Chapter 82: Awakened a Dungeon!

Ethan had only an hour before his next class began, which meant he had approximately sixty minutes to figure out how to make spiritual fruits, and still make it to his lecture without arriving late.

He quickly grabbed Aster’s book from the bed, flipped through the pages, and hurriedly turned to the section concerning spiritual fruits.

His eyes moved across the first few lines.

Then stopped.

Ethan blinked.

He read the sentence again.

And then a third time, just to make sure he wasn’t misunderstanding what he was seeing.

"...A prosperous dungeon?"

His brows knitted together as he continued reading.

According to Aster’s book, spiritual fruits could only be cultivated by Guides who had awakened a prosperous dungeon. A Mental Sea alone wasn’t enough. A Guide needed to have reached a much higher stage of development before they could possess such a space, and the appearance of a dungeon was one of the clearest signs that a Guide had successfully broken through to the A-rank.

The book even contained a rather casual congratulatory remark for anyone who had reached this section without realizing what had happened.

[If you are currently reading this section and have not yet noticed the existence of your dungeon, congratulations. You have successfully awakened a dungeon alongside your Mental Sea.]

You are now an A-rank Guide.

Ethan’s eyes widened.

...Dungeon?

He immediately thought about the strange world he had seen earlier when he entered his Mental Sea.

The enormous spiritual tree.

The waterfall.

The mysterious landscape that had appeared beyond the gate.

His mouth slowly fell open.

"That was a really a dungeon?"

He had assumed it was simply another part of his Mental Sea, especially because the gate had appeared inside it, but if Aster’s book was telling the truth, then he hadn’t merely discovered some strange new area.

He had awakened an entirely separate space.

Ethan quickly continued reading.

Unlike a Mental Sea, which was fundamentally a spiritual realm connected to a Guide’s consciousness, a dungeon was a physical spiritual space that belonged exclusively to its owner. It was connected to the Guide, but it was not simply another section of their Mental Sea.

The distinction was important.

Inside a Mental Sea, Ethan’s consciousness could enter and move freely, but his physical body remained in the outside world.

A dungeon was different.

A Guide who had awakened one could enter it with their entire physical body.

Ethan’s eyes brightened.

Aster’s explanation continued, and the more Ethan read, the wider his eyes became.

A prosperous dungeon was essentially a private spiritual domain belonging to its owner. Its exact appearance, size, and development potential varied depending on the Guide, their rank, their spiritual attributes, and the quality of the dungeon they awakened.

It could serve as a private cultivation space where a Guide could absorb and refine spiritual energy more efficiently.

It could be used to cultivate spiritual plants and, at higher stages, spiritual fruits.

It could also function as a safe storage space for objects, allowing the owner to place items inside and retrieve them whenever necessary.

Most importantly, unlike ordinary storage devices, the space belonged entirely to its owner and could not simply be accessed by someone else.

A dungeon could also provide a private environment for training spiritual abilities, nurturing spiritual companions, cultivating rare resources, and recovering from exhaustion. Some powerful Guides could even develop their dungeons over time, expanding their territory and gradually transforming them into increasingly powerful spiritual domains.

The exact abilities of a dungeon depended on its owner, which meant no two prosperous dungeons were necessarily identical.

Ethan stared at the page in disbelief.

This was...

Amazing.

He had originally been excited about reaching a higher rank because of the increase in spiritual energy and the spiritual companion he had awakened, but this was on an entirely different level.

He had his Mental Sea.

He had Lumi.

And now he had an entire private world that belonged only to him.

Then another thought suddenly struck him.

"Wait."

Ethan’s expression changed.

"If I can store things in there..."

His gaze immediately dropped to Aster’s book.

The book contained far too much information about Guides, abilities, ranks, spiritual companions, dungeons, and countless other things that Ethan had no business knowing according to the current world’s normal knowledge.

Keeping it hidden was already becoming increasingly difficult. He had almost been caught once and knew that this book being in his room guaranteed that it could be easily found if a search was carried out again.

But if his dungeon could function as storage...

Perfect.

Ethan continued reading.

There was one final detail that caught his attention.

The first time a Guide awakened a dungeon, its entrance might manifest within their Mental Sea, allowing them to perceive the existence of the space for the first time. However, the dungeon itself was not permanently located inside the Mental Sea.

The first appearance was merely the revelation of the connection between the two.

Once the dungeon had been awakened, the Guide could enter it independently by focusing on it and consciously willing themselves to enter.

In other words, Ethan didn’t need to enter his Mental Sea first, find the gate, and then walk through it every single time.

He simply had to think about entering his dungeon and his entire body would be transported inside.

Ethan stared at the words for several seconds the thought alone filled him with excitement.

He gave his room a glance over just to be sure.

Perfect.

There was no reason not to test it.

Besides, if the dungeon really could store objects, there was no better time to find out than now.

Ethan held Aster’s book tightly against his chest before taking a deep breath.

"Alright... let’s try this."

He closed his eyes.

Instead of entering his Mental Sea, he focused on the strange world he had seen beyond the mysterious gate.

The next second a strange sensation spread from the top of his head to the tips of his fingers, almost as though his entire body had suddenly become weightless.

Ethan’s eyes snapped open and he instinctively tightened his grip around Aster’s book.

Then, in the very next second—

His entire body, along with Aster’s precious book, completely disappeared from his room.