[Floor 2 of the dungeon. +1 explorer]

“I’m really back in the dungeon and it looks like I’m on the second floor. Hmm..plus 1 explorer?”

I both heard and saw the announcement as a blue panel appeared in front of me. However what got my attention was the ‘+1 explorer’ part. Like I thought there were dungeon explorers other than me.

I looked around my surroundings but I didn’t find anyone. I assumed that the other explorer was summoned to the dungeon as well, just that we were placed in different areas.

It was then when I felt something was wrong.

“My..my arm...my arm is still gone…”

My right arm from the elbow down was still cut off. My eyes opened wide as I staggered backwards. It turned out that though injuries from the dungeon don’t affect my body in real life, it won’t heal my body in the dungeon.

This was a problem. A very big problem. I knew that there were monsters roaming the whole floor and even terrifying ones such as the soul wraith. Just a small goblin was already hard enough and that was with me having a complete arm.

“Show Status.”

[Name: Chung-hee]

[Age: 15]

[Species: Human]

[Occupation: None]

[Subclass: None]

[Titles: None]

[Traits: Barbaric]

[Strength:10]

[Intelligence:7]

[Agility:6]

[Endurance: 8]

[Physique:8]

[Vitality:10]

[Dexterity:5]

[Perception:8]

[Concentration:6]

[Magic Power:6]

[Charm:3]

[Luck:11]

[Skills: Basic knife mastery: 1, Pain resistance: 4, Magic resistance: 1, Clarity: 1]

[Stat points: 5]

[Skill points: 5]

[Achievement points: 80]

I looked at my status screen while trying to forget about my missing arm. Not only would panicking not help, it would be counterproductive. Instead I tried to think what achievement points do.

“hmmm…What do achievement points do?”

[Achievements points can be used to buy items from the shop]

I gawked after seeing the blue panel suddenly appear in front of me. This wasn’t the first time I thought outloud but it was the first time seeing the system answer me. This opened up endless possibilities for answers. Maybe I could even find out how to get my arm back.

“How can I get my arm back?”

[To heal from body injuries, please pay the given price from the shop]

“How do I access the shop?”

[Explorers of the dungeon must clear the third floor in order to access the shop]

Third floor? I might not even live through the second floor, much less the third floor.

“Is there any way to heal my arm other than from the shop?”

[Answer requires the use of 50 achievement points]

“Done.”

I knew that achievements points are precious. I only managed to get 80 despite obtaining 4 achievements and one of them was a great achievement at that. Who knows if I would make any more achievements in the future however if I didn’t get my arm back, there might not be a future.

[50 achievement points deducted from explorer Chung-hee]

[In order to heal injuries from the first floor, explorer must obtain the hidden item located in the second floor]

“Where’s the hidden item located?”

[Restricted until explorer has completed the floor]

So there’s a limit to the number of questions I can ask. But from what I’ve learned, I can ask the system for help and there’s a hidden item on the second floor. Could this mean that there was a hidden item on the first floor? But where could it have been. The whole floor was just one straight line. Could it have been in the chest that bit my fucking arm off? No point in thinking of it right now. I should first try to find the hidden item and of course, stay alive.

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As I walked around, I discovered that the second floor was similar to the first floor as they both had gray brick walls with floors of dirt and rock. This time, however, the second floor was dimly lit with torches on the walls. Naturally, this made moving around much more convenient. In addition, I could see that the second floor was a lot bigger than the first floor. There were many intersections and pathways that made it difficult to know where one was going.

“Duk duk duk.”

I suddenly froze on the spot as I heard footsteps coming my way. I turned to my right and saw a caucasian, middle aged man wearing a black leather jacket with a bandana around his head. He had a golden chain on his neck and had tattooes all over his arms. He didn’t look too fit as he had his belly sticking out of his shirt but I had no doubt that he could beat me up as easily as spitting on the ground.

“Ha, a person. Tsk. No arm?”

I felt a hint of anger rise inside me but I managed to control. This fucker, you think I don’t know that I’m missing an arm?

“Ah, yes. I lost my arm on the first flo-”

I wasn’t able to finish my sentence as the man punched me in the face. I fell to the ground but the abuse didn’t end there. I felt a foot make contact with my stomach as my blood vessels felt like bursting. I coughed up blood and every breath I took caused my diaphragm to be flooded with pain.

“Ugh. What the fu-”

In rage I looked at the man and tried to speak before getting trashed again. I got hit and hit. My head hurt, my stomach hurt, and my vision became hazy. I crumpled my body on the cold, hard floor amongst the never ending blows directed at me.  Soon the punches and kicks just became another numb sensation all around my body as I became almost semi-conscious.

“What did you say you little shit? Didn’t your parents tell you to be respectful to your elders?”

Pak, puk, bwop

“Ha, you probably got abandoned as a child. I mean look at you without an arm. Haha!”

“Cough cough.”

“Tsk. You’re not even moving anymore. Hey get up. Get up!”

All I heard from the man was mumbling. My ears already popped so only thing I could clearly hear was the high ringing sound in my ear.

“Sigh. Whatever. Hitting you was pretty fun so I’ll let you go. If you keep staying on the floor then you might get eaten up by those little green things. Of course, they can’t do shit to me. Haha!”

I wasn’t able to stand up even long after the man left. My whole body felt exhausted and I felt sharp pain every time I tried to move.

“Keuk. That fucker. Cough cough. I’m gonna kill him.”

The only thing I had in my head was anger and revenge. Countless thoughts of how I would kill the man popped in my head without stop. Stab from the back? Stab to the neck? How about stabbing his stomach and ripping out the contents from the inside?

