My gaze wandered through the information the crystal was showing me. Unlike the last time where I felt a connection to the words and what they represented, this time, I was drawing a blank.

This time, the words being displayed were simply words to me.

There were many changes in the display when compared to the last time I viewed it. An entire section was greyed out, my corrupted was stated to be past the limit of something? And in the affinity which there should be only two, an entirely new one was displayed in the marking of red.

The amount of red symbols and warnings were honestly concerning. But after a minute or two of deliberation, I summated that all the actions I did had been for my survival. And I was and still am not in a place where I could afford to do something which served something other than my survival.

I stared at the numbers, specifically the number which denoted my kills in the dungeon.

PROVISIONAL QUESTS [DUNGEON] KILL 100 DUNGEON CREATURES 43/100 ASSEMBLE THE COMPLETE KEY - CLEAR THE DUNGEON IN 64 DAYS - SLAY THE 1ST LEVEL KEEPER 0/1

43 huh? I always wondered what completing a quest might do. And this one seemed to be in the realms of doable to me right now. Hopefully, it doesn’t fuck me over by pinging my location in the pretense of helping me or as a reward.

I lowered my gaze to the quest which was highlighted. From the context it was obvious that the level keeper was the faceless creature, don’t know why it specifically though.

Being reminded of the creature, I checked for it again in my brain. It appeared to be still sleeping in the cave, not moving from the place since its entry after the chase. Which made me all the more concerned. Was it biding its time? Resting? Saving its energy?

The possibility that it could always not bother for the land to dry up and hunt me put me on edge. My hands left the icy cool surface and hurried back to my location, the territory which I’ve painfully carved out of this forest. I picked up the blue stone that I had collected among many things and placed it inside my pouch that I made from animal skin.

The materials found here always seemed to reject my aura unlike back outside, and from a lot of trials and testing, this rock was somehow the best catalyst for my aura. Absorbing it like a sponge. It also somehow gave a vague feeling the crystal gave off as well.

Putting the pouch over my shoulders, I skipped through the branches as I combed through the place, finding, surprisingly no creatures at all. Did the word finally get around or something?

I surveyed the area more thoroughly, going through every part until my eyes finally laid upon an unsuspecting one that still hadn’t gotten the message.

I blasted myself off the branch, making a bee-line towards the possum like creature that had its head turned towards the wrong place.

Double Output*

And with twice the vitality, smashed its body into the hard wood, producing a red paste of flesh and bones on it. I grabbed the animal that looked like roadkill and placed it on my hook made from the teeth of an eel and vines.

I looked around myself. Finding none other than this lone creature.

Guess they really did learn not to cross this place.

With being still in more or less my ideal state, I decided to go to the next phase of my preparation. Traps and barricades. And for that, I was currently sitting on a branch which ended with a pointy end with a raised hand above it, as if I was about the cut the branch in two with my chop, which was exactly what I was about to do.

I focused on the aura in my arms, tugging it towards the other end. The aura responded with a brilliant light that illuminated my arm in a white glow. My hand made the chopping motion, not wasting a single moment, and passed through the branch like it didn’t even exist.

I looked at the branch, which had a pitch-black void where my hands passed through, waiting for it to fall.

….. any second now…….,

Any….. second….

Eh? Why isn’t it falling? I kept staring at the black line of void that seemed to have severed everything — no, nulled everything in its path.

I extended my hands to the black line, expecting my hand to pass through it, as I clearly destroyed it, only for it to touch the familiar bark.

Huh? My hands caressed, flicked, and punched the bark. It showed the same consistency and hardness as before. The only difference was that it was now covered in pitch-black color enough to mistake it as a hole.

Are you serious? Then what is my power for? I thought it was supposed to destroy everything it passed through.

I smashed my hands towards the dark lined bark with a vitality empowered punch. Yep. Hand hurts like hell. No difference in durability. I judged as I stroked my fist.

Did I misunderstand my power? Was it actually only meant to pass through things? Meant to be used on my whole body to pass through walls or something?

I sighed. If so, then I pulled a really terrible card to pull on a game as important as this. Or maybe, there will be another effect if I pass through it again? I thought optimistically.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

My hands glowed in a brilliant light as I made the same chopping motion? Yep. No change. Still the same. I sighed again, more disappointed than before, and went back to the first tree. Put the crushed possum under the leaves and waited for my essence to recover so that I can go out and dump my dissatisfaction.

I sighed again...

With the fact that there was seemingly no nighttime in this place, it was difficult to know exactly how long I’ve been doing this, but with the exception of resting to recover my essence which took about two to three hours, I continued to spend my time hunting animals and extending the range of my territory.

In some runs, I would go in a certain direction until I met anything that stopped me. In other runs, I would slowly increase the radius of my property, carefully destroying everything that lived there.

With the absence of night time or a proper schedule, my life slowly started to blur. Revolving around the times that I went out to hunt being the primary focus of the day. The only indicator that life is passing for me. Moving for me.

I go out, kill something, maybe return without encountering a single animal which was not uncommon as other than the ones who lives in a pack, the rest were those who lived in solitude and camouflage. Or return after having to fight for my life, being caught in an unexpected situation.

I sleep for a few short hours, which was always is interrupted by me being awakened by a breeze or a chime of a bird. Place something in my mouth and swallow it forcefully down. Go out and kill something.

Although this lifestyle is one that should have killed my mind long ago, as my mind slowly fell into a pattern made from sleep terrors and killing other creatures, I slowly started regaining peace as well.

This lifestyle, although a horrible one, was stable, and was a routine that I could follow.

