Hyped by the previous find and still caressing it lovingly like a certain creature, I decided to enter the door on the left. The smell was really... potent, which served as a reminder to stay on guard. So I tightened the grip on my two daggers and put the hood on as well for no special reason whatsoever. I realized afterwards though, that if I stood closely by the walls, I could blend easily with the background due to its dark color and maybe slip away from sight, which was pretty fun in its own.
Unlike the previous corridor though, this one expanded only after about five minutes worth of really slow walking and careful gawking at my surroundings in order not to get jumped worse than it happened that one time in Bangkok, while the damned pathway didn't show any signs of stopping anytime soon. And then I realized that if this was a dungeon and these two were the only paths, then it meant that in order to go to a deeper level, one must pass through this corridor. That also implied that there will be monsters waiting for me straight ahead for sure.
Just like in the forest I watched where I placed each foot, careful not to raise any noise and thank to my upgraded version of the skill Stealth it was way easier than before.
Stealth (Level 5)
A passive skill that allows one to stay out of the opponent's range of perception through the minimization of one's own presence.
The movement becomes silent and swift allowing unhindered information gathering, or unholy assassinations.
Benefits: Silent steps and 175% increase in movement speed while in stealth.
During night time your presence is erased and can't be seen unless if you stand closer than 2.5 meters in front of your target.
Each level increase will unlock new perks and boost existing ones.
It was safe to assume that I knew how this skill scaled now: simply put, there was a 25% increase in movement speed while in stealth per level and the range that I can be seen at night decreases by 0.5 meters per level as well. That pretty much implies that at level 10, I can stand in front of the Goblin, wave at him goodbye with my daggers and won't get an actual response back. How's that for 'unholy assasination'?
When the space expanded suddenly, I glued myself to the right side of the wall and carefully walked alongside it until I was able to peek into the room.
It had probably around the same height as the safe room, but way longer and wider. Not only that but there were these huge stalactites growing downwards from the ceiling and uniting with stalagmites growing upwards from the floor, creating some really gothic style pillars. However, if one were to look from the entrance, it pretty much was just a stone maze.
I ventured in and kept looking on the floor, walls and the pseudo-walls created by the way too many 'pillars' around me, for traps or discolorations while I made note of each path. After a while, I turned around and walked again between the towering carrot-shaped rocks and returned to the corridor. I sat on the ground, took out the papyrus and drew what I saw in this room and the previous one, trying to get an idea of the space layout since it was hard organizing it inside my head. When I drew the current room, I realized that all the paths I walked, separated by the stalactites and stalagmites were leading to the same place. This happened naturally (or as natural as it can get inside a dungeon) and it wasn't intended to be a maze where people get lost and suddenly get gored by a freaking minotaur. It was more like reaching the clearing after walking inside a forest.
"A forest of rocks...how ironic..."
I stood up as soon as the ink dried, put it back in the item bag and again glued myself to the right wall while advancing through the far-most path on the right side. I noticed that the light in here was less when compared to the safe room and it only seemed to get dimmer by the second. Since it worked in my best interest I didn't really mind, however it felt strange and gave me a foreboding feeling.
After walking for about half an hour, I reached the end of the path and took a step back. In front of me there was an encampment similar to the Goblin village, surrounded by a poorly made fence, that looked more like pointy wooden sticks bonded together.
"Isn't this kind of an overkill? The first floor is a village filled with monsters? What's with the nightmare mode again?"
I mean, really now! Wasn't I supposed to level up by fighting stranded monsters, maybe two at a time if I felt cocky? This feels more like a soldier encampment that is filled with stronger things than those Goblins outside...
Soon, my stupid banter was confirmed to be actual truth, as a creature came forward dressed with rags that were supposed to be pants and a shabby leather chest armor. In his right hand, just like the Guard Goblin a spear made of the same materials.
However, this monster's appearance...
"At least now I know why the smell was familiar..."
Name
-
Name
Value
Name
Value
Job Name
Level
Progress
Race
Kobold
STR
12
Magic
0
Kobold Guard
1
50%
Sex
Male
DEX
10
Charm
5
Age
6 month
AGI
11
Luck
10
World
Anhur
END
9
HP
140/140 (+0.86/sec)
INT
7
MP
5/5(+0.001/sec)
WIS
4
Skill List Name Level Proficiency
Rally Cry ??? ???
