Free Web NovelChapter 15: Ch 15: Dungeon
[Name: ____ (Enzo Riccardo)
Aspect:
Mana Core (Unique): Sphere of the Eight Cardinals [F rank]
Core Trait: Cardinals (0/8)
Total fragments: 0
Core fragments: 193/2000
Physique: Dormant (1/2)
Affinity:
Material Techniques:
Weapon Techniques:
Skills: Mana Vision
Titles: Ninth Aspirant
Affiliations: Blessed of the Blood Moon, Heir of the Goddess of Time, A nameless of the Hermann Clan.
Ultimate: (Aspect yet to be unlocked).]
At the end, it turned out he had in fact killed a lot of people as an act of final revenge.
They say the karma of your past life affects you in the next. And maybe they had been correct as Enzo felt his core become even more powerful with the flourish of more core fragments. freewebnoveℓ.com
In a rather happy mood, he stepped inside the F-ranked dungeon.
The sound of dripping water reached his ears before his eyes caught up with him.
The dungeon he found himself in was a cave, the branch of some river flowing peacefully through it.
Enzo looked around at the rough walls, the limestones spread unevenly across the curved surface. And along these walls, small droplets of water precipitated as they fell downwards from the slick walls.
The cave in itself was quite spacious and was faintly lit by the filtering sunlight through the minute pores present on the walls of the cave, most probably as a result of continuous erosion taking place.
But even then, it was truly hard for Enzo to peer deep inside the cave since the light didn’t spread too far. And as a result, most of the dungeon was just as dark as it could be.
For a while, he stood quietly amidst the only sound of the flowing and dripping waters. He contemplated over how to handle this dungeon. He already knew the first floor had slimes as the primary threat. He also knew how to deal with the said slimes...
He didn’t need to wait for long as multiple shrill screeches came from all around him. From the sound, Enzo mentally calculated that they were still a little distance away from reaching him.
He quickly reached for his system as he focused on his newfound skill: Mana Vision.
[Mana Vision]
[A spell favouring the truly observant ones. It changes your entire field of vision, covering the world in dark shades of pure black. In exchange, you can freely perceive every ounce of mana in your surroundings (blue) and inside living creatures (red).]
Enzo looked up from the description and glanced around him. The cave was already dimly lit, offering him no consolence of the direction from which the first attack shall land.
’Since it has already come to this...’ He activated his skill and the next second, the world turned black.
He was conscious obviously. But now he felt like a blind person.
That is, atleast before the world burst into dual shades of blue and red. And just as the description had said, the air around him glimmered with blue mana particles, their clustered density taking him by surprise. But then again, that was to be expected from a dungeon, even if it was a F ranked only.
If he had chosen the path of cultivation, th presence of abundant mana in the air would have been his best treat till now.
Enzo, however, didn’t spare them a glance as his gaze moved to the globular crystal like structures
that were moving towards him. These spheres were filled with red mana and it didn’t take a genius to figure out for what they were.
The mana cores of the slimes.
Enzo methodically swept his gaze on all his sides as he counted the number of slimes heading towards him. Rotating his body all the while being in this dark world, was quite a dizzying experience for him. Twice, he had to control himself from tripping over his own foot.
Counting the thirty three slimes visible to him, Enzo looked at his own chest. And just as he had expected, his mana core with all the eight edges pointing towards the eight directions alongwith his mana veins, all glowed brightly with red mana flowing inside them. freeweɓnøvel.com
He was a bit disappointed. The fact that his mana core and the monsters’ mana cores all burned with the same colour, made his skill useless to differentiate humanoid monsters hiding among the humans. He would either need a new skill or...he had to mutate his [World Vision].
But those were worries for later. Or more specifically, if he managed to save himself from becoming a midnight snack for the dungeon creatures.
With that in thought, he deactivated his skill as the world returned to its vibrant form. Enzo briefly closed his eyes as he felt a jarring experience while the world transitioned in his vision.
Then taking a deep breath, he dashed to his right from where the least nunber of slimes were approaching his side. He has no intention to let all of these mushy creatures to group on him all at once.
As he stepped inside their range and finally saw them in their flesh he understood what he was actually dealing with.
Devouring Slimes.
Their dark jelly bodies camouflaged perfectly with the surroundings as short tendrils helped them move towards him and it looked as if they were really walking. Their hostility was however, not as pseudo as their movement as they all screeched louder at his close presence.
Enzo was in no mood to stretch this unnecessarily. Without a second thought, he reached the nearest slime. At his approach, the small creature suddenly stretched wide and latched onto his legs, activating [Devour] - the primary skill of every Devouring Slimes.
Seeing this, Enzo only shook his head as he activated Mana Vision again. Then reaching downwards, his hands oased through the slime’s body. Since he was using his skills, he couldn’t see his actions but he felt the squishy and weird feel of the slime around his hands.
Without wasting his time, his palms closed on the mana core of the slime. This time though, he didn’t feel anything. It was as if his palm was surrounding around empty air while in truth, he had the mana core placed inside his palm.
Mana Cores, once formed, always settled in a different dimension. It was for this reason, Enzo couldn’t feel the core in his hand even though it was present.
At the same time, he watched with concern as the slime latching onto his leg, was slowly sapping away his mana. Shaking his head, he simply took out his hand alongwith the mana core.
The effect was instant. The slime instantly melted away into a pool of water and the same demonic miasma he had felt radiating from the Great Old One.
Enzo felt his eyebrows quirk up. Now in his normal vision, he saw the others had closed their distances as well and without ceremony, clung to his body, trying to suck out as much mana possible.
’Time to get to work.’
And thus, with a sigh, Enzo stayed rooted to where he was. His vision alternated frequently - normal vision to figure out the exact position of the slimes and mana vision to figure out the exact position of their mana cores.
Slimes were in essence, not true creatures. Yes, they were sentient and yes, they could hunt and evolve as well.
But just like their feet, they had a pseudo existence as well. They were created under a following set of instructions: the loose mana cores that were formed naturally in the abundant blue mana of the nature. Coupled with either water or any dense liquid, they slowly created slimes or different natures.
But no matter their nature, if they came in contact with demonic miasma, they instantly turned into Devouring Slimes.
But their pseudo existence didn’t stop the system from rolling out the notifications.
[Kill registered: Common grade Devouring Slime slain]
[Reward: +1 fragments]
Within minutes, Enzo was done with half of the slimes as he looked at the other half that had now stepped in the range of the faint sunlight.
Albeit a little weak from having a lot of his energy as well as mana being sucked out, Enzo still smiled.
"Let’s farm more fragments... it’s harvest time."
