Chương 50: Dealing with Corruption and Leaving the Dungeon

Adolin sat in a meditative pose, using the breathing technique to recover his mana faster. The fight with the general had exhausted him. Using all of his mana in an instant had not been a good idea, and the corruption had started seeping into his core. As soon as he recovered some mana, however, the core began actively defending itself against the corruption. So it wasn't an immediate problem. Well, he had about an hour before it became one. Plenty of time. It still hurt giving the potion to Edrin.

The man's final attack had left him completely exposed to the corruption, and with his already weakened body, the spark had started dimming. So Adolin had no choice but to use the potion. It felt awful. Yet if he hadn't done it, Edrin would have either died or been taken by the corruption. And the man had given everything he had to help during the fight. Some of his mana had already recovered, and he had gained quite a few levels during the last few rooms.

Not as many as he had hoped for, but it was close to the amount he had planned for. Calamity alone had probably given him at least three levels. He still wasn't sure exactly how much he had leveled up, but his mana capacity had increased by quite a bit. He opened his eyes and saw Edrin walking toward him with the dungeon core already in his hand. Since he had fully healed, it was his job to get it. Edrin tossed the orb lightly into the air before catching it again.

"Got it," he said. Adolin only nodded and extended his hand, palm open. Edrin shrugged and handed him the dungeon core. Adolin turned it around in his hands. It was spherical and translucent, resembling crystal or glass. It felt cold to the touch, yet inside it burned a crimson flame. Green veins pulsed through the fire, constantly shifting beneath the surface. Analyze. [Analyze Complete.] [Dungeon Core.] [Corrupted.] Well, that spell was becoming more and more useless.

It might still be worth using when he had no idea what he was looking at, but beyond that it seemed pointless. He focused on the spell and closed his eyes. The dungeon core was filled with condensed pure mana… and corrupted mana. The pure mana was resisting the corruption, just like his own core was. But the corruption was slowly winning. If left alone long enough, it would eventually consume all of the pure mana inside the core. What would happen after that, he had no idea. Nor did he want to find out.

The core contained an insane amount of pure mana. It could probably be used for countless things. There had been nothing remotely similar to it in his old world. Dozens of ideas immediately came to mind. Offensive magical artifacts. Defensive ones. Artifacts that could improve everyday life. The possibilities felt nearly endless. And the most absurd part? The core could replenish its own mana over time. It was a treasure. He wanted to learn more about it.

"What is it used for?" Adolin asked, flipping the core in his hands.

"The core, I mean." Edrin tilted his head slightly.

"Mana. You can pull the mana from the core into your own, kind of like using a potion."

"Just for that?"

"Well, the mages in our estate are trying to find combat uses for them," Edrin said.

"But they haven't had much luck so far." That sounded like exactly the kind of work he would enjoy. Crafting magical artifacts while earning gold at the same time. That went onto the list of things he wanted to do as well. And that list kept growing larger with each passing day. He had already spent far too much time inside the dungeon. He wasn't even sure how long it had been anymore. The endurance rooms had completely ruined his sense of time. His best guess was somewhere between two and three days.

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"How do we leave the dungeon?" Adolin asked.

"The dungeon usually teleports everyone out some time after the core is taken or destroyed. Then the space inside collapses." Edrin shrugged.

"So in about an hour or two, we should end up back near the entrance." Adolin nodded. He still had some time to check his status and see if he could deal with the corruption plaguing them. He focused inwardly, toward his core. The corruption had spread all around it, constantly trying to invade the core. Meanwhile, his mana acted like a shield, blocking the corruption from coming into direct contact with it. That left him with one problem. The corruption that had already made its way inside his core.

He could feel it trying to do something to the core, though he still wasn't sure what exactly. The good thing was that he still had time to deal with it. Days, if not longer. His earlier estimate had been based on the corruption spreading through his body. But now that he knew he could purge it, the small amount that had slipped into his core wasn't an immediate threat. Though he wasn't sure how much corruption had already entered Edrin's core. He would have to check once they were out of the dungeon.

"Status," Adolin muttered. [New Skill Detected: Shockwave.] [Skill Tier: 8] [Level Increased.]... [New Skill Detected: Calamity.] [Skill Tier: 11] [Level Increased.] [Level Increased.] [Level Increased.] He had gained a total of six levels, with three of them coming from using Calamity alone. That was motivating. It made him want to try the few Archmage spells he knew that didn't require their full mana cost to activate. Most of them were spells he had created himself. Only one of them wasn't.

[Status:] Name: Dareth Wood Race: Human Mana: 127/1060 Level: 37 Class: Convenience Mage [Attributes:] Strength: 38 Agility: 39 Endurance: 40 Intelligence: 106 Constitution: 38 Attribute Points Available: 12 The new class was increasing his mana significantly. Recovering the strength he once had would take far less time than he had initially expected. Not that it would happen anytime soon. The mana pool he had possessed in his old world had been an anomaly.

Looking at mana as numbers still felt foreign to him, but based on his current experience, he estimated his old mana pool had been at least three hundred thousand. Possibly even more. But he wouldn't know for certain until he had enough mana to cast a true Archmage spell at full power. With the additional attribute points from his class, he was gaining seven points in Intelligence with every level. He placed every single one of them into it.

Mana: 127/1180 Intelligence: 118 He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and started using the breathing technique. Adolin opened his eyes once he felt he had enough mana to purge the corruption inside his body. He wasn't sure how much time had passed since he had started meditating, but they were still inside the dungeon. Edrin sat a few steps away from him. He, too, was in a meditative pose, his eyes closed. He didn't want to disturb the man, so he focused on his core again. Nothing had changed around it.

Or inside it. The struggle between his mana and the corruption was still ongoing. Now he needed to get rid of it. He took control of his mana and carefully moved it, surrounding a section of the corruption. Now came the important part. He had to move the corruption out of his body without causing even more damage in the process. Mana channels spread throughout the body. Warriors opened them to use skills, and those were the channels he needed to avoid if he wanted to prevent further damage to the core.

Fortunately, none of the channels in his body had been opened yet, which made the job easier. Though that was something he would have to change in the future. Opening the channels would help him use skills meant for swordsmen. He slowly moved the mana surrounding the corruption toward the upper part of his body. He grimaced as burning pain erupted from his chest. Gritting his teeth, he continued moving it. The process was slow. And painful. After some time, the corruption was finally pushed out through his mouth.

Nothing visible happened. The corrupted mana was invisible to the naked eye. He exhaled slowly. Then he pushed the mana that had come into contact with the corruption out of his body as well. He took a minute to rest. A nagging feeling kept telling him he was forgetting something, though he couldn't tell what it was. Eventually, he shrugged it off and returned to purging the corruption. He still had to repeat the process six more times before every trace of the corruption was removed from his body.

Just as he purged the last traces of corruption from his body, he felt the familiar prickling sensation. The same one he had felt before being teleported. Then his vision went black.