I Never Run Out of Mana - Chapter 81

Chapter 81

81 . Those Who Can Succeed Will Succeed, No Matter What They May Attempt

In the level 28 dungeon .

It’s been a long time since I’ve entered this place, but since I’ve grinded this dungeon to the point of becoming tired of it, there wasn’t any reason to be excited .

The only thing I was looking forward was the power of the transcended skill being showcased on the lizardmen .

I quickly ran to the center of the dungeon as fast as possible .

Around me, I could hear their sounds .

“KURURU!”

“KEREK!”

Following the path I took, hundreds of lizardmen showed up .

If it was for hunting, I would have ran all the way to the end of the dungeon to gather up all the monsters, so I could clear the dungeon as fast as possible .

However, I was here to test out the skill’s power, so I only gathered roughly 1/3rds of the lizardmen instead .

Then I proceeded to use my main skill, Meteor .

Before the ascension, only one meteor would exist above my head .

However, now there were three meteors when I looked above .

Taking in the sights, I couldn’t help but grin .

The meteor was giving off intense black flames eagerly, almost as if asking me to hurry up and choose the target it was going to destroy .

If that’s the case, I should definitely grant that wish .

Massive meteors struck the exact location I aimed towards .

Not one, but three .

I didn’t aim them all in one place, but instead spread it out amongst the condensed groups of lizardmen in three different places .

It didn’t seem to me that only the number of meteors increased .

I could feel the change in its destructive force .

My Mana Shield had never shaken this much before when I put such a huge distance between me and the monsters like now .

No matter how many Meteors I’ve spammed before, the flames and the shockwave never reached me .

The blast felt like it was enough to tear the earth in half .

Its destructive force consumed every bit of flesh and blood of the lizardmen .

After seeing the ruined dungeon, I was speechless .

Such destructive force with just one cast of a skill…

“Ha… . Is this… the power behind Transcendence…?”

I wasn’t concerned about the bloodstones in front of me in the slightest .

I could only keep exclaiming how insane this was .

Just like that, I stood there until the flames from Meteor Call burnt itself out .

Recovering from the shock of awe, I wanted to confirm the effect of Wild Beast on the Formless Sword Aura .

When I took a step further into the dungeon, a single lizardman popped out .

Since physical attacks didn’t work, he should receive zero damage from this .

One was enough, since I just wanted to see the effect of the skill .

-slice!

“KURAL!”

Butcher’s Sword cut directly through his body .

As expected, he didn’t take any damage, continuing to swing his halberd at me .

I didn’t stop there however, and continued to swing my sword that was covered in Formless Sword Aura until the Wild Beast skill activated .

“KURUHHH!”

“What’s that noise?”

There were no monsters that roared the Fear skill like that in this dungeon .

However, I definitely heard someone’s or something’s howl .

My inquiry didn’t last long .

As I heard the Fear skill, I could see that my body was glowing red .

On top of that, the speed at which the sword aura swung was increased to the point where it couldn’t be compared to the previous one .

That wasn’t the only thing that was surprising .

Lizardmen had 100% physical damage resistance .

As I said before, I couldn’t deal any damage to them using Formless Sword Aura .

But if that’s the case, the lizardman should still be in front of me .

Instead, where the lizardman was supposed to be, a red mist took his place .

This had occurred only in a span of seconds .

My body cooled roughly 1 min after the activation .

Wild Beast allowed me to obtain massive amounts of attack speed and power for a brief amount of time .

It seemed that Wild Beast empowered the 100% physical damage Formless Sword Aura to do magical attacks as well .

If I was able to activate Wild Beast with Formless Sword Aura during a 1v1…

They would only leave a bloody trail of mist, just like what happened to this lizardman .

****

After defeating all the monsters in the dungeon, I headed outside .

The transcended skills I tested were strong beyond my expectations .

No one but me could transcend their skills .

Even those lucky enough to obtain Essence of Transcendence, they would think of it as a defective item, using it like a decoration at best .

One could not raise his or her skill level to 200 when an individual’s mana usage was limited .

I didn’t have a method to test out the transcended Mana Shield .

After confirming the strength of these two skills, I headed home .

Following my daily routine, I stored my armor on one side of the room .

Then I proceeded to put the sword next to the drawer, and headed to the washroom to shower .

However, while I was taking a shower, I kept hearing odd noises .

Almost like the sound of sparks flying during friction between metal .

I was able to focus on the sound because of having incredible physical abilities from my stats and being an Awakened .

I felt as though the source of the sound was from my room .

It happened the moment I ended my shower faster than normal and opened the door to my room .

“… . . ”

The sight in front of me was more confusing rather than amazing, since I couldn’t understand it .

The Butcher’s Sword that I obtained and brought home had sparks flying out of it .

Was it due to the special ability the sword had?

That probably wasn’t it . The ability was to steal 5% of the butchered target .

The catch was that it only worked on humans . Awakened only, to be exact .

“How could this be hap… . Oh?”

It came to me as I looked at the dresser, wondering if it would catch on fire .

“Ah ha!”

I found out the reason why Butcher’s Sword was letting out sparks .

