Capítulo 158: Dungeon Dive (2)
With a slightly nauseating feeling, I was transported inside the dungeon.
As my feet touched the ground, I felt the wet and uncomfortable feeling of mud against my shoes, followed by the musty smell typical of swamps.
My surroundings were filled with tall trees that swallowed the already dim light coming from the dungeon's sky, making the place quite dark. Fortunately, it was clear enough for me to see without inconvenience.
Taking a deep breath, the dense mana in the environment filled my lungs together with air. Surprisingly, the mana in the dungeon was much denser than on the outside, around six or seven times denser.
The mana inside this dungeon was much denser than the mana in any of the other dungeons I have entered.
[With this dense mana, it should be easy for monsters above tier five to appear. The fact that the strongest monster inside is just at tier four means that the academy must cull them regularly to stop the apparition of a stronger monster.] The demon said.
I nodded, coming to the same conclusion. Surely, the academy teachers must come regularly to this place to kill the monsters that grow stronger than needed.
"With this dense mana, it should be much more effective to train here. Unfortunately, the mana inside dungeons is not suitable for training."
The mana inside dungeons is berserk mana, and it brings negative effects to the beings under its influence, making them more aggressive and under certain circumstances, turning them into irrational monsters that only know how to fight.
Even humans are influenced by this. Although is not that dangerous for Awakened, normal humans become zombie-like when exposed to berserk mana for a long enough time.
I heard that when an Awakened becomes strong enough, they are able to absorb the mana inside dungeons without any side effects.
After getting a grasp of my surroundings, I started to move forward.
I followed the flow of mana, that way, I could head to the center of the dungeon where the core was located, and stronger monsters lived.
While I was walking, I felt Saphire stirring in my mind excitedly and asking me to let her come out.
Her thoughts were filled with joy. She seemed happy to have come to a place like this.
I smiled wryly and shook my head.
"Sorry, Saphire. I can't take you out. The entire dungeon is under the watch of the academy. If I take you out, they will discover you."
Saphire let out a thought of disappointment. She only calmed down after I promised to take her out later and buy her an ice cream.
Unlike her, Scarlet seemed to dislike the swamp a lot. She was a cat after all.
I continued using my thoughts to communicate with my pets while walking through the swamp. I made sure to keep my guard up during the way in case I discovered a monster.
As I advanced forward, the water level started to increase. Five minutes after I started walking, the water already reached my ankles.
However, I did not spot any monsters.
"Strange, I should already have seen a monster by now," I muttered.
But besides trees, mud, and the occasional floating leaves or branches, I did not see anything else.
… Wait a moment, floating branches.
I froze.
I then looked around me, only to notice that among the branches floating in the swamp, three were moving slowly.
They were approaching me!
My eyes shrunk. Without hesitating, I grabbed my spear and stabbed toward the branch closest to me.
As soon as I moved, the branch moved too. It surfaced from the water, revealing a four-meter-long alligator-like creature that opened its mouth and bit toward me!
It moved so fast that I barely managed to react. It's huge maw was before me in less than one second.
Fortunately, I had discovered it in time and moved preemptively. With a swift movement, I ducked down and stabbed my spear on its flank, piercing it deeply.
I then activated the lightning seed and unleashed an electric discharge inside its body.
The alligator roared in pain and shook its body violently, almost making me lose the grip on my spear, but I held it firmly and pulled it out before jumping above the alligator and piercing its head.
The spear went through its skull, and the lightning on it flowed to its brain, frying it in an instant as the alligator fell dead.
But before I could celebrate, two other alligators jumped toward me.
They were the two other branches!
I pulled my spear out and with the same momentum swung it to the nearest alligator, striking its face with the shaft of the spear as I avoided their attacks.
Then, before the alligators could attack again, I utilized Confidence to release Killing Aura!
The sudden surge of killing intent froze the two alligators. I did not miss this opportunity and sprinted forward, piercing the eye of one of the alligators with the tip of my spear.
Then, before the other alligator could react, I held the spear with both hands and stabbed downward, piercing its head completely.
Just like that, both alligators were killed.
I panted softly and pulled my spear out as blood dyed the swamp red.
The entire battle did not last even ten seconds, but it was very dangerous.
'Judging from the mana fluctuations of the alligators, two of them were at the first tier and the third was at the second tier. They should not be strong enough to cause me this much trouble.' I thought to myself.
There was only one reason it was so dangerous.
"I only discovered them when they were about to reach me."
Fortunately, I managed to discover them before they attacked, or I could have been injured.
Even so…
I looked around, only to see dozens of similar branches floating in the swamp.
None of the branches seemed to be moving, but it did not mean that there were no more alligators among them.
Perhaps they were just waiting for me to lower my guard before attacking me.
I needed a way to detect them.
"Quite troublesome…" I sighed. "Demon, is there a way I can detect if there are monsters in my surroundings?"
The demon chuckled.
[Of course, and you already know it.]
I was startled, but soon, my eyes lit up.
Could it be Confidence?
According to the demon, confidence works by projecting my thoughts outwards and influencing the nearby living beings.
Then, could I use it to feel the living beings being influenced by it?
I decided to put that idea into practice immediately and closed my eyes.
It was hard at first. It was my first time trying something like this.
However I already had experience using Confidence in a variety of ways, thus, after experimenting for a couple of minutes, I finally got results.
I activated Confidence and released my thoughts outward with only one thought in my mind.
To understand everything around me.
Soon, I received a feedback.
And at that moment, my world changed.
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