Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 75
Chapter 75: Episode 20. The World Tree (4)
The message came up, and my entire body became relaxed. My body felt heavy, as if I was deep underwater.
I sat down with my eyes closed, thinking it was too much trouble even to breathe.
Was this Sloth? Everything was in slow motion. It wasn’t that I was speeding up or speeding down. My Speed had upgraded to over 100 and reached 106. Since 100 was the limit to becoming superhuman, everything was now different.
Sloth was the skill to accelerate the world. With my incredible Speed ability, this changed the concept of time and space. My range of perception had widened beyond anyone’s imagination. I was able to see and catch the movements of a leaf far away from my dungeon. I was able to feel the tiny movements of little bugs and tiny drops of water, as well.
I didn’t need any effort to be able to see and understand everything. I could simply sit down where I was. I didn’t have to move at all, but I was able to sense everything. I thought maybe this was the real power of Sloth.
Not just the change of perception but the flow of time had changed.
One second was a very long time. It felt like eternity. After one day and then another, I was trapped in the prison called time.
But I was still in Sloth—I hadn’t done anything. I was simply going with the flow of this new time and observing the world around me.
But just then, my body started to mutilate. I started screaming inside. The heavy wall called time began to crush my whole body. It was because my physical body couldn’t handle the acceleration, which was natural. My Power and Strength couldn’t keep up with my 106 Speed. And I was using Sloth, so the imbalance was becoming bigger and bigger. If I continued, my whole body would be crushed.
In the excruciating pain, I was thinking to myself, ‘Will it be okay?’
I couldn’t keep using Sloth. I had to get out of it and move.
‘I’m going against the current. I refuse to follow the path built by others. I’ll build my own path as I go. I’m the one who mocks the system and all the idiots who are following the rules. I can’t be broken by the stupid abnormal status of a skill.’
The tiny thought started to create a butterfly effect and created a storm in my mind.
‘Stand up, Randalf Bruciel. Sloth doesn’t suit you.’
With a status window showing me that the abnormal status of Sloth had been disabled, I opened my eyes.
“Huh!” I took a deep breath.
I looked down and checked my whole body.
I hadn’t broken anything, but I had bruises all over my body. If I had stayed there little longer, I would have been smashed by time and died for sure.
‘So, that was Sloth?’ I asked myself again.
The abnormal status was thrilling. I almost felt like I was a god, able to feel every movement of the air. I’d never felt anything like that before.
And the slowed-down world was also amazing. It was next-level compared to the acceleration skill. With acceleration, people could speed up their physical bodies, which would put too much pressure on their bodies, and usually, the users ended up having severe brain damage. That was why people called the acceleration skill a double-edged sword.
But Sloth was simply controlling the flow of time. Perception was about sensing anyway. Sloth didn’t put any pressure on the user’s body. I was able to just think and move in the flow of time. I was able to feel everything and react as I wanted.
Sloth was very similar to an acceleration skill, but it was a next-level skill in many different aspects.
Although after, I didn’t have any motivation to do anything. This had to be some kind of a side effect. I would be able to overcome the side effects if I trained myself to do so.
“There’s nothing easy in this world, really.”
My laughter felt bitter.
The problem was clear: I was able to have a superhuman sensing power, but my physical body couldn’t handle it. Moreover, my Power and Strength dropped by 6 points, so my physical abilities couldn’t handle a Speed of 106.
And my Intelligence…
‘I wouldn’t be able to use both Rage and Sloth at once.’
Maybe when I reached 90 in Intelligence, I could.
I was not yet ready to use both.
Rage enhanced my physical abilities, while Sloth activated extended senses, so I would have to choose those skills carefully.
It was possible the five remaining sins had something to enhance my Intelligence. I had to find it.
‘At least now I know what kind of skill Sloth is.’
Knowing this was good enough for now.
I had what I wanted. I wanted to know what was Sloth and what was the limit of it and on using it, and I was happy to finish my experiment.
Three days after the Sloth experiment, while I was taking care of my dungeon’s affairs and looking at the World Tree, Krithli came to see me unexpectedly.
“This is a rare occasion.” Those were my first words.
Krithli hardly ever came to see me before I called. Of course, it was partly because I was never there and also the fact that she was very busy. She was training her skills while following my orders and taking care of the World Tree. She was extremely busy.
“Greetings, my Dungeon Master.” Krithli stepped forward and kneeled, but I waved my hands and told her to stop.
“No need for formality. Why are you here?”
Krithli looked at me and told me, “I have a question about the World Tree.”
“Tell me.”
Since I had told her to, Krithli didn’t hesitate and started to tell me right away. “I was able to feel strong Mana of Yin and Yang from the sprout of World Tree. The seed didn’t have that vibe. Something was added, but it was something pure… So I came to the conclusion that Master had done something to the seed.”
She was almost right, which surprised me a bit.
“Can you sense that kind of thing as well?”
“You know what kind of Mana is in my body, right?”
She had Mana of the Real Magic Dragon Ahojin and the Dark Elf Higher Shila. The extreme ends of Yin and Yang were balanced in Krithli, so she was hypersensitive when it came to Yin and Yang energy.
But to know that something had been added was a different thing. Moreover, she knew the added Mana was purified as well.
‘Is that the power of 100 Intelligence?’ That was the only thing I could guess.
I was deeply impressed, yet I was thinking for a while about how to answer that question.
Any information on the World Tree was top-secret. If the information made it out, other Devils could grow the World Tree as well, although the odds were quite slim. Either way, I would talk to Krithli.
