CHAPTER 104: CHAPTER 104: THE VAST DUNGEON

The All-Seeing Almighty Vision activated, and Zane’s eyes gleamed with radiant golden light.

He scanned the surroundings, and a slow grin crept across his face.

"This will do."

Now able to see the flow of mana in his environment, Zane locked onto the areas with the densest concentration. Without wasting a second, he sprinted toward that direction.

A few minutes later, he encountered more corrupted beasts than before. But they were no match for him—each one fell with a single flick.

He pressed onward, covering a distance of five miles before something finally caught his eye: the entrance to a cave.

Just then, the System chimed.

Ding!

[Grade E Dungeon Ahead!]

[New Quest Available!]

Objective: Clear the Dungeon

Reward: +25 points to all stats

Zane whistled as he dashed forward. It wasn’t his first time inside a dungeon, but this one felt... different.

As he stepped inside, his senses were overwhelmed by an alien atmosphere. The rocks, the grass, even the flora—none of it resembled anything he was familiar with.

Still, the System didn’t issue any warnings, which meant it was safe to breathe.

The mana here was far more concentrated than outside.

Zane began scouting for prey. Soon enough, he spotted them—thousands of corrupted lizards, each with jagged horns sprouting from their heads. They infested a massive flatland littered with white limestone.

He couldn’t even see the end of the horizon.

"Damn... this place is enormous," he muttered. "Well, more beasts means more rewards. Time to hunt."

Without hesitation, he leapt from the ledge and landed with a loud thud.

The impact startled the lizards. Their forked tongues flicked in the air as they sensed him, identifying him as prey. The ones nearest to him slithered over quickly.

Zane didn’t flinch. In fact, he welcomed them with a smirk.

"Alright, alright. Come to daddy. I’ll send you straight to the afterlife."

He raised both hands and began flicking his fingers—each snap resonating like a whip.

Snap! Snap!

Each flick sent shockwaves that turned lizards into mangled corpses. But the horde didn’t stop; more came charging, their ferocity growing with each death.

Five minutes later, the ground was carpeted with thousands of lifeless, corrupted lizards.

Zane got to work.

He began digging out the Beast Mana Cores from their corpses. As soon as he extracted one, the Green Card reacted, absorbing the core and steadily raising his rank.

After extracting the final core, he checked his rank.

Current Ranking: #13,473

"Not bad! That’s more like it!" he grinned.

Looking around at the massive pile of lizard carcasses, a thought crossed his mind.

"There’s no harm in keeping them. Who knows? Their meat might come in handy in times of food shortage."

He chuckled, echoing the words Shelby had once told him, and began storing the corpses into his silk pouch.

It took fifteen minutes, but he managed to store them all.

"Three thousand four hundred and fifty-six corrupted earth lizards. Not bad at all. I can probably sell them to a restaurant back in the city."

Satisfied with the haul, he continued deeper into the dungeon, whistling as he jogged.

Half an hour passed without spotting a single living thing, and doubt started to creep in. But the thick stream of mana flowing from ahead reassured him that something big was waiting.

Then the environment abruptly changed.

The air turned icy. The terrain transformed into a frost-covered landscape. Frozen ground stretched in all directions.

"I didn’t expect this. It’s like I’ve crossed into a completely different biome," he muttered, shivering slightly but undeterred.

His motivation burned brighter than the chill surrounding him.

He glanced upward and asked, "System, why is this dungeon so massive? Is it really a dungeon—or something else?"

Ding!

[Analysis Complete]

[This dungeon is unique. It does not exist in a foreign land but inside a pocket space.]

Zane’s eyes narrowed. "Pocket space? You mean this place exists between another world and... Mars?"

[Correct!]

His jaw tightened with excitement.

"So, this isn’t just a dungeon—it’s a gateway to something far more mysterious."

As he ventured deeper, the temperature continued to plummet at an alarming rate. Yet, Zane remained unfazed. He glanced at his wristwatch.

"Minus forty-five degrees Celsius? Damn! And I’m not even shivering..."

His brows furrowed in thought.

"So, since my awakening, the mana in my body must’ve been enhancing my adaptability. Or maybe... it’s the Mysterious Seed. That thing buried somewhere inside me—could it be altering my physique so much that even this cold doesn’t affect me anymore?"

He walked the frost-covered path, speaking to himself just to break the silence. A strange sense of loneliness began to creep in.

"Shelby... Erlin... It’s oddly quiet without you two around."

Suddenly, the System chimed, and Zane froze mid-step.

Ding!

[A Swarm of Corrupted Ice-Dragonflies Detected Ahead!]

He squinted into the distance. Far above, several specks buzzed through the white-blue sky, shimmering as they moved.

"Yeah, I see them too."

With the All-Seeing Almighty Vision still active, the System automatically pulled up their stats.

Zane scanned the incoming creatures, muttering to himself like a soldier assessing battlefield targets.

"Corrupted Ice-Dragonflies, huh? Way better than those sluggish mud-lizards I dealt with earlier. Let’s see... the strongest among them—Strength 1129, Agility 1132, Intelligence 1119. Not bad. Still manageable... though their flight advantage might be tricky."

He let out a sharp whistle. The dragonflies didn’t react.

So he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, his voice echoing across the frozen plains.

The buzzing changed pitch as the creatures reacted.

"Bingo. Got your attention now."

Zane smirked as the flock drew closer—twenty-five massive dragonflies, each the size of a grown hound. They resembled the wild dragonflies he had seen in encyclopedias, but grotesquely oversized, their wings shimmering with hues of green, yellow, and violet.

As they swarmed, he felt their murderous hunger. Each one now registered him as prey.

"Tch. You chose the wrong predator," he growled. "Come on then—I’ll show you who’s the real hunter here."

The lead dragonfly was clearly smarter than the rest. While it couldn’t understand Zane’s words, it picked up the tone, the defiance, the challenge.

It hissed—an ear-piercing screech that signaled the rest to attack.

Suddenly, the sky erupted in sound as the entire swarm joined in, their wings slicing the air, their bodies aligning for a coordinated strike.

Then they opened their mandibles.

Dozens of icy, thorn-tipped projectiles launched from their mouths like a hail of crystalline bullets—each one sharp, fast, and deadly.

Even for Zane, they were fast.

But not faster than him.

"Luminous Step!" he shouted.

His body blurred.