When I opened my eyes there was only pitch black in my surrounding, all noises having ceased sometime between me falling unconscious and waking. Feeling around I begin to crawl trying to find light while remaining quite and hidden from any threats or monster.

Slowly pulling myself out from under the pile of dirt that lays on top of me I see small sparkles from what are known to be energy crystals, they are only found in energy dense area like dungeons and deep underground mines.

I stop for a second to reach for my waist for the knife all citizens over the age of five are provided for self protection in cases like this. Slowly crawling toward the wall with energy crystals in order to see the whole situation I notice how silent it is, no sounds of monsters or people, not even a peep beyond my own sound.

After what feels like minutes but was probably only a few seconds with how small the cave is, I reach the wall with some energy crystals and slowly push myself up to stand grabbing the biggest crystal near me I begin to pear at my surrounding more thoroughly.

The portal is not there but that is common as many dungeons require you to beat the boss or "the strongest monster" monster before the portal reappears and if you are not in contact when pulled into the dungeon you will be sent to different start locations, so unlikely for others to also be here.

The best option for me currently is to see how dangerous the dungeon is and find my way to the boss location if not dangerous, while also making a signal around my current location if the dungeon is dangerous.

Based off the size of the crystals and low corruption level it is most likely a low grade dungeon meaning he should be able to safely make it to the boss room with some difficulty. Making my way out of the cave I woke up in no monsters appear so continue moving using the crystal in my left hand and dagger in my right hand.

Coming across a location where a battle had happened relief floods though me, the hunters were here and based off the hardened goo on the ground it's been at least ten minutes since they left. When slimes are killed they become a goo pile before hardening after ten minutes, and I know hunters killed them because slimes can only be killed by attacking with energy.

Although they are the lowest mob they come in high numbers and are hard to kill as only strikes with energy can do permanent damage to kill, there is a reason you have at least be D-rank to be a hunter as well as have enough skill.

If a hunter waste energy to quickly they will simply lead to their on death due to being unable to properly defend against or kill their opponent. Fortunately for him the hunters have been here meaning if he follows after them the path will be clear of dangers as the hunters will have killed all the mobs in the way to prevent flocking when they attack the boss.

Though only some bosses do it, it's better to kill all mobs before reaching the boss than be flocked by hundreds of mobs along with a more powerful boss enemy. Some bosses even have intelligence and can organize the mobs under them making it impossible to target the most dangerous one first while it picks them off.

Wandering further into the caverns he follows the signs of fights while being cautious not to make any noise so as to not draw attention of any nearby monsters to him and potentially lose the hunters pathway. Walking for what felt like hours but was most likely only half an hour at most he comes to a place with different looks, there are small amounts of bones around, the boss room is nearby.

Walking into a large cavern filled with dried slime and old bones there is no sound to be heard in the area aside from my own inhales and exhales that as I stare at the room have begun to increase, clearly this should be the boss room so where was the hunters or the portal or the boss if the hunters had failed. I had expected many things when entering but not the eerie silence that permeates the room.

Slowly panic sets in, but I calm myself down all I could do was think of alternate possibilities as to why the boss room had no boss, no hunters, and no portals that isn't the worst possibility. 'what if this is a fake boss room, it can happen with more intelligent bosses' or 'maybe this was their trash room and not the boss room' but my denial would not change what I was looking at.

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I begin to wander through different caverns marking the one I pass through so not to keep looping, no one, only an eerie silence as one hour turns to two and then four there is no more denying it.

I'm stuck in a closed dungeon. I'm somewhere even the most powerful hunters had never returned from.

Dazed, I make my way back to the room I originally woke up in dirt and seeds cover the ground looking at this my thought turn self deprecating 'well at least starving to death isn't as big a concern I can eat the emergency rations stored in my comm space until these grow.'

With underwater stream passing through a chamber about a 3 minute walk from my location both basic needs are covered for potential long term, while my short term need can be settled with government supplied emergency comm space provisions.

With a tent, a sleeping bag, food to last at least 6 months in case of ending up in a powerful dungeon, basic cooking items as well as all the soil and seeds I'll need for farming, I begin to lay the wooden planks on the ground. After laying all planks down I sit down and eat a nutrient pack contemplating how I will die 'growing old alone while growing crops again and again or end up killing myself due to isolation.'

After eating, I lay down in my sleeping bag close my eyes and sleep.

Waking up after completely resting, I begin to lay the soil over the planks, layer by layer soil at least 40"in depth for the different plants that require different soil depth as I had no way of knowing which of the seeds where which due to being removed from packets to germinate all I can do is plant the ones that look the same in similar areas and hope it works.

After spending half a day doing that, once more sitting to eat vibrations begin to occur through the cave. My first thought was earthquake but that is absurd, my second thought was the dungeon destroying itself but no crack or falling pieces like one would expect to occur happened.

All I could do was continue eating and then return to planting crops as nothing would change whatever had happened. After another 4 hours passed and I was finishing up planting the seeds when a noise was heard a small tiny plop. Freezing, my hands shake and I rush to see were the sound originated from and as I turned the corner there in front of me is a slime.

Both joy and fear go through me as I stare at the slime, fear for a monster I can't beat and joy that maybe others were out there, maybe he had missed a spot in his searching earlier. But he had to deal with the monster in front of him first, although hard to kill they had little lethality as there only kill method is to surround people in large numbers and slowly dissolve them using there bodies.

But he had little energy in him, with low potential and only ever absorbing the lowest tier cores his energy level didn't even reach F-grade the lowest grade for awakening. However that didn't mean he had no energy just not enough to use, meaning nothing he did could hurt the slime unless he found a way to use energy while not awakened.

Facing the slime he returned back to his planting room and began to contemplate, he needed to begin cultivating again but with no cores and in a place full of corruption what he can do is limited. Theoretically it is possible to absorb energy from the surroundings but doing so is extremely harsh as you need to move the energy in your body continuously faster then it runs naturally for an effect of only a tenth of the same effect you would get from absorbing a core.

To top it off he is in a dungeon with corruption meaning absorbing energy in the air also means actively taking in corruption along with the energy which will just speed up his death. When a thought hit him 'why does corruption cause self implosion if you take in no more energy.'

He was sure someone has asked the question before, after all he was far from the smartest person but although they knew the answer, it had no worth to them, after all absorbing energy from a core was the fastest way to cultivate and why else would the government experiment to see if absorbing naturally was possible.

So he could cultivate without using cores or absorbing corrupt energy by cultivating the energy he himself must make, as that is the only reason a person who can't absorb energy could implode due to energy build up, just one problem 'How do you do that?'

Indeed if he can't figure it out quickly the amount of slimes will rapidly over take him, leading to a faster death then one caused by corruption.

'I'm going to have to experiment with myself aren't I?'

Slowly I sat down closed my eyes and began to study myself, how do I make my self produce energy without having any known means. Then a insane thought came, one I'm sure contemplated but most likely discarded due to the danger. What if I close my absorption holes on purpose while keeping as much corruption out of myself as possible.

Then I can track exactly where the energy creation is occurring and maybe find a way to artificially increase the output but in doing so I will lose the ability to cultivate the quicker and easier way and will also be risking my life as if I absorb to much corruption I will block not just the absorption points but also my energy veins.

But what other choice do I have, all I can do is gamble and hope it pays off.