Dark Elves never betrayed the ones they’d been bonded to by ritual. They were famous for their devotion, and Krithli had 100 Intelligence. Maybe she could give me an answer to my questions that were still unanswered.
I came up with my answer. “A combination.”
Telling her was a good idea.
“It was… a combination?” Krithli looked confused, tilting her head.
I pulled out the recipe from my magic pocket and handed it to Krithli. “That’s the recipe to make a World Tree sprout.”
“Smile of the sun and tear of the moon? Never seen these before.”
“Can you read it?”
I handed it to her and thought I should have just read it for her, because the recipe was sealed by the Fairy King of Darkness. Without an observation skill, it was just an old piece of paper, but Krithli was reading it.
Maybe it was the power of Intelligence. It seemed like Intelligence was a mighty power, which made me feel bad about my low Intelligence.
But Krithli asked me back, “Is it a strange thing?”
“No. Anyway, that’s the recipe.”
“The Essence of Mana… I’ve heard of it before. if you go to a place where pure Mana is concentrated, you can find crystalized Mana.” Krithli understood that the existence of the sun’s smile or the tears of the moon didn’t really matter that much.
“I have no way to get that at the moment.”
That was why I placed all my hopes in the Statue of the Goddess of Prosperity and prayed the blessing would let the other seed sprout. It had been a few days, and nothing was happening yet.
Krithli closed her eyes and didn’t move for a while, as if she was in her deep thoughts. After a few dozen seconds, Krithli opened her eyes, strange energy shining in them.
“Tears of the moon, smile of the sun. It seems like those items represent the two extreme ends of Yin and Yang Mana. Which means… don’t you think my blood could function like those items? I think we can get the Essence of Mana by using combination skills on my blood.”
“…” I looked at Krithli as if I had been punched in the face.
Why hadn’t I thought of this simple logic?
It was clear that her blood contained the two extreme ends of Yin and Yang Mana. The Real Magic Dragon, the Sun King, was the extreme Yang, while Dark Elf Higher Shila was called the Moon Queen.
But to have enough of an effect, we needed a lot of blood.
“That might kill you.”
“I promise you it won’t.”
She had such irrational confidence that it made me smile.
“The combination skill isn’t the solution for everything, and there’s no guarantee that we can even create the Essence of Mana.”
“The first step into the dark woods is the most important move to cross it. If we don’t even try, we can’t achieve anything.”
That was true, and it was my motto after I came back to this life.
But still, it wasn’t enough.
“Your blood isn’t enough.”
“All we need to do is add up the remaining Mana. My Master, let me learn how to use the skill to extract Mana. If you give me an object to extract Mana from, I’ll try my best to combine it with my blood to make the seed sprout.”
Just taking Mana out of an object wasn’t enough. We needed to find the best ratio of Mana and purify it, as well. It was something that required highly trained skills, but I thought Krithli could manage all that.
She was very motivated. Krithli never shared strong opinions. It was her first time trying to convince me of something.
‘I’m sure I said no in my former life.’
If she failed and lost the skill book and the item she took the Mana from, that would be a huge loss to me. But now, I was thinking differently after all my experiences in my former life and this one.
My monster was motivated to do so… Giving her a chance was the best thing to do as a leader. Simply minimizing the risk wasn’t the best way to deal with this.
It was only my second year back. I was headed in the right direction, and I wasn’t as tense as before. I could give her chances like this more than a few times.
“Okay. Do whatever you see fit.” I nodded lightly.
I was able to prepare both a Rare-level skill to extract Mana and an item with highly concentrated Mana without any difficulties.
One of the objects that I bought from the Auction of Devildom contained highly concentrated Mana.
It was the dead body of an Earth Dragon. Earth Dragons were monsters that came to life taking all the lives in the whole forest, and the Mana that had accumulated in the bone over a few thousand years would be enough to be called highly-concentrated.
My original plan was to create an undead being called the “Bone Dragon’ using this dead body… but the plan had to be changed according to the situation.
I decided to use the Earth Dragon’s dead body for better results, although a lot of preparation and practice would be required before anyone could use it.
Right before I handed over the skill book and the Earth Dragon’s dead body, I told Krithli, “Krithli, I assign you to be my Master Guardian.”
There was no special reason for me to assign Krithli as the Master Guardian. Thanks to the ritual, she was loyal to me, and she had high potential. Also, adding five abilities would help a lot for what I was planning to do for the next step.
I had experienced the Speed of 106 points, and it was extremely powerful. I couldn’t wait to see what 105 Intelligence would bring.
It would help her physically, as well. It was natural to choose Krithli as the Master Guardian.
“Yes, Master.”
Krithli was obedient in many ways. Unlike Julium, she wouldn’t ask me too many questions. When I gave an order, she tried to think and understand before asking, then asked me questions if she couldn’t understand my reasoning.
I smiled with satisfaction and selected inside affair mode to proceed.
The Dungeon Core started to shine with a rainbow of colors.
The light covered up Krithli as if it was making a protective circle around her.
Soon, a few message windows showed up.
[Your monster ‘Krithli’ has been selected to be the Master Guardian.]
[Master Guardian is a next-level monster, the final spear and shield. There will be only one, and it will protect everything.]
[All of Krithli’s abilities have increased by 5.]
[Warning! The Blood of the Real Magic Dragon Ahojin and Dark Elf Higher Shila are reacting. Krithli started a blood awakening!]
