Ambrose Academy’s Modifier

Ari turned on his heel to enter one of the passages, but suddenly halted his steps when a past thought resurfaced.

Gaining AP from killing the goblin scouts and goblin soldiers felt identical to earning EXP in T.O.

Aside from completing in-game quests, EXP could not be gained through any other methods, and for the most part, AP was the same.

Seeing the AP notifications after each kill gave him a sense of familiarity, so he went through the motions and overlooked the methods used by the natives of Ambrose Academy.

‘Right, there’s monster core absorption in this world.’

He approached one of the goblins and plunged his sword into its chest, carving out a space large enough for his hand to enter.

When he reached inside, he felt a small crystallised object embedded in the goblin’s chest, then pulled it out.

The marble sized core shone with a sikly green light, radiating a strange energy.

‘Oh? It feels rather cold... How do I absorb this?’

Ari realised that Marissa did not explain how to absorb the essence contained in monster cores, neither did the comic.

He recalled seeing the characters hold the core and simply “focus on absorbing the monster essence” which didn’t help much in reality.

‘Fuck it, when in Rome.’

Ari decided to imitate what he saw, and focused his intent on absorbing all of the energy contained within the tiny core.

He waited for a few minutes, but nothing happened.

He sighed. ‘It shouldn’t be this complicated, what’s the trick behind it?’

Ari wracked his brain trying to find a solution, using references from various Web comics and novels.

He replayed Marissa’s words in his mind again.

‘Convert monster essence into our personal mana... Wait, personal mana!’

Ari immediately focused on the monster core, then sent a pulse of his mana into it.

The core hummed in his fingers, instantly feeling warm to touch, very comfortable.

Ari smiled when he sensed a connection between himself and the monster core.

‘It worked! Alright, now for the next step.’

With a powerful intent, he slowly withdrew his mana, guiding the monster essence towards him.

Ten seconds later.

[You have gained 10 AP]

Ari’s grin deepened.

Although the method of absorbing monster essence was the same as the natives of this world, Ari had a feeling that once it entered his body, the conversion method would be different.

He did not expect, however, that monster essence conversion would yield double the amount of AP as slaying the same monster.

‘Is it an effect of direct absorption?’

Ari didn’t dwell on the mechanics behind it, all that mattered was the extra AP gained.

He shuddered at the thought of nearly leaving such an incredible AP farm location with only the minimum amount of AP.

He sighed. “I’ll have to be more careful in future.”

Ari shifted his gaze to the next goblin with a predatory smile.

Thirty minutes later, Ari upgraded majority of his stats to LV-2, with the exception of strength and mana capacity, which he upgraded to LV-3.

Ari selected the path on the left of the hallway and entered with light steps.

He used Detect repeatedly as he walked through the labyrinth, allowing him to set up ambushes and control the number of goblins he faced at any given time.

Following five similar massacres, Ari’s stats climbed to LV-4 overall, with strength and mana capacity reaching LV-6.

Ari felt very pleased. Going from LV-1 to LV-6 in half a day was an acceptable pace to help him reach his goals.

Ari used the map to follow the path leading towards the boss chamber, slaughtering any goblin in sight.

So far, the layout of the labyrinth did not change with the difficulty, allowing Ari to navigate rather smoothly.

He turned the final corner, revealing a long corridor with an enormous gate looming in the distance.

The corridor had no hidden passages, so sneak attacks or reinforcements coming from the side would be avoided entirely.

That being said, reaching the end of the corridor wouldn’t be a walk in the park either.

Nearly two hundred goblins stood between Ari and the boss chamber, roughly ninety percent consisted of goblin soldiers.

Ari chuckled. ‘How vicious.’

The largest group Ari faced up to this point consisted of forty goblins. In most cases, the ratio of goblin scouts to goblin soldiers was unbalanced, but not as egregious as the group before him now.

An ascender facing this group would either die halfway, barely survive with grave wounds, or be utterly exhausted when they finally reached the boss chamber.

‘A corridor of death, huh? Let’s put that to the test.’

A daring grin flashed across Ari’s face

He entered the corridor and faced the goblins who had yet to notice his presence.

Ari activated Enhanced Recovery and Boost, then cast a water elemental spell native to this world.

A large body of water encompassing half the width of the corridor, materialised beneath his feet.

The water flowed in a zigzag pattern ahead of him, rising and falling in waves as it took shape to form a giant serpent.

Rgaar!

The goblins finally took notice of the strange events taking place at the end of the corridor, but it was hopelessly too late.

‘Go.’

Boom!

With a thought, the Water Serpent charged and slammed into the goblins with a thunderous impact, sending dozens hurtling into the walls, many dying instantly.

The serpent flicked its massive tail in a smooth arc.

Boom!

Goblin soldiers raised their shields to block the attack, but were knocked back relentlessly.

The corridor rumbled with each impact, causing the remaining goblin scouts to lose their footing and end up crushed under the weight of the giant serpent.

The goblin ranks were in disarray, barely contending with the water serpent, none could even spare Ari a glance.

Each time the serpent slammed its body into its targets, water sprayed everywhere, soaking both the goblins and corridor.

Ari closed the distance in an instant and used Lightning Chain, electrocuting dozens of goblins with a single attack.

Flash!

He weaved through the arcs of lightning and tail whips from the water serpent, finding the goblin soldiers’ blind spots then unleashed Lightning Slash to decapitate them one after the other.

Half of the goblins died in less than five minutes.

The water serpent crushed two goblin soldiers in its jaw, and wrapped its tail around three more, giving them no chance to resist.

Buzz Zap! Zap!

Following the release of another round of lightning chain, dozens more convulsed and collapsed on the spot.

Ari's sword moved in tandem with the water serpent, eliminating any goblin affected by the aftermath of its attacks.

Thud.

Three minutes later, the last goblin died, its mangled corpse spat to the ground by the water serpent.

‘Not bad.’

He released the water serpent and immediately began harvesting monster cores.

He became proficient in absorbing monster essence through repeated harvests, but with around two hundred cores, it took him over an hour to absorb all of them.

Ari ate and hydrated himself as he checked his stats.

Majority had reached LV-5.

He nodded in satisfaction.

Having fully recovered, and filled with fighting spirit, Ari approached the gate of the boss chamber.