Chapter 89 Mine
Silver Essence swirled through the crystal Dilan pulled out of the Lightning rat’s head.
“A Silver Essence crystal…does that mean Bronze monsters were not the strongest?”
It was quite easy to guess that Silver Essence was much stronger than Bronze Essence. Dilan felt as if his body was being nurtured by solely just coming in contact with the crystal.
This was quite a surprise, which led him to absorb the Silver Essence crystal in an instant.
[ Essence of Tierless Level 10 Lightning Shiroa Rat has been absorbed→ Host cannot gain more status points]
Instead of receiving status points, Dilan received enormous amounts of Essence.
The quantity was so huge that it made him frown because his body was being flooded with the Essence of the Lightning Shiroa rat.
But that was not the most important because he was way too baffled about the fact that the Lightning Shiroa Rat was not existence at Tier-1, but that it was only a Tierless Silver monster!!
‘So…Silver monsters are that strong? Or was it just this one? Its stats were almost comparable to mine, and I’m certain that its claws are sharper than my weapons!’
Dilan knew as a matter of fact, that each of the Lightning Shiroa Rat’s means of attack was far stronger than Dilan’s.
This was something exciting, even more so because he had killed this monster just a moment ago!
The fight had been quite weird and prolonged but only the final result was what truly mattered at the end of the day.-.
To some extent, he relied on his superior stats to overpower the Lightning Shiroa Rat, but he had also used his flexibility and smaller body to his advantage.
Furthermore, with the use of the [Thunder Step] ability, and the fact that he wielded a weapon, everything became far easier, and more interesting.
[0.50005%]
“Half a percentage for a whole Silver essence crystal…”
Even if Dilan was astonished about this, the wounds on his back and his scorched face made it quite clear that he hadn’t been able to overwhelm the Lightning Shiroa rat, but that it was an extremely close battle.
Considering the high stats of the Tierless Silver monster, Dilan figured that all of its stats should have been maxed out as well.
But even if that was the case, it was odd. There had to be a more powerful monster than the Lightning Shiroa rat.
And with that in mind, Dilan couldn’t help but take a look around.
The number of monsters in his surroundings was vast, and he knew that it would take some time for his injuries to be healed.
Even with the use of the Origin ability, resting for an hour should be the least he could do to recuperate properly.
However, instead of resting and letting his body recuperate in a normal manner, Dilan chose to spend the next three hours exterminating the strongest ordinary monster and all the Bronze monsters he could find.
At the same time, he replenished his mana by actively pulling mana currents toward him.
In the underground valley of the Krendels the amount of mana was at least, three times higher than what the permanent Gate radiated.
This made it easier for Dilan to absorb a good quantity of mana.
Because he had yet to learn quite a lot about mana, and he shortened the replenishing period of one Mana unit even further.
With his Origin ability utilized three times, and a high Health stat, three hours were more than enough to fully tend to his wounds.
Normally there would be the possibility of dirt and bacteria infecting his fully tended wound, but he didn’t have to worry about it owing to his passive [Immunity] ability!
After three hours had passed Dilan’s backpack was filled with around 50 Bronze Essence crystals, more than 40 claws of War Krendels, the Lightning Shiroa rat’s claws, and its horn.
The numerous other Essences had been absorbed by Dilan, who left a bloody battlefield behind.
Each monster that crossed his path was killed with a single clash, while its Essence was easily absorbed.
This made things much easier for Dilan, who focused on exploring the surrounding in a detailed manner.
Simultaneously, he filled his Essence pool with as much essence as possible to advance the progression bar of the Kirak’s Vassal occupation as quickly as possible.
But even if the ordinary and Bronze Essences helped him a lot, they were not even remotely comparable to the Lightning Shiroa rat’s Silver Essence.
With that in mind, Dilan’s eyes subconsciously started searching for more Silver monsters.
In his first encounter with the Lightning Shiroa rat, he figured out its fighting style.
This would make things much easier for the next battle if he were to find another one of them.
Unfortunately, even after he ignored the other monsters in his surroundings, he didn’t come across even one more Silver monster.
This forced him to switch to exterminating Bronze monsters and absorbing their Essence.
Several hours passed before Dilan noticed that he had lost his way through the underground valley.
Despite being called a valley, it was more like a giant network of numerous tunnels that were connected with one another.
It made things far more difficult than being in an actual valley as he passed through more than ten tunnels to try to figure out where he was right now.
And as he looked around intently, he realized that it resembled a mine.
There was a huge lit-up entrance numerous monsters passed through.
The entrance was filled with crystals that gleamed in various colors, turning them into the source of light around the cavern entrance.
‘They’re shining so brightly… If I can procure some of them, it should be possible for us to go out hunting during the night as well!’
Dilan got an idea at the sight of the brightly glowing crystals. However, he couldn’t prove the theory he had in mind because this would require him to touch the crystals.
For now, Dilan didn’t want to attract too much attention because what he saw was the first sign of the Krendels and horned rats working together. The beasts were diligently mining the crystals and the various other ores that could be found inside the cave.
From the looks of it the cave he found was a treasure trove of extremely valuable crystals. Dilan felt like it would be great to search for a forge and a blacksmith after leaving the underground valley.
In fact, the entire valley seemed to be of extreme value for the entire group consisting of Dilan.
He had killed more than a thousand monsters in the underground valley, but nobody seemed to have noticed anything.
This was not only weird, but Dilan could also tell that the number of monsters he spotted showed no signs of decreasing.
Rather, to him, it looked like the number of Krendels and horned rats were far higher than expected.
‘Are they reproducing like rabbits, have they been living here for a very long time, or is the plane within a Gate comparable to a dungeon, where monsters respawn after a certain period?’
Dilan was actually not sure about the truth behind the existence of the Gates, let alone their functions.
As such, the only thing he was able to do was to take a guess.
And by guessing a lot, Dilan reached the conclusion that there should be a clear difference between temporary and permanent Gates.
There should be some significant difference between the two, except for the period of time they remained at a certain place.
Unfortunately, he had yet to find out what exactly it was.
He could only smile nevertheless.
After all, he had found the paradise for the other Survivors to level up and gain numerous status points!
Other than Krendels that walked around with pickaxes, and horned rats that walked around with baskets on their back, there were also other types of monsters!
If his eyes weren’t failing him, there were crystalized Earthworms, Armadillos, and Bats inside the cave.
And all of them had one particular, ordinary type of monster with more than eight mutations, and several types of Bronze monster evolutions.
Upon seeing so many types of monsters, Dilan could tell that Oliver and the others would have it quite easy to level up.
The only thing they required would be a slight push in their stats which was not further difficult as long as Dilan stood by their side.
However, before thinking about helping others level up, Dilan had to focus on himself.
All of his thoughts were focused on strengthening his entire group which made him forget that many problems might occur the moment others would advance to Tier-1, while he was still focused on collecting Essence to fill the progression bar of his occupation.
It would bring forth too many issues, which was why Dilan averted his attention to a specific group of beasts he had spotted just a moment ago.
‘Are they fighting…or just sparring?’