Is it wrong to cultivate in the dungeon? Chapter 21

I’ve noticed that ti has a habit of moving quickly when you get into a routine. Sothing that I was both glad for and mildly annoyed at.

It had been three weeks since I entered the city, and two weeks since my outing with teria. She had popped in frequently to bring food and chat about things, sothing for which I was very thankful.

Other than talking to her, though, I had buckled down and just cultivated for the most part. It took a few days to go through the rest of the magic stones that I had gotten, except for the infant dragon's stone. Still, I had finished two of the ridian strengthening processes with just that.

The Conception Vessel and the Governing Vessel were both completely strengthened with wood and fire Qi, respectively. Now, I was working on the Penetrating Vessel, which needed earth Qi.

There were two main reasons for my rapid progress. One was as I worked my way through the smaller stones and made it to the larger ones, the speed at which I was progressing got faster and faster.

I was a bit confused by this at first, but the Qi in the lower floor magic stones was a lot denser, aning that one magic stone from floor eight contained the sa amount of Qi as two magic stones from floor three.

It was like I had discovered the difference between gathering my breath and eating magic stones again. Only this ti it was between eating different sizes of magic stones.

And since it took the sa amount of ti to unravel and incorporate the stone’s Qi, no matter the size, it just ant I gathered more Qi in the sa amount of ti.

The other reason that I was progressing so fast was that my ridians were just weird. Well, I don’t know if they were actually weird since I don’t have anything to compare them to, but they weren’t acting how I thought they would.

See, I thought that this was going to be a long process where the ridians needed a ton of Qi each to get hardened. But turns out, they were hardening a lot quicker than I thought they would. So much so that I thought I was doing it wrong.

But the manual said that I would damage my ridians if I were doing this improperly, yet they remain undamaged. Hell, I could sense them, and the strengthened ones were thick and sturdy. I think they might even be more sturdy than my naturally born ones.

So, for whatever reason, this was going smoothly, a lot more smoothly than I thought at first. Seriously, I thought this was going to take almost a year again, but I might be done with this in three or two months now.

At least, that’s what I thought before I finished with the infant dragon’s magic stone. It was the biggest, so I saved it for last and expected it to give a good boost.

I didn’t expect it to finish a ridian and then so. I finished the Penetrating Vessel and then had to switch from earth QI to tal Qi when I started working on the Girdle Vessel.

I swear, who ca up with these nas? Seriously, I’ve been trying not to giggle at Penetrating Vessel like the immature bastard I am, but Gridle Vessel made laugh for whatever reason.

Anyway, weirdly hilarious nas aside, I was able to switch the Qi after the Penetrating Vessel was completely strengthened and used the rest of the Infant Dragon’s magic stone to do a good chunk of the Girdle Vessel.

Seeing that I only needed a few dungeon runs where I got a few more infant dragon stones, I decided to set off in the evening. I took a little nap in the afternoon, so I should have plenty of energy to get down and get a good amount of stones.

So, here I am. The tenth floor’s mist greeted as I felt the dungeon’s Qi prod and poke at my skin. The descent had gone far smoothly this ti. Mainly because I knew where the stairs were now, but also because I was better at fighting the monsters now.

I only took a scratch or two getting down here, and they were already scabbed over. A vast improvent from the last ti, I’d say. Hence, I plan to go pretty deep this run around.

I would like to get to floor eighteen, but that’s probably not happening due to the little, or rather big problem of the floor seventeen monster.

The Goliath was, in my mind at least, the check. It was the filter for the rest of the dungeon. If I couldn’t beat it, then I doubt I could beat the stuff on floor nineteen.

I didn’t know this for sure, of course. Like I ntioned before, the Library didn’t have much information past floor eighteen, but it just made sense to .

Why would the monsters suddenly get weaker past the Goliath? They wouldn’t, so the Goliath is the final filter to the rest of the dungeon as far as I am concerned. Hence, my new goal was to kill it before moving on.

Now, that task seed easier said than done, I will admit. But I don’t know how hard it is until I get down there and face it. So, let’s get diving.

I had determination, energy, and supplies just in case. And most of all, I had knowledge. Not a lot of knowledge, but I had so, and that would help trendously.

So off I went, and I imdiately got hit with the dicine known as reality when I fought my first orc. You see, I haven’t gotten any stronger, at least physically.

The stage of cultivation that I’m at right now is purely preparing my ridians, my taphysical body, for the next step in cultivation. It has nothing to do with my physical body, which is what I used to fight with. For now, anyway.

So, the orcs, imps, and every other dungeon monster were just as annoying to deal with as last ti. The only difference was that I was getting more skilled at fighting them, so there was that.

