You received 1000 experience points.
You completed a trial. Please choose between the classes: Warrior, Spearman, and Monk.
I stopped to blink for a moment and then I rubbed and massaged my eyes to confirm that I wasn’t seeing things. Why did this happen again? I rechecked and confirmed that the same thing happened… but instead of magic classes, the second trial only offered melee classes.
‘I don’t have many melee classes, but I guess they can help me now that I am developing my melee fighting style. Regardless, it seems that while this dungeon offers these kinds of materials, it feels like it doesn’t help much people obtain the archer classes that make this land famous.’
Regardless, I had those skills in my notes and I scored them as well. Although I said that I didn’t need support skills, I made my decision this time around because it would offer me a kind of support that would benefit all the areas that I needed.
You obtained the Monk class.
You unlocked the Endurance parameter.
You unlocked the Aptitude: Inner Peace.
You unlocked the skill: Fists of Fury.
You unlocked the skill: Meditation.
Inner Peace: Gain 1 point of experience per successful dodge or parry.
Fists of Fury: Deliver a rapid series of four unarmed strikes, dealing damage equal to your dexterity and strength. Each hit has a chance to stagger the enemy, disrupting their next attack. Cost: 10 Stamina per second
Meditation: Enter a state of deep focus, improving your mana and stamina regeneration by 0.1 points per level. You can’t move or do anything during its duration.
I felt the knowledge of the skills entering my brain and I also felt like a lock inside me had opened… now I could finally make my body a bit tougher. I decided to use the experience I just gained tonight to increase my endurance and feel really alive. It is the addicting feeling of getting stronger a bunch of times in a row.
I began to work on dismantling the boss while I was thinking about how I could use the new skills. With Meditation, I could do something else aside from crafting bows and projectiles between battles. The weird thing was the fact that this was actually a spell… so I could turn into a scroll, too. Those weren’t that popular since while they grant increased stamina and mana regeneration, they make the person unable to move for its duration.
As for Fists of Fury, I could use them whenever I found myself unarmed for whatever reason. I was always careful to not let myself fall into that kind of mess, though.
While I was thinking about that, I heard metallic footsteps again… I raised my guard, even though it didn’t look like they were trying to hide their approach or anything. Before long, I saw the group coming from the second section… they were the same party that I had found earlier.
They looked at me again and then left without saying anything… they were carrying some materials to the exit, but that was still creepy.
‘Quite the weird time to return to the previous floor… weird time to go to the second section, too. Do they think that I am stupid or what?’
Well, at least I knew that their intentions were to just check on me and not do anything else that could be a real problem… Regardless, they couldn’t be that smart, or maybe it was the routine of them to fight at this house. I just decided to forget about it.
Once I was done with dismantling the boss, I decided to explore the second section. It was time to check my theory if, with better materials, I could make better bows.
‘Hm?’
The next section of the dungeon was even more weird than I had expected…. perhaps I should have expected something like this since the Hellblazer dungeon had those holes that emitted a lot of steam. In any case, I could see trees glued to the walls. There were even some fruits on the ground and they looked fresh. Still, as soon as I approached one of them, a Woodkin came out from the nearest tree…
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The creature looked like it had been sleeping beside a tree and while it moved slowly, it had branches that could get longer and it tried to impale my head with them. I twisted my body to the side and then chopped off the branch with my sword.
You received 01 experience points.
‘It looks like Inner Peace is working already…’
The branch fell on the ground but soon began to crawl toward the Woodkin like a worm. The creature wasn’t much taller than me, but it sure looked creepy with that kind of ability. I charged toward it, but the monster turned one of its branches into a shield and then tried to slam me against it.
I stabbed the wood shield and then pushed the blade to the side, easily cutting the shield and splitting it in half. The creature flinched for a moment, and then charged with arms almost crossed. In the final moment, I slashed both swords at the same time and then beheaded the monster.
You received 40 experience points.
‘What should I call this? Desolation? Cross Strike? Well, it isn’t a real skill, so perhaps it doesn’t matter.’
The monster shrunk to a seed, but its branches remained. I grabbed them… it was quite unsettling since they clearly looked like arms. In any case, I stored it and soon resumed my hunt.
When morning arrived, I was heading to the entrance of the dungeon using my automatic bike. I could just run and be a bit faster, but I always get sluggish when morning came. I decided to save energy to make sure that would have my focus sharp enough for when I decided to return to the second section.
