“Congratulations on achieving first clear of the Easy difficulty of the Wolf’s Den small-scale dungeon. You can receive your rewards from the treasure chest, and exit through the portal.”
These floating words were the last thing Roy saw before the world spun around and he fell unconscious. He felt his body hit the ground with a thud, but the darkness that enveloped him was strangely comforting, as if he was in a goddess's embrace. The quiet peace was short-lived, however, as pain began to seep through his consciousness. He couldn't tell how much time had passed, but gradually, sounds started to filter through the darkness.
“Ha!”
From within the blackness, Roy could faintly hear Robb’s voice. He slowly opened his eyes to see his friend stabbing and slashing at the air. With sharp movements, Robb blocked invisible strikes and counterattacked imaginary enemies.
“How long did I sleep?” Roy stood up while checking his wounded ribs. His chest was covered with a new set of bandages, as his last ones were ripped through by the giant wolf’s paws. Looking back at the shirtless Robb, Roy put two and two together and understood what happened.
“Oh, you’re finally awake. Yeah, you’ve been asleep for like two hours.”
Roy looked around only to see a big golden chest in the middle of the room. Just the exterior of the treasure chest looked like it would cost a fortune. However, that was not what surprised Roy the most; it was what was behind the chest.
“The fuck is that?”
Robb turned around and looked at what Roy was staring at with a dumbfounded expression. “Ah, that. Yeah, who the fuck knows? It just appeared when you blasted off that wolf.”
Roy’s mind raced with thoughts when he finally remembered the floating words that appeared in front of him before he fainted. There was only one word that he could not understand.
“Is that the portal thing they talked about?”
“Probably?” Robb replied with uncertainty. “They did say ‘exit through the portal’, can we just walk through that thing?”
“I guess so? I really don’t understand this world anymore.” Roy’s mouth was ajar as he stared blankly at the white portal. There were no thoughts in his head anymore, just nothingness. He could accept monsters, he could accept awakening, and he could even accept skills and magic, but what was in front of him was in the realms of gods.
Robb scratched his head in thought but gave up in the end. “I don’t get it, and honestly I don’t care about it anymore. Let’s go open that chest first, I wanna see what kind of rewards we’re gonna get.”
Roy looked at Robb, who was walking excitedly toward the chest, with surprise. “Wait, you didn’t check it out yet?”
Robb looked at him with confusion. “Of course not. You risked your life to kill that Boss, it would be rude if I opened it while you’re unconscious.”
Roy clicked his tongue, “You’re stiff as a board in the weirdest things. How is that even rude?”
However, even though his mouth said one thing, he was still appreciative of Robb’s actions. He followed after him with a smile, and the two opened the massive golden chest. Inside it were two scrolls with a blue seal, another two with a silver seal, and a curved steel sword with a small crossguard.
Roy took out the weapon from the chest and a screen appeared in front of his eyes.
Moonlight Steel Katana Rank Sentinel Rarity Silver Description A sword that hails from a land far in the east that has been imbued with the power of the moon. It has good cutting power against monsters of Sentinel rank and below, and a decent aura and mana conductivity.
“What the fuck is this class and archetype bullshit?”
Stolen novel; please report.
Roy looked up to see Robb frowning at the two scrolls in his hand. “What’s going on?”
“Look for yourself.” Robb handed the two scrolls to Roy. As the latter looked at the one with the silver seal, a screen popped up once again.
Moonlight’s Blessing Skill Scroll Description Use your mana and stamina to unleash a silver aura. This skill greatly increases your speed and attack power, as well as your elemental affinity to moon, lightning, and wind skills. Restriction Your class needs to be under either the Warrior or the Assassin archetype.
Roy looked at the scroll with the blue seal, and another floating word screen appeared.
Lightning Bolt Skill Scroll Description Launch a lightning bolt (size depends on mana used) towards a specific location where it will explode into a lightning storm (size and strength depends on mana used) Restriction Your class needs to be under the Mage archetype.
Roy stared blankly with furrowed eyebrows at the screens in front of him before his face relaxed. “I got it.”
Robb looked at him and raised his eyebrow. “What? You understood something?”
“I just remembered where I saw this word ‘class’,” Roy replied. “It was in that achievement I got when I first threw my Fireball skill. It was the reason why I got the achievement in the first place because I unlocked a skill before I got a class.”
Robb scratched his chin in thought, “So, logically speaking, we will get this class thing as long as we’re doing what we’re doing. Maybe we get it by reaching a higher rank, or maybe it’s some other way.”
Roy nodded, “Yeah, there is no use thinking about it now, we just need to continue with our plan.” He then raised the katana and looked at it with a smile. “But at least this one doesn’t need a class or anything. Here, take it.”
Roy handed the silver weapon to Robb, who looked at him with confusion, “You’re giving it to me?”
“Yeah, I already have my Fireball and you’re better than me with swords, so you should take it.”
Robb tilted his head and accepted the katana. “Yeah, but if we’re talking about who is good with swords, then Jack should be the one to take it.”
Roy let out a burst of laughter, “If he wants to get one, he should come and clear this dungeon.”
“You think he can do it?” Robb asked with a chuckle.
“Hmm, would be hard.” Roy scratched his chin. “They can get to the boss room with no problem, but the boss itself is gonna give them a hard time.”
“Yeah,” Robb nodded. “It’s not quite the level of the blue ogre, but it’s not far behind.”
Roy shrugged his shoulders, “Well, if they hunt well today and tomorrow, they can probably do it the day after, once they get used to fighting normal ogres.”
“Yeah, that’s true.” Robb then looked at the portal hesitantly. “Shall we go?”
Roy approved with a slight bob before the two walked toward the white spacial distortion. Just as Roy was about to enter it, floating words appeared in front of him.
“Congratulation on your clear. You will be rewarded with 100 red monster gems (tax not included) (Available once you become an official citizen of a territory).”
The two entered the portal and were blinded by a rainbow of colors. Colorful shapes and forms drifted past them with incredible speed in a tunnel that curved and twisted at otherworldly angles.
The rainbow colors merged into pure white before the two returned to the entry of the Wolf’s Den. After Roy’s eyes adjusted to the new light, he looked up to the sky to find the sun shining brightly. His heart dropped to his stomach.
After half a minute of silence, Robb looked at him with hesitation. “We… we were in another world, right?”
Roy continued to stare blankly in front of him before he processed his friend’s words. “Yeah… we were definitely in another world.”
Robb covered his face and shook his head. “At this point, I really don’t know what I should be confused about. Weirder and weirder shit keeps happening one after the other.”
Roy took several deep breaths before weakly smiling. “If we keep getting surprised by everything, we will get nowhere. We just have to accept that this is a completely different world, and shit will keep not making any sense.”
Robb nodded before looking at his katana and smiling, “You’re right. Now let’s go back to the village, I wanna see if I can kill an ogre with this sword on my own.”