"How was it, fighting against the kobolds?" Lyle asked Adam who was sitting down on the ground, the body of a kobold lying in front of him.
Lyle glanced at the kobold and could see its arms were gone, as well as its mouth. It wasn't the only one, the area around Adam was currently littered with corpses of monsters.
Lyle, however, was not present during the battle.
He had gone further inside the dungeon and had fought against the boss of the kobolds. The kobold boss was a bigger, faster, and of course, stronger version of the kobolds that one could find inside the dungeon.
Lyle had taken some time to reconsider whether he and Adam should go inside a dungeon after finding out about the minotaur getting out of one, but he still decided on going to one since even if the monsters were to get out, he and Adam were still powerful enough to win against them.
The only thing he was cautious about was whether the inside of the dungeon would change.
If the monsters inside the dungeons were to grow stronger, then that would become a big problem.
That would not only make it near impossible for new adventurers to venture into dungeons, but the ones that were considered to be dangerous in the empire would become even more dangerous, leading to nobody being able to go inside them.
The low-leveled dungeons would become higher-leveled, which wasn't a bad thing, the dungeons becoming more powerful would result in the adventurers being able to fight against higher-leveled monsters and gain better materials.
Still, Lyle was a bit worried about the future.
If the high-level dungeons were to not only become more dangerous but would allow the monsters to get out, that would result in a catastrophe.
There were a couple of dungeons that only Titled Knights were allowed to go into, and he even heard of some that were forbidden for them.
If the monsters from such dungeons were allowed to leave, the whole empire might be in danger.
Still, it was not something that needed his attention, even back during his peak, he was far too weak to even dream of trying to meddle in such affairs.
He had picked up the monster core that the alfa kobold had dropped, while Adam picked up the other ones.
There were some mana crystals in the dungeon, which they could sell or use.
Mana crystals were important as they were a resource that was used for many things.
Alchemists used the mana crystals during the production of multiple potions, they would turn the crystals into dust and put them in, allowing the potion to have a high mana density which would either improve the original effects or turn it into mana potions which could replenish one's mana quickly.
Mana crystals could also be used in their raw form to replenish mana, but they had impurities, and using too many of them in a short amount of time could lead to problems.
One could suddenly get mana poisoning, which was extremely dangerous and could result in death.
Mana poisoning happened when a person used up their mana and replenished it many times in succession. It would lead to their mana organ, which was a kind of mana core for humans and similar races that would draw mana in and pump it out, working in a similar manner as the heart.
Using low-grade mana potions or mana crystals too many times could lead to a blockage in the mana channels that could be found inside the body.
The mana channels were like veins, but they only existed to transfer mana inside the body.
One could always draw mana in and absorb it through the skin, which would allow for less mana usage when using skills or enhancing your body, but it was much faster to only use the mana that the organ had saved up, the skill would also be more powerful at that time as well.
People all had affinities to different elements.
Those affinities would show up as abilities if the person had a very high affinity toward one element. Elements were not just the basic ones like fire, water, and such.
It could be light, darkness, blood, and more.
Pretty much anything could be considered a 'mana element'.
The mana that one had inside their bodies corresponded best to their own element, that is, their ability.
That was why the skills that a person used that were directly tied to their own ability cost less mana and were more powerful compared to a person using a skill that was not connected to the ability or was tied to a different element.
There were also extreme cases when one was unable to use another element thanks to their own.
For example, a person that had the ability to control light would be unable to use any kind of dark element skill, and vice versa.
If a person had the fire element, for example, they could use water, but it was many times less effective.
If a person was to master both, then their power would grow explosively, but there was a lot of danger involved in doing that, even using a skill that fused two such elements could result in the person losing control and hurting oneself.
The empire once possessed a genius that was able to use both water and fire.
The genius rose to become an archmage and was considered to be the strongest of all in his own realm.
One day, however, after using a fusion of the two elements during a battle, he lost control.
The resulting explosion killed the mage, killed the enemies, and both of the armies that were fighting there suffered great losses.
Ever since that time, none dared to try and do such a thing.
Everybody valued their own life above anything else, even power was something that people could turn away from in order to save themselves.
Lyle and Adam were both beings that had dual affinities, or better said two abilities.
Neither of their two abilities clashed with another and could be combined without repercussion, of course, that was easier said than done.
Combining two abilities in order to create a skill was incredibly difficult and took a long time and practice to be done.
It was something that the two would only attempt much, much later on.
For now, the duo had done what they had wanted to do.
They came out of the dungeon and went back to the city as their little excursion had lasted a couple of hours.
Lyle and Adam showed their adventurer badges and were let into the city. Upon entering, the first thing they did was go and find an inn to stay the night.
Finding an inn wasn't difficult in such a city as there were tens of them. As most of the population was made up of adventurers and soldiers, the inns were always working well since the adventurers rarely ever stayed in one place for too long.
Upon entering one inn, Lyle and Adam were immediately hit with the strong smell of alcohol and the pleasant aroma of food.
The inn was almost full as multiple adventurer teams occupied most of the tables. Some glanced at the two newcomers that had entered the inn before returning to what they were doing before. Some were talking, presumably planning their next move, going over what dungeon they should visit, what area in the surroundings they could go to in order to fight monsters, and so on.
With the system arriving on the planet, the population was at first confused about what they could do, only to quickly realize that the path to power was now open for all.
The only thing one needed was bravery. They needed to be brave enough to pick up a weapon and slay monsters, hell, the more ruthless ones could gain soul power by killing other humans or other races as well.
Even mere peasants that had never held a sword in their hands before could now rise up the ranks and become powerful. Some were overjoyed by the thought, while others were scared.
The nobles were the ones that were most concerned.
If the peasants were to start hunting monsters and becoming more powerful, controlling them would become harder and harder.
The ones that were scared the most were the nobles such as the ones back in Olswan. They had done many despicable things and were hated by many. Previously, they didn't care, the mere peasantry could never endanger their lives or status, so there was no need to be afraid of them.
Even if thousands were to rise up against them, they could squash them like bugs.
But now, only one brave or crazy person was enough.
If they spent a long time hunting monsters, they could become powerful and perhaps destroy the noble house that had wronged them in the past.
The mere thought of such things made the nobles scared, they were terrified of what the future might hold for them.
The more ruthless ones tried to control the population and forbade them from hunting monsters, but they knew all too well that it was almost impossible to truly stop them.
As for the adventurers, the path to power was now easier than before, they could become more powerful much easier and could in turn earn more money.
Lyle and Adam observed the inn before sitting down in a corner where a small table that could fit three people was placed.