It was on one such hunt where I randomly picked a direction and moved out when this particular incident occurred. As I was jumping above the trees, my face was suddenly caught by a thin strand of some kind which quickly broke as soon as it touched me. I quickly kicked off the tree in front of me and jumped backward.

I pulled out a thin strand of thread stuck to my face.

Web?

My eyes quickly trained around my surroundings, searching for the familiar creature. There — a few spiders with tails like a scorpion were frolicking a distance away from me.

I moved in swiftly and silently, trying to catch them off-guard. The number of webs that covered the trees slowly increased as I went closer. Until when I finally reached the place, the trees were covered in such thick webs that this place could not be misunderstood as something other than their nest.

I observed the place around me as I hid behind a trunk. There were a few dozens of spiders that were making themselves busy, moving around constantly and always in the middle of doing something, almost like worker ants.

I considered their numbers. It’s certainly doable. They were one of the creatures that attacked me as soon as I reached here, so I wanted to give something back before I left.

But more importantly, killing them was definitely going to complete my quest to kill 100 monsters. The numbers were almost the same as before, so my only concern was that I was going to fight in their home ground. But if I failed to kill these little bugs here, then I was most certainly going to die in the upcoming fight.

I steeled my resolve and jumped forward. For the coin toss to start this fight, I threw one of the 7 spikes of bones that I sharpened to one of the creatures, piercing it and killing the bug instantly.

The bugs all paused from their work for a second, then with the familiar rattle they made from their mouth or tail, rushed towards my location.

I crushed the head of the first two that attacked me in quick succession and jumped back to prevent being swarmed. Some of them quickly went in both directions and away from my sight, while the others continued charging straight towards me.

With reinforced claws, I cut through the webs that they threw and cut through the spiders that were behind it as well. The spiders that tried to flank me from behind spewed webs that were too wide for me to dodge.

But I ignored it as I focused more on wiping out all the ones in front of me. Their numbers were limited anyway. A bug that I managed to miss dropped on my head and bit into my neck. With a small cry of pain, I grabbed its head and crushed it under my palms.

I turn around instantly to deal with the remaining few in front of me, to see that their numbers have increased. My eyes briefly saw spiders being constantly spewed out of holes from the trees in their nest.

I jumped to the sides, targeting the ones who were shooting webs at me all this time. They quickly tried to scurry back, but their short 8 legs failed to outrun my two. With a wide jump, I stomped the one and swiped the head off another. With another swipe and punch, the right side was annihilated of any giant spiders.

I turn my head around to see hundreds of spiders coming towards me. My legs buckled briefly from the shock, but I stood firm.

I expected a dozen or two, but this much? I glanced at my back. And of course, they have properly set up their web walls as well. Walls which I could easily shred through and escape. But the thought kept returning to me. ‘How would I kill the faceless creature if I can’t kill a hundred bugs?’

The oncoming horde split into 3, going to my right and left. I focused on my right side and ran towards the split force. Whether there were 10 or 20, they were still brittle creatures that died from a single swipe.

I punched through the first one, swiped the second one, stabbed the third with my reinforced claws, and stomped the next one. But no matter how quickly I punched, kicked, or kill them, there were always more of them than the number of punches I could throw. All the while, some other group of spiders kept spewing webs at me from a higher branch to my annoyance.

One bit me on my legs, another bit me on my face, and another 10 more bit me on other parts of my body. And just after I endured and finished the right side, I found myself surrounded by even more numbers from all directions. And before I notice it, I was also covered in sticky webs that restricted my whole body. Appearing almost like a cocoon.

I looked around me to see that I couldn’t even see a branch or tree that was not covered in spiders.

I might have.... over-estimated myself.

Double Output*

Time slowed as hundreds of spiders swarmed in on me. My hands grew to be a blur as they flowed like a whip rather than a punch, killing them, smashing their head, shredding their body almost like a grass cutter.

Still, there were simply too many for only my hands to manage. Many of them were on top of my body, on top of my hands, on top of my face as they mercilessly attacked me. But almost like my skin was made of leather, their fangs or spike-ended tails failed to penetrate too deep into my skin.

They still rushed in towards me, towards the whirlwind of death, even as their numbers quickly whittled down in this mindless attack. Their desperation brought forward a memory of when I attacked the nest of another particular creature.

I don't know how long or how many times I released my punches through the air. My hands had long gone past the point where they felt like they would die from blood loss, but I grit my teeth and continued on throwing.

My mind falling into another rhythm.

Before I knew it, my hands had taken the last of the spider and I was covered in webs, spider goo, cuts, slashes, and countless bite marks with not a space to spare on my body.

I looked around me and saw a few of the spiders hiding out behind the trees and web. I turned around and left unceremoniously.

My view was greatly distorted, and my head felt heavy. As I jumped above the trees, I felt one or two times where I almost slipped and fell. Even if the poison were paralytic, there was a good chance I was going to die from this much amount.

I moved my upper body back, dodging the dive attack, and smashed my fist towards the bird. This dive attack was getting old now.

The bird’s chums which were something like a vulture in this world, attacking the weak and injured prey like it always does, surveyed in the air as it considered me, on whether I was weak enough or not.

I grabbed one of the spiked bones and threw it at the second one while empowered, skewering the creature mid-air. This hastened their analytics and made them back off.

I moved swiftly but carefully towards my territory, not wanting another fight right now. And thankfully this time was not interrupted by anything other than my own curiosity.

I was currently standing on top of a branch that I noticed on my way. The same branch that I tried to cut using ‘light’.

The part of the branch which comes after the pitch-black line that I made on the branch has dried and shriveled up.

Not only phasing, huh.