Blessings bestowed by the world: Blessing of Experience
The skills remained almost the same, however this Kobold was quite a bit stronger than regular Goblins. Not only that, but seeing a dog-like creature walking on hind legs while carrying a spear in its hands felt... cute and disturbing at the same time. I might need to see a doctor, if psychiatric facilities exist in this world.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Also, that clarify the smell from earlier and the reason why I thought it was familiar...
"However, looking around there are no plants or animals. How do they live here? What do they eat and drink?"
I found it strange, however if it was a dungeon then clearly it would not abide by the rules of the normal world, or will it ever make sense. It wouldn't be weird if they don't require food or water in order to live here and instead they feed of the mana or something. I remember reading that in some fantasy novel and it might not be as far-fetched as I thought at that point. After all, these monsters do materialize out of thin air inside it, so it's safe to assume that they are created through mana condensation or something, just like those crystals. Therefore, living by ingesting mana doesn't sound that stupid...
I should try killing it since its weak, just to confirm the drop system.
I took some steps back while the Kobold advanced through the mini-rooms created by the rock pillars and decided to draw its attention in my direction. I took a copper coin out of my bag and threw it somewhere near. I stood behind a thick stalagmite and watched from the darkness as the Kobold perked its ears reflexively just like a dog and with the spear in its hands advanced carefully.
Since he doesn't have the Alarm skill I shouldn't be worried, however, maybe it has a keen sense of smell or hearing, or even keen reflexes since it's a dog...more or less...
I stopped thinking about it and as it passed by the stalagmite I was hiding after, I silently went around it to get behind the Kobold. When I reached that position, the daggers started glowing a blue light and in the same instant I stabbed both of them upwards in the back of the Kobold, aiming for his heart and lungs.
Fatal damage inflicted! -258HP!
Paralized status inflicted! Target is stunned for 6 seconds!
Fatal damage inflicted! -545HP!
Bleeding status inflicted! -65HP/sec
The target has been stunned for 4 seconds!
Your target died!
The creature fell to the ground as I withdrew my daggers and blood sprayed on me, while also flowing on the ground. I realized at that point that it might've been a bit of an overkill since it was only level 1, but is better to be safe than sorry. Now I also had a better view of this dog-thing. To describe it, it was about 1.70 in height with the head of a dog and hands of a ...well, something between a dog and a human I guess, since it was almost a regular hand with claws but also covered in fur. The weird part happened as I was looking at its fur, when both the blood and the body started glowing a white dim light, transformed in particles, after which it vanished in thin air... all except the one on my face which was still there...
I was puzzled but expected this to happen on some level, so I crouched and took back my copper coin from the ground. The even weirder thing happened after: on the ground where the body was just a second ago, there were now five copper coins sitting on top of a fur that looked like a...
Good wolf fur (Material)
Fur from a Kobold that has been imbued with mana in the dungeon for more than 6 months.
It can be processed into leather armor of good quality.
The longer the imbuing process, the better the quality of the material.
Estimated value: 5 Silver coins
"WOLF!? That's a wolf's fur? So it wasn't a dog????"
I let a stupid and surprised voice out and with it my discontent towards the description of the material. I quickly glanced around to see if I was heard by a different do...wolf?
"However...both materials and coins drops? Wouldn't that create problems for the economy of this world? Inflation and such? And five copper coins is pretty good since its worth three meals a day. Hmm?"
Then I started questioning myself in regards to what the Reaper meant when he said that he dungeon drops materials through which better armors and better weapons can be made. If that will truly be the case then, would the said creations have options as well? Like the ring for example?
I was a bit curious, so even if it felt both wrong for so many reasons and different from how it looked in a game, I picked up the fur and put it in my bag alongside with the coins.
I noticed then that the light was really dim, just like the sun was setting. I wondered if the crystals act in accordance to what's happening outside, as I peaked again towards the village. However, I soon wished I didn't...
I saw a group of three humans being put in a cage, barely outside of the village. When one of them tried to run, a low mocking growl could be heard as he was struck down with a wooden club on his back. Grabbed by the head and dragged inside the cage, the man looked still alive but in a lot of pain by the wails he didn't manage to keep in.
