Quintessence of Arcana

Venturing The Dungeon (1)

“Dammit, why can’t I find it...?”

It had been three days since Erald had killed the Clawed Bear, and he had spent every waking moment searching the dungeon for an exit.

At this point he had mapped over eighty percent of the dungeon floor. After killing the Clawed Bear, Erald’s stats had made another huge jump, so there was no longer anything on the floor that posed even a mild threat to him. As such, even though the floor was vast, his search progressed rapidly without incident. Despite that, he was unable to find any exits no matter how hard he looked.

Actually, that wasn’t strictly true. While he had been unable to find any exits, he had discovered a staircase leading down two days ago. He then believed that the dungeon is separated by floors and maze-like passages, akin to a labyrinth.

He had already tried destroying the walls, but the layers that separated the floors and passages seemed to have some kind of magical protection cast on them. In fact, according to Shea, this kind of dungeon is extremely complex. So it wasn’t that odd for it to have some mysteries still.

Which was why Erald soon coming to realize that he would need to make a choice about what to do if he couldn’t find it. That choice was whether or not to delve deeper instead.

“...Another dead end. At this point I’ve investigated all the pathways. What on earth is going on here?”

Erald sighed tiredly, forced to accept that he wasn’t going to find a staircase or passage leading up. Resigned, he began heading back to the room where he’d found the staircase leading down.

The staircase he’d discovered two days ago was very roughly carved. It was closer to a bumpy slope than an actual staircase. Moreover, there was no bluish glowstones lighting the way, and the descent was steeped in darkness, giving off an ominous atmosphere. The darkness and shape of it made the entrance resemble the gaping jaws of some humungous beast. It felt as if once he entered, he would never be able to come back out.

“Hah! Bring it on! I’ll devour anything you throw at me!” Erald ridiculed himself for his trepidation, and smiled fearlessly. And without any further hesitation, he stepped foot into the darkness.

Once he started down the staircase, the darkness enveloped him fully. While it generally made sense for an underground labyrinth to be dark, every floor he had passed so far had been lit with glowstone. Even if it hadn’t been bright, it had never been so fully dark that Erald couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face.

Since there was no glowstones lining the staircase, Erald stopped for a while, hoping his eyes might adjust. But no matter how long he waited, all that his eyes took in was black.

Left with no choice, Erald grabbed something from his makeshift rucksack, created from bear leather and tendons. He pulled out a blue glowstone to light his surroundings.

Carrying a light source in the darkness was tantamount to suicide, but Erald reasoned that he had no other means of moving forward.

After a while, Erald saw something glint in the darkness, deeper down the passageway. He strained his senses, suddenly vigilant.

Sticking to the shadows as much as possible while he advanced, Erald suddenly felt an ominous feeling approach from his left side. He quickly jumped to the side, then pointed his left stump at the source of the feeling.

Illuminated by the ghastly blue light, a massive two meter long white lizard, appeared before him. It was staring right at him, with it's eerie, red-colored eyes.

The lizard's eyes then flashed brightly at him. An instant later...

“Huh!?”

With a strange cracking noise, Erald’s left stump began turning to stone. The petrification spread to the glowstone, and seconds later the petrified glowstone made a cracking noise and crumbled away. Without his light source, Erald was once more surrounded by darkness. The petrification had continued, reaching all the way up to his shoulder.

Erald clicked his tongue, and started to channel his mana around his body, coating him. As he had hoped, the petrification came to a stop, and slowly began reversing back down to his left arm.

“Now you’ve done it!”

Erald pulled a makeshift flash grenade out from the pouch at his waist and flung it at where he’d last seen the lizard. He saw another flash of red light appear from the darkness. Despite his inability to see clearly, Erald quickly used his supersonic movements to dash away.

When he glanced back, he saw the rock behind where he’d been had changed color, looking far more weathered than it once was. That literally petrifying gaze was going to be quite troublesome.

Erald pulled Shardslicer out from his waist and held it in front of his face while tightly shutting his eyes. A second later, the flash grenade exploded in a riot of blue light with a quiet bang.

“Kraaaah!?” The lizard probably hadn’t ever experienced light so bright before, and writhed around in bewilderment. When Erald opened his eyes, he could barely make out its silhouette in the darkness.

