My world to Free-use

Chapter 217

Did the system scam me?

Not possible.

I had been with the system for thousands of centuries now. The system doesn’t make mistakes, and it doesn’t screw me, even if it sometimes makes the situation difficult for me.

But one thing was for sure. The system was on my side. Even if the whole world wasn’t.

So there had to be an explanation why I didn’t receive the full rewards.

Getting up after gathering my breath, I checked the dead minotaur.

Checking it with mana, sure enough, I found out the cause of this strange phenomenon.

The minotaur I killed before had received the same amount of power as this one had; only this one had digested it better.

For example, if there were two A-ranked people. Both of them would receive a power-up, but one was compatible with that power, and one wasn’t.

While the one who was compatible would have a proper power increase, just as this minotaur did, the one who was incompatible would have some sort of side effect, as the previous minotaur did.

This one digested the power better to upgrade its rationality, skin, and mana crystal to a higher rank, while the previous one couldn’t absorb anything.

So the power they received was the same, hence why I received the same amount of EXP and SC, but the one who digested it better had its mana crystal evolved to SS rank, albeit it being corrupted, which I still wasn’t sure what it implied.

Anyway, now that I know the pattern of this dungeon. I had a very bad feeling about this.

The last one was not able to absorb the power completely and ended up just a mindless beast, so killing it was a stroke of luck.

But this one took my whole mana and stamina to kill it, and this one wasn’t fully compatible with this foreign power either.

What if there was one who had fully made this power theirs on the next level?

Even with my recent level-up, killing that monster would be impossible at my level.

It was better to leave for now and come back later with more power-ups. I had enough to be called a powerhouse for now, to at least deal with Carlson and the queen.

Elara was a separate matter, but as long as I kept my head down, no major problems would occur.

“Haaa…”

A pity I have to turn back. This was an amazing opportunity to level up to extreme levels. But I wasn’t the stupid protagonist who had the power of friendship and willpower to continue. I knew only logic and harsh reality.

Facing the minotaur I just did even now would be difficult, and let alone a higher-ranked one, if two of these types showed up at once, defeating them would still be difficult, near impossible if I was being honest, so there was no need for reckless bravado.

[Name: Jack Houston]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 299]

[EXP: 2,440/29,900]

[HP: 2630]

[MP: 1,090/103,000]

[Stats

Strength: 300

Agility: 250

Stamina: 300

Intelligence: 300

Charm: 200]

[Bonus stats: 205]

[Skills: 10997]

[Titles: None]

[Achievements: 7]

[Bloodline(s):

#1: ???

#2: ???]

[SC: 30,007,760]

I increased my agility instantly, bringing all my stat points to the beginner level of S rank. Now, Carlson wouldn’t be a problem anymore, and with assassination skills at my disposal, if he tried anything, killing him wouldn’t be as difficult as before.

Haa…

How nice would it have been if Carlson were the strongest in the world? Why did someone stronger than him have to appear? Someone so much stronger than him?

Haa…

I couldn’t help but sigh again.

Still, I was happy enough as it was. No need to be sad over what couldn’t happen.

Arriving at the entrance/exit of the dungeon, I left a mana signature here, in case I would have to create a magic circle and teleport here.

This dungeon wasn’t going to overflow because the monsters in here were only a few, if not even fewer, so mana or population wouldn’t overflow.

I would return here no matter what.

For now, let’s deal with the annoying situation ahead of me.

~~

Coming out of the dungeon, the first person I noticed was the knight captain who had accompanied me here.

He wasn’t where I left him, but in an open tent on the side, with his men behind him, as if ready to go to battle.

It had been about ten hours since I went in, so he sure was taking his job very seriously.

Seeing me, he immediately stood up and made his way to me as I made my way to him, meeting somewhere in the middle.

“Congratulations. Did you have a safe hunt?”

If he didn’t know, then why the congrats?

“What hunt? There was not a single monster in there. The first two levels were entirely empty.” I said, “I wasted my time going around but found nothing.”

I made sure to rest before coming out, so I was at my full strength at the moment, if it ever came to a fight.

Anyway, the knight’s captain wasn’t the traitor; that was for sure. The lord wasn’t either; I could pick up that much from him. I could be wrong, but my gut told me he wasn’t a danger.

That left the soldiers behind the knight. One of them could be on the enemy’s side. The question I still had no answer to yet was who that enemy was.

No matter how much I thought it over, only Carlson’s face came to mind.

Anyway, if I were at the level where they thought I was, then I sure as hell wouldn’t have been able to make it past even the first level.

Whoever it was, they wouldn’t have planned anything once I came out of the dungeon, because that was how sure they were about me dying in there.

And sure enough, the lord was called soon, and he made his way quickly, since he hadn’t returned to his residence, but to the temporary residence he had in the dungeon area.

Once I told him there was no monster in there, he was surprised, as this was a minotaur dungeon, and until yesterday, there were herds of minotaurs in the dungeon.

Still finding it strange, he dispatched a team to search the dungeon. The team returned about five hours later, while I was led to the lord’s temporary residence to clean up and rest.

Sure enough, there were no monsters on the first two levels. Half of the soldiers had gone down to the third level, but they had yet to return. I doubt they would be returning, and that would take the lord’s mind off the dungeon being empty, seeing as there would be an even bigger threat in there.

“I shall have another dungeon prepared for you. Rest for the night. You shall have plenty of practice tomorrow.” The lord assured me and left to make the arrangements.

Anyway, even after scouring through all the soldiers and attaching shadow spells to them to listen to their conversations, I found no one who could have conspired to kill me.

No one had slipped out to rise to the suspect list either, nor had anyone given away anything with their expressions.

Seeing as there was nothing to do at the moment, I opted to rest, since there were little to no women here, as female knights and soldiers were rare, and even the servants here were trained to fight or flee, which would be difficult if there were civilians here.

Well, even if there was a woman here, it would have been very difficult to do something with her, except for enjoying her, since I couldn’t expose my secret for now.

~~

The night came to an agonizingly slow end, and the next morning arrived. Remaining true to his words, the lord had an entire C rank dungeon emptied for me, but there was no guardian in there since it had been killed a week ago and wouldn’t spawn again for some time to come.

The reward gain was less, but it sure as hell wasn’t empty.

But did that mean there were no problems?

[You have reached level 300]

[Experience limit would now rise]

[Level: 300]

[EXP: 2440/300,000]

Just killing three monsters raised my level, but the limit that should have become 30,000 increased by a whopping ten times, making it 300,000. So, if I had to kill three C rank monsters before, to raise one level, now I would have to kill thirty.

[Number of monsters remaining in the dungeon: 48]

Not even two levels from a whole C rank dungeon? You've got to be kidding me.

I wish I could scream at the moment. But I couldn’t even do that because I was used to these situations.

“Haa…”

All my bad luck.

Fuck.

~~

Let me know if there are any mistakes.