I look sadly at the corridors, all too familiar. This is now the eighteenth time I have gone through them. I know all the traps; I know how to succeed in this dungeon.
Yet, each time I fall into this first ambush, I can't help but imagine myself setting up a grave there. My own grave. Like every other place where I died, I imagine an epitaph.
“Here lies Sung-Yong the regressor, after his first death.”
I remember it like it was yesterday, despite all the adventures that have happened to me since. The second time, I didn't manage to save everyone, but the first time I was the last survivor.
Even Park Kang-Dae, with his cheated “King of Thieves” skill and his level 20, was not enough. Surrounded by enemies, taken from behind, surprised by the insectoids emerging from the ground beneath their feet, the others had been massacred without being able to eliminate the slightest monster.
I myself only owed my salvation to my mediocre level. Hired as a porter in hopes of paying my debts and getting some participation XP, I wasn't even a real hunter. The System only recognizes this title from level 2 and it seems that even monsters know the difference between a threat and a simple snack.
Overwhelmed by enemies, Kang-Dae had been torn to pieces... No: I don't even want to remember that. Despite all the blood and suffering I have seen since; these images still haunt me...
To my surprise, the monsters hadn't killed me. Not immediately. Armed with a military knife, almost ineffective against the Zcarbb’s natural armor, I was nothing to them, except a small packet of 10 XP waiting for the harvest. Even if they had a skill to see my stats, they would only have seen my starting skill.
A priori, having an “A” rank skill should have propelled me into the highest ranks of the Hunters Association from the start… But some skills are quite mediocre on their own. “Infinite Critical” gives me a 50% chance of doing a critical hit again at the same time as another critical hit.
Of course, once I had obtained the skills and equipment increasing the probability of critical hits, I would have a good chance of systematically making at least double critical hits, and even a small chance of one-shooting any monster, with some luck. But with the current state of my stats, there was little chance that this skill would benefit me.
The monsters had moved aside to let their leader pass. An optional sub-boss named monster: Xicackna the Observer. At the time, I also had a magic item that allowed me to read the level of enemies. If it's useless to me now, I was then able to discover that she was level 6 while most of the guards were level 9... This probably made her the weakest optional boss I've ever heard of. It was obvious that the soldiers were looking to help her growth by giving her the opportunity to earn some XP without risk... At least that's what they thought.
I distinctly remember the terror and fascination I felt when faced with this creature. This was the first time anyone had observed a Zcarbb princess up close, with all the videos featuring them being taken from a distance and very blurry.
What struck me then was the very human appearance of the creature. Aside from her insect-like features, she looked like a young girl, maybe still a child. This contrasted radically with the appearance of the soldiers, more like ants or giant spiders.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
While other Zcarbbs, and even older princesses as I later learned, often walked with all their legs, the young princess was raised in a bipedal position, barely taller than a human child. Despite the thick chitin that covered her body, she wore clothing similar to a small dress, short enough to hide only half of her insect-like abdomen.
In her hands she held a crude knife given to her by one of the Zcarbbs soldiers. It was obvious, from her actions, that she would soon use it to take my life and collect the measly 10 XP given by the death of a level 1 person. However, I felt that she was also driven by curiosity and that she took advantage of this moment to observe a living human specimen, up close.
There was something strangely graceful about her facial features, a little disturbed by the small mandibles surrounding her mouth, six strange horizontal slits forming two columns on her forehead and two small antennae, but the thought crossed my mind that a talented designer would have no trouble to draw her as a cute character.
However, I had then emerged from the morass of my thoughts and, rather than despair and abandon myself to this cruel fate, I had decided to face it one last time, with more courage than I had manifested throughout my life.
With a quick gesture, accentuated by the absence of any hope, I planted my paltry knife in the middle of the creature's forehead.
Not agile enough to dodge even such a mediocre attack, she looked back at me in surprise. I didn't know then that I had hit a weak point of the monster, but several windows opened to announce a critical hit, then the success of a second, thanks to my skill, then a third and so on following. In my entire life, and even since, I have never had such luck.
Struck to death, the princess collapsed while the 60 XP from my victory finally brought me to level 2. I was going to gain an attribute point and a skill, but I knew I wouldn't even have the time to consult them before being torn apart by furious monsters.
I barely had time to examine the loot I had dropped from this rare monster: “The Stone of Regrets”. Without really reading the description, I activated it just as I was being... cut into pieces...
The memories of all my deaths should now be indifferent to me, but I cannot completely escape the trauma... I really hope not to have to suffer an eighteenth death...
I then woke up a few days earlier, in my bed. It was the day after I became an “Awakened One”. I came back from my test, desperate. Despite my A-rank skill, I had been classified as an F-rank hunter due to its uselessness and it was made clear to me that I would have little chance of progressing one day. Without any possibility of being recruited by a guild, or even as an adventure companion, I resolved to become a porter and signed the contract. A mediocre and probably short life awaited me, but I had to pay my debts, still weighed down by the multiple loans that had lined the pockets of the crooks promising to help me become Awakened.
My stats were exactly the same as the first time, with one tiny difference: the title “Regressor, Part Two” … Now it’s called “Regressor, Part Eighteen,” but its description hasn’t changed: “Grace at the stone of regrets, your death has sent you back to your past: what will you do with this unexpected chance? ".
The answer is simple: I correct my previous mistakes and determine the best course of action to save humanity from destruction. This time, I won't fail!
It seems that the stone of regret is now a part of me, allowing me to escape death every time. I never saw the optional boss Xicackna the Observer again. Does she still exist in this reality, or was she erased by dropping this stone? I will probably never know the answer to that question, but no matter how hard I tried, I never saw her again. Even on my fifteenth time, when I didn't try to stop the success of the ambush...
We arrive at the boss room. Come on, I need to concentrate: I need to do it right. I have to manage to take all the advantages of the last time without making the mistakes of the first two times...
Dungeon « Hive of Xolona » (subsection)
Dungeon boss
Princesse Xyry-Yria [Rank D]
Still so impressive... But with Kang-Dae, it will be a piece of cake. The whole point is to limit the deaths of others and gain really interesting loot...