Chapter 249: Hidden Quest Completed
After gaining an answer to his question, Alex stopped trying to understand the technique and focused on finding a way around it. He suddenly changed his trajectory and accelerated directly toward the Boss Monster.
His feet struck the ground with enough force to leave cracks behind, and his body blurred forward as he poured more mana into his physical reinforcement. The giant badger finally reacted, its eyes widening slightly when it saw Alex closing the distance so quickly.
The monster immediately swung both claws at once, and a massive net of orange-brown slashes erupted from them and spread across Alex’s path. The attacks overlapped with one another, filling the space ahead of him so completely that dodging them individually was no longer possible.
Alex took another step as he ran before lowering his body and jumping. The force behind the jump instantly sent him toward the ceiling, allowing the wide net of slashes to pass beneath him without touching his body. As he reached the ceiling, he used several mana orbs to push against it and twist his body in midair, allowing his feet to land against the ceiling instead of his head.
He folded his knees as the remaining force carried him upward before pushing against the ceiling again. His body shot downward like a bullet, sending him directly toward the giant badger before it could prepare another attack.
Alex appeared in front of the monster almost instantly. His Mana Sword swung downward and dug a deep slash from the badger’s shoulder toward its diagonal waist, cutting through its thick flesh before Alex landed on the ground.
The badger’s thick layer of fat slowed the sword enough to prevent the attack from cutting through its entire body. Even so, the wound was deep, and Alex was about to pour Fire Element Mana into its body when a tremendous force suddenly struck him.
He immediately released the sword and raised both armored arms to block the attack. The impact still carried enough force to send him flying backward, and his body smashed into the wall of the tunnel before he could regain control.
The giant badger released an ear-splitting scream in the next moment. It sounded almost as if the monster had gone mad from pain, and it began swinging both claws wildly while sending enormous nets of slashes toward Alex.
The attacks were too wide and large for him to dodge easily. Alex repeatedly jumped around the chamber, but the badger continued covering more of the area until Alex gradually found himself being pushed toward a corner.
’Close-range combat is impossible at this rate,’ he confirmed.
Alex quickly changed his approach and began creating a Mana Shuriken while moving. He made the projectile hollow and filled the inside with Fire Element Mana, but the difficult part came afterward because he still needed to apply the disruption mana to its edges.
Alex carefully formed the disruption mana around the blade while tightening the elastic mana inside each section. He adjusted the structure until everything was properly connected, creating a Mana Shuriken combined with Fire Element Mana and Mana Disruption Blade.
It was his strongest cutting attack.
Alex waited until the structure stabilized before firing it toward the Boss Monster. The Mana Shuriken shot forward while spinning at high speed, and flames erupted from the hollow sections along its sides, causing the projectile to spin even faster as it flew.
The Shuriken collided with the net of slashes directly in front of it. Instead of being stopped, it tore through the attacks and continued flying forward, cutting through the badger’s neck before the monster could react.
Alex’s expression froze as he stared at the result. He knew this was his strongest cutting attack, with only his Mana Railgun being comparable, but he hadn’t even filled the Mana Shuriken with Fire Element Mana to its limit.
’It still has this much force?’
Before Alex could think about it further, something even more unexpected happened. The Mana Shuriken struck the egg and exploded against its surface, but when the explosion finally disappeared, the egg was still sitting beside the nearly extinguished campfire without even a scratch on it.
Alex stared at it for several seconds before the familiar System notifications appeared in his mind.
[Level 20 Mother Badger defeated.]
[Mana Disruption Blade has leveled up. Level 3 → Level 5.]
[Mana Shuriken Spell has leveled up. Level 4 → Level 5.]
[Badger’s Burrow Dungeon cleared.]
[Origin Energy: 5/20 → 15/20]
[Hidden Quest completed: A total of three Dungeons cleared.]
[Bronze Reward Box gained.]
A faint silence settled over the dungeon, broken only by the crackling of the remaining fire. Alex looked through the notifications and felt satisfied with the increase in Origin Energy, while the hidden quest had also given him another reward.
