Chapter 423
Chapter 423
As far as I can see, the dungeon is split into three different parts. It's like a pie split into triangles, stretching out a few kilometers each.
I seem to be hovering over the rocky region of the dungeon right now. There are massive rock formations, plains of rocky dirt and soil, and large forests with small mountains and hills. At first, my view was blocked by a large plateau-like structure, but now I can see the rest of the dungeon clearly.
Nearby, I sense a huge lake filled with crystal clear, blue-tinted water for almost as far as the mountain region stretches. There are a few small islands in the lake, but it's almost entirely open water.
Then lastly, the furthest away from here is a region filled with hot flames and volcanoes. It has the lake on one side of it and the rocky region on the other. Its black stone pathways are glowing orange and red hot from the mana-imbued molten rock that trickles down from the massive volcano at the back of the region.
The entire dungeon has a light breeze flowing through it and light white puffy clouds high above in the sky.
To top it all off, there's a grey swirling boss room portal in the middle of all three sections. I can sense it slowly spinning where all of the regions meet in the middle, but am unable to see it with the naked eye just yet.
"This is the most fascinating dungeon I've ever seen..."
As these words barely leave my mouth, the closest monster to me that I pinpointed on my radar seconds ago comes within visual distance. A brown-colored creature screeches loudly as it flies up from one of the rock formations in the earth region of the dungeon below me. I do a quick appraisal of it while readying my Qi-covered sword with one hand in a focused nonchalant manner.
It's level 579 and has three active skills along with a ranked-up buff.
_____________________
Active skills:
[Intimidation][Special Grade]
[Body Hardening][Legendary Grade]
[Combat Magic][Advanced Earth Summoning]
Buffs:
[Brown Wyvern's Rock Prison]
_____________________
Stone begins to form around me in a dome shape as the Brown Wyvern stares me down with its sharp eyes.
I don't bother moving and let the weak magic wall of curved stone completely envelop me. It locks into a sphere shape, and the walls start shrinking and closing in. The Wyvern below me gets closer and closer as the sphere shrinks to the point where it begins to touch the layer of Qi that surrounds my body.
Without changing its upward trajectory in the slightest, the stone prison begins to crumble like sand the moment it hits my Qi barrier, and its upward momentum meant to collide with me in a weakened state once the trap crushes its prey is actually met with a Qi-imbued sword that slices it clean in half. It ends just like the boss room monster from the 29th floor.
"What's going on today...? These monsters really like killing themselves, don't they?"
I smirk and continue to airstep forward deeper into the rocky mountain region, knowing I won't have to get serious fighting a single opponent on this floor. However, some are at a higher level than me, so there's good reason to travel into level up and farm extra PP, and create dungeon walker points all over this place while I have the chance.
As I make my way through the rock structures of the earth region, more Wyverns come diving in from above and below with a similar attack strategy. Every time, I let them dive at me and decimate them without using much energy at all. Though, one thing stands out to me.
The further in toward the center of the dungeon I travel, the higher level the monsters become.
Once I kill my 5th one, I'm almost halfway through the region toward the center of the dungeon, and a familiar ringing sound can be heard in my head.
[Level Up]
I reach level 648 after defeating a level 655 Wyvern.
Upon closely examining my enemy detection skill with its level inspection perk, I conclude my theory is true.
It seems the closer I get to the center of the dungeon, the higher the level of spawned in monsters become. This means if I stay at this distance away from the boss room, I can farm mobs directly above my level and cash in on the maximum MCP and PP gains.
Over the next half-hour, I use air-steps and dungeon walker to move back and forth throughout this portion of the earth region using my inspect skill to only pick the right opponents, clearing out every Wyvern within 5 levels above me as I raise my own.
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I sporadically check my Dungeon Walker skill to see Bri farming on the floor below me, but she hasn't yet hit her maximum level for that floor. I can tell she's still determined to keep going, so I decide to give her some extra time while I have some fun farming up here on the 30th floor myself.
While doing so, I close the distance between myself and the blue lake region nearby too, there are some interesting readings coming from within I'd like to check out. One of which being a new skill I don't have yet.
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[+1PP]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[+1PP]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[+490 Agility]
[+39,340,050 MCP]
I hit level 660 fairly quickly, by only absorbing PP and MCP, the leveling process moves up very fast. One of the kills even triggered the absorption perk that allows me to take a portion of my opponent's stat points.
I would be sticking around to collect loot too, but they mostly only drop mana crystals. I've killed dozens, but nothing interesting drops until this most recent kill.
As I'm airstepping away toward the lake and the Wyvern's corpse falls to the floor, an unusual pulse of energy comes from it.
I stop my search for other Wyverns and circle back to see what it has dropped.
