Chapter 5

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

At a height of more than a hundred meters, it would take more than 10 people to hug it. But even such a huge tree trunk had holes of different sizes like scars on a giant’s body.

Kane sat in the hollow of the giant tree, slowly recovering his strength. Knowing that the monsters in the dungeon might drop their equipment, his hunter’s heart began to race.

As he knew that these humanoid plants were extremely easy to ignite, he would carry out a focused massacre.

Including the plant that he had killed when he first came into the dungeon, he had already killed 25 of them. Surprisingly, there were also three elite monsters that could shoot arrows.

Fortunately, Kane was prepared to encounter special individuals when the hunt began. He cremated these humanoid plants without incident.

While hunting, he also ascertained the characteristics of the equipment dropped by the monsters in the dungeon. Except for the initial bracers, only one long-range elite monster had dropped a piece of equipment. The rest left behind crystal cores. However, the cores could charge the magic stones, so it was not an exaggeration to say that these humanoid plants were moving treasures.

He raised his hand to look at the gloves with simple floral patterns. This was a new piece of magic equipment he had acquired.

[Giant Wooden Fists]

[Leather gloves]

[Color: Copper]

[Attributes]

[Elementary Strength Upgrade—Palm]

[Minor Fire Resistance—Palm]

[Introduction: These were originally just ordinary deerskin gloves. With the blessing of a giant tree, it shed its ordinariness.]

With this gear, it was no longer difficult for Kane to do a triple jump.

He waved away the introduction.

Then he took out the dried venison he had prepared in the cloth bag, took a mouthful of jerky and a mouthful of water, and began to recover his strength quietly.

The hunt for the wolves had left Kane with little in the way of food, and the dungeon didn’t have much to offer. Except for the forest of giant trees and a narrow ring of plains around it, the rest of the place was closed off by fog.

After the enthusiasm for gaining equipment faded, food was something Kane had to consider.

There were only all kinds of humanoid plants in the forest. There were no signs of animals or even half-eaten plants.

Therefore, he had to find a way out in the shortest time possible. Otherwise, he would very likely starve to death here.

With his half-baked knowledge of the dungeon, Kane was clueless. He could only act on the understanding he’d gained from previous dungeons he’d explored in the games he played. He had to defeat the leader at the mouth of a pass, find a way to cross the pass, obtain a key item or make some kind of advancement on the progress bar

These were all Kane could think of doing, so he turned on his Eagle Eyes as he hunted, not letting go of any magic that was different in shape.

Every so often, he had to find a place to rest and recover his strength, his magic.

… .

Having recovered some of his magic, Kane crawled out of a tree hole.

The urgency of food prevented him from wasting his energy on cremating the humanoid plants.

Pure white, tough spider silk shot out of his wrists and connected to the canopy a hundred meters above the ground. He used the spider silk to swing between the giant trees. The towering trees and the sparseness between them allowed him to look for anomalies quickly without alerting the humanoid plants.

The rush of air across his cheeks was biting but not cold. The faint scent of trees hung in the air, making him uncomfortable.

The deeper he went into the forest, the more such contradictory experiences he had.

And fewer and fewer humanoid plants were wandering around.

Something caught his eye. Kane stopped at a branch, his eagle eyes fixed on a dead, twisted tree in the clearing ahead.

The crooked deadwood stood out among the straight, healthy trees, not to mention the huge copper-colored mass of magic hidden inside it.

There were no humanoid plants wandering around. With their sharp senses, they instinctively avoided this place.

A faint emerald glow floated on the ground around the deadwood, giving one a sense of exuberant joy.

Harmony and strangeness.

And the moment Kane saw the dead tree, the fog sent him a message. After his first experience, he didn’t panic this time.

The message indicated that as long as Kane killed the monster in the deadwood, the exploration would be successful. He would receive the first reward from the fog. Of course, he could give up now and still go back, but he would lose the first qualification.

Kane breathed a sigh of relief. Now that he had an escape route, there was no reason to give up without trying.

However, there was no hurry. The magic power provided by the 23 core crystals of Valdry was about to fill the next magic stone. He only needed to kill three or four more humanoid plants.

At that time, after extracting new skills and recovering his strength, it wouldn’t be too late for him to come back and attack the dungeon.

Kane didn’t hesitate as he quickly retraced his steps.

Along the way, he hunted a few humanoid plants. The cores that they dropped filled his hands with copper-colored magic stones.

Back to the tree hole where he had rested.

He stood at the entrance of the tree hole and looked around. Then he used spider silk to weave a net and spread it around, forming a warning net for resting.

Satisfied with his work, Kane clapped his hands together so he could rest.

He crawled into the tree hole and sealed the hole with spider silk. Then he weaved a spider web in midair and lay down. He let out a satisfied voice. “I’m becoming more and more like a spider demon.”

He summoned the system.

The huge ancient book condensed in the air. He opened the Book of Adventure and pressed the skill-extraction array.

[Extraction Skill]

[Do you want to extract the Bronze Magic Stone Skill?]

[Yes] [No]

“Yes.”

[Skill extraction in progress…]

The circle turned slowly. The magic stone disappeared from Kane’s hand, and a glowing piece of stone appeared.

[Name: Material Change—Steel]

[Type: Active Skill]

[Color: Copper]

[Description: It takes magic power to change the material of an object into steel. The change of material and duration of the hardening depends on the amount of magic power, but there is a certain upper limit to the quality of material.]

[Introduction: The Lexhorn spell researcher says thus: “A steel rod may cost more than 10 gold coins, while a stick may cost only 10 copper coins. You know what to choose, don’t you?”]

Turn objects into steel?

Kane dragged the skill stone into the remaining skill slot he had, and was instantly gratified when he saw that all the skill slots were filled.

Kane looked at the Skills page.

[Skill slot 1: Eagle Eye]

[Skill slot 2: Spider Nest Weaver]

[Skill slot 3: Material Change—Steel]

[Skills Inventory: Empty]

It was officially the first step toward power.

Kane drew an arrow from his quiver and ‘changed the material’ with his left hand toward the shaft. The pale blue flow of magic gently attached itself to the shaft, and gradually, the metallic sheen of steelwork appeared on the wooden shaft.

After studying the arrow as it changed from wood to steel, he placed it on one hand and felt the change in weight. He was amazed that the change in material did not affect the original weight, but he could give it the weight of steel.

Whether the change in material affected the original weight was up to Kane.

He pushed with both hands, trying to fold the arrow in half. The power boost from the equipment slowly bent the arrow.

Such hardness was very satisfactory, not to mention that it would not affect the weight.

Kane was getting more and more satisfied with this skill. Now he would see how long the lowest magic consumption could last.

It took about five minutes for the arrow to slowly change back into the wooden structure.

With the ability to change matter without increasing weight, coupled with such low magic consumption, Kane began to build an effective fighting style in his head based on the three skills he now had.

And the huge monster in the dead wood would put this fighting style to the test.