One of the most popular recent searches on the internet had become "Who is Achilles?" Another was "What the hell is going on?" Even "Did they put a chip in my brain while I was sleeping and hook me up to a game system?" had somehow managed to become a common search phrase.
All sorts of questions popped up. Of course, most of them were focused on wanting to understand more about the Law of Return game. All of the media was full of messages talking about it. Some were even saying it was due to Achilles for some reason.
_ _
While the internet was boiling, the man of the hour was facing level 5 wolves from the first floor of the labyrinth. There were only 4 wolves, and although they were higher levels than himself, luckily, Jacob's status was out of the ordinary.
Using the system to observe their health status, he sighed in relief when he saw they were between 120-130. It was neither too tall nor too short of a challenge. With 60 Attack, the damage he would deal should be enough to kill them all before tiring out and getting hurt.
Though he thought so, Jacob didn't take things lightly. With a serious look, Jacob ran towards the wolves the instant he was noticed. Howls echo in the dimly lit, narrow, and battered hallway.
The first wolf to arrive jumped towards his arm. Jacob spun and with the back of his hand, his punch landing like a very hard sledgehammer blow to the right side of the wolf's head.
*Bang!*
[- 59]
[Life -2]
Jacob arched a frown but didn't think long before kicking one of the wolves that had tried to bite his leg.
[- 55]
Backing up, he narrowly dodged another wolf, then he lunged again, kicked, and almost at the same time a punch was beautifully planted on top of the head of a wolf that had leaped towards his chest.
[- 51]
[- 61]
[Life -5]
"Die!" Seeing that the life of one of the wolves was hanging by a thread, he attacked!
*Bang!*
The effect of the kick was almost like magic, as the wolf broke apart and dropped two silver coins.
[Experience gained: 5]
[Bonus experience gained: 2.5]
"Not so fast!" Seeing another wolf that was hurt by him try to back off, Jacob lunged forward and kicked the wolf in the pit of its stomach.
[- 53]
Seeing that it was almost down, he kicked again.
[- 52]
[Experience gained: 5]
[Bonus experience gained: 2.5]
Looking at the two remaining wolves, a smile formed on his cold face. Then Jacob attacked again!
[- 56]
[- 58]
[Experience Gained: 5]
[Bonus Experience Gained: 2.5]
[<
"Haha, this is fantastic!" Jacob felt invigorated. Even though he had only lost a little bit of health, the feeling of restoration from leveling up was pretty good. Another thing was the thrill of leveling up so quickly; this had never happened to him before.
Still, there was one wolf to go, and Jacob attacked twice.
[Experience gained: 5]
[Bonus experience gained: 2.5]
'I managed to win without being attacked. Despite that, I lost a little life because I was using my bare feet and hands to attack...'
He sighed when he saw that no items had been dropped, but there was no point in moaning about it. The portal to the next floor had already appeared in the place where the four wolves were initially.
He walked over and entered the portal.
__
__
Jacob barely passed through the portal to the second floor when a new system message appeared and soon after, another global message appeared.
__
[Congratulations to the player Achilles for being the first player to clear the first floor of the Labyrinth. This achievement is now engraved on the pages of the Labyrinth leaders for all eternity!]
[Thanks to Achilles' achievement, the Labyrinth rank system is available to everyone!]
__
Jacob didn't advance towards the second floor wolves a short distance away. He knew that as long as he didn't approach, neither would they.
[A new main quest has been triggered!]
"Oh?"
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
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Quest Objective: Reach Floor 5 (Not Completed)
It is said that within this dark and terrifying Labyrinth are hidden many precious items.
__
Rewards:
Experience: 300
Gold: 100
Skill: Frost Breath (Low Grade Quality)
__
When he clicked on the skill, he read that this skill, despite being low grade, had a certain percentage chance to freeze enemies for two seconds in an area attack and could affect up to 5 enemies.
'Not bad.' Jacob smiled. Before, he had thought of just going to the second floor and leaving, but this made him change his mind. Although he didn't dare to challenge the fifth floor boss, if it was just to reach the fifth floor, he had the confidence he could succeed.
'I still have the lucky chest.'
Opening his inventory, he took out the lucky chest, and placing it on the ground, he opened it.
[Congratulations, you got in the lucky chest: (50 Gold)]
To say he wasn't disappointed would be a lie, since in a lucky chest, even epic skills and items could appear - just like the epic artifact he had gotten earlier.
'I'll have more chances in the future. Better not to think about it.'
At the moment, he still hadn't opened up the ability to use the labyrinth shop. He couldn't even use the gold he had at the moment to enhance himself.
The wolves before him were at level 10. The difference in his attributes compared to the wolves had already started to not have as much effect, since their health was around 200-220. It would be a totally different fight than before, since both their life and other attributes were much higher than on the first floor.
'Assuming their offense is around 20-30, it's going to be hard for me to win like before.'
Despite being aware of this, Jacob didn't think about giving up. This was currently one of the only places he could level up without being seen, other than he wanted to complete the second main quest.
-
-
Jacob's fists move was serpentine, slashing twice at the ferocious wolf.
[- 61]
[- 59]
[Life -33]
Despite being fast, Jacob was unable to avoid the ferocious wolf's claws in time, and it attacked his right leg. With his left leg, he kicked toward this ferocious wolf.
[Critical hit!]
[-81]
"Arf!"
