Chương 36: 1-35 Surprise treasure

As their journey into the depths of the dungeon continued, Josef continued to rack up improvements at an impressive pace, garnering the attention of both of his companions. Had he not already revealed his possession of a heartstone, then this pace would surely have made them question the source of his power. It was, admittedly, still a far shot from what the brothers could accomplish, as both were ahead of him both in level and personal experience, but he was rapidly closing the gap between them.

☆☆ Water Prison (Moderate) -> ☆☆☆ Rapid Water Prison (Advanced) Countless have drowned in the sea throughout the ages, a concept you have now touched upon. Drastically improved speed and cohesion to create an inescapable trap. Even as group sizes expanded and threatened to overwhelm him, he continued to push the use of his water magic to trap more and more monsters within its fold, which prompted his spell to develop further toward rapid, mobile entrapment.

Moving the sphere around him had become much easier, as it now operated almost like a tiny asteroid orbiting him by the directive of his will. Holding three Rachse had become a staple of his engagements, even allowing for a fourth if he had the concentration to spare. At some point Josef started to feel like he was waving a magical glue strip to catch flies. In a direct confrontation, this was probably his favorite spell, and the rest of his party agreed with that, as it turned enemies into easy pickings.

Right now he was still trying to adjust to ejecting dead monsters from the sphere so he could add new prey into its confines. It also only took a single scolding to stop Zippa from breathing fire at his spell, which, unsurprisingly, ruined it in an instant, turning his water into steam. ☆ Earth (Advanced) -> ☆☆ Earth (Inferior) The foundation of life. Innate affinity due to elemental alignment of your body.

You have embraced your nature and focused on its durability His earth affinity came along very well, even managing to break into the second rank by enduring several monster's bites while using Regeneration to keep himself healthy. If nothing else, he could soon function as something like a tank, attracting attention as his friend decimated the attackers.

He had not yet created an earth affinity spell, but since he wouldn't be able to use one while maintaining his Water Prison, he continued to put it off, as layering both together already provided him with both offense and defense at the same time.

☆☆ Regeneration (Advanced) -> (Pinnacle) Being part of his defensive plan, counteracting any damage Josef received after enemies went past his spheres and bit into his flesh, this spell had improved in its grade as well, and probably wasn't far off from another increase either. There was no special qualitative increase, as he had changed nothing about how this spell worked, but as far as he was concerned, that wasn't even necessary, as the magic operated exactly as he needed it to.

✩ Space(Exceptional) -> (Pinnacle) ☆ Blink (Exceptional) -> ☆☆ Blink (Inferior) Blink and you will miss it. Spatial line momentarily persists after teleportation. The space affinity, alongside the only spell of its kind he had learned, had also improved by repeatedly being used in his opening strikes. Though at this point, his proficiency in Blink had left the affinity itself behind, showing that they weren't strictly tied to each other.

The particular enhancement on that spell came from a failed opening strike, where another group of Rachse came running around a corner, foreign Josef to make a hasty retreat back to his party. That's when he learned that recreating the spatial line of his spell in the same spot lessened the mana expenditure, and after some experimenting, allowed him to even keep the existing one going for almost a full second. ☆ Fluid Movement (Exceptional) -> ☆☆ Fluid Movement (Moderate) The grace of water fills your every move.

Increases your Dexterity by 20% of your Intelligence score, rounded up, and marginally amplifies the casting speed of water spells. Improves movement in water. Finally, his very first skill choice made the jump to the next rank, further increasing the bonus to his Dexterity score. The bonus wasn't colossal, but every bit helped, and he definitely felt a difference from before, whenever he had to react to some beast in melee combat.

All things considered, his combat potential was a lot higher than it was in the morning, having not only increased several relevant spells and affinities but also having gained considerably more experience in how to act in a fight. Considering his prior experience with the simpler monsters that were at home on these floors before, Josef could confidently say that he could now hold his ground in a real fight. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

With three competent fighters and plenty of energy to spare, it was unsurprising that they quickly gained traction in the dungeon, making a speedy descent that rivaled his prior rate with much easier and fewer enemies. Zippa had even introduced him to some of the shortcuts that existed between floors, including the one that would lead straight from floor 3 to 7, which could have drastically put them ahead.

If you were willing to call the equivalent of a garbage chute in a wall a shortcut, especially if it would end up dumping you in the canal of the lower floor. Josef suddenly found himself more than happy that they had decided against using shortcuts, in favor of increasing the chance of bumping into weaknesses in the magical layers, or other stranded adventurers.

Monsters on their path remained mostly easy to handle, though he greatly disliked the new variant of flying creatures that had made their home in these tunnels. Where the bats from before were almost cute in a small animal kind of way, the same couldn't be said for what replaced them. Monstrous Mosquito - Level 19 What bloody bastard had decided that mosquitoes weren't horrible enough as they were, and made them as large as cats?