He dashed towards it without delay. His blade found its mark, piercing through the skull of the basilisk, slicing through the contents contained within. The blade passed cleanly through the back of the lizard’s head and drilled deep into the rock wall behind it with a loud hiss. Because the blade was electrically powered, it electrocuted the lizard, leaving a scorched residue afterwards.

Wary of his surroundings, Erald carefully approached the creature. Once he confirmed it was dead, he quickly cut up its flesh and retreated to safety. He could hardly eat it there, where he couldn’t even see what was around him. Erald decided to prioritize scouting the new floor first.

He continued walking through the darkness. He searched for dozens of hours, but was unable to find any passages leading the exit. He continued defeating enemies and picking up the rocks he found on the way, and before long he found himself laden with more things than he could easily carry. That was when he finally decided that it was time to find a base for himself.

Luckily, he found a small cave nearby and decided to establish his base there. After clearing any dangers and confirmed that it is already safe, he took several blue glowstones out of his rucksack and placed it onto a cavity he had carved out for it.

“Now that I’m all settled in, it’s time for a feast.”

Erald took all the meat he had collected out of a stone container he had fitted to his rucksack. Next, he grilled it all with his lightning skill. The day’s menu consisted of roasted lizard meat, roasted white owl with half its feathers still sticking on, and a roasted six-legged cat thing. There were no added seasonings.

“At least I have food.”

As he worked through his meal, he began feeling the same familiar pain in his body. It meant that his body was being forcibly strengthened once more. In fact, the monsters residing in this floor were at least as powerful as the Claw Bear had been, if not more. However, Shardslicer is able to slice anything it hit, so Erald hadn’t really noticed how much stronger are they compared to their counterparts on the floor above.

He drank some more river water he had stored and ignored the pain as he continued eating. He had suffered so much that such a measly level of pain didn’t even faze him.

“Mmmf, haah, thanks for the meal. Now then, let’s see how much my body changed...”

As he had expected, his strength had risen dramatically. And he had learned three new skills. As he looked around, he realized that he could indeed see a little better in the darkness.

It is very similar to Night Vision. It might not have been a very useful skill for the rest of the monsters in this hell, but for the floor he was on at least, it was a godsend. His other new skills did as their origins suggested. However, Erald was somewhat disappointed that he had gotten Petrification resistance, instead of the lizard’s actual petrification skill.

“Tsk. It would have been so cool to get that 'petrification skill' or something...” Erald lamented dejectedly.

Once he finished his meal, Erald began his training. Up until now, his body subconsciously absorbs the external mana around his surroundings. His Mana Core expanded to the point that it break through to another level. He was now in the Origin Stage. In fact, Erald himself didn't even notice it, as he only felt a slight increase of his power.

So far, he had only descended a single level from his starting point, and he had no way of knowing how much further this dungeon continued for. He planned on returning to his search the moment he finished his training. He couldn’t afford to waste time lounging around if he wanted to get out.

Once he resumed his search, Erald stopped only when he needed to return to base when he needed to eat. He had no way of knowing how long his search would take if he let himself rest while searching. Thanks to his Night Vision, he no longer had any problem seeing in the dark, and his high perception let him know whether there were any monsters within a ten meter radius. His scouting of the floor progressed swiftly.

Finally, he discovered another staircase leading down to the next floor. He stepped forward without hesitation.

The ground of the floor below was sticky, like tar. In fact, the entire floor resembled a huge swamp. His legs easily got stuck in the ground, and Erald had a hard time moving. He frowned as he saw how difficult it was to move, then proceeded to climb up a protruding boulder. From there he used his aerodynamic movements to advance through the sky, leaping from one boulder to another.

As he continued moving forward, he discovered several minerals along the way. Using his 'Appraisal' skills, he managed to analyzed each and every one of the mineral's contents. Among the ones he discovered, one was of a particular note. It somehow intrigued him.

It was Blastite, a combustible ore. When exposed to fire, it burns like oil. As it burns, it slowly decreases in volume until it finally burns to cinders. Burning large quantities of it in a confined space will make it explode violently.

Erald couldn't hold his excitement when he analyzed the rock. He surmise that this kind of ore is similar to the gunpowder in Evan's memories.

“I can make explosive weapons with this!”