CHAPTER 10: Dungeon Dive 5th Floor And Beyond!

So the group entered the dungeon and quickly passed the first 4 floors.

Aiden was on fire with excitement right now. He had been in the dungeon every day since he had come to this world, except for the first week, but he had faced only weak Kobolds and Goblins. He had enjoyed it for the first few days, but then it had become monotonous and boring. But now the monsters would change and become stronger.

'Finally! Those goblins were too weak. One hit and they die easily, I want stronger opponents.' Aiden thought.

Aiden and the group quickly crossed the 4th floor and went down to the 5th floor.

'Wow!' Aiden surprised.

The lights inside the dungeon had changed from light blue to light green and the structure had changed a bit and he could feel that it was different from the first 4 floors.

"This place has a really different vibe."

"Okay newbie ıt's up to you now." Tiona said.

"Alright!" Aiden said with a smile on his face and rushed forward.

Thanks to his heightened senses, he was able to perceive his surroundings very easily.

*Crack!

Aiden's senses picked up the sounds of cracking from a few walls ahead and Aiden immediately went over and killed 5 ant-like monsters that had just emerged from the wall.

"If I remember correctly, these should be Killer Ants, right?"

"Y-Yeah that's right newbie."

All three looked surprised.

'Is this person a newbie?' Lefiya thought.

'He seemed to know where all 5 monsters would come from. Normally a beginner or even a level 1 person cannot do this.' Ais thought.

'Wow he is really talented.' Tiona thought.

"I will continue then." After he said that, Aiden used his [Dash] ability and started scanning the 5th floor, killing every monster he found and throwing magical stones into his inventory.

[You've leveled up!]

'Finally I killed dozens of them but gained just 1 level. But why this floor has only ants? Where are the War shadows?' Aiden thought.

The 5th floor was much bigger than the first 4 floors and the ants can come out of much more surprising places. But thanks to Aiden's heightened senses and Power stat, he easily handled it until...

*kieeee!!!

The strange sound of an ant followed by an army of ants coming around the corner of the corridor.

"Wow, I think I've attracted the hatred of the entire anthill."

'Hm... Should I use [Hour Of The Genius]? I don't need it but I wonder how it feels.' Aiden thought for a while but then decided to use Shadow mana instead of [Hour Of The Genius].

Aiden closed his eyes briefly as he sensed the shadow mana and channeled it into his arms and then his fists.

*ZZZZT!

*FWOSSHH!

In an instant, several shadow-like lightning bolts traveled up Aiden's arms, then a flaming shadow enveloped Aiden's fists.

'Wow violent!' Aiden thought in excitement.

*Fwoosshhh!

Aiden rushed forward like the wind and started destroying the ants. Whenever the fists, coated with shadow mana, hit an ant, then destroyed it with an explosive impact.

[Inspiration leading...]

Aiden was surprised by the sudden system message, but then he looked in front of him and saw a white mark with a shadow and a blue mana sign.

[Shadow mana + 5 seconds + mana ball]

'Ooohh so this is how it leads.'

When he looked at the white mark, a message like instructions came through.

'Let's give it a try!' The flame-like shadow mana that enveloped Aiden's hands was blasted out by Aiden's powerful punch towards the white mark and many ants were eliminated on its way to the white mark.

The moment Shadow mana reached the white mark, something strange happened. As soon as it touched the white mark, it stopped and the Shadow mana changed from flame form to ball form and began to grow as a magic-like energy was drawn to it from the surroundings.

'Also activate the title!' Aiden thought and...

[Title Activated.]

[Nearby Monsters:

Killer Ant

]

'Choose Killer ant.'

[Quest: Kill 10 Killer Ant]

[Reward and penalty will not be shown until the quest is completed.]

[5]

[4]

Also a countdown appeared.

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Ding!]

The white sign lit up and Aiden, who understood the sign, this time covered his fist with blue mana and with a similar swing hit the slightly enlarged black-purple shadow orb.

*BOOOMMM!!!

With the normal mana hitting the shadow mana, there was a sudden explosion and when Aiden looked up after the tunnel was covered in a white light, all the ants had been eliminated.

[Quest: Kill 10 Killer Ant] (Completed)

[Reward: 1 bonus stat point, 15 gold]

[Penalty: All stats -2, -15 gold]

'Gah! This shitty system again. Penalty is -6 points but reward is only 1 point Tch... At least I only have 3 stats so it's much better.'

[DING!]

[Auto Continue Activated!]

[Quest: Kill 100 Killer Ants]

[Reward and penalty will not be shown until the quest is completed.]

'Huh?!'

[Quest: Kill 100 Killer Ants] (Completed)

[Reward: 15 bonus stat point, 150 gold]

[Penalty: All stats -20, -150 gold]

'For killer ants the reward increases by 50%, while in case of penalty the stat is doubled and gold increases by 50%. How far did this explosion reach before so many killer ants were wiped out?' Aiden thought.

[You've Leveled Up!]

[You've Leveled Up!]

[You've reached level 40]!

[A Class Quest Available]!

'Wow. Finally!'

"Hey! What was that!?" Suddenly Tiona said

"Well I don't have an idea. I just did." Aiden said.