The sound alone was enough to give a grown man nightmares, and Josef could have done without an enhanced view of how these insects looked. They did also, in fact, attack by sucking blood, as the bats before them had also attempted, but were much more successful with it. At least where he was concerned, because his earth affinity alone wasn't enough to block them completely.

He gladly stayed in the background during those fights, leaving the lead to his scaled companions, who had no trouble shielding themselves from those pesky bugs. Zippa proved himself to be the most valuable teammate in these encounters, as those bugs had no way to oppose his fire-breathing attack, which quickly laid waste to several creatures at once. Even those not hit directly were often thrown around by the heatwave, or even had their wings singed into being unusable.

The new variety of slimes was his personal favorite, though, as they shared the same vulnerability as their royals, although without the ability to save themselves once they had made contact. These colorful slime-prince knockoffs were easy prey to his abilities. Was there anything more satisfying than blinking into the middle of a group of slimes and using Mana Drain as they made contact with him, resulting in his slimy assailants rapidly degrading? The system agreed that this was a great way to fight.

☆☆ Mana Drain (Moderate) -> (Exceptional) You have dined on the mana of others with gusto. Increased efficiency in absorbing through contact, without invading opposing mana channels. While slimes had a particular weakness to this spell, which was rooted in how mana freely moved throughout their bodies, just like his own, the skill was finally slightly more reasonable to use on other opponents as well.

After a bit of testing, using a Rachse that Bezzo had put asleep, he learned that he could now drain even those critters, albeit at only a fraction of the rate he could slimes. While he barely reached a percentile of the effectiveness, it required no effort from him in invading the creature's channels, rendering the spell as simple as a touch. Conveniently, when he fully drained a dead monster of its remaining mana, it would cause their bodies to disperse and leave behind their cores as usual.

While it wasn't much, regaining about 5 points for every body was still more than nothing. Not that he had any need for the extra energy, because if he ever ran out, it would be even easier to just drain his surroundings. Going by how hard his heart was working during those fill-ups, he was perfectly clear on how impossible this kind of sustainability would be for anyone without a heartstone, and possibly without the correct type of enhancement he had gained for it.

☆☆☆ Syphoning Manaheart (Moderate) -> (Advanced) Mana is a type of energy naturally occurring on Aurum, unaspected fuel for all magic. You have grown more efficient in converting atmospheric mana. Will it quench your thirst, or merely open the door for greater consumption? His heart was fine with it, probably. At least he had noticed no actual downsides to those ominous sounding upgrades. At least it pushed his maximum mana to even greater heights, and that was something he could never get sick of.

Hopefully, his next level wasn't far, so he could grab some more Intelligence. No, he definitely didn't have an obsession with mana. As their descent continued with well measured doses of slaughter, never once halting for more than a minute on any encounter, things proceeded in an almost boring manner, as everyone grew more accustomed to working as a group of three. It wasn't until the 8th floor that something unexpected happened.

Josef was the first to see it, having just finished healing himself after fighting a particularly large group of slimes and Rachse had met their end through his and Bezzo's attacks, while Zippa burned down a sudden mosquito assault from their rear. In a little tunnel offshoot to the side, something one could find occasionally along the walls of the dungeon, he spotted something that he hadn't seen in either of his dungeon visits. There was real, genuine loot.

Not just the usual gems they could loot from the monsters, but two leather satchels just sitting there on the ground, ready for the taking. Could it be some sort of trap? Possibly, but Bezzo was great at spotting traps and hidden passages, so they would probably be fine.

"Look at that, guys, I found some loot!" Josef found himself in a cheerful mood. After finally finding his own form in combat, he now also got some goodies to stash. As he set out to collect the surprise treasure, Bezzo held him back, showing a somber look.

"This is your first time finding items in here, right?" The sullen tone of his voice surprised Josef, who had not expected such a reaction. Worse, even Zippa looked saddened by their newest find, signalling him that something was indeed very wrong with those satchels.

"The dungeon doesn't just generate items out of thin air, Josef. All you get are monsters and cores, and maybe, very rarely, something special left behind by a boss. The only way stuff like this turns up is if a magical layer collapses after…" Bezzo trailed off, not unable to put facts into words, but knowing that he would have already figured things out from this much.

If the dungeon didn't generate items, then they had to come from outside, from adventurers who carried them into the dungeon, trying to make their way through its many dangerous floors. Those items were all that was left behind by those people, after they must have met their end through the dungeon's dangers. What remained at the end of that little tunnel wasn't a reward, but the last remains of those who had made a stand at that very location.

People who had likely gotten caught up in the recent turmoil that was happening within the dungeon, forcing them to fight creatures they had not been prepared to meet. People like Cana, who were probably only trying to make their living in this place, unaware of the disaster that he had kicked off. Josef stared at the bundles in front of him as if they were a grave, one that he himself had dug and filled. He didn't even notice when his tears started flowing.