Chapter 74 Machnam

The little humanoid beast was out of the ordinary, and something Nial had never even heard of before.

Machnam beasts were rare, and so were their dungeons.

As such, Nial thought that the information available about them was simply too little to understand everything thoroughly.

This reassured him that everything might be normal, even if it didn't look like this.

Facing the other Machnam beasts that were right beside him, Nial quickly made use of his enhanced senses to perceive and evade the attacks that were about to hit him.

Most of the beasts around him fought without any grand attack patterns which he would have to be careful of.

Only the bipedal Machnam was a little bit different because it kept throwing a portion of the brains of its own kind at him.

But what Nial understood a second later was that the Machnam didn't attack him directly.

Instead, it attempted to restrict his movements with the blazing brain clumps.

This worked relatively well in favor of the bipedal Machnam, or so it thought.

Nial seemed to be struggling to evade the attacks of the other Machnam beasts while doing exactly the same with the blazing metal brain clumps.

In reality, Nial's issue was not to evade the attacks but to keep his focus on the beasts, because the information his senses received overwhelmed him.

It was extremely burdensome, and to the extent that he was unable to move his body properly.

When the beasts roared out, his body twitched and he felt as if he had frozen on the spot.

This was how distracting the sounds, smells, and vibrations that reached him were.

In fact, the physical attacks of the beasts were not even half as problematic as their unintentional attacks on his senses.

As such, it was Nial's fortune that the beasts in front of him were a little dumb to understand why he was struggling to evade the attacks.

Having that advantage, he was able to hack and slash with the Viper spear, ending the life of a few Machnam beasts while they attacked him relentlessly.

The pressure that weighed on him was much greater than he expected it to be in such a low-ranked dungeon that had a density similar to the mana fluctuations of the permanent slime dungeon.

Because of that, Nial was barely able to hide his smile as he felt how advantageous the current situation was to the process of his adjustment.

It was simply perfect, even if he sustained a few light burns owing to the Machnam beasts' claws that grazed at his shirt and legs.

However, that was all they could reach.

As the beasts were unable to touch him, they grew desperate to attack him, and even the bipedal Machnam couldn't help but feel restless.

He was killing its kind, causing rage to accumulate within the small bipedal being that began to control a total of four metal brain clumps at once.

The Machnam ignited them, and flames erupted all around the clumps, turning them into little balls of inferno that were burning at a searing hot temperature.

Aiming at Nial, the Machnam threw them at him, who perceived everything with extreme precision.

After slowly getting a hang of his senses, he evaded the attacks, though he missed them by a hair's breadth.

Afterward, it was almost as if his senses had completely calmed down, giving Nial the feeling that he could control them.

Owing to this, he was able to kill the remaining Machnam beasts that surrounded him in a loose circle, smoothly depriving them of their life force as he thrust, slashed, and cleaved at them.

Nial attacked them viciously, and it took him only two minutes to finish off the last beast, leaving him and the bipedal Machnam alone.

It was staring at him furiously, its body shaking in wrath. Nial could clearly feel this, however, that didn't matter because it would die anyway.

As such, he charged at it, piercing out with the Viper spear.

But before he was able to reach the Machnam, Nial's senses began to riot once again, providing him with intel he couldn't grasp.

There were so many detailed pieces of information, yet only so little time to process them.

However, even though he was unable to clearly understand what was going on, Nial realized that he was in danger.

With that in mind, he abruptly halted his steps that almost broke his ankles before he pushed himself to the left, making him land on the ground.

Just a moment later, he heard the crackling sound of flames flaring up, and his mana perception allowed him to visualize a circle of searing hot flames that had erupted from the ground.

This caused him to frown, and only after he sensed that the bipedal Machnam had done this, did Nial realize what was going on.

'Did it try to make me believe that it could only ignite the metal clumps? Was that some sort of trap?'

Nial was not exactly sure, but he knew that the bipedal Machnam had created the blazing circle.

As such, Nial wondered what kind of reason it had for not attacking him with fireballs or something similar to that.

What he didn't know was that the bipedal Machnam was simply unable to maintain a specific shape with its fire affinity.

It could only create flames at any place it wanted. The longer the distance of the place it wanted to make the flames appear was, the higher the mana consumption.

Thus, it used its racial ability to control the metal brains of its brethren as a means to attack its foes.

