Chapter 248: Satori Essence, Delving into Dragon Hunting

Chapter 248: Chapter 248: Satori Essence, Delving into Dragon Hunting

He kept up the frantic parkour, leading the pack of monsters on a wild chase.

About ten thrilling and nerve-wracking minutes passed.

Lance confirmed that the Demon-attracting Crown Aura had long since dissipated after he’d left combat.

Only then did he lead the group of Demons on a large loop through the tunnels, shaking them off for good.

Afterward, he expertly navigated his way back, running along their original path to the deep pit where they’d started, all while still carrying Nieve.

After all, the place was littered with incredible loot, and he wasn’t about to let all that literal treasure go to waste.

Nieve, still slung over his shoulder, had stopped bawling her eyes out.

But she had become unnervingly still, as motionless as a soulless wooden doll.

Back in the safe area at the bottom of the deep pit, Lance carefully set Nieve down from his shoulder.

To Lance’s complete surprise, the moment her feet touched the ground, she stared at him and her first words were:

"Snow Ladies don’t feel pain."

Seeing her dead-serious expression, Lance had to stifle a laugh. ’Looks like she was embarrassed about bawling her eyes out and is trying to save face.’

If it weren’t for the tell-tale tear stains at the corners of her eyes and her rabbit-red rims, Lance might have actually believed her...

But Lance saw right through her and, being considerate, decided not to call her out.

He turned away and, with eyes gleaming, began to gather the loot scattered all over the ground.

The haul here was so massive it made him grin from ear to ear.

There were over sixty Magic Energy Crystals (Small) alone.

He pulled out the leather pouch at his waist and filled it more than halfway.

On the Black Market, each Magic Energy Crystal was worth about one Silver Coin, making these sixty-odd crystals a considerable fortune.

The only shame was the Bomb Goblins.

He’d had no time to hold back during the fight.

Every explosive he’d managed to seize had been immediately used as a thrown weapon against other Demons, so he hadn’t managed to build up a stockpile.

Besides the crystals, the ground was also covered in valuable monster materials.

Lance mentally calculated his backpack’s capacity. He planned to see how many high-value materials he could carry; once he was full, he’d head straight back to the camp’s market and exchange them for cash.

After just over two hours of insane monster grinding, Lance estimated his net profit for the day could now be measured in Gold Coins.

’So satisfying!’

This was way more efficient than taking on low-level commissions outside.

However, these material gains were just the most ordinary part of his haul.

The part that truly made him ecstatic came next.

He checked the system’s battle summary panel.

In just a few short hours, he had killed a total of 43 Sound Wing Beasts, 36 Rusted Iron Slimes, 43 Blind-Eyed Crystal Lizards, and 22 venomous Rust Jaw Centipedes.

As for the other Non-Professional Level Ghouls and Mine Kobolds, he’d killed at least 150 of them combined.

He’d also taken care of over 70 Bomb Goblins along the way.

He made a quick mental calculation. ’At this rate, if I grind this hard for another day, I should be able to get the Illustrated Guides for several Non-Professional Level Demons straight to Level 4. Then I’ll be able to draw new Talent rewards.’

As for his experience points:

[Main Profession: Pale Guard Level 1 (2091/5000)]

This monster wave today had earned him over 2,000 experience points directly.

The progress bar had shot forward by a huge chunk.

After checking his personal stats, Lance closed his eyes and focused, sensing the Underground City’s Crown rankings.

Two massive Obsidian Stone Slabs, with leaderboards written in flowing, scorching magma, appeared clearly in his mind.

From today’s session, he had harvested a whopping 3,400 Crown Value.

This absurd number sent him skyrocketing into the top 200 of the individual rankings.

Keep in mind, the Lone Wolf Adventurers ranked ahead of him were mostly seasoned veterans who had entered the second area early and had been grinding here day and night for a full week.

Lance was absolutely confident. At this grinding efficiency, he’d be able to break securely into the top 100 in just a few more days.

After all, in the Underground City, ordinary Lone Wolf Adventurers were severely affected by the high-pressure modifiers.

In particular, the effects of Recovery Potions would gradually diminish over prolonged combat.

If they were injured or ran out of stamina during a fight, they couldn’t recover effectively.