The two spells were now much closer to their next evolution, and Alex could also feel that his Partial Fire Armor Spell had improved considerably during the battle. He hadn’t expected to gain so much from fighting the Boss Monster, especially since he had ended the battle quickly. A smile appeared on his face. This was the boss monster of a dungeon filled with mid rank species. Yet, he had won with relative ease. It was the proof his growth. The effort he put in learning spells was giving him astounding results.
"Wow, Alex really became quite strong, huh?" Emma said, finally breaking the silence.
Alex turned around and looked at his group. They were all watching him with expressions filled with awe, envy, and admiration.
He simply nodded to them before everyone began collecting the loot. Alex picked up the Gene Potential left behind by the Mother Badger and handed it to Sarah.
"You are giving this to me? But you defeated it," Sarah asked, clearly surprised.
"Yes. It was a warrior-type badger, so its Gene Potential isn’t particularly useful to me. Yulia and Frank also don’t use their Aura for sharp techniques, so this should be more useful for you," Alex explained.
Sarah’s expression became complicated as she looked at the Gene Potential in her hands. She seemed to want to refuse, but after hesitating for a moment, she finally nodded and accepted it.
"Thank you," she said before absorbing it.
The group continued collecting everything useful from the dungeon. The Mother Badger had left behind a considerable amount of fat as well, although none of them planned to eat it immediately, so they stored it with the other materials.
After finishing their preparations, they checked the other two tunnels to make sure there weren’t any monsters hiding deeper inside. Neither tunnel contained anything, so they eventually returned to the Boss chamber.
By then, they had already put out the campfire and dealt with the remaining flames around the egg. However, the egg itself remained completely unharmed despite their attempts to damage it.
Alex looked at the strange object with a serious expression. If the egg truly belonged to a species above Mid rank, then the fact that none of them could even leave a mark on it meant that whatever creature was inside was likely far more dangerous than anything they had encountered until now. As for its parents, they might be comparable to the monster that decimated the Washington in a single attack.
The group began wondering whether they should leave the dungeon immediately in case the egg’s parent came looking for it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a realistic option either, because it was still completely dark outside, and leaving the dungeon in those conditions would be little different from walking into a death trap.
The only consolation was that, with the chaos happening outside, the egg’s parents should have difficulty reaching them as well, at least for the time being.
The group settled down in the leftmost tunnel and carefully brought the egg with them. Alex then took out the Kraken’s tentacle he still had stored away, and they cooked it before eating together, after which everyone decided to rest.
No one returned to Earth because they had no idea how long the night would last in the Land of Origin, and what sort of monster might come after that. They could only remain inside the dungeon and wait until the situation outside became safer.
While they were resting, the group eventually reached a decision. Alex needed to evolve his species because if the egg’s parent arrived, none of them would be able to put up much resistance at their current strength.
Their only real chance was for Alex to become stronger before that happened.
Alex sat in the corner of the tunnel and brought up his Species Evolution list. Several options appeared before him, and he carefully read through each one.
[Your Species can now evolve. Choose an evolution: Homo Noctis, Homo Ferus, Homo Vitalis.]
All three options were useful in their own way. Homo Noctis would allow him to fight more effectively during the night, while Homo Ferus would increase his stamina and allow him to fight for longer periods, similar to the Wild Orcs.
However, the most suitable option for Alex was clearly Homo Vitalis. It would give him a strong attunement with Life Element, a small attunement with Fire Element, and, more importantly, improve his energy control.
That last benefit was especially important to him because energy control directly affected his mana. Even now, Alex hadn’t used his free stat points from level ups because increasing his mana any further would put his life at risk, but the improved control from this evolution might finally allow him to use those points safely.
Alex looked at the three options one more time before making his decision. There was no reason to hesitate when the strength of the egg’s parent was still unknown.
He chose Homo Vitalis.
[Would you like to evolve your species into Homo Vitalis?]
[Yes/No.]
’Yes.’
..
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