It was hungry.
It repeatedly devoured and devoured again to satisfy its hunger.
But even so, the emptiness was never filled.
Kiruk.
The shadow cried. It lay dormant in the deep, deep darkness, waiting for the day when it could finally satiate its hunger.
Taesan checked his equipment one by one.
Wrist guards, armor, shoes, helmet. Each boasted impressive performance that made him want to buy them all. Taesan suppressed his desire.
He could only afford one item for now unless he gathered more gold. He needed to be careful.
After regaining his composure and reviewing the equipment, he came to a realization.
[Shoes of Concealment from the Deep]
[Defense +500]
[Movement Speed +10%]
[For 10 seconds, you can hide deep within the shadows and become immune to all effects, but you cannot move. You can emerge whenever you wish, but there is a one-hour cooldown after use.]
[650,000G]
Shoes that made you invincible for 10 seconds. Since you could emerge whenever you wanted, there was no risk of being discovered by your opponent.
You could use them to dodge a deadly attack or hide and wait for an opening—versatile shoes indeed.
However, perhaps due to their powerful special effect, the stats were relatively lacking.
It wasn’t just the shoes.
[Ring of the Sealed Balrog]
[Mana +100]
[Attack +50]
[Defense +50]
[You can summon the sealed Balrog. Once summoned, the Balrog obeys no commands and attempts to destroy everything. If it receives a certain amount of damage, it will be resealed in the ring and can be summoned again after a week.]
[500,000G]
Balrog.
When Taesan first encountered it, Hafran had summoned the Balrog to test him.
A demonic beast from the depths, rivaling a dragon.
The ability to summon such a creature was certainly impressive.
But the stats of the ring itself were pathetic.
Even compared to the equipment Taesan had found in the middle depths, it was lacking.
After reviewing other equipment, Taesan confirmed his conclusion.
Either the stats were overwhelmingly high,
Or the stats were decent, but the item had special abilities,
Or the stats were low, but it had an exceptionally powerful special ability.
These were the three types of equipment available here.
“Is this the best equipment I can get here?”
“No way. This is just the entrance to the depths. As you go deeper, you’ll find much better gear,”
Since this was just the beginning of the depths, it seemed impossible to find perfect gear here.
So what should he get?
Taesan pondered.
Honestly, it didn’t matter much what he bought. None of the equipment seemed particularly outstanding. This only made his headache worse.
As Taesan continued to review the equipment, he sorted out his thoughts.
What was he lacking?
It wasn’t defense. He had Aegis Shield, Attack Nullification, Endurance, and Destruction’s Greed. He had plenty of skills to block and eliminate attacks.
With Absolute Judgment, he could erase the opponent’s defenses, and with Skill Acceleration, he could close in instantly.
He even had Limited Blink, so movement wasn’t an issue either.
His attack power wasn’t low either, thanks to the Airak Martial technique.
Taesan reached a conclusion.
What he lacked now wasn’t anything else.
It was the power to break through all of the enemy’s pressure and push forward.
With his mind clear, Taesan quickly reviewed the equipment.
Since he had already decided what to buy, his movements were swift.
In the end, Taesan found a pair of gauntlets.
[Gauntlets of Constant Amplification]
[Attack +500]
[Magic +300]
[Black Magic +30]
[Mana +500]
[Dark Energy +100]
[These gauntlets were crafted by an unnamed archmage over a lifetime. The magical design and materials imbued within it possess the ability to amplify power to its maximum.]
[Once every 10 minutes, you can activate ‘Forced Amplification.’]
[Forced Amplification]
[Increases the consumption of mana and dark energy for skills, drastically enhancing their power.]
[600,000G]
“May I try them?”
“Do as you wish,”
Taesan wore the gauntlets and gathered mana.
A frozen world unfolded, scattering cold air in all directions.
Taesan clenched his fists with the gauntlets on.
[You have activated ‘Forced Amplification’.]
His mana drained even faster.
Moreover, it was a rather unique monster.
The shadow wasn’t trying to kill Taesan.
