Another month or so passed.
Currently, Damien had cleared another 4 floors and was headed to what he assumed was the next boss room. However, he doubted he would have any trouble, considering how much preparation he took before descending.
As he walked down the slope that led to the next floor, he pondered on the environment he’d been seeing as he went lower.
‘Surprisingly, the most desolate areas of the dungeon are the higher floors. The only way for beasts to survive is to eat each other and evolve. However, the farther I come down, the more vegetation I see in the surroundings.’
‘If it’s like this, then perhaps on even lower floors there are areas where monsters have formed a stable ecosystem rather than the land of death and survival that I’ve grown accustomed to.’
On the past 9 floors he’d cleared, he saw growing amounts of various plants and grasses. There was even a single tree on the most recent floor. He mused that sometime within the next 20 floors he might get to see a forest for the first time in what felt like years.
Thinking idle thoughts, Damien reached the next floor. Unlike the goblin village, he saw on the previous boss floor, this one was cloaked in glaring darkness.
Damien walked forward vigilantly as to not fall victim to any ambushes as he entered the boss floor. He stretched his spatial awareness as far as possible, and what he saw made his face pale.
Although it was never mentioned previously as Damien never felt the need to think about it, he had an extremely irrational fear of spiders.
But it wasn’t the kind of fear where he would run as far as possible to get away, rather it was the type of fear where he would use any means possible to kill any spider he sees, so as to decrease the number of spiders in existence as much as possible.
As for what he saw covering the entire boss floor? Webs. In every direction, he saw webs strewn about to catch any prey that was unlucky enough to wander into their grasp.
Luckily, Damien didn’t see the spider who strung the webs, or he might’ve gone berserk even while being fully conscious.
Damien became extremely paranoid for no reason. No matter what the boss on this floor was, he had built the capability to slay it with ease, however, there was a reason his fear was considered irrational.
Suddenly, Damien slashed his sword to his left, emitting a wave of lightning, but he hit nothing.
The spider was surprised to see Damien react to its movements, but it wasn’t worried. It had been born with a special set of eyes that allowed it to predict its opponent’s movements and see through anything false.
Due to this, it had developed a superior intelligence compared to most beasts on its level, and seeing that Damien was much stronger than it was, it decided to use its eyes and intelligence to win this fight.
Many minutes passed, but Damien still hadn’t caught sight of the spider. He had sensed it attempting to attack 3 or 4 times, but whenever he countered, it was never in the same position.
Damien was starting to get irritated. Usually, he’d just distort space around him so that the spider would get crushed by pressure, but he wasn’t thinking calmly. After many more minutes of the same routine, Damien lost his cool.
‘Screw it! I’m going to blow this damn spider all the way past hell and down wherever the place deeper than hell is!’ Damien gathered and compressed and released lightning continuously, forming lightning bullets that flew through the floor.
A series of explosions rang out, causing clouds of dust and debris to be kicked around. And within that dust and debris, Damien spotted the spider. Finally seeing the annoying pest he needed to kill, he immediately teleported over.
The spider panicked, it had predicted that it could use its poison to kill Damien after wearing him down, but it could have never predicted his immense hatred for spiders. As it began computing new paths to victory, it felt a sharp pain in its abdomen.
Damien was behaving like a primate at this point. He threw down his sword and continuously bashed the spider’s body with his fist. Every once in a while, he would teleport into the air and drop a heavy kick onto its head.
The spider was specialized in poison and ambush tactics, so its physical ability wasn’t that developed, and Damien could’ve ended the fight with a couple of swings of his lightning-infused sword, but he was much more brutal.
Now that he had the spider in his grasp, he wouldn’t let it escape. Whenever it tried to run, he would appear in front of it and continue his brutal beating. The spider could only lament at the fact that it had met such a devil and wonder what it did to deserve such a fate.
Luckily, it didn’t need to endure for much longer; as Damien let one last heavy punch towards its head, crushing its skull and killing it.
“Haa…haa…Another scourge eliminated”
Damien smiled, seemingly proud of himself, before looking at the spider corpse in disdain. He really didn’t want to devour the spider.
He felt that it would be a stain on his record to take on characteristics of a spider, but he knew he had to continue growing stronger. Now that he had eliminated the scourge to humanity, his rational mind was back in control.
Damien put his arm forward and that gaping shadowy maw once again formed, completely consuming the spider. Damien had mentally prepared himself to feel extreme pain in his body, but he wasn’t ready at all.
This time, the evolution of his body was minimal, after all, the spider itself didn’t have a strong body.
Instead, Damien felt a searing pain in his eyes, as if they were being melted by intense heat and repeatedly stung by a horde of wasps at the same time.
Considering the intense amounts of pain he had to endure during his time in the dungeon, Damien never expected he’d reach a level he couldn’t handle again, but reality proved him wrong.
The pain in his eyes at the moment genuinely made him want to scream like a little girl and roll around the floor, but he bit his lip until it bled and endured.
Hours later, his evolution ended. Removing his hand that was covering them, he slowly opened his eyes. When he did, he had no choice but to gasp in amazement.
The world he was seeing now was completely different than what he could see before. The glaring darkness that felt almost abyssal was no longer a problem, and he could see everything as if it was broad daylight.
The significance of this couldn’t be underestimated. Ever since he was stranded, Damien could only see clearly due to his eyes adapting to the environment and his senses sharpening from his first mutation, but the environment he saw was still gloomy and darks.
Now, every detail of the cave around him could be seen clearly. Every crack in the yellowish-brown cave walls, every speck of dust that was kicked up by his previous rampage, every small plant organism that stuck to the ceiling and floor, it was all as clear as if he was looking at them through a microscope.
These were just the superficial aspects though.
When Damien waved his arm, he could see physical ripples occur in the space surrounding him. The spatial layers he could previously only sense when he meditated or concentrated were clear to see.
Even more surprising were the swirls of multicolored light that lingered around the environment. Yellowish light radiated from the cave walls and ceilings, a slight hue of green could be seen in the air, and patches of purple were scattered about the rubble on the floor.
‘These patches of purple are the lightning mana I released earlier when I carpet-bombed this place!’ Damien realized. ‘Then this must be earth, and this is wind! Haha, this is amazing!’
Although Damien had received many special things before this, he felt that these eyes were his most useful evolution to date. Suddenly, a holographic window appeared, snapping him out of his reverie.
[The user has received the trait, All-Seeing Eyes.]
[All-Seeing Eyes resonates with a dormant attribute within the user.]
[Trait: All-Seeing Eyes has completed resonance with the dormant attribute. The trait has gained the ability to evolve and will be shown in the [Skills] section of the user’s status.]
[Due to being the first human from the world [Earth] to create an evolving trait, the user’s legend has been enhanced.]
Damien grinned. Although he didn’t know what the dormant attribute was, he knew it’d be a good thing once he discovered it.
He had also gained a trait he could evolve, unlike the Goblin King’s trait, which would only work on those of equal or lower level than him no matter how strong he got.
Damien’s grin widened. Even if this eye power was the opportunity he had been sensing recently, he’d be satisfied. But noticing that his feeling remained, he was excited for what was to come.
Thinking about how his luck had finally begun to reverse, Damien continued to descend.