There were two things that Adrian had learnt in just two hours within this dungeon.

One, this dungeon truly did hate him and two, trying to challenge it was definitely ideal,

Hence the situation he found himself in.

Adrian looked at the upside down Noctis with a blank expression as the cat was also staring at him.

No, the cat wasn’t the one that was upside down, he was.

And there were what seemed like vines wrapped around him, pulling him higher by the second, towards a large flower with what seemed like dagger sized teeth on its edges and slime dripping from its petal.

Yes, a plant was currently trying to eat him, and it was only because his drunk self had somehow walked into a very obvious lasso on the ground made of vines.

Instead of panic, Adrian was calmly letting himself get closer and closer to getting eaten.

But moments before the quickly closing dagger sized teeth could reach him, he suddenly swapped places with his clone and appeared beside Noctis.

He sat beside his cat, watching the flower swallow his clone and a minute after spikes suddenly burst out from its closed petals before the plant immediately spit out the ball of shadow.

Or at least, it tried to.

But the shadow quickly spread to its stalks, and as if suddenly drained of all it nutrients, the plant suddenly crumbled to dust.

Though, that wasn’t far from the truth, but instead of nutrients, Adrian had managed to figure out how to drain the corrupted mana, from it.

The corrupted mana was one that every beast or plant he has faced so far seem to possess.

But the side effects of using his shadow as a means of draining the corrupted mana, was an increase in corruption within his mana stream.

And unlike everything else in this dungeon, Adrian was just getting drunk over and over again, instead of mutating into something terrifying.

Well, maybe a drunk spirit mage going around delibrate hunting beasts within the dungeon just for their corrupted mana, was terrifying.

"That’s fifty," Adrian said with a chuckle as he watched the crumbling plant.

For the past hour or so, he had remained intoxicated whilst fighting the beasts and plants in this forest.

«You really should stop actively absorbing the corrupted mana,» Noctis, the only sane one among the two right now, spoke up, «even if it’s not causing you to mutate, you’ll need a clear head since we’re still within a dungeon.»

"You’re right," he nodded in agreement before slowly standing up and stretching before turning towards another part of the forest and adding, "but I have a feeling that I’ll get to my lady a lot faster this way."

With that, he teleported away, Noctis speechlessly looking in the direction he disappeared to before it also followed.

***

Adrian continued hunting for a long while before he suddenly started feeling bloated again.

It felt as if his already large mana reserves were trying to grow even larger, and the corruption currently added to his mana only worked to make him feel even more bloated.

This was a familiar sign, one which he immediately recognized,

An incoming breakthrough.

From the last breakthrough, he got [Shadow Sense] and [Shadow Clones] which were then added to [Shadow Manipulation] and [Shadow Swap].

"I wonder what I’ll get this time," he muttered with a smile.

Without hesitation, he sat on the forest floor again, intending to break through right here, in the middle of this danger filled forest.

Unfortunately, the forest had no intention of letting him peacefully increase his rank because the next second,

BOOM.

The ground beneath him suddenly caved in, fortunately though, he was aware enough to immediately teleport away as he looked towards the hole that was forming.

"Can I just breakthrough in peace?" Adrian grumbled, though he still remained sitting and the earth from the forest floor continued caving in.

«You chose the worst possible moment and place for a breakthrough,» Noctis said, «now, get up.»

A towering mass dragged itself out of the earth, its body made entirely of thick, interwoven roots and bark-like flesh. Behind it were thick, wiggling root-like vines, that helped pull it out of the earth.

The creature fully emerged, standing at least three times his height, its ’head’ was nothing more than a knot of roots that slowly parted, revealing a vertical maw lined with jagged, splinter-like teeth.

Corrupted Mana Eater.

It was a creature drawn in by his bloated mana, specifically, the corruption within his bloated mana.

It had sensed food that it could use as nutrients to grow even faster, hence, it immediately rushed here before any other monster could.

SCREECH!

The creature loudly let out, towards his direction before its roots rushed towards Adrian.

Quickly piercing through him, or at least that’s what it looked like in the darkness of the forest.

But strangely enough, as the creature tried absorbing his mana to feed itself, nothing happened, instead, ’Adrian’ suddenly melted and wrapped around its vines, spreading upwards.

Meanwhile Adrian, the real one, was standing a small distance away from the attack, watching as his shadow wrapped around the creature’s vines, causing it to struggle.

He was tempted to absorb more of the corrupted mana within the Mana Eater, unfortunately, he was to bloated to do so.

The beast’s vines suddenly withered when it noticed that it couldn’t shake the prey off, thereby letting the clone fall to the forest floor before Adrian dismissed it.

Surprisingly, or rather unsurprisingly, the discarded vines started regrowing again, replacing the lost one as it turned towards Adrian, noticing him through his mana.

SCREECH!

It let out again, but this time, instead launching its vines towards him, it buried them beneath the ground.

The moment that happened, the forest suddenly seemed to go eerily silent.

Adrian silently let out a sigh as he watched the ground beneath him.

"Ah," he muttered, "this one is pretty smart."

«Move,» Noctis warned immediately and Adrian didn’t argue this time.

[Shadow Swap]

The moment the ground beneath his feet bulged upward, he vanished, reappearing several meters away as dozens of thick roots burst out from below, shredding the spot he had just stood on.

The attack didn’t stop.

The forest floor suddenly came alive as more roots started bursting out in his position, forcing him to teleport again and again.

Adrian, even drunk, finally realized something and he let out a small chuckle, "its trying to herd me."

Just a moment after his words,

BOOM!

The ground in front of him suddenly exploded as the creature itself burst out again, its massive body lunging forward whilst its maw was wide open.

The attack left nowhere to escape to, just a straight path into its mouth.

"You really are intent on eating me aren’t you?" Adrian murmured.

But instead of dodging, he stepped closer to the lunging creature.

«You idiot,» Noctis muttered before stopping as it soon realized what its contractor was about to do.

[Shadow Clone]

A silhouetted copy of him appeared right in front of the creature and since it was still mid air, it had no chance of avoiding the clone.

Seeing no other option, the creature closed its maw around the clone, swallowing it whole, giving Adrian enough space to dodge and observe it.

For the first few seconds, the Corrupted Mana Eater seemed completely unaffected by the clone, even absorbing some of its mana.

But the next second, the clone seemed to change its form within the creature’s stomach and a moment after, large spikes pierced through it, exiting its stomach.

The creature suddenly started struggling, letting out a screech, but there was no way to get the clone out of its stomach.

Its struggles continued for a while before it suddenly froze as the shadow spikes within it reached its core and immediately shattered it.

"You shouldn’t eat things you can’t digest," Adrian said softly as he watched the creature fall.

With that, he turned around and muttered, "now then, let’s find a safe place to breakthrough."