Chapter 879 Secret of the Beasts
After jumping through the portal, Shiro found herself in a dimly lit cave with a severe lack of mana.
"Fu… that was close. I didn't expect the high ends to actually make a move even though you've only been here for a white. You must be pretty strong huh? You were even able to resist the status effect to some degree."
Looking towards the source of the voice, Shiro could see a man with short black hair.
His eyes were that of an emerald green and his clothes were ragged.
"What do you mean by high end and status effect?" Shiro asked as she was confused by what he meant.
"Check your system, it should show up now. When you're above ground, this notification isn't shown." The man said as Shiro glanced towards her interface.
[Status Removed – Gift to the Beasts]
Offer them your power, offer them your strongest skills. Empower them with your abilities, give your everything to them.
You will have the instinctive reaction of using everything you can on the beasts so that they may grow stronger.
Widening her eyes, Shiro looked back at the man.
"If you had used stronger abilities, as long as it comes from the system, the beasts would have become stronger." He chuckled as Shiro felt a chill down her spine. If she had used her demi god form or error, the outcome would have been truly devastating.
"Luckily, it seemed like you've only used your weaker skills. Ah but first, I should introduce myself. I'm Bonne. It's a feminine name I know." Bonne scratched his hair with embarrassment.
"Ah I'm Shiro. So where are we?" Shiro asked curiously since this place seemed to be man made.
"This is a little safe spot that I created. As the abnormal statuses up on the surface doesn't work down here. I don't know what causes it but the moment you go underground it disappears. I found this out when I fell into a crater. Strangely enough, the system doesn't notify you of the deactivation of this status. Rather, you have to find it out manually." Bonne said as Shiro nodded her head since she had always kept an eye on the system just in case something happened.
And whenever she got a notification, she would check it. But this time, it just appeared without any sound. If Bonne hadn't told her to check, she might have taken a while to notice this.
"I know you just saved me but with how strange this place is, I can't help but wonder about your identity." Shiro narrowed her eyes as she summoned Silvanis and got into a combat stance just in case Bonne wanted to attack her with her guard down.
"Ah that's normal I guess. Hmm… Do you know how dungeons are created?" Bonne glanced at her with a smile.
"A little. A certain person makes a contract with the system and a piece of their world is ripped out to become a dungeon." Shiro replied since that's what happened to Fei Ling when she created the Shadow Temple dungeon.
"Correct. But what do you think happens to a dungeon that is neglected and becomes weak to invasive species from other dungeons?" Bonne asked as he pointed towards the surface.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro stayed silent since she didn't know how to even describe this dungeon. There was no goal, no path, and no boss in sight. All she could see are immortal beasts that copy her abilities. The moment she goes up to the surface, she'll have the instinct to empower them more.
"This dungeon used to be normal but it was spawned in a rather annoying location. The entrance was deep underground and there was no pathway to reach this place. With centuries of neglect, the system started to relax its monitoring of this dungeon and allowed the beasts that you see on the surface to arrive. They're like a virus of the system hence why your system didn't notify you of the negative effects. Once they entered, I suppose you can say that they rewrote the dungeon. A new path was created and the people that entered would fight this beast.
"At first, their numbers were quite small and they only had decent healing. Until there was a person with the skill doppelganger. Copying this skill, the beasts started to multiply and the original beasts that appeared evolved to become high ends which contain the most number of skills that they've copied. The beasts are a lot weaker compared to the high ends since they can only retain what they've copied for a short period of time. The problem comes when they give the high ends this information. While they can retain the copied ability for a longer period of time, this ability becomes permanent once they kill the target." Bonne explained as Shiro nodded her head.
"Of course, once a beast kills the owner of the skill, they retain the skill and slowly evolve to become high ends themselves. There were several entrances to this dungeon so new prey would come often. There was also the chance of being dragged in here if the dungeon mutated. With the increasing amount of casualties, the system sealed the entrance to this dungeon but not the gate since it wasn't impossible to clear this place. It was just very difficult. The system isn't here to protect but rather, here to help so it wouldn't get rid of any chance to help you improve. Hence why this place is still around." Bonne sighed.
"So that's why I could see the entrance but not interact with it." Shiro furrowed her brows.
"What about instances where the person that comes in here manages to get out but loses their memory of what happens here?" Shiro asked.
"There have been a few cases of that. The most recent one was an elf. They come close to completing this dungeon but they fail in the end. So I use my ability to send them out and erase their record of participating in this dungeon for an extended period of time so that the system doesn't forcefully drag them back in. All they'll remember is that they had to face off against almost invincible monsters that weren't harmed by their attacks at all."
"Hmm��� that explains it then." Shiro sighed and put her sword away.
"So is there a way to kill these things or are we just stuck?" Shiro asked as she pulled out two bottles of juice and offered one to him.
"Thanks. And yes, there is a way to kill them. As long as you use magic that is tier 6 or above, they'll die."
"But then the problem is the fact that they copy this." Shiro frowned as Bonne nodded his head.
"Yup. The key is their eyes. They copy what they can see. If you were to target a lone beast and kill it before it can see what you have done, the information will not be transmitted to the others. You were surrounded on all sides so no matter what you tried to do, even if you missed, the information would be transmitted. As for how they adapt to what you show them, it varies. For example, I saw you use ice on them, they'll adapt and have a layer which is completely immune to ice. If you use earth, they'll have a powerful defensive layer that can rebound physical attacks." Bonne explained.
"Then my sword which was enhanced with tier 5 lightning element would be ineffective to them." Shiro frowned.
"Mn, your lightning increased their overall speed hence why the high end was able to close the gap so quickly. However, it was also thanks to your demonstration that I could save you. If they had seen me cast my spell, they would have been able to move in the frozen time." Bonne sighed in relief since it had happened before.
{So Error and Nanotech is effective but if they copied it, it would be bad news.} Nimue said as the rest of her elements were all tier 5.
'Indeed. If they copied Error, it could mean that they can harm my source code since you saw how they copied Silvanis and incorporated it into their arm.' Shiro replied.
"What's the clear condition and what's the reward? What would happen to the beasts if we clear the dungeon?" Shiro asked since that was her main goal here.
"Since the dungeon has been re-written by the beasts, the clear conditions have naturally changed. I don't know the reward but I do know the boss of this dungeon. He's the first beast that came here and is naturally, the strongest of them all, he has the most skills copied from the people that have come here and his passives are crazier than the rest. The worst part is that he has multiple eyes around his body so it's hard to hit him without being copied." Bonne shook his head as Shiro leaned back and furrowed her brows.
Clearing this dungeon was going to be a pain. Whether or not it's possible for her, she was going to see if she could assassinate a few beasts without being copied first.