Conall opened his eyes to the potent sun poking at him ruthlessly. Begrudgingly, he moved his hurting body. It was similar to when Silvana healed him, the only difference was that his wounds were still being healed, and blood dried on them.

He didn’t wake up healed, nor cleaned, but under his own blood that had already evaporated in the sand beneath his body.

Not to mention, he woke up with his stomach screaming at him, almost twisting from the hunger it felt.

Taking out the large chunk of meat he butchered from the worms, he sliced the ominously purple flesh into thin slices before cutting them into strips.

Although he had to do it on his knees, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t any fancy, prestigious product. There was no fat inside it whatsoever, and the texture itself was so tough and slimy it could deter a pig.

Dangling the gruesome food above his mouth, he bit into it. Hard and chewy. That was the only way he could describe how it felt. As to how it tasted? He had no idea since the remnants of acid and poison inside ate his taste buds.

Forcing himself to eat almost a kilo of the stuff, he wanted to put ice around his jaw from how overused it was afterward.

Still, even despite the fountain of blood that poured from the inside of his mouth, he needed to eat. He was going to be here for a long time, so he had to get energy somehow.

Finally, after a small rest, he stood up. Thankfully, all of his bones were already connected together. They may have still been cracked and shattered, but at least, he could walk.

Ahead of him, he saw the white shrine shining with a bright, golden light. Lingering above the bowl, there was a white rock that looked like a full and proper rune. In the middle of it, there was a golden mark that depicted the rune's contents.

Slowly, he made his way towards the shrine. There, something caught him by surprise. In the bowl, above which the rune hovered, there was still a bit of the golden liquid left.

Taking away the rune, the light started glowing anew. Something was coming out of the bowl, consuming the liquid.

A moderately small urn that was black in color. It didn’t have a lid, however, nor did it have an interior. Once he glanced inside, it was like looking into the maws of the void.

“Boundless Urn? Maybe you aren't so bad after all, Zineall.”

Saying that, he used a bit of aura onto it and it shook slightly. At the same time, all of the corpses around the arena also shook. Well, the rune fragments above their bodies shook and flew towards the urn as fast as lightning.

Just like that, all of the loot from the monsters was collected in the blink of an eye. Becoming the owner of the urn, he understood instinctively how many rune shards the item held inside.

‘Eight hundred and fifty-seven when I add my own ones.’

Emptying his inventory of said fragments, he looked content. Then, he turned his attention towards the proper rune in his left hand.

‘Blank Rune of Abundance.’

Its premise was extremely simple. Just like any other rune in this dungeon, he would need to feed it rune fragments for it to grow stronger. The specific rune he held in his hands was the rune of abundance.

At the blank stage, it gave a ten percent increase in rune fragments that dropped from the monsters, regardless of the limits imposed by the dungeon.

On its last stage, ‘Golden Rune of Abundance’, it gave a fifty percent increase, allowing him to save countless hours farming runes.

With just an intention and a little bit of aura, the rune received five hundred rune fragments before transforming into its next phase, a shimmering rune.

Conall grasped the rune tightly, making it disappear as the thing crumbled. As though it vanished into thin air, he had nothing in his hand anymore. Instead, the same golden marking that was on the rune appeared on top of his hand, as if he was a prophesied hero.

The very moment his right arm was engraved with the rune, he felt extensive tremors scatter throughout the whole desert. His body vibrated along with the sand beneath, creating a veil of dust that covered every speck of sand.

Just as he was stabilizing himself, he felt something come directly at him from underground. Before he could do anything, he was tossed into the sky, watching the sand dunes beyond the horizon.

Finally, his body came crashing down, accentuating the subtle pain from yesterday.

In front of him, along with countless spots around the desert, he saw protruding, metallic rocks. Most of them were the same color as the sand and silverish gray, but there were also some that differentiated themselves.

Most prominent were copper and iron ores. From where he stood, there was only a singular gold vein out of the countless ores with a few being silver ones.

Nonetheless, he stared at the ores indifferently. More important was his next target, the Rune of Clairvoyance. Looking at one of the giant black rocks south-west, behind him, he moved slowly. Though, for now, he didn’t care if a group of monsters showed up.

No, it would have been even better. There was nothing better than to heal a broken-down body with a fight.

And his wishes didn’t need a long time to be fulfilled.

In less than two hundred steps, seven worms had already shown up, taking him five minutes to deal with all of them. When his urn collected the seventy fragments that dropped and he replenished the water, he continued moving forward, to the faraway rock.

After an hour of constant walking in his tattered robe, he rested for a few minutes, drinking his replenished, poisoned blood along with snacking on some maggot flesh. Only then did he resume walking.

Just like that, walking, fighting, eating, resting, he spent a full week. The horde of worms had already increased to twenty.

He was fully healed after just three days, so battling with fourteen worms and onward wasn’t an issue. Only after the fifth day did he slow down as the twentieth round was defeated.

