Day 22
The night took over the day, and Green knew he would once again be summoned into the dark dungeon.
He meticulously checked to verify if the doors and windows were shut close and finally reclined himself on the bed.
Closing his eyes, Green drew in a deep breath, reopened his eyes, and much like the nights beforehand, found himself once more in the shadowy tunnels.
Green disregarded the warm plumes of his breath, and he tightened his grip on his short sword. The tunnels were always cold and dreadful; thankfully, he came prepared with some warm clothes and a pair of gloves.
Throughout the next six hours, he would have to struggle within the dungeon, confronting the merciless monsters that dwelt within.
The only illumination in the accursed dungeon emanated from the blue moss crawling and veiling the shadowy walls.
The blue light offered visibility for just a few meters around, forcing him to peer into the chilling darkness ahead. Green felt like he was staring at an abyss.
Maybe the abyss was staring back, who knows?
That's why he was compelled to trudge carefully within the confines of these four walls. At any given moment, an inexplicable monster could very well emerge from the darkness and strike him down without any warning.
Fortunately, the majority of monsters didn't aimlessly roam the tunnel corridors, although the occasional presence of dungeon creatures stumbling through the passageways was not uncommon.
However, such creatures were mostly high-level monsters that did not move in groups.
Such as in the case that he had found himself at the present.
《 Level 10 Troll 》
Green regulated his breathing and pretended to be one with the large rocky formation he hid behind to conceal himself. He only wished to quickly meld into it. His eyes tracked the massive figure of the troll until it vanished into the darkness.
Even then, he remained motionless for another minute before exhaling loudly, gripped by a subsiding sense of fear.
He patted his bottom and stood up.
Although such an encounter was rare, it was not unique, and Green had crossed paths with a variety of high-level creatures over the past many nights.
Orcs, barbarian, wolves, goblins, bats, and even skeletons.
Green did not want to mess with any of them. Recalling the perilous encounter with the giant rats, he was convinced that confronting them at this stage would lead to a swift and certain death.
______
The majority of monsters lurked within cavernous spaces branching off the main tunnel system.
Green referred to them as rooms; these 'rooms' were sometimes empty, but when occupied had on average three to ten creatures.
The 'rooms' had a higher roof and a wider space than the main tunnels but were not much different on other aspects.
Green ignored the rooms filled with giant rats and another occupied by dark bats; finally, he located his target after an extensive search.
Level 1 Spiders.
They were his prey.
The sole creatures Green was sure of facing without fear of death.
Despite the lower experience points awarded by vanquishing the lowly level 1 spider, compared to giant rats, Green found dealing with them more comfortable.
Plus, he was confident in his ability to retreat safely if they proved to be troublesome.
Green scooped up another stone from the ground; he crept up to the cave mouth cautiously.
Peering inside, he counted nine repulsive level 1 spiders; a number close to the maximum number of ten he had observed in a different room only once.
Of course, this wasn't a video game; there was no respawn, as far as he knew.
He couldn't recklessly charge in; kicking and slashing. Despite the spiders being only level 1 monsters. If they all attacked simultaneously and surrounded him, they would undoubtedly inflict some damage, and he wasn't certain if he could survive that.
He was not ready to test theory with his life.
Man, a being of intellect, was not like other beasts; he could employ his mind to devise simpler and lazier ways to achieve his goals.
The stone luring, godly tactic, although simple in nature, had managed to wonderfully prove effective in handling low-level creatures.
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The challenge was to maintain a steady shot and target only one spider at a time. Startling the others would indicate the godly plan had failed miserably.
Thankfully, the technique that he had employed and perfected for many nights did not disappoint.
Just as he had expected, he was able to comfortably draw out the spiders one by one.
《Encountered Level 1 Spider
Fight: 4 stamina
Damage dealt: 26 | Damage received: 0
Reward: 5 XP, 2 Gold》
《Encountered Level 1 Spider
Fight: 4 stamina
Damage dealt: 30 | Damage received: 0
Reward: 5 XP, 1 Gold》
《Encountered Level 1 Spider
Fight: 4 stamina
Damage dealt: 28 | Damage received: 0
Reward: 5 XP, 1 Gold》
Nevertheless, even the simple-minded spider monsters grew agitated and screeched loudly once he had dispatched five of their arachnid comrades.
When Green tried to lure out another spider, all the remaining arachnids were stirred and charged out of the cave.
Green was startled, his mind in a moment of panic, he managed to somehow keep his composure, and his eyes darted about frantically searching for a retreat route.
However, the spiders appeared to anticipate his moves and blocked off all escape routes.
He gripped tightly the sword at hand and braced himself to confront them.
The dog-sized Level one spiders appeared to be familiar with crowd tactics and rushed up all at once, leaving him no room to think of a plan.
Green sighed sadly as he had imagined the spiders to be creatures of higher moral integrity.
[Why not come up one by one instead? Is that not the way of the gentleman?]
