Shun POV:
[Mission: Chronology of the Elite Tunnelmen (60/120)
Difficulty: C
Boss Monster: Elite TunnelKing.
Floor Number: 10.
Party Requirement: 1~50.
I love tunnelling, but I love combat too. Shall we dance, Humans?
Rewards: 30 gold + Random Loot Drops.
Failure: Death.
Additional Information:
• Not all Ki Artifacts have been acquired.
• Ki Artifacts randomly shift location after every entry.
• Hidden Rooms randomly appear.]
There were differences between dungeons.
Tower Dungeons towered over the surrounding area and seemed to be mainly located near civilisation. They contained a small stairway that connected to a platform outside the dungeon.
Natural Dungeons merged with the surrounding environment. They had the same typical engravings marked across a wide stone entrance similar to the platforms of Tower Dungeons.
This dungeon was the latter.
A thin barrier covered the tunnel opening, but another barrier surrounded the pillars on either side of the stone pathway. I surmised the dual barriers were most likely to stop animals or monsters from wandering in. It was also possible that they acted as a way to warn non-adventurers of the dangers ahead.
You couldn’t enter a Natural Dungeon by accident unless you were an idiot.
‘...’
My gaze rested on two large doors within the wide tunnel on the 7th Floor. This space wasn’t present on the map, so it had to be a hidden room.
“Was this room here before?”
A small humanoid beaver had brown fur around its neck and arms. The monster refused to say a word, prompting me to tighten the grip on its neck. I peered down into the monster’s beady brown eyes before opening my mouth one last time.
“I asked you a question.”
“Tch... No. I don’t remember seeing it befo—“
I smashed its head into the towering doors and flung the dead weight to the side. My foot kicked the entrance open, but my eyes narrowed.
In the middle of the wide room, a refined katana was embedded into a circular base that extended from the ground. Despite there being no windows in the ceiling, a faint light shone down on that area.
[You have found a ‘Hidden Room.’]
‘Then that light is a type of barrier.’
Shadows danced around the corners of the space. They flickered, growing in size till my lips curved upward at the sound of the giant doors slamming shut.
I was locked in here now.
Hundreds of Tunnelmen jumped out of the darkness. Their small hands shook the spears they held before pointing them toward me.
“Battle Formation! Kill the intruder!!”
The Tunnelmen moved into a formation I had grown tired of seeing. Their Ki, at the Shin Stage, flared out. Aside from the formations they utilised along with their numbers advantage, there was nothing noteworthy about the Tunnelmen.
It wasn’t enough at all.
“Do any of you know how to fight?”
“...”
Their advancement stopped. They looked at each other, puzzled by the simplicity of my question. The Tunnelmen shifted their gaze to the TunnelLeader: a larger Tunnelmen in charge of anywhere between one hundred to three hundred units.
“We... just use battle formations and throw our spears. Kick, punch... That’s it really.”
I pulled out a spear from my inventory and turned my back toward them. The weapon blurred. It sliced through the air, performing several techniques backlogged from the hundreds of Martial Art books I was once obsessed with.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Once the demonstration was over, I dashed the spear back inside the inventory and faced them again.
“Copy that.”
“...”
The Tunnelmen’s beady eyes shifted to the TunnelLeader, who scratched the back of its head, unsure of what the appropriate protocol to follow was in a situation like this.
“...Well, we’re gonna kill him, anyway.”
The monster shrugged its small shoulders before taking out a spear. I sat down against the closed doors, rested my arm over my knee, and observed the TunnelLeader begin training the excited monsters.
Tunnelmen.
They were a predominately male species, with females called Tunnelmiss. Unlike their male counterparts, Tunnelmiss had thicker fur with faint red hues and more angular eyes. The biggest difference between the two was their speed.
Tunnelmiss were fast and capable of giving birth to over 40 members of their monster race at once.
‘...’
My gaze never left the Tunnelmen practising. Their Ki rose along with their movements that became more efficient with time.
‘Good.’
My lips curved upwards as I let their training continue for several hours without interruption. They took breaks in between, encouraging and laughing amongst themselves. A few broke out of formation to give me their thanks. Whenever they did, the TunnelLeader would grab them by their short hair, drag them back, and double their workload.
5 hours later, their growth plummeted. 5 hours later, I got to my feet.
“You’re a great teacher, hu—“
The TunnelLeader smashed into the wall at the other end of the room. It held its broken jaw while the Tunnelmen all stared at their leader.
The monster’s health dropped by 1/5th, and once it recovered from the initial shock of me smashing its mouth shut, the TunnelLeader’s eyes narrowed to thin slits.