Because of that, he had to constantly use his battle sense to check for traps and monsters in the sand for two more days. Thankfully, he didn't encounter the 21st wave. Conall couldn’t afford it before obtaining the next rune, so he meticulously checked every corner as to not trigger it.

His rune increased its phase by one, leaving him with 464 fragments in total after spending two and a half thousand. From twenty percent, it increased to thirty. Since the last three battles he had provided him sixteen fragments for each worm, he could easily afford the expense.

The staggering rock beyond him didn’t change no matter what. He was walking towards it for a full, twenty-four hours, yet the distance between the two of them remained the same five hundred meters.

In the sheer scope of size, he had probably traveled for more than one hundred kilometers. When he walked towards the curved rock, just when he was about to reach it, even though Conall moved forward, his body was backing away.

Having gone back and forth one hundred times, he finally closed his eyes before shutting his battle sense. No aura leaked from his body while he stood there motionlessly.

While trying to activate the requirement, he was remembering each and every step of the way in front of him. He had everything memorized in his head. There were no monsters to be found around here because of the rock, however, countless, lethal traps were hidden ahead of him.

Even so, he confidently stepped forward. It was as though his eyes never shut themselves. In less than five minutes, he closed the distance, no trap activated whatsoever. Finally, he touched the rock after opening his eyes, to which it crumbled, disappearing into the sand just like the first one.

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There was no altar in the middle of the ground. At least to the normal eye. Walking to the center of where the rock stood previously, Conall poured two hundred and fifty fragments into thin air. Settling themselves into an invisible bowl shape, they also disappeared before a transparent barrier was erected around the concealed shrine.

Instantaneously, darkness engulfed his eyes. No, it wasn’t just darkness. His eyes couldn’t adjust to what was around him. Like he found himself in some sort of a void. In a pool of nothingness that he didn't know how wide it was. His normal senses were held back forcefully. Although he knew he was standing on something, it was tough to differentiate what it was, really.

He couldn’t hear or smell anything at all. The only sense of his that was barely working properly was his battle sense, the sixth sense. As though hearing someone while underwater, he felt a vague feeling of danger coming at him.

Quickly moving to the side, he soon felt a searing pain as drops of acid got on his left arm. Unsheathing the sword on his left hip, he couldn't even check if some of the acid corroded the blade, though he was sure that wouldn't happen.

Stopping in his advance before he could seriously endanger himself, Conall tried to feel for the battle. Beyond his body, to be one with the world. Something was coming directly at his head. The feeling was delayed. Not only that, it was inaccurate.

Holding up his sword while dodging quickly, the blade hardly cocked away the large rock coming at the boy, preventing it from killing him.

It was much bigger and tougher compared to the usual worms he faced. The rock, as well as the acid, were on the verge of becoming Grade B. The monster itself was at least twice the size of its weaker self. Although Conall couldn’t even imagine it in this nothingness, he naturally knew about the enemy. Well, most of its movement since it changed a bit.

‘My strength is different from the game. I’m slightly stronger, both in stats and swordplay.’

Regardless, he wouldn’t have tried to end the battle quickly. This was the perfect scenario to train his battle sense. The dungeon could help him out even in Hestrea.

Once again, he meticulously awaited the spell coming at him. Only a few meters before him. That was his current range that the sense was limited to. Yet, immediately, his body replied, reacting at light speed.

Dodging the acid just barely, he ran to the side. Compared to the smaller worms, the splash of acid the big worm left was wider and deeper, as well as stronger.

He could simply run around in circles while closing in on the boss, however, the boss was still able to move, besides, he wanted to heighten said battle sense.

Usually, the feeling of danger in a fight was fleeting. Not only that, the battles themselves were quick and terse. Also, training with someone didn’t yield good results since that person didn’t really want to kill you, nor did they have virtually unlimited mana.

That’s why he stood, waiting patiently for countless spells to hit him while his body was ready to move at any moment.

In complete concentration on the danger around him, he suddenly moved and a trail of acid was left in his previous space. And the intensity of the spells didn’t decrease. As countless minutes passed, the mid-boss monster started getting angrier.

Instead of spitting acid, it now only released its rocks since that saved shooting time. While starting to move away from the incoming rock, the monster had already sent another, in anticipation where the human was going.

With a wide smile on his face, Conall stared at the monster with closed eyes.

“It’s good that you understand me.”

Saying out loud his gratitude, he started constantly running, as there was no time for a break. One after another, rock after rock, the spells flew through the desert before eventually disappearing back into the sand, where they came from. And, instead of their firing speed diminishing, it was the opposite instead.

Conall didn’t know how long it was, but he must have spent at least a dozen or more hours running around. Although his three flasks had been drained ages ago, it was for this reason that he kept stashing the monsters’ hearts for the last week. He had a few more than a hundred of them, so he kept himself hydrated and satiated at the same time.

At some point, the issue of rocks flying at him got so severe that he needed to dodge three at once before another trio came after him. Thankfully, however, that was only until the end.

