Max's eyes snapped open.
His vision was blurry. His head throbbed.
He was back in his room.
"Why the hell do I keep passing out every time I visit the dungeon?" he cursed internally.
It was frustrating. Just when he thought he'd discovered a glitch in the system… the system updated itself.
Max tried to sit up—
"AAARGHH!!"
He gritted his teeth. Pain flared through his back like a burning hot blade slicing his flesh with every movement.
But Max wasn't someone to give in to pain.
He had been through worse. Broken bones. Burns. Brutal fights. This was bad—but not unbearable.
"Fuck…" he muttered, slowly sitting up. He bit his lip so hard that a drop of blood spilled out just to suppress the urge to scream. His body trembled, but he endured.
The dried blood trail from the bathroom to his room stained the floor like a crime scene. He was in worse shape than he thought. A wound like this would typically take a week to heal.
A week he couldn't afford.
He was weak, dizzy, and starving—but more than anything, he was angry. Furious. Boiling with frustration.
Max stood up through gritted teeth, pulled the crystal from its container, and did something he hadn't done before.
He tapped the crystal with a pen-like scanner. A display lit up:
[Less than 1%]
"Below basic level? Fine by me," Max muttered.
He sat down with a pillow against the wall, careful not to let the wound touch the surface. He attempted to absorb the crystal.
He found the threads of energy. They flickered in his vision like veins of light. He pulled them in—
Backlash.
A jolt surged through his body as the energy clashed violently with what already existed inside him. His brows furrowed.
"What's going on…"
His own energy was unstable—too wild, reacting to his emotional state. He needed to calm down, but no matter how hard he tried, his mind was in chaos.
He had no choice but to seal the crystal back in its container. He limped to the kitchen.
On second thought—raw ramen wasn't the worst option.
A day passed. Then two.
Max hadn't been able to do much. The back injury slowed him down. He managed to absorb the crystal eventually, but still…
The Recovery Trait from 7SH hadn't been triggered.
This was even more problematic. Each time Max cultivated, he felt something change in him but couldn't figure out what.
Frustrated but focused, he spent the next couple of days combing through every website, blog, and forum about dungeons and monsters. He concentrated on mastering the flow of energy inside him. He needed a better plan. A safer way to get crystals.
By day five, the injury had somewhat better. Not healed, but tolerable. He could move, run—barely.
He geared up again. No bulky cyclist outfit this time; they weren't protective against the monsters. He just packed the essentials. He wanted to be light and fast on his foot.
"There's one simple rule, even newbies know…" Max muttered, recalling something he read online.
"You kill monsters, you get rewards. There's no way around it."
He knew now—his crystal runs had been nothing but dumb luck.
He flushed the toilet—and once again, found himself inside the Dark Dungeon.
Crimson-red skies swirled above. Floating islands drifted like clouds. He was back.
The first crystal cluster he'd harvested had regrown. It was the nearest thing to him, located about 20 meters from the safe zone. His motivation reignited.
Simple plan: grab the crystal and run.
He strolled casually toward the cluster, clamped on the crystal, and yanked it free.
'Ting!'
He bolted. The monster's roar sounded behind him.
He continued to run, with one hand on the crystal, the other gripping a kitchen knife.
"It's do or die!" he shouted.
"GRUHHH!!"
One more roar behind him.
Then another.
And another.
His speed wasn't what it used to be—but the safety was close. He pushed on.
Then—another roar, this one from the opposite direction.
He didn't even turn.
He could sense them.
More than two.
He dove into the safe zone just in time.
Looking back, four monsters were now hovering around him, slamming their tentacles at the golden energy barrier.
'Made it.'
He collapsed to his knees, breathing hard. The wound on his back stung as if it were fresh again.
Still, he stayed calm.
The monsters, having lost sight of their prey, began fighting among themselves—battling over territory.
Max's eyes gleamed.
"Time for the next step."
He sat cross-legged, crystal held firmly near his navel, and began the energy transfer.
Absorbing energy was like moving water from one tank to another. If he tried to take water from the huge tank, the overpressure would cause the pipes to burst. Similarly, if the input tank was too small, the pressure would be too low, and the energy would not flow.
Max was currently in the second scenario. His body had already absorbed more energy than the crystals; he had to forcefully transfer energy from the crystal into his body to cultivate properly. Beads of sweat rolled down his face. His shirt clung to him, drenched in sticky, translucent fluid.
Something inside him was changing—and it wasn't just his senses.
"GRUHHHH!!"
The monsters roared outside, circling the barrier. Fighting against each other.
Max ignored them.
Hours passed. The crystal turned gray.
His wound had dried. The bleeding had stopped.
Max opened his eyes. A strange calmness washed over him.
He stood. He wasn't feeling as heavy or pressured.
"Is my theory correct?" Max muttered, looking above; only one monster remained, hovering lazily. No roars. Perhaps it was tired.
Max stared at the next closest cluster.
"I am going to give it a shot."
It was risky. Suicidal, maybe. But he felt different. Stronger.
'A visible enemy is better than a sneak attack,' he thought.
He stepped out of the safe zone, walked calmly to the crystal, clamped on—
'Ting!'
Crystal broken.
The monster dove immediately.
"Predictable," Max said; he was already running. The monster was coming down, attacking face-to-face. It was nearby, just a few meters away.
"Gruhhh!!"
The monster roared again, its tentacles waving in the air to catch prey, but it didn't hesitate. He jumped to the side, avoiding the tentacle, and the monster maneuvered midair.
Another attack was launched towards Max.
Max dove down; the tentacle almost pierced his chest, but Max deflected it with his kitchen knife.
"Fuck, it's strong!" Max could feel his grip weakning just from a single strike.
Max darted back, and the monster dashed forward. Its tentacles attacked again; Max slid to the ground, and the tentacles waved again. He tried to counter with the knife again.
'Clangg!'
The knife broke in two, and a cut was made on his forearms. Max ran backward toward the safe zone. The monster grabbed the broken knife and put it in its mouth. This was enough time gap for Max to securely make it inside the safe zone.
Inside, he looked at his hand.
The hilt of his broken knife was still clenched tightly.
He smiled. "I lasted a few seconds… against a monster."
Max's hunch was true. Each time he cultivated, Max knew something had changed, but he couldn't put a finger on it. He was sure it was not his senses—those were already enhanced.
He had not enhanced recovery either; his wounds were taking forever to heal. Immunity? Maybe. But Max knew there was something more to it.
The only two possibilities were Adaptation and Control. But since Max couldn't feel any change in control, he made it down to.
Adaptation.
It was useless.
Adaptation requires certain factors to trigger, such as prolonged exposure to natural phenomena.
For those living on Earth, this phenomenon was either due to temperature or climate.
But for Max, the case was different.
A wide grin appeared on his face, stretching from ear to ear. He could barely contain his happiness, "My body is adapting to the 2x gravity!"
And now, Max was sure 7SH was the best skill he could have gotten.
Max was satisfied with his progress. And it was time for him to head back to Earth...