could this lizard man even hurt him in this room? Jake tried to identify the lizard man to at least gauge his level, but the message in reply was odd. Not only did it not work, but what he received couldn't even be called a message.
[ Identify
Race redacted
Core redacted
Grade redacted
Level redacted
Weakness: redacted
Notification by the system imposed universal constants: all dungeon-related information has been restricted; only good boys and girls get use of my toys. ]
That's odd; shouldn't I still be able to access my interface, as it has nothing to do with the system? So why can't I see anything? Don't tell me that prick can see me now that I'm in one of its dungeons. Does that also mean it will be receiving my experience instead, or what? Can I still cultivate in here?
These were just some of the things Jake was thinking about when the lizard man's fist connected with his face. Jake awoke from his daze as he dragged himself out of the rock wall he found himself lodged in. It wasn't long until Jake truly understood what was going on. As he was not part of the system and this dungeon was the true embodiment of the system's will, Jake did not belong; therefore, everything within it would be against him. That meant a safe zone like the one he was in may actually be the most unsafe place he could be, as although he was not part of the system, others would be and they would have the system's full support. Jake could not harm the lizard man while he remained inside the safe zone. But the other way around was not the same; Jake's health points took a nosedive as he began to be pulled by the lizard man, his eyes filling with blood from the gash on his head, and that was nothing compared to the rest of him. The time it took for Jake to get into this state was less than a minute. He hadn't even had the time to formulate a strategy or summon his servants to help. No, Jake could only manage to raise his arms in a weak defensive stance before the next round of blows hit. Jake tried to bring up his interface to check his stats, only for it to completely fail to activate. This left Jake in an even more precarious situation; he couldn't check his stats, and what was more troublesome was the fact he couldn't activate his skills. Or at least activate them as easily as he would have earlier. Jake had to understand how the skill worked and where it was located within his body. For example, the skill Voices of the Past was localised to his mind, buried deep within a dark shadow—a place Jake couldn't see but could only feel. But then there were his skills that were supposed to be permanently active like Eyes of the Lost; not only was it deactivated somehow, but Jake didn't even know where to start to reactivate it. This left Jake with a big issue, as that skill alone was one of his life-saving skills; Jake was truly lost without it.
Jake's next attempt to escape didn't go so well. He tried to teleport to the door to the next area, but just as he thought he knew where the skill was located, it failed to activate, leaving him standing directly in front of the lizard's fist. He raised his damaged arm to block as he tried once again to escape, but instead of teleporting, he dashed within the same skill. This time it was a partial success; the skill, or at least part of the skill, activated, allowing Jake to dodge the incoming blow. His legs moved with the feeling of purpose for the first time since gaining his powers. It was as though Jake had truly become one with his skill, or at least the dash part of it.
Jake dashed left and right as he tried to dodge the relentless blows, but his luck ran out after the fifth blow. The fist sent him into an arc as he bounced off the ceiling and wall, only coming to a stop in front of the only way out of this room of death. But with only the ability to dash, Jake would soon die if he left now. He only had one chance to get his skill to work. Jake's goal before he left the room was to activate one part of the skill Eyes of the Lost, and that was the +100 all stats regeneration once per minute portion of the skill. This would at least give him back some health in time; he would also need an attack skill, and who better to test it on than the lizard? For that, what skill would be better than Demon Strike? He had a fair idea of where that skill was located; it didn't take him long until he could strike out at the lizard with the full strength of his Demon Strike skill. Well, not full strength, but close. No matter how hard he tried, there was just no way he could access the part that gave his enemies soul damage. But this wasn't too much of a problem right now, so instead of continuing the useless fight, Jake headed for the door, the lizard man in tow. He burst through the door; a white light flashed, and Jake found himself alone in a vine-laden forest, the lizard man nowhere to be seen.
Jake let out a short sigh.
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“I was certain he was going to follow me out of there. I wonder what exactly is up with this dungeon level; no information is definitely going to make this difficult.”
Let's see here. Okay, so what are my priorities right now?
Jake looked down at his busted-up body, then at his hands.
