Earthling in Uncharted Dimensions

Chapter 171: Man Versus Wild

Meanwhile, our protagonist had stepped outside of the System Space.

Like D had mentioned, the portal was created from where Lee was taken into the System Space. The spatial tear appeared inside the crevice in which Lee had found refuge. He immediately stepped out and on the rough and dusty terrain.

There were drag marks on the ground. It did not take Lee any more than an instant to find out that he himself had dragged his body into the crevice for safety. Lee turned away from the drag marks and towards the exit. As his eyes began to scan the interior of the cave, a familiar interface was activated.

After reconstruction, Lee had lost his night vision to a great extent. But before he had to do anything about that, the Foresight was unconditionally activated and his eyes were disclosed to the details. The upgraded Foresight feature was real-time connected to D, and had enhanced sensitivity to temperature, pressure, light and motion.

The automatic visual feedback was initially great to spectate, but became a burden as it began to distract him from his focus. Thus, Lee opened the Workshop and customized the skill. He deactivated all kinds of notifications and prompts, unless it was an extinction-level urgency. He also removed the bar at the bottom, which displayed the accurate statistics of his familiar beasts. Lee reconstructed the mini-map with a much deeper colour indication scheme, and minimalistic design. The Essence count was given a new font and an eye-catching colour.

The Mana and Qi reserve were placed below the Essence counter, and was given a less eye-catching shade. Adding dynamic red markers around the display which detect incoming danger from beyond his visual field was a major feature. Lee did not forget to add a real-time 24x7 scanning system which continuously observed his Perception range for any change in the surroundings. Thus the upgraded Foresight became a more overpowered system feature.

After paying around 25055 Essence, Lee designed a pair of shoes. It was lined with mythril on the outside, which could deliver painful damages for a very long time, due to its natural resilience. The insides were made of cotton and linen, and the exclusive loafer was born. Inspired by the scales on the Aluminile, he added tiny aluminium alloy spikes under the loafers, which was invisible to naked eye, but could act as tiny razors.

Next was his clothings. The upperwear was transformed into a full sleeve brown hoodie, whose sleeves could be rolled up. The leather pants were turned to a deep blue colored jean pants, and it was redesigned to offer higher mobility. After this, he casted some overpowered enchantments over them!

Abrasion resistance, healing buff, immune to tear, and water and fire resistance were some of those enchantments. As his craftsmanship brought forth the finished products, a total of 130450 Essence was reduced from his reserve.

'Pheww.'

The hourly notifications were not set. So he had no track of his time. But he remembered that he needed to get out fast, and reclaim his spatial ring. Pulling out his blade, Lee walked out of the crevice and saw a few rodents running away from the jaguars that were chasing them.

*footsteps*

The dust and pieces of stone under his footwear made an audible sensation, and three of the jaguars halted in their tracks. Seeing a much taller and healthier prey walking towards them, they attained a stance to shred him to pieces the moment Lee walked out of the entrance.

But, their expectations were in vain, as their 'prey' stopped about 5 metres away from them. The sensation stemming from the boundless fear made them keep their stance stable and they could only drool at Lee, as he stayed beyond their reach.

To walk out with his current stats was undeniably a suicide. But who said that Lee was going to 'bravely' encounter these beasts? He stood there for a few minutes, and the number of beasts eyeballing him increased. The intensity of growling and drooling increased exponentially. The appearance of a new and visibly delicious prey had attracted a lot of beasts.

---

A few minutes before, as soon as he finished customizing his clothings.

'D, is this a dungeon?'

[Yes, it is a dungeon with two floors. Where you are is its first floor, and the scan shows that the second floor is waiting for us at the end of this path.]

'The Map also upgraded, right?'

[Yes. Take a look.]

What that appeared was not a screen or display, but a three dimensional hologram suspending on the air. D added that he can twist, tilt and zoom in and out of the new and upgraded version. Lee scanned the first floor and saw a vast network of caves and tunnels. At certain points of the first floor, there was a particular diamond shaped object above a slightly raised platform.

[That is a Spawner. It creates a specific mob type and regulates its number from going beyond a limit. When a mob created by it is killed by an outsider, the Spawner is alerted of the existence of the variable, and it accordingly circulates the approximate location of the outsider, to every single beast it had spawned.

No Spawner is autonomous, but is a part of a large Spawners' network, controlled by the Dungeon Crystal. It is normally located at the deepest floor, and is heavily guarded with boss level monsters.]

'Tell me more about the Dungeon Crystal.'

[Like how a Jungle Jewel works, it is a semi-sentient object which is manifested when a dungeon is formed. For a dungeon to form, only a critical concentration of either Mana or Qi are all that is necessary. The location is also important.

The Crystal is connected to all the spawned beasts inside the dungeon. But there is a partiality. The upper floors are almost completely avoided by it, and this negligence gave birth to the Spawners. The Dungeon Crystal concentrates itself more to the lower floors, and nurtures the normal monsters to reach boss level.]