《Survival in the New World》 Chapter 1: The Beginning When I arrived at class the lesson already started. It was still first period according the the time on my phone so I calmly walked into the classroom like there was nothing wrong and there wasn''t anything wrong, until the teacher saw me. Mr. Alberto is my English teacher in his mid 50¡¯s. He isn¡¯t a bad teacher but he is on the strict side compared to the rest of the teachers at this school. He wore his blue and white plaid shirt like always and had these glasses that would remind you of a stereotypical geek. He had a mix between gray and black hair and you could see that he was long on his way to losing all of his hair. He also hated it when his students came late. Even if you came right after the national anthem, Mr. Alberto would reprimand you for being late. Sadly, I was the one being late today. Mr. Alberto scolded me in front of the class for 5 straight minutes and I could hear snickering from the room. ¡®Tsk, not my fault that the bus arrived later than usual.¡¯ I lived quite a bit away from school and since both my parents worked early I had to take the bus everyday. Class starts at 8:30 A.M so I would usually take the 7:30 bus. Unfortunately, today the bus arrived 30 minutes later due to some dumb car accident. But being late was being late. No one would care or even listen to my excuses and bringing it up would only make Mr. Alberto¡¯s mini lecture even longer. ¡°Well Ed, I hope this doesn¡¯t happen again or you¡¯re going to have to make up all the time you lost during lunch,¡± he said. ¡®This is the first time I¡¯ve ever been late to class, no need to make such a big fuss out of it. Besides I don''t think you''re helping with your 5 minute lecture,¡¯ I thought. ¡°Yes sir, I¡¯ll make sure it doesn¡¯t happen again.¡± ¡°Good, now go back to your seat and we¡¯ll continue with our discussion on 1984.¡± 1984, written by George Orwell and about a dystopian society that depicts what the world would become like if dictators such as Stalin were to rule the world. Sometimes, I wish I was a dictator. I mean who wouldn¡¯t want to be a dictator? As a dictator you could do anything you wanted, when you wanted, and order your minions to do everything for you. I guess it¡¯s just me being lazy but I¡¯m sure Kim Jong Un isn¡¯t living a boring unsatisfied life. Anyways, we were to finish reading part two of the book by today so we could analyze and have discussions on different sections of the novel. Of course I didn¡¯t do it. Despite it being so famous, 1984 is a drag. I mean in the first 100 pages, almost nothing happens except Winston writing in his stupid diary. ¡°Yo, did you finish reading it?¡± When I reached my desk, Jake asked me in a curious tone. This guy was one of the kids in the class who never finished any of his homework. As a result he would always ask the other students if they finished their work and make himself feel better when he heard that they didn¡¯t.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. To be honest, I have no idea how someone like him made it to high school, the tenth grade too. He would always make excuses for not completing work and leech off others. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he became a thug when he grows up. ¡°Nah, man. The book is a drag and it¡¯s not like Mr. Alberto is going to ask me to say anything.¡± ¡°Haha, same. I don¡¯t even understand some the things the Winston guy says in the book.¡± Of course you don¡¯t. You¡¯re the guy who failed literacy comprehension test three times. Though I guess I¡¯m not in any situation to make fun of him in subjects in English. English is like the bane of my soul. Sure, I know how to speak English, I know how to read and write in English, but don¡¯t ask me to analyze or write an essay in anything that is English, or more specifically, part of the school''s English curriculum. It¡¯s not that I¡¯m inherently bad on the subject but more of the fact that I find it absolutely boring. I would literally do anything instead of having to read Othello, Macbeth, and Hamlet again. Despite me constantly getting reprimanded by my asian parents for having a 71 percent average on the subject, I really couldn¡¯t care less on trying to get better grades. On the brighter note, biology, mathematiques, and history are all topics that I can proudly say are my best subjects. Other than history however, the other two can be explained by my asian genes. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.... Other than the small event that occurred during the morning, the rest of the day passed by normally. I hung around with some of my friends during lunch and was genuinely happy when school ended. Due to traffic and surprisingly another car crash it took me a full hour and twenty minutes on the bus to reach home. ¡°Is our Chung-hee home?¡± I heard my mom greet me from the kitchen. Chung-hee is my Korean name and also the name my parents call me at home. Both my parents are Korean but I was born in Canada. I do know how to speak in Korean but my knowledge only amounts up to an elementary kid in Korea. My mom was preparing for dinner when I arrived so I could smell her delicious cooking from the kitchen all the way to the doorsteps. ¡°Yea mom, I¡¯m home. Are we having kimchi jjigae for dinner?¡± ¡°You know it. Why did you come late today?¡± ¡°There was a car accident and lots of traffic on the way back.¡± ¡°Oh really? There was a car accident this morning too. Well go get washed up for dinner before your dad comes back from work.¡± My dad worked for S*m*ng as a general manager so sometimes he came home late. He was also the strict one out of my two parents. Of course that doesn¡¯t mean I don''t love him as much as my mom, I just end up having more arguments with him rather than with mom. Anyways he called my mom after I got all washed up and said he would be working overtime so my mom and I had to eat dinner without him. The kimchi jjigae was delicious and after dinner I finished my homework like always. It was almost 10:30 P.M when I was using my computer to watch some porn, and yes I am underaged but so is the millions of other high school kids who deny watching it. However after a while and just when I was about to release some of my pent up stress in a certain state of matter, darkness flooded my vision and I fell unconscious. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.... Sometimes I wonder if I¡¯m happy with my current lifestyle. Everyday is the same for me, with little to no excitement. I don¡¯t excel in anything in particular other than a couple of school subjects and it¡¯s not like I¡¯m at the top of my class for them either. I¡¯ve always felt that my life was rotting away but I was never able to do anything about it. Sometimes I just wish that an event out of a fairy tale or fantasy story would happen to me. Maybe that¡¯s why when I woke up in a dungeon with a status screen that would only appear in fantasy webnovels in front of me, I feltalive for the first time in my life. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.... Author''s note: 1. Hi friends, this is viola4650. I''m a fresh and new scru- ahem-writer and I would very much love feedback. I really want to improve my writing and will take into consideration any criticism out there, which I''m sure there would be a lot of. I will try to release new chapters as frequently as possible and feel free to hate on me but please do also explain why as it will help me improve my writing. 2. Kimchi jjigae is korean stew-like dish made with Kimchi as the main ingredient. Chapter 2: The First Floor [Name: Chung-hee] [Age: 15] [Species: Human] [Occupation: None] [Subclass: None] [Titles: None] [Traits: None] [Strength:6] [Intelligence:6] [Agility:5] [Endurance: 4] [Physique:4] [Vitality:6] [Dexterity:4] [Perception:7] [Magic Power:5] [Charm:2] [Luck:10] ¡°Huh.¡± I looked at my status and felt quite bittersweet. Isn¡¯t a regular individual supposed to have set stat points of 10 each? And what¡¯s up with the ridiculously low charm? I mean yea I¡¯m not the best looking guy out there and neither do I have the best personality but still! ¡°Sigh. At least my luck isn¡¯t as low as the rest.¡± It was true. For some reason I had 10 stat points for luck. Maybe that¡¯s why Mr. Alberto never asked me to share my thoughts or answer a question I didn¡¯t know. This would also explain why I would usually win at games such as poker and monopoly. People saying that monopoly takes skill is all bullshit. Monopoly is a game of luck with the die. If you can constantly get into jail during the later phase, you basically won the game. [System announcement!] ¡°You are currently at the first floor of the dungeon. Please reach the next floor in under one hour.¡± ¡°What?¡± I suddenly woke up from my thoughts when I heard the monotone voice of a woman. First floor of the dungeon? Reach next floor? One Hour? It was at that moment when I realized where I was and where I wasn¡¯t. ¡®I¡¯m not home...I¡¯m currently in a place in what they call a dungeon. Isn¡¯t this similar to those fantasy web novels?¡¯ Despite the fact that I¡¯ve always played out these kind of scenarios in my head, being in the situation for real really made it feel surreal. Anyways, isn¡¯t this what I¡¯ve always wanted? For something different, something interesting to happen in my life? I looked around my surroundings and saw gray brick walls at my side, ceiling, and back. The area I was standing on had dim lighting but was light enough for me to see where I was. The floors were basically dirt and stone and at the front all I saw was darkness after a distance of about 5 meters. I was never the type to be scared of the darkness. This was because darkness also means the unknown and to me that means something interesting. I¡¯m also not afraid of monsters or ghosts or zombies. My parents watched horror movies all the time when I was a baby. Even though this caused me to be incredibly scared of ghosts, zombies, and monsters for a couple of years, I ended up losing my phobia for them when I watched the behind the scenes for a bunch of horror movies. Now I just laugh instead of screaming when I watch one. While I started walking forward I realized that I never got closer to the darkness. After I walked around 30 meters and looked back, I could see all the way to where I first started. This proved two new facts. First is that the areas that I passed by are shown by having light. This means that if I somehow travel across the whole first floor, the first floor would all be dimly lit. Second point is that when walking towards the unknown, I can only see 5 meters ahead of me. I¡¯m not sure if this can be changed but I have some thoughts that my current sight is influenced by my perception. I have no idea what the ratio is between the stat points and my actually abilities however. ¡°Keke¡­.waha.¡± I suddenly froze when I heard a sound from a distance. I tried to find for a place to hide but from where I was standing right now, there was nowhere to hide due to it being a straight path. I slowly walked backwards and crouched my body slightly forward in order to prepare to fight. Since there was nowhere to hide and the way back was a dead end, I had no choice but to prepare for the worst. ¡°kekeke¡­.kekwawa.¡± From the darkness emerged a short and almost naked creature. The monster had green skin and long skinny arms with a fat, bulging belly. The face had big eyes and a ridiculously long and fat nose. It¡¯s ears were pointed downwards and its mouth had numerous small and sharp teeth. ¡®What the fuck is that thing.¡¯ The monster was the most disturbing thing I ever saw in my life. It¡¯s gruesome face made such a big contrast with its small frame and the long arms attached to those ugly hands made me feel disturbed. However my focus was immediately on the creature¡¯s right hand. I felt a chill on my back. When I saw the little green devil holding a knife I realized that I could actually die. The thought hit me hard as my body froze when I made eye contact with the monster¡¯s gray eyes. ¡°kekeKAWA!¡± The monster that I assumed to be a goblin started running towards me with its knife high in the air. The goblin had short legs and even though its body was small, those ridiculously long arms made up for the small reach the creature had.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. I felt fear overwhelm me when I heard the goblin scream and when I tried to run away, it ended up with me falling to the ground on my butt. As I saw the goblin come closer and closer my body was filled with dismay. When the goblin reached under a meter away from me I kicked with my right leg, hoping that it would push the goblin back. However what greeted me was a sharp cold feeling of pain. The goblin stabbed my leg with its knife. I screamed with the top of my lungs. The pain was unbelievable and in a frenzy I kicked the abhorrent little thing with my left leg. This time my foot connected with the creature and it caused it to fall on the ground a couple of feet away from me. But the knife was still stabbed onto my right leg. ¡°FUCK!¡± I screamed out loud. The searing pain woke me up from my fear. Instead it brought in an endless amount of rage and anger. ¡°YOU LITTLE SHIT!¡± I directly grabbed the knife with my right hand as I pulled it out from my leg. This caused my leg to be in even more pain however my anger made me forget about it. ¡°KEKEKEWAA¡± The goblin got up and ran towards me while screaming. It had its arms high up in the like it was trying to smash me. ¡°FUCK YOU!¡± I roared in madness. I thrusted the knife towards the goblin while still on the ground and it connected with the goblin''s chest. In return I got punched in the face but it had little to no effect on me as I lunged forwards. The goblin screamed as I got on top of it while I repeatedly stabbed the knife towards its chest. Once, twice, three times. ¡°Huff..huf...puff¡­.¡± My anger dissipated and I finally stopped stabbing the goblin after 24 times, swearing at it each time. I¡¯m pretty sure the goblin stopped screaming after the sixth stab but my body kept going. ¡°Ha¡­.hahaha¡± I chuckled to myself while looking down at my handiwork. The chest was completely ripped open and its face no longer had eyes. The goblin was dead and completely mutilated. I slowly got off the body as I started feeling scorching pain in my right leg. ¡°Ugh...it hurts.¡± [Pain resistance gained. Current level 2.] [Knife mastery: Basic gained. Current level 1] [Trait: Barbaric earned. Can only be gained when an individual acts in a complete savage and inhumane manner. Increases strength, endurance, vitality, and physique by 1 stat point. Further committing savage acts can lead to an increase of the 4 mentioned stats. Due to being the first person to earn this trait, all related stats are raised by an additional 2 stat points.] [Achievement obtained: First person to kill a monster in the dungeon. Received 5 stat points and 10 achievement points.] [Achievement obtained: First person to gain a skill. Received 5 skill points and 10 achievement points.] [Achievement obtained: First person to earn a trait. All stat points raised by 1 and 10 achievement points.] ¡°...¡± Barbaric huh. I guess I was a bit barbaric. The trait however did give me 12 stat points in total and the potential to gain more. From the description of the trait and accomplishments I deduced that there are other people than me in this dungeon or in dungeons similar to this. I also figured out that I could learn skills such as pain resistance and knife mastery. I could feel the 12 stat points doing their work already and with the help from pain resistance I was able to stand up again. The bleeding on my leg stopped and I looked down at the bloody corpse. I felt my skin crawl up my arms. ¡°Sigh. That was scary as fuck.¡± It truly was. Despite me currently acting calm, it was an unforgettable experience. I guess reading those web novels did help me a lot After reading numerous stories similar to the one I¡¯m experiencing right now, I couldn¡¯t help but feel a lot more calm. I leaned on the wall and moving my head away from the corpse, I once again started walking forward. This time nothing occurred and I slowly reached the end of the first floor after 20 meters walking. Across from me was a door and beside the door was a small chest. I tried opening the door first however it was locked, so I deduced that the key was inside the chest. I opened the chest and instead of finding keys I only saw darkness. Mustering a bit of courage, I put my arm into the chest. ¡°Clank!¡± ¡°...¡± My eyes opened wide as my mind tried to comprehend what just happened. ¡°GAAHHHH!¡± The fucking lid closed on my arm. My arm from my elbow down was cut off. ¡°GUUUHGAAAH!