What use would they have of their brains after dying, to begin with!

The bipedal Machnam was under the impression that his attacks would curtail Nial but it only stared in shock as Nial evaded its trap, the blazing circle.

It should have burned Nial to cinder, but it only drained the last reserves of the bipedal Machnam.

Because of that, it was possible for Nial to initiate his second attack, the moment he jumped up from the ground.

In a matter of seconds, the Viper spear pierced through the bipedal Machnam's throat, only for Nial to release the spear's side-blade, ending the beast's life for good.

A moment later the beast turned into an origin crystal.

Only Nial was left behind, standing in the searing hot plains all alone. If he were to see his surroundings with exceptional clarity, he wouldn't be able to take his time to breathe and collect the precious corpses of the Machnam beasts.

Instead, he would be afraid of being forced to face the eruption of a volcano, just like the one that was erupting far away from him.

It would take a while before he would be affected by it in any way, and everything looked surreal as if someone was creating a high-quality illusion in front of Nial.

However, all of this was useless because Nial was not able to see it either way.

As such, illusions wouldn't affect his mind, to begin with.

Being able to relax a little after the fight was over, Nial took a few deep breaths of air.

He had just experienced how dangerous it was to fight more than twenty beasts at the same time, even more so because his condition was critical, to put it lightly.

Calling himself stupid was not enough, but being foolish or dumb was not something new for him.

He was just doing what he thought to be correct, and even if it was wrong, the experience he would gather through his mistakes was essential.

Only through mistakes could one grow at a much faster speed because one would realize what was important and what to discard.

The same was something Nial had just faced, with the sole difference that he had lost his family before he could truly realize how important they were to him.

It was great to know that his sister was likely to be healed and that his parents were probably alive too.

However, it was the uncertainty that made him restless, which was something he couldn't stand.

Thus, becoming stronger in the fastest possible way was the most important, even if the ways he would improve were to be a bit reckless and dangerous.

As long as he believed himself to walk on the correct path, everything was fine.

Once that was not the case anymore, Nial would have to think of a different solution, which was, fortunately, not the case yet!

By attempting to stay optimistic, Nial decided to conquer the entire dungeon by facing all Machnam beasts, earning a huge fortune while adjusting himself to his senses.

He was excited to figure out how powerful he would be once his senses were to be under his full control, which included his mana perception.

There was a lot for him to do, and after he adjusted himself to the changes caused by the curse, would the real progress start.

After all, his physique was still too weak, even after the enhancements.

However, his physical strength was not the issue but his constitution and the fact that his muscles, and physique were not trained.

He was not skinny, but at the same time, Nial didn't really have a muscular or athletic body, which was something he wanted to change in order to make use of every single muscle in his body.

If Nial wanted to release his entire combat prowess, he required more strength, and that was something he could only do by giving his utmost efforts in every possible subject…including studying.

Sighing deeply when he realized that there was a lot on his plate, Nial gave a wry chuckle.

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, he decided to distract himself by conquering the dungeon.

He didn't know when the others would arrive, and the moment the military arrived to examine the dungeon, they would declare that the dungeon was not dangerous.

Simultaneously, they would start conquering it because every single body part of Machnam beasts was precious and quite rare.

Thus, Nial had to hurry up.

Wielding the Viper spear smoothly, he was able to release his tension real quick.

This was one of the few unsolved mysteries for him.

Moving the Viper spear all around his body and wielding it oddly calmed him, releasing the tension coiled in his muscles.

Whether this was because of the distraction or because the Viper spear sometimes felt like the extension of his arm, Nial didn't know.

What he knew for certain was that he felt at ease with his weapon, which was the most important for him.

Thus, while running through the dungeon that was overflowing with vein-like streams of magma, Nial was adeptly wielding the Viper spear, improving the way in which he practiced accurately controlling his weapon of choice.

While searching for the Boss Monster he was looking out for groups of Machnam beast groups that he wanted to finish off, but unfortunately, there were not that many for him to find.

The groups he found were mostly spread out and relatively small in number.

However, this was perfectly fine for his goal, and only when he encountered a three-meter tall golem that towered at a far greater height as it stood on a small hill, did Nial lick his dry lips.

"That's unexpected…but how could I complain about playing David against Goliath?!"