Chapter 47: A Curious Find

Max sat on the top of a building as the battle continuously occurred. The hunting of the General Zombie Monster had been going on for an hour. At first, it was interesting to see how the seniors lured the monster and hunted it with an ambush. However, after three or four repetitive hunts, Max grew bored.

Adrien was the one who lured the monster; with his superior Speed, it was easy. Next, once the monster neared the ambush spot, Harold the Ranger attacked with a special arrow that could paralyze the Zombie Monster for a few seconds. After that, everyone attacked in a coordinated manner at the same time.

Unlike normal mob monsters, the Generals possessed their own Skills that they could use upon themselves. One of them was something akin to a Rapid Movement, where its speed increased manyfold. It would instantly appear behind the aggressor and attempt to bite their neck. However, that attack was nullified by Leon the Tanker. He predicted the skill's activation and blocked it midway using his Shield.

Although these General monsters were strong, these battles must have happened thousands of times. All the data regarding these monsters was already available, so it was easy to counter them.

Due to the similar attack patterns employed by the senior party, Max was a little bored. He could not join them, as his strength was too low. Therefore, he stayed where he was without making any noise. At that moment, he thought about checking the item he had obtained earlier to see exactly what items the Dimensional Storage contained.

Max took out the small item. It was made of black metal, and although it was smooth, it had a lot of scratches showing its past use. He looked around it to see if there was anything like a button to activate the dimensional item, but he found nothing. Even though it was from another world, loot was still loot, meaning it could be activated by an individual's Mana. Specifically, dimensional storage items required Mana to register the owner's signature to protect against misuse. Thus, Max infused his Mana into the rectangular, slim box.

Suddenly, the edges of the box started to illuminate with a light blue color. Fortunately, there was no noise as it activated.

[Received New Mana signature, analyzing the Mana… Adapting the Signature. Access Successful. Congratulations.]

Suddenly, a translucent screen displaying a message appeared above the box. Seeing this success, Max was very happy. He had half expected the item to display an error or something similar, but this foreign artifact successfully adapted to his Mana.

Soon, the screen's content changed, displaying a total of 100 grids. Among them, 30 grids were occupied by different types of images. Max could understand a few of them, as they were generic. He guessed that the book-like images must be books, while the vial-like images indicated potions. He could also see a lot of weapon-like images, but they were very bizarre.

Seeing this, Max fell into confusion. He could not understand how this Storage Artifact worked in its original world. Since they did not possess Magic or Mana, how were they supposed to use this storage item? Could there be some other medium, similar to Magic, that these people used?

As Max speculated on these matters, he found it even more interesting that these items were dropped as loot. Were these things normal in a Dungeon? Max decided he would have to do some research on how loot dropped. However, the general rule or norm was that loot usually dropped based on the environment or the type of monster killed.

Max looked down at the battle. The senior party was currently fighting their seventh General Zombie Monster. There was still time before they finished off the final monster, so he looked back at the first cubic slot on the translucent screen. The image on it looked strange; he had never seen something like that in his life. Perhaps if he had an experience of working with Alchemy technologies, he would have a familiar feeling, but currently, he had no idea.

He felt a little reluctant about whether he should retrieve the item to check what kind of thing it was. He gave another quick glance toward the battle on the ground. They were nearing the end of the seventh monster's defeat. Therefore, he bravely tried to check it, unable to control his curiosity.

He willed the first item to be retrieved. In the next second, the item appeared in his hand. It looked relatively new, but the design of the item was very bizarre. It was certainly a weapon, that much was sure, but how was it meant to be used?

While he was wondering what it was, details suddenly appeared on his status window.

[Plasma Disruptor Rifle]

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Type: Ranged Weapon

Grade: Uncommon

Description: A standard-issue infantry weapon from the Republic of One World Military. It requires a Grade-2 Energy Cell.

"Oh, it is a weapon from this world. What a lucky loot drop!" Max was on cloud nine after reading the details of the weapon.

However, how was he supposed to use it? It was a foot long, with multiple holes at the end. At the bottom, a container was attached to it. Perhaps that was the Grade-2 Energy Cell, which could be equivalent to Mana.

Max held it in both hands, similar to how he would hold a sword. Was this how it was used? He gave it a small swing, but it did not seem appropriate to use it in this manner. There had to be some other, proper way to use it.

Flipping the weapon, Max saw something resembling a trigger that moved backwards. Was this the activation mechanism? Max speculated. He then tried to remove the attached container, but it did not budge. After looking at it for a while, he found a small leverage button; upon clicking it and pulling, the container came out. It was simply an empty container. He quickly reattached it, just as it was before.

After inspecting the item for a while, he tried to wield the weapon in different ways, but nothing seemed right or comfortable. That was until one position finally felt natural. He placed his right hand on the trigger position and his left hand at the end, positioning the weapon close to his right shoulder and aiming it forward. He did not know if this was the correct way to hold it, but it felt natural this way.

Currently, the weapon was unusable. It required a different kind of energy that he had no idea about. However, he suddenly remembered something Candice had told him while they were discussing about this world. She had mentioned that a lot of loot dropped differently, but eventually, it could all be used with Mana. This meant that this item could also utilize Mana as an alternative to the Grade-2 Energy Cell.

He could try to infuse Mana into it to test what kind of attack this weapon was capable of. Aiming the weapon far into the distance, Max attempted to use it in the same manner he used his other weapons. First came the intention of the action, followed by the Mana Channeling, and finally, the physical motion.

For his first step, the intention, he aimed at a towering building far away to destroy it.

For the second step, the Mana Channeling, he released his Mana through a thread. Soon, the weapon was shrouded in a blue energy.

The third step was the action. But what kind of action did this require? If it were a sword, he would slash it, but he held this bizarre weapon in a bizarre position. Suddenly, his right fingers touched something from their resting position. It was the trigger. Without any expectations, Max pulled it.

Shuuu!

As soon as the trigger was pulled, something shot out from the hole at the end of the weapon. It traveled at a blinding speed, and within a few seconds, it arrived at the exact location Max had aimed at.

The attack landed on the distant, towering ruined building. Accompanied by a booming shockwave, the attack pierced a hole straight through the structure, causing the entire building to crumble. Even though it was far away, Max could feel the sound of the attack landing and the vibrations of the shockwave.

Startled by this outcome, Max quickly placed the strange weapon back into his storage and casually sat back down on top of the building.

Even after some time had passed, Max could still hear the commotion coming from far away. He did nothing, simply sitting still until the commotion stopped. He was even afraid to look at the senior party. Although the attack did not make a large noise when it was released, it still made some sound, and now a commotion was coming from the distance.

They had definitely noticed something. If he were to check their reactions now, they would definitely think he had done something. Therefore, he sat silently, acting as if he knew absolutely nothing.

Surprisingly, no one came up to the top to check on him or called out to see if there were any issues. Max sat for a while until the next battle started. Following that commotion, he refrained from checking any other weapons or items in the Storage. These items looked very bizarre, and he would have to inspect everything alone. If he continued to check them and got caught, the seniors would definitely take the items for themselves. Max did not want that to happen; he merely wanted to examine all the items for himself.

With that thought in mind, he waited until the final Zombie General was lured and killed. Once that was done, Max climbed down from the building with a casual look on his face, acting normally.

Everyone took enough rest once the second obstacle of Level 1 was cleared. Now, only the Boss of Level 1 remained. Once that was dealt with, they could move on to Level 2, which was where his work started. He needed to finish this Dungeon quest soon, driven by his curiosity regarding the weapon and the other items waiting for him to inspect.

The Mana he had used to attack the building was roughly the same amount he usually expended to activate [Heavenly Cleave]. The skill had reached a proficiency of 13%, and its destructive power had already increased several times compared to when it was at 2%.

However, the attack released by that strange, otherworldly weapon seemed at least 20% more destructive than his current [Heavenly Cleave]. Max could not help but wonder how powerful his Skill would become once its proficiency reached 100%. He did not know whether its growth would remain the same throughout, but he believed it might eventually reach or even surpass the weapon's power.

The biggest difference between his sword and the otherworldly weapon was the range. The weapon could release its attack over a long distance while maintaining its destructive power. Max did not know whether [Heavenly Cleave] could eventually achieve something similar, but that was another possibility he wanted to explore.

After taking enough rest, the party moved toward the big building structure where the Boss resided. As usual, Max had no part to play in this battle either, so he stayed behind, remaining outside the detection range of the Detector Zombie Monster.