Everybody was pointing their fingers at me! They somehow were blaming me for boosting the dungeon's power, but I don't have any of such abilities. I can control dungeons, but I have never showcased any of such abilities before, wouldn't it be too stupidly convenient for such a weird ability to suddenly emerge out of absolutely nowhere? It doesn't make any sense at all, it is completely nonsensical and impossible, something that doesn't happen in real life, no way. Never.
"What are you talking about? I have never been able to do such a thing before…" I sighed.
There wasn't really anything that said that I could do such a thing, checking all my skills again, there was no skill doing that, and checking my magic spells, there was no spell doing that either, this was completely some sort of assumption, and I really didn't liked it, it felt as if I was being blamed for no reason at all. I looked back at Pekora who started it, and I was ready to give her a good reprimand for trying to throw the guilt of this strange phenomena to me without any actual evidence.
"No, I am sure its you, Drake. Also stop being so melodramatic, it is nothing bad." She sighed. "I think it is not part of your abilities but just a result of your own immensely dense quantities of mana, they surpass all of us as well- Ah, Benladann too, I think she's also doing it."
"Eh? Me?!" Asked Benladann in surprise, she pointed her right-hand index finger at herself in surprise, feeling betrayed by Pekora out of the sudden.
"You're targeting my wife now?! What's next, my daughter?!" I asked exasperated, as Pekora looked at me with a bored and tired expression.
"I know you're bored but you don't have to build up so much pointless tension." She sighed. "And yeah, your daughter also has a lot of Mana so you three are the trio doing this. probably if only one of you were here it wouldn't happen but surely, it is your fault… I think the mana is actually being absorbed by the dungeon to stabilize it, if it were to let it go wild everywhere, it would end up causing damage somehow…"
"I can't believe you, Pekora! To think that there would be the day you would say such a thing of us… I feel betrayed… Is this the real you? Is this the one you truly are? Answer me!" I cried, I felt completely heartbroken, I was falling apart each second that passed, as I saw one of my greatest friends and allies betraying me, gruesome feelings took over my heart, as I felt the heavy burden of having trusted someone that wasn't truly my friend. I feel like I wasn't cautious enough, that I was-
<Can you stop with this already?>
Okay… I was just playing around! Aren't I good at roleplaying? I could be an actor!
<You're terrible, stop this, you're cringe>
C-Cringe?!
Ugh…
And in that moment, that's where I felt it, my heart was shattering into pieces as the System admitted one of her deepest thoughts since the beginning of our journey, from the moment that we crossed paths that she had always thought of myself as someone disappointing, as someone that wasn't up to his powers, someone that didn't deserved her, someone… cringe.
<You're doing this on purpose, aren't you? You think you're pretty funny? Well, you are not.>
Alright, I'll stop…
<Anyways, let me tell you something, it is true, Pekora has an amazingly sharp sense of mana, yours, Benladann, and Benladra mana are somewhat connected. You are always so stuck together that your mana fuses together naturally and makes a ball of mana that usually doesn't make anything bad because it just flows back to the world, but when you enter a dungeon, the dungeon itself begins to absorb it desperately so it doesn't end up getting destroyed, but this also causes it to go berserk at the end and makes the monsters several times stronger.>
Oh?! So this is like a hidden boost! Something we didn't thought we had; can this affect our dungeons too?
<It is already doing so, that's why the monsters are stronger. Anyways, this also means that the quality of the items of these monster's drop will increase, and their corpses will become more valuable, I also believe their level of difficulty raises by at least two Ranks, so those Slimes are actually around Rank 3.>
Eh?! So that's why it was so fast. Wait, that didn't seem to matter at all for my Benladra, she completely blasted that one slime into oblivion without mercy, so I guess it didn't mattered that much in that regard, my Benladra is way too strong.
<Your daughter is possibly the strongest after you. So that was obvious. Anyways, this will cause the slimes to get a bit deadlier, but that'll be more fun, right? So Enjoy the trip and collect tons of materials. I would suggest you to leave one of the new functions "on">
Eh? What function?
<Sigh… This is because you don't read my changes, don't you? After you evolved into an Orochi you gained another function named "Auto Pickup" any dropped item from dungeons, including monster carcasses will automatically be picked and saved into the Inventory Skill It costs a lot of mana to maintain but you can easily do it with your amount>
Oh?! I see! Then activate auto-pickup!
Ding!
[Auto pickup has been activated]
<Done, have fun. Teach your daughter how to use her claws and tail as well, her breath is strong but it vaporizes the prize which is the monster's corpse.>
Alright.
"Drake? Are you even listening to us?!" Pekora was in front of me, glaring down at me angrily, she was very small but a grumpy rabbit, nonetheless.
"Ah! Yes, yeah, let's continue anyways, I think the monsters might be two ranks stronger, but nothing we can't handle, right?" I said.
