"Just answer my question" Caizher said impatiently. Dera also acted like this when she learned that he's an earthling and it was really troublesome!
"Y-yes, all creatures that are part of a Dungeon will not really die as long as they are inside it. While those in the outside, all of them will die. But of course, they can only exit the Dungeon during a dungeon outbreak and if they went out, they will no longer be part of the Dungeon" The Elf explained and Caizher can't help but be astonished at the Dungeon's mystical ability. It was like the creatures in the Dungeon were immortal
"So...uh.. please don't kill the Treants sir" the Elf pleaded and his temperament was really gentle but Caizher still needs the 'drops' and experience in fighting the treants. Besides, it is not like they would really die
"This is complicated, you know that I will get benefits from defeating these treants. What can you give me in return?" If he cannot kill the Treants then this Elf must give him something to 'exchange'
"G-give...?" The Elf was taken aback while thinking that a 'demon' is really a 'demon'
Although demons are not like the low levelled creatures of darkness that will attack in sight, they are still quite selfish and bloodthirsty. If Elves weren't a gentle race, this Elf won't even talk things in a gentle manner
"Yes, you are an Elf, is there something that you can give me?" Caizher asked while raising his eyebrows. He wants to receive an 'extraordinary item'
"M-My apologies, I-I don't have anything to give" The Elf lied but it was clear to see he was lying. As for what reason, Caizher didn't care
Treants won't really die, so why does he needs to hold back. "Then this conversation ends here" Caizher said and turned his arms into multiple sharp tentacles and was about to attack the treants again before the Elf talked
"W-wait!" The Elf shouted and Caizher stopped on his tracks. "If you try to stop me again, then I'll kill you" Caizher threatened. He doesn't have much time for this nonsense and he wants to continue training
The Elf visibly flinched at Caizher's words. It was not surprising though, looking at his body, he looks very frail and weak. His pain tolerance must be really low
The Elf gritted his teeth for a while before speaking again. "I-I cannot give you anything b-but I can guide you in a place that will make you stronger!"
Caizher nodded his head and looked at the elf with satisfaction. "Now, we are talking. Tell me more about this place and don't dare lie. Trust me, I can easily flee when I sniff even just a hint of danger"
Although the Elf looks nice but Caizher still raised his guard, he cannot be too trustful on others as betrayal is an easy thing to do. It was fine if they are his slaves and their lives are on his hands but if not, then, it won't hurt to be careful
"Y-yes, please follow me!" Caizher did as what he was told and cautiously followed the Elf. With his 360° vision, it would be easier for him to notice if a trap was laid for him
The Elf guided Caizher in a cave below the mountains and Caizher can feel an increased in mana particles on the surrounding
A place rich with mana is a haven for cultivators!
It seems like the Elf doesn't have that funny thoughts as he stopped in front of a small blue pool. Caizher can sense the rich mana in that small pool
"This is a mana pool. The mana inside it was literally too dense that they liquefied. One can soak on it and mana will automatically enter their bodies. But you need to be careful, over absorption of mana will harm the body and even make your foundation weaker"
Caizher naturally knows this. With mana stones, it was easy to raise one's rank. Servant Rank Creatures mostly only needs to absorb mana to rise in rank. But if the rise of mana on one's body is too fast, it can even caused their bodies to explode
It was the same principle that Caizher cannot use all of his dark energies as his current body cannot take the burden
But this small mana pool is really a treasure!
"Alright, this is good. Just inform your Treant friends to not attack me. I still needs some time to learn how to hide my aura of darkness" Caizher said while looking at the mana pool with twinkling eyes
"Y-yes sir" the Elf nodded and heaved a sigh of relief. He was able to at least show this place as a 'payment'
The Elf started walking away but he sensed a sudden dropped of mana. When he looked at Caizher again, he saw the man's hand was turned into a mouth like black thing and greedily swallowed the mana pool
"S-sir! Don't be reckless! You'll caused your body to explode!" The Elf kindly said while his eyes were almost popping on their sockets but Caizher just waved his hand like it was nothing
In the months that Caizher swallowed mana on his sea of consciousness/stomach he also learned some things. There is naturally a limit to how much dark energies his stomach can store. However, whenever he will reach that limit, some of his dark energies will be used to increase the 'storage capacity'
Not just that, but even his primordial darkness soul was strengthened in the process. It enabled him to suppress the blood lust caused by his body and he also become skillful on his body control. Even his cultivation speed was improved
Normal cultivation only required one to absorb more mana but there are stronger cultivation path that needs you to do more things like Caizher
There is the requirements of him needing to absorb more darkness and also strengthening his 'sea of consciousness/spirit sea'
"B-but...." The Elf still wants to stop Caizher out of good will but was also afraid to incur anger. Thus, the poor elf was left standing there without knowing what to do
The Elf feels like his common sense was being destroyed as he can visibly see how the level of the mana pool lessened. But the most surprising thing is that, Caizher looks perfectly fine!
