Upgrade The System Now?
System? Let's see. Yes
Ilsung's senses blanked for a while, before recovering.
Welcome User, I'm the AI System you upgraded to. You can summon me with a thought. I'm fully interactive, you can talk to me and use your skills with just a thought. Since you solo cleared the dungeon I'll answer a few questions as a bonus.
After thinking for a while, Ilsung asked "Who made you?"
The Great Arken, Saviors, and Angels of Earth. New Leaders of this Galactic Quadrant.
"Are they aliens from another world?"
From a Human perspective, Yes. And so were the Gods and Angels described in Human Mythology.
"Do you know of a world called Farvin?"
You don't have clearance to know any other information regarding the Arken or the world outside this star system
"How do I obtain clearance?"
Solo clearing dungeons. As you clear them, more and more information will be accessible to you. And just a reminder, you don't need to talk out loud, you can say it in your mind and I'll understand.
"I like talking out loud, feels more natural. So what about the ring?"
A light appeared around Ilsung's right thumb and a black ring appeared around his finger.
"Hmm...So what can I do with this ring?"
Isn't it obvious, you can store things. It can store dead monsters, food, weapons, and items. It has a virtual volume of 27 cubic meters, except for living beings, you can store a bunch of things as long as the total volume doesn't exceed the limit.
"Wow, can I use it to bring prohibited stuff into a dungeon with this?"
Yes, that's one of the key features of this ring, which is why it's called the Interloper ring. You can operate it with your thought
Ilsung thought for a while before dismissing the system. "Alright, that's enough for now, I'll talk to you later"
Ilsung looked back to find Park, talking to himself.
He must have gotten the system upgrade too
After looking dazed for a while, Park approached Ilsung.
"Did you also get this system upgrade?" Park asked absentmindedly.
"Yes," Ilsung nodded.
"It's amazing. It's an AI system right in your mind. The way it talks is so natural..." Park stopped talking as he looked at the dead Minotaur.
He gasped. "I forgot, your fight with this monster was bone-chilling. I don't know how long and how many it would take to finish this monster without someone like you."
Ilsung nodded "It's pretty strong, you'll need a good strategy to defeat it. By the way, where are the remains of the Gorgon?"
"I didn't want to miss whatever you were doing, so I left it there" Park replied with a sheepish smile.
"Let's hope it's still there"
Ilsung hovered his hand on the Minotaur's body. He thought of storing the monster in the ring and instantly a white light enveloped the monster's body and it disappeared.
Wow, it works just like the AI said it would. This must have been the reward assigned for the 1st person to solo clear a dungeon.
Meanwhile, Park who was watching from the side gasped again. "What the fuck. Is it one of your tricks again?"
Ilsung thought for a second before replying "Uh...Yes, It's a skill I just received for clearing the dungeon"
Park nodded. "I'll try clearing the dungeon in the coming few days, hope I get the same skill as you did."
"Yeah...Good luck" Ilsung gave a thumbs-up.
Just as they were talking, a blue translucent gate appeared in front of them.
Ilsung looked at the gate, it was similar to the blue barrier in front of the dungeon.
"Guess this is the exit, that's convenient. let's explore for a bit, we also need to collect the Gorgon's remains"
Park agreed.
~~
Ilsung and park ran back to the forest, the remains of the Gorgon were still there. He stored it inside the ring.
"I'll explore for a bit, you should meditate here for a while, the mana here is much stronger than outside, it'll be of great benefit"
Park sensed the strong mana too. He nodded and sat on a broken tree stump and began to meditate, drawing in the mana with each breath.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Ilsung was curious about the world inside the dungeon, he wanted to explore for a bit. He ran perpendicular to the path they previously went on. Within a hundred meters, Ilsung bumped head-first into an invisible wall, which bounced him back.
When Ilsung touched the invisible wall, a transparent structure that went up into the sky as a dome appeared, in the blink of an eye it disappeared again.
Ilsung thought for a while. He pushed all of his mana, which was now back to full, into his fist. He took a punching stance and threw a terrifying punch at the wall.
The wall vibrated and shook for a few seconds before blowing Ilsung back. Again, in a short while, the wall disappeared. Ilsung was prepared for such a reaction and jumped back at the right time and wasn't hurt. Although he was prepared for such a reaction, he didn't expect this invisible wall to be so strong.
He could see the forest extending beyond the invisible wall, but when the wall vibrated from his punch, the forest along with the sky distorted for a second.
The sky above and the space beyond the wall must be an Illusion.
After thinking for a while, he decided to meditate. He sat down and closed his eyes. He expended all of his mana and dispersed it into the surroundings. He then concentrated on the flow of mana around him, drawing in the dense mana.
This mana concentration is almost at the level of Farvin. I wonder how concentrated the mana is in the A-rank dungeons let alone the S-rank ones.
Ilsung continued to push the dense mana through his body, which was now bathed in concentrated mana. As Ilsung's body became acclimated to the dense mana, his body slowly rejuvenated.
He recollected the theory that described an invisible organ, which could store a certain volume of mana. The size of the organ depends on the luck and aptitude of an individual and could increase in size with regular emptying and filling of the organ. The density of the mana that was stored in the organ greatly affected the total mana reserves.
