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World: MSS - Loading...
"Speech"
"Thoughts"
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“Son, if you made a decision, follow it through. You never know what will happen from that decision until you see it through to the end.”
My dad's words flashed through my mind.
“Useless information.” I told myself, trying to focus on not falling to my death.
I had looked for a way down to the subterranean level and luckily, the floor had caved in such a way that it left little ledges suitable for me to jump on. I leapt to and fro from each platform, following the way down. I wasn’t afraid of heights, but one wrong step and I could fall to the basement’s floor. The height wasn’t enough to kill me, what really worried me was breaking a leg or becoming injured. At that point, I wouldn't even need the Gacha Cat to come kill me. I would slowly starve to death, unable to move.
Right now, I needed every advantage I could get.
I finally reached the floor and let out the breath I’ve been holding. I shrugged and rolled my shoulders, working the stiffness out. Then, bending low to the ground, I listened.
Too many people think of listening as an act. I thought different. I'd survived in high society where every bit of information was a weapon. I learnt that being ignored meant people would say anything in front of me. Why should they be wary of a kid whose parents lost everything? No, listening wasn't just an action one did. Listening was a state of being.
I had to play to my strengths. What had kept me alive so far wasn’t because I was reborn with a blessed physique or overwhelming talent for manipulating mana. No, what kept me alive so far had all been how I played my cards. It had been about gathering information and using that to increase my chances of survival little by little. If I wanted any chance against beating this grade-8 monster, I needed more data than I would know what to do with.
Nothing.
Slowly rising to my feet, the next thing I did was study my surroundings.
Unlike the hallway I had just come from, this was more normal sized; reminiscent of a hotel lobby. I had expected the corridor to stretch on and on but it ended in an enclosed room. No way in and no way out except through where I was. If the beckoning cat truly did come down here, then there would be no way for it to leave.
In the middle of the room was a statue standing on a large block of marble. There were ceremonial items around it, a sword, a helmet and a pair of gloves.
“It’s a shrine.” I realized.
I walked up to it, taking a look.
I had chosen this dungeon precisely because we had Clover in our party. If I remembered correctly, the theme behind this dungeon had been for beastman to come and prove their strength to their goddess. Not [Mushin], their hero but Goddess with a capital G. It was a temple dedicated to the goddess Oung. Oung was a goddess who was said to be the mother of beastman, their origin story. The statue had been built in her image; a tall broad shouldered female wearing robes belonging to a martial sect. Long hair tied into multiple rings on either side of her head, the rest tied up into a long ponytail. This particular version of her was looking upwards.
“Is it referring to that story where she was locked in a cave with nothing to eat but garlic and chives for 100 years?”
I stepped around the statue, studying it.
This wasn’t a part of the dungeon back in the game and it tickled the gamer’s curiosity in me. I convinced myself that if the beckoning cat hadn’t attacked by now, it wouldn’t be the first one to attack me. Even its behavior before wasn’t as aggressive as that of the other monsters. It relied more on ambush tactics.
The sword and helmet were greenish-blue with rust. They weren’t metallic smooth but crusted over from years of being exposed to the open air. The gloves had seen better days but were still usable from what I could see. I stopped myself from picking up the glove.
“Focus.” I told myself, I wasn’t here to explore the hidden part of this dungeon.
I was here to defeat- no, kill the Lucky Beckoning Cat.
｢You have witnessed a Reflection of Divinity ｣
｢You gain +1 [Mental] ｣
｢You have found the Hidden Piece: Oung’s Trial ｣
｢Quest: Oung’s Trials ｣
I turned my back to the statue, trying to think of a way to lure the cat out of hiding. I was sure that it was in here somewhere. Cursing the fact that I lost both dimension rings, I debated scattering a bunch of copper coins in the air-
[ Human. ]
I froze when I heard the voice from behind me.
What the fu-
[ Plunderer or Warrior, which are you? ]
Chills went up my spine and my body started to shudder against my will. Actually scratch that, I wasn't shuddering. My body was shaking. Ever had an experience where you thought you were alone then you catch something from the corner of your eye? The feeling that you’re being watched? Perhaps you decided to close your closets extra tight that night or covered up the mirror in your room. Or maybe you decided not to look out the windows. This feeling was the instinctual fear that came from not understanding something, the fear of a being so alien that I had no chance of just knowing what it was.
