Avince bent down to pick up the strange object that had dropped from the remains of the massive water slime. It was a monster core, a shimmering orb about the size of his palm, glowing faintly with a soft blue light. The core pulsed gently in his hand, radiating a cool sensation that made the air around it feel noticeably chilled.

"A monster core… I forgot they could drop one of these," he muttered to himself. He turned it over in his hand, examining it closely. The slimes he had encountered earlier had been too weak to produce one. Normally, only monsters of a certain strength generated cores, which were concentrated manifestations of their mana. But the size and power of the giant slime explained why this one had left a core behind.

Monster cores were highly prized in society. They were essentially mana batteries, capable of storing vast amounts of magical energy. While some were harvested from weaker monsters and used to power household appliances or machines in the city, others were used to fuel complex machinery and military weapons. These cores could also be repurposed for various magical tools or even be sold for profit.

However, the monster core he held wasn’t a pure, unattuned core. It was water-attuned, its blue hue and cool aura a clear indication of its alignment. That meant its mana was tied to the water element, making it unusable in its current form for most people, including Avince. If he wanted to use it, he would need to have processed it to remove the attunement, converting it into a raw, unattuned core that could be used by anyone. The process, however, requires too much energy and is time-consuming, probably using even more mana than what the core is worth.

He sighed. "Water-attuned, huh?" Avince mumbled. "Of course, it had to be attuned to something I can’t use."

For water-elemental users, though, this core was very useful. It could be used to replenish their mana reserves or even enhance their water-based abilities. But to Avince, it was practically worthless—except for selling it. He could probably fetch a decent price for it if he found the right buyer. Elemental cores were usually in demand, especially among elemental manipulators and craftsmen who used them for magical runes and creations.

"But for me, this thing’s just extra cash in my pocket," he thought, tucking the core into his pocket. His ability didn’t grant him any specific elemental attunement, unlike other mages or mana-users. What he needed were unattuned monster cores, which were more common than attuned ones, but they often came with impurities. These impurities had to be carefully removed to make the core useful, a process that required precision and skill.

With the core secured, Avince turned his attention back to the portal shimmering in front of him. Its soft glow was inviting, like the exit door of a game. The dungeon run had gone smoother than he expected, but he wasn’t about to get complacent. He still needed to test the limits of his ability.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped through the portal. As his foot touched the glowing surface, he felt a familiar rush—the sensation of being pulled back to the real world. His awareness of the dungeon world faded, and in an instant, his consciousness merged back fully with his physical body.

Back in his room, Avince blinked, his eyes readjusting to the normal lighting. He stretched, feeling the tension drain from his muscles. The experience of splitting his consciousness between two worlds was still disorienting, but the successful run left him feeling energized. He couldn’t help but smile.

“That went a lot better than I thought it would,” he said quietly, reflecting on the dungeon. His mind raced, piecing together everything he had learned from the experience. First, he had only used about 10% of his total mana to activate his ability, but the dungeon felt like it operated at a much lower difficulty level than his first one. His estimation was that the current dungeon was barely 1% as strong as the previous one, even though he had technically used 15% of his total mana back then.

“This definitely isn’t a one-to-one ratio,” Avince concluded. "It’s more of a multiplicative effect when I use more mana. The dungeon’s quality and difficulty jump by much larger increments when I put more energy into it. Or maybe it has no relation at all. But that is highly unlikely… I’ll need to test this further."

Avince sat down on his bed, still processing the information. His body felt somewhat fatigued, but not nearly as drained as it had been after the first dungeon run. That time, his consciousness had been completely exhausted, leaving him severely weakened for some reason. Now he understood why he had been hospitalized for so long after that incident. His ability seemed to drain not only his mana but something else. He felt really tired mentally

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"It makes sense now," Avince thought. "My body reacts to the strain my consciousness goes through. That’s why I was out for so long before.

He reached into his pocket and was surprised that it didn’t contain the monster core that he acquired.

What the...? He could have sworn he had it. He was just holding it. Avince’s mind raced. Had he dropped it on his way out? Impossible. He distinctly remembered pocketing the core before exiting the dungeon.

Confusion turned to concern as he mentally retraced his steps. Then, something clicked. The storage space... Could it be?

Without hesitation, Avince focused on his ability, reaching out to that strange storage area he had discovered during his earlier experiments. It was like a pocket dimension, one that seemed linked to his consciousness whenever he accessed the dungeon. With a single thought, he accessed it.

There it was. The monster core was nestled safely within the confines of his storage space, glowing softly against the darkness of the void. Avince let out a breath of relief, the tension easing from his shoulders.

“So that’s how it works,” he murmured to himself, marveling at the discovery. “Anything I’m holding in the dungeon must automatically transfer to the storage space when I leave.”

Holding it up to the light, he examined its soft blue glow. The core wasn’t large—smaller than most he had seen before—but it would still fetch a decent price. "Probably worth around 100 Alliance Credits," he guessed. It wasn’t a huge sum, but enough to buy a few meals or basic supplies. If he was frugal, it could feed him for a day.

Still, it wasn’t what he was after. Avince knew he needed unattuned cores to fuel his training and abilities. Attuned cores like this were only useful to elemental users, and while selling them could provide some income, he needed something that would push his growth forward.

"Next time, I’ll aim for something more useful," he muttered, slipping the core back into his pocket. He had barely scratched the surface of what his ability could do, and there were still so many unanswered questions.

Avince closed his eyes, inhaling deeply as he focused on the mana flowing within him. It was a sensation he was slowly growing accustomed to, but every time he tried to delve deeper into the feeling, he realized just how vast and complex the energy coursing through him truly was. His mana, normally a quiet, invisible force, now thrummed with a soft, almost magnetic pull, like the currents of a deep, unseen river. He concentrated harder, willing himself to tune into its rhythm, his consciousness gradually syncing with the flow.

The familiar yet alien sensation of his ability brushed against his mind, an intangible door that opened into another world. He visualized the dungeon space that awaited him, but this time, something was different. As he delved deeper into the mana surrounding him, he felt a strange, subtle tug—as if the energy wasn't just there to be used, but could be manipulated.

It was faint at first, a whispering suggestion in the back of his mind, but the more he focused on it, the stronger the pull became. His mind brushed against the raw, formless essence of a dungeon, and in that instant, Avince felt it: a malleable connection, a tether between his mana and the potential structure of the dungeon world.

His pulse quickened. "Wait… is this...?"

He let his consciousness flow deeper, pushing a little more mana into his ability. It wasn’t just an exchange of energy anymore; there was a response. Like ripples in a still pond, his mana reverberated, the energy amplifying in intensity. The sensation was intoxicating, the dungeon responding to his influence in real time. He could feel it shaping itself based on the amount of mana he was channeling—more mana, more complexity, more danger."

"So I can influence the type of dungeon I enter… interesting," he murmured, intrigued by the discovery. He wondered how specific he could be in directing the creation of a dungeon. Could he determine the exact kind of monsters he would face? Or perhaps the layout and challenges within? The possibilities were exciting, but also daunting.

With 90% of his mana reserves left after the last dungeon, Avince decided to test his abilities again. He would use 40% of his mana this time and try to influence the dungeon’s structure. He thought of a specific kind of monster, something relatively weak but useful for practice—small, unattuned green creatures that he could easily handle with his current skills.

"Let’s see how far I can push this," he thought, a determined glint in his eyes. His mind raced with possibilities as he prepared to delve into another dungeon, eager to uncover more about his ability and the strange world he had access to.