Chapter 70: Mana Problems Solved!

Every remaining Thornwalker in the room went berserk at the same time.

The ones near the crystal fragments charged in every direction without coordination. Two of them ran into each other and tangled their vine arms. Three more sprinted toward Mel who was still standing next to the shattered crystal.

“MEL GET BACK!”

Fury intercepted two before they reached her and Rury sent the third flying with a swipe. Mel scrambled backward, tripped over a crystal fragment and fell on her ass.

Eren was already cutting through the berserking Thornwalkers but these ones had no coordination or chain formations anymore. It was just raw aggression now, faster and wilder than before, like destroying the crystal had removed whatever was holding them back.

He killed twelve in the next minute while attacks came at him from five directions at once. Thorns scratched his arms and back but nothing broke his skin. His endurance turned what should have been deep cuts into surface marks.

[You gained 100% energy of Verdant Hollow Thornwalker Level 22]

[You gained 100% energy of Verdant Hollow Thornwalker Level 22]

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 34]

What is that?

In the middle of the fight, he noticed the tiny red crystal darting away.

It phased through the moss and stone floor like the ground was folding aside to let it pass then closing behind it like nothing had been there.

“The small crystal is going underground!” He didn’t even know who he was shouting to. He was the only one fast enough to react to it anyway.

But Fury listened and ran with him to the spot but the floor was already solid. [It’s gone.]

Eren caught a glimpse of what was below for a few seconds before the dirt sealed it again.

Eren pressed his palm against the floor. The vibration was strongest here and he could feel hollow spaces beneath them with walls and corners going deeper than he could sense. They weren’t caves but structures that someone had built as far as he could tell.

“There are buildings under this dungeon. Something huge was buried here.” He didn’t stay there and looked around the room.

[More are coming from the sides!] Rury growled from across the chamber.

Fifteen more Thornwalkers poured from the third chamber tunnel in full berserk mode.

Eren met them head on. He tore through the mob like a one-man stampede, his single remaining scimitar cutting straight into center knots. Each kill was faster than the last because the berserking creatures had abandoned all defense.

The wolves took flanks. Mel stayed behind a large crystal fragment and stabbed anything that got close. She killed three on her own and each kill made her eyes light up even more.

“F*CK YEAH! THAT’S FOUR!”

“Three.” Eren corrected while splitting a Thornwalker in half.

“FOUR! I kicked one earlier and it died!”

He didn’t argue. The girl needed this.

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 35]

[All stats are +1]

[You acquired 1 Stat Point to use]

The last Thornwalker fell five minutes after the crystal shattered. The room was covered in dead wood, loose vines and green sap that smelled like rotting vegetables mixed with something chemical.

Berserk ones felt like they smelled way worse than the normal ones but Eren couldn’t prove it.

“Hey! I have reached Level 20.” She got too excited, moved too fast and accidentally dropped to the ground again.

Mel sat on the moss floor next to the crystal fragments with her hands shaking and tears running down her face while laughing at the same time. She looked completely overwhelmed with excitement.

“You okay?”

“Level twenty. I’m level twenty Eren.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and the green sap on her dagger smeared across her cheek. She looked ridiculous.

“Good. Now help me check these crystal fragments.”

The dungeon didn’t give them a reward chest. The third chamber was completely empty without a chest or portal so they had to walk back through the previous rooms to find the exit on their own.

But Eren had found something way better than a chest.

In the center of the shattered dungeon core buried inside the largest fragment was a metallic sphere small enough to fit in his palm. It was surprisingly heavy, warm to the touch and when he picked it up his system reacted immediately.

[Item Identified: Dungeon Heart Fragment of Verdant Hollow (Unique)]

[Mana Storage Capacity: 0 / 1000 (Currently empty)]

[Can be recharged without any limits]

It was the solution to all of his problems!

A thousand mana in something the size of a marble. His Clone skill needed exactly a thousand. His Door Master drained his entire pool every use. And this little thing could hold enough juice for both.

If he filled this marble, he could open a portal to Earth with his own mana and come back using the marble’s stored reserves. Or he could finally test Clone without draining himself dry. The two biggest problems he’d been carrying since he arrived in this world suddenly had an answer sitting in his palm.

At least in theory.

“What is it?” Mel tried to look over his arms and touched it slightly and blushed.

“Something that changes everything. But I need to fill it first and I’m not doing anything with it until Emily sees it.”

