How embarrassing.

"What's the plan for the 'exam'?"

"There are two ways for the exam to play out, one is that we start on the fourth floor right off the bat, and the other is that we will have to find our way to the fourth floor's Boss from the entrance of the dungeon."

Like Gary said, those were the only ways the exam could play out. If we started off on the fourth floor, these six months before the exam would be best spent training. On the other hand, if we started at the very start of the dungeon, there was going to be a lot to do in the next few months.

"In the case where we only need to traverse the fourth floor, the best course of action would be to train by fighting the Boss from the third floor."

"However, such a strategy would only work in that specific case, isn't it?"

"Correct. That's why we should explore and remember the structure of the three floors thoroughly, that way, we should be able to design a path for us to use on the day of the exam."

"I believe, for starters, we should find the boss room."

"That would indeed be the best first step to take. We should then go back in order to trade information with the other members."

"We should, but there is a problem."

"What is it?"

"Where the hell is the boss room, and after that, where the hell is the entrance?"

Gary widened his eyes at my remark before recomposing himself.

"You shouldn't worry about such an issue, John, I will take care of it."

I raised an eyebrow at that.

"Can I trust you on that?"

With an impassive expression, Gary answered.

"The answer to that is obvious, isn't it?"

Oh! He got me worried there, I should have known that there was no way that Gary wouldn't have a plan from the start.

"Obviously you shouldn't."

Huh? What did he say?

"HUH?!!"

"Calm down, John, I can explain."

"Sorry. I shouldn't scream at you since I didn't do anything to help either."

We both sighed and looked at each other before letting out a chuckle.

"So where is your explanation?"

"I didn't bother to register every turn we took and instead was more focused on the monsters, besides that, I have the worst sense of direction you could think of."

"So even if you tried to remember our path, it would be futile."

"That's correct."

Who would have thought that the most talented person I knew had such a flaw?

"Have you ever gotten lost before?"

"Yeah."

"Where?"

"In my father's territory."

"A forest or perhaps a town?"

"Our garden."

"..."

I should be careful, it's a surprise I didn't lose him up until now. If something like that happens during the exam, I will end up dead.

"Don't ever take the lead, just follow me, so you don't get lost."

I was the youngest and the weakest here, why the hell should I babysit the oldest and the strongest?

"For now, let's just wander around and hope to find this floor's boss room."

A sudden thought occurred to me, and I drew my sword.

Activating my rune, flames erupted from my sword, calmly dancing around the blade without going too far.

A few seconds passed, and I was adding more and more mana to the flames, increasing their intensity and temperature, as well as other aspects of the spell.

I then swung my sword vertically, from up to down. A moon-shaped blade of fire flew forward towards the wall of the dungeon, marking it with a vertical line.

"What was that for?" Gary asked.

"It's a mark, so that I can guide myself later. For example, this is point one. In the future, I will be capable of telling that from here I should take a certain direction to reach the next point, which is closer to the boss's room."

"But won't the dungeon repair it?"

Dungeons were, in the end, magical ruins left behind by a civilization as old as the Celestials. It used blessed mana to create the walls and corrupted mana to create and breed monsters. It was generally known to everyone that a dungeon could repair itself, so it was reasonable for Gary to worry about losing the markings. However...

"There is no need to worry, Gary, this dungeon is obviously a low-level one, and the range of their maintenance is almost nonexistent, otherwise, the walls wouldn't already have so many marks, and the stone walls wouldn't look so old too."

"I see, I didn't notice that."

"Of course, I am still not aware of the exact speed of recovery, so we should check occasionally."

"That would be the most correct way, yes."

"With that out of the way, let's get going."

With that, Gary and I wandered around the dungeon without any idea where we were going. I just limited myself to creating markings every time we needed to choose to take a turn or go straight. I also draw lines in the ground, indicating that walking that way would lead to a dead end.

Not many monsters stood in our way, were we killing them faster than they were created by the dungeon? Anyway, without enemies to fight, the exploration became quite monotonous.

"It's starting to get boring," I muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

We continued our way, and without much to do, I started discussing with Gary, about my rune.

"Do you have any advice on how to use my rune?"

Gary looked at me before saying.

"Your rune, the True Blessing, besides the increase in magical power you get, also allows you to conjure and control fire without any type of restraint. You can basically do anything as long as 'anything' is related to fire."

Gary activated his copy magic, copied my rune and started demonstrating each of the examples he could think of.

"You can create fireballs to launch at your enemies, you can create weapons, you can cover your fists our weapons in fire, you can alter the temperature of the room and many other things."

Gary looked down, thinking carefully about his next words.

"To be honest, training to master such a versatile rune has no really correct path, the only thing you can do is keep experimenting with it through trial and error."

I reflected on his words, it was indeed hard to get a grasp of his true potential. I had a long way to go.

"Nevertheless, you have already shown great creativity while using your true blessing."

"You think so?"

"Yes. In my opinion, there is a bigger issue that you should focus on instead."

"What do you mean?"

"What I am referring to is your casting speed."

"My casting speed?"

"Yes. I believe that there is a lot of unused potential in your casting speed."

"Well, explain your thoughts."

"You see, with a true blessing, you are not limited to the amount of mana you can infuse in a spell. Other people who can create fireballs cannot feed more mana to it than their rune allows, however, you don't have such a limit, which means if you have time to keep infusing your spell with mana you can create leagues above your own."

"What does that have to do with my casting speed?"

"If you explore the method I just talked to you about, your battle style would be filled with holes. If you stand quietly casting your spell for a long period of time, you will be easy prey."

"So I need to increase my casting speed."

"That's correct."

"But how? One's casting speed is limited by their magical power, unless I can use blessed mode or increase in rank, my magical power will not be increased until I receive my next rune."

"That I don't know, but I believe the answer might be in that rune of yours."

"You think so?"

"I do."

"That's something to investigate about my rune."

"We leave that investigation for later."

"Why is that?"

In response, Gary pointed to a hole in the ground. The hole was big enough for a bunch of people to jump in it at the same time.

"Shall we go in?"