Puchi Puchi Puchi
In the rge and barren cavern, only sounds of squishy and slimy things echoed throughout the halls as they bounced from one spot to ahe ondisturbed pce was now filled with small transparent creatures.
In one er, a couple of those creatures be seen trying to bouo the walls and sliding down slowly as they failed to do so. Oher er, some could be seen boung towards one another. Just by their behavior for a short while, Grey...
Spt
"They aren't very smart, aren't they...?" ［Grey］
.... inferred that they weren't the smartest of creatures as one of them impaled itself trying to jump over the small roatiht in front of it.
Judging from its physical appearance alone and the absence of a physical brain, Grey already expected that they wouldn't be very smart, but the ses he just saw in front of him were beyond his prehension.
Grey ohought he had to be cautious wheered a dungeon, but seeing their behavirey could afford to dawdle and observe them all he wanted. He could probably sleep there for a few hours and then they wouldn't notice him.
??Appraisal?? ［Grey］
-----------------------------------
[Monster]
[Species] Slime
[Status] Healthy
[Type] Elemental
[Ability] Merge
[Mana Capacity] 12 [Mana Quality] H
[bat Power] 2 [Threat Level] H
[Attribute] Null
-----------------------------------
Like what Grey had expected, the slimes' stats were quite low. In fact, it was low enough to the point that children could beat them without breaking a sweat.
In Merusia, adult men have an average bat power of 10 while women average at 8. As for kids, they have somewhere between 5 and 6, enough to bat a couple of slimes at the same time.
Seeing the slimes' bat prey couldn't help but feel like a superior being that trols the lives of the slimes before him. Thankfully, he was able to suppress that feeling before it went to his head.
"Now then, how should I deal with them..." ［Grey］
Inside of his "Memory Bank", there were a few methods of dealing with monsters, the only problem was that they required the use of magic.
"Should I try 'that'?" ［Grey］
As if the eg noises in the cavern were nothing to him, Grey slowly closed his eyes and focused his tration into the utmost limit. In that moment, it was as if he was oh the surroundings, his breath in sync with the silent wind and his mind as calm as the shadows in the ceiling.
Inside his mind, Grey visualized the stagnant air... the moving wind... everything whipasses gasses in his surroundings, slowly pressing into a tiny sphere dehan the ground below him.
Slowly and surely, a warm flow of mana surged from his soul into his body, cirg a couple of times before heading out into the enviro like a storm trying to break free from its restraints.
Ihan a sed, the seemingly simple surge of mana gathered the surrounding air into a sphere oop of his palm. The more time passed, the strohe mana surged.
As he opened his eyes, what he saw in front of him was an orb of air and mana the size of his fist, rotating in faster and faster the more mana he poured into it. It was like a bullet waiting to be fired.
??Air Bullet!?? ［Grey］
The moment he pced the palm of his hands towards targets and released the spell, the once spherical orb became an elliptical bullet which ruptured through all the slimes that were on its way.
One slime... Two slimes... Three slimes...
Ihan a fra of a sed, seven slimes bursted out as they were obliterated by the mass of air and mana that passed through them. The bullet which was fired only stopped when it hit the wall of the cavern and slowly dissipated bato thin air.
"A... A... Amazing!" ［Grey］
In front of the se he just witnessed, Grey became dumbfounded aed at the same time. After all, it was his very first spell and it went perfectly without preparations whatsoever.
Normally, it would take a few tries to successfully release a spell for the first time, but with the knowledge "God" had bestowed to Grey and Grey's own knowledge from his past life, it became possible to succeed in the first try.
It took Grey quite some time to select which attribute he wao be his main focus, and after much thought, he decided to go with the wind attribute. After all, there would only be a handful of situations where he wouldn't be in tact with air.
??Air Bullet!?? ??Air Bullet!?? ??Air Bullet!?? ??Air Bullet!?? ［Grey］
Riding on the momentum, Grey shot air bullets oer another and obliterated all slimes on sight. Even the slimes which just spawned in weren't spared from Grey's onsught.
