Stepping onto the 7th floor, I knew something was wrong. The energy in the air was twice as intense as the level below. It took a bit longer and way more effort to fight it off from entering my mind. The pressure felt higher too and a bit more deadly. The environment was the same. What was even more alarming were the goblins. They were taller by at least a foot and had black skin instead of green. There were 8 of them and when I read their stats, it nearly scared the shit out me. The weakest had a CP of 170 and the strongest was 185, a full 10 points higher than mine. Their attack was rather small but their defense was at 20+. I knew then that it was definitely gonna be a hard fought battle. They were a lot stronger than I had originally predicted. If the power of the monsters got higher exponentially the further up you went, just how strong would the boss be? A peak E-rank? Maybe a D-rank? Either way, this was definitely troubling and dangerous news. I knew I had to bring out all the stops, bring out my strongest power immediately.

With a serious expression and a word of caution from both my parents who prepared to intervene just in case, I stepped into range of them for my Gatling gun. I activated it, but, instead of casting it normally, I infused the power of light. My thinking was because of the way their bodies changed it was because of some dark element or something closed to it. So, in order to weaken them, go with the opposite that restrained said element. A Gatling gun appeared in front of me. Instead of it being a light blue like normal, it shined with a white light. Once it appeared, it immediately got to work. It targeted the one with the highest HP and fired. At level 2, it fired four shots a second. Since it was a sub-skill of the original bullet skill, it still dealt the same damage. The only benefit of this skill was it's attack speed and auto-targeting feature. The four shots hit and shred away most of it's health as well as giving it a weakness de-buff, causing it to lose 20% of it's strength for 2 minutes. I immediately fired a bullet right after, finishing it off. It dissolved and dropped an item. I didn't care about the drop or the notification at the moment because the other goblin's noticed me and started running towards us. Boy, were they fast as fuck. We only managed to kill another three before they were right on me. I drew back quickly firing as I went and staying within the 20 foot range of the gun. I used light element bullets while targeting their legs to weaken them and slowing them even further. However, they were too quick. Two of them managed to dodge and approached me. it was time for a melee fight. this would be my first close up death fight, and I was super nervous. I breathed and tried to think clearly and fight calmly. One approached from my left and stabbed a dagger at my torso. I backed up dodging, while swinging my staff from the left to right. It tried to use it's arm to block but was blown into the air to the right from the blow. I cast a light bullet and shot three of them at its face. As it was in the air, It couldn't dodge and was hit square in it's ugly mug. It was left with just a shred of HP.

Before I could finish it off with another bullet, the second one reached me. it swung both gaggers toward my head. I ducked and stabbed the end of my staff toward its body. it was caught unprepared from the blow, and was it. it stumbled back a few steps, unbalanced. not letting it recover, I shot light bullets at it. Not surprisingly, they hit and managed to kill the bastard. By the time I finished them the gun was finishing off the last of them. it was surprisingly not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. granted, if it wasn't for the fight training my father and mother giving me, it wouldn't have been this smooth. I had to thank them.

Done with the fighting, I took a breath of relief and started to collect the few drops that were on the ground. However, as soon as I started, my father and mother both yelled out in alarm.

Dad: "Watch out!"

Mom: "Behind you!"

As soon as they yelled out, I turned. what I saw was a dagger flying toward my midsection and was only a few inches away. knowing that I couldn't dodge and trusting in my defense, I cast light bullet. As the dagger stabbed into my gut, the bullets hit the sneaky bastard in the face. they dealt critical damage and it was dead and dissolved before hitting the ground. Now, I had a god damn hole in my gut that was bleeding profusely. I held my hand over it as my parents rushed over frantically. The sneaky fuck nearly killed me, it shred 85% of my health in that blow. I was seriously lucky that it wasn't a critical and that my defense was decent or that would have killed me. If I wasn't warned and was stabbed in the back that defiantly would have been a critical and I would have been dead as well. Looks like I got to thank my parents twice. However for now, I had to survive and think how I missed that fuck. I for sure saw only 8 of them in here. the last one must have had used some sort of stealth skill.

My mother reached me first, and with tears in her eyes, commanded me to lay down. She lifted my shirt and reached for a bandage from her space ring.

"Mom: "Hurry and circulate your light element. Force it toward the wound. the light element is great for healing. Hurry."

I did as she told. As soon as the element was at the wound, warmth spread from there. the bleeding slowed, and soon stopped. the wound started to close but stopped a bit shy from finishing. I was tired and running really low on mana. My mother noticed, and told me to stop. She place the bandage on the now smaller wound. while she was patching me up my father was standing over us, making sure nothing snuck up again. Nothing did. After finishing, my mother wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me in for a tight hug.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Mom: "that was too close! You could have died! I knew it this was too dangerous as soon as we stepped into the dungeon! we should have left immediately."

I hung my head. She was scared from almost losing me and I felt guilty. I let my guard down and felt like I let both my mother and dad down.

