Instinctively Dilan jumped on top of the wooden shelf right next to him.
While taking a look at his boots, he hastily wiped off the huge slimes’ liquid without caring about the smoke around his arms.
The jacket he was wearing had been burnt before the liquid charred his skin as well.
Fortunately, the potency of the slimes’ liquid deteriorated only moments after they died.
Because of this, his Immunity ability and high Health stat were more than enough to overcome the poison that burned his skin.
Ignoring his burning skin, Dilan shifted his focus to the halved slime cores. A bright smile emerged on his face.
“So powerful!”
He had tested his new occupational ability only once. But that was already more than enough to show him how powerful the ability was.
It required lots of mana to make him exert a high amount of lethal force. However, that was perfectly fine with him.
Slowly approaching the slime cores while treading carefully on the shelf, he managed to reach two out of three cores. Extending his arm that held the Gray Slayer, Dilan was able to reach the last core as well by using its tip to pull the core towards himself.-.
He grit his teeth a bit but managed to use the saber to free the Silver Essence crystal that was loosely embedded in the halved slime core.
It didn’t take him long to get his hands on all three Silver Essence crystals.
For a second he considered storing them away to exchange them with a Tier-1 Silver treasure.
However, after giving it another thought, Dilan doubted that it was easy to obtain a TIer-1 Silver treasure.
They were far more valuable than ordinary Silver treasures, which meant that it should be even more difficult to obtain them.
‘Only the huge Gate in the Krendel’s Underground Valley should be able to provide Tier-1 treasures, either way!’
Dilan shrugged his shoulders after he understood this before the Silver Essence crystals crumbled in his hand.
[Three <Silver> Essences of Tier-1 Level 4 Gigantous Viper Slime have been absorbed→ +3.5 Mana]
The moment he absorbed the Silver Essence, Dilan’s entire body was swept through by a soothing sensation.
It invigorated him and made him feel as if he was capable of achieving everything. The essence he absorbed was several times more potent than the strongest Essence crystal he had absorbed before advancing to Tier-1.
And that was despite the severe restrictions the Blessed Curse, and his passive occupational ability [Warrior’s Unparalleled Physique] put on him.
But that was especially the reason for him to be so confused.
“They’re not enough to level up??” Dilan didn’t even grumble about the status points because he had expected to receive so few.
In fact, gaining 3 Units of Mana was already more than what he had expected to receive. He was extremely lucky with such a high gain.
Even then, Dilan was truly astonished about the fact that he didn’t level up after absorbing such a high amount of Essence.
Even the restriction that was 20 times harsher than the current one shouldn’t have prevented him from leveling up. After all, he had just absorbed three Silver Essences of Tier-1 existences at level 4.
This truly astonished him.
“Is it just because I need 20 times the usual amount of Essence, or is it because Tier-1 existences require tens of times the usual Essence to level up once?”
The latter was likely to be a big factor.
Unfortunately, Dilan didn’t know how much Essence one required in order to level up. That meant he had no clue on how terrifying a demand of 20 times more than that of everyone else, truly was.
‘Other Ascenders should have received similar restrictions, right?’
Considering that the Necromancer occupation ought to be extremely powerful as well, Dilann guessed that the being, who would pick this occupation was bound to receive a similarly high demand of Essence.
But that was not really something that made Dilan feel better.
Rather, it made him feel ridiculous because he was trying to find comfort in the sorrow others might have to face as well.
Shrugging his shoulders after he got a grip over himself, Dilan looked for a way to leave the third floor.
He didn’t want to damage the Aeris’ leather boots any further. Thus, he made a big detour before he reached the stairs that lead to the lower floor.
For a moment, he considered killing more Slimes, but most of them would only provide him with Essence.
Dilan had already absorbed most Slime Essence crystals before. That meant he wouldn’t get any status points, either way.
Considering the low rate of Essence he received per Essence crystal, Dilan stopped wasting his time on procuring Essences.
The only task he was left to do within the supermarket was to exploit the mana-dense environment to recuperate his mana as quickly as possible.
At the same time, he tested out the special trait that he had received from Kirak’s Vassal [Bearer of Pain].
His life force was drained, while mana was created out of it.
The sensation of losing some of his life force was…terrifying to put it simply. It was certainly not something Dilan was accustomed to enduring.
However, the fact that he could create Mana out of his life force was something that was a rare and extremely advantageous trait.
Even if it took away his breath for a moment, activating his special trait [Bearer of Pain] could certainly be used to his advantage!
Two Units of his Health were drained in exchange for one Unit of Mana.
In return, Dilan tested out activating [Regeneration] with the use of the said Units of Mana.
‘If I can replenish 3 Units of Health rapidly, I can create a steady supply of Mana without too much of a hindrance!’
Of course, Dilan knew that this was not easy to achieve.
That was also why he averted his focus to replenish his Mana faster.
Even with the three additional units of Mana he gained from the three Tier-1 slimes, Dilan didn’t have much mana to use.
Every single active ability required Mana to be made use of. That meant he had to start paying more attention on how to utilize his mana properly.
After he took that into consideration, Dilan spent two hours in the supermarket in an attempt to increase his understanding of Mana.
Simultaneously, his Mana had been fully replenished.
He was ready to leave the supermarket, which he did as excitement filled his heart.
Clenching his fist, he smiled brightly at the thought of encountering Tier-1 Ascenders, especially someone with an Origin ability that might be stronger than [Regeneration].
“I hope there will be some stronger insects to fight!” Dilan mumbled while turning his head in the direction of the Death Beatles gang’s hideout.