Looking over the grass plain in front of him, he saw a forest in the distance, and some cow-looking creatures grazing on the grassy plain.

Surprisingly, he didn't see anyone as he expected that there would be some people here. Maybe they were in the next level of the dungeon, or are in some other dungeon entirely.

When he entered the dungeon, the door closed behind him, but he found that he could open it at any time, which was good as being stuck here wouldn't be ideal.

Now the only thing he needed to figure out was how to reach the next level. From what he saw from outside of the dungeon, he had to go up, but there was no staircase in sight. Also, upon close inspection of the dungeon, he could faintly see the dungeon wall in the distance which was blue along with the ceiling of the level, which was also blue to look like the sky.

There was also no sun, or light sources anywhere, but somehow, the dungeon was fully lit up.

Taking a step, Tai started exploring the dungeon as he started walking into the forest as there was nothing important other than some minor creatures in the plains that would not help him in any way.

Tai was confident that he could get through the 1st level pretty easily, but considering that the mission back at the guild was Rank A, it might mean that it would pose a problem for him, so just in case, he constructed his naginata but didn't bother augmenting it with his ki as to not waste any unless he had to.

The monsters in the dungeon's forest weren't very hard for Tai, but they weren't easy to the point where he could just walk through doing nothing and be fine, more like an easy problem.

As he walked through the forest, there were many types of monsters ranging from wolves, insects, small critters, and even a bear which was way bigger than the grizzly bear back on Earth, but he still dealt with them fine.

The interesting thing was, when he killed wolves, or bears, sometimes, after a few seconds, the 'energy' of the monsters would visibly drain out and form into a crystal of varying colors.

Holding the crystal, Tai used his Analyze skill on it.

Aether Core Beings that have absorbed a substantial amount of Aether have a chance of dropping an Aether Core. These Aether Cores are important and are worth more than AC. Rarer cores will have a property that matches the being that it came from and can be used for various things

Reading the description of the core, Tai noted that it said beings, meaning that he was included in that group, so if he died, there was a chance that he would also drop an Aether Core.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

He grabbed the core and placed it into his backpack, but a loud, booming voice came through his head.

"STUPID, THE ABYSSSSSS IS YOURSSSS TO CONTROL. STOP USSSSING THAT PRIMITIVE SSSSTORAGE COMPARTMENT AND USSSSE THE ABYSSSSS..." It was the same voice that had upgraded his darkness, apparently still watching him.

Tai listened to what the entity said, but how would he use the 'abyss' to store the aether core, unless...

Trying to test out his idea, Tai grabbed the aether core and leaned down to his shadow. Channeling the darkness, he touched his shadow, and his hand went through the ground like butter.

You have learned a skill: Darkness Dimensional Storage

+1 status point

Reading the name of the skill, he obviously knew what this meant. His shadow, or anything that had darkness could be used as a storage that connected to another dimension, but was the dimension his, or something else entirely?

With this new skill, he took off his backpack and gladly placed it into his shadow along with the Aether Core that he had gotten.

"Thanks..." Tai said out loud, directed to the mysterious entity.

While walking and killing any monsters that attacked him, Tai saw a glowing, blue portal that was as small as a dog, but changed in size to accommodate him. Tai had a pretty good guess that this portal would send him to the next level, so he went in, taking a step with his feet one by one.

Appearing on the other side of the portal, he looked around and found himself in an alien biome. The ground, and grass, as well as most vegetation that he could see were purple. There were giant fungi the size of trees and glowing, blue mushrooms that gave off some light.

You have reached the 2nd level of the dungeon

The second level of the dungeon wasn't as bright as the first level, but using his night vision, he could see just fine.

Not only was the environment weird and alien, the creatures were also alien and weird. Most of the creatures on the second level of the dungeon had more than one pair of eyes and many appendages. They were also slightly stronger, but nothing to be concerned about.

Looks like he would have to go to the next level to face any challenge, and even then, it wasn't confirmed that they would pose a challenge.

So Tai explored the level, and eventually found the next portal and went through it, going into the next level. This went on for a while, and the levels got bigger, increasing the time it took to find the portal and more and stronger monsters appeared.

Tai was a bit bored, so he welcomed the stronger monsters, but their level was too low to pose as a threat to Tai. Some of them did wield mana though, which he found interesting.