Chapter 40: Live Long Enough: Part One

“Alrighty then, Dungeon’s cleared. All that’s left is for us to leave this joint.”

“Yeah…but I won’t be going outside with you though?”

“Oh yeah? How come?”

“I entered here secretly, remember? So I gotta leave in secret as well.”

“I see. Well, later then!” I hurriedly turned away from her to walk away, but was halted almost immediately by the sensation of something grabbing on to my collar. Or what was left of it anyway. I looked back. It was Peyton.

“You knew exactly what I was gonna say next, didn’t you?” She asked. She was smiling, so you’d think that it was an honest, genuine inquiry with no ill intent behind it.

You’d be wrong.

Still, I felt compelled to answer her very rhetorical question.

“I haven’t the foggiest clue of what-”

“I’ll be having a brief meeting with the Manager at the Association to give my report. I expect to see you there in no later than an hour.”

“Why God, why!?”

I could only agonize internally in response to her obvious order.

“… I’m not hearing an answer.”

“I’m not hearing you giving me a choice!”

“… Of course. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” I caved.

“Good!” She said enthusiastically as she let me go. “Later kinkster!”

Her body started to fade away until she then disappeared completely.

“Hm…must be that Hide Skill she told me about earlier.”

My senses could still briefly pick up on her presence, up until a few seconds later on when they no longer could.

“That means she’s a fair distance away now… Wait a minute…”

It was only after a little while that I realized…

“That girl…she used that insufferable nickname on me again didn’t she!? I really can’t with her! Seriously! She’s lucky she’s an A-Rank, or else I would…I would…chhyaah!”

~Sigh~

“Whatever, I’m slowly getting stronger. I’m sure soon enough, I’ll be the strongest Warrior in the entire world, give or take a few years. AT MOST.”

“That’s if I don’t die young anyways… Speaking of… I still haven’t checked my ’advancements’, it’s been a while since I’ve seen my Warrior info. System?”

[Report. Command accepted. Now opening Warrior info…]

[Report. New advancements detected as rewards of the previously completed Immediate Quest. Now processing new advancements…]

[Weapon Fanatic Skill has advanced from C-Rank to B-Rank. Treasure Hunt’s Sub-Skill Soul-Piercing Eyes has advanced from C-Rank to B-Rank. Cultivator Skill has advanced from C-Rank to B-Rank. Resilient Regeneration Skill has advanced from D-Rank to B-Rank. Hypermove Skill has advanced from E-Rank to C-Rank. Trigon Element King Skill has advanced from D-rank to B-rank. Trigon Element King’s Sub-Skills Ifrit, Tetrax, and Marid have all advanced from E-Rank to C-Rank. Trigon Element King Skill has awakened its first Special Attack, Inferno Cyclone. Inferno Cyclone has been examined and found to be multi-usable. Subject can now use Inferno Cyclone with any weapon that has shooting properties. Subject has also gained a new Sub-Skill for the Weapon Fanatic Skill known as Sharpshooter.]

[Weapon Fanatic’s Sub-Skill Bladework’s effects on the Subject’s Stats have increased. Effect on Strength has increased by 2700. Effect on Speed has increased by 3000. Effect on Health has increased by 1000 and effect on Intelligence has increased by 1000. Now redesigning the effects of the A-Rank Bladework Sub-Skill on the Subject…]

A-Rank Bladework Sub-Skill: Effects When Active

• Strength +9000

• Speed +9570

• Health +9260

• Intelligence +12720

[Additionally, subject has gained three more new Skills usurped from the Dungeon Boss, the Goblin Lord since all three have been found to be compatible with the Subject. Now processing list of Skills gained from Dungeon Boss…]

List of Skills gained from Dungeon Boss

• Bullseye C-Rank

• Unbreakable D-Rank

• Lancer E-Rank

[Report. Bullseye Skill has been found to be strikingly compatible with Treasure Hunt Skill. Treasure Hunt has thus devoured Bullseye. Bullseye is now a Sub-Skill of Treasure Hunt. Unbreakable Skill has been found to be incomparably compatible with Cultivator Skill, Cultivator has thus absorbed Unbreakable within itself allowing both Skills to merge into one, new, stronger Cultivator Skill. Cultivator is close to advancing to A-Rank and may do so if the Subject uses it to complete a difficult task. Lastly, Lancer Skill has been found to be strikingly compatible with Weapon Fanatic Skill. Weapon Fanatic has thus devoured Lancer. Lancer is now a Sub-Skill of Weapon Fanatic.]

[Furthermore, Mana Capacity has increased by 37000. Strength has increased by 12000. Speed has increased by 10500. Health has increased by 6000 and Intelligence has increased by 7000.]

[Now redesigning overall Warrior info…]

Name: Raid

Surname: ???

Affiliation: Awakened Warrior

Class: Blacksmith

Skills:

…

• Weapon Fanatic B-Rank: Possesses a profound level of understanding of how various weapons operate, including how to use them in battle.

…

•• Lancer E-Rank: Possesses a moderate level of mastery with spears.

