"Well, what about the Quest?" Asked Peyton.
"..." I paused for a second. "What do you mean?" Then I asked.
"As soon we enter the first Goblin village." She started. "We'll get a Quest, right? Upon success, we live, upon failure, we die. So if we run away without killing all the Goblins in the village and completing the Quest then..." She paused, not because she had nothing left to say, but because she had already made her point clear enough.
"Shit." I never considered that.
"What does happen if we run without completely a Quest? Does that count as a failure?" My thoughts wondered instinctively and in the end, I forced myself to make a somewhat drastic decision.
"Fine. We'll just cross that bridge once we get to it. I don't think it's that simple, as risky as it is. Then again, I doubt that's a risk Peyton would be willing to take without good reason. Let's see... What's a way to convince her."
"I see what you mean." I replied calmly with a hum as if to convey that I was mulling it all over, then continued. "But running away doesn't count as failure if at the end of the day, we're still gonna kill all the Goblins. As long as we do it within the duration we'll be given, I'm sure we'll be fine."
"I say that, but I'm not sure at all. But still. It's not like we'll be running outside the Dungeon. I mean, we're heading straight towards the Boss for goodness sake! So, chances are, we'll just get multiple Quests all at once. I really hope that's all that happens."
Peyton then thought it all over. Though she seemed against it all, I had no doubt in my mind that she'd join me. I'm very convincing.
"Fine then." She said. "You're not exactly giving me a choice here so I might as well play along." She added.
"Well duh!"
"Good girl." I said.
"Don't even."
"Sorry." Seriously, this girl is terrifying sometimes.
"You should be. Now then, where are we off to?"
"Oh you'll see, just don't fall behind, heh." I jumped the top of a tree as I said that then started hoping from tree to tree, heading straight to the closest inhabited Goblin village. Peyton followed suit, even going ahead of me to then look back with a conniving smirk.
"'Don't fall behind' he says. Did you forget I have higher Stats than you?"
I pride myself in being a cool-headed person, it takes a lot to affect me and past events are a solid testimony to that undeniable fact. But for some reason, what this woman said ticked me off. So I tried to see if I could mess with her a little as payback.
"Branch." I warned.
"Nice try." Rats.
"Worth a short."
"Darn A-Rank senses!"
Well. Moving on. We had moved at incredible speed so we were already very close to reaching the village. I then remembered something of the utmost necessity that I had to do.
"Since I won't be doing this again until we defeat the Dungeon Boss, I might as well absorb all the Mana Crystals I have right now."
Since Peyton was still here, I had to use the same new method of absorption that I came up with before. The problem was, because it was incredibly more complex than the other methods, it was recommended that I did it while in a comfortable position where I can concentrate solely on the absorption, but right now, I was moving, so it was exponentially a lot harder to keep my focus. One wrong move and the Mana might spiral out of control. I don't think I need to explain how dangerous that is.
"But,.what can you do? I don't necessarily have a choice right now. I noticed before that if I absorb Mana Crystals through the Item Space, no visible Mana surrounds my body. So when I absorbed those Goblin monster cores, to Peyton, it must've simply looked like I was just randomly sitting down for a while. With this method, I can absorb Mana Crystals even in public and no one will see anything strange or get suspicious. So, what I need now is to learn how to use this method without the, 'sitting down and meditating to concentrate' fiasco."
Readying myself for the risks, I activated my Item Space Skill, Bladework Skill, Treasure Hunt Skill, Soul-Piercing Eyes Skill, Cultivator Skill, Fury of Dantian Skill and finally the Astral Unification Skill. The harmony between all Skills was indescribable. Astral Unification in particular, in addition to Soul-Piercing Eyes made sure to allow me to concentrate on the absorption while moving without fail. The pain I had felt before was significantly less this time around. As soon as I noticed that it was in fact doable, I started absorbing. 120 Mana Crystals at a time.
"I'll absorb 600 now and sell the other 91 after clearing this Dungeon."
....
[Report. Success! The E-Rank Mana Crystals have been successfully absorbed.]
[Mana Capacity gained from all the E-Rank Mana Crystals: 3000.]
[Extra Mana Capacity gained from each E-Rank Mana Crystal absorbed with the use of Fury of Dantian Skill: 7.5.]
[Total amount of extra Mana Capacity: 4500.]
[Total amount of Mana Capacity gained from Mana Crystal absorption: 7500.]
[Report. Advancements in the Subject's overall Warrior info have been detected as a result of recent actions.]
[Now calculating advancements...]
[Cultivator's Sub-Skill Fury of Dantian has advanced from C-Rank to B-Rank.]
[Weapon Fanatic's Sub-Skill Bladework's effects on the Subject's Stats have increased. Effect on Strength has increased by 4000. Effect on Speed has increased by 4000. Effect on Health has increased by 5000 and effect on Intelligence has increased by 6000. Now redesigning the effects of the A-Rank Bladework Sub-Skill on the Subject...]
A-Rank Bladework Sub-Skill: Effects When Active
• Strength +6300
• Speed +6570
• Health +8260
• Intelligence +11720
[Furthermore, Mana Capacity has increased by 30000+7500. Strength has increased by 7000. Speed has increased by 7000. Health has increased by 8000 and Intelligence has increased by 9000.]
[Now redesigning overall Warrior info...]
Name: Raid
Surname: ???
Affiliation: Awakened Warrior
Class: Blacksmith
Skills:
...
•• Fury of Dantian B-Rank: Large sized Dantian that acts as the Mana Source of the Subject. Can temporarily increase Subject's Mana Capacity six-fold. Significantly increases Mana manipulation efficiency. Adds 160% extra Mana Capacity when absorbing Mana Crystals.
...
Rank: F
Level: Locked
Mana Capacity: 64880
Strength: 13290
Speed: 14683
Health: 17084
Intelligence: 19000
"Now's that's what I'm saying!"