'It was really strange, it was like the shadow mana was absorbing energy from the surroundings, but when it came into contact with normal mana, it caused an explosion. Hmm... What the hell is this shadow mana exactly?' Aiden thought.

"What do you say, are you going to continue?" Tiona asked.

"Hm? Of course I will."

Aiden collected all the killer ants' magic stones and after putting them all in his inventory, he continued on his way. He killed many killer ants along the way until he reached the 6th floor, and when he finally reached the 6th floor, he saw what he wanted to see...

'War Shadows finally! I saw once in the anime that there were strange hands coming out of the ground, and when I searched on the internet, they said that they belonged to the War Shadows, and I was wondering, but now, here they are. Come on, show me what you can do with your shadow abilities.' Aiden thought with excitement.

*Fwossshhh

One of the war shadows rushed forward. It made no sound because it was a shadow, but...

'Why is it so weak?' Aiden gave war shadow time to attack, but war shadow just lunged forward and swung its claws.

'Tch... Just because it has a cool name and looks, I thought it could do something, but it's completely useless. I thought maybe it had some shadow-based attacks, but if that's all it does, it's not worth my time.' Aiden thought, and then he punched his fist through the war shadow's stomach and the war shadow died like any other creature, leaving his magic stone behind.

Then Aiden killed the other monsters and moved on. On the 7th floor he encountered War Shadows and Killer Ants, then on the 8th and 9th floors he encountered War Shadows, Killer Ants, Dungeon Lizards, Kobolds, Goblins, Frog Shooter, Purple Moth and Needle Rabbit, and even luckily he encountered a rare monster called Blue Papilio and got a dropped item called Blue Papilio Wing. This item is used to make potions, so it pays well.

After throwing all the magical stones and dropped items into the inventory, Aiden continued on his way but stopped at the entrance to the 10th floor.

'When I was having fun, I didn't realize it was already evening. That's enough for today. Tomorrow I'll skip the previous floors and come straight here.' Aiden thought.

"Newbie what's wrong?" Tiona asked.

"I think that's enough for today, I'm getting a little tired. Tomorrow I'll come directly to this floor." Aİden answered.

"Okay lets go back." Tiona said and the group started going back to the familia.

All the floors were going back up the same way until 1st floor...

[Inspiration leading...]

With the incoming system message, a white arrow that only Aiden could see suddenly started pointing to a path.

'It might be a treasure lets find out!' Aiden thought with excitement.

Then Aiden quickly followed the direction of the arrow. Tiona, Ais and Lefiya were surprised by Aiden's sudden change of direction and called out to Aiden, but Aiden didn't hear because of his excitement and followed the arrow at full speed, even using his [Dash] skill.

After a short run, Aiden saw a monster, which he had never seen in the anime, and the monster was a bird with golden-green feathers, and although Aiden didn't understand why, his [Inspiration] skill pointed to that bird, and it had an attack mark on it.

"A Jack Bird!" Suddenly Tiona's voice pulled Aiden out of his thoughts.

"What bird?" 

"A Jack Bird! It's a Jack Bird, an extremely rare monster, and its drop item is a golden egg worth 1,000,000 valis." Ais said.

"Does it strong?" Aiden asked while remembering the Minator time."

"No but it's fast."

"Alright. [Dash]." Aiden reactivated the skill and quickly jumped on Jack Bird. But the bird was really fast and its reflexes were so strong that it was able to dodge Aiden in an instant. 

Jack Bird spread its wings and started flying through the dungeon, but it was fast and Aiden was having a hard time keeping up. Tiona, Ais and Lefiya were still not going to help as this was Aiden's test.

'What kind of a bird is this that slows down when I slow down and speeds up when I speed up, as if it is mocking me.' Aiden thought with annoyment.

'If that's what you want then I'll use what I can! [Hour Of The Genius]!'

[The skill [Hour Of The Genius] activated.]

Suddenly, watches made of gold began to appear and their hands stopped.

As soon as the gold watches stopped, the time stopped too. Or rather, almost stopped. Jack Bird was flapping his wings with incredible slowness.

[The Skill [Dash] deactivated.]

[Notice!]

[Many skills will be restricted when using the [Hour Of The Genius] skill.]

"Great!" Although most of his skills were unusable, he was much faster than [Dash] and easily caught up to Jack Bird thanks to his stats and skill.

Aiden dived in front of Jack Bird and jumped in front of him and landed a punch that knocked Jack Bird to the ground. Jack Bird died and left a golden egg on the ground.

'Deactivate the skill.' Aiden thought.

[The skill [Hour Of The Genius] deactivated.]

[Used time: 34 seconds]

[Backlash: Loss of 5% Hp.]

A little pain went through Aiden's body due to the loss of 5% Hp.

"Congrats Newbie. But how did you do that? That was so fast." Tiona asked.

"Well I used my skill. But I can't use that all time."

"Hm... Okay then first lets go to Guild and then return to familia."

The group of four moved again and returned first to the guild and then to the familia.

'Thanks to Jack Bird and the other monsters, I have an account with lots of zeros. Maybe I could ask a blacksmith to make me some light armor.' As Aiden looked at the ledger, he thought while lying on his bed in his room at the familia.

.

.

.

"Here I go Raul-san!"

"Do your best!

*CRACK!"

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Lupus Umbras 

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