Ren leaned against the cold cave wall. His breathing finally steadied.
Keeping four summons active put a constant strain on his mind and body. But with his Endurance hitting 14, he could handle the Cosmic Furnace's toll for hours without collapsing.
"Let's move," Ren muttered.
He left the bloody cave and pushed deeper into Zone Z41.
They hit zero resistance. His squad hunted down every stray gnome they crossed. Necks snapped. Skulls shattered. Quick and completely silent.
In less than an hour, Ren harvested 40 new green cores.
He crouched to rip the last core from a dead gnome's chest and shoved it into the empty air.
[Alert: Dimensional Storage (1 Cubic Meter) is full.]
Ren paused. The blue lapis ore he mined earlier was hogging most of the space.
"System. How much to upgrade the storage?"
[To upgrade capacity to 3 cubic meters, please consume 20 F-Rank cores.]
"Do it."
The system drained 20 cores from his pocket. The blue rift in front of him stretched wider. He tossed the rest of the cores inside and kept walking.
♢♢♢♢
The terrain shifted suddenly. The rocky ground dropped off, forming a massive crater that looked like a volcano's mouth.
Ren immediately hit the dirt behind the cliff edge. He signaled his summons to stay flat. He crawled forward slowly and looked down.
His pupils dilated.
This was the main nest. The mother hive.
Hundreds of gray gnomes swarmed the bottom of the pit. Digging, moving rocks, tearing apart unknown carcasses. Over 300 F-Rank gnomes.
But that wasn't the worst part.
Right in the middle of the swarm, Ren spotted five different creatures. Gnomes that stood twice as tall as the rest. Glowing scars lined their skin, and they gripped massive stone hammers.
'Five E-Rank gnomes.'
Ren bit the inside of his cheek. He remembered exactly how close that E-Rank Warrior came to chopping him in half. Now, there were five of them. Backed by a whole army.
Jumping down there right now was straight suicide.
Ren backed away slowly until he cleared the edge. He sat cross-legged and pulled up the system interface.
'Running isn't an option. I need to upgrade my summons and myself.'
"System. Can I upgrade the level of my current summons?"
[Answering Player: Yes. You can consume cores to max out your base summons' levels for their current rank (Level 10). Note: You cannot raise a 'Rank' without fusion.]
"That works."
Ren opened his storage. He calculated his exact haul. He had 250 cores from the cave massacre. Added 40. Subtracted 20 for the storage upgrade. Net balance: 270 F-Rank cores.
"System. Max out the White Goblin."
[Upgrading White Goblin to Level 10 requires 70 F-Rank cores. Confirm?]
"Confirm."
The White Goblin flashed with a bright light. The muscles in its legs swelled up terrifyingly, and its claws grew longer and sharper.
[White Goblin | Rank F | Level 10 (MAX)]
[Strength: 17 | Speed: 20 | Endurance: 15]
"Perfect." Ren shifted his gaze to his oldest partner. "Max out the Sewer Goblin."
[Upgrade requires 80 cores. Confirm?]
"Confirm."
The Sewer Goblin's body stretched out. Its fangs jutted from its mouth, looking absolutely sick and vicious.
[Sewer Goblin | Rank F | Level 10 (MAX)]
[Strength: 20 | Speed: 13 | Endurance: 19]
"Now, the Rock Gnome."
[Upgrade requires 65 cores. Confirm?]
"Confirm."
The stone plates on the gnome's body thickened into pitch-black, dense armor.
[Rock Gnome | Rank F | Level 10 (MAX)]
[Strength: 12 | Speed: 10 | Endurance: 25]
A bit slow, but it just became a living wall built to eat damage.
Ren checked his remaining balance. 55 cores left.
"Status Window."
[Name: Ren | Level 8 (Exp: 40/600)]
[Strength: 12 | Speed: 15 | Endurance: 14 | Mana: 10]
"System. Consume 45 cores. Push Strength to 20, Speed to 16, and Endurance to 20."
[Consumption Confirmed.]
Heat slammed into his body like lightning. His bones popped loud enough to hear. His muscles cramped so hard he dug his fingers into the dirt to choke down a scream.
When the pain finally died out, he opened his eyes. He felt terrifyingly light. Raw power surged through every cell.
[Strength: 20 | Speed: 16 | Endurance: 20]
He only had 10 F-Rank cores left.
He turned toward the E-Rank Armored Goblin standing there like a silent stone giant.
"Feed the last ten cores to the Armored Goblin."
[Consumed. Armored Goblin advanced to Level 6. Minor stat boost applied.]
The Armored Goblin's red eyes glowed a shade darker.
Ren stood up. He dusted off his pants.
He looked at his squad. Three monsters maxed out at their limits, and one E-Rank armored beast ready to crush skulls. And his own stats completely dwarfed what they used to be.
He pulled a jagged metal pickaxe from his dimensional storage.
"Alright, guys," Ren said, a predatory smile breaking across his face. "Time to wipe out this hive."