It was due to the blades that I obtained from slaying Joker, Asura’s Twin Blades .

No one could use these blades other than the one who obtained it .

So despite being a weapon with massive attack power, it was completely useless to me .

Perhaps if I used the side with the odd jagged claw as a kitchen knife, it might be useful .

The scene in front of me, however, was that the twin blades shoved in the corner was being evaporated into energy and seeping into the Butcher’s Sword .

I definitely confirmed it with my eyes, but I still couldn’t understand why .

Why did this happen?

Maybe it had a hidden ability to absorb the stats of all weapons?

To confirm that, I brought out a M/F ranking sword that I got from Jong Ho earlier on .

Then I proceeded to put it next to the Butcher’s Sword .

I was really hoping that it would absorb this as well .

However, there was no change to the sword .

While that was happening, the twin swords were completely absorbed, and now jagged teeth similar to that of a shark appeared on the backbone of the sword .

This was just a speculation, but the weapon it absorbed was from the Unknown Dungeon .

Perhaps weapons that lost their owners would be absorbed by other powerful weapons in order to find new masters .

I immediately used Eye of Insight on the sword .

I was extremely curious as to how much stat it had gained .

-Butcher’s Sword-

*Strength +2200+350

*Dexterity +150

*15% increased strength

*Two handed sword

*Absorbs 5% worth of stats from fallen foes

“Is it a trend for high level weapons to steal stats?”

It wasn’t a stretch to wonder so .

It had more than half the stats that Asura’s Twin Blades had added onto itself .

The addition effect of % increase for strength and dexterity wasn’t added, but to obtain 500 points of stats wasn’t anything less than a steal .

That amount of gain in stats could only be obtained via 100 level ups .

I had shoved it in the corner of the room because it was difficult to get rid of it, but to think that it would become such a boon to me .

Moments like this only confirmed the old saying that ‘those who can succeed will succeed, no matter what they may attempt . ’

“How can I sleep peacefully if things turn out like this!”

****

The next day .

Lee Ho Geun had the entire force assemble in the lobby once more .

Today was the day .

This was the first time Ghost had made the call for emergency deployment .

They were worried that a nonsensical situation like yesterday would occur again .

However, almost as if to make fun that worry, it didn’t take long for Ghost to appear .

On top of that, he was completely different from his usual looks .

A staff and a short sword was in each hand .

Armor that glowed golden covered his body .

Until now, no one had seen him equip for battle before .

Ghost had always worn stretched out T-shirts or baggy clothes in general .

His armor was always in his office .

That wasn’t all there was to it though .

His expression and even the way he walked was that of a different person .

Ghost stopped walking, and spoke with a serious expression .

“Is everyone gathered?”

To his question, vice leader Lee Ho Geun gave his report .

“Yes! All 481 . We have finished gathering everyone . ”

“Good . ”

He looked towards the 8 different squadrons of radical faction members .

Due to his fierce expression, none could even swallow their spit, continuing to stand at attention .

The brief silence was broken by him continuing on .

“We are taking this path to Paju . ”

“Yes! Leader!”

“Yes! Leader!”

The lobby was filled with the sound of hundreds of radical faction members sounding off .

The scene was similar to that of soldiers receiving their orders for deployment .

When the ringing of sound had stopped, he spoke .

“The opponent is a single person . But you cannot underestimate him due to that . I hope you can understand that well, seeing how I’m mobilizing everyone, nearing 500 members . ”

“… . ”

“Please give us your orders, leader!”

“Current time is 13:00 . 2nd meetup location is Paju . Assemble at 20:00 . Do not use Warp . During the next 7 hours, each squad is to arrive there without drawing attention . We stake out the 2nd location from 1km away . Dismissed . ”

Giving a short, simple, and clear order, Ghost left the building .

Each squadron leader also moved out in sync .

Just like that, a mission that was their first and what could be their last began .

****

It’s been a while since I visited the level 34 dungeon located in Paju with Jong Ho and Ho Jin .

It was to show them the transcended skills and to put them in the Balrok ring .

They said that they were already going through the level 23 hunting grounds to defeat ghouls .

Only 3 weeks ago, these guys were hunting at the level 13 dungeon in a 6 man group .

It was almost enough to wonder if this is what people meant when they mentioned about turning around their life .

I hunted for two hours with them after they had visited me at 6pm .

I didn’t mind at all, but I had to drag these two along, who kept saying that they felt bad and wanted to go home .

In between the runs, I kept charging up the ring .

“Hyung-nims . The rings are done charging . You can use without worry . ”

“Hm… It would be great if shields could be put in there too . What a shame . ”

“I know right . I don’t know why only attack skills can be put in . ”

Even while the two complained about the ring, they had smiles on their faces .

“Ah! From now on, you must use defensive skills when you use Meteor . ”

“Oh, I got it . When we saw it before, we could tell it wasn’t something to joke about . ”

“Thank you for doing this every time for us, Mr . Min-Cheol . ”

“No need to thank me . You two should get going . I’ll see you two out up to here . ”

It happened when I was trying to escort them out from the dungeon entrance .

-shrrrkk

“C… Crazy . What is this!”

“KUHAAA!”