Chapter 236 Gems
[Ace POV],
Well.....I entered the dungeon in the end.
I was just that curious, and because the difficulty of the dungeon is easy according to the primordial chronicle, and I had the level required to enter the dungeon and was stronger than most level 25s who didn't have a job, I didn't see the dungeon as a life threatening encounter.
I didn't take it seriously because of the name alone.
The monsters I found in the dungeon were even more relaxing.
They were slimes, or more precisely, blue slime balls that jumped around.
Something to be wary of was the acid they somehow excreted from their bodies, which was quite potent, but because they were slow to begin with, the threat from their acid spray diminished, and my fire element worked exceptionally well against them.
My earth elemental attacks did nothing but pierce their skin, which later healed. The damage was so minor that it could be overlooked.
It's also worth noting that these slimes could split on their own or through external attacks. This is one of the reasons I eventually stopped attacking them with the earth element.
Overall, the slime monsters were quite weak, so their job was essentially to serve as a bag of primordial records for me to farm, which was good because it allowed me to add more kills to my job requirements since even the rank 1 slime monsters were weak.
It's just a shame I couldn't get close to them because of the acid, so I couldn't kill it with a single strike with the runic blade. Even If I could, I don't think I'd be able to kill the slime with a single strike as well, because it was very possible for the slime to split and multiply instead due to the attacks.
And since their crystal cores were also inside their transparent body, I waited a few minutes after death for their acidic body to follow before harvesting the cores.
But I guess it was okay in the end as I was still gaining something.
Oh, and even though the slime monsters were relatively easy to kill, I was still planning on staying in the dungeon for an extended period of time due to a material I discovered here.
This time, the dungeon had no floors and was simply a cave where the monsters you encountered grew stronger as you went deeper into the cave.
It was the magical materials on the cave walls that attracted me to stay in the dungeon longer.
To be specific, magical gems.
Magic gems are extremely valuable regardless of grade because they are excellent conductors of magic.
Gems were very important materials for the creation of some items, such as runes and magical weapons.
They were simply pretty amusing, and I was going to have to mine for a while as a result.
I even had mining tools in my hands that I had brought from the store to make mining easier.
This was how I spent the majority of my slime journey.
Aside from that, there was something else I was doing here: I was practicing spells.
Aside from purchasing knowledge about alchemy, I also brought knowledge about magic, including basic spell knowledge.
This contained a reasonable number of neutral magic spells as well as instructions on how to cast them.
The information stated in the basic spell knowledge was much more detailed than Emma's explanation, but it didn't make casting a spell any easier because there were still some difficulties for me to cast a spell, but unlike last time, I did succeed in casting a spell.
And it just so happened that the spell was the magic arrow I tried to cast earlier in the alternate dimension.
The problem was that my success rate in successfully casting a spell was still so low that I couldn't use it in a battle, but luckily I just happened upon the perfect dungeon filled with life targets that served as practice for me.
I was getting better at casting spells, though the only one I can currently cast is magic arrow.
It was better than none, so it's fine, and now that I can mix my element into the spell, it's even better and sufficient for the current me.
As I pondered these thoughts, as well as several others while mining and killing slime monsters, I wondered what the reward for clearing this dungeon would be.
The goblin dungeon gave a level up along with the black orb as rewards for clearing the dungeon, but because the black orb was special, I didn't think it was something that should come out of clearing a dungeon frequently.
Most dungeon rewards will almost certainly be a level up, which is also beneficial because it reduces the stress and danger associated with leveling up just once.
However, according to the primordial chronicle, leveling up as an unranked creature after the level cap presents a problem because it apparently makes it more difficult to level up after evolving because the primordial chronicle required then will be more than what it was supposed to be.
What I don't know is whether the power we have now will remain or diminish after we evolve, but the only way to find out is to ask an evolved human or evolve myself.
In any case, I didn't have the opportunity to do the former, and the latter was not possible.
As I was thinking this, I shot three fire arrows at the level 28 slime monster in front of me, killing it.
With my current spell-casting abilities, I could now cast three magic arrows. I start to lose control if I go beyond that.
I was about to continue mining the magic gems on the wall after killing the slime monster when a bell-like sound rang in my head.
Because I was familiar with this particular sound, I knew it was a notification from the primordial chronicle, so I immediately summoned the primordial chronicle in my head to find out what the notification was, only to discover that I could level up again.
As there was no more information after this, I chose to level up and keep doing what I was doing.
Mining.