Weirdly enough, as if they could tell that they couldn’t stop me by coming from behind and front at the same time, three wood golems appeared in front of me to block my path. Soon, they raised their arms and tried to hit me with their skill that I called Seed Cannon. Still, before they could do that, I used one of the crossbows that I used to farm the other dungeon… I had installed on my automatic bike and just pulled the trigger three times while adjusting my aim between the shots.
You received 20 experience points.
You received 20 experience points.
You received 20 experience points.
‘Maybe I can use this tactic to reach at least the fortieth floor of this labyrinth…’
I was planning to challenge my fighting style with the swords and reach the deepest part I could get without killing myself in the process, but that shouldn’t be enough reason to stop me from reaching the best classes in that dungeon. I bet that I would surprise a lot of people since they wouldn’t expect that someone like him would get those ultra-rare classes. It made me feel like smirking.
Half an hour later, I was back at the entrance and then found Cassius talking with the captain of the guards. The guy talked with me the other night. He squinted his eyes when he noticed me, but soon relaxed a bit when Cassius did the same.
“Oh, hey, Fletcher. How has been your exploration of the dungeon so far?”
I shrugged. It was so so, but doing that kind of action probably made me feel less mysterious. Regardless, I just passed to him the bows that I made using the new materials. There weren’t many differences between them aside from one, thanks to the branches of the Woodkin.
Long Wooden Bow (Rare)
Enchantment Slots: 02
Bonus Effects: Sap-Infused Poison - The bow imbues arrows with a sticky sap poison that weakens enemies over time. The poison deals damage of three points per second for three seconds.
“Not bad, not bad. We can pay you five Terra coins for each of them. We can pay five more if you add two poison enchantments to them. You can do that, right?”
I nodded. I didn’t like these kinds of effects. They were pretty nasty. I created some arrows before that could poison monsters, but once I saw them shaking and shivering thanks to the poison, I stopped using them… it was better to just finish them off quickly.
Regardless, he was paying a lot more than I earned with Ovelia. He should know that I wasn’t interested in money, but everyone knew that having a lot of it was never a bad thing.
“By the way, here is your food. My daughter makes my lunch every day, so I asked her to make a bit more. I figured out that you would find home cooking better.”
I looked at Cassius, wondering if he was also using the cooking skills of his supposed daughter to lure me in. He appeared to be close to fifty and, given that most people had their kids when they were between 15 and 25 in this world, that made me suspicious of him.
“No need to glare. You will be able to tell that she is better than most chefs in the city.”
I received the basket that was closed, but it smelled good. That only made me warier than Cassius. we had agreed that I wouldn’t be here forever, but he was insisting. Perhaps, given that he was pretty influential among the soldiers guarding the dungeon, he might end up doing something more harsh in case I keep denying his offer.
‘I need to be cautious and prepare for it… my tools are mainly for monster hunting, but perhaps I should make some for fighting humans.’
I already killed some people in this world, and I didn’t feel bad about it. I felt bad for other things, for example, when I learned that I fought alongside people who felt that they could kick the heads of their dead enemies. I knew that war wasn’t a pretty thing. In the rush of a conflict where everyone is fighting for their lives, people can do insane things, but even so, there were some lines that shouldn’t be crossed no matter the circumstances.
While I was returning to the second section, I couldn’t help but wonder… was it morally or ethically correct to kill people when they tried to kill you first? Perhaps not, if one is thinking that they if they had the chance to leave the person alive, it was better to leave them alive, but in a world like this, where assassins were actually pretty well-known and they might come to try again, the smart thing to do was to not take any chances.
‘I can’t be indecisive about this… I had to make up my mind and not falter. Otherwise, I will only be making things much more difficult for myself in the future.’
With my knowledge of modern Earth, I knew quite a few things that would be very useful to people. Even if they weren’t humans… I know a bit of psychological tricks as well, so I began to consider them and their applications in real combat. The nasty ones would be the most effective.
‘Well, there is no going back now… I still think that I should make my point very clear if anyone tries to do anything against me, so I won’t hold back anymore. Even if I had to become infamous for it.’
… I still think that I should make my point very clear if anyone tries to do anything against me, so I won’t hold back anymore. Even if I had to become infamous for it.’