Thankfully, the walls and ceiling of the cavern were reinforced with mana, or else the cavern might have gone crashing down from one small mistake.
"Huh?!" ［Grey］
As he was firing his spells without restraint, some slimes started to head towards one another and in just a few seds, the slimes merged with one another and became bigger and stronger.
-----------------------------------
[Monster]
[Species] Big Slime
[Status] Healthy
[Type] Elemental
[Ability] Merge
[Mana Capacity] 34 [Mana Quality] H
[bat Power] 6 [Threat Level] H
[Attribute] Null
-----------------------------------
"Air Bulー" ［Grey］
As Grey tried to elimihe big slime with an air bullet spell, the mana which tried te out suddenly dissipated into the air, immediately halting the formation of the spell.
"Ah, crap." ［Grey］
It was in that moment that he realized that he fuー I mean, that he had run out of mana to release a spell. Even the mana reserves from the "Ma" of the Divine Amulet were sucked dry. There was only a meager amount of ma in his soul, just enough for him to not suffer mana exhaustion.
Realizing his mistake, Grey immediately raised his guard and imitated a fighting pose he saw oion movies he had watched before. Although it was an unpolished pose, it was satisfactory for an amateur.
Gathering what meager mana he had left, he hastily sprung up towards the big slime and with a single punch that tained all his mana, he nded a strike deep enough to reach the big slime's nucleus.
The moment his fists made tact with the big slime's nucleus, the impact immediately spread throughout the big slime's body and cracks appeared on its nucleus which eventually made it shatter into tiny fragments.
Seeing the nucleus starting to shatter, Grey immediately pulled out his arm and quickly stepped back before colpsing into the ground from mana exhaustion.
As for the big slime, the moment its nucleus shattered, it burst into tiny pieces and those tiny pieces then soon turned bato mana and assimited into the air, leaving not a trace behind
Normally, every monster defeated would drop something, even if it's just a mana crystal. But in this special dungeon, everything would just turn baana and assimite back to the dungeon.
On the plus side, whehe trainee is exhausted or injured enough, the dungeon would despawn the monsters ahe trainee rest. It was a high-reward low-risk dungeoed especially just frey.
It was also because of that reason that Grey mao lie leisurely in the ground as he recovers from mana exhaustion. If it were any other dungeon, Grey could face death in the worst situation.
While he was exhausted from his first time fighting monsters, one could see the clear and satisfied smile on his face as if his frustrations were washed away from the fight just a few moments ago.
"Alright, time for round 2!" ［Grey］
After a few hours of rest, Grey's mana has been refilled by a substantial amount and the momeood up, slimes had started mysteriously spawning once again as if they were just waiting frey's signal.
In the moment Grey had rested, rather than zing around doing nothing, Grey thought of ways to effitly use his mana in order to fight longer a more enemies. Of course, he had also sidered the fact that multiple big slimes might spawn at the same time.
Whenever a slime spawns, Grey immediately unches himself into it in the shortest amount of time possible. The moment he is in range, he hastily delivers a fatal blow into the slimes' nuclei, using as little mana as possible.
??Air Bullet!?? ［Grey］
When the slimes tried to verge into a big slime, Grey would immediately fire an air bullet towards it to stop them from merging. The moment the air bullets hit the slimes, they instantly disied and vanished into thin air.
With a bination of punches and spells, Grey maneuvered himself itlefield like a ruthless warrior whose only goal was to win. In just half the time he spent pared to the st fight, he ended up defeating more than double the amount of enemies.
Like a god of death who desded from the heavens, Grey massacred every slime in his line of sight without mercy. There were even slimes who didn't have the time to bounce even once as they were taken care of immediately.
This routine tinued for a few dozen minutes, only ending when Grey had run out of mana once again. Of course, the moment Grey recovered his mana, the massacre of slimes started once again.