They were forced to disengage from combat, find a safe corner, and slowly chug potions to recover.

This start-and-stop pace made it nearly impossible to stack up layers of the Crown Buff.

Since they couldn’t stack their buffs high, their rate of point acquisition was naturally much slower than Lance’s.

However, when Lance’s gaze shifted to the top ten on the individual rankings, he raised an eyebrow.

Although names on the individual leaderboard were not public this early in the Summer Crown, their Crown Values were visible.

The Crown Values of the top ten were absurdly high, displaying a completely different tier of dominance.

He recalled what Bazzer had told him last night.

The Crown titles for ranks 10 through 50 were all mass-produced, randomly assigned by the Underground City.

Only the true powerhouses who broke into the top 10 on pure strength and accomplished spectacular feats during the Summer Crown would have the Underground City’s will tailor-make and bestow upon them a sufficiently unique High-Tier title based on their specific performance.

These custom-made titles were incredibly prestigious.

Moreover, the higher the rank, the more attention one received from the Underground City, and the more perfectly the title would suit them.

At the thought of the Underground City’s attention, Lance’s expression turned a little strange.

Every time he used Protection to forcibly seize the Goblins’ inferior explosives, the system would pop up a warning that he had drawn the attention of the Underground City’s will.

He had seized them dozens of times in just the last few hours.

’I wonder if the Underground City’s will is going to get angry if I seize these shoddy explosives a hundred times.’

As Lance continued to scavenge useful materials from the ground, he remembered something important.

’When I killed that Elite Blind-Eyed Crystal Lizard earlier, didn’t something unknown enter my body?’

He quickly closed his eyes to feel for it.

He discovered two glowing crystals drifting erratically within his Ethereal Melting Furnace, carried by the tides of Energy.

One was the Zelos Skill Distillation Fragment he had obtained from a previous commission. It was used to directly upgrade existing Specialties, allowing one to skip the tedious learning process and jump straight to an Advanced Specialization within the same skill tree.

However, even upgrading an Ordinary Specialty required a full 10 fragments.

He had heard before that Elite Demons in the Underground City could drop these.

But the other crystal that had dropped today clearly radiated a completely different aura from a Skill Distillation Fragment.

Lance focused his consciousness on it.

Information about the unknown crystal instantly flooded his mind.

He immediately understood what a fantastic item it was.

This thing was called Satori Essence.

In this world, everyone’s physical constitution, natural aptitudes, and even lifelong habits were completely different.

As a result, even if a hundred Adventurers trained in the exact same standard Combat Skill, the Skill Specializations they ultimately developed could be completely different from one another.

Take Lance’s current Dragon Hunting Breathing Technique, for example.

It was precisely because he had consumed that special Potion while breaking through a skill bottleneck that he had serendipitously developed the terrifyingly powerful Specialty, Red Dragon Incarnation.

But this didn’t mean that this profound Breathing Technique could only produce this one specific Specialty.

Its profound Skill System actually contained many other unknown potentials with different focuses.

For example, the lineage of the "Hunter King" who created this Breathing Technique definitely possessed a Specialty other than Red Dragon Incarnation.

And the core function of Satori Essence was to ignore all conditions and forcibly unearth these other potential Specialties hidden deep within a Skill.

It could be said that this was one of the most important Profession resources produced by the Underground City.

Lance examined it in his mind.

To use the essence to unearth a new Specialty for his Dragon Hunting Breathing Combat Technique, he would need to accumulate about 50 Satori Essence.

He opened his eyes.

He glanced at the mangled Demon corpses littering the floor and stroked his chin thoughtfully.

’Looks like I’ll have to go pick a few fights with Elite Monsters over the next few days.’

Meanwhile, while Lance was inspecting his loot, Nieve hadn’t been idle either.

Like a diligent little sidekick, she was silently helping Lance gather the loot scattered further away.

She walked up to Lance and presented him with a pile of materials she had gathered in her arms.

Lance took the items, looking at the airheaded but kind-hearted girl.

He said sincerely,

"Thanks for your help back there."

"I—"

Lance was just about to ask her what she planned to do next.

Before the words could leave his mouth, Nieve stared straight at him and cut in.

"Nieve will treat you to a meal!"

"Huh?!"

Lance was stunned.