¡± As I was rolling on the floor clutching arm with my left hand I saw the chest open its lid up and down as if it laughing from the corner of my eye. It even jumped around as it slowly faded away. [Pain resistance: level 4] With the sudden notification I felt the pain a lot more bearable. The amount of pain I was feeling did not decrease however I was able to resist the pain with a lot more ease. I knew that with the amount of blood loss happening I was going to die if I couldn¡¯t pass this floor. I took off my shirt and applied pressure to the stump in hopes of delaying the blood loss for as long as possible. In all web novels with similar plot lines, the main character is healed once he completes the mission. I also felt that if I could make it pass the door I could live. The fact that I was able to think this far could be said to be a miracle. I was currently in so much pain that my thoughts were all hazy and bleak. As a result I ran straight to the only thing in my mind after staggering to get up, the goblin. I ran while panting and crushing my teeth in order to resist the pain. I could clearly see the hazy outline of the goblin as I resisted falling down. When I arrived at the body I quickly scavenged with my left hand, looking for the key and I did find it, inside the small pouch on the hips of the goblin. After getting the key I had no other thoughts other than reaching the door as fast as possible. At this point my face was pale and I started feeling the effects of blood loss. Despite the pain, my mind became drowsy as I ran to the door with shaking legs. I was on the verge of collapsing. I never felt so exhausted in my life and a small part of me was telling me to just fall down and go to sleep. The door was still 10 meters away from me. I had to bite my own tongue just to resist these thoughts as I continued forward. However I could no longer run as a slowly walked towards the door, resisting the urge to fall down. There was still 5 meters to go. When I was around 2 meters away from the door I felt goosebumps on my back. I turned around and all the way into the darkness I could see a figure floating where I first appeared. It started flying towards me and my mind suddenly went into panic. I ran to the door with all my might and quickly inserted the key with my left hand. As I turned around while turning the knob I could already see the figure flying faster and faster. The figure devoured light as it flew and it was already 10 meters away when I opened the door. As I passed through the door I looked back. I was able to clearly see its face. A pale, white face with blood dripping down from its large triple pupil eyes. As I was losing conscious I saw a skinny, white hand reach out for me, like it wanted to pull me back in desperation. However before the hand could reach me my vision became dark as I fell unconscious. [Floor one successfully passed!] [Clarity gained due to performance evaluation. New stat gained: Concentration] [Great Achievement obtained! Being able to survive after encountering a Soul Wraith is a shocking accomplishment! Magic resistance: 1 acquired and 50 achievement points] [Name: Chung-hee] [Age: 15] [Species: Human] [Occupation: None] [Subclass: None] [Titles: None] [Traits: Barbaric] [Strength:10] [Intelligence:7] [Agility:6] [Endurance: 8] [Physique:8] [Vitality:10] [Dexterity:5] [Perception:8] [Concentration:6] [Magic Power:6] [Charm:3] [Luck:11] [Skills: Basic knife mastery: 1, Pain resistance: 4, Magic resistance: 1, Clarity: 1] [Stat points: 5] [Skill points: 5] [Achievement points: 80] Chapter 3: Entering the Second Floor Panting* Panting* I woke up. I looked around my room in darkness as I could hear nothing but my panting breath. I was still sitting on my chair without my pants and my computer was on sleep mode. In the stillness of the dark morning I thought of what happened in the dungeon. The dungeon, the goblin, my arm¡­.my ARM! I quickly raised both my arms as I saw the blurry outline of my complete right arm. ¡°Hehehe...HaHA¡± My laughter was heard in the silence as I inwardly cheered. In fact I was so relieved that I spent the next 30 minutes just looking at my right arm. Was everything real? Was it all just a bad dream or did I really experience something out of a web novel? I could clearly recall everything that happened. I felt the pain and the exhaustion. I felt the fear and anger. I still vividly remembered the goblin¡¯s ugly face and the terrifying figure who flew in the darkness. In deep thought I stood up from my chair as I stretched my body and neck. Due to falling asleep in a bad position my neck was quite sore. I turned on the lights as I looked around my room. Everything was the same. I still had on my white shirt and my bed was still a mess. My bag was on the floor next to my desk and the homework I completed the day before were scattered behind my computer. I left my room in silence as I headed to the washroom. In front of the mirror I once again looked at my complete and intact right arm, like it was never severed in the first place. I looked at the face that I had for the past 15 years. The face with the average sized eyes, a bit chubby cheeks, and an oval like head. There were no tears or mucus running down my eyes or nose. The itching on my left cheek woke me up from my daze as I opened the window to look outside. The cool winter breeze greeted my face as I was once again reminded that this was reality. Everything from the dungeon felt like it just a dream and even now my mind was telling me so. However, despite the horrible experience I had in this dream a small, tiny part of me felt excited. Excited on the concept that it wasn¡¯t a dream. That my life could finally be changed like those main characters in web novels. That I could become stronger, smarter, and ultimately gain everything I want. It was then when my mouth subconsciously whispered those two words. ¡°Show Status.¡± ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.... I was still thinking of what happened in the morning. After I said ¡®show status¡¯, a blue status screen really appeared. It showed me the traits, the skills, and the stats that I¡¯ve earned from the dungeon. This basically confirmed that the dungeon was real and the experience that I had was in fact reality. However beside each of my stat and skills was a sign saying ¡®locked¡¯. I easily deduced that this means that I wouldn¡¯t be able to use anything I gain in the dungeon in real life. To tell you the truth, I was pretty disappointed. I mean, what¡¯s the point of going through life and death situations if you aren¡¯t gaining anything. I also started questioning what the dungeon was really meant for. It doesn¡¯t affect reality and doesn¡¯t let dungeon explorers use the abilities they gained in their everyday life. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Dungeon explorer is a term I came up with to refer to people who are summoned to dungeons like me. From the announcements I saw, I know I¡¯m not the only one summoned to the dungeons. But why hasn¡¯t anyone spoken up about it? I searched the internet after I woke up but I got no results. Could it be that I¡¯m one of the first people to experience the dungeon? ¡°Ed, if you ain¡¯t eating that hamburger I¡¯ll gladly take it away from ya.¡± ¡°Fuck off Jones. You already ate two hamburgers, if you eat anymore you¡¯re gonna end up like Dean.¡± Jones Kalas was one of my best friends since the start of middle school. We were in the same homeroom for all 3 years and ended up going to the same highschool as well. He, unlike me, was one of the more popular guys in the class. He was 180cm tall and had a pretty fit body. His face was on the good-looking side so he had a couple of girls like him.The only bad thing about him was that he ate way too much. If I had to choose between paying for Jones or a professional sumo wrestler, I would choose the sumo wrestler. Luckily he had rich, white parents otherwise they would have gone broke. ¡°Ah c¡¯mon man. No need to be so harsh. Besides, Dean ain¡¯t that fat.¡± ¡°Yea I¡¯m not that fat! I¡¯m just more on the plump side.¡± Dean Axel was another one of my friends I hung out with. I met him with Jones in my freshman years and we hit it off pretty quickly. He was what you call an otaku and we had a lot of fun talking about light novels and anime.Unlike Jones though, he was pretty fat, which is funny because he ate the least out of all three of us. Dean took things a lot slower than regular people. He was also the most innocent out of all three of us, probably out of the whole school. He somehow didn¡¯t know what a blowjob meant until Jones had to tell him while bragging about his ¡®sex¡¯ life. Despite making us embarrassed, he would occasionally make dumb comments which made him look quite cute with his chubby face. ¡°By the way Ed, I heard that Drake is out to get you ever since you talked with Leslie.¡± Ugh, Drake and Leslie. It¡¯s funny how real situations in anime or light novels appear in reality. Drake is one of the biggest jerks in the grade, the one who bullies the less popular kids. Leslie, on the other hand, is one of the prettiest girls in tenth grade. She¡¯s smart, beautiful, and has a great personality. It just happened to be so that Drake has a crush on Leslie and I ended up being her partner for our business project. We discovered that we both like the ¡®L*rd *f the* R*ngs¡¯ trilogy so we had some fun discussions. Of course, Drake didn¡¯t like it. ¡°Yea, I heard that too. I wonder why though. I mean Ed was just put in the same group as her and made her laugh and stuff.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because Drake is jealous of Ed you dumbass. Man Dean, sometimes I wonder how you were raised as a child.¡± ¡°But what¡¯s there to be jealous of? It¡¯s Ed we¡¯re talking about. It¡¯s not like he¡¯s gonna get a girlfriend anytime soon with his looks and personality.¡± ¡°Woah, woah woah. What¡¯s wrong with my personality? Dean, you¡¯re not one to talk about looks.¡± ¡°Oh look. Here he comes now.¡± I turned my head and saw a tall, buff figure coming my way. He had blonde hair, looked to be over 180cm tall, and had a group of possies around him. The guy was quite handsome with a perfect v-line for his chin. Did I tell you that Drake was also the captain of the football team? Anyways he reached the table I was sitting at and glared down at me like I was some kind of trash he found on the ground. For a couple of seconds we just started at each other while Drake¡¯s minions snickered in the background. I could tell that Dean was getting scared because he started hiccuping. ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Hic...Hic.Hic.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Sigh. What do you want Drake. Can¡¯t you see that some of us are eating?¡± ¡°I saw you talking with Leslie the other day.¡± ¡°Yea, we both like to read books. So what?¡± ¡°Listen here. Leslie is my girlfriend so back off before you get to close.¡± ¡®My girlfriend my ass. The whole school knows that you¡¯ve been chasing her since grade 9 and she already rejected you 2 times,¡¯ I thought in my head. ¡°Alright man. Whatever. Besides I only talked to her because we¡¯re partners for business. It¡¯s not like I have a thing for her.¡± ¡°You better not. If I see you and Leslie together again¡­.¡± He didn¡¯t finish his sentence and just left. His possies also left with him, making it impossible to see his back. I really don¡¯t get why there¡¯s so many fools out there following a jerk. If it was me, I¡¯d rather be the one on top, not the one who does all the bidding. After Drake left, lunch period ended and I wasn¡¯t able to finish my hamburger. Instead, it was given to Jones who gobbled it down in under 10 seconds. A shame it was, the burger was really good. School passed by quickly and I didn¡¯t meet Drake again. Since it was a day 2, I didn¡¯t have business and wasn¡¯t able to meet Leslie either. I was planning on hanging out with Jones and Dean but it turned out that Jones had soccer practice while Dean had to watch this anime that just aired today. Luckily the bus ride was faster than usual and I was able to reach home by 4. Just like yesterday, my dad had to work overtime and I finished my homework after eating dinner with mom. Of course, my day didn¡¯t end after finishing homework. I was still contemplating on the dungeon. Would I be sent there again? Would I be able to live through the next floor? What will happen if I die? Such thoughts ended up being useless however. Right when it turned 10:30, my vision was swarmed with darkness as I lost conscious. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ [Floor 2 of the dungeon. +1 explorer] Chapter 4: The Desire to Kill [Floor 2 of the dungeon. +1 explorer] ¡°I¡¯m really back in the dungeon and it looks like I¡¯m on the second floor. Hmm..plus 1 explorer?¡± I both heard and saw the announcement as a blue panel appeared in front of me. However what got my attention was the ¡®+1 explorer¡¯ part. Like I thought there were dungeon explorers other than me. I looked around my surroundings but I didn¡¯t find anyone. I assumed that the other explorer was summoned to the dungeon as well, just that we were placed in different areas. It was then when I felt something was wrong. ¡°My..my arm...my arm is still gone¡­¡± My right arm from the elbow down was still cut off. My eyes opened wide as I staggered backwards. It turned out that though injuries from the dungeon don¡¯t affect my body in real life, it won¡¯t heal my body in the dungeon. This was a problem. A very big problem. I knew that there were monsters roaming the whole floor and even terrifying ones such as the soul wraith. Just a small goblin was already hard enough and that was with me having a complete arm. ¡°Show Status.¡± [Name: Chung-hee] [Age: 15] [Species: Human] [Occupation: None] [Subclass: None] [Titles: None] [Traits: Barbaric] [Strength:10] [Intelligence:7] [Agility:6] [Endurance: 8] [Physique:8] [Vitality:10] [Dexterity:5] [Perception:8] [Concentration:6] [Magic Power:6] [Charm:3] [Luck:11] [Skills: Basic knife mastery: 1, Pain resistance: 4, Magic resistance: 1, Clarity: 1] [Stat points: 5] [Skill points: 5] [Achievement points: 80] I looked at my status screen while trying to forget about my missing arm. Not only would panicking not help, it would be counterproductive. Instead I tried to think what achievement points do. ¡°hmmm¡­What do achievement points do?¡± [Achievements points can be used to buy items from the shop] I gawked after seeing the blue panel suddenly appear in front of me. This wasn¡¯t the first time I thought outloud but it was the first time seeing the system answer me. This opened up endless possibilities for answers. Maybe I could even find out how to get my arm back. ¡°How can I get my arm back?¡± [To heal from body injuries, please pay the given price from the shop] ¡°How do I access the shop?¡± [Explorers of the dungeon must clear the third floor in order to access the shop] Third floor? I might not even live through the second floor, much less the third floor. ¡°Is there any way to heal my arm other than from the shop?¡± [Answer requires the use of 50 achievement points] ¡°Done.¡± I knew that achievements points are precious. I only managed to get 80 despite obtaining 4 achievements and one of them was a great achievement at that. Who knows if I would make any more achievements in the future however if I didn¡¯t get my arm back, there might not be a future. [50 achievement points deducted from explorer Chung-hee] [In order to heal injuries from the first floor, explorer must obtain the hidden item located in the second floor] ¡°Where¡¯s the hidden item located?¡± [Restricted until explorer has completed the floor] So there¡¯s a limit to the number of questions I can ask. But from what I¡¯ve learned, I can ask the system for help and there¡¯s a hidden item on the second floor. Could this mean that there was a hidden item on the first floor? But where could it have been. The whole floor was just one straight line. Could it have been in the chest that bit my fucking arm off? No point in thinking of it right now. I should first try to find the hidden item and of course, stay alive.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. As I walked around, I discovered that the second floor was similar to the first floor as they both had gray brick walls with floors of dirt and rock. This time, however, the second floor was dimly lit with torches on the walls. Naturally, this made moving around much more convenient. In addition, I could see that the second floor was a lot bigger than the first floor. There were many intersections and pathways that made it difficult to know where one was going. ¡°Duk duk duk.¡± I suddenly froze on the spot as I heard footsteps coming my way. I turned to my right and saw a caucasian, middle aged man wearing a black leather jacket with a bandana around his head. He had a golden chain on his neck and had tattooes all over his arms. He didn¡¯t look too fit as he had his belly sticking out of his shirt but I had no doubt that he could beat me up as easily as spitting on the ground. ¡°Ha, a person. Tsk. No arm?