DUNGEON DIVER: I become a Dark Knight in a world full of dungeons.
By Orangeowl
Vol 1 Chapter 1: where we were going there's no (Real) sun
The sun almost set on the horizon. The sky has turned dark blue mixed with beautiful purple, it was almost dark in the meadow, the green grass blades peacefully waving in the ground.
The wind caressed my face with cold air, my dark hair danced in the wind. My knife was chipped, and the blade was worn out, yet my spirit stood high.
"GYAHAAA!!"
My enemy let out a scream in an attempt to intimidate me.
Stand at 4 feet (1.22m) tall, the embodiment of hell itself, with its yellow teeth, green skin and big pointy ears, its eyes filled with cruelty, the dungeon monster holding a wooden club in its hand swinging it wildly.
Goblin, that is what it was called.
Inside the first floor of the dungeon, I faced one on one with a normal goblin, my body was tired and my soul was drained. But I can't back down, it's life and death matter, I have been hunting these goblins for a month, and now finally my last enemy, if I managed to defeat him, I would be able to save my life.
I would be able to pay my rent!
"Take this!"
Hardening my will, I strike the goblin from above its head, seeing my attack the goblin quickly jumps backward. But I had predicted its movement, following it with my knife, I went for the chest.
Realizing my intention, the goblin raised it's club in front of its chest to parry my attack.
"Stupid!"
Twisting my wrist, I targeted the neck.
"GHAAA!"
But the goblin had ducked, making me cut the goblin across the face instead, blood dripping into the ground.
"GYAAaaAuUU!!"
Holding his face in pain, the goblin has dropped its club to the ground. It's now my chance to finish it off! Kick the poor goblin in the abdomen, he falls into the ground, the goblin rolling around in pain, pinning the goblin with my feet, I stab it in the chest.
"AaAaaa......"
The goblin's body loses its life and turns into particles of light illuminating the dark meadow. Beautiful, I thought to myself.
What was left was a small red gem, pick it up into my hand, I looked and smiled.
"Woo-hoo! I don't have to live in the street this month too!"
This is great, indeed I have incredible luck!
"Ugh....." feeling a stinging sensation on my stomach, it seems I have taken some damage, I'm starving! I haven't eaten anything since this morning, now my tummy wants its fair share.
"Rustle...Rustle....."
This time it's not the sound of my stomach. Something moving in the grass, turn my eyes to the sky, the sun has set minutes ago.
Oh! shit!
Putting the gems into my pocket, I quickly move my feet toward the dungeon exit.
"rustle.....rustle...."
Something follows me from behind, turn my head, and what I saw was a small dog with black fur, furiously galloping toward me.
"Guk! Guk! Guk!!!"
No no no No!
The dog was one of the dungeon's monsters called Night Puppy. But don't be deceived by its cute name, the puppy can tear your flesh with its teeth. Even if it's not deadly, I can't afford to go to the hospital right now!! This situation is deadly for me!
"Guk! Guk!!"
Running through the dark meadow, I could see the exit not too far ahead. I could do it! Come on me! Lit up adventurer spirit, I'm running faster. The exit getting closer and closer.
"yes! I made it!"
I managed to reach the dungeon exit. Dungeon monsters couldn't get out of the dungeon unless in a specific condition, so the terrifying night puppy stopped following me, that was close.
"Pfft did that guy just run away from night puppy?"
"shhh! What if he heard us"
"who cares! What he can do anyway"
One guy and one girl adventurer with leather armor, and a sword on their hips made fun of me in front of the dungeon entrance.
This dungeon is called 'Canaria dungeon' located in the middle of the city, so it was a pretty popular dungeon, there are a lot of people in this dungeon entrance. Everyone must be seeing my fleeing run from the night puppy.
Turn my gaze toward them, but I can't mutter anything from my mouth.
"Oi he's looking toward us"
"Come on Let's get out of here"
"eehh isn't he just a loser"
Looking at the two adventurers, I can see they are just beginners, greenhorns with sparky eyes, didn't realize the horror of the dungeon, and soon enough they would regret making fun of me.
