CHAPTER 46: THAT’S IT!!?

Leon stared at the plain cyan ceiling with a lost look on his face. He was currently resting in one of the many hospital rooms just like the other students, but his mind was still replaying the same fact over and over again.

Three students had died in the Dungeon.

Surprisingly, he was taking it better than he himself had expected, especially after his breakdown in the dungeon but he could attribute that to the effects of the miasma.

Whatever the case was, he still felt guilty toward those who had lost their lives in the dungeon. But it wasn’t to the level that he would break down again.

He had tried his best to save everyone. He had done everything he could possibly do. That was the only thing that mattered to him.

’Yet this guilt and sadness won’t go away. Just as Amber said, this leaves a mark that is hard to erase.’ Leon sighed.

He had to admit that Amber was one of the reasons behind his calmness. Her words still echoed in his restless mind, giving it a strange sense of soothing.

’I really should focus on the positive part. Even if I failed to save three of them, I saved the other fifty-eight including myself. Isn’t that a big achievement? Then why can’t this hyperactive mind of mine feel happy? Damn it!’

He was really frustrated and tried rolling around in the sheets, but the pain in his arm forced him to stay in one place. It had already been healed completely by the Academy’s best healers, but there was still some lingering pain.

After all, normal healing worked by speeding up the regeneration speed of the body, which went against natural laws, so it still left him in pain. Fortunately, it wouldn’t be for too long.

’It’s better to focus somewhere else. If I just stay like this, I’ll go crazy.’ Leon took a deep breath to calm his restless mind and remembered something he had ignored in the dungeon.

He sat up, and with some difficulty, got into a lotus position and closed his eyes. He spent almost an hour in that position, sensing the Essence in the atmosphere and absorbing it through the methods provided to everyone in the Academy.

’Hey, system. Now give me all the Essence I’ve collected in the dungeon.’

[Understood!]

[Transfer of Essence commencing!]

All of a sudden, Leon felt Essence pouring inside his Soul Core directly instead of going through the pathways.

It was also incredibly fast, as only a few seconds passed before his Soul Core was already filled to the brim, and the extra Essence began to strengthen the core before it expanded.

He smiled as he reached Level 12 just like that. But his smile soon froze when he realised that the influx of Essence had stopped when the Soul Core was only half-filled again.

[Transfer of Essence Completed]

"That’s it! Are you kidding me?" Leon’s eyes snapped open as he shouted on instinct.

An assistant Doodle, who had been sleeping on the side, jerked awake and hurriedly turned towards Leon, his cute face making a variety of expressions.

Leon realised what he had done and told the little doodle, "No need to alert others. I’m fine."

The Doodle checked him and his status on the screens before nodding, "Doo~ do~"

Then the little guy went back and slept peacefully.

Leon shook his head and thought, ’So much work for just one level. Where’s the justice in this world?’

The system didn’t reply. Not that he was expecting anything, since he already understood the reason for his low rewards.

He was already at Tier 2, so the mana he received from killing Tier 1 beings was very low for his current level. His Soul Core was bigger now and needed a large amount of Essence to level up.

Tier 1 monsters provided a very low amount for Tier 2 Awakened and practically negligible for Tier 3 Awakened.

Not to mention, unlike women, men like him used Essence to level up. What he got from the monsters was mana, which would have been fine for women, but the system extracted purified Essence from it and gave him that.

The already low amount of energy became even smaller. So even though he had killed a lot of monsters in the dungeon, he only received a small portion of Essence that barely managed to get him to level up once.

Although he understood all of that, it was still very frustrating since he went through so much only for a single level. If he were a woman, he would have directly absorbed the mana and perhaps leveled up three times.

’What am I thinking? I’m happy being a man. Besides, women also have it hard. My mental health is already bad, so if I was a woman, I would have become an Abyssal Creature long ago.’

He once again realised just how miraculous his SSS-Rank Dungeon was. Even though he suffered a lot there too, at least he always got Essence-filled Energy Orbs. They were always a far better option than Soul Shards or hunting Abyssal Creatures or monsters.

He turned towards the window and stared deeply at the sky taking on an orange hue. It was already evening, and soon it would be night.

That would be his time to enter the Dungeon, and he didn’t want to go there after everything that had happened already.

But he knew he didn’t have any choice in this matter. The dungeon would drag him inside without his consent.

’Forget it. I’ll just hide around today and see if there is any other way to get out of that place. If I die there one more time, I might really lose my mind. I can’t handle any more pain in this condition.’

He took Amber’s words on mental health very seriously because he knew how important it was in this world. A bad mental state always spelled trouble.

Just as he was contemplating whether he should continue his cultivation, he heard knocks on the door and raised an eyebrow, ’Who would come to visit me?’

"Come in!"

The door slid open, and in walked the white-haired professor. Amber was looking quite unlike herself in her big T-shirt that reached her high thighs and loose pants.

She made herself comfortable on the sofa and asked, "How are you doing?"

"Better than you for sure," Leon said, glancing at her tail which was still there.

These animalistic features were directly tied to corruption, so it wasn’t wrong to say that the more alien one’s body became, the higher the chance of losing control.

The fact that Amber hadn’t managed to remove her tail meant that she was still fighting the overflowing corruption inside her. As for her ears, they were probably something she couldn’t remove even if she wanted to. Corruption sometimes did damage like that.

Amber’s body relaxed visibly upon hearing his words as she smiled and said, "Aren’t you getting too bold? Few dare to talk to me like that."

"Can I blame it on the miasma? My mind isn’t properly cured yet."

"You certainly can do that, but don’t forget that I can also do the same."

Leon chuckled and asked, "So, how are the others doing? You already checked them, didn’t you?"

"Your team has woken up already, but they are still going through a mandatory check-up. But they’re fine. Others will take some time because they didn’t have anyone to protect them."