Regress and Eat

As I stepped inside, I was surrounded by a strange affluence.

It's been a really long time going through this.

Darkness and light sweep through, leaving only bright lights.

A vivid glow that covers your head with intense blindness.

And then there was the unrealistic aftermath.

Some people said that their consciousness was slowing down indefinitely, and some said that they felt the camouflage inside of the shell that didn't fit.

You set foot inside the dungeon through an unpleasant tunnel.

Kuaaaa!

The first thing that provoked my ears was the sound of the waterfall.

I mutter to myself. Fieldy.

The air is completely different from what it was before.

I looked up at the green sky. In the air, a pale green swarm of light dances along the wind's grain, drawing wave-like patterns. A view of the atmosphere with a clear view.

I looked down again and saw the dense forest unfolding out front. The color of the leaves on the tree is vivid blood.

Qarrr!

You turn your head toward the sound of the thundering waterfall.

A giant island floats in the western sky.

The waterfall has begun from the wealthy mass of land and is falling down.

You will feel it again. Again, dungeons are not a normal world.

Medium dimensions that seem to clutter up fragments from all over the world.

Take a few steps. Behind the gate is an opaque wall. A phenomenon commonly referred to as the boundary of dungeons.

Living creatures in the dungeon can freely pass through these walls, but they cannot pass through because Hunters like us refuse.

The border here is a hemispherical shape that covers the ground. I measured the smooth curved angle of the boundary wall behind the gate with a handset. This data can be computed by inferring the width of the overall boundary.

The calculation results will be shortly. This dungeon is roughly 35 kilometers wide.

It was fortunate that it was not spacious.

It is unclear how wide this entire intermediate dimension will be, but it means that the radius within which I can move in the current situation is that much.

I shrug around the gate and memorize it.

And without hesitation, I walked into the forest.

Whew!

Heavy winds blow, and the leaves fall like rain everywhere.

“Queek, queek!”

The forest was filled with the small animals that make up this strange ecosystem. Blue Mana flashes from behind the bloodstained leaves among the branches, though it does not appear to be hidden in the barrels. Like a star shining in the red night sky.

Every time I took a step, little things spread out and hid.

“Queek, queek! Queek! ”

Beware, they signal each other with their cries.

Most of them are weak, not worth catching.

An animal like a small rodent on Earth. All of them have mana cores on their bodies.

There's a core that only Awakeners have on Earth, and there are even those close to them. That's a dungeon.

But I didn't try to hunt them down.

Such a small animal's Mana Core is incompetent. If you catch a few hundred of them, you can pick about 0.001 Mana.

No expedition would touch anything like that.

In a dungeon like this, there are targets.

How long have you been walking like that?

“ · · · · · ·. ”

Even the clumsiness of small creatures hovering over the branches.

The forest calmed down in an instant.

And I saw it in my eyes.

Ugh!

Move slowly, keeping your guard up.

The wind blows again. The weeds shake, the shadows of the branches. The sound of rustling rings in my ears.

In the shadows of the forest, a vision of a blue Mana lingers.

An intense light unlike anything I've ever seen.

A monster.

The one who recognized me first noticed my change.

“Gaaaah!”

Monsters rush out of the trees, avoiding cooking.

It looks like it's not found on Earth. A big gorilla with a lot of crooked turquoise skin. Intimidating muscles that seem to crush rocks if you hit them. A runny nose and sharp thumb.

Orcs.

His horrific life and eyes were upon me.

At that moment, I bounce back and run toward the front.

Tada!

The ground flows like water. The forest landscape passed quickly. The wind breaks in my ears.

Physical ability that is not permitted to ordinary people. An enhanced body and stamina given to any Hunter.

But it doesn't stop here.

I draw the remembering Mana pattern.

[Accelerate (Rank: E)!]

A booster has already broken through the man's limits and is now running at the speed he used to.

The Orc's face was stiff as he tried to throw an axe at me coming in a straight line. You can see a bewildering look in the creased flesh on your face.

I bounced away from his sight at an angle that was beyond the limits and laws of physics.

By the time the Orcs find my location and aim the axe again, it'll be too late.

“Khh?! ”

I approach from his side.

Like any dungeon creature, his body is surrounded by Mana's protective shield.

But it looks clearly distinct. The blue light is strongly aggregated and protected, and the parts that are not.

All these observations, judgments, and practices were made at the same speed as light.

My fist pierced towards the weakest part of the shield, around the time the axe aimed at the fly was just drawn perpendicular to the shoulder.

Qajik!

My fist, which aggregated Mana, pierced the weak Mana barrier and immersed his skull.

Crushed brain debris, bone fragments, and blood drops move in all directions.

Bang!

His heavy body collapses, striking the ground and ringing the ground.

‘· · · · · · · · · ·! ’

I looked down at the bloodstained fist. The excitement does not subside.

I feel it.

Everything that I've simulated in my past life can now be unveiled directly.

It worked!

