Serum

 

Dirk walked back with a bloody ribcage in his hand, slipping it into his pocket ring and arriving before the Grand Marshal. 

She nodded at him with a pleasant smile. 

“You’re ruthless. That makes me want to recruit you even more. Anyway, let’s not spare that heinous bastard another thought. I hear you want to join me on this little expedition to the major dungeon.”

“Mm.”

Dirk nodded with a neutral expression. It wasn’t really him, but Pandora who wanted to go. 

“Very well. Myself, Marshal Strider, Dirk Strider, and the princess. If we’re leaving, let us go now. I have things to do after this as well. City Lord Baren, you have full authority over the troops here in our absence. Take care of yourselves.”

“Of course, Grand Marshal.”

The City Lord bowed a bit. Then, the Grand Marshal retrieved an item from her pocket ring. 

It was a large carriage, and according to the magical signature inside of it, Dirk recognized it to be a flying carriage. 

“Let’s go.”

With a wave, everyone boarded, and they took off. 

………

It wasn’t long before they arrived in front of the major dungeon. 

This dungeon was located in a grassy plain, specifically a small forest in this plain amongst thick foliage. And all around the entrance were thousands of monsters that frequently attacked and ate each other. 

Upon flying toward the ground, several monsters sought to attack the carriage, but they were annihilated when an inferno surged from the vehicle. It wiped out everything in a small area, allowing the carriage to land without issue. 

Then, everyone stepped out. Ethan took the lead and killed anything that got close with small bolts of fire. These monsters were all around Tier 4 on average, but they were far beneath him. 

Of course, they were also beneath Dirk and Pandora despite them being Tier 4’s as well. However, neither of them were as powerful as Ethan or the Grand Marshal, so they couldn’t kill these creatures with absolute ease. It would still take them a small bit of effort.

After retrieving the carriage, the Grand Marshal looked to the major dungeon entrance. Like all dungeons, the entrance to this one was a murky black portal that led to another space. They approached it, Ethan killing anything in their path. 

And then, they entered it. Dirk pushed through the uncomfortable fluid, was engulfed, and after a brief moment of suspension, was spit out on the other side. 

The instant he was let out though, he saw the face of a monster lunging toward him. He didn’t even think before his reflexes kicked in, and in but a half second, he planted a knife in the monster’s throat backed by the strength of his anima. 

His body then spun and flung the monster away using its momentum. And after taking a survey of his surroundings, Obsidius covered his body.

Ethan had released a small inferno around himself and was dashing around while slashing monsters. The Grand Marshal was also killing a few monsters that got too close, though she was far more relaxed than Ethan. 

And Pandora was standing not far from Dirk, two monsters writhing on the floor in pain as ice slowly froze their bodies from their feet to their head. 

It only took a dozen seconds for the immediate area to be cleared out. After the four regrouped, Ethan glanced at Dirk with an odd expression. 

“Those were some shockingly fast reflexes.”

“...Thanks?”

Dirk wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Nonetheless, Ethan seemed to be conflicted. 

Ethan had heard about what happened to Dirk straight from his father. The torture, the training, the curse that blinded him, his time at Asura’s mountain. 

The result was a monster that could fight an entire Tier above himself, and one that could kill thousands of those below him. When he had first arrived, Ethan had seen the unbelievable skill that Dirk displayed while battling monsters. His agility, situational awareness, and ruthlessly acute attacks weren’t normal by any stretch of the word. His combat sense was far above even his own, and Ethan was a Tier 5, as well as a Rank 6. 

Dirk was showing the skill and proficiency of someone like the Grand Marshal, and the only reason Dirk couldn’t compare to a Duke was because a Tier or Rank 8 had abilities that transcended anything like skill or reflexes. They were monsters themselves. 

Perhaps he was comparing himself, but Ethan wasn’t sure how to feel about this brother of his. 

Ethan had surpassed Rank 4 at Dirk’s age. But even if he were to regress to that power now, Ethan couldn’t fathom being able to beat Dirk on even terms. That thought ate at him. 

“Alright, listen close.”

The Grand Marshal suddenly turned to everyone, interrupting Ethan’s conflict. 

She looked at Dirk and Pandora. 

“You guys might be able to take care of yourselves in the shallow parts of the dungeon, but I have orders to go deeper. As soon as we start encountering Tier 6’s, you need to stay out of the way. I can kill just about anything in this place, but you also need to make it easy for me to protect you while doing so. Ethan will guard you in case anything happens. Now, let’s move quickly.”