First things first, I need to find a way to heal, then I will be needing a weapon. Seeing as I can't access my storage, I guess I'm going to need to make one. It's a bit odd, but it feels like even though the system is being its usual self, I might just be able to profit in the end if I work hard at it.
After thinking about what he should do next for way too long, Jake finally noticed that since entering the dungeon, he had been in his demon form. The skill he was given to help him hide had failed him at the first hurdle.
It failed the moment I entered this damn dungeon, but it was working outside, so maybe it's not as bad as I thought. Still not great, but better than nothing. Now let's continue working on that skill.
Jake was battered and bruised, but he still had enough left in him to reach into his body to grasp the understanding of how his body managed to give him 100 points to each stat. Well, that wasn't exactly true; he had managed to figure out how his health got the points. There would have been no possible way Jake would have been able to understand this before he began his path into the cultivating world, as it was a part of passive cultivation that was doing it. A portion of all the life energy Jake collected would be used to empower his health stat. This actually made Jake wonder if it would be possible to increase the amount of points he could get from this method. But now was not the time to look into it, as the underbrush around Jake began to move. Out of instinct, Jake tried to hide in one of the shadows close by, but to the expectation of no one, nothing happened. Jake was left standing there behind a small tree when a familiar figure poked its whiskered nose out of the underbrush.
“Why are you standing there pretending to be all sneaky like? Did you know how fucken long I have been waiting for you to get back? Fuck, I even started to wonder if you were dead in some ditch and that wanker Alric didn't bother to tell me. Now what the fuck is up with this place? I can't even use any skills; this place fucken sucks big giant balls. I'm a walking fucken library now, and none of this makes any sense.”
“It's nice to see you too,” Jake said to the small fox.
“Yer, alright. It's good to see you. Now how about you tell me what is going on here? I haven't got any information since I walked through that door. This is a dungeon, yes? Because I haven't received any information on it— not even how many levels there are to it.”
“This one's a bit different. It seems I pissed off the one running it, and now he's training to get me killed, and probably you too.”
“Oh, that's just fucken great! I come all the way out here to find you, but now you're telling me some bullshit guy wants to see me turned into a taxidermy. Fuck that for a joke; I'm leaving this shithole of a place as soon as I can.”
“How did you even know I was here? By the way, I didn't tell anyone about where I was going,” Jake asked curiously, wondering how the little fox could even track him.
“Well, I was told by one of the young ladies from the Pink Blossom that you were training out this way, then as I was heading out, I ran into a group of hunters that made a report about a dragon that destroyed a valley, so I went there to investigate since it was so close to the city.”
“Okay, but how did you find this place?”
“Did you know you're not really good at masking your tracks, from your scent to the trail of destruction you leave behind you? It was so simple to find you, and as for finding you inside the dungeon, I have no idea—I just arrived here. Did I tell you this place is wired? There was this freaky-looking lizard man yelling at the doorway. It seems he really doesn't like you.”
“How did you get past?”
“An adequate bribe. One he wouldn't refuse. By the way, I think you will be seeing that lizard again before you leave this dungeon.”
“I was thinking that would be the case, especially after I ended up here alone. I just thought he would be somewhere on this level.”
Jake and Five both began working on the fox's skills: Lost Knowledge, Stable Memory, and Apprentice's Scribe. Their hope was to at least get Stable Memory and Apprentice's Scribe to work; the Lost Knowledge skill was outside of their current ability to figure out. The extended time they spent working on Five's skills was of great help to Jake as, by the time they were done, Jake's health had regained a good chunk of points, meaning Jake wouldn't just up and die from the first monster that found them.
“So you got them working?” Jake asked.
“Yeah, all but the good one. I can't believe the system would go so far as to try and kill you, to even remove the restriction protecting the sol system from high graders. Do you think Earth will be able to hold them off?”
“I don't think Earth will even try; after all, there's no benefit to them. I'm the one they want, and if Earth can get rid of me, they could go back to their old ways of selling off beast folk to the highest bidder. I would even say the governments would sell off the world if they could. No, we are definitely going to lose this fight, and there's nothing we can do about it.”
“Good riddance, is all I can say. Let's just get the people we trust out of here and leave this place behind,” Five said as he jumped up to Jake's shoulder.