Something was in here with me and it scared me.
The voice was both feminine and beast-like, melodious and feral. I heard it from behind me but realized when it spoke the second time that it had been projected directly into my head.
But I didn't beat World: Mountain, Sea and Sky by collecting bottle caps. Despite the fear that overtook my basic reptilian brain, there was a part of me that was detached and analyzing the situation.
“Is there another monster in here?” No. Too eloquent for a monster.
[ Matters not. I have waited many years for one of my children. I sense one of them above. ]
The word, 'one of my children' came together with a lot of clues I had about where I was. It only reaffirmed my decision to not turn around. I knew deep within my bones that if I saw the being that was behind me, I would never forget it. If it truly was what I suspected it to be, this dungeon was no longer something I understood.
Hell, MSS was something I didn’t understand anymore.
[ You will take the Trial in her place. ]
[ Do you Accept? ]
“W-What trial?” I managed to squeak out.
[ Slay the Monster. ]
｢Quest: Oung’s Trials - Accepted ｣
｢Rewards: ??? ｣
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
The presence that filled this room disappeared. After a long while, I turned around and found the statue gone. That wasn’t the only thing that had changed. The sword, helmet and gloves had been restored to whatever they had been originally. The gloves were made of light brown leather that left my fingers bare. The sword was a flat symmetrical blade, a gladius. The helmet was a mixture of silver and brown metal. It was a familiar shape, something I’d often seen in movies featuring ancient greece.
I knew loot when I saw it. I laid my sword down, picking up the gladius and the helmet. The helmet fit like a sock and so did the gloves. The sword was a bit awkward in my hand but I’d grow used to it. As soon as I picked up my shield the entire room disappeared into darkness.
When I opened my eyes, it wasn’t the setting of the shrine that greeted me.
I was standing on a circular platform made of the same blue marble as the shrine from before, surrounded by darkness on all sides. My vision ended at the edges of the platform and a few dozen feet in the air. For all purposes, I was in a dome. It was too sudden for me to make sense of what had just happened. There could only be one explanation anyways.
I had just heard the voice of a Goddess in MSS. She had asked me to take on a trial which involved me slaying a monster, then transported me to an arena in the middle of nowhere. Considering that it was a dungeon themed after beasts with the religious lore based around beastmen, the goddess must have being Oung. Her child must be referring to Clover. By all rights, I should have been cowering in the fact of this information. I knew that this went against everything that I had planned for myself.
Yet all I could do was stare at the being in front of me: the Beckoning Cat.
It hissed, baring its rotten fangs.
The only reason it hadn’t attacked me yet was because there was a translucent wall in front of us. If the wall came down, I knew it would try and rip me to shreds.
But I wouldn’t panic. I would stay calm.
I had already made up my mind when my feet led me down here: only one of us would leave here alive.
“If you made a decision, follow it through. You never know what will happen from that decision until you see it through to the end.” My father’s echoed.
Some people might think what I was doing was a dumb decision. Hell, I thought it was dumb. But…
But I failed to try and convince myself they weren't real. That they were just NPCs on a screen. No, they were living, breathing and fighting to survive just like me. Most importantly though, L'teya and Clover had saved me. More than once. Now wasn't the time to dwell on why I was doing this. It was time to think about how I'd win this.
How I'd kill this monster.
“I dream of the sword and the sword alone for only its blade song is the music I answer.” I muttered to myself, raising my sword and shield.
“As all roads lead to one ending, so one beginning leads to many roads.” Arrosh Bloodedge’s teachings answered me.
I understood now why the only thing that Arrosh taught me was to stand still. It was the root of all things, the beginning of all. Only from a proper stance could I use swordsmanship to its fullest potential. Only once I mastered standing still with the sword could I master moving with it.
[ Slay the Monster. ] Oung’s command rang with absolute authority.
I was still in half disbelief. But none of that mattered now. I had a job to do and thankfully, it seems the Goddess was on my side.
After all, if it wasn't for her I'd still be hunting for it with its [Hide-and-Seek] ability. She'd practically delivered him straight to me.
The mana wall came down.
