My eyes widened as I crouched low, narrowly avoiding the Black Tiger that raised past my head and slammed face-first into the ground after failing to stop in time.
"Eat this!" I stabbed its belly and eyes while willing my wind mana to create wind blades.
When its fangs pierced the ground, fissures sprang on the hard surface. However, there was no time to admire the scene as another Black Tiger charged toward me.
"Damn it!"
I slashed a furious slice at the approaching Black Tiger.
"WHOOSH!!"
My dagger slashed straight ahead, accompanied by the bone-chilling sound of wind parting ways.
"Sluice."
It only took one slice to separate the Black Tiger's head from its body. The decapitated carcass slammed into a tree, its head rolling away with force. The body dropped powerlessly to the ground.
Wait! Did I just cut that thing in half with one slice? My eyes widened as I stared at myself, dumbfounded.
Well, my training did pay off with physical boosts, but... weird, it seems like my mana is reacting to the physical property of my body.
As I was contemplating, I also concentrated on the fight. The other Black Tiger, which had just flown over my head, lowered its tail and began taking shaky steps backward.
Huh...? Is the Black Tiger afraid of me?
I took a step nearer, apprehensive, but that Black Tiger bolted, leaving me and its kind's decapitated corpse in the Flame Lightened darkness.
I've come this far, and I didn't want to retreat. If I turned away now, I'd never be able to take another step forward in my ambitions. Now, then! After I've collected all of the loot from here, I should move farther within.
And that's exactly what I did. I collected all the loots and magic crystals from the magical beasts I had defeated and began walking deeper into the dungeon.
...
Training my physique was really efficient for me while controlling mana and cultivating it. Now, with all the theories I made in this world with my own body, I believe it's time to awaken the elemental attributes my mana should contain.
I thought only two elements would be enough, but if this reaction of my physique and mana syncing progresses, my mana would undergo massive evolution with its full capacity.
"Hmm. Guess I will just go ahead and complete this fight for now!" I thought to myself while slaughtering away every single low to mid-ranked magical beast spotted along the road. I saw that they were all Grey Tarantulas or Little Spiders around the size of my hand. Undoubtedly, they were all low-ranked magical beasts, but one thing remains unclear. Where does this path lead me?
"Crack" "Crack"
Yeah... that was an odd sound.
I sat up and looked around, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from.
"Crack" "Crack"
"huh? What was it? Wait a minute... it's coming from my bag?"
"Rustle" "Rustle"
I hurriedly opened my bag, using my mana carefully, and discovered my magical beast egg is about to hatch.
"What the hell? It's happening now of all time?"
Well, I was excited, of course, but I was also afraid that if the little one coming out would be put into danger inside this place.
I quickly took out my safely kept magical beast egg from my bag, unwrapping all the soft and safety bindings around it. I did it because I thought it would be fragile, and I wanted to make sure my future partner in crime would be safe.
"Fu-"
I took a deep breath and sighed before calming myself down with positivity. So, carefully holding the magical beast egg in my hands, I began drawing mana from the surroundings. I sat down with my legs crossed, as per the lessons of contracting with the magical beast that would be coming out of the magical beast egg, I learned in the magic guild.
With all my confidence, I closed my eyes as I felt a wide variety of mana flow from the surroundings gathering into me and from my hand into the magical beast egg, causing it to float in mid-air.
There was cyan, red, green, yellow, white, silver, black, purple, lime... but I couldn't identify what kinds of mana were coursing through me from my surroundings. That was strange, yet the various elemental mana flow I felt was unlike anything I had ever felt before. It was more like different properties than any magical energy or mana.
"It's about time to start my assimilation now."
I let my mana come out freely, not trying to control anything. I took a long breath and cleared my mind. With a stern nod to myself, I began exerting mana into my core, overloading my core with the multiple elemental mana that was flowing into me. I immediately felt a warm sensation, as if a hot blast of air was streaming in and out of my pores.
As time passed, the warm sensation gave way to an itchy feeling, which quickly intensified. I wasn't sure whether this was typical, but even though I was afraid, I kept cool and continued on my way of completing the skill. Suddenly, the itching sensation didn't go away, and I felt as though my face was getting pale.
I was able to open my eyes as it went on. As I gently opened my eyes, some kind of weird patterns began to appear on my skin, in the glow of a vivid golden glow, as well as dimly discernible multi-colored ones on both myself and my floating pearl-white magical beast Egg.
A tremendous explosion startled me out of my focus just as I sensed my body reaching its limit. An unbearable pain rushed through my body, as if my skeleton was attempting to crawl out of my skin. As I sat there wondering at what was going on, the egg began to spin gently, and its appearance showed a silver patterning with a tint of in seven hues.
The magical beast egg suddenly began to crack open. A little silver head with white horns peered out from within. It shifted its gaze to the left and right, surveying its surroundings. When it saw me, it flung its head back and let out a joyful shout.
"Kyuu!" It hopped onto my body and licked my face with its tiny tongue.
It turns out to be a small cute wolf-like creature with silver fur and white horns sprouting from its head, each twisting like a gnarled branch and coming to a sharp point behind its ears. It had golden eyes and small white flames around its neck, snout, and the tips of its limbs and tail.
"Is this my new magical beast partner? Woah! He's incredibly cute!"