Theron quickly reacted by covering his eyes as the ninja goblin released another blinding light. Inside the dimly lit room, Theron surveyed his surroundings. With his vision adapting to the darkness, Theron was able to discern the goblin's position using the reflection from the arrowhead. As the goblin shot the arrow, Theron shattered it with his sword. Attempting to retrieve another arrow, the goblin underestimated the agility of Theron, with the result in the loss of its bow as Theron severed it.
Discarding the bow, the goblin drew a long knife, generating light from its hand. Theron quickly covered his eyes to avoid getting blinded. When he opened them, the goblin was dangerously close.
'A feint'
Theron struggled to parry its strike. A long cut marked his abdomen, not too deep due to Theron's partial parry. Unfazed, Theron retaliated, delivering a strike to the goblin's shoulder. The goblin not expecting the human's resilience and fast recovery, flinched and retreated.
Attempting to utilize the light once more, the light that started to shine from his hand dimmed as there was not enough mana for him to utilize the skill once more. Seizing the opportunity, Theron tapped into the power of his martial bone, enhancing his strength, speed, and expending the mana inside his martial bone. With a burst of energy, he lunged at the goblin, catching it off guard. Although the goblin managed to parry the strike, it sustained injuries, losing its left hand in the process.
As the fight continued, ultimately ending in Theron's victory. As the defeated goblin dissipated into smoke, its drops were revealed.
It was a mana core, some silver coins and a bow and a quiver. Theron staggered toward the loot, but suddenly, he felt a wave of weakness, and his entire body collapsed. Poison had taken its toll.
As death seemed imminent, Theron's martial bone began to exert itself, burning with the last remnants of mana. His blood felt like it was boiling, but strangely, it provided relief rather than agony. An inexplicable attraction drew him towards the goblin's mana core left on the ground, and his martial bone urged him to seize it. Summoning the last of his strength, he managed to grab it before succumbing to unconsciousness.
Despite his fading awareness, Theron observed what was unfolding inside within him. His martial bone, fueled by the dwindling mana sent a string of fiery golden mana attempting to connect with the goblin's mana core. The purple corruption fought back, slowly covering towards Theron's core once as before. As all hope was seemed to be lost, the mana from the goblin's core persisted in its journey through the string. As it reached near Theron's core, the purple corruption retreated, seemingly intimidated.
The mana from the goblin's core infiltrated Theron's core, eventually reaching his martial bone. The martial bone diligently refined the incoming mana, deploying it to repel the purple corruption. After almost half of the corruption were gone, Theron's own mana core started to glow, shining as it started to awaken and work.
However as this happened, Theron's consciousness slipped away. Unbeknownst to him, his martial bone and mana core continued to attract mana from the surroundings and the goblin's core. Both the core and martial bone started to refine the mana. The martial bone stored its refined mana inside the mana core rather than its own. Swimming in mana, the martial bone used it to burn away the rest of the purple corruption. The martial bone was like a chef it could cook food but for storing said food it was not as good as the customer which was the mana core. But now, the martial bone seemed to seemed to be like a child of fire that was burning its foes like a pyromaniac. Once the purple corruption was eradicated, the martial bone redirected its focus to boiling and purifying Theron's blood, eliminating every trace of poison.
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After a long period of unconsciousness, Theron seemed to wake up, Theron slowly awoke, finding himself in the same location where he had defeated the dungeon guardian. Looking at himself, he realized that all his injuries were healed, although his clothes were stained with dried blood. He looked at the quest board to see that he had indeed finished the quest and sighed in relief. The only thing that could have ruined him was that the ninja goblin he faced was not the dungeon guardian.
[Quest Completed]
[Rewards: 300 x Affection Points, Skill: Alchemy, Random ores x 5, Return key x 1] He looked at the rewards and saw the way back to his world, the return key. He used the key, and a door materialized near his location, bringing him back to the spot he had left before. Considering his disheveled state, Theron decided to clean himself a bit using the water bottles in his possession. Changing into spare clothes from his space ring, he ate some of the food he had brought along. However, he felt that he needed more substantial nutrition, so he decided to wait until he returned home to eat. He used his phone to book a taxi and was fortunate to secure one. Once he arrived, he surprised the chef by devouring almost four times the amount of food he usually ate.
__ __ __
(Back in his room)
Theron noticed that it was already the next day, indicating that he had spent only a day in the dungeon. However, he couldn't accurately gauge the total time he had spent there since he had become unconscious but he felt that it was definitely more than one day.
The first thing he did upon returning to his room was to wash up in the bathroom. After cleaning himself, he looked into the mirror and saw a more developed version of himself. The once-boyish figure had transformed into a young man with a handsome face, a healthy physique, and well-defined muscles. His height had increased as well. Observing his hair, he noticed that the bangs had been cut during the fight with the dungeon guardian, making him have a desire to get a haircut. As he dressed, he realized that his clothes could no longer conceal his changing physique. This transformation had already become a topic of discussion among the servants in recent days.
Theron checked his dantian and observed a significant change. His mana core had awakened.
Martial bones played a crucial role in refining the body and enhancing physical strength. While they were adept at attracting mana, their storage capacity was limited. On the other hand, mana cores were vital for spellcasting, becoming mages, as well as cultivating. They excelled at storing mana but weren't as proficient at attracting it as martial bones. Both refined mana at an almost similar pace. The need for refining is because atmospheric mana wasn't suitable for human use.
There were no monsters in this world. There were beasts and animals, such as chickens, cows, etc of course. He knew that these beasts were not normal as they had been evolved due to the presence of mana but of course people in this world would say that it was normal.
Then what about monsters, the goblins. They were….. from a different world.