It all happened so fast, but the sight of flesh being torn apart, the sound of breaking bones, and the sulphuric scent of the goblins' blood was unmistakable.
At that moment, I stood as still as possible and activated my shadow cloak skill. The mountain of goblin corpses that had piled up at the entrance of the narrow path tumbled down. A few of the corpses even stopped at my feet, but still, I didn't move an inch.
With the corpses I killed no longer blocking the way, I could now see the monster responsible. It was a giant reptile that stood on both legs, except it had red scales that were shinier than most magic crystals.
The creature's yellow slitted eyes gleamed with intelligence. The scaly humanoid creature then proceeded to rip out a chunk of flesh from one of the dead goblins and shove it inside its mouth. The monster continued like this, devouring every one of the goblins I killed, destroying their beast cores in the process.
I couldn't help but sigh internally.
What a waste.
For a moment, the only sound in the dungeon was the sound of flesh being ripped apart as it was ravenously eaten. Every few seconds or so, you would hear the sound of a bone snapping. It was the same sound you hear when you snap a twig.
The long reptilian tail of the creature swayed from side to side as it hopped from one meal to the next, leaving nothing but bones and mangled chunks of flesh.
After the vicious creature was finished devouring all 20 goblin corpses, it left the opposite way it came. The scaly beast got down on its belly and crawled, scaling the walls until it got to the ceiling of the cave, then continued forward.
With the only monster inside the cave being goblins, no one would actually expect a scaly reptile creature to be crawling on the wall. With the beast gone, I went to examine the goblin corpses.
It was a mess. Limbs were scattered everywhere, so it was hard to tell which part was which. And the pieces I did recognize, all had their cores damaged to the point where it would be impossible to sell.
Feeling disappointed about the loss, I went in the opposite direction of the reptilian monster, squeezing through the narrow path ahead. I spent the next couple of hours searching for goblins, but most had been killed by the reptilian monster.
After being killed, a monster in a dungeon respawns, roughly 8 hours after they have been killed. This would continue until the dungeon core was destroyed. Dungeon cores are at the heart of every dungeon.
They are what provides the beast core for every monster in the dungeon. The dungeon core of a single D-ranked dungeon stores enough energy to power an entire city. It is a vital source of energy for this world.
But this isn't the only function. If absorbed, a dungeon core could increase the proficiency of your special skill. Of course, how much it increases depends on your talent for your special skill.
Though right now, this isn't a viable option. Since the dungeon here is used as training, the core here must be behind some kind of force field to protect students from absorbing it.
Still, my goal was to find the dungeon core as quickly as possible. I made sure to memorize every path I took. This wasn't a problem for me since I now had photographic memory, so as soon as I went back to my dorm, I would begin drawing a map.
For the next couple of hours, I searched for the dungeon while keeping an eye out for any goblins. Unfortunately, I ended up finding neither, and soon it was time for me to leave the dungeon.
Since I lost most of the cores to the reptilian monster, I exited the dungeon with only 4 beast cores, netting me a total of 600 zencoins.
It was currently Sunday evening.
Feeling tired from spending the entire weekend inside a dungeon, I immediately went home. Arriving at the entrance of my dorm room, I could immediately feel that there was someone inside.
My first thought went to Sophia, but then I realized that there were two of them inside. Curious, I shoved open the door of my own dorm room, feeling as if I was entering someone else's personal space.
When the door cracked open, the people who greeted me were Oliver and Theodore. Theodore sat on the floor, holding a gaming console as usual, but Oliver was sprawled on my bed. He was holding a gaming console above his head, smashing on the buttons as if his life depended on it.
The moment the door was shoved open, they turned in my direction. Oliver hopped from my bed in surprise.
"Hey, man, you're finally back. Where have you been?" he asked.
"How did the two of you get in? I'm certain I locked the door before leaving," I said, to which Oliver casually threw his arm over my shoulder and said:
"We made a key. But anyway, we've been waiting for you. Theodore and I are playing Elf Devourer Online. Grab your console and join us."
"And also, we've brought some cup noodles," Theodore added with a wide grin.
With the two of them here, I ended up spending the whole night gaming with Theodore and Oliver until the three of us ended up falling asleep on the floor with our gaming consoles lying on our chests.
The next morning, I woke up around 4 am to cultivate my soul weapon while the two were asleep. The two woke up a few hours later and rushed back to their dorm rooms to get ready for school.
Between spending the weekend inside a dungeon, gaming, and cultivating, I was still a bit tired, but I managed to suppress a yawn until I got out of the elevator. It was just then that I felt a slight tug on my sleeve.
I turned around to see a pale-skinned girl wearing glasses holding onto my sleeve. Though still pale, her color looked lighter today for some reason, and there were lines of red streak dancing on her cheeks.
A bit taken back, I addressed the awkward girl, holding onto my uniform.
"Luna? Did you need something?"
Hearing my question, the awkward girl took a deep breath and exhaled, her warm breath condensing in the cold morning air.
"C-Can we talk?"