Resting on the rocky floor is a tan-colored stone with thousands of MP pouring out of it in the form of liquid mana-imbued rock that forms into small boulders. The floor beneath it is growing at a fairly quick rate, and I can tell the energy from within is being expelled.
The grin filled with amusement covers my face as I make my descent downward to collect the item drop.
"An earth stone, huh? Looks like I have another rare resource-packed dungeon to farm."
I open up my item storage and let the stone fall inside. In doing so, the ground growing with rock and rubble ceases to move. A mound of fresh earth is left in its place as I continue my hunt.
My gaze turns to the other two regions in this dungeon, and my curiosity is spiked. If this region drops earth stones, there's a possibility the others drop different elements too.
I speed up my steps and finally make it above the shimmering blue lake region where the artificial dungeon sun reflects off the lightly crashing waves below. Off in the distance, a bright blue Wyvern comes my way and clocks in at level 661.
I appraise it too.
_____________________
Active skills:
[Intimidation][Special Grade]
[Body Hardening][Legendary Grade]
[Combat Magic][Advanced Water Summoning]
Buffs:
[Blue Wyvern's Fury]
_____________________
My eyes widen at the sight of its skills.
I'd already picked up on the fact that there were water wielders here when I first entered the dungeon but didn't recognize it at first glance. The only Wyvern I faced in the Arena back in Valor City looked exactly like this one, yet it had Fire magic instead of Water.
I don't let the change in color throw me off too much, and let the creature with wide wings, sharp talons, and furious eyes come swooping in while summoning tens of blades of water all around me in a dome shape.
They all come closing in as I take a deep breath to swing my sword with ease, negating every one of its blades in an agile spinning motion while airstepping forward and piercing its dense mana shielding like butter.
[Use Absorption]
Skill: [Combat Magic][Advanced Water Summoning]
[YES][NO]
I accept the skill as well as its MCP but turn my head to the side as another one bursts out of the water below me and tries to attack in the same fashion.
Swinging my blade gracefully and aiming with great precision, I take out its level 657 partner in an instant too.
More blue Wyverns come rocketing out from the deep water below me, and I dance around the air easily dodging and slicing through each new one that gets in my way.
Over half a dozen of them come out from the lake before one unique Wyvern catches my eye as it flies at me from the direction I just came, seemingly spawned from the space in between the water and earth region.
Its scales are bright blue just like all of the other monsters attacking me, but on its status, I see [Combat Magic][Advanced Earth Summoning]. As it screeches and begins to attack, stone spears are sent flying my way in the air, and a dome of rock surrounds me, but it's glowing blue just like the Wyvern from the arena.
"A mutant?"
I chuckle as the monster gets closer, but in a matter of seconds, it's defeated and torn to pieces just like all of the previous attackers.
The glowing blue earth it attacked me with falls down below into the lake. Every splashing sound it creates makes me more curious about this whole situation. The main question on my mind is wondering what kind of element stone a mutant like that would drop.
I continue on, hovering over the lake, diving just a tiny bit deeper in closer to the center of the dungeon to face a few more monsters. Their levels rise, but their difficulty is all the same. They don't even make me break a sweat.
Some dive bomb in from above, while others come soaring up from the bottom of the lake.
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[+1PP]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[+48,600,770 MCP]
By the time I've almost made a full circle around the dungeon, the edge of the volcanic region is in sight. I've sliced through a few dozen Blue Water Wielding Wyverns hitting level 668 but haven't yet tried out the new skill I absorbed from the first.
A crimson-colored Wyvern comes my way and breathes out a dark red wave of flames.
"This may be a good place to test things out."
I put my sword on my hip and release a small portion of the swirling Qi barrier from my now freed-up right hand. Instead of suppressing all of my magic, I let one half of my mana control be used as I activate my new water summoning skill and place my hand in front of me facing the Red Wyvern.
This is similar to what I do under the bottoms of my feet, allowing the Qi barrier to thin out so just enough air magic can come out to propel me higher and keep me in the sky. But, considering this is an attack on an enemy, I use a bit more power.
My palm glows bright blue, and a pillar of water comes flowing from the center of my hand, expanding larger and larger until it makes contact with the ball of flames sent my way from the level 665 Wyvern that attacked me from the volcanic region.
In an instant, the creature's flame is engulfed by the stream of water, and once it makes contact with the Wyvern itself, its body is disintegrated by the water pressure.
The water jet continues forward, making contact with a small hill of molten rock 100 meters away.
I stop releasing magic, but the attack that hits the structure punctures clean through leaving a gaping circular hole in the rock formation.
I deactivate my skill and let my Qi barrier reform around my hand while I grab my sword and chuckle to myself.
"Noted... I guess half my mana control is probably still a bit too much."