Round 3... Round 4... Round 5....
Grey went on for a few rounds without stopping, and the more he fought, the more effit he became in fighting against the slimes. Just from the st round alone, he had defeated more than the amount of slimes he crushed in the first 3 rounds.
The better Grey became, the more slimes spawned and even big slimes started to spawn without the others slimes merging. At first, it became a problem at first but as time went on, they became as insignifit as the slimes in the eyes of Grey.
If it were animals or beasts, Grey's guilt would have been crushed by the weight of his as, having killed so many. Fortunately, from the knowledge "God" gave Grey, monsters are nothing more than a moving mass of mana that seeks destru and couldn't really be sidered as living things. Even if they seem to have intellige would be just fake intelligence derived from their instincts to destroy.
Time went on and the sun had started to set outside of the dungeon. As frey, he rawling motionlessly on the dungeon grounds, trying to catch his breath from all the fighting he did.
While he could recover his stamina and mana, fatigue would tio accumute as he tio fight. Not to mention that his muscles were ag from ck of exercise before he reinated. Even though he had bee younger, it seems that he still wouldn't be able to escape muscle pain.
There was also his hunger which he brought upon himself as he became too ied in fighting the slimes. Thankfully, he didn't fet to drink or else he would have really passed out from dehydration.
Havied for almost half an hrey headed out of the dungeon and as he opehe curtain of vines c the entrahe beauty of the night greeted him as if they were gratuting him from his first dungeon dive.
As the night dazzled brightly in the night sky, the fireflies illumihe forest with warm and cold colors which weren't possible oh. The gentle night breeze swept through Grey's body, embrag him fully. The gentle rustling of the leaves and grasses along with the chirping of the small bugs and critters and the hooting of the owls, sounded like an orchestra in the middle of the night.
Hearing such a beautiful performan a parably beautiful night, Grey's mind a which was once riddled with fatigue became lighter as if it had been refreshed and sed thhly.
Grey stayed for a little while, enjoying nature's beautiful performance before heading back to his new home which was just a few steps away.
After having a meal from the rations "God" gave him, Grey immediately went to his bedroom and jumped into his bed. The moment he nded on his bed, it was as if the goddess of dreams was embrag him and he eventually succumbed to his exhaustion, heading towards dreamnd.
A new day arrived and with it, Grey's muscle pains from his previous endeavors went away as if they were just a lie. It might have been because of the presenana or due to the Divine Amulet he was wearing, but ohing Grey knows is that magic had a hand on it.
Grey still couldn't believe that everything he had experienced was real. It was just so out of the ordinary, that Grey had a very strangely detailed and weird dream but thankfully, that wasn't the case.
After having a light breakfast, Grey then headed into the dungeon in the same manner he did the day before, and the momeepped foot into the dungeon, a rush of mana once agaied his body.
The hallway which seemed to be so long just a day ago now seemed shorter all of a sudden. It might have been just because he quickly got used to it, but Grey couldn't help but feel like magic had something to do with it.
Once again, mana swirled ihe cavern and gathered in the ter, but rather than slime.... aaple monster in the fantasy world had taken shape from the gathered mana.
??Appraisal?? ［Grey］
-----------------------------------
[Monster]
[Species] Goblin
[Status] Healthy
[Type] Warrior
[Ability] ...
[Mana Capacity] 45 [Mana Quality] H
[bat Power] 8 [Threat Level] H
[Attribute] Null
-----------------------------------
Green-skinned, child-sized monsters with sharp teeth, bloated stomachs, ically rge heads. Just a single gnd one could easily tell what mohey were. They were goblins.
Uhe slimes from before which bounced around as soon as they spawhe goblins just stood still as they stared bnkly at Grey, it seemed like they were waiting frey to move before attag.
But even if they had no malicious iion, notig multiple things stare at him to the point where they bore a hole into him was nothing but unfortable. Actually, rather than "unfortable" it would be better to describe it as "creepy".
