He examined it closely. Still, at first glance, he couldn't make anything out. But when he activated his Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, he immediately sensed something unusual. The crimson orb wasn't empty at all. Instead, it contained a mysterious energy that resembled death—its flow and structure closely aligned with the concept of "mortality" his eyes were attuned to. The energy within had been arranged in the form of a magic circle. Not just a flat pattern either—it was a three-dimensional structure, like a magical sphere suspended in space.
"Interesting... judging by this arrangement… it kind of looks like an eye?" Thanks to Pokemon Su Mo, he now had a decent understanding of biology. With a single glance, he realized the death-energy lines inside the crystal were arranged in a pattern resembling the structure of an eyeball.
Fine, intricate magic circles were embedded within a structure resembling a retina. Moreover, similar formations were etched into the corresponding components of the eye—the lens, the pupil, the iris—each bearing proportionate magical arrangements.
"If I'm not mistaken, this seems to be the control mechanism for a Mystic Eye," Su Mo muttered, seeing through its nature at a glance.
Still, dungeon drop items usually weren't this roundabout. Most of the time, you either received equipment, learned a skill directly, or simply obtained rare crafting materials. Even though Balor was a level 7-class enemy, this item should've still fallen under one of those categories.
"In other words… there must be a way to activate it directly."
With that thought in mind, Su Mo pressed the crystalline object against his eye. As if fulfilling some prerequisite condition, the deep crimson crystal began to warm up—likely activating and ready to bestow a skill upon him.
However—
"This thing is pretty trash, huh?"
Despite the heating effect, all Su Mo felt was a faint resonance between the crystal and his eye—a resonance tied to the concept of death. Yet, no new power emerged. That was when he remembered: as a god-slayer, his body had extraordinarily high magical resistance. That resistance probably kicked in here too, nullifying both beneficial and harmful magical effects alike.
So, it really was just a level 7 drop. Not powerful enough to bypass his resistances, and certainly incapable of granting any skill with real weight.
Even so, Su Mo wasn't planning to toss it aside. Instead, he decided to directly replicate the magic formation within his own eye—duplicating it one-to-one from the crystal's structure. With his mastery of the Third Magic, even a failure wouldn't matter. His eye could simply regenerate.
And thanks to the precise magical control he had inherited from his counterpart in the Fairy Tail world, Su Mo quickly reconstructed the Mystic Eye formation within his own pupils.
The moment the ritual in both eyes lit up, the red crystal in his hand shattered. The deathly aura contained within it was immediately drawn into his eyes, completely absorbed. Because this absorption was an active function of the eyes themselves, his innate magical resistance didn't interfere.
He blinked and looked into the mirror. The rainbow-colored Mystic Eyes still gleamed as always. Their appearance hadn't changed, nor had the way they highlighted death lines and death points.
"What's this thing even supposed to do?"
He experimented for several minutes but still couldn't detect any noticeable change in his Mystic Eyes. While he hadn't expected something on the level of a divine power—not from a mere level 7 monster drop—even ordinary enhancements like improved vision or x-ray sight were nowhere to be found.
"Don't tell me… it's just a useless skill?" Su Mo began to wonder. Just as he was about to give up, something struck him.
"Wait a second…"
"Did the death line on the mirror... just move?" Given his current level, he trusted his instincts. There was no way he misjudged that.
He ran another test. Sure enough, when he focused on the mirror, the usual lines and dots of death surfaced like always. But when he willed his vision to shift them—
The thick black line moved. Not by much, but enough to confirm it wasn't an illusion. Recalling the earlier resonance with death energy, Su Mo deduced the ability that the crystal had granted him.
"A Mystic Eye that manipulates death energy, huh…" Yeah. Definitely a trash skill.
Unless you were a necromancer, this kind of ability was basically useless. And in a place like Orario, necromancers didn't exist. Even gods of the underworld wouldn't tolerate the desecration of the dead.
So, this skill would only ever be marginally useful against undead-type monsters. Any adventurer who acquired it probably wouldn't even know how to use it effectively. At most, it might grant a slight advantage in battles against zombies or ghost-type enemies. However—for Su Mo, this skill had another application. It shared a connection with the very concept of death. That allowed him to manipulate not just the aura of death, but the lines of death themselves. Which explained why he had seen a death line on the mirror shift.
