go, Shin-Woo! Hurry!"

"Lightning Sprint!"

He would like to use this skill with Jin’s support, but that wasn’t an option right now. He kicked off the ground and activated the high rank sprint skill, Lightning Sprint.

The mana rushing through his bones turned into golden lightning and enveloped his body, making him look like a beast wearing lightning as skin. Moreover…

[You are facing an irrational amount of monsters, as well as countless magic traps. Rebellion is now Lv4, all stats have increased by 5, and the skill’s effect has increased!]

[Through Rebellion, all stats have increased by 16%. With the presence of Kratia Melloi, whom you have made a deep contractual relationship with, all stats have increased by a further 11%. Half of the effect has been applied to your comrades as well!]

Rebellion leveled up at an opportune time, and its effectiveness increased even further. In an instant, Lee Shin-Woo’s stats increased by 27%, which would improve the power of his skills as well, effectively amplifying his strength by manyfolds. Furthermore, Kratia and his temporary team member Prince received half of those effects as well!

"My magic grew stronger all of a sudden..."

"I'm going!"

The two Breath of the Lightning Gods he was wielding seemed to be reacting to his Lightning Sprint, and the current enveloping his body burst into sparks. He charged at the group of monsters attacking his party. It was pretty much his first time using the skill against monsters, but he seemed to be taking to it naturally.

"There’s a trap!" Kratia warned.

"Not a problem!"

The moment he charged, the magical traps Kratia hadn't disabled activated and shot out from the ground; some tried to weigh him down from above or attacked him from midair, while others attempted to transport him to another space, poison him, or put him to sleep, but all of them bounced off the lightning enclosing his body futilely before vanishing.

Such was the power of a high rank element.

Nice. Very nice.

Realizing that the traps couldn’t hurt him, Lee Shin-Woo rushed into the swarm of monsters without hesitation. His two blades ripped through them like the maw of a beast.

[Ku-Kuhat!?]

[Hishiiiiii!]

With a single strike, he killed seven monsters instantly. Only their bones were left behind, and the other monsters flinched at the sight. However, Lee Shin-Woo didn't stop. Maintaining his Lightning Sprint, he quickly pushed forward.

It felt like he had become Jin. He was moving faster than normal, faster than he could ever imagine himself being, and his reflex speed was pushed to an incredible height as well. Lee Shin-Woo pierced through the heads of the monsters that dared to strike from above. Then he tore through those attempting to bypass him to strike at his allies by ripping their sides or shooting lightning at them!

[Kihik!]

[Kyaaaah!]

The monsters would be shocked and paralyzed just by being near him. Their paralysis lasted only a fleeting moment, but it was more than enough time for Lee Shin-Woo to decapitate them. The Breath of the Lightning Gods he was wielding shot out lightning everywhere, and the monsters exploded left and right with pitiful cries.

"Huaaaaaaah!"

[Kugaaaahk!]

There was another pleasant surprise. Maintaining Lightning Sprint consumed mana. Unexpectedly, Lee Shin-Woo was able to train his intermediate Mana Bone in the process.

The facility had become twisted after decades of neglect, and mana had accumulated more and more within this space. As he fought, his bones absorbed the ambient mana like mad to replenish what he had consumed. He had so much mana stored in him that it felt like it was overflowing, and he used it to further strengthen his lightning. Mana Bone and Lightning Sprint had come to an equilibrium.

I see. Perhaps...

In that split second, Lee Shin-Woo sprinted, swung his sword dozens of times, killed several hundreds of monsters, and then came to a realization.

He'd caught a glimpse of it when his party went through the level 6 dungeon, but as he fought and overpowered level 6 monsters with such ease, the fact became impossible to overlook.

[Critical Hit!]

[Critical Hit!]

[Kuhaaah!]

He was strong.

Really strong.

[Gueehk!]

[Critical Hit!]

Because almost all of the monsters he'd fought so far had been at a higher level than him, he had either avoided them, caused them to destroy each other, made traps, attacked together with allies, or tricked them, which prevented him from assessing his abilities objectively. It turned out he had been underestimating himself.

[Critical Hit!]

[Critical Hit!]

Rule of Bone, Bursting Thunder, the Lightning Element, Combat Sense, Mana Bone, Bone Armory, Lightning Sprint, and Rebellion. He'd desperately gathered these abilities in order to get stronger. Moreover, he had the experiences and memories of higher leveled enemies to further empower him.

He had done all that in order to beat higher leveled enemies. It stood to reason he would be able to overpower enemies that were at the same level as he was, whether they amounted to hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands!

In this world, one powerful individual could trample countless weaklings. Level 6 monsters were nothing more than weaklings that he could easily squashed.

"L-Lightning? Keuk, Fire Demon's Grip!"

It had been 2 seconds since he'd started fighting, and Lee Shin-Woo had already killed hundreds of monsters. Belatedly, Prince joined the battle. Large-scale destruction was a mage’s specialty! As Kratia requested, she had swallowed down her pride and prepared a large-scale magical attack before entering the facility.

[Kuaaaaaaaaaaaaahk!]

[Guoooooooooooh!]

Flame magic was so powerful that people often said no other element could match it in terms of pure destructive capability. That destructive power, as well as fire's tendency to spread and burn even further, contributed to the destruction and death it could bring about.

The spell she called ‘Fire Demon's Grip' was impressive, and just as she'd intended, her fire engulfed the jungle whole, killing hundreds of monsters in an instant. The destructive flames didn't die out, but instead spread in every direction and tormented the surrounding monsters as well.

"Huff, how is it..."

Exhausted from casting such a spell, Prince turned around to the other two heroes, only to be rendered speechless. During the brief time of her spellcasting, Lee Shin-Woo had cut down several hundreds more monsters as he sprinted around. Moreover...

"Clear, clear, clear..."

She had thought that Kratia wouldn't have any energy left after casting such a large-scale ice spell at the beginning, but Kratia was now aiming her orb with one hand to stop all the monsters from approaching them, while using her other hand to create a magic circle to identify all the magic traps and disarm them one by one. They were going through the training that the Royal Mage Leader had intended!

"Hey, you said that was impossible before..."

"Shin-Woo's helping me out a lot, so I can do it now. I'm going to break the trap all at once. You help too. Clear."

It was then that Prince completely accepted it. Kratia wasn't just higher leveled or had more mana than her; she was also superior to her in arcane knowledge and understanding, both of which were essential to a mage!