The Beckoning Cat and I simultaneously exploded into movement. He began by swiping his gold bag at me and instead of stepping back, I ducked and stepped closer. I felt the bag swish above me, feeling the strands of my hair move from the wind. I knew when it was thrusting with the jagged sword and spun sideways to dodge it. The Beckoning Cat tried to twist his body, its feline skeletal structure bending in a way to try and make contact with either the gold bag or sword to my body.
“Can there be rain where there is no sky? Trees where there is no earth?!” Arrosh’s voice thundered in my mind.
Instead of getting ready to defend or launch a proper attack, the creature had overextended itself. There was no sky to its movements and no earth to its attacks. The first two had been decent but this last move? It was too much.
I pushed straight into its chest with my shield, knocking it off balance. Moving quickly, I thrust with my gladius once, then twice more giving the creature three puncture wounds to the chest. It wouldn’t be enough to kill the grade-8 monster, especially considering my lack of skill and [Physical] stat, but it would be enough.
Instead of trying to recover, the Beckoning Cat yowled and kicked me in the stomach.
I couldn’t get my shield there in time and its claws dug into my armor, ripping through the leather and into the soft skin. I flew backwards and tumbled multiple times. Pain spread from my abdomen. Groaning, I touched it and my hands came away sticky with red liquid. I tried to get to my feet once, then again when I fell. The pain in stomach was too much. I finally managed to succeed the third time.
This was what happened when you fought against a grade-8 monster with a Coreless body. A single strike was enough to put me in a state where I could barely fight.
“Fucking fight damn you!” I cursed at myself.
There was the imagery of a coin being flipped in front of its forehead, it was using [Coin Toss]. If the coin landed on heads, the Beckoning Cat would receive 2x to one of its stats for the next 60 seconds. However if it failed a random stat would be halved. [Coin Toss] only affected hidden stats, meaning it couldn’t affect [Physical] or [Mental] directly.
The Beckoning Cat had two abilities, one of which was [Hide-and-Seek]. It had already shown us the invisibility skill but had kept the other active ability on stand by until now.
The coin landed.
｢Lucky Beckoning Cat has cast [Coin Toss] ｣
｢[Sight] has been reduced ｣
Tails.
“NEOOOOW!” The creature wailed as a deep blue glow outlined its body.
I had no idea what hidden stat [Coin Toss] reduced. It could be anything from [Handicraft], [Movement Speed], [Mana Regeneration] or even something useless like [Smell]. But I wasn’t going to play it safe when luck was on my side. I half-hobbled and half-ran at the creature, holding my shield first. I had to press the advantage, not giving it chance to get used to whatever debuff it just received.
"GRAHH!" I yelled and slashed with the gladius.
The creature reacted just a little bit too late and I slashed at its hand. Instead of hacking off the hand at the wrist like I wanted to, I ended up cutting the sack cloth instead. The sack split open and spilled its contents. Silver, gold and other items fell all over the small arena. Among them, my eyes were immediately drawn to two things.
The [Dimension Rings] and some Healing Potions. The sight of the healing potions gave me renewed vigor despite my stomach pain starting to worsen.
“DIE YOU FUCKING GACHA CAT!” I ignored the growing pain and swung wide, trying to catch the gambling cat unawares.
But I had grown a little too eager, so I ran in without thinking. The cat hit me with its sword, cutting deep into my shoulder. The jagged edge grinded against bone and I screamed out in pain. It felt the blade's teeth tear through muscle, tendor and bits of bone.
“Rot builds up like canker sores, until it overtakes us all. Anger builds up like a dam, leaking out in excess like a puss. Cleanse yourself, purify yourself so you are the spring of water that may turn into an ocean, enveloping all else.”
Luckily for me, the monster didn't continue its attack. It leaped backwards, somersaulting effortlessly. It seemed wary and kept scratching at its eyes. Regardless, I couldn’t make a mistake like that again. Any random hit from the Beckoning Cat could turn into a [Lucky Strike] or worse, a [Jackpot]. The cat must have picked up on my hesitance because it laughed and began to swing its sword wildly in the empty air while approaching me.
“Kikiki!”
I wanted to put more distance between us now, but the stomach wound was slowing me. If I blocked instead of dodging, a [Lucky Strike] or [Jackpot] would seriously injure me at the very least, if not outright kill. The wound in my gut was making it difficult for me to maneuver between the cat's attack pattern, with each swing of the sword I was forced to duck or lean back. Every movement caused me to wince and I felt my body grow duller from blood loss. I felt the scarlet rivulets beginning to seep through my pants, leaking down from my wound.
