Almost Lost to Trash Mobs

I'd leveled up and entered the late stage of the Golden Core, but the Seas of Slaughter had been carved away while only the Golden Core itself grew. What that meant, in practical terms: I leveled up, went after same-level mobs, and my slaughter-based skills were so weakened that I nearly got wrecked.

"I… I almost… lost… to trash mobs…?"

Not even elites. Regular same-level trash. If it hadn't been for Auto-Battle, I really might have been taken prisoner—or died and had to load a save.

What the hell? Am I just bad at fighting? Was I always a one-trick slaughter scrub? Should I have ignored the experience drought and just kept stacking the Seas of Slaughter instead of building spiritual energy?

I clenched my teeth.

Fine. Even if it's low-level maps, I'll clear them and top up the slaughter. That's what this is—a slaughter shortage. Experience from low-level maps is reduced, sure, but I've already leveled plenty, and I'm close enough that I might hit the level cap soon. For now…

Find a Training Ground, or generate slaughter. Those were the only two options.

"What about a gift for Cheon Nan-cho?"

Three options!

Either way, from here on out I was planning a nonstop forced march. Clear maps. Kill every monster and neutral NPC in sight. Kill them all.

Then the slaughter would stack back up!

The amount permanently lost this time had been enormous. I'd considered just loading a save, but the levels I'd gained and the time I'd sunk made that feel too wasteful.

More than anything, loading would mean losing the mythic item.

I'd watched Seonga blow the Abyss apart, turn a raid boss into a friendly NPC in an instant, and leave behind a mythic item as it chose its own death. If I fought that again, I'd just kill the raid boss—and there was no guarantee the mythic drop would even happen.

"Wonder if a Training Ground will show up…"

I was half-resigned, grinding maps, when—

"…A green dot?"

A quest NPC!

I shot over in delight—because that green dot was surrounded by red ones. The quest NPC who was supposed to hand me a mission was about to die!

"Auto-Battle!"

In my panic I Auto-Battled the red dots clear, checked the minimap, confirmed the green dot was still green, and let out a breath of relief before offering the green dot a [Greeting].

"Hi. You in trouble? Got anything you need to ask of me?"

"D-Demon Immortal…?!"

What, an NPC who'd heard of me? Still green, though, so definitely a quest NPC! So why no response? Why no interaction?!

"Nothing to ask? There's gotta be something!"

I ignored the Humanity Clones muttering Main body, that's a threat and stared the quest NPC down until it finally pulled itself together and started interacting.

Mm. Listening to the story: it had discovered a hidden realm, gone in alone, nearly died, fled, gotten jumped by other cultivators, had everything from the realm stolen, and was about to get its head cracked open so they could learn the location. A long, drawn-out sob story.

Every time I tried to skip, the Humanity Clones stabbed me with their conscience, so I ended up hearing the whole thing from start to finish.

What is wrong with you two? You find this entertaining?!

It's just a generic story!

But even a tired melodrama sells if you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠make it well, Main Body.

Never gets old!

Apparently the Humanity Clones' reviews of that story were very different from mine. Ah. So this was the difference between a cultivator's taste and a Mortal's.

"So what's the request?"

What do you actually want me to do?

You still haven't stated the most important part—the quest! The mission objective!

"I'll tell you where the hidden realm is—just spare my life!!!"

"No, not that! What you want! A mission! A wish! A desperate! Request! That kind of thing!!!"

Why can't we communicate!?

I barked at it, and only then did it start stammering something while reading the room—still nothing on the quest window—until I finally pulled out killing intent, and only then did a quest finally register.

"You want me to clear a hidden realm and bring back the treasure inside, and you drag it out like it's some big secret? I thought you were gonna ask me to kill someone or wipe out a whole sect. Anyway, don't worry! I'll clear it and bring the stuff right back. Hold onto this!"

I pressed one Chopstick into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠its hand for tracking and protection.

Once the quest was registered, the quest NPC dug a location marker stone out of its mouth. I pulled water from my inventory, washed it off, and took it—and the location lit up on the minimap.

There it is!

"Be right back!"

Quests were the right call. They gave stacking guaranteed luck rewards—the problem was they almost never showed up.

I even pulled out the spinning wheel and flew toward the objective, and noticed a fair cluster of monsters and neutral NPCs nearby. What, had the heavens answered my desperate wish for slaughter?