¡± I felt a hint of anger rise inside me but I managed to control. This fucker, you think I don¡¯t know that I¡¯m missing an arm? ¡°Ah, yes. I lost my arm on the first flo-¡± I wasn¡¯t able to finish my sentence as the man punched me in the face. I fell to the ground but the abuse didn¡¯t end there. I felt a foot make contact with my stomach as my blood vessels felt like bursting. I coughed up blood and every breath I took caused my diaphragm to be flooded with pain. ¡°Ugh. What the fu-¡± In rage I looked at the man and tried to speak before getting trashed again. I got hit and hit. My head hurt, my stomach hurt, and my vision became hazy. I crumpled my body on the cold, hard floor amongst the never ending blows directed at me. Soon the punches and kicks just became another numb sensation all around my body as I became almost semi-conscious. ¡°What did you say you little shit? Didn¡¯t your parents tell you to be respectful to your elders?¡± Pak, puk, bwop ¡°Ha, you probably got abandoned as a child. I mean look at you without an arm. Haha!¡± ¡°Cough cough.¡± ¡°Tsk. You¡¯re not even moving anymore. Hey get up. Get up!¡± All I heard from the man was mumbling. My ears already popped so only thing I could clearly hear was the high ringing sound in my ear. ¡°Sigh. Whatever. Hitting you was pretty fun so I¡¯ll let you go. If you keep staying on the floor then you might get eaten up by those little green things. Of course, they can¡¯t do shit to me. Haha!¡± I wasn¡¯t able to stand up even long after the man left. My whole body felt exhausted and I felt sharp pain every time I tried to move. ¡°Keuk. That fucker. Cough cough. I¡¯m gonna kill him.¡± The only thing I had in my head was anger and revenge. Countless thoughts of how I would kill the man popped in my head without stop. Stab from the back? Stab to the neck? How about stabbing his stomach and ripping out the contents from the inside? I was determined. Determined that I would make him pay. But first, I needed a weapon, something sharp, something I can easily use...aknife! Oh and who had knives? The goblins. As I struggled to get up I realized that my body felt a bit stronger than usual. If it was me from before I wouldn¡¯t have been able to get up at all however I was able to barely get up now. I guess the stat points really did increase my physical abilities. ¡°Huh?¡± [Pain resistance: 5. Additional effects available] Additional effects? [Pain limiter: For 30 seconds, explorer will be able to completely ignore pain] Hmm. So skills were able to give additional effects after reaching a certain level. I also have 5 stat points which I should use. If I want to kill a goblin without an arm I need to be as strong as possible From hovering my finger over a stat or skill, I found what they do. Strength raised my strength and how much damage I¡¯m able to inflict on a target. Physique was basically my health (hp) and defense while vitality raised how quickly I heal. Endurance was my stamina and my physical speed and reflexes were determined by agility. Surprisingly not only did intelligence raise my intelligence (duh) it also raised my manaregeneration. I wasn¡¯t too shocked that magic existed in the dungeon but it was currently useless as I didn¡¯t know how to use it. From the description, magic power both included how much magic I could use and how much damage it would do. Dexterity raised my accuracy and control which could prove to be vital. Perception was related to my 6 senses including intuition while concentration was self-explanatory. What was interesting however, was that concentration was a stat that I gained from the skill, clarity. [Clarity: 1. Passive skill which allows explorer to have a clear state of mind despite the circumstances] I found skills in the dungeon to be quite marvelous. They could give stats, open additional abilities after reaching a certain level, and probably raise stats as well. Gaining skills were possible by doing certain actions and there should be items that give skills directly later on. I was a bit sad that my charm was so low but my high luck balanced that out. I wonder if increased charm would make me look better. The descriptions for charm and luck were both vague and did not explain much. Charm was said to increase sexual attraction with the opposite sex and raise chances of becoming friends. Would that mean making me look better or somehow make my current looks seem much better than they are? Luck was just luck. Nothing was explained, but with the previous encounter I¡¯m not sure what to think of luck. I raised strength by 2, agility by 2, and dexterity by 1. I needed more strength if I wanted to hurt the goblin with my left arm and I needed agility for the reflexes when fighting. Dexterity would help me hit the goblin due to increased accuracy and control. I also used 2 skills points on pain resistance and 3 on clarity to make them level 6 and 4 respectively. Before a skill hits lvl 5, it only takes one skill point to raise the lvl. However after it hits lvl 5, the cost increases. Despite trying to act calm I was filled with murderous thoughts as my body still felt pain whenever I moved. I wanted to kill the man. Make him feel pain and regret meeting me but I knew these thoughts were all useless if I couldn¡¯t even kill a goblin that the man claimed to be easy. Luckily I had pain resistance and clarity to help me concentrate on the task at hand. I walked around the dungeon (albeit slowly) while starting to feel the pain subside. Yet still no goblin to be found. 10 minutes and no goblin. 30 minutes and still no goblin. It was strange. The second floor should have more monsters than on the first floor but I still haven¡¯t seen one. Did the bastard kill all of them? No, there¡¯s got to be at least one still alive. I didn¡¯t give up my search and I was finally rewarded after searching for another 15 minutes. A short green goblin with a knife on its right hand. It had snot coming down its noise and unlike the one on the first floor, this one had hair on its head. Ugly as ever. It would be a lie to say that I wasn¡¯t nervous. But I had someone I wanted to kill, and more importantly, I wanted to live. If I wanted to live, I had to kill without fear of anything. My eyes burned with ambition as I stared down at the goblin. Should I rush in? I¡¯m rushing in! I ran at the goblin with full speed. After almost an hour of searching, my body healed to a certain extent. When the goblin saw me running towards it, it raised it¡¯s knife as it started to run towards me as well. ¡°AHHH¡± ¡°KEKEKAWA!¡± With adrenaline flowing all over my body, I did a slide tackle just a meter away from the goblin. Due to playing soccer with Jones, this was one of the best moves I could make. My foot tripped the goblin and caused it to lose balance and fall on top of me. The knife came swinging down and it barely missed my head. ¡°Ergh!¡± With my back filled with cold sweat, I quickly pushed the goblin off me as I jumped on top of it. The goblin had a small frame to begin with and its strength wasn¡¯t its forte. The goblin swung its knife at me in hopes of getting me off but I managed to dodge and grab his arm with my left hand. It clawed at me with its free arm but I used pain limiter and smashed the ugly green devil¡¯s face with my head. ¡°Kekwa?¡± It looked to be in daze from the headbutt and I quickly bit the arm I was holding. The goblin screamed and dropped the knife. It tasted like shit. My saliva mixed with the filth of the goblin and almost made me vomit. I let go of its arm and reached out for the knife when the goblin bit me. Of course, I didn¡¯t feel pain, but I still felt annoyed. It was like when someone rubs their hands over your belly. It doesn¡¯t hurt at all compared to a punch to the stomach, but it leaves you feeling angry and disgusted. I headbutted the goblin again and got my arm free. The side of my stomach was scratched multiple times and some parts of my shirt ended up being ripped. I managed to grab the knife before the goblin could do anything and quickly raised it in a reverse grip high in the air. The goblin seemed to sense its death as it started struggling more desperately. But it was useless. I stabbed the knife right in its chest and cutall the way to the neck before cutting it open all they way to its chin. Black blood splurted all over me as the villain constantly swung its arms. Or wait, was I the villain? Then the arms dropped as it stopped moving. The goblin was dead. I killed the goblin. ¡°Pant. Pant.¡± Panting and breathing for air I stared at the ceiling of the dungeon. A smile unconsciously crept up my bloodied face as my grip on the knife hardened. ¡°Hahaha. You¡¯re next you motherfucker.¡± Chapter 5: Dungeon of Killers [Due to Barbaric trait, strength has increased by 1] Looks like I acted like a savage again. Ha, but who cares. I gained one strength. Oh yea, I almost forgot. Last time I didn¡¯t search the goblin¡¯s corpse and almost died. I won¡¯t make the same mistake again. I got off the corpse and searched its pouch to see if anything was there. Just like I thought, I found a perfectly round stone. It had a mix of black and gray colors with a weird symbol in red in the middle. I didn¡¯t know what it was but it wouldn¡¯t do any harm to bring it with me. I put it inside my pocket and started walking again, but this time to find the fucker that beat me up. It occurred to me that the clothes I wear before I get transported to the dungeon are the clothes I wear when in the dungeon. Luckily I didn¡¯t completely take my pants off last time otherwise I would have gone half naked. Oddly enough, I wasn¡¯t bothered being covered in black blood. It didn¡¯t affect me when I move so I quickly forgot about it. Hmm? As I was walking I found dead goblin corpses on the ground. The guy should have passed by here. Tsk, tsk, tsk. He didn¡¯t even loot the bodies. They even had their knives on them! Well, better for me. I went to each goblin and searched their bags and took their knives. I stol-well can¡¯t be considered stealing if they¡¯re dead. I took two pouches from the bodies, one to carry the marbles and the other to carry the knives. The goblins didn¡¯t have anything other than the weird stone. ¡°Ugh you fuckers! Get the fuck away from me!¡± That voice belonged to the explorer! I ran towards the source of the screaming when I saw a man getting attacked by furry little creatures. They looked like squirrels just bigger and with sharper teeth. They surrounded their victim and were jumping at him one after another. ¡°Hey you, armless kid! Hurry and help me get rid of these fuckers!¡± Tch, I wanted to hide but I ended up being seen. Well it doesn¡¯t matter, it¡¯s not like I¡¯m going to help anyways. The squirrels started attacking even more vigorously after seeing the man distracted. I¡¯ve got to say, these furry little creatures were quite intense. If I was facing them, I would probably die in under 10 seconds. ¡°Hahaha...hahahaha!¡± ¡°AHH! You bitch, after I kill these pieces of shit I¡¯m going to kill you!¡± The scene was really funny. A fully grown man who looks to be part of some biker gang was getting beaten up by furry little creatures. But I had to admit, the guy was really strong. He managed to kill at least half of the squirrels from the number of bodies on the ground and was still going at it. Hmm...at this rate he might really kill all of them. I was tempted to throw one of the knives at him (I looted 5 from the bodies) but decided against it. This was because:
  1. I could miss.
  2. For some reason, the man didn¡¯t have a weapon. He might get the knife I throw to use as a weapon.
  3. I might end up helping him instead by accidently hitting a squirrel!
The only thing I could do was watch him fight until he either dies or kills all of them. But I wasn¡¯t too nervous, he would probably be really tired if he manages to wipe them out. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard to finish him off then. Now the only thing that was missing was some popcorn to eat while waiting. I wonder if I can bring items with me. If I put something in my pocket or hold onto it before being summoned it might be brought to the dungeon alongside me. I should try it next time. ¡°Wow. You almost killed all of them. Keep going, I believe in you!¡± I cheered him on as I saw him fight. I could tell he was pissed because he would shake every time I encouraged him. Nevertheless no matter how strong he is I think he¡¯s a dumbass. He never thought to have a weapon and didn¡¯t search the pouches on the goblin. Which makes me wonder, he must have taken the key from the goblin on the first floor, then why didn¡¯t he search for stuff in the pouches this time around? He also doesn¡¯t seem like the type to leave a chest that could contain riches alone. I¡¯m sure he would have fallen for the trap, but why isn¡¯t he missing an arm? ¡°Pant. Pant. You little fuck. I¡¯m gonna kill you!¡± Oh, looks like he killed all of them. Good, I was getting a bit bored just watching him. Despite not having a right arm, I didn¡¯t feel anxious or scared. I felt excited instead, just like when I killed the goblin.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°You sure took your time. Look at you, all ripped up and having a hard time breathing. Tsk, they were nothing but squirrels too.¡± ¡°Pant. Looks like I hit you too hard and caused you to, pant, have some loose screws in your head. No worries though. Pant. I¡¯ll make sure to smash those screws back in.¡± I walked towards the exhausted retard while putting my left hand in the pouch with the knives. As I got a grip on one of them I focused on the movements of the man. ¡°Let me ask you something. Why didn¡¯t your arm get cut off after putting it inside the chest on the first floor.¡± ¡°What chest? Little bastard, are you shitting me?¡± What? There wasn¡¯t a chest on the first floor for the guy? ¡°Wait. Then did you see a ghost-like monster on the first floor?¡± ¡°Grr. Piece of shit, come here!¡± He didn¡¯t see that either. Did each explorer go through different first floors? I¡¯ll think about it later. First, I need to deal with this thing in front of me. When the man reached around 5 meters from me I pulled out the knife and threw it. His eyes opened wide as he quickly rolled on the ground and dodged the knife. But this caused him to be defenseless against me for the next couple seconds. I pulled out another knife and threw it again. Not waiting to see if it hit or not I quickly grasped another knife and rushed at man. The second knife managed to hit as it pierced deep into the shoulders of the dumb fellow. He screamed in pain as he tried to take it out. Of course I wouldn¡¯t let him. I lunged towards the guy as I thrusted the knife forward. Due to the bastard already being tired and having a knife in his shoulder he reacted a lot slower. I managed to stab the knife right into his stomach but I was suddenly put into a squeeze as his arms were around me. He screamed in pain and tried to raise me in the air but I wouldn¡¯t let him do that without taking interest. I let go of the knife and reached for my pouch once more. However right when I managed to grab the fourth knife, the man threw me onto the ground. I felt the wind being knocked right out of me as my head hit the floor. My vision became fucked up as my eyes weren¡¯t able to concentrate on anything. ¡°This piece of shit!¡± I heard the sound of metal leaving flesh and saw blood dripping to the ground. I quickly rolled away and brought myself up. I backed up while the effects of clarity kicked in and both my mind and vision began to clear. ¡°Ugh. You¡¯re a fucking monster. How are you able to still stand up?¡± The man pulled out both knives on his body but he could only hold onto one of them. His free hand was forced to block the blood from pouring out of his stomach. Now I¡¯m sorta in a dilemma. Sure the guy is hurt and all but he has a fucking knife. If I don¡¯t attack him carefully I could get killed in one stroke. ¡°Does it hurt? I bet it does. But you know, it also hurt when I got beat up on the ground.¡± ¡°Ke..shut up you shit.¡± The man certainly did have less energy than before. But I was still apprehensive of fighting him. Suddenly, a thought popped into my head. It¡¯s do or die. I put the knife on my mouth and ran. The bastard must have been pretty scared because he flinched when I ran towards him. Around 5 meters away I put my hand into the pouch and threw the goblin rocks at him. He brought his arm up and tried to block them from hitting his face. I took the chance to grab the knife out of my mouth. Then I did a slide tackle. I love the slide tackle. The guy fell and before he could realize what happened, I quickly stabbed him on his back. He roared in pain but I stabbed him again on his shoulder and brought the warm steal covered in blood to his neck. ¡°Move and you die.¡± The threat worked like a charm as he stopped struggling. I could tell he was in pain by the shivering of his body but I didn¡¯t give a damn. I slowly brought my face closer to his ear and whispered ¡°Do you want to die?