Dungeon Drops

Alex didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He really wanted to vent his frustrations on the monster by beating it black and blue but who knew it would die do easily? Alex stared at the corpse of the black tiger, watching it turn into particles of light then disappear leaving behind a core.

Without too much of a hurry, Alex picked up the core before storing it inside the inventory. Currently, all that Alex was holding was the dagger alone. Having no cash was indeed trouble even for the current Alex. He had a store function on the system but he could not currently access it because it was locked.

Alex had barely used any strength during the fight and he was ready to fight the next available monster. Without wasting any more time, Alex walked towards the door that was leading towards the next room. He was quite eager to begin the mission officially. The mission would begin when he kills his first mid stage rank 1 martial monster.

According to the system's evaluation of his strength, Alex was only a rank 1 in the initial stages. Alex wondered why was it that he could kill a monster with a single blow even though they were in the same rank and stage. Furthermore, monsters are known to be stronger than humans in the same rank and stage.

Just as the light was about to envelope him, Alex removed his hand from the door to check out something from the system. He was thinking about making a certain system feature passive. He went into the queries and decided to ask if that was possible. 'System, is it possible for the queries function to be made passive where I can easily ask questions without going through the long process of logging into the queries tab?'

[Ding! System hidden condition has been met.... The ability to make certain functions passive has been activated...] The feminine voice sounded in his head as usual. Although it has been almost a day since he got the system, Alex was still not used to hearing a voice from his mind.

With a thought, Alex activated the ability of making some functions passive and he chose queries. This would enable Alex to have instant answers to his questions without even needing to look at the screen. This could be of use during the battle as he wouldn't be given time to dilly-dally around in a battlefield.

[Queries tab has been removed and has been activated as a passive system ability....Master can now ask his questions at any time without needing the selection procedure....] That was the reply Alex got when he activated the passive system function ability.

Now that this was out of the way, Alex decide to ask a question before heading to the next room. He needed to know why his strength had become so massive so suddenly yet he was evaluated as an initial rank 1. 'System, why or how did my strength increase?'

[There was no increase in strength at all.....Your strength has remained the same but the way that it's utilized has been maximized....Master had muscles that are a source of strength....These muscles have been compacted to release the maximum power that they contain and thus the decrease in master's body build.....The previous muscles are like sand soil while the current muscles are like clay soil with little spaces in between....] replied the system.

Alex finally got the explanation as to why he had become more lean and also the result of his explosive strength. This implied that Alex would be stronger for someone at his level of strength. If he could beat a monster at the same stage as him with just a single blow, then that implied that there was no human in the same level as him that could beat him in terms of strength. Experience is a story if its own.

After getting his explanation, Alex decided to move to the next room. Placing his hand on the door, Alex waited for a few seconds before he was teleported into the next room. Inside this room, there were two black tigers in the initial stage. Alex didn't waste time, which he didn't have since he needed to get as many cores as possible so that he could gain enough coins for the tower.

He attacked before the agility type monsters could have a chance to attack him. He rushed towards the one on the left side and stabbed its head killing it instantly. Being an agility type monster, it obviously had low defenses and thus the ease in killing it. After killing it, Alex went for the other one that had began charging at him at full speed.

Since Alex's strength had increased, Alex's reaction speed increased and thus he reacted accordingly to the monster's charge. He wanted to take that attack head on and thus he didn't even try dodging to the side. He used the dagger to block the claw attack from the tiger bringing the tiger into a halt.

This was an achievement to Alex as he didn't move back even a single step hence that proved that all the strength generated by the monster's momentum was no match for him. Wasting no time, Alex stabbed the monster's skull killing it just like the one before. The particles of light enveloped both corpses before disappearing leaving behind nothing.

Alex sighed when he saw this. The drop rate was once again low. He knew this but it was indeed discouraging to fight but at the end of it all, you gain nothing from it. Such a fight was useless to Alex as he was dominating the monsters hence there was nothing to gain, not even experience. How could a man gain battle experience from beating helpless children?

Sighing again, Alex approached the door leading to the next room. He once again dominated the monsters there gaining nothing. The next room he once again got nothing from the kills. Alex frowned at this. Why was it that he was gaining nothing from all of this? Has the drop rates decreased that much? He doubted that. He decided to try the system to see if he could get an answer.

'System, why is it that these monsters are not dropping cores?' He really needed a solution to this. If he didn't get any core, he would eventually leave the dungeon empty handed and that meant that he couldn't get the coins to use to access the tower of origin.

[The purity of the cores is poor and thus the cores cannot be dropped....For cores to drop, monsters ranging from the late stage and above can produce a core in this dungeon.....This is due to the low mana level at the initial floor and rooms....] replied the system.

'Low mana level, what the heck? Weren't these monsters dropping cores just yesterday? Now all of a sudden they stop because the mana levels are low? This is a great joke!' Alex cried inwardly. Now he would have to waste time in these low level rooms till he gets to the floor where he can fight late stage monsters and above.

[Master has a high standard requirement and thus why the low drop rate of the low level monsters...] Alex heard the system after calming down. Hearing this explanation, Alex finally understood that the system had something to do with the drop rate.

Not giving up, Alex decided to storm the first floor. He cleared all low level martial monsters till he got where those in the late stages existed. Alex attacked them showing no mercy. He needed cores, he needed coins, he needed to utilize the tower, he needed the mission rewards.

By noon, Alex had finished the first floor but he had small superficial wounds. That's right, he had just swept the floor with all the rank 1 martial monsters in the floor. Due to the low drop rate, Alex ended up with one initial stage, nineteen late and twelve peak stage monster cores. Alex applied the healing potion that had dropped during his time in the first floor.

Now, he had enough for the tower and some extra for accommodation. Alex then left the dungeon and went to the adventurer's guild to sell the cores. Coming out, Alex had just pocketed whooping thirteen gold and sixty silver for the late and initial stage monster cores and twelve gold for the peak stage monster cores. That was more than enough.

With these coins, Alex planned to spend them well. Being that his accommodation was paid in low amount, he wanted to pay for at least a month so that he could be sure for his stay there. He didn't want to be chased out of the inn for failing to pay.

By this time, Alex's wounds had already healed thanks to the potions that dropped in the dungeon. He headed straight back to the inn, where he went direct to bed to have a good rest. Clearing a whole floor wasn't a joke, Alex was dead tired, he needed rest more than food and thus he directly fell asleep the moment his head touched the bed.