In a dark space, which seems to be from a different dimension, was the seated figure of Alexander.

As he looked at a flying screen of light in front of him, containing the scene inside his golden structure he could not help but lament.

"It has already been 40 years, I even went easy on them and made this trial into a classic dungeon from the Mana Grounds. So let alone the checkpoints inside, the difficulty is increasing steadily, yet just two people managed to get treasures..."

In the 40 years that had passed since then the news of a dungeon appearing inside the Golden Sky Kingdom's territory soon spread in the entire world. With such popularity, the dungeon turned into a touristic spot for adventurers.

Alexander also managed to get some information from the adventurers' conversations inside his dungeon.

He learned that this world was called Gaia, learning this, he immediately bursted into laughter, hearing such a name that was already used by at least a couple millions worlds inside the Mana Grounds alone.

Inside the Universe, each and every tier of world had a specific name, for Tier-1 Worlds they were either called Infant Worlds or Burial Grounds, for Tier-2 Worlds the name given was Mana Grounds. As for Tier-3 Worlds they were named Lower Worlds.

After that he learned useful information to tweak his dungeon. He heared that this world had adventurer ranks as the most common form of evaluation, from F-Rank to A-Rank, then S-Rank as apparently the strongest ever seen.

In Gaia, the adventurers could reach F-Rank if they could use Aura or Mana, hearing this, he could not help wondering what the difference was, when all there was in this place was Mana. He soon remembered however that most Tier-2 Worlds called Aura the use of Mana inside the body, comparing them, one could say that Mana users or magicians were the equivalent to Qi Cultivators while Aura users were the equivalent of Body Cultivators.

Of course saying that magicians were similar to Qi cultivators was quite the stretch. Let alone the difference in potential and quality of the energy, the way Mana was forced inside the user's heart to create circles meant to increase their power as well as affinity with Mana itself was quite different from Qi cultivators, refining the Qi in the atmosphere within their meridians until it reached their dantian, expanding it if necessary.

Using the heart which is material and engraving circles on it, let alone the danger of stabbing yourself in the heart with Mana, this practice is also very limited. As for the dantian, since it is half-immaterial and not considered the same as material organs, the same problems does not apply.

And this is not taking into account the biggest difference of such energies...

...potential !

With Mana, be it using it inside or outside the body, such energy could at best make the user reach the pinnacle of strength inside the Mana Grounds as well as below. But with Qi, reaching the peak of the user's respective plane was but the start, ascending to higher planes is more than possible, while there are many different types of energies standing above basic Qi, all of them originated from it ! Meaning that Qi and True Qi for example, which is a higher form of energy than Qi, is in itself still Qi, except that this same Qi as managed to evolve using it's innate potential.

It didn't take long for Alexander to guess the name of each level of power inside Gaia, since the Heavenly Way often just forces people to name these levels with predetermined and Universally used terms.

Just hearing that the weakest Aura users were called Aura Apprentice while also hearing some talk about the legendary Aura Emperor or Aura God, he could tell from just these two that above Aura Apprentice was Aura User, then Aura Veteran, followed by Aura Expert, Aura Master, Aura Grand Master, Aura King, Aura Emperor then finally Aura God, while for people inhabitating the Mana Grounds, legends such as Aura Gods were nothing more than fairy tales, for Alexander, having killed a few dozens of them himself, not forgetting the hundreds if not thousands of them he also saw dying trying to ascend to Tier-3 Worlds, they were nothing much.

So while natives of the Mana Grounds thought of Aura Gods or Mana Gods as real geniuses that had reached the peak of life throught hardships and talent, Alexander only saw them as fools that didn't know their place.

'What would they think if they knew all of these so called gods end up crushed under the gravity and even the weight of the Qi inside Tier-3 Worlds, just the Qi itself inside those shitty Tier-3 Worlds is more than enough to turn them into cripples !'

As Alexander was reminiscing the past, he saw someone that had managed to get a treasure, this was the third.

'So what do we have here ?'

Alexander saw inside the screen of light that the third one to have reached a treasure was a man completely covered in black clothes, from head to toe. Seeing this, he understood that this person had probably quite the story, needing to hide his identity like this.

"Anyway, let's see, he is human, seems like an Aura Master. Alright and you get ..!"

Alexander quickly turned around and spun a wheel, after some time it finally stopped, it's arrow pointing at...

"Low Grade Mortal Tier Red Sword !"

"Woah ! That's some bad luck !"

The covered man situated in what appeared to be an small open space with a platform at the top of some stairs saw, on top of an altar standing on the platform, some bright light almost blinding him.

As the light started to fade the man was getting more and more excited, only to see a sword with a red handle, the sword was plain and didn't emit any aura of sort, be it from majesty or Mana.

"...Is that it ?" The man had a blank look on his face, feeling as if the dangers he went through were for naught...

Before he could grab the sword he heard a voice.

"Congratulation, you were awarded a Low Grade Mortal Tier Sword, called the Red Sword ! This weapon is made from black iron, a tough material, it has been modified as to avoid the sword from being too heavy for you !"

