Chapter 5 - Artifact

Somewhere outside the dungeon*

"Urgh! Damn I hate that old bastard, why are we the ones doing this again?" Groaned an angry man. He was dressed in red pants and black top, with a blade hung around his back.

Behind him were three other people, each one dressed in a unique way, a rob, silver armor and blackish outfit.

"Because we are the closest to this forgotten ass dungeon, quit complaining and let's get this over with. Remember we are in monster territory, we should hurry up and get things over with." The female said as she walked forward, the entrance of the dungeon already welcoming her.

"Are you sure this is even safe? We did get told there's an insane amount of mana leak from this location, I know we are supposed to check it, but the dungeon is dead, so what on earth could be causing a mana surge?" The man in the armor spoke.

"Come to think of it, yeah, only low level monsters should be in this dungeon, what could possibly be causing a mana surge? Could it be an artifact?" The angry man added, walking slowly behind the woman.

"Sigh, not like we'd know if we keep talking about it. Let's just go in and investigate, the guild probably also doesn't know what is causing, if they did, I doubt they'd send us to investigate rather than kill. All in all, it's clearly bothering the higher ups, so it has to be something." The woman replied, her form disappearing into the darkness of the cave.

Behind her, the three other knights followed, clenching their weapon in their hands- ready to battle whatever awaited them in the dungeon.

...

Meanwhile…

'Open! Says me!!!'.

The Blop used its tentacles to slowly push open the dungeon door. It was heavy so it took a bit of strength for him to open it all the way.

When he had opened the door, it looked inside the dark room, and all he could see was pure darkness, not a single thing was in sight.

'Damn, the system did say this dungeon was abandoned. The inability for it to generate magical energy must be what led to this darkness, damn, poor guy. Anyway, a little lack of light shouldn't affect me'.

With its tentacles on the ground, the Blop used its [Mana manipulation] skill to transfer mana from its body and into the dungeon. Gradually, the dungeon accepted the mana supply and began to light up.

Now that the torches and glowing orbs had lightening up the room, Lumin could see what he was dealing with.

It was a grand hall, similar to the throne room of a king. A throne sat at the end of the room, with two skeletons seated beside it. Pillars stood at all sides and at each side were multiple layers of equipment.

From long spears to shorts artifacts, all were buried under each other, treasures upon treasures.

'Wow, so much equipment here, that's crazy.' The Blop said as he walked inside the room.

[You have arrived in the reward room of the dungeon]

[After a boss has been killed, the dungeon rewards the one who killed the boss with a special gift from here. But since it has been abandoned with no magic running through it, everything remains here.]

'Hmm, now that I think about it, what on earth would make this dungeon lose magic anyway. I'm not exactly an expert, but I'd like to think it had a means to replenish itself'.

[Every dungeon can generate mana by themselves.]

[This is an exception as for the past 500 years, something has been draining all the mana before it could generate any.]

'Urgh, I can already tell where this is going, I don't want to know anymore. I'll just focus on having as many skills as possible and then leaving this freaking ahh dungeon.'

The Blop moved to the left side of the dungeon, its insect-like legs carrying him all the way to the treasure pile.

Firstly, he got hold of a long staff with a red crystal at the top using his tentacles.

'Ohh, this should be good. Looks like something a main character would want to carry around.'

[That is an ambient staff. Mostly used by the mages of this world.]

'Mages? Good enough for me!'

Ahhgulp-!

It devoured the staff.

[You have successfully devoured an Ambient staff.]

[You have gained a new skill.]

[Lightning strike.]

[This lets you use lightning bolts as a means of attack.]

'Oh? Offensive skills? That's cray cray. Although, I probably should have used Predator rather than Devour so I can store the equipment.'

The Blop looked to the right where he could see even more treasures.

He used Predator on the chest of coins.

[You have gained a new trait]

[Gold skin.]

[You currently have 15,000,000 gold coins stored in your pocket space.]

'Sweet. What's next?!!!'.

After a few minutes, Lumin had managed to use Predator and all the equipment in the room.

[Here are your stats.]

[Stats:

Species: Blop

Evolution: Morph Blop

Skill(s):

Unique skills: Mana Absorption, Predator, Mana amplifier, Soul snatcher.

Core skills: Advanced Regeneration, Enhanced Mana sense, Light sensitivity, Mimicry, Water dash, Advanced Mimicry, Mana manipulation, Weapon assimilation, Curse resistance, Blade mastery, Aimbot.

Offensive skills: Lightning strike, Elemental manipulation, Size control, Weather manipulation, Vine bind, Barrier of Aegis,

Ultimate skill: Devour, Beast summoning, Soul bind.

Trait: Advanced Locomotive (Tentacles, Pseudo), Feathers, Golden skin].

'Not gonna lie, I expected more skills from this, but I guess this will do.'

[Random skills were filtered out.]

[You have 95 stored equipment in your arsenal.]

'Uhnn? Everything in this dungeon was just 95?!'

[Correct.]

[Would you like me to go over your new skills?.]

The Blop, now standing just a few distance away from the throne, sighed as he stared at the two skeletons.

'Sure. Just make it brief, something about these skeletons is giving me the creeps'.

[As you wish. I shall now begin by explaining your Unique skills before moving forward ]