L entered the cave. He had dropped the creature’s corpse and the fur a ways off towards the village and had only brought with him his sword and bow.

His appearance was somewhat odd, considering he was only armored in his handmade shorts, but that minor detail certainly did not lower how mighty and powerful he looked-- L quietly hoped.

As he moved inside he stuck to the far edges of the rough wall in the darkest points and moved inwards towards the cave. After a while, the small crevice would expand into a relatively wide 20 meters from wall to wall, and after a further while, will become more so when a cascading waterfall would appear around a corner that ran down from the top of the mountain. It would create the flowing pound L would come to terms with and the cave would expand by another 10 meters. Glowing vines and colorful fish inhabited all around it, which was probably why the monsters settled down here, L guessed, though why they were this close to civilization, L wasn’t sure. Though this village is relatively new, it does not explain why monsters would resettle after into the surrounding area after being driven out a couple years ago.

It took many turns and curves until L spotted the first mob of enemies. He heard them before seeing them as the cave echoed heavier boots stomping against the stone ground, their grunts and growls following soon after.

A Bugbear and three Purple Freaks followed. While the Bugbear wore poor and broken armor, his brawny figure combined with a sword strapped to the side and a bow to the back showed that his rank was quite high, probably in the late 30s. Fortunately for L, ranks did not dictate victory as much as it did in other systems, especially this early on in the game, as they were a combination of stats and how deadly the creature is, as a more intelligent monster will no doubt make better use of his raw powers. A sword through the throat is just as killing regardless of the rank, which was always lovely when it came to fighting monsters and players you generally shouldn't be fighting, something that L had yet to learn.

In addition, L’s stats were also well above average from the combination of his superb scaling and racial bonuses which meant that a sword fight with a Bugbear could be won. His sword fighting proficiency from previous games will also jump up at some point, though the combination of the Bugbear's minions removed the possibility of a happy ending.

For these set of purple creatures, whom out of convenience L began referring to as Shriveled Freaks, were as the name implied-- shriveled. In almost complete opposite to what L assumed was their early forms, which was of tightly woven skin and thin limbs, these were slightly thicker and had an overabundance of skin. They were the older veterans. It seemed like they were the strongest of the two as they were better equipped and armored, which proposed to L a high intelligence factor. One carried what looked like a clean Xiphos, a greek short sword, and the other a shepherd's sling and a pouch of rocks tied to what looked as her waist. These ones had rags covering them instead of being nude, which no doubt symbolized their rank in opposition to younger Tight Freaks.

L kept moving forward, though not entirely confident in the shadows to conceal him from the Bugbear’s keen sense of smell and dark vision. When they neared, L stopped and attempted to will the shadows in a thin layer around him in attempts to lower any type of scent on him.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

They passed him without a hitch. It seemed at roughly 20 meters L had no reason to fear detection.

L resumed his journey. He advanced a couple hundred meters or so until the cave walls began to narrow. He stepped carefully then, hoping that no beast would come through at that time, as L was only a mere 10 meters off from the source of light. As fate would have it, a Bugbear and one Shriveled Freak treaded the darkness of the cave by their lonesome. The Bugbear wore a spear at his back and iron armor upon his shoulders and head. He walked heedlessly and was close enough for L to spy the yellow fangs of his eyes. This Shriveled Freak, however, was quite ancient. Instead of a weapon he carried himself on a staff. His back was bent and his skin so haggard that the light of his eyes was barely showing through.

It was time to stop and let the Bugbear walk across, L told himself, but his legs would simply not listen to him. His impatient fingers grasped at the handle of his sword, begging him for some action. His heart wanted to feast, and though his stamina was dangerously low, his sore muscles begged for the release of their tensions. He still had the Beginners Protection,, after all, the loss of stat would affect him much. True, the debuffs gained were a great deterrent, but who cares for a bit of a handicap? Since when did L shy away from those? Why now? What was the point of the game if he couldn’t do what he wanted to do?

L closed his eyes, the temptations overflowing his nerves.

Not yet, and not now, L beseeched himself.

Finally, his battle lust died off. His blood cooled, and the grating of his teeth stopped.

All was good for L. His sanity came back to him, yet in an entirely too appropriate manner, the Bugbear was not entirely too pleased with his affairs. It seemed he had picked up on something, as he motioned his huge head to the left, to the right, then to the left again. It then pulled its spear into a tight grip and took a step in the direction of L.

A guilty smile crept its way onto L’s thin lips. He held his sword at the ready.

As the Bugbear took the next step, however, a staff bounced off his face. Startled, the Bugbear took a step back, dropping his spear and held tight his claws to his skull. His assailant barked and spit at him and began to limp ahead.

Fortunately for the tiny brain size of the creature, the Bugbear quickly forgot the particular scent he had caught onto and took quick steps to catch up with its tiny master.

It was not until the Bugbear and his master cleared his vision did L dare to breathe. A fight there, though he had the cover of shadows, would have ended no other way than in his timely death. As daring as he was, things would have simply ended up in him being flanked from all sides.

Being outflanked and outgunned was not something L typically looked forward to, especially when he was the one who tended to do that. In addition to that, dying to a barbaric race granted an enormous negative debuff when the body is left intact. The negative debuff to being killed by goblin related races was the greatest: a 12 hour increased lockout time, and an additional 5% decrease in all stats. Lore played a vital part in the creation of the game, and few races had a more horrid history than the species and subspecies of goblins, which the Bugbear was a distant relative of.

L took his chances and adventured further into the cave. The ground slightly declined downwards, leading L further into the earth.

Oh what scrumptious treasures shall I find in this hole of the earth? L sung to himself as the cave began to expand and branch off into many different potentially rewarding, and slightly death inducing pathways. The sheer size of the dungeon began to dawn on L. Knowledge was half the battle, and L surely needed all of it. There would be no indiscriminate killings until he got a grip on things.

He let a disappointed sigh escape at that point. Things were not entirely fun this way. He really wanted to kill stuff. A tragic thought went through L's mind at that point: I should just take a break from this game and vent out my violence in the real world.

He let a giggle escape at that.