The bottom line was that I am going to need to wait until my next breakthrough to have a chance of beating the Goliath. So, for now, I am just going to farm magic stones and practice my combat skills.

…

Well, maybe just a few more floors of exploration. It would be more efficient for to gather bigger and denser magic stones from the lower floor monsters after all. And, a little peek of the challenge between where I am and the Goliath would certainly not hurt.

So, off I go deeper into the dungeon. Just until I hit the major roadblock or I get to the next area change. Yeah, that’s a good idea. There will be new monsters that I can kill, and they will be stronger, so that’s good practice too.

It’s the perfect plan, honestly. And I wasn’t even injured this ti, so I was playing it safe too.

And so, I went down deeper and deeper, a spring in my step and excitent in my chest. What greeted on the tenth floor was a few imps and orcs, which I was able to kill relatively easily now that I was in good condition.

The orcs were tougher to kill, but the imps had a better chance of hurting since they were a lot faster than the orcs. Hence, I did a few cuts on my arms where I wasn’t fast enough to dodge, but they were very minor and hardly worth ntioning.

It was when I was killing a small group of imps that I encountered my first drop item. Or, I noticed a drop item for the first ti. I am sure I left a ton of these things on the floor on my last dungeon trip, but I didn’t notice them.

A bumr, but there was no use crying over spilled milk. Besides, looking at it, they wouldn’t have helped my cultivation anyway.

The drop item in question was the tail of the imp I had just killed. It looked like a small knife with a string attached to it that might be useful if you knew how to use throwing knives.

I don’t know how to throw knives, and I can’t sense any stored Qi in it like I could with the magic stones, so it was useless to .

Hmm, maybe I can find soone to sell it to. I know they are worth a pretty penny, so they might be able to solve my money issues. Assuming soone buys it and it’s not the Guild.

I did manage to get an orc to drop what looked like its skin after I killed it, so that could be useful. It was pretty tough, so maybe I could get a blacksmith to make so armor for .

It would probably be cheaper than buying it from the shop. I’ll have to ask. Well, I have to find a blacksmith first, then ask them.

With that thought in mind, I threw it into my ring and continued on my exploration of the tenth floor. After about an hour or so, I ca to the stairs leading down. I paused and took a breath.

I made a mistake last ti I ca here. I didn’t plan for the return trip, which is obvious in hindsight, but I didn’t think about it. Now, I know I have to go back, aning I need to keep about half of my energy in reserve.

So, I couldn’t push myself against the monsters. Not this ti, at least. Later, when I’m stronger, but that’s the goal right now. The goal is to go down, get a good amount of magic stones, and co back up.

I am not here to push myself to my limits. I will go back once things head south or when I get a good amount of magic stones. Once I break through again, then I’ll co back and test my ttle against everything.

With that mantra slash promise repeating in my head, I headed down to the eleventh floor. There was still a mist that covered everything, and monsters liked to spring from the mist and attack at random.

I ducked under the left hook of an orc before driving my elbow up into its chin. Its head snapped back, and its arms flailed out to try and balance itself.

I went in for the kill, my hands reaching out to twist its head off–

*SCREACH*

Suddenly, my vision swam, and everything tilted. I felt dizzy and my ears began ringing as I swayed before I planted my feet and looked around.

The orc was still flailing around like an idiot, which ans there was another monster a foot away. I looked around, fighting the dizziness and blinking to refocus my eyes before I found the culprit.

It was a bat creature flapping its wings a few feet away. It had red eyes and sharp teeth that poked from its lips with tiny claws at the tips of its wings.

I looked at it, confused for a mont. My mind was preoccupied trying to keep my balance and block out the incessant ringing of my ears, and I couldn’t figure out how this thing could have caused this.

As I stood there staring at it, it opened its mouth, and a shockwave distorted the air between and it. I didn’t hear it, but the visual of a rush of cone-shaped air traveling directly toward my face was enough for to throw myself to the side.

The shock wave hit the poor orc, further causing it to be confused as to what was happening as it tumbled to the ground. I had just gotten rid of the dizziness and felt my brain start working again.

A Bad Bat. A monster in the shape of a bat that attacks with sound waves and its fangs. Typically encountered on the eleventh and twelfth floors. I had read about this fucker in the library, and it still caught off guard.

Un-fucking-believeable. Great job Leon, really putting that knowledge to us, ain’t cha?

I let out an angry huff and shook away any discombobulation at my little lapse in focus before rushing forward and putting the orc out of its misery. I stomped on its throat, and it stopped struggling shortly after.