It was trying to devour him and make him part of itself.
“Was it like this for you too?”
[No? Mine was a bit different. Seems like they've changed the floor again.]
“So that’s how it is.”
At that moment, Taesan’s senses detected more shadows writhing and rushing toward him.
Taesan stomped his foot. He leaped into the air, and the shadows shot up after him.
More than ten shadows were charging at Taesan.
[You have activated Frozen World.]
[You have activated Forced Amplification.]
Zzeojeojeojeong!
The extreme cold froze the darkness. The charging shadows were instantly trapped in ice.
The power of the Frozen World that Taesan had unleashed now was something even the top brass would have a hard time with. There was no way the foundation monsters could withstand it.
Creak.
However, the shadows didn’t die.
Instead, they shattered the ice encasing them and resumed their charge at Taesan.
There was no killing intent in them.
Only greed could be seen.
Crack!
The ice broke apart. The shadows, with their broken bodies, flew toward Taesan, trying to swallow him again.
But Taesan wasn’t idle. Black threads gathered in his hands.
[You have activated Sabnac’s Black Threads.]
[You have activated Limited Blink.]
As the black threads exploded, Taesan’s body moved far away in an instant.
The shadows were shredded by the scattering black threads and fell to pieces.
Taesan charged at the shadows that had collapsed to the ground.
[You have activated Starlight Arrow.]
Combining magic and his sword, he began dealing with them one by one. After quite some time, he managed to deal with all ten shadows.
[Your level has increased.]
[Your Soul Ascension has activated. The proficiency of the Seed of Life has increased by 2%.]
Level up. Along with it, the skill of the immortal being that transcended mortality, which had been bestowed upon him by Zhenlong, improved as he defeated the shadows.
Taesan frowned.
He gathered dark energy. Opening a passage toward the demons, he activated black magic.
[You have activated Leraje’s Territory Detection.]
Kiiiing!
Dark energy spread in all directions.
It was swallowed up by the darkness but continued to stretch outward regardless.
As a result, Taesan understood what this place was.
The darkness was vast.
Even with Territory Detection, he couldn’t see the end.
And hidden within the darkness were countless shadows.
Gulp.
The shadows were rushing toward Taesan.
Their numbers easily surpassed hundreds.
There were thousands of shadows charging at him.
Sensing the shadows charging, Taesan spoke with determination.
“Disappear.”
[You have activated the Declaration of Concealment.]
Word of Command activated. Taesan’s presence was erased, and his momentum vanished.
For a moment, the charging shadows halted. Unable to locate Taesan, they wandered aimlessly.
Taesan walked through the darkness.
His sight was blocked, and his senses were limited, but he could still see and feel enough to move without issue.
Taesan passed by the writhing shadows.
Not sensing him with their eyes, they didn’t notice even as Taesan passed right by them, thanks to the Declaration of Concealment.
As Taesan continued forward, he stopped. Two shadows were fighting each other.
Gulp.
Their powers collided as they tried to devour one another. Taesan watched their fight silently.
The battle between the shadows, who were trying to devour each other, soon shifted in favor of one. The dominant shadow crushed its opponent and devoured it.
The power of the shadow that devoured its opponent began to amplify.
In contrast, the power of the devoured shadow shrank rapidly.
The shadow that had absorbed the power leisurely floated away, satisfied. The shadow that had lost all its strength slithered away pitifully.
‘I see how it works.’
This place was the realm of these shadows.
They tried to devour one another to steal each other’s power and attempted to devour any adventurer who ventured here, making them part of themselves.
Taesan realized the strategy for clearing this place.
The quest’s clear condition wasn’t to defeat the shadows but to break through.
Hiding and avoiding the numerous shadows and finding the passage to proceed seemed to be the key to clearing the foundation.
Though Taesan had used Word of Command, any adventurer who had made it this far would likely have at least one skill to hide themselves. Otherwise, they could just buy a related item from the shop to break through.
Of course, Taesan had no intention of clearing it that way.
As he walked through the darkness, he headed deeper into the area.