After 2 days of resting, since my mind got really heavy to even got up, I was at the dungeon by the way. The GM authorized me to enter it. It wasn’t THAT full though. Anyway, I would need whatever new materials I could get, AND a new pouch for my Digi-Storage. The ones at the market are low capacity, and too expensive. Urgh!
My objective was to reach at least the 40th floor. If not, well, it wouldn’t be a problem. Since the 20th floor reward was the pouch, I guess the rest of the rewards would be good too.
I repeated all of the previous floors, until the 20th, just to test my capabilities. With the Odyssey Outfit, things were much easier. Both [Flash Step] and [Agility Mode] helped quite a lot. And not only that, but my AGI stat was higher than the monsters inside the dungeon.
Oh yeah, I was alone here. The girls stayed with the Witch. Girl’s Talk! Whatever. The Brute Black Warg from before was at the 20th floor, and defeating him and the other wolves took some time, but not that much.
Reward of the floor? More pelt, and meat. Scan shown that the meat wasn’t first class, but it could be eaten. Wolf meat? Wait, is it a wolf?
The 21st to 30th were… well, strange. More insects, I mean, Arachnids. Scorpions, Spiders, Crabs(does it counts as arachnids?), more nightmares, I mean, Centipedes, and some water creatures too, including water spiders.
The floors 28 and 29 were the worst. Why? Cause the monsters there, were very, very stealthy.
Did you knew? There’s 2 types of spiders, who are, well, unconventional. One of them, I mean, more than 10 of them, on the 28th floor, was a fat spider, that tossed a small ball of web, with a sticky poison. Let’s call it Cowboy Spider.
And at the 29th floor, was a bit worse. Imagine a fishing net… Yeah, the spider had a shocking net, that she, I mean, they, tried to toss at me. Once again, more than 10. Let’s call it, Fishing Spider.
But really, they were scary. And worse! They actually exist back on earth! Scan sometimes is scary! Well, most of the drops on these 10 floors, were either the monster’s chelicerae, legs, venom(gotta remember that), web, and eyes. Eyes? For what these are for? Oh! Alchemy… CREEPY ALCHEMY!
Let’s just say the eyes had uses for very strong poisons, and very scary throwable potions. Like, a version of acid, stronger than Sulfuric Acid, that could melt even dragon scales. I mean, that acid I tossed at the Drake’s mouth was scary too.
The boss of the 30th floor? Well! A Black Scorpion… With smaller scorpions. If you can call a giant scorpion, the size of a truck, and other scorpions the size of small cars small… Yeah, my words don’t make much sense, does it?
Anyway, my tactics here, were very simple. The smaller scorpions were easy to kill, especially with the bullets and beams clad in pure fire. And thanks to that, the giant black scorpion, got surrounded by a circle of fire.
Usually, that would make the Scorpion convulse, and die. But of course… This is a fantasy world!
“Shouldn’t think Earth things would work here!”
The fire, actually, got small. Seeing this, I Scanned the black scorpion, since this was a strange thing to see.
► Alpha Emperor Scorpion ◄
A Giant Version of the Emperor Scorpion from earth.
This Scorpion, however, does not have problems with Fire. Due to its thick carapace, it can survive to much higher temperatures. Paired with its powerful pincers, stinger and venom, it can easily kill a Young Dragon.
This Emperor Scorpion, is an Alpha. Due to its Evolution, it has a carapace that can absorb mana, getting harder the more it does so.
Danger Rank – A
“I made a huge mistake!”
Running through the room, I kept shooting, only with Satz. If I shoot at it with Schicksal, that would cause its carapace to get harder, so that’s a no-no. And every time its stinger was about to hit me, which I bet it would pierce me to the other side, I used a Shockwave to deflect it.
Alright! If you won’t die that easy, then whatever! Grabbing a charge of Zerstörung, I tossed at the base of the tail, and pressed the button of the transmitter. Since the charges are completely OP, it really destroyed the tail in one go.
The scorpion wasn’t so happy, and charged at me without much thought. If it can think, that is. Again, with a charge tossed where the monster would reach, and a [Flash Step] away, and boom! Dead. The body fell limp on the ground, and was absorbed by the dungeon.
“I wonder how a dungeon works, actually. How does the dungeon absorbs the monsters? Does they have conveyor belts below?”
