Chapter 548: Mana Circulation
"Huh? I learnt a new skill...?" Just as Scaly found herself starting to fall asleep after finding observation of the dungeon core far more boring than she had originally anticipated upon plopping herself down next to Verdell who had fully concentrated on grasping the flow of mana around the dungeon core, the little dwarf in question suddenly let out a surprised exclamation that caught her somewhat off guard.
Not the fact that he had suddenly claimed to have learnt a skill, but instead because his voice was rather loud and had startled her out of her half-asleep state.
Although, after she was fully awake, she quickly realized what the little dwarf had just said and curiously shifted her large head towards him. Showing a clear look of wanting him to explain. After all, he had just learnt a new skill out of the blue just from observing the dungeon core. If possible, she wanted to learn this skill as well. Especially given how the name of the skill clearly showed that it was related to mana. Maybe even something that would help improve the speed of her mana recovery.
"Hm? Want me to explain...? Didn’t you get the skill as well? From the brief knowledge about it that flowed into my head when I learnt it, just observing the dungeon core should have been enough to learn this skill..."
But faced with her questioning look, Verdell didn’t explain outright but instead showed a confused expression on his own that made it clear that he thought she had also ended up learning the skill given how it only required someone to observe a dungeon core in the process of developing a dungeon core for long enough to obtain.
"..."
Not wanting to admit she had almost ended up falling asleep after finding it too boring to stare at the glowing dungeon core out in the open a few thousand meters away from the cave opening where they were hidden, Scaly silently pretended nothing had happened and shifted her attention back towards the dungeon core she hadn’t bothered staring at after the first few minutes since their emergence from the cave.
"Hm? Ah... My bad, I guess I startled you being a bit loud earlier, I will make sure to stay a bit more silent. Don’t want to attract any monsters hidden within the tall grass close to the dungeon core. After all, the few I’ve spotted so far are all at least of the S Rank, with a few even looking to have reached the SS Rank moving around right next to the dungeon core..." Misunderstanding Scaly’s earlier glance and quick refocus towards the dungeon core in the distance for her warning him to not cause a commotion and accidentally attract trouble, Verdell quietly lowered his voice and appoligized to her before focusing his attention back on the dungeon core in the distance.
Clearly, even though he had already obtained the mana circulation skill, he still wanted to continue observing the dungeon core in the distance. Having also learnt that continuing observation of a dungeon core in the process of developing a dungeon floor could improve the level of the mana circulation skill.
And given the sheer difficulty of improving this kind of skill on his own, it was clear he didn’t want to lose the chance to improve it as much as possible now that such a golden opportunity had presented itself before him.
Scaly was of course unaware of any of this, as she was instead silently lamenting the fact that she had ended up wasting so much time and potentially missed out on a unique skill she wouldn’t ever be able to get her hands on in the future unless she ended encountering another situation similar to the one she currently found herself in, something that was incredibly unlikely given just how rare dungeon expansion was in the first place and how little time it took. Giving someone outside the dungeon expanding little to no time to reach the dungeon undergoing expansion in time. Not to mention the increased difficulty of descending the dungeon during such a situation if someone else was already on the lower floors of the dungeon and had caused the normal passages down to close.
Luckily, Verdell had reminded her in time, as after another half hour, she managed to successfully acquire the mana circulation skill.
[Obtained Unique Skill [Mana Circulation, lvl 1] from observing the mana flow around a developing dungeon core.]
The notification that jumped into view upon obtaining this skill was also special compared to how she had acquired skills in the past. Directly calling it a unique skill. Empathizing just how special it was. Not hesitating for a second as she decided to inspect this new unique skill of hers.
[Mana Circulation, lvl 1]: Observed the majestic flow of mana circulating around a dungeon core in the process of developing a brand-new dungeon floor. Allowing you to glimpse some fundamental truths regarding the movement of mana. Increases natural mana recovery speed, +1 M per level.
Just looking through the description of this new skill of hers, Scaly felt a sense of overwhelming joy. Finding out that this unique skill didn’t just increase her mana recovery speed like she had originally predicted it to do, but instead also increased her base magic stat she gained for every level.
Even if it was only by one, the excited shivering and muttering of the dwarf beside her a few minutes earlier made it clear that continued observation of the developing dungeon core would allow one to increase the level of the mana circulation skill.
In other words, if she continued observing the dungeon core, there was a very real chance that this new unique skill might directly surpass the bonus stats her dragon bloodline skill provided every time she leveled up, something that caused her to feel a sense of growing excitement looking towards the large dungeon core in the distance and at the same time also made her give up any thought of descending back down into the underground world before the development of the dungeon core’s new floor came to an end.
After all, this kind of unique skill was of immense use to her not just now at her current evolution, but beyond it as well.
Who knew, this kind of unique skill might be similar to her dragon bloodline skill and would allow her to unlock new and even stronger evolutions in the future once she reached level 50 and the time for her next evolution came.
The thought of this alone was more than enough for her to halt any hunting down of monsters and instead wholeheartedly dedicate herself to joining Verdell in becoming a solemn monk seeking enlightenment from the big glowing ball in the distance.
To the point that even when a monster got close enough for her to easily sweep it up with ease without alerting any nearby monsters, she decided to ignore it and allow it to peacefully pass by without noticing them. Fearful that even a slight lapse in her observation of the dungeon core would be the deciding factor between her increasing the level of her mana circulation skill one more time and failing to advance it.
In the end, as the minutes slowly turned into hours, the development of the ninth floor that looked like it wouldn’t ever come to an end slowly began reaching the end with the overall scope of the ninth floor of the dungeon having already been created and mapped out properly by the dungeon core and only the few finer details needing to be perfected before the ninth floor could be considered to be completed.
In turn, during the final inspection of the dungeon core as it swept through several unfished projects whose exterior was the only thing that had been completed, it found several of its painfully crafted exterior monster strongholds covered in blood and littered with corpses. The aftermath of an angry Scaly who hadn’t found what she had been looking for once she entered said monster strongholds.
This sudden cleanup it found itself forced to go through ended up delaying the overall completion of the ninth floor and at the same time also ended up pissing off the dungeon core to the point where it did a direct sweep over several parts of the ninth floor. Finding several hidden necromancers throughout the ninth floor of the dungeon that ended up suffering from the wrath of the dungeon floor that believed these stove away necromancers to be the ones behind the chaos and destruction of its perfectly fine monster strongholds.
Even if this ended up tapping into its reserves and required far more effort to do compared to it killing the mist serpent from earlier, it didn’t care the slightest bit about this and was more than happy to expend a bit of its resources to satiate its anger before offically completing the ninth floor of the dungeon and moving on to hiding itself away from those stronger figures it hadn’t been able to find and knew were still hiding somewhere on the ninth floor.