"let's hunt on the 3rd floor today too"
"all right then"
Tch! They are lucky to be able to get that far! But their pride going to be their downfall, unlike me, I don't have any pride, so I won't fall.
Put them in the back of my mind, I'm walking to the dungeon center right beside the entrance. The Canaria dungeon was located underground, it's a big hole connected with the dungeon below, and big concrete stairs were built to go down to the dungeon, On the surface a building was built like a terminal, and there are plenty of stores in this place, equipment store, expedition supply store, hotel, restaurant, and even supermarket.
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What I'm going for is a dungeon center. It's a big store where you can take a quest, sell your loot, and material as well dungeon dungeon-related information from around the world.
Going inside the big building, bustling with activities, there is a restaurant, a mini market, an equipment store, quest terminals and a receptionist side. Even with five receptionist in the copper rank session, there are a number of queues.
Choosing the least busy receptionist was a middle-aged man in his 30s.
"is there something I can help you with?"
"I would like to sell some monster cores!"
"Alright, load it up"
After a few minutes. I finally get into the receptionist, I immediately sell all my goblin cores, take a small poach from my bag, I pour the content into the metal tray that the receptionist has brought. There are 10 goblin cores in there.
"Ah! I almost forgot"
Took the last monster core from my pocket, I put it with the rest of them.
"Okay, please wait a minute"
The receptionist poured the monster core inside a machine, this machine called ACAM (Automated core analysis machine), the thing able to calculate the quality of the monster cores and their current price, monster core was a necessity material for electronics manufacturing like smartphones and computers, but it most important use were to produce electricity, so there will always be a demand for them.
"We would like to buy your monster core with a 120 credit price"
"yes!"
It's my lucky day! Usually, goblin core is priced at 10 credits per core, so this is a very good price, I would hunt more today If I knew they were at a good price.
"Thank you for your sale"
Seeing the credits in my phone, I leave the Dungeon Center, with this I would be able to pay for this month's rent and have 20 credits left, originally I planned to buy a piece of bread from the Dungeon Center mini market, but since I have 10 more credits, it's enough to buy the cheapest bowl of ramen from my favorite place.
Getting into the elevator, I'm going to the 3rd floor. In this dungeon facility, they also provide an apartment for the adventurers. Arrive at my Apartment I insert the key, and open the door there is a small bed on the floor, a plastic wardrobe, a small gas stove laid on the ground and a toilet. This is my room. There is a better, even luxury apartment in this place, but this is the one I could afford.
However, the reason I'm here is to take my towel and bath utensils. Immediately going back down to the ground floor, people looked at me like I was stupid.
Inside the dungeon center, there is a special bathroom area for the adventurers who want to take a shower after their exploration. Sneaking inside, I slide my copper rank adventurer card into the door.
Hehehehe.....this month alone, I managed to cut my water bill in half by doing this almost every day, the dungeon center employees find it weird at first, but after a week they stop questioning me.
Opening the shower, my body and soul feel refreshed. Opening my status, it looks like this.
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STATUS
Name: Ren Sarain
Age: 21
Class: Locked
Level: 7
Hp: 24/24
Mp: 0/0
Strength: 21
Speed:10
Intelligence: 8
Agility:10
Defense:19
Exp gained to level 8 : 94%
Status Point: 0
Skill: Slash Lv2, Knife Art Lv2, unbreakable mentality Lv4, Retreat Lv6.
Title: Goblin slayer, Slime slayer, Professional Chicken, The one with iron spirit, Dungeon junkies, Coward.
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Seeing my status, my level almost reaches Level 8, I have to work harder, than I could say goodbye to these lives. Once again cheering myself, I start singing inside the shower. Someday I would be a great adventurer.....
Outside, the sun started to set on the horizon, the sky had turned orange mixed with dark blue, cars crawling through traffic, their lights decorating the afternoon city.
The dungeon has a different day and night cycle from the outside world, which makes my head confused a little. Pedaling my way through the busy street with my bicycle, I'm enjoying the beautiful afternoon.