I was determined. Determined that I would make him pay. But first, I needed a weapon, something sharp, something I can easily use...a knife! Oh and who had knives? The goblins.

As I struggled to get up I realized that my body felt a bit stronger than usual. If it was me from before I wouldn’t have been able to get up at all however I was able to barely get up now.

I guess the stat points really did increase my physical abilities.

“Huh?”

[Pain resistance: 5. Additional effects available]

Additional effects?

[Pain limiter: For 30 seconds, explorer will be able to completely ignore pain]

Hmm. So skills were able to give additional effects after reaching a certain level. I also have 5 stat points which I should use. If I want to kill a goblin without an arm I need to be as strong as possible

From hovering my finger over a stat or skill, I found what they do. Strength raised my strength and how much damage I’m able to inflict on a target. Physique was basically my health (hp) and defense while vitality raised how quickly I heal. Endurance was my stamina and my physical speed and reflexes were determined by agility. Surprisingly not only did intelligence raise my intelligence (duh) it also raised my mana regeneration. I wasn’t too shocked that magic existed in the dungeon but it was currently useless as I didn’t know how to use it. From the description, magic power both included how much magic I could use and how much damage it would do. Dexterity raised my accuracy and control which could prove to be vital. Perception was related to my 6 senses including intuition while concentration was self-explanatory. What was interesting however, was that concentration was a stat that I gained from the skill, clarity.

[Clarity: 1. Passive skill which allows explorer to have a clear state of mind despite the circumstances]

I found skills in the dungeon to be quite marvelous. They could give stats, open additional abilities after reaching a certain level, and probably raise stats as well. Gaining skills were possible by doing certain actions and there should be items that give skills directly later on.

I was a bit sad that my charm was so low but my high luck balanced that out. I wonder if increased charm would make me look better. The descriptions for charm and luck were both vague and did not explain much. Charm was said to increase sexual attraction with the opposite sex and raise chances of becoming friends. Would that mean making me look better or somehow make my current looks seem much better than they are? Luck was just luck. Nothing was explained, but with the previous encounter I’m not sure what to think of luck.

I raised strength by 2, agility by 2, and dexterity by 1. I needed more strength if I wanted to hurt the goblin with my left arm and I needed agility for the reflexes when fighting. Dexterity would help me hit the goblin due to increased accuracy and control. I also used 2 skills points on pain resistance and 3 on clarity to make them level 6 and 4 respectively. Before a skill hits lvl 5, it only takes one skill point to raise the lvl. However after it hits lvl 5, the cost increases.

Despite trying to act calm I was filled with murderous thoughts as my body still felt pain whenever I moved. I wanted to kill the man. Make him feel pain and regret meeting me but I knew these thoughts were all useless if I couldn’t even kill a goblin that the man claimed to be easy.

Luckily I had pain resistance and clarity to help me concentrate on the task at hand.

I walked around the dungeon (albeit slowly) while starting to feel the pain subside. Yet still no goblin to be found.

10 minutes and no goblin.

30 minutes and still no goblin.

It was strange. The second floor should have more monsters than on the first floor but I still haven’t seen one. Did the bastard kill all of them? No, there’s got to be at least one still alive.

I didn’t give up my search and I was finally rewarded after searching for another 15 minutes.

A short green goblin with a knife on its right hand. It had snot coming down its noise and unlike the one on the first floor, this one had hair on its head.

Ugly as ever.

It would be a lie to say that I wasn’t nervous. But I had someone I wanted to kill, and more importantly, I wanted to live. If I wanted to live, I had to kill without fear of anything.

My eyes burned with ambition as I stared down at the goblin.

Should I rush in?

I’m rushing in!

I ran at the goblin with full speed. After almost an hour of searching, my body healed to a certain extent. When the goblin saw me running towards it, it raised it’s knife as it started to run towards me as well.

“AHHH”

“KEKEKAWA!”

With adrenaline flowing all over my body, I did a slide tackle just a meter away from the goblin. Due to playing soccer with Jones, this was one of the best moves I could make.

My foot tripped the goblin and caused it to lose balance and fall on top of me. The knife came swinging down and it barely missed my head.

“Ergh!”

With my back filled with cold sweat, I quickly pushed the goblin off me as I jumped on top of it.

The goblin had a small frame to begin with and its strength wasn’t its forte.

The goblin swung its knife at me in hopes of getting me off but I managed to dodge and grab his arm with my left hand. It clawed at me with its free arm but I used pain limiter and smashed the ugly green devil’s face with my head.

“Kekwa?”

It looked to be in daze from the headbutt and I quickly bit the arm I was holding.

The goblin screamed and dropped the knife.

It tasted like shit. My saliva mixed with the filth of the goblin and almost made me vomit.

I let go of its arm and reached out for the knife when the goblin bit me. Of course, I didn’t feel pain, but I still felt annoyed.

It was like when someone rubs their hands over your belly. It doesn’t hurt at all compared to a punch to the stomach, but it leaves you feeling angry and disgusted.

I headbutted the goblin again and got my arm free. The side of my stomach was scratched multiple times and some parts of my shirt ended up being ripped.

I managed to grab the knife before the goblin could do anything and quickly raised it in a reverse grip high in the air. The goblin seemed to sense its death as it started struggling more desperately.

But it was useless.

I stabbed the knife right in its chest and cut all the way to the neck before cutting it open all they way to its chin. Black blood splurted all over me as the villain constantly swung its arms. Or wait, was I the villain?

Then the arms dropped as it stopped moving.

The goblin was dead.

I killed the goblin.

“Pant. Pant.”

Panting and breathing for air I stared at the ceiling of the dungeon. A smile unconsciously crept up my bloodied face as my grip on the knife hardened.

“Hahaha. You’re next you motherfucker.”