Shun POV:

The ground beneath my feet resembled stained glass. It emitted a faint light that reflected the colour of its floral pattern, forming a transparent barrier around the circular area. Beyond it was endless darkness.

“A Safe Zone.”

That was the conclusion I reached when a window dropped in front of my vision.

[You have entered the Tower of the Cryptic Soldier.]

[Warning! Warning!! A foreign invader has been detected!!]

Several red alerts repeated the same message. They flashed multiple times before fading. It meant that dungeons had their own variation of The System, and it was possible for it to detect that I wasn’t from the world of Ayadell.

“Interesting.”

[Your current understanding of ‘The System’ is too low. ‘The Dungeon System’s’ suppression will be actively applied.]

[System effects have been drastically reduced.]

It was a shame that I couldn’t care less about the system since it barely gave me any benefits in the first place.

I shifted my gaze toward a white gate that appeared on the other side of the safe zone. It contained a white whirlpool of energy, and once I stepped inside; the scenery changed.

An open entrance of a graveyard extended toward the horizon. Two broken statues stood guard beside the broken gates; their lower bodies dwarfed me in size. A purple mist swirled around certain areas of the Dungeon Floor, but there were no monsters.

[A penalty has been applied to your party due to a violation of the dungeon rules. The dungeon difficulty will now be adjusted accordingly.]

I walked through the broken gates, ignoring the loud rumbling sound that shook the entire area.

“Map.”

The dungeon floor was basic. It consisted of the large graveyard in front of me, and a small pathway at the opposite end to the right, which lead to the 2nd Floor.

Boulders crashed down from the sky, followed by hundreds of armoured skeletons rising from their graves. A thunderous roar quaked the Dungeon Floor when my feet came to a stop.

I glanced back at two giant skeleton knights standing in front of two massive trolls that had grown out of the broken statues by the entrance.

[Floor Boss: Skeleton Knight]

[Floor Boss: Troll]

One of the Skeleton Knights stepped forward, forcing the armoured skeletons to open a pathway between the two of us.

“Human, you da—“

“Killing you all won’t clear the dungeon, right?”

“...”

Silence befitting of the dead swept across the graveyard. The skeleton soldiers turned to the skeleton knights, who then turned to the trolls that looked at one another.

“PAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!”

A wave of laughter invigorated the dead. It was coupled with the sounds of bones clashing together and the wiping of eyes.

“Huma—“

My knee shut the troll’s mouth, chopping off its own tongue that I caught and piledrived into its right eye. A short barrage of strikes led to my fist shooting through its left eye. I ignited it with fire, bursting the troll’s head with flames.

A pained shriek tore through the air.

A loud thud shook the earth.

I glanced at the half-full HP and exploded its head again and again and again until it dropped all the way down to zero.

I swivelled my eyes back toward the others. Their laughter had vanished, replaced with a solemn gaze at what they had just witnessed.

“Why are you all waiting? Should I come to you instead?”

“KILL HIM!!!”

The troll’s roar made them bolt forward. My lips curved upward as I dashed into the horde without a care in the world.

***

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Two massive doors loomed ahead of me. They had a reddish tint to them and were paired with black ring handles.

“C-can I g—“

I smashed the goblin’s head into the door before dashing its lifeless body to the side. My foot kicked the entrance open, and a powerful gust of wind blew past me.

“...”

My eyes darted around the Boss Room, grasping the internal structure and any other hidden details it offered. It didn’t take long for me to reach the centre of the circular area that was visible from the entrance.

The walls were embedded with thick spiralling columns, split into hundreds of segments. They converged in the middle of the narrow ceiling, forming a spiral point that created an almost optical illusion of moving parts. I took another step forward, and the doors slammed shut.

I was now sealed inside.

“You’re going to die either way.”

I already deduced that the segments along the columns provided a way for this Cryptic Soldier to project attacks. Despite the bait, no movement occurred within the room.

I cocked my head to the side and vanished. I reappeared near the ceiling with my hands splayed. Hundreds of crude fire swords formed in the blink of an eye. They fired toward every section of the spiralling columns when I felt a shift in the air.

A massive foot shot toward me; the Troll’s body emerged out of the spiral point above. Blasts of wind smashed into the monster’s sole as I fell.

More of my Ki was transmuted into Elemental Ki, which then turned into my Wind Ki Nature. It struck the troll in the same spot, preventing it from landing.

I hit the ground and opened my right hand. Hundreds of fireballs joined the assault in a continuous stream.

“W-what is this?!”

“Juggling.”

“...What?”

It was the process of preventing the target from striking back by utilising their blind spot and keeping them airborne. I struck its sole with the same amount of force as the entire weight of the Troll’s body.