“YEEEOW!” The Beckoning Cat’s attempts finally bore fruit and it landed five hits on my shield in quick succession.
They were glancing hits at best but he was fast, way faster than me. By all rights he could have kept wailing on me but the fifth strike was what I had been dreading since the beginning of the fight: a [Lucky Strike]. When the last sword strike hit my shield, I was lifted off of my feet and tumbled end over end for only god knows how long.
“GACHAAAA!” The cat yowled.
If I had been hit by one of those boulders earlier, this would have been what it felt like. I shuddered to think what could have happened if I didn't have my shield. If that strike hit skin, I would have lost a limb or suffered a lethal wound. I was lucky that there were no walls for me to slam into either. That would have debilitated me, the same way it had for L’teya and my body was certainly a lot less sturdy than hers.
I got to my feet, raising the shield to my face, except it didn’t come up.
When I looked, my arm was hanging limply and the shield lay on the ground uselessly. The Beckoning Cat’s tenacity had paid off it seems.
Just in time, the blue glow around the Cat’s body disappeared.
“Y-Y-Y-Y-YEOW!” The Beckoning Cat threw away the now empty sack cloth. The image of a coin spinning in the air appeared over its forehead.
｢Lucky Beckoning Cat has cast [Coin Toss] ｣
｢[Aggression] has been increased ｣
A yellowish light surrounded the feline monster and its eyes widened, pupils dilated.
“YEOW!” The creature let out the loudest yowl yet, and ran straight towards me.
Time slowed.
Three weeks. I said it could be long if you thought it was long and short if you thought it was short.
I had thought it was short. Perhaps it was longer than I thought.
I didn’t panic. Nothing had changed about the situation just because my arm was broken. The shield had been a safety, nothing more. Any hit from the Beckoning Cat could have killed me, regardless of the shield. The shield had done its job and allowed me to survive through that 1% chance of a [Lucky Strike]. I didn’t need the shield anymore. Besides, I wasn’t the disciple of Arrosh Bloodedge, the Shield Master. He was the disciple of the [Sword Saint]. What really mattered was that I still had the sword in my right arm.
A utility skill gained from using Kitchen Knives. As pathetic as it was, it was the only skill I could use. Coreless and low-leveled, I had nothing else.
The monster charged in blindly and that made it easy to predict its path. I stilled myself and for the first time, felt that my body stand in exactly the way I wanted it to. The same way that Arrosh had wanted me to.
I sidestepped right when the tip of its blade covered my entire vision. I spun and slashed out with the sword, activating the only skill I had in my arsenal, [Cut].
｢ Lock Slaveborn has used [Cut] ｣
｢ [Mushin’s Gladius](copy) recognizes [Sword Saint Candidate] ｣
｢ [Mushin’s Gladius](copy) reacts with the skill [Cut] ｣
｢ [Mushin’s Gladius](copy) used [Sever] ｣
｢ Lock Slaveborn unable to use [Sever] ｣
｢ [Mushin’s Gladius](copy) used [Cleave] ｣
｢ Lock Slaveborn unable to use [Cleave] ｣
｢ [Mushin’s Gladius](copy) activates [Aura] ｣
｢ Lock Slaveborn has used [Cut] ｣
My sword arm burst into blood as the skin was torn off. I saw lines of energy running from the sword, feeding off of the mana in my arm and sucking it out greedily. My heart started to pump faster, trying to keep up with the flow of mana being sucked out from my mangled arm by the gladius. The blade took my mana and transformed it into a shadowy energy that extended about an inch from the blade on all sides. But my timing was off and my swing was clumsy, I tripped over my own feet and felt the creature's knee slam into my wounded stomach.
Still, the blade cut through the Beckoning Cat's waist like it was butter.
Before I passed out, I saw two things.
The gladius splintering off into a thousand different pieces.
And a perfect sphere rising from Beckoning Cat's corpse: A Spirit Core.
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｢ Quest: Oung's Trial - Complete ｣
｢ Reward - Oung's Blessing ｣
｢ Race Incompatible ｣
｢ Searching nearby... ｣
｢ Candidate Found: Clover Weinport ｣
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