Of caves and darkness

As I finished absorbing the core I noticed I could see a little clearer in the cave, like the darkness element that was pushing down on me lessened the slightest bit allowing my senses to gather more information.

It's amazing to think a core from a unranked monster could have this much of an effect on me, if I were to hunt down a rank one Purple back spider what would it's effect be. Would I be able to see as if I was above ground or could I go even further just the thought made my core itch with desire to find some more spiders to hunt for their cores, the only thing stopping me was that the spiders were dangerous and until I figure out a way to detect them I could get ambushed by one above my ability to fight so that's a a big no no since I want to live a long happy life.

After sitting there for a few hours an idea hit me. I realized I could sense them if I sent periodic bursts of lightning out if they are hit I'll be able sense them for the few seconds my lightning will be in there system, I noticed this when I killed the Vampire moth but didn't think much of it. But the drawbacks of this idea were a little annoying since it would take a lot of energy to send out that much lightning, so I would have to recover for a hour or two after every three bursts to still have enough energy for combat so it would take a while to explore the cave.

Then again I have nothing but time due to those damn moths, they are probably just waiting to ambush me the moment I leave. I floated a little further into the cave before releasing a pulse of lightning around me and only ended frying a few small bugs I did that another two times then rested until my energy was full again then repeated with no changes until I was about about fifteen meters in. I released the pulse of lightning only this time I felt it hit something on the ceiling of the a cave little bit in front of me, the only problem was this thing was huge it was five meters wide and at least two meters long. Just then I figured out the other flaw of this plan not only did it let me find them it also let them know I was here, so I did what any self respecting elemental did in this situation, throw my biggest attack at it and fl-tactically retreat.

As I ran aw-I mean tactically retreated I noticed something wrong, I didn't have a big ass spider chasing after me. After waiting a few minutes I came to a conclusion it didn't even think I was worth the effort eating which admittedly hurt my feelings a bit more than it should. I will zap you to death you over grown bug one day even if it kills me I silently swore to myself still stinging from the humiliation.

Wait doesn't this mean I could just go past it I realized, as stealthily as glowing ball could I went into the cave sending out pulses of lightning out retracing my steps over the course of the next few hours. As I was nearing the area where the spider was I felt like my core was going to shatter due to the tightness I felt in it and as I finally reached it the sight that awaited me their made me want to die for their sitting in the middle of the cave was the spider on its back, big hairy legs curled in on itself sitting on the ground dead. As I realized what happened I wanted to cry but had no tears to shed, the spider I was so scared of was actually so weak.

As I floated there the embarrassment slowly faded I realized that this was the perfect hunting ground the spiders fangs were dangerous but I could hurt them even easier than they could me since the had get close while I could blast them from a distance they weren't fast either the only real defense they had was the power to hide through their use of the darkness element and I already had a counter to that. Happiness bubbled up inside me until I could no longer contain it.

"Ahahahahahahahah kneel before your new King spiders and perhaps I will not kill you for you cores."

I floated their for a moment glad nobody saw that just thinking of the teasing El'Dari would do if he ever heard I said made me want to curl into myself. To distract myself from that I turned towards the spider corpse and went about getting the core, it was even larger than me by a few circles it had very pure and dense darkness element it was Rank One Peak core just on the verge of being a Rank Two core, it could probably get me from Rank One Early Stage to the Mid or High Stage if I absorbed.

Unable to resist the temptation I slowly started to absorb the energy from the core as I absorbed it after I absorbed about half the energy I started to break into the Mid stage as I was breaking through I noticed something something strange not all of the energy was being converted to lightning energy a portion of it started to form pathways in my core filling with darkness energy integrating itself into my core. I tried to stop absorbing the energy so I could see what's happening but my core wouldn't stop and was absorbing the energy like a black hole for energy for my breakthrough so I watched the purple veins spread through my core until their were just as many of them as their were the blue ones that represented my nature as a Lightning Elemental after that they stopped spreading to my relief.

I lost track of time as I absorbed the energy in the monster core it could have been days, hours, or even seconds I just floated in a river of energy, as I broke through from Low to Mid stage I felt invincible for but the briefest moments like the whole world was beneath me like with the flick of a finger I could reduce all in this world into dust before returning to normal, it was a strange feeling but not an unwelcome I longed to be able to feel like that by my own power for a moment before banishing that thought to the back of my mind to focus on more important matters, such as the changes in my core.

I observed the darkness element now coursing through my core looking for any differences from the lightning element, while lightning was violent and powerful like it wanted to reduce everything to ashes the darkness was tranquil and deep, a seemingly endless void in my core after observing it a few hours I could find no evidence that it was harming me so I decided to just continue my journey and experiment with it as I go.

As I focused on my surroundings I nearly jumped for joy where before I could see only a short distance in front of me now I could see even further than I could outside of the cave as I focused further I felt a monster ahead though it felt blurry focusing even more the image became even clearer after a little bit I realized it was one of those spiders in my shock my focus slipped the spider becoming a blurry mess once again, I did a little dance right there out of happiness.

If this is just the passive effect of it what can I actively use it for, I focused and formed a ball of darkness taking aim at the dead spider in front of me before releasing it. I watched with interest as it hit it and did exactly nothing, it just passed straight through it before dissipating. While a little disappointed I was still quite happy with the benefits I got, because now I could freely hunt in the caves and start my reign of terror the likes of this mountain has never seen.