P.O.V Aadi
Another month had passed since his third condensation cycle was completed and he had began actively hunting small slime packs of 100, he can now last 100 minutes or one hour forty minutes with both a thin shield and a coating on my dagger, and ten minutes with a low end shield that was 10 inches thick while also coating his dagger.
He knew if he can both coat a tool in an elongated energy to increase it's lethality while having a ten inch shield up for ten minutes he would be considered at the average level of a person with a low E- level while lasting 100 minutes was high E-level.
But he can only last one minute with an enhance coated dagger and a 10 inch thick shield, most likely he would reach low E-level with his next advancement, although it may seem like only one level higher there was a leap in quality between each level, and this increase became clear the higher you look.
S-grade people can directly 10% debuff A-grade people by releasing energy near them, an SS-grade can 50% debuff S-grades by releasing energy and SSS-grades can completely suppress SS-grades while directly kill S-grades with the sheer force of their energy when released unrestrained near them.
The higher the level the more exponential the difference in quality and quantity of their energy.
He had been in the dungeon a year and 2 months and had only reached the peak of F-rank, while more than enough to deal with slime packs and scouts if the slime packs come together they will form a colony and expunge any living thing not them from the area meaning facing 10,000 slimes alone.
He was nowhere near that level, and he knew based off current size of packs that it would happen soon, and the water will no longer act as a deterrent to the slimes but rather most likely aggravate them instead.
He had grown and dried enough food to last about six months and had put as many seed extra he could in his space while digging out the floor in the water room to make a lake the size of the entire cave and 20 feet deep, there was a small detached island at back of the cave near the sprout for his plant to go. He also blocked all but a trickle from coming down his little stream meaning he will be going there and waiting out the next sixth months by cultivating as much as possible and advancing as often as he can so to lower food consumption and try and push his food as long as possible.
He figured that once the slimes became a colony then the dungeon would attach somewhere and he would be able to finally leave.
With preparations made and all but his plant put where it was needed he headed to transfer the plant, with it now safely placed on its perch he blocked off the last of the trickling stream and dived in. over the next month he planned to carve out a small cave only accessible using the water and begin planting once more.
However it will take at least another month to do that, fortunately he no longer needed to use his energy in order to break the rock as with his grade reaching High F-grade his strength when not using energy was at the low F-grade. Just enough to break the stone and dig without expanding energy.
So he returns to land and stretches out for the last time until his cave is built enough, he sits down and begins to condense his gasses energy into liquid energy for the fourth time and six hours later he had finished.
Removing his clothes he dived in, without expanding any energy using his physique alone and no professional training he can last about 20 minutes before returning for air, and up to an hour if he used energy. Another reason you have to be trained and at least D-rank to enter a tunnel is because you don't know what environment you are entering and may have to actively hunt under water for hours on end.
With that said he circulates his energy so as to continue gathering energy and begins digging out his cave while coming up for air when need be.
Like this he spent the next month building himself a cubby hole to sleep in and meditate at, planting some seeds he knew it would take a while before he can stay long term there as he needed to be able to breathe while doing both. Returning to the surface he sits on the ledge with his plant and just breathes, he had been sleeping on this little edge for the past month and hated it, he loves his plant but it was much to small for him. Although he is small with a thin build he still had good muscle and having to scrunch up his body after being able to lay out how he likes was so uncomfortable.
But it would take at least another one to two months before he can use his cave to sleep, so laying back against the wall he eats a dried potato uncooked as he had nowhere to start a fire and went to sleep.
Another two months and his cave is ready just in time for his energy to be condensed again, going in he sits crossed leg and begins to liquify his mental energy, not that it took more than a nudge from him before his body did the rest itself. Falling asleep he intend to solidify his energy when he awakens but after waking he surfaces to do a daily check when he hears a distinctively not slime sound of what he assumes is shouting.
Joy floods him as he quickly pulls himself out of the water, puts on his clothes, his shoes long scrapped. He gets one of the stone bowls off the edge as the slimes don't digest things that hard so no reason to put it in the water and adds his plant and the soil he had used for it into the bowl making sure there was at least five inches of soil before sprinting to the voices.
He can't understand them but it is better then a slime infested cave with no one, coming up on the voices he slows down and begin to slowly approach them. He knew he looked bad with a to pale face from no sun in 1 year and 5 months, his clothes little better than rags due to the dust and sweat caked in. He tried his best to clean them but there was only so much you can do with just water and some scrubbing.
Knowing they were unlikely to see him as a threat once they saw him, he had no hesitation to go to them.
Turning the corner the first thing to appear in front was a sword the next was the person behind said sword, a woman with brunette hair and brown eyes her build was a lightly muscled build meant for agility and speed. However the biggest shock wasn't her looks, she was only slightly above average in that department with a shocked look on her face, no it was her up turned lightly pointed ears.
The woman in front of him was not human, backing away in fear he looks to see the others only to freeze. There was a short man about his height with so much muscle it bordered on deformity, another man to his left that was no doubt human with deep blonde hair and brown eyes another girl who was also human and a man with a set of wings attached at his back.
A tunnel had appeared just as he had hoped but wherever it lead to was not where he originated from.