11: Hidden dungeon of Thark forest (2)

The crab started concentrating his mana in his mouth as he saw his prey running away from him.

Due to his slow agility in moving forward and his prey near the end of its territory, crab decided to use his skill.

On the other hand, Kalki sensing a huge concentration of mana gathering behind him already guessed that crab was preparing a heavy blow.

He rushed towards the entrance and made a dive for it. 

In the gap of milliseconds huge amounts of bubbles released from the crab's mouth which though not harmed his own body because of the ridiculously strong outer shell but melts everything else they came in contact with. 

Kalki saw the whole cave slowly being covered in bubbles and increasing in size due to walls decaying.

He pushed himself and finally reached the crack in the passage.

However before he could hide inside, a single bubble popped in his vicinity melting the upper layer of his skin of his back. 

Pushing himself deep in the crack while holding his urge to scream in pain, Kalki sits in a meditative position as soon as he reaches the deepest part.

Adjusting himself in the closed space, Kalki somehow managed to sit in the meditate pose and started his deep breathing.

Hoping to recover his mana loss and the damage he got in his back, Kalki immersed himself in his meditation ignoring the ruckus going on outside.

Meanwhile, the crab outside was in full berserk mode due to the intruder gone missing and his territory's most precious mana source's disappearance.

30 minutes later, Kalki opened his eyes after getting a good enough recovery.

The first thing that he saw was the entrance of the crack that was now only 3 steps away from him.

Initially this was very far away from him, looking at it Kalki knew it was time to start the next course of action. 

Kalki came out of the crack and wore his clothes and bag.

The first room was already destroyed and the boss monster was gone.

He knew where the crab was gone and without wasting any more time he ran towards the point where the hidden dungeon was located, the place where all three passages connect.

On the way the whole path was now enlarged with many folds which suggested that the crab had already gone through this path.

Kalki's body itself wasn't at his best, with his left shoulder a little fractured and his mana meridians damaged due to the mana burst that he used. 

However this wasn't the time for him to make excuses.

Soon Kalki reached the place where three passages connected each other.

Here the noise of fighting was audible which was happening in the second boss monster room. 

Ignoring it Kalki searched every nook and cranny of the walls around him as they held the key to open the hidden monster room.

"Lucky!!" 

Luckily this time he quickly found the thing that he was searching for.

In the corner of the wall, a small hole was now visible thanks to many layers of the walls being gone.

Kalki bent his body and put his hand inside the hole and grabbed the key out of there. 

The key was a stone with a weird array pattern printed on it.

With the key in his hand, he did the action of unlocking the lock in front of the same wall.

The key in his hands vanished in thin air as a giant gate ten times of his size appeared in front of him. 

With the dull-looking blade in his left hand and clothes on top of his mudded body, Kalki opened the gate of the hidden room where his soon-to-be mana art was located.

As he pushed the gate a little, they automatically opened up and a very high-pitched voice sounded throughout the cave. 

"screeeeeeechhhhhhhh!!!!"

Kalki jumped sideways as the gate continued to open slowly.

In milliseconds he saw death inches away from him as he nearly escaped from the thing that went straight toward the other two boss monsters.

The sheer speed was so incredible that Kalki wasn't able to even catch a glimpse of it.

The only thing that Kalki can see was the black flames on the roof and the door which was enough to incinerate him.

[!!! B-rank monster detected !!!] 

[ Advised to evacuate to a safe place and not engage in combat ]

Looking at the system notification Kalki got to know the level of the monster which although a little lower rank than what MC faced in the novel but was still very high for him.

This monster was also one of the most offensive monsters that you can discover throughout the 'hero of darkness' world.

The pet of gluttony, ruler of dark flames, 'Tamus' the vulture king species. 

Tamus's were in itself not any lower than calamity and can get toe to toe with even Phoenixes.

Even in the novel, the main cast weren't able to defeat it and only thanks to its gluttony nature that they were able to survive.

Tamus only aims for strong prey to hunt or devour and Due to Kalki being way too weak he didn't even bat an eye for him. Going straight for the other two bosses.