‘Alright, good. Now let’s deal with this fucking bastard,” I thought before I kicked off the orc’s corpse and lunged at the bat.

It let out another scream, which I sidestepped before I arrived at it in a dead sprint. I saw what looked like panic in its face for a brief mont before I jumped and dropped-kicked that fucker into the floor.

It squeaked as the air left its lungs, and it got crushed underneath . It didn’t get to do anything else before it disappeared into dust and ash. Whoops, looks like I broke its magic stone by accident.

Oh well, worth it. Drop-kicking that bastard into nothingness was satisfying, and I had the orc for the magic stone anyway.

Still, this brought up a very critical weakness that I hadn’t thought of until now. I may have read about the monsters and know what to expect, but that doesn’t help if I don’t pay attention to the surroundings.

I had gotten so focused and lost in combat with the orc that the bat took completely off guard.

anwhile, if I had bothered to check my surroundings rather than just ho in on one fucking thing, then maybe I wouldn’t be dealing with a mind-numbing headache right now.

Knowledge is half the battle, and the other half is paying attention and putting that knowledge to use. So, maybe I should try to put that second half into practice, huh?

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The Qi filled my lungs and circulated throughout my body, and soothed my headache. I released the breath before repeating a few tis until the headache went away.

Once I was clear-headed, I opened my eyes and let my anger and frustration fade with a quiet sigh. There wasn’t any use in getting mad. I just have to learn from it and make sure I don’t repeat the sa mistake.

So, I cautiously went on. I made sure to constantly keep my head on a swivel when I was fighting the imps and orcs to make sure no more bats got the jump on .

This proved to be a good choice, as not five minutes later, a new monster decided to appear from the mist.

A ball of red blurred toward after I had just ripped a bat in half and barely missed as I dodged back.

The ball smashed into a rock, shattering it before unfurling and revealing an armadillo mixed with a dinosaur. It had two big legs that it walked on, two small arms that reminded of a t-rex and hard carapace armor down its back and tail.

It was a Hard Armored. The monster fad for having the best defense on these floors and for being a Sonic rip-off. Well, fad for being a Sonic rip-off to anyway. Seriously, rolling toward your enemy? What’s next? Is he gonna drop rings when I kill him?

Hmm, wait a minute. He drops a magic stone when I kill him, no matter what. Which can be turned in for money, which is pretty much what rings are in the Sonic gas.

Holy shit, he does drop rings when he dies. Every monster does when you think about it that way. That’s funny.

My thoughts were interrupted when the Hard Armored let out a roar and rolled at again. I jumped out of the way and shook away any distracting thoughts. I’m doing it again. I need to pay attention to my surroundings in case–

*Screach*

In case another monster joins in, like the two bats that just launched an attack on . I avoided the shockwaves before closing the distance. I jumped up and grasped one of the bats’ legs before hurling it toward its friend.

The two collided with a resounding smack and dropped out of the air. I then went over and caved their skulls in ti for the Hard Armored to recover and roll at again.

This ti, I positioned myself near the wall so that when I jumped out of the way, the monster smashed into it and was dazed for a mont. This gave enough ti to try two things.

First, I punched the armored part and felt my hand hurt, while not affecting the monster. It was like I was back in the cave, punching the stone wall again. I expected it, but I still wasn’t happy about it.

Next, I decided to knee it in the throat and was greeted with much better results. The Hard Armored let out a wheezing sound as it was lifted into the air and landed on its back a few feet away.

I went over and quickly put it out of its misery before taking out its magic stone. Its underside was surprisingly squishy compared to other monsters. Like, I think the orc’s skin was harder than the underside.

Surprising, but I’ll take it. Its back was hard enough, no need to complain about how easy it was to kill once you got underneath it.

With that little bit of wisdom gained, the eleventh floor passed by in short order. Well, it felt short, but I must have been there for another hour. It took that and killed a few dozen more monsters before I found the stairs again.

I cracked my neck and rolled my shoulders. I winced slightly as I did, and I was made aware of my injuries. Nothing too serious like last ti, but a few knicks and glancing blows from everything had taken its toll.

Still, I was in a better condition than I was when I went to fight the infant dragon, so that was enough to continue. As I descended the stairs, I tried to decide if I should keep going to the thirteenth floor or not.

I wanted more magic stones. I wanted Qi-rich and big magic stones, like with the infant dragon. Unfortunately, I had to begrudgingly admit that it might currently be beyond my capability to explore much deeper than this.

The monsters on the tenth and eleventh floors were right at the edge of what I could kill. My fists could only inflict so much damage on sothing, and I was rapidly approaching that limit.