In other words, the crude fire swords were used to make the Boss Monster attack from above. The narrow ceiling restricted the Troll’s movement due to its size, so when I hit the ground, I was underneath it.

I was in the Troll’s blind spot.

And so the Troll remained in the same position, unable to adjust while its HP fell.

I moved in a mechanical manner, repeating the process of striking the Troll’s grimy-coloured foot. Once its HP reached the halfway point, I let it fall and jumped back.

[Boss: Troll Guardian]

Its roar was accompanied with a torrent of Ki, but I was already gone. I dashed along the columns, blasting the Troll Guardian from every angle at a rapid pace.

“YOU MAGGOT!!”

It swung its club around in a frenzy. Every strike contained enough force to shake the room as it chased after me.

I streamlined my body, manipulating the Wind Ki Nature to propel my speed to the next level. I shot around the twisting columns that the Troll Guardian continued to destroy in his attempt to catch me.

The density of its Ki Armour forced me to target the same spot. Different angles of attack made no difference to the final destination they would arrive at. All my increasing did was make the damage stack faster.

“Tch! STOP RUNNING!!”

The Troll Guardian’s twisted face distorted even more. Its club sped up, crashing all over the place as its HP continued to fall.

Trolls.

At first glance, there were similarities between them and humans. They had four limbs, though their arms were elongated and much larger than the lower half of their body. They had two eyes, though theirs were small and had a black sclera.

In terms of their face, it was akin to a shrivelled prune, squashed together in a state of perpetual annoyance. Unlike the Floor Bosses, the Troll Guardian had black hair compared to the normal bald head of a Troll. It also wore fur clothes compared to the usual makeshift rags.

I glanced at my KP, a yellow bar underneath my health bar. It was short for Ki Points; a name I decided on due to its inaccuracy of my current Ki Reserves. It showed that I had less than a quarter left when, in reality, I had more than that.

The Troll Guardian bolted toward the spiral column but met the currents of air wrapped around my fist instead. It cracked into its jaw, and the room shook from its face, planting into the ground below.

A second later, a crude flame sword penetrated the same spot I had struck for the past 45 minutes: a sensitive area behind the thick skin of a Troll’s neck.

“GAUREGSSGGAGAJ!!”

It was fire.

Striking their weak spot didn’t do that much damage on its own, but when compared with fire, this was the result.

The Troll Guardian writhed in pain. It dropped the large club and aimed to squash me like a bug with its massive hands. I manipulated the wind to dash out of view, dodging the loud clap that created several powerful shockwaves.

I shifted my gaze to its HP, which had plummeted to the last quarter percentile.

“...”

The Troll Guardian blurred. Large toes grazed past my cheek, bursting the blood vessels inside my nose.

We flickered around the room.

The Troll’s strikes opened several deep holes and created dozens more craters. Despite its clear rage, the Troll Guardian didn’t lose its composure as easily as a Troll would have by now.

I watched it shoot into the spiral column, reappearing behind me in an instant. Its two massive hands cast a shadow over my body well before they started to close in.

I waited till the last second, manipulating the wind to my current limit. Another shockwave cracked the walls of the room, but I peered down at the Troll’s neck.

‘…’

It took the control of several currents of air to be able to match the Troll’s increase in speed. Without the ‘attack the same spot’ strategy, it would have been a long day, but...

“It’s not enough.”

There was no need to hide my presence any longer.

A crude flame sword speared through the same spot on its neck. It shattered the Troll’s Ki Armour, causing an agonizing screech to force its hairs to stand on edge.

I placed my foot down on the hilt of fire and piledrived it right through the monster’s thick head. The Troll Guardian flopped to the ground. Violent spasms tremored across its body before the monster breathed its last breath.

Its HP fell to zero.

Compared to Trolls, it was multiple times harder to penetrate the Ki Armour and thick skin of a Troll Guardian.

[You have slain the Boss Monster.]

[You have gained the title ‘Troll Killer.’]

[A gate has been summoned in the Boss Room. You have cleared the dungeon.]

The gate appeared a dozen or so metres away from me. Its appearance was the same as the one in the Safe Zone, including the white whirlpool of energy inside.

The dungeon erected a small podium from the ground in the far distance. It held an even smaller red button on it that I studied while ripping off the clothes of the Troll Guardian.

I chucked its club into the inventory and stuck my hands inside its fur pockets. I threw all the jewellery I found into the same place, examining its more or less naked body.

“Maybe its hair is worth something?”

I shaved it off with fire, dashing it into a pouch that I robbed from some goblins earlier. I approached the gate and glanced back at the Troll Guardian that started to decompose till all that remained was its bones.

“...”

I tossed the bones into the inventory.

A hood covered most of my face, made from the fur that I had cut up into a hoodie. There was nothing left for me to do here, all the monsters had already been eradicated.

I stepped through the gate and left the dungeon.