Digitize: Rebirth of the Silver Death God
Chapter 131: The Dungeon's Special Effect, Adult Nero's Concern

The grim night air continued to thrive as the flock of Man-Eating Crows ravaged all beneath the sinister moon of the gloomy skies, casting its bloody hue onto the dark city beneath its reign.

As the chilly mist-shrouded most sights, even the nearby buildings constructed from antique stones, a ghostly figure flashed left and right as it rapidly danced through the streets.

Looking closely, one would notice that the entity that moved like a ghost was in no way a departed being, but a handsome youth with silver hair who performed as a dancer in the field. His body twisted before transforming into four different ghostlike shadows that scattered towards the four directions.

Instantly, each of the shadows had revolved before leaving behind a remnant sparkling silver line that swirled across the street, moving at strange angles as it easily bisected any of the crows that dared to charge towards him.

As the blood of these creatures filled scattered around the misty asphalt, the corpses fell from the sky in abundance as the youth's dominating figure once more appeared. He stood at the center of the carnage holding onto his trusty scythe that emanated baleful greenish energies as he stared before him with stern eyes, peering through the misty scene into the distance at the nearing palace in his path.

"Che! These crows are so annoying, so numerous, yet they can only give so little EXP," Nero muttered to himself, but as if someone heard him, a voice sounded in his head.

"Ha, what do you think? You are not even in the heart of the dungeon as your only at its entrance. Besides, there's no harm in this either; if no one can pass this phase, they wouldn't have even been worthy to enter the core of the dungeon. That and the fact that anyone who was lagging behind in skill mastery could use this chance to catch up to the others. After all, if you leveled up without having a decent amount of mastery, it would be pointless."

Adult Nero said as he lazily sat down in a random part of his younger self's consciousness; he looked outside at the scene with a hint of boredom on his face.

Nero shook his head at this and complained in his mind, 'Hmph! So what? If the monsters are too weak, what good will that do with my mastery of skills? There's no challenge if they can't even last one hit!'

Adult Nero chuckled at this as he spoke, "So you want them tougher, huhu... fine, crawl further into the dungeon, there you may replace the challenge you seek. However, I must warn you; it's best to bring up your skill mastery by at least one more level before jump in like a wild beast; this is your only chance to increase your mastery speedily. I'm not sure if you noticed, but these sections have quite a special effect."

When Nero heard his older self's words, he made a curious look as he didn't realize it prior; he thought for a moment, recalling that he had indeed felt a little more clear-headed during his previous fights.

'Interesting, I didn't notice it, but I guess you might just be right; I'll check my progress to be sure.'

After concluding his thoughts, Nero willed for his stats to show once more, focusing only on his skills and their individual mastery.

____

[Passive Combat Skills | High-Grade:]

[Core Body Refinement: Stage 7 (895/1000) | 9 Stages]

[Effects: Can increase Combat Power and Body Tenacity by +50]

[All Weapons Mastery Skill - Stage 7 (827/1000) | 9 Stages]

[Effects: Can increase the skill and Combat Power used by +50]

---

[Active Combat Skills | High Grade:]

[Blood Reaper's Dance (Special) Stage 1 (0/100) | ? Stages]

[Effects: Increase of 10% total damage, MP Consumption: 40]

[Four Point Unity Steps - Stage 7 (950/1000) | 9 Stages]

[Effects: Increase of 45km/h, MP Consumption: 25]

[Myriad Spector Clones: Stage 2 (91/100) | 9 Stages]

[Effects: Conjure 2 Phantom Clones, MP Consumption: 25]

____

As Nero saw his details, his eyes lit up as he thought to himself, 'Perfect, it hasn't even been half an hour since the battles started, and yet I have already reached such a high amount of mastery. If I spend a few more minutes, I might push everything to the Eight Level. Not only that, but my Blood Reaper's Dance could also level up. Using these monsters to test it is probably a good idea; as for my level, I can still level up by fighting the stronger monsters on the inside.'

After wrapping up his thoughts, Nero made a faint smile as he gripped the handle of his scythe even higher. He stared at the sinister palace obscured by the hazy in the nearing distance before he turned around and walked towards a different area, one which had sounds of intense fighting.

Adult Nero didn't ask anything as he already knew Nero's decision after listening to his mind. He leaned back and paid no attention to his following actions, fixing his eyes towards the palace's direction as a sharp look came into his eyes.

'I've never come to this dungeon before; during my novice time, it was that strange marshland. Hmm, from this, I can already understand that each of these words are indeed randomly generated passages. Heh, things should get quite interesting, experiencing the unknowns should have its own thrills...'

Adult Nero thought himself with a flash of expectation in his eyes; he wanted to see just how far he could push his younger self to grow in a short time.

After wrapping up his thoughts, he was about to close his eyes to rest his spirit, but as if he sensed something strange, Adult Nero knitted his brows as he stared at the palace in the distance.

At a glance, there was nothing unusual about it. However, Adult Nero had a dark feeling as he saw that the sinister eyes from the looming moon had shifted down towards Nero's position, they seemed to be staring at Nero himself, but Adult Nero knew those very eyes were locked onto his soul.

"Hahaha..." A sinister laugher sounded at the core of his mind as the eyes that stared down vanished, leaving behind only the ominous blood-red moon that watched over the shadowy world.

"Hmm... there's something different about this dungeon; it turns out that I might need to be a little serious after all..."

Adult Nero muttered as he peered at the eyes in the sky; as Nero continued on his way to train, fading into a sea of haze.

****

Congrats to the winners of last month's event, you can send me a message on discord to get your prize. Thank you all for continuing to support the series :)

Dstep24, DChester, Fusilier66