Chương 53: Natural Treasure Of The Dungeon

I eventually passed out, and when I woke up, I was feeling a lot better. That soul attack was only used as a last resort, as it weakened me severely. A soul shouldn't be a weapon. I wondered if I had gotten a skill, and it felt like I had, but I didn't dare use it again. I needed to get advice from my mother or a Healer. I shouldn't rush into new skills. They had warned me about this because it was too easy to develop bad habits that would be harder to correct in the future.

One reason for my smooth leveling wasn't just the soul fruits, though they helped a lot. It was the training I got from my various instructors and tutors. While someone couldn't learn a skill improperly, there were dead ends in terms of movements and leveling. Like with a sword, knowing the basic strikes and stances was critical before learning anything else.

Getting the fundamentals correct at the earliest levels of the skill and imprinting that knowledge into my soul, rather than focusing on more difficult techniques and struggling to level up the skill once it reaches a higher level. I didn't want to get up, since there was a lot of cleaning to do. I let out a sigh and slowly came to my feet. The first thing was my sword. I wiped it down with a wet rag using my saved water, applied a bit of oil, and then wiped it down with a second rag.

It had a couple of nicks in the blade from where I had hit the bug monsters' shells. I then took off my armor and did my best. A lot of my blood had soaked into the leather and dried. There wasn't much I could do at this point. I then went to the two bug monsters and collected their cores. They were red and quite large. So, not past level 50, but up there somewhere. Next, I checked my face and neck. The wounds had healed, but still felt tender. I would probably avoid any scarring.

The physical damage wasn't that deep, only surface-level. Injuries consumed healing points much more when they affected one's muscles or essential body parts. I touched the scar from the time I was almost decapitated. Only if wounds were deep or lingered would they leave behind a lasting mark. Putting my armor back on, I collected my pack and made my way to the hole in the wall. Taking a careful look inside, there was a singular wooden chest sitting in the middle of the hidden chamber.

I broke open more of the wall and then entered, double and triple-checking everything for traps and monsters. Once I reached the wooden chest, I repeated the process. While it might be tedious, I was in no mood for a second brush with death. There were no traps or anything else near the chest. I stood to the side and used my spear to flip it open from a distance. Nothing jumped out at me. I approached and checked inside. Resting all alone at the bottom of the chest was a small metal ingot.

People tried to bring weapons and other things out of the dungeon, but they broke after they killed the monster. The Minotaur's club was already heavily cracked and broke apart. The same thing happened with material from the dungeon, like the torches. They could only bring out natural treasures like soul fruit or this piece of metal. The shells of the bugs would also be breaking. The equipment was linked to the monsters by the dungeon during their creation.

Aside from monster cores, valuable items came from the dead or a treasure like this. A monster part could only be removed if fused with its core or through Alchemical preservation. Core fusion wasn't rare, but it wasn't common either, especially in the higher layers of the dungeon. Such occurrences often occurred with more powerful cores. My Tutors weren't sure why this occurred, but Damian had mentioned that the College of Advancement likely made a guess since they had guesses about everything else.

They researched everything about the System and the dungeon, trying to unlock secrets using math and data. I didn't know enough about metal to identify what kind it was. I carefully collected it and put it at the bottom of my pack. Perhaps they could make a nice sword out of the stuff. Since I had found the material, my mother would have a hard time objecting. A basic steel blade that was only tier 1 was decent, but it struggled against stronger monsters that had defenses to protect them.

With my looting done, I made my way through the passage down to the 3 rd layer. I had to descend the passage carefully, which was more of a shaft with handholds jutting out of the stone. Getting back up was going to be a colossal pain, but I had confidence in myself. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. I was going to spend the next two months, probably a little less, clearing out monsters of the 3 rd layer.

I was going to come up early for a day's break before the deadline to explore the city further and recover before having to deal with my mother. Knowing her, she would send me back into the dungeon or do some more training. After the last fight, I wanted a slight break from this hell and to look about the city on my own. Before, someone had always accompanied me. Now was my chance to see things for myself. And some chocolate. My secret weakness is sweets.