I took advantage of the situation and used Identify on the Kobold which struck the Scout down.
Name
-
Name
Value
Name
Value
Job Name
Level
Progress
Race
Kobold
STR
16
Magic
0
Kobold Soldier
5
90%
Sex
Male
DEX
17
Charm
10
Age
1 year
AGI
16
Luck
15
World
Anhur
END
10
HP
310/310 (+1.23/sec)
INT
9
MP
25/25(+0.05/sec)
WIS
5
Skill List Name Level Proficiency
War Cry ??? ???
Blessings bestowed by the world: Blessing of Experience
I wanted to retort on that useless increase in Charm stat, but they were flufier and probably I'd think of them as cute, if I didn't just saw one of them beat a human down and cage him. Again, ironic...
"I guess this answers my question regarding food. Probably those are the Scouts sent previously here. Two men and one woman. But three Kobolds guarding them, all three with a Soldier occupation. Not to mention that the one I identified first, is as old as the dungeon since Ron mentioned it appearing about a year ago. That would explain why it's almost at level 6..."
Leaving aside the fact that this might be the highest level monster I've seen in this world so far, there were quite the number of other things that didn't add up. Like the blessings for example. Why didn't they have the blessing granting them extra HP and MP like the humans? Was it because it was a dungeon? Or because those blessings were human accessible only? Too many variables to reach a conclusion...
Also, there's a new skill...
War Cry
For a period of five minutes doubles the Dexterity and Agility attributes.
Stackable.
Estimated mana cost: 5MP
"Bullshit! Stackable? Does that mean that they can double those stats five times by themselves? What the fuck I'm I supposed to do if it affects the others as well? That might be way to troublesome to deal with... However... I can't let the woman there. The men...well, shit happens happens! But the woman...what if THAT happens to her? Wait, was that with orcs?"
Either way, I guess I should find a way to break them out of there since they must be the last scouting party sent in. From what I heard at the Guard Station (after some really tough inquisition-style prying since those guys didn't want to talk about it) they were sent here roughly about a month ago, but the number should be bigger... Anyway, if I do manage to free and save them, not only will I get a more substantial reward, but I'll also get some information about these creatures. Given that these poor low level noobs were 'graciously' accepted as guests for such a long time, they might have some input to provide me with...
"But the question is, how do I kill the Soldiers? Is not like I can poison their food or water again and facing them directly might draw attention from the entire freaking Kobold village. Who the fuck knows what other stupidly strong monsters are in there... Haaah! Guess is 'gorilla' tactics time again."
I waited patiently for about another hour as darkness filled the entire space. The mana crystals shined a very shallow light, probably reflecting the moonlight outside. However the cover of darkness works perfectly in my advantage since I can see where they are, but they won't be able to do the same.
"Do all creatures in this world know how to set up campfires? I'm starting to feel inferior to them when is coming to camping skills..."
As another hour passed, I got slowly closer to them by crawling on my belly, reaching about ten meters away from the campfire. I took a copper coin out again and threw it on the ground, as far away from me as possible, but also away from the rock forest. If everything plays out right, they will send one of the soldiers to check and I can kill them one by one just like before...
However, to my surprise, after the sound drew their attention, two of them rose to their feet(paws?) and headed that way, only to soon dissipate into the darkness while searching for the source of the sound.
"Guess is easier to take care of the one left here then."
I got up from the ground slowly and pulled out a throwing knife from my waist while crouching. Relying on my Stealth skill, I got as close as possible in order not to miss my first knife throw ever, until I was about three meters away from the Kobold. He was looking in the direction the other two went with its ears perked and fully focused on it, so I threw the knife at his neck and sprinted towards it to finish it with my daggers.
Fatal damage inflicted! -428HP!
Silenced status inflicted! Target is unable to speak or chant spells for 6 seconds!
Your target died!
But it ended rather underwhelmingly by the time I got there, with its body already becoming fur and 10 pieces of copper as its corpse didn't even reach the ground. I probably hit a critical spot or the damage output of the throwing knives is higher than my dagger's, both cases working just fine for me. As I picked up the drops and placed them in my bag, I also grabbed the knife and placed it back in the belt on my waist, while confirming the position of the cage.
With eyes wide open, the three were looking at me, in a truly confused manner.
"Hi there! How about we get you out for some fresh air?"