"No... it's not really moving, it's twisting." After another round of experimentation, Su Mo revised his theory.
If he could use this power to distort the death lines of an object—then perhaps...
Focusing all his attention on the mirror before him, Su Mo exerted his will to twist the line to its maximum limit.
Then—
Crack!
Without anyone touching it, the mirror suddenly shattered into fragments, breaking apart like glass sliced cleanly into pieces. It was as if Su Mo had severed the death line itself—even though he hadn't made a single move.
"Just as I thought…" He nodded in realization. What initially seemed like a throwaway power… might actually be something else entirely. If he wasn't merely manipulating death aura, but the actual death lines of objects—then things changed drastically. Death lines weren't like rubber bands. They had extremely limited elasticity. Try to bend or stretch them too much, and they snapped—destroying the object in question. And this result… was identical to physically cutting the line himself.
"In other words... I'm finally getting closer to the true origin of Balor's Mystic Eyes. I might soon be able to kill with just a look." Su Mo touched his chin, pleasantly surprised by the revelation. Sure, the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception were undeniably broken—but only if they hit. If you couldn't land a strike, the eye's power was meaningless.
That was the downside.
Even in the Nasuverse, all wielders of the Mystic Eyes had to pair them with extraordinary combat skill to make use of their full potential. This also made them relatively easy to counter once someone understood how they worked—just avoid being hit.
Granted, Su Mo's swordsmanship was more than enough to make up for that. Still, the need to manually attack with the eyes could sometimes feel limiting—especially after obtaining the [Silver light Sword].
That sword, capable of cutting through almost anything, was already strong enough to deal with nearly any threat. And if needed, he could always stack the [Execution of Light] spell on top for a power boost. If those two weren't enough, then his Mystic Eyes likely wouldn't help either—because he wouldn't even be able to see the target's death lines. At times like those, the Mystic Eyes felt more like a wasted slot—too good to throw away, too niche to rely on.
But now?
If he could truly kill with just a glance—then the convenience of the Mystic Eyes would rise to an entirely new level. This skill and the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception… were a perfect match.
"Even if all I can do right now is twist the death lines of fragile objects... the future holds promise." That was Su Mo's final conclusion. After all, this was a skill granted by a Floor Master of Level 7.
It merely allowed one to manipulate death energy—a basic-level ability, nothing too grand. Being newly acquired, it wasn't particularly powerful. Even with Su Mo's current strength, at best, he could distort the death lines of flowers, birds, and trees. Anything slightly more complex, like the monsters within the dungeon, was still a bit out of reach for now. Still, even with such limited use, the skill was highly valuable.
As per the norms of the dungeon world, skills would gradually grow stronger with repeated use by the adventurer. Right now, it could only shatter small objects when focused through the eyes. But with enough training, Su Mo believed that he would one day reach—or even surpass—the original "Balor's Death Eye." Perhaps one day, he might really be able to kill a field of gods with just a single glare.
After roughly understanding the newly acquired Mystic Eye's capabilities, Su Mo noted the time—it was about right. He tidied up the broken fragments of the mirror and left his room, heading toward the dungeon. Ais was probably already waiting for him.
For the past week, the two had been repeatedly diving into the deep levels of the dungeon, harvesting quite a number of Philosopher's Stones. However, they were still far from meeting Su Mo's personal needs. Fortunately, with the acquisition of the Third Magic, he had another method to obtain Philosopher's Stones—by extracting them from his own magical energy.
Unlike the Philosopher's Stones in the Type-Moon world, which were purely crystallized mana, the ones in Danmachi were composed of refined spiritual elements. This made mana extraction an inefficient method for producing them.
Though his body functioned like a perpetual motion machine, allowing long-term refinement, Su Mo had only just begun to materialize his soul. The output of spiritual elements couldn't yet match the efficiency of basic magical generation.
So, it was impossible to farm an infinite supply of stones purely through the Third Magic. Still, it could solve more than half of his current demand. At this rate, even if he did nothing else, he'd be able to gather the required amount in about two weeks.
Of course, speeding things up would be preferable. It wouldn't do for versions of himself in other worlds to have already become unstoppable, while he was still able to only deal with a mere moon goddess.