Me: "I'm sorry, mom. I....let my guard down at the at minute and it used that to sneak up on me. I didn't even see it when we entered. I only saw 8."

Dad: "It's OK son. Honestly, we did not even see it until it was almost too late. It had to have been using a stealth skill. I can't believe it, but it looks like we still underestimated the danger of this place and energy. and we don't even have a clue on what it is. Even though you thought you killed them all, you still let your guard down. If you hadn't, you should've been able to at least move aa bit to prevent such a dangerous injury, if not completely block it."

I knew he was right. trying to get over my self blame, I started thinking on what this dangerous energy is and how to figure it out. Seconds later my eyes lit up with an idea. It was dangerous and risky and stupid as hell but I had to try. I initially thought to tell my parents the idea, but I vetoed that idea. they would never allow me to do it. My parents must have caught that light in my eye as they both looked at me with a suspicious look on their faces.

Dad: "What are you up to? I saw a crazy look in your eye like you came up with a sneaky plan or dangerous one. Which is it?"

I shuddered but looked at him with a calm face, trying not to give it away.

Me: "Nothing. I just realized I levelled up and was going to try and recover and calm down from almost dying."

They were silent for a few moments and still had those looks on their faces, but a minute later they sighed.

Mom: "OK. Sit and relax for a few moments. we got to get out of here soon and inform the guild about this."

I nodded, and crossed my legs and closed my eyes, pretending that I was recovering. technically, what I said wasn't a lie. I actually did level up and I did want to recover from the almost dying part. I just left out a certain plan.

I started circulating the elemental master technique and sensed the energies around me. they immediately came into focus. There were quite a lot, though not as much as the fire element when it's sunny outside. These specs of light were black and purple and gave me a crazy and dangerous feeling. i know I shouldn't do this, but I had to for the city and the people who entered later on. we had to know what was going on. I also felt bad for tricking my parents. It had to be done. they were probably, no, definitely going to yell, lecture, and punish me after this, but right now, I didn't care. I'll take it. it'll be worth it knowing I helped with this danger. carefully, I started drawing a little bit of that energy into me. Immediately, my body started to feel cold and warm at the same time. My mind started spinning, and crazy, violent, and random thoughts came to me. I felt like my mind was going nuts and I was going to lose my sanity. I grit my teeth as I absorbed more and tried my best to hold on. i felt sweat running down my face in drops. Time passed and the feelings and thoughts I had were getting worse. However, i managed to hold on and 10 minutes later it was over. I opened my eyes, and realized I was panting heavily. I collapsed onto my back trying to catch my breath. Now, my parents knew I did something fishy.

Mom: "What's wrong, Aug? what did you do?"

Oh now. She said Aug, which means she was angry, and she had a worried/angry look on her face. my father crossed his arms and looked at me with real anger.

Me: "Hold on a second. I'll explain in a minute. Let me catch my breath and read these notifications I got."

Without waiting for them to respond, I pulled up the notifications I got.

9 Goblins defeated. Reward:

+ 775 XP

+ 387 system points

+193 gold

Hidden stat unlocked from cultivation: Mind (Your ability to see through illusions or withstand attacks on the soul)

Mind: 4

Cultivation completed: Hidden element discovered: Chaos

Chaos Level 1: +1 STR, +1 STA, +2 INT, -1 DEF, +1 WIS, -1 AGI -2 mind

Warning: Cultivating Chaos will cause you to lose your mind. Once mind reached 0, you will go insane or even die

The new elements and the attribute bonuses and negative bonuses shocked me. At first, it confused me, then I thought about it. Chaos, opposite of order. Order had a rule, a pattern. Chaos is completely random, no sense in anything. No wonder I felt like I did when I was cultivating it. The warning for cultivating it was serious too. My mind was only at 4 but after, it dropped to 2 permanently. I am seriously weak to illusions and soul attacks. I wonder if there is any way to increase it or it could be a serious problem ion the future. After those notifications I looked at my updated stat panel. I had 13 points to spend from levelling to 7 from 5 after these fights. I immediately tried to put some in mind but I could not. What the hell? why the fuck not? Since that was the case, I dropped them in int and wis as usual.

Name: Aug Ulrich

Combat Power: 224

Rank: E-rank

Race: Low Tier 1 Human

Bloodlines: None

Elemental Affinities: All

Class: None

Level: 7 (110/700 XP)

Stat Points: 0

System Points: 914

Stats:

HP: (STA x 2): 34

Mana: (WIS x 2): 60

Strength: 20

Intelligence: 31

Agility: 18

Defense: 10

Wisdom: 30

Stamina: 18

Mind: 2

Phy. Att (STR x 2): 38

Mag. Att (INT x 2): 62

Dam. Red. (DEF x 1): 11

Rec. / min

(STA x .1): 1.7 HP / min

(WIS x .1): 3 Mana / min