The First King of Beasts

After the battle with the night crawlers where Dustin levelled up, he began travelling once again towards the light he saw from afar, and despite his theories, there was no other choice left at that point. Through out the journey, or at least for most of it, he survived eating only the night crawler meat he collected before, and to his surprise, it didn't upset his stomach, and it filled the stomach well. The only downside was the incredibly disgusting taste and the occasional case of indigestion where he figured his stomach was not quite used to this food. Apart from that, everything was ok.

The meat filled him with energy, and he didn't even need to use any tissue as often as before, it was as if his body was absorbing every little nutrient it could from the meat and using it to fuel his body, as he he rarely ever ran out of energy. The problem now was that night creatures had become scarce the further into the light Dustin travelled, so he couldn't get much of the meat any more, and he didn't even get plenty to begin with because he wasn't too sure if he would be able to keep eating it with such a taste for long. In the end, the benefits outweighed the bad aspects, so he didn't mind chugging it down once more every time.

Dustin spent at least another month on the way to the light, and each time he looked, it was as if the light he saw in the sky far away was still in the same position as it was when he first saw it, as though he wasn't getting any closer.

"This better not be some magic trick, if not the one who set it is going to suffer." Dustin cursed. 'Not like I can even do anything to such a being who would design such a place... Hehh.'

It was an understatement to say that Dustin was frustrated. If it wasn't for his calm nature, he would have broken down by now under the circumstances he was put against. He felt like he had been dumped and abandoned in this strange place by some powerful being and forgotten.

But of course, he was dropped here by a certain being and abandoned.

..

Back at the other side, the messenger was looking through the progress of each of the adventurers (As the locals refer to them, we shall also) in the dungeon, and so far so good, it was going well. More players had survived than expected, and they were all making quick progress in all the dungeons except one.

In total, there were fifty identical dungeons which were spread across the place, and everybody was assigned to go to one of these dungeons. Out of all these dungeons, the 10th dungeon was one that was getting the most attention from the messenger as it had two groups of people that he was very interested in. Then there was the 31st dungeon that was behind in everything. For one, everybody there were still on the first floor while the others had already passed that point, and the messenger couldn't seem to find what the problem was. 𝐟re𝐞w𝐞𝒃𝓃𝒐𝐯𝚎𝒍.c૦𝚖

For one, he wasn't omnipresent or omniscient, so there were limits to what he knew. He had set that dungeon aside to inspect it later, but for the time, he was enjoying himself watching the other dungeons. That was until someone familiar entered the room to disturb his rest.

"What, do you think you are doing, sir? You are yet to look into the 31st dungeon which is creating the most trouble, and instead of attending to that, which is kind of your job, you sit here and ravel in the efforts of others." His assistant said. If one didn't know better, they would mistake her to be the boss and not the messenger himself.

"What??? They are going to die anyway, so there's no difference if it just happens a little faster. And what about you? How is our guy doing in the realm of divide?"

"Uhh, didn't you say to abandon him there? I did just that, he should be dead by now anyway."

"What? That was just a joke! Why would I want to do something like that to the centre piece of the entire show!?" The messenger screamed.

"Whatever, you know I can't go there, neither can I interfere much with that place. It's simply impossible."

"Oh good lord. Just make sure to check on him and assist from time to time, just enough that he doesn't die. If he dies, you know what is install for you."

Hearing this, the lady's body shivered a little as she felt some drop of cold sweat form underneath her garment.

'The last thing I need is that. I have to do whatever I can now, if not...' She said in her mind with tearful eyes and memories of the last punishment.

"Just go away, shouldn't you be resting by now? There's a lot of work to be done tomorrow, so go." The messenger said.

"Just remember to look at that dungeon."

"Ahhh, whatever. It's not like it's my job to begin with. If only those greedy bastards didn't refuse to send the examiners, I wouldn't be doing this tedious job." The messenger said.

..

Back in the dungeon, the willow group had managed to advance through to the eleventh level of the dungeon, and here they just had to slow down a bit and rest as the monsters were constantly getting stronger and stronger, and the battles were getting intense by every level.

The eleventh level was something of a safe zone, so there were no monsters in this floor, just people thinking of rubbing the other person closest to them for the most part. Raven and the others made it towards a more isolated part of the floor where they rested in and relaxed a bit. After resting for a bit, they brought out the monster cores they had acquired from killing the monsters from the previous levels. Because of the constant battles and having to always be on guard, they had not been able to utilize the the cores and suck out their energy, so they were going to spend as much time here and do just that.

Raven shared the cores around to everyone, with each person having an unequal amount, not corresponding to contribution, but to potential to help the most in the coming fights. Mizu got the most, followed by Aria, then Kim. Raven herself took the least as she was the strongest among them, so even though she added the cores Aria and Kim got, it wouldn't do much of a difference to boost her strength.

They set the cores around them and sat in its midst, then they began performing a set of breathing techniques, like a meditation session. Slowly, after a while, certain tiny dust sized particles of light began coming off from the core and entering their bodies, until the illumination and colour the core had had completely faded and the core was made into a useless white crystal ball.

Normally, when people want to absorb the crystal's energy, they would only need to crush the crystal, and automatically, the energy would flow towards them. All they had to do was give a bit of direction, and the energy would follow the natural course.

The problem with the normal method is that it is very inefficient. The purpose here is to absorb the energy contained in the crystal, and after doing that, the person would have to sit somewhere to properly absorb the energy, which is done usually by sleeping. The normal method wastes this energy, and only about 30% of the entire energy is absorbed. The method also forces the energy into their bodies, damaging them in the long run. Most people don't rest and allow the new energy within their body to assimilate with the pre-existing one, and that can also lead to long term problems.

The method Mizu and the others are using is a more stable and efficient method. Though not the most efficient, it guides the energy through a safe path of entry into the body and is able to help the user retain 45% of the energy. After that, the energy is hastened to assimilate with their bodies own energy through the same technique, eliminating the need for them to sleep first.

.

"Alright, I'll stand watch while you guys do your stuff. Hopefully no one comes after use. That'll just be stressful." Raven said, as she walked off.

..

Somewhere in another dungeon, the genan group had passed the eleventh floor and was now in the thirteenth. They possessed plenty members, and with all of them being strong, they were able to clear each level faster than others and take care of monsters fairly easily too.

.

"Alright! Lets rest here for a bit before we continue onward! From this point on, there won't be any breaks for a while."