Yuuto wasn't sure how long he had been lying on the cold stone floor. Now that the rush of battle had drained away, the pain returned in slow, sharp waves.
He forced his shaking legs to cooperate and pushed himself up. The slime he had defeated was gone, leaving only a shallow puddle of acid slime and a few broken pieces of its core.
He needed to collect materials. That was the whole reason he had entered the dungeon in the first place. Monster drops could be sold at the guild, and even slime parts were valuable to someone with no money.
But there was a problem. According to the guides he had read, slimes only dropped two items: their mucus and their core. He had crushed the core during the fight, so it was probably worthless now. The remaining mucus was dangerous to touch, and it would melt any normal container. Only special glass bottles could hold it—something far beyond his budget.
Walking away now would make the fight pointless. Yuuto took a slow breath and thought back to his skills. A small, uncertain idea surfaced.
"Break," he whispered, calling on his Break skill (extract-skill).
This time, he aimed the skill at the remains rather than the living monster. His MP had mostly recovered after the battle—perhaps the monster's magic element had returned to him when it died. He still had 28 out of 30 MP.
The slime puddle began to bubble and pull together. Little by little, it condensed into a small blue jelly. The goo separated into clean and unclean parts until what remained was a smooth, marble-sized gel.
A faint window flashed before his eyes.
[High-Purity Slime Jelly Obtained]
Yuuto touched it carefully. It was cool and springy, but didn't burn his skin.
"This is safe to hold," he murmured with relief.
He slipped the jelly into a tiny plastic pouch from his backpack. Break didn't just extract materials—it refined them into a safe and usable form. That changed everything.
Next, he tried the same on the broken core.
The fragments glowed softly and then compressed into a few tiny blue magic stones, each no bigger than a grain of sand. It cost him only 1 MP this time—24 out of 30 remained.
[Micro Magic Stone Shards Obtained]
They would normally be trash, but now they carried a faint magical charge. Maybe these would still sell.
Once he had cleaned up the scene, he allowed himself a short breath. But resting wasn't safe here. More monsters could appear at any time.
Yuuto checked his body. His clothing was half melted and stuck to his skin, and a stinging pain ran across his arms and legs. At least the cut on his cheek was shallow.
He needed treatment, but his first-aid kit only held basic supplies—alcohol, bandages, and a small tube of ointment—and the deeper he went into the dungeon, the dirtier the air and surfaces would become. Infection was a real risk.
He remembered one more skill.
Keep (stasis-skill). The description said it could hold small wounds in their current state, stopping them from getting worse.
Yuuto activated it across his whole body.
Magic drained from him—MP dropped to 14—and the sharp pain softened. The wounds didn't heal, but they no longer throbbed or worsened, as if time had paused.
"This is good... this should stop infection," he whispered.
It was costly, but worth it. Now he could continue without worrying about his injuries.
He eyed his messy backpack next. Food, rope, tools, and bottles were jammed together inside. If he needed something fast, he would waste precious seconds digging for it. The sight reminded him of his old desk at work, cluttered with files until he could barely see his monitor.
Time to use Sort (organize-skill).
He cast the skill on the backpack. A mental image bloomed in his head—an organized 3D map of every pocket and item. It cost 5 MP, leaving him with only 9.
But this was the kind of small improvement that saved lives.
The ideal layout came to him instantly: where everything should go for fastest access and best weight balance.
[Storage Efficiency Increased by 35%]
[Item Access Speed Increased by 50%]
He reorganized the bag exactly as the skill suggested. Space appeared as if the bag had grown twice as large, and he now knew the position of every item by heart.
"Not flashy," he said with a small smile, "but this is a weapon too."
He wasn't strong, and he didn't have powerful attack skills. For him to survive, he needed to stack every small advantage he could.
One skill alone wasn't impressive. But together?
Break to turn monster parts into safe, high-value materials.
Keep to hold wounds and food in a safe state.
Sort to save time and space during exploration.
Piece by piece, a strategy was forming—one that suited only him.
"All right," Yuuto whispered, feeling a quiet strength settle in his chest. "Let's keep going."
He walked deeper into the cave.
The fear that had almost frozen him earlier was gone. In its place came a calm curiosity and a small spark of excitement.
On the way, he encountered two more slimes. He recognized one as the acid-spitting type, but this time he dodged with ease. He closed the distance during a tiny opening and cut the core cleanly with his dagger.
The other was a normal slime—slow and simple. He dealt with it without trouble.
Ten experience points per kill was far from enough to level up, but he could feel himself improving.
He collected materials each time. The fights restored 7 MP per kill, pushing him back to 23. Two more uses of Break cost 6 MP, leaving him at 17. Not terrible, but if he made a mistake, he might not have enough to get out.
Still, the refined jelly and magic shards added up. His backpack was slowly filling with value.
"At this rate... I might really reach my goal," he thought, a little amazed.
There is no glory. Just simple, quiet work.
It felt a lot like his old job as a software engineer—hours spent digging through messy code to find one tiny bug. Nobody wanted to do it, but fixing it gave a satisfaction no one could take away.
With that same steady mindset, Yuuto continued forward, one careful step at a time.