Yeah, right!

"Demon Immortal! It's the Demon Immortal! Run!"

"Tch! I told you it was dangerous! There's a Demon Immortal prowling around here!"

"But it's a hidden realm! Don't worry—even a Demon Immortal, if we join forces—!!!"

I used a transformation skill. My shadow ballooned in an instant and swallowed the monsters and neutral NPCs whole; the noise cut off at once, and I shot out a hand.

I snatched the one still blustering the loudest like I was swatting a fly, shook it hard in my fist, and flung it into the ground.

Leaving the paste that used to be a monster behind me, I watched the rest attack in unison while backing off—and the neutral NPCs who didn't even bother, just spun and bolted—and I deployed the Chopsticks.

The spinning wheel tore into the monsters. A rain of Chopsticks locked onto the fleeing neutral NPCs.

"Not a single one gets away…!"

All of you are becoming my slaughter and experience!

As long as they didn't leave the minimap, they were Auto-Battle targets. Catching every last one was easy.

Came for a quest and ran into a whole pack of monsters. Lucky day!

"But is this really the hidden realm's location?"

It was the middle of empty nowhere. Was I supposed to dig? I held up the marker stone and stepped closer—and only then did a system message for dungeon entry pop up. I pressed it, and the entrance to the hidden realm shimmered faintly overhead.

Why was the entrance in such a half-assed spot?

A little higher than an adult's head—hard to spot from the ground, easy to miss if you swept past from the sky. A weird placement.

Clearing the hidden realm itself was easy. This was a low-level map to begin with; even the monsters inside were mostly trash that barely cracked level 300.

There were just a disgusting number of them. Maybe because hidden realms were packed with spiritual energy. I got so bored killing them that I just looped Auto-Battle and even ran Double Speed Mod, and it still took about a day before I'd finally wiped every monster in the dungeon.

On the bright side, I did manage to stockpile a decent amount of slaughter!

I finished the boss with a Spoon smash and started ransacking the realm. Let's see—that green glow over there should be the quest item, right?

Magic items were also green, but the item filter mod screened those out. The only thing that lit up this aggressively lime-green and insisted on being noticed was a quest item.

"Oh, decent money drop."

A currency dungeon? Besides the quest item, it was just cash. Well—low-level map. Clearing a hidden dungeon on a quest was still a win!

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

But Main Body, this is a hidden realm, right?

"Yeah?"

So we can absorb spiritual energy, can't we?

"…Can we?"

I didn't even need to burn the Flames of Slaughter. That had only been necessary when spiritual energy was pitiful compared to slaughter. Now that slaughter had dropped a lot and spiritual energy had risen, the Golden Core's power had grown with it.

Um. Main Body.

"What?"

I learned a spiritual energy cultivation method from the old man this time. Wouldn't it be more efficient if I handled the absorption?

The moment I heard that, I closed my eyes and entered the Mental World. Two Humanity Clones immediately opened a door in the Golden Core, descended into the Mental World, clothed themselves in bodies of slaughter, and plopped down on top of the tower.

What is this? Matching eye level so I feel the height difference? Teabagging? Or a taunt?

"I'm the teabagging."

"I'm the taunt."

"You little shits? You wanna die for real?"

"Ignore the petty stuff and listen, Main Body."

"I do not find this petty."

"Anyway—what I learned from the old man is a method that indiscriminately drags in and absorbs ownerless spiritual energy and spiritual power. The downside is you can't control or move the messy, low-quality spiritual energy you absorb that way."

"I'm the opposite. A method that dumps spiritual energy out in bulk and shapes it however you want. Inside the Mental World you can train it all you like, but outside, once you pour it out and move it, you can't pull it back in."

"What are these half-broken methods."

"Well, the old man said they were twin-exclusive techniques."

"Or techniques you can only train if you're born with two souls, or if you've learned a soul-body dual division art that permanently splits soul and body at a high enough realm."

"So they're good techniques, then?"

"On the stacking side, mine has the problem that the spiritual energy is messy and low-grade, so no matter how much you pile up, capacity usually has a limit—and refining it eats a ton of time."

"On the usage side, mine constantly leaks spiritual energy. If I don't periodically stick close and get topped up, I just dry up and die."

"But we're not ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the main body."

I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but… fine. Might as well leave it to them once.