Another ferocious wolf didn't even give him a chance to think for long, leaping towards him with sharp claws. Jacob saw the other wolf also leaping towards him and he slid backward, almost as if he were performing the moonwalker. This type of recoil was created by a player in his memoirs who did it as a joke but soon discovered that it was very useful in battle.
[Congratulations, your action created a new skill. Would you like to name it?"
"Huh?" Jacob's eyes widened in shock.
"Yes." He clicked and muttered, "Moonwalker."
Whatever it was, he knew it must have something to do with him being the first player.
__
[Skill (Moonwalker) has been created!]
[Moonwalker: Increases balance by 100% when sliding backward - Cooldown Time: 1 second].
At the thought of using the skill, he found himself sliding backward, however, it was almost twice as fast as before.
"Hahaha!" Jacob started laughing out loud. But, he didn't laugh for long as four ferocious wolves were approaching.
[Moonwalker]
Backing up again, taking distance from the wolves, Jacob stepped forward soon after, and aimed a punch at the jumping wolf.
[- 55]
[Moonwalker]
Backing up again, he lunged forward again, catching another ferocious wolf mid-leap.
[- 54]
His blood seemed to be boiling with excitement. This kind of back-and-forth combo was simply too gratifying for him.
[Experience gained: 10]
[Bonus experience gained: 5]
The addition of just one skill had completely changed the course of the battle. Now, Jacob was even more confident as he advanced and retreated. Even when the ferocious wolves were nearly cornering him, Jacob used his superior speed to switch positions, slipping past the ferocious wolves and back to continue to do the same actions.
[Experience gained: 10]
[Bonus experience gained: 5]
It didn't take long for the warning to appear as he killed another ferocious wolf.
"That..."
When he saw what the ferocious wolf had dropped, it made a pleasant expression form on his face. It was a fierce wolf fur vest. As the game progressed, this type of item became common among beginners, but for now it was priceless.
Quickly, he grabbed the vest and backed away. Without looking at the stats, he quickly used it and dashed forward again.
[- 67]
[Experience gained: 10]
[Bonus experience gained: 5]
"Hehe..."
With a cold chuckle, Jacob watched as the ferocious wolf became shredded and dropped a gold coin.
"You are the last one, little buddy," Jacob said as he looked at the last ferocious wolf that snarled at him.
"Woof!"
The instant the ferocious wolf howled, Jacob lunged and kicked high and low.
[- 68]
The wolf was thrown into the air and with his right hand, Jacob punched the ferocious wolf.
[- 65]
[Experience gained: 10]
[Bonus experience gained: 5]
Although he didn't level up, it was good enough since one of the fierce wolves had dropped an item. Now that the fight was over and the portal to the next floor appeared, Jacob appraised the item.
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[Vest made from ferocious wolf fur (Medium Quality)]
Strength +2
Physical +3
__
'Wow.'
It was better than he expected, as it boosted 2 of his stats. It was almost equivalent to going up 2 levels.
Without waiting, Jacob headed toward the portal and proceeded to the next floor. In the blink of an eye, he was in a different location, although it looked the same. Before him, were angry wolves. They were a little bigger and their fur had black spots on the chest, unlike the other wolves from before that were completely brown.
When he looked at the life totals of these angry wolves, he let out a small sigh. The lowest one had 250 health and the highest one had 310 health.
Jacob opened his status.
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Name: Achilles
Title: First Player
Class: N/A
Level 5 – Exp (110/160)
__
Strength: 16 (+2)
Intelligence: 17
Endurance: 18 (+3)
Attack: 72
Agility: 18
Magic: 68
Resistance: 17
Life: 420
Defense: 21
__
Although it was because of the vest, his physical attack had now surpassed his magic attack, which was currently kind of useless since he didn't have any magic skills to use. Depending on the Angry Wolves defense, his damage average would be between 60-65 damage. One could say that the bright side of all this would have been that the height of the wolves was tall enough for Jacob to be able to punch their heads.
"Woof!"
The moment he approached, the angry wolves howled and attacked. Jacob already knew the pattern of these wolves. In his previous life he had fought in the labyrinth more than a thousand times. Each Labyrinth key gave access to the Labyrinth, and something that would only be discovered later was that it was not necessary to finish all 100 floors to be able to enter the Labyrinth again. If you destroyed the old key, the user would be able to use a new key and start the Labyrinth from the beginning and this could be done one time every 24 hours.
[-61]
[Life -2]
Punching the airborne ferocious wolf in the head, Jacob backed up again and lunged as the angry wolves landed on the ground and attacked, this time with a kick and a punch.
[- 60]
[- 63]
[Life -2]
[Life -3]
Although he felt a little pain from punching and kicking the angry wolves, Jacob didn't mind the small amount of life lost. Following the same pattern of attacking and retreating, he soon managed to kill the first angry wolf.
[Experience gained: 11]
[Bonus experience gained: 5.5]
The ferocious wolf turned into particles and dropped a gold coin. Seeing this, instead of trying to catch it, Jacob attacked other wolves.
_ _
A few minutes later, Jacob had finally managed to defeat the last wolf.
[Experience Gained: 11]
[Bonus Experience Gained: 5.5]
[<
Jacob smiled when he saw that he had leveled up and that the last wolf had dropped an item. Taking it, he considered its stats.
__
[Wristband made from Ferocious Wolf Skin (Low Quality)]
Strength +1
Health +10
__
Despite being low quality, Jacob was already satisfied. He used the wristband and picked up the silver and gold coins from the ground. At the same moment, the portal to the next floor also appeared.
Edited by: Azurtha