Arriving in the store with a red giant electric sign called 'Dragon ramen noodles' I immediately went inside the store.
"~tring~tring~"
"One basic Dragon noodle and ice water please!"
"Right away!"
Sitting in one of the chairs in front of the long table, the smell of ramen filling the store makes my hunger rage inside my stomach.
"Here your water!"
"Thank you"
Trying to distract my mind from my stomach, I turn my gaze toward the street outside, from behind the glass, I can see the cars have stopped in traffic. I took a sip from my glass.
"Buhh?!....."
I accidentally spewed my drink in shock. On the street, I saw a girl with beautiful golden hair riding a motorcycle, and in front was a man. I knew her well, her name was Reika. She was my classmate in high school, She and I was a good friend.
She was my crush...
seeing the man in the front, I could see he was a handsome man, with a tall stature, his muscle toned from his shirt. She hugged him tightly with a smile on her face, she's saying something to him, I see......he must be her boyfriend.
"This is your ramen! Please enjoy!"
"......."
Suddenly, I didn't feel really hungry.
I remember the day I became an adventurer 3 years ago. I grew up in an orphanage even until I entered high school, I was always poor, and I didn't have much friend but a few. Reika was one of them, she was a popular girl, not just because she was pretty, but also because she was a very kind person.
I tried to become an adventurer because I thought I could earn money quickly.
"I believe you would be a great adventurer Ren!"
I still remember her words to me. I keep it in my heart to encourage myself. I believe I have a jackpot on me.
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STATUS
Name: Rent Sarain
Age: 21
Class: Locked
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There is a very rare condition called, status locked, the reason for this phenomenon was unknown. In this world you can see your status when you enter any dungeon for the first time, the government has made entering a dungeon mandatory, so everyone in the world has entered a dungeon at least once in their lives.
The day I enter the dungeon, I have my class locked, usually when someone's class is locked, that could be a blessing or a curse. In order to unlock the class, it needs very specific requirements. Whether a special kind of training, item, or an achievement, the owner of this class couldn't have known.
However, if you manage to unlock your class, it is almost guaranteed to be a unique class. Whether it's good or not is a different matter entirely.
When the dungeon's guild knew this, they took a great interest in me. They're trying everything to unlock my class. One interesting point is my inability to level up in a normal time set, I require an enormous amount of experience to level up compared to other people.
When my friends had leveled up to 10, I was still on level 1, when they reached level 20, I barely leveled to 2. So they theorize I need to reach a certain level to unlock my class. The more you level up the more exp it needs, after that, the dungeon guild got me in a high-level party and brought me into the 10th floor of Canaria dungeon.
But no matter how many monsters the party killed, I couldn't get even a bit of exp. Usually, when you are registered in a party, you can get a little bit of the experience even if you didn't do anything. But I wouldn't get any exp unless I did it myself. At this point the dungeon guild hasn't given up on me, they sponsored my equipment and money to get going leveled up in the dungeons.
After 2 years of hard work, I finally reached level 6. However in the end they told me they couldn't help me anymore, they said it was not worth it. No one knew how many levels I needed before I unlocked my class, they didn't even know if the theory was right. And most importantly, if my class actually worth the investment. Even among the unique class, there is a class that is weaker than the common class.
They left me alone, after 2 years of hard work, days and nights, sweats and blood I have poured, it doesn't matter for them, they left me behind, everyone left me, many of my friends have normal jobs, and others managed to become a successful adventurer.
But me? I have nothing, I can't find a normal job, I can't level up, I can't even feed myself, everyone laughed at me. But....I refused to let go of what I had left, I'm going to be an adventurer.
And one day I would be the strongest, I never dreamed of being the strongest at the start. yet my hatred for being weak is uncontainable.
"I'm going to be the strongest!"
"Oh! That's the spirit! Although your basic noodle going to get cold"
"wait no!"
Shoving the food into my mouth, it doesn't matter what other says, I know what I have to do.
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Prologue end