8 Mysteries Brewing
"Haah…"
Wondering about that guy's final goal wasn't going to help me in any way right now.
Moreover, I had a feeling that judging this specific dungeon by the standards of the usual dungeons in the original game was a big mistake.
Not only was it a divergent-type dungeon, but from the quest description that I received at the beginning, it was born from the wicked aura of the Demon King!
The Demon King – who was called immortal and unbeatable in the original game's lore!
If I thought in that direction, then it made sense how the monsters in this dungeon were so unusual.
…but even then, this fact answered just one question of mine, raising several more in return!
After all, I was currently occupying the Demon King's body, and I could testify that even though it was pretty powerful compared to the normal residents or Heroes of the game world, it was nowhere close to being immortal and unbeatable like it was mentioned in the game!
I just had some extra stat point advantage over the most talented Heroes of Etheria – a group of individuals who were only equivalent to the 'Four Heavenly Kings' of the Demon Realm.
"Unless…"
…unless I didn't know something crucial about the 'Demon King' and this game world, this kind of discrepancy in power level didn't make any sense!
However, even if I lacked confidence in the Demon King's power, I had pretty high confidence in my own powers and combat sense.
No matter how strong the previous Demon King was, there was no way his aura alone could make me feel any real danger, let alone some third-rate monster that grew powerful by feeding on that aura!
"Hmm… I really don't like mysteries brewing around me."
But I had to let it go this time.
I was in the Demon King's body right now anyway, so I was sure that I would get enough chances to figure out the mystery behind this discrepancy.
Letting go of these stray thoughts from my mind, I looked at the scene of carnage all around me.
Two monstrous and grotesque insect corpses lay on the rocky ground near my feet, spilling out a pool of contrasting black and clear liquid from their wounds.
The entire cave-like space in the tunnel junction was riddled with gigantic white and sticky spiderwebs everywhere.
Broken pieces of stone as well as large and small boulders littered the ground all around me, obstructing my view from the other ends of the two tunnels in front of me.
But surprisingly, there didn't seem to be any other monsters nearby.
Otherwise, the fight right now would have surely attracted quite a few monsters to this place.
Still, the bloody corpses of these monstrous insects would soon attract other hungry monsters to this place.
I could camp in this place and try to farm all the monsters coming here one by one, but that wasn't a very good idea in my opinion.
I had already stolen the kills I came here for, and even leveled up twice!
It was a bit disheartening to see the amount of EXP from killing lower-level monsters go down, but that was something inevitable.
After all, the EXP farming and leveling mechanism of [Saga of the Eternal Heroes] was a bit different from the usual leveling mechanics of an RPG game.
The total EXP requirement for leveling up always remained the same throughout the game, no matter how high your level was.
However, as your level increased, the same monster would give out lower and lower amounts of EXP per kill.
The only way to bypass this was to hunt higher-level monsters or the game bosses.
This mechanism ensured that the players would always have to progress through the story and defeat increasingly stronger enemies to level up in the game, stopping them from farming low amounts of EXP from beginner dungeons and steamrolling the game.
"Let's get out of here…"
Not wanting to test my luck further, I jumped down from the huge monster corpses and went to the two adjacent tunnels leading out of that cave-like space.
One of these two tunnels seemed to be overflowing with a dense concentration of blackish-red miasma, going much deeper into the underground, while the other one went up toward the surface instead.
In any other circumstances, I would've definitely chosen to go for the second route.
But this time, my immediate quest was to conquer this dungeon. How would I conquer it if I didn't go deeper into this wicked dungeon?
Tightly clutching the Bloodthorn Whip in my hands, I took a deep breath to mentally prepare myself and jumped into the abyss.
*Whoosh–!*
Landing on another patch of rocky ground, I quickly swept my gaze over my surroundings, taking care to note any threats nearby.
"This miasma problem is getting a bit too out of hand now…"
Even though there wasn't anything dangerous nearby, the overall concentration of demonic miasma in this place was absolutely horrendous.
I didn't experience any breathing problems being inside this concentrated demonic miasma, but that might just be because of the Demon King's body being immune to it.
But I doubt any other creature would be as lucky as me…
Also, breathing was just one of many problems.
Even though I didn't face any problems staying alive inside this miasma, it still heavily limited my vision.
With the extreme concentrations of demonic miasma in this dungeon, I would very soon have to hunt for the monsters completely blind.
"Whatever. I'll cross that bridge when I get there. But for now…"
"Status!"
=======STATUS WINDOW=======
>> Demon King Vanir | <Max Turner>
>> Titles: King Of All Demons, Overlord, Evil Origin, Cassanova Of Corruption
>> Level: 4 (EXP – 30/100)
>> Race: Devil
>> HP: 160/160
>> MP: 1130/1600
>> ATK: 50
>> DEF: 50
>> AGI: 50
>> INT: 50
>> STA: 50
>> LUK: 1 (Fixed)
✦ Racial Skills: Aura of Evil lvl.MAX, Uncanny Form lvl.MAX , <Unknown – Sealed>
✦ Acquired Skills: Claw Mastery lvl.1, Whip Mastery lvl.2 (New)
✦ Free Attribute Points: 30
===============================
As expected, I needed to actually damage a monster with my whip to get the [Whip Mastery] skill.
After the last two kills, my level had gone up by two, making my HP and MP stats rise by another small margin.
I still didn't pay any attention to the racial skills listed in my status.
As long as I didn't know how to manipulate and use the magical power or mana of this world, there was no way for me to activate those skills.
Taking control of your mana took quite some time, and I was currently trapped inside a dungeon. I neither had the time nor leisure to slowly understand this power.
Not to mention, my racial skills didn't seem like combat skills at all, making any time spent on understanding them a complete waste of time!
"Worst of all, I'm not even getting any useful item drops…"
Keeping my eyes and ears open to prevent any surprise attack like the one I sprung on the pair of monsters earlier, I slowly went deeper into this wicked dungeon.
…completely unaware of the slowly growing shadows following me from behind in silence.
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[A/N: This is for those readers who didn't understand the original game's leveling-up mechanism.
In the game, the total EXP needed to level up is always fixed at 100. If your level is low, then you can hunt low-level monsters and get good amounts of EXP. But for high-level players, low-level monsters provide extremely small amounts of EXP, or no EXP at all. This makes it impossible to farm low-level monsters to easily become overpowered and win against all boss monsters. So now, only better skills can help you win the game, no more loopholes.
After all, wouldn't it be too broken if the MC can just hole-up inside a low-level dungeon for 10 years, and then come out as a literal God-like being?]
