[ Day 16 ]

Thanks to Damian’s advancement to the third Tier, his exploration speed had exponentially increased. He originally thought that the intervals would get cut down by half as usual, but being reduced to a mere third was too great.

Although he still couldn’t spam Aura Slashes without end, cutting down Goblin after the other had become easier than ever before.

After so much training, Damian had upped his practice opponents to 6, but when it came to Aura Combat, he could confidently face up to a dozen Goblins at the same time!

Not only did this also cause Aura Combat to have skill training value, but Damian’s exploration speed also went off the charts.

By placing practice battles between speedrunning battles, Damian got all the time he needed to recover his depleted Aura before he spent everything, preserving maximum efficiency.

Most importantly, the strengthened Aura was no different from a buffed weapon that provided Damian with positive corrections. Even if the Goblin was able to avoid a slash to the weakest part of its neck, receiving it anywhere close had now become just as lethal!

In this manner, the 30 to 40 Goblins that Damian was used to handling on his grind to Tier-3 had now become 60 to 70. The only unfortunate thing about it was that the drop rate was almost reduced in the same proportion.

At the same time, the Goblins’ numbers were still steadily increasing. Even if Damian could run faster, speeding to the end was no longer possible.

The lone Goblin that he was used to had now become two, three, or even four Goblins, and that was outside of Dens. On the contrary, the Hobgoblins that Damian was hoping for seemed to have grown extinct.

Aside from the three that he met early on, not a single one of them made an appearance.

‘Does this mean I’m getting close to the end?’

By referring to the trend in Fate’s Guide, an explosive increase in enemy encounters was a sign that a great event was incoming.

Damian wasn’t sure if that was going to be the exit of the Labyrinth or the door to greater danger, but the excitement in his heart could only rise.

Whether it was getting out of here or meeting new monsters and leveling up, Damian welcomed new possibilities. Compared to hunting Goblins forever, any clue towards finishing his mission was worthy of expectations.

After all, from the way things have been until now, it was obvious that the Plot Armor System had nothing to say to him until Damian was done saving Iris.

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Of course, as excited as Damian was for a close conclusion, he was starting to get frustrated by the abysmal drop.

In games, one always had expectations of growing stronger before returning to a low-level field and slaughtering everything in his path. However, what was the use if there was little to no XP or Loot to be obtained?

It was one thing for a game to do this, but the reality patch being just as agonizing was a tough blow.

‘There has to be a reason.’

Unlike game rules that all gamers had to accept with any reasoning, the rules governing Damian’s current life were now different.

Some still made no sense, but the majority could be explained after deep contemplation!

If the abundance of monsters caused the number of Life Stones to decrease, then the reason had to be attributed to how Life Stones were formed.

A Goblin required a heart to live, but the same couldn’t be said about a Life Stone. Having one didn’t make them special in any way, they weren’t especially strong either, so…

‘Why do they have one?’

Using himself as a subject of comparison, Damian could only assume that monsters automatically formed Life Stones by absorbing some sort of energy just like he automatically recharged his Aura.

As for what kind of energy could form a precious Life Stone stone over time, Damian wasn’t even sure how his Aura recharged itself, but if everything was related to that energy, then the puzzle could be easily solved.

Unless one could increase the source’s scope, more inhabitants meant fewer resources for everyone. That was the case everywhere.

In the same manner, if the shared energy wasn’t enough to form Life Stones between 3 or more Goblins, then the trashy drop rate made sense.

This theory could be disputed considering how often Life Stones appeared inside of Dens where Goblins stayed together, but then again, the area around them was usually devoid of monsters.

Perhaps being the only monsters in the vicinity made the energy flow to them, or they could have just collected more energy when they went out to hunt for the scarce prey.

Regardless, there was more than one explanation that supported Damian’s theory!

‘Well, it’s not like I can do anything about it.’

Of course, even if he truly managed to understand the mechanism behind it, Damian couldn’t abuse it in his favor.

At first glance, it seemed like using Goblins as livestock to artificially create Life Stones was possible, but not to mention the necessary equipment that he lacked, what Damian had the least of was time!

Aside from the uncertainty of it all, it was likely that the return wouldn’t match the effort or time that he had to invest in order to kickstart that project…

It might be useless at the moment, but figuring things out could have unexpected returns depending on the situation. Damian’s inquisitive nature was another one of the reasons that allowed him to clear level after level of the horrible game known as Fate’s Guide.

For now, however, there was only one thing that Damian could focus on.

‘Let’s just grind to the end.’

Clearing the way forward was the only way to ensure that he was steadily making progress. Damian’s effort had to exponentially increase alongside the Goblins’ numbers, but it was all a cheap price in exchange for direction.

...And not long after, Damian finally reached his destination.