Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Smiling in content at the progress of his dungeon, Simon closed his eyes and cleared all the residual thoughts in his mind.

He brought out ten mana crystals from his [Inventory] and spread them around him. Clenching one of it in his hands, he started utilising his [Mana Lines] skills and absorbed the highly rich and pure mystical energy from it.

A refreshing feeling spread through his body and reached every corner and cell. It did not harm him and instead benefitted him greatly and slowly assimilating with him becoming a portion of his strength.

The feeling was the same as when he defeated a monster and gained experience through it. Although it was mostly due to him being a game developer in his past life that he spoke in gaming terms, but there was no such thing as hunting monsters for experience in this world.

It was a simple concept, when an entity is killed by another, a portion of its strength is passed onto the one who defeated it in the form of mystical energy and thus becoming its strength.

The status works in a way that simplifies the amount of mystical energy one can hold on their body in terms of levels. Stats display how strong the vessel i.e. the body which holds mystical energy is and their bloodline defines their affinity with the mystical energy.

The mana crystal is the condensation of such mystical energy capable of raising one's power when absorbed without having the need to necessarily hunt monsters.

Simon kept on absorbing the mystical energy within the crystal, he felt his body strengthening slowly and slowly until the rich energy coming from the mana crystal stopped midway.

The crystal in his had turned transparent and crumbled apart. He picked up one mana crystal after another and soon there were many empty or shattered transparent crystals on the ground.

Simon had in a span of half a day, had absorbed all the ten mana crystals.

"Ten mana crystals of grade [1] isn't even nearly enough to level up once. I feel like I'm close to a level up yet I have already gone through ten of these" he said after feeling the changes occurring within his body.

Taking out another ten or so mana crystals from his inventory, he hurriedly started absorbing all of them. A day passed by and Simon had undergone one level up reaching level 321.

However, that was just the start, after absorbing twenty or so crystals to level up once, he took out hoards and hoards of them and started absorbing the mystical energy within them.

This time, it took him more than three days and thirty-five mana crystals to achieve his second level up, one the fifth day he needed sixty mana crystals to reach level 323, on day ninth one twenty mana crystal for his fourth level up and two hundred ten crystals on the twelfth day to reach level 325.

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On a rock near the pond of serenity, Simon was sitting silently as hundreds of used mana crystals and their shattered remains littered the area near him. <br/><script>ChapterMid();</script>

Breathing a deep breath of air, he clenched his hands and felt the power from the level ups surging within his body. It took him a total of 12 days to level up five times and half of the initial 900 mana crystals he had with him was already gone.

From these level-ups, Simon understood one thing and that was that the mana crystal needed to level up after every successful level increase, goes up the higher your level is and the more you rely on it.

It can be observed from his twelve days of training, the more his level went up, the more mana crystal he needed for an additional level up.

With each level, the mystical energy that he can house within his body, drastically increases which makes the finite energy within the mana crystal unable to keep up. The higher his level, the more mana crystals he needed and as of now, he only had around 455 or so mana crystals.

Although the mana crystals were incredibly useful in increasing one's strength, it was also extremely precious. Not every organism in this world are fortunate enough to obtain mana crystals which are in the first place rare to find.

If not for the special powers of Cecilia, Simon would have to wait for his dungeon's rank to go up before even thinking about utilising the mana crystals.

Currently, he had twenty or so trees of mana crystals on his main floor who are in their sapling stage and can only produce 45 crystals each of grade [1]. These numbers might go up in the near future after the trees grow adequately but it is a slow and long process.

When giving Cecilia the fifty or so seeds of trees of mana, Simon was expecting some of them to transform into trees of mana crystals. That way, the number of mana crystals he could harvest would steadily increase with time.

The mana crystals were an effective method to level up but not the most efficient. One would need a vast amount of mana crystals to even increase their strength by a little bit the more their level goes up.

Because of that, Simon couldn't entirely rely on it as he did not have enough income of mana crystals to support his expenditure. For now, defeating monsters to level up was still the most efficient way since it also ensures improvement in his battle experience.

Fortunately for him, he was in the Ghastly winding forest, a place filled with monsters; strong and weak.

That being said, investing in the Trees of mana crystals was by no means wrong as it was also another source of levelling much more reliable than hunting monsters which involved unknown risks.

Deciding to use the remaining mana crystals on some other occasion, Simon got up from his seat and walked towards the pond. It was time he tested out his strengthened body and powers and what better way to do it other than the pond of serenity.

The pond of serenity was one of his or even possibly the greatest treasure he had inside his dungeon and just like him, it too was constantly improving itself.

The change was already becoming obvious, the colour of the water had started to slightly become a pale shade of blue because of the presence of the mystical energy. The pond was so densely packed with mana deposited by the increasing mystical veins beneath the ground that it gave him chills.

There was no doubt in his mind that the purity and concentration of mana within the pond was far greater than what it was previously.

The best way to check on his progress was to pit his body against the pond of serenity. Clenching his hands, Simon determined himself before diving inside it.

SPLASH… His entire body shuddered intensely the moment he jumped inside, the pond felt cold and excruciating to the extreme. The high concentration of mystical energy present within the pond felt like high voltage electric currents as it repeatedly and continuously electrocuted his body.

Simon could have gritted his teeth and endured it if it was only that but the coldness of the pond multiplied the pain and made it even worse. Left with no option, he had to hurriedly use [Mana Lines] and channel all of his mana into protecting his body.

A vast amount of mystical energy like a river, rushed inside his body from all of his pores and immediately filled him to the brim.

The purity and concentration of mystical energy inside the pond was many times greater than what he felt while absorbing the energy from the mana stones. If the energy inside the mana crystals was like a gentle stream, then the mystical energy here was like the rapid currents of a river that wildly and rampantly crashed onto the rocks.

Other than that there was also the volumes in which they poured inside his body. The flow of the mystical energy from the mana crystal can be controlled at least the low grades ones but the mystical energy from the pond was like a rampant beast that refused to listen to anyone as it wildly rushed inside him.

Forget about controlling the flow, it took everything Simon had just to make sure that his body doesn't blow away from the pressure.

Adjusting his mind to the pain, he opened his eyes and observed his surroundings. To his surprise, the water inside the pond unlike the surface wasn't a pale blue and instead a deep ocean blue and the deeper he went, the more brilliant the shade was.

"Judging from the current condition of my body, I can hardly endure the pressure for forty-five seconds; one minute max if I push my body to their limits. Any more than that will be suicidal" Simon analysed checking the condition of his body.

The previous experience inside the pond had made him aware that it was foolish to stubbornly increase his limits in one day. Once inside the pond, the highly condensed water continuously depletes one's mana and HP and it took everything one had just to remain conscious.

Realising that the current limits of his body was much more higher than what it was before he had even breached level 300, Simon felt pleased at his growth and decided to delve towards the bottom of the pond.

Even while electrocution and the coldness of the water had made his body completely numb, he still hanged on and slowly delved deeper.