9 Chapter 9

I stood at the top of the dungeon, looking down into the circular stairway that led down to the first floor. I could see multiple groups of adventurers making their way down into what looked to be a massive open maw. On the other end of the stairway, groups ascended toward the surface, most perfectly fine, but every ninth or tenth group came back limping with either missing limbs or dead party members. I watched as people carried some of the dead so close that I could have reached out and touched them if I had wished, which I obviously didn't. It was a reminder that this world wasn't a game and that there would be real consequences for my actions. 

Despite being confronted by thoughts of my own mortality, I wasn't overly concerned about my odds. I checked the straps of my armor one last time before I started descending the stairs toward the dungeon. I drew my sword as I stepped into the dungeon, expecting everything to be darker than it actually was. With my newly superhuman vision and the gentle light cast from the walls of the dungeon itself, everything was clear as if it were perpetually noon. I turned away from the path that was obviously recommended for newcomers and continued moving off the beaten path. The paths were comfortably wide on the first floor, enough so that a group of four could easily walk side by side without difficulty.

I kept my eyes out for monsters, but it was they who found me in the end. I heard a screech behind me and turned to find three goblins emerging from the wall. The one in the lead pointed at me as the other two fully emerged. I decided to test my blade first, so I rushed forward and sliced at the leader before the other could fully prepare. My blade pierced clean through his stomach, and I twisted the blade viciously as I pulled free, leaving a hole in the goblin's stomach. It collapsed, grasping at its innards that were quickly attempting to leave its body through the hole I created. 

The second goblin lept over the downed form of the first and tried to sink teeth into my flesh, but I used the pommel of my blade to smash its head into the wall. It made incoherent whimpering noises as it fell beside its comrade, most likely suffering from a traumatic brain injury. With two taken care of, I simply cut through the neck of the third using my superior reach and took a few steps back as it stumbled forward, one hand reaching toward me while the other tried to stem the blood flow without effect. Thick monster blood seeped through the goblin's fingers as it began to struggle and gasp. After a moment, I put all three out of their misery and half expected their bodies to turn into black smoke immediately. 

However, I had heard that in the light novels you had to extract the core from the body first before it fades into smoke, and it seems like we are working by that logic. Now, I used my psychic powers for the first time in the dungeon and drew lightly on the power of the warp. My eyes flashed with the untapped power of the Great Ocean as I drew a bit of energy into me and used it to separate the cores inside each monster from the flesh, muscle, and blood beside it, causing the monster's body to burst into smoke and the cores to clank to the rough stone floor. I bent down and stored the cores in my Inventory before turning and looking for more prey.

The next group of monsters I came upon was a small pack of kobolds, numbering four in total. The dog-headed men sniffed at the air as I approached, but they had yet to detect my scent. I got as close as possible before I was detected, then rushed forward, causing them to turn and begin to show their teeth and bark, but lightning already flashed between my fingers. I stopped at point-blank range and threw out my hand and the electricity stored within. A concentrated stream of energy ripped from my hands and arced to each of the kobolds. It was my first time watching the lightning do its work, and I had to say that it was effective. Wherever it touched the kobolds, it directly destroyed them. It only took a moment for the electricity to race across their bodies and cause their bodies to crumble to dust. 

 My admiration of the effects of the bio-electricity was dampened by the noticeable pounding at the back of my head. It wasn't bad for now, but the ability guzzled mana at a fast rate when sustaining it in a concentrated beam. I figured that if I focused on precise single bolts of electricity to the head or chest, then I should be able to stretch the ability out and have it chug through less mana. I was excited to check out the other abilities available to me, which is what I planned to do until I was close to running out of mana. I have to make sure that I have some in reserve since when someone uses up all their mana in this world, they faint and go into an unconscious state called Mind Down.

So, I strode across the first floor and tried a variety of techniques on the goblins and kobolds I found there. I first practiced channeling the power of the Warp through my body in an ability known as Warp Speed. My body turned into a blur as I thought and moved at much greater speeds. I also found an exploit in regard to that ability. Since the power wasn't projected from my body, it consumed much less mana than an ability as effective as it should have. I wondered if I was being thrown a bone or if it was a glitch when merging the power systems, but I wasn't planning to look a gift horse in the mouth. I planned to abuse the hell out of the ability and use it as often as possible.

I used the enhanced speed to pounce on a group of goblins before they even knew I was there. I felt like Toji Fushiguro as I turned into a living blender when I drew my blade. However, I made sure to leave one of the goblins alive with only its tendons in its legs cut so that it couldn't run. It fell to the ground, covered in the blood of its companions, before turning and trying to claw at my feet. With my enhanced speed, I easily batted its arm away and grabbed its large bulbous head with my hand as I began channeling power. Instead of pushing power out of my body, I drew something in, vitality. 

The goblin withered and aged at a visible rate until it became so old that its body crumpled to dust when I let go of it. I closed my eyes and felt a small but raging wave of vitality coursing through my veins. I knew that I could use it to heal myself or others, but I figured that I could use it to increase the growth of my endurance artificially. With the vitality inside of me, I commanded it to fuse with me, which it did without too much trouble. Not only my endurance, but I felt my mana rise by a minuscule amount too. It seems that pulling out everything from a creature ends up taking a bit of its mana too.

It would be a nice small boost to my mana, but I had gained knowledge of rituals that focus on increasing my mana. I was also sure that I would mana it enough to easily max it out before leveling up. As I walked, I used some of my power to transform my arms into steel. I watched in awe as they flashed metallic briefly, but the cost of the ability caused my headache to increase by an uncomfortable amount, so I deactivated it quickly. I cursed being at my lowest mana stat value right now, but I grinned, knowing that it would only get better from here. With most of what I wanted to experiment with tested already, that left only the most intense ability biomancers have access to left to use. 

I knew this would cost a ton of mana, so I saved it for last. I went and stood at the back of a hallway, looking at a pair of kobolds walking down the path in the opposite direction in front of me. I reached out and drew deeply on the warp, casting my mind forward and into the bodies of the two kobolds, commanding their blood to boil. For a moment, nothing happened other than me collapsing to my knees with blood pouring out of one nostril, but I looked up to find the two kobolds with their mouths open in silent screams before their bodies burst, causing blood to cover the nearby walls and ceiling. 

I collected the stones from these kobolds and a few more goblins that I ripped the vitality out of before I called it a day and made my way back toward the exit of the dungeon, a wide smile on my face.