Of course, Green did not have time to think of such distracting thoughts.
Squatting to lower his center of gravity, he swiftly turned towards the nearest spider and slashed out with his sword before immediately retreating.
The injured spider screeched in pain and backed away in fear.
Another spider to his left lunged forward, clawing at his previous location. Without giving it a chance to recuperate, he swung his sword again, severing multiple legs in the process.
Seizing the opportunity, another spider pounced, and this time he could not evade as its claws sank into his thighs.
Green was unfazed by the vicious attack; he stabbed the spider several times in the face, and it slid off him lifeless.
The lowly spider monster hadn't even managed breaching his level 2 defense and met its demise in such a futile manner, contributing its life to fill up his experience points.
Green's body was no longer normal; it had been digitized to some degree and appeared to follow the same law that governed the game like dungeons.
The remaining low-level spider had already incurred heavy damage after a round of battle, and Green managed to make quick work of them in the end.
《Encountered Level 1 Spider
Fight: 4 stamina
Damage dealt: 28 | Damage received: 0
Reward: 5 XP》
《Encountered Level 1 Spider
Fight: 4 stamina
Damage dealt: 26 | Damage received: 1
Reward: 5 XP, 2 Gold》
...
《Encountered Level 1 Spider
Fight: 4 stamina
Damage dealt: 30 | Damage received: 0
Reward: 5 XP》
At the end of the battle, Green was breathing heavily. He meticulously checked the spider cave for enemies and finally dragged his body inside to rest.
Green leaned against the wall and accessed his status panel.
Name: Green
Class: Warrior
Level: 2
HP: 64/65
Stamina: 116/150
Attack: 15
Defense: 25
Gold: 29
Battle Log
Gazing at the slightly diminished HP bar, he sighed sadly. Even the low-level spiders could inflict damage when their numbers were sufficient.
This is why he had been avoiding higher-level monsters all along. The only way he knew to replenish his HP was with a level-up reward.
Although he did not know what would happen if the HP ever sank to 0, Green was not brave enough to blindly ignore the gruesome outcome that may lie in wait at the end of such a foolhardy exploration.
Thankfully, the stamina bar was not the same. He would only need to rest for some time before it could recover to its previous state.
Surveying the spider cave, he found nothing out of the ordinary, except for a pile of pale grey bones against the wall. Under the blue moss light, he observed that the bones were relatively small.
Possibly belonging to another creature within the tunnels.
[What monster could it be?]
Green was unable to answer the question but he gleaned insights from the pile of bones.
A glimpse into the extensive ecosystem thriving in the tunnels, a complex and weird web of prey and predators.
The system was another mystery that he had always put off.
He did not even know how to begin dissecting such a thing anyway.
The warrior class he now possessed was picked from the three options given to him when he first entered the tunnels.
The remaining two classes were [mage] and [archer]. The archer was balanced in defense and attack, while the mage class boasted high attack but lacked in defense.
Although he says picked, it was not done by him. The system assigned him the warrior class for some unknown reason.
Green always wondered how he would fare as a mage or an archer.
Truthfully, however, even though he might have enjoyed killing off enemies from a safe distance as a mage or archer class, the low defense of both classes could have seen him killed by a spider monster in the early days.
Maybe that's why the system picked the [Warrior] class.
Green turned from the thoughts of 'what could have been' and changed to another aspect of the system.
The stamina bar.
After numerous battles, he roughly estimated the stamina regeneration. Resting to regain one stamina point took approximately 30 seconds, while moving around the time extended to a minute for the same recovery.
With a 150 stamina points and a full tank, he could engage in combat with more than 30 monsters consecutively.
Such a thing would be foolish to begin with, though. The consequence of 0 stamina was unknown; would he simply freeze on the spot?
[The monsters would be quite delighted, right?]
Who did not wish for an immobile stupid enemy to serve themselves on a silver platter.
That's why he waited for the stamina bar to fill up before continuing on his quest to level up.
Green clutched the short sword and stood up.
There was a lot of work to be done if he wanted to reach the next level.
Indeed, he had been doing the calculations, more so than he did back in school and found out how much experience it took him to reach level 2.
After crunching the numbers, looking at the Battle Log, he grabbed his super computer to calculate the enormous figures.
Each spider giving 5 experience and the two giant rats with 7 XP each. He had destroyed, 18 level 1 spiders and 2 Giant rats for a grand total of 104 XP.
Probably, it took a 100 XP points to level up and the third level may require twice that amount.
Although he seemed to have easily defeated 9 level 1 spiders, he was a long way to go for the second level.
And only by reaching the next level could he manage to avenge his horrendous defeat at the hands of those villainous rats.
Green cautiously peeked out of the cave; the tunnels were the same dark and depressing ones but there was no monster prowling around, no echoes in the darkness, and the bodies of the slain spiders had long been consumed by the dungeon.
Green squinted his eyes, and under the blue moss light, he went deeper down the tunnels with careful steps.