Chapter 6 - Florida Man Invents Alternate Gasoline Using Animal Blood
Main Quest #1 (Updated)
Instead of building or finding a shelter, you decided to explore a suspicious forest. You have stumbled upon the entrance of a mysterious cave that resembles a dungeon from fantasy games or stories. There seems to be something valuable inside that you can convert into mana.
Since you are armed, how about you explore this dangerous cave? You might find something very useful.
Mission: Explore the mysterious cave.
Reward: Super Democracy Pass - Class F, 99 boxes of ammunition of a random firearm.
.
With the extra reward, this exploration quest sounded tempting. Felix grinned, patted his assault rifle, and entered the cave.
As Felix climbed down the cave steps, he noticed it was a giant tunnel, eight feet tall and ten feet wide, clearly made by monsters or beasts, judging by the claw marks and scratches on the walls and ceiling. Bear-like footprints were visible inside.
Moving further, the tunnel grew darker and wider. After following the path for 300 yards, Felix found his way blocked by a fat bear with four long arms and a gemstone on its forehead. Surrounding it were human and beast skeletons, emitting a rotten odor. Fortunately, the beast was sleeping.
Felix licked his lips and took aim at first. However, preparing for potential close combat, he decided to switch weapons. Putting the assault rifle back in his inventory, Felix brought out the Tavor shotgun, loaded it with 15 slug shells, and put on earplugs. Standing ten feet away from the sleeping beast and aiming at its forehead beneath the gemstone, he began blasting.
Gunshots echoed through the underground cave. Each slug shell slammed into the monster's forehead, causing a shallow wound.
The first shot failed to kill it!
Felix didn't give up. He pulled the trigger four more times.
The second shot still failed. The bullet hit its forehead but didn't penetrate its skull.
The bear snapped open its eyes just as the third shot hit the same spot, cracking its skull.
The fourth and fifth shots punctured through the fractured skull and destroyed its brain. The monster's eyes rolled upward, and it fell in place.
Felix lowered the shotgun and admired his deed, letting out a long sigh of relief. He was also glad he used slug rounds instead of buckshot cartridges. Otherwise, it wouldn't be enough to kill this strange monster.
"God bless America!"
Looking at the corpse of the monster, Felix realized he was indeed in a fantasy world. Reloading his shotgun, he trekked ahead, exploring the cave.
Behind the dead bear was a giant chunk of purple crystal spikes, emitting a foul gas. Felix approached it and admired it up close.
"What the hell is this? A gem crystal?"
Felix shrugged and pushed the system screen against the crystal spikes. The entire object vanished, including the gas. Then, the inventory was updated.
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Corrupted Mana Stalagmite
This stalagmite was born from condensed corrupted mana, produced by a drop of a five-circle mage's condensed blood essence. Monster beasts covet these stalagmites as the leaked gas is nutritious to them. To collect one, one must defeat the monster beast guardian first.
- Can be refined into anti-mage ammunition.
- Can be used as an upgrade material to improve modern firearms.
- Mana Conversion Value: 5 per unit.
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"…Wow."
Felix fixated on the mana conversion value. He had sacrificed almost everything in the modern world and stolen car frames from a junkyard to acquire around 30 mana. However, by converting just one unit of this, he could instantly acquire 5 mana!
Indeed, this world was different. Felix felt like he had scored a jackpot. Without hesitation, he asked Jessica to convert the stalagmite into mana.
"Jessica, can you convert a unit of this into mana, please?"
"…Hold it."
Felix frowned. The stalagmite was larger than two adult males. However, the system claimed there were only 75 units. This brought up a question.
"How do you calculate the units, by the way?"
Gas—that was the keyword.
Felix smacked his forehead, thinking of natural gas, a precious resource in the modern world.
"Seriously. At first, you asked for gold and oil. Now, you've found gas, and it can be converted into mana? Who are you, Richard Nixon?"
"…"
"…Make it five," Felix converted some into mana anyway to test it.
He did not disappoint.
With five additional inventory slots, Felix felt more comfortable hoarding items. He returned to the monster's corpse and stored it in his inventory. An icon of a bear with an (X_X) emoticon face indicated it was a corpse. A new button also appeared underneath the inventory square box.
[DISSECT]
Testing the new power, Felix pressed the button. Instantly, the icon changed into neatly arranged meat chunks and bones.
"…"
Felix almost coughed blood.
He dissected the bear and gained what?!
The monster's blood was crude oil?
And his level jumped from 3 to 5!
Looking at his status menu, Felix was astonished and stunned. He was glad his level rapidly increased but also annoyed that it only rose by 2 levels. It took 200 mana to raise his level to 5, yet he spent all day on Earth to salvage 30 mana. This inflation was not fair!
Before Felix could protest, Jessica clapped her hands, congratulating him for increasing two levels at once.