…

•• Soul-Piercing Eyes B-Rank: Exponentially increases sensory perception, allows one to spot a large number of weak points in their opponents and how to utilize them and even see many various hidden secrets of nature.

•• Bullseye C-Rank: Allows one to lock any form of projectile shot or thrown on to any desired target within a 600 kilometre radius, making it impossible for them to miss. The strength of the projectile is dependent on the Rank of the Skill, hence the projectile can be overpowered by Skills of higher Ranks or countered by Skills of equal Rank.

…

• Cultivator B-Rank: Possesses a profound level of mastery in Mana manipulation, through the use of a Dantian. Can now also draw out untapped potential, power and prowess by purifying one’s Source Mana. Tip: Skill is very close to advancing to A-Rank.

…

• Resilient Regeneration B-Rank: Can heal all damages to the body, regenerate any body part including limbs and entire organs except for the heart and brain, speed of regeneration is dependent on the scale of damage.

• Hypermove D-Rank: Can increase one’s speed massively through the use of electric Mana. Said Mana also acts as a shield against air resistance.

• Trigon Element King B-Rank: Can masterfully manipulate Fire, Wind and Water Elemental Magic.

•• Inferno Cyclone: A cyclone of flames that turns all in its path to cinder and ash.

•• Ifrit C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of control over Fire Elemental Magic.

•• Tetrax C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of control over Wind Elemental Magic.

•• Marid C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of control over Water Elemental Magic.

Rank: F

Level: Locked

Mana Capacity: 101880

Strength: 25290

Speed: 25183

Health: 23084

Intelligence: 26000

[Finally, as for the final rewards. Subject has received 10329 E-Rank monster cores, and one D-Rank monster core along with the Goblin Lord’s skin and spine.]

“Nice. Three of my Physical Related Stats are finally out of that hellhole called the C-Rank Maximum. I wasn’t sure if I could beat an A-Rank as high level as Peyton before, but now I have no doubt that I can definitely hold my own, at the very least… Maybe… Still not sure. That girl’s a monster. Still… I have to take the fact that I haven’t even absorbed all the Mana Crystals that I gained into consideration. Once I do that, I’m sure I’ll be a monster too.”

I transferred all the monster cores and Boss drops to the Item Space. As I did that, all the dead Goblins’ bodies started to burn.

“Hm, time must be up. Looks like it takes around ten minutes or so for the bodies to start to burn after the monsters die and lose their cores.”

I then looked at the Goblin Lord’s dead body. “So this guy will be the last one to go in a couple minutes since he was the last one to die… Still though…”

Something about it just didn’t sit right with me. To have a true and bona fide Warrior like the Goblin Lord go out completely in such an undignified way. Driven by such feelings, I then did something unthinkable.

“Hmm… I wonder… Could it really work? Let’s try it!”

I placed my hand out, facing the Goblin Lord’s corpse and uttered: “Enter Item Space!”

It worked. “Whoa! No way!”

Of course I was surprised, even if I’m the one who thought of it.

“After all, it oughta be called ’Item’ Space for a reason, right? It’s why I never tried transferring myself there either, even though I’ve thought about it… What I can gather from this development though is that as long as whatever I transfer there isn’t, y’know…alive, then it registers as an ’item’. Perfect, now to see if it worked. While I’m at it, I might as well check my total. I remember I still have those ninety or so Mana Crystals that I didn’t absorb before because I wanted to save them for selling. Thinking about it now, I might as well absorb all of them too since they’re also E-Rank and only sell the D-Rank monster core instead like I did last time.”

So I waited around for two more minutes or so, having gathered it was the amount of time left for the Goblin Lord’s body to burn up like the rest and turn to ashes.

“Okay, that should be enough time. Now open Item Space.”

[Report. Command accepted. Now opening Item Space…]

[Report. New items detected. Now processing new items…]

[Renewing Item Space contents…]

[Now opening Item Space….again…]

Item Space B-Rank contents:

…

• Goblin Lord’s skin and spine: The skin is a thousand times sturdier and more durable than normal leather and can be used for the same purposes, the spine is twice as strong as the Great Werehyena’s claws, canine and spine and can be used for blacksmithing.

• Goblin Lord’s corpse: Will not disintegrate as it is being preserved by the Mana within the Item Space.

“Nice. The reason monster corpses burn the way they do is ’cause the monsters lose their cores when they die, so if that ’life support’ is replaced with something of equal efficiency, then the corpse will remain intact. With this, I’ll be able to give the first warrior to ever earn my utmost respect a proper burial.”

I then started running, leaving the Dungeon. I activated both Bladework and Hypermove to increase my speed.

“Now then, as for my Mana Crystals, my total is ten-thousand four-hundred and twenty, meaning I still had ninety-one left that I didn’t absorb before. Great… With this, I should be able to stack up a ton of Mana Capacity. I’ll absorb them all on my way to the Association meeting that I was practically forced to go to.”

I arrived at the Dungeon Gate I came through when I first entered then walked through it. I then looked back and noticed that for some reason, the Gate wasn’t closing behind me. Before I could even gather what that meant, the guards from before approached me.

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