That, combined with how many monsters there were down here, ant I was pushing myself. Not like with the infant dragon, in a different way. If the infant dragon was testing my strength, this was testing my endurance. How long could I go at what was close to maximum effort before I tapped out?

And I discovered it was not very long at all. I was fighting monsters every five minutes, in groups that were getting bigger and more diverse. If the trend continued, then the twelfth floor was my limit.

So yeah, I was kinda pushing myself. I’ll admit it. Sorry to in the past, but we both knew that promise was a load of bull. Besides, I wasn’t pushing myself that much, and there was no point in doing sothing if it didn’t push . Improvent only cos from adversity, after all.

Also, I haven’t run into all of the monsters that I could yet. There was one more type I was waiting to show its ugly mug, and I had a feeling I would et it on the twelfth floor. So all the more reason to go down.

But I will go back up after this. The twelfth floor is the deepest I’ll go until I break through again. So, let’s see what it's got for .

I had a smile on my face despite the fatigue as I stepped off the stairs and surveyed the surroundings. It was still misty, so I couldn’t get a good look at the land, but I could hear the footsteps of monsters approaching.

It was a few orcs, sothing that I had fought already multiple tis. I felt myself deflate in disappointnt, but I focused and started to kill them.

The good thing about orcs was that they were relatively slow. So it was easy to weave between their wild attacks and land a few good kicks and punches on them. Once so were stunned and others were busy trying to recover from their attacks, that was when I went for the killing blows.

All was going well as I weaved my way in and out of the group. Their swings would whistle as they flew past my head, their roars overlapping as their frustration grew at not being able to hit . I would reach out and break an arm here, dislocate a knee there, before I’d jump up and twist their head off.

I had reduced the group down to one when a roar split the air, and the thunder of sothing running toward caused to abandon the orc I was fighting and jump back to get my bearings.

I scanned the surroundings before my ears picked up the sound coming from my left. I glanced over and saw a massive white and silver ape erge from the mist.

A silverback. The last monster I was expecting had finally arrived, and I couldn’t be happier. Now then, let’s test this thing’s ttle.

The silverback bounded over to on all fours, its eyes glowing and its mouth wide open. It lunged forward after it had closed enough distance and went to bite my head off.

The first thing I noticed as I leaped back was just how fast this thing was compared to an orc. Despite being just as big, this thing’s agility seed to rival the imp’s. Thank goodness that it couldn’t fly.

The silverback’s face t the ground as it quite literally ate dirt before it rose and roared again. A white blur struck out toward as I reflexively raised my arms to block, and suddenly I was airborne and feeling out of breath.

The world spun as the sky and ground flipped places for a mont before I oriented myself and landed on my feet in a crouch. My arms stung a bit from the hit, but otherwise I was completely fine.

My heartbeat started to pick up as I registered the change, and a smile made its way to my lips. I could handle this. This thing was weaker than the infant dragon, despite it being on a deeper floor.

I shook my arms to get the pain out of them and took a shaky breath. I observed the silverback again, watching the way it stalked toward , and tried to focus. I waited and counted how many steps it would take before it was in striking range.

Three steps from . That’s the distance that I could close in a single lung and was the perfect range for what I wanted to do. I just needed to wait until it got into that zone, and I would finish this.

It roared again when it saw standing and started to co at faster. Still, I waited. I steadied my breathing and focused on lowering my heart rate as it ca closer and closer.

I slowly got into a stance. My legs tensed up as I got ready. Not many steps now. I looked at the thing’s neck and got ready. Target acquired.

The silverback’s chest and shoulders tensed as it roared again and brought its arms up in the air, intending to smash into paste. It took one more step and crossed the invisible line.

Perfect.

I plunged forward as soon as it did and got close to its chest. Once there, I jumped and kicked off one of its legs and propelled myself forward with my fist held above .

My fist dove right into its windpipe and cracked it. Its head snapped back, and its arms flailed to try and hit . Sothing I had seen coming.

Before it could land a hit on , I pushed my foot into its chest and kicked. Its chest gave in slightly as my foot t it before the silverback started tumbling over, and I was sent flying in the other direction.

I landed a few paces back before I ran forward and to the left. One of the silverback’s legs blurred out and kicked at , only to be caught and broken as I drove an elbow into its knee.

It tried to roar again, but the only thing that ca out was the vague sound of air as its vocal cords had been destroyed. It was dying, it just didn’t know it.

I arrived near its head after dodging a few more wild swings and gave a final kick to its neck. A cracking sound rang out, and the silverback dropped dead.

I let out a breath and nearly doubled over as my lungs burned and my heart pounded in my ears. I put my hands on my knees as I tried to catch my breath.

