Initially, he thought that the dragon was not as strong as that golem. But during their intense fight, he can say that the dragon is on par or more powerful than the rocky construct. He learns his lesson not to underestimate his opponent again.
(As expected, my power rises tremendously again. But this is just...too much?)
Reverting back to his mimic form, he just finished assessing himself and found out his abilities and attributes have gone up more than he initially thought.
Based on his previous calculations of only gaining half the monster's power and the estimated magic power of the dragon, he calculates that he would gain double his power at most. However, due to his sudden and mysterious power up mid fight, he can now gain the full power of the magic core.
After consuming the whole dragon and its magic core, he actually gains so much raw power that he estimates he becomes twice as powerful as he was. However, that is not what happened at all.
(I don't know what it was but it felt like something awakened within me. Nevertheless, it gives me this monstrosity of a power.)
Other than his magic power and mana reservoir, he notices that his mimic form has grown in size. It is now twice as big as much more massive than when he started. However, deep within, he has deep concerns about himself.
(This massive power-up really messed up my mind...)
Ever since his unique ability upgraded, he takes note that he can barely feel too much of a surge of emotions. He cannot show if he was happy, sad, or angry on his face to a certain extent. He does not even feel any empathy toward the dragon he just killed.
He cannot explain it but he thinks that his own powers are actively suppressing his emotions, or worse, it probably has taken them away from him. He begins to think that it is cutting corners to make a more suitable mental state for this world.
(Or perhaps my emotions are the price for this power. Maybe I am a monster?) He wonders with uncertainty. (However, this might be a fair trade for such a deal as I am not that of an emotional person in the first place. In fact, it might help me fight my enemies with minimal mental and emotional restrictions.)
He does not know if his words are actually his own or just the results of his lack of humanity. But even so, he can still recognize what is right from wrong and good from evil.
However, he cannot decide what side he should take. He will probably finalize his choice once he knows what kind of world he has landed on. If necessary, he would choose to become an enemy to humanity to survive.
At the moment, he has no idea what the outside world looks like or what kind of people are inhabited in it. Due to that, his priority right now is to get out of this dark and lonely place.
Before that, he has to fulfill his mission to take down that powerful dragon out of revenge for scaring him. His ability apparently ignites his desires without him knowing, fueling his rage against that dragon.
(But I am not strong enough to fight that bastard yet. I need to hunt more.)
Transforming into a gryphon, he soars up and begins his hunt.
◆◇◆◇◆◇
Hours have passed since he fought the dragon. Under the absolute darkness of this place, he spends most of his time killing every monster he encounters as well as harvesting their cores. The magic crystals are giving him little power as he has gotten a lot more powerful, but it is better than nothing.
He sometimes encounters his fellow mimics scavenging some leftovers. They are the only monsters he did not hurt. He would even kill a monster for them to eat. That is quite surprising especially since his emotions should have been suppressed yet he feels empathetic toward them.
During his exploration, he flies like a fighter jet, expertly flying through the maze with such coverage in just a short time. He has traveled tens of kilometers as he is quite distant from that room where that dragon stays, so far that he thinks he finally finds the exit to this place.
(Stairs?)
After landing on the floor, he transforms back to his mimic form and stands before a ten meters wide and high opening. Beyond it is a twenty meter long hallway and at the end of it is a flight of stone spiral stairs that only offers ascension.
For some reason, the height of each step is suspiciously designed for human convenience, which makes him believe in the existence of humanity or probably other humanoid races. He steps inside and looks up, only to see the stairs, so he cannot see where it goes.
(If it only goes up, does that mean that this is the ground floor?) He wonders.
Wanting to know what lies above, he decides to ascend. He still wants to fulfill his mission of eating that dragon. He does feel that it is not time yet. He takes a final glance behind before he promises to go back and get that dragon.
◆◇◆◇◆◇
Knowing that the ceiling of that place is estimated to be a kilometer high, he expects that these stairs are that high as well, which turns out to be the case.
In order to get to the end faster, he transforms into an assassin theraphosid for faster movement speed, which greatly hastens his progress. Finally, after minutes of nonstop sprinting, he reaches the end and the next floor actually turns out to be the same as before. Endless hallways with rooms that are cloak in absolute darkness.
(I expected any difference, but nothing changes at all.)
As someone who is locked in absolute darkness for a certain amount of time, his disappointment is valid. But instead of taking it to the core, he just bugs it off and optimistically thinks of it as his advancement.
(Hm. Let's see what we got here.)
After eating the dragon, he takes one of its abilities which allows him to detect distant objects like a radar but with no latency. He actually had that kind of ability before the dragon, but it was not as wide and accurate as the big dragons.
The range of his detection is proportional to his magic power and using it consumes a tiny amount of mana over time. Since his mana is quite large, his mana recovery is actually faster than the continuous consumption of the detection. He can actually activate the radar permanently without worrying about his mana.
Currently, the coverage of his radar is around a two kilometer radius at max. However, the quality of the information he receives deteriorates the further the object is. Based on his experience, the threshold for clear vision is a little more than half of the max coverage. So he can clearly analyze any monster with the area of a kilometer radius.
(Another dragon of that size is a kilometer ahead.)
After filtering out the monsters, he chooses a large dragon as his next meal. He transforms into a gryphon and solves the maze before killing the dragon and making a feast of it.