Disregarding the creepy stares from the goblins, Grey became slightly puzzled as to why a different monster spawned pared to the ones from yesterday. Of course, Grey already had formed a hypothesis as to why that was the case.
'Iing...' ［Grey］
As if trying to test his hypothesis, Grey immediately rushed towards the goblins but the moment he moved, the goblins also started ing into him in an aggressive and mindless manner, filing their wooden clubs as they ran.
Unfortunately for the goblins, before they could nd a hit, Grey's fist already came in tact with their heads, sending them flying towards the walls of the dungeons. The punches boosted by his gaus shattered the goblins' skulks in a si, sending them to their deaths.
Although it was a bit gruesome fighting and killing humanoid monsters, it doesn't remove the fact that they were still monsters. Grey felt the urge to vomit but held it in by using his willpower.
The goblins which tried to unch attacks simultaneously also failed trey as when two rushes, os hit by an air bullet, while the ets bsted towards the walls with his punches.
The moment more than two goblins rushed trey, Grey already had thought of a termeasure in such a situation. That solution was...
??Air Cutter!?? ［Grey］
Air gathered and pressed into a thin bde of wind and mana, and the moment he released the spell, a strong bde flew straight towards the goblins, and like a sharp guilloti swiftly cut off the heads of the goblins it passed through.
"Air Cutter" was a wind-attribute spell that Grey had picked out from his "Memory Bank" which allows him to damage multiple e on a wider ra was especially useful when dealing with a horde of monsters.
In just a few minutes, Grey became aced to fighting goblins and was able to formute a few tacti dealing with them.
The moment Grey started the 2nd round, the goblins were no longer a threat to him. Although they are much stronger and mobile than the big slimes from before, with their intelligend recklessness, it wasn't very hard to take care of them,
The massacre of gobli on for a long time and befrey k, nightfall had fallen already. After a short rest, Grey theed the dungeon, ate dinner, and slept. The very m, he ehe dungeon once again and did a repeat of the previous days.
This patter on for a long time with Grey's enemies ging from kobolds to orcs then ogres and so on. There were a handful of times that he got injuries but thankfully, they were never fatal.
Just like that, 4 and a half months had passed since Grey came to the world and having lived there in that time, he had greatly adapted to living life in the forest. He had ged so much that he couldn't be pared to his previous self anymore.
Buhiiii Hngok Hngok... Oik....
"Alright! Anreat catch!" ［Grey］
Currently, Grey is out hunting wild pigs deep in the forest which will serve as his source of food for a few weeks. He had alsed a few baskets worth of fruits and nuts on the way to the hunt.
Even before his rations ran out, Grey had already found many ways to procure food from the bountiful forest. He also took the time to grow some "crops" in front of his house as an easy source of food.
"It's been a while since I've looked at my stats. I wonder how they look like now...." ［Grey］
Grey pondered as tied the wild pig's feet into a pole and hung it to drain its blood.
??Appraisal?? ［Grey］
-----------------------------------
[Salferine]
[Name] Grey Silverdrake
[Race] Human
[Sex] Male
[Age] 15
[Status] Healthy
[Mana Capacity] 879 [Mana Quality] D
[bat Power] 753 [Threat Level] C
[Attribute] Wind [Magic Proficy] Intermediate (42%)
[Css] Brawler [on Proficy] Intermediate (41%)
[Physical Enha] 47%
[Ability] Divine Eyes (Divine)
Divine Mind (Divine)
Subspace (Divine)
-----------------------------------
Iively short amount of time, Grey had aplished what most people wouldn't even be able to dream of. He's already powerful enough that he'll be able to tend for the top 5,000 spots amongst the around 2 billion people living in Merusia.
"Seems like I've improved a loー !!?" ［Grey］
Before he could even finish his sentence, a rge shadow loomed over where Grey stood as a rge bird-type beast flew over the trees. It was like a rge cloud which had hidden the sun.
"What the...." ［Grey］
CHAPTER 3 END