My paranoid thoughts were interrupted by a chest appearing at the middle of the room. I approached the chest, scanned for possible traps, and after confirming no traps, then I opened.
There was some pieces of the carapace, eyes, venom, stinger, and a sword… Or better, a Nodachi. Compared to the Katana I made for Suzuki-san, which had around 70 centimeters in total, this one had, well, almost my height. For any information, I have 175 in height, so, this thing, had 165 in total.
“How the hell did this fit in this chest?”
Taking the sword out of the scabbard, revealed a dull red blade. Scanning, revealed it to be a Red Dragon’s Tooth. Unfortunately, the edge was with nicks and was chipped a bit. With the Red Dragon’s Tooth material, it was as hard as Adamantite.Quite good actually. Just needs some polish, bit of grinding, and it will be all good. Now, what about the carapace?
That’s what surprised me a lot. It was actually an Ore. One that would come quite handy.
► Vraxa Ore ◄
A strange ore, found on Alpha and Apex Arachnids, more so in Emperor Scorpions.
It has the capabilities of absorbing Mana passively, or can be feed directly. The more Mana it absorbs, the harder it becomes.
It has even the potential to become harder than Mondálium, if its molecular construction was able to handle the amount of mana poured on it.
It can be combined with other ores to enhance its capabilities.
I was agape. More hard than Mondálium? I mean, it said that if it not for its molecular construction, it can be done. Which metal, should I mix it together? There’s enough here for, what, 10 Ingots? There was a lot. I mean, it should have, for the size of the Scorpion.
“An ore together with this… Can I, like, put ores one beside the other to see if they’re compatible?”
The chest disappeared as soon as I took the last piece of Vraxa Carapace, and I put some ingots right besides the pieces. I think it’ll be good if I transform these into ingots. Transforming the pieces of carapace into ingots, revealed a little bit more than I though, 12 and ¼ of ingots actually.
So, with that done, I put Mythril, Adamantite, Mondálium, Adamantite Alloy, Krelium, Wufril, Hihi’irokane, and some more simpler, like Copper, Iron, Steel, Gold, Silver, Titanium, and Electrum. The results were… kinda good and a disappointment.
• First, the fantasy ores. Mythril has a 50-50 chance of going well. I tested small quantities, 10 times, and, as I said, 5 did go well, and 5 did not.
• Second, and I’ll put the 2 together, Adamantite, and its alloy counterpart. Worse, this one succeeded 2 out of 10. In both. The carbon didn’t helped much either.
• Third, Mondálium. By far, it was the one with most success. 7 out of 10.
• Fourth… Krelium, Wufril, and Hihi’irokane… 0. Period. No success. I wasted too much!
But the, well, ‘real’ ores, those had a slightly better results.
• Copper, by far, was the best, albeit… well, with fire, it melts really fast. So, although it was successful, it wouldn’t be good enough to use.
• Iron… Good and durable… It was the third better to use. And the reason why it was the third better? Mana Conductivity.
• Steel… Like Mythril. Nothing new. I guess it was more durable than Iron and Copper, but it had 50-50 chance of going well and not.
• Gold… Let’s not talk about it. In fact! Let’s put Silver here together with Gold. Both of them were the worse. No success.
• Now… Electrum… Yep! It was good alright! 8 out of 10 times it did go well! This was placed at forth to be the best ore. And the next one, was the second best option.
• Titanium. Yep! It was the second best, just behind Copper. From the 10 times, 9 were well, and only 1 time it did go bad. In fact, I would consider the best!
“Well, summarizing everything… I either use Titanium, Mondálium, or Iron. Hmm… Can I… make like, a triple alloy? Can I even mix Titanium, Mondálium AND this Vraxa ore?”
Answer: Yes, and no. Mondálium had a hard nut to crack. So much so, that Titanium could mix very well, and easier than Mondálium.
“Alright. Titanium it is then. Let’s move.”
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Floors 31 to 34… It was a forest. Like, a real forest into a dungeon.
31st floor, had small monsters, based on simple animals. Butterflies, Worms(carnivores), Larvae, and Ants! The butterflies had some paralyzing powder, Worms had pretty big teeth, Larvae were… well, larvae, eating leaves, and Ants! Fire Ants! THE SIZE OF A MOTORCYCLE! Drops were said powder, worms poop(yeah, apparently, this could be used as cement AND fertilizer) and yep! A venom that burns!
