Dungeon Experiment

I was back inside of the Monastery once more, however this time, I didn't have Sophie coming with me. There was no need for her to be here as the boss wouldn't respawn in a few more days.

The cycle of a dungeon was based on the premise of rebirth, making sure that its inhabitants would continue to get spawned, as this was the only way the dungeon could get rid of the abundance of mana it slowly accumulated. Thus, most monsters you killed would be back if you just wait and let them recover.

The lower rank of the dungeon, the faster the rebirth of monsters. And this was the same with bosses. However, bosses would always take a lot more time than the regular monsters, meaning that in the Monastery today, there was no boss to kill. No matter to me, as that was not my goal anyway.

This Sunday was a day for experimenting, me trying the theories that I had made when getting to know the characteristics of a dungeon.

Standing in the courtyard, I saw all the skeletons that me and Sophie had killed yesterday, each one walking around with their unliving legs. "Are we ready?" "Yep!" "Ruff!"

With that, I spread out my bodies around the courtyard, sub-me and my main body as humans, and Matt as a wolf. It didn't take long before the skeleton patrol around the room started noticing us, their legs starting to run toward us as fast as their boney limbs could.

However, they were slow. Or at least they were slow in comparison to me.

I didn't know why my Intelligence or Mana Capacity stats were higher than my Agility stat, but I knew that I probably had a pretty good 'hidden multiplier' for it, as my body was pretty fast and nimble.

It was a bit eerie, seeing all these skeletons following my bodies without uttering a single word or even a groan. It didn't take long until there was one big mass of skeletons following us, getting thicker and more concentrated for every turn we made. When the group of more than 40 skeletons got thick enough, it was time for the second part of my little plan.

"[Dome of Mist]."

I felt my mana getting sucked out of my bodies, which luckily had separate mana pools, and two huge clouds of mist engulfed the unaware skeletons.

*Bam! Ting! Clash!*

It didn't take long until they panicked, swinging their weapons around trying to get out of their precarious situation. When a skeleton did escape the mist, I quickly used all three of the bodies in order to eliminate it.

So after a painful 15 minutes, gritting my teeth and fangs to endure the drain of mana, the mist settled and all that remained was remains, bones, and dust lying in a very neat circle on the ground.

Though I already had plans of coming here and clearing out the grounds from the skeletons, my dive with Sophie had gifted me with this strategy. When the skeletons were busy fighting themselves and trying to escape my mist, it was so incredibly easy to finish them off.

With the second part done, I did what any reasonable human who had just slaughtered a horde of skeletons would do; I sat down with both my main body and sub-me straight in the center of it as I withdrew Matt.

'Let's see if this works then...'

Closing my four eyes, I began to absorb the mana in the air, while also trying to make out if there were any tangible differences in the way it felt.

At first, it didn't feel any different compared to meditating in my room, the mana slowly accumulating and gathering in my body as usual. Still, I knew that patience would be the key to seeing if my theory was accurate.

*Don!* "Gah!"

However, when the first skeletons started to dematerialize, it was as if a pulse of mana instantly got sucked into my bodies accompanied by a seed of pain that was enough for me to lose concentration.

'So it does work, after all! But even just absorbing mana from [E]-rank monsters is intense enough for me to hurt... No matter, I've felt worse... Let's just brute-force it!'

This time, I changed the positions of my bodies, going from sitting in a lotus position to lying down, bringing out two washcloths from my inventory and stuffing both mouths with them. Having originally brought them to wipe my sweat off, they would probably serve the purpose I had in mind pretty well.

So now, lying down, I once again closed my eyes and let the mana around me sink in, not wanting to waste the mana that had begun to escape.

*Don!*

The pain that grew inside the core of my soul was something I was ready for this time, making sure to bite hard while at the same time not losing concentration. After my dive in the Kobold Cave, my pain tolerance had gone way up, something I attributed to suffering a lot of wounds.

For every second that passed, minuscule, yet prominent, changes could be perceived in my core, as my mana pool grew and strengthened itself. I had found it. This was the 'cheat code' that I could exploit, my ticket to further increase the speed of my growth!

****

[3rd Person Pov]

"Hohohoho! Now, what is this? How interesting!"

Loki was currently in one of the outer layers of the mortal world, making sure to never let James escape his sights. So far, things had been predictable, boring one could say, although it did give the god immense satisfaction seeing his plan working.

However, what he got to spectate now had not been something he could predict. Who could have ever expected that a mere mortal could somehow absorb the disgusting mana from a dungeon, without his soul getting ripped apart by the pain?

The concept that the young man had come up with wasn't anything new. In fact, there were several scientific departments actively working on ways to harness the clusters of mana that was dungeons.

Sadly, as the gods already knew very well, because it was mana that originated from the threads of fate that had slowly gotten morphed into, the technology of the mortal would have to develop for hundreds of years before they should even think about it.

There had also been several cases where a mortal tried to use its physical vessel to absorb the energy, just like James somehow did right now, but it would always end with them either going insane or dying. And the ones who would go insane would always end up dying in the near future as their minds would force them to return to the dungeon over and over again.

Yet, somehow, James was presently succeeding in enduring the torment that haunted his soul in order to continue absorbing the mana. Granted, the vessel of a mortal could only absorb the mana with pretty limited efficiency, but there was no question about it that this way would double, or even triple, the speed of cultivating.

The humans had already managed to create similar environments, filling isolated rooms with mana, but the efficiency of those was at most 1.5x, with most being around 1.2x.

"Hohoho! What an abomination of a mortal! How much did he manage to damage his soul to make it this numb to the torture he is going through right now? Still, I don't want him to accidentally go insane on me, that wouldn't be fun... Guess I have no choice..."

****

[James's Pov]

'It stopped hurting...'

I could no longer feel any pain when absorbing the dungeon's mana as if my mind had gotten used to it after the hours I had endured. Unfortunately, I knew that there were massive amounts of mana that always escaped my grasp. The mana I managed to gather was a very clear fraction of what was in the musky air.

'But there is no reason for me to quit yet, I should still have a couple of hours before the skeletons re-spawn!'

"I think it would be advisable for you to stop now, Mr.Jackson. After all, you wouldn't want to accidentally lose your mind completely, now would you?"

Quickly opening my eyes, both of my bodies got on their feet and withdrew my scythes. "What are you doing here, Mr. Laufeyson? I think it should have been pretty clear that this dungeon is already reserved?"

Waving his hand dismissively, he just kept talking, "Stop this. I would love to humor you, after all, there is no one who likes some interesting chatter more than me. However, I have already been out too many times for my 'boss, to appreciate it."

Keeping my weapons raised, in case he decided to suddenly turn crazy on me as he did last time, my eyes narrowed as I tried to figure out what he wanted. "So then, why are you here? And why did you tell me to stop?

Luckily, this time, he wasn't verbally tip-toeing around the subject at all, just bringing out a chair, made up of some indistinguishable material, from thin air. Sitting down in it, he gestured for me to sit as well, which I didn't.

Shrugging his shoulders, he continued on, "Suit yourself then. Anyway, I truly do enjoy that you have found this very special way of progressing your mana, and I don't want you to stop. However..."

"However?"

"You need to limit yourself. A human can only take so much, and if you haven't already done so, make sure to search that precious internet of yours as to why. Finally... Never, ever mention this 'talent' of yours to anyone, not even that barbaric dragon girl."

And then, while the man was talking, a sudden wave of dizziness hit me, and before I knew it, everything went black.