¡± ¡°No...No. please...ple-¡± I didn¡¯t let him finish. I cut his neck and proceeded to stab him over and over until finishing it off with one last stab to the head. ¡°Hahaha¡­kek.HAhaha. Who told you to beat me up huh? Stupid bastard. Haha¡± I didn¡¯t feel anything other than the urge to laugh after killing him. I just murdered a human, but so what? He shouldn¡¯t have messed with me in the first place. Though I did realize I laughed every time I killed something. I should really stop this before it becomes a habit. I don¡¯t want to seem crazy, or did I already become crazy aftering entering the dungeon? [Due to Barbaric trait, explorer has gained 1 physique] [New trait: Bloodthirsty gained. Only those who seek to constantly fight can earn this trait. Agility and perception increased by 1] [Title: Psychopath gained. Given to abnormal individuals who gain pleasure from inhuman acts. Concentration is increased by 2. Charm is decreased by 1] [Due to murdering another explorer, explorer Chung-hee will gain one-tenth of the total stats allocated randomly] [Explorer Chung-hee has gained ¡®Basic Fighting Experience¡¯ from explorer Dave.] [Agility and Dexterity has both been raised by 2 due to ¡®Basic Fighting Experience¡¯] I felt fighting experience flow into my mind as I began to understand how to properly punch, kick, and defend. It wasn¡¯t at a level where I could be considered an expert but it greatly raised my fighting prowess. I got a new trait and a title. I¡¯m not sure what to think of them. I don¡¯t mind the bloodthirsty trait but being called a psychopath isn¡¯t making me feel better. Did I really become crazy? ¡°Status screen.¡± [Name: Chung-hee] [Age: 15] [Species: Human] [Occupation: None] [Subclass: None] [Titles: Psychopath] [Traits: Barbaric, Bloodthirsty] [Strength:14] [Intelligence:8] [Agility:11] [Endurance: 10] [Physique:9] [Vitality:10] [Dexterity:8] [Perception:10] [Concentration:9] [Magic Power:6] [Charm:4] [Luck:11] [Skills: Basic knife mastery: 2, Pain resistance: 6, Magic resistance: 1, Clarity: 4] [Stat points: 0] [Skill points: 0] [Achievement points: 30] I could clearly tell that I gained a lot of stat points. My charm went up by 1 even with the deduction from psychopath. My intelligence went up. Concentration. Perception, strength, they all went up. In total I gained 8 stat points from Dave. I had to admit, Dave was strong. Most of his stats should have been in strength, endurance, and physique but it still ended up being 80 points in total. The trait and new title also gave me lots of stat points but I felt bittersweet knowing that I was regarded as crazy by the system. Well, can¡¯t do anything about that. Getting stats is getting strong and being strong means surviving. Just then, my body froze. My jaws dropped and my eyes became wide opened. Dave¡¯s body was disappearing. And what was left was a small, red box. Well damn. This fucking dungeon was really meant for people to kill each other. Chapter 6: Second Floor Complete ¡°Whew.¡± A dungeon meant for murderers and killers, where people had to kill others in order to survive. No wonder monsters didn¡¯t drop loot or any benefits, you get those from killing people. I was quite shocked at my ability to adapt to the situation. Despite killing a human and knowing I would have to kill more in the future, I didn¡¯t feel sick or scared. I just felt indifferent. Maybe I¡¯m not as normal as I thought I am. My eyes looked down at the small, red box on the ground. The loot that dropped from the guy I killed. I picked it up from the ground and stared at it. Ever since I got my arm chopped off, I had a bit of a phobia towards boxes and chests. ¡°Nah, it can¡¯t be. The box is too small. What¡¯s it gonna do, bite my finger off?¡± I opened the box and white light shined from the inside. [Bone necklace has been acquired] The box dissolved and what appeared was a necklace with bone decorations and a tooth in the middle. [Bone necklace: F ranked. 1 strength and agility. A necklace created by a veteran hunter] As expected, the necklace was a loot that gave stats. This dungeon didn¡¯t give items for killing monsters but for killing humans. The order was completely messed up. I put on the necklace and felt a bit stronger than before. It wasn¡¯t a bad item considering that I wouldn¡¯t be able to use a weapon properly due to my missing arm. In fact, it was quite decent. Strength and agility were both stats that I needed. I went and picked up the marbles and knives I threw and put them back into the pouches. Two of the knives had blood but my shirt didn¡¯t have any clean spots to wipe it off. Now all I have to do is find the hidden piece that can heal my arm and clear this floor. I continued walking down the path and saw dead bodies of Goblins everywhere. I said it many times before, but seeing the dead corpses reminded me again. Dave was fucking strong. Now I realize that he was already tired from killing all these goblins before he was fighting the group of furries. Just thinking of what would have happened if I fought him in perfect condition sent shivers down my spine. I was really being crazy before. If I didn¡¯t get lucky and killed him while he was already exhausted I would have been beaten to death. I didn¡¯t forget to loot each and everyone of the goblin corpses. Though I did stop taking knives as I thought five to be enough. I soon reached the end of the path and there was a door at the end. The door was almost identical as the one from the first floor but it had a sign engraved on it. [Can only be opened when one explorer is alive] This explains why Dave didn¡¯t just clear the floor but instead stayed. It also confirms my thoughts that this dungeon was meant for explorers to kill each other. What¡¯s the purpose of the dungeon. Why is it designed for humans to kill one another? Anyways now that Dave is dead I have to go find the hidden piece. Of everything that I¡¯ve seen and experienced, only the goblin marbles seem mysterious. I¡¯ve so far collected every marble from goblins I saw and I still am not able to figure out what they are for. I¡¯m sure they are a part of something, I doubt the dungeon would fuck with explorers for fun. I turned away from the door and started wondering again. If I don¡¯t know where the hidden piece is, I¡¯ll just search the whole damn dungeon from the ground up. I¡¯m not going to give up on the chance to get my arm back, besides I already used 50 achievement points. While walking around I saw a goblin fighting against a small group of four furries. I guess monsters had their own groups and enemies too. The goblin had a couple injuries over its body but the furries weren¡¯t looking so good either. One of them was having trouble moving and another one was bloodied to the point that it couldn¡¯t even stand up. I had no thoughts of getting involved. Killing them personally had no benefits so naturally I wanted to see their mutual destruction ¡°Hissss!¡± ¡°KekeKaWA!¡± The two furries that were still in good condition jumped at the goblin. The goblin swung its knife but missed. One furry bit onto the left shoulder while the other bit on the knee. In rage, the goblin grabbed the furry on his shoulder and ripped it off. The furry shrieked but the goblin paid no mind and stabbed it while completely ignoring the one on its leg. After killing the furry, the goblin threw the body away and grabbed the one on its knee before killing it the same way. Then it put the furry inside its mouth and started chewing. I was surprised at the goblin¡¯s ferocity. Now that I see it carefully, this one was a bit bigger than the other ones. It also had an uglier face with fangs. Even when it was closing its mouth you could see some of the teeth . The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. With blood dripping from its mouth, the goblin walked towards the two injured furries. It¡¯s pitiful. The furries were going to die no matter how much they struggle. It just once again shows how harsh the dungeon is. Strong devour the weak, the weak is the stepping stone for the strong. Crunch The goblin stomped the two furries to death. Blood was splattered all over the ground after it was done. ¡°Kekeke.¡¯ The goblin made laughing sounds and went to eating the furry it had in his mouth and the one it threw away. Of course, the goblin didn¡¯t get the chance to eat the furry he threw away. This was because I appeared in front of him. ¡°What¡¯s up ugly. Listen, I don¡¯t want to fight you, just give me the marble that¡¯s in your pouch.¡± The goblin didn¡¯t move or say anything. It just stared at me like a hunter staring at his prey. This annoyed me. Some creature that¡¯s both dumber and smaller than me is thinking that I¡¯m just another animal that he can kill and eat. A monster that I¡¯ve experienced killing before, is looking at me like I¡¯m inferior to him. I pulled out a knife from my pouch and a grin broke out of my face. I don¡¯t care if you¡¯re stronger or weaker than the usual goblin, I¡¯m going to kill you. One step, two steps, three steps. Little by little I was closing the distance between the goblin at me. The goblin didn¡¯t budge even a single inch since he saw me. Suddenly when I reached around 10 steps away from it, the goblin rushed towards me. Unlike the other goblins, it didn¡¯t raise its knife high in the air but had it low and positioned so that it could stab out any moment. ¡°Hmph!¡± When the goblin reached around 3 steps away it stabbed out with its knife. I also kicked towards the goblin. Due to my longer reach, my legs connected before he could stab me. But he still managed to quickly cut my leg before falling on the ground a couple meters away. I ran towards the goblin and kicked him again. Due to my increase of strength, my kicks made him roll meters away each time. After kicking the goblin around five times I stopped. I needed time to catch my breath and I didn¡¯t want to accidently fuck up to my death. The monster vomited blood after struggling to get up. The eyes of a hunter completely disappeared and what was left was anger and hints of fear. ¡°KEKWA!¡± It started to run away after screaming. I have to say it was a pretty good plan for a monster of its minimal intelligence. I was in a daze for a couple seconds due to expecting the monster to charge at me. I chased after the goblin. The goblin already suffered injuries and wasn¡¯t able to run quickly. Before it could get too far I was already right behind. But before I could stab with my knife, the goblin turned around and swung its knife at me. ¡°Ugh.¡± I groaned after getting cut and the goblin took the chance to stab me but I quickly dodged it and thrusted my knife towards its head. Unfortunately, I missed as the monster rolled forward to dodge the attack. I threw the knife at the goblin and it managed to graze the legs of the little devil. There was a short pause as both of us just started at each other. My opponent was one of the dumb little goblins however it managed to trick me twice and even dodge my attacks. ¡®Whew. Not bad at all, but not good enough.¡± I ran at the goblin and swung my knife at him. The goblin dodged to the right but I expected it and kicked towards him. My foot connected with the monster and it fell to the ground. I didn¡¯t give it the chance to get up and threw the knife. ¡°KEKAWA!¡± The knife stabbed into the stomach of the goblin. I got close and threw another knife. And another one. And finally I inserted my last knife right through its neck. The goblin finally died. Even if it was a bit stronger than the usual goblin it was still weaker than me. It probably just survived longer and had more experiences than your regular green little monster. I took the marble from the goblin and started wandering again. I encountered a lot of goblins but they all met the same fate as the first one. It made me curious why goblins would always wander by themselves. Luckily I didn¡¯t encounter any of them grouped together or I would have been in trouble. I also met a couple furries but they didn¡¯t seem to hold any ill-will against me. Naturally we just left each other alone. I guess they don¡¯t attack unless they are attacked first. ¡®Another one huh.¡¯ I found a goblin wandering by himself. After killing a bunch of goblins I found that they had genders. The male goblins would only where a loin cloth to cover its tree and king jewels while the females actually wore clothes that cover their bodies from the armpits to the knee. Of course, female goblins were hideous and encountering them made me feel nauseous. After my knife mastery rose to lvl 5 killing goblin became a lot easier. My dexterity increased by 2 and I got accustomed to using my left hand. At this point, goblins were hardly a threat. ¡°Yo! Over here!¡± I yelled at the goblin to grab his attention. After he saw me he charged at me and our fight began. This one was also stronger than the ordinary ones. It was faster, more clever, and had experience. The goblin would use his small figure and my missing arm to dodge and attack me. He managed to cut me a number of times on my right side but in the end he still died. [Achievement accomplished. Congratulations, you have killed all the goblins on the second] [floor. +10 achievement points.] Ha. I managed to kill all the goblins on the second floor, excluding the ones Dave killed. But I still have yet to find the hidden piece. I took the marble from the goblin''s pouch and put it in mine. I was going to start searching again when suddenly bright light started shining from the inside of the pouch. ¡®What¡¯s happening?¡¯ I opened my pouch and instead of seeing marbles on top of one another, I saw a single, black marble with something that looked to be flames in red. [Hidden piece acquired!] [Fire affinity stone: B ranked. A type of affinity marble that gives the individual fire affinity.] This was the hidden piece? I was completely shocked. I had no idea that the marbles that I took from goblins for no apparent reason would lead me to the hidden piece. It was B ranked too! But...how do I use it? It says that it would give me fire affinity and the system said this thing could regrow my arm but what am I supposed to do with it? After much pondering and struggling, I decided to just swallow it. Yea, it sounds stupid but my thought process was that anything that can regrow my arm is something that shouldn¡¯t be harmful to my body. Also because I was damn tired of only having one arm and I wanted to get the fuck out of the dungeon. Swallow* Right after gulping it down I felt a warm sensation come from my stomach. The feeling spread throughout my whole body and it felt pretty soothing. But then it started becoming hotter and soon my body felt like it was burning in flames. ¡°Fuck! It Burns!¡± My body spasmed on the ground and no matter what I did made the pain feel better. The burning sensation just kept on rising. As my screams resounded through the dungeon for who knows how long, I soon lost conscious. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.... Without knowing how many hours passed by, my eyes finally opened. But instead of seeing the roof of the dungeon all I saw were blue panels in front of my eyes. [Congratulations. Explorer Ed has gained fire affinity] [Due to the influence of the affinity stone, explorer Ed has gained +15 to magic power.] [Due to the influence of the affinity stone, explorer Ed has gained +1 to strength and physique.] [Due to the influence of the affinity stone, explorer Ed has gained +3 intelligence] [Due to the influence of the affinity stone, magic resistance has increased to 2] [Fire affinity: C] That¡¯s a lot of blue panels and information. Somehow the affinity stone raised a lot of my stats and abilities. Though I have no idea how it raised my charm. When I tried to get up I saw something from the corner of my eye which caused me to shout out in joy. ¡®HAHAHAHAH!¡± It was my arm. My arm was back. The feeling of using my dominant arm again made me cry tears of joy. I¡¯m never going to lose you again...hueueue, my precious. After hugging and kissing my arm for a while I got up and started thrusting and slashing the knife as if monsters were in front of me. Of course, I was using my right arm. I wanted to make sure that my arm was familiar with using knives and I discovered that my strikes were a lot stronger and more precise. Haha. I expected no less from my dominant arm¡­.huehuehue, my precious. Everything I needed to do on the floor was now done. I killed Dave for revenge and got my arm back. I was naturally going to get the fuck out of here as fast as I can. I headed to the door at record speed and without turning back or hesitating, I opened the door and walked through it. Darkness flooded my vision but instead of feeling anxious or scared, I felt relieved. I heard two messages before I lost conscious. [Floor two successfully passed!] [Skill: Fireball obtained due to performance evaluation] ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.... [Name: Ed] [Age: 15] [Species: Human] [Occupation: None] [Subclass: None] [Titles: Psychopath] [Traits: Barbaric, Bloodthirsty] [Strength:15 (1)] [Intelligence:11] [Agility:11 (1)] [Endurance: 10] [Physique:10] [Vitality:10] [Dexterity:11] [Perception:10] [Concentration:9] [Magic Power:21] [Charm:4] [Luck:11] [Skills P: Basic knife mastery: 5, Pain resistance: 6, Magic resistance: 2, Clarity: 4] [Skills A: Fireball] [Stat points: 0] [Skill points: 0] [Achievement points: 40] [Items: Bone necklace(F)] [Affinity: Fire ( C )] Chapter 7: Third Floor Elimination Test I started feeling nauseous right after I woke up. I got off my bed and went to the washroom right away. I sprayed my face with water and took a good look at myself in the mirror. I...I killed a person. Another human being. I enjoyed it too! My eyes widened as I felt a hot feeling come up my throat. I quickly opened the toilet lid and threw up. The pungent smell rose to my nose and I started throwing up again until there was absolutely nothing left in my stomach. ¡®What the hell is wrong with me. How could I enjoy killing another person.