The same way how the main cast survived. People may call it plot armor or incredible luck and both worked for them. 

Kalki walked inside the room where the Tamus was kept which was also the secret room of the hidden dungeon.

The room was very different from what was outside.

The secret room itself was like a place in the middle of space. Around Kalki were only stars, milky way and other dark as well as light parts of space. 

He wasn't sure about it being real or not, and at the moment it also wasn't necessary for him.

Kalki with his squinting eyes entered the room and looked back at the door from where he entered.

A rectangular shape was cut off of the space and only pure white blinding lights were coming from there.

Looking at it, Kalki found it interesting however there were many more amusing things present in his vicinity.

Focusing on the thing which he had strived so hard for since entering the dungeon, Kalki looked at the egg which was of the similar size as him.

The space inside the hidden room was vast unlike any other, however in this huge space the only thing present was an egg . 

The egg of Astrolow, the monster considered as the most fearsome one and the only race that was exterminated by combined efforts of both warring parties.

It clearly states their raw power and the level of threat that they possess. 

Right now the egg in front of him was the last survivor of the Astrolow race.

Beings with One of the most coveted bloodlines by all. 

Mana art, that normally all humanoid species call, in reality were the bloodline of monsters.

As species that don't possess the linkage with mana inherently from birth, never have their bloodlines developed by mana. 

And in this case, humans were no different.

But after many wars and centuries of suffering, humans did many findings and got successful researches results. And among them mana art was one of those.

Mana art was the end product of merging of bloodlines of monsters that upon consumption adjusted itself with genes of the consumer.

In the end mana art became a bloodline like thing in species like humans.

Those who don't have their own bloodline use this to pass it down for the future generations after its first user. 

However one person cannot have dual bloodlines, dual mana art or one bloodline and one mana art simultaneously.

But as in all fiction goes there were always a few on whom such rules never got applicable and Kalki knew two of such cases.

Focusing on the egg in front, Kalki held it with both of his hands and started supplying mana fro, his hands to the egg.

The egg devoured Kalki's mana quickly and left it with close to none. This was the second time in the dungeon that he came close to emptying his mana.

Soon the egg started giving his mana to Kalki as this was the process eggs follow with their parents in order to grow quickly.

However Kalki wasn't its parents and in fact was planning to devour the existence of the last Astrolow race member completely.

After all to gain mana art this was the most possible way. 

Mana that the egg was providing was far greater than what Kalki's body accumulated normally so, it was bound to cause damages to its mana meridian.

On top of that its mana meridian in its feet was also not in good condition from the start. 

But even with all the problems Kalki knew he cannot step back.

The moment he decided to come here, he knew things would go way above his league, still he decided to come.

So now he has to push himself to achieve what he wants.

Running the egg's mana in all of his meridians and making it familiarize with its body as much as he can, Kalki even though wasted a major chunk but was able to complete the mana cycle. 

Now before the egg would start absorbing his mana back, Kalki let go of it. 

"I am sorry man, but this is for my survival"  

Kalki said the last few words to the egg and then smashed it with its low quality sword.

The crack spread throughout the egg and every part of the egg started to convert into the mana.

The only thing left behind was a purplish colored mana core.

Each individual's mana has different characteristics and only similar kinds of mana resonate with each other, even if they were similar on any one parameters.

By doing a mana cycle with the egg, Kalki was trying to match one of such parameters. 

Even though this was not necessary and he could have easily taken mana art from mana core.

However if he doesn't use his cheat 'future knowledge' here then what benefit will he have?

All the converted mana of the egg entered Kalki's body and few changes happened to him.

The most prominent one's being the change in his own mana which even he wasn't able to feel it.

The other ones being a rune on his back and his eyes turning into a crescent moon shape with a dot in the middle.

The whole area around his eyes and back was covered with a blackish purple hues of mana. 

Unknown of the changes happening in his body, Kalki was focusing on its mana core he was holding it in his hands.

A System message popped up.