He wasn’t going to rush this. Opening a portal to Earth or creating a clone of himself were both things that could go very wrong very fast. Emily would know what questions to ask and which risks were worth taking. And she was pregnant with their baby and he needed to protect her.

Rury was sniffing the remaining crystal fragments scattered across the floor. [Can’t eat these. Too hard and they taste like rock.] She looked genuinely offended that the crystal refused to be food.

[Stop trying to eat everything.] Fury was licking a deep wound on his shoulder. But the wound wasn’t serious enough to use one of the two red potions.

Eren picked up a handful of the smaller crystal fragments. They looked similar to the mana stones he’d gotten as dungeon rewards before, but unprocessed and raw.

These could be turned into mana storage items if someone with the right class could process them. A smith or enchanter or maybe Rabbu-i’s Forest Weaver class.

He had been saying for weeks that the village needed to list everyone’s classes and skills. At the time Eren thought it was just for being organized and proper advancement of the village. Now he realized how dangerous the area really was. They had to use every useful class and skill the village had.

Some classes probably looked useless to the villagers but Eren knew better.

A guy from Oldir’s friend group had a skill that could affect how long wine and vinegar took to brew. They still didn’t know if it was really time-related or something else entirely, but there were other weird but useful skills.

He shoved as many fragments as his pockets could hold and told Mel and the wolves to carry some too. Rury held three pieces in her mouth and looked proud about it.

She was a good girl.

..

They found the exit portal in the first chamber. The dungeon felt dead without any vibrations or warmth left in the walls. The amber flowers were dimmer and didn’t track them when they left.

Outside the air was cold and clean. Eren took his first real breath in hours and coughed out something green.

The forest had gone strangely quiet after midnight.

He held the metallic marble in his right hand and started channeling mana into it as they walked. The process was slow. Maybe one mana every few seconds. It would take a while to fill completely but he had time.

“Mel. When we get back I need you to do something.”

“What?” She was walking next to Fury and looked half asleep.

“Talk to your brother and find out if anyone in the village has a class related to crafting magical items. Smithing or enchanting or anything close.”

“I don’t think there is. But why?”

“Because those crystal pieces in your pockets might be worth a lot more if the right person can turn them into mana batteries.”

Mel looked down at the fragments poking out of her bag but she was too tired to comment about it.

Rury dropped one of her crystal pieces, picked it up again and growled. [If these are valuable I want more.]

[You already have three.] Fury didn’t look back.

[I want seven.]

[Why seven?]

[Because seven is more than three!]

Wolves apparently didn’t know numbers properly, but they had a rough system for one to nine. They got fuzzy once the numbers went past six.

Eren didn’t translate that exchange for Mel. Some conversations were better left between wolves.

As they walked he kept channeling mana into the marble. His pool drained and refilled naturally from the forest around him so the process was essentially free but slow.

Five hundred fifty with items. Another thousand when the marble is full.

That’s enough for Clone. That’s enough to go to Earth and come back. I’ve been stuck for weeks and the answer was buried inside a dungeon crystal this whole time.

The village lights appeared through the trees. Emily would be awake. Actually, she was probably still helping defend the village.

That last three-way attack was too sudden and made Emily too paranoid.

Maybe we should dig under the village. We could check if there’s some kind of buried ruin city under the village and use the dirt to reinforce barricades.

That would be hilarious to suggest to Emily.

He was joking with himself but somewhere behind the joke a real question was forming. If the dungeon was built on top of something ancient and buried then what exactly was it hiding? And was the dungeon there to keep people out or to keep whatever was inside from getting out?

The red crystal had escaped downward into those structures like it knew exactly where to go. And it was acting like a real thinking “thing”.

He guessed maybe the creatures weren’t coming to this area because of the village. Maybe they were being pulled here by whatever is underneath it.

Even the Dragon’s visit had been too sudden to be meaningless.

He didn’t share that thought with Mel yet because it was too early and she was almost asleep with one hand on his arm.

Emily was standing at the village entrance with her arms crossed and a look that said she’d been worried for hours.

“I’m back.” He held up the metallic marble and grinned. “And I brought a surprise.”

Emily stopped looking worried the moment she saw how his body didn’t have any wounds at all.

While they were happily talking far below where no one could see or hear, the tiny red crystal settled into the ruins of something very ancient.

And it started pulsing again.

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