With that, the group took off in a run. 

The dungeon was unlike any other landscape Dirk had ever seen before. It even surprised Pandora.

The dirt was solid black, while the grass and foliage that grew atop it was red. The sky was also an odd green color. 

As for the monsters, the group immediately encountered one main type. 

Massive serpents that were two feet thick and a few dozen feet long. All of them were red, and from their scales came blazing flame. 

They were also Tier 5. 

Upon seeing these monsters, Dirk let out a long breath. After watching them fight, he figured that just three of these snakes could kill one of the monster generals that he did. That meant that Dirk could, at most, kill between 6 and 9 snakes. 

Ethan, on the other hand, was going around slaughtering them like chickens. While his flames were almost ineffective, his Rank 6 strength allowed him to cleave the heads off snakes with relative ease. 

And the Grand Marshal had it even easier. 

Dirk had already figured out that the Grand Marshal was strictly a body refiner with Rank 7 anima. For scouting missions like what she was tasked to do, someone with concentrated power and mobility was best. So she was the perfect one to head in here and complete the mission quickly. 

And, on top of her Rank 7 strength, her ability to wield anima was that of a Bishop class. 

A Bishop class warrior developed their own unique way of controlling anima. Dirk’s mother Cecilia was able to create threads that were not only terrifyingly sharp, but could also turn invisible and intangible. For her, it was the perfect compliment to her assassin skillset. 

But for this Grand Marshal, her special anima ability was forming something like a shield. No stray attack was able to touch her as whenever one would hit her, a translucent barrier would form in front of her body, protecting her completely. 

It allowed her to attack without worry or restraint. And while Dirk could definitely see its use, in his opinion it was a waste. 

Something like his mother’s ability was far more useful. If his mother and this Grand Marshal fought, then his mother would win without contest. He had no doubt about that. 

As Dirk evaluated the Grand Marshal, the group constantly moved forward. No monster could last even a few seconds before Ethan and the Grand Marshal, so they advanced through fields of red quickly. 

It wasn’t long before they began encountering new monsters. 

Occasionally, they began seeing snakes that were black instead of red. These snakes seemed to have scales made of metal. And the shocking part was how they actually wielded lightning.

Dirk became focused when they encountered these. The black snakes were also Tier 6, so they wielded destructive lightning that could hurt even Ethan if he weren’t careful. 

Dirk was only concerned with their magic though. Through his mana vision he was able to see the extraordinarily concentrated lightning within their bodies that occasionally flickered across their metal scales. That was only part of the surprise though. 

The snakes were fast. 

They had reflexes and speed surpassing Ethan’s, so even he could only hold one off, not necessarily kill it. It was the Grand Marshal who had to expend plenty of effort to get her hands on one and safely kill it. 

But thankfully those snakes didn’t die fast, because while watching them, Dirk was wholly concentrated on watching how the lightning moved through their bodies, and how it affected their reflexes. 

Dirk had learned plenty of lightning theory from that stolen book Garel gave him, but in the end he was only able to develop spells that emitted lightning. And he wasn’t really inclined to use many of those spells because as he found out, they were rather inefficient, taking lots of energy for average power. 

But if he could mimic those snakes and use lightning to increase his speed and reaction times, then he would unlock a whole new level of combat when integrating his anima. 

And that was only a shallow mimicry of what they could do. The lightning attacks from those snakes was incredibly destructive, far surpassing Ethan’s fire. The snakes were able to whip their tails and use them to release strikes of lightning, and all of those strikes had horrifyingly dense energy within them that gave equally devastating results. 

So Dirk watched everything, tracking the movement of lightning mana with his mana vision. At the same time, he experimented with the lightning mana in his fire mana heart. 

Pandora glanced at Dirk, watching as sparks of lightning flickered across his fingertips. Runes would also occasionally appear around his hands, signifying his deepening comprehension into the nature of lightning. 

And on the inside, the changes were even more pronounced. Dirk could feel electricity rush through his limbs at his command, almost as if he were taking control of the nervous system that gave direction to his body. 

It made him twitch, his muscles contracting whenever a bolt of lightning would pass through them. He sent lightning through every part of his body. 

However, in doing this he found a limitation. Dirk had been working on his destruction cycles for groups of muscles, and he had completed a few groups already. When he passed lightning through these groups, they were able to take advantage of the lightning and contract with great strength and speed. But when he did the same through unrefined muscles, they were injured in the contraction process. 