As this density of mana was something he was innately familiar with, just as a few hours passed Ilsung was able to fill up on the dense mana. He recalled powerful magic that could condense mana. It was used to collect mana even if one was in a place with poor mana density. Ilsung never tried the magic, which he discovered at an ancient Elven ruin, during his war campaign.
Originally it required a large amount of mana, but with the amount of mana he had left after coming here, he didn't give it any thought.
Now with the mana density in the dungeon, his total mana reserve is even slightly more than what he had in Farvin.
He decided to give it a try.
He cast an extremely complex inscription containing the Old Elven signs and the extinct Dwarven runes. The inscription started to slowly rotate around Ilsung, slowly drawing out his mana. With each successive rotation, the rate at which it drew mana from Ilsung increased.
20 minutes later, Ilsung was getting squeezed for mana. The inscription was nearly done before Ilsung ran out of mana. Left with no other choice, Ilsung burned a big chunk of his life force into mana, finally filling the inscription, which now began to emit a brilliant green light.
The glowing inscription collapsed onto Ilsung's body, which began to heat his body, almost to the point of being painful. After a few minutes, the pain subsided. The casting of the magic was a success, but Ilsung was not only completely drained of his mana, but he also used his life force.
I would need a week to fully recover my life force. This ancient magic can condense mana by a factor of 2, though it would then take twice as long to fill up on mana. If I can continue to be in here for a while it'll be .....
Before Ilsung finished his thought, a blue light surrounded him, his vision went dark for a second and he was thrown out of the dungeon. When Ilsung's vision recovered, he was on the ground in front of the dungeon entrance in the Academy's backyard.
Next to him was Park, who looked excited. They stood up and dusted themselves.
"How long were we inside?" Ilsung asked.
Park looked at his mechanical pocket watch. Since they couldn't carry any electronic items, including a normal quartz watch, people who ventured into the dungeon had to have a mechanical watch to tell time, since it always seemed to be daytime in the dungeon and there was no sun.
"4 hours total. You cleared the dungeon in 30 minutes. I didn't know we would be kicked out so soon"
Ilsung nodded. "Meditating in such a Mana-dense environment must have been good for you, how do you feel?"
Park nodded with a smile on his face "It's much better than doing it outside, it was suffocating at first but now I feel rejuvenated."
"Good for you. I ran into some trouble with mana usage. I'm extremely weakened, I'll rest in the dorm. Don't disturb me, I'll come to you once I recover."
Without waiting for a reply, Ilsung headed to his dorm room. It was 9 PM, and apart from a few people heading to and from the gym, the halls of the dormitory were empty.
Ilsung took a warm bath and climbed onto his bed, he looked at the protein bars on his desk longingly but he was too lazy and tired to even grab one. Within minutes, Ilsung drifted deep into sleep, unaware of the pot he stirred that afternoon.
~~
Paul Campbell was an editor at Reuters Global division, in the evenings he spent his time looking at tips and potential stories that were sent to his email. He just finished his dinner and continued to look at his emails, bored out of his mind, it was then that he saw Ilsung's email.
He was fascinated as he read the email, which had a few excerpts from Ilsung's website. He then clicked on the link, which took him to 'Moonlight-Guild.com'. As he read through the introduction, it intrigued him, as a staunch believer in capitalism, the idea of the dungeons being commercialized and exploited for resources appealed to him immensely.
He clicked the text at the bottom of the page which read 'Analysis of The Events So Far', he liked the elegant and post-modern design of the website. If the site looked dodgy, he would have hesitated to click random links on a website.
As the page loaded, Paul sat straight in his chair and started to read the page intently. By the end of it, he was teeming with excitement. Governments have failed to provide any critical information regarding the dungeons and what's inside them. There was also no information released about the Arken.
Initially, governments began selection campaigns where people were tested for Mana, which was a completely fictional concept until that point and which was often seen in video games. Some countries like America haven't even published the locations of the so-called dungeons, a lot of information was tightly wrapped, and any speculation was heavily discouraged.
The long article explained the events in a neat little timeline, going into details of Dungeon grades along with a very plausible theory of the Arken being an Alien race, with Gods and Angels in Mythology also being from Alien civilizations. The theory of mana, its effects at various concentrations, and the usage of magic as skills within the status screen, all of this made a lot of sense.
Though there was no solid proof, this is the best bundle of information he has seen so far, and it was neatly tied together.
Paul browsed various forums, and found the exact post on all of them, he read through all the comments, with the majority of them agreeing that the article on the website was extremely plausible.
He did a background check on the website domain but found it to be anonymously registered from an IP address in Antarctica. Paul was experienced in digital investigation, he went through the website code and found some remnant code from the web design tool used for crafting the site. After a quick Google search, he found that the tool was from a Korean startup.
Paul was all smiles, Korea was one of the few countries that published locations of the dungeons, along with information that no other country has published.
Who the hell would use a random tool from a Korean startup when there are other highly popular tools unless the person or organization was itself from Korea?
He was now pretty confident regarding the reliability of the info on the site.
He immediately drafted a news story and sent it to the editor-in-chief.
I think I'll get a bonus this month
~~
END OF CHAPTER 15