What the hell? Why is this happening? I just tried to do what I did with the infant dragon fight, but why am I reacting like this? It’s like I just ran a mile and held my breath at the sa ti.

Sothing was fucky here. I did sothing wrong. I don’t know what I did wrong, but I definitely fucked up sowhere along the path here.

I wanted to explore that more, but the stomping of an orc brought out of my thoughts as I realized I needed to get moving before I was sward.

I recovered the best I could and collected the magic stone from the silverback. It wasn’t as big as the infant dragon’s magic stone, but it was the biggest I collected so today.

After that, I began my march up the stairs and up out of the dungeon. Once I was able to catch my breath, it went a lot smoother, but I was very confused about why I reacted like that in the first place.

My Qi had been almost entirely depleted, and I was much more tired. It was only a little fight, yet it took a lot out of . And the only reason I could think of would be that technique I was trying to replicate again.

I’ll need to figure out why that was happening. If I ever wanted to use that technique consciously in a fight, then I would have to figure out this little hiccup.

But until then, I would just have to be happy with my haul of magic stones I had gotten this ti. I’m not sure if it will be enough to get to my next breakthrough point, but it will be pretty close.

Hence, once I managed to fight my way out of the dungeon, making sure to pick up all the magic stones and drop items this ti, I settled down in the church and got to work cultivating.

The days passed, and ti blurred as ditation sessions were broken up by practicing my kata and teria coming and chatting with .

It was when I had been in the city for seven weeks that she told her visits were going to stop for a little while.

She had to prepare for her familia to co back and couldn't visit for two weeks or so. I was a bit confused at what she needed to do that others couldn’t do it but I nodded and said I would be waiting for her when she decided to visit again.

So, after that, I was able to work my way through the magic stones I had gathered before running out and going back into the dungeon again.

I didn’t push myself at all this ti, only going down to the tenth floor to get so magic stones and orc hides, too. I figured that since I was farming for magic stones, I might as well try farming for armor materials too.

The cycle was set, and ti passed fast. Before I knew it, I was ready to break through again, and I had been in the city for two months total.

Two months, and I was ready to break through to the next stage of cultivation. anwhile, it took a year to complete the first stage. It goes to show you how helpful the magic stones are in cultivating.

Still, that wasn’t the only reason. This stage was more of an interdiate stage, according to the manual. It wasn’t ant to last that long since there weren’t any big body changes, unlike with the first and third stages.

Feeling how I currently am, I could agree with that. The only real difference between how I felt at the beginning of this stage and how I currently feel is that my control over Qi has improved, and I can fight longer than before.

My strength, speed, and toughness had all remained unchanged. This stage was purely foundational and seed to offer no benefit when you were completing it.

Might explain why the manual said a lot of people skip this step. If they couldn’t feel themselves improving, then there wasn’t much incentive to continue with it when you could just go straight to Qi gathering.

But I didn’t do that, and it only took a few short months thanks to the dungeon feeding a steady supply of magic stones. I don’t know the effect it will have in the future, but I’m sure it was worth it.

Alright, let’s read the manual on what I am supposed to do for this breakthrough, rest up, and get out of the city so I don’t destroy sothing with lightning.

I had a brief thought of how worried the gods were about the lightning, but it’s been two months. I’m sure they’re over it by now.

With that thought, I lay down and drifted off to sleep.

===========================

All done! This chapter was pretty much a setup chapter for when Leon breaks through next chapter, but I’m happy with it. He made a little progress in the dungeon and had a few ideas that he wants to follow up on.

Also, yes, he didn’t use the potions he bought. Why? Because he didn’t feel like he was in danger, and he wants to save it for when he pushes himself.

A pretty chill chapter overall, but the next one should be fun. Qi gathering in the cultivation stage, where the fun starts, in my opinion. And I’m sure the gods are going to be completely chill about the lightning strike this ti.

Especially with the main forces that were out hunting Leviathan so close to returning. I also will say that in my head canon, it wasn’t just Zeus and Hera familia doing these quests.

I imagine they were the main fighting force, but I also picture Loki, Freya, Ganesha, Hephestus, Deter, and a bunch of other familias taking part in it too. They deal with the mob monsters that each boss summons, and are also the reason it’s taken so long for them to co back. But they are almost here, and once they get here, it’ll be fun.

I’ve been struck with the realization that Leon needs to interact with more people in a aningful way. It’s just teria so far that he’s had more than one interaction with. I’ve also realized that dialogue eats word count. It’ll be a balance for sure.

Anyway, that’s all. Until next ti, friends!