If he were to force it, he might be able to give vast strength to his entire body, but only a couple of times. In order to take full advantage of this technique, he needed to finish muscle destruction, which had begun only recently. That meant he would need at least another 6 weeks before he could fully utilize that lightning amplification. 

But he still learned all he could. Dirk never did much with lightning, so this would help him use the resources at his disposal, giving purpose to his wide arsenal. It was good to have more variety other than stabbing with knives and shooting metal and fire bullets. 

And thankfully for him, the black lightning snakes only appeared more frequently. The Grand Marshal moved as fast as she could through the dungeon, and while that meant the black snakes died just as fast, the deeper they went, the more black snakes they found. 

So Dirk was able to continue to watch and observe the lightning techniques those snakes used. However, after a dozen or so black snakes were killed, Dirk noticed something going on with Obsidius. 

The little blob that was currently acting as his armor was usually quiet. It most enjoyed being used, as weird as that was. But as Dirk watched the snakes, the blob began to roil in desire. Dirk could feel the armor massage his hands, as if it were gnawing on his fingers. 

He could also feel its focus on the black snake. Specifically its corpse. It wanted the corpse. 

“Hmm…”

Dirk tilted his head. He knew that there was much more to Obsidius than he knew, and using the blob as an armor was probably its most basic function. Now, seeing the blob’s desire for something, he decided it was best to listen. 

“Pandora.”

“Yes?”

Pandora turned to him with a bright smile. 

“I want some of those black snake corpses. How much space in those pocket rings do we have?”

“Hm, in anticipation for the valuable materials we would encounter in this dungeon, I brought a couple dozen rings with me. Adding up their total volume, I’m pretty sure we could bring every monster in this dungeon out of here. Catch.”

*Ting!*

Pandora flicked a pocket ring in the air, one embedded with a Tier 6 dark mana crystal. 

Dirk caught it and checked the space inside of it. Sure enough, it had a few thousand cubic meters worth of space. And that was just a single ring. 

Since that was the case, Dirk could use it without inhibition. 

Neither the Grand Marshal nor Ethan seemd to be interested in these snakes as their corpses were just left behind. So, Dirk began stuffing them into his ring. Even going back to grab the few they left behind. 

Like that, several hours passed with the Grand Marshal only moving faster and faster. When they weren’t fighting a monster, everyone was running at almost full speed. The dungeon had massive wide open landscapes, and Dirk heard that dungeon divers could spend upwards of two months inside one of these dungeons. If that was the case, they wouldn’t be leaving in one or two days. 

This also meant that Dirk could collect more materials, though he wasn’t yet sure what he would be using them for. 

Like that, they ran for approximately 30 hours. It was only then that the Grand Marshal decided to stop and take time to rest. 

She even had a portable living space. From her pocket ring manifested a massive tent that was fitted with everything someone might need. With enough space, one could carry around an entire house with them, so it wasn’t too surprising. 

Even Ethan had a similar mobile living space that he brought out. Fortunately, Pandora wasn’t to be outdone. Though, the item she brought out was a bit more surprising. 

“You brought the car?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“...Why didn’t you bring it out earlier? We could’ve been driving instead of running.”

“Hey, I didn't know what the dungeon was going to look like. But tomorrow we can use it since we know now.”

Pandora shrugged, causing Dirk to sigh. He wasn’t lazy, but why would he run at full speed for a day straight when he didn’t have to? It wasn’t like he had to fight. 

“Oh, also.”

Suddenly, Pandora waved her hand, activating her ring again. 

Then, a small building appeared, creating a small rumble as it touched the ground. It almost looked like some kind of vault, similar to the forge room that Dirk’s dwarven master had used at the academy.

“It’s a Smithy. I hadn’t brought it out since you were so busy fighting all those monsters in the city, but since you’re collecting materials now, I suppose it’s an appropriate time to show it to you. You can keep it in your ring when you’re done with it. I’m going to sleep.”

Pandora waved with that and headed to the car where her comfortable mattress was. The Grand Marshal had also retreated to her living space, and Ethan to his. 

Dirk decided that he wasn’t so tired though. He was more interested in what Obsidius wanted, as even now its anxiousness hadn’t diminished. 

So, with everyone retired for a time, he entered the vault. 

It was finally time to utilize those forging skills that he had been taught so long ago.