The membrane that protects the Orcs is a defense mechanism that is close to the instincts of wild animals. Unlike the defensive skills of hunters controlled by the system, the surrounding thickness is rough and unequal.

Inside the head, the difference was clear, and I was aiming for it.

I took a few deep breaths to calm down the overwhelming joy, and I did my next job.

Worm!

Squeeze Mana around your fingers and stab it near the heart of an Orc corpse.

Even though he's already dead, Mana remains in his body as stiff as a postmortem stiffness. My fingers pierce the remaining barrier of the corpse and penetrate its muscle tissue.

This is why Hunters are more efficient at dungeon exploration than modern weapons. The most effective way to penetrate Mana is through Mana.

After a while, my fingers heard the Mana Core that was pulled from the Orc's heart.

Activates a skill without delay.

[Mana Drain (Rank: SSS)]

The little green crystal between my fingers disappeared without a trace.

And...

I hold my breath for a moment. And then...

“· · Ahh! ”

I couldn't bear it, so I spit out a little elasticity.

It was similar to the moment I came in contact with the Awakening Stone, but it felt different.

The sensation of something strange penetrating my skin and digging into my body. However, that strangeness turns into familiarity and gladness after a short time.

And the feeling of filling the body was followed.

‘This is how it is. ’

It was injected as if it were filling me up, and it became indistinguishable from the Mana that was originally in my body.

I watched myself through the eyes of the successor.

- Active Mana: 530 (+20)/510

- Potential Mana: 71,492

My active Mana Tong was originally at the limit of 510, but the active Mana went up to 530 thanks to the absorbing of the core. 20 over the limit is irreversible.

And · · · Potential Mana has risen a little, but not much.

‘Yes, like this. ’

I couldn't bear to go up my mouth.

You definitely consumed Mana while catching Orcs, but you got more Active Mana than you did while absorbing his core. Rather, Mana grew more than before the battle.

At this rate, I don't think I need to hunt while consuming Mana Potions.

The hunting of the self-sufficient.

‘Very good. ’

Next, I examined the corpse of the fallen Orc.

What he was holding was not metal, but a stone axe.

Nevertheless, the object of the dungeon can be given and aggregated by Mana, so if you take it outside, it will be classified as an artifact.

Of course, the value will be undervalued.

Are they for training novice hunters? I decided not to bring the axe.

It turns out the weapon, the look of it, and the level of civilization are very low.

Orcs are monsters that appear in various dungeons, but they are seen in various forms depending on the dungeon. This is true for most monsters as well as Orcs.

The Orcs in this dungeon I came in today have evolved to be fully bipedal, but their weapon level has not escaped the stone.

Therefore, on a global basis, it would be the equivalent of a stone that has been removed.

Taking all the Hunters' reports into account, some Orcs found in the dungeons walk in all walks of life. Some Orcs are quite close to animals (they look like boars, literally), others use sophisticated steel weapons, and some Orcs go even further and practice magic there.

Fortunately, the Orcs have yet to discover a case with an Earth-level civilization.

· · · With this level of civilization, we don't even have enough civilizations to build biases or tactics. ’

At best, it will be close to the level of wild beasts that hunt in droves.

After confirming it, I nodded.

I think we should keep going.

As I recall, not one of the monsters spilled during the collapse of this dungeon a few months later.

The Orcs in this dungeon were all extinct before collapse.

Probably within a short period of time between evolution and collapse, by another species who will join this place as the dungeon evolves.

But that's not going to happen this time.

‘I'll clear it before it evolves, I will. ’

Clearing is not the sole purpose, of course.

after absorbing a whole bunch of Mana cores. ’

The Celestial Dragon Guild's warehouse is full of artifacts and dungeon by-products, and there is not as much stock as Mana Core.

Even in the black market, at least I couldn't see Mana Core from the area I was in. Maybe not at all in the market.

The reason is simple.

This is because national control at the highest level applies to Mana Cores, which is much more stringent than Awakening Stone or Dungeon Creatures.

Once the dungeon is reported to the country, a checkpoint will be built around the gate. The first piece of equipment to be installed there is the Mana Core Validator. Hunters must sell their Mana Cores collected from the dungeons to the state.

After all, it was all before sub-space artifacts were discovered and widespread, but at this point, there was nothing we could do about it.

‘The previous Heavenly Dragon Guild must have solved everything in the dungeon to push back Seongjin. ’

If you knew Seo Jin-wook's skill, you wouldn't have applied for it at the guild level.

Instead of taking the core from the expedition out of the power grid, they would have passed it on to Seo Jin-wook in there and consumed it. Only a certain amount that the state will not suspect.

But if you do now, you will reveal everything to the potential enemies inside. In addition, I think it will be faster to get Guild support in the beginning, but the more time passes, the faster I will be able to proceed in my own way.

And there are parts of the process that you can't reveal to others. Like I'm hunting Orcs now.

Blame!

I have ventured deeper into the forest.

Ultra Unstable (1) End