He had no idea how much more of the cave system was left, and how far he had to go. At least he barely needed any food anymore, with his thresholds crossed. He had not eaten or drank in over a week, and had not slept either. At this rate, he would never have to again. It was a welcome convenience in this world, but it signified his ever quickening departure from the realm of humanity.
Jonathan shook his head, banishing the useless thoughts, and began to make his way cautiously towards the troglodyte village. He had already explored most of the cave wall, and anything else that was valuable would be in the center of the cave.
A few moments later, he heard a rustling noise in the moss, and he quickly jumped to the side as a troglodyte came barreling out at him. This was one of the warrior type monsters, and its body was accentuated with grotesquely enlarged muscles.
Jonathan dodged as its stone club came smashing down, blowing up clunks of earth from the ground. He surged in and drove his mana enhanced fist into the monster’s head, flattening its jaw inwards. Teeth broke and bones shattered, but the creature was not dead yet. It swiped out with one of its forelegs, and struck Jonathan’s leg, leaving a significant mark there. It was stronger than he had been expecting, and his leg almost buckled. However, with his monstrous durability for his level, nothing was broken.
He quickly lashed out with his free hand, and smashed the monster into the dirt, caving in its head with that one vicious blow. The creature slumped down, and Jonathan finished it off with another strike to its head, turning it into a pile of mush. Essence entered him, a considerable amount in fact, and he found himself almost a quarter of the way towards another level. The System seemed to award essence through a complicated series of calculations, taking in account relative strength, adversity and the level of the killer. In any case, Jonathan could not predict how much he would gain from any one source, which made it hard to tell how much he needed to level up. This was probably intentional. He suspected that the System was skimming off the top, and if nobody knew how much essence they were getting, they wouldn’t be able to tell.
Jonathan tossed the corpse into the mossy bushes, not wanting it to betray his presence if any more of the monsters came around. He didn't think that they were especially intelligent, but he would rather be safe than suffer from his assumptions. They seemed to have some sort of primitive society down here, which meant that they were at least able to build, if not communicate effectively. They clearly had no sophisticated language, as it would have been translated for Jonathan.
He continued towards the center of the cavern, not running across any more monsters. Soon he heard the noise of trickling water, and he found himself standing in front of a small pool, glowing with light. There were strange eyeless fish swimming around in there, with silvery scales. Just looking at the pond made Jonathan feel inexplicably calmer than before, and he stood there for a moment, overwhelmed.
The light seemed to grow brighter and brighter, until it was everything that he could see. However, he had enough presence of mind to leap backwards when he felt the ground rumble beneath him. A gaping fissure opened beneath where he had been standing, and a massive tongue shot out, trying to grasp him. He slammed his fist into it, knocking the tongue back, prompting a cry of pain from whatever was at the other end.
Jonathan snarled and watched as the fissure cracked open completely, revealing that it was in fact a mouth, with stony teeth that looked capable of crushing his bones to powder. The pool vanished into the ground, replaced with a glowing electric blue eye. Tendrils of pure mana began to rise out of the ground, and started to grasp at Jonathan. He growled and sent out his consciousness towards the tendrils, unbinding them one by one with his Unravel skill.
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The earth trembled once more, and the creature began to climb out of the ground, flopping out onto the cavern floor. It was shaped like a blob of slime, with rock protecting most of its slippery body. It was about twenty feet in diameter, and its mouth ran almost halfway along its body. It seemed to be able to shape its body to whatever it wanted, seeing as the mouth had been flat mere moments before. Jonathan quickly scanned it as he got ready to fight, imbuing his gauntlets with Divinity.
Petrified Mana Angler(Elite)
Level 61
It was an elite monster, and its name fit in with the theme that Jonathan had been expecting, what with the evidence of a gorgon at the end of the dungeon. It seemed that this monster had been affected somewhat by the gorgon’s petrifying gaze, but had either been too strong, or too large, for it to be fully petrified before it could get away. Now it lurked within this cavern, waiting for easy prey.
It seemed to be a cousin species to the Mana Leech that Jonathan had fought during the monster waves, and they looked quite similar in appearance. However, this creature was undoubtedly stronger.
As Jonathan started towards the creature, it let out a wet gurgling noise and began to roll across the ground, using tentacles of watery slime to propel itself. All around it, its grasping pseudopods of mana started to thrash around, and swiped at Jonathan, attempting to grab him. He had no idea what would happen if it managed to get a hold of him, but he didn't especially want to find out.
He weaved around the attacks like a ghost, and quickly found himself next to the main body of grotesque monsters. Cocking his fist back, he punched, letting loose an explosion of Divinity enhanced runic energy. The red light of his Rune of Hatred spiraled outwards, blowing a small chunk off the creature’s side. Unlike the Mana Leech, this monster seemed to have no sort of energy absorption abilities, not that Jonathan was sure that Divinity would have counted as mana in the first place.
The creature hissed at him, and a pseudopod latched onto his leg in the brief moment of stability that he had used to land the punch. It whipped him back and forth, smashing him into the cave ground. He roared in anger, and grabbed onto another pseudopod as he was manipulated by the first one, using it as a handhold to tear himself free. The two pseudopods groaned against his strength as he pulled, and eventually ripped them both out of the ground. He wasn't sure how exactly he had managed such a feat, seeing as they were both made out of mana, but perhaps to act in a physical manner, they had to be bound by physical laws as well.
Jonathan did not let another pseudopod touch him after that, and he instead focused his efforts on the monster itself, darting in and out every few seconds to land an attack. It didn't seem to have many ways to actually hurt him, and it was more of a battle of attrition than anything else. Its main trick had been with the pond that was enhanced with a luring effect, which had almost spelled his demise. Other than that, it was just a large ball of slightly petrified slime with some basic mana abilities. Nothing too serious.
The creature's advanced level likely pertained to how much health and durability the creature had, seeing as it was lacking in most other departments. Over the next twenty minutes, Jonathan slowly whittled away the rocky coating around the monster, eventually baring its slimy flesh fully to the air. The monster knew that it had been beaten at this point, and it tried to scramble back towards its hiding hole, but Jonathan thrust this mana enhanced fists into its side, creating two large holes in the monster. Reaching into those holes, he pulled it back out of its den, and onto the ground.
After that, it was nothing short of pure butchery, with Jonathan’s fists beating away parts of the monster’s flesh and tearing at its innards. Soon all that was left was a large pile of blue fleshy slime, with no other trace of the monster left. Essence entered him, almost enough to push him to the next level. Almost, but not quite. He could probably be there after a few more troglodyte kills at this rate. Now that the monster had been dealt with, Jonathan continued his search of the central part of the cavern, eager to discover its hidden treasures.