32nd floor, were Squirrels the size of a rabbit, and moose. They were nice and all, fluffy and territorial, but… would you believe that the moose were a BERSERKER’S MOOSE?! Yeah, they charged at me, every time one saw me. The Squirrels were just that, Squirrels. A bit bigger but normal. Fruits and all. Except for a Black Squirrel with red eyes. That one wasn’t nice. Drops? Antlers, teeth(Black Squirrel) and fur. Nice fur.
33rd were bears and wolves. Like, Big Bears the size of an Elephant and Dire Wolves. It was an all out war! Good thing I made more Charges, cause that was helluva useful here. More teeth, and fur. And Bear meat.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
34th floor, was the end of the forest. Albeit owls and Eagles were flying around. Yeah, owls were awake at daytime. Feathers, Beaks, and Talons. Big Talons.
Oh yeah! You probably noticed I jumped floor 35. Why? Cause it had a mini-boss there. An Eagle. You know, on those Spiritual Trips watching YT videos, I watched a video of a big eagle, that lives on the South America. They call it, the Harpy Eagle.
This was one, albeit… well, its beak was big enough to swallow me whole. The room was big, with tall trees, and lots of foliage. When I walked more towards the center of the room, the eagle opened her wings and took flight.
Honestly speaking, I don’t even know how I lost the sight of a monster so big.
“Too fast. Can’t see it completely.”
Blurs, that’s what I saw. With the [Agility Mode], I could see that. And with the Presence Detection(one of the many detection) activated, I could perceive better. Think of it like a sonar, or Eco-location.
Ducking, sliding, and sweeping my blades on whenever the eagle came towards me. It was swooping and trying to grab me with its talons. I’m pretty much dead if I got caught on such powerful talons.
“Change of plans!”
Retracting the blades, I flashed away, jumping between tree branches, and even using Heaven Step sometimes. Would you believe that the Eagle was easily maneuvering through the branches? God Blasting! You can compete with nature.
Actually, I was improvising. Change of plans? What plan?! I didn’t had a plan!
Me jumping through the branches, was to only find an opportunity. Also for me to do another thing: Revise my equipment, as in, tools, instead of weapons. The last equipment I made, was the Shock and Heat waves. So now came another enlightenment!
“Grappling hooks! Uou!”
I avoided the Eagle’s wing, twisting my body around, and tried to grab her feathers, which didn’t worked. Also, it was for the better. Cause the eagle simply used her wings to cut two thick trees. LIGHTNING CORE!
My face changed from seriousness, to thrill, in a complete 180. Activating [Agility Mode] once again, I jumped upwards, to the top of the trees. Why? Have you ever heard of diving bomb? Also cause I needed time to charge the Shockwave to its maximum output.
“LET’S GET THIS THING DONE!”
Reaching the top of the trees, I jumped one last time, looking to the ‘sky’, and turned my body down. I put my right arm behind my body, while I was using my heat wave, flicking my fingers every time, so to destroy the branches on my way.
The eagle had lost me, but noticed branches falling, and looked upwards. With a screech, the eagle did a somersault, and flew towards me. While falling, I had a frown in my face, and the reason for that, was the right gauntlet. I felt my arm aching, probably because of the amount of energy focused there. Alas…
“INCOMING!”
The eagle clad itself in lightning, and was approaching. When I was at point blank range, that is, close to her beak, I extended my hand ahead, opened. A giant circular wave, with small sparks appeared on an area ahead of me, and a pressure assaulted my body.
The eagle, and all of the forest below her, got simply smashed on the floor. Tree branches, small trees, all of that got smashed to mush on the ground. The eagle too by the way. I felt right after.
“GUH!”
I felt my entire right arm break, like splinters of wood. The gauntlet was, for better or for worse, intact. No nick, no dent, nothing. Getting up, I grabbed a Zerstörung charge, and tossed to where the head of the eagle was. Why?
“Since the dungeon didn’t absorbed yet…”
I heard a small squeak, before the charge blew. With that, a chest appeared on the center of the room, and a magic circle appeared right after it. Once again, chest scanned for possible traps, no traps, opened, good loot, including a new pouch. YES! It was worth it!
Feathers with blades(in bundles of 10, with 20 in total), Talons(you can make a blade with this… had an idea), beak, some of the bones, like leg, wing, and back bones. And lastly, and what I was so focused this entire time, the Core.