"Why are you still standing there?" Caizher asked in puzzlement
"Y-you....h-how were you able to absorb so much mana?" The Elf asked in terrified tone
"That's a secret!" Caizher playfully said before he stopped absorbing mana and returned his hand to a human like one
Seems like, raising his storage capacity and soul power also has its limits. He just doesn't have enough mana stones before to reach his limits. It feels like if he swallowed more, he will explode
All the mana that he swallowed was still on their original state. His soul was continuously throbbing and generated a wave that converted the mana into dark energies. It will take a long time before he can 'digest' and convert all these mana into dark energies though
The Elf pouted while thinking that Caizher is a 'bully'
----
April 1 Year 2021
Caizher is currently inside where the mana pool is located. His whole body was on its original state and a small fog of darkness was wrecking havoc inside him
Due to his constant cultivation and the increased on his soul power, the amount of darkness that he can absorb at a time increase
The rogue darkness destroyed pieces of his own while the mana in the pool were automatically absorbed by his body. His darkness took shorter time to recover because of this
The constant absorption and destruction of his darkness every cultivation improved a lot of Caizher's aspects. His Divine Darkness Body increased in size and is now ten cubic meters. Not just that, but it also became more durable
Mana attacks even if it hits will only be able to destroy little bit of his darkness as his defense increased. Even his physical attack immunity significant increased again. He's already hard to injured using physical attacks but now it was much harder!
After few minutes, Caizher successfully 'calmed down' the small ball of darkness and integrated it to his body. After integrating it, Caizher condensed his body into his human form and started a simple stretching
"Time to train my skills too!" Caizher said and exited the mana pool. Outside the mana pool were piles of dead bodies. It was his target practice
As the mana pool became his favorite place, he arranged for people to send the resources here and Caizher constantly increased his mastery on [Monarch of Darkness]
Caizher walked towards one of the bodies and this one is of a lizardmen. Caizher mostly attacked the lizardmen as they doesn't have much intellect
The Treants are off limits while the Elves are very timid and doesn't attacked anyone. Caizher also befriended them a bit although the elves are cautious on him as he is a "Demon"
Caizher coated his palm with mana and slammed it on the lizards' body. The darkness corrupted its body and it turned black. But unlike the normal thing he does, Caizher is practicing to control the direction of the evolution
The dark skin of the lizards slowly retracted and turned thinner and thinner until it turned into skins and bones but then, its whole body broke down into smaller pieces
Caizher failed yet again. He tried turning the lizardmen into lizard skeletons as it was one of the easiest corruption direction to manually make but he always failed
Lizard skeletons is actually weaker than dark lizardmen in terms of power but Caizher just wants practice. He doesn't want to always leave things on luck as the probability of making a powerful creature of darkness is extremely low
Caizher turned some into other types before but they are all weaker than normal dark lizardmen and were only due to luck. What he wants is a corruption that will make his target more powerful!
However, training is really hard and required a lot of time. Especially since the [Monarch of Darkness] is a very high levelled ability and he's still just at the peak level of Tier 2 Servant
The darkness experienced failures after failures but he wasn't discouraged. In this world, all things needed to be work hard! Everything is possible but you must have talent and you need to pour a lot of effort on it
Caizher is already fortunate as he had a 'lucky encounter' before and he managed to be far above the normal humans on earth. He was already given a cheat, the rest is up to him now
After experiencing so much failures, Caizher stopped and rest for a while. He can still use some of his dark energies before his body started to break down but he always reserved some for an unexpected danger
Caizher rested for an hour soaking in the mana pool before he tried again. He was still met with failures but he doesn't care as long as he was still making slow progress
After soaking in the mana pool again, Caizher decided to raise his combat skills this time and exited the cave
There are still trees outside that became Caizher's target practice. Even if he destroyed the trees, it would just be regenerated the next day
"[Darkness Style: Shadow Kill!]" Caizher's eyes flashed with a dark light before the shadows of one of the trees turned into black tendrils and pierced the tree's bodies
The trees inside the dungeon aren't the same as the ones outside on earth. The trees are more durable and has higher vitality. Even Caizher needs to really use his skill to pierced it
After that, Caizher took his sword from literally inside his condensed darkness body and immediately coated his sword with mana
Caizher's figure swiftly moved and reached the tree in no time. The tree already has holes on it but Caizher 'bullied' it even further
"[Darkness Style: Dark Thrust!]" Thrusting his sword in front of him, the sword penetrated the tree and splinters flew around
Caizher wasn't finished though as he turned his body into its beast form as quickly as he can