If Bastian took baking to the next level, perhaps I could take sweets to the next level? But I enjoyed eating them, and I didn't care about their preparation. Well, I was going to try out the sweets at Monolith. My mother had given me several silver coins in my pack so that I wouldn't be short of money. That shiny metal should be worth a lot. I had seen platinum before, and it wasn't platinum. Even then, I wouldn't sell it.

Natural treasures were meant to be used, unless one was retiring or giving them to a close friend or family member. My mother giving me two green soul fruits was no small feat. It made sense that she'd test my abilities before giving me more dungeon resources. While the fight wasn't the best, I had won and lived to fight another day. That was all that mattered. Reaching the 3 rd layer, I looked around and smiled. Another two months of being down here, but I could do it. There were four tunnels this time.

None of them led towards the passage to the next layer down. Looking around, each tunnel was wildly different. One had roots and glowing crystals. Another had trickles of water running down the stone and disappearing into cracks on the floor. A stiff breeze was blowing out of the third. The fourth had a sand floor and intricate stone walls that almost looked like runes but weren't, since there was no gathering of Mana in the random lines.

The dungeon became more complex as one descended through the layers, encountering increasingly varied environments. The best option was the one with a stiff breeze. It was the least likely to have any weird environmental effects in the next chamber. Plant life was a terrible choice without fire magic. The glowing crystals were also concerning. I didn't want to face a golem or something with magic. I tried to face physical creatures if possible. The water one had a similar problem.

A large water-filled cavern would be a massive headache to fight in. I didn't fancy facing any water-based monsters. The sand one seemed less concerning, but it was the perfect tunnel for traps or hidden monsters under the sand. I prefer to see my enemies approaching, if possible, rather than depending on sensory skills. This wouldn't always be possible, of course, but I would not pick monster fights I didn't like if I could help it.

If I got a bad draw, I would try to figure out a way to win, but if backtracking was impossible, it was an option. After my previous fights, I felt a lot less pressure to prove myself, even if my mother was watching. I had reached the 3 rd layer, defeated Abnormals, and found a natural treasure. The only thing left was to keep up a high rate of progress each day here in the 3 rd layer. That meant an average of 12 caverns a day, if possible.

As I made my way down the chosen tunnel, I narrowly missed stepping on a pressure plate. Something like this is what I'd been expecting and scanning for. I took my time to survey the trap and all its triggers. It seemed to unleash something from the holes in the nearby wall. Probably some corrosive mist to be pushed by the wind coming through the tunnel, melting adventurers. Blindly triggering it would have led to issues as well.

If you weren't fast enough, the corrosive mist would flow through the tunnel using the wind. That was why Trap Detection was better than randomly activating traps. And a trap could trigger the activation mechanism of other traps, leading to secondary effects. Something I had a lot of experience with when learning from Trap Master Enzo. I also checked for better hidden traps. That was a horrible thing that happened, but Trap Master Enzo had told me the dungeon did it occasionally.

Place an obvious trap and then set a better hidden trap behind it, luring adventurers into a false sense of security. While it was unlikely this high up, I preferred being extra careful with traps. Unlike a monster, I couldn't just stab them to death. There was only one trap, and I moved around carefully. I made a strong mental note of its location if I had to rush back down the tunnel. I then continued forward to the next caravan.

Looking up, 10 big crow-like birds were the size of horses, flying monsters, of course. The birds perched on outcroppings around the chamber. This was going to be a tough fight. I got my spear and bow ready. Each of these monsters was around level 15. That was higher level than a Champion of the 1 st layer but less than a Champion of the 2 nd layer. It would be a tough fight, but I felt confident as I began firing arrows. They didn't kill the monsters but wounded them enough to make attacking more difficult.

Flying monsters had higher Agility, but when injured, it was easy to disrupt their flight ability. The spear would keep them back if they tried to rush my position. I could run into the chamber and use my sword and shield, but I preferred whittling down their numbers first. My goal was to get them down to five before being forced to change weapons. The giant crows were fast, but when flying at the entrance to the tunnel, they hesitated, which allowed me to poke them easily with the spear.

If they landed, they were slow and didn't have any ranged attacks. While they were physically tough, I could win this fight. Another fifty days of this at the very least before I try finding my way back. Just another 599 fights to go after this one. I couldn't help but grin. I was curious about what the dungeon would come up with next.