His fang, with a bright shine that he couldn’t see, pierced the monster that kept trying to get away from him for the last ten minutes. Conall’s sixth sense had improved, and he was easily aware of that.

Before, the delayed battle sense covered the area of a few meters around. At the end of the battle, however, before he had to dodge the flying rocks, he had spare time of a few seconds. From a few meters, the range increased to a couple of tens of meters.

Slicing through the hard husk of the worm, his muscles tensed and the monster’s body convulsed. A few seconds later, the sunlight pervaded his closed eyes. It didn’t hurt, suddenly adjusting to the light, since he wasn’t actually in a dark place.

Nonetheless, regaining his foothold in the world around him felt weird. Not being able to sense anything for a couple of hours to abruptly feeling everything, from the wind to the dust that stuck to his sweaty body, it was definitely too much.

Still, he quickly adjusted and soon, stared at the position of the sun.

“I was in there for a full day, huh?”

Muttering to himself, Conall turned to the white rune in the middle of the worn down arena. The acid spits that weren’t really an issue were covered up after countless rocks hit them while the whole place looked like a battlefield filled with exploded mines. There were countless little hills and holes except for the edges of the arena where he didn’t really run around.

He wanted to go to the rune and take it, however, he soon realized something.

‘Eh?’

Falling face first onto the fine sand, he quickly lost consciousness, the robe over his head to protect him somewhat from the sun’s heat

It was no wonder. Not only had he not been sleeping properly the last week, he just ended a twenty-four-hour running streak. His body was literally screaming for help, but he couldn’t really notice it during the time spent in nothingness.

…

Although the sun had already set and night pervaded every particle of sand, it was still pretty stuffy. There was no sun, but the temperature exceeded that of Etra’s usual summer.

Waking up to a ‘normal’ darkness that surrounded him, Conall quickly dusted his face off the sand before sitting up.

His throat was all dried up. Taking out a head-sized worm heart from his inventory, he chewed on it before drinking the contents.

After a while, he finished his quick breakfast and stood up. His thighs and calves felt like they were beaten to a pulp, but he still moved on, even if it took him minutes to take a singular step.

Looking at the white run with a transparent inscription in front of him, he didn’t wait anymore and simply took it away.

Though he was busy inspecting it, something caught his attention, causing his eyes to have a look of surprise.

‘There was a hidden accomplishment for this trial?’

He stared at the black robe floating in the air, a translucent glow illuminated it. In the first rune’s shrine, the bonus equipment could be gained after dealing with the trial alone. In this one, however, he couldn’t find the requirement in the game.

He tried everything, from killing the boss in one shot to killing it alone, though he didn’t think there would be a time requirement here. First of all, there wasn’t really any battle sense in the game, but most importantly, the time there flowed as though it was real. He hadn’t really thought of trying to battle the mid-boss for twenty-four hours at once.

‘Still, it’s a nice gift.’

[As a reward for your extreme contribution and determination, you have received the Worldly Veil.]

‘That’s convenient, I guess, though I don’t really know what it does.’

Taking the robe, he felt that it was easily the best material he had in his inventory.

“This can easily defend normal Grade B attacks.”

Once he discarded the worn-down robe on his body, he put on the new one, immediately feeling the difference. Not only was it extremely comfortable, it had resistance to heat enchanted on it.

Feeling content with his new attire, he finally grasped the rune of Clairvoyance in his hand, the same invisible mark on it appearing above the first rune, on his wrist.

He could see the sand through his wrist, but that wasn’t what was important. Having taken his sword from the ground already, he grasped it before putting up a stance. Then, he waited.

Staring at the blank space in front of him, only red sand was there. The wind brushed past him, but he remained composed. His legs and body were strained from the battle sense training, but he was ready to fight.

The reason he evaded the battle wasn’t because he couldn’t deal with the next monster. It was because the next rune could go to waste if he simply killed it.

Nonetheless, confusion riddled his face as nothing happened. Nothing came to him. Going out of the safe zone where the giant rock used to be, he saw through the sand with the rune of Clairvoyance. He could clearly see where the mana clusters were waiting, ready to be activated at any moment.

Then, he finally realized why the monsters couldn’t sense him.

‘On top of all the things, it also conceals the user? Well, I guess I shouldn't expect any less from a hidden reward.’

As he was thinking, something suddenly washed over him, a recollection of important information. At the same time, an idea popped up in his head.

Pain struck his soul as large amounts of aura were poured into the robe. However, he got what he wanted. stretching out his arms, Conall couldn’t see anything. Just as he suspected, the robes turned him invisible, though at the cost of his pain.

Quickly canceling the aura, his figure reemerged in the real world, speaking to no one in particular.

“I'm sure you will like me fully completing the dungeon, no?”

[...]

Looking at the obvious, golden window, he couldn’t help but reaffirm his head. He was willing to comply with it. With the robe, it was surely possible.

Not wasting any more time, he took off the hood and revealed his head to the dark, cloudless sky.