Of course since the Mana Grounds were only Tier-2, something made from a material coming from a Tier-3 World such as black iron would be impossible to wield by a Mana Grounds' native, therefore it had recieved some adjustements by Alexander himself.

The covered man was slightly confused, since he didn't know what black iron was, he could not help but want to test the sword and assess it's potential.

And so he did, taking the sword in his right hand, the man started walking deeper inside the dungeon, he soon found a puppet, it's intimidating aura indicating it's strength equivalent to his own, an Aura Master !

"Alright then, let's try this out ! You better not let me down !"

As the man roared, he kicked the ground with his body fully covered in Mana, he then slashed downward at the puppet, expecting it to be a tough fight, however much to his surprise, all he could do was to look blankly at his sword, as he then turn his head towards what remained of the now destroyed puppet, a simple slash was enough to cut the puppet in half, when before it would've taken him more than 20 exchanges to obtain similar results.

"A-Amazing !"

As the man was having the time of his life slaughtering puppet after puppet, Alexander was still looking at him.

"He is so happy for some sharp metal stick, even the two before him weren't so unlucky, the Guild Master or something got a High Grade Mortal Tier Black Sword while the princess got a Middle Grade Mortal Tier Green Sword."

"Well anyway, it's getting boring, I haven't even found a single mage, only aura users..."

"Cowards !"

How could Alexander not be surprised by such inconsistency, the only ones trying his dungeon were aura users, they ranged from Aura Apprentices to Aura Masters, taking into account their equivalents, finding some Mage Apprentices, Mage Candidates, Mages, Great Mages, even a few Grand Mages or a couple of Court Mages would be normal, yet Alexander didn't find any of them, while he didn't expect to see higher ones like a Kindgom Mage, Mana King, Mana Emperor or Mana God, he still expected at least one of each below Grand Mage.

"Alright it's annoying, let's wrap this up, after that I guess I'll go explore some more Tier-2 Worlds, trying to fish for some Gods and Goddesses, hehe !"

As people were fighting against puppets and monsters inside the dungeon they heard a booming voice

"This dungeon will end soon, if you want to leave go ahead, if you want to stay, let me tell you, running away is all you will be able to do ! I will increase the difficulty, if any of you can manage to reach the end of the corridor, the rewards will blow your worldview into pieces !"

As soon as his words ended, everyone was teleported inside a golden room, it's width spanning 20 meters, it's height 30 meters. At one end of the room, two small doors leaving the dungeon, on the opposite side, a giant corridor,

as if the room expanded multiple times, the corridor was of course the same dimensions of the room for the width and height, the corridor in itself however seemed to end hundreds of meters into the distance.

Quickly the majority started to leave through the doors, as for the few dozens of people either staying with conviction or simply hesitating, they soon heard a rumble before the doors started to disappear.

Shock painted their faces as they understood that there was no going back now.

"No !"

"What do I do ?!"

"What is this ?! Please let me leave, I changed my mind !"

Cries of regrets and fear filled the room as people started running towards the now simple wall that used to possess two doors.

Before they could complain anymore, Alexander's voice reverberated.

"You either die or reach the end ! In the middle of the corridor are some very slow and almost crippled beasts ! As well as some broken puppets !"

"Now it may seem easy but they are not Aura Apprentice or whatever you call their power level, they will all have a 1st stage Qi Sensing Realm cultivation base with the last one being at the 1st stage of the Qi refining Realm !"

As the voice faded into the distance, people started to cry in confusion one after the other.

"Qi what ?! What does it mean ?!"

"I don't know ! He said Qi Sensing something, and since the last one is... what was it again ?"

As everyone was arguing a woman with curly blonde hair and sky blue eyes shouted

"Silence ! I am the first princess of the Golden Sky Kindgom, Marie Sky-Crown ! From what the voice said, we can guess these puppets will be strong ! And the last one will be even stronger ! I propose we form groups !"

"You're the first princess ?! How are you still alive ?! I heard it has been 350 years since you discovered this place !"

As a voice in the crowd said this, more and more people started to discuss between themselves completely ignoring the princess.

"What ?!"

"Wait ! I heard that the Golden Sky Kindgom had discovered a magical artifact capable of increasing someone's lifespan ! Rumors as it that it can increase it by at least a thousand years !"

"I heard it was ten thousands years !"

"The cousin of my step-sister's father told me that because of it, five hundred years ago the King of the Golden Sky Kingdom managed to reach the 8th Circle, becoming a Mana King !"

The princess could not help narrow her eyes as she saw everybody ignore her.

"Tsk ! I'll go myself then !"

-----

Looking at the screen Alexander could not help but sigh, the corridor had been there for around three days, and now, he just saw the last person standing, the princess, getting sliced into countless pieces by a puppet.

"Why was she fighting it ? I said to outrun it, dumbass..."

A few moments later Alexander destroyed the dungeon making it crumble on itself before teleporting into space.

"Alright, time to go look for some rats, after that, I think I'll either go with taking a few disciples or just do some world building !"