“Kill. Him.”
They flashed red, causing my body to stiffen in response. A throbbing pain came in the form of dozens of needles piercing into my brain.
“Is that all?”
The sensation made my eyes bulge as I bolted forward. My hands and feet flickered in all directions, striking down the Tunnelmen, but this time, it was different.
Their training made them adapt.
New wounds bloomed like ripe flower petals across my body. Blood splashed against the ground while the smile etched on my face widened.
I splayed my hand, creating a crude flame spear that impaled a Tunnelmen through its heart. I spun to the side, using its body as a shield to block other strikes and demoralise the targets.
“Attack Formation!”
The Tunnelmen responded to the TunnelLeader’s command. They shifted into a tighter arrangement, and a faint red Ki rose from their bodies, doubling their physical offence.
I charged back in without a care in the world, adapting and growing all the way till my hands ripped the head off the TunnelLeader’s shoulders.
“...”
I peered down at the monster's face, squashed together in disbelief at the annihilation of its infantry. My fingers crushed its skull before throwing it beside whatever remained of the Tunnelmen.
The barrier around the circular base peeled away, and I grabbed hold of the black katana.
[You have acquired ‘Hanzo’s Blade V4.’]
[You have acquired a new title ‘Ruthless Tunnelmen Teacher.’]
***
I rested my arm over my knee, surrounded by thousands of carcasses. Blue blood so dark it merged with the colour of the burnt corpses, seeped into the wet ground.
[Title: Troll Killer (+2)
Effect: When fighting against Trolls, physical attack is slightly increased.]
[Title: Warhog Hunter (+2)
Effect: Increased movement speed when chasing Warhogs.]
[Title: Ruthless Tunnelmen Teacher (+3)
Effect: Teaching dungeon monsters significantly increases all of their physical attributes. However, their anger and rage will be directed toward you with no room for negotiation.
• Training additional dungeon monsters evolves this title.]
[Title: Dungeon Lover (+2)
Effect: All physical attributes are significantly increased.
• Ki Recovery Rate is doubled.
• Your love for dungeons is genuine. The more dungeons you enter, the more likely this title is to evolve.]
It was good that the Title Effects weren’t significant. Otherwise, I would have to lower my strength even more. Ruthless Tunnelmen Teacher did offset some of the buffs that were beginning to stack, but its level was far too low at the moment.
I shifted my gaze toward the Ki Recovery Rate effect from the Dungeon Lover title.
“Now that is useful. Very useful.”
The corners of my mouth rose when the 15th Floor shook again. This dungeon was unique in the sense that each Floor required different conditions to be met in order to ascend.
Some of those requirements were impossible to meet if all of the monsters on that Floor were killed. For example, the 1st Floor had the condition of escorting a Fishnin to the Artful Tank of Splendorous Joy: an elaborate name for a simple fish tank atop a waterfall.
In cases like those, you would be hardstuck on that Floor till the monsters respawned. By respawn, I meant repopulate, which, in this dungeon, was a process that required monsters from higher Floors to descend.
The Dungeon System would grant the new population protection until they reached a sufficient size. Only then could the requirements be met.
Fishnin.
Since every Fishnin started off as a goldfish, I called that stage of their life: Goldnin. The only difference between Goldnin and Goldfish was the length of their fins; the former had a slight advantage over its counterpart. A Fishnin’s coloured clothes also matched the pattern they had as a Goldnin. They were capable of human speech like Tunnelmen but preferred to speak in an overly poetic manner.
Contrary to expectations, they had little resemblance to ninjas. Large webbed gloves, a simple sleeveless top, shorts wrapped with a hanging fin-like sash and leggings underneath: this was the attire of a Fishnin.
Their eyes were large, and their face small. In terms of relationships between the two sexes, female Fishnin were hard to impress. The male would need to perform a lengthy ballad to prove their feelings were genuine. This consisted of listing off the female’s unique features, the colours of her pattern, the family they hoped to build together, and the list went on.
All of this information came from the Fishnin I killed at the end of that damn escort mission.
‘...’
Another wave of fish-looking lizards rushed onto the scene. Before they could advance any further, their large eyes fell to the death wrapped around me.
I got to my feet, taking their attention with every movement I made. A LizardFish stepped forward and twisted its neck in an effort to widen its field of view. Unable to find any other life present nearby, it gazed at me in confusion for a few more seconds.
“...P-Party?”
“I am the party.”
My eyes bulged as my fist shot through its head. I ripped it out and let the body flop to the wet ground before facing the hundreds of LizardFish frozen in place.
“Come on then. It’s time for your first lesson.”