Chapter 78: Something Made Them Smarter

Chapter 78. Something Made Them Smarter

The cheerful little melody followed me deeper into Hollowgrave.

I’d learned something useful.

One hundred successful uses.

That was what Corruption Bolt had needed before Arcana Evolution became available. It wasn’t counting the number of monsters I’d killed, but how many times I’d successfully used the skill to kill. If one monster took three Corruption Bolts to bring down, that counted as three successful uses toward the requirement.

It meant Arcana Evolution wasn’t just demanding a mountain of corpses. It wanted repeated, successful application of the skill in actual combat.

Now that was something I could work with.

More importantly, I now had an area skill.

Unfortunately, Hollowgrave was an underground dungeon.

Using Corruption Bloom carelessly inside a mountain was an excellent way to evolve myself from Royal Magus into a buried corpse.

The deeper passages were narrower than the entrance, and the ceiling occasionally dropped low enough that I could touch it if I jumped. Several sections were supported by natural stone columns already cracked from age. If I started detonating chained Corruption Blooms here, I wouldn’t need the Light Temple to kill me.

Gravity could handle the paperwork.

So Corruption Bloom could wait.

I needed another target.

My eyes drifted toward the darkness ahead.

The decision was embarrassingly obvious.

[Eclipse Light Manipulation]

Because it was goddamn dark.

The deeper I traveled, the fewer luminous crystals remained. Eventually even my enhanced eyesight began struggling to distinguish the passage ahead without relying entirely on Abyssal Eye.

Blackflame Manipulation could provide light.

It could also provide smoke.

Smoke inside an enclosed dungeon with questionable ventilation?

No, thank you.

I had survived too many ridiculous things to die from accidentally smoking myself inside a cave.

Eclipse Light was better.

A small sphere of pale silver-black light formed above my palm. I separated it into six smaller wisps and sent them drifting around me.

Their illumination was strange.

The light was pale and cold, edged with thin darkness that made every crack in the stone appear sharper. The wisps floated around my shoulders and slightly ahead of me, illuminating the path while leaving enough distance between themselves and my body that they wouldn’t interfere with my vision.

Useful.

And because this was Manipulation rather than some fixed illumination spell, they weren’t merely lamps.

One thought changed their shapes.

The six wisps flattened.

Edges sharpened.

Six thin blades floated around me.

Another thought curled them inward until they became rotating gears lined with luminous teeth.

Then needles.

Daggers.

Curved crescents.

Back to harmless-looking wisps.

I almost laughed.

Now this was efficient.

Light source and murder weapon in one convenient package.

Whoever said research couldn’t be practical lacked imagination.

I continued downward with six Eclipse wisps floating around me like an unnervingly polite escort.

The temperature fell.

The smell changed too.

Near the entrance, blood and damp stone had dominated everything. Here, the air carried something metallic underneath the moisture, accompanied by a faint pressure against my skin.

Mana.

Dense mana.

My Abyssal Eye activated.

Thin currents became visible inside the walls.

They were flowing downward.

Not upward from some underground mana vein.

Downward.

Toward something.

I kept walking.

The first attack came without warning.

Or at least it would have been without warning if Abyssal Hunter’s Domain hadn’t caught the distortion behind me.

I bent forward.

A blade of compressed wind screamed over my head.

It struck the wall.

Stone split.

My eyes narrowed.

That wasn’t a physical attack.

I turned.

A large feline creature crouched against the cavern wall, its body almost invisible against the black rock. Four narrow eyes glowed green beneath bony ridges, while translucent membranes stretched between its front and rear legs.

Information appeared.

[Gloomfang Stalker]

[Rank: A]

[Attribute: Wind / Darkness]

[Skills Detected: Shadow Concealment, Razor Gale]

My interest immediately sharpened.

Skills.

An A-rank monster possessing identifiable magical skills wasn’t impossible, but it certainly wasn’t normal.

Most B-rank monsters operated almost entirely through instinct. Even many A-ranks simply possessed stronger bodies, reinforced mana circulation, elemental breath, venom, or some naturally evolved ability.

A proper skill was different.

It required structured mana control.

Intent.

Understanding.

The Gloomfang Stalker disappeared.

Not moved.

Shadow Concealment.

My ordinary eyes lost it immediately.

Abyssal Eye didn’t.

