Chương 244: Holy Forest Part 1

Damion listened to Headmaster Sorin's advice, but did not say anything back. He did not want to give away how excited he was to be able to go into this dungeon. Since this dungeon was filled with Light and Holy affinity Demonic Beasts, it was the perfect opportunity for him to gather the materials he needed to build his artifact. And the best part, since the Headmaster had specially negotiated access for him, he was able to keep everything he found.

Given that he had an entire week in the dungeon, Damion was quite certain he would be able to methodically clear out the majority of the Demonic Beasts inside and collect every resource he could find. The bigger problem lay in dealing with the guardian. Even if the guardian was only an early B Rank Demonic Beast, that was still much stronger than he was.

There were a few methods Damion thought he could use against the guardian and even if he could not kill the creature, he would certainly be able to destroy the dungeon core. Of course, Damion had no intention of going after the dungeon core until he was quite certain he had stripped the dungeon of every resource possible.

"Here we are," Headmaster Sorin said as the ground car came to a stop. Damion exited the vehicle and headed into the containment compound. The portal leading into the B Rank dungeon was just ahead, but the Headmaster stopped him before he could get closer.

"Take this," Headmaster Sorin said, offering Damion a tracking artifact.

"Will this even work inside the dungeon?"

"It will track what you kill inside and if something happens to you, should help us piece together what happened. Just don't lose it. Damion took the small artifact that looked like nothing more than a chunk of wood and stuck it in his pocket. Headmaster Sorin might mean well, but he had no interest in carrying around an item that could be recording all the magic he cast.

"Anything else?" Damion asked as they started moving towards the dungeon attendant.

"No. Good luck." After the dungeon attendant confirmed his identity, Damion walked through the portal with Phil and entered the B Rank dungeon. As soon as he was through, Damion pulled the tracking artifact out of his pocket, stored it in his spatial artifact and then stored the spatial artifact in the Magic System Inventory. When he stored the spatial artifact, which was one of the rings he had taken from the Fontane brothers, Damion remembered the ring from the Iblis.

Aside from checking what was in it and using a couple of the Heavenly Enhancement fruits, he had not paid much attention to it. Seeing how he was going to be in the dungeon for a while, he thought it would be a good idea to check how useful the spatial artifact would be. He had not paid attention to it before because, between the two spatial artifacts he already had, the Magic System Inventory and his own personal spatial storage from his Spatial affinity, Damion did not think he needed the ring.

Now he was realizing he should have paid attention to it right away. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. When Damion checked the size of the ring by sending his mana into it, he realized the Iblis were much more advanced than he realized. Possibly more advanced than anyone realized. The spatial ring the B Rank Iblis had given him, had a storage space of 1, 000 cubic meters. The sheer volume of items he could fit inside it was staggering.

Damion slipped the ring back into the Magic System Inventory. As nice as it was to have the ring, he wanted to focus on storing things inside his personal spatial storage. Only by repeatedly bringing things in and out of it would he be able to advance his Spatial Storage spell. And only by increasing the mastery of the spell, could he lower the cost of mana to store items.

If he could advance the spell high enough, he could possible even store giant Demonic Beasts, once he could do that, he would not have to worry so much with people questioning the quality of his spatial artifacts. Just as Damion was about to move away from the dungeon exit, he turned and cast Ice Wall. Even though Headmaster Sorin said that he would have the entire dungeon to himself, he did not want to take a chance on the attendant selling slots on the side. Or worse.

Selling Damion out to noble families looking for revenge. With Ice Wall, Damion created a solid dome of ice around the dungeon portal. Anyone trying to get through would find themselves in a very tight and very dark place. A reasonable person would go back through the portal. An unreasonable person would try to force their way through. Damion could not say for sure that he would be aware of his Ice Wall being broken if he was deep in the dungeon.

But he was fairly confident that anyone able to break through it would be forced to make quite the racket. As Damion walked into the thick forest of the dungeon, keeping careful watch for Demonic Beasts, he began practice casting spells. Rock Shield, Clean Water, Earth Shard and Telekinesis were used in turn. Damion would have liked to practice his Fire affinity spells and the couple of Poison spells he had, but those were better saved for when he had an actual target to attack.

The first Demonic Beasts Damion encountered in the dungeon was a group of Lotus Deer. These Demonic Beasts did not look too different from ordinary deer, save for the bucks. At each tip of their antlers was a small flower, similar to a lotus. From what Damion understood, these flowers served to attract insects and other small wildlife. The nectar from these flowers had an interesting effect, depending on the mood of the Lotus Deer. If the buck was in a good mood, the nectar would serve as an intoxicant.

Anything that consumed a bit of it would go into a euphoric state. Because of that ability the nectar was quite prized for both its legal and illegal uses. Healing potions did a lot, but they could not always fully heal someone. The nectar from the Lotus Deer Flowers could relieve the pain and stress of injuries, making it easier to transport someone to a healer and could even boost the effectiveness of lower grade healing potions.

Higher grade potions often already included the nectar in tiny amounts so there often was not much of an improvement if more was added. Of course, there was also a large nonmedical demand for the nectar. While not habit forming of itself, the side effect of the nectar causing euphoria was sought after by those seeking to relieve their mental burdens. Certain people, such as those going through high stress situations or depression, could easily fall into the trap of relying on the nectar for relief.

Seeking such relief often quickly turned into reliance and so the Lotus Deer Nectar was regulated, to prevent abuse. However, if the buck was in a bad mood, usually if attacked or feeling threatened, the nectar of the Lotus Deer Flower would turn toxic. If the nectar turned toxic and someone consumed it, they would become quite ill and if not treated within a few hours, would actually begin to fall into paralysis.

If they persisted with no treatment the paralysis would spread until they were completely paralyzed, and the person would eventually die of suffocation. While the nectar could be tested to see if it was toxic or not, there was no visible way to see the difference between the toxin and the nectar. This was another reason the nectar was regulated, it was all too easy for someone to confuse the toxin and the nectar and often times, it was not an accidental switch.