“Will this be enough scan?”
Scan did its job, which was trying to figure it out if this stone would be useful for the sniper rifle… The answer was ambiguous though. It would, but it would not.
“Oh! For now, is that it? Got it.”
Flashing green, Scan finished its job… WAIT A SECOND!
“Did scan become… Sentient?” It flashed yellow on my left eye. “So, you’re like an Artificial Intelligence, with small capabilities?” It flashed green. “Can you evolve, like, to a new being?” It flashed green. “Okay… This is… strange. Ouch! Let’s get out of here. My arm is hurting like heeeell!”
Storing everything, including the pouch, I stepped on the circle. I scanned the circle before, and yep! It was a Displacement Circle. Meaning it would take me to a predetermined place, which was the surface of the dungeon.
Closing my eyes, I stepped on it, and when I opened again, I was at the exit of the dungeon. The guards had their eyes wide, and I walked away to the city, and back to the Witch’s place. And my god, I received a sermon from the 3.
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““YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!””
Shout the 3 of them. Oh, C’mon! I don’t have help from you, and I can’t put my life at risk sometimes? Alright, next time I’ll let the eagle devour me! With them bringing me potions and bandages, I got to wait 2 hours to my wounds to heal, and for me to start working. ‘You need to rest before anything else.’ Is what the Witch said.
“Oh yeah… Thought you can use this.”
I gave the Witch all of the Eyes, Beaks, and bones. The reason? Uh~ You know those, well, pills? To HELP old people on the bed? Well, yeah. It’s used to that. That’s why I think it’s creepy alchemy. Anyway, the Witch got that money eyes back on her, and started make preparations on the workshop.
I had a baffled look at my face… If I was so hooked up on working in new equipment, then the Witch was hooked up on alchemy. What the shock?
After finishing my rest, and eating I got to the Old Man and Dwarf workshop. I offered 3 ingots of Vraxa, which the old man gave me full access to whenever I wanted on his workshop. And when I asked him why… the dwarf answered me.
“Are ya kidding me?! This ore is one of da best it has ta build armor! How did ya got this in da first place?!”
“Would it be bad luck finding this on a dungeon?”
“Well… If ya facing a monster, and ya’re mage… then yeah, it would. Damn! Ya lucky lad! I’ll be busy! No questions! No special orders!”
And he, too, started to work up on that. Apparently, Vraxa ore is so rare, and hard to get, that people pays a lot, more so than Mythril, Adamantite or even Mondálium equipment. The reason being, the harder than Mondálium.
Curious to that, I used Restoration on my right arm, making it go back to normal. And started working on everything I had again.
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First, the Odyssey Outfit. Vraxa ore, had a matte black to purple hue on it. It’s quite strange.The Outfit, had the colors of Black, Dark-Blue, and White. I think it would be better to take the Mythril plate on the chest, and use the Vraxa Ore. Yeah, it’ll be better.
Taking an ingot out, and the Adaptive Solution, I mixed both. And yep! The solution was absorbed easily. When I scanned, it shown to me: Vraxa Ingot + Adaptive Solution. Nice!
With that done, I took the circuit out of the Mythril plate, copying into a paper, and infused on the new Vraxa Plate. With that, I also put some Titanium on the Plate, which boosted even more of the protection. When I finished, I poured in some mana, and the small shield was, well, thicker.
“So, it amplified the protection huh? Nice.”
With that done, I started to make my new weapon. The sniper rifle. The drawings Scan proposed me, were quite nice.
With a barrel with 2.5 meters, with a compensator on the end of it. The base, would store the rounds, grip, and the system of charging. In short, this wasn’t a sniper rifle, but a Charge Rifle. Can I call this thing Lightning Charge Rifle? Meh, quite lame.
The barrel, was made the interior of Vraxa mixed together with Titanium and the Adaptive Solution, and the outer side of Mondálium. I knew that when this thing charged, it wouldn’t be able to release the energy without destroying it first. So, the Mondálium was to maintain everything in place.
The base of it all, would house the rest. The system responsible for charging, and everything else. Bullets were bigger than the ones used in Satz(Obviously), which, was a 50 BMG. Maybe too much? Meh!
After all of that, was work. I finished at the night, with the girls coming to get me out of there. Which I did… and got back 6AM next day. I WANT TO FINISH THIS ALREADY!
And after putting everything in place, all of the circuits needed, and yada yada yada, I was with the core on my hands.
“Alright. A name now… Heh! Strafe it is.”
I dropped the core, and it shone with a yellow light. Soon it died out, revealing a complete black rifle, with a Yellow lightning following through the base of the rifle, towards the end of the barrel.
I based on this, but it might change on the future: FOC_Nucleon_Charge_Rifle.jpg (508×225) (tfwiki.net)
“It means Punishment. Oh yeah… I asked the 3 for these.”
I also asked the girls to give me their equipment, and did the same as with my Outfit. Put some Vraxa on them, and that’s that.
And with that out of the way, I absorbed the new pouch, receiving a boost on my Digi-Storage. Now, instead of 1000 Spots, for 100 Items, I had 10’000 spots for 1000 items. At last! Now I don’t have to worry about spots being taken by quality of the materials!
Thankfully, now the coins were separated into Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. No quality of the coin needed anymore.
All in all, less than 400 spots were taken now! I had more than 9’000 spots free for now. The launcher and mini gun were the next, but for now, I would wait. Another Lightning Core(albeit I’ll wait for 2, since I need for the sniper), and Magma Stones.
“Where can I get Magma Stones? Or I can use the Volatilion’s parts?”
Scan gave me an advice. And it was really serious. ‘The Volatilion parts, are too unstable. Unless you can make them stable enough, the danger of taking it out, is too big. Possible results: Insta Death.’ So, I would need the Magma Stones.
“Magma Stones? That’s hard to come by.”
The old man appeared. He eyed Strafe, thought a bit, and asked.
“Is that a magic cannon?”
“No. It’s a bigger version of Satz. And powerful.”
“That explains the Mondálium and Vraxa huh? If it’s much more powerful than that small one, than I doubt the Vraxa will hold.”
“That’s why I used Titanium, to make it stronger.”
“Hunh. That dark gray metal? Yeah, it can work. Well done. But Magma Stones?”
He shook his head. He also brought some food to me, and the Dwarf came out of the other room on the workshop. I took my part of the food, and started eating. Nothing fancy, dried meat, and wine. Sweet and saulty. Not bad.
We started talking about Magma Stones, and the Floating Stones. They said that Magma Stones, could be found on the Solari Dunes, but as for the Floating Stones? Only at the Everfrost Peak.
The Solari Dunes, was a territory that was conquered by Goldguard, about 100 years ago. Funny no one ever talks about his age. It was a beautiful forest before the war of the Tribes, but now? It is a, well, kinda of strange place.
The Dunes are located on a level below sea. Yeah, like a pit. I don’t get it. What’s that supposed to mean? I asked them, but they simply said that I would understand when I see for myself.
The Dunes have a lot of ruins, build by an old hero. There are buildings, sculptures and all of that. Magma Stones can be found on a cave, where there’s lots of magma, and is where Magma Stones are mined. On actual days, the mine is, unfortunately, closed. Due to the Blood moon, of course.
As for the Floating Stones, on the Everfrost Peak. It’s the mountain, separating the Empire from the League, and the Theocracy. No one dares to climb there, due to the extreme cold temperatures. Also because a very big monster lives there. The Dwarf called, a True Titan.
“What’s the difference?”
“Ah! Ya mean the Desert Titan, and da one I said?” I nodded. “Old story. Ya want ta hear?” I nodded again. (Author’s Note: Since there’s lots of Inner monologue of the MC, this part will be the dwarf speaking.)
“It’s said, that in ancient times, da Dwarfs, Elves, everyone, were created by them. It’s just a legend, aye? So, these true Titans, they’re a bunch of powerful people. The Dunes, example, are like that, cause of one. He was super pissed cause of the war, and put an end to it, and the dunes are like that now. The war reached an end, but the big guy used all of his power to that. And he disappeared. The same can be said to the one at the peaks. Huge, and able ta control a power no one has. Da one on the desert? He’s just a big fella. Nothing more.”
Would this Titan be a god? Or is it just like Sentina? The more I thought about it, the more questions appeared on my head.
“Wow. Nice story. Thought it would be longer though.”
“Ha! I want ta work! And that was just a service for the ore. Bye!”
And he got back at the room. I shrugged, and finished eating, and got back to the Witch’s place.