Evan also ended up discovering that there were methods to maximise the power one possessed in the inferior stage and to increase it to the utmost limit, that way when breaking into the intermediate stage, they would naturally be stronger than normal intermediate stages.


    An example of this was a situation where an existence at around level 195-200 already had ''B'' ranked stats.


    Considering that B-ranked stats were things one normally got at level 230 and above, it showed that this method was indeed not without results.


    Besides, doing this could also increase the amount and quality of the energy that the existence held.


    ''So, it''s pretty much just circting my energy and spreading it throughout my entire energy circuit. Then I would retract it quickly to my energy core and not let any of it leak out of my body at all.


    With this method, the energy in my body would naturally be denser due to it being tenser in the process of spreading and retraction, allowing me topress it and improve its quality.


    Bypressing it and reducing the volume it upies, I would be freeing up space for further energy growth.''


    The only issue was that since Evan possessed two energy types, namely aura and magic power, he had to do this for both of them or the quality of energy he had would be imbnced with one being stronger than the other.


    "No matter how I look at this, what I''m doing is cultivation!"


    *SMACK!


    "OW!!! WHY?!


    I AM cultivating! It''s even one of the genr-!"


    The young hero could notplete his statement and had to duck to avoid the high demon''s palm that wanted to cover his mouth.


    "Okay! I''d keep quiet andpress my energy in silence!"


    Eventually, he realised that the best thing to do was to shut his mouth and silentlypress his energy, an endeavour that was going to take him quite a while due to his high energy level granted to him by his ''C'' rank stat.


    As for Pride, since she had long passed the master level more than a millennia ago, it was rtively easier for her to break through to the intermediate stage again so she did just that.


    ◇ ◇ ◇


    The group quit monster hunting for the day and decided to deal with their existence level issues, with Eliza joining Evan in attempting topress her energy.


    They chose a rtively secluded spot that was actually a dead end at the end of a small corridor connecting to one of the ridiculouslyrge hall-like areas that the group discovered.


    It was a corridor that was usually overlooked due to its position on the wall being adjacent to the entrance into therge area.


    In fact, multiple adventurer parties had entered this area and had not even noticed the corridor, much less the party of three who were at the end of it.


    And like that, the group passed the night and weed the eleventh day of the new Year 1052, being woken up when dozens of presences suddenly entered their range of detection.


    Due to living in the dungeon for the past few weeks, the presence detection abilities of the three had risen to new heights, with Evan and Eliza being capable of noticing when someone came within a certain range of their position.


    Evan did this by spreading out a thin barely perceptible wave of energy and sensing any disturbances in this range while Eliza who was more attuned to using life energy after bing a master-level existence, directly sensed the life forces of whoever entered her range.


    Pride remarked that while it was useful against living beings, it was next to useless against undead creatures and advised her to gain other presence detection methods.


    The high demon herself had also achieved a new level of sensory perception with an increased range, evidenced by the fact that she was the first to notice the iing presences with Evan and Eliza noticing a beatter.


    "Really? Isn''t this a bit too early?"


    Evan yawned as he spoke, his hand diving into the small half-metre-long ck hole that appeared mid-air and pulling out the unforged.


    ''I should really find the materials required to unseal the unforged''s full power soon.''


    He had this thought as he got to his feet and rubbed his eyes while moving towards the entrance to the corridor.


    As he got closer, he could gain a clearer picture of the situation, with the asional weird squeals and shes of light confirming his spection.


    ''I''m guessing an adventurer party got sieged by a bunch of rift mages and their summoned monsters, huh?''


    Upon reaching the edge of the corridor, the three saw a scene that was just as Evan had thought, with a visibly exhausted and lightly wounded party of six battling against over a hundred monsters ranging from goblins and orcs to spiders and trolls.


    As the floors deepened, the variety of monsters summoned by the rift mages increased with a few rift mages being capable of summoning creatures like harpies and minotaurs.


    ''Those bull-headed fuckers were so irritating to deal with.''


    Evan recalled the memories of fighting a group of minotaurs on the eighteenth floor for hours simply because the rift mage who summoned them had a concealment type skill which it used to hide and continuously summon the monsters, thereby keeping the group upied and preventing them from searching for it.


    The situation was resolved when Evan and Pride who were pissed by the rift mage''s actions, unleashed powerful magic everywhere, decimating both the minotaurs and the rift mage instantly.


    "KUEE!!!"


    The familiar squeal brought him out of his memories as Evan turned his gaze towards the party of six consisting of three young men and women.


    ''Some of them look like teenagers.''


    As Evan was analysing their ages, a few of the monsters noticed him and roared, charging towards him only to be cleaved in two faster than they could realize.


    Naturally, the change in behaviour of some of the monsters alerted the party being besieged, allowing them to notice Evan, along with Pride and Eliza who just walked up behind him.


    "Huh? There''s another group here?"


    "Shit! These fuckers are summoning more monsters!"


    "Help Us Please!!"


    Evan casually scanned the entire room and realised that it was impossible for them to leave the area without shing with the monsters, heaving a sigh as he rose his sword and shouted towards the other party.


    "Duck!"