A dim mana silhouette raced along the wall toward my right.

I smiled.

The Eclipse wisps around me transformed.

Three became blades.

The remaining three stayed bright.

The Stalker leaped.

I stepped inside its attack rather than away from it.

Its claws swept toward my neck.

My body dropped beneath them, one knee nearly touching the ground as I rotated through the opening under its chest.

The first Eclipse blade entered its abdomen.

I didn’t stop moving.

The blade extended while embedded inside it.

Light erupted through flesh.

The Stalker’s body jerked as the short blade became a long, narrow sword inside its torso, slicing through muscle without requiring me to make another wound.

Blood spilled over my wrist.

I released the weapon.

The Stalker twisted in midair despite the injury and launched another Razor Gale from almost point-blank range.

Smart bastard.

I kicked backward.

The wind blade sliced across my shirt and opened a shallow line over my abdomen.

Pain burned.

My foot hit stone.

I pushed sideways instead of retreating directly.

The next Razor Gale missed.

Two Eclipse wisps shot past my shoulders.

They transformed into crescent blades halfway toward the monster.

One cut across its front leg.

The second curved around a stone pillar and entered its side.

I closed the distance immediately.

A mage who allowed an intelligent monster time to think was volunteering for unnecessary problems.

The Stalker tried Shadow Concealment again.

I tracked the mana distortion.

My hand closed around one floating wisp.

It became a dagger.

I stepped left.

Pivoted.

Then plunged the dagger into apparently empty darkness.

Resistance met my hand.

Blood appeared before the monster did.

The blade had entered beneath its jaw.

I extended it.

Silver-black light erupted from the back of its skull.

The Stalker’s concealment collapsed.

Its body became visible again, hanging against my arm for half a second before I ripped the weapon free and let it crash onto the floor.

Blood spread beneath it.

I stared down.

Definitely intelligent behavior.

And definitely worth money.

I stored the corpse.

Naturally.

Research questions were important.

Free resources were also important.

I continued.

The next monster appeared seven minutes later.

Then another.

And another.

The deeper I traveled, the stranger Hollowgrave became.

B-rank monsters gradually disappeared.

A-ranks became common.

A Stoneveil Centipede fired hardened mineral spikes from its segmented armor and deliberately targeted my legs after realizing I was faster than it.

I converted four Eclipse wisps into rotating gears.

They intercepted the spikes.

Two shattered.

I recreated them immediately.

The remaining pair curved around the centipede’s armored head while I sprinted directly toward it.

Its mandibles opened.

I planted one boot against the wall.

Pushed.

My body changed direction sharply enough that its bite closed on empty air.

I landed beside its fourth segment.

Abyssal Eye had already shown me the weak seam.

Eclipse Light became a spear.

I drove it between the plates.

Then lengthened it inside.

The creature thrashed.

Stone cracked beneath its body.

I kept my grip, ran alongside its twisting mass, and dragged the embedded blade through three segments before releasing it.

Dark blood flooded the floor.

The centipede curled violently.

Six Eclipse needles appeared above me.

I sent all six into the exposed wound.

Its movements stopped.

Corpse stored.

Keep moving.

An A-rank Ashhorn Brute came next.

It used Stone Bulwark.

Actual defensive magic.

The moment my blades approached, layers of rock erupted around its body.

I changed tactics immediately.

No point repeatedly hitting armor.

My Eclipse weapons returned to wisps, spreading through the cavern and increasing visibility while I circled the creature.

The Brute watched me.

Its eyes followed my feet rather than my magic.

Then it stomped.

My Domain caught the mana moving underground.

I jumped.

Stone spikes erupted where I’d been standing.

One grazed my boot.

I twisted in the air, caught a floating wisp, transformed it into a dagger, and threw it.

The Brute blocked.

Exactly as expected.

Its Stone Bulwark shifted upward.

Its lower abdomen became exposed.

The other five wisps moved simultaneously.

Five blades entered from five different angles.

Blood sprayed across the newly formed stone armor.

I landed.

Closed my fist.

Every embedded blade lengthened.

The Brute convulsed.

One blade pierced its heart.

Another shredded a lung.

A third passed directly through its mana core.

The stone armor collapsed around it.

Its corpse hit the floor amid a shower of rubble.

[Evolution Progress: 58%]