Chapter 239 Back Again

Back Again

[Ace POV],

It was exactly as I predicted, and there were indeed changes in the dungeon when its difficulty was set to normal.

For one thing, there were still gems in the dungeon, albeit fewer this time, and their grade was also a mini grade higher than the one I harvested from the dungeon when its difficulty was easy.

The grades of the previous gems I harvested were mostly low rare grade with a few rare grade magic gems thrown in, but this time the majority of the gems I harvested were rare grade magic gems with only a trace of high grade magic gems.

My resources were once again increasing.

Aside from that, the levels of the monsters in the dungeon had now increased. The weakest was level 30, which I encountered immediately after entering the dungeon, but because I was far stronger than it even in terms of level, I was able to take care of the monster. However, it should be noted that this was the beginning level of the monster in the dungeon because I was still going deeper into the cave where I was bound to encounter stronger monsters.

The monsters were still the same slime, which was fine because I already knew a little bit about them from previous encounters.

This was enough for me to reduce the amount of time I was going to spend in the dungeon, but because I had to mine again, I was going to have to stay here longer, but I didn't mind too much because, aside from the timer for my job, which was counting regardless of whether I was in a place where time moves slower, the time outside in the true world was still much slower.

I confirmed this before returning to the dungeon because it was still quite dark outside, just as it had been before I entered the dungeon for the first time.

Overall, the situation in the dungeon wasn't all that different from the first time I entered because I was still doing the same thing I had done before, only now it was an upgraded version of the previous one.

Levelling up has also become way harder even with me soloing the dungeon. I knew I was halfway through clearing the dungeon because the map didn't seem to change with the difficulty, but even with the amount of slime monsters I'd killed, I still hadn't leveled up, and looking at the progress bar close to the level section on my primordial chronicle status, I knew there was still a long way off before I accumulated enough primordial records to acquire a level up.

However, it's alright because the primordial records was slowly but steadily growing.

Regarding the magic gems in my hand, which were slowly forming different piles for themselves, similar to the crystal cores in my storage ring, there were times when I considered exchanging the magic gems in the store for coins but stopped, but the only reason I stopped was because, while I would get a reasonable huge amount of gold coins if I exchanged the magic gems, if I ever needed to use a magic gem or magic gems, acquiring it would be much more difficult.

This is the reason I stopped my plan on exchanging the magic gems since to me as an alchemist, resources and magical materials were more important to me than gold coins since I was still going to use the coins to buy the same materials that were with me now at a cost.

In any case, it's never too late for me to exchange the magical gems for coins if I ever find myself in a bind, so I could still be considered wealthy despite the fact that my actual wealth (the gold coins) didn't reflect this.

This was my thought when a slime monster appeared in front of me to disrupt it, so after successfully distracting me from my thought process and mining, I turned to face the slime in front of me as a brief battle between us unfolded.

It's level wasn't particularly high since it's just a level 34 monster so after a few minutes of battle, I was able to slay it and harvest its cores.

This was basically how I spent the majority of my time in the dungeon.

The only difference was when I finally made it to the end of the cave.

It was still the same scene I had seen there because the door that served as an exit to the true world was still there, but this time there were two 'guardians' of the exit.

Due to this, and the fact that they were also of the same level as me, as I had already leveled up to level 37, the fight was made even more difficult, and I had to suffer from the acid attacks this time, but I was still able to kill both monsters.

Unfortunately, the primordial records I obtained from both of them did not allow me to advance in level.

At the very least, their bodies have provided me with additional crystal cores, so it's all good.

I took a short break in the dungeon after the fight with the two slime monsters to rest and heal myself from the damage the acid sprayed by the slime monsters caused with my basic health pills, only to unknowingly fall asleep in the process.

It was an unintentional act that occurred unexpectedly, and when I used the timer on my job to calculate how much time I slept, I discovered it was actually 6 hours.

Perhaps I was that tired, but after regaining energy from a basic stamina pill, I made my way to the door beside me.

It's a good thing nothing happened while I was sleeping since it wouldn't be good for me if a serious consequence was attached to staying in the dungeon after a dungeon was cleared of monsters, but given that I'm still here, my thoughts are most likely unneeded and unnecessary.

In any case, the door still served as an exit to the outside world, though I was expecting something else, so after ensuring that my business in the dungeon was completed, I returned to the true world via the portal as my vision darkened.