¡¯ Thinking of my actions in the dungeon, I couldn¡¯t believe that it was me who did them. It was unbelievable. I felt a thrill whenever I killed a living being and was completely happy when I killed a human. I laughed whenever something died and had the most fucking disgusting grin in the dungeon. Have I changed? Am I still sane? Am I even a human? These thoughts constantly occupied my head. I felt scared knowing that I was becoming a maniac. Just two floors, it¡¯s been only two floors but my personality was completely different. It was psychotic, crazy. No. I won¡¯t change. Even if I do, I won¡¯t become the insane person I was on the second floor. I¡¯m still completely sane right here and now. It was only in the dungeon when I acted like that without even knowing. Could it be because of the title and trait? It should be. No, it must be. My abilities are currently locked unlike when in the dungeon. My trait and title are also sealed. But what would happen if they were to be unlocked? Would I become the person in the dungeon? No, no, NO! I won¡¯t. Before I was subconsciously influenced and didn¡¯t know what I was doing. Now I do, that¡¯s the difference. Determined, I flushed down the toilet and brushed my teeth to get the smell of vomit out of my mouth. I walked back to my room and looked at the time. 6 a.m. I still had time before I had to leave for school so I went back and took a shower. The shower made me feel refreshed and my mind clear. I started thinking of what I was going to do from now on. To survive in the dungeon, I need the skills to fight. I should sign up for boxing class or anything that can let me get stronger. I also need to check if I can bring anything with me to the dungeon. My clothes were summoned alongside me so if I put something inside my pockets would they be transported with me? What if I wore a bag to sleep, since I¡¯m wearing them they should be transported too right? But the biggest problem I was facing were other explorers. The dungeon is clearly meant for killers. You don¡¯t gain anything from killing monsters but you could gain stats and items from killing other people. In addition, there might be limitation that prevent people from passing unless some were to die, just like in the second floor. In such cases, don¡¯t I have to kill other explorers? Of course I do. If I don¡¯t get stronger by killing, I will eventually get killed by a monster or another person. That¡¯s the cold, harsh truth. If I want to live, I have to kill. But I won¡¯t become a person who enjoys killing. I will never become someone as disgusting as that. I will kill, I will get stronger, but I will never lose my morals, I will have my bottom lines and once I become strong enough, I will leave the dungeon for good. That¡¯s a promise, a vow I intend to keep throughout the rest of my life. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ ¡°Hi Leslie! What¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Hi Ed. Nothing much other than finishing school work.. How about you?¡±If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Exactly the same. By the way, are you ready for our business presentation on Monday?¡± ¡°Of course! But I think we should get together and practice, just to be on the safe side.¡± ¡°Umm, where do you wanna meet up?¡± ¡°How about the public library? If that¡¯s alright with you.¡± ¡°Sure, that¡¯s completely alright with me. So...saturday at 3 p.m?¡± ¡°Great! Here give me your phone, I¡¯ll save my number in your contacts.¡± ¡°Oh..ok. Here you go.¡± I gave Leslie my phone so she could save her number. I felt a little happy knowing that I would have the number of one of the prettiest girls in my grade. I didn¡¯t expect that having a casual conversation with Leslie after seeing her at the school library would end up with me scheduling a meet up with her on the weekend and getting her number. Despite knowing that Drake would be all up in my ass, which guy wouldn¡¯t like seeing a girl like Leslie privately, and even getting her number? ¡°Here all done. Message me when you get to the library.¡± ¡°Sure, no prob. Well I gotta go do some work so see ya around.¡± ¡°See ya!¡± I left Leslie with a happy mood and went to the computer lab inside the library. I got permission from my history teacher to do research on my history project in the library. But I had other thoughts in mind. I was searching up information on first aid. Even if I want to avoid getting hurt, I will probably be injured in the future. In such cases I need to know what to do in order to minimize the damage. I might even be able to bring items such as bandages or medicine for future injuries. I took notes on first aid and made sure I memorized the important parts in my mind. After finishing, the period was almost over so I went to back to my class. ¡°Yo Jones, guess what.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Man, you ain¡¯t even gonna guess?¡± ¡°I probably won¡¯t guess it right so what¡¯s the point.¡± ¡°Tsk, fine. Well I met Leslie at the library and got her number. She wants to meet up on saturday at the public library nearby to practice on our business presentation.¡± ¡°Hold up! You got her number? You?¡± ¡°Yes, me. What¡¯s there to be surprised about, geesh.¡± ¡°Everyone listen. Ed here just got our dear Ms. Banks¡¯s number!¡± Fucking Jones, he knows that I don¡¯t like being the center of attention. I felt countless stares on me as almost everyone in the class had their eyes and mouth wide open in shock. After a couple of seconds, the class erupted in discussion. Some were talking about how I got her number and others were talking about how Drake would beat my ass. Some people even came up to me and started asking me a bunch of questions. But what made me feel the worst was that Jones had a big smile on his face like he was enjoying seeing me suffer. To be honest he probably did. ¡®I swear Jones, any one of these days¡­¡¯ After getting interrogated by nearly the whole class the period finally ended. I left feeling exhausted and annoyed. I also swore at Jones for a whole five minutes while he just smiled and laughed. Such an annoying guy. History was the last period of the day so I left school right away. I didn¡¯t go directly home but I went to W*lm*rt to buy pepper spray and a lighter. I wanted to be prepared for the next dungeon and if I can take items with me, those two would be my top choices. Pepper spray for humans and maybe monsters while a lighter can come in handy in the future. I had a bit of trouble finding the pepper spray but I got it in the end. The cashier gave me a strange look when I bought them but I don¡¯t blame her. A 15 year old kid buying paper spray and a lighter got to look suspicious I felt hungry so I stopped by M*c D*n*lds to eat before going home. But while I was eating I was shocked to see an old friend of mine. He also saw me and started walking in my direction. ¡°Ha. Long time no see, Ed.¡± ¡°How are you doing, Chris.¡± Chris. One of my close friends throughout middle school. He and I played a bunch of games together and we bonded pretty quickly. Unfortunately he went to another school in the middle of the seventh grade due to getting suspended for a fight. We never saw each other again until now. ¡°More or less. Man, I haven¡¯t seen you since seventh grade.¡± ¡°I know right. What school did you go to?¡± ¡°This boarding school near my dad¡¯s house. I didn¡¯t like it though, filled with snobbish, rich kids.¡± Oh yea. I forgot that Chris¡¯s parents got divorced when he was young and he lived with his mom. I guess he went to live with his dad after the suspension. ¡°Jones and I went to the same high school. It would have been great if did too.¡± ¡°Is that so. Well I gotta go. My dad is waiting for me in the car. Bye man.¡± Chris walked away after getting his food from the cashier. I was going to ask him for his phone number but I assume he was in a hurry. I also left a couple minutes after Chris. I almost ate everything before meeting him so it didn¡¯t take long to finish. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ I wore sweat pants that would let me move easier and a black hoodie over a white t-shirt. I put the lighter in my right pocket and the pepper spray in the pocket of my hoodie. I also put my phone in my left pocket. It would be interesting to see how a phone reacts inside the dungeon. I wasn¡¯t planning on trying to bring a bag for the dungeon. For now, I didn¡¯t need to bring a lot of stuff with me and a bag would just be extra weight. Ohh, I almost forgot. I got a chocolate bar that I bought from before and grabbed it in my hand. I wanted to test if someone I¡¯m holding would be sent over too. Now I was ready for the dungeon. I closed my eyes and waited until it turned 10:30. I didn¡¯t have to wait too long since it was already 10:28. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.... [Floor three of the dungeon. +4 explorers] [Initiating explorer elimination test #1] Chapter 8: Be Afraid of the Cornered Ones I opened my eyes and the first thing I did was to check my hand and pockets. The chocolate bar wasn¡¯t crossed over but both the lighter and the pepper spray was sent over. This was important. This means I can bring weapons small enough to fit in my pocket such as a knife or gun if I somehow get the chance to acquire one. However the chances of getting a gun was rare and dangerous. Guns are illegal in Canada without a proper license and I¡¯m only 15. My parents would never let me get one. The bone necklace was still over my neck. But the goblin pouch and the knives weren¡¯t. Unless the item is something is acknowledged by the system, it turns out I won¡¯t be able to bring it with me to the next floors. My thoughts moved back to the announcement after checking on my mini experiment. This time it was 4 more explorers being summoned to the third floor but what got me worried was the second part of the message. Explorer elimination test #1. I didn¡¯t like the sound of that. Not only did it mean that some of us were definitely going to die, there was going to be more in the future. ¡®Hm?¡¯ I looked at my status plate and saw fireball next to my skills list. When did I get this? I hovered my finger on top of it and a blue panel popped up in front of me. [Fireball. Basic offensive magic for fire magicians. Creates a fireball that is discharged to the aimed area.] Now that I remember, I heard a system announcement after passing the second floor telling me I acquired some skill due to performance evaluation. This must be it. I was really tempted to try it out. I mean, it was magic! But I knew doing so was incredibly stupid. First it drains my mana and it might cause monsters to gather where I am. Besides, staying low key would help me survive longer. If the fireball turns out to be too strong despite being a basic skill the other explorers might gang up on me. The fireball would be my trump card, against both explorers and monsters. The third floor was similar to the second floor. The only difference was that the dungeon was brighter lit and had some plants growing on the walls. In addition, the width of the passages were bigger, being a little over 5 meters. ¡°System, how do I use the fireball skill?¡± [Explorer must chant the name of the skill and direct the aim with their hand(s)] ¡°Is there any hidden pieces on the third floor?¡± [Explorer must give 50 achievement points.] Damn, I only have 40 achievement points. Looks like I¡¯m going to have search for clues myself. ¡°What¡¯s the explorer elimination test all about?¡± [Explorer must give 20 achievement points.] Hm. I was struggling in the inside. Getting stronger is important and knowing what this elimination test is about is important too. But achievement points don¡¯t appear like leaves falling off a tree and I want to get more hidden pieces that would make me stronger. ¡°Forget it.¡± In the end, I decided not to use the points. Knowing about it probably won¡¯t change what I¡¯m going to experience. I stopped my questioning as well. Last time, the system only let me ask 4 questions and I want to save one question for when I really need to know something. Before finding the other explorers I wanted to find a goblin. I needed a weapon and explorers were probably the most dangerous existences on the floor. This was even more important because I know that all the explorers who made it this far killed on the previous floor. In short, we were all murderers. We all experienced the stat boosts from killing one another and we all know that we are going to have to kill even more to survive. While I was walking forward I arrived at an intersection. There were four other passages that led to the intersection beside mine. I assumed that this is where all the explorers will meet. It was unfortunate that I didn¡¯t encounter any goblins on my way. From one of the passages appeared a woman who looked to be in her late twenties. She had light brown hair and wore very tight clothing that emphasized her curves. She wore light make-up and was very beautiful. ¡°Ara? What¡¯s a little kid doing here?¡± Before I could say anything three other people arrived at the intersection. When I saw one of the three explorers my eyes widened in shocked. ¡®Chris? Why the hell is Chris here?¡¯ Chris also saw me and judging from the look in his eyes, he was also very shocked. But he acted like he didn¡¯t know me and looked elsewhere. ¡°Two little kids, an old geezer, and ohhhh hello baby.¡± The person who spoke was a man who looked to be in his early twenties and had dyed blonde hair. You could tell that it was dyed because he was asian. He had earrings and judging from his looks and comment, you could tell he was a fuckboy. ¡°Shut up kid. From my point of view, you''re still a kid like those two little kids over there.¡± The one who spoke was the third explorer who came from the intersections. He looked to be middle aged but had muscles bulging from his clothes. The man had short black hair and his voice was very deep. ¡°What you say old man? Listen, you go do your thing and I¡¯ll have some fun with hunny over here.¡± ¡°Haha. If you¡¯re that desperate then I¡¯ll play with you but I hope you take into consideration the risks involved.¡± The woman spoke in a playful tone but I could feel the chilling intent radiating from her. Yea, I can¡¯t lose my guard. These people are all dangerous. Even if I don¡¯t want to believe it, Chris is also a dangerous explorer who killed someone. [All explorers have met. The explorer elimination test will officially begin] [In under two hours, please destroy the goblin village located somewhere in the dungeon and pass the floor. If you are unable to complete the test, all explorers will be eliminated] I wasn¡¯t the only one who received the message, everyone did. We all looked at each other and seemed very confused. I naturally assumed that we were going to be forced to kill one another due to the name of the test but it turns out that we just need to kill the goblins in the dungeon. This shouldn¡¯t be too hard if all five of us cooperate, even if the alliance is at the most surface level. ¡°I¡¯m guessing that you all got that message. We don¡¯t need to kill each other, so we should all cooperate. That way we can definitely pass the test.¡± The middle aged man spoke to all of us. I didn¡¯t disagree with him and I wanted to stay as low key as possible so I just nodded my head to state my opinion. Chris and the woman agreed too but it seems that the fuckboy has a problem. ¡°Wow there. Who let you be the leader of all of us. You¡¯re really old so you should let the next generation do the leading and talking. You got that?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care who the leader is. All I¡¯m saying is that we should cooperate and finish this floor.¡± ¡°I agree. Let¡¯s first destroy the goblin village before we get into any fights alright?¡± The woman looked at the fuckboy with coquettish eyes, managing to persuade him. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°Fine. Since babe over here says so, I¡¯ll let you go old man.¡± ¡°Now that we are all in agreement, let¡¯s introduce ourselves, I''ll go first. My name is Kelly was you all can see, I¡¯m just a pretty looking girl in this scary dungeon. I¡¯m going to have to rely on all of you to help me pass this floor.¡± Kelly finished her introduction with a wink. She tried to portray herself as a weak little girl but we could all blatantly see through it. Chris even rolled his eyes in exasperation. She didn¡¯t even try to hide that she was lying. ¡°The names Rick. That¡¯s all.¡± ¡°Haha, old man you¡¯re so stiff. My name is Jason. I¡¯m probably the strongest here so you all better listen to me. Hehe, and Jenny girl, let¡¯s have some fun after this alright?¡± ¡°As long as you can get me out of here safely.¡± ¡°Then you better keep your promises babe.¡± ¡°My name is Ed. Still in highschool.¡± I made my introduction short and simple. I didn¡¯t want to be the last one to introduce themselves because the last one always gives a bigger impression than others. ¡°Chris. Also in highschool.¡± ¡°OK. Now that we all introduced ourselves let¡¯s go kill them goblins. Chris and Ed was it? You guys go walk at the front.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°You have a problem?¡± Jason raised his eyebrows after hearing Chris question him. It was good for me that Chris chose to speak up. Walking at the front was the riskiest due to being defenseless from the back. ¡°I don¡¯t even trust you people and you expect me to go at the front and risk getting stabbed in the back?¡± ¡°What you say? Why would I kill you if there¡¯s clearly no reason to? ¡°Then why don¡¯t you or the girl go at the front?¡± ¡°Hah it¡¯s clearly obvious that you two are the weakest. There¡¯s no merit in killing you so there¡¯s no harm in you going at the front. Me, on the other hand, am the strongest one here which means there¡¯s a lot bigger risk of some of you trying to kill me.¡± ¡°What about the girl then?¡± ¡°That¡¯s because I¡¯m protecting her and you can¡¯t do anything about it. Listen kid, here only the strong have the right to speak OK? You little kids should just obey what I say.¡± ¡°How about you fight me and we¡¯ll see who the real weakling is. ¡°Alright alright. Let¡¯s just walk together then. You guys can go on and fight after we finish the mission but if we can¡¯t even finish the mission then there¡¯s no point in deciding who¡¯s stronger than who.¡± ¡°I agree with the girl. Stop trying to make problems kid.¡± ¡°Tsk. You got lucky. And don¡¯t call me kid old man.¡± With the problem solved we started searching for goblins. No one said much except for Jason who kept flirting with Kelly. I wanted to talk to Chris but the situation didn¡¯t allow for that. ¡°Goblin.¡± Chris suddenly spoke and caused Jason to finally shut up. True to his word, there were 5 goblins that appeared in front of our group. 2 male goblins and one female goblin. I could tell that they were the experienced kind because they didn¡¯t charge at us right away and examined us from a distance. But what caught my attention was one of the male goblins. Unlike the rest, he carried a cold bloodthirsty gaze. He didn¡¯t make any unnecessary movements and emitted an aura of intimidation. ¡°Finally, three goblins. Anyone want to fight them?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll also go.¡± Rick and Chris both volunteered to fight. Even though I needed a weapon I didn¡¯t think it was worth showing off my abilities to the others. ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll go too, just to stretch my body. Ed, stay behind and protect Kelly.¡± After saying what he wanted to say, Jason, Chris, and Rick started fighting the goblins. Jason and Chris got the normal ones but RIck ended up fighting the irregular one. ¡°Are you really scared or are you trying to find an opportunity?¡± ¡°What?¡± I was surprised at Kelly¡¯s sudden question. Did I end up standing out by trying to stay too low key? ¡°You¡¯re too quiet and agree to whatever Jason says. Normally I would think that you¡¯re scared of him but your eyes don¡¯t show any fear.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about, but aren¡¯t you trying to use him to pass this floor?¡± ¡°Well no duh. Isn¡¯t it obvious?¡± ¡°...¡± I didn¡¯t know what to say to that, this girl was too shameless. I ended up ignoring her and looking at the fight. Jason and Chris were finishing their fights. Jason was dodging all the attacks from the goblin and countering with his punches. Chris was doing the same but you could tell that Jason was a lot more experienced. Rick on the other hand seemed to be struggling. He already got cut a couple times and only got around two hits in. Disregarding the fact that the goblin was stronger than the other ones, his small figure allowed him to have the advantage against Rick. ¡°Old man you still fighting?¡± Jason finished his fight by grabbing the arm of the goblin and breaking it. He then took the knife and cut the monster¡¯s throat. Chris also finished moments after Jason by kicking the goblin to the ground then kicking the head until it fell unconscious. He took the knife and stabbed the neck of the goblin. I could tell that Jason was experienced. His punches were precise and always hit. His movements were smooth and he disabled the goblin and cut him like it seemed natural. Compared to him, Chris seemed a lot less refined but I could tell that he was more experienced at fighting than me. ¡°Fuck! Help me kill this thing!¡± Rick yelled in anger. But before anyone could do anything the goblin suddenly threw his knife and stabbed Rick in the stomach. He then tried to kill Rick but Jason blocked the monster and forced it back. The goblin knowing that it wouldn¡¯t stand a chance without his knife, started retreating. ¡°Old man you ok?¡± ¡°Fuck. I have a knife in my stomach and you¡¯re asking me if I¡¯m ok?¡± ¡°Man, no need to be so angry at me. I saved your damn life.¡± ¡°He got stabbed in the stomach. There¡¯s no point in keeping him alive.¡± At Chris¡¯s harsh words the surroundings became silent. It was true, I was thinking of the same thing. Rick would only be a burden and killing him for stat points would be a lot more useful. ¡°What did you say you bastard? You want to kill me?¡± ¡°Your life has no value. You¡¯re injured and bringing you along will only be a burden. Killing you would be much more helpful at this point.¡± ¡°For a little kid you¡¯re pretty cold aren¡¯t ya.¡± ¡°Fuck. If you think of killing me then come! I¡¯ll teach all of you a lesson!¡± Rick backed away from our group while swinging his arms. Truth to be told, Rick was already dead in my mind. The only question was who would kill him, Jason or Chris? Kelly stayed still and paid no attention to Rick. I couldn¡¯t try to kill him either otherwise it would completely break the small alliance we have and make it every explorer for themselves. ¡°Alright, I agree with you. But I¡¯m going to be the one to kill him.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not necessarily stronger than me, I will be the one to kill him.¡± ¡°You bastards, who¡¯s killing who?¡± ¡°Shut up old man and stay still. You¡¯re gonna die anyways so just let us kill you so we can live longer.¡± ¡°You? Kill me? Hahaha!¡± ¡°Did you finally lose it? Why are you laughing so hard?¡± ¡°I really didn¡¯t want to do this. Hehe..but since you all want to kill me, then I won¡¯t hold back!¡± I was suspicious at what Rick was trying to do. However the moment I saw him put his hands together I felt goosebumps go up my back. I quickly jumped to the ground away from the direction of his hands. ¡°LIGHTING BALL!¡± ZIIGIIGGGIGIGGG I saw a bright flash of blue appear in front of my eyes accompanied with screams of pain. Jason had half of his body burnt while Chris completely lost one of his arms. Yet it didn¡¯t end there, with blood dripping from his lips and stomach Rick casted the spell again. ¡°HAHAHA! LIGHTNING BALL!¡± I could see Chris try to dodge while Jason couldn¡¯t move. Bright light appeared again and when it dissipated Jason¡¯s body was completely burnt black on top of a pool of blood. He was dead. ¡°Hahakek. You fuckers, thought you could..cough.. kill me...Haha.¡± Chris managed to survive but I could see that he injured his leg. He was leaning on the dungeon wall trying to endure the pain and block more blood from coming out of his arm. ¡°Haha. One more...cough..ugh..hehe..¡± Rick put his hands together once more and aimed at Chris. ¡°Light...lighting ball!¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°What? Lightning ball! Cough...cough¡± He was out of mana! This was my chance! I made a mad dash towards Rick while he was coughing up blood. When I got near him he aimed his hands at me but I didn¡¯t care. I knocked his hands away and punched him in the face. Due to being already exhausted he fell in one hit. I pulled the knife out of his stomach then stabbed him right in his heart. Rick¡¯s eyes opened wide. He tried to say something but his throat was clogged with blood. I looked straight at Rick and saw his fear and unwillingness to die. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I¡¯ve got no choice.¡± I said these last words to him as I felt his body stop moving. His eyes became unfocused and his head tilted to the side. [Due to murdering another explorer, explorer Ed will gain one-tenth of their total stats allocated randomly] [Due to murdering another explorer during the explorer elimination test, explorer Ed will gain one-fifth of their total stats as stat points.] [Due to murdering another explorer during the explorer elimination test, explorer Ed will gain increased skill proficiencies or skills depending on the murdered explorer] [Basic Knife mastery increased to 7] [Pain resistance increased to 7] [Magic resistance increased to 3] [Explorer Ed has gained ¡®Basic Fighting Experience¡¯] [Agility and Dexterity has both been raised by 1 due to ¡®Basic Fighting Experience¡¯] [Explorer Ed has gained ¡®Basic Magic Mastery: 1¡¯] [Intelligence has been raised by 1 due to ¡®Basic Magic Mastery¡¯] [Magic power has been raised by 4 due to ¡®Basic Magic Mastery¡¯] [Name: Ed] [Age: 15] [Species: Human] [Occupation: None] [Subclass: None] [Titles: Psychopath] [Traits: Barbaric, Bloodthirsty] [Strength:15 (1)] [Intelligence:12] [Agility:11 (1)] [Endurance: 10] [Physique:10] [Vitality:10] [Dexterity:12] [Perception:10] [Concentration:9] [Magic Power:25] [Charm:4] [Luck:11] [Skills (P): Basic knife mastery: 7, Pain resistance: 7, Magic resistance: 3, Clarity: 4, Basic magic mastery: 1] [Skills (A): Fireball] [Stat points: 28] [Skill points: 0] [Achievement points: 40] [Items: Bone necklace] [Affinity: Fire ( C )] Chapter 9: Demons Edge ¡°Put 5 into strength, endurance, and physique. 3 into dexterity, concentration, and perception, and finally 4 into agility.¡± I quickly used all the stats I gained from Rick. Due to the test bonus and the fact that Rick killed Jason, I gained quite a lot. My reasoning for raising the seven stats were simple. They were all stats that would increase my fighting potential and allow me to fight longer. I saw the destructive power that Rick did with his lightning ball. Sure, I could have invested stats into magic power and intelligence, but it was high variance. I don¡¯t know how many goblins are at the goblin village but if I get tired after using fireball and there¡¯s still a lot of them left, I¡¯d be in big trouble. With the sudden increase in strength, I felt my whole body flowing with power. My mind became clearer and my control over my body increased by a huge margin. After getting another ¡®Basic Fighting experience,¡¯ I had the feeling that I could fight with Jason on equal grounds, even without the increase in stats. ¡°System, how much time is left?¡± [All explorers currently have one hour and 32 minutes left] ¡°Good. I still have time left.¡± I turned and looked around. Kelly was nowhere in sight and Chris was staring at me. He had something that looked to be a potion in his mouth and I could see that his face was visibly better. His bleeding also stopped. ¡°Is that a health potion?¡± ¡°...yea.¡± ¡°Where did you get it?¡± ¡°I got three from killing the explorer on the second floor.¡± ¡°How many do you have left.¡± ¡°Two left.¡± ¡°Can you fight?¡± Two of the five explorers were dead and one was missing. Despite the small boost in power, I was still worried whether I could clear the village. I needed help if was to pass the floor. But the most important reason was that I didn¡¯t want to kill Chris. I didn¡¯t want to kill someone that I was friends with or someone I might be able to rely on in the future. ¡°I can fight. But give me some time for my leg to heal. Just 10 minutes.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± ¡°Were you going to kill me if I couldn¡¯t fight?¡± I didn¡¯t answer right away. I looked at Chris for a couple seconds before talking. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Killing you would obviously be the logical thing but...well there¡¯s no point in thinking about it.¡± With bodies and blood around us, we just sat in silence. After who knows how long Chris suddenly broke the fragile peace. ¡°On the second floor, the explorer I met was my girlfriend. You don¡¯t know how surprised I was. I was worried but at the same time I was relieved because I would be able to rely and protect her through this fucking dungeon. Together, we killed goblins and managed to reach the door to the third floor. But there was a sign on top of the door. Do you know what it said?¡± ¡°Only one person can go through the door.¡± ¡°Only one. Only one person could go through the fucking door.¡± Chris¡¯s voice cracked and I could see his eyes becoming foggy. ¡°I¡¯m sure you can tell what happened.¡± ¡°You killed her.¡± ¡°Yes, I killed her. But when I stabbed the knife straight into her stomach do you know what she said?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°She...she said that she was relieved. She said she was worried that I wouldn¡¯t kill her and was happy when I did. She said that she wouldn¡¯t have been able to continue living if I died because of her and thanked me for not letting her go through the pain.¡± I saw tears starting to flow from Chris''s eyes. His lips trembled and I could see the pain in his eyes. He spoke slowly. ¡°She was my childhood friend, my best friend, my girlfriend. I¡¯m only fifteen but I really did love her. Even now, when she¡¯s gone I realize I loved her so much more than I thought I did.¡± ¡°Then why did you kill her.¡± ¡°Fear. It was my fucking fear for death that made me kill her without hesitation! Heha, but now...living is something I hate more than dying. Ironic isn¡¯t it? I killed her because I wanted to live but now I just want to die.¡± ¡°Yet you try so hard to survive.¡± ¡°Because I¡¯m a coward. Living is so painful to me, Ed. Everytime I sleep, I see her face. Everytime I eat apples I see her face. She loved apples... Everytime I see or do anything that reminds me of her, I¡¯m filled with so much pain and regret. But everytime I want to kill myself to just end it all, I become too scared to do it. She died because I was a coward and I¡¯m unable to pay her back because I¡¯m a coward...Ed did you know? You don¡¯t get transported to the dungeon everyday. I found out that if you really don¡¯t want to go to the dungeon, then the dungeon doesn¡¯t summon you for at most 10 days. For the past 10 days I¡¯ve been trying my fucking hardest to not be here.¡± ¡°Chris, what happened to her after she died?¡± Chris didn¡¯t answer right away. Instead, he closed his eyes and put his head against the wall. After a couple minutes of silence, he starting talking. ¡°Sigh... She..got erased.¡± ¡°Erased?¡± ¡°Everyone who ever knew of her lost their memories of her. All signs of her existence was erased.¡± So that¡¯s what happens. Dying in the dungeon literally means death, where your existence is completely erased from the world. ¡° I tried calling her but a random person picked up. I went to her parents but they didn¡¯t know who I was and denied ever having a daughter.¡± There was silence. Neither of us spoke for a while. I thought about what I would have done if I was in Chris¡¯s place. Would I have killed her too? What would have I done if I did kill her? ¡°Chris.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Do you miss her? ¡°..of course. I miss her everyday. I miss her so much.¡± ¡°Then you should keep doing your best to live.¡± ¡°...what?¡± ¡°If you really hate living then live! Go through the pain of living in order to pay for your actions.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°If you really love her then live! She died for you, she wanted you to keep on living. Don¡¯t make her death for nothing.¡± I looked straight at Chris and he looked straight at me. ¡°If you really want to change, then live. Survive in the dungeon, conquer the dungeon, and become someone who is never afraid of anything.¡± Chris just kept staring at me. After a while, a smile broke out from his face. ¡°I didn¡¯t think you were an inspirational speaker.¡± I smiled. ¡°There¡¯s a lot you don¡¯t know about me. We got 4 years of catching up to do. Anyways is your leg healed up yet?¡± ¡°For your information, I¡¯m as straight as a 180 degrees line can be.¡± ¡°Fuck off.¡±Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I wanted to talk more with Chris about his experiences on the first floor. But it wasn¡¯t a good time to have a discussion, we only had around an hour and 10 minutes left. Apparently asking questions about the time didn¡¯t count as a part of the 4 questions because I was able to continuously ask. Right before Chris and I started searching for the village, I went back to the bodies for loot. The bodies dissolved and left two small red boxes like the one on the second floor. [Short Sword (F): A sword used by warriors of the past.] [+1 Strength, +2 Agility} [Health potion +3: Heals wounds and relieves exhaustion.] Decent loot. The short sword had slightly better stats than my bone necklace and I felt really relieved after getting the health pots. The health pots were only the size of a tic tac box which made it really convenient to carry around. Oh yea, I brought my phone! I quickly took out my phone while Chris watched me and checked for signal. As I thought, there was no signal in the dungeon, however I took a couple pictures around me before I put it away. ¡°You can bring items from outside the dungeon?¡± Chris asked me with wide eyes. Looks like he didn¡¯t know. ¡°Yea, anything you put in your pocket can be transferred. Though I¡¯m not sure if something I¡¯m wearing like a bag can be transferred as well.¡± ¡°Looks like I should get better prepared for the next floor. Well now that you¡¯re ready, can we go?¡± ¡°Wait let me do something else first.¡± I grabbed the sword and started swinging and thrusting. I wanted to get familiar with the weight and reach of the sword before I have to face up against goblins. It was a bit of a shame I didn¡¯t get a knife. I was more used to the knife and even had a mastery for it. ¡°Ok. Let¡¯s go.¡± ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Chris and I searched for the goblin village. We didn¡¯t talk much and all our focus was to search and be ready for attacks. I wanted to take the goblin pouches for my knife but they were all burned from the lighting ball. As a result I had to carry the sword on my right hand and the knife on my left. It was good that I mostly used my left hand on the second floor and it didn¡¯t feel too awkward. I wasn¡¯t sure if I could fight well using both hands. I should have taken drum lessons when I could. It was suspicious that Kelly disappeared but I really couldn¡¯t care less as long as she wasn¡¯t against me, otherwise I would kill her. Hah, I¡¯m able to say things like killing so indifferently now. Looks like I really did change. ¡°Ed. I think we¡¯re here.¡± What? There weren¡¯t any goblins in front of us, much less a village. ¡°You feeling alright bud? I don¡¯t see anything.¡± ¡°Trust me. Most of my stats weren¡¯t anything special but for some reason I had unusually high perception. It was also the reason why I was able to dodge that madman¡¯s lighting ball in time.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re saying that the goblin village is right in front of us?¡± ¡°Not directly in front. More like in the next passage or so.¡± I took a deep breath and let it out. I closed my eyes and calmed my mind and my beating heart as much as I could. I was nervous and a bit scared. I killed goblins before but this time I was going to be up against a whole village. There might even be a lot of elite goblins like the one that injured Rick. ¡°Take this health pot.¡± ¡°I already have two, keep it.¡± ¡°I have two items that make me stronger and I gained a ton of stats from Jason and Rick. Take it.¡± ¡°Being nice is going to send you to an early grave.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not being nice. If you die to soon then I¡¯ll be in big trouble.¡± ¡°Tch, you¡¯re acting like a tsundere.¡± ¡°Fuck you man.¡± Chris took the health pot and we both laughed. I didn¡¯t know if we were going to survive but laughing in a situation like this really helped me relax. ¡°Though how are you going to use a health pot with only one arm?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to keep one in my mouth with the cap barely on so I can easily use it when I have to. For the others I¡¯ll have to somehow make space between the goblins and me to use it. The caps aren¡¯t on so hard so I should be able to open them with one hand.¡± ¡°Be careful.¡± ¡°Smirk* You¡¯re going to have to carry me.¡± ¡°Ha just don¡¯t feed too hard.¡± Ready and joking around, we both walked forward to where Chris estimated the goblins would be. And he was right. There were over 40 tents that looked like mini teepees and fireplaces with goblins gathered over. There were male goblins, female goblins, old goblins, young goblins, it was a fucking community of goblins. With our arrival the goblins all looked and stared at us. For a second I thought they weren¡¯t as bad as I thought when suddenly they started growling and screaming in unison. ¡®KEKEKEAWWA¡± ¡°Fuck! Let¡¯s do this!!¡± I dashed towards the goblins. Not all of them had weapons, about a half of them had nothing that could fatally hurt me like a knife or sword. I reached my first enemy and swung my sword. ¡°Keke-¡± The goblin didn¡¯t get a chance to finish. It¡¯s head flew off with blood splattering all over the place. The hot black liquid sprayed onto my face and it tasted like metal...strangely human. [Basic sword mastery gained] A goblin rushed at me from the corner of my eye. It swung its stick but I sidestepped and stabbed its neck. From behind I heard the sound of metal cutting through the wind. Tinggg! I parried the knife before it could stab me. The goblin didn¡¯t get another chance as my knife sunk into its head. [Two handed weapon mastery gained] Two dead, I engaged another. A single strike, another one down. I felt a sharp pain from my side, the pain of metal sinking into flesh. I didn¡¯t care about it and killed one more. Anxiety, fear, nervousness, they all disappeared. What was left was excitement, bloodthirst, thrill. The screaming of goblins just became another part of the background. My body became increasingly more used to thrusting, throwing, slashing, parrying, and stabbing. Before I knew it, all the goblins in a 10 meter radius of me were dead. Gasping for air I looked around. Bodies everywhere, black blood soaked into the ground making it impossible to see any colors of brown. My own body had numerous cuts and wounds but I was numb to the pain. I looked up, even more goblins were staring at me. I saw terror from the weak ones, fear from the experienced, and unease from the elites. I looked back. Chris was panting while drinking a health potion. He was still alive. He looked at me and motioned for me to drink mine. I stabbed my sword onto the ground. The goblins flinched while I took out a health pot and started drinking. I felt some strength coming into my body as my exhaustion became lighter. There were still a lot left. In addition there were many experienced and even elite goblins among them. A situation like this, my future was grim wasn''t it? I was probably going to die. But for some reason, I had a grin on my face. At this moment, I wasn¡¯t scared of dying. No, I just wanted to keep fighting. I drank my last health pot and threw it away. I pulled out my sword, it was completely black from the blood of the goblins. Tightening my grip on the handle I raised the sword shoulder level to my side. I slowly started walking towards the goblins. At this moment, I felt like an army of thousands of men were against me. ¡°Ha, it wouldn¡¯t be fair otherwise.¡± I rushed in. And so another bloodbath began. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Pant..Pant. My vision was blurry. I was barely able to stand by leaning on my sword. My whole body was aching and the pain I was numbed to starting rushing in like a flood. I managed to kill them all. Haha I really lived through all that carnage. At some point even the experienced goblins became nothing but regular mobs to me. Only the elites proved to be a greater problem than I thought. I almost got killed by them 4 times and even then I got stabbed in so many places of my body. It was a miracle I¡¯m still alive. Just when I was about to fall I felt someone hold me up It was Chris. ¡°Fuck man. Pant. Haha..we¡¯re alive.¡± ¡°I...I guess we are.¡± ¡°Quickly drink this health pot.¡± Chris slowly put me on the bloody ground and poured the contents of the potion down my throat. It was amazing, It felt like I was floating in the clouds and I almost fainted due to the sudden relaxation my body. [Tremendous achievement! Nearly wiped out a whole medium sized goblin village single handedly! +100 achievement points] [Basic sword mastery has been raised to Beginner sword mastery!] [Basic knife mastery has been raised to Beginner knife mastery!] [Stats have been raised due to constant battle] [Stats have been raised due to Barbaric trait] [Explorer is now able to emit Bloodthirst to intimidate enemies due to Bloodthirsty trait.] [Killing Intent has been gained due to the indiscriminate slaughter of other living beings] [The King of the Battlefield has taken note of you!] [Great achievement! Been noticed by one of the 8 High Lords. +50 achievement points] [The King of the Battlefield has given you a small gift!] I was shocked by seeing a series of announcements from the system. Who was the King of the Battlefield. Who are the 8 High Lords? Suddenly I felt a vibration from my sword. I turned my head and it looked like it was devouring the light around it. The whole sword was surrounded by darkness and it started changing shape. [Demon¡¯s Edge ( C ): The transformation of a regular short sword by the endless blood of its enemies. The sword has been blessed by one of the 8 High Lords. As a result, it has become incredibly sharp and only explorer Ed is able to wield it. +12 Strength, +12 Agility, +12 Dexterity ] The weapon I was holding was no longer a regular sword, it was a C ranked item! It even came with its own scabbard. Despite the exhaustion I forcefully got up and pulled the sword out of hiding. No, it wasn¡¯t a sword anymore..it was blade. A completely black blade from the tip to the bottom.I felt an endless amount strength rushing into my body just from holding the weapon. It was a really good blade. ¡°Wow. That¡¯s..a really scary looking sword.¡± ¡°A blade actually. But yea, it¡¯s really strong.¡± I put the blade back into its scabbard and tied it around my body. Like magic, the scabbard automatically tightened so it wouldn¡¯t fall off. ¡°How much time do we have left?¡± ¡°30 minutes.¡± ¡°I¡¯m able to move again so let¡¯s search if there¡¯s anything in the tents. The door should be on the other end.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± Chris and I started searching the tents. After around 10 minutes of searching Chris surprisingly found 2 health pots and a goblin pouch acknowledged as an item. I also found the goblin pouch and it had a capacity of over two times its volume. ¡°KEEKROAR¡± We both stopped what we were doing and rushed out of the tents we were in. The sound came from further down the dungeon, pass the tents. We looked at each other and without saying anything started running towards the source. I was faster than Chris so I arrived earlier. When I saw the scene in front of me I was immediately shocked. It was a goblin..but was it really a goblin? It was tall, about 170 cm and had green skin like the goblins. But it was much more brawny and even had black hair on top of its head. Its face was much less hideous and could even stand up to an ugly human being. It wielded an axe on its right and a shield on its left and even had armor on. However the monster wasn¡¯t roaring or facing me. Instead it was fighting against another person who I realized right away. ¡°Kelly?¡± ¡°That¡¯s...isn¡¯t that a hobgoblin?¡± Chris arrived behind me and saw the monster. Then his eyes went towards Kelly who was fighting it. ¡°What the fuck? Kelly?¡± I always knew that Kelly was suspicious. She was calm throughout everything that happened, solved problems that occurred and even disappeared after the fight with Rick. But I had no idea that Kelly was strong enough to fight directly with a monster that is probably the floor boss. However, could she beat it? ¡°Chris give me the health pots.¡± ¡°Here.¡± Chris handed me the two without hesitation. I quickly opened one and drank it. Despite having 10 minutes to rest, my body was still feeling the strain from the battle. One potion just wasn¡¯t enough. I felt more of my strength returning and focused on the fight. ¡°Chris. If Kelly gets injured from the monster, go kill her right away. I¡¯ll deal with the Boss so don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°Can you fight the hobgoblin?¡± ¡°If I didn¡¯t have Demon¡¯s Edge, I wouldn¡¯t have been sure. But I do, I can fight him.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll believe in you.¡± ¡°Why that¡¯s a given. Always listen to your booster, man.¡± Just then, Kelly managed to injure the monster butgot knocked away by the shield the next moment and crashed into the wall. She quickly got up but the Boss was already up close and swung at her with its axe. She had no choice but to parry with her sword but I could see that her arm got bent the wrong way. She was bashed by the shield again and was thrown to the ground a couple meters away. ¡°Go!¡± I dashed towards the boss monster and stopped him from approaching Kelly. Chris reached Kelly but before he could kill her, she started attacking him. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me! This bitch is injured, I can take care of her even without my right arm.¡± Hearing Chris I smiled and no longer paid attention to the fight happening behind my back. I drew Demon¡¯s Edge from its scabbard and stared right at the Boss. The threat I felt from the Boss was even higher than when I fought against the goblin village. I didn''t doubt for a moment that the monster could single handedly destroy all the goblins.I could feel its killing intent on me as the monster roared. ''KEKOROOAR!" I smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s have some fun.¡± [Name: Ed] [Age: 15] [Species: Human] [Occupation: None] [Subclass: None] [Titles: Psychopath] [Traits: Barbaric, Bloodthirsty] [Strength:23 (13)] [Intelligence:12] [Agility:18 (13)] [Endurance: 17] [Physique:14] [Vitality:14] [Dexterity:17 (12)] [Perception:15] [Concentration:16] [Magic Power:25] [Charm:4] [Luck:11] [Skills (P): Beginner knife mastery: 1, Beginner sword mastery: 1,Two handed weapon mastery: 2, Pain resistance: 8, Magic resistance: 3, Clarity: 6, Basic magic mastery: 1] [Skills (A): Fireball, Killing intent] [Stat points: 0] [Skill points: 0] [Achievement points: 190] [Items: Bone necklace(F), Demon¡¯s Edge( C )] [Affinity: Fire ( C )] Chapter 10: First Enhancement BANG* I crashed into the wall and started coughing up blood. The Boss had a nasty grin on his face as if he liked his enemies being in pain. I didn¡¯t take him for a sadist. Fucking goblins. The monster was a really tough one to fight against. His strikes were powerful and he would block my own attacks with his shield. However that didn¡¯t mean I¡¯m an easy target either. I managed to poke some holes in his armor and make him wary of me. Otherwise he would have rushed at me the moment I crashed into the wall. ¡°System, how much time do I have left?¡± [18 minutes left] I don¡¯t have much time. Grabbing a knife from my pouch I started walking slowly to the Boss. I thought I could kill him with just Demon¡¯s Edge but he was a shit ton stronger than I thought he would be. The most troubling thing was that he had brains in his damn head. He wouldn¡¯t get cocky or relax his guard. I threw the knife at him and rushed in. The hobgoblin blocked the knife with his shield but it gave me enough time to get close. He swung his axe at me but I sidestepped to the left and thrusted my blade. The monster managed to dodge however I grazed his arm. In anger he struck out with his axe again. Grabbing a knife from my pouch I parried his strike with my blade. CLANG* My arm felt numb from the force. I don¡¯t understand how a goblin could have so much fucking strength. With my left hand I tried to stab his arm but he pushed my body away. Then he rushed at me with his shield. Not this time you bastard. I rolled to the side and threw the knife. Not expecting me to dodge, the hobgoblin wasn¡¯t able to block the knife. It sunk into his side where his armor was weak. ¡°KEKROAR!¡± ¡°Angry now aren¡¯t we.¡± I took another knife from my pouch. I filled my pouch with knives because I wasn¡¯t able to find anything else useful. Our fight continued on just like that. I would keep dodging and blocking while trying to stab him with my knives. After around 15 more trades the hobgoblin was covered in cuts and blood. The Boss stared but didn¡¯t charge at me. Instead he stood there and started roaring. He threw away his shield and his skin started turning from green to a light shade of red. Then I saw a blur in front of my eyes. I barely managed to raise my blade before getting knocked into the wall. ¡°Ugh.¡± My right arm was dislocated and many of the blood vessels popped. It was completely stained in red and the pain was intense. Was this supposed to be a monster that explorers on the third floor could beat? Don¡¯t give me this bullshit! The hobgoblin appeared in front of me and swung its axe. I tried to move but the strike was too fast. ¡°GAAAah!¡± My right arm was cut off. Again. Fucking. Again. ¡°FUCK!¡± The monster laughed and grabbed my severed arm. He started eating it. ¡°DIE!¡± I threw my knife. It didn¡¯t do much. He blocked it and chopped off my hand. ¡°KEKEKE!¡± Laughing while eating, parts of my flesh got spit onto my face. I was angry, really angry. Rage was burning inside of me even more when Dave beat the shit out of me. But what could I do? I had no right arm or a left hand. They were both being eaten by the fucking monster standing in front of me. Then I remembered. ¡°Hehe..hehe¡± My laughter brought silence to the hobgoblin. He looked at me with curious eyes as if wondering whether I went crazy. I slowly raised my left arm pointing at the head of the monster. Activating pain limiter and closing my eyes, I said one word. ¡°Fireball.¡± BOOM! I didn¡¯t feel any pain but I could feel the dryness of my skin due to being burnt. I could smell the burnt skin and could even see smoke rising from my body when opening my eyes. The hobgoblin was on the ground a couple meters away from me but he had no head. Dead. [Tremendous achievement! Single handedly killed the enhanced third floor boss monster ¡®Elite Hobgoblin Warrior¡¯! +100 achievement points] [You have passed a test given by the King of the Battlefield.] I didn¡¯t have any strength left to read the messages. Using fireball completely exhausted everything that I had in me. In addition the damage caused by the close impact made most of my body burnt. I wished I could drink a health potion but sadly I didn¡¯t have any hands¡­ After a while, pain limiter was unactivated and the pain came rushing in. My body started spasming due to the sudden pain and I was barely able to tolerate it due to pain resistance. At this point, the only one who could help me was Chris. Ugh, where was that bastard. ¡°System, how much time do I have left?¡± ¡°[7 minutes left] Fuck only 7 minutes. If he didn¡¯t come soon then I would really die. Or am I already dying? Ha luckily my bleeding managed to stop due to the fire cauterizing the wounds. ¡°Shit Ed. Are you ok?¡± ¡°Health pot in my pouch.¡± Chris came with injuries probably from Kelly. Judging from how long it took him, she must have been pretty strong. He opened the health potion and poured it down my mouth. Ahh. The effects from the health potion are really damn soothing when your whole body is fucked up. ¡°Chris, help me get up. We only have 7 minutes left.¡± ¡°Damn. I don¡¯t feel like touching you covered in burnt skin. What the hell even happened to you?¡± ¡°Fuck man. I¡¯ll tell you later. Now hurry up and help me up.¡± Chris put my remaining arm around his shoulders and got up. The burn started hurting even more when I moved but all I could do was ignore it as best as I could. ¡°Let¡¯s go, the door should be further ahead.¡±Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Kinda unfair how we don¡¯t get anything from killing monsters don¡¯t you think?¡± ¡°It is a shame. I almost died fighting this hobgoblin bastard.¡± I didn¡¯t tell him that the boss monster was enhanced because of the King of the Battlefield or whatever. I felt that it was something I should keep to myself. ¡°You killed Kelly right?¡± ¡°If I didn¡¯t I wouldn¡¯t be here.¡± ¡°How strong was she?¡± ¡°Very strong, of course not as strong as you. Even with some broken ribs and a dislocated right shoulder she still almost killed me. I probably would have died if I didn¡¯t get used to using my left hand at the village. I¡¯m sure she was the strongest out of all of us here before you killed Rick.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good. You must have gotten a decent power up.¡± ¡°I did...but why did you want to kill her? We could have worked together and you wouldn¡¯t have gotten this injured.¡± ¡°Because I can¡¯t trust her. She ditched us right away and tried to pass the floor after we risked our lives fighting. Besides, killing her made you a lot stronger. I don¡¯t want someone I can trust to die.¡± ¡°That makes me feel warm inside but..you trust me?¡± ¡°More or less. Otherwise you would have killed me by now.¡± ¡°Good point however don¡¯t forget I¡¯m straight.¡± ¡°Haha, bastard.¡± Soon we reached the door and the thing I feared the most didn¡¯t happen. There wasn¡¯t a limit to how many people could pass. ¡°We¡¯re finally here.¡± ¡°Ed, let¡¯s meet up at M*c D*n*lds after this.¡± ¡°Alright, after school.¡± Looking at each other, we passed through the door that would end the third floor. And like always, I passed out right away. [Third floor successfully passed!] [¡®Self-healing¡¯ gained due to performance evaluation] [+5 Vitality gained due to ¡®Self-healing¡¯] [Will now be sent to the resting room] ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ ¡°Sigh. I just want to go home.¡± I woke up expecting to see my room but instead everything I could see was white, pure white. Where even the fuck am I? ¡°Interesting guy. Usually people say ¡®Where am I?¡¯ not ¡®I want to go home.¡¯¡± ¡°Yea well if it makes you feel better, I said it in my mind.¡± I looked to the direction of the voice and saw a man in a suit with slicked back hair. He looked to be a caucasian man in his early thirties and was devilishly handsome. ¡°You don¡¯t seem to be in a good mood. Is it that time of the month again?¡± ¡°I just lost the arm I painstakingly recovered with a hand as a bonus. My body was completely burned and all I wanted was to wake up in my bed a couple hours before school to just relax...which brings me to the question, why am I not in my room and who are you?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be very happy to answer your questions. I am...¡± The man did a spin and bowed with his left hand out and his right arm on his stomach. ¡°I am the system. The one who gives announcements and the rpg like blue panels. You can call me Fred.¡± The system? Is the system supposed to be self-conscious and make period jokes? And what is up with that horrible naming sense? ¡°As for your second question, you are currently at the resting room which, as you can see, is this white space filled with nothing! You were sent here because you passed the testing stage which basically eliminates all the weak and useless humans who were sent to the dungeons. You will be sent here every time you clear a floor from now on. As a qualified explorer you can now have access to the shop and can buy what you like with points as currency. Your restricted abilities are also released when you¡¯re not in the dungeon but if you tell other humans who aren¡¯t explorers about the dungeons then..¡± The system or Fred looked at me with serious eyes and I could feel an intense amount of killing intent radiate from him. ¡°You. Will. Die. But other than that do whatever you want. Just try not to show too much of your abilities because it¡¯s troublesome to keep news under control.¡± My back was covered in sweat when the killing intent was on me. Scary. Fortunately the killing intent dissolved after saying what he had to say. ¡°Whew, ok. Hey can you like regenerate my arm, hand, and skin?¡± ¡°Glad you understand but can¡¯t do anything about your injuries. If you want to heal your body then you can buy stuff that can fully heal you at the shop.¡± ¡°The shop huh. You¡¯re making it seem like I can get anything from the shop.¡± ¡°Well not everything but most of the things you need should be in the shop. Just say ¡®Shop¡¯ if you want to access it.¡± ¡°Shop.¡± [Explorer Ed has accessed the shop] [Calculating¡­.] [Explorer Ed has gained 800 store points] [Items] [Skills] [Enhancements] [Information] [Current store points balance: 800] [Current achievement points balance: 190] ¡°Hey how did I get 800 store points and what¡¯s the difference between store and achievement points?¡± ¡°You get store points from killing monsters and achievement points can be used to buy the special stuff at the shop. You really are interesting. Usually people only start with around 100 due to clearing floors but you actually have 800 store and 190 achievement points. Some explorers don¡¯t even get achievement points until the fifth floor.¡± So you do get something from killing monsters. Hmm. I already have plenty of skills and Demon¡¯s edge should be enough for items. Maybe I can get a good knife but I need to heal my body. Let¡¯s go see the enhancements. ¡°Enhancements.¡± [Enhancements: Includes stat packages, bloodlines, genetic mutations, and technological innovations] I was completely mind blown from the sheer number of enhancements there were. Dragon bloodlines, vampire bloodlines, wolf mutation, cyborg augmentations, stat packages that gave a bunch of stat points, and a shit ton more. Some of these enhancements seemed too broken. [High Dragon¡¯s bloodline (S): Gives explorer the blood of a high class dragon. 80% chance of gaining dragon magic. Costs 5000 achievement points] [Stat Package (S): Raises all stats by 100. Costs 5000 achievement points] [Werewolf mutation (B): Raises physical stats by 30 and gives the explorer the ability to turn into a wolf. During beast form, intelligence and magic power decreases by 10 percent however all physical abilities rise by 20 percent. Costs 2000 store points points] However similarly the prices were tremendous. I doubt I would ever get the chance to buy any of those. ¡°Hey Fred, what kind of enhancements would heal my body?¡¯ ¡°Enhancements? Well other than stat packages any enhancements would heal your injuries since it¡¯s physically altering your body. Just find anything you can buy.¡± ¡°Then what kind of enhancement should I get that¡¯s the best for me?¡± ¡°That¡¯s for you to decide. I¡¯m only here to answer basic questions and inform you of rules and stuff. Unless you buy information I¡¯m not telling you anything else.¡± After searching for a while I found two enhancements that were affordable and had good effects. [Basic ghoul mutation ( C ): Gives increased regeneration and the ability to grow stronger the more flesh is consumed. Costs 150 achievement points] [Lowest demon mutation (D): Gives the power of a lowest ranked demon. Allows explorer to use demonic energy. Costs 600 storepoints.] Both were enhancements that would change my body. In choosing any one of these I was essentially forsaking my humanity. But in surviving in this dungeon, wasn¡¯t I already becoming something different? I¡¯m already killing people every night, I was already different from the rest of humanity. If I was going to change then there was no difference between changing now or later. ¡°I¡¯ve decided.¡± ¡°Ah finally! Took you so long. So, what did yo-¡± ¡°Give me basic ghoul mutation and lowest demon mutation.¡± ¡°What?¡± Since I was going to change, why not start big? ¡°Fuck man! If you choose two enhancements there¡¯s a chance of the mutations conflicting with each other!¡± Hm? WHAT?? Black gas surrounded my whole figure and I lost all control of myself. I could feel myself changing and at first it felt soothing but suddenly a searing pain appeared in every corner and inch of my body.¡± ¡°GRRAAHH! FUCK! YOU! FRED!¡± ¡°How the fuck was I supposed to know you would choose two? You didn¡¯t even ask! Just try to stay conscious for now. If you fall unconscious then you really will die.¡± ¡°UGHH! AHHHH!¡± It hurt. It was the first time it hurt this much. Even when getting beat up, mutilated, or burned it didn¡¯t hurt this much. I tried to stay awake. The fear of death kept me awake. But slowly, I started losing conscious. My mind was blank and Fred¡¯s voice just became low mumblings in the background. However no matter how much I struggled and resisted, my mind could no longer withstand the ever increasing pain. To die like this...really laughable¡­.. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.... ¡°What a shame. He was an interesting one too.¡± Fred said with a sigh. He really did like this human. Not only did he obtain a lot more points than the average explorer, his personality was unique and amusing to watch. Unfortunately, the human named Ed died in such a dumb and naive way. ¡°Well what can you do. Not my fault this happened.¡± ¡°It is your fault you dumbass.¡± Fred was just about leave and let the Erasers to their work when a sudden voice made him stop in his tracks. ¡°Ahh. It¡¯s you Mr. King.¡± Yes. The man who spoke was one of the Eight Highlords, the King of the Battlefield. Someone a C ranked system admin like Fred could never afford to offend. Just hearing his voice made Fred sweat buckets. ¡°You clearly knew that this human was someone I had my eyes on yet you let such an accident happen?¡± Mr. King spoke with anger. The whole whitespace started trembling and cracks formed everywhere. ¡°It..it wasn¡¯t my fa-¡± ¡°Shut up! It was your fault! Now you better fix this otherwise you will regret it.¡± ¡°But what am I supposed to do? His enhancements are already clashing against each other.¡± ¡°Use the orb of purity and raise his demon mutation to C ranked.¡± ¡°Orb of purity? But that co-¡± ¡°Shut up and just buy it and use it.¡± ¡°I..I understand. But why would this human make sir have so much interest in him?¡± ¡°You think someone of your level has the right to ask me questions?¡± ¡°I dare not. It¡¯s just that using so much resources to save a single human seems odd.¡± Mr. King stared at Fred and caused him to get goosebumps all over his body. It was true that someone of his level shouldn¡¯t ask questions however it was also true that it was weird for a Highlord to have so much interest on a beginner explorer. ¡°Hmph. Times are changing, you should know that. Fred was it? If you act with caution but also ambition, there¡¯s a chance of you reaching ranks you would have never thought possible. Remember this and think of it as a reward that I told you this much.¡± ¡°I thank sir.¡± Fred bowed as the King of the Battlefield disappeared. The resting space stabilized and the cracks disappeared. ¡°Sigh. What¡¯s the point of me knowing this anyways. I¡¯m still going to be losing 500 system points.¡± Fred said in a very depressed manner. For a C ranked admin like him, 500 system points were hard earned. Soon an orb emitting a calming sensation appeared in Fred¡¯s hand. All kinds of colors swirled inside the orb and anyone who saw it would be immediately attracted to it. However when Fred saw it killing intent radiated from every part of his body, especially from his mouth. Holding the orb in his hand, Fred threw it at the gas surrounding Ed¡¯s body. The moment it made contact, rainbow colors exploded and mixed with the black gas. Seeing this, Fred made a chair out of thin air and sat on it. With a frown on his face he glared at the now gray gas. If stares could kill, Fred would have probably killed tens of people. Time passed and the gas started dissipating until a body could be seen. The body wasn¡¯t completely naked but the hard sculpted abs were clearly visable. The face wasn¡¯t extremely handsome but could still be counted as an eight out of ten if scaled. Fred went to the body and kicked it, causing it to fly away until finally smashing onto a wall somewhere in the blank space. ¡°Fucker if you don¡¯t wake up from that then I¡¯m going to keep kicking you until you do.¡± Ed opened his eyes and started getting up. Shock could be seen on his face as he wondered how he was alive. ¡°I¡¯m alive?¡± ¡°Yes you are now get the fuck out of here.¡± ¡°Wha-¡± Before he could finish he fell unconscious again. When Ed finally disappeared, Fred was the only one left in the white space. ¡°My 500 system points...my 500 system points¡­.¡± With tears flowing down his eyes Fred sat on his self-made chair. He truly did look lonely in the desolate white space. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Empire of Alarista ¡°My lord, the 8 dungeons from the legends have reappeared.¡± ¡°So the time has come. Those old bastards are probably getting ready too. Send word to the princes to prepare.¡± ¡°What about the princess?¡± ¡°Sigh. Let her do as she please as long as it doesn¡¯t affect anything important.¡± ¡°As you wish, my lord.¡± In an elegant chamber stood a middle aged man. He had many wrinkles on his face due to worry and stress. Looking out the window to see the numerous stars